left to the common, gratuitous, unrestrained use of all. Instead of being paid for, by the gallon or pailful, as it is insome of the Atlantic cities, it should be free for every one, who uses it, as the air he breathes. Its copious use, instead of being restricted, should be encouraged, for the promotion of health, and cleanliness, and comfort.

In what more important or more honorable enterprise, could city governments be embarked? It is an enterprise, in which were exercised the skill and talents of some of the sagest and greatest men of antiquity. Proofs of this are on the page of history. Proofs are visible, too, in all the chief cities of the old world. Think of the superb marble fountains, which you saw in Paris, Rome and Florence-the ornaments and the boast of those illustrious capitals-the water gushing from them, in incessant torrents, fresh and health-giving, and free to all-to the bourgeois and the beggar, as to the pope, or the king.

"You are giving

"At what are you driving?" you will ask. me a dissertation instead of first impressions." It is true, and I will only add, that I heartily wish, that we had numerous imitations of the beautiful and invaluable fountain of the Piaza del Populo, at Rome, in Baltimore, in Boston, in New York, and in all parts of our country.

The aqueduct of the Pennsylvania Canal over the Alleghany river is a great curiosity. At a distance, I took it for a covered bridge. It is built on arches, and is a handsome, substantial structure. The learned professions, one would think, must be fostered at Pittsburgh. The Divinity tree, the Medical tree, and the Law tree are all full of Limbs. There are, I am told, thirty lawyers here, twenty-nine or thirty physicians, and more than twenty clergymen, belonging to ten different denominations. No one, methinks, can absent himself from church for want of a speaker of his own persuasion. The citizens have the reputation of being a moral, church-going people, and I have witnessed nothing to mar that character. Several of the church edifices are stately and capacious, but have nothing finical, or gaudy, or costly, in their finish. The Cathedral is the most splendid.

The lands on which the city looks out are hilly, and somewhat broken, but afford noble sites for country mansions, some of which are already erected, and others being built. One of the best I saw is owned by an Episcopal clergyman.

The bituminous coal, which the hills in this neighborhood embosom, is exceedingly abundant. Thirty centuries will not, it is présumed, exhaust, nor materially diminish, the quantity. The principal source of this combustible is termed "Coal Hill." It is situated directly opposite to the city, on the west side of the Monongahela. The coal occurs in strata, varying from six inches to ten or twelve feet in thickness. It is connected, in nearly all the localities, which I have examined, with a shalely argillaceous slate, with sandstone, and secondary limestone. It is frequently found deposited high up in the hill, two or three hundred feet above the river, and sometimes cropping out, at different altitudes, on its sides. I have not yet, in this quarter, seen coal brought up, as it usually is in Europe, from pits sunk deep in the earth, by laborious and costly means. It is easily procured, being always brought down from higher lands. This difference in location renders the price of the combustible moderate. A respectable looking coal distributer, who was supplying the inhabitants in one of the streets, told me, that the price he obtained, the present season, varied from seven to ten cents a bushel, and that it cost him at the pit, when dug, from four to five cents a bushel. Iron ore, too, of a good quality, is plentiful in this part of Pennsylvania, and is extensively and profitably wrought.

The location of Pittsburgh is particularly fortunate in more respects than one. It will, beyond question, continue to be an important manufacturing town, as long as the stirring power of her furnaces and her steam-engines shall exist in the hills, which surround her, and this, I fancy, will be about as long as the moon will endure. From its position, at the head of large steamboat navigation, it is, already, a place of much commercial business, and is, I cannot doubt, destined at no far distant day, to become one of the principal emporiums of the West. It will be, to the regions of the vast valley of the Mississippi, what Tyre once was to the countries

around the Mediterranean. It is true, there is, at present, a stoppage here, in some cases, and a retardation in all, of the wheels of business of all descriptions, as there is in every eastern city, in consequence of the universal derangement in the money-market. Everywhere people are complaining of the "hardness of the times" of the scarcity of money. Everywhere, they are issuing bulls of condemnation against the hoary-headed ex-president, General Jackson, charging him with being the sole cause of all the evil under the pressure of which the country is now groaning and sweating. The malady has not reached its crisis. It is still increasing, and is felt as severely by those, who toil on the water, as by those, who smite the anvil, or dig the soil. Many capacious and elegant steamboats are lying idle, for want of freight-strung along the bank of the Monongahela, giving it a truly sombre aspect and here they will probably remain during the summer. We counted twenty-seven in a single row.

LETTER IV.

Wretched turnpike-Half-way house-Canonsburg-Washington-National road, an honor to the Nation and a blessing to the country.

MAY 25.

MY DEAR C. At 3 o'clock this afternoon, we left Pittsburg as we entered it-the heavens pouring their contents fast upon usand crossed the long covered bridge, which bestrides the Monongahela. Our road is a turnpike. It ought to be good, as toll is demanded, but, malheureusement, it is, at the present time, the most vilain, which your imagination can picture. After working our way, inch by inch, through 'lots' of mud, and softened clay; after climbing hills, and crossing dells; our horse leg-weary and ourselves worn-up, by walking and wading and wallowing, we find ourselves stationary for the night, at a little tidy tavern, kept by a widowed lady-the half-way house between Pittsburg and Washington. We are now bound, you must know, for Wheeling

in Virginia. The distance, by land, one guide book tells us is sixty-one miles; another, fifty-five. Following the sinuous Ohio, it is ninety-two miles.

Is it cold this evening in Baltimore? We are seated before a bright sparkling fire, and it affords no slight comfort. Preparations, we see, are making for a first-rate supper. As soon as the operation of eating is over, we shall solicit an interview with old Morpheus. And so no more to-night.

WASHINGTON, MAY 26.

This is a sunny morning and we took it by the fore-lock, being in our tiny vehicle at six. On our route hither, we have passed through Canonsburg-a pleasent village-planted in a country, rough and broken, but rich in grass and cattle and wheat. In this village stands Jefferson College. It was founded in 1802. The college building has three stories and makes rather an imposing appearance. I had an introductory letter for the president, but did not allow myself time to deliver it. To-day we have had a transient view of a number of splendid farms, whose occupants seemed to have, clustered around them, all of earth's gifts, which man needs to render his brief existence a blessing. The minerals, which came under my notice, were chlorite, argillaceous slate, a gray carbonate of lime, interspersed with animal fossils, and bituminous coal, which exhibited itself in a multitude of places, even near the pathway.

1

We are now at Washington-not in the District of Columbia-we see no Capitol-no monument to the naval brave-no marble fountain to gaze at-no White House to excite wonderment. But we see a college edifice, built of stone, a court house, banks, and other public and private structures, which would be no defasement to any Washington in the land. The town is finely situated, in the midst of a noble agricultural region, and comprises about three thousand souls.

It is delightful to be brought again on the National road. Travelling on it is indeed a pleasure, after our laborious trudging for the last twenty-four hours. This is, in fact, a magnificent high

way, and everywhere shows proof of having been constructed by the Nation's hand. It is well made. The roads of Scotland, overspread as they are, with pulverized greenstone, which, by cementing together, forms a surface, as hard, and as durable as the mountain granite, are not better. It is an honor to the government which formed it-a lasting memorial of its regard for its sovereign, the People Happy would it be for the country had the whole of the surplus revenue, of which we lately boasted so loudly, been expended in constructing another similar road in some other direction across the entire Union.

LETTER V.

Wheeling-McCrary's Hotel-Manufactories-Coal-Port of Entry.

WHEELING, MAY 27.

The monarch of day was just stepping over his mid-way line, when we arrived at this river city. Wheeling does not come quite up to my expectation. I had heard many encomiums bestowed on it, and perhaps expected too much. It is not wanting, however, in enterprise, nor, in ordinary times, in business, commercial or manufacturing, nor has it an unsightly or inconvenient location. It is placed along the eastern margin of the Ohio, and pressed into close proximity with the water, by a sturdy range of abrupt hills, which lie directly back of it. Only a very narrow tract of alluvial ground is allowed for the site of the city. The town consists, principally, of two long streets, running parallel with the stream, which are intersected at right angles, by a number of shorter ones. On these streets are erected many spacious and lofty stores, ware-houses, manufactories, and some elegant private dwellings.

We drove to McCrary's hotel. It stands near the river, and in full view of the steamboat landing. Little circumstances often decide our movements. I had known Mr. McCrary at the East. He long kept a public house in Howard street, Baltimore, and had