the signal for its ruin, and the termination of hostilities in Europe having left other nations at liberty to claim their share in the interchange of commodities, the quays are now half deserted, and the store-houses comparatively empty. As the United States however recover from their present mercantile difficulties, and as the back country becomes more thickly settled, the increasing demand for foreign produce and manufactures must by degrees bring back the good old times, when Fell's Point was crowded with merchantmen, and the storekeepers of Baltimore exulted in the dimensions of their ledgers.

Eastward from the town is yet to be seen the breastwork of turf which was hastily thrown up when General Ross landed to attack it. The rifle of some expert marksman was the means of saving Baltimore on this occasion. It might seem that an individual bullet could be of but little avail as to the result of a battle-it can kill but a man; but when that man is a commanding officer, and such an officer as Ross, the bullet that kills him is decisive of the day. In the defence of a difficult pass, a wood, or an entrenched post, the American backwoodsmen are unequalled; they can with difficulty be got to stand in open ground, and have no confidence in battalion movements, but give them the stump of a tree, a fence, or a hillock of earth, over which they can level their piece, and the youngest boy among them will ply the work of

DEATH OF GENERAL ROSS-REVIEW.

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destruction with a deliberate certainty of aim, which is disastrous in the last degree to the battalions of the enemy. It is not known who killed General Ross; common report attributes the effective shot to some one of a few lads who were posted behind a bush, but one of the most opulent citizens, a Scotsman by birth, who with the rest shouldered his musket on the occasion, tells me on the authority of the general who commanded, that no reliance can be placed on that report.

This important event took place on the twelfth of September, and I was the other day present at a review, which annually commemorates the successful defence of the town. As I am no way skilled in military tactics, I cannot pretend to criticise the evolutions which I saw. The young men belonging to the town wear in general a blue uniform, and make a creditable appearance; the country militia wear no uniform at all, and have a very tag-rag-and-bobtail kind of aspect. The day was excessively hot, and some of them marched to the field in their shirt sleeves, where blackened with dust, perspiration and powder, they presented a somewhat ferocious appearance. A small body of sharpshooters were on the field in a dark grey uniform, which had a remarkably neat appearance; we are accustomed to green for this description of troops, but I doubt whether the grey will not in general answer the purpose of obscurity and concealment fully as well. On the flanks were sta

tioned some companies of artillery, at right angles to the main line; and the contrast which different battalions exhibited was no where more conspicuous than among them. I was highly amused with a corps of old fellows who strongly reminded me of the Edinburgh city guard, while it was yet in being; they wore long tailed coats and cocked hats, and their hair was larded with pomatum and powder. The working of their guns was a serious business; there was a sad chasing of each other for a cartridge, much prompting and directing about thrusting it in, and to fire and sponge were works of undisguised danger and difficulty. An unfortunate position made their awkwardness still more conspicuous, for close beside them were posted the Independent Blues,' a body of trimly dressed, active young fellows, who handled the rammer and the linstock with exemplary dexterity, and if the rules of good breeding and military discipline had not prevented them, would have fired at least two shots for one of the venerables' beside them. The troops paraded at ten o'clock in the morning, and did not leave the ground till four in the afternoon; they had an hour's interval however at noon, and there were on the ground numerous itinerant venders of peaches, pastry, and soda water.

I witnessed since my arrival here, a spectacle of a different kind, and one that is more rarely seen in the United States, the execution of two men for

mail-robbery. Flagrant as this offence is esteemed among us it is not a capital crime here, unless when accomplished by the aid of deadly weapons, or with such a show of violence as may put those who travel with the mail in fear of their lives. In the present instance the lives of the driver and passengers had been threatened, and as the perpetrators were old and notorious offenders, the law was allowed to take its course.3

Baltimore prison is built on a sloping ground rather out of town, and has a large open court yard, every part of which is well seen from different parts of the rising ground which environ the city. The gallows was erected within the yard and the hills around were covered with spectators. I am no frequenter of such scenes, yet I was desirous of witnessing the effect of so unusual and tragic an occurrence on an American assembly. On reaching

* Robbery of the mail is very frequent in the United States; yet all things considered, not so much so as might be expected. Remittances from one part of the Union to another, even of large sums, are generally made by transmitting bank notes in letters by the Post Office; scarcely a mail bag is made up for any of the larger cities, which does not contain in this way large sums of money. The mail is totally unprotected; there is no guard, and the driver carries no arms. In the more frequented roads the bag is now carried in a kind of boot under the driver's seat, but in the country it is tossed carelessly into the bottom of the stage waggon, to annoy with trunks and portmanteaus the feet of the passengers. On one occasion while travelling in one of these vehicles, I observed a cut in the bag beside me, large enough to admit a man's hand.

the brow of one of the hills, soon after the unhappy men had been turned off, I found every commanding position covered with spectators. The multitude seemed to differ from what a similar catastrophe calls forth at home, chiefly in the superior respectability of their appearance. There were plenty of all classes, but a decidedly large proportion were well dressed, and females of various ages, and apparently all conditions, were not wanting. It was manifest that curiosity is quite as active a principle here as at home; and that an American crowd ás well as a British one is powerfully influenced by that singular characteristic of our nature, a fondness for tragic spectacles. The distance at which I and those around me stood, prevented us from seeing very plainly the more minute circumstances of the work of death, but the general aspect of the gallows tree' did not, it was obvious, excite very keen feelings of commiseration for the sufferers; the spectators gazed towards the fatal spot, pretty much as they would have done had it been an eclipse of the moon or a house on fire. I had in my pocket a small perspective glass, which I offered to two young ladies who happened to stand near me; they seemed quite pleased with the accommodation, and continued to use it alternately till the whole of the melancholy scene

4 A fair Englishwoman' sketches a remarkably different picture of an American execution; perhaps the variation in our stories may have arisen from her never having seen one.