and the province of Maine. But the uncleared lands are all located, and the proprietors have inclosed them with fences of different sorts. These several kinds of fences are composed of different materials, which announce the different degrees of culture in the country. Some are composed of the light branches of trees; others, of the trunks of trees laid one upon the other; a third sort is made of long pieces of wood, supporting each other by making angles at the end; a fourth kind is made of long pieces of hewn timber, supported at the ends by passing into holes made in an upright post; a fifth is like the garden fences in England; the last kind is made of stones thrown together to the height of three feet. This last is most durable, and is common in Massachusetts. . . . A town, you know, in the interior of America, designates an extent of eight or ten miles, where are scattered a hundred or two hundred houses.

Letter V. On New York.

If there is a town on the American continent where the English luxury displays its follies, it is New York. You will find here the English fashions. In the dress of the women you will see the most brilliant silks, gauzes, hats, and borrowed hair. Equipages are rare; but they are elegant. The men have more simplicity in their dress; they disdain gewgaws, but they take their revenge in the luxury of the table.

Luxury forms already, in this town, a class of men very dangerous in society- I mean bachelors. The expence of women causes matrimony to be dreaded by men.

Tea forms, as in England, the basis of the principal parties of pleasure. Fruits, though more attended to in this State, are far from possessing the beauty and goodness of those of Europe. I have seen trees, in September, loaded at once with apples and with flowers.

M. de Crevecoeur is right in his description of the abundance and good quality of provisions at New York,

in vegetables, flesh, and especially in fish. It is difficult to unite so many advantages in one place. Provisions are dearer in New York than in any other of the northern or middle States. Many things, especially those of luxury, are dearer here than in France. A hair-dresser asks twenty shillings per month; washing costs four shillings for a dozen pieces.

Strangers who, having lived a long time in America, tax the Americans with cheating, have declared to me, that this accusation must be confined to the towns, and that in the country you will find them honest. The French are the most forward in making these complaints; and they believe that the Americans are more trickish with them than with the English. If this were a fact, I should not be astonished at it. The French whom I have seen are eternally crying up the services which their nation has rendered to the Americans, and opposing their manners and customs, decrying their government, exalting the favours rendered by the French government towards the Americans, and diminishing those of Congress to the French.

These prices were about double in New York during the war to what they are now. Boarding and lodging by the week is from four to six dollars. The fees of lawyers are out of all proportion; they are, as in England, excessive. Physicians have not the same advantage in this respect as lawyers: the good health generally enjoyed here, renders them little necessary; yet they are sufficiently numerous. Whilst everywhere in Europe the villages and towns are falling to ruin, rather than augmenting, new edifices are here rising on all sides. New York was in great part consumed by fire in the time of the war. The vestiges of this terrible conflagration disappear; the activity which reigns everywhere, announces a rising prosperity; they enlarge in every quarter, and extend their streets. Elegant buildings, in the English style, take place of those sharp-roofed sloping houses of the Dutch. You find some

still standing in the Dutch style; they afford some pleasure to the European observer; they trace to him the origin of this colony, and the manners of those who inhabit it.

Letter XXV. On Philadelphia, its Buildings, Police, etc. Philadelphia may be considered as the metropolis of the United States. It is certainly the finest town, and the best built; it is the most wealthy, though not the most luxurious. You find here more men of information, more political and literary knowledge, and more learned societies. . . .

At ten o'clock in the evening all is tranquil in the streets; the profound silence which reigns there is only interrupted by the voice of the watchmen, who are in small numbers, and who form the only patrole. The streets are lighted by lamps, placed like those of London.

On the side of the streets are footways of brick, and gutters constructed of brick or wood. Strong posts are placed to prevent carriages from passing on the footways. All the streets are furnished with public pumps in great numbers. At the door of each house are placed two benches, where the family sit at evening to take the fresh air, and amuse themselves in looking at the passengers. It is certainly a bad custom, as the evening air is unhealthful, and the exercise is not sufficient to correct this evil, for they never walk here; they supply the want of walking by riding out into the country. They have few coaches at Philadelphia. You see many handsome waggons, which are used to carry the family into the country; they are a kind of long carriage, light and open, and may contain twelve persons. They have many chairs and sulkeys, open on all sides; the former may carry two persons, the latter only one. .. Philadelphia is built on a regular plan: long and large streets cross each other at right angles: this regularity, which is a real ornament, is at first embarrassing to a stranger; he has much difficulty in finding himself, especially as the streets are not inscribed, and the doors not

numbered. It is strange that the Quakers, who are sc fond of order, have not adopted these two conveniences; that they have not borrowed them from the English, of whom they have borrowed so many things. This double defect is a torment to strangers. The shops which adorn the principal streets are remarkable for their neatness.

The State-house, where the Legislature assembles, is a handsome building: by its side they are building a magnificent house of justice.

Mr. Raynal has exaggerated every thing; the buildings, the library, the streets: he speaks of streets 100 feet wide; there is none of this width, except Market-street; they are generally from 50 to 60 feet wide. He speaks of wharfs of 200 feet: there is none such here; the wharfs in general are small and niggardly. . . .

Behind the State-house is a public garden; it is the only one that exists in Philadelphia. It is not large; but it is agreeable, and one may breathe in it. It is composed of a number of verdant squares, intersected by alleys.

All the space from Front-street on the Delaware to Front-street on the Schuylkill, is already distributed into squares for streets and houses: they build here, but not so briskly as at New-York.

Letter XXXIX. Journey from Boston to Portsmouth. October, 1788.

I left Boston the 2d of October, after dining with my worthy friend Mr. Barret; to whom I cannot pay too sincere a tribute of praise for his amiable qualities, or of gratitude for the readiness he has manifested on all occasions in procuring me information on the objects of my research. We slept at Salem, fifteen miles from Boston; an excellent gravelly road, bordered with woods and meadows. This road passes the fine bridge of Malden, which I mentioned before, and the town of Linn remarkable for the manufacture of women's shoes. It is calculated that more than an hundred thousand pairs are annually exported from this

town. At Reading, not far from Linn, is a similar manufacture of men's shoes.

. . . It was cold, and we had a fire in a Franklin stove. These are common here, and those chimneys that have them not, are built as described by M. de Crevecoeur: they rarely smoke. The mistress of the tavern (Robinson) was taking tea with her daughters; they invited us to partake of it with them. I repeat it, we have nothing like this in France. It is a general remark through all the United States; a tavern-keeper must be a respectable man, his daughters are well drest, and have an air of decency and civility. We had good provisions, good beds, attentive servants; neither the servants nor the coachmen ask any money. It is an excellent practice; for this tax with us not only becomes insupportable on account of the persecutions which it occasions, but it gives men an air of baseness, and accustoms to the servility of avarice.

J. P. Brissot de Warville: New Travels in the United States of America Performed in 1788. Second Edition, Vol. I, pp. 97-102, 128-132, 266-270, 384-386. London, 1794.

QUESTIONS

Compare Brissot's account of transportation from Boston to New York with that of the advertisement given in the next selection, page 70. How did Brissot think the comforts of American taverns compared with those in France? What seems to have been the position of inn-keepers in the community? What would you judge was their social position and reputation in Europe? What did Brissot think were the advantages of rural life in New England? What evidences of luxury and good living did he note in New York? Reproduce Brissot's description of the city of Philadelphia and its

manners.