w, it
should not be lost sight of, that if such demonstrations have any effect
at all on the community, it must be that of reviving hostile feelings
towards those to whom they are united most closely by the ties of blood,
sense, and--though last, not least--cents. I merely mention these
trivial things to show the punyizing effects which the democratic
element has on the press.

Formerly, duels were as innumerable here as bales of cotton; they have
considerably decreased latterly, one cause of which has been, the State
of Louisiana passing a law by which any person engaging in a duel is at
once deprived of his vote, and disabled from holding any state
employment. John Bull may profit by this hint.

I was much amused, during my stay at New Orleans, by hearing the remarks
of the natives upon the anti-slavery meeting at Stafford House, of which
the papers were then full. If the poor duchess and her lady allies had
been fiends, there could scarcely have been more indignation at her
"presumptuous interference" and "mock humility." Her "sisters, indeed!
as if she would not be too proud to stretch out her hand to any one of
them," &c. Then another would break out with, "I should like to know by
what right she presumes to interfere with us and offer advice? If she
wants to do good, she has opportunities enough of exercising her charity
in London. Let any one read _The Times_, and then visit a plantation
here, and say whether the negroes are not happier and better off than
one-half of the lower classes in England," &c. If every animadversion
which the duchess and her colleagues' kind intentions and inoffensive
wording of them called forth in America had been a pebble, and if they
had all been gathered together, the monument of old Cheops at Ghizeh
would have sunk into insignificance when contrasted with the gigantic
mass; in short, no one unacquainted with the sensitiveness of the
American character can form a conception of the violent state of
indignation which followed the perusal of the proceedings of that small
conclave of English lady philanthropists. Mrs. Jones, Smith, Adams, and
Brown might have had their meeting on the same subject without producing
much excitement; but when the aristocratic element was introduced, it
acted as a spark in a barrel of gunpowder. As an illustration of the
excitement produced, I subjoin an extract from one of their daily
papers, under the heading of "Mrs. Stowe in Great Britain:"--

"The