PREFACE. 



1 



world, from its peculiar political institutions, and from the 

 grandeur of its territorial extent and physical resources, I was 

 as sensible as other travellers. But in addition to these, the 

 enterprising character of its population, and the inventh 3 spirit 

 which so universally prevailed there in the me shames and 

 physical arts, rendered the country which had been tks cradle ; 

 of steam navigation more than commonly attractive to rne. 

 Had I, like most tourists, been contented to have made ?, short 

 visit to America, flying through the states as fast as steam- 

 boats and railways could transport me, without remaining in 

 any one place a sufficient time to see more than the external 

 forms of things, and scarcely even that I might easily have 

 accomplished my purpose. But these travellers were beacons 

 to warn, rather than examples to be followed. I knew that it 

 were worse than useless to cross the Atlantic, until I could do 

 so with the power of remaining in America for such a time as 

 might enable me to acquire a knowledge of its population, 

 their character and habits, the physical features and industrial 

 resources of the country, and the practical working of its po- 

 litical institutions in all their various phases. The full attain- 

 ment of such an object would require, not a summer's tour, or 

 a winter's residence, but a sojourn of several years, to be judi- 

 ciously distributed among different parts of that vast country 

 in the proportion of their relative interest and importance. 



Prepared to carry out these views, I departed for America 

 in the autumn of 1840, and entered the splendid bay of New 

 York on the evening of the 29th September. I determined to 

 divide the first year of my residence between the two chief 

 cities, New York and Philadelphia. After remaining for a 

 few days in the former city, at the Globe hotel, I accordingly 

 ( -stablishecl myself in Philadelphia, where I remained for seven 

 months; after which I removed to New Yorl:, whore I resided 



