There is a secret pleasure in discoursing of the habits, affections, and influence of the sex, which invariably leads me astray from all other objects. I find, on perusing my letter-book, that the temptation of treating on the usages of the American women, completely lured me from a recollection of the fête in which I was happy enough to see so many of the fair creatures congregated. It is now too late to return to a description of a scene that would require hours to do it justice, and we must, in consequence, take our departure abruptly for the interior of the state of New York. It had been previously arranged that Cadwallader and his – acquaintance should take passage in a steam-boat that was destined to receive La Fayette, and which was to depart, at a stated hour, from the terrace of the castle garden itself.

It must be confessed that these republicans have given a princely reception to their venerable guest. It forms one portion of their plan of hospitality, that he is to receive every accommodation to which he is entitled by his rank and services, and every facility of movement possible, without the least pecuniary cost. At every city, and indeed at every hamlet he enters, lodgings, table, carriage, and, in short, all the arrangements of a well-ordered establishment are made at the expense of the citizens.

As I know that Sir Edward has given you a meeting at Rome, I shall presume you acquainted with the change in my plans, no less than with the new travelling companion with whom accident has made me acquainted. Of all our associates I could gladly have chosen you, my dear baron; for a co-adventurer in this distant excursion. There is so much of the true maritime spirit in the people I am about to visit, that your experience and observation would have proved both useful and pleasant assistants to my own comparative ignorance. Still, I flatter myself that a life of adventure, and fifty voyages by sea, furnish some few of the qualifications necessary for the task I have assumed.

Cadwallader took the direction of all our arrangements into his own hands; and well has he discharged the trust. But the individual enterprise of the Americans has left very little of this nature to be performed by the traveller. Capacious, beautiful, and excellent ships, sail, on stated days, between many of the European ports and their own country. This system of arrangement, so important to commercial interests, and so creditable to the efforts of a young state, is said to be extended still further. Lines of packets, as they are termed, also exist between New York and the West Indies, South America, and between most of the larger havens of their own sea-board.

I write you from the little capital of this great republic. After lingering at Baltimore until reasons for all further delay were exhausted, we reluctantly turned our faces westward. Cadwallader had pointed out to me sundry busy-looking travellers, who were strolling through the streets of the town, with more gravity of mien (assumed or natural) than is common to meet in a city, and whispered in my ears that they were members of congress, on their way to the seat of government. This was a hint not to be disregarded. Tearing ourselves from the attractions of bright eyes and soft voices, we gallantly entered a coach, and broke the chain of attraction which, like the fabled magnet of Mahomet's coffin, had so long kept me suspended between heaven and earth. Heigho! dear Jules, I confess to twenty-four hours, when a treacherous intention of resigning, to some less inexorable successor, the stall which I so unworthily fill in our self-denying chapter, was insidiously floating before my imagination. But a resolution which has borne me through so many similar dangers in triumph, (aided by the members of congress,) was victorious. By the by, I am grieved to the heart to hear of the sad accident that has befallen the professor, and most sincerely do I pray that the time may be long averted when it shall become necessary to supply a vacancy in our numbers, from a cause so fatal as a marriage.

Although stages, as the public coaches are, by corruption, called in this country, run on most of the roads travelled in my recent journey, I decided to make the excursion, at a little cost, in a private conveyance. A neat, light, and rather elegant pleasure-waggon on horizontal springs, with a driver and a pair of fleet, well-formed horses, were procured for five dollars a day. A coach might have been had for the same sum. This price, however, was the highest, and included every charge. There was ample room for Fritz and myself, with what baggage we needed, and a vacant seat by the side of the coachman. Capacious leather tops protected us from the weather, and good aprons could, if necessary, cover our feet. In short, the vehicle, which is exceedingly common here, is not unlike what is called a double, or travelling, phaëton, in England. You are to remember, there is no travelling post in America. Relays of horses can certainly be had, between the principal towns, at a reasonably short notice; but the great facility, rapidity, ease, and cheapness of communication by steam-boats, will probably for a long time prevent posting from coming into fashion.

We left Manhattan island, on which New York stands, by a long wooden bridge that connects it with the adjacent county of West-Chester.

Dear Waller,

You are to express no astonishment at the place where this letter is dated. I confess the engagement to meet you under the walls of the Seraglio; but hear me, before the sin of forgetful ness shall be too hastily imputed to my charge. You know the inveterate peregrinating habits of the club, and can judge, from your own besetting propensity to change your residence monthly, how difficult it might prove to resist the temptation of traversing a soil that is still virgin, so far as the perambulating feet of the members of our fraternity are concerned. In a word, I am here, awaiting the packet for America. Before you get this letter, the waters of one half of the Atlantic will roll between us. This resolution, seemingly so sudden, has not, however, been taken without much and mature thought.

Cosmopolites, and searchers of the truth, as we boast ourselves, who, of all our number, has ever turned his steps towards a quarter (I had almost written half) of the globe, where new scenes, a state of society without a parallel, even in history, and so much that is fresh, both in the physical and moral world, invite our attention. This reproach shall exist no longer. If resentment against so much apparent fickleness can refrain the while, read, and you shall know the reasons why you are left to wander, alone, through the streets of Pera, and to endure sullen looks, from haughty Turks, without the promised support of your infidel companion.

The six North Eastern States of this great union compose what is called New England. The appellation is one of convention, and is unknown to the laws. It is a name given by a King of England, who appeared willing to conciliate that portion of his subjects, who had deserted their homes in quest of liberty of conscience, by a high-sounding title. It will be remembered that colonies of the Dutch and Swedes, at that time, separated the northern possessions of the English from those they held in Virginia. It is most probably owing to the latter circumstance that the inhabitants of the New England provinces so long retained their distinctive character, which was scarcely less at variance with that of the slave-holding planters of the south, than with that of their more immediate neighbours, the Dutch. The pacific colonists of Penn brought with them but little to soften the lines of distinction, and after New York became subject to the Crown of Britain, it was a mélange of Dutch quietude and English aristocracy. It was not until the Revolution had broken down the barriers of provincial prejudices, and cleared the way for the unrestrained exercise of the true national enterprise, that these territorial obstacles were entirely removed, and a thorough amalgamation of the people commenced. A few observations on the effect of this amalgamation, and the influence it has had on the character of the nation, may not be thrown away here.