— Cheeky argent and azure, on a chevron tennt, between three monkies' heads erased or, a mushroom proper between two asses' heads couped of the first. For Crest — on a foolscap, tasselled and belled or, a dexter arm flexed sable, holding in its fat clinched of the same a white-wash brush proper. With the Motto, Rerum novarum studiosi* Should the gentlemen object to this, that in a republican government, where all men are equal, and families are confounded as soon as founded, the distinction of armorial bearings would be, like all other distinctions, a very great absurdity, besides an indecent parade above their fellow-citizens, who ought to hold their crests as high as they, I answer — that, as every individual in their city, no matter what may be his station or his origin, that can afford to keep his carriage, paints upon the pannels, merely as an innocent ornament, the arms that Mr. Lovett, sealengraver, may find belonging to his name, which arms most generally display a duke's or an earl's coronet surmounting them, I cannot see why they, the gentlemen aforesaid, may not in their corporate capacity be scutcheoned likewise,— especially as they aspire to no distinction above the coxcomb of a private gentleman.

And since I am upon the subject of distinctions, I would remark, that, as every man naturally would raise himself to a level with his neighbour — the secret of all republics, and as the said neighbour, when elevated, would, also naturally, keep himself above the aforesaid every man — the secret of all aristocracies; otherwise, as every where, from the North pole to the South, "Those that are in sing, while those that are out pout"—the secret of human nature, so, in the New World, (I beg pardon of the Royal Navy — in New- York,) so, in New-York those that are up to-day being down to-morrow, their friends, that sit upon the other extremity of the board, rising in their turn, look down with supreme contempt upon the former,— their position obliging them to so unpleasant a use of their optics. Hence we find that the best blood, in this great city of the Western Continent, is that which flows in obscurity;

while those who have no claims to respectability either on the score of birth, or better, of those recommendations which are the only just claims to respectability, a good head and a good heart, having bought themselves a hobby higher than their neighbours', ride cockhorse triumphant. The consequence is that both are haughty :— the former, because they are slighted, and feel their real superiority in station the more where there are so few to compete with them fairly; the latter, because, having the sceptre of fashion in their hands, and not being accustomed to wield it from early life, they think that the best way to make it be seen is to thrust it into the eyes of every one they meet. Both are haughty, I say, and arrogant; but the former's arrogance is. that of the lion, the latter's that of the ass. Which is the more bearable I leave every one to pronounce for himself; all can see which is the more ridiculous.— And yet, why should we begrudge the poor butterfly his day of sunny existence! It matters little that his spotted wings and downy body sprang from a nasty grub. Or why, when we smell the flower, or eat the salad, should we ask how they were raised! The brightest and sweetest buds that decorate the bosom of the fairest belle, and the most esculent vegetable that helps digestion in the grist-mill of the fattest belly, were sprinkled through the vulgar proboscis of a tin watering-pot, and drew their juices from the sweepings of a stable.*

In conclusion, I will add one other scrap, which, like the rest, having nothing to do with the chapter, or indeed with the work at all, may be neglected or perused, ac. cording to the pleasure of the Reader.

The citizens of New-York are a very peaceable, orderly sort of people. They are but little litigious,— except one portion of the community, which, indeed, is quarrelsome wherever found, (ubinam gentium,) as all fishwomen are scurrilous, and all hackney-coachmen fraudulent, —I mean the medical tribe. Very lately, a ridiculous action, for a more ridiculous libel, was brought before the Court of Sessions, which amused me excessively. As my purpose in this place is solely to amuse thee, pliant Reader, and cheat thee of a page or two of graver matter, give attention now, and laugh with me at the whimsies of a race, that are the same in the New World that they are with us of the Old, as irritable as though they fed upon their own cantharides, and were one grand plaister from oesophagus to rectum.

Certain members of the profession form themselves into a secret society, which could do no harm,— as it matters little, I should say, whether blind men walk in the dark or light. Two other members of the same profession, jealous that these cocks should scratch for grain, and clap their wings, at the very top of the dunghill, the admiration of every Partlet in the farmyard, while they are forced to keep at the bottom unnoticed, forthwith open their throats, and crow most magnanimously at the aforesaid cock association. This the latter take in great dudgeon; but, afraid to come down to beat their enemies, lest they should spill some of their own blood, and thereby err against a law of their instincts, (which bids them bleed copiously — but never themselves,) besides leaving their pleasant situation exposed to be occupied by others, refer the matter to the lawyer crow.*— The whole farmyard is put in commotion,— cocks crowing, crows cocking, and ducks, dogs, cats, and hogs, quacking, yelping, mewing, and squeaking, and all because one spurred chicken is a lump or two of filth above another !— And how was this matter decided, this wing-clapping, this mighty gallic complaint? Not at all. The crows only plucked a few feathers from both sides of the question, and left the parties to fight it out. They should have stripped the whole roost, and then — been shot themiselves; and thus the farmyard would have been benefitted, being deprived of two evils, quarrelsome cocks and plundering crows.

And now, have I not fulfilled my promise, Reader-7 What have you gathered from these scraps? Not to mention my little hints on the pleasure of walking arm in arm with one's brother when we have it in our power to ride upon his neck, you have learned that the citizens of New-York are not so barbarous as travelling Englishmen would make them. The decent people, of all sorts, paint their houses, the wealthy ride with coronets on their coaches, and the doctors squirt their syringes at one another,—just as they do elsewhere. Pah! Passons sur ce chapitre.

CHAPTER II.

- datur ora tueri,

Nate, tua, et notas audirc et reddere voces.

Viro.—

Month marching after month, and with so slow a step it seemed as though there were an echo doubling in mine ears the tedious time,— yet no Edward, no news of Edward, nothing to hear up my spirits from total prostration but a forced excitement, the more difficult to be maintained that my age and the trials through which I had passed, having tamed my once wild nature, disposed me rather to the enjoyment of domestic quiet than the life I was leading, my constitution, which had stood unshaken the great vicissitudes of my eventful career, the storm that blighted, and the sunshine that scorched, almost sunk before the slow but sure sapping of melancholy, and'that sickness of the heart which comes of hope deferred.

•Were I circumstanced like most men, had I intimate friend or near relative, some one with whom I could forget that self, that cursed self, which wore me to the bone, I might by little and little have weened my thoughts from Edward, and in time have reconciled myself to his loss; but, here, I was ten times more lonely than I had been at Cumana immediately subsequent to my wife's death and previous to my son's arrival. Too old for the young, and too young for the old, I had none to care for me, none whom I could care for in return,— no living being, no thing, to which I could link my own existence and feel I was not all alone.