TO 



MORRIS BIRKBECK, Esq., 



OF 

 ENGLISH PRAIRIE, ILLINOIS TERRITORY. 



LETTER II. 



North Hemp stead, Long Island, 



i5th Dec. 1818. 

 MY DEAR SIR, 



1016. BEING, when I wrote my former Letter to you, in great 

 haste to conclude, in order that my son William might take it to 

 England with him, I left unnoticed many things, which I had 

 observed in your &quot; Letters from the Illinois &quot; : and which things 

 merited pointed notice. Some of these I will notice ; for, I wish 

 to discharge all my duties towards my countrymen faithfully ; 

 and, I know of no duty more sacred, than that of warning them 

 against pecuniary ruin and mental misery. 



1017. It has always been evident to me, that the Western 

 Countries were not the countries for English farmers to settle 

 in : no, nor for American farmers, unless under peculiar cir 

 cumstances. The settlers, who have gone from the New England 

 States, have, in general, been able men with families of stout sons. 

 The contracted farm in New England sells for money enough to 

 buy the land for five or six farms in the West. These farms are 

 made by the labour of the owners. They hire nobody. They live 

 any how for a while. I will engage that the labour performed by 

 one stout New England family in one year, would cost an English 

 farmer a thousand pounds in wages. You will say, why cannot the 

 English labour as hard as the Yankees ? But, mind, I talk of a 

 family of Yankee sons : and, besides, I have no scruple to say, 

 that one of these will do as much work in the clearing and fencing 



