spectacle than one of these
awful cells, and assuredly, when imprisonment therein for life
is substituted for death, it is no mercy to the criminal; but if
it be a greater terror to the citizen, it may answer the purpose
better. I do not conceive, that out of a hundred human beings
who had been thus confined for a year, one would be found at the
end of it who would continue to linger on there, _certain it was
for ever_, if the alternative of being hanged were offered to
them. I had written a description of these horrible cells, but
Captain Hall's picture of a similar building is so accurate, and
so clear, that it is needless to insert it.

Still following the sweep of the river, at the distance of two
miles from Washington, is George Town, formerly a place of
considerable commercial importance, and likely, I think, to
become so again, when the Ohio and Chesapeake canals, which there
mouths into the Potomac, shall be in full action. It is a very
pretty town, commanding a lovely view, of which the noble Potomac
and the almost nobler capitol, are the great features. The
country rises into a beautiful line of hills behind Washington,
which form a sort of undulating terrace on to George Town; this
terrace is almost entirely occupied by a succession of
gentlemen's seats. At George Town the Potomac suddenly contracts
itself, and begins to assume that rapid, rocky and irregular
character which marks it afterwards, and renders its course, till
it meets the Shenandoah at Harper's Ferry, a series of the most
wild and romantic views that are to be found in America.

Attending the debates in Congress was, of course, one of our
great objects; and, as an English woman, I was perhaps the more
eager to avail myself of the privilege allowed. It was
repeatedly observed to me that, at least in this instance, I must
acknowledge the superior gallantry of the Americans, and that
they herein give a decided proof of surpassing the English in a
wish to honour the ladies, as they have a gallery in the House of
Representatives erected expressly for them, while in England they
are rigorously excluded from every part of the House of Commons.

But the inference I draw from this is precisely the reverse of
the suggested. It is well known that the reason why the House of
Commons was closed against ladies was, that their presence was
found too attractive, and that so many members were tempted to
neglect the business before the House, that th