246 Letters Jtom the United States of North America. [March, 



a conveyancer, now as a solicitor, now as a special pleader, and now 

 as an advocate or barrister.* 



" In a few of the larger American cities they are beginning to separate 

 into classes, of themselves, under the natural operation of that law, 

 which indicates a division of labour as the true source of wealth, if not 

 of excellence,f and the only protitable kind of monopoly for a crowded 

 population. 



" In some parts of the country, a few of these broader distinctions, 

 which are multiplying every day, now, have become rather decided. 

 In Philadelphia, for example, the surgeon, apothecary, tooth-drawer, 

 dentist and bleeder seldom or never interfere with the physician, or with 

 each other ; while, at New York, the higher class of lawyers, the coun- 

 sellors a^ law,J begin to hold themselves rather aloof, when they fall in 

 the way of a mere attorney, who, in his turn, looks rather compassion- 

 ately at the mere conveyancer, who, generally speaking, is an every- 

 day magistrate in our country, with little or no knowledge of the law, 

 and with just wit enough to copy a neutralized § English precedent. 



" So, too, it would be no easy matter to find a native-born white Ame- 

 rican, or, in this part of the coimtrjs a native-born coloured American, 

 though you were to search the streets and highways, unable to read, write, 

 and cipher ; and go where j^ou may, through these twenty-four confe- 

 derated Republics, you will find a newspaper, of some sort or other, 

 lying about ; and perhaps two or three more circulating through the 

 neighbourhood. You will observe, that, by neighbotirhood here, is meant 

 a large township ; and, by a large township, what, in other parts of the 

 earth, would make a pretty respectable kingdom ; but who will say 

 much for newspaper reading — I do not say here, but any where ? It is 

 indeed, I believe, tliough better than no reading at all, the idlest of all 

 reading. You never know the truth, till you have wasted whole 

 days in the search — read volumes and volumes of untruth, and you 

 are not half certain, at last. If you rvill read newspapers, therefore, 

 why, the older they are, the better — you may correct the lies of a two- 

 year-old-paper by the facts which have come to light, since it appeared. 

 Plain truth is hardly ever met with, in newspapers ; nobody ever yet 

 became well acquainted with any thing, by the study of newspapers — 

 profoundly acquainted with any thing, I should say. It may qualify 

 men for talking well, to be sure, but will it, for thinking well ? Hence it is 

 that, upon every subject save that of his trade, business, or occupation, 

 perhaps, the American trader, mechanic, or farmer, will talk better than 

 your Englishman of the same class. 



" But tlien, who would think of putting our husbandmen, our manu- 

 factm-ers, and our mechanics, altogether, as a body, in comparison with 



* Yes, and be acquainted with English law of all sorts, and of all ages ; and after 

 that, with the modified English law of the Federal Association, with all the varieties 

 wliich appear in tlie law of the twenty-four several Republics — with Frencii law, 

 and with Spanish law ! — X.X. 



f By this very " division of labour," the public are spunged, as they never could be, 

 if such division at laio aud hy law were not established; barristers, attorneys, &c. 

 &c., now play into each other's hands. — X. X. 



I Counsellors at law are known at New York, and here, and in tlie Supreme 

 Court of the United States, where the chief men of the wliole country are admitted 

 now, as " counsellors 0H(/ attorneys." It is the highest legal rank below that of a 

 judge — the rank of counsellor at law, that is. — A B.C. 



§ Qy. or naturalized?— yi. X. 



