the word, domestic slaves. This condition,
which no periodical merry-making, no village FETE, ever occurs to
cheer, is only changed for the still sadder burdens of a teeming
wife. They marry very young; in fact, in no rank of life do you
meet with young women in that delightful period of existence
between childhood and marriage, wherein, if only tolerably well
spent, so much useful information is gained, and the character
takes a sufficient degree of firmness to support with dignity the
more important parts of wife and mother. The slender, childish
thing, without vigour of mind or body, is made to stem a sea of
troubles that dims her young eye and makes her cheek grow pale,
even before nature has given it the last beautiful finish of the
full-grown woman.

"We shall get along," is the answer in full, for all that can be
said in way of advice to a boy and girl who take it into their
heads to go before a magistrate and "get married." And they do
get along, till sickness overtakes them, by means perhaps of
borrowing a kettle from one and a tea-pot from another; but
intemperance, idleness, or sickness will, in one week, plunge
those who are even getting along well, into utter destitution;
and where this happens, they are completely without resource.

The absence of poor-laws is, without doubt, a blessing to the
country, but they have not that natural and reasonable dependence
on the richer classes which, in countries differently
constituted, may so well supply their place. I suppose there is
less alms-giving in America than in any other Christian country
on the face of the globe. It is not in the temper of the people
either to give or to receive.

I extract the following pompous passage from a Washington paper
of Feb. 1829, (a season of uncommon severity and distress,)
which, I think, justifies my observation.

"Among the liberal evidences of sympathy for the suffering poor
of this city, two have come to our knowledge which deserve to be
especially noticed: the one a donation by the President of the
United States to the committee of the ward in which he resides of
fifty dollars; the other the donation by a few of the officers of
the war department to the Howard and Dorcas Societies, of
seventy-two dollars." When such mention is made of a gift of
about nine pounds sterling from the sovereign magistrate of the
United States, and of thirteen pounds sterling as a contribution
from one of the state departments, the