ster, the great New
England barrister, delivered a powerful "plea" against it; but the
attempt was overruled. For some years the building has been slowly
proceeding, and is not yet ready for occupation. Had I had time, I
could not, being a minister, have entered the premises. To me, and to
all like me, "_Procul, procul, este, profani_" is chiselled on every
stone!--a singular monument of the priest-hating propensities of the
old French Revolutionists.

LETTER XXVI.

Departure from Philadelphia--A Communicative Yankee--Trenton--The
Mansion of Joseph Bonaparte--Scenes of Brainerd's Labours One Hundred
Years ago--First Impressions of New York--150, Nassau-street--Private
Lodgings--Literary Society--American Lodging-houses--A Lecture on
Astronomy--The "Negro Pew" in Dr. Patton's Church.

At half-past 4 in the afternoon of March 15 we left Philadelphia by
railway for New York, which we reached at 10 P.M., an average again of
about 16 miles an hour. In this journey I met with a very communicative
Yankee, who, though not a religious man, was proud to trace his
genealogy to the "Pilgrim Fathers," and, through them, to the Normans.
Intercourse, he said, had been maintained for the last two centuries
between the English and American branches of the family. He also took
care to inform me that the head of the English branch was a baronet.
This was but one of many instances in which I found among our
Transatlantic friends a deep idolatry of rank and titles. In talking of
their own political institutions, he declared their last two Presidents
to have been--the one a fool, and the other a knave,--Polk the fool,
and Tyler the knave. He entertained an insane and cruel prejudice
against those whose skin was not exactly of the same colour with his
own, and "thanked God" that he had no African blood in his veins.

We passed through Trenton, celebrated as the scene of a bloody conflict
between the British and the American forces. The Americans, I am sorry
to say, dwell too fondly on the remembrance of those deadly struggles.
They cherish the spirit of war. The influence of Elihu Burritt and his
"bond of brotherhood" is indeed greatly needed on both sides of the
Atlantic.

We also passed what once was the residence of ex-royalty--the princely
mansion which Joseph Bonaparte erected for himself after he lost the
throne of Spain. It is surrounded with about 900 acres of land, his own
private property; and was still in the family,