pped. They have still Courts of Oyer and Terminer,' shout out the old Norman Oh, yes! oh, yes!' Grand ies and all the machinery of English justice are fully mainned, but the Judges wear no robes. Unanimity of the jury still insisted on. I was surprised to see the number of burts at work. The United States Courts, besides dealing ith breaches of the United States laws, decide cases between tizens of different States. The defendant is sued where he found, and in that case the law of the forum that is, of he State where he is--prevails. The United States Courts draw their juries from the locality, but from a larger area than an ordinary jury area. The Supreme Court of the State is only an appellate court; it has no original jurisdiction. In Pennsylvania there is a Court of Common Pleas for each county; and I think I have said that American Counties are very numerous. Then in each township there are justices of the peace for the summary trial of civil and criminal cases. These justices do not always receive salaries, but are always entitled to fees. In this County of Philadelphia the Court of Common Pleas consists of a Chief Justice and eight Judges; and in rural counties there are at least three Judges of the Common Pleas. There are at least a hundred such Judges in the State. I understand, however, that sometimes laymen are elected to sit as Judges in these courts. In Pennsylvania the pay of the Judges ranges from 600l. to 1,5007. per annum. These Judges of the Courts of Common Pleas hold their office for ten years, but they are often re-elected. I was surprised to find the number of jury courts which were sitting about eight were going on all at once in the same set of buildings. In criminal cases not of the very worst class the prisoner may be called as a witness on his own side, but is not otherwise liable to examination. A man who has pleaded guilty can be called. They have two degrees of murder, for the first of which only the punishment is death. The sentence may be commuted by the Governor, who ordinarily acts on the advice of a 'Board of Pardons,' composed of the chief officials. The rules of extradition between different States do not seem to be very well defined. The Governor surrenders

a criminal on the application of another Governor, but he must have prima facie proof of guilt, and may refuse, on the ground that the prisoner will not be fairly tried by jury, or that the demand is made for political objects. Just

now there has been a polemical correspondence between the Governors of Massachusetts and South Carolina on the subject of the surrender of an ex-Governor charged with embezzlement and other offences in his political capacity.

I went to see the proprietary Library here, which seems a large and successful institution. I understand that they have no free libraries in this State, and do not approve of them. I also hear a good deal of expression of opinion that there has been too much education. There seems somewhat a tendency to decry the Common School system. I am, in fact, surprised to find how much of that sort of feeling there seems to be here; but I believe the Common School system was not indigenous in Pennsylvania. New England was its native land.

On the last day of my stay here I met Mr. M, who is a great enthusiast for the coloured races, and who has written for me a number of letters of introduction to people and institutions in the South. Like many of the friends of the coloured people in these days, he has taken up the cause of the Red Indian, whom he and many others declare to be exceedingly ill-used in the Territories where they still remain. He thinks, on the whole, the negro is more improvable than the Red Indian, because he is not too proud, and is willing and anxious to learn; while the red man is very proud, and won't learn if he can help it. Also he says that the red men insist upon the tribal tenure of land, and will not have individual property. A very important fact is, that white men go amongst the red tribes, marry red women, and are adopted into the tribes, and in this way the race is being crossed and may be absorbed; whereas the whites will not intermarry with the negroes nor even with the mulattos. He, or someone else whom I met, laments this, for the curious reason that in slave days these mulattos were bred from the highest and best blood of the whites, whereas some of the white people from very low blood indeed. I had a talk with old Mr. P— about politics. about politics. He says he used to vote Democrat; but now, though he is not much of a politician, he votes Republican, for he thinks that on the whole it is the least dishonest side, and perhaps it is better to keep in the people who are in, and whose maws have been a good deal satisfied, rather than bring in a new set of cormo

come

rants. He says the original difference between the two parties was the question of central power against State power, and some very distinguished men were in this sense great Democrats; but now, he says, the Southern question must be settled, and he prefers that the Republicans should settle it.

There are a great many manufacturing establishments at Philadelphia, and a great variety of manufactures; but I had not time to do much in this way. I was obliged to confine myself more especially to the things belonging to my own trade, and to keep the rest till I returned from the South.

an

There are some very sociable clubs of literary and intellectual people here, who meet periodically at one other's houses, and I am promised the pleasure of assisting at some of these gatherings, if I return later in the season. Fashionable New York was quite out of town when I was there, and Philadelphia still is so for the most part. The winter is the time to see something of the society of American cities.

BALTIMORE.

In the afternoon I started for Baltimore. We passed through a pleasant country, with many houses on the banks. of the river. It was dark before we reached Baltimore. The general aspect of the place seemed to be, that in the lower parts land and water were very much intermixed. At Baltimore I stopped at the Mount Vernon Hotel. It is kept on the European and not on the American plan, and seemed nice, but on experience I was a good deal disappointed with it. They say that this European fashion does not suit people here, and that the hotel, which was once good, is not now well maintained.

Comparing the harbour here with that of Philadelphia and other places, I am told that the United States Government undertake the charge of rivers, harbours, and works of internal navigation. They have made some bad essays in that line in Pennsylvania, and the system altogether leads to a good deal of jobbing. I am inclined to prefer our own system, under which each town and municipality undertakes its own improve

ments.

I have been reading an account of the insolvency laws of the different States, now that the general bankruptcy law of

the United States has expired. In most States a debtor cannot be released without the consent of all his creditors; but, on the other hand, he has very great protection in the exemption from execution of his homestead and the tools of his trade. In almost every State a man's homestead-that is, land of a moderate value and acreage is exempted from execution.

Now

Late this evening Mr. K, a distinguished member of the Society of Friends here, was kind enough to come over and take me with him to his house, where I met some pleasant people. Mr. K- is a well-known philanthropist and friend of the negro. Talking of the blacks with the people I met, they seemed to take a hopeful view of the condition of the negro, and are not severe upon President Hayes' conciliatory administration. They recalled the time, less than twenty years ago, when slaves were openly marched down to be sold in the South; when it was highly penal to teach slaves to read and write; when a very excellent freedman was imprisoned for ten years for possessing a copy of Uncle Tom's Cabin.' the blacks are secure in their freedom; they have votes; and one party or another will sooner or later want their votes. Much, too, is done for their education: here the blacks are kept to separate schools, but these schools are good. The religious position of the blacks is also very good; they are excellent Christians. They have taken to work well. Here in Baltimore they have some branches of industry very much to themselves, notably caulking ships and brick-making. They have, I am told, a ship-caulking company composed entirely of coloured men, and managed by coloured men. I was sorry that in my stay here I did not manage to see something of this company, for this is the only case of which I have heard where black men have successfully managed anything of the kind. They do not own much land, I am told, but they work well on the land in the country about here, as well as in domestic service. They form about a fourth of the population here. I had a curious account of their Freemason and other societies. Freemason lodges are believed to have existed among them. even in the days of slavery, unknown to their masters. The system is said to have been brought from the British colonies; and the Freemasonry among them was, I am told, made very evident during the war.

Next morning I breakfasted with Mr. G, President of the Hopkins University, a man full of information, and to

whom I owe much kindness and assistance during my stay in Baltimore. This Hopkins University is a great recent endowment, and conducted on the most modern principles. They have got over several Englishmen as teachers, including the distinguished mathematician Professor S- I made the acquaintance of Judge A- one of the United States Judges, who has been much employed in the Southern States; and also of Mr. R―, formerly a distinguished Confederate. officer, and now manager of a steamboat and railway company, from both of whom I had much assistance. Again I am told that the negroes are in a very good position in this State, and also in Virginia and North Carolina. The best security that they have is when there are two parties among the whites, each of whom wants the black vote. In North Carolina and Tennessee a great part of the country was Republican, and during the civil war went into rebellion against the Confederate Government. The poor whites owning no slaves never cared for the war. But now things are much more divided by black and white lines. The white man must now assert himself in some way as better than a black. If he does not need the black vote he can only do so by beating the black, and in some States he does that. My subsequent experience, however, leads me to think that this was rather a poetical exaggeration.

From this point Southwards-in the lower country, at any rate, and in days before the war-the system of small independent farms was very much superseded by the plantation system. Virginia was a country of plantations; that is to say, of estates cultivated by slaves. In some parts of the country, where the crops are not valuable, some of these plantations are now a good deal deserted. In some of these places the negroes can live somewhat lazily on fish and crabs, but in most parts they now work well for their living. They can be had as labourers on the railways for fifty cents a day, and are very docile and good workmen. In South Carolina there has been more of extreme reverses and more bitter feeling between classes than in any of the States I have mentioned, and the difficulties there are greater. Georgia has been from the first moderately managed, and is now in a good condition. There have not been many complaints regarding Alabama. Louisiana is said not to have treated the negroes harshly before the war. Mississippi seems to have been and to be