1800. | 
other great man, had conceived a bad 
epinion of their author. Mrs. Smith’s 
e{mond is ‘even now, I believe, kept 
from circulating among the members, by 
the exertion of individual alarm and ca- 
price; the Britifh Critic has been preferred 
to the Monthly Review, and the flimfy 
znd’ equivocal produétions of the Abbé 
Barruc! aud Profeffor Robifon have tu- 
perfeded works valuable for hiftorical and 
fcientific accuracy. Not that I would 
preclude, were it even in my power, fuch 
publications from beine read and ex- 
amined : it is error, not truth, that fhrinks 
from inveftigation: all that 1 would con- 
tend for is, that they ought not exclufively 
to occupy a place in our public Tbtliries! 
Were lL able to lay before your readers a 
lift of the books prefented tor the appro- 
bation of the fociety within the Jaft fix 
years, and mark the reafons which had 
been urged for the admiffion of fome, and 
the rejection of others ; 1t- would aiford a 
curious hiftory of the rife and progrefs of 
alarm, among the privileged claffes: but 
as it is commonly rather influence than 
power which is reforted to for the pur- 
pole of creating an afcendancy in fuch in- 
ititutions, it is frequently impoffible to 
drag forth, to public notice, the author of 
aint: or to fuggeft an adequate remedy 
for the evil. AmidQ the tumult of party 
violence, the fimall ftill voice of reafon 
remains unaitended to; and the lover 
of peace, of philefophy, and of ration- 
al liberty, is but too apt to retire in 
defpair froay fo unequal a combat, and 
filently wait the return of better times. 
It would, indeed, prove a difficult talk to 
curb that {pirit of ‘intrigue which has, of 
late, unhappily crept into almoft all our 
public hbraries, witheut having recourfe 
to meafures equally hoftile to free difeul- 
fion, as thofe we condemn, and altogether 
fubverlive of the right of majorities. To 
renovate any fociety, when a re of 
its members are inferefted<in the fopport 
of exifting abuies, is 1n the very nature of 
the thing “im poll ble. Under fuch circum- 
{tances, “therefore; the friends of temperate 
difcuffion can only unite in devifing fome 
other mede for the general diffuGon’of |i- 
terature and {cience; and none, I believe, 
will be found better calculated to an{wer 
this invaluable purpofe, than the inftitu- 
tion of rival libraries. The good effeets 
refulting from the Spam ldinient of a new 
library upon this principle at jedburgh, 
and the regulations by which ‘it is’ go- 
verned, may, perhaps, furnifh the fubje& 
ofa fadtiire tere” (hain, Sir, 
_ Pancras, ~ “Your obedient fervant: 
23d Sept. 1800. AcNes E, Act. 
Letters from Mr. Toulmin, of Kentucky. 
403 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
LETTERS frov MR. He TOULMIN, of 
KENTUCKY. 
(Continued from page 553, vol. ix.) 
‘LETTER VIII. 
r AVING at length terminated, I 
H hope, my wanderings, I flatter my- 
felt with the profpect of a more regtilar 
corre{pondence, though I fear, indeed, 
that both of us may write many letters to 
no purpole, while this deranging war con- 
tinues. Iam greatly indebted to our molt 
excellent and refpeéted friend M*** for 
the intereft he fo kindly and affectionately 
Lone in our welfare. IT wrote to him from 
New York. I have heard from Mr, ***, 
and written to him. I mentioned fome 
particulars, which { thought might be ac- 
ceptable. But the moft material thing 
which I would fay to any man, who meant 
to lay out money in land, is to ¢ake time. 
For go to what port you will, it is an 
hundred to one (if you do not fet out with 
this maxim) but that you will be per- 
fuaded by the inhabitants, that no fitua- p 
tions are comparable to thofe in their own 
fate. I queftion much, if *** have 
been fufficiently upon their guard in this 
refpect. Almoft every one who has feen 
the country, tells me it is exceedingly 
mountainous, and fo ftony that you have 
little chance of having more than a xoth 
or a 2oth of any confiderable tract good’ 
for ‘any thing. You will have heard. of 
*#*o fate; arrival. “Chat ***** fhould 
write about America as you mention, is 
quite in character, People who come into 
a ftrange place, who have lodgings to take 
inftead of their own houfes to live in, who 
are unfettled as to their purfuits and pro- 
fpects, detlitute of tried friends, fuch per- 
fons (and all emigrants muft be fuch for 
a while) are not proper judges of a coun- 
try. And, nodoubt, it wassto fuch per- 
fons that the **s muft have alluded, 
when they fpoke of the difguft of the 
Englih. For my own part, I would re- 
gard no man’s generc al opinion of a places 
has not /iwed in it: and it 1s on this 
idea that I have not faid much in general 
terms refpecting America. As to mylelf, 
Lam perfectly fatisied as yet: at leaft as 
much as I €an be without my natural 
friends. I fee the way (I think) much 
clearer here for fixing 2 family comtortably 
in life; above want and difgrace, if not 
above mediocrity. My falary, as Prefi- 
dent of the College, and Minifter (if the 
latter keeps up) will, Lexpect, be about 
iéol. fterling. But I jay not much firefs 
sine being able to provide for a family 
(except as to bringing them up) as in 
eal ae placing 
who 
