the dome of the
State-house or that from the summit of Mount Auburn: a few glances from
this point affords one a good practical notion both of the city and the
populous environs, which may be said to form a part of it, besides being
in itself a varied and beautiful picture, viewed, as I first saw it, on
the afternoon of a calm clear day.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] Fanieul Hall, so called, the old Town Hall,--a spot dedicated by the
Bostonians to the recollections of their country's first struggle for
independence, and greatly venerated.

[4] This calculation was more than realised, the loss not exceeding
one-fourth on the whole cargo shipped. The grateful epicures of Calcutta
made an offering of a splendid cup to the merchant, in return for his
spirited speculation, which I believe he has this year (1835) repeated.

STATE PRISON.

Whilst here, I visited the state-prison, the first I had seen where the
Auburn system is pursued; that is, solitary night-cells, silence, and
labour in gangs. The building itself is a fine one, having nearly four
hundred cells, enclosed within external walls, round which run galleries
that command a view of the interior of every cell without disturbing or
annoying the confined; the whole covered by a common roof of the
strongest kind, lighted and ventilated in the best manner.

The merits of this plan will be fairly set forth long before this trifle
meets the public eye, a commission being now in progress throughout
these States for the purpose of relieving England from the stigma of
having no means of employment in her prisons less brutalizing than the
tread-mill.

I here saw about two hundred convicts actively employed at various
trades, preparing granite for building, doing smiths' work, making
shoes, brushes, &c.; all very clean, but certainly not looking very
healthy.

A single overseer went the rounds of each building or department, and
kept the hive in motion, without a word spoken, unless in reference to
the task in hand. Whilst passing through the masons' shed, I noticed two
persons make inquiries of the superintendent: their questions were to
the point, given in few words, but with an air perfectly free and
unrestrained, and were replied to in the like manner.

Upon the value of this system as a preventive of crime, according to my
view of human nature, I may be allowed to express a doubt, as well as of
its applicability to the condition of Great Britain; but viewing it in