386 Letter ii. to [Part III. 



uncultivated part. The labour, indeed, as all the world 

 knows, is every thing. All the other expenses are not 

 worth speaking of. What, then, must be the gains 

 of the Long Island farmer, who sells his com at 

 a dollar a bushel, if you, with labour, at the Long 

 Island price, can gain by selling Corn at the rate of 

 y?ue bushels for two dollars ! If yours be Bifine country 

 for English farmers to migrate to, tvhat vimt this 

 he I You want no manure. This cannot last long ; 

 and, accordingly, I see that you mean to dung for 

 wheat after the second crop of Corn. This is another 

 of the romantic stories exposed. In Letter IV you 

 relate the romance of manure being useless; but, in 

 Letter X, you tell us, that you propose to use it. Land 

 bearing crops without a manure, or, with new-culture 

 and constant ploughing, is a romance. This I told you 

 in London ; and this you have found to be true. 



620, It is of little consequence what wild schemes 

 are formed and executed by men who have property 

 enough to carry them back ; but, to invite men to go to 

 the Illinois with a few score of pounds in their pockets, 

 and to tell them, 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. Yet your fifteenth Letter from the 

 Illinois 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 >vith a 

 few pounds in their pockets. I will here take the liberty 

 to insert the whole of this letter ; and will then en- 

 deavour to show the misery which it is calculated to 

 produce, not 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, 24th of February, 1818, and the following 

 are its words : 



621. " Dear Sir, — When a man gives advice to his 

 " friends, on affairs of great importance to their in- 

 ** terest, he takes on himself a load of responsibility, 

 •* from which I have always shrunk, and generally 



