interval for
a single day, for a single hour, of their whole existence, "a
glorious institution."

Their unequalled freedom, I think, I understand better. Their
code of common law is built upon ours; and the difference between
us is this, in England the laws are acted upon, in America they
are not.

I do not speak of the police of the Atlantic cities; I
believe it is well arranged: in New York it is celebrated
for being so; but out of the range of their influence, the
contempt of law is greater than I can venture to state, with
any hope of being believed. Trespass, assault, robbery, nay,
even murder, are often committed without the slightest attempt
at legal interference.

During the summer that we passed most delightfully in Maryland,
our rambles were often restrained in various directions by the
advice of our kind friends, who knew the manners and morals of
the country. When we asked the cause, we were told, "There is a
public-house on that road, and it will not be safe to pass it,"

The line of the Chesapeak and Ohio canal passed within a few
miles of Mrs. S--'s residence. It twice happened during our
stay with her, that dead bodies were found partially concealed
near it. The circumstance was related as a sort of half hour's
wonder; and when I asked particulars of those who, on one
occasion, brought the tale, the reply was, "Oh, he was murdered
I expect; or maybe he died of the canal fever; but they say he
had marks of being throttled." No inquest was summoned; and
certainly no more sensation was produced by the occurrence than
if a sheep had been found in the same predicament.

The abundance of food and the scarcity of hanging were also
favourite topics, as proving their superiority to England. They
are both excellent things, but I do not admit the inference.
A wide and most fertile territory, as yet but thinly inhabited,
may easily be made to yield abundant food for its population: and
where a desperate villain knows, that when he has made his town
or his village "too hot to hold him," he has nothing to do but to
travel a few miles west, and be sure of finding plenty of beef
and whiskey, with no danger that the law shall follow him, it is
not extraordinary that executions should be rare.

Once during our residence at Cincinnati, a murderer of uncommon
atrocity was taken, tried, convicted, and condemned to death.
It had been shewn on his trial, that some years before he had
murdered a wife and chil