commonest topic of business, a speech swells into a declamation; an official statement grows to a dissertation. A discourse about anything must contain everything. We will take nothing for granted. We must commence at the very commencement. An ejectment for ten acres reproduces the whole discovery of America; a discussion about a tariff or a turnpike summons from their remotest caves the adverse blasts of windy rhetoric; and on those great Sorbonian bogs, known in political geography as constitutional questions, our ambitious fluency often begins with the general deluge, and ends with its own. It is thus that even the good sense and reason of some become wearisome, while the undisciplined fancy of others wanders into all the extravagances and the gaudy phraseology which distinguish our Western Orientalism. The result is, that our public affairs are in danger of becoming wholly unintelligible; concealed rather than explained, as they often are, in long harangues, which few who can escape will hear, and in massive documents, which all who see will shun. For this idle waste of words—at once a political evil and a social wrong-the only remedy is study. The last degree of refinement is simplicity; the highest eloquence is the plainest; the most effective style is the pure, severe, and vigorous manner, of which the great masters are the best teachers."

New-Hampshire, of which Concord is the legislative capital, though Portsmouth is a much larger and more populous town, is about the same size in area as Vermont, being 160 miles in length from north to south, 70 miles in mean breadth from east to west, and containing 8500 square miles, or 5,440,000 acres. The greater portion of this area is in the interior, as the seacoast measures only 18 miles in length. It is bounded on the north by Lower Canada, which it touches on the disputed boundary-line between the British and the United States' possessions; on the south by Massachusetts, on the west by Vermont, on the east by Maine, and on the southeast by the Atlantic. The country near the seacoast is generally level, but in the interior the surface is greatly diversified with hills and mountains, and it is said that from this circumstance the vicissitudes and extremes of temperature are greater in NewHampshire than in any other of the states of the Union. The soil is as varied as the temperature, being rich and fertile near the banks of the rivers, but less productive remote from them; pasture absorbs a larger portion than tillage, and grain of various kinds is produced in the state; yet cattle are more abundant, and the orchards are also highly productive, though few other kinds of fruit are grown here except apples.

Settlers from England visited New-Hampshire as early as 1622, under a grant from the Plymouth Company, and their first positions were taken up at the Piscataqua River, and at Cocheco, which is now Dover. În 1631, Portsmouth, the chief seaport of New-Hampshire, was settled, and in 1638 the town of Exeter was founded. From 1641 to 1679 New-Hampshire existed, in coalition with Massachusetts, as a colony of Great Britain; but after that it separated itself, and so continued till the American Revolution, when, in 1776, New-Hampshire was the first to form a constitution of its own,

POPULATION AND RESOURCES.-PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. 289

and since then it has existed as an independent state. As most of the states of the Union have some distinctive appellation, as "the Empire State," for New-York; "the Key-stone State," for Pennsylvania; and "the Old Dominion," for Virginia, so New-Hampshire is called "the Granite State," from the large quantities of granite produced by its quarries, and sent to all parts of the country for building. It is called also the Switzerland of America, from its beautifully picturesque scenery in its mountains, rivers, cataracts, and lakes.

The population of New-Hampshire was estimated in 1701 at 10,000, and even in 1730 it was but 12,000, having increased only 2000 during 29 years; nor did it reach higher than 80,000 in 1775, the last year of its being a colony of the British. From the date of its independence, 1776, it went on, like all the other free states, to increase rapidly in population, and the decennial enumerations after this period give the following numbers:

In 1790 1800

1810

During the last few years, the attention of the people has been fixed on manufactures, and there already exist upward of 50 cotton and woollen manufactories, many of them on a large scale; there are also many paper-mills, glass-houses, and establishments for iron works, particularly in Franconia, near the White Mountains. The shipping of the state is estimated at about 20,000 tons. There are many canals existing, and others in process of excavation, as well as railroads, and all the elements of trade and commerce abound.

The institutions for education include an excellent college at Hanover, called "Dartmouth College," from the Earl of Dartmouth, who was one of its earliest patrons, the college being founded in 1769. It has 250 students, a library of 7000 volumes, an anatomical museum, and an annual income of about 4000 dollars. An institution exists at Exeter also, called " Phillips's Exeter Academy," which was founded by the Hon. John Phillips, LL.D. in 1781. It has a fund of 81,000 dollars, and this is partly appropriated to the support of indigent students, who have the disposition and capacity for study, without the means.

The religious establishments of New-Hampshire are ample, when compared with its population. The Congregationalists or Independents are the most numerous; these have 180 churches and 164 ministers, with about 15,000 communicants. The Baptists have 80 churches; the Methodists, Episcopal and others, 42; Presbyterians, 15; Universalists, 12; Quakers, 12; Unitarians, 10; Episcopalians, 8, and Catholics, 2. There are also two societies of Shakers, and one of Sandemanians. Such is the vigour of the voluntary system, that the ministers of all these sects-excepting only the Quakers and Shakers, who both repudiate the principle of payVOL. II.-O O

25

ing "hirelings," as they call them, for preaching the Gospel-are liberally sustained by their respective congregations. Their churches are well-built, without assistance from the state, and kept in excellent repair, without forcible levies of tithes or church-rates; and the peace and harmony between them all is rarely or ever disturbed. As far, therefore, as outward indications can be taken as a safe guide, there seems every reason to believe that religion is very generally respected, and its influence felt as extensively in this state as in any others that we had yet travelled through.

On Saturday, the 22d of September, we left Concord for Boston, coming through Amoskeag, Merrimac, and Nashua, all respectable and thriving towns, to Lowell, which we reached about two o'clock; and finding there a train of cars just ready to start for Boston, a distance of 25 miles, we took our seats and proceeded on, leaving Lowell for a future visit, as it is deemed the Manchester of America, from its extensive manufactories, and is worthy of a careful examination.

The cars, which were both handsome and commodious, were well filled, the train carrying probably 200 passengers at once; and we performed the distance smoothly and pleasantly in about an hour and a half. The first sight of Boston was very picturesque and promising, with its finely-elevated Statehouse crowning the general eminence, and surrounded by the dwellings of the city; its long bridges, and numerous vessels of all classes and sizes either moored at its wharfs or plying on its waters. Arriving at the depôt, we found an omnibus ready to convey us to the hotel; and everything connected with the transfer of the baggage being conducted with regularity and speed, we were soon on our way to the Tremont House, where we found excellent quarters prepared for our occupation.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Stay at Boston.-Delivery of Lectures there.-Resolutions presented at their Close.Mr. George Combe's Lectures on Phrenology.-Mr. Cushing's Lecture on the Influence of Women.-Governor Everett's Lecture on the Voyages of the Northmen.— Afternoon Lectures and Madame Caradori's Concerts.-Public Meetings in behalf of the "Sailor's Home."-Institutions visited in Boston.-Public Characters.-Environs. -Salem and Marblehead.-Military Levee.

WE remained in Boston for a period of nine weeks, during the most agreeable part of the year, after the summer heats had subsided, and before the extreme cold of the winter had set in-from the 22d of September to the 26th of November. We saw the city and its environs, therefore, in the most favourable season of au

tumn, while the foliage was yet on the trees, and richly and beautifully coloured, and while the warm sun and bright skies of this delightful period gave us all the glow of summer and the bracing freshness of winter combined. It was the season, too, at which most of the opulent families, who pass their summers at their country residences or in travelling, return to town for their winter abode, and when the city is consequently the most crowded.

During our protracted stay in Boston I was engaged in the delivery of my lectures on Egypt and Palestine before the members of the Mercantile Library Association, at whose invitation I had come on to Boston for this purpose. The place chosen for their delivery was the Odeon, formerly a theatre for dramatic performances, then converted into a concert-room, and now used for music and for public lectures. It still retains its usual subdivisions into boxes, pit, and gallery, but is so divested of all theatrical ornaments, and so tastefully and chastefully fitted up, as to combine elegance and comfort in a very high degree, and is capable of seating 1200 auditors comfortably. The lectures were delivered twice in the week, at half past seven in the evening, and were very fully attended by audiences that were said to contain the most distinguished families of Boston, nearly all the clergy, and literary and scientific men, and the most critical and accomplished among the ladies. They appeared to give more than usual satisfaction to those who attended; and the following resolutions, which were passed at their close, afford sufficient evidence of their having been appreciated by those at whose express invitation they were given:

"At a meeting of the Mercantile Library Association, held on Monday evening, November 19, 1838, the following resolutions were adopted: "Resolved, That the course of lectures on Egypt and Palestine, delivered by J. S. Buckingham, Esq., before this association, merits our highest approbation, both for the valuable historical information imparted, and the interesting and eloquent manner in which they were delivered.

"Resolved, That, in parting with one with whom so many happy, and, we trust, useful hours have been passed, we cannot refrain from offering him our ardent wishes for his future prosperity and success, wherever his propensity to travel may lead him.

"ISAIAH M. ATKINS, Jr., President. "W. L. WESTON, Secretary."

At such intervals of leisure as I could command, I attended the lectures delivered by others in Boston, and received much gratification from them all. Among others was a course on phrenology, delivered by Mr. George Combe, of Edinburgh, in the Temple, to an audience of from 250 to 300, which drew together the disciples made by Dr. Spurzheim at his visit a few years since, and gathered others around this nucleus. Mr. Combe was well received, his labours highly appreciated and publicly commended; and such portions of the course as I had the good fortune to be able to hear

were full of interest and instruction. I heard also a very eloquent lecture by the Honourable Caleb Cushing, of Newburyport, one of the representatives of Massachusetts in Congress, delivered before the Lyceum at the Odeon, on the influence of Christianity in the elevation of women, and the benefits which this had produced in the world. I had the pleasure also to hear a very learned and interesting lecture by his excellency, the governor of the state, delivered at the Warren-street Chapel, on the Voyages of the Northmen to the Continent of America, nearly 500 years before the time of Columbus. This historical fact was established beyond all doubt from the evidence adduced by him on this subject, though the obscurity into which so interesting a visit to, and occupation of, the territory about Rhode Island and Massachusetts had subsequently fallen-as it appears to have been wholly forgotten in the time of Columbus -is among the features of the case the most difficult to explain.

Besides the regular evening course of lectures delivered by me to the Mercantile Library Association, an afternoon course on the same subject was given to the public generally in the Marlborough Chapel in Washington-street, which was also well attended, but less by men of business than by ladies and pupils. The presi dent and some of the professors of the Cambridge University, with many of the clergy and most of the Sunday-school teachers-who are not, as in England, composed of persons from the middle ranks of life only, but include the younger branches of the most opulent families in the state-were among this audience. We attended Madame Caradori Allan's concerts also with as much gratification as ever; and having had the pleasure of knowing her and her excellent husband in England, we were glad at the opportunity of meeting in the same house, and enjoying much of their amiable and agreeable society.

Among the gratuitous labours in which I had the privilege of being engaged, was the delivery of a lecture to the members of the Franklin Institute at the Temple, and the advocacy of the claims of seamen in two separate public meetings, held, one at the Marlborough Chapel, and the other at the Odeon, at an interval of some weeks apart. The former was on behalf of "the Sailor's Home," an establishment supported by the Trinitarian section of Christians, under the presidency of Mr. Pliny Cutler and the chaplaincy of the Rev. Mr. Lord; and so well conducted as to be productive of the greatest good in rescuing the seamen who can be prevailed upon to take up their quarters there, from the horrors of drunkenness and misery which await them in all the ordinary establishments. At this meeting, which was held on a Sunday evening, there were believed to be 2500 persons present, and upward of 1000 are said to have been obliged to go away for want of room. The addresses of the evening produced a strong and favourable impression, and several hundred dollars were collected from the audience for the funds of that institution.