of _credit_ as can
possibly exist, but _confidence_ is more universal in the United
States."

_Credit_ is the result of _confidence_; and if, as appears to be the
case, the American confidence in each other will not procure credit, it
is a very useless compliment passed between them. It is simply this--"I
am certain that you are a very honest man, but notwithstanding I will
not lend you a shilling." Indeed. Mr Carey contradicts himself, for,
two pages farther on, he says:--"The existence of the credit system is
evidence of mutual confidence."

I should like Mr Carey to answer one question.

What would have been the amount of the failures of the banks of America
in 1836, if they had not suspended cash payments? It is very easy to
carry on the banking business when, in defiance of their charters, the
banks will give you nothing but their paper, and refuse you specie.
Banks which will not pay bullion for their own notes are not very likely
to fail, except in their covenant with the public. But it is of little
use for Mr Carey to assert on the one hand, or for me to deny on the
other. Every nation makes its own character with the rest of the world,
and it is by other nations that the question between us must be decided.
The question is then, "Is the credit of America better than that of
England, in the intercourse of the two countries with each other, and
with foreign nations?" Let the commercial world decide.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.

REMARKS--PENITENTIARIES, ETCETERA.

Although, during my residence in the cities of the United States, I
visited most of the public institutions, I have not referred to them at
the time in my Diary, as they have been so often described by preceding
travellers? I shall now, however, make a few remarks upon the
penitentiary system.

I think it was Wilkes who said, that the very worst use to which you
could put a man was to hang him; and such appears to be the opinion in
America. That hanging does not prevent crime, where people are driven
into it by misery and want, I believe; but it does prevent crime where
people commit it merely from an unrestrained indulgence of their
passions. This has been satisfactorily proved in the United States. At
one time the murders in the city of New Orleans were just as frequent as
in all the states contiguous to the Mississippi; but the population of
the city determined to put an end to such scenes of outrage. The
population o