candour and innocence, they regarded the company most in competition with their own, with a degree of jealous animosity. Each company, at a certain time of the year, went in a body to the hills, to gather a particular kind of berries. It was a sort of annual festival, attended with religious punctuality. Every company had a uniform for this purpose; that is to say, very pretty light baskets made by the Indians, with lids and handles, which hung over the arm, and were adorned with various colours. One company would never allow the least degree of taste to the other in this instance; and was sure to vent its whole stock of spleen in decrying the rival baskets. Nor would they ever admit, that the rival company gathered near so much fruit on these excursions as they did. The parents of these children seemed very much to encourage this manner of marshalling and dividing themselves. Every child was permitted to entertain the whole company on its birthday, and once besides, during winter and spring. The master and mistress of the family always were bound to go from home on these occasions, while some old domestic was left to attend and watch over them, with an ample provision of tea, chocolate, preserved and dried fruits, nuts, and cakes of various kinds, to which was added cider or a syllabub, for these young friends met at four, and did not part till nine

or ten, and amused themselves with the utmost gayety and freedom, in any way their fancy dictated. Other children or young people visit occasionally, and are civilly treated, but they admit of no person that does not belong to the company. The consequence of these exclusive and early intimacies was, that, grown up, it was reckoned a sort of apostacy to marry out of one's company, and indeed, it did not often happen. The girls, from the example of their mothers, rather than any compulsion, became very early, notable and industrious, being constantly employed in knitting stockings, and making clothes for the family and slaves: they even made all the boys' clothes. This was the more necessary, as all articles of clothing were extremely dear. Though all the necessaries of life, and some luxuries, abounded, money as yet was a scarce commodity. This industry was the more to be admired, as children were here indulged to a degree that, in our vitiated state of society, would have rendered them good for nothing. But there, where ambition, vanity, and the more turbulent passions were scarce awakened; where pride, founded on birth, or any external pre-eminence, was hardly known; and where the affections flourished fair and vigorous, unchecked by the thorns and thistles with which our minds are cursed in a more advanced state of refinement; affection restrained pa

rents from keeping their children at a distance, and inflicting harsh punishments. But then they did not treat them like apes or parrots, by teaching them to talk with borrowed words and ideas, and afterward gratifying their own vanity by exhibiting these premature wonders to company, or repeating their sayings. They were tenderly cherished, and early taught that they owed all their enjoyments to the divine source of beneficence, to whom they were finally accountable for their ac tions; for the rest, they were very much left to nature, and permitted to range about at full liberty in their earliest years, covered in summer with some slight and cheap garb, which merely kept the sun from them, and in winter with some warm habit, in which convenience only was consulted. Their dress of ceremony was never put on but when their company assembled. They were extremely fond of their children; but, luckily for the latter, never dreamed of being vain of their immature wit and parts, which accounts, in some measure, for the great scarcity of coxcombs among them. The children returned the fondness of their parents with such tender affection, that they feared giving them pain as much as ours 'do punishment, and very rarely wounded their feelings by neglect, or rude answers. Yet the boys were often wilful and giddy

at a certain age, the girls being sooner tamed and domesticated.

"These youths were apt, whenever they could carry a gun, (which they did at a very early period,) to follow some favourite negro to the woods, and, while he was employed in felling trees, range the whole day in search of game, to the neglect of all intellectual improvement, and contract a love of savage liberty, which might, and in some instances did, degenerate into licentious and idle habits. Indeed, there were three stated periods in the year, when, for a few days, young and old, masters and slaves, were abandoned to unruly enjoyment, and neglected every serious occupation for pursuits of this nature."

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LETTER XIV.

Academies and Common Schools-Albany Academy for Boys -Dr. Beck-The Female Academy-Introduced by Mr. Crittenton to the different Departments-The plan of Instruction-Dr. Barber's System of Elocution—“ The Lan÷ guage of the Flowers," a poetical effusion from a young Lady of the Academy-Description of the Building—Location, etc.-- The Baptist Church-The old Capitol-Architectural description of the new State Hall-Of St. Paul's Church-South Dutch Church-The Old Stone PulpitNorth Dutch Church.

Albany, June 1, 1836.

FRIEND P.-No state in the union surpasses New York, in the liberal provisions made for private education. There is scarcely a town or village, on the borders of the Hudson, that is not provided with one or more Academies, High Schools, or other institutions of learning, which are libeerally supported, and generally well managed. It is in the common school system that we are deficient. The rich and the middling classes are provided for, while the poor are passed by, or almost entirely neglected. In New England, and particularly in Massachusetts, the common schools are of an elevated character, and are attended by all classes. The children of the rich and the poor meet together; they enjoy similar privileges and advan