The autograph of a living author has seldom been so much in request at so
respectable a price. Colonel Crittenden told me that he had received as
much as fifty pounds on a single day. Heaven prosper the trade between
America and Liverpool!
August 15th.--Many scenes which I should have liked to record have
occurred; but the pressure of business has prevented me from recording
them from day to day.
On Thursday I went, on invitation from Mr. B., to the prodigious steamer
Great Britain, down the harbor, and some miles into the sea, to escort
her off a little way on her voyage to Australia. There is an immense
enthusiasm among the English people about this ship, on account of its
being the largest in the world. The shores were lined with people to see
her sail, and there were innumerable small steamers, crowded with men,
all the way out into the ocean. Nothing seems to touch the English
nearer than this question of nautical superiority; and if we wish to hit
them to the quick, we must hit them there.
On Friday, at 7 P.M., I went to dine with the Mayor. It was a dinner
given to the Judges and the Grand Jury. The Judges of England, during
the time of holding an Assize, are the persons first in rank in the
kingdom. They take precedence of everybody else,--of the highest
military officers, of the Lord Lieutenants, of the Archbishops,--of the
Prince of Wales,--of all except the Sovereign, whose authority and
dignity they represent.
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