3800.) Remarks on the Climate of North America, by Col. Tatham. 125 
bufhes render thefe almoft impervious, it 
will’be eafily perceived that they afford an 
ample harbour for the dews; and_ that 
thefe, being collected in greater quanti- 
ties than in the open countries of Europe, 
and being retained by the buthes and trees 
in fucceflive heights from the ground, and 
bending the bufhes over the roads and 
paths, which pafs from one plantation to 
another, whereby they wet and dragele 
both thofe on foot and upon horfeback, 
whofe occafions call them early out of 
doors ; and when we fubjoin the irregular 
expofures to heat and cold, wet and dry 
(as it may happen) to which thofe whofe 
active avocations ftir them much abroad’ 
mult be continually fubjected ; we fhall 
readily conceive a more pernicious condi- 
tion than that te which the Englifh farmer 
is accuftomed, and may add one more re- 
lative caufe to the imprefficns of climate. 
It is faid further, that the frequent fhade 
of the trees, to which the fouthern people 
are conftantly fubjected in paffing about, 
produces a very vifible alteration in their 
complexion: certain it is, that the inha- 
‘bitants of thofe latitudes who are thus 
expofed, are of a more pale and delicate 
complexion than thofe who relide more 
northwardly ; but certain it is alfo, that 
the difference is fo great between the nar- 
row ftrip of land, which. is confined be- 
tween the Ocean and the river St. Law- 
rence, and the vat expanfe between the 
Ocean and the Miffifipi, that a difference 
in population and improvement will be 
eafily accounted for: I myfelf (who have 
at this day as florid a complexion as moft 
natives of the north of England, although 
I have been twenty-five years expofed to 
continual vicifiitudes in that climate) have 
often difcovered a wonderful difference in 
my own countenance, while I lived in the 
habits and country which I have decribed. 
Added to thefe relations the general mode 
of living is, perhaps, lefs natural to the 
human conttitution, than that which is 
praétifed in England. ‘The Planters live 
generally upon falted meat, chiefly bacon, 
hot bread, and drink much cold fpring 
watér: thofe who affume a fiyle of diffi- 
pation .make equally free with ardent 
{pirits, and Madeira wine. ‘The national 
_ economy would perhaps find it turn. to 
* good account, if thefe fafhionable foreign 
Juxuries were bartered for home-brewed 
beer, dnd cyder with which the country 
abounds; and I am perfuaded this altera- 
tion would found to the credit of the 
climate.. 
There remains ‘yet one circumftance 
which has made a very forcible impreffion 
Montuiy Mac. No, 56. 
upon my mind, in regard to the imputa- 
tions againft the climate, although it 
feems to efcape common ebfervation: I 
mean. the preference which is given to 
fingle-built, wooden houfes ; and particu. 
Jarly thofe which are under, or do not 
exceed the pitch of dormant windows, 
Thefe houfes are confiructed of weather- 
board plank, or of clap-boards (which are 
a thin kind fplit. by malling), and nailed 
upon the outfide of the frame, frequently 
without any inner cieling or wainicoating 
at all; and when the heat of the fun has 
made a full day’s imprefflion upon them, 
which the length of the night is inlufi- 
cient to cool, they become a perfect oven 
for the purpofe of baking living animals 
gradually ; and fo far as my experience 
of many reftlefs years goes, I conceive 
the tofling and tumbling throughout the 
night to be a fatisfaCtory proof, that a 
child who is deftined by habit to fpend his 
life in a clapboard houfe, begins to die 
(by inches as it were) from the momen 
in which he is born. 3 
On the contrary I have no. doubt, that 
life may be greatly prolonged in thefe 
climates by the adoption of double houfes, 
with thick walls of brick or fione, which 
will thus refift the impreffion of the funy 
and leave always a cool part to retire to. 
I have had a fatisfactory proof of this 
fact, by two years refidence in the build- 
ing called the Capitol, at Richmond in 
Virginia, where I have known the ther- 
mometer at one hundred and eight degrees s 
and what gives an advantage to this kind 
of building is, that they are free from thofe 
damps which are experienced in England. 
Feb. 1800, Ww. TaTHaMe 
—— 
Io the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, | 
‘HOUGH there are probably few of 
your readers that need to be in- 
formed of a Burke’s, or an Horfley’s pre- 
dileétion for the unlimited privileges of 
ariftocracy, or of their contempt for the 
{winifh multitude; yet I never till lately 
fo fully difcovered upon. what..reafons 
their abufe of the one, or their unqualified 
veneration of the other, was ultimately 
founded. For the edification therefore of 
my yet unenlightened countrymen, who, 
like myfelf, may hitherto have been at 
a lofs in their conjeCtures on this heady 
I beg leave to offer to their confidera- 
tion a few remarks from a very inges 
nious author, who wrote fo late as the 
year 1751. To begin with.a faithful 
portrait of the fwini/h multitude of thofe 
; RK times : 

