bour.

On entering Providence, Mr. Fearon was much pleased with the beauty of
the place. In appearance, it combined the attractions of Southampton and
Doncaster, in England. There are, in this town, an excellent
market-house, a workhouse, four or five public schools, an university
with a tolerable library, and an hospital. Several of the churches are
handsome, but they, as well as many private houses, are built of wood
painted white, and have green Venetian shutters. Mr. Fearon had not seen
a town either in America or Europe which bore the appearance of general
prosperity, equal to Providence. Ship and house-builders were fully
occupied, as indeed were all classes of mechanics. The residents of this
place are chiefly native Americans; for foreign emigrants seem never to
think of New England. Rent and provisions are here much lower than in
New York.

At _Pawtucket_, four miles from Providence, are thirteen cotton
manufactories; six of which are on a large scale. Mr. Fearon visited
three of them. They had excellent machinery; but not more than one half
of this was in operation, and the persons employed in all the
manufactories combined, were not equal in number to those at one of
moderate size in Lancashire.

The road from Providence to Boston is much better than that which Mr.
Fearon had already passed from New London. The aspect of the country
also was improved; but there was nothing in either, as to mere
appearance, which would be inviting to an inhabitant of England.

From its irregularity, and from other circumstances, _Boston_ is much
more like an English town than New York. The names are English, and the
inhabitants are by no means so uniformly sallow, as they are in many
other parts of America. This town is considered the head quarters of
Federalism in politics, and of Unitarianism in religion. It contains
many rich families. The Bostonians are also the most enlightened, and
the most hospitable people whom Mr. Fearon had yet seen in America:
they, however, in common with all New Englanders, have the character of
being greater sharpers, and more generally dishonourable, than the
natives of other sections of the Union.

The _Athaeneum public library_, under the management of Mr. Shaw, is a
valuable establishment. It contained, at this time, 18,000 volumes, four
thousand of which were the property of the secretary of state.

The society in Boston is considered better than that in New York. Many
of the richer f