he United States had contrived, by their political alchymy, to
extract all that was most noxious both in democracy and in
slavery, and had poured the strange mixture through every vein of
the moral organization of their country.

Wheeling is the state of Virginia, and appears to be a
flourishing town. It is the point at which most travellers from
the West leave the Ohio, to take the stages which travel the
mountain road to the Atlantic cities.

It has many manufactories, among others, one for blowing and
cutting glass, which we visited. We were told by the workmen
that the articles finished there were equal to any in the world;
but my eyes refused their assent. The cutting was very good,
though by no means equal to what we see in daily use in London;
but the chief inferiority is in the material, which is never
altogether free from colour. I had observed this also in the
glass of the Pittsburgh manufactory, the labour bestowed on it
always appearing greater than the glass deserved. They told us
also, that they were rapidly improving in the art, and I have no
doubt that this was true.

Wheeling has little of beauty to distinguish it, except the ever
lovely Ohio, to which we here bid adieu, and a fine bold hill,
which rises immediately behind the town. This hill, as well as
every other in the neighbourhood, is bored for coal. Their mines
are all horizontal. The coal burns well, but with a very black
and dirty cinder.

We found the coach, by which we meant to proceed to Little
Washington, full, and learnt that we must wait two days before it
would again leave the town. Posting was never heard of in the
country, and the mail travelled all night, which I did not
approve of; we therefore found ourselves compelled to pass two
days at the Wheeling hotel.

I know not how this weary interval would have worn away, had it
not been for the fortunate circumstance of our meeting with a
_bel esprit_ among the boarders there. We descended to the
common sitting room (for private parlours there are none) before
breakfast the morning after our arrival; several ordinary
individuals entered, till the party amounted to eight or nine.
Again the door opened, and in swam a female, who had once
certainly been handsome, and who, it was equally evident, still
thought herself so. She was tall, and well formed, dressed in
black, with many gaudy trinkets about her: a scarlet _fichu_
relieved the sombre colour of her dress, and a ver