shad, and one or two others, which we have not.
Their salmon is not equal to ours, and they have no turbot.
Pine-apples, and almost all the tropical fruits, are hawked about in
carts in the Eastern cities; but I consider the fruit of the temperate
zone, such as grapes, peaches, etcetera, inferior to the English.
Oysters are very plentiful, very large, and, to an English palate,
rather insipid. As the Americans assert that the English and French
oysters taste of copper, and that therefore they cannot eat them, I
presume they do; and that's the reason why we do not like the American
oysters, copper being better than no flavour at all.

I think, after this statement, that the English will agree with me that
there are plenty of good things for the table in America; but the old
proverb says, "God sends meat, and the devil sends cooks;" and such is,
and unfortunately must be, the case for a long while, in most of the
houses in America, owing to the difficulty of obtaining, or keeping
servants. But I must quit the subject of eating, for one of much more
importance in America, which is that of drinking.

I always did consider that the English and the Swiss were the two
nations who most indulged in potations; but on my arrival in the United
States, I found that our descendants, in this point most assuredly, as
they fain would be thought to do in all others, surpassed us altogether.

Impartiality compels me to acknowledge the truth; we must, in this
instance, submit to a national defeat. There are many causes for this:
first, the heat of the climate, next the coldness of the climate, then
the changeableness of the climate; add to these, the cheapness of liquor
in general, the early disfranchisement of the youth from all parental
control, the temptation arising from the bar and association, and,
lastly, the pleasantness, amenity, and variety of the potations.

Reasons, therefore, are as plentiful as blackberries, and habit becomes
second nature.

To run up the whole catalogue of the indigenous compounds in America,
from "iced water" to a "stone fence," or "streak of lightning," would
fill a volume; I shall first speak of foreign importations.

The Port in America is seldom good; the climate appears not to agree
with the wine. The quantity of Champagne drunk is enormous, and would
absorb all the vintage of France, were it not that many hundred thousand
bottles are consumed more than are imported.

The small state of New