192 MEMOIR OF DR EAR VEY. 



very punctual : we did not start till an hour after the stated 

 time, stopped half-an-hour here and there, and once got off the 

 rails, not getting to New York till late at night, where I found 

 all well in Franklin Street, and took up my abode with them. 



A few days after, a dinner-party was given for an Englishman 

 who is travelling in this country. Among the company was 

 Mr. Fenimore Cooper, the novelist, who was very chatty and 

 pleasant. Before we left the table the conversation turned 

 on mesmerism, in which he is a decided believer. Mr. Cooper 

 is a burly figure, large and square, with a baldish head, grey 

 hair, and reddish face, with a somewhat sailor-like manner. 

 He has been in the American navy. One would not guess by 

 his appearance that he was a man of genius, or an author by 

 profession. Dr. Wainwright, the clergyman, was also of the 

 party. We have just come from hearing"' him preach against 

 the inordinate love of wealth, and against display of finery, which 

 he says is a besetting sin. There was a pretty full congregation ; 

 but in the American churches to which I have been there is but 

 little mixture of the different grades of society. They are more 

 like proprietary chapels for the wealthy classes than parish 

 churches for all. I suppose this is the result of their peculiar 

 parish organization. 



Here a " parish" is not a district bounded by geographical 

 limits, and containing all that may reside within them, but it is 

 a body of people who organize themselves (like a club), elect 

 officers, choose a clergyman, and build him a church, so that 

 there are parishes of poor people and of rich people, distinct 

 one from the other. Your next-door neighbour may be a 

 member of a parish miles off, at the other end of the city. 

 The parish also moves about; thus, Gracechurch parish did 

 belong to the old end of the town, but the greater part of the 

 parishioners moved up town, still retaining their connection 

 Avith Gracechurch. This being an inconvenient state of things, 

 the next step was to move the church, so now Gracechurch has 

 gone up town after its pew-owners. The old church was sold for 

 60,000 dollars, pulled down, and the ground is now covered with 

 fashionable stores. It seems the rector thought he should have 

 a richer congregation if he moved up town, and so he has. 

 There was tremendous competition for seats in the new fabric, 

 and the whole sold at large prices, so that modern Graeechureh 



