place or
plot of ground, by the Schuylkill river: there is the figure of Sir
Walter Scott's Old Mortality cut out of solid stone. The cost for
interment is 3s. 6d. per square foot. We then drove up the
Wissiocou-road to German Town, where they beat us in making woollen
drawers, stockings, &c., owing to our laws and the American high tariff.
Came home by the West, having now driven all round--East, North, and
South. Had tea; and went to St. John's Episcopal Church, and heard a
good sermon from the rector, the Rev. Mr. Newton; text, Hebrews i. 11:
"They shall perish, but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as
doth a garment." It was most eloquent. With a population of 250,000,
they have 250 churches of different sects, and nearly all talented men
for preachers--indeed, Philadelphia has ever been known for its learning
and benevolence since its rise. I forgot to say we crossed a _wire
bridge_, the only one in the world that would bear 80 tons. Home, and to
bed.

_Monday_ morning.--Took a regular turn through all the commercial houses
again, and like their system better than New York. Lunched off peaches,
and then drove off to the Mint--not worth seeing. Thence to the Eastern
Penitentiary, where they have 360 prisoners. The solitary system is
abominable. I could not walk a happy man beneath the open sky by day, or
lay me down upon my bed at night, with the consciousness that one human
creature, for any length of time, lay suffering this unknown punishment,
and I the cause, or consenting to it in the least degree. The building
is very large, and kept in perfect order: it cannot be praised too
highly. We entered into a large chamber, from which seven long passages
radiate; on either side of which is a long row of low cell-doors,
numbered. Standing at the central point, and looking down these dreary
passages, the dull repose and quiet that prevails is awful. I was much
interested with one prisoner that had nearly completed his seven years,
who stated that he had been guilty of stealing 100 dollars, and that,
his conscience upbraiding him, he took them back previous to being found
out: still he was sentenced. He had a loom, had extracted some colours
from the yarn, and painted his room all over. But enough. I left it
labouring under a feeling of melancholy, and visited the Blind Asylum,
where we saw the system of reading by raised letters beautifully carried
out. A little girl and boy, about nine, who had been there on