Note 15 — LETTER XXV. J. E. DE KAY, ESQUIRE, NEW YORK.

Captain Hall says, that the houses of America struck him as being only half furnished. On the other hand, the Duke Bernard, of Saxe Weimar, who landed in Boston, coming from England, says that he thought the houses appeared better furnished than those he had just left in Great Britain. On this testimony, the Quarterly joins issue, insinuating that no one can hesitate to believe that a captain in his majesty’s navy is a better judge in these matters than a mere German Duke! The exquisite twaddle of such reasoning exposes itself, and yet, in his main fact, Captain Hall is unquestionably right. So far as we go, our furniture is generally handsomer than that of England, and Duke Bernard has possibly formed his opinion from particular houses, but nothing is truer than that the American houses appear naked to one coming from either France or England.