1802. } 
month of May. The winters, however, 
are not always fo favourable. The 
changes from heat to cold, and from cold 
to heat, are greater than in England, be- 
caufe we have hotter weather than you 
ever have, but not notter than other parts 
of the United States. We have lefs rain 
than in England, nor are the viciffitudes 
of wet and dry weather fo frequent. 
2. The Produce,—It is difficult to afcer- 
tain what it would be with Englifh cul- 
tivation. It is generally allowed to be 
greater than in other parts of America. 
No land on earth exceeds our firft-rate 
land, of which there are large bodies. 
The (econd-rate too is very good, and 
equal perhaps for wheat, if not for Indian 
corn, to the firft-rate. The third-rate 
comprehends all inferior clafles. Some of 
it is equal to the general run of land in 
the ealtern States: fome of it is totally 
- worthlefs, particularly high up on our 
main rivers, as on the forks of the Ken- 
tucky, &c. as many Englifhmen have 
found to their forrow, who, arriving here 
to take poffeffion of their purchafes, have 
difcovered that they might as well have 
bought an eftate at the bottom of the 
Atlantic Ocean, However, there is no 
part of America to the ealtward of this, 
where money might be more profitably 
laid out in landed property. The price 
varies from one dollar to fifteen: per acre, 
according to fituation, quality, improve- 
ments, and population. Some pretty 
good land indeed may be purchafed ftill 
at halfa dollar, and fome Jand, no doubt, 
for nothing at all. 
3- The neareft Ports.—Savannah, in 
Georgia; or Ricnmond, in Virginia (four 
and five hundred miles) if you come by 
Jand entirely ; but the ufual plan is to fail 
for Alexandria, Baltimore, or Philadel- 
phia, then proceed by land to Pitt{burg or 
Reditone, and thence down the Ohio to 
Kentucky. 
4. Civil Government.—Kentucky is 
one of the United States, and is entitled 
to fix reprefentatives in Congrefs. Its 
conftitution for the internal government 
of the ftate is ftriétly republican. _ The 
governor, the lieutenant-governor, the 
houfe of reprefentatives, and the fenate, 
are all eleéted by the people. Every citi- 
zen has a vote. The judges and other 
public officers are appointed by the go- 
vernor and fenate, a body confitting of 
twenty-five members. Our taxes are hity 
cents (a cent is the one-hundredth part of 
a dollar, nearly equal to the Englih hait- 
penny) for every 100 acres of firft-rate 
land; thirty-four cents for 100 acres of 
Letter on Kentucky, from Mr. Toulmin, . 217. 
fecond-rate Jand; and twelve and a_ half’ 
on third-rate land; four cents on a horle; 
twelve and a half on a flave; twenty-five 
per wheel on riding-carriages; twenty) 
dollars on retail ftores (or fhops) ; ten 
dollars for a tavern-licence; a light. tax 
on Jaw proceffes ; and on covering-horfes 
the rate of each by the feafon. Our laws » 
are the common laws of England, the fta- 
tutes of the Englifh Parliament previous 
to the ath of James I. the aéts of the 
Virginian Affembly previous to our fepa- 
ration in 1792, and the aéts of our own 
legiflature. ' 
5. Religion.—-We have no religious 
éftablifhment, no preference of one feét 
above another; no fplendid temples, no 
pampered priefthood, no faithful paftors 
drooping for the want of even a decent 
fupply of thofe worldly bleffings which 
are fhowered with profufion on their indo- 
lent fuperiors. I will) not fay that 
religious knowledge is in a flourifhing 
ftate among us, nor was it any better 
while an eftablifament exifted. We have 
unbelievers, who, freely exprefs their opis | 
nions, but are very harmlefs, for in truth: 
they have very little to fay: and we have 
enthufiafts, as you would term them, who 
aflemble in thoufands in the woods, and 
continue night and day, for nearly a week 
together, in religious exerciles; but, if 
they are miftaken, they dono harm. The 
magiltrate and the executioner do not 
come with their wand and their {word 
to transform the peaceable enthubatt into 
a wild fanatic or a flaming martyr. We 
have various fects: the Prefbyterian (on 
the Scotch model), and the Baptilts of the 
Calviniftical denomination, are the moft 
nredominant. Sometimes a humble Bi- 
fhop, with his ftaff in his hand, his 
*¢ beard detcending on his aged breatt,’’ 
his plain drab coat, and his long overalls, 
will inake a progrefs among us. 
6. You anticipate the Profperity of our 
State.—Its growth indeed has been won- 
derful. It has been fettled but little more 
than twenty years; it was and ftill is, in 
a great degree, cut off from the other in- 
habited parts of America, by a formi- 
dable barrier of uncultivated mountains. 
Bur the improvements and population now 
vifible in a confiderable part of the State, 
rival thole which are to be found in moft 
of the older States. Its foil invites popu-: 
lation, and thoufands emigrate to it an- 
nually from Eaftern America, whillt the 
people refiding at the fea port towns, and. 
upon the main-roads to Kentucky, who 
know no more about it than the people of 
London, are unremittingly attempting, by. 
Eez ignorant 
