est or most unfeeling, should be as happy as those who are now the property of the wealthy and humane planters;-that religious and moral instruction should be allowed them;—that families should not be torn asunder for sale; and that they should have a right of self-purchase under certain stipulations, one of which should be that of leaving the country.

A system of this kind might be gradually introduced, and the proprietor would derive at least equal emoluments, and certainly greater security. The shocking scenes which are sometimes occasioned by a brutal ignorant owner, would be prevented; the degrading aspect of slavery would be softened; its deleterious. effects on freemen mitigated,-and the fearful anxiety, which must rather increase than diminish, would be done away. Whatever is effected must begin with you,—we can only second your exertions, and with the deepest sympathy for your attempts to diminish this great mass of evil and misery, cry, God speed you.

You have perhaps resided long enough on this side of the Atlantic, to perceive that our climate is as different as our scenery must have appeared to you from that of your own country. If I touch a little on what is peculiar in each, with some comparative allu. sions, you will readily know where I am mistaken, and perhaps your own observations on these subjects will be in some degree facilitated.

Foreigners from the continent of Europe, who are struck with the liberty and happiness we enjoy, and who still remember the mild climates they have left, assert, that we should be too fortunate if we had as fine a climate as they possess; and that the asperity of our weather is the only drawback we suffer, and the only evil to be put in the balance against the sufferings of Europe, by the emigrant, who wishes to make a right estimate between the two countries. The natives of the south of Europe cannot bear our snow and icy air, and those of the north, pant under the fervid heat of our summers. The one sighs after lemontrees flourishing openly in January, and the other regrets a temperature admirably adapted to turnips, while he is sweltering in one that makes the Indian corn grow audibly.

There is one point in our climate that occasions most of these reproaches, and is in truth a serious objection, and this is, its great inequality. There would be fewer complaints if it were steadily bad;-but the occasional beauty and perfection it presents, enhances its inconveniences, by a feeling of disappointment. Greece and Italy cannot boast of more exquisite days than we are frequently favoured with in the summer and autumn; and the most fog-smitten, ice-bound regions in Europe, can endure no worse meteorological sufferings than are sometimes inflicted on us. This is an evil from which

the country can never be exempted, though it will be moderated a little by the effect of cultivation. This amelioration may never happen to the degree which many persons have anticipated;-but that some change has been produced, almost every man can testify from his own experience.

The average results of the thermometer through the year, compared with the same transatlantic data, would give a very imperfect knowledge of our climate. The averages that would approach the nearest in result, are produced from very opposite circumstances;-there, they are drawn from a succession of moderate, though variable temperatures; here, from great extrémes, which often last a considerable period. The climate of Flanders, and some parts of Germany, would exhibit the same average with some districts here, that ripen the melon and Indian corn,-which you must enter Gascony and Provence, Spain and Portugal, to find in Europe. Many of the richest productions of Ceres and Pomona may be raised among us, if they can reach maturity during the transient and fervid heat of our summers; while others, such as the grape, whose tardy growth re quires a long exemption from frost, is always uncertain.

The position of our continent, and the course of the winds, will always give us an unequal climate, and one abounding in contrasts. In the latitude of 50', on the north-west coast of America, the weather is milder even than in the same parallel in Europe;-the wind, three quarters of the year, comes off the Pacific: in the same latitude on the eastern side, the country is hardly worth inhabiting, under the dreary length of cold, produced by the succession of winds across a frozen continent. The wind and the sun too often carry on the contest here, which they exerted on the poor traveller in the fable; and we are in doubt to which we shall yield. The changes that cultivation, and planetary influence, if there be such a thing, can create, are very gradual. It seems to be a general opinion, that the cold is more broken now, though the totals of heat and cold may be nearly the same as they were fifty years

ago. The winters, particularly, have commenced later. The autumn is warmer and the spring colder. We are still subject to the same caprices; a flight of snow in May, a frost in June, and sometimes in every month in the year; and Eolus indulges his servants in stranger freaks and extravagances here, than elsewhere: yet the severe cold winter seldom sets in before January; the snow is less and later, and on the sea-coast does not, on an average, afford more than a month's sleighing.

These contrasts in our climate occasion some very picturesque effects,-some that would be considered phenomena by persons unaccustomed to them. It blends together the circumstances of very distant regions in Europe. Thus, when the earth lies buried under a deep covering of snow, in Europe, the clime is so far to the north, that the sun rises but little above the hori. zon, and his daily visit is a very short one;-his feeble rays hardly illumine a chilly sky, that harmonizes with the dreary waste it covers; but here, the same surface reflects a dazzling brilliancy from rays that strike at the same angle at which they do the dome of St. Peter's. The plains of Siberia and the Campagna di Roma, are here combined;;-we have the snow of the one, and the sun of the other, at the same period. While his rays, in the month of March, are expanding the flowers and blossoms at Albano and Tivoli, they are here falling on a wide, uninterrupted covering of snow,-producing a dazzling brilliancy that is almost insupportable. A moonlight at this season is equally remarkable, and its effects. can be more easily endured. Our moon is nearly the same with that moon of Naples, which Carracioli told the king of England was "superior to his majesty's

sun," and when this surface of spotless snow is shone . upon by this moon at its full, and reflects back its beams, the light, indeed, is not that of day, but it takes away all appearance of night;—the witch and the spectre would shrink from its exposure.

"It is not night;-'tis but the day-light sick;
"It looks a little paler."

Shakspeare.

The climate is more open on the sea-coast, and more unequal than in the interior. Rhode-Island, and some of the islands on that part of the coast, approach more nearly than any other part of our country does, to the mild temperature of England. The snow lies but a short time, and the extremes of heat and cold are a little mitigated. Particular situations will possess advantages over others, either from the nature of the soil, the position of hills, and the joint effect of both ;-but circumstances of this kind have not here been minutely attended to. In Europe, these local peculiarities are well understood and improved, and a favoured valley, or wellexposed slope, will possess a reputation over all others in its vicinity. Observation will gradually lead us to remark the best positions, and to appreciate the superiority which certain localities intrinsically exhibit.

On the sea-coast, the winters are milder, but the obnoxious east winds are more severely felt in the spring than they are in the interior,-and the whole coast of Massachusetts Bay is remarkably exposed to their influence. Some compensation, however, is derived for their harshness and virulence in the spring, by their refreshing and salutary breezes in the summer, when they frequently allay the sultry heat, and prevent it from becoming oppressive. Although a district favourably si