almighty; that religious decency, which is equally distant from grovelling idolatry, and from the light and wanton airs of those Europeans who go to a church as to a theatre

Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsæ.

The discourse, the prayer, the worship, every thing, bore the same simplicity. The sermon breathed the best morality, and it was heard with attention.

The excellence of this morality characterizes almost all the sermons of all the sects through the Continent. The ministers rarely speak dogmas : universal tolerance, the child of American independence has banished the preaching of dogmas, which always leads to discussion and quarrels. All the sects admit nothing but morality, which is the same in all, and the only preaching proper for a great society of brothers.

This tolerance is unlimited at Boston; a town formerly witness of bloody persecutions, especially against the Quakers; where many of this sect paid, with their life, for their perseverance in their religious opinions. Every one at present worships God in his own way at Boston. Anabaptists, Methodists, Quakers, and Catholics, profess openly their opinions and all offices of government, places and emoluments, are equally open to all sects. Virtue and talents, and not religious opinions, are the tests of public confidence.

...

There are many clubs at Boston. M. Chastellux speaks of a particular club held once a week. I was at it several times, and was much pleased with their politeness to strangers, and the knowledge displayed in their conversation. There is no coffee-house at Boston, New-York, or Philadelphia. One house in each town, that they call by that name, serves as an exchange.

One of the principal pleasures of the inhabitants of these towns, consists in little parties for the country, among families and friends. The principal expence of the parties, especially after dinner, is tea. In this, as in their whole manner of living, the Americans in general resemble the English. Punch, warm and cold, before dinner; excellent beef, and Spanish and Bordeaux wines, cover their tables, always solidly and abundantly served. Spruce beer, excellent cyder, and Philadelphia porter, precede the wines.

It is remarked, that, in countries chiefly devoted to commerce, the sciences are not carried to any high degree. This remark applies to Boston. The university certainly contains men of worth and learning;

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but science is not diffused among the inhabitants of the town. merce occupies all their ideas, turns all their heads, and absorbs all their speculations. Thus you find few estimable works, and few authors. The expence of the first volume of the Memoirs of the Academy of this town, is not yet covered; it is two years since it appeared. Some time since was published, the history of the late troubles in Massachusetts; it is very well written. The author has found much difficulty to indemnify himself for the expence of printing it. Never has the whole of the precious history of New Hampshire, by Belnap, appeared, for want of encourage

ment.

Poets, for the same reason, must be more rare than other writers... They publish a Magazine here, though the number of Gazettes is very considerable. The multiplicity of Gazettes proves the activity of commerce, and the taste for politics and news; the merits and multiplicity of Literary and Political Magazines are signs of the culture of the sci

ences.

You may judge from these details, that the arts, except those that respect navigation, do not receive much encouragement here. . . .

Let us not blame the Bostonians; they think of the useful, before procuring to themselves the agreeable. They have no brilliant monuments ; but they have neat and commodious churches, but they have good houses, but they have superb bridges, and excellent ships. Their streets are well illuminated at night; while many ancient cities of Europe, containing proud monuments of art, have never yet thought of preventing the fatal effects of nocturnal darkness.

Besides the societies for the encouragement of agriculture and manufactures, they have another, known by the name of the Humane Society. Their object is to recover drowned persons. It is formed after the model of the one at London, as that is copied from the one at Paris. They follow the same methods as in Europe, and have rendered impor

tant succours.

The Medical Society is not less useful, than the one last mentioned. It holds a correspondence with all the country towns; to know the symptoms of local diseases, propose the proper remedies, and give instruction thereupon to their fellow-citizens.

Another establishment is the alms-house. It is destined to the poor, who, by age and infirmity, are unable to gain their living. It contains at present about 150 persons.

Another, called the work-house, or house of correction, is not so much

peopled as you might imagine. In a rising country, in an active port, where provisions are cheap, good morals predominate, and the number of thieves and vagabonds is small. These are vermin attached to misery; and there is no misery here. . . .

An employment which is, unhappily, one of the most lucrative in this state, is the profession of the Law. They preserve still the expensive forms of the English practice, which good sense, and the love of order, ought to teach them to suppress; they render advocates necessary; they have likewise borrowed from their fathers, the English, the habit of demanding exorbitant fees. But, notwithstanding the abuses of law. proceedings, they complain very little of the Lawyers. . . .

J. P. Brissot de Warville, New Travels in the United States of America (Dublin, 1792), 93-114 passim.

15. Comfortable Philadelphia (1788)

BY JEAN PIERRE BRISSOT DE WARVILLE

(ANONYMOUS TRANSLATION, 1792)

For Brissot, see No. 14 above. -Bibliography: Channing and Hart, Guide, § 23; Contemporaries, II, No. 28.

PHILAD

HILADELPHIA may be considered as the metropolis of the United States. It is certainly the finest town, and the best built; it is the most wealthy, though not the most luxurious. You find here more men of information, more political and literary knowledge, and more learned societies. Many towns in America are more ancient; but Philadelphia has surpassed her elders. . . .

At ten o'clock in the evening all is tranquil in the streets; the profound silence which reigns there, is only interrupted by the voice of the watchmen, who are in small numbers, and who form the only patrole. The streets are lighted by lamps, placed like those of London.

On the side of the streets are footways of brick, and gutters constructed of brick or wood. Strong posts are placed to prevent carriages from passing on the footways. All the streets are furnished with public pumps, in great numbers. At the door of each house are placed two benches, where the family sit at evening to take the fresh air, and amuse

themselves in looking at the passengers. It is certainly a bad custom, as the evening air is unhealthful, and the exercise is not sufficient to correct this evil, for they never walk here: they supply the want of walking, by riding out into the country. They have few coaches at Philadelphia. You see many handsome waggons, which are used to carry the family into the country; they are a kind of long carriage, light and open, and may contain twelve persons. They have many chairs and sulkeys, open on all sides; the former may carry two persons, the latter only

one. . . .

Philadelphia is built on a regular plan; long and large streets cross each other at right angles: this regularity, which is a real ornament, is at first embarrassing to a stranger; he has much difficulty in finding himself, especially as the streets are not inscribed, and the doors not numbered. It is strange that the Quakers, who are so fond of order, have not adopted these two conveniencies; that they have not borrowed them from the English, of whom they have borrowed so many things. This double defect is a torment to strangers. The shops, which adorn the principal streets, are remarkable for their neatness.

The State-house, where the Legislature assembles, is a handsome building by its side they are building a magnificent house of justice. . . .

Behind the State-house is a public garden; it is the only one that exists in Philadelphia. It is not large; but it is agreeable, and one may breathe in it. It is composed of a number of verdant squares, intersected by alleys.

All the space from Front-street on the Delaware to Front-street on the Skuylkill, is already distributed into squares for streets and houses: they build here, but not so briskly as at New-York. The inhabitants wish for the aggrandizement of their city: they are wrong; Philadelphia is already too considerable. When towns acquire this degree of population, you must have hospitals, prisons, soldiers, police, spies, and all the sweeping train of luxury; that luxury which Penn wished to avoid. It already appears: they have carpets, elegant carpets; it is a favourite taste with the Americans; they receive it from the interested avarice of their old masters, the English. .

The Quakers have likewise carpets; but the rigorous ones blame this practice. They mentioned to me an instance of a Quaker from Carolina, who, going to dine with one of the most opulent at Philadelphia, was offended at finding the passage from the door to the staircase covered with a carpet, and would not enter the house; he said that he never

dined in a house where there was luxury; and that it was better to clothe the poor, than to clothe the earth.

If this man justly censured the prodigality of carpets, how much more severely ought he to censure the women of Philadelphia? I speak not here of the Quaker women; I refer my observations on them to the chapter which I reserve for that society. / But the women of the other sects wear hats and caps almost as varied as those of Paris. They bestow immense expences on their toilet and head-dress, and display pretensions too affected to be pleasing.). . .

Notwithstanding the fatal effects that might be expected here from luxury, we may say with truth, that there is no town where morals are more respected. . . .

There is no town on the continent where there is so much printing done as at Philadelphia. Gazettes and book-stores are numerous in the town, and paper-mills in the State.

Among the printers and booksellers of this town, I remarked Mr. Carey, an Irish printer . . .

This printer, who unites great industry with great information, publishes a monthly collection, called The American Museum, which is equal to the best periodical publication in Europe. It contains every thing the most important that America produces in the arts, in the sciences, and in politics. The part that concerns agriculture, is attended to with great care. . . .

Since the peace, the Quakers have returned to their commerce with great activity. The capitals which diffidence had for a long time locked up in their coffers, are now drawn out to give a spring to industry, and encourage commercial speculations. The Delaware sees floating the flags of all nations; and enterprises are there formed for all parts of the world. Manufactories are rising in the town and in the country; and industry and emulation increase with great rapidity. Notwithstanding the astonishing growth of Baltimore, which has drawn part of the commerce from Philadelphia, yet the energy of the ancient capitals of this town, the universal estimation in which the Quaker merchants are held, and the augmentation of agriculture and population, supply this deficiency. You will now be able to judge of the causes of the prosperity of this town. Its situation on a river navigable for the greatest ships, renders it one of the principal places of foreign commerce, and at the same time the great magazine of all the productions of the fertile lands of Pennsylvania, and of those of some of the neighbouring States. The vast riv