on the usages of the town--referring fashion and opinion
altogether to a sort of popular will. The result is not exactly
what might be expected under the circumstances, the past being
intermingled with the present time, in spite of theories and
various opposing interests; and, in many instances, caprice is
found to be stronger than reason.

{conscription = the military draft; the Faubourg = the
fashionable neighborhoods of Paris; the popular principle =
democracy}

We have no desire to exaggerate, or to color beyond their claims,
the importance of the towns of Manhattan. No one can better
understand the vast chasm which still exists between London and
New York, and how much the latter has to achieve before she can
lay claim to be the counterpart of that metropolis of
Christendom. It is not so much our intention to dilate on
existing facts, as to offer a general picture, including the
past, the present, and the future, that may aid the mind in
forming something like a just estimate of the real importance and
probable destinies of this emporium of the New World.

It is now just three-and-twenty years since, that, in another
work, we ventured to predict the great fortunes that were in
reserve for this American mart, giving some of the reasons that
then occurred to us that had a tendency to produce such a result.
These predictions drew down upon us sneers, not to say derision,
in certain quarters, where nothing that shadows forth the growing
power of this republic is ever received with favor. The
intervening period has more than fulfilled our expectations. In