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possess as many dollars at this moment, as he did pounds sterling when he left England. But for this, which was his misfortune, and not his fault, he has been greatly and unjustly calumniated in several publications.

I must however beg to be understood, that I by no means advise my countrymen to emigrate to Albion, or indeed to any other place whatsoever. On the contrary, I am convinced that any one, who has even a prospect of making a decent livelihood in England, would be a fool and a madman to remove to the Illinois.

To a family-man, who finds his property and his comforts daily diminishing, without any prospect of their changing for the better, the English settlement may be an object worth attending to; though, for my own part, should I ever be obliged to emigrate (which I trust in heaven will never be the case), I should give a decided preference to the State of New York, or to Canada, or Pennsylvania, for reasons to be mentioned hereafter.

A bachelor has no business in the Backwoods: for in a wild country, where it is almost impossible to hire assistance of any kind, either male or female, a man is thrown entirely upon himself. Let any one imagine the uncomfortableness of inhabitinga log-cabin, where one is obliged to cut wood, clean the room, cook one's victuals, &c. &c. without any assistance whatsoever; and he will then feel the situation of many unhappy young men, who have

come to this settlement, even from London, and quite by themselves. To a family-man the case is different. When isolated from the world, as every one must expect to be who goes to the Backwoods, he has an immense resource in domestic enjoyments, and particularly in the care and education of his children. How different from the solitary inhabitant of a log cabin in this most solitary country!

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But even the married emigrants cannot be perfectly happy. How often have I observed the love of their native land, rising in the hearts of those of my exiled countrymen, whom I have met with in different parts of this vast continent! When I have spoken to them of England, and particulary if I had been in the countries or villages where they once dwelt, their eyes have glistened, and their voice has been almost choked with grief. Many a one has declared to me, that it was with the most heart-rending anguish, that he determined to abandon his home and his relations. But what

could he do? poverty stared him in the face. Many a one has told me, over and over again, that were the tithes and poor-rates taken away, or were they even only diminished so that he could make a shift to live, he would return to his native land with the most unfeigned joy.

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I recollect that some time after this, I met, at Harmony in Indiana, one of our fine English yeomen who had emigrated with a considerable sum of money. He told me that the desire of return

ing home had of late preyed so much. upon his mind, that he would have gone, but for the receipt of some letters that stated the terrible agricultural distress in England. "If, sir," said he, "I could only make shift to live at all, I would certainly go back immediately. My old woman is pining to revisit her relations and her long lost home, and she entreats me to return, if even we should work for our daily bread. I have been making arrangements, and have even sold most of my stock; but now this letter tells me I could not live. I have but little money, and if I could not rent a farm upon which I could gain a subsistence, I should at last become a pauper. It is only the shame of this that detains me here. I assure you, sir, I have never ceased to regret the hasty step I took in leaving my country; but the fear of losing my all drove me away.

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I do not pretend to understand the mysteries of government; but I am sure no one could have heard this man, and could then have laid his hand

n his heart, and said that he sincerely believed, the happiness of the English people was properly attended to. Can it be politic, setting aside all thoughts of justice, to drive away the hardy peasant by depriving him of his well-earned pence? And to whom is this money given? To sinecurists, who are often already enormously rich, and to churchmen, whose primates live in a state of more than princely luxury, and the aggregate of whose

revenues is nearly equal to that of all the other protestant clergy in the whole world. Surely we may say with Goldsmith:

"Princes and lords may flourish, or may fade,
A breath can make them, as a breath has made;
But a bold peasantry, their country's pride,
When once destroyed can never be supplied."

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Supposing a man intends to emigrate, he should contrast the good with the bad, and will then, from his own sentiments, be able to determine what course to take. A man in England enjoys numberless little comforts which he does not appreciate. Moreover, with moderate temperance, he has the certainty of enjoying good health. But when he goes to the Backwoods of America, he has every thing to do for himself; he has a difficulty even of obtaining shoes, clothes, &c.; and he then begins to call luxuries what he once considered only as necessaries. He lives in a log-cabin, cut off as it were from the world, and in all probability suffers from the prevailing diseases of the country. As to the specious accounts and calculations, that he is to increase his capital, and make his fortune; so far is this from the truth, that if he once invest his money in land, he is compelled to remain, out of inability to dispose of it. Money and land are not, as in England, convertible; and it often happens, that land in the Backwoods, cannot be disposed of at any price.

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Nevertheless, I must allow that emigration offers some great advantages. In the United States a man, instead of renting a farm, can, for a small sum of money, become a respectable landholder. He will no longer be pestered every quarter-day, for rent, and tithes, and poor-rates. There is indeed a land-tax, but it is so trifling that it may be left out of any calculation, not being annually more than one farthing per acre. The emigrant becomes here independent: he is even considered as a member of the great political body; for, as is the case in the State of Illinois, after residing six months he is entitled to vote, and at the end of five years, by becoming a citizen, is eligible to any office or place in the whole United States, President only excepted. Though the gain of the colonist be but small, his mind is at ease. His fortune cannot well diminish, and with moderate industry may slowly increase. At all events he can look forward without anxiety to the establishment of his family.

As, however, every one views things in a different light, I most earnestly recommend all persons intending to emigrate, to visit the country before they move their families to it. Indeed it is a duty which the emigrant owes them, to see the place he intends to remove them to. The whole expense of a journey from England, even to Illinois, and back again, might, by taking a steerage passage across the Atlantic, be easily included in 100%.;

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