to New York, where
I had the pleasure of visiting, at his own residence, my friend, Cyrus
P. Grosvenor, one of the delegates to the Anti-Slavery Convention last
year. There are here a considerable number of sincere abolitionists, of
whom we met a small company in the evening, in a room used as the
Friends' meeting house. I gave them a brief account of the state of the
anti-slavery cause in other parts of the world. In company with John M.
Earle, editor of one of the Worcester papers, with whom I had formed a
previous acquaintance at the Yearly Meeting, I also called on the
Governor of the State of Massachusetts, who resides in this place. We
had some friendly conversation, but he seemed cautious on the subject of
abolition. The temperance cause in Worcester has made so much progress
that at the three largest and best hotels, which make up nearly one
hundred beds each, no intoxicating liquor of any kind is sold. A people
thus willing to carry out their convictions, to the sacrifice of
prejudice, appetite, and apparent self-interest, cannot long remain a
nation of slave-holders. In common with the rest of New England, this
town is remarkable for the number, size, and beauty of its places of
worship. I calculated, with the aid of a well-informed inhabitant, that
if the entire population were to go to a place of worship, at the same
hour, in the same day, there would be ample accommodation, and room to
spare. Yet here there is no compulsory tax to build churches, and
maintain ministers. By the efficacy of the voluntary principle alone is
this state of things produced.

My dear friend, John G. Whittier returned home from Worcester on account
of increased indisposition, while I proceeded alone to New York. The
journey from Boston to the latter city is a remarkably pleasant one.
Leaving Boston at four in the afternoon, we proceed on one of the best
railways in the States, at the rate of upwards of twenty miles an hour,
through a very beautiful and generally well cultivated country, to the
city of Norwich, in the State of Connecticut, where the train arrives
about eight in the evening, and the passengers immediately embark on a
handsome steamer, for New York, enjoying, as long as daylight lasts, the
fine scenery on the banks of the Thames. The night I went was moonlight;
and, after long enjoying the coolness of the evening on deck, the
company retired to their berths, and arrived at New York at the
seasonable hour of six the f