chap. XIV.] AND Religion. 239 



utters words of respect towards any one, they do not 

 proceed from fear or hope, but irom civihty and sin- 

 cerity. A native American labourer is never mde to- 

 wards his employer, but he is never cringing. 



435. However, the best proof of the inutility of an 

 established Church is the absence of crimes in this 

 country', compared to the state of England in that re- 

 spect. There have not been three felonies tried in this 

 country since I arrived in it. The Court-house is at 

 two miles from me. An Irishman was tried for forgery 

 in the summer of 1817, and the whole country was alive 

 to go and witness the novelty. I have not heard of a 

 man being hanged in the whole of the United States 

 since my arrival. The Boroughmonger^. in answer to 

 statements like these, say that this is a thinly inhabited 

 country. This very country is more thickly settled 

 than Hampshire. The adjoining country, towards the 

 city of New York is much more thickly settled than 

 Hampshire. New York itself and its immediate en- 

 rirons contain nearly two hundred thousand inhabitants, 

 and after London, is, perhaps, the first commercial and 

 maritime city in the Morld. Thousands of sailors, ship- 

 carpenters, dock-yard people, dray-men, boat-men, 

 crowd its wharfs and quays. Yet, never do we hear of 

 hanging ; scarcely ever of a robbery ; men go to bed 

 with scarcely locking their doors ; and never is there 

 seen in the streets what is called in England, a girl of 

 the iotcn; and, Avhat is still more, never is there seen 

 in those streets a beggar. I wish you, my old neigh- 

 tours, could see this city of Ncav York. Portsmouth 

 and Gosport, taken together, are miserable holes com- 

 pared to it. Plan's imagination can fancy nothing so 

 beautiful as its bay and port, from which two immense 

 rivers sweep up on the sides of the point of land, on 

 which the city is. These rivers are continually covered 

 with vessels of various sizes bringing the produce of the 

 land, while the bay is scarcely less covered with ships 

 going in and out from all parts of the world. The city 

 itself is a scene of opulence and industry ; riches with- 

 out insolence, and labour without grudging. 

 . 436. What Englishman can contemplate this brilliant 

 Bight without feeling some little pride that this city 



