claim, and maintained it until superseded by Park Place,* or Robinson street, as it had previously been called; whose pretensions in that respect have, in their turn, become nearly obsolete. Little Dock street, now merged in Water street, and that part of the original Water street which lay adjacent to the Albany Pier, were occupied by the river trade; while the remainder of Water street, and such parts of Front street as had already been recovered from the river, formed the emporium of foreign commerce. This, indeed, was the case as far up as the Coffee House Slip, and gradually extended to Maiden Lane, at the foot of which were the Vly Market, and the Brooklyn Ferry; whilst at the head of it stood the Oswego Market, fronting on Broadway. Above, on the East River, as far as Dover street, the wharves were chiefly improved by our eastern brethren with their cargoes of notions, or occupied by our neighbors from Long Island, with their more substantial freights of oysters, clams, and fine white sand. Beyond Doverstreet, the ship-yards commenced, extending, at first, no farther than to the New, or, as it is now called, Pike Slip.

แ Crossing from Dover to Great Queen, since Pearl street, and pursuing the course of the latter beyond its intersection with Chatham street,† and along that part of Pearl then called Magazine

gentlemen only, and was generally filled with members of Congress during its sessions in this city. Greenleaf, the republican printer, planted his batteries so as to command the strong hold of toryism, at the corner of Pearl street-under Rivington, of the Royal Gazette-in case the latter should ever recommence his fire. But he took the oath of allegiance to the new government, and was permitted to remain in his bookstore, (afterwards the auction rooms of the Messrs. Hone,) as did his fellow-laborer and neighbor, Hugh Gaine, of the Bible and Crown, who after the divorce of church and state on this side of the Atlantic, removed the royal emblems from his sign. *In the mean time, Cortlandt street enjoyed an ephemeral reputation for fashion, from the presence of Sir John Temple, Colonels Duer and Walker, Major Fairlie, and subsequently the British Colonel Crawford, who had been Governor of the Bermudas, but, on a visit to New York, married the widow of Robert Cambridge Livingston, and remained here till he died.

Near the head of Dover street, and at the junction of Pearl and Cherry streets, stands the old family mansion of Walter Franklin, a member of the society of Friends, and an eminent merchant, whose wealth was indicated by the dimensions of his dwelling. The late Governor De Witt Clinton married one of his daughters, and afterwards occupied his house. But it had pre

street, we arrived at the Kolch, or Fresh Water Pond, whence, through the 'Tea-water Pump,' in Chatham street, the city was supplied with water for domestic use, distributed to the inhabitants by means of carts surmounted by casks, similar to those now used for mortaring the streets. Nor was this the only use made of the 'Collect,' as it was called in English; its southern and eastern banks were lined with furnaces, potteries, breweries, tanneries, rope-walks, and other manufactories; all drawing their supplies of water from the pond. Besides, it was rendered ornamental as well as useful. It was the grand resort in winter of our youth for skating; and no person who has not beheld it, can realize the scene it then exhibited in contrast to that part of the city under which it now lies buried. The ground between the Collect and Broadway rose gradually from its margin to the height of one hundred feet, and nothing can exceed in brilliancy and animation the prospect it presented on a fine winter day, when the icy surface was alive with skaters darting in every direction with the swiftness of the wind, or bearing down in a body in pursuit of the ball driven before them by their hurlies; while the hill side was covered with spectators, rising as in an amphitheatre, tier above tier, comprising as many of the fair sex, as were sufficient to adorn, and necessary to refine the assemblage; while their presence served to increase the emulation of the skaters."

viously been rendered more illustrious as the first residence of General Washington in this city after his election as President of the United States. It has since been altered, and the lower part converted into shops. In the rear of this, in Pearl street, was the Quaker Meeting House; and this quarter of the city, as far as Chatham street, was principally inhabited by members of that society. But the more wealthy ones had their establishments lower down, as far as Maiden Lane, Here were the Pearsalls, the Pryors, the Embrees, the Effinghams, the Hickses, the Hawxhursts, the Halletts, the Havilands, the Cornells, the Kenyons, the Townsends, the Tituses, the Willetts, the Wrights, &c. &c. Interspersed, however, with their residences were others, equally substantial, though not as plain, such as those of the Waltons and Roosevelts. The Bank of New York was first kept in the larger Walton House, and its first President, the elder Isaac Roosevelt, had his dwelling nearly opposite.

IX.

WASHINGTON, meanwhile, surrounded by his family and friends, was busy with his long neglected private affairs, and with great plans for the improvement and extension of inland navigation, until the meeting of the convention for forming the federal Constitution, of which he reluctantly consented to be a member. In the beginning of 1784 he wrote to Lafayette, "At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac; and under the shadow of my own vine and my own fig-tree, free from the bustle of a camp, and the busy scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil enjoyments, of which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame, the statesman, whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, or perhaps the ruin of other countries, as if this globe were insufficient for us all, and the courtier, who is always watching the countenance of his prince, in hopes of catching a gracious smile, can have very little conception. I have not only retired from all public employments, but I am retiring within myself, and shall be able to view the solitary walk, and tread the paths of private life, with a heartfelt satisfaction. Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased with all; and this, my dear friend, being the order of my march, I will move gently down the stream of life until I sleep with my fathers." In the following August Lafayette revisited this country and passed two weeks with the Chief at Mount Vernon; and when he was gone Washington set off on horseback to see his lands in the western country, travelling in this way nearly seven hundred miles, along the routes of his earlier military experiences, to the scene of Braddock's defeat, at Fort Du Quesne. What a marvellous book, could they have been recorded, would have been the hero's reveries and dreams, thus

wandering between his own great history and germinating empires in which "the free spirit of mankind at length" should "throw its fetters off." After his return he again saw Lafayette, who had accomplished an extensive tour through the northern states, and been every where greeted with fit public honors. When at last they turned from each other, at Annapolis, to which place Washington accompanied his departing friend, he writes: "I often asked myself, as our carriages separated, whether that was the last sight I should ever have of you? and though I wished to say No, yet my fears answered Yes. I called to mind the days of my youth, and found they had long since fled, to return no more; that I was now descending the hill I had been fifty-two years climbing, and that, though I was blest with a good constitution, I was of a short-lived family, and might soon expect to be entombed in the mansion of my fathers. These thoughts darkened the shades, and gave a gloom to the picture, and consequently to my prospect of seeing you again. But I will not repine; I have had my day." It was indeed. the last meeting of Lafayette and Washington; but the Chief had not yet lived his day; stormy or dark or splendid, thus much of it was but the morning, and now he was resting, not in its night, but in its calm though clouded noon; and new toils, different and not less glorious, awaited him before the serenely magnificent setting of his sun, and the completion of the vast proportions of his character, so that it should stand not alone for the admiration but for the loving and reverent amazement of the world.

With Governor Clinton, of New York, Washington proposed buying the mineral springs, at Saratoga, but something prevented. His old companions in arms, in France, were very anxious that he should spend a winter in Paris, but he declined. As of ten as he was called away from home the admiring and grateful people greeted him with the firing of cannon and the ringing

of bells, but he received all honors modestly, and all evidences of affection gratefully. Houdon came from France to model his statue, and Pine from England to paint his portrait, and Mount Vernon was thronged with illustrious guests from many nations, eager to become personally acquainted with the greatest of men, who passed his days and nights without a thought or fancy of ambition, in the cultivation of his farm-the happiest of men as well as the greatest. There is nothing in all history more respectable, more dignified, or more wonderful, considering the common infirmities of human nature, than those four years of Washington's retirement and repose, between the revolution and the convention for forming the federal Constitution, in which, as if it were a matter of course, he was called to preside.