ed precision of manner. Among many anecdotes, she told me of a
young lady about fourteen, who, on entering the receiving-room, where
she only expected to see a lady who had inquired for her, and finding a
young man with her, put her hands before her eyes and ran out of the
room again, screaming `A man, a man, a man!' On another occasion, one
of the young ladies in going up stairs to the drawing-room,
unfortunately met a boy of fourteen coming down, and her feelings were
so violently agitated, that she stopped, panting and sobbing, nor would
she pass on till the boy had swung himself up on the upper bannisters,
to leave the passage free."--_Mrs Trollope's Domestic Manners of the
Americans_.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.

REMARKS--CREDIT.

In the state of New York they have abolished imprisonment for debt; this
abolition however, only holds good between the citizens of that state,
as no one state in the Union can interfere with the rights of another.
A stranger, therefore, can imprison a New Yorker, and a New Yorker can
imprison a stranger, but the citizens of New York cannot incarcerate one
another. Now although the unprincipled may, and do occasionally take
advantage of this enactment, yet the effects of it are generally good,
as character becomes more valuable. Without character, there will be no
credit--and without credit no commercial man can rise in this city. I
was once in a store where the widow who kept it complained to me that a
person who owed her a considerable sum of money would not pay her, and
aware that she had no redress, I asked her how she would obtain her
money. Her reply was--"Oh, I shall eventually get my money, for I will
_shame_ him out of it by exposure."

The Americans, probably from being such great speculators, and aware of
the uncertainty attending their commerce, are very lenient towards
debtors. If a man proves that he cannot pay, he is seldom interfered
with, but allowed to recommence business. This is not only Christians
like, but wise. A man thrown into prison is not likely to find the
means of paying his debts; but if allowed his liberty and the means of
earning a subsistence, he may eventually be more fortunate, and the
creditors have a chance of being ultimately paid. This, to my
knowledge, has often been the case after the release had been signed,
and the creditors had no farther legal claim upon the bankrupt. England
has not yet made up her mind to the aboli