394 SUNDAY TRAVELLING. 



to-day. The question of Sunday travelling has been 

 very extensively and warmly taken up in New England, 

 and, had I wished, I could not have come from New 

 York to Boston yesterday. There are now between 

 30 and 40 railroads on which no trains whatever are 

 run during the Sabbath, not even for the conveyance of 

 mails. In the New England States Maine, New Hamp 

 shire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connec 

 ticut there is not a single railroad that runs any regular 

 trains on that day. In these States, the length of rail 

 road open now exceeds 2000 miles. The same is true 

 of most of the New York railways, which are upwards 

 of 900 miles in length. Most of the steamboats also 

 cease running on Sunday, and hence there are few parts 

 of the country where it is possible for the idler or tra 

 veller to move to any distance from where he may 

 happen to be on the Saturday night. If the New Eng 

 land ers have fallen away from the respect which we 

 still entertain for some of our old institutions, they cer 

 tainly beat even Scotland now in the tenacity with which 

 they cling and pay respect to the Sabbath. 



I spent six weeks at Boston, having been engaged in 

 giving a course of twelve lectures at the Lowell Institute, 

 on the &quot; Relations of science to agriculture.&quot; It was 

 during the session of the Legislature, and many of the 

 members availed themselves of the opportunity which 

 the liberality of the founder of this institution afforded 

 them of obtaining information upon a subject new to 

 many, and interesting to nearly all the country repre 

 sentatives. The subject was the more well-timed, 

 inasmuch as a bill was then before the Legislature of 

 Massachusetts for the establishment of an agricultural 

 college. 



I have already alluded to the almost total change in 

 the representatives sent to the Legislature at each suc 

 ceeding election in the State of New York, and have 



