372 FREEDOM IN WASHINGTON. 



misfortune to be at Washington at a time when the 

 duties of the survey had called away Dr Bache, one of 

 the few ornaments of American science whom I had 

 previously met in England. 



Curious words and sayings are heard or met with in 

 every new State one goes to, however limited the society 

 one may mix with. The saying which has stuck in my 

 memory as the most remarkable of all I heard in Wash 

 ington, was one attributed to a lady from the Green Isle. 

 The amiable but most patriotic wife of one of my Wash 

 ington friends spoke to me of the family of the Dublin 

 patriot, Mitchell, as being resident in Washington, where 

 one of the boys had obtained a situation in a Government 

 office. Of the ladies she spoke in the highest terms as 

 who would not of Irish ladies ? adding that they were 

 delighted with the United States, and that they declared 

 &quot; they had never known what liberty was till they came 

 to Washington ! &quot; My female informant, who did know 

 Washington, brought the story down upon me in proof 

 of a previous assertion as to the enslaved condition of 

 us poor Britishers on this side the Atlantic. Such 

 of my readers as know Dublin may imagine what kind 

 of liberty these ladies must now enjoy in Washington. 



But, in truth, these ladies might very innocently use 

 this expression, not employing it in a political, but in a 

 social meaning two meanings, however, which neither 

 they nor their hearers might know or care to distinguish. 

 It is certain that females enjoy much more freedom of 

 action, usurp a greater degree of independence, than 

 is either usual or considered correct in this country. 

 This is so familiar to every one, has its origin so 

 much in the want of early restraint to which, as chil 

 dren, they are brought up, and leads, it is said, in large 

 cities to so many evil consequences, that we may sincerely 

 hope that, if any social assimilation take place between 

 the two countries, it may bring them nearer to us in 



