that such a habit existed, for if it did, he must, he said, have noticed it. But when I assured him that I had noticed it in every part where I had been, and in genteel families too, he was obliged to yield the point. I was in a lecture-room, at Ovid in New York, the floor of which was as wet, as if a watering-pot had been used to lay the dust: this was occasioned entirely by the spitting of the men.

In the principal cities, proper attention is paid to personal cleanliness and neatness of dress; but in many parts of the country, considerable neglect is apparent. I found it needful to carry a piece of soap constantly with me, as the article is hardly ever to be found at inns on the road. Even in genteel private houses, I have noticed occasionally a want of it. I have slept in a room furnished in the first style, where this necessary article was omitted. Little matters of this kind are sometimes more elucidatory of the habits of a people, than formal dissertations. Let me

therefore mention that I went into a draper's shop at Fredericsburg in Virginia to purchase a nightcap, but no such thing was to be had. I tried at a second, and was told that no dealer in the town kept nightcaps, as the people did not use them. At Richmond I obtained one.

The men everywhere are less attentive to the softer sex than social happiness requires. When in visiting parties, they are of course more attentive than at other times, but they seem on such occasions rather desirous of gaining the favourable opinion of the ladies by affected ease and sprightliness, than by those minute attentions, which when in union with cheerfulness, are considered by us as the best recommendations. They make a great mistake in supposing that women dislike rational conversation. Chesterfield with all his knowledge of the world fell into the same mistake. It certainly is not to be wished that mathematics or metaphysics should be discussed in their company; but polite literature in its various departments may be introduced with great propriety. Topics of this kind are as agreeable to young ladies of cultivated minds, as everlasting criticisms on the best dancers, or witticisms on the blunders and awkwardness of others. The American gentlemen when convinced of this, and disposed to try the experiment, will find that it has at least this advantage in it, that it will be beneficial to them, even if it should chance to be insufficiently alluring to the ladies; a result I do not anticipate. If it be true, as I was several times assured, that the ladies prefer Europeans to their own country

men, may it not be in part attributed to the superior respect paid to their understandings by the former? What sensible young lady admires being treated as if she were only a dressed doll?

In their intercourse with each other the men are easy and polite. The coldness shown in salutation to which I alluded before, soon gives place to more genial behaviour. And if they have not the tinsel of compliment, or the most refined address, they have what is of incomparably more value, a disposition to promote the kindly feelings by anticipations of the wishes of others. If their introductory deportment does not raise expectations, their conduct after is sure to gratify the essence of politeness they eminently possess.

It is proper to say something of the labouring class of society, who have generally been represented as a rude, undisciplined set. I met now and then with a rude fellow, but I must say that in general they are civil and respectful though not crouching. I asked a bricklayer who was at work in Washington which was the way to the Catholic church. He immediately laid down his trowel, and walked with me for some distance till we came in sight of it, fearful that if he gave

me only an oral direction, I should be puzzled to find it. I walked one day about ten miles with a journeyman tailor whom I overtook on the road, and observed that in talking with me on different subjects, he showed a correctness of behaviour, highly creditable to one whose means of improvement had evidently been scanty. He was a Jersey man. More rudeness, or at any rate more latitude in behaviour, is observable in the Irish labourers in America than in the na tives, the reason for which is I presume, that considering themselves in the land of liberty, they may assume any airs with impunity. Work is so easily to be had, that they do not mind being paid off. That the poor in general are not inattentive to behaviour, is evident from the manners of children. When walking in the unfelled native forest, I have been surprised by the boys touching their hats, and the girls curtseying to me, as I passed the log house of their parents.

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CHAPTER V.

THE WOMEN.

THE Condition of women is in all countries a matter of great interest, since it is indicative of the state of civilization and happiness of the men. It is only in countries highly civilized that women are placed in their proper station, and treated as they deserve. In the savage state, they are regarded as beasts of burden; in a semicivilized state, they are often valued only as ministers of sensual gratification. During the chivalrous ages, they were idolized, but assuredly not made so happy as in a more advanced state of society. It is only when women are treated as rational beings, when neither brutal neglect nor idolatrous submission are shown in the behaviour of men, that their virtues expand and produce all that harmony and decorum, without which life is like a garden overrun with weeds and wild-flowers, having few charms and no fragrance. The women in America are less influential than they should be, the reason for which is, that they are brought up with too much re