I will notice; for, I wish to discharge lieve, that after your statement about all my duties towards my countrymen your intended hundred acres of Indian faithfully; and, I know of no duty more corn, you would not have had it, or, at sacred, than that of warning them least, a part of it, if you could: that is against pecuniary ruin and mental misery.

It has always been evident to me, that the western countries were not the countries for English farmers to settle

to say, if money would have got it. Yet you had not a single square rod. Mr. HULME (see Journal, 28. July) says, in the way of reason for your having no crops this year, that you could purchase

in: no, nor for American farmers, unless with more economy than you could grow! under peculiar circumstances. The Indeed! what; would the Indian corn settlers, who have gone from the New have cost, then, more than the price of England States, have, in general, been the corn? Untoward observation; but able men with families of stout sons. perfectly true, I am convinced. There The contracted farm in New England is, it is my opinion, nobody that can sells for money enough to buy the land raise Indian corn or grain at so great a for five or six farms in the west. These distance from a market to any profit at farms are made by the labour of the all with hired labour. Nay, this is too owners. They hire nobody. They live plain a case to be matter of opinion. I any how for a while. I will engage may safely assume it as an indisputable that the labour performed by one stout fact. For, it being notorious, that New England family in one year, would labour is as high priced with you as cost an English farmer a thousand with us, and your statement showing

that corn is not much more than onethird of our price, how monstrous, if you gain at all, must be the consumers' gains here! The rent of the land here

pounds in wages. You will say, why cannot the English labour as hard as the Yankees? But, mind, I talk of a family of Yankee sons; and, besides, I have no scruple to say, that one of these is a mere trifle more than it must be will do as much work in the clearing there, for the cultivated part must pay and fencing of a farm, and in the rent for the uncultivated part. The erection of buildings, as four or five En- labour, indeed, as all the world knows, glish of the same age and size. Yet, is every thing. All the other expenses have many of the New England farmers returned. Even they have had cause to repent of their folly. What hope is there, then, that English farmers will

succeed?

are not worth speaking of. What, then, must be the gains of the Long Island farmer, who sells his corn at a dollar a bushel, if you, with labour at the Long Island price, can gain by selling corn at the rate of five bushels for two dollars! If yours be a fine country for English farmers to migrate to, what

It so happens, that I have seen new settlements formed. I have seen lands cleared. I have seen crowds of people coming and squatting down in woods or must this be? You want no manure. little islands, and by the sides of rivers. This cannot last long; and, accordingI have seen the log hut raised; the bark ly, I see that you mean to dung for covering put on; I have heard the bold wheat after the second crop of corn. language of the adventurers; and I have This is another of the romantic stories witnessed their subsequent miseries. exposed. In letter IV. you relate the They were just as free as you are; for romance of manure being useless; but, they, like you, saw no signs of the exist- in letter X. you tell us, that you propose ence of any Government, good or bad. to use it. Land bearing crops without New settlements, particularly at so a manure, or, with new culture and congreat a distance from all the conve-stant ploughing, is a romance. This I niences and sweeteners of life, must be told you in London; and this you have begun by people who labour for them- found to be true.

selves. Money is, in such a case, al- It is of little consequence what wild most useless. It is impossible to be-schemes are formed and executed by

men who have property enough to "don't hesitate. In six months after I carry them back; but, to invite men to "shall have welcomed you, barring go to the Illinois with a few score of "accidents, you shall discover that you

pounds in their pockets, and to tell then that they can become farmers with those pounds, appears to me to admit of no other apology than an unequivocal acknowledgment that the inviter is mad. you will receive it multiplied, as it

Yet your fifteenth letter from the Illi-"
nois really contains such an invitation.
This letter is manifestly addressed to an
imaginary person. It is clear that the
correspondent is a feigned, or supposed,
being. The letter is, I am sorry to say
I think, a mere trap to catch poor
creatures with a few pounds in their
pockets. I will here take the liberty to
insert the whole of this letter: and will

then endeavour to show the misery "the voyage. That will cost you, to which it is calculated to produce, not "Baltimore or Philadelphia, provided only amongst English people, but amongst Americans who may chance to read it, and who are now living happily in the Atlantic states. The letter is dated, 24. of February, 1818, and the following are its words:

"I shall be rejoiced to hear it, and you eighty dollars you will enter a quarter " will not need the advice I am pre- "section of land, that is, you will pur"paring for you, But, if vexation and "chase at the land-office, one hundred "disappointments have assailed you, as " and sixty acres, and pay one-fourth of "I feared, and you can honourably "the purchase money, and looking to " make your escape, with the means of " the land to reward your pains with "transmitting yourself hither, and one "the means of discharging the other "hundred pounds sterling to spare, "three-fourths as they become due, in

"two, three, and four years. You will son it is whom you advise and press to "build a house with fifty dollars; and come to the Illinois with a hundred "you will find it extremely comfortable pounds in his pocket to become a "and convenient, as it will be really farmer!

"and truly yours. Two horses will

I will pass over the expenses previous "cost, with harness and plough, one to this unfortunate man and his family's "hundred. Cows, and hogs, and seed arriving at the Prairies, though those "corn, and fencing, with other ex- expenses will be double the amount that penses, will require the remaining two you state them at. But he arrives with "hundred and ten dollars. This begin- 450 dollars in his pocket. Of these he "ning, humble as it appears, is afflu- is to pay down 80 for his land, leaving "ence and splendour, compared with the three times that sum to be paid after

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"

"

original outfit of settlers in general. wards. He has 370 left. And now " Yet no man remains in poverty, who what is he to do? He arrives in May. possesses even moderate industry and So that this family has to cross the sea economy, and especially of time. You in winter and the land in spring. There "would of course bring with you your they are however, and now what are sea-bedding and store of blankets, for they to do? They are to have built for you will need of them on the Ohio, 50 dollars a house EXTREMELY " and you should leave England with a "COMFORTABLE AND CONVE"good stock of wearing apparel. Your "NIENT":-the very words that you luggage must be composed of light use in describing the farmer's house, "articles, on account of the costly land- that was to cost, with out-buildings, "carriage from the eastern port to Pitts- 1,500 dollars! However, you have deburgh, which will be from seven to scribed your own cabin, whence we may "ten dollars per 100lb, nearly sixpence gather the meaning which you attach "This cabin

66

"

"sterling per pound. A few simple "medicines of good quality are indis

"

to the word comfortable.

" is built of round straight logs, about

66

"other, and notched in at the corners, forming a room eighteen feet long by "sixteen; the intervals between the logs 'chunked,' that is, filled in with "slips of wood; and 'mudded, that is,

pensable, such as calomel, bark in a foot in diameter, lying upon each powder, castor oil, calcined magnesia, "laudanum; they may be of the great"est importance on the voyage and "journey, as well as after your arrival. Change of climate and situation will "produce temporary indisposition, but "daubed with a plaster of mud; a spa"with prompt and judicious treatment, "cious chimney built also of logs, stands "which is happily of the most simple " like a bastion at one end; the roof is kind, complaints to which new "well covered with four hundred 'clap comers are liable, are seldom danger- "boards' of cleft oak, very much like ous or difficult to overcome, provided "the pales used in England for fencing

"

hinges. All this has been executed by contract, and well executed, for twenty dollars. I have since added "ten dollars to the cost for the luxury " of a floor and ceiling of sawn boards,

Now, my dear sir, your mode of address in this letter clearly shows that you have in your eye a person above the level of common labourers. The words " and it is now a comfortable habita"Dear Sir" indicate that you are speak- " tion."

ing to a friend, or at least to an inti- In plain words this is a log-hut, such mate acquaintance; of course to a per- as the free negroes live in about here, son who has not been brought up in the and a hole it is, fit only for dogs, or habits of hard labour. And such a per- hogs, or cattle. Worse it is than the

:

negro huts, for they have a bit of glass, from the woods nearest adjoining. Here but here is none. This miserable hole, are 360 rods of fencing, and if it be done black with smoke as it always must be, so as to keep out a pig, and to keep in a and without any window, costs, how- pig, or a horse or cow, for less than half ever, 30 dollars. And yet this English a dollar a rod, I will suffer myself to be acquaintance of yours is to have " a made into smoked meat in the ex"house extremely comfortable and con- tremely comfortable house. Thus, then, "venient for fifty dollars." Perhaps here are 213 out of the 220 dollars, and his 50 dollars might get him a hut or this happy settler has seven whole hole, a few feet longer and divided into dollars left for all "other expenses"; two dens. So that here is to be cook- amongst which are the cost of cooking ing, washing, eating, and sleeping all utensils, plates, knives and forks, in the same extremely convenient and tables, and stools; for, as to table-cloths comfortable" hole! And yet, my dear and chairs, those are luxuries unbe sir, you find fault of the want of clean- coming " simple republicans." But, liness in the Americans! You have not there must be a pot to boil in: or, is that seen "the Americans." You have not too much? May these republicans have seen the nice, clean, neat houses of the a washing tub? Perhaps, indeed, it farmers in this island, in New England, will become unnecessary in a short in the Quaker counties of Pennsylvania. time; for the lice will have eaten up the You have seen nothing but the smoke- linen; and besides, perhaps, real indedried ultra-montainians; and your pro-pendence means stark-nakedness. But, ject seems to be to make the deluded at any rate, the hogs must have a English who may follow you rivals in trough? or, are they to eat at the same the attainment of the tawny colour. board with the family? Talking of eatWhat is this family to do in their 50- ing puts me in mind of a great article; dollar den? Suppose one or more of for what are the family to eat during the them sick! How are the rest to sleep year and more before their land can by night or to eat by day? produce? For even if they arrive in

However, here they are, in this mise- May, they can have no crop that year. rable place, with the ship-bedding, and Why they must graze with the cows in without even a bedstead, and with 130 the prairies, or snuggle with the hogs dollars gone in land and house. Two in the woods. An oven! Childish effehorses and harness and plough are to minacy! Oh! unleavened bread for cost 100 dollars! These, like the your life. Bread, did I say? Where is hinges of the door, are all to be of wood the " independent" family to get bread? I suppose; for as to flesh and blood and Oh! no! Grass and acorns and roots! bones in the form of two horses for 100 and, God be praised, you have plenty of dollars, is impossible, to say nothing water in your wells, though, perhaps; about the plough and harness, which the family, with all their " indepenwould cost 20 dollars of the money. dence," must be compelled to depend on Perhaps, however, you may mean some your leave to get it, and fetch it half a of those horses, ploughs and sets of mile into the bargain.

harness, which, at the time when you To talk seriously upon such a subject wrote this letter, you had all ready is impossible, without dealing in terms waiting for the spring to put in your of reprobation, which it would give me hundred acres of corn that was never great pain to employ when speaking of put in at all! However, let this pass any act of yours. Indeed such a family too. Then there are 220 dollars left, will be free; but the Indians are free, and these are to provide cows, hogs, and so are the gipsies in England. And seed, corn, fencing, and other expenses. I most solemnly declare, that I would Next come two cows (poor ones) 24 sooner live the life of a gipsy in Engdollars; hogs, 15 dollars; seed corn, land, than be a settler, with less than 5 dollars; fencing, suppose 20 acres five thousand pounds, in the Illinois; only, in four plots, the stuff brought and if I had the five thousand pounds, and was resolved to exchange England for? What have they to do about exfor America, what in the name of com- tending dominion and "taming the mon sense should induce me to go into wilderness"? If they speculate upon a wild country, when I could buy a good becoming founders of republics, they farm, of 200 acres, with fine orchard will indeed do well to get out of the

and good house and out-buildings, and stock it completely, and make it rich as a garden, within twenty miles of a great sea-port, affording ine a ready market and a high price for every article of my produce?

reach of rivals. If they have a thirst for power, they will naturally seek to be amongst the least informed part of mankind. But, if they only want to keep their property and live well, they will take up their abode on this side of the mountains at least.

:

You have, by this time, seen morethan you had seen when you wrote your The grand ideas about the extension "Letters from the Illinois." You would of the empire of the United States are not, I am convinced, write such letters of very questionable soundness; and now. But, lest you should not do it, it they become more questionable from is right that somebody should counte- being echoed by the Edinburgh Reract their delusive effects; and this I viewers, a set of the meanest politicians endeavour to do as much for the sake of that ever touched pen and paper. Upon this country as for that of my own any great question, they never have countrymen. For a good while I re- been right, even by accident, which is mained silent, hoping that few people very hard! The rapid extension of would be deluded; but when I heard settlements to the west of the mounthat an old friend and brother sports- tains, is, in my opinion, by no means, man, a sensible, honest frank, and favourable to the duration of the present friendly man, in Oxfordshire, whom I happy union. The conquest of Canada, will not name, had been seized with the would have been as dangerous, but not Illinois madness, and when I recollected more dangerous. A nation is never so that he was one of those whe came to strong and so safe as when its extreme visit me in prison, I could no longer points feel for each other as acutely as hold my tongue: for if a man like him, each feels for itself; and this never can a man of his sound understanding, be when all are not equally exposed to could be carried away by your representations, to what an extent must the rage have gone!

every danger; and especially when all the parts have not the same interests. In case of a war with England what would Mr. HULME visited you with the most become of your market down the Misfriendly feelings. He agrees with you sissipi? That is your sole market. That perfectly as to notions about forms of way your produce must go; or you must government. He wished to give a good dress yourself in skins and tear your account of your proceedings. His ac- food to bits with your hands. Yet that count is favourable; but his facts, which way your produce could not go, unless I am sure are true, let out what I could this nation were to keep up a navy equal not have known for certainty from any to that of England. Defend the country against invaders I know the people al

other quarter. However, I do not care a farthing for the degrees of goodness or ways will; but I am not sure that they of badness; I say, all new countries are will like internal taxes sufficient to rear all badness for English farmers. I say and support a navy sufficient to clear that their place is near the great cities the Gulf of Mexico of English squad1 on the coast; and that every step they rons. In short, it is my decided opinion, go beyond forty miles from those cities that the sooner the banks of the Ohio, is a step too far. They want freedom: the Wabash, and the Mississipi are they have it here. They want good pretty thickly settled, the sooner the land, good roads, good markets: they union will be placed in jeopardy. If a hare them all here. What should they war were to break out with England, San rambling about a nation-making even in a few years, the lands of which