620 Airs. Wright's Travels in the United Stales. 
qualities that (hey affect him ; their 
character is one of simple grandeur ; 
you stand upon their brink, or traverse 
their bosom, or gaze upon their rolling 
rapids and tumbling cataracts, and ac¬ 
knowledge at once their power and im¬ 
mensity, and your own insignificance 
and imbecility. Occasionally you meet 
with exceptions to this rule. I recall 
at this moment the beautiful shores of 
the Passaic ; its graceful cascades, its 
walls of rock, shelving into a glassy 
peaceful flood, its wooded hills, and 
rich and varied landscapes, all spread 
beneath a sky of glowing sapphires; a 
scene for Claude to gaze upon. These 
north-western waters, however, have 
nothing of this character; you find 
them bedded in vast level plains, bor¬ 
dered only by sable forests, from which 
the stroke of the axe lias but just 
startled the panther and the savage. 
Settlements are fast springing up on 
the forested shores of Lake Erie. The 
situation is wonderfully advantageous 
to the farmer. I have already spoken of 
the canal, so far in progress, which is 
about to open a free water-carriage from 
these waters to the Eastern Atlantic. 
Another, of only a few miles extent, 
is in contemplation, which,by connect¬ 
ing them with the Alleghany, one of 
the main sources of the Ohio, will per¬ 
fect the line of communication with 
the gulf of Mexico, an extent of 3,000 
miles. 
It is impossible to consider without 
admiration the inland navigation of 
this magnificent country. From this 
fine baisin, north and west, you open 
into lakes and rivers which, not many 
years hence, w ill pour into it the pro¬ 
duce of human labour from states now 
in embryo; to the north-east, these ac¬ 
cumulated waters seek their way to the 
Atlantic, through the broad channel of 
the St. Lawrence; to the south-east, 
they are about to communicate with 
the same ocean by the magnificent Hud¬ 
son : to the south and west, stretch the 
vast waters of the Mississippi with his 
million of tributaries. There is some- 
thing unspeakably sublime in the vast 
extent ot earthly domain that here 
opens to the mind’s eye; and truly sub¬ 
lime is its contemplation, wdien we con¬ 
sider the life and energy with which it 
is ia^t teeming. An industrious and 
enlightened people, laying in the vvil- 
del ness the foundations of common- 
wealth after commonwealth, based on 
justice and the immutablerightsof man! 
What heart so cold as to contemplate 
this unmoved! 
MR. BIRKBECK’S SETTLEMENT. 
The village of Albion, the centre of 
the settlement, contains at present 
thirty habitations, in which are found a 
bricklayer, a carpenter, a wheelwright, 
a cooper, and a blacksmith ; a well- 
supplied shop, a little library, an inn, 
a chapel, ami a post-office, where the 
mail regularly arrives twice a week. 
Being situated on a ridge, between the 
greater and little Wabash, it is, from 
its elevated position, and from its being 
some miles removed from the rivers, 
peculiarly dry and healthy. The prairie 
in which it stands, is described as ex¬ 
quisitely beautiful; lawns of unchang¬ 
ing verdure, spreading over hills and 
dales, scattered with islands of luxu¬ 
riant trees, dropped by the hand of na¬ 
ture with a taste that art could not 
rival—all this spread beneath a sky of 
glow ing and unspotted sapphires. “ The 
most beautiful parks of England,” my 
friend observes, * 4 would afford a most 
imperfect cbmparison.” The soil is 
abundantly fruitful, and, of course, 
has an advantage over the heavy-tim¬ 
bered lands, which can scarcely be 
cleared for less than from twelve to 
fifteen dollars per acre; while the 
Illinois farmer may in general clear his 
for less than five, and then enter upon 
a much more convenient mode of til¬ 
lage. 
UPPER CANADA. 
I was surprised to find much discon¬ 
tent prevailing among the poorer set¬ 
tlers in Upper Canada; I could not 
always understand the grounds of their 
complaints, but they seemed to consi¬ 
der Mr. Gourlay as having w r ell ex¬ 
plained them. Mr. Gourlay, you would 
see, was prosecuted, and his pamphlets 
declared libels ; not having read them, 
I cannot pronounce upon either their 
merits or demerits; but they certainly 
appear to have spoken the sentiments 
of the poorer settlers, whose cause he 
had abetted against the more powerful 
land-holders, land-surveyors, and go¬ 
vernment agents. 
The sufferings from which these poor 
creatures fly—I will take for instance 
the starving paupers of Ireland, who 
throng here without a farthingin their 
hands, and scarce a rag upon their 
backs,—the sufferings of these poor 
creatures, humanity might hope were 
ended when thrown upon these shores; 
but too often they are increased tenfold: 
First 
