I asked if by their institutions they meant their hospitals and penitentiaries.

"Oh no! we mean the glorious institutions which are coeval with the revolution." "Is it," I asked, "your institution of marriage, which you have made purely a civil and not a religious rite, to be performed by a justice of peace, instead of a clergyman ?" "Oh no! we speak of our divine political institutions." Yet still I was in the dark, nor can I guess what they mean, unless they call incessant electioneering, without pause or interval for a single day, for a single hour, of their whole existence, "a glorious institution." Their unequalled freedom, I think, I understand better.

Their code of common law is built upon ours; and the difference between us is this, in England the laws are acted upon, in America they are not.
I do not speak of the police of the Atlantic cities; I believe it is well arranged: in New York it is celebrated for being so; but out of the range of their influence, the contempt of law is greater than I can venture to state, with any hope of being believed.

Trespass, assault, robbery, nay, even murder, are often committed without the slightest attempt at legal interference.
During the summer that we passed most delightfully in Maryland, our rambles were often restrained in various directions by the advice of our kind friends, who knew the manners and morals of the country.

When we asked the cause, we were told, "There is a public-house on that road, and it will not be safe to pass it," The line of the Chesapeak and Ohio canal passed within a few miles of Mrs.S--'s residence.