as this is no uncommon state of things in this climate, why pave the streets with flat stones which give no foothold? The Street Cars' are the universal means of conveyance. These are Omnibuses running on tramways, but the name of Omnibus is unknown; if you speak of a 'Bus' you are stared at. A young New Yorker, recently returned from London, was escorting his cousin home one evening; as the way was long, he stopped and said, ' Hold on, Mary, and let's take a Bus.' 'No, George, not here in the street,' the coy damsel replied.

New York is not a difficult city to find your way about in. Along every Avenue runs a line of Street Cars on an iron tramway. The cars take you for ten cents currency, about fourpence English, from one end of the city to the other. The Avenues are the streets which run the length of the city from North to South, parallel to Broadway; and are called First, Second, Third Avenue, numbering from the East. The streets run at right angles to the Avenues; and are called on the one side of Broadway First, Second, and Third East Street, and on the other side of Broadway First, Second, and Third West Street. The whole city is shaped somewhat like a kite, with Broadway for the wooden rib in the middle. The method and arrangement is admirable, but the rate at which you move on wheels would excite the contempt of a London cabby. There are

two Hansome cabs in New York, but they do not take; horses are falling down too much just now.

On the opposite side of the Hudson is Jersey City; and on the opposite side of the East River is Brooklyn; each a large city in itself. Communication is kept with these by large covered ferry-boats running perpetually, carrying at each trip a hundred or more passengers at about three cents a-head, and a score or more of carriages and carts.

At this point (writing in bed) I upset my inkstand, rang the bell violently, and requested the waiter who answered it, to take away the sheet, and take measures for getting the ink out while wet. He replied with great sang-froid, 'That's of no consequence here, we wash it in milk, and it all comes out.' Is that a fact in the old country, or a fiction in the new?

This Fifth Avenue Hotel is a splendid building, at the junction of Twenty-third Street and Fifth Avenue, all faced with white marble. They tell you that they have a hundred suites of apartments, and can accommodate a thousand guests. They board and lodge you at five dollars currency a-day, equal to 16s. 6d. English. The board does not include wines, spirits, or baths. The lodging does not include one of the hundred suites of apartments, but is limited to a small bedroom tolerably high up. You need not weary yourself with climbing; the

lift, like the street cars, is always on the move, always going up except when it is coming down, which is the time when you want to go up. There are some few traps for extras, but easily avoidable.

What do you think of the enclosed Bill of fare, everything cooked in first-rate style, and no limit as to quantity. You may have everything marked on the bill for breakfast on the table at once if you like. I have not seen any one attempt to swallow the bill and the whole bill yet; but it is not at all an uncommon thing to see a man order half-a-dozen meat-dishes for breakfast. A gentleman told me yesterday, that there has lately been a successful strike among the bricklayers and plasterers; and that the contractor who is finishing a house for him is paying them six dollars currency (equal to 198. 7 d.) a-day. Of course this is an instance of a very successful strike; but the result is that Pat the bricklayer might be living at the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and have a dollar a-day to spend upon beer, tobacco, and tailors' bills.

The currency is in a great state of complication here; silver and gold, I am told, we shall never see again until we return to England. Gold being yesterday at 137%, the pound sterling was worth six dollars and ten cents of currency' or American paper-money, which is the current coin of the commonwealth in which hotel bills and wages are

paid. The condition of the small paper-money is indescribable; imagine bank-notes having to stand the wear and tear of a copper currency. Ancient curl-papers are nothing to them. F received a Five-cent bill yesterday in change, fresh, I fancy, from the recesses of a negro's pocket; the (s)cent was quite plain about it. He held it at arm's length, sniffed at it, and presented it gravely to a beggar; and proposes to tell his friends at home that you never in New York give a beggar less than a banknote. It is the filthiest lucre invented yet.

We went to-day to the top of Trinity Church tower; a beautiful panorama, with the bay of New York to the south, the city stretching away northward, and a great river on either side. But it was bitterly cold at the top, as we had heavy snow yesterday, and the wind was blowing keenly. We went also to the Gold Exchange, and gold happened to be very sensitive' this morning and would go up, in consequence of some rumours from Mexico, which made it possible that the time for United States interference was nearer than had been supposed. The noise was deafening; neither the Stock Exchange nor the Ring at Epsom at all approach it. All the men engaged in a business which one would suppose required more experience than any other, the buying and selling of gold, seemed to be under twenty-five years of age; most of them much

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younger, some quite boys. The reason given me was that older heads could not stand the tumult. All gesticulating, all vociferating, every man with a note-book and pencil, crowded round a ring in the centre of the Hall like a little cock-pit to which you descend by steps; every now and then a man struggles out from the crush, and rushes to the telegraph office in the corner of the Hall; every now and then a man rushes out of the telegraph corner with some news, which oozes out and makes the crowd howl and seethe again. The hands of a big dial on the wall are moved on from time to time, marking the hour of the day and the price of gold. This is the dial of the barometer of national prosperity, marked by gold instead of mercury.

As the magazines say, 'To be continued in our next.'

Dec. 19, '66, Wednesday.

The ice bears well. Walked up to Central Park to see the skating. Last year there were forty days' continuous skating here; so you may suppose they bring it to some perfection. Several ladies were skating beautifully; one doing the outside edge backward in a style not often seen. Athletic sports generally are making progress here; and skating is highly fashionable. It is said to have made its way South from Canada; but New York has not yet started the splendid Canadian Rinks,' which answer