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AN ARDENT CATHOLIC.

by the sacrifice of the mass,' which she deemed so indispensable. She undertook to explain, but her explanation left me in still greater perplexity and darkness. It is all essential,' said she with increased volubility; The church is built upon it. You cannot be saved without it.' 'But,' said I, 'we read nothing of the sort in the Bible The 'The Catholic Church,' church --- Believe in this 'How do you know,' said

expression is not there.' she replied, is the true and you will be saved.'

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'No, I have not.'

I, 'that it is the true church? O,' said she, 'it is founded upon the teaching of the apostles.' 'How do you know that? Have you ever read the history of the church?' 'How then do you know?' The priest has told us.' 'Now,' said I, 'allow me to say you are in a great error. The history of the church I have read carefully, and can assure you that the Catholic is not the ancient, the true church. The true church is that now called Liberal.' Pointing towards the dome of the Unitarian church, 'there,' said I, 'is the ancient, the true church.' She shook her head, and replied, 'No.' She argued moreover from the universality of the Catholic church that it was the church of the apostles. 'No.' said I,In the first place it is not universal, and if it were, it would prove nothing. A belief in witchcraft was once universal. Does this prove its truth? Do you believe in it on this account?'

At length she said she did not consider the Uni

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95

tarian church a church. 'No salvation is to be found in it. If you are not a Catholic,' she continued,' you may as well be an Unitarian as any thing else. There, is no safety out of the true Church. After a while she relaxed a little, and said 'she hoped I was on safe

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grouud,' (or rather) hoped I was safe.' I walked about the aisles and she recommenced her descriptions of some of the painted figures. At length she turned and said, 'But it is of no use for me to talk -you do not believe what I say.' I replied, that I believed all I knew to be historically true; more than this it was out of my power to believe. Part of the conversation was quite amuseing, for she was a quick-witted woman. I seated myself near the pew of the last of the Signers, Charles Carrol, while she stood in the aisle. Some of her remarks pleased me so much that I quite forgot myself and irreverently put my hat on my head, which she in a moment, as if her sense of propriety had been in a degree shocked, requested me to take off. Ere I left this singular woman, as my friend and myself stood upon the steps of the Cathedral, she said, "though she could not think us safe, nay, must think us in much danger, she hoped we might meet again in another world, in the better country.' I replied that I did not doubt, if we sought diligently to understand, and to perform our duties here, she would find us there at last. With these words we parted. I attended the Cathedral service on the Sabbath. It was a most ridiculous piece of mummery. It was bowing like the bulrush throughout.

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Lottery offices abound here.--Peale's Museum is worth a visit.-The Pittsburgh wagons, with their large breasted and fine-limbed horses --- powerful and high-spirited animals, cannot but attract notice.

The Hotels of the most established reputation which it may be well to name for the benefit of some, are the City Hotel --- Beltzoover's the Baltimore

Hotel and Houseley's or Hussey's.

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Of our religious societies in the several cities noticed, as they were then, and have been since, nothing could be told that is not generally known.

CHAPTER II.

Indications of Slavery. Washington --

President's House. Mt. Vernon

--

Capitol and The way to

it. The old Negro Servant. The new and the old Tomb. The Mansion --- Its Apartments, etc. etc. The View from the Piazza.

and Green-house. Our Departure.

The Garden

DESCENDING the steps of the City Hotel to take the stage to Washington, I unexpectedly met upon the pavement several highly valued friends, some from Cambridge, whose faces were turned in the same direction. We concluded to go in company, and securing seats in the same coach, started off in good spirits for the capital of the Union. It was a fine spring morning. Its pure soft air, to which we had long been strangers, with highly entertaining conversation answered as an offset to the hard road and

INDICATIONS OF SLAVERY.

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uninteresting aspect of the country. On our journey for the first time did I realize that we were in In Baltimore the idea had hardly oc

a slave state.

curred to me. Here and there, as we rolled along, a few miserable negro huts skirted the road, and once in a while we could distinguish a ragged forlorn object busy at his task in the sterile and dreary fields. Some time in the after part of the day we found ourselves in the streets of the famed city and, covered with dust, soon landed at the door of Gadsby's Hotel. Though much fatigued one of our company and myself could not but sally forth, as soon as might be, to get a view ere night-fall of the Capitol and President's house. They tower --- especially the former --- in their pride and glory at the extreme points of Pennsylvania ave nue. They are a mile distant from each other. All I have to say of them and the city at present is, that the former produce an imposing effect upon the mind, and that the latter, apart from its being the seat of government and its public buildings, contains but little to interest. The view however from the dome of the capitol is very extensive and very good, though not extraordinary. But more of these hereafter.

The next day our party were desirous of proceeding immediately to Mount Vernon. So we procured a barouche and set off. It is fifteen miles from the city. We entered a steamboat, barouche and all, and descended the Potomac as far as Alex-.

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andria, which is six miles distant. The trip was pleasant, but Alaxandria we found to be a most unsightly place. We were soon out of it and on our way to the shrine of our country's idol. For the greater part of the nine miles the country on either side of us was woody and wild. The road, if it might be called such, was bad beyond description. Mud, deep and miry, in some places to the hubs of the wheels, and frequent peril of being overset and buried therein made it necessary to walk the horses nearly the whole distance. It was a long-long journey, but not a tedious one. It was a truly pleasant pilgrimage. We made all due allowances for the season of the year, but evidently at no season is the road kept in repair, and it is a disgrace to the country that it should be so. The approach to the seat from the main road is through an irregular and natural growth of fine tall trees which extend for a mile or more. The aspect of the country all the way from Alexandria is rural, and Mount Vernon, as it opens to the eye, is highly beautiful and picturesque. It has all the essentials of a delightful country seat, and one would not be at a loss to pronounce it the hospitable abode of a Virginia gentleman - a man of character and taste a lover of nature in her natural mood and serene beauty. We alighted from our vehicle and soon perceived an aged negro approaching, who greeted us in a most courtier-like manner. We made known the object of our visit. He turned and led the way slowly towards the house,

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