There is no point in the national character of the Americans which commands so much respect as the boldness and energy with which public works are undertaken and carried through.  Nothing stops them if a profitable result can be fairly hoped for.  It is this which has made cities spring up amidst the forests with such inconceivable rapidity; and could they once be thoroughly persuaded that any point of the ocean had a hoard of dollars beneath it, I have not the slightest doubt that in about eighteen months we should see a snug covered rail-road leading direct to the spot.

I was told at New York, that in many parts of the state it was usual to pay the service of the Presbyterian ministers in the following manner.  Once a year a day is fixed, on which some member of every family in a congregation meet at their minister’s house in the afternoon.  They each bring an offering (according to their means) of articles necessary for housekeeping.  The poorer members leave their contributions in a large basket, placed for the purpose, close to the door of entrance.  Those of more importance, and more calculated to do honour to the piety of the donors, are carried into the room where the company is assembled.  Sugar, coffee, tea, cheese, barrels of flour, pieces of Irish linen, sets of china and of glass, were among the articles mentioned to me as usually making parts of these offerings.  After the party is assembled, and the business of giving and receiving is dispatched, tea, coffee, and cakes are handed round; but these are not furnished at any expense either of trouble or money to the minster, for selected ladies of the congregation take the whole arrangement upon themselves.  These meetings are called spinning visits.

Another New York custom, which does not seem to have so reasonable a cause, is the changing house once a year.  On the 1st of May the city of New York has the appearance of sending off a population flying from the plague, or of a town which had surrendered on condition of carrying away all their goods and chattels.  Rich furniture and ragged furniture, carts, waggons, and drays, ropes, canvas, and straw, packers, porters, and draymen, white, yellow, and black, occupy the streets from east to west, from north to south, on this day.  Every one I spoke to on the subject complained of this custom as most annoying, but all assured me it was unavoidable, if you inhabit a rented house.  More than one of my New York friends have built or bought houses solely to avoid this annual inconvenience.

There are a great number of negroes in New York, all free; their emancipation having been completed in 1827.  Not even in Philadelphia, where the anti-slavery opinions have been the most active and violent, do the blacks appear to wear an air of so much consequence as they do at New York.  They have several chapels, in which negro ministers officiate; and a theatre in which none but negroes perform.  At this theatre