GERMAN SETTLERS. 
135 
to their representatives how to act. They 
never consider that any important question is 
more likely to meet with a fair discussion in an 
assembly* where able men are collected toge¬ 
ther from all parts of the states* than in an 
obscure corner* where a few individuals are 
assembled* who have no opportunity of getting 
general information on the subject. Party 
spirit is for ever creating dissensions amongst 
them* and one man is continually endeavour¬ 
ing to obtrude his political creed upon another. 
If it is found out that a stranger is from Great 
Britain or Ireland* they immediately begin to 
boast of their own constitution and freedom* 
and give him to understand* that they think 
every Englishman a slave* because he submits 
to be called a subject. Their opinions are for 
the most part crude and dogmatical* and prin¬ 
cipally borrowed from newspapers* which are 
wretchedly compiled from the pamphlets of 
the day; having read a few of which* they 
think themselves arrived at the summit of in¬ 
tellectual excellence* and qualified for making 
the deepest political researches. 
The Germans* as I have said* are fond of 
settling near each other : when the young men 
of a family are grown up* they generally en¬ 
deavour to get a piece of land in the nciah- 
bourhood of their relations* and by their in¬ 
dustry soon make it valuable; the American* 
