labour of freemen, and not by the compelled or half-paid labour of slaves, black or white. In sobriety of manners, in intelligence, spirit, and enterprize, the New-England men and those of Scotland are very much alike. Dr. Currie, late of Liverpool, in his elegant biography of the poet Burns, enters at length into the causes which have rendered the great body of the Scottish people so very superior to those of any other European country. The result of his reasoning is, that this national superiority is owing to the combined efforts of the system of parish schools giving to ALL the means of elementary education, and of a moderately-paid, able, and well-informed clergy, coming into constant contact with, and instructing and regulating the people: to which he adds, as no trifling auxiliary, the absence of those poor-laws which have impoverished degraded, and corrputed the whole people of England.

In the United States they have also unfortunately adopted the poor-law system; which, so far as it has yet operated, has proved a canker-worm gnawing at the heart's core of the national morals, prosperity, and strength. The American people, however, possess one decided advantage over those of every other country, namely, that of the political sovereignty residing in themselves; whence they exhibit in their own persons a moral fearlessness, confidence, and elevation, unknown and unimagined elsewhere. A native free-born American knows no superior on earth; from the cradle to the grave he is taught to believe that all public officers are his servants; and while in all other countries the people are continually flattering and praising their rulers, the very reverse is the case in America, and the rulers are obliged to bow to the supreme power of the people. It may, upon the whole, be safely asserted, that the New-England population is not inferior to any in the world for steady habits, dauntless courage, intelligence, interprize, perseverance-in all the qualities necessary to render a nation first in war and first in peace.

In the middle states the population is not so national and unmixed as in New-England, whose inhabitants are altogether of English origin. They do not support religion by law; and a considerable portion of their people are destitute of a clergyman, even in the state of New York, and a still greater proportion in some of the other middle states. Elementary schools are not sufficiently numerous, particularly in Pennsylvania, many of whose inhabitants can peither read nor write. Property is not so equally divided, and the distinction of rich and poor is more broadly marked than in New Eng

land. Many of their settlements are more recent, and exhibit the physical, intellectual, and moral disadvantages of new settlements, in the privations, ignorance, and irreligion of the settlers; who were composed of many different nations, having no one common object in view, either in regard to religious, moral, or social institutions. The English, Dutch, Germans, French, Irish, Scotch, Swiss, &c. have not yet had time and opportunity to be all melted down into one common national mass of American character. The slaves in this section of the Union are more numerous than in New-England, and in Maryland they are sufficiently so to influence and derogate from the character of the people. The moral habits of the middle states, generally, are more lax than those of New-England. New York, indeed, partly from proximity of situation, but chiefly from its continual acquisition of emigrants from the eastern states, is rapidly assuming a New-England character and aspect.

In the southern states, religion receives no support from the law; and a very large proportion of the inhabitants are destitute of regular preaching and religious instruction. The elementary schools are few, and in general not well administered ;-many of the white inhabitants cannot even read. Labour in most parts is performed chiefly by slaves; and slavery here, as every where else, has corrupted the public morals. The mulattoes are increasing very rapidly; and, perhaps, in the lapse of years, the black, white, and yellow population will be incorporated into one indiscriminate mass. Duelling and gaming are very prevalent; and, together with other vices, require the restraining power of religion and morality to check their progress towards national ruin.

But when speaking of the gradual relaxation of morals in the United States, as we pass from the north and east to the south and west, it is to be understood that the American ladies, are not included in this unavoidable censure. In no nation under the canopy of heaven do female virtue and purity hold a higher rank than in the Union; where there are no instances of those domestic infidelities which dishonour so many families in other countries. The ladies of America make virtuous and affectionate wives, kind and indulgent mothers; are, in general, easy, affable, intelligent, and well-bred; their manners presenting a happy medium between the too distant reserve and forbidding coldness of the English, and the too obvious, too intrusive behaviour of the French women. Their demeanour has a strong resemblance to that of the Irish and

Scottish ladies:-But the public morals, even of the female population, in the southern and western states are materially injured by the existence of the slave system.

The western states participate in the morals, manners, and character of those sections of the Union by which they are peopled; namely, the southern and middle, and above all, the New-England states. During the war which separated the American colonies from Britain, and for some years afterwards, the influence of New-England predominated in the councils of the infant republic; while Washington's administration established the prosperity and glory of the country on a solid basis. But since the vast increase of population, and the astonishing improvement in commerce, manufactures, and agriculture, which have taken place in the southern and middle states, New-England has sunk greatly in political importance. And now, the rapid growth of the western states, in numbers, wealth, and strength, threaten, ere long, to give them a decided preponderance over all the Atlantic sections of the United States; which will probably terminate in the removal of the seat of general government from Washington to some more central situation on the banks of the Mississippi.

Nothing has tended so much towards the rapid progress of the western country as the strong disposition to emigration among the American people themselves. Even when doing well in the northern, middle, or southern states, they will break up their establishment, and move westward with an alacrity and vigour, which no other people would do unless compelled by necessity. In the year 1817, nearly 20,000 waggons, averaging a burden of forty ewt. each, travelled between Baltimore and Philadelphia, on one side, and Pittsburgh on the other side of the Allegany mountains. The freight or carriage of the goods thus conveyed, exceeded 2,000,000 of dollars; to which may be added numberless well-loaded stages and mails, travellers in waggons, on horses, and on foot, and some idea may be formed of the incessant line of march over these 300 miles of the western road. It is in this manner that the new states, now under consideration, have advanced in population and prosperity with a rapidity unparalleled in the history of mankind. The number of inhabitants increases each successive year with incredible celerity, by emigrations from all parts of America, and from Europe. Land cleared, and in an improving state, commands from twenty to thirty dollars an acre; and thus, in the course of the last sixteen years, a tract of country four times as large as Great Britain has been improved ten-fold in value.

The towns in the western country, as is particularly the case with Zanesville, Lancaster, and Chilicothe, in the state of Ohio, are often situated without any regard to the health of the inhabitants, provided they be well located for acquiring wealth; gain being the chief object of pursuit with all American adventurers. Cincinnati itself stands too low on the banks of the Ohio; its lower parts being within reach of the spring floods. But it has grown as by enchantment, and promises soon to become one of the first cities of the west. Within the short space of six years, the greatest part of its present dimensions and wealth has been produced; and it now exhibits several hundreds of handsome brick houses, substantial public buildings, and crowded markets, where, within the memory of man, stood only one rude cabin! Twenty years since, the immense region comprising the states of Ohio and Indiana, numbered only 30,000 souls; less than are now contained in the small county of Hamilton, in which Cincinnati is situated. Probably the time is not far distant, when the chief intercourse between the western states and Europe will not be, as at present, through Philadelphia and Baltimore; but be carried on through the great rivers which communicate by the Mississippi with the ocean at New Orleans; in consequence of the ascending navigation of these streams being subdued by the power of steam,

The activity and enterprize of the Americans in general, particularly the inhabitants of the western country, perhaps exceed those of any other people. Travellers continually are setting out on journeys of two or 3,000 miles, by boats, on horses, or on foot, without any apparent anxiety or deliberation. Nearly 1000 persons pass from Cincinnati down the Ohio every summer as traders or boatmen; and return on foot; a distance by water of 1700, by land, of 1000 miles.. Many go down to New Orleans from Pittsburgh, an additional 500 miles by water, and 300 by land. The storekeepers of the western towns resort to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, once a year, to lay in their goods; but in a short time, as has been already noticed, probably these journeyings eastward will be exchanged for visits down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. The vast and growing produce of the western states, in grain, flour, cotton, sugar, tobacco, peltry, lumber, &c. which always finds a ready market at New Orleans, will, by means of steam-boat navigation, be returned through the same channel in the manufactures and luxuries of Europe and Asia, to supply the constantly-increasing demands of the west, and render New Orleans one of the greatest commercial

cities in the universe.-Lea: ning, taste, and science, of course, have not yet made much progress in these newlypeopled regions; their reading is, in general, confined to newspapers and political pamphlets, a little history, and less religion; but their intellects are keen, vigorous, and active.

After this brief sketch of the morals, habits, and manners, of the four great sections of the United States, the following remarks, from the same respectable source, may not be unacceptable to the curious reader.

The high wages of labour, the abundance of every kind of manual and mechanical employment, the plenty of provisions, the vast quantity and low price of land, all contribute to produce a healthy, strong, and vigorous popula tion. Four-fifths of the American people are engaged in agricultural pursuits, and a great majority of these are proprietors of the soil which they cultivate. In the intervals of toil, their amusements consist chiefly of hunting and shooting, in the woods, or in the mountains; whence they acquire prodigious muscular activity and strength. There are no game laws, to prohibit the possession and use of fire-arms to the great body of the people; and the boys carry a gun almost as soon as they are able to walk. This, with the habitual practice of shooting at a target with the rifle, renders the Americans the most unerring marksmen, and the most deadly musketry in the world. So expert are they with this murderous weapon, that somet men of the Virginia rifle regiment, when quartered in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a few years since, had such a dependence on each others dexterity, that one would hold a piece of board, nine inches square, between his knees, whilst another shot at it with a ball at the distance of 100 paces. This they used to do for the amusement of the town's people, as often as they were called upon.

Thus the people of the United States possess, in an eminent degree, the physical elements of national greatness and strength. Add to these the general prevalence of early instruction, which enables the great mass of the people to develope their natural faculties and powers, and capacitates them for undertaking any employment, requiring shrewdness, intelligence, and skill; whence their singular ingenuity in mechanical and manual operations, and their sound understanding, enterprize, and perseverance in the practical concerns of life. And to crown all, the political sovereignty of the nation residing in the people, gives them a personal confidence, self-possession, and elevation of character, unattainable by any other people not simi-,