o
regret, but that I had not called upon this good man.

On Monday morning, the 8th of February, I had a peep at the House of
Representatives of the State of Louisiana, then in session at New
Orleans. The room, a dark and dingy-looking place, was fitted up with
desks and seats in the form of the letter D. A desk and a spittoon were
allowed to each honourable member,--the latter article being deemed as
necessary as the former. Whether smoking was suffered during the hours
of business or not I cannot tell, but the room smelt horribly of stale
tobacco. Between fifty and sixty members were present, and never
certainly, either in the Old World or in the New, did I see an
assemblage of worse-looking men. They seemed fitted for any deeds of
robbery, blood, and death. Several distinguished duellists were pointed
out to me; among them Colonel Crane, an old man, who had repeatedly
fought with Mr. Bowie, the inventor of the "Bowie knife," and had
killed several men in personal combat! The motion before the house just
at that time was for the release from prison of a Mr. Simms, who a few
days before had violently assaulted one of the members in the lobby. He
was released accordingly. Who will not pity the 200,000 slaves of this
State, who are at the "tender mercies" of these sanguinary men? Nor let
it be said, as it often is, that New Orleans and Louisiana are not a
fair specimen of things even in the South,--that they are more French
than American, &c. This is not the case. Nothing in New Orleans struck
me more forcibly than its thoroughly American character. American
usages, American influence, American laws, and American religion are
there predominant. Things were much better for the black and coloured
people when it was not so. The French treated their slaves incomparably
kinder than the Americans do. They often married coloured women, and
invariably treated their own coloured offspring, whether legitimate or
illegitimate, with tenderness and regard. They had them suitably
educated and adequately provided for; so that, at the present moment, a
large portion of the city of New Orleans is the freehold property of
coloured persons. Not so act the Americans. They indulge in the
grossest licentiousness with coloured women, but would shudder at the
idea of marrying one of them; and, instead of giving any property to
their coloured offspring, they do not scruple to sell them as slaves!
Had I gone to the Roman Catholic cathedral in tha