drawn up, discharging a sufficient quantity of the water to cork it well, which is done instantly on the spot. In this state it is sent to all the large cities of the Union; and few ships leave the American ports without having a supply of Congress water among their cabin stores, it being everywhere acceptable as a refreshing and agreeable beverage, even where its medicinal properties are not valued or required, and never being injurious unless taken to great excess.

After all, however, the chief attraction of Saratoga to visiters is neither the mineral waters nor the salubrious climate, as these are mere excuses for the journey to nine tenths of the comers; but the great charm to the vast majority is the gay and ever-changing company that is found here from all parts of the Union, and especially of the opulent classes, into which it is the constant aim and desire of those who are not opulent to get admitted. Hundreds who, in their own towns, could not find admittance into the circles of fashionable society there for the rich and leading families of America are quite as exclusive in their coteries as the aristocracy of England-come to Saratoga, where, at Congress Hall or the United States, by the moderate payment of two dollars a day, they may be seated at the same table, and often side by side with the first families of the country; promenade in the same piazza, lounge on the sofas in the same drawing-room, and dance in the same quadrille with the most fashionable beaux and belles of the land; and thus, for the week or month they may stay at Saratoga, they enjoy all the advantages which their position would make inaccessible to them at home.

On the whole, perhaps, Saratoga affords the best opportunity that a stranger can enjoy for seeing American society on the largest scale, and embracing the greatest variety of classes at the same time; for, except the small shopkeeper and mere labourer, every other class has its representative here. The rich merchant from New-Orleans, and the wealthy planter from Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee, with the more haughty and more polished landowner from Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia; the successful speculator in real estate from Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri, and Michigan; the rich capitalist from Boston and New-York; the grave Quaker from Providence and Philadelphia; the official functionary from Washington, and the learned professor from New-Haven, Cambridge, and Hartford, all mingle together in strange variety, and present such strikingly different yet truly characteristic features, that the whole Union is thus brought before the eye of the stranger at one view, and he has ample field for observation of their several representatives.

Speaking in general terms, my own impression was, that in the company at Congress Hall especially there were quite as many elegant men, and a great many more beautiful women, than are usually seen among a similar number of persons assembled in any pub

lic room at Brighton, Cheltenham, or Bath. Those from the South bore away the palm of superiority in beauty and manners, there being an ease, a grace, and an elegance or polish about the Southerners, whether ladies or gentlemen, which those of the North, as far as my observation has yet extended, do not attain. The women are incomparably more beautiful; and we saw here some from Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland, especially from Charleston, Norfolk, and Baltimore, that would grace any court in Europe; while from Philadelphia and New-York there were also some lovely countenances, especially among the young.

My opinion, indeed, was here strongly confirmed, that there is no country in Europe in which there are so many beautiful faces among the women as in this; the symmetry of their features, the contrast between the marbly whiteness of their complexion, and their dark eyes and hair, small mouths, and beautifully white and regular teeth, are the chief traits of their beauty. But, on the other hand, they want the full development of figure and bust, as well as the rosy complexion and coral lips, of the healthy English beauty; and are still more deficient in that gayety and animation which a brilliant female countenance so often expresses in the look of intelligence, and glow of feeling and sentiment, which accompany the utterance of a well-educated and well-bred woman at home.

The American ladies did not appear to me to evince the same passionate admiration which is constantly witnessed among English females for the pursuit or object in which they were engaged. Neither painting, sculpture, poetry, nor music; neither the higher topics of intellectual conversation, nor the lighter beauties of the belles lettres, seem to move them from the general apathy and indifference, or coldness of temperament, which is their most remarkable defect. In England, Ireland, and Scotland, in Germany, France, and Italy, and even in Spain and Portugal, well-educated women evince an enthusiasm, and express, because they feel, a passionate delight in speaking of works of art which they have seen, of literary productions which they have read, or of poetry or music which they may have heard; and the sympathy which they thus kindle in the minds of others only seems to increase the fervour and intensity of their own. Among the American ladies of the best education, I have never yet witnessed anything approaching to this; and as it is not deficiency of information-for most of them possess a wider circle of knowledge, in whatever is taught at school, than ladies do with us-it must be a deficiency of taste and feeling.

Whether this is the result of climate or physical temperament, as some suppose, or the mere influence of cold manners, as others imagine, I cannot determine; though I am inclined to adopt the former supposition, because the same phlegmatic temperament is evinced in the progress of that which, if women have any passion at all, however deep-seated it may be, will assuredly bring it out:

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I mean the progress of their attachments or loves; for I have neither heard nor seen any evidence of that all-absorbing and romantic feeling, by which this passion is accompanied in its development, in all the countries I have named; and, although probably the American women make the most faithful wives and most correct members of society that any nation or community can furnish, I do not think they love with the same intensity as the women of Europe, or would be ready to make such sacrifices of personal consideration, in rank, fortune, or conveniences of life, for the sake of obtaining the object of their affections, as women readily and perpetually do with us.

Whether this is an advantage or a disadvantage, I will not undertake to say, but of the fact I have no doubt; and to the same cause, the coldness of temperament, I attribute the absence of all enthusiasm among them in regard to literature and the arts, which they cultivate as a matter of duty, and not from ardent admiration or love of the pursuit; and in which, for this very reason, they rarely or never arise above mediocrity in their knowledge or practice of them.

Of the men in the fashionable circles of society here, the difference between the old and the young is very striking. The old men from the South, and from Carolina and Virginia especially, are what would be called perfect gentlemen of the old school with us: precise, yet elegant in their dress; courteous and affable in their manners; high-toned in their politics and taste; lax in their morality while fashion sanctions their conduct; warm in their attachments; fierce in their resentments; and punctilious in all points of honour and etiquette. The remains of the feudal system in Virginia, where the laws of entail existed, and where large estates descended hereditarily from father to elder son, sustained this state of manners and feeling; and Virginia is still called "The Old Dominion," as if to preserve the recollection of its ancient condition as a colony of the British crown.

The younger men among the fashionables are almost all copyists of the dress, style, and manners of the "young men about town," as they are called in London, and are chiefly remarkable for foppery of dress, and the assumption of beards, mustaches, and other exotic fashions, as if they were either foreigners themselves, or had travelled so long on the Continent of Europe as to bear about them the marks of their sojourn at Rome, Naples, and Paris. Their manners, too, like those of our "young men about town," are rather familiar than elegant, and more remarkable for brusquerie and nonchalance than for courtesy or refinement.

The inferiority of the young to the old among the men in high life is as great in their conversation as in their manners, and greater even than the difference of their ages would justify. Even Mr. Cooper, a writer of their own nation, has remarked upon this deVOL. II-O

generacy or decline, and all I have seen fully justifies his remarks. He says,

"There is no doubt that, in general, America has retrograded in manners within the last thirty years. Boys, and even men, wear their hats in the houses of all classes, and before persons of all ages and conditions. This is not independence, but vulgarity; for nothing sooner distinguishes a gentleman from a blackguard than the habitual attention of the former to the minor civilities established by custom. It has been truly said, that the man who is well dressed respects himself more and behaves himself better than the man that is ill dressed; but it is still more true, that the man who commences with a strict observance of the ⚫commoner civilities, will be the most apt to admit of the influence of refinement on his whole character.

"The defects in American deportment are, notwithstanding, numerous and palpable. Among the first may be ranked insubordination in children, and a general want of respect for age. The former vice may be ascribed to the business habits of the country, which leave so little time for parental instruction, and perhaps, in some degree, to the arts of political agents, who, with their own advantage in view, among the other expedients of their cunning, have resorted to the artifice of separating children from their natural advisers, by calling meetings of the young to decide on the fortunes and policy of the country. Every advertisement calling assemblies of the young to deliberate on national concerns ought to be deemed an insult to the good sense, the modesty, and the filial piety of the class to which it is addressed."

The young, indeed, of both sexes carry on matters just as they please, the young women reigning supreme in parties of pleasure, as the young men do in deciding on political affairs; so that the old seem either to be left on the shelf altogether, or only brought upon the stage to look on, bestow their approbation, and pay the expense. Here at Saratoga, in all the parties we visited, whether balls, concerts, or promenades, the married ladies were seemingly only valued as persons necessary to give countenance to the assembling of the young; while these usurped all authority and influence, and monopolized the exclusive attention of the men.

It has been thought by many that the excessive confidence reposed in the young, and the liberty they are permitted to enjoy in being so frequently alone together, are more favourable to the virtue of both than if they were under more restraint. This may be true to a certain extent; but I should myself be disposed to attribute the absence of danger much more to the coldness of temperament, of which I have before spoken, than to any other cause; but, after making every allowance for the operation of both, I cannot but think that the gay season at Saratoga is a very unfavourable preparation for the discharge of those social and domestic duties which all are sooner or later called upon to discharge.

Take the general routine of a day at the Springs as an example. All rise between 6 and 7 o'clock, and at half past 7 the drawing. room of each of the larger hotels is filled with from 200 to 300 persons, promenading till the folding doors are thrown open for admis

sion to the dining-hall, when this large number seat themselves at breakfast. The meal is generally a substantial one, a variety of dishes being placed on the table, and few persons breakfasting without partaking of some description of animal food; but the rapidity with which it is despatched is its most remarkable feature, the longest time taken by the slowest being never more than 15 minutes, some of the quickest getting through the meal in 5 minutes, and the average number occupying about 10.

In the busy cities, the reason assigned for this haste is the keen pursuit of business, and the eager desire to get to the countinghouse or store; but here, with the entire day before them, and nothing whatever to do, they eat with just the same haste as at other places. The contest for the dishes is a perfect scramble; the noise and clatter of the waiters and their wares are absolutely deafening; no one gets precisely what he wants, though every one is searching after something. The quiet elegance of an English breakfast is as great a contrast to the noisy rudeness of an American meal as can well be conceived, even when both are taken in public hotels like these. Elegance of manners in such a scene as this is quite out of the question. People eat as if they were afraid that their plates were about to be snatched from them before they had done; mastication may be said to be almost entirely omitted; and in nine cases out of ten, persons do not remain in their chairs to finish the meal, short as it is, but rise with the last mouthful still unswallowed, and dispose of it gradually as they walk along.

The period between breakfast at 8 o'clock and dinner at 2 is occupied by the more active in excursions to the surrounding points of attraction, on horseback or in carriages; but the greater number remain at home; and the drawing-room is then the general lounge, where groups of the young are formed, who sit for hours engaged in the merest gossip of trifling talk, for it hardly deserves the name of conversation; and neither books, music, nor drawing Occupy any portion of the time.

Dressing for dinner fills up a vacant hour; at one and at half past one the drawing-room is again crowded with the promenading parties waiting for the opening of the folding doors to admit them to dinner The hurry and bustle of the breakfast scene are again repeated, with little of table enjoyment to reconcile the parties to the heat and noise of the room. The fare is what in England would be called coarse and bad, the dishes few in number, and wretchedly cooked, besides being all lukewarm; and the miserable sprinkling of bad vegetables being almost as cold as if they had been dressed on the preceding day; no covers for the dishes or warm plates for the guests; no appointed carvers; an insufficiency of attendants; and, altogether, an ill-managed and an ill-enjoyed dinner. The escape from this is almost as rapid as from the breakfast, and 15 minutes may be regarded as the average time occupied