SOCIETY. 141 



dition ; but it is the result of circamstances in a new country, 

 where all are poor, where all are incommoded, all seeking 

 the one thing needful (worldly speaking), and seeking it in 

 the same way, and surrounded by nearly similar accidents. 

 The ladies in the towns are not very easy under it, and try 

 to remedy it; but they go again to the other extreme, and the 

 result of the separation and selection which is adopted in the 

 little towns is infinitely amusing, and a sufficient burlesque 

 upon the more pretending, but generally equally oddly- 

 assorted, select circles of the rich and vulgar in the larger 

 cities. This condition of things is rather unfriendly to the 

 courtesies and premeditated civilities of social intercourse, 

 which are still more hindered by that want of acquaintance 

 which is a necessary incident to the sudden filling up of a 

 new country with people from all parts of the world. There 

 is a general prejudice against the New Englander throughout 

 the south and west, which, among the ignorant here, amounts 

 to detestation ; but, with this exception, the population agree 



very well. 



The condition of the territories in regard to schools is not 

 good, and the standard of education is low in the whole 

 country, including that portion within the States. The 

 standards of the bar, the pulpit, and in medical science, are 

 all at a low point. A young man who has had a schooling 

 of one year, and the same amount of reading in law, fre- 

 quently without instruction or direction, sometimes by an 

 apprenticeship, is made a lawyer; such, at least, he is 

 designated by legislative enactment, and the license of the 

 court, but he is often, in a double sense, an infant in law. I 

 believe a less qualification suffices for the pulpit, or the prac- 

 tice of medicine. There are also instances of a similar 

 want of preparation in other pursuits. Persons are found 

 engaged in trade, and employed in some of the mechanic 



