the front is of native marble, yet, I cannot agree that it is as handsome as the capitol of the United States, or the President's house; it certainly is not so showy, and as to the architecture I am no judge. I should think it too low for its size. It is, however, a beautiful building, 216 feet long, and 105 in width, and, including the attic story, 56 feet high; with a handsome colonnade and cupola. The ends are of marble as high as the basement. Thirteen different courts hold their sessions, (some of them every day,) in the Hall. It cost 500,000 dollars it stands in the park, which contains four acres of ground, planted with trees, and enclosed with an iron railing.

Hospital. The New-York Hospital was founded in 1771. It is under the direction of twenty-six governors, a president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, visiting committee, committee of repairs, committee of inspection, superintendant, and matron. Besides these there is a society of gentlemen, consisting of 151 members, together with the mayor, aldermen, recorder, and twelve of the first clergymen in the city, which constitute the corporation, and have the control of all pecuniary matters. These are incorporated by the name of the "Society of the New-York Hospital." This society is subject to the 26 governors, who meet on the first Tuesday in every month, at the Hospital. The governors are elected once in every year by the society. The governors choose their officers by ballot, viz: president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, &c. All the respectable physicians and surgeons in New-York, take it by turns to visit the hospital daily; their number must not, however, be less than twelve each day. Every gentleman connected with the institution is of the first learning and talents; and all, excepting the subordinate officers, devote their services GRATIS! Physicians included. The building stands near Broadway and Duane street; it is built of gray stone in the Doric style, 124 feet long, 50 feet deep in the centre, and 86 in the wings; four stories high, including the basement. The building is divided into 16 wards, besides a lying in ward. (which last is greatly inferior to that of Philadelphia,) and a surgical theatre. These wards are divided into sixty

rooms. The edifice is crowned with a handsome cupola, from which you have a fine view of the city, the harbor and the Hudson. The state allows the Hospital the sum of $12,500 annually, chargeable upon the duties on sales at public auction, in the city of New-York. The greatest number of patients at any one time on record, in the Hospital, is 2,000! As high as 1,725 have been admitted in one year, (including U. S. seamen ;) of this number 1,185 were paupers! Out of the whole, 1,320 were cured: 527 of the patients were Irish. There is a library to the Hospital of 4,800 volumes; containing some of the most rare and most valuable works in medical science in the world.

By a law of the United States, every seaman in the merchant service pays 20 cents per month (deducted out of their wages,) for their support, if sick or disabled. This not being sufficient for the support of all who applied for hospital relief, the governers have admitted 1,649 more than what has been yearly paid for by the United States; the cost of which amounts to $15,141 28, which Congress as yet refuses to pay: so says report.

The Asylum for the Insane stands near the Hospital, and is included in the institution, and both are kept equal to those of Baltimore and Philadelphia, excepting only the lying in ward. Clinical lectures, both medical and surgical, are delivered here by the professors of both colleges, viz: Columbia college, and the medical college; being physicians of the Hospital, they use the Surgical Theatre for this purpose. There are usually an hundred students, medical and surgical, who attend those lectures; they were first introduced by Dr. Bard. Besides this hospital, there is one on Staten Island, three miles below the city, where quarantine laws are enfor ced at certain seasons of the year. This hospital receives all that are afflicted with epidemic diseases; it is one of the finest buildings in the United States.. A board of health sits at this place.

Columbia College.-Columbia college was founded in

*The annual expence of the Hospital is $40,000. No domestic or officer of the Hospital is allowed to receive any present or bequest from any patient.

1754; it stands near Park place, and consists of one great building of gray stone, three stories, and contains twelve apartments in each story. It also contains a Chapel, Hall, Museum, Anatomical Theatre, a Laboratory, a Philosophical apparatus, and a library of 5,000 volumes. The annual revenue is upwards of $4,000; it has a President, and five Professors. The average number of students is 200. It is governed by Trustees, but their number I was not able to ascertain; the President, when I called, being very much indisposed. The Elgin Botanical Garden, formerly the property of Dr. D. Hosack, was purchased from him by the state, and conveyed to this college, (under very rigid restrictions ;) it contains twenty 20 acres of ground, and upwards of 2,000 valuable plants.

Medical College. The medical college stands in Barclay-street; it was incorporated finally in 1813, by the legislature; the regents of the university, previous to this, granted them a charter, but the institution did not prosper until 1813 it is now in a flourishing condition, and a number of young men have graduated at this college. The medical department, which formerly belonged to Columbia college, has been transferred to this, which is better known by the name of "the College of Physicians and Surgeons." The course of lectures embraces the theory and practice of physic, obstetrics, and diseases of women and children, chemistry, and materia medica, anatomy, physiology and surgery, natural history, the clinical practice of medicine, the principles and practice of surgery, and the institutes of medicine, and medical jurisprudence."

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Being insensibly led to mention the university of N. York, it becomes necessary to explain, that the regents of the university are nothing more than a literary society, of twenty-one gentlemen, whose duty it is to distribute the money designed for all literary institutions throughout the state; also to visit all the colleges, academies, and schools, within the same; to inspect the system of education in each, and make report thereof to the legislature. They appoint presidents and principals of academies; incorporate colleges and academies, &c. and

confer degrees by diplomas of a higher order than master of arts and medical degrees. The governor and lieut. governor are members ex officio; the regents are appoint ed by the legislature, and choose a chancellor and vice chancellor of the university from their own body. They are prohibited from requiring any religious test of any president or principal of an academy or college, and no regent can be a president, trustee, or principal, of any seminary or college in this state.

State Prison. The state prison of New-York, stands on the Hudson river, in Greenwich-street. It is built of free stone, in the Doric style; it has two stories, each 15 feet in height, besides the basement, and is 204 feet in length; it has four wings extending back; the buildings and yard cover four acres of ground; the whole is enclosed with a stone wall, 23 feet next the river and 14 in front. It contains 54 rooms for the prisoners, rooms for the keeper and agents, a chapel, an hospital, a dining hall for the prisoners, with kitchens, and cells for solitary confinement. In the yard are the work-shops of the prisoners, and the whole is well supplied with water. These prisoners do not work out of doors as at Philadelphia; the most of them are kept at weaving; the first stocking-loom I ever saw was in this prison, but such was the intricacy of the thing that I am unable to describe it. Besides weavers, there are turners, brushmakers, coopers, blacksmiths, tailors, painters, shoemakers, carpenters, and many card and spin; they eat three times a day, mush and molasses for supper, cocoa sweetened with molasses, with bread, for breakfast, beef shins, made into soup, thickened with beans or rice, for dinner, and once a week they have a pork dinner, and always plenty of potatoes; some instances of industry are rewarded by a pint of beer. Good behaviour generally shortens the term of confinement; the young and the old, who are illiterate, are carefully instructed. The prison is warmed by stoves; they have pumps and fireengines in the yard.

No convict, sentenced for a less term than three years, can be put in this prison: when a convict arrives, he is stripped, washed clean, and dressed in new clothes, and

after taking a description of his person, which is entered in the prison book, he is put to work. In the summer, they work from 6 o'clock A. M. till 6 P. M.: on beat of drum, at 9 o'clock, in the summer, and 8 in the winter, they retire to their beds, which are neat and comfortable. There were 500 in when I called; amongst these were very few women; many of them were fine looking men, one of them in particular, (as I was leaning over the loom to examine his work,) in reply to an observation I dropped, that people of their inoffensive looks should be guilty of crimes, "ah," said he, "many of the people you see here are put in for very little.". A sentinel parades on the wall during the day with fixed bayonet, but at night fifty men stand guard. Many instances occur of the same person being put in the second, third, fourth, and even the fifth time! a number are put in for life; the crimes which subject a convict for life, are, rape, robbery, burglary, sodomy, maiming, house-breaking, forging proof of deeds, or public securities, and counterfeiting gold or silver. Until very lately they received no compensation for their labor! The supreme judges and the attorney general of the state, regulate the laws of the institution, which, with all deference to them, are very rigid. A physician and surgeon reside in the prison, and others visit there daily from the city," none of which receive compensation.

Alms-House. The alms-house is a plain stone building, with a cupola, situated on the bank of East river, two miles from the city hall; it is the largest building in the city, being 320 feet long and 50 feet wide. Including the penitentiary, work-house, and other buildings connected with this institution, the expense was 418,791 dollars. As many as 1,487 paupers were in the almshouse at one time; there were upwards of 600 when I visited it, a great number of whom were children. The alms-house is well regulated, and no gentleman's parlour looks neater, the floor being scrubbed with sand daily. The paupers looked plump and hearty, and were comfortably clothed; most of their beds were of feathers. I conversed with several of them (not in the presence of the keeper,) on the subject of their treatment; they eager