hour, until called to resume their
labours in the field or the mill. After this description of the meals of
our labourers, you will, perhaps, be curious to know how it fares with our
house servants in this respect. Precisely in the same manner, as far as
regards allowance, with the exception of what is left from our table, but,
if possible, with even less comfort, in one respect, inasmuch as no time
whatever is set apart for their meals, which they snatch at any hour, and
in any way that they can--generally, however, standing, or squatting on
their hams round the kitchen fire. They have no sleeping-rooms in the
house, but when their work is over, retire, like the rest, to their
hovels, the discomfort of which has to them all the addition of comparison
with our mode of living. Now, in all establishments whatever, of course
some disparity exists between the comforts of the drawing-room and best
bed-rooms, and the servant's hall and attics, but here it is no longer a
matter of degree. The young woman who performs the office of lady's-maid,
and the lads who wait upon us at table, have neither table to feed at nor
chair to sit down upon themselves. The boys sleep at night on the hearth
by the kitchen fire, and the women upon a rough board bedstead, strewed
with a little tree moss. All this shows how very torpid the sense of
justice is apt to lie in the breasts of those who have it not awakened by
the peremptory demands of others.

In the north we could not hope to keep the worst and poorest servant for
a single day in the wretched discomfort in which our negro servants are
forced habitually to live. I received a visit this morning from some of
the Darien people. Among them was a most interesting young person, from
whose acquaintance, if I have any opportunity of cultivating it, I
promise myself much pleasure. The ladies that I have seen since I
crossed the southern line, have all seemed to me extremely sickly in
their appearance--delicate in the refined term, but unfortunately sickly
in the truer one. They are languid in their deportment and speech, and
seem to give themselves up, without an effort to counteract it, to the
enervating effect of their warm climate. It is undoubtedly a most
relaxing and unhealthy one, and therefore requires the more imperatively
to be met by energetic and invigorating habits both of body and mind. Of
these, however, the southern ladies appear to have, at present, no very
positive idea. Doctor -