An Englishman"s Travels in America.
by John Benwell.
PREFACE.
Personal narrative and adventure has, of late years, become so interesting a subject in the mind of the British public, that the author feels he is not called upon to apologize for the production of the following pages.
It was his almost unremitting practice, during the four years he resided on the North American continent, to keep a record of what he considered of interest around him; not with a view to publishing the matter thus collected, for this was far from his thoughts at the time, but through a long contracted habit of dotting down transpiring events, for the future amus.e.m.e.nt, combined, perhaps, with instruction, of himself and friends. It therefore became necessary, to fit it for publication, to collate the acc.u.mulated memoranda, and select such portions only as might be supposed to prove interesting to the general reader. In doing this he has been careful to preserve the phraseology as much as possible, with a view to give, as far as he could, something like a literal transcript of the sentiments that gave rise to the original minutes, and avoid undue addition or interpolation.
It was the wish and intention of the writer, before leaving England, to extend his travels by visiting some of the islands in the Caribbean Sea, a course which he regrets not having been able to follow, from unforeseen circ.u.mstances, which are partially related in the following pages. He laments this the more, as it would have added considerably to the interest of the work, and enabled him to enlarge upon that fertile subject, the relative position at the time of the negro race in those islands, and the demoralized condition of their fellow-countrymen, under the iniquitous system of slavery, as authorized by statute law, in the southern states of America. As it was, he was enabled to travel through the most populous parts of the states of New York and Ohio, proceeding, _via_ Cincinnati, to the Missouri country; after a brief stay at St.
Louis, taking the direct southern route down the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, to New Orleans in Louisiana, pa.s.sing Natchez on the way. The whole tour comprising upwards of three thousand miles.
From New Orleans he crossed an arm of the Gulf of Mexico to the Floridas, and after remaining in that territory for a considerable time, and taking part under a sense of duty in a campaign (more to scatter than annihilate), against the Seminole and Cherokee tribes of Indians, who, in conjunction with numberless fugitive slaves, from the districts a hundred miles round, were devastating the settlements, and indiscriminately butchering the inhabitants, he returned to Tallaha.s.see, taking stage at that town to Macon in the state of Georgia, and from thence by the Greensborough Railway to Charleston in South Carolina, sailing after rather a prolonged stay, from that port to England.
Some of the incidents related in the following pages will be found to bear upon, and tend forcibly to corroborate, the miseries so patiently endured by the African race, in a vaunted land of freedom and enlightenment, whose inhabitants a.s.sert, with ridiculous tenacity, that their government and laws are based upon the principle, "That all men in the sight of G.o.d are equal," and the wrongs of whose victims have of late been so touchingly and truthfully ill.u.s.trated by that eminent philanthropist, Mrs. Stowe, to the eternal shame of the upholders of the system, and the fearful incubus of guilt and culpability that will render for ever infamous, if the policy is persisted in, the nationality of America.
Well may the benevolent Doctor Percival in his day have said, when writing on the iniquitous system of slave holding and traffic, that "Life and liberty with the powers of enjoyment dependent on them are the common and inalienable gifts of bounteous heaven. To seize them by force is rapine; to exchange for them the wares of Manchester or Birminghan is improbity, for it is to barter without reciprocal gain, to give the stones of the brook for the gold of Ophir."
THE ENGLISHMAN IN AMERICA.
CHAPTER I.
"Adieu, adieu! my native sh.o.r.e Fades o"er the waters blue, The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild sea-mew.
Yon sun that sets upon the sea We follow in his flight; Farewell awhile to him and thee, My native Land--Good night!"--BYRON.
Late in the fall of the year 18--, I embarked on board the ship _Cosmo_, bound from the port of Bristol to that of New York. The season was unpropitious, the lingering effects of the autumnal equinox rendering it more than probable that the pa.s.sage would be tempestuous. The result soon proved the correctness of this surmise, for soon after the vessel departed from Kingroad, and before she got clear of the English coast, we experienced boisterous weather, which was followed by a succession of gales, that rendered our situation perilous. But a partial destruction of the rigging, the loss of some sheep on the deck of the vessel, and a slight indication of leakage, which was soon remedied by the carpenter of the ship and his a.s.sistants, were happily the only detrimental consequences arising from the weather.
Our progress on the whole was satisfactory, although, when we arrived between 48 and 52 degrees north lat.i.tude, we narrowly escaped coming in contact with an enormous iceberg, two of which were descried at daybreak by the "look-out," floundering majestically a little on the ship"s larboard quarter, not far distant, the alarm being raised by an uproar on deck that filled my mind with dire apprehension, the lee bulwarks of the vessel were in five minutes thronged with half-naked pa.s.sengers, who had been roused unexpectedly from their slumbers, staring in terror at the frigid ma.s.ses which we momentarily feared would overwhelm the ship.
The helm being put up, we were soon out of the threatened danger of a collision, which would have consigned us to a grave in the wide wide waters, without the remotest chance of escape. This consideration was, to all on board, a matter of deep thankfulness to the mighty Author of such stupendous wonders, who had so miraculously preserved our lives.
Had the adventure occurred in the night, our destruction must have been inevitable, as the ship was sailing under heavy canvas, within a single point of the wake of one of the icebergs, which was drifting before a stiff breeze.
Although this encounter proved harmless, we shortly after had another to dread of a fearful nature. The number of fishing-boats off the coast of Newfoundland, makes the navigation perilous at almost any time to vessels approaching too near the banks, and after night-fall, the vessel going at the rate of ten knots an hour with a smacking breeze, we pa.s.sed many of these at anchor, or rather, I suppose, riding on the waves; they displayed lights, or serious consequences might have ensued. Some of the skiffs were so near to us, that as I leaned over the ship"s quarter-rail, dreading, and every moment expecting, that we should run one down, I could distinctly hear the crews hailing us to shorten sail and keep off. By adopting this course our vessel cleared the danger, and after slightly touching the banks, which caused the vessel to heel, and created a momentary panic on board amongst the pa.s.sengers, she was steered more out to sea, and by the following morning nothing was to be seen but a boundless waste of waters, extending as far as the eye could reach.
After these temporary alarms, with the exception of baffling winds, which impeded the progress of the ship, and lengthened the duration of our confinement ten days or a fortnight, our voyage was prosperous, little occurring to break the monotony of confinement on ship-board that is experienced in sea-pa.s.sages in general; the only excitement being a fracas between the captain and cook, owing to complaints made by the middle-cabin and steerage pa.s.sengers, which nearly ended fatally to the former, who would have been stabbed to a certainty, but for a by-stander wresting the knife from the hand of the enraged subordinate, who had been supplied too liberally with spirits by the pa.s.sengers; a predominating evil on board all emigrant ships, from the drawback of duty allowed on spirits shipped as stores, and which are retailed on the voyage to the pa.s.sengers. The culprit was confined below during the remainder of the voyage, and when we arrived at New York presented a pitiable sight, having been rigidly debarred by the captain"s orders of many of the commonest necessaries, I believe, the whole time. Here he was released and discharged from the ship, glad enough to escape further punishment, "prosecution" having been, since the occurrence, held _in terrorem_ over him.
It was late in the afternoon of an intensely cold day, which caused the spray to congeal as it dashed against the bulwarks and cordage of the vessel, that we descried with great pleasure looming indistinctly in the distance, the sh.o.r.es of Sandy Hook, a desolate-looking island, near the coast of New Jersey, about seven miles south of Long Island Sound. This the captain informed me was formerly a peninsula, but the isthmus was broken through by the sea in 1767, the year after the declaration of American independence, an occurrence which was at the time deemed ominous of the severance of the colonies from the mother country, and which proved in reality to be the precursor of that event.
The sight of _terra firma_, though at a distance and but gloomy in aspect, put all on board in buoyant spirits; but these were but transitory, our enthusiasm being soon damped by a dense fog, resembling those the Londoners are so accustomed to see in the winter, and which in an incredibly short s.p.a.ce of time, in this instance, obscured everything around. Our proximity to the sh.o.r.e rendered the circ.u.mstance hazardous to us, and it appeared necessary that the vessel"s head should be again put seaward; but this the captain was evidently anxious to avoid, as it involved the risk of protracting the voyage. A general rummage for ammunition was therefore ordered, and a supply of this necessary having been obtained, the ship"s carronade was after considerable delay put in order, and minute guns were fired. After discharging some thirty rounds or more, we were relieved from the state of anxiety we were in by a pilot hailing the ship, and in a minute after he was on deck issuing orders with great pertinacity.
It is impossible for any one unaccustomed to sea voyages to form a just conception of the relief afforded by the presence of that important functionary, a pilot. Perhaps a captain"s greatest anxiety is, when his vessel, having braved a thousand perils on the deep, is about to enter on the termination of its voyage. On the broad expanse of ocean, or, in nautical phrase, with plenty of sea-room, if his bark is in good condition, he fears little or nothing, but when his vessel approaches its goal, visions of disaster arise before him, and he becomes anxious, thoughtful, and taciturn.
The pilot informed us that he had kept our vessel in chase for a considerable time, and had burnt a number of newspapers on the deck of his cutter to attract attention, but all his efforts proved unavailing, when just as he was about to abandon the pursuit, he descried and hailed the ship. This being the first specimen of an American whom many of the pa.s.sengers had seen in his native climate, their curiosity was aroused, and they crowded round him, regarding every word and movement with the greatest attention and interest. The pilot was evidently displeased with being made "a lion" of, and gave vent to his feelings rather freely, while there was a curl of hauteur on his lip, that indicated a species of contempt for the company he was in. This disposition did not convey a very favourable idea of his countrymen, and was, to say the least of it, an ill-judged display before strangers; coming, however, as it did, from an illiterate man, belonging, as I knew from previous inquiry, to rather an exceptional cla.s.s of individuals in America, I did not suffer my mind to be bia.s.sed, although I could see that many of the pa.s.sengers were not disposed to view the matter in the same light. He was a brusque and uncouth man, of swaggering gait, about forty years of age, above the middle stature, and soon let the captain and crew know, by his authoritative manner and volubility of tongue, that he was chief in command on the occasion. No one seemed, however, to dispute this, for the pa.s.sengers looked on him as a sort of divinity sent to their rescue; the ship"s hands were implicitly obedient, and the captain very soon after his arrival retired into the cabin, glad to be relieved from a heavy responsibility.
The following morning, the haze having cleared off, we could again see the Jersey sh.o.r.e. The sea in every direction was now darkened with millions of black gulls, wild ducks, and other aquatic birds; we shot many of these from the ship"s deck, but were, much to our mortification, obliged to see them drift away, the pilot, seconded by our austere captain, strenuously objecting to a boat being lowered; this was very discouraging, as such a change in our diet would, after a rather prolonged voyage, have been acceptable.
A favourable breeze soon carried our good ship to the quarantine ground, where we dropped anchor, in no little anxiety lest we should be detained. The medical officers from the college, or rather sanatory establishment, on sh.o.r.e, almost immediately came on board. All hands were mustered on deck, and ranged like soldiers on parade ground by these important functionaries, who, I may remark by the way, appeared like our pilot to be possessed of considerable notions of power and authority. After taking a rather cursory inspection they left the vessel, and we, to our great joy (a case of small pox having occurred during the pa.s.sage), were allowed to proceed towards New York, which we did under easy sail, the breeze rendering a steam-tug unnecessary.
The scenery as we pa.s.sed up the river was calculated to give a good impression of the country, the zest being, however, without doubt, greatly heightened by the monotonous dreariness of a tempestuous voyage.
The highlands and valleys, as we sailed up, had a verdant woody appearance, and were interspersed with rural and chateau scenery; herds of cattle remarkable for length of horn, and snow-white sheep, were grazing placidly in the lowlands. The country, as far as I could judge, seemed in a high state of culture, and the farms, to use an expression of the celebrated Washington Irving"s, when describing, I think, a farm-yard view in England, appeared "redolent of pigs, poultry, and sundry other good things appertaining to rural life."
On arriving at the approach to the entrance or mouth of the river Hudson, which is formed by an arm of the estuary, we turned the promontory, leaving Jersey on the left, the battery as we entered the harbour being in the foreground. The guns-bristled from this fortress with menacing aspect, and the sentinels, in light blue uniforms and Kosciusko caps, silently paced the ramparts with automatic regularity.
This fortification, though formidable in appearance, and certainly in a commanding position, I was subsequently informed is little more than a mimic fort; this arises from the want of attention paid to defences of the kind in America, the little existing chance of invasion, perhaps, causing the indifference to the subject. If, however, the spirit of aggressive conquest shown by the federal government, of late years, of which the invasion of Mexico is a fair specimen, should continue to develop itself, it is not difficult to foresee that it will be necessary policy to pay greater attention to the subject, and to keep in a more effective state the seaboard defences of the country, as well as their army, which is at present miserably deficient. This has heretofore been so far neglected, as regards the marine, that not long before I arrived the commander of a French ship of war was much chagrined, on firing a salute as he pa.s.sed the battery at New York, to find that his courtesy was not returned in the customary way. He complained of the omission as either a mark of disrespect to himself, or an insult to his nation, when it came out in explanation that the garrison was in such a defective state that there were not the appliances at hand to observe this national etiquette.
The city of New York is built almost close to the water"s edge, with a broad levee or wharf running round a great portion of it. Its general appearance gives to a stranger an impression of its extent and importance. It has been aptly and accurately described as a dense pack of buildings, comprising every imaginable variety, and of all known orders of modernized architecture. The tide flows close up to the wharves which run outside of the city, and differs so little in height at ebb or flow, that vessels of the largest cla.s.s ride, I believe, at all times as safely as in the West India docks in London, or the imperial docks of Liverpool. Here was a.s.sembled an incalculable number of vessels of all sizes and all nations, forming a beautiful and picturesque view of commercial enterprise and grandeur, perhaps outvying every other port in the world, not excepting Liverpool itself.
As our vessel could not at once be accommodated with a berth, owing to the crowded state of the harbour, she was moored in the middle of the stream, and being anxious to go on sh.o.r.e, I availed myself of the captain"s offer to take me to the landing-place in his gig. We went on sh.o.r.e in an alcove, at the foot of Wall-street, and I experienced the most delightful sensation on once more setting foot on _terra firma_, after our dreary voyage. The day, notwithstanding it was now October, was intensely hot (although a severe frost for two or three days before gave indications of approaching winter), and the streets being unmacadamized, had that arid look we read of in accounts of the plains of Arabia, the dust being quite deep, and exceeding in quant.i.ty anything of the kind I had ever seen in European cities: clouds of it impregnated the air, and rendered respiration and sight difficult.
Hundreds of rudely-constructed drays were pa.s.sing to and fro, heavily laden with merchandize, many of them drawn by mules, and the remainder by very light horses of Arabian build; the heavy English dray horse was nowhere to be seen, the breed as I afterwards learned not being cultivated, from a dislike to its ponderousness.
The lower part of Wall-street presented a busy mart-like appearance, every description of goods being piled heterogeneously before the warehouse-doors of their respective owners in the open thoroughfare, which is at this part very wide. Auctioneers were here busily engaged in the disposal of their merchandise, which comprised every variety of produce and manufacture, home and foreign, from a yard of linsey-woolsey, "hum spun" as they termed it, to a bale of Manchester long cloth, or their own Sea-Island cotton. The auctioneer in America is a curious specimen of the biped creation. He is usually a swaggering, consequential sort of fellow, and drives away at his calling with wondrous impudence and pertinacity, dispensing, all the while he is selling, the most fulsome flattery or the grossest abuse on those who stand around. One of these loquacious animals was holding forth to a crowd, just below the _Courier and Inquirer_ newspaper office, where the street widens, as a preliminary introduction to the sale of a quant.i.ty of linen goods that had been damaged at a recent fire in the neighbourhood. I could not help admiring the man"s tact. Fixing his eyes on an individual in a white dress, with an enormous Leghorn hat on his head, who was apparently eagerly listening, while smoking a cigar, to the harangue, he suddenly exclaimed, "There now is Senator Huff, from the State of Missouri, he heerd of this vendue a thousand mile up river, and wall knows I"m about to offer somethin woth having; look at him, he could buy up the fust five hunderd folks hed c.u.m across anywhar in this city, and what"s more, he"s a true patriot, made o" the right kinder stuff, I guess."
He followed up the eulogium at great length, and after liberally dispensing "soft soap" on the listeners, declared the auction had commenced. I stood by for some minutes, gazing around and watching the operations, and was not long in discovering that Senator Huff kept running up the articles by pretended bids, and was evidently in league with him, in fact a confederate. This auctioneer was the very emblem of buffoonery and blackguardism; the rapidity with which he repeated the sums, supposed by the bystanders to be bid, the curt yet extravagant praise bestowed on his wares, and his insulting and unsparing remarks if a comment were made on the goods he offered, or if the company did not respond in bidding, stamped him as one of the baser sort of vulgarians.
Sales of this description were going on in every direction, and the street rang with the stentorian voices of the sellers. Many of these were mock auctions, as an observer of any intelligence would detect, and as I ascertained beyond doubt almost directly after leaving this man"s stand; for, stepping into an open store close at hand, of which there are ranges on either side of the street, a sale of jewellery and watches was going on. A case of jewellery, containing, among other things, a gold watch and chain, apparently of exquisite workmanship, was put up just as I entered, and was started at six cents per article. Bid after bid succeeded, until, at last, the lot was knocked down to a southern gentleman present at fifty cents per item. On making the purchase, he naturally wished to know how many articles the box contained. This information, on the plea that it would delay the sale, was withheld. The auctioneer, however, insisted on the payment of a deposit of fifty dollars, in compliance with the published conditions of the sale, which sum, after a demur on the part of the purchaser, was paid. I could see, however, that he was now sensible he had been duped, and I afterwards learnt that some forty or fifty articles, of almost every fancy description, many of them worthless, such as pins, knives, tweezers, and a variety of other knick-knacks, were artfully concealed from view, by means of a false bottom to the case; this being lifted up revealed the truth. The man was greatly enraged on finding he had been cheated, but was treated with the most audacious coolness, and after some altercation left the store, as he said, to seek redress elsewhere, but I have no doubt he went off with the intention of losing his deposit.
This occurrence put me on my guard, and made me very wary of buying articles at such auctions during my stay in New York, although the apparent beauty and cheapness of many of the articles I saw offered, especially of French manufacture, were sufficient to decoy the most wary, and I did not wonder at people being victimized at such places.
Emigrants are the chief sufferers, I was told, by such transactions, from their want of caution, and ignorance of the arts of the accomplished deceivers who conduct them.
Proceeding up Wall-street in the direction of Broadway, I reached that portion of it frequented by stock and real-estate brokers. Here crowds of gentlemanly-looking men, dressed mostly in black, and of busy mien, crowded the thoroughfare with scrip in hand. Each appeared intensely absorbed in business, and as I gazed on the a.s.semblage, I could discover unmistakable symptoms of great excitement and mental anxiety, the proportion of rueful countenances being much greater than is usually seen in similar places of resort in England; a sudden depression in the market at the time might, however, account for much of this, although it is well known that brokers and speculators on the American continent engage in the pursuit with the avidity of professed gamblers.
Hundreds of Negroes were hurrying to and fro through the streets, these were chiefly labourers, decently dressed, and employed either as draymen or porters. They looked happier than labourers in England; and, being bathed in a profuse perspiration from the heat of the weather, their faces shone almost like black satin or patent leather.
After a few days" rest at my boarding-house, to which I was recommended by a touter, and which was in Ca.n.a.l-street, and was kept by a "cute"
Down-easter, or native of the New England States, with whom I engaged for bed and board for eight dollars per week, I sallied forth to make my intended observations, preparatory to leaving for the west. Everything wore a novel aspect. The number of foreigners seen in the thoroughfares, the tawdry flimsily-built carriages, which strangely contrast with the more substantial ones seen in England, and the dresses of the people, all seemed strange to me. The habiliments of one or two in particular rivetted my attention. The first was a Kentuckian, who was dressed in a suit of grey home-spun cloth, and wore on his head a fantastical cap, formed of a rac.o.o.n-skin, beautifully striped, the ears projecting just above his forehead on each side, while the forefeet of the animal, decorated with red cloth, formed the ear-laps, and the tail depended over his back like a quieu, producing a ludicrous effect. His appearance as he pa.s.sed along attracted little notice, such vagaries being common in America. My attention was also arrested by a person who was arrayed in a hunting suit of buck-skin, curiously wrought with strips of dyed porcupine-quill, and who wore an otter-skin cap and Indian moccasins.
There, is, however, little novelty in this costume, which I frequently saw afterwards. Caps of the description I have mentioned are commonly worn in the interior. I subsequently donned one myself, and found it an admirable adjunct to easy travelling.
During my stay at New York, I found the heat almost overpowering, the Indian summer (as the period between autumn and winter is there termed) having set in. An umbrella was quite a necessary appendage at times, to avoid its effects, which are often fatal to Europeans at the time of the summer solstice.
In perambulating the city of New York, its appearance is prepossessing to a visitor; the streets are well laid out, and are wide and regular, the houses being for the most part of the better cla.s.s. The white or red paint (the latter predominates), and the green and white jalousie, venetian, and siesta blinds, giving a picturesqueness to the scene.
Handsome mats lie outside the doors of many of the better description of houses.
Broadway is the princ.i.p.al place of attraction in New York, but it has so often been described by visitors, that it is a work of supererogation to comment much upon it here; as, however, every tourist can see and describe differently the same objects, I must not pa.s.s it in silence, especially as it ranks in the view of the New Yorkers, something as Bond-street and Regent-street do in the metropolis of England. It is, however, far inferior to these; it is not one, but a continuous line of streets, and, including Ca.n.a.l-street, extends about three miles in length. The Haarlem Railway comes down a considerable portion of the upper part, the rails being laid in the centre of the street The lower end of Broadway merges into the Battery Park, which is situated at the water"s edge. In Broadway are to be seen magnificent hotels, theatres, magazines-de-mode, and all the etceteras of a fashionable mart, not omitting to mention crowds of elegantly dressed ladies and exquisitely attired gentlemen, including many of colour; the latter appearing in the extreme of the fashion, with a redundancy of jewellery which, contrasting with their sable colour, produces to the eye of a stranger an unseemly effect. The shops and stores are fitted up in the Parisian style, appear well attended by customers, and are crowded with the choicest description of goods.
Astor"s Hotel, built by the so-called millionaire of that name, is a large but rather heavy-looking pile of building, and forms a conspicuous object in the park. Here many of the elite from the provinces sojourn on visiting the city. The accommodations are stated to be of the first order, and, from a cursory inspection, I should imagine this to be true, the only drawback being the enormous prices charged, exceeding, I was told, the ordinary run of first-cla.s.s houses of that description.
Noticing from the opposite side of the street that the entrance was much crowded, curiosity led me to cross over and ascend the steps and listen to what was going on, supposing it some political demonstration; in this, however, I was mistaken, for I found that the cause of the commotion was the recent arrival and presence of the celebrated statesman and lawyer, Daniel Webster, _en route_ to Washington, whither he was called by Congressional duties. I pressed forward to shake hands with this great expounder of American laws, as he is called by the citizens, who seemed, by the way, on the occasion I refer to, to regard him as a sort of divinity. I could not, however, succeed in getting near enough to accomplish my object, although I strove hard for it. It was quite amusing to see the anxiety shown by some of those present to effect the same purpose. The senator kept shaking hands with all around, repeating over and over again, "Glad to see you, citizens, glad to see you." Amongst others, a gentlemanly-dressed negro with a gold-headed cane pressed forward and held out his hand. There was, however, no chance for him in the throng, for he was rudely pushed back, and I heard several angry exclamations of disapprobation from the crowd, at the liberty he had taken, one individual in particular crying out, "Kick that n.i.g.g.e.r off, what has he to do here." These exclamations caught the ear of the negro gentleman, and he shrunk back in an instant, as if electrified. Mr. Webster was a yeoman-like looking person, of rather a muscular-build, and at one time of life was, no doubt, as I have heard, possessed of great physical powers; he had a heavy and rather downcast turn of features, which were not improved by a pair of enormous black eyebrows; there was, however, an expression in his physiognomy that indicated deep thought, and a degree of intelligence above the mediocrity. In addition to this, there was also a pleasing urbanity in his manner that was certainly contrary to what might have been expected from his personal appearance and known burly character in business. He gradually retreated up the steps towards the interior of the hotel, the excessive attentions paid by the crowd appearing troublesome to him. He was closely followed, however, by his admirers, whose boisterous behaviour savoured much more of enthusiasm than deference or politeness.
I had heard that the Americans profess never to do things by halves, and so set this instance down as a proof of their propensity to "go the whole hog," as they are wont to term their extremes and eccentricities.
The Town-hall, situate at the base of the Park, which is a triangular piece of land, well laid out and neatly kept, is a light edifice of some taste and architectural merit, its chief attraction being the white marble of which it is constructed, and which is brought from the quarries at Sing-Sing, some miles up the river Hudson. The effect, however, is not good; its exposure to the elements having given it a blurred or chalky appearance. It is surmounted by a small but elevated cupola, constructed of wood, which some time ago, I was informed by a citizen, caught fire at a pyrotechnic exhibition, and endangered the whole edifice, since which, displays of fire-works have been prohibited in the Park by the civic authorities. At the entrance there is a s.p.a.cious vestibule, but this, as well as the interior, though elegant in its simplicity of style, is meagre of ornament. Proceeding to the interior, I reached the criminal court, where a squalid-looking prisoner was undergoing trial for murder. The judges and officers of the court were almost entirely without insignia of office, and the counsel employed, I thought, evinced much tact in their proceedings, especially in the cross-examination of witnesses, although they manifested great acerbity of feeling towards each other, and their acrimonious remarks would not, I imagine, have been allowed to pa.s.s without remonstrance in an English court of justice. I was told by a by-stander, with whom I entered into conversation, that if found guilty, the prisoner would be conducted to an underground apartment used for the purpose, and privately executed, the law of the State of New York, from motives that ought to be appreciated in England, prohibiting public executions. It is also customary there to allow criminals more time than in England, to prepare for the awful change they are doomed to undergo.
I was informed by a friend that there are some very astute lawyers in America, and I subsequently had opportunities to test the accuracy of the remark. Their code, however, differs materially from the English, although professing to be based upon its principles; and has the preeminent advantage of being pretty free from the intricacies and incongruities that so often tend to defeat justice in the mother-country, and render proceedings at law so expensive and perplexing. The slave laws (called the "_codenoir_"), adapted for the Southern States, must, however, be excepted, for it is notorious, that to subserve the ends of interested parties, they have been framed so as to present what may with propriety be termed a concatenation of entanglement and injustice to the slave subjects; the very wording of many of these enactments, carrying unmistakable evidence of their being concocted for the almost sole protection of the slave-owners.
Adjoining the Town-hall, or separated only by an avenue, is a heavy, monastic-looking building, used as a bridewell, and called the City Penitentiary. Having remained a considerable time in the hall where the trial was going on, the agonized state of the prisoner and sickening details of the murder caused a disinclination for the present to continue my perambulations, so I stepped into the Cafe de l"Independence, in Broadway, and called for a port-wine sangaree, endeavouring, while I sipped it, smoked a cigar, and read the _Courier and Inquirer_, to forget the scene I had just witnessed. Leaving soon after, I pursued my way down Broadway, pa.s.sing Peel"s Museum and the Astor House, to the Battery Marine Promenade. This is a delightful spot, the finest in point of situation (although not in extent) of the kind I ever saw, the Esplanade at Charleston in South Carolina, of which I shall have by-and-by to speak more particularly, being excepted.