The population of Maryland has increased in whites and free negroes, and decreased in slaves, between the years 1800 and 1852, in the following manner:—­

Whites.   Free Negroes.   Slaves.
1800   216,000      8,000      103,000
1852   500,000     74,008       90,000.

The state has nearly a thousand educational establishments; and there are sixty daily and weekly papers for the instruction of the community.  Baltimore has a population of 140,000 whites, 25,000 free blacks, 3000 slaves.  Among this population are nearly 30,000 Germans and 20,000 Irish.  The value of the industrial establishments of the city is estimated at considerably above 4,000,000l.  From the above, I leave the reader to judge of its prosperity.

The people in Baltimore who enjoy the widest—­if not the most enviable—­reputation, are the fire companies.  They are all volunteer, and their engines are admirable.  They are all jealous as Kilkenny cats of one another, and when they come together, they scarcely ever lose an opportunity of getting up a bloody fight.  They are even accused of doing occasionally a little bit of arson, so as to get the chance of a row.  The people composing the companies are almost entirely rowdies, and apparently of any age above sixteen:  when extinguishing fires, they exhibit a courage and reckless daring that cannot be surpassed, and they are never so happy as when the excitement of danger is at its highest.  Their numbers are so great, that they materially affect the elections of all candidates for city offices; the style of persons chosen, may hence be easily guessed.  The cup of confusion is fast filling up; and unless some knowing hands can make a hole in the bottom and drain off the dregs, the overflow will be frightful.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote AC:  I had had the good fortune to pick up an agreeable companion on board the “Isabel”—­the brother of one of our most distinguished members of the House of Commons—­who, like myself, had been visiting Cuba, and was hastening to Washington, to be present at the inauguration of the President Elect, and with him I spent many very pleasant days.]

CHAPTER XIV.

Philadelphia and Richmond.

Having spent a very pleasant time at Baltimore, I took rail for Philadelphia, the city of “loving brotherhood,” being provided with letters to several most amiable families in that town.  I took up my abode at Parkinson’s—­a restaurant in Chestnut-street—­where I found the people very civil and the house very clean; but I saw little of the inside of the house, except at bed and breakfast time.  The hospitality for which this city is proverbial soon made me as much at home as if I had been a resident there all my life.  Dinner-party upon dinner-party succeeded each other like waves of the ocean; the tables groaned under precious vintages of Madeira, dating back all but to