die by thousands." The Quaker here took out his tablets and said, "Friend, thy name?" the Why, Samuel S, of Street, Boston, opposite old spire-" "Well, Friend, I want-" "Oh, I don't care what you want "I want the privilege of addressing a letter to thee upon the subject of colonization, for thy answer—” "I'll answer you, I don't care; I have been amongst forty priests at once. I belong to the good old church, but I don't believe all they want me: I dont' think there's so much misery in this world as they say-" "But some people give such accounts of the colony." "Aye, to gull the New-Englanders out of their money-" "And to make slavery more secure by getting rid of the Free Blacks." We should now have had another storm, but, unfortunately, a turn in the road brought us in sight of a large steamer with a quarantine schooner alongside, lying in the river beneath us, which immediately changed the conversation. The slaver inveighed most bitterly against the New Yorkers for running up and down, spreading the cholera through the country, "for nothing could ever convince him that it was not contagious. In the East Indies, however, they thought nothing of it; for the Captains of ships had told him that they had been attacked two or three times by it in Calcutta, but always came clear off by keeping a bottle of brandy and some laudanum at their bedside, and taking a dose when they felt the attack coming on, and continuing it at intervals until cured." Although I knew he was labouring under a false impression with regard to the cholera being thought lightly of in Cal cutta, and differed with him in opinion as to contagion, I deemed it prudent not to make any observation upon the latter part of the subject, being so lately from New York, and only remarked that, "such being the case, how would the Temperance Societies retain their influence over the people, if they formed an idea that brandy would cure the disease?" The little old woman sprang up sharply, "A man came to me the other day with a book, and asked me to affix my name. I said, no; I will not sign my name to any thing I do not know; he told me to read, and I looked into the book, and found it was a Temperance Society Register; oh, sir, said I, I thank you, I know what is good for me without being dictated to; and if I felt thirsty, and some spirits and water were standing near me, I should think it cruel to debar myself a draught. I am seventy-two years of age, and old women, like me, require a stimulus, and my own good sense will tell me. when I have taken enough: I gave it him in short-hand, I'll warrant you." We had now arrived at the pretty town of Taunton, and, changing coaches, I was deprived of a company which had afforded me much amusement, and, thinking it a good specimen of coach conversation, noted it down while the baggage was removing. My fellow-passengers were now much the reverse of the last immediately we had left the town, they all leaned back in their seats, and closed their eyes. Once only did the slaver, who still accompanied me, endeavour to break the dead silence by observing that "we should now keep on the turnpike the rest of the journey;" but, no one answering him, he also followed the general example, and I, though there were nine inside passengers, having secured a seat near the window, renewed my examination of the surrounding country, or watched the dark rolling clouds of a gathering thunder-storm. The road we travelled was certainly excellent, and no wonder, as the whole country was covered more or less with stone, and the walls of the inclosures made immoderately thick (from 4 to 5 feet) for the purpose of ridding the ground. There was, indeed, a sufficient quantity of rock upon the land to justify a piece of wit by a Yankee who, some few days afterwards, was a chance traveller with me over the same description of country. After gazing for a length of time in apparent astonishment at the thick walls and the mass of hard materials which covered every acre, he said, with an air of well-feigned simplicity, "Well, I wonder where they could have got all the stones to build such thick walls." 'Why, from the fields to be sure," said a surly old farmer. "La! did they indeed?" answered the other; "really I should never have missed them." To me this was something new; but judging from the faces of my fellow-travellers, and the Yankee's failure in attempting to create a general laugh, it was not original. The country was woody and undulating, increasing in picturesque beauty and population as we approached Boston, where we arrived at halfpast seven and I considered myself especially fortunate, as so many people had fled from New York to this city, in obtaining room at the Tremont House, the finest and best-conducted hotel in the United States. The building itself is not inferior in beauty to any in Boston, and the reading-room is well supplied with not only the principal American and Canadian newspapers, but also European and American publications, of which I could never get a sight in any other hotel in America. CHAPTER XIII. Athens of Italy! SOTHEBY. THE city of Boston is built upon a peninsula, which is joined to the mainland by a very narrow neck on the southern side; it contains about 70,000 inhabitants, and vies with any of its southern neighbours in the situation and beauty of its public and private dwellings. In 1630, at its foundation, the Indian name was Shawmut, which was changed to Trimountain, from the three hills upon which it is now built; subsequently it received its present name, in honour of a minister who emigrated from Boston in Lincolnshire. Upon the other sides of the peninsula, communication is kept up with the mainland by several strong wooden bridges, varying in length from 1500 to 3500 feet, and on its western side by a pier of solid materials 1 mile in length, and above 80 feet in width. The bay is a most magnificent one, and equals that of New York, but in a different style of beauty. The Boston bay is on a much more grand and extensive scale, containing 75 square miles, and studded with more than 100 islands and rocks, the only ship channel being between Forts Warren and Independence on Governor's and Castle islands. The land |