ge, the
current news of the day, and if it has no other beneficial effects,
prevents rumours, that commonly circulate in times of public excitement
to the detriment often of many individuals in crowded communities. I
noticed the walls of New York thickly posted with placards chiefly of an
inflammatory political character. Many of these breathed agrarian
principles, that would in Europe have been inadmissible, and would,
without doubt, have led to the immediate arrest and imprisonment of the
authors. Here, however, they are but little noticed by the populace, and
not at all, I believe, by the authorities. Cheap newspapers are pushed
into the face of the passer-by, at the corner of every principal
thoroughfare, the prices varying from two to six cents. These, as may be
supposed, contain, together with the current news, every description of
scandal and trash imaginable, their personality being highly offensive,
injurious, and reprehensible. Thus the freedom of the press is abused in
every part of America, and this powerful engine of "good or ill"
converted from a benefit (as it is if managed with propriety) into a
public nuisance.

One peculiarity, exceedingly annoying to an Englishman, which is
observable even in good society in New York and elsewhere in America, is
a prying curiosity as to the affairs of those with whom they converse.
Their habits at table also often fill one with disgust, and the want of
good-breeding I witnessed on more than one occasion would have been
resented in England. This is the more remarkable, as the Americans
entertain high notions of refinement, and yet, paradoxical as it may
appear, seem to glory in their contempt of good manners. I do not,
however, include the ladies in this remark; on the contrary, I must
unequivocally assert, that I always observed in them, not only in New
York, but in every other part of the North American continent which I
visited, the greatest disposition to cover the misdoings of the opposite
sex, and a great degree of cultivation and politeness; although they are
perfectly freezing in their manners before formal introduction, I do not
doubt that there are many among them of great refinement and powers of
intellect, their personal appearance being also consonant with their
known amiability.

The bustle and drive in the trading quarters of the city is very great.
The merchants and their assistants have a hurried manner of doing
business, discernible in a moment to a