cused by the learned, in favour of the obvious occasion for more general views of society on the American continent, than have hitherto obtained, either at home or abroad.

NEW YORK, Sept. 20.

THE Editor of this London Journal has preferred to allow Mr. Sansom to speak for himself in his own words, conceiving that this would be more just towards him; and that, as a specimen of Americanisms, used by a man of good education, the work would thus be a greater curiosity to those English Readers, who are not aware of the deterioration which the language is suffering in the United States. For analogous reasons, many opinions of the Republican Author are retained, because they will add to the interest of the work, though they may sometimes offend by their coarseness, and evident want of discrimination. If, however, an individual, or a people, would correct errors, the exposition of them must be borne, from whatever quarter or country it proceeds.

These observations apply chiefly, however, to the work of Mr. Sansom ; for the “Virginian Sketches" are obviously the product of a mind disciplined, by accurate researches, in those sciences which bear with obvious advantage on the subjects of observation.

LONDON, March 1820.

NDER the impressions hinted at in my prefatory reMarks, at three o'clock P. M. on the 30th day of June, 1817, I stepped on-board of the Bristol steam-boat, at Marketstreet wharf, with a portmanteau, containing nothing more than was absolutely necessary, a cane in my hand, and Thomson's Seasons in my pocket; but no other companions excepting such as I might meet with in the public conveyances, who may be not inaptly considered the tourist's family, as the inn is said to be the traveller's home.

We reached Bristol in due time and in perfect safety, from, moving accidents by fire or flood, notwithstanding the really terrifying explosions that have lately happened on-board of these accommodatory conveyances; I having purposely avoided the superior expedition which, promised by the steam-boat Etna, for the sake of ease and safety, under the graduated force of what is called the lower pressure, for whose secure operation we are indebted to the late ingenious ROBERT FULTON, of New York.

We started immediately from Bristol in the York stage, one, of the six or seven passengers being a creole from New Orleans, who had already travelled in similar conveyances fifteen hundred miles an end.

We lodged at Princeton that night, entered the steam-boat Sea-Horse at Elizabethtown Point, and landed at New York time enough to dine at the City Hotel, a place of entertainment little, if at all, inferior to the London Tavern, or the Red House at Frankfort, so much and so justly celebrated by European travellers.*

*Before entering Brunswick, or between that ancient town which preserves so much of the neatness and formality of its primitive inhabitants, and the delightful village of Newark, which has been so often selected as the temporary residence of involuntary refugees of quality, from different parts of Europe; as the driver lingered along the sands of Jersey, we passed by VOYAGES and TRAVELS, No. 2. Vol. III.

B

NEW YORK.

I shall not stop to describe the Bay of New York, nor to make comparisons which might lead me to Naples or Constantinople, though neither of those places unite the various advantages of sea and river communication; and they must therefore yield, in point of convenience, to the American emporium-whatever superiority they may possess in expanse of water, or diversity of objects-the rich inheritance of a hundred ages.

The islands in the Bay of New York haying been stripped of wood, are not very ornamental, and one of them, which has been fortified, obstructs, by a massy tower, the view which was formerly enjoyed of the entrance called the Narrows, through which whole fleets could be seen on their first entering the bay, and before they approached the basin; where alone they are now visible to a spectator on the battery-a promenade of health and pleasure, always crowded of an evening with the familiar intercourse of youth and beauty amid the retiring sons of business and care. The shores of Staten Island, and even those of the North River, are too distant to admit the charm of distinct variety, but those of Long Island, as they stretch along toward the Sound, are beautifully variegated with hills and valleys, woods and cultivated fields, near enough to gratify the eye with ideas of rural tranquillity, even from the busy quays of a sea-port town,

But, as an admirer of architecture, I cannot pass without notice the City-hall, for the costly magnificence of which we are probably indebted to that national taste for the substantial, which induced the Dutch ancestors of our New York burghers to erect, at Amsterdam, a fabric, upon piles, which is justly ranked among the first public edifices in Europe.

The principal front and two sides are of white marble the back front and the basement story of freestone, of a red

one tavern, the sign of the Union, and stopped to water at another under the same patronage. These people are great admirers of union, it would seem, said one of our company. Yes, replied I, they are so fond of union that they di-vide it. We had come on so very slowly, for the last few miles, that one had proposed to put a snapper upon the driver's whip, as we waited for him without quitting our seats; and, he staid so long at the bar while the people of the house were sitting down to meat, that another suspected he was going to breakfast there, and we should have to wait till he was done. That would be an unlucky snap for us, said I. He, however, presently came out again, and we drove off at an accellerated pace; but, it was not long before we snapped one of our jack-springs, and we were fain to crack our jokes with less merriment the rest of the way.

dish cast; both of which are found in quarries within a hundred miles of the spot.

This noble structure is two stories high, and it is ornamented with a portico of eight columns, each hewn out of a single block, fifteen feet in length; and pilasters of the Ionic and Corinthian orders are carried round the building, with their appropriate entablatures-all executed in marble.

The second story shows nineteen windows in a row-the number of individual states at the time it was finished. Thus tacitly marking the date of its erection. The five intercolumniations in the entrance correspond to as many arcades, which open upon the portico for egress and regress-like the arched doors, of equal number, belonging to its prototype in Holland,

One of the fronts of that building (I cannot remember which) has a figure of Atlas supporting the Globe-Admire this happy emblem of Dutch patience and perseverance.

The New York City-hall is two hundred feet long-eighty deep, in the projecting wings, which enclose a flight of twenty steps, sixty or eighty feet in length, for they are returned at the sides. It is sixty feet to the eaves, and the roof is surmounted by a cupola, ornamented with coupled columns, and a statue of Justice, with her suspended scales, at a height of ninety feet from the ground.

In this cupola a light is kept every night, by a watchman who cries the hour, from this elevated situation; and gives the alarm in case of fire.

I shall not describe the interior of this superb edifice, with its circular hall, and double staircase, with its columns, its balustrades, and its dome. The picture-gallery, or hall of audience, hung with portraits of the governors of New York, and the presidents of the union. Or the council chamber; glittering with gold and scarlet: as I am not quite satisfied that

much splendour is consistent with practical republicanism; and we know that the Town-hall of Amsterdam has been already converted into the palace of a sovereign.

In short, I am sufficiently superstitious in political omens, to dread the inference (however unlikely it may be thought— every where-but at Washington) that where there are palaces there will be princes.

But I can take a view of Broadway, without turning aside, as it is my road to the hotel I put up at.

This beautiful avenue comes in straight for a mile, lined on both sides with every variety of public and private buildings -churches, halls, houses, many of which are ornamented with taste; shops, in which every necessary, and every luxury of

life are displayed with elegance and splendour. After it has passed the Stadt House above-mentioned, which by the way is now sadly obscured by ragged trees, which entirely prevent a front view-they might be readily exchanged for a neat clump or two, at distant intervals, leaving from the street an uninterrupted view of the structure in different directions.

The street now winds to the left, and gradually widens until it opens upon the water, after forming a triangular plot, which is railed in with an iron balustrade, and once exhibited a statue of king George. This was removed at the revolutionbut the pedestal remains, and it is hoped that it will not be long before the liberal and patriotic citizens of New York shall replace the historical monument with-another GEORGE -far better entitled than the former to the veneration of posterity.*

THE NORTH RIVER.

Next day I took my passage for Albany, in the Paragon, or the Car of Neptune, I forget which-but any of the steamboats of the North River are justly entitled to either of these proud appellations. Since they prooceed-not, wind and weather permitting, like all anterior navigators; but against wind and tide, at the rate of seven or eight miles an hour. And they are not exceeded in one of their dimensions-that of length, by a ship of the line.

* Of the extent and accommodations of the superb inn before mentioned, some idea may be formed by the sum which has been just laid out upon furnishing, and fitting it up, for the use of the present tenant. It was not less than thirty thousand dollars, and he pays for it the liberal rent of ten thousand dollars a-year.

Family parties are provided for in a distinct part of the establishment, with the use of elegant drawing-rooms; and public entertainments were given, occasionally, in apartments of magnificent dimensions, on the principal floor: but at the Table d'Hote the fare is excellent, and a hundred persons sit down there every day, in the summer season, when New York becomes the grand thỏroughfare between the south and the north, during the stated migration of the gentry of the southern states, toward the more salutary regions of New England and the Canadian provinces, where the heat of summer is comparatively temperate, and to a southern constitution highly invigorating.

Here the Scotchman of Detroit, and the Frenchman of New Orleans, from the borders of Lake Huron and the Banks of the Mississippi—when at home not less than two thousand miles apart, meet each other half-way, upon common ground, as American citizens, professing allegiance to the constituted authorities of the same republic.

And the occupant of central woods and waters here shakes hands and interchanges sentiment and information, with brother sailors; who seek a livelihood upon the eastern coasts of the Atlantic, penetrate every nook and corner in the Baltic, or the Mediterranean, or doubling either Cape, ransack the Antipodes for objects of commercial enterprise...