Letter to [Part III. 



for putting in a hundred acres of Com in the Spring, 

 how I pitied you ! I saw all your plagues, if you could 

 not see them. I saw the grass choking your plants ; 

 the grubs eating them ; and you fretting and turning 

 from the sight with all the pangs of sanguine baffled 

 hope. I expected you to have ten btcshels, instead of 

 ^fty, upon an acre. I saw your confusion, and parti- 

 cipated in your mortification. From these feelings I 

 was happily relieved by the Journal of our friend 

 HuLME, who informs the world, and our countrymen 

 in particular, that you had not, in July Icist, any Cam 

 at all growing ! 



614. Thus it is to reckon one's chickens before 

 they are hatched : and thus the Transalleganian dream 

 vanishes. You have been deceived. A warm heart, 

 a lively imagination, and 1 know not what caprice 

 about republicanism, have led you into sanguine ex- 

 pectations and wrong conclusions. Come, now ! Con- 

 fess it like yourself ; that is, like a man of sense and 

 spirit : like an honest and fair-dealing John Bull. To 

 err belongs to all men, great as well as little ; but 

 to be ashamed to confess error, belongs only to the 

 latter. 



615. Great as is my confidence in your candour, lean 

 however, hardly hope wholly to escape your anger 

 for having so decidedly condemned your publications; 

 but, I do hope, that you will not be so unjust as to im- 

 pute my conduct to any base self-interested motive. I 

 have no private interest, 1 can have no such interest 

 in endeavouring to check the mad torrent towards the 

 West. 1 own nothing in these States, and never shall ; 

 and whether English Farmers push on into misery and 

 ruin, or stop here in happiness and prosperity, to me, 

 as tar as private interest goes, it must oe the same. Afi 

 to the difference in our feeUngs and notions about coun- 

 try, about allegiance, and about forms of government, 

 this may exist without any, even the smallest degree 

 of personal dishke. I was no hypocrite in England ; 

 1 had no views farther than those which I professed. 

 I wanted nothing for myself but the fruit of my own in- 

 dustry and talent, and I wished nothing for my country 

 but its hberties and laws, which say, that the people 



