CLIMATE, SEASONS, ETC. 



1818. 



Feb. 1 6. half a century. You will there see places, that were 

 once considerable towns and villages, now having, 

 within their ancient limits, nothing but a few 

 cottages, the Parsonage and a single Farm-house. 

 It is a curious and a melancholy sight, where an 

 ancient church, with its lofty spire or tower, the 

 church sufficient to contain a thousand or two or 

 three thousand of people conveniently, now stands 

 surrounded by a score or half a score of miserable 

 mud houses, with floors of earth, and covered with 

 thatch ; and this sight strikes your eye in all parts 

 of the five Western counties of England. Surely 

 these churches were not built without the existence 

 of a population somewhat proportionate to their 

 size ! Certainly not ; for the churches are of 

 various sizes, and, we sometimes see them very 

 small indeed. Let any man look at the sides of the 

 hills in these counties, and also in Hampshire, where 

 downs , or open lands, prevail. He will there see, 

 not only that those hills were formerly cultivated ; 

 but, that banks, from distance to distance, were made 

 by the spade, in older to form little flats for the 

 plough to go, without tumbling the earth down the 

 hill ; so that the side of a hill looks, in some sort, 

 like the steps of a stairs. Was this done without 

 hands, and without mouths to consume the grain 

 raised on the sides of these hills ? The Funding 

 and Manufacturing and Commercial and Taxing 

 System has, by drawing wealth into great masses, 

 drawn men also into great masses. London, the 

 manufacturing places, Bath, and other places of 

 dissipation, have, indeed, wonderfully increased in 

 population. Country seats, Parks, Pleasure-gar 

 dens, have, in like degree, increased in number and 

 extent. And, in just the same proportion has been 

 the increase of Poor-houses, Mad-houses, and Jails. 

 But, the people of England, such as FORTESCUE 

 described them, have been swept away by the ruth 

 less hand of the Aristocracy, who, making their 

 approaches by slow degrees, have, at last, got into 

 their grasp the substance of the w r hole country. 



17. Frost, not very hard. Went back to Harrisburgh. 



1 8. Same weather. Very fine. Warm in the middle 

 of the day. 



19. Same weather. Quitted Harrisburgh, very much 

 displeased : but, on this subject, I shall, if possible, 

 keep silence, till next year, and until the People of 

 Pennsylvania have had time to reflect ; to clearly 



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