ot among the lucky
ones, but had to hold on for the second train at a quarter past 8, and
so did not reach this city till after 10, or twenty-six hours from
Paris, though, with a little enterprise and a decent boat on the
Channel, the trip could easily be made in 14 hours--four for the French
side, six for the Channel, two for the English side and two for
Custom-House delay and leeway of all kinds. If Commodore Vanderbilt or
Mr. Newton would only take compassion on the ignorance and barbarism
prevailing throughout Europe in the matter of steamboat-building, and
establish a branch of his business on this side of the Atlantic, he
would do the cause of Human Progress a service, and signally contribute
to the diminution of the sum of mortal misery.

The night was mild and fair; the wind light; the sea consequently
smooth; and I suffered less, and repented my choice of a route less,
than I had expected to; but consider the facts: Here was the most direct
route by Railroad and Steamboat between the two great Capitals of
Europe--a route constantly traveled by multitudes from all parts of
world--yet the only boats provided for the liquid portion of the way are
two little black, cobbling concerns, each perhaps seventy feet long by
fifteen wide, with no deck above the water line, and not a single berth
for even a lady passenger, though making one passage each night. Who
could suppose that two tolerably civilized nations would endure this in
the middle of 1851?

We were nearly two hundred passengers, and the boat just about decently
held us, but had not sitting-room for all, above and under the deck. But
as about half, being "second class," had no right to enter the main
cabin, those who had that right were enabled to sit and yawn, and try to
cheat themselves into the notion that they would coax sleep to their aid
after a while. Occasionally, one or two having left for a turn on deck,
some drowsy mortal would stretch himself on a setter at full length, but
the remonstrances of others needing seats would soon compel him to
resume a half-upright posture. And so the passage wore away, and between
2 and 3 this morning we reached New-Haven (a petty sea-port at the mouth
of the little river Ouse), where we were permitted promptly to land,
minus our baggage, and repair to a convenient inn. Here I, with several
others, invested two British shillings in a chance to sleep, but the
venture (at least in my case) proved a losing one. It was d