vantage. The procession was under the direction of the adjutantgeneral of the state and the marshal of the day, assisted by several military officers, and moved in the following order:

MILITARY ESCORT.

Captain Strain's Albany Republican Artillery.
Captain Brown's Albany Union Guards.

MILITARY AND CIVIC ASSOCIATIONS.

Officers of the United States Army and Navy.
Albany Military Association.
Orator and Reader.

Revolutionary Officers and Soldiers, in carriages.
The Reverend the Clergy.
Executive of the State.

PHILADELPHIA STATE FENCIBLES.

Albany Burgesses Corps.

The Common Council, preceded by its officers.
Sheriff and his officers.

Heads of the departments of the State, Chancellor, Judges of the
United States, State and County Courts, preceded
by their Marshals.

Fire Department, and the several Engine Companies with their
Engines, Hook and Ladder, and Axe Companies, under
the direction of the Chief Engineer.

The Van Rensselaer Guards.

St. Andrew's Society.

Union Benevolent Society of Journeymen Tailors.
Albany Mechanics' Benefit Society.
Hibernian Provident Society.

Saddle and Harness Makers' Society.
St. Patrick's Benevolent Society.
Citizens and Strangers.

The military had really a fine appearance, being well dressed, well equipped, and well disciplined: the bands of music, of which there were several, were all good, and one very superior; the various companies and societies, all habited in some peculiar costume or distinguished by some peculiar badge, looked remarkably well; and the populace, who thronged the foot-pavement on each side of the street, while the procession filled the centre, were as well dressed, as orderly, and as evidently interested in the proceedings of the day as the best friend of the republic could desire. What we missed was the waving of handkerchiefs from the windows and balconies, and the shouts and cheers of the multitude, which usually accompany such processions in England. But the Americans are more decorous than enthusiastic; and the staid and grave manners derived from the Dutch at Albany make them quite as grave and silent on all public occasions as the Quaker population of Philadelphia.

The part of the procession which touched us most, and made unbidden tears, not of joy or sorrow, but of mere exuberance of sympathy and feeling, start involuntarily into our eyes, was the sight of the veteran heroes of the revolution, as they passed us in the open carriages that contained them. As sixty-two years have passed

FOURTH OF JULY AT ALBANY.

49

away since the declaration of independence, the number of those who actually fought in the war of the revolution is now very small, and they are, of course, every year diminishing, so that in a few years more they will all have descended to the tomb. The veterans we saw were all above 80 years of age, and the oldest of them was 96. The hoary locks which were visible on each, with the associations which their years and services awakened, impressed us more powerfully than anything we had yet witnessed in the country; and it was evident, from the demeanour and bearing of all parties, young and old, towards these veterans as they passed, that one universal sentiment of veneration and respect for their age and character pervaded all classes.

In the church, which was crowded in every part, the exercises consisted of music by the choir, prayer by the pastor, the reading of the Declaration of Independence by one of the citizens, and an oration in honour of the day by another, all of which were well performed; and on the procession passing from the church, it marched to the City Hall, and, after a discharge of volleys, dispersed.

In the afternoon a second public procession was formed by the members of the Young Men's Association, a body combined for mutual instruction; and this, while it was less military, was more literary-in keeping with the character of the institution. They marched from their rooms in the Knickerbocker Hall to the second Presbyterian Church in regular order; and, in addition to the usual exercises of the day, similar to those performed in the morning, there were three original odes, all written expressly for the occasion by ladies of the city, one by a pupil of the Female Academy, and each highly creditable to the talents of their writers, with a longer poem by a gentleman of Albany and member of the association.

In the evening the public places of amusement were all open, and illuminations and fireworks were exhibited at different quarters of the city. There was also a great public dinner held in one of the domed edifices about 500 yards from our dwelling, from whence the cheers and huzzas came so loud and frequent over the toasts that were drank as to excite some apprehension for the perfect sobriety of the guests. There were, indeed, some instances of intemperance visible in the streets, but they did not amount to half a dozen, and were among the humblest class of labourers, so that the general sobriety of the day was one of its most remarkable and most pleasing features.

The day was closed by a delightful serenade of music opposite the house of the governor, W. L. Marcy, which, as it adjoined our own residence, we enjoyed in perfection. The night was delicious after the warmth of the day, and the moon, now just about the full, was really brilliant. The busy hum of the street was hushed; for

though there were still hundreds of well-dressed persons, of both sexes, taking their evening walks beneath the trees that here, as at Philadelphia and most other American cities, line the pavement on either side, yet the sound of their footsteps could scarcely be heard. The band was of first-rate excellence; we understood that it came up from Philadelphia with the State Fencibles, that it was under the training of a coloured man named Frank Johnson, who was an able musician, and who, having recently been in Europe, had come back greatly improved. The only military bands I ever remember to have heard superior to it were the royal band that attends at the Palace of St. James's in London, and the band of the National Guards at Paris. The music, too, was as well chosen as it was well executed, and our only regret was when it ceased, which was not, however, till nearly midnight.

One of the causes, if not the principal cause, of the general temperance of the people of Albany, is the influence exerted by the operations of the New-York State Temperance Society, of which this has, for many years past, been the headquarters. Mainly through the philanthropy, zeal, and liberality of one individual, Mr. E. C. Delavan, who, having acquired a handsome fortune in trade, devoted the leisure of his retirement and the use of his funds to various benevolent objects, the attention of the American public was first roused to the tremendous evils which intemperance inflicted on the country, and the importance of checking its farther progress.

It was here the first Temperance journal was established by him, and conducted with so much ability and success, that it attained to the possession of 300,000 subscribers throughout the Union. Here also Temperance conventions were held, resolutions adopted, circulars and agents despatched, funds provided, and all the great machinery of the temperance reform set in motion. It was to have been expected that the large class of persons who are interested in the importation, manufacture, and sale of intoxicating drinks-a powerful array of numbers, who fatten on the miseries which their traffic inflicts on others-should be violently opposed to him, as they were; but it was hardly to be expected that, because he considered wine to be as much an agent in producing intemperance among certain classes, and beer and cider among certain others, as ardent spirits among that class who alone can consume them; and because he boldly proclaimed this truth, and based on it his advocacy of total abstinence from all that can intoxicate as the only safe rule of action for those who desire to add example to precept in favour of temperance reform-it was hardly to be expected that, because of this, he would be set upon and persecuted by the opulent and influential among the laity, and the professed friends of temperance even among the clergy. Yet so it was; and this persecution, for it was nothing short of it, deserves to be numbered among the dark chapters of the history of Albany.

But their triumph was but for a season. The true principle of hostility to intemperance, and all that can occasion it, is gaining ground among the rational of all classes, as much more consistent with Christian virtue and with social expediency than the absurd and selfish war of the rich against ardent spirits, which are drank chiefly by the poor, while indulging the free use of wine, beer, and cider, because these are consumed by themselves; thus realizing the picture of the class described by Hudibras, who

"Compound for sins they are inclined to,

By damning those they have no mind to."

Mr. Delavan, nothing daunted by this opposition, still devotes nearly all his time and a very large portion of his ample fortune to the promotion of the temperance cause; and his labours are abundantly rewarded with success. The field, however, is still ample for the exercise of all the exertions that can be used to rescue the country and the people from the curse of intoxicating liquors. Here is a paragraph from a newspaper of the very morning on which I am writing this (July 5), and scarcely a journal can be taken up on any day of the week that does not contain some melancholy proof of the evils of excessive drinking:

"EFFECTS OF RUM.-A miserable being died in the county jail in this town on Sunday morning, from the effects of former excess in drinking rum. His name was John H. Frothingham, of Salem, his age 26. He was committed the last of May for drunkenness, and has had the delirium tremens since his confinement. His passion for rum was insatiable. It is said that he once broke into a distillery in Salem, and, finding nothing to drink with, threw himself upon his back under a pipe of rum, turned the cock, and let the stream run into his mouth; when he became full he was insensible, and could not turn back the cock, and the contents of the pipe were discharged on the ground. He was found insensible in the morning, and with much difficulty resuscitated."Northampton Gazette.

It is on great festive occasions like the 4th of July, however, that the greatest amount of this evil is seen concentrated into the smallest space of time, and the chief agent in producing them is intoxicating drink, the conviction of which is now becoming general; and in proof of this, the following paragraph is taken from the journal of a neighbouring town, not twenty miles from Albany, dated on the 6th of July:

"DREADFUL DISASTER AND LOSS OF LIFE ON THE 4TH INST.-Ever since we paid any attention to the subject, we have noticed that evey anniversary of our national independence for many years past has been marked with the destruction of human life; and we now unreservedly yield to the opinion, that these anniversaries should ever after be celebrated without either powder or rum. To these two causes exclusively are all the accidents which we are called upon so often to deplore to be attributed. It was hoped and believed that the late anniversary in this city would have passed off without such accidents; but, alas! how sadly have we been disappointed."

It was a conviction of the additional dangers which this day presented to the intemperate, that led the Temperance Societies throughout the Union to determine on celebrating this great national anniversary, whenever they could, as a temperance festival; and to what extent this has been accomplished throughout the Union, may be judged of from the fact that more than one hundred such temperance festivals were held on this 4th of July in the single State of New-York alone, and all without a single accident. Having been unable to attend in person at the very many celebrations to which I was invited, I endeavoured to contribute my share towards the utility of such festivals by penning, while under considerable indisposition, some lines adapted to the occasion, which were printed in many of the journals favourable to the temperance cause, and thus had an extensive circulation over the state on the day to which they related.*

Among the various modes of celebrating the national anniversary of the 4th of July, there was none more happy than that of the Sunday School Union at New-York, who took an excursion of pleasure on the beautiful river Hudson, in steamboats and barges, with upward of two thousand pupils, teachers, and guests, and passed a sober, rational, and delightful day. The journal of their voyage is full of moral interest, and it will be an example for others to follow. The temperance celebrations were very numerous throughout the Union, and many of the most distinguished characters of America assisted at them.

The climate of Albany is characterized by the two extremes of excessive cold in the winter and intense heat in the summer. In the winter, which often lasts six months, the river is for great part of the time frozen over so hard that the most heavily-laden wagons pass daily in numbers over the ice. In some severe winters, the thermometer is said to have stood at 35° below zero; but no winter ever passes without its falling some degrees below it. The spring and autumn do not exceed a month each; and the short summer of four months is remarkable for intense heat. During the three weeks of our stay here the thermometer was always above 80°, frequently above 90°, and on three or four successive days nearly touched 100° in the shade, while the dead calm that prevailed made the night almost as oppressive as the day. It was admitted, however, that the summer of this year was unusually sultry, not merely at Albany, but in all parts of the Union. At Poughkeepsie, on the Hudson, it was said to be above 100° in the shade, and 150° in the sun. On Long Island, near the sea, it was above 100° in the shade; and both men and cattle were reported to have died from the extreme heat. At Boston and Salem it was 100° and 102°. At New-York it was 97° and 98° in the shadiest parts; and a list was published of more than twenty deaths, the These lines will be found in the Appendix, No. I.