438 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



they alone of all creation, whose physical labors are the most incessanl, should 

 have neither relish nor opportunity for any iatellectual recreation. 



In the course of their subsequent correspondence, on topics mutually engaging, 

 Sir John Sinclair sent to Mr. Skinner what purports to be a fac-simile copy of Gen. 

 Washington's letter, together with an original letter, of which our publishers have 

 here given a fac-simile. With these, the Baronet sent also his own original and 

 interesting " statement of the circumstances " which led to his reception of the 

 Washington letter. This statement is now published, probably, for the first time, 

 though the letter, we believe, is in Sparks's Collection. With these documents 

 came the sketch of a Monument, which it was proposed to have erected to 

 Washington at Caithness, Scotland. Sir John Sinclair evidently anticipated that 

 the proceeds from the sale of these documents to Americans would be very 

 considerable, as he recommended them to be printed in an attractive form, and 

 the type to be " kept standing." — "The inclosed letter should be printed in a 

 large type, so as to fill as large a space as possible — the press should be kept 

 standing, so as to supply any demand." It seems somewhat strange that he did 

 not suggest or allude to its being stereotyped, since that process had been per- 

 fected and brought into general use twenty years before ; and the more so, as 

 among the most prominent in this great improvement, were artists Ged, TuUoch 

 and Foulis, of Edinburgh and Glasgow, in his own country. 



It was the expressed wish of the venerable Baronet, that the publication 

 should be dedicated, if his permission could be had, to that eminently pure 

 patriot, Col. Monroe, then President of the United States, with whom he 

 claimed to be distantly related. 



For certain reasons, the project of the publication was not carried out. 

 It is not a little curious now, after the lapse of more than half a century, to 

 compare the state and prospects of the country, as they then appeared in the 

 view of General Washington, Avith its subsequent unparalleled growth in popu- 

 lation and extension to — the Lord only knows where ! 



JNot without significance is his remark in the close of his sketch of Pennsylva- 

 nia. Not foreseeing the effect of the public works, on which the great and ever- 

 swelling tide of European emigration is now floated on to the great, cheap, fer- 

 tile, and illimitable West, his anticipations for Western Virginia were very 

 natural ; and but for the forecast and influence of Bayard, and Clinton, and Van 

 Rensselaer, and their powerful associates, in opening the "big Ditch," his predic- 

 tions for the Old Dominion would ere this have been measurably fulfilled. Nor 

 are we sure that those who have gone farther have not fared worse than if they 

 had settled there, " above the Blue mountains, between the two extremes of heat 

 and cold." What glorious fields that old Mother of States has kept, and still 

 keeps open, for every industrial enterprise ! Can nothing break the malign 

 spell, whatever it be, that keeps them l>om being occupied ? If by a unani- 

 mous vote, in the fervor of her well-tried patriotism, she can bestow $10,000 to 

 fit out a single Federal regiment, for distant wars, can she not find an equal sum 

 for the establishment of a ISormal School of Agriculture, at the seat of her 

 Government, in which the Youth of the Slate might be prepared to develop her 

 rich resources, by being thorougiily instructed in natural and mechanical phi- 

 losophy, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, animal and vegetable physiology, 

 civil engineering, practical surveying, and rural architecture of all descriptions? 



But alas ! 



As to what the General says of the Southern States, then extending only to 



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