resolved to take a trip in this boat on the morning in question, as if we had been embarking for a voyage, but merely to see how things were managed. The crowd on the shore was immense. Troops of friends, assembled to take leave, were jostled by tradesmen, hotel keepers, and hackney coachmen, urging the payment of their accounts, and by newsmen disposing of papers wet from the printing press, squeezing amongst carts, waggons, and wheelbarrows, filled with luggage. Through this crowd of idle and busy folks, we elbowed our way, with some difficulty, and at last found ourselves on the deck of the steamer. Here a new description of confusion presented itself. There were no fewer, the captain assured us, than one hundred and sixty passengers on board his boat at that moment, destined for the different packets; each of whom may fairly be allowed to have had at least one parting friend; the crush, therefore, may be imagined!

At length we put off, and paddled alongside of two packets for Havre, two for New Orleans, and one for each of the following ports, Charleston, London, and Liverpool. Every set of passengers was accompanied by a huge mountain of chests, portmanteaus, bags, writing-desks, bird-cages, bandboxes, cradles, and the whole family of greatcoats, boat-cloaks, umbrellas, and parasols. The

captains of the several packets were of course on board the steamer, in charge of their monstrous letter bags; while close under their lee came the watch maker, with a regiment of chronometers, which he guarded and coddled with as much care as if they had been his children. The several stewards of the packets formed a material portion of our motley crew, each being surrounded, like the tenants of the ark, with every living thing, hens, ducks, turkeys, to say nothing of beef and mutton in joints, bags of greens, baskets of eggs, bread, and all the et cæteras of sea luxury. Slender clerks, belonging to the different mercantile houses, flitted about with bundles of letters, bills of lading, and so forth. Some people, whom business prevented from accompanying their friends to the ships, were obliged to take leave in the hot haste peculiar to steam navigation; and I could see, here and there, one or two of those briny drops which rush unbidden to the eyelids at such moments-though, in truth, the general character of the scene was sheer selfish bustle, in which far more anxiety was shown about baggage than about sentiment.

At one end of the deck stood a very lively set of personages, chattering away at a most prodigious rate, as if the fate of mightiest monarchies, to say nothing of Republics, depended upon their

volubility. This group consisted of a complete company of French players, with all their lap-dogs, black servants, helmets, swords, and draperiesthe tinsel and glitter of their gay profession. They had been acting for some time at New York, and were now shifting the scene to New Orleans, as the sickly season had gone past. Our ears could also catch, at the same moment, the mingled sounds of no less than five different languages, French, Spanish, German, Italian, and English, all running on without the parties having the least apparent consciousness that there was any thing remarkable in such a confusion of tongues. We, indeed, appeared to be the only two unconcerned spectators on board; and, accordingly, were allowed to ramble about the decks unnoticed, or to mount the scaffolding near the machinery, or to sit on the benches along the deck, as these situations afforded facilities for seeing and hearing what was going on.

Every mortal on board the ships which we visited, was engaged with his own particular business. The captain, the mate, the crew, were severally employed in heaving up the anchor, hoisting the luggage in, or in making sail; while the poor bewildered passengers wandered about, ignorant where to go, mistaking the forecastle for the poop, the caboose for the cabin; and all the

while undergoing the torture of seeing their darling bags and boxes pitched about, or cast into the bottomless pit of the inexorable hold! The pilot roared and swore to the master, that if more haste were not made, the tide would be lost. The captain, of course, handed over these reproaches, with interest, to the officers, who bestowed them, with suitable variations, on the seamen, and these again, though in a lower key, growled and muttered their execrations upon the poor new comers. The hens lay cackling and sprawling in bunches of a dozen each, tied by the legs; while the pigs ran madly about, under the influence of a shower of kicks, squealing in concert with the fizzing of the steam from the waste pipe of the engine!

CHAPTER XI.

THE city of New York, and indeed the whole State bearing the name of that grand sea-port, was at this period, November 1827, agitated by the tempest of a popular election; and as I was anxious to make myself acquainted with the details of the machinery by which such things are carried forward in America, I resolved to give the subject fair play, by remaining for some time on the spot. During a whole month, accordingly, I devoted my time as assiduously as possible to this one purpose. I am quite sensible that to have dived completely to the bottom of all the intrigues, and counter intrigues, or to have mastered the infinite variety and complicated ramifications of party, as many weeks as I could afford days would not have been sufficient. My object, however, was different; for I had no hope, and no great wish, to arrive at a minute knowledge of circumstances not essentially connected with the general principles of the