on this part of the subject, I may mention my strong impression, that in no place is the government so much respected as in America.  The public press may ridicule and joke upon certain acts of individuals; but whatever side is taken, there is nothing that can bring the laws, or those who administer them, into disrespect.  This produces order to an extent unknown elsewhere.  No one seems to question the law or the commands of its officers excepting Europeans, who bring their turbulent habits with them.

Leaving this imposing scene, I turned to the route of the procession, which had been advertised to pass through certain streets.  In some degree to account for the masses of human beings that filled them, the three railways had kept pouring people in for three days, and the trains, immediately on arrival, turned back to fetch the thousands they had left waiting at the stations.  It was said that there never was such a gathering in one place since the independence of the States.  The arrangements of the pageant were made by the committee of the city; but the audience, or public, arranged themselves, and never was there anything better done.  Along the whole line of streets, about three miles in length, the goods had been removed from the shop-windows, and their places filled with ladies.  Every window that commanded a view was appropriated to females and children, who were likewise in many cases on the tops of the houses.  Men occupied the pavement to the kerbstone.  The roadway was kept by deputy-marshals, who rode up and down, in black dress suits, cocked, open hats, and white sashes; and in this vast assemblage their every request was immediately attended to.  At the end of every street, carriages of all descriptions were placed, filled with people.  As an instance of the courtesy of the spectators, my wife had handed our Little Red Ridinghood to some gentleman on the top of an omnibus, who very kindly held her up to see the show, and took charge of her while Mrs W——­ found her way to the window where her place had been kept.  If anything could mark the kindly disposition and good order of the crowd, it was the fact, that although I should think all the children in the city were there, not one was hurt, but everybody exerted himself to accommodate this interesting portion of the community.  Across the streets, and at all available points, the stars and stripes waved proudly in the air, and altogether the scene was most beautiful and imposing.  I walked the whole length of the route before the procession moved, and the coup d’oeil was perfect.  The military portion looked remarkably well; but when the open carriage appeared in which rode Lord Elgin and his friends, the representative of Great Britain was greeted with such shouts and by such waving of handkerchiefs from the windows by crowds of elegantly dressed females, as I am sure his lordship can never forget.  On his part, Lord Elgin continued bowing in acknowledgment, almost without intermission, for two hours and twenty minutes—­the time occupied in passing.