h wages which they can all command at
once, whether they ever saw the inside of a decent house before they
came to this country or not; the abundance of situations; and the
absence of everything like superior competition. The extraordinary
comparative prosperity to which these poor ignorant girls are suddenly
introduced on their arrival here, the high pay, the profusely plentiful
living, the _equality_ treatment, which must seem almost _quality_
treatment to them, presently make them impertinent and unsteady; and as
they can all command a new situation the instant that, for any cause,
they leave the one they are in (unfit for the commonest situation in a
decent household as they are), it is hardly worth their while, out of a
mere abstract love of perfection, to labor at any very great improvement
of their powers. A residence of some years in this country generally
develops their intelligence into a sort of sharp-sighted calculating
shrewdness, which they do not bring with them, but no way improves their
own quick native wit and natural national humor. Of course there are
exceptions; but the majority of them, after a short stay in America,
contrive to combine their own least desirable race qualities with the
independent tone of pert familiarity, the careless extravagance, and the
passion for dress of American girls of the lower class....

F. A. B.

BUTLER PLACE, July 8th 1840.

Perhaps, dearest Harriet, it might be better for me not to come to
England, inasmuch as my roots are beginning to spread in my present
soil, and to transplant them, even for a short time, might check the
process materially.... But while my father still lives, I shall hope to
revisit England once in every few years: when he is gone, I will give up
all the rest that I own on the other side of the water, and remain here
until it might be thought desirable for us to visit, not England only,
but Europe; and should that never appear desirable, why, then, remain
here till I die.

My father's health received a beneficial stimulus from the excitement of
his temporary return to the stage; but before that, his condition was
by all accounts very unsatisfactory; and I am afraid that when the
effect of the impulse his physical powers received from the pleasurable
exertion of acting subsides, he may again relapse into feebleness,
dejection, and general