Page:Republican Court by Rufus Griswold.djvu/108

but not theirs. A people grave, serious, and reflecting, cannot be judged of and appreciated but by a person of like qualities."

With his friend, Claviere, M. Brissot landed at Boston, near the close of July, 1788, and a few days afterward they set out for the South, passed leisurely through Massachusetts and Connecticut, and were delighted with every thing they saw, until their arrival in New York. The city was still confined to narrow limits; Broadway extended but to Anthony street, then called Catharine street, beyond which were hills, sloping on the east side to the Kolch, and on the west to the lowlands of Lispenard's meadows. Beyond Rutgers street, the bridge, at Canal street, and Harrison street, along the several chief avenues from the Bowling Green were a few country houses; but the town, properly speaking, covered only the districts since devoted exclusively to trade. One of the Lutheran churches was offered a plot of ground, containing six acres, where Canal street now meets Broadway; but the trustees of the society decided that it was "inexpedient to accept the gift as the land was not worth fencing in." That the city must soon surpass all others on the continent, however, was even then foreseen and acknowledged, as a necessary consequence of her magnificent situation — upon the whole, incomparably the finest occupied by any great town in ancient or modern times.

In the course of the summer and autumn, M. Brissot had ample opportunities for observation of the social characteristics of the people, and he describes whatever arrested his attention in a very graphic and spirited manner. "The presence of Congress, with the diplomatic body, and the concourse of strangers," he says, "contributes much to extend here the ravages of luxury. The inhabitants are far from complaining at it; they prefer the splendor of wealth, and the show of enjoyment, to a simplicity of manners, and the pure pleasures resulting from it. The habit of smoking