MONOPOLY OF STEAM NAVIGATION.

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not much less perseverance and knowledge of the subject than Mr Fulton, and only wanted the pecuniary means to have turned them to good account. His ne

cessitous circumstances at last obtained an alimentary provision for him; but he lived only a short time afterwards to enjoy it.

CHAPTER IV.

Albany-Population - Horse-Ferry-Boat - General Van Rensellaer, the Patroon of Albany-Mrs Grant of Laggan's Sketches of Albany, and of American Manners--The Erie Canal-Continuation of that communication from Lake Erie to the Ohio River-The Champlain Canal-Imperial Canal of China-Languedoc Canal-Holstein Canal-Bridgewater Canal-Canal from Amsterdam to the Helder Point-Chinese Canals.

29th August.

ALBANY consists of one street of very considerable length, parallel with the river, from which the rest of the city rises abruptly. The capitol, containing the chambers of the Houses of Representatives and Senators, from which there is a commanding view of the city, the river, the canal, and the fine well-cultivated adjacent district, stands at the top of a steep, but handsome and very wide street, called State Street, from which many streets and lanes, in which are the crowded part of the city, diverge. The population rapidly increases : in 1800, only 4000; in 1810, 10,000; in 1825, 15,000; and now certainly above 20,000. This is easily accounted for by the far greater facilities that have followed the introduction of steam-boats and the establish

HORSE-FERRY-BOAT.

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ment of the Erie Canal. Albany is now the second city in the state in point of population. It was originally settled by the Dutch in 1612, and retained by them till the year 1664, when New York, then called Amsterdam, and Albany, then called Williamstadt, with the other Dutch possessions in this quarter, were surrendered to the British. Charles the Second granted the whole to his brother, James Duke of York and Albany, from whom the cities of New York and Albany take their names. Albany, being so near the top of tide navigation, is a place of great resort and bustle. That part of the town, in which was our hotel, seemed full of stages and waggons, and contained apparently an unusual number of stores.

The appearance of the city from Greenbush, on the opposite side of the river, to which there is a horseferry-boat, is striking and splendid; the situation, on the side of a hill, is favourable for every part of it being seen;—and the capitol and public buildings are fine large objects.

The horse-ferry-boat over the river is, I believe, peculiar to America, certainly an American invention,— and extremely convenient in situations where the intercourse across a river is considerable, yet not so great as to authorize the expenditure required for a steamboat. Two vertical wheels resembling the paddle wheels of a steam-boat are moved by a large wheel placed horizontally below the deck of a boat, and propelled by horses, so placed on its surface at the sides of the boat, from which the deck is removed, that the mo

tion of their feet in grooves cut in the wheel moves it forward in a direction opposite to that in which they appear to be pressing forward. The number of horses is of course greater or less, according to the size of the boat, rapidity of the tide, and other circumstances.

At the north end of Albany, near the termination of Market Street, is the residence of General Van Rensellaer, the Patroon, the greatest, or most wealthy, landed proprietor in the United States. The mansionhouse has more of the accompaniments of garden, shrubbery, conservatory, &c. than is, I am told, often seen in this country; but no great quantity of land is devoted to what we call pleasure-grounds. Mrs Grant of Laggan, in her curious sketches of American manners and scenery, written a few years previous to the American revolution, gives this account of the origin of the family of Rensellaer: "A gentleman of the name of Rensellaer was considered as in a manner Lord Paramount of this city, Albany; a pre-eminence which his successor still enjoys, both with regard to the town and the lands adjacent. The original proprietor had obtained from the High and Mighty States a grant of lands, which beginning at the church, extended twelve miles in every direction, forming a manor of twentyfour Dutch miles in length, the same in breadth,-including lands not only of the best quality of any in the province, but the most happily situated, both for the purpose of commerce and agriculture. This great proprietor was looked up to as much as republicans in a new country could be supposed to look up to any one.

He was called the patroon,-a designation tantamount to lord of the manor. Yet, in the distribution of these lands, the sturdy Belgian spirit of independence set limits to the power and profits of this lord of the forests, as he might then be called. None of these lands were either sold or alienated. The more wealthy settlers, as the Schuylers, Cuylers, &c. took very extensive leases of the fertile plains along the river, with boundless liberty of woods and pasturage to the westward. The terms were, that the lease should hold while water runs and grass grows, and the landlord to receive the tenth sheaf of every kind of grain the ground produces. Thus ever accommodating the rent to the fertility of the soil and changes of the seasons. You may suppose the tenants did not greatly fear a landlord, who could neither remove them nor heighten their rents. Thus, without the pride of property, they had all the independence of proprietors. They were like German princes, who, after furnishing their contingent to the Emperor, might make war on him when they chose. Besides the profits yearly augmenting, which the patroon drew from his ample possessions, he held in his own hands an extensive and fruitful demesne. Yet, preserving in a great measure the simple and frugal habits of his ancestors, his wealth was not an object of envy, nor a source of corruption to his fellow citizens." The present proprietor of these extensive possessions is a person of the most amiable and benevolent disposition, and greatest respectability of character. A zealous encourager of public improvements, and judicious