America and her Resources; or, a View of the agricultural, commercial ... moral and religious capacity and character of the American people

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THE RESOURCES OF THE HMHPiiiiD bw&wibb OF AMERICA; OR, A VIEW OF THE AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL, MANUFACTURING, FINANCIAL, POLITICAL, LITERARY, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS CAPACITY AND CHARACTER OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. •OOf'—- BY JOHN BRISTED, COUNSKI.LOR AT LAW AUTHOR OF THE RESOURCES OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. — -OOO" — £y S'e @xei KXt eXttrC-w ! PURLISHED RY JAMES EASTBURN & CO. AT THE LITERARY ROOMS, BROADWAY, CORNBR Of PIJTE-STR.EET. Abraham Paul, printer, Southern District of New-York, ss. BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the seventh day of February, in the forty-second year of the Independence of the United States of America, John Bristcd, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as Author and Proprietor, in the words following, to wit ; ''The Resources of the United States of America; or, a View of the Agricultural, " Commercial, Manufacturing, Financial, Political, Literary, Moral and Religious " Capacity and Character of the American People.

By John Briated, Counsellor at " Law. Author of the Resources of the British Empire. " EV Js <$AU ZAt SM70-OV !" In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled " an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned." And also to an Act, entitled " an Act supplementary to an Act, entitled an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, and extending the bene fits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints. JAMES DILL, Clerk of the Southern District of New-York, t DEDICATION. TO THE HON, J&MES WBœF, CHANCELLOR OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK.

SIR, Wile you permit me to place under your protection the following pages, in which it is attempted to present a brief outline of the Re sources and Character of a Country, whose public weal you have so powerfully upheld by your judicial talents and learning ; whose private interests have been promoted, and whose private relations have been uniformly gladdened, by your social and domestic virtues ? I have the honour to be, Sir, Your much obliged And most obedient servant, JOHN BMSTEI). New- York, 181 8.

Chapter I. Territory, Agriculture, Population, And Navigable Capacity Of The United States

Territorial aspect of the United States, 1 1 — population of the United States, and other countries, 15 — rapid growth of the United States, 17 — of New- York, Baltimore, Kentucky, New-Orleans, 18 — foreign emigrants, 20 — salubrity of the United States, 21 — population of the United States ; how raised and distributed, 22 — Vir ginia population, 23 — agriculture of the United States, 24 — navigable capacities of the United States, 25 — canals may connect the whole union, ibid. — their importance, 26 — power of Congress to make them, 27 — the Alleghany mountains and their rivers, 28 — communications between the Atlantic rivers, the St. Lawrence, and the Lakes, 32 — the New-York canal, 33 — its importance, 34 — ter ritorial capacities of the United States, 35 — works thereon, 36.

Chapter II. Commerce Of The United States

Anti-commercial theory, 37 — its folly and mischief, 38 — aggregate commerce of the world ; of the United States ; of Britain, 39 — X their commercial distress, 40 — peculiar advantages of the United States, 40 — their exports 41— imports, 42 — home and foreign trade. 43 — tonnage, 44 — tonnage of Britain, France, and other nations, 45 — United States coasting trade, and navy, ibid. — emancipation of Spanish America, 46 — its importance to Britain ; to the United States, 47 — junction of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, 48-*—negotiations with Britain and President Adams for emancipating Spanish America, 49 — necessity of exertion on the part of Britain, 50.

Chapter III. Manufactures Of The United States

Connexion between agriculture and manufactures, 52 — folly of forcing manufactures, 53 — their condition in the United States, 55 — efforts to establish their monopoly, 56— its evil, 57 — mechanical skill of the United States, 58 — their chief manufactures ; amount, quality, and value, 59 — in the different States, 61 — and in peculiar places, as Patterson, Philadelphia, 62 — Wilmington, Pittsburg, 63 — steamboats, 65 — Fulton, ibid.

Chapter IV. Finances Of The United States

Necessity of internal tdxation, 67 — United States taxes establish edj destroyed, 68 — mistaken economy of the United States, 69 standing army of the United States ; of Britain, 70 — importance of taxation, and moneyed institutions, 71 — national debt of the United States, 72 — loans of last war, 73 — sinking fund, 74 — revenue of the United States, 75 — customs, duties, &c. 76 — internal taxes, 81 — their apportionment, 82 — United States property in land, slaves, &c. 83 — its rapid increase, 85— public lands, 86 — finances of the United States for 1817, 88— aggregate of the United States capital, income, and expenditure, 89 — do. of Britain ; her deficit, 90 — do. of France, and other powers, 94 — purchase of Florida, 95 contrast between the energy of the United States and supineness of Britain, 96 — importance of Cuba to Britain, 97 — feverish state of Europe, ibid. — preponderance of Russia, ibid. — Holy League, 98— combination of Europe and the United States against Britain, 98.

Chapter V. Government, Policy, And Laws Of The United States

United States governments all elective, 99 — importance of political economy, ibid. — characteristic differences between ancient and modern governments, 100 — best works on political philosophy, 106 — mischief of monopolies, whether mercantile, or manufacturing, or agricultural, 108 — the essentials of a good government, 109 — national sovereignty of the United States, 111 — advantages of a written Constitution, 112 — importance of studying American polity, 113 —relation of General and State governments, 114 — their probable duration, 114 — Barbe de Marbois, 115 — G. Morris, ibid. — Federal Constitution of the United States ; its powers and representatives, 116 — evils of frequent elections, 117 — of voting by ballot, 120 — of universal suffrage, 121 — of qualifications in the elected, ibid. — of disfranchising the clergy, 122 — Senators of the United States; how appointed, 123 — importance of a durable Senate, 124 — evils of excluding cabinet officers from the Legislature, 130 — of under paying the public servants, 132 — executive negative, 134 — money bills, 137 — general powers of congress, 138 — evils of the present location of the seat of the Federal Government, 139 — slave system in the United States, 148 — in the world, 149 — abolition of the slave trade by the United States, 150 — evils of slavery, 151 — slaves burned alive in the United States, 152 — attempt in the United States to colonize free blacks, 153 — best writers on the United States government and policy, 156 — papers of General Hamilton, 158 — powers of the United States Executive, 159 — President ; Vice-President; 160 — how chosen, 161 — evils of caucus, ibid. — -joint powers of Executive and Senate, 165 — evils of multitudinous executive in the States generally, and particularly in New-York, 167 — executive power of pardoning ; its importance, 172 — abused in the United States, 174 — Judicial powers of the United States, 175 — evils of cashiering Judges at sixty, 177 — requisites of independence in judiciary, 178 — their dependence in many of the States, 180 — power of American judiciary over legislative Acts, 183 — which not known in any other country, 184— usurpation of Georgia Legislature over the judiciary, 187 — importance of such power in the judiciary, 187 — diversity of laws in the United States ; its evil ; 190 — crime committed in one State not punishable in another, 193— » TABLE OF CONTENTS. duelling; General Hamilton and his son, 194— importance of uniform laws in the United States, 195 — miscellaneous powers of Con gress, 196 — amendments of the Federal Constitution, 197 — how made, 199 — unsuccessful attempts to make, 201 — by Senator Hill house, ibid the Hartford Convention, 202— General Hamilton's plan of the United States Constitution, 203— paper constitutions, 206 — necessity of a vigorous administration of the Federal Government, 207 — Presidents Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, 208 — effects of the Washington administration on the United

States, 209 — duty of a wise government to exclude foreigners from all political privileges, 210 — necessity of preserving and strengthening the federal Union, 211 — evils of its disruption, 213 — all new go vernments weak ; instanced in Britain and the United States, 215 — general government of the United States too weak in itself, 217 — its probable career, 218 — chief characteristics of American institutions, 220 — population of the United States better, their govern ment weaker, than those of Europe, 221 — chief defects in all governments, ancient and modern, 222 — peculiar adaptation of the United States government to its people, 225 — Mr. Jay's parallel between European and American governments, 226 — general course of all free governments, 228 — superior physical, intellectual, and moral qualities of the American people, 229 — increased power of the people, all over the world, 230 — Emperor Alexander, 231 — M. Talleyrand, 232— relative importance of the United States, eastern and western sections, 233 — probable consequences of western predominance, 234 — general conviction, in the United States, of superiority of American to the British people, 235 — the great question at issue between American and European governments, 236 — Resources of the United States relatively greater than those of Bri tain, 237 — the revolutionary question supported by the United States and Continental Europe, against England, 241 — its probable result, 242— danger of British Colonies, particularly Canada ; its maladministration, 243 — Cuba once offered to Mr.

Jefferson, 245 Spanish American Colonies must fall to the United States, whom Britain cannot conciliate, 246 — Vienna Treaty, 247— Holy League, ibid.— United States more formidable to Britain than Russia, 248 Mr. Jackson's (the British Ambassador to the United States,) opinion of the American people, 249— their capacity and character, in peace and war, 250— political parties in the United States, their views and objects, ibid. — home policy of the United States, 252 — their skilful diplomacy, 252 — its importance, 253 — skilful diploma cy of France and Russia contrasted with the diplomatic blunders of England, 254 — origin and progress of the armed neutrality, from 1754 to 1815, 259 — causes of England's unskilful diplomacy, 265 — her intrinsic home power, 267 — Mr. Jefferson's prophecy concern ing her, in 1782, 269— LAWS of the United States and the world generally, 270 — their study most important, 271 — necessity of Lectures on, in the United States, 273 — effect of the study of law on the human understanding, 275— Mr. Burke, 276 — Mr. Canning, 277 — author of Pursuits of Literature, 278 — Lord Thurlow, Lord Kenyon, Lord Bacon, 279 — superiority of the common to the civil law, 283 — its prevalence in the United States, 284 — outline of legal study, 285 — some defects in the juridical system of America, 286 — no remedy against the United States or a separate State, 286 — bad insolvent laws, 287 — lower law-officers badly appointed, ibid. — usury, ibid. — poor-laws, 288 — New-York Sunday School Union, ibid. — defects of JVew- York Constitution, 292 — necessity of amending New- York Constitution, ibid. — its Court of Errors, &c. 293 — no Bar, in a free country, can be overstocked, 294 — lawyers govern the United States, ibid. — the American Bar averages a greater amount of talent than the British, 295 — characteristics of American and British eloquence ; of ancient and modern speaking, 297 — of American and British law-reporters, 302 — English crown lawyers and New- York lawyers, 303.

Chapter VI. On The Literature Of The United States

" The United States and England," 304— Mr. Southey ; Editors of the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, 305 — United States under rated in Europe, 306 — Franklin's refutation of the French theory, 307 — causes of the United States literature being defective, 308 — no want of American genius, 309 — general course of readers and writers in the United States, 310 — too early practical life in the United States, 313 — periodical publications, 314 — perpetual change, 315 — necessity of an original Review in the United States, 316 — elementary education in the United States ; in Britain, 319— saying of George the Third, ibid — Greeks and Trojans in the United Stales, TABLE OF CONTENTS. 320 — importance of universal education, ibid — liberal education de fective in the United States, 321— grammar-schools, 322 — grammar decried in the United States, 323— its defence, 324— colleges in the United States, 327— want of Lectures in the United States, 328— education injured by clerical monopoly, 329 — elocution in the Uni ted States vitious and nasal, 331 — pronunciation of English, Greek, and Latin tongues, 336— formal dulness a bad qualification for a pro fessor, 339 — importance of enthusiasm in a teacher, 340 — outline of Lectures on Belles Lettres and Rhetoric, and on Moral Philoso phy, 341 — gradational studies, metaphysics, mathematics, physics, classics, 343 — outline of liberal education in England, 345 — in Scot land, 347 — importance of composition in prose and verse, 349— r neglect of general literature in United States professions, 350 — its importance to all professional men, 351 — prosody universally mur dered in the United States, 352 — United States writers, 353 — history, 354 — novels, ibid — poetry, 355 — Marshal's Washington, 356— periodical works, 357 — M'Fingal, 358 — Mr. Wirt ; Fisher Ames, 359— Colden's Fulton, 360— Mr. Walsh, 361— medical science in the United States, 363 — Fine Arts, 364 — remedies proposed for literary deficiencies of the United States, 365 — learned societies in the United States, 367 — Governor Clinton, 368 — importance of a National University in the United States, 369 — -female education in the United States, 371— Mr. Griscom, ibid— Miss H. More, 372.

Chapter VII. On The Habits, Manners, And Character Of The United States

General ignorance of foreigners, particularly the British, respecting the character of the United States, 374. — causes of that igno rance, 375 — M. Talleyrand's notions of the American character, ibid.— national gratitude, what, 376 — basis of the United States character, 377— identity of language, 378— United States national loyalty, 380— M. Talleyrand mistaken as to the American character, 381— course of colonial settlements, 384— United States; how set tled and peopled, 385— foreign emigrations to the United States ; Irish colony ; French establishment, 387— slaves, their number and effect in the United States, 388— religion the basis of all national character, and gague of all national prosperity, 392— serious chasms of religious ordinances in the United States, 394 — infidelity in the United States, 394 — Virginia ; Louisiana, 395 — necessity of religion to human communities, 396 — experiment of national infidelity made in Europe, 397 — the three eras of paganism, superstition, and infidelity, in the history of the world, and their gradational effects upon mankind, 398 — infidelity allied with the revolutionary ques tion, exemplified in France and England, 403 — United States calm ness in religion, 405 — Dr. Priestley, 407 — no national church in the United States; of whose population one-third without any religious ordinances, 408 — evils of exclusive State religion, 409 — of tithes, 410 — spirit of the age ; Archbishop Laud ; Lord Clarendon, 411 — prevailing sects in the United States ; their church government, 412 — American clergy, 413 — collegiate churches, 414 — religion and hypocrisy are substance and shadow, ibid. — Sunday Schools, Mis sionary and Bible Societies in the United States, 415 — study of S.

S. 416 — Owen's History of British and Foreign Bible Society, 417 — morals and manners of the United States, 419 — New-England, 420 — Middle States, 422 — Southern States, 423 — American women, ibid. — slave population deteriorates morals, 424 — caged slave in Virginia, 425 — Western States, 426 — Americans locomotive and migratory, 427 — western settlers, 428 — general manners of the United States, 430 — physical activity and strength of American population, 433 — their intellectual shrewdness, 434 — and political elevation, ibid. — superior, in mass, to all other people, 435 — United States navy, ibid — drawbacks on United States morals ; lotteries ; State prisons ; insolvent laws, 436 — poor-laws, 437 — immoderate drinking, ibid. — United States people charitable ; munificence of Boston, 438 — pauperism and profligacy of New-York, 439 — man ners of the United States ; M. Volney's notion, 443 — the real state of the fact, 444 — general aspect of American society, 445 — travelling in the United States, 446 — gradational cleanliness in the western, southern, middle, and eastern divisions, 448— universal use of tobacco, in smoking and chewing, in the United States, 450 — United States amusements, 450 — marriages, 451 — efficient population of the United States, 453 — universal trading spirit in the United States, 455 — how profited by British capital, in credit and insolvencies, ibid. — extravagance general in the United States, 456 — Descartes and Dutch Stadtholder, 457— no family wealth, 458 — nor social subordination in children, scholars, servants, 459 — national vanity TABLE OF CONTENTS. of the United "States, 460— means of rendering the United States the greatest nation in the world, 461.

CONCLUSION. PRESENT STATE OF EUROPE. Necessity of vigorous administration of our Federal Government, 462 — state of France, ibid. — clergy ; nobility, 463— representation and revolution, 464 — balance of power deranged, ibid. — Prussia, ibid. — Austria, 465 — Spain; her capacity and condition, 466 — her gene ral ignorance, 467 — governed by foreigners, 468 — her constitution of 1812, 469 — return of Ferdinand, ibid. — intrinsic power of France, 470 — hercontra-indications, 471 — preponderance of Russia, 474 — her steady ambition, 475 — her portentous progress, 476 — Sir Robert Wilson, 477 — radical difference between American and European governments, ibid. — defects of all free governments, 478 — intrinsic power of England, 479 — shattered by the French revolution, ibid. — British Constitution, 480 — United States Constitution, 482 — European governments either military or commercial, 483 — defects of English administration ; home, foreign, and colonial, 484 — her employment of national talent, 486 — her growth during the last three centuries, 488 — duration of national power and talent, 489 — Chatham ; Pitt ; Castlereagh ; Canning, 492 — her present condition, 493 — death of her lineal princess, 495 — necessity of the United States to augment their national strength and general go vernment, 496 — their recent destruction of internal revenue, and occupation of Amelia Island, 497 — treasury documents for 1817, 499 — rates of pay to public officers in the United States, 501 — me moranda of mutation and variety, 502 — British revenue and expenditure for 1818, 504 — abolition of the slave trade by Spain and Por tugal, 505 — war between the United States and Spain, ibid.

THE RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES, &c — <«*»<*— INTRODUCTORY REMARKS Importance of the United States — Misrepresentations of Travellers, SCc. A HE resources and character, the present power, and future prospects of the United States, are very imper fectly appreciated or understood by the nations of Europe. Nay, one of the great British critics has recently informed us — that the Americans themselves have not yet told their own story well ; nor sufficiently directed their mind towards fathoming the capabilities of their own country. To ascertain and exhibit the resources of this ex tended and rapidly-rising empire, is worthy the atten tion of every one who feels a deep interest in the well being of the republic. Indeed, no object can be presented more worthy of the contemplation of all the nations of the globe, than the growing capacities of a commonwealth which has borne itself, triumphantly, through two severe and bloody conflicts, against the most fearful odds ; and run a career of peace, unexampled in enterprise and prosperity throughout the history of the world.

Humanly speaking, no circumstances can prevent these United States from becoming, eventually, and at no distant period, a great and powerful nation, in fluencing and controlling the other sovereignties of the world ; — seeing that they are secure from the dread of powerful neighbours ; that they are not composed of detached and distant territories ; but that one connect ed, fertile, wide-spreading country is the goodly heri tage of their dominion; that they are blessed with a vast variety of soils and productions, and are watered with innumerable streams for the delight and accommodation of their inhabitants ; that a succession of navigable rivers forms an ocean-chain around their borders, to bind them together ; while the most capacious waters, running at convenient distances, present them with so many highways for the mutual transportation and exchange of all their various commercial commodities, both rude and manufactured ; and also, for the easy communication of all friendly aids, political and mi litary.

In addition to the Atlantic States, — exhibiting up wards of two thousand miles of sea-coast, with innume rable bays, creeks, rivers, ports, and harbours, and covering a surface of nearly one million of square miles, displaying every variety of soil and produce, — a new empire has suddenly sprung up within the bosom of of the union, like an exhalation from the earth : I mean that immense region called the Western Country ; bounded on the north by the great lakes Erie, Huron, and Superior, and the chain of waters between the Grand Portage and the Lake of the Woods ; on the west by the Rocky Mountains; on the south by the Gulf of Mexico; on the east by the Alleghany Hills; com prising full fifteen hundred thousand square miles, and more than fifty thousand miles of internal ship and boat navigation.

It contains two thousand miles of lake ; one thousand miles of gulf '; and one hundred thousand miles of river coast ; — the whole country is one continued intersection of rivers, communicating with each other. These vast territorial domains are held by a population, free as the air they breathe — a population, powerful in physical activity and strength; patient of toil, and prodigal of life ; brave, enterprising, intelligent, and persevering; presenting, both in body and in mind, the noblest materials for the formation of national greatness, prosperity, and influence. There are many and obvious reasons, why the nations of Europe are unacquainted with the resources and character of the United States ; which present in stitutions political and social, altogether unique, and unparalleled in the annals of humankind.

It is suffi cient merely to mention one very broad source of Eu ropean ignorance, with respect to this country ; namely, the opposite, but equally erroneous views which the various travellers from Europe have given of the Ame rican Republic. — By far the greater portion of these writers have fallen into the vitious extreme of unbound ed praise, or of indiscriminate censure. Many persons, frustrated in their pernicious hopes at home, and sometimes smarting from the recent scourge ; men who have been arraigned at the bar of justice in their own land, as traitors and felons, and have exchanged the wellmerited sallows for an igrno minious exile, have generally depicted this country as the seat of uncontaminated purity, and uninterrupted happiness. If we may believe the assertions of these political philosophers, the soil every where teems with spontaneous plenty ; the air is balmy and fragrant; the soft delights of perpetual spring dwell upon the land ; the form of government, as it is written down upon paper, and appears in a printed book, is the model of all human perfection ; the rulers are, of necessity, all virtue, wisdom, and strength; and the people, who elect, and from the midst of whom are elected these rulers, are, invariably, all incorruptible in their political in tegrity, pure in their personal conduct, simple and refined in their social manners.

Vice knows no habitation here ; and paradise is again restored on earth, as it ex isted, in all the bloom of innocence and love, before the fall of our primeval parents. Another set of writers, either rankling under the dis appointment of their too sanguine expectations of sue- RESOURSES OF THE UNITED STATES. 4 cess in this country ; or, from a very slight and super ficial view of what they did not understand, and under the guidance of that self-sufficient malignity, which is the inseparable concomitant of dulness and ignorance, and measuring every thing they saw here by the habits and manners of the people in their own country, and resolutely condemning whatsoever differed from the standard to which they themselves had been accustomed; without ever once reflecting upon the very differ ent states of society which must, necessarily, take place in an old, long-established, and fully peopled country, and in one which labours under all the peculiar circumstances of national infancy — a thin, and a scattered population over an immense extent of territory, the unfinished condition of its social habits, the fluctua tion of its political institutions, the uncertainty of its popular movements — have taken upon themselves to represent these United States as cursed with a barren and inhospitable soil ; an ungenial and dreary clime ; a government, full of Weakness, fraud, and violence ; a people, made up and compounded of the sweepings and refuse of Europe — " the taint of anarchy, and the blast of crime," — fickle and turbulent in their politics, rude and coarse in their behaviour, and steeped in all the vulgar brutality of vice and faction.

Gilbert Imlay, and M. St. John de Crevecceur, author of " The American Farmer," and of pretended " Tra vels in Upper Pennsylvania and the State of New-York," have exceedingly exaggerated the excellencies of the United States, by representing them as the abode of more than all the perfection of innocence, happiness, plenty, learning, and wisdom, than can be allotted to human beings to enjoy. A far greater number of writers, however, have outraged decency, by loading the American people with abuse and calumny. Among the vilest and the silliest of these, are Parkinson, an English farmer ; Ashe, a soi-disant military officer ; and one Jansen, a non-descript. These writers, as appears from their own confession, never herded with any other companions than the lower classes of society in the union — such as stage-drivers, masters of sloops, keepers of ale-houses, low mechanics, retail tradesmen, and labouring peasants.

It is not, in deed, pretended by any of the advocates of American character and claims, that among these classes of the community can be discovered any very great refine ment of breeding — or any very extensive information — or any very profound reflection. Another set of travellers in this country, have come hither with letters of introduction to some very respectable gentlemen in the United States; and, in conse quence, have been received into their families, and the families of their friends and acquaintance ; and, in every instance, have been treated with hospitality and kindness. These men have gone away to Europe, and published anecdotes of private families, have given to the world accounts of mere domestic incidents, such as could only have been imparted in the moments of un suspecting confidence ; and the relation of which can serve no other purpose, than to sadden the heart of those who have been betrayed, and stamp, in characters of lasting infamy, the baseness of the being who could thus drag into painful notice individuals wishing to pass their lives in the privacy of cultivated retirement, occasionally diversified by the more select intercourse of the social circle.

On the height of this bad eminence stand the Mar quis de Chastilleux, and the Duke de la Rouchefaucault Liancourt, who have repaid the kindness of American hospitality, by descanting on the vulgarity of American manners, and by detailing to the world occurrences and conversations which they could never have known, had they not, unfortunately, been mistaken for gentlemen by those whose civilities and confidence they thus abused. But, surely, private individuals, who do not obtrude themselves upon the public, but rather shun the eye of vulgar observation, are not fit subjects for a traveller's merriment, or satire. In a world, bursting with vice and folly, there are always knaves and cox combs, in sufficient number, to exhaust all the powers of ridicule and invective; and these are the only legiti mate objects, against which the laugh of the wit, and the declamation of the moralist, ought to be directed.

The well-known poet, Mr. Thomas Moore, when quite a young man, published a book, made up of prose and verse, in which he, very unmercifully, abused and misrepresented the people of* this country. Some little time since, however, he addressed a letter to Mr. John E. Hall, the editor of the Port-Folio, in Philadelphia, in which he expresses his deep repentance for having slandered America, and swings into the opposite ex treme of unmeasured praise, representing it, now, as the only land where freedom, and happiness, and so forth, are to be found. It would, indeed, be superfluous to descant upon the credulity of Mr. Weld, who, in enumerating the peril ous wild beasts of this country, gravely asserts, and, as he says, upon the authority of General Washington, that the moschetlo of the United States is so terrible in its attacks as to bite through the thickest boot.