bite off a nose, or break a jaw with a kick of their foot, for the honour of their respective counties! Gouging, we are told, is performed by twisting the forefinger in a lock of hair near the temple, and turning the eye out of the socket with the thumbnail, which, it is said, is suffered to grow long for that purpose.

Since Mr. Jefferson took off the duty on spirits, distillation has increased to a very great extent; and the practice of drinking ardent spirits is very general in the Southern States.

Party spirit prevails in a very high degree throughout the Union, and is the cause of those numerous and mostly fatal duels which disgrace the American character. In vain has the legislature of New York made it penal to send challenges or to fight duels: its law is disregarded, and duelling continues. During Mr. Lambert's short residence of six months in the United States, upwards of fourteen duels were fought, and there was not one of them in which the parties were not killed or wounded. Disgraceful and frequent as these are in England, they are far exceeded in number and atrocity in the United States, where young men are in the habit of training themselves up as duellists.

In America all are politicians, and every man is a federalist or a democrat: each man takes in a paper that agrees with his politics, or rather directs them. The eagerness of the people for news far surpasses even that of our own country, and upwards of three hundred papers minister to this voracious appetite for novelty. Not being chargeable with any duty, they rarely cost more than 2+d. or 3d. sterling, and about a halfpenny more for the carriage: hence these vehicles of intelligence are accessible to every class of people; and there is scarcely a poor owner of a miserable log hut, who lives on the border of the stage road but has a newspaper left at his door. Since the suspension of intercourse with this country, these papers have contained for the most part advertisements for run-away slaves, or white men, redemptioners, and quack medicines, intermingled with others however which incidentally show the rising wealth and manufactures of the Union. Their quack advertisements exceed in effrontery those which we are accustomed to behold in our provincial papers.

The drinking of toasts at public dinners is a very common method of venting party spleen in America, and of invoking destruction upon their enemies. Long lists of these are published in the papers on the following day, as so many proofs of patriotism and virtue: and the conductors seem to take a pride in showing how brilliantly their partisans can abuse public characters in their cups! It was the violent spirit of party that occasioned the fatal duel between General Hamilton and Colonel Burr, a few years

From these disgusting scenes we turn to subjects more important, as well as more becoming the dignity of rational beings. Education, though in many places still defective from the want of proper encouragement and better teachers, is spreading throughout the Union. In the well settled parts of New England, the children do not want plain and useful instruction; and the girls especially are early initiated in the principles of domestic order and economy. Colleges and schools are multiplying; and at New York a grammar school was instituted a few years since, for the instruction of youth, upon a plan similar to that adopted in our great public schools. The system of tuition, invented by Pestalozzi at Berne, has been transplanted to Philadelphia, with considerable success, by Joseph Neef, formerly a coadjutor of Pestalozzi's; but both in that city, as well as at New York, the new system of teaching, adopted in this country, is prosecuted upon an extensive plan, and still more in the state of Connecticut.

Hence a taste for reading has diffused itself through the northern and middle states, especially in the great towns; but in the southern states, particularly South Carolina and Georgia, literature and the arts receive but little encouragement. Charleston, indeed, possesses a public library, containing about 4000 volumes, chiefly modern; and at New York, besides several respectable private subscription libraries, there is a public library, consisting of about 10,000 volumes, many of them rare and valuable books. Philadelphia can boast of three, besides two large subscription libraries; a Philosophical Society, Linnæan Society, a Medical Society, Medical Lyceum, and a College of Physicians; and a Museum of Natural Curiosities commenced in 1784, to which is attached a collection of paintings, chiefly portraits of individuals who distinguished themselves in the revolutionary war, and of some other eminent characters. An " Athenæum," or institution for the diffusion of useful knowledge, the arts, sciences, and literature, has this year been formed, upon the plan of similar establishments in this country. At New York an Historical Society has long existed, and has given to the American public two volumes of Memoirs, relative to the History of America. At Boston, an Antiquarian Society has this year been formed; and the Historical Society, at the same place, has printed ten volumes of its Memoirs.

The high price of paper, labour, and taxes in this country, has been very favourable to authorship, and the publication of books in America. Foreign publications are also charged with a duty of 13 per cent.; and foreign rags are exempted from all impost. These advantages have greatly facilitated the manufacture of paper and the printing of books in the United States, both which

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are now carried on to a very large extent in every part: the type foundery of Philadelphia is a great assistance to the craft. The study of Hebrew is become very fashionable in the United States; and, while we are now writing, a Hebrew Bible, with American types, is, for the first time, printing at Philadelphia. The original -productions of the Americans are comparatively few; but every English work of celebrity, whatever its size may be, is immediately reprinted in the States, and vended for one-fourth of the original price. The booksellers and printers, especially of New York and Philadelphia, are numerous, and in general men of property. Previously to the establishment of the federal government, the book trade was of small account; but, subsequently to that æra, it partook of that life and vigour which the new state of affairs produced. In 1786, four booksellers thought an edition of the New Testament for schools a work of risque, and requiring much consultation before they determined on the measure; yet such was the rapid progress of things, that, in 1790, one of them thought it safe to risk the publication of the Encyclopædia, in 18 volumes, 4to. On the publication of the first half volume, in that year, he had but 246 subscribers, and could only procure two or three engravers. By the time he had finished the eighth volume, he found it necessary to reprint the first, and could then with difficulty procure printers for the work. The voluminous Cyclopædias of Dr. Rees and Dr. Brewster, are now reprinting with additions and corrections, the former at the expence of two individuals. The plates are affirmed to be superior to those in the original editions (but this we doubt), and the typography equally excellent.

For several years past, a literary fair, similar to those of Leipsic and Frankfort, has been held alternately at New York and Philadelphia: this annual meeting has tended greatly to facilitate intercourse with each other, to circulate books throughout the United States, and to encourage and support the arts of printing and paper-making. The number of volumes, annually printed at Philadelphia, is computed at five hundred thousand: and in 1811, there were fifty-one printing offices, employing one hundred and fifty-three presses. At the same time, there were upwards of sixty engravers (who we have been assured have generally six months' work in hand;) and Dr. Mease has asserted, that twenty more could find constant employ.-(Picture, p. 87.) The improvement in the fine Arts has been very considerable, within a few years past: to this, the formation of the Pennsylvania Academy of the fine Arts," in 1805, and of the " Society of Artists of the United States," in 1810, essentially contributed. Soon after the institution of the latter, an union was effected between the two societies, who have an annual exhibition in the spring, similar to that of our Royal Academy. The catalogue of the

fourth exhibition of this " Columbian Society of Artists and the Pennsylvania Academy," (for 1814) is now on our table. While some few of the pieces exhibited are the works of the great Italian, French, and Flemish Schools, it will be gratifying to our readers to know that many are copies from the productions of our countrymen, particularly the venerable President of the Royal Academy. Not a few are drawn from scenes described by the creative muse of Walter Scott; and the remainder consist either of portraits (which are numerous) or of subjects suggested by the late war between America and Great Britain, particularly their successes on the lakes, which are announced with a degree of pomp that would better agree with the victory of Aboukir, or the glorious fight of Waterloo. Some of the portraits above mentioned have been engraved for an extensive work in the nature of our Biographia Britannia, which has been announced by a bookseller of Philadelphia, and of which we have received a specimen, containing some portraits. Of these it is but justice to add, that they are very respectably executed, and present a favourable specimen of American art; and that the memoir of Columbus, which is given as a specimen of the composition and typography, does equal honour to the author and printer.

We pass over various particulars in the " Picture of Philadelphia," which, possessing merely a local importance, would be uninteresting to our readers. There is, however, so much moderation, humanity, and enlightened policy in the penal code of the United States, and particularly in the management of criminals, that we cannot but trespass a little longer on their patience, while we submit to their consideration the chief points of its improve

ment.

"1. Cleanliness, so intimately connected with morality, is the first thing attended to, previously to any attempts at that internal purification, which it is the object of the discipline to effect. The criminal is washed, his clothes effectually purified and laid aside, and he is clothed in the peculiar habit of the jail, which consists of grey cloth, made by the prisoners, adapted to the season. The attention to this important point is unremitted, during their confinement. Their faces and hands are daily washed; they are shaved, and change their linen once a week, their hair is kept short; and, during the summer, they bathe in a large tub. Their apartments are swept and washed once or twice a week, as required, throughout the year.

"2. Work suitable to the age and capacity of the convicts is assigned, and an account is opened with them. They are charged with their board, clothes, the fine imposed by the state, and expense of prosecution, and credited for their work; at the expiration of the time time of servitude, half the amount of the sum, if any, left after deducting the charges, is required by law to be paid to them. As the board is low, the labour constant, and the working hours greater than among mechanics, it is easy for the convicts to earn more than the amount of their expenses; so that when they go out, they receive a sum of money sufficient to enable them to pursue a trade, if so disposed, or at least, that will keep them from want, until they find employ, and prevent the necessity of stealing.

" On several occasions, the balance paid to a convict has amounted to more than one hundred dollars: in one instance it was one hundred and fifty dollars: and from ten to forty dollars are commonly paid.When, from the nature of the work at which the convict has been employed, or his weakness, his labour does not amount to more than the charges against him, and his place of residence is at a distance from Philadelphia, he is furnished with money sufficient to bear his expenses home. The price of boarding is sixteen cents per day, and the general cost of clothes for a year, is nineteen dollars thirty-three cents.

"3. The prisoners lie on the floor, on a blanket, and about thirty sleep in one room; they are strictly prohibited from keeping their clothes on at night. The hours for rising and retiring are announced by a bell; and at those times they go out and come in with the greatest regularity. For their own comfort, they have established a set of rules, respecting cleanliness, on breach of which a fine is exacted. No one is even permitted to spit on the floor. A large lamp is hung up, out of the reach of the prisoners, in every room, which enables the keeper or watch to see every man; and for this purpose a small aperture is made in every door. The end of the cord by which the lamps are suspended, is outside of the rooms: the solitary cells is the punishment for extinguishing these lamps.

"4. Their diet is wholesome, plain and invigorating, and their meals are served up with the greatest regularity and order: a bell announces when they are ready, and all collect at the door leading to the passage where they eat, before any one is allowed to enter. They then take their seats without hurry or confusion; and all begin to eat at the same time. While eating, silence is strictly enjoined by the presence of the keepers, who give notice of the time for rising from table. For breakfast, they have about three fourths of a pound of good bread, with molasses and water. At dinner, half a pound of bread and beef, a bowl of soupand potatoes. Sometimes herrings, in the spring. At supper, corn meal mush [mash?] and molasses, and sometimes boiled rice.

"The blacks eat at a separate table. There is also a table set apart for those who have committed offences for the first time, but not of sufficient enormity to merit the solitary cells; such as indolence, slighting work, impudence, &c. and to such no meat is given. Every one finds his allowance ready on his trencher. The drink is molasses and water, which has been found to be highly useful, as a refreshing draught, and as a medicine. Spirituous liquors or beer never enter the walls of the prison. The cooks and bakers, who are convicts, are allowed thirty cents per day by the inspectors. The decency of deportment, and the expression of content, exhibited by the convicts at their meals, renders a view of them, while eating, highly interesting. No provisions are permitted to be sent to the convicts from without.