” 
129 
as the only means to enable them to make 
the appearance of gentlemen—an appear- 
ance fo neceflary to men from whofe minds 
poverty and .difappointment united are in- 
fuficient to banifh that fenfe of honour 
and delicacy almoft infeparable from the 
profeffion. Their hearts, {till buoyed By 
by the hopes of promotion, pant for 
better fate 3; but alas! ‘* Fortuna* it: 
wet fustibus. When their anxious expec- 
tations are raifed to the higheft pitch, an 
unlooked-for arrangement will fuddenly 
fink them deeper and deeper in the gloom 
of defpair. Soldiers are naturally of a 
fanguine temperament ; they ftill hope 
while there is a pofhibility of fuccefs ; 
but, after a life of exertion in defence of 
their country, and-for the honour of the 
Sovereign, many, too many, fall -martyrs 
of their attachment to an honourable pro- 
feffion, unrewarded and forgotten. I 
ecnfels that a provi/o, to eens moft fe- 
nior-lieutenants ct regiments have been 
fubjeSted, in confequence of a late addi- 
tion to the number of captains in a bat- 
talion, has, in fome meature, given rife to 
thefe reflections. They muft ra‘fe thirty 
men for a company, though fomeof them 
may have been ten or twelve years inthe 
fervice, ina foreign country, at a diftance 
from their friends, and all the comforts of 
life. The Oid Government of France is 
certainly not in many refpeéts a pattern 
for imitation ;, but all the time paffed by 
French officers formerly in the colonies, 
-went, inclaims for promotion, for double 
what it did at home. By twelve years 
fervice abroad, a French officer received 
the Croix de St Louis, though twenty-four 
we eneceflary to obtain it while in France, 
‘That Minifters fhould be as economical as 
poffible at the prefent moment, is juft and 
neceflary : that the half-pay lift fhould be 
diminifhed is alfojuft and expedient; but, 
in the name of juftice, let not meritorious 
officers, who may, be unable toraise thirty 
men, be the cnly_ fufferers by the retrench- 
ments and economy of Minifters. The 
unfortunate fubalterns of the army fhould 
not furely be the firft on whom to begin 
the experiment. Let his Royal Highnefs 
the Commander in Chief remain free and 
-uncontrouled. ‘The army will confide in 
his juitice and knowledge of their fitua- 
tion ; and thcfe fubalterns who have faith- 
fully ferved his Majefty in their humble 
but uleful {tation, may expect every at- 
tention to their claims, and the merits of 
their iervices. 
Tam, Sir, &c. 
A FRIEND TO THE ARMY. 
On “the Manners and Cuftoms of, the United States. 
[Sept. 3 
For the Monthly Magazine. _ 
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS on the COs- 
TUME, .AGRICULTURE, JURISPRU~ 
DENCE, THEOLOGY, PHYSICS, TASTE, 
and GENIUS, of the INHABITAN’S of the 
UNITED STATES 0f NORTH AMERICA. 
HE inhabitants of the feveral ftates 
differ as much from each other in 
their cuftoms, manners, and genius, as 
they are diftinguifhable from their ancef- 
tors: Dts impofible to affign any gene- 
ral charaéter to them, net only on ac- 
count of the difference of climate, but be= 
caufe the continual influx of a vaft num- 
ber of foreigners, who import their early 
and habitual inclinations, and never en= 
tirely lofe them but with their lives, will 
require the fmoothing hand of three 
or four generations, before the peculiari- 
ties of each are worn off, and rounded 
to any thing like an approximation of 
manners.  Thefe peculiarities are of 
courfe in proportion to the greater or 
leffer influx in each ftate, as a river receives 
nore or lefs of “a faline mixture according 
to the ftrength or weaknefs with which 
its current meets the invading tide. “A- 
mongft thefe different habitudes the fru- 
gality, and plainnefs of the High and Low 
Dutch; the induftry and parfimony of the 
Scotch ; 
want or economy of the Englifh ; the 
hardinefs of the Irifh (who are of the 
lower order); and the frivolity of the 
French, are eafily recognized, although 
they all, fooner or later, give way to the 
general ma(s of American cuftoms, which 
long ufage and republican genius have 
efablifhed. 
The charaGeriftics of a native Ameri- 
can confit of a deliberate, and almoft re- 
pulfive, gravity ; a cool, phlegmatic, 
manuer ; and a dry, defultory, monoto- 
nous tone of fpeech. This fubftance: is 
evidently affected by the leaven of fo many 
heterog: neous, fluctuating, particles, and 
is, altaget her, a firange, and — inde- 
fcribable compound. 
- The-fiates»of New Paaiphiire: Mafia- 
chuletts, Rhode-ifland and Connecticut, 
retain more of- their primitive manners 
than-any of the reft, (except New York), 
as being lefs fophifticated. The inha- 
bitants are brave, enterprizing, 
trrous. They drefs as ae in the En- 
glith fafhion as is confiftent with the dif- 
ferent degrecs of heat arxl cold, which is 
greater in both extremes than in Engiand. 
They receive few emigrants, and thofe © 
chiefy Englifh and Scotch.’ They are 
reckoned, - 
the genius, conviviality, and _ 
and. insuf--. — 
- 
