SECOND POSTSCRIPT 



&quot; came this morning and had breakfast with us. Told us an 

 &quot; odd story about having slept in a black woman s hut last night 

 &quot; for sixpence, though there are excellent taverns at every two 

 miles along the road. Told us a still odder story about his 

 being an envoy from a host of families in London, to look out 

 * for a place of settlement in America ; but he took special care 

 not to name any one of those families, though we asked him to do 

 it. We took him, at first, for a sort of spy. William thinks he 

 is a shopkeeper s clerk ; I think he has been a tailor. I observed 

 that he carried his elbow close to his sides, and his arms, below 

 the elbow, in a horizontal position. It came out that he had 

 been with BUCHANAN, Castlereagh s consul at New York ; but 

 it is too ridiculous ; such a thing as this cannot be a spy ; he 

 &quot; can get access no where but to taverns and boarding houses.&quot; 



1058. This note now stands in my journal or diary of 22nd 

 August, 1817. I remember that he asked me some very silly 

 questions about the prices of land, cattle, and other things, which 

 I answered very shortly. He asked my advice about the families 

 emigrating, and the very words I uttered in answer, were these : 

 &quot; Every thing I can say, in such a case, is to discourage the enter- 

 &quot; prize. If Englishmen come here, let them come individually, 

 &quot; and sit down amongst the natives : no other plan is rational.&quot; 



1059. What I have heard of this man since, is, that he spent his 

 time, or great part of it, in New York, amongst the idle and dis 

 solute young Englishmen, whose laziness and extravagance had 

 put them in a state to make them uneasy, and to make them un 

 noticed by respectable people. That country must be bad, to 

 be sure, which would not give them ease and abundance without 

 labour or economy. 



1060. Now, what can such a man know of America ? He has 

 not kept house ; he has had no being in any neighbourhood ; he 

 has never had any circle of acquaintances amongst the people ; 

 he has never been a guest under any of their roofs ; he knows 

 nothing of their manners or their characters ; and how can such 

 a man be a judge of the effects of their institutions, civil, political, 

 or religious ? 



1 06 1. I have no doubt, however, that the reviews and news 

 papers, in the pay of the Boroughmongers, will do their best to 

 propagate the falsehoods contained in this man s book. But 

 what would you say of the people of America, if they were to 

 affect to believe what the French General said of the people of 

 England ? This man, in a book which he published in France, 

 said, that all the English married women got drunk, and swore 

 like troopers ; and that all the young women were strumpets, and 

 that the greater part of them had bastards before they were married. 

 Now, if the people of America were to affect to believe this, what 

 should we say of them ? Yet, this is just as true as this FEARON S 

 account of the people of America. 



1062. As to the facts of this man s visit to me, my son William, 



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