308 Letter to [Part HI. 



the Boroughraongers ; and so is the man that is in the 

 grave. When it was first proposed, in the Enghsh 

 Ministry, to drop quietly the title oi King of France in 

 the enumeration of our king's titles, and, when it was 

 stated to he an expedient likely to tend to a peace, 

 Mr. WixDiuM, who was then a member of the Cabinet, 

 said : " As this is a measure of safety, and as, doubtless, 

 " we shall hear of others of tiie same cast, what think 

 *' you of going under ground at once ? " It Avas a re- 

 mark enough to cut the liver out of the hearers ; but Pitt 

 and his associates had no livers. I do not believe, that 

 any twelve Journeymen, or Labourers, in England 

 would have voted for the adoption of this mean and des- 

 picable measure. 



585. If, indeed, the Illinois were the only place out 

 of the reach of the Borough-grasp ; and, if men are re- 

 solved to get out of that reach ; then, I should say. 

 Go to the Illinois, by all means. But, as there is a 

 country, a settled country, a free country, full of kind 

 neighbours, full of all that is good, and Avhen this 

 country is to be traversed in order to get at the acknow- 

 ledged hardships of the Illinois, how can a sane mind 

 lead an English Farmer into the expedition ? 



586. It is the enchanting damsel that makes the 

 knight encounter the hair-breadth scapes, the sleeping 

 on the ground, the cooking with cross-sticks to hang the 

 pot on. It is the Prairie, that pretty French M'ord, 

 which means green grass bespangled with daisies and 

 cowshps ! Oh, God ! What delusion ! And that a man 

 of sense ; a man of superior understanding and talent ; 

 a man of honesty, honour, humanity, and lofty senti- 

 ment, should be the cause of this delusion ; I, my dear 

 Sir, have seen Prairies many years ago, in America, 

 as fine as yours, as fertile as yours, though not so ex- 

 tensive. I saw those Prairies settled on by xlmerican 

 Loyalists, who were carried, with all their goods and 

 tools to the spot, and who were furnished with four years' 

 provisions, all at the expense of England; who had the 

 lands given them ; tools given them ; and who were 

 thus seated down on the borders of creeks, which gave 

 them easy communication with the inhabited plains near 

 the sea. The settlers that I particularly knew were 



