half as strongly as the contemplation of the same
persons in the same place and garb would, if they



FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 73

were occupied in some task, marked and degraded
everywhere as belonging only to felons in jails. In
an American State prison, or house of correction, I
found it difficult at first to persuade myself that I
was really in a jail : a place of ignominious punish-
ment and endurance. And to this hour I very much
question whether the humane boast, that it is not
like one, has its root in the true wisdom or philoso-
phy of the matter.

I hope I may not be misunderstood on this sub-
ject, for it is one in which I take a strong and deep
interest. I incline as little to the sickly feeling
which makes every canting lie or maudlin speech of
a notorious criminal a subject of newspaper report
and general sympathy, as I do to those good old
customs of the good old times which made England,
even so recently as in the reign of the Third King
George, in respect of her criminal code and her
prison regulations, one of the most bloody-minded
and barbarous countries on the earth. If I thought
it would do any good to the rising generation, I
would cheerfully give my consent to the disinter-
ment of the bones of any genteel highwayman (the
more genteel, the more cheerfully), and to their
exposure, piecemeal, on any sign-post, gate, or gib-
bet that might be deemed a good elevation for the
purpose. My reason is as well convinced that these
gentry were utterly worthless and debauched vil-
lains, as it is that the laws and jails hardened them
in their evil courses, or that their wonderful escapes
were effected by the prison turnkeys who, in those
admirable days, had always been felons themselves,
and were, to the last, their bosom friends and pot
companions. At the same time, I know, as all men



74 AMERICAN NOTES

do or should, that the subject of Prison Discipline
is one of the highest importance to any community ;
and that, in her sweeping reform and bright example
to other countries on this head, America has shown
great wisdom, great benevolence, and exalted policy.
In contrasting her system with that which we have
modelled upon it, I merely seek to show that, with
all its drawbacks, ours has some advantages of its
own.^

The House of Correction which has led to these
remarks is not walled, like other prisons, but is
palisaded round about with tall rough stakes, some-
thing after the manner of an enclosure for keeping
elephants in, as we see it represented in Eastern
prints and pictures. The prisoners wear a party-
colored dress ; and those who are sentenced to hard
labor work at nail-making or stone-cutting. When
I was there, the latter class of laborers were em-
ployed upon the stone for a new Custom House in
course of erection at Boston. They appeared to
shape it skilfully and with expedition, though there
were very few among them (if any) who had not
acquired the art within the prison gates.

The women, all in one large room, were employed
in making light clothing for Kew Orleans and the

* Apart from profit made by the useful labor of prisoners, which we
can never hope to realize to any great extent, and which it is perhaps
not expedient for us to try to gain, there are two prisons in London, in
all respects equal, and in some decidedly superior, to any 1 saw, or have
ever heard or read of, in America. One is the Tothill Fields Bridewell,
conducted by Lieutenant A. F. Tracey, R.N.; the other the Middlesex
House of Correction, superintended by Mr. Chesterton. This gentleman
also holds an appointment in the Public Service. Both are enlightened
and superior men; and it would be as difficult to find persons better
qualified for the functions they discharge with firmness, zeal, intelli-
gence, and humanity, as it would be to exceed the perfect order and
arrangement of the institutions they govern.



FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 75

Southern States. They did their work in silence,
like the men ; and, like them, were overlooked by
the person contracting for their labor, or by some
agent of his appointment. In addition to this, they
are every moment liable to be visited by the prison
officers appointed for that purpose.

The arrangements for cooking, washing of clothes,
and so forth, are much upon the plan of those I have
seen at home. Their mode of bestowing the prison-
ers at night (which is of general adoption) differs
from ours, and is both simple and effective. In the
centre of a lofty area, lighted by windows in the
four walls, are five tiers of cells, one above the other ;
each tier having before it a light iron gallery, attain-
able by stairs of the same construction and material ;
excepting the lower one, which is on the ground.
Behind these, back to back with them, and facing
the opposite wall, are five corresponding rows of
cells, accessible by similar means : so that, suppos-
ing the prisoners locked up in their cells, an officer
stationed on the ground, with his back to the wall,
has half their number under his eye at once ; the
remaining half being equally under the observation
of another officer on the opposite side ; and all in
one great apartment. Unless this watch be cor-
rupted or sleeping on his post, it is impossible for a
man to escape ; for even in the event of his forcing
the iron door of his cell without noise (which is
exceedingly improbable), the moment he appears
outside, and steps into that one of the five galleries
on which it is situated, he must be plainly and fully
visible to the officer below. Each of these cells
holds a small truckle-bed, in which one prisoner
sleeps ; never more. It is small, of course ; and the



76 AMERICAN NOTES

door being not solid, but grated, and without blind
or curtain, the prisoner within is at all times exposed
to the observation and inspection of any guard who
may pass along that tier at any hour or minute of
the night. Every day, the prisoners receive their
dinner, singly, through a trap in the kitchen wall ;
and each man carries his to his sleeping cell to eat
it, where he is locked up alone, for that purpose,
one hour. The whole of this arrangement struck
me as being admirable ; and I hope that the next
new prison we erect in England may be built on
this plan.

I was given to understand that in this prison no
swords or fire-arms, or even cudgels, are kept ; nor
is it probable that, so long as its present excellent
management continues, any weapon, offensive or
defensive, will ever be required within its bounds.

Such are the Institutions at South Boston ! In
all of them, the unfortunate or degenerate citizens
of the State are carefully instructed in their duties
both to God and man ; are surrounded by all rea-
sonable means of comfort and happiness that their
condition will admit of ; are appealed to as members
of the great human family, however afflicted, indi-
gent, or fallen ; are ruled by the strong Heart, and
not by the strong (though immeasurably weaker)
Hand. I have described them at some length:
firstly, because their worth demanded it; and sec-
ondly, because I mean to take them for a model,
and to content myself with saying of others we may
come to, whose design and purpose are the same,
that in this or that respect they practically fail, or
differ.

I wish by this account of them, imperfect in its



FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 77

execution, but, in its just intention, honest, I could
hope to convey to my readers one hundredth part of
the gratification the sights I have described aiforded
me.

To an Englishman, accustomed to the parapher-
nalia of Westminster Hall, an American Court of
Law is as odd a sight as, I suppose, an English
Court of Law would be to an American. Except in
the Supreme Court at Washington (where the
judges wear a plain black robe), there is no such
thing as a wig or gown connected with the admin-
istration of justice. The gentlemen of the bar,
being barristers and attorneys too (for there is no
division of those functions as in England), are no
more removed from their clients than attorneys in
our Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors are
from theirs. The jury are quite at home, and make
themselves as comfortable as circumstances will
permit. The witness is so little elevated above,
or put aloof from, the crowd in the court, that a
stranger entering during a pause in the proceedings
would find it difficult to pick him out from the rest.
And if it chanced to be a criminal trial, his eyes, in
nine cases out of ten, would wander to the dock
in search of the prisoner in vain ; for that gentle-
man would most likely be lounging among the most
distinguished ornaments of the legal profession,
whispering suggestions in his counsel's ear, or
making a toothpick out of an old quill with his
penknife.

I could not but notice these differences when
I visited the courts at Boston. I was much sur-
prised at first, too, to observe that the counsel who



78 AMERICAN NOTES

interrogated the witness under examination at the
time did so sitting. But seeing that he was also
occupied in writing down the answers, and remem-
bering that he was alone, and had no "junior,"
I quickly consoled myself with the reflection that
law was not quite so expensive an article here as at
home ; and that the absence of sundry formalities,
which we regard as indispensable, had doubtless
a very favorable influence upon the bill of costs.

In every court ample and commodious provision
is made for the accommodation of the citizens.
This is the case all through America. In every
Public Institution, the right of the people to attend,
and to have an interest in the proceedings, is
most fully and distinctly recognized. There are no
grim door-keepers to dole out their tardy civility
by the sixpennyworth ; nor is there, I sincerely
believe, any insolence of office of any kind. Noth-
ing national is exhibited for money ; and no public
officer is a showman. We have begun, of late years,
to imitate this good example. I hope we shall con-
tinue to do so ; and that, in the fulness of time,
even deans and chapters may be converted.

In the civil court an action was trying for dam-
ages sustained in some accident upon a railway.
The witnesses had been examined, and counsel was
addressing the jury. The learned gentleman (like
a few of his English brethren) was desperately long-
winded, and had a remarkable capacity of saying
the same thing over and over again. His great
theme was "Warren the engine driver," whom he
pressed into the service of every sentence he uttered.
I listened to him for about a quarter of an hour ;
and, coming out of court at the expiration of that



FOR GENERAL CTRCFLATION. 79

time, without the faintest ray of enlightenment as
to the merits of the case, felt as if I were at home
again.

In the prisoners' cell, waiting to be examined by
the magistrate on a charge of theft, was a boy.
This lad, instead of being committed to a common
jail, would be sent to the asylum at South Boston,
and there taught a trade ; and, in the course of time,
he would be bound apprentice to some respectable
master. Thus his detection in this offence, instead
of being the prelude to a life of infamy and a miser-
able death, would lead, there was a reasonable hope,
to his being reclaimed from vice, and becoming a
worthy member of society.

I am by no means a wholesale admirer of our
legal solemnities, many of which impress me as
being exceedingly ludicrous. Strange as it may
seem, too, there is undoubtedly a degree of protec-
tion in the wig and gown — a dismissal of individual
responsibility in dressing for the part — which en-
courages that insolent bearing and language, and
that gross perversion of the office of a pleader for
The Truth, so frequent in our courts of law. Still,
I cannot help doubting whether America, in her
desire to shake off the absurdities and abuses of the
old system, may not have gone too far into the
opposite extreme ; and whether it is not desirable,
especially in the small community of a city like
this, where each man knows the other, to surround
the administration of justice with some artificial
barriers against the "Hail fellow, well met" deport-
ment of every-day life. All the aid it can have in
the very high character and ability of the Bench,
not only here, but elsewhere, it has, and well de-



80 AMERICAN NOTES

serves to have ; but it may need something more :
not to impress the thoughtful and the well informed,
but the ignorant and heedless ; a class which in-
cludes some prisoners and many witnesses. These
institutions were established, no doubt, upon the
principle that those who had so large a share in
making the laws would certainly respect them.
But experience has proved this hope to be falla-
cious ; for no men know better than the judges of
America, that on the occasion of any great popular
excitement the law is powerless, and cannot, for the
time, assert its own supremacy.

The tone of society in Boston is one of perfect
politeness, courtesy, and good-breeding. The ladies
are unquestionably very beautiful — in face : but
there I am compelled to stop. Their education is
much as with us ; neither better nor worse. I had
heard some very marvellous stories in this respect ;
but, not believing them, was not disappointed. Blue
ladies there are in Boston ; but, like philosophers
of that color and sex in most other latitudes, they
rather desire to be thought superior than to be so.
Evangelical ladies there are, likewise, whose attach-
ment to the forms of religion, and horror of theatri-
cal entertainments, are most exemplary. Ladies
who have a passion for attending lectures are to be
found among all classes and all conditions. In the
kind of provincial life which prevails in cities such
as this, the Pulpit has great influence. The peculiar
province of the Pulpit in New England (always
excepting the Unitarian ministry) would appear to
be the denouncement of all innocent and rational
amusements. The church, the chapel, and the lec-
ture-room are the only means of excitement excepted ;



FOR GENERAL, CIRCULATION. 81

and to the church, the chapel, and the lecture-room
the ladies resort in crowds.

Wherever religion is resorted to as a strong drink,
and as an escape from the dull, monotonous round of
home, those of its ministers who pepper the highest
will be the surest to please. They who strew the
Eternal Path with the greatest amount of brimstone,
and who most ruthlessly tread down the flowers and
leaves that grow by the wayside, will be voted the
most righteous ; and they who enlarge with the
greatest pertinacity on the difficulty of getting into
heaven will be considered, by all true believers, cer-
tain of going there: though it would be hard to
say by what process of reasoning this conclusion is
arrived at. It is so at home, and it is so abroad.
With regard to the other means of excitement, the
Lecture, it has at least the merit of being always
new. One lecture treads so quickly on the heels of
another, that none are remembered ; and the course
of this month may be safely repeated next, with
its charm of novelty unbroken, and its interest un-
abated.

The fruits of the earth have their growth in cor-
ruption. Out of the rottenness of these things
there has sprung up in Boston a sect of philoso-
phers known as Transcendentalists. On inquiring
what this appellation might be supposed to signify,
I was given to understand that whatever was un-
intelligible would be certainly transcendental. Not
deriving much comfort from this elucidation, I pur-
sued the inquiry still further, and found that the
Transcendentalists are followers of my friend Mr.
Carlyle, or I should rather say, of a follower of his,
Mr. Ralph Waldo Emerson. This gentleman has
6



82 AMERICAN NOTES

written a volume of Essays, in which, among much
that is dreamy and fanciful (if he will pardon me
for saying so), there is much more that is true and
manly, honest and bold. Transcendentalism has its
occasional vagaries (what school has not ?), but it
has good healthful qualities in spite of them ; not
least among the number a hearty disgust of Cant,
and an aptitude to detect her in all the million vari-
eties of her everlasting wardrobe. And therefore,
if I were a Bostonian, I think I would be a Tran-
scendentalist.

The only preacher I heard in Boston was Mr.
Taylor, who addresses himself peculiarly to sea-
men, and who was once a mariner himself. I
found his chapel down among the shipping, in one
of the narrow, old, water-side streets, with a gay
blue flag waving freely from its roof. In the gal-
lery opposite to the pulpit were a little choir of male
and female singers, a violoncello, and a violin. The
preacher already sat in the pulpit, which was raised
on pillars, and ornamented behind him with painted
drapery of a lively and somewhat theatrical appear-
ance. He looked a weather-beaten, hard-featured
man, of about six or eight and fifty; with deep
lines graven as it were into his face, dark hair, and
a stern, keen eye. Yet the general character of his
countenance was pleasant and agreeable.

The service commenced with a hymn, to which
succeeded an extemporary prayer. It had the fault
of frequent repetition, incidental to all such prayers ;
but it was plain and comprehensive in its doctrines,
and breathed a tone of general sympathy and char-
ity, which is not so commonly a characteristic of
this form of address to the Deity as it might be.



FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 83

That done, he opened his discourse, taking for his
text a passage from the Song of Solomon, laid upon
the desk before the commencement of the service by-
some unknown member of the congregation : " Who
is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on
the arm of her beloved ? "

He handled his text in all kinds of ways, and
twisted it into all manner of shapes; but always
ingeniously, and with a rude eloquence well adapted
to the comprehension of his hearers. Indeed, if I
be not mistaken, he studied their sympathies and
understandings much more than the display of his
own powers. His imagery was all drawn from the
sea, and from the incidents of a seaman's life ; and
was often remarkably good. He spoke to them of
"that glorious man. Lord Nelson," and of Colling-
wood ; and drew nothing in, as the saying is, by the
head and shoulders, but brought it to bear upon
his purpose naturally, and with a sharp mind to its
effect. Sometimes, when much excited with his
subject, he had an odd way — compounded of John
Bunyan and Balfour of Burley — of taking his great
quarto Bible under his arm, and pacing up and down
the pulpit with it ; looking steadily down meantime,
into the midst of the congregation. Thus, when he
applied his text to the first assemblage of his hearers,
and pictured the wonder of the church at their pre-
siimption in forming a congregation among them-
selves, he stopped short with his Bible under his
arm in the manner I have described, and pursued
his discourse after this manner :

" Who are these — who are they — who are these
fellows ? Where do they come from ? Where are
they going to ? — Come from ! What's the answer ? "



84 AMERICAN NOTES

leaning out of the pulpit, and pointing downward
with his right hand : " From below ! " — starting back
again, and looking at the sailors before him : " from
below, my brethren. From under the hatches of sin,
battened down above you by the evil one. That's
where you came from ! " — a walk up and down the
pulpit: "and where are you going?" — stopping
abruptly : " where are you going ? Aloft ! " — very
softly, and pointing upward : " aloft ! " — louder :
" aloft ! " — louder still : " that's where you are going
— with a fair wind, — all taut and trim, steering
direct for Heaven in its glory, where there are no
storms or foul weather, and where the wicked cease
from troubling, and the weary are at rest." — An-
other walk : " That's where you're going to, my
friends. That's it. That's the place. That's the
port. That's the haven. It's a blessed harbor —
still water there, in all changes of the winds and
tides ; no driving ashore upon the rocks, or slipping
your cables and running out to sea there : Peace —
Peace — Peace — all peace ! " — Another walk, and
patting the Bible under his left arm : " What !
These fellows are coming from the wilderness, are
they ? Yes. From the dreary, blighted wilderness
of Iniquity, whose only crop is Death. But do they
lean upon anything — do they lean upon nothing,
these poor seamen ? " — Three raps upon the Bible :
" Oh, yes ! — Yes. — They lean upon the arm of their
Beloved" — three more raps : ''upon the arm of their
Beloved" — three more, and a walk: "Pilot, guid-
ing-star, and compass, all in one, to all hands —
here it is" — three more: "here it is. They can
do their seaman's duty manfully, and be easy in their
minds in the utmost peril and danger, with this " —



FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 85

two more : " they can come, even these poor fellows
can come, from the wilderness, leaning on the arm
of their Beloved, and go up — up — up ! " — raising
his hand higher and higher at every repetition of
the word, so that he stood with it at last stretched
above his head, regarding them in a strange, rajjt
manner, and pressing the book triumphantly to his
breast until he gradually subsided into some other
portion of his discourse.

I have cited this, rather as an instance of the
preacher's eccentricities than his merits, though,
taken in connection with his look and manner, and
the character of his audience, even this was strik-
ing. It is possible, however, that my favorable im-
pression of him may have been greatly influenced
and strengthened, firstly, by his impressing upon
his hearers that the true observance of religion was
not inconsistent with a cheerful deportment and an
exact discharge of the duties of their station, which,
indeed, it scrupulously required of them ; and sec-
ondly, by his cautioning them not to set up any
monopoly in Paradise and its mercies. I never
heard these two points so wisely touched (if, in-
deed, I have ever heard them touched at all) by
any preacher of that kind before.

Having passed the time I spent in Boston in
making myself acquainted with these things, in
settling the course I should take in my future
travels, and in mixing constantly with its society,
I am not aware that I have any occasion to prolong
this chapter. Such of its social customs as I have
not mentioned, however, may be told in a very few
words.

The usual dinner hour is two o'clock. A dinner-



86 AMERICAN NOTES

party takes place at five ; and at an evening party
they seldom sup later than eleven ; so that it goes
hard but one gets home, even from a rout, by mid-
night. I never could find out any difference be-
tween a party at Boston and a party in London,
saving that at the former place all assemblies are
held at more rational hours ; that the conversation
may possibly be a little louder and more cheerful ;
that a guest is usually expected to ascend to the
very top of the house to take his cloak off ; that he
is certain to see, at every dinner, an unusual amount
of poultry on the table ; and at every supper, at
least two mighty bowls of hot stewed oysters, in
any one of which a half-grown Duke of Clarence
might be smothered easily.

There are two theatres in Boston, of good size
and construction, but sadly in want of patronage.
The few ladies who resort to them sit, as of right,
in the front rows of the boxes.

The bar is a large room with a stone floor, and
there people stand and smoke, and lounge about, all
the evening : dropping in and out as the humor
takes them. There, too, the stranger is initiated
into the mysteries of Gin-sling, Cocktail, Sangaree,
Mint Julep, Sherry Cobbler, Timber Doodle, and
other rare drinks. The house is full of boarders,
both married and single, many of whom sleep upon
the premises, and contract by the week for their
board and lodging : the charge for which diminishes
as they go nearer the sky to roost. A public table
is laid in a very handsome hall for breakfast, and
for dinner, and for supper. The party sitting down
together to these meals will vary in number from
one to two hundred : sometimes more. The advent



FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION. 87

of each of these epochs in the day is proclaimed by
an awful gong, which shakes the very window
frames as it reverberates through the house, and
horribly disturbs nervous foreigners. There is an