566 APPENDIX. 



America. The fact is, we envied her gold and silver, and wanted a 

 market for our manufactures. Hence, we invented ten thousand 

 falsehoods of the cruelties and the tyranny of the old Spanish Govern- 

 ment, and we assisted the insurgents to throw off her yoke. War 

 and mutual plunder have been the lot of these once happy colonists 

 ever since. I have great doubts about the propriety of your taking 

 possession of Texas. That act has caused the present war : and who 

 knows where it is to end. A temporary peace may be forced upon 

 the Mexicans ; but they will always hate you for the future, and they 

 will take the first favourable opportunity to repay you in your own 

 coin. Better far would it have been for you to have commenced a 

 cultivation of the interminable wilds, which really belong to the 

 United States, than to have incorporated Texas in the community. 

 Jonathan, like a young foxhound whelp, has now tasted blood ; and 

 it is a question with me, whether or not he won't in future have 

 more to do with the sword than with the plough. Look at your old 

 covetous grandfather Bull in the east. He first contrived to get a 

 bit of land on the sea-board, and built a factory there. By degrees, 

 he elbowed his unsuspecting neighbour, and made him retire. He 

 then pronounced his neighbour to be dangerous to the new establish- 

 ments to save which, he drove his neighbour farther and farther 

 into the interior, till at last, by intrigue and gunpowder, the ambitious 

 old thief has now possessed himself of the richest portion of Asia. 

 More than probable, his hopeful grandson Jonathan will imitate the 

 parent's conduct, and become a great warrior, rogue, and hypocrite 

 on the northern continent of America. 



CHARLES WATERTON. 



To the Same, 



WALTON HALL, January n, 1847. 



My dear Friend, I received your last letter on New Year's-day. 

 I should have answered it sooner, but this has been a very busy time 

 with me. I am delighted to perceive, by your wonted style of writing, 

 that your health is perfect and your nerves are braced. Your obser- 

 vations on Mexico are very much to the purpose. Still, I must own 



