attempt they did not succeed in murdering their opponents; but in a second, a few months afterwards, they were more successful—the editor was effectually silenced, and several of his friends were injured for life—an achievement, in honour of which every statue of Liberty in the city ought to have been presented with a new bonnet rouge, with directions to pull it well down over her eyes, and not tell anybody who gave it to

her.

The same injudicious spirit manifested itself in the men of Baltimore at the opening of another war. In 1860 some Northern troops, having occasion to pass through Baltimore to the defence of Richmond, were attacked by the populace, and many were killed on both sides. A horrible sight that street of Baltimore must have been to the inhabitants. Brothers slain by brothers lying in the business thoroughfares, their mingled blood trickling past the thresholds -an earnest of the work that was to follow! Baltimore was so fortunate as to escape the ravages of war, though more than once its fate trembled in the balance-sinking and rising as the smoke of the rebel lines rolled backwards and forwards over the heights of Antietam and Gettysburg. It is a city of great commercial importance, perhaps less so since than before the war; but it still carried on a large trade in

Southern produce-cotton, coffee, sugar, Indian corn, timber, &c. That its citizens did not let these commodities pass without paying tribute, the number of well-to-do houses in the city amply testifies.

Baltimore is not remarkable for fine buildings. Had we seen them before those of Philadelphia we might have thought more of some of them, but the latter city, with its churches and colleges fairly eclipses all the lesser lights. As usual, the Catholic Church takes the first place in the ecclesiastical architecture of the city. It is nearly square in form, is built of solid granite, and contains one of the largest organs in the United States-six hundred pipes, I believe. It is also the proud possessor of two fine paintings "The Descent from the Cross," and "St. Louis before Tunis "-the former presented by Louis XVI., the latter by Charles X. of France. Baltimore is one of the strongholds of the Catholic faith in America, and has been from the first-Lord Baltimore having, apparently, bequeathed his religion as well as his name to the city.

The Americans are very fond of giving pet names to their cities, and indulge in the ring of some rather long-winded paraphrase with neverfailing delight. For instance-New York is the Empire City; New Orleans, the Crescent City;

St. Louis, the Mound City; Memphis, the Bluff City; Natchez, the City of the Bluffs; San Francisco, the Queen City of the West; and Baltimore is the Monumental City-probably because it has two or three not very striking edifices of the kind. The Washington monument towers to the height of one hundred and eighty feet, and is of white marble. Another, of no great elevation or beauty, commemorates the defeat of the British at Baltimore-as though Americans ever could forget a defeat of the British, even if it should be such an as that of New Orleans, where the Americans were all the time behind a rampart, with a swamp in front of it, and lost only six men!

CHAPTER XIII.

RIVAL CAPITALS.

HE road from Richmond to Washington -from the Confederate to the Federal

capital—is one not only of historical interest, but of great natural beauty. The autumn season, and especially the month of November, in which nature arrays herself in her richest and most marvellous garb, is, above all, the time for a stranger who would see the country in its greatest beauty, to visit America. Not only is the foliage on the trees beautiful, but the ground is covered with dead flowers which have withered on their stems, but yet retain loveliness equal to that of life, though of a distinctly different character. These dried flowers are of infinite variety, and if gathered before the snow settles upon them for the winter, they can be made into exquisite bouquets of white, downy blossoms, scarlet berries, and rich bronze leaves. The whole earth teems with

delightful surprises for the lover of botany and of nature; and nowhere were these features of beauty more strikingly exhibited than on our journey to the Potomac from Richmond. The country was undulated-rising in gentle slopes covered with waving grain, and intersected with rivers and small streams, from whose banks hung the golden boughs of the oak and the maple.

The cars on this line were the cleanest, the most elegant, and most comfortable of any I had seen in the United States. The seats were larger, and handsomely cushioned in crimson and green velvet; the wood-work in bird's-eye maple; the floors were carpeted, and the ceilings were lofty and gaily frescoed.

The country was all so smiling and lovely in its peacefulness, that it was difficult to realize it as the theatre of a recent bloody struggle. A glance at the map of the operations of the two opposing armies, in the country between Richmond and Washington, showed it seamed with lines denoting the marches and counter-marches of the struggling hosts, and covered with crossed swords, indicating the spots where they fell by thousands in battle. Just at the entrance to Fredericksburg was the Federal cemetery, almost the only attesting witness of the dreadful struggle which had filled it. It lay on the hill