The Supreme Court consists of a Chief and eight Associate Judges, who are nominated by the President for life or during good behaviour. The judges of the district courts are elected by the people.

The Revenue of the United States is at present about 75,000,000l. sterling, raised from customs, taxes, Government lands &c.; it has been largely augmented since the War, chiefly by heavy customs' duties being imposed. The States raise their own revenue for local purposes. The currency since the War has been entirely in paper, and consists of dollars and cents: the dollar being nominally worth about 4s. 2d., and the cent a halfpenny. The premium on gold is at present about thirteen per cent. in New York.

There is no established religion in the States-no hereditary titles of any sort-no law of entail. There is a standing army of about 30,000 men and a small navy, both largely recruited from foreigners. The expenditure on both was only 11,000,000l. sterling in the past year. The public debt incurred during the War is being paid off at the rate of 20,000,000l. sterling annually.

CHAPTER II.

THE VOYAGE-NEW YORK-THE AMERICANS-THEIR

ENERGY-THEIR SILENCE.

I LEFT Liverpool on Thursday, September 5th, 1872, in the Inman screw steamer 'City of Brooklyn.' We carried 110 cabin passengers, besides some 500 in the steerage. After a rough night in the Irish Channel, we reached Queenstown, Ireland, at 9 o'clock the following morning, and I took the opportunity of landing to call on General Sherman, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Army, who happened to be at the hotel, waiting to embark in the 'Baltic.' At 4 p.m. we had received the express mails, viâ Dublin, and were steaming along the south coast of Ireland on our way to New York.

Almost all our passengers were Americans, many of whom had been making a summer tour in England or on the Continent. We had also the late U.S. Consul at Liverpool on

board, to whose ability and energy during the War his Government chiefly owed their successful prosecution of the Alabama claims. I was indebted to this gentleman for much excellent advice and information in regard to my projected tour, and to his amiable family for an intimacy which made the voyage only too short. The weather was generally cold, and occasionally rainy; for two days we had strong head winds and the usual discomfort attending a pitching steamer. On the 12th we were running over the Great Bank of Newfoundland, passing Cape Race in the night; this is sometimes sighted on the voyage. This is the region of icebergs, which however are rarely met with at this time of year; from April to July a sharp look-out is kept for them, and a more southerly course is generally pursued on the Great Circle.

The City of Boston,' which was lost three or four years ago, belonged to the Inman line; she sailed from Halifax in the month of February and was never more heard of; it is supposed that she perished in the packice floating down from the north; a hurricane was blowing at the time and she probably broke up and foundered in a few minutes.

The passage of the North Atlantic can indeed never be considered free from danger. In winter there are storms which often last for days, and seas such as are probably met with on no other ocean; in summer there are thunderstorms and icebergs; so that a smooth passage at any time is altogether exceptional. In one season, three steamers went ashore one after the other, owing to their compasses being affected by a magnetic

storm.

However, we escaped all these casualties, took the pilot on board on Sunday night, the 15th, and on Monday morning were running past Sandy Hook through a cold wind and drizzling rain. But the weather fortunately cleared up just in time, and leaving Staten. Island with its green and wooded heights and picturesque villas on our left, we entered the beautiful harbour of New York, anchored in the North River about 10 o'clock, and after some delay were carried off by the tender to the Custom House Wharf. A cursory and very civil inspection of baggage followed and consigning it all to the care of one of the express agents, I started on foot and enquired my way to the St. Nicholas Hotel, in Broadway, to which I had been.

recommended as a thoroughly American house in every respect.

New York is situated at the mouth of the Hudson River, in latitude 41°, longitude 74°. The city proper is built on Manhattan Island, which is separated by the Hudson from Jersey City on the west, and by the East River from Brooklyn and the smaller suburbs on Long Island. The south or lower end of Manhattan Island forms the business quarter of the city and is the older portion. The upper end contains the more fashionable quarter and the majority of the dwelling houses, and stretches along to the Central Park, which may perhaps be 'central' before many years. Broadway, the principal thoroughfare, runs about midway through the length of the city, and is in breadth and general appearance very like Oxford Street, London.

New York proper has about 1,000,000 inhabitants, but including Brooklyn, Jersey City and the other suburbs, the whole population is over a million and a half. The general aspect of the city is like London, with a touch of Paris about it. Stone and even marble are extensively used in the houses, and many of the public buildings, and even

C