damask, exhibiting great richness and elegance throughout. The box or tub pulpit, so common in England, is everywhere discarded here, and instead of it, a platform, ascended to by a flight of steps on either side, and containing a reading-desk, and seats for three or four persons behind it, takes its place; a substitution which greatly improves the

appearance.

The hotels are generally on a larger scale than in England. The great Astor House, which overlooks the Park from the west side of Broadway, is much larger in area than the largest hotel in London or Paris; it makes up 600 beds, and has a proportionate establishment to suit the scale of its general operations. It is built wholly of granite, is chaste in its style of architecture, and is called after the rich John Jacob Astor, its proprietor, who is now deemed not only the wealthiest man in the city, but, since the death of Stephen Girard of Philadelphia, is considered the richest individual in the United States; his income exceeding, it is said, a million of dollars annually, or near £250,000 sterling, from land, houses, stocks, and permanent sources, unconnected with the risks of trade, from which he has long since retired, having realized his immense wealth by a long life industriously and successfully devoted to the fur-trade. The City Hotel is also very large. The Washington, the Waverley, the Mansion House, the American, the Carlton, the Clarendon, the Globe, and the Athenæum, are all spacious establishments of the same nature; and others of a smaller size abound in every quarter.

Of places of public amusement there are a great number,

PRIVATE DWELLINGS.

43

including six theatres, which are well filled every night, though the majority of what would be called the more respectable classes of society, the most opulent, and the most religious members of the community, do not generally patronise or approve of theatrical exhibitions under their present management. The large sums paid to English and other foreign actors and actresses who visit America is made up by the attendance of foreigners and persons not belonging to either of the classes before enumerated; and this will hardly be wondered at when it is stated that every one of these theatres was not only open, but presented a combina tion of new and unusual attractions, on the evenings of days kept by the classes named as days of religious observance : the one, the day set apart by the proclamation of the state government as a day of public thanksgiving; and the other, Christmas day.

The private dwellings contain, as must be the case in all large cities, a great variety of kinds and descriptions. The older houses are small, and mostly built of wood, painted yellow or white. These are now confined to the residences of the poorer classes, and are fast disappearing in every quarter; their places being occupied by substantial buildings of brick, though here and there are a few with granite fronts. The style of decoration, in the steps of ascent, the area railings, and the doors, is more florid and ornamental than in the best parts of London, and the interior of the principal houses may be described as spacious, handsome, and luxurious, with lofty passages, good staircases, large rooms, and costly and gorgeous furniture. There are many individual houses of much greater splendour in London than any to be seen in New-York, especially in the mansions of the English nobility; but, on the whole, the number of large, commodi ous, and elegantly-furnished private dwellings in New-York is much greater in proportion to the whole population than those of London, and approaches nearer to the ratio of Ed. inburgh or Paris.

The streets are very unequal in their proportions and condition. The great avenue of Broadway is striking from its continuous and unbroken length of three miles in a straight line but its breadth, about eighty feet, is not sufficiently ample for the due proportion of its length. It is, moreover, wretchedly paved, both in the centre and on the sides. Large holes and deep pits are frequently seen in the former; and in the latter, while before some houses the slabs of stone are large, uniform, and level, there is often an immediate

transition from these to broken masses of loose stones, that require the greatest caution to pass over, especially in wet or frosty weather. The lighting and cleansing of the streets is not nearly so good as in the large towns of England, the gas being scanty in quantity, the lamps too far removed from each other, and the body of scavengers both weak in numbers and deficient in organization. Some of the smaller streets are almost impassable in times of rain and snow; and, when not incommoded by a profusion of mud or water, they are prolific in their supply of dust. Many of the streets have trees planted along the edge of the foot-pavement on each side, which in summer affords an agreeable shade, but in autumn it has the disagreeable effect of strewing the path with falling leaves, and in winter it makes the aspect more dreary.

A custom prevails, in the principal streets for shops, of having wooden pillars planted along the outer edge of the pavement, with horizontal beams reaching from pillar to pillar, not unlike the stanchions and crosspieces of a ropewalk. On these pillars, usually painted white, are pasted large printed placards, announcing the articles sold in the shop before which they stand; and from the under side of the horizontal beam are suspended, by hooks or rings, showboards with printed bills of every colour. This is especially the case opposite the bookstores. Another purpose which these pillars and beams serve is that of suspending awnings from the houses to the end of the pavement in summer, which must make the shade grateful to the foot-passenger; but at all other times these wooden appendages, made as they are without regard to regularity or uniformity, are a great drawback to the otherwise good appearance of the streets. Broadway, which is greatly disfigured by these, is therefore much inferior to Regent-street in London in the general air of cleanliness, neatness, light, spaciousness, good pavement, and fine shops by which the latter is character. ized; and although the number of beautiful and gayly-dressed ladies, who make Broadway their morning promenade, uniting shopping, visiting, and walking at the same time, gives it a very animated appearance on a fine day between twelve and two o'clock, yet the absence of handsome equipages and fine horses, and the fewness of well-dressed gentlemen who have leisure to devote to morning promenades of pleasure, occasions Broadway to be inferior in the general effect of brilliance and elegance to the throng of Regentstreet on a fine day in May, between three and four o'clock.

POPULATION OF NEW-YORK.

45

The civil or municipal government of the town is vested in a mayor, aldermen, and common council, elected annually by universal suffrage and the ballot, at the time when the election for the Legislature of the state takes place, which is annually. Political or party considerations appear to weigh more with the electors than mere fitness for the duties of office; and accordingly, Whig and Tory strive here, as they do in England, to fill the municipal body with persons of their own politics, as if it seemed to them impossible that a good civic or municipal functionary could be found, out of the ranks of their own political party. Their jurisdiction extends over the city and the surrounding waters. The offices are not largely paid, nor accompanied by much patronage; and the candidates are rarely considered to be invested with much additional dignity by their civic functions.

CHAPTER IV.

Population of New-York.-Strangers, Residents, Merchants, Traders.-Public Convey ances, Omnibuses, Hackney-coaches.-Private Equipages, Carriages, Servants.Male and Female Society, Differences between them.-Private Parties, Balls, and Suppers. Comparison between English and American Soirées.-Expensive and profuse Entertainments given.--Condition of the humbler Classes in America.-Political Parties, Conservatives, Reformers, Radicals, Americans, Whigs, Democrats, Locofocos.-Politics of the wealthy Mercantile Classes.-Causes of the recent Panic or Embarrassment.-Extravagant Habits engendered by the Credit System.-Effects of this on all Classes of Society.-Loss of $20,000,000 by the great Fire at New-York. Newspapers of New-York.-Organs of Parties.-Penny Newspapers, Character and Influence.-Proceedings of the Election for State Legislature.-Public Meetings to support Candidates for Office.-State of Political Parties.-Deadly reciprocal Hostility.-Gross Misrepresentations of the Motives and Ends of each.-Difficulty of extracting Truth from such conflicting Statements.-Attendance at the Polls during the Election.-Deficiency of a previous Registration of Voters.-Vote by Ballot, not secret voting generally.-Reasons why this is not necessary in America.-Success of the Whigs in the New-York Election.-Intoxication of Joy in the triumphant Party. -Extravagant Projects of Political Demonstration.-National Character and Taste exhibited in this.

THE population of New-York is estimated at present to be little short of 300,000. Of these perhaps there are 20,000 foreigners, including English and persons from Canada and the British possessions, and 30,000 strangers from other states of the Union, making therefore the fixed resident population 250,000, and the floating population about 50,000 more. The greatest number of these are engaged in com merce or trade, with a due admixture of professional men, as clergy, physicians, and lawyers. But among them all there are fewer than perhaps in any other community in the world

who live without any ostensible avocation. The richest capitalists still take a part in the business-proceedings of the day; and men who have professedly retired, and have no counting-house or mercantile establishment, still retain so much of the relish for profitable occupation, that they mingle freely with the merchants, and are constantly found to be the buyers and sellers of stock, in funds, or shares in companies, canals, railroads, banks, &c.

The result of all this is to produce the busiest community that any man could desire to live in. In the streets all is hurry and bustle; the very carts, instead of being drawn by horses at a walking-pace, are often met at a gallop, and always in a brisk trot, with the carter standing in the front, and driving by reins. Omnibuses are as numerous as in London, many of them drawn by four horses, though the carriages are inferior to the English ones. Hackney-coaches are also abundant, and superior in every respect to those of London. These, with private carriages, which, however, are few and plain, generally with a black coachman and footman, without display of livery or armorial bearings, added to gigs and other vehicles, make up a crowd of conveyances through the public streets, which, from their bad pave ment, occasions as much rattling noise as in the most bustling parts of Piccadilly or Cheapside. The whole of the population seen in the streets seem to enjoy this bustle, and add to it by their own rapid pace, as if they were all going to some place of appointment, and were hurrying on under the apprehension of being too late.

Of the men thus seen in public, the greater part are welldressed, and the more fashionable among them more expensively than the same classes in England. Black cloth is the almost universal wear, and for the finest description of this the most extravagant prices are paid. Full cloth cloaks, with velvet or fur collars and linings, and rich tassels, are more numerous than with us; and the whole outer aspect of the moving crowd indicates greater gayety, and much more regard to personal appearance. The men are not generally as handsome, however, as they are well dressed. An almost universal paleness of countenance is seen, without the least tinge of ruddiness or colour; the marks of care and anxiety are also deeply furrowed on brows not yet bearing the impress of age; and a general gloom or sadness of countenance is the rule, and hilarity of aspect or cheerfulness of appearance the exception.

The women far exceed the men in the costliness of their