has Hot
and Vapor Baths of the first class for 12 cents; second class of these
or first-class cold baths for 8 cents; and so down to cold water baths
for 2 cents or hot ditto for 4 cents each. I think these,
notwithstanding their cheapness, are not very extensively--at least not
regularly--patronized. The first class are well fitted up and contain
everything that need be desired; the others are more naked, but well
worth their cost. Cold and tepid Plunge Baths are proffered at 6 and 12
cents respectively.

I must break off here abruptly, for the mail threatens to close.

VI.

BRITISH PROGRESS.

LONDON, Thursday, May 15, 1851.

Apart from the Great Exhibition, this is a season of intellectual
activity in London. Parliament is (languidly) in session; the
Aristocracy are in town; the Queen is lavishly dispensing the
magnificent hospitalities of Royalty to those of the privileged caste
who are invited to share them; and the several Religious and
Philanthropic Societies, whether of the City or the Kingdom, are
generally holding their Anniversaries, keeping Exeter Hall in blast
almost night and day. I propose to give a first hasty glance at
intellectual and general progress in Great Britain, leaving the subject
to be more fully and thoroughly treated after I shall have made myself
more conversant with the facts in the case.

A spirit of active and generous philanthropy is widely prevalent in this
country. While the British pay more in taxes for the support of Priests
and Paupers than any other people on earth, they at the same time give
more for Religious and Philanthropic purposes. Their munificence is not
always well guided; but on the whole very much is accomplished by it in
the way of diffusing Christianity and diminishing Human Misery. But I
will speak more specifically.

The _Religious Anniversaries_ have mainly been held, but few or none of
them are reported--indeed, they are scarcely alluded to--in the Daily
press, whose vaunted superiority over American journals in the matter
of Reporting amounts practically to this--that the debates in Parliament
are here reported _verbatim_, and again presented in a condensed form
under the Editorial head of each paper, while scarcely anything else
(beside Court doings) is reported at all. I am sure this is consistent
neither with reason nor with the public taste--that if the Parliamentary
debates were condensed one-half, and the space so saved devoted to
re