to be his principal forte; for he described in metaphors, that brought down rounds of applause from a most excited and enraptured audience, his pleasant home and pretty vicinage of the parental domain in dear Erin, "that land of the free," and then most pictorially described the griefs, sufferings, and privations, that he had endured during his judicial banishment in the penal settlements of Australia. I must confess, I had little sympathy with one who deliberately rebelled against the powers that were; but I could not help admiring the racy wit and fervid eloquence which he used in illustrating his subject. The character of LALOR SHIEL was the leading topic of his discourse, and he certainly did ample justice to the wonderful talents, startling oratory, and true patriotism of Shiel during the long struggle for Catholic emancipation; but oh, what a change was there in his note, when he spoke of the Right Honourable Lalor Shiel, a placeman in the Saxon government-the enslavers of Irelandverily he became himself a slave. He was very severe, also, on the conduct of various English sovereigns that had visited Ireland, but on none more so than George IV., whose epicurean and profligate habits, as well as the fawning servility of his courtiers, he lashed with unmitigated severity.

XVIII.-POLICE SYSTEM OF BOSTON
AND NEW YORK.

I ONE day looked into a police-court, when a trial was going on respecting the stealing of a coat. The accused and the witnesses were coloured people, and, no doubt, the crime had been committed in the locality where the negro population reside, called Nigger Hill. The young defendant had several witnesses to speak as to his character. One elderly coloured man stated that he had known the accused from his infancy, and always known him to be honest; and, continued he, "if Johnson took de coat, it must have been because he was not tinking; but, gentlemen, I's sure you don't believe he done it.

The charge brought by that gentleman dere is all out of spite." The case took a more serious look when a pretty little Creole girl spoke, with tears coursing down her cheeks, in the young man's favour. The counsel, in examining the witnesses, seemed to have a quick off-hand manner, and spoke with as much assurance as if he had been the judge instead of the prosecuting lawyer. The aspect of the Court closely resembles those in England, only that here, and indeed in all the law offices, high or low, throughout the Union, neither judge, counsel, nor any of the officials wear either wigs or gowns. For my part, however, though I dislike parade or useless show of any kind in such cases, yet I think that a gown at least

serves to give the officials of the law a distinctive appearance as the parties actually connected with the Court, and without it, a stranger can scarcely distinguish, in a crowded Hall of Justice, the lawyer from the witness, until the former begins to speak.

I shall now say a few words about the POLICE FORCE OF BOSTON. "A sturdy and well-chosen band are they." Being all picked men: selected for their good character, respectable connexions, and great physical strength. They patrol the streets with small canes in their hands, and, I must say, kept the city in excellent order; but, in the event of a disturbance, a weapon is carried in their pockets resembling a lifepreserver, which, if required, they use with great effect on those who violently resist their authority. They wear no uniform, like the English police, but have, by way of distinction, a small silver star on the left breast, which is covered, however, when their overcoats, are put on, and they have the appearance only of ordinary American citizens.

When I first arrived in Boston, as a perfect stranger, I was much indebted to the courtesy of these men for directing me about and explaining matters of which I was ignorant; in fact, it is only just that I should bear witness to their gentleman-like deportment in general. I wish I could say the same of the New York police; but the specimens I met with (the choice, it is true, might have been unfortunate) were the most uncouth jacks-in-office I ever encountered. I am fully

aware that the Broadway is a crowded thoroughfare, and that their tempers are hence sorely tried; nevertheless, civility costs no more than churlishness in answering a stranger's questions. What may be the reason of the difference between the policeman of the two cities I know not; but I have heard that the Boston police are more liberally paid, receiving as much as twelve dollars a week. If this even be the case, they well deserve it for their uniform good conduct and civility.

The law in the Granite-city (so they sometimes term Boston) with regard to drunkenness is very stringent; for all persons found intoxicated in the streets, whether riotous or not, are at once taken off to the station-house. I asked an American the reason of this, and remarked that this practice accorded but ill with my ideas of a free nation; whereupon, he explained that the motive was a good one; that drunken men were often robbed and ill-used, and hence that the civic authorities had deemed it best to have them taken care of till morning, and mulcted in a small fine of two dollars and a half, or else merely reprimanded and sent home sober men.

Another curious fact, showing the strictness of the police is this, that any person found smoking a cigar in the leading thoroughfare-Washington Street-is liable to a fine of not less than three dollars; and though this severe law is not always carried into effect, still persons are in danger of being tapped on the shoulder and asked to accompany the man with the star to durance vile. I

have often, unconscious of wrong, smoked the forbidden weed in the above street without rebuke; but on the other hand, I have seen cases reported in the newspapers of persons fined for this factitious offence. On inquiring the reason for the enactment of such a law, I was told that it was intended to counteract the filthy and ungentlemanlike propensity of certain silly juvenile swells for spitting on the ladies' dresses, as thay walked behind them, puffing their Cubas. This, if true, says but little for the gallantry of some of the young Bostonians; and it seems rather hard that all the community should be deprived of an innocent recreation for the offences of a few, who should be well horse-whipped on the spot for so gross a breach of good manners.

XIX.-HISTORICAL NOTICE OF BOSTON.

HAVING now pretty well exhausted all I had to say respecting the capital of Massachusetts, I shall give a brief sketch of its history, which is more than usually interesting, and conclude with some remarks on the state of education and literature in that city.

Boston was founded in 1630 (only ten years after the landing of the Pilgrim-fathers at Plymouth), by the settlers at Charlestown, on the shores of Massachusetts' Bay; and it received its name out of compliment to the Rev. John Cotton, a persecuted clergyman from Boston,