1804. | Lnformation refpefting Emigration to North America. 
and the nature of its conftitution, require 
_ the whole confideration and foftering care 
of its legiflature and leading men; _be- 
caule the general mafs of the people are 
well inftructed in that fpecies of know- 
‘ledge, which tends to direét them in the 
common purfuits of induftry. As in the 
natural, jo in the politic body, there is a 
critical period between infancy and man- 
hood, previous to which the conftitutional 
ftrength of the infant is the primary care 
of the bringer-up; and when that is ef- 
tablifhed, the care of the mental faculties 
begins. Although the Americans have 
indif{putably done much in agriculture, 
war, commerce, and the (cience of govern- 
ment; yet, in the fcience of literature, 
they have not attained that period at pre- 
fent. When it fhall have arrived, it is to 
be hoped, that genius will fhine with as 
bright luftre in the Weftern as the Eaftern 
hemifphere. In every country, nature, at 
times, repofes herfelf and produces only 
mortals of an ordioary ftamp. In this 
country, it was only at long intervals, and 
apparently with great efforts, that fhe has 
produced a Bacon, Sh: kfveare, Newton, 
Milton, Jobnfon, Pope, Addifon, Hume, 
&c.; and, notwithftanding the hoft of En. 
cyclopedifts, compilers of hiflories, &c. 
&c. the cannot be very fairly faid to have 
her eyes open at prefent. America will, 
in all probability, have to boat in time of 
is literary chiefs, unlefs her genius, like 
her government, fhould be republican, 
and affeé&t rather a general and equal de- 
“gree of knowledge, than an ariftocratical 
fuperiority. And one reafon why Ame- 
rica has never had any man eminently 
§reat in literary acquirements may be, 
that their repyblican principles will not 
fuffer them to give encouragement to, and 
confequently call into action, any fuch fu- 
periority, 
To form a juft comparifon between the 
American and older nations, it will be 
proper to fee what fuccefs has attended 
them in thofe purfuits which they have 
made their immediate ftudy. In the fci- 
ence of government, they fhave fhewn 
themfelves equal to moft nations ; and if 
‘miltakes have been committed by indivi- 
duals at the helm, the fame have been, 
and ever will be, made under every {pecies 
of government. In that {cience which is 
fo effentially neceflary to a free govern- 
ment, I mean rhetoric, although other na- 
tions may boalt more {cientific, yet none 
have ;roduced more energetic ones. In 
commerce, they have fhewn an unbound- 
ed {pirit of enterprize and perfeverance, 
which has enlarged and increafed the num- 
219 
ber of its fea-ports, fince the indepen- 
dence, and enriched the States with a 
traffic to every part of the globe. In agri- 
culture, they are progreffively changing a 
vait foreft into cultivated fields. If the 
Americans can accomplith all thefe ob- 
jects, it muft be abiurd to think them ine 
capabie of works of tafte and genius. Na- 
ture muft have done her part for the pro- 
duétion of genius on the other fide of the 
Atlantic; and if we do not yet witnels 
them, we hope, we may in time. 
The next object of confideration is the, 
fituation of farmers, who have money* 
to goto market with. In America, the moft 
direét paths to an accumulation of pro- 
perty, are commerce and agriculture. - It 
would be ufclefs to fay any thing refpect. 
ing the former, as it wears nearly the fame 
complexion all over the globe, and mcr 
cantile men lealt want information of that 
kind ; but the latter will be noticed, bes 
caule, in moft parts of America, it differs 
eflentially from the {cience as it is prac- 
tifed in thefe Iflands, and is very little 
known here. The New England States 
have the ftrongeft affinity to us in praéti- 
cal agriculture. In the States of Pennfyl- 
vania, New York, and Delaware, the re 
femblance becomes fainter; and in the 
more Southern States, from the difference 
of climate and produétion, it almoft ens 
tirely ceafes; fo that very few European 
agriculiurifts chufe to go farther fouth- 
ward than Maryland, unlefs, icdeed, they 
take the weftern route of Kentucky, molt 
of the fettlers in which are from the 
northern and eaftern parts. There are, 
likewile, numbers of indigenous produc- 
tions, which require a fyftem of hufbandry 
unknown in Europe, but which a foreign 
fettler muft become acquainted with, if 
he would fee his land turn to account. 
Thofe farmers who have property, and 
who with fora comfortable place of refidence: 
in a well-fettled part of any of tne States, 
may readily find enough to be difpofid of, 
although fettled lands are very far from 
being much cheaper in America than in 
England ; but it may not be ufelefs to 
give them a hint, that as there are many 
things in a firange country which they 
might not like, it might be as well if they 
went out aloe at the firft, and, when they 
had found a place to their mind, fent for 
their families. It very often happens, 
that aman does not fuit himfelf in the 
firft State he touches at, and then he has 
either to remove his family in a wandering 
and expenfive fearch, or elfe to Jeave them 
behind him in a ftrange place, whilft he 
is running about to find a horne for them, 
Gg2 which, 
