PART III.] MORRIS BIRKBECK, ESQ. 521 



my opinion, calculated to produce great disap 

 pointment, not to say misery and ruin, amongst 

 our own country people (for I will, in spite of 

 your disavowal, still claim the honour of having 

 you for a countryman), and great injury to 

 America by sending back to Europe accounts 

 of that disappointment, misery, and ruin. 



971. It is very true, that you decline advising 

 any one to go to the ILLINOIS, and it is also 

 true, that your description of the hardships you 

 encountered is very candid ; but still, there 

 runs throughout the whole of your Notes such 

 an account as to the prospect, that is to say, the 

 ultimate effect, that the book is, without your 

 either wishing or perceiving it, calculated to 

 deceive and decoy. You do indeed describe 

 difficulties and hardships : but, then, you over- 

 come them all with so much ease and gaiety, 

 that you make them disregarded by your Eng 

 lish readers, who, sitting by their fire-sides, and 

 feeling nothing but the gripe of the Borough- 

 mongers and the tax-gatherer, merely cast a 

 glance at your hardships and fully participate 

 in all your enthusiasm. You do indeed fairly 

 describe the rugged roads, the dirty hovels, the 

 fire in the woods to sleep by, the pathless ways 

 through the wildernesses, the dangerous cross 

 ings of the rivers ; but, there are the beautiful 

 meadows and rich lands at last; there is the 



