Mrs. Wright's Travels in the United States. 
lage, and on the silver sails of the 
sloops and shipping, gliding noiselessly 
through the gleaming waters. 
Not forty years since, and the ground 
now occupied by this beautiful town 
and a population of two thousand souls, 
was a desert, frequented only by bears 
and panthers. The American verb to 
progress (though some of my friends in 
this country deny that it is an Ameri¬ 
canism) is certainly not without its 
apology; even a foreigner must ac¬ 
knowledge, that the new kind of ad¬ 
vancement which greets his eye in this 
country, seems to demand a new word 
to pourtray it. 
The young town of Burlington is 
graced with a college, which was 
founded in the year 1791, and has lately 
received considerable additions. The 
state of Vermont, in which it stands, 
whose population may be somewhat less 
than three hundred thousand, contrives 
to support two establishments of this 
description ; and, perhaps, in no part 
of the union is greater attention paid to 
the education of youth. 
The territory passing under the name 
of Vermont is intersected, from north 
to south, by a range of mountains, co¬ 
vered with ever-green forests, from 
which the name of the country. This 
Alpine ridge, rising occasionally to 
three and four thousand feet, nearly 
fills up the breadth of the state; but is 
every where scooped into glens and 
valleys, plentifully intersected with 
streams and rivers, flowing, to the east¬ 
ward, iuto the beautiful Connecticut, 
and, to the west, into the magnificent 
Champlain. The gigantic forests of 
white pine, spruce, cedar, and other 
evergreens, which clothe to the top the 
billowy sides of the mountains mingle 
occasionally their deep verdure witii 
the oak, elm, beech, maple, &c. that 
shadow the valleys. This world of 
forest is intersected by tracts of open 
pasture, while the luxuriant lands that 
border the water-courses are fast ex¬ 
changing their primeval woods for the 
treasures of agriculture. The most po¬ 
pulous town in the state contains less 
than three thousand souls; the inha¬ 
bitants, agricultural or grazing farmers, 
being scattered through the valleys and 
hills, or collected in small villages on 
the banks of the lakes and rivers. 
The plan of government is among the 
most simple of any to be found in the 
union. The legislative department is 
composed of one house, whose members 
are chosen by the whole male popula¬ 
623 
tion of the state. In this mountainous 
district, peopled by a race of simple 
agriculturists, the science of legislation 
may be supposed to present few ques¬ 
tions of difficulty ; nor has it been 
found necessary to impede the process 
of law-making’ by forcing a projected 
statute to pass through "two ordeals. 
You find in the constitution of Ver¬ 
mont another peculiarity which marks 
a people Argus-eyed to their liberties. 
In the other republics the people have 
thought it sufficient to preserve to them¬ 
selves the power of summoning a con¬ 
vention, to alter or amend their plan 
of government whenever they may 
judge it expedient ; but the Ver- 
mentese, as if unwilling to trust to 
their own vigilance, have decreed the 
stated election of a Council of Censors, 
to be convened for one year at the end 
of every seven years, whose business it 
is to examine whether the constitution 
has been preserved inviolate ; 44 whether 
the legislative or executive branches of 
government have performed their duty 
as guardians of the people, or assumed 
to themselves , or exercised other or 
greater powers than they arc entitled to 
by the constitution to take in review, 
in short, every public act, with the 
whole course of administration pursued 
since the last meeting of the censors. 
The assembly now meets in the little 
town of Montpelier, situated in a se¬ 
cluded valley in the centre of the state. 
Having gained the centre, the seat of 
government is now probably fixed. It 
is a strange novelty in the eyes of a Eu¬ 
ropean to find legislators assembled in 
a humble and lonely village to discuss 
affairs of state. 
The men of Vermont are familiarly 
known by the name of Green-mountain 
Boys ; a name which they themselves 
are proud of, and which, I have re¬ 
marked, is spoken with much com¬ 
placency, and not unfrequently with a 
tone of admiration or affection, by the 
citizens of the neighbouring states. 
AMERICAN LITERATURE. 
It lias been common of late years to 
summon the literature of America to 
the European bar, and to pass a verdict 
against American wit and American 
science. More liberal foreigners, in 
alluding to the paucity of standing 
American works in prose or rhyme, 
are wont to ascribe it to the infant state 
of society in this country : others read 
this explanation, I incline to think at 
least, without affixing a just meaning 
to the words. 
It 
