Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 11).djvu/133

This page needs to be proofread.

proper mode; but could tell the Doctor of a better mode if he would buy the farm offered. Land is frequently bought and sold, and kept for many years, but never paid for, unless an offer above the original cost is made and accepted. Interest money is paid or payable on the purchase, which is held like a mortgage, and in time it reverts to the vendor or his heirs.

I visited the Catholic university at George-town, to witness the ceremony, previous to the vacation, something like the Commencement, at Cambridge. I found a large and splendid assemblage of bishops, doctors, priests, pupils, and spectators of all ranks and religions. The young gentlemen delivered their orations, after which they received prizes and degrees from the hands of the archbishop. This institution is said to be highly respectable, and is open to all sects and parties in religion or politics; it is therefore a nursery of great men for all sections of the empire. Although Catholic, it professes not to make proselytes; yet many pupils are induced to adopt this faith, and nearly all seem {118} to part and meet with their preceptors here as with kind and indulgent parents.

Friend John Steed, a poor excommunicated quaker, once of Earith and Wisbeach, introduced himself to me this day. He feels grievously disappointed, and wants temporary employment as an assistant in a store. He is nearly broken in both spirit and pocket, and finds charity cold, and friends few or none. He is kindly housed by the ever friendly Dr. Dawes, and thinks of returning soon if he cannot succeed. He would not have come here if he could have formed, on the other side of the water, a correct idea of the state of things in this country.

The poor white, or white poor, in Maryland, it is said, scarcely ever work, but send their children to beg, and live