"go the
whole hog," as they are wont to term their extremes and eccentricities.

The Town-hall, situate at the base of the Park, which is a triangular
piece of land, well laid out and neatly kept, is a light edifice of some
taste and architectural merit, its chief attraction being the white
marble of which it is constructed, and which is brought from the
quarries at Sing-Sing, some miles up the river Hudson. The effect,
however, is not good; its exposure to the elements having given it a
blurred or chalky appearance. It is surmounted by a small but elevated
cupola, constructed of wood, which some time ago, I was informed by a
citizen, caught fire at a pyrotechnic exhibition, and endangered the
whole edifice, since which, displays of fire-works have been prohibited
in the Park by the civic authorities. At the entrance there is a
spacious vestibule, but this, as well as the interior, though elegant in
its simplicity of style, is meagre of ornament. Proceeding to the
interior, I reached the criminal court, where a squalid-looking prisoner
was undergoing trial for murder. The judges and officers of the court
were almost entirely without insignia of office, and the counsel
employed, I thought, evinced much tact in their proceedings, especially
in the cross-examination of witnesses, although they manifested great
acerbity of feeling towards each other, and their acrimonious remarks
would not, I imagine, have been allowed to pass without remonstrance in
an English court of justice. I was told by a by-stander, with whom I
entered into conversation, that if found guilty, the prisoner would be
conducted to an underground apartment used for the purpose, and
privately executed, the law of the State of New York, from motives that
ought to be appreciated in England, prohibiting public executions. It is
also customary there to allow criminals more time than in England, to
prepare for the awful change they are doomed to undergo.

I was informed by a friend that there are some very astute lawyers in
America, and I subsequently had opportunities to test the accuracy of
the remark. Their code, however, differs materially from the English,
although professing to be based upon its principles; and has the
preeminent advantage of being pretty free from the intricacies and
incongruities that so often tend to defeat justice in the
mother-country, and render proceedings at law so expensive and
perplexing. The slave laws (called the "_codenoir_"