370 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



of industry and information may procure riches by devoting himself 

 to business. 



America has, however, produced men whom other countries have 

 been proud to honour. R.ttenhouse, Rush, count Rumford, Frank- 

 lin, and many others who might oe mentioned, are well known to 

 the literati of Europe. Many of the most distinguished writers of 

 this country are now living, and from the increased taste for literary 

 pursuits, and the improved system of education, the rising genera- 

 tion will, no doubt, greatly swell the number. 



Language. ...The language of the United States is the English. 

 Emigrants from the different countries in Europe, use among them- 

 selves their native tongue, but there are very few that do not under- 

 stand English. German is very much spoken in Pennsylvania, and 

 Dutch in New-York. Spanish and French are spoken in New-Or- 

 leans, and the latter language is used in all the settlements on the 

 western shore of the Mississippi. Generally speaking, the English 

 language is spoken in a much greater degree of purity in the United 

 States than it is in England. 



The vernacular tongues of the aborigines, differ considerably in 

 the different tribes, but they all appear to be derived from the same 

 stock. Their great similarity to the languages of Tartary, China 

 and Hindostan, has induced some learned men to suppose, that the 

 language of America and Asia was originally the same. 



Antiquities. ...These consist of ancient Indian fortifications, and 

 mounds or tumuli erected over the dead. The present race of Indians 

 have no tradition concerning their origin or uses ; and, from their ap- 

 pearance, ages must have passed since their erection. The most 

 remarkable of these antiquities will be described in future articles. 



History... Previous to the revolution, the American colonies, form- 

 ing a part of the British empire, their history is interwoven with that 

 of the mother country, and the most important events of that period 

 have already been related. The history of their settlement more p ro- 

 perly belongs to the individual states. 



At the time that the stamp act was repealed,* an act was also passed 

 for securing the dependence of the American colonies on Great Bri- 

 tain. But this does not appear then to have given much umbrage, 

 the colonists regarding it as a brutum fulmen, or a pope's bull ; and 

 the repeal of the stamp-act occasioned great rejoicings both in Ame- 

 rica and Great Britain. It would have been happy for the mother- 

 country, if no new laws and regulations had afterwards taken place, 

 which were calculated again to embroil Great Britain and the colo- 

 nies. But some attempts of this kind, which were vehemently oppo- 

 sed by the colonies, at length brought on a civil war of the most 

 ruinous and fatal nature to England. 



Besides the act laying a duty on tea, passed in 1767, other laws 

 had also been passed in England, particularly one relative to quar- 

 tering troops in the colonies, and another for suspending the legisla- 

 tive powers of the assembly of New-York, which gave great umbrage 

 in America. Another scheme, which was also adopted, of appointing 

 the governors and judges in the colonies to be paid by the crown, 

 and not by the provincial assemblies, as heretofore, occasioned like- 



* See the History of England, in vol. 1st. 



