ponderous or so melancholy as this gloomy, lumbering, weary sort of merry-making. I felt my spirits crushed down, and as it were humiliated, when, suddenly, the sound of a fiddle struck my ear, literally the very first notes of music I had heard, out of a drawing-room, in the whole country. Of course I ran instantly to the spot, and what was there?—four men dancing a reel !

I spoke to several gentlemen on the field about this strange, and to European eyes, most unwonted separation of the sexes. But I got little else than ridicule for my pains. Some of my friends

smiled, some laughed, and one gentleman in reply to my expressions of surprise that females should be excluded from a scene every way innocent and suitable to them, exclaimed, "Ah, sir, this question of yours only adds another example of the impossibility of making any stranger understand our manners."

This may or may not be true; but a stranger has eyes and can see; and long before this holiday, I had been struck in every part of the country through which I had passed, with this strong line of demarcation between the sexes. At Stockbridge, it is true, a considerable number of women were present at the oration; but they were carefully placed on one side of the church, and during the whole day there was no more intercourse be

tween them and the men, than if they had belonged to different races. At this cattle show at Brighton, however, the exclusion was still more complete, for not even one female entered the church, though an agricultural discourse was there delivered, which the most delicate-minded person on earth might have listened to with pleasure and advantage.

These, and a great number of other circumstances-some minute, some important, but all tending the same way, and varied in every possible shape, and conspicuous in all parts of the country-naturally claimed my attention irresistibly as something very unusual, and well deserving of a stranger's notice. I lost no fair opportunity, therefore, of conversing with intelligent persons on the subject, being naturally anxious to reach some explanation of so remarkable a distinction between America and any other Christian country I was acquainted with. The result of all my observations and enquiries is, that the women do not enjoy that station in society which has been allotted to them elsewhere; and consequently much of that important and habitual influence which, from the peculiarity of their nature, they alone can exercise over society in more fortunately arranged communities, seems to be lost.

In touching upon so delicate a subject, it is right

to state at once, and in the most explicit terms, that I never had, for one instant, the least reason to suppose that there was any wish on the part of the men to depress the other sex, or indeed any distinct knowledge of the fact. On the contrary, I conscientiously believe that there exists universally among the men a sincere and strong desire, not only to raise women up, but to maintain them on the fairest level with themselves. But I conceive that the political and moral circumstances now in full action in America, are too strong to be counterbalanced even by these laudable endea

yours.

In that country, it must be observed, every man, without exception, has not only a direct share in the administration of public affairs, but he is put in mind almost every hour of his life of the necessity of exercising this privilege. He is called upon at one time to choose representatives to Congress, or for his own State, or to nominate the electors for the office of President, or to elect a governor, or an alderman; or he may himself be called to fill any one of these stations. In every part of the country, at all times and seasons, therefore, the men are more or less actively engaged with some election; and this propensity to canvass and be canvassed, or to attend, in some shape or other, to the complicated machinery of representation, is

generally admitted by the Americans themselves to form one of their most important occupations. I have been often told, and can well believe, that the closest attention, and a great deal of personal devotion of time, is required in order to understand the operation of this extensive system well enough to be able, effectually, to influence the returns. This arises, in a great measure, from the immense number of persons interested, or who, whether interested or not, have a right to interfere. Consequently, any partial or qualified degree of vigilance is quite useless, and electioneering, in order to be successful, must be made a business of.

When to these engrossing and highly exciting objects of attention, we superadd the endless litigation into which all mankind are led in that country, by what is called Cheap Justice-in other words, the facility of going to law; together with the care with which, as a matter of necessity, the head of a family must attend to its pecuniary interests, we can easily conceive that a very small portion only of his time can be devoted to the domestic fireside, however sociably disposed he may be by nature.

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Now, it is scarcely possible that the women, who of course do not personally interfere in any of these matters, can be made to understand sufficiently what is going on out of doors, to take a continued

interest in these things, much less to use any decided, or steady feminine influence upon them.

I have repeatedly heard gentlemen, who had given most of their time to public matters, declare that they could not comprehend the complicated politics even of their own particular State. This arose, they told me, from these matters being so entirely made up of intrigues and counter intrigues, each of which involved an endless round of elections, the bearings of which upon the main point―generally the Presidential question-none but the most initiated even amongst the men could ever pretend to understand fully. Whatever be the causes, however, the fact I think is indubitable, that they are almost exclusively engrossed abroad by occupations which the women cannot possibly comprehend; while the women, for their part, are quite as exclusively engaged at home, with business equally essential and engrossing, but with which the men do not meddle in any way.

There is also another cause, which, although it may appear trivial to people who have not been exposed to its influence, has, I have no doubt, a considerable share in bringing about the state of things to which I now advert. I mean the increased household duties inevitably imposed upon the mistress of a family by the total want of good servants in America. This is an evil which no