No. 10. 



Prospects in Virginia for new Settlers. 



303 



Here time seems to press like a burden, nnd! 

 the question is, not how it shall be turned to 

 account, and how much can be made out of 

 it, by the most incessant and sagacious exer- 

 cise of all our faculties, but how the burden 

 shall be thrown oft', or made to sit lighter? 

 For that purpose recourse is had to small 

 gatherings in stores and taverns, and to 

 frivolous amusements. There they soon 

 form the habit of smoking and of drinking, 

 without at first perceiving the destiny to 

 which they lead, until at last they are 

 caught like the Jly in the spider's web! 

 Then, alas ! when too late, their fate is re- 

 vealed — their doom is sealed, and there re- 

 main no possible means of escape. This is 

 the result of defective education. Be it 

 your duty, then, Mr. Editor, to inculcate 

 upon every farmer's son, that nothing is 

 more honourable than labour, and nothing 

 so precious as time. How much more hon- 

 ourable would it be to a young man whose 

 family has been reduced from affluence to 

 poverty, to seize the handles of the plough 

 by day, and devote some hours at night to 

 increasing his store of knowledge, than to 

 be riding about the country, running away 

 from himself and from listlessness! Talk 

 of labour, either of the body or the mind, as 

 degrading or dishonourable ! Is it degrad- 

 ing to be able " to adorn the earth and to 

 bring its productive power into action — to 

 apply the material substances of the earth 

 to reasonable use, convenience and orna- 

 ment — to expand and improve the human 

 mind — to cultivate and strengthen the moral 

 power? No product of the vineyard, the 

 field, or the sea, however aided by inventive 

 art, wull furnish a welcome repast to one 

 who sits in listless idleness on a downy 

 cushion, from breakfast time till dinner. 

 The day labourer who sits down to his 

 coarse meal, has a pleasure to which the 

 listless idler is a stranger." 



Virginia can never be regenerated until 

 these principles arc taught in the schools. 

 Education must have a practical direction. 

 Farmers must force legislators to look less 

 to party objects, and more to the bearing 

 of the laws on the formation of the charac- 

 ter and the development of the capacity of 

 the rising generation for practical purposes. 

 Is it not self-evident that no idle white pop- 

 ulation can prosper? To induce white men 

 to labour, you must cause labour to be es- 

 teemed honourable. The public sentiment 

 must so pronounce it — that public sentiment 

 is formed by education. " As the twig is 

 bent, the tree is inclined." Moreover, though 

 labour may be esteemed honourable, that is 

 not all: to make it profitable, you must give 

 it intelligence. True, the labour of the ox 



is profitable, but what would it avail if man 

 were not at the handles of the plough ? Dut 

 how much depends on the man's mind, whe- 

 ther it bo rude and boorish, or spiritual and 

 cultivated! For an illustration of the dif- 

 ference, see the difference between the 

 houses, the tools, implements of war, and 

 the means of conveyance used and enjoyed 

 by the savage and the civilized man. There 

 is something of all this difference in the 

 growth and efficiency observable between 

 the people of different States. In Massa- 

 chusetts, where the whole mass of the popu- 

 lation is educated, and where not to labour 

 usefully, and efficiently, and steadily, is 

 deemed (dishonourable, the land which here 

 is worth $3 an acre, would be worth $100 

 an acre. Look at the progress of popula- 

 tion, and of actual power in the Government 

 as between Virginia and Pennsylvania ! In 

 Virginia, education and the circumstances 

 under which they are reared — which may 

 truly be said to constitute one's education — 

 lead young men, naturally and without any 

 fault of their own, to be ashamed of personal 

 labour in the fields. In Pennsylvania, a 

 young man who does not labour at some- 

 thing useful loses caste. Well, with these 

 opposite moral systems, these two common- 

 wealths start together in the great race of 

 development and growth, say in 1790 — Vir- 

 ginia with her broad territory, her fine cli- 

 mate, her water-power, her mines, her nu- 

 merous and long navigable rivers, her fine 

 scholars, her brilliant orators, her ardent 

 patriots, her gentlemen of truest chivalry, 

 and ladies with their fine silk stockings and 

 charms that would melt the heart of stoicism 

 itself! And where do we find these two 

 States at the expiration of half a century? 

 They begin — Virginia with a population of 

 748,308, and Pennsylvania with 484,373, 

 and in fifty years they end with, Virginia 

 1,239,797, and Pennsylvania with 1,724,033 

 — where will they be in half a century 

 more, unless by some more enlightened sys- 

 tem of legislation, Virginia should do some- 

 thing to bring her immense resources into 

 play? 



These resources are not unknown to the 

 people of other States, but there is obviously 

 something which resists the force of her 

 natural attractions. What is it? A sign, 

 however, has arisen in the East : Neio Jer- 

 sey farmers are inquiring for lands in Vir- 

 ginia, in the neighbourhood of Petersburg, 

 a place which possesses great advantages in 

 its water power and its vicinity to the Chesa- 

 peake. The Agricultural Society of Peters- 

 burg, animated by a few enlightened spirits, 

 have taken the subject in hand. I send you 

 their Report, which it may be well to pre- 



