the interests of friends, but on their own steadiness, énergy and talent? I earnestly commend these questions to the attention of the many fathers and sons in England for whom the subject has a real and pressing interest.

ST. LOUIS

CHAPTER VII.

CINCINNATI · PITTSBURG WASHINGTON PHILADELPHIA BOSTON-THE GREAT FIRE-HARVARD

UNIVERSITY-AMERICAN TECHNICAL EDUCATION.

ST. LOUIS, the capital of the West, and the largest town in the State of Missouri, contains more than 300,000 inhabitants and is situated on the Mississippi, about eighty miles above the junction of that river with the Ohio. It has some fine streets and buildings, but I do not know that there is anything particular to be said about them. I travelled hence to Cincinnati, the chief city of Ohio, passing through the States of Illinois and Indiana, through an undulating country which appeared to be well wooded and cultivated.

Cincinnati is a large and populous city of more than 200,000 inhabitants, which like Chicago, does a great trade in pork and grain. I here made the acquaintance of Col. Merrill of the U.S. Engineers, in charge of the Ohio

Navigation works, who kindly showed me the lions of the town, including the great suspension and railway bridges over the river, and a bronze fountain erected by Mr. Tyler Davidson, which is the most beautiful and appropriate work of the kind that I ever beheld. It came however from Munich, and though it owes its existence to American munificence, is not an example of American

art.

From Cincinnati, I journeyed to Springfield, to spend a pleasant day with a fellow passenger across the Atlantic, a retired Judge of the State, who had kindly invited me to his house. I had left the prairies behind me, and the pretty, hilly country reminded me of the west of England. A long day's journey carried me to Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, the seat of extensive iron and glass works and the head-quarters of the great mineral wealth of the Quaker State. It also does a large trade in coal and petroleum. In spite of these mineral resources, however, there is a considerable importation of English iron into the country for important engineering structures, and a large quantity of cannelcoal was even imported until very lately for the use of the American gas-com

panies. On the other hand, owing to the late excessive rise in prices at home, many orders for coal at foreign ports were being executed from American mines at the time of my visit.

From Pittsburg to Harrisburg, my way lay along the Pennsylvanian Central Railway, one of the finest roads in the States, which crosses the Alleghanies by a series of steep gradients and sharp curves through some of the finest scenery in America; from Harrisburg, I travelled through Baltimore to Washington, passing the beautiful Susquehanna River and its lovely islands.

Washington, as everybody knows, is the political capital of the States, of no importance in a commercial point of view, very busy during the annual session of Congress in the winter, and rather empty and uninteresting at all other times. It is, however, well laid out, and has some fine streets and avenues, besides some very beautiful public buildings. The U. S. Treasury, the Post Office and the Patent Office are all built of white marble and are worthy of a great country.

The Capitol, which contains the two Houses of Congress and the necessary Offices, is also of white marble, and is one of the largest and

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handsomest buildings in the world. It stands on a very commanding site, and its splendid dome is visible for many miles in the flat country around. The Senate Chamber and the Hall of Representatives are handsome and convenient structures, but not particularly striking. They have however ample accommodation for the public in the galleries, a large portion of which is reserved for ladies, the whole arrangement contrasting favourably with the niggardly accommodation provided in our own Houses.

In the Rotunda beneath the dome, are eight interesting historical paintings, depicting various scenes in early American history, notably the signing of the famous Declaration of Independence, and the surrender of Lord Cornwallis to Washington at Yorktown which virtually ended the war. I confess I regarded these pictures with feelings of as deep an interest as if I had been an American. Every Englishman now-a-days must sympathise with that gallant resistance to tyranny and successful struggle for freedom, and do full justice. to the patriotism and virtues of Washington and his contemporaries in the difficult task that lay before them. After all, they were our own countrymen who dealt us this heavy