amilies live in great splendour, and in houses little
inferior to those of Russell-square, London. Distinctions here exist to
an extent rather ludicrous under a free and popular government: there
are the first class, second class, third class, and the "old families."
Titles, too, are diffusely distributed.

Boston is not a thriving, that is, not an increasing town. It wants a
fertile back country; and it is too far removed from the western states
to have much trade.

On an eminence, in the Mall, (a fine public walk,) is built the _State
House_, in which the legislature holds its meetings. The view from the
top of this building is peculiarly fine. The islands, the shipping, the
town, the hill and dale scenery, for a distance of thirty miles, present
an assemblage of objects which are beautifully picturesque. Boston was
the birth-place of Dr. Franklin, and in this town the first dawnings of
the American revolution broke forth. The heights of Dorchester and
Bunker's Hill are in its immediate vicinity.

On the 20th of September Mr. Fearon walked to _Bunker's Hill_. It is of
moderate height. The monument, placed here in commemoration of the
victory obtained by the English over the Americans, on the 17th of June,
1776, is of brick and wood, and without inscription.

[At _Cambridge_, four miles from Boston, is a college, called _Harvard
College_, in honour of the Rev. John Harvard of Charleston, who left to
it his library, and a considerable sum of money. This college is upon a
scale so large and liberal, as to consist of seven spacious buildings,
and to contain two hundred and fifty apartments for officers and
students. It has an excellent library of about 17,000 volumes, a
philosophical apparatus, and a museum of natural history. The average
number of students is about two hundred and sixty. Admission into this
college requires a previous knowledge of mathematics, Latin, and Greek.
All the students have equal rights; and each class has peculiar
instructors. Degrees are here conferred, as in the English universities;
and the period of study requisite for the degree of bachelor of arts is
four years. The professorships are numerous. Harvard College furnishes
instructors and teachers to the most distant parts of the union; and, in
general, for the extent of its funds, the richness of its library, the
number and character of its establishments, and the means it affords of
acquiring, not only an academical, but a professional