34 

 NOTES ON AMERICA, No. IT. 



NEARLY every variety of religious belief finds its supporters in Charles- 

 ton, and the clergy of all denominations are highly and deservedly 

 respected. During the period of my residence there, Dr. England, the 

 Roman Catholic Bishop, was the most distinguished for talent and energy 

 of character. He is one of the best argumentative orators I have ever 

 heard from the pulpit, and his afternoon discourses were always delivered 

 to crowded audiences, composed in part of the wealthiest and best educated 

 Protestants in the city. His regular congregation was extremely poor, 

 and he was under the necessity of keeping a school, to augment his slender 

 income. Assuredly, I never considered him a less worthy representative 

 of the Apostles on that account j and when the propriety of granting 

 large incomes to the dignitaries of our own church is insisted upon, in 

 order to procure for them the respect and deference of the laity, I always 

 think of the highly gifted Bishop of Charleston, who has secured the 

 affection and reverence of his flock, and the universal esteem of his 

 fellow citizens, by the simple exercise of the Christian virtues, and the 

 absence of episcopal pomp. 



The advocates for a paper currency should visit Charleston, in order to 

 behold their favourite theory reduced extensively to practice. There, 

 bank notes of all sums are in circulation, from a thousand dollars to 

 6^ cents. The bills for the fractional part of a dollar, (square bits of 

 paper, about twice the size of a turnpike ticket,) are distinguished, for the 

 benefit of the negroes, who are unable to read, by engraved figures of 

 animals, such as sheep, oxen, &c. ; and it is very amusing to hear a negro 

 adding up a sum in this singular currency. An Englishman, who has 

 journeyed through the Rhenish provinces from Holland to Switzerland, 

 may have some idea of the confusion arising from the constant alteration 

 of the currency in the different states of North America. In New 

 England, the dollar is called 6s. ; in New York 8s. ; in Pensylvania 

 7s. 6d. -, in South Carolina 4s. Sd. The 12J cent piece in Charleston 

 is called Id., but the 6'J coin is 4d. When the price of any article is 

 37J cents, a negro will tell you it is " quottur dollar an sebnpence." 

 Efforts have been frequently made to establish a uniform mode of reckon- 

 ing throughout the country. But the old state currencies, though branded 

 as badges of colonial servitude, still seem to stand their ground ; thus 

 affording another proof, among a thousand, that custom is stronger than 

 law, for the decimal mode of calculation, so beautiful and convenient, 

 has long been the only one recognised in the public offices and courts of 

 justice of the United States. 



In Charleston, as in every other city in the Union, it is usual for people 

 of all ranks to herd together in large boarding-houses. The great variety 

 which a stranger is thereby enabled to see, compensates, in some degree, 

 for the discomfort to which the practice necessarily subjects him. It is 

 proverbial, that an Englishman, out of his own country, may in vain 

 expect to take his ease at his inn ; but the young, the active, and the 

 enquiring, have little reason to complain of any peculiarity in the mode 

 of living, which opens to their inspection the real character of the people 

 with whom they may be temporary sojourners. There is scarcely any 

 difficulty in procuring admission to the palaces of the great. The lives 



