a tall Highlander first, in full costume, and blowing the pipes at his loudest; after him ten others, in full Highland costume, with a banner—­the Scottish Friends; and about 200 with silk sashes, and walking three abreast.  The Catholic Irishmen followed, with a banner displaying a portrait of the Pope and other Catholic emblems; and directly after came the Protestant Irishmen, with their banners and music.  Why will they not associate thus in their own land?  A very interesting portion of the assembling was a party of about a thousand fine-looking, hardy men, all remarkably clean, dressed in labourers’ costume—­blue blouses and white trousers—­headed by a band of music playing Irish popular tunes, with a large banner of the stars and stripes, and the word ‘Liberty,’ with the inscription—­’The Irish Labourers.  Under this we find Protection for our Labour.’

The Park is an irregular square.  On the north side, on the highest point of the city, stands the State-House, where the legislature meets.  Near that is the house which was formerly inhabited by the governor, at the time the British flag waved where there now fly, glancing in the sun, the stars and stripes.  As the president was expected at the State-House, and the procession was to start from thence, that was the point of attraction, where the spectators formed into a vast, dense, and steady mass.  We English are in the habit of seeing the paraphernalia of courts, and are slow to disconnect the ideas of pomp and state from the persons of those who hold power and distinction; but the chief of this great nation, together with the secretary of state, had arrived in town by railway in an ordinary carriage, without the least parade, and the corporation had hired for the occasion an open carriage-and-four—­such an equipage as would have passed quite unnoticed in an English provincial town.  Let me here observe, that by an ordinary carriage I mean a carriage open to all; for in America there are no locomotive distinctions of 1st, 2d, and 3d classes.  I never saw expectation more on tiptoe.  A rattle round the corner was heard; then the noise of the wheels ceased, and then the president—­a tall, gentlemanly-looking, elderly man—­was ascending the steps of the State-House; and as soon as his gray locks were seen by the immense multitude, such a shout arose as only Anglo-Saxon lungs can raise and prolong.  The president turned round on the landing of the steps, took off his hat, bowed, and entered the hall.  I have seen many ceremonies, regal and imperial, which passed off very much like a scene at a theatre; but I felt the sublime simplicity of this.  There is no road to distinction here but talent; and as the fine old man stood on the steps bowing, with Mr Webster, Secretary of State, by his side, they looked the very embodiment of intellect, and the manly, overpowering shout of the crowd the recognition of it.  The multitudinous voices died away in the distance with a peculiar effect.  No firing of guns.  While