Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/51

 When I visited the Court of Sessions, the judge on the bench appeared a plain active-looking gentleman, not distinguished by any robes of office. The business on hand was the taking of evidence in the case of a man who had left a vault open during the night. A person passing in the street happened to fall into the chasm, and raised an action of damages, on the ground that he had received bodily hurt. The questions put were numerous {21} and minute, the witnesses, notwithstanding, went on in giving lengthened details, embracing particulars not asked, and foreign to the subject. They seemed in no respect embarrassed by the dignity of the court. The whole of the witnesses were present, and each heard the examinations which preceded his own.

The Washington, a new ship of war, mounting 96 guns, is much visited at present.[13] The seamen are a party of stout healthy looking men, dressed in striped cottons, very suitable to the present hot weather, and cleanly in the extreme. The decoration, cleanliness of the ship, and the order that prevailed aboard, can scarcely be surpassed. Diffident, however, as I am in forming an opinion on any naval affair, I cannot avoid the impression that a vessel of such strength, and with such a crew of freemen, must be an overmatch for any other vessel constructed and manned as European ships of war were wont to be.

The steam-frigate is a novelty in naval architecture. The vessel is bomb-proof, impelled by a powerful steam-*engine; is said to be furnished with apparatus for heating ball, for throwing hot water, for moving a sort of arms to