tried the system of bribing, and obtained promises
fully sufficient to insure their returns; but on counting the votes, it
was found that more than one half the persons who were paid to vote _for_,
must have voted _against_ the person who had bribed them. It is needless
to say this experiment was not repeated. The Americans thought it bad
enough to take the bribe, but justly concluded that it would be a double
crime to adhere to the agreement. The bravo who takes a purse to commit an
assassination, and does not do that for which he has been paid; is an
angel, when compared to the villain who performs his contract.

The usual time occupied in a voyage from Orleans to Louisville is from ten
to twelve days, and boats have performed it in the surprisingly short
space of eight days. The spur that commerce has received from the
introduction of steam-boats on the western waters, can only be appreciated
by comparing the former means of communication with the present. Previous
to 1812, the navigation of the Upper Ohio was carried on by means of about
150 small barges, averaging between thirty and forty tons burden, and the
time consumed in ascending from the Falls to Pittsburg was a full month.
On the Lower Ohio and the Mississippi there were about twenty barges,
which averaged 100 tons burden, and more than three months was occupied in
ascending from Orleans to Louisville with West India produce, the crew
being obliged to poll or _cordelle_ the whole distance. Seldom more than
one voyage to Orleans and back was made within the year. In 1817, a
steam-boat arrived at Louisville from New Orleans in twenty-five days, and
a public dinner and other rejoicings celebrated the event. From that
period until 1827, the time consumed in this voyage gradually diminished,
and in that year a boat from New Orleans entered the port of Louisville in
eight days and two hours. There are at present on the waters of the Ohio
and Mississippi, 323 boats, the aggregate burden of which is 56,000 tons,
the greater proportion measuring from 250 to 500 tons.

The people of this country cannot properly be compared with the
inhabitants of England; their institutions are different, and their
habits and manners must necessarily be dissimilar. Indeed, they are as
unlike the English as any people can well be, and many of them with whom I
conversed, denied flatly the descent. They contend that they are a
compound of the best blood of Europe, and that the language o