In a country where the price of labor is so high, it is no uncommon thing to see domestics dressed as well as their employers. But though silk gowns and laces have taken the place of coarse calicoes, the situation of domestics is by no means improved. They are less contented in their situation, and less conscientious in the discharge of their duties, than they were in more patriarchal times. Many attribute this difficulty to our democratic institutions; but I believe it originates in a want of republican principle, not in the excess of it. If people would consider their domestics as sisters of the great human family, differing from them only in having, for the time being, a different use to perform in society--if they would have a tender regard to their health, a reasonable regard to their convenience, a friendly interest in their characters and plans--in a word, if they would perpetually acknowledge a reciprocity of duties--we should soon cease to hear complaints of the indifference and carelessness of domestics. While they are regarded as pieces of machinery, to whom nothing is due but the payment of wages, they cannot be expected to feel a deep interest for those who manifest so little interest in them. American ladies are accused of being more prudish than foreigners. I hope the charge will always remain a true one; but there may be an excess even of a good thing; and when a sense of decorum led them to be squeamish about seeing Greenough’s beautiful little cherubs, because the marble innocents had no drapery about them, I acknowledge it reminded me of Sir Charles Grandison’s remark: “Wottest thou not, my dear, how much _in_delicacy there is in thy delicacy?” The tendency of modern times has continually been toward external refinement. The language used by queen Elizabeth and the queen of Navarre would not now be tolerated in any part of the civilized world; yet the marriage of a divorced wife aroused more virtuous indignation in the court of Elizabeth, than a dozen such incidents would now occasion, in any European court. Many phrases and subjects of conversation which appear perfectly proper to an English or French woman, are not so considered by an American. Some of our customs are, however, offensive to the modesty of foreigners; such as the treatment, condition, and sometimes the dress of female slaves. The practice of being assisted by gentlemen, in rising from the rolling surf at Rockaway, after indulging in the refreshment of bathing, has likewise been regarded as singular. It is allowed on account of the overpowering might of the waters, and scrupulous attention to propriety is observed in all the arrangements of the bath.