er heard of--but that
is national vanity; and lastly, I do not recollect to have seen a museum
that had not a considerable portion of its space occupied by most
execrable wax-work, in which the sleeping beauty (a sad misnomer)
generally figures very conspicuously. In some, they have models of
celebrated criminals in the act of committing a murder, with the very
hatchet or the very knife: or such trophies as the bonnet worn by Mrs
-- when she was killed by her husband; or the shirt, with the blood of
his wife on it, worn by Jack Sprat, or whoever he might be, when he
committed the bloody deed. The most favourite subject, after the
sleeping beauty in the wax-work, is General Jackson, with the battle of
New Orleans in the distance. Now all these things are very well in
their places: exhibit wax-work as much as you please--it amuses and
interests children; but the present collections in the museums remind
you of American society--a chaotic mass, in which you occasionally meet
what is valuable and interesting, but of which the larger proportion is
pretence.

It was not until I had been some time in Philadelphia that I became
convinced how very superior the free coloured people were in
intelligence and education, to what, from my knowledge of them in our
West-India Islands, I had ever imagined them capable of. Not that I
mean to imply that they will ever attain to the same powers of intellect
as the white man, for I really believe that the race are not formed for
it by the Almighty. I do not mean to say that there _never_ will be
great men among the African race, but that such instances will always be
very _rare_, compared to the numbers produced among the white. But this
is certain, that in Philadelphia the free coloured people are a very
respectable class, and, in my opinion, quite as intelligent as the more
humble of the free whites. I have been quite surprised to see them take
out their pencils, write down and calculate with quickness and
precision, and in every other point shew great intelligence and
keenness.

In this city they are both numerous and wealthy. The most extravagant
funeral I saw in Philadelphia was that of a black; the coaches were very
numerous, as well as the pedestrians, who were all well dressed, and
behaving with the utmost decorum. They were preceded by a black
clergyman, dressed in his full black silk canonicals. He did look very
odd, I must confess.

Singular is the degree of contempt