rised that any American should have made such an admission,
captain; but for the sake of argument let it be so. But first recollect
that we have a constant influx of people from the Old Country, from all
the other States in America, and that we are a sea-port town, with our
wharfs crowded with shipping."

"I admit it all, and that is the reason why you have so many. The
supply in all countries is usually commensurate with the demand; but the
numbers have nothing to do with the argument."

"Then I cannot see what you are driving at; for allow me to say that,
admitting the class to be as numerous as you state from American
authority, still they are very orderly and well behaved. You never see
them drunk in the streets; you never hear swearing or abusive language;
and you do in London and your seaports. There is a decorum and sense of
propriety about them which, you must admit, speaks well, even for those
unfortunate persons, and shews some sense of morality and decency even
in our most abandoned."

"You have brought forward the very facts which I was about to state, and
it is from these facts that I draw quite contrary conclusions. If your
argument is good, it must follow that the women of Paris are much more
virtuous than the women of London. Now, I consider that these facts
prove that the standard of morality is lower in America and France than
it is in England. A French woman who has fallen never drinks, or uses
bad language; she follows her profession, and seldom sinks, but rises in
it. The grisette eventually keeps her carriage, and retires with
sufficient to support her in her old age, if she does not marry. The
American women of this class appear to me to be precisely the same
description of people; whereas, in England, a woman who falls, falls
never to rise again--sinking down by degrees from bad to worse, until
she ends her days in rags and misery. But why so? because, as you say,
they become reckless and intemperate--they _do_ feel their degradation,
and cannot bear up against it--they attempt to drown conscience, and die
from the vain attempts. Now, the French and the American women of this
class apparently do not feel this, and, therefore, they behave and do
better. This is one reason why I argue that the standard of morality is
not so high in your country as with us, although, from circumstances,
conjugal infidelity may be less frequent."

"Then, captain, you mean to say that cursing, swearing,