K^ ^ ^5^^, ^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 liilM 12.5 ■^ liiii 12.2 Kf |4£ 12.0 u& l^iJ4U& ^ . 6" ^ Sdmoes Corporalion ^*' 33 WK T MAM STIKT vMnfm,N.v. 14SI0 (71«)t7a-4S03 CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHIVI/ICIVIH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Inatituta for Hiatorical Microraproductiona / Inatitut Canadian da microraproductions hiatoriquaa ;V T«chnic«l and Bibliographic Notaa/Notas tachniquaa at bibiioflraphiquaa Tha toti Tha Inatituta haa attamptad to obtain tha baat original copy availabia for filming. Faaturaa of thia copy which may ba bibliographically uniqua. which may altar any of tha imagaa in tha raproduetion, or which may significantly changa tha usual mathod of filming, ara chackad balow. D D D D D Colourad covara/ Couvartura da coulaur I I Covara damagad/ Couvartura andommagAa Covara raatorad and/or laminatad/ Couvartura rastauria at/ou pallicuMa □ Covar titia miaaing/ La titra da couvartura manqua □ Colourad mapa/ Cartaa gtegraphiquaa gtegraphiquaa an coulaur •d inic (i.a. othar than blua Encra da coulaur (i.a. autra qua blaua ou noira) I I Colourad ink (i.a. othar than blua or black)/ I I Colourad plataa and/or illuatrationa/ D Planchaa at/ou illuatrationa an coulaur Bound with othar matarial/ RalM avac d'autraa documanta Tight binding may cauaa ahadowa or diatortion atong intarior margin/ La r9 liura sarrAa paut cauaar da I'ombra ou da la diatortion la long da la marga intiriaura Blank laavaa addad during rastoration may appaar within tha taxt. Whanavar possibia, thaaa hava baan omittad from filming/ II aa paut qua cartainas pagaa blanehaa ajoutiaa lora d'una raatauration apparaiaaant dana la taxta, mala, loraqua cala Malt poaalbia, caa pagaa n'ont paa it* fiimiaa. Additional commanta:/ Commantairas supplimantairas: L'Inatitut a microfiimi la maillaur axampialra qu1l lui a Ati poaalbia da aa procurer. Laa ditaiia da cat axampialra qui aont paut-Atra uniquaa du point da vua bibllographiqua, qui pauvant modifSar una imaga raproduita, ou qui pauvant axigar una modification dana la mithoda normala da fllmaga sont Indiqute d-daaaoua. D D D D D D D D Colourad pagaa/ Pagaa da coulaur Pagaa damagad/ Pagaa andommagiaa Pagaa raatorad and/or laminatad/ Pagaa raatauriaa at/ou palliculiaa Pagaa diacolourad. stsinad or foxad/ Pagaa dicoloriaa, tachatiaa ou piquiaa Pagaa datachad/ Pagaa ditachiaa Showthrough/ Tranaparanca Quality of print variaa/ Qualit* inigala da I'imprasaion Includaa aupplamantary matarial/ Comprand du matirial auppMmantaira Only adMon availabia/ Saula MMon diaponibia Pagaa wholly or partially obacurad by arrata slips, tiaauas, ate., hava baan rafilmad to ansura tha baat poaalbia imaga/ Laa pagaa totalamant ou partiallamant obscurdaa par un fauillat d'arrata, una palura, ate., ont Mi fllmiaa i nouvaau da fa^on i obtanir la maiilaura imaga poaalbia. Tha poa oft film Orif bag tha sioi oth( first sior or 11 Thi sha TIN whi Mai diff anti bag rig? raq ma This itam la filmad at tha raduetlon ratio chackad balow/ Ca documant aat fiimi au taux da riduetton indiqui cl>daaaoua. 10X 14X 1BX 22X 30X ^ 12X 1«X aox a4x 2IX TtM copy fllni«d her* haa b—n r«produo«d thanks to tho gwioroslty of: HiMrUniv Library L'oxomplairo film* f ut roproduit grico k la g4n4roaltA da: Mills MMnorial Library •MMMtsr Unhrtrrity Tha Imagat appaaring hara ara tha baat quality poaaibia oonaldaring tha oondltion and laglbillty of tha original copy and in kaaping with tha filming contract apaclflcatlona. Laa imagaa suhrantaa ont 4tA raproduitaa avac la plus grand soin, compta tanu da la condition at da la nattat* da i'axamplaira fiimA, at an conformity avac las conditions du contrat da filmaga. Original oopiaa in printad papar covara ara fllmad baginning with tha front covar and anding on tha last paga with a printad or iliustratad impraa- sion, or tha back covar whan appropriata. All othar original copiaa ara fllmad baginning on tha first paga with a printad or illuatratad impraa- sion. and anding on tha last paga with a printad or Illustrated impraaaion. Laa axamplairas originaux dont la couvartura an papiar ast imprimia sont filmte an commandant par la pramlar plat at an tarminant salt par la darnlAra paga qui comport* una amprainta d'impraasion ou d'iilustration, soit par la sacond plat, salon la cas. Tous las autras axamplairas originaux sont filmto an commanpant par la pramlAra paga qui comporta una amprainta d'impraaaion ou d'iilustration at an tarminant par la darnlAra paga qui comporta una taiia amprainta. Tha last racordad frama on aach microficha shall contain tha symbol •-^>- (moaning "CON- TINUED"), or tha symbol ▼ (moaning "END"), whichavar applias. Un das symbolas suivants apparattra sur la darniira imaga da chaqua microficha, salon la cas: la symbols — ► signifia "A SUIVRE", la symbols ▼ signifia "FIN". Maps, plataa, charts, ate, may ba fllmad at diffarant raduction ratios. Thoaa too larga to ba antiraly includad in ona axpoaura ara fllmad baginning in ttfa uppar iaft hand cornar, laft to right and top to bottom, as many framas as raquirad. Tha following diagrams illustrata tha mathod: Laa cartas, planchas, tablaaux, ate, pauvant itra fllmte A das taux da rMuction diffArants. Lorsqua la document aat trap grand pour Atra raproduit an un saul clichi, il ast film* A partir da I'angla supAriaur gaucha, 6» gaucha A droita, at da haut an bas, an pranant la nombra d'imagas n4cassaira. Las diagrammas suivants iliustrant la mAthoda. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ■m EH TH , i ^i' •iNPOJlM^ ' Several < grants. Accoun Amerii PUI 1HZ EMIGRANT'S GUIDE; IN TEN LETTERS, t<-. ADDRESSED TO THE TAX-PAYERS OF ENGLANDj CONTAINING ,1 V *IKF0?MATI0N OF EVEUY KIND, NECESSAIlY TO PERSONS WHO " ' ARE ABOUT TO EMIGRATE; INCLUOIXO Several oftthentic mid most interesting Letters from English, Emi- grants y now ia America y to their Relations in England : and an Account of the Prices of Hoiuse and Ifind, recently obtained from America hy Mn Cobbett, A NEW EDITION, BY WILLIAM COEBETT. LONDON: PRINTED BY MILLS, JOWETT, AND MILLS. PUBUSHED BY THE AUTHOR, AT 18^, FLEET-STREET; JiDCCCXXX. . « Nlu V*: •'r- '' :^ ■;!ii«' '<\ :l , 1 •» / \ I CONTENTS. LsTTEa I. On the Question, Wbetler it be advisable to emigrate from England at tbis time. «LsTTEB IL On the Descriptions of Persons to whom £migra« tion would be most beneficial. Letter III* On the Parts of the United States to go to, preceded by Reasons for going to no oth^r Country, and especially not to an English Colony. XiETTER IV. On the Preparations some time previous to sailing^. Letter V* Of the sort of Ship to go in, and of the steps to ba taken relative to the Passage, and the sort of Pas« sage ; also of the Stores and other things to be taken out with the Emigrant. Letter VI* Of the Precautions to be observed while on board of Ship, whether in Cabin or Steerage. Letter VII. Of the first Steps to be taken on Landing. Letter VIII. Of the way to proceed to get a Farm, or a Shop, to settle in Business, or to set yourself down as aa Independent Gentleman. Letter IX. On the means of Educating Children, and of obtain- ing literary Knowledge. Letter [X. Ofsuch other Matters, a knowledge relating to whicb must be useful to every one going from Eqgland to the United States. Postscript. Account of the prices of House and Land, recently obtained by Mr. Cobbett^ from America. a2 .' ^1 .^' « V • I . •t:,' '-f. «.? •".•! THE EMIGRANT'S GUIDE, &c. u LETTER I. /■' On the Questiorif Whether it be advisable for Persons ia, England now to emigrate. Tax-Payers, Bam-Elm Farm, July 1, 1829. 1. I HAVE never persuaded, or endeavoured to persuade, Any one to quit England with the view of exchanging it for another country ; and I have always had great reluct i (>ce to ^o any thing having that tendency. There is^ in the t! ins- fer of our duty from our native to a foreign land, something violently hostile to all our notions of fidelity; a man is so identified with his country, that he cannot, do what he will, 'n'holly alienate himself from it ; it can know no triumph, |ior any disgrace, which does not, in part, belong to him : parents, brethren, relations, friends, neighbours, make, all taken together, a good half of one's self : to cast away all our long^experienced feelings and long-cherished hopes ; to quit, at once, and for ever, all the associations of ideas. If t \ EMIGRATION, [letter >. >->«l arising from objects familiar to us from our infancy, is very much like quitting the world. 2. For these reasons, and for many others that might be stated, I have always, hitherto, advised Englishmen not to emigrate even to the United States of America ; but to re- main at home, in the hope that some change for the better Tvould come in the course of a few years. When we con- sider the usual duration of man's life, ten years are not a few; and it is now eleven years since I, in my Year's Residence, deliberately gave that advice. Not only has there, since 1818, when the Year's Residence in America was written, been no change for the better, but things have gradually become worse and worse. In short, things have now taken that turn, and they present such a |)rospect for the future, that I not only think it advisablt for many good people to emigrate, but I think it my duty to give them all the information I can to serve them as a guide in that very important enterprise ; and, to do this, I am, by mere accident, better qualified, perhaps, than any man in the world. For I actually saw the colony of New Brunswick begun to be settled ; I almost saw the axe laid to the stem of the first tree that was felled ; I saw wild ivoods and river banks turned into settlements ; I had to assist in cutting down trees, and in peeling off the bark, to make sheds to live under before we had any covering other thaa the sky ; so that I know the very rudiments of settling in new countries. Then I was, at the two spells, ten years and a half in the United States ; I kept a book-shop, and carried on printing to a, great extent, in Philadelphia, and, afterwards, in New York ; I lived as a renting farmer in Long Island, and, at the same time, kept a seed-shop in New York ; I have done a good deal in exporting to and importing from the United States ; I have connexion with many persons living in that country, and keep up a constant '•J WHETHER ADVISABLE. r correspondence with them. So that (having the capacity to write in a way to make myself clearly understood) I am, perhaps, better qualified than almost any man living to give fidvice upon this subject. 3. The state of this country is now such, that no man, except by mere accident, can avoid ruin, unless he can get at a share of )he taxes. As to the labouring classes, hun- ger^ and rags, and filth, are now become their uniform and inevitable lot. No toil, no frugality., can save them from these ; their toil is greater, and their food less, than those of the slaves in any part of the world that I have ever seen or ever heard of. Let the man who has some little money left ; let any tradesman, farmer, or even gentleman; let him . take a calm and impartial look at the state of things, and let him say whether he see any, even the smallest, chance of escaping ruin, if he remain here ; for what does that calm and impartial view present ? Why, these things, That the taxes amount, annually (exclusive of poor-rates, and county and parish-rates), to twice as much as the rent of all the land, and all the houses, and all the other real property in the kingdom. That the parish and county-rates amount to a third part as much as the rent aforesaid. That the taxes reach every thing ; and that no man can exist without bearing a part of the terrible burden. That the people are now divided into two very distinct ,.!, classes, tax'p'ayers, and tax-receivers (ptf zlb they die properly enough called, tax-eaters) ; that whatever the former are compelled to give to the latter can never again be of any benefit to those former ; and that, in short, what a man pays in taxes is just so much of loss to him, and of loss /or ever, exactly as much so as if it were tossed into .the sea. -.^ % EMIORATlOVy [letteii ii That, therefore, the tradesman, farmer, or other person, vrho receives none of the taxes, works to maintain the plaoemen, pensioners, sinecure people, grantees, the soldiers, the sailors, the half-pay people, Lnd the like, with all their wives and families ; that those live at their ease on the fruit of his labour ; and that, ^us, he is made to be poor } he and his family are kept down, while the tax-eaters and their families are rai»ed up and kept above them ; so that it would not be so hard for him if the money taken from him by the tax- gatherer were flung into the sea, because then it would raise nobody above him. That, according to tfie ancient laws of the country, the poor were relieved, and the churches built B.ni re- paired, and the colleges maintained, out of the tithes and other revenues of the church ; that those church revenues formed a third part of the rental of all the real property; that now all these revenues are pos- sessed by the aristocracy, the rich, and the clergy; that the clergy are, in fact, the relations or other per- sons connected widi the great ; and that the burden of relieving t^ poor, and of building and repairing t\e churches, is thrown upon the people at lai^, while the matter is so managed as to deprive the families of the poor, and of tradesmen and farmers, of all the benefits to be derived from the colleges. That, thus, be the talents, the industry, the frugality of the labourer, the artisan, the tradesman, or the farmer, what they may, it is next to impossible for any man , in those states of life to raise himself above the risk of ending his days in poverty, if not in misery ; and that every one, who is not a receiver of taxes, must expect, at the very least, to labour all his life long without I] VrilETIIER ADVISABLE. even the hope of adding to the ease and comfort of his family. That, as a specimen of the manner in which the taxes are expended, large sums have been given out of them to ** relieve the poor clergy of the Church of England," while many of the Bishops of that church have each a revenue of more than twenty, and some of them forty, thousand pounds a year; while several have recently died leaving more than two hundred thousand pounds sterling each, in personal property ; while a large part of the beneficed clergy hold two or more livings each, and while, according to a return laid before parliament, in 1814 (there has been none made since), there were, out of 10,602 livings, 6,804 non-resident incumbents; that is to say, parsons not residing in the parishes of which they had the tithes and other revenues I That, as another specimen of this sort, large sums have been given, out of the taxes, to men who, after the war, became rectors, vicars, and, perhaps, dignitaries, and who received this half-pay, as soldiers and sailors, while they were receiving the incomes of their livings, and while they called themselves spiritual persons; though, observe, the law says that the clerical charac" ier is indelible, and though numerous persons have been deprived of their half-pay upon the ground that it was not a reward fi>r past, but a retaining fee for /u- ture, services! So that here was a law declaring that panons never could serve as soldiers or sailors ; and here was a retaining fee given to them for future services as soldiers or sailors I That, as another specimen in the same way, the people are now taxed for the building of newohurches in places . become more p(^>uk)us than formerly, while there are, in England, about two hundred parishes which have no a5 Wi -I- 10 EMIGRATION, [lettei^ l> churches at all, and while there are about a thousand parishes not averaging a hundred inhabitants, while, however, the parsons continue to receive the tithes and other church-revenues of those parishes. That, as another specimen, while there were only 15 fo- reign ministers in the nation's employ, it had, in 1808, when the last return was made, to pay 57 foreign mi- nisters ; that it has to pay one Field Marshal or one General to about every 163 soldiers in the army, and five Generals to every regiment of soldiers ; that it has to pay two Admirals for every one of its ships of the line, and one Admiral for every 140 sailors. That the House of Commons caused to be printed, on the Sd of July, 1828, a report of a Committee on the Poor Laws (the object of which Committee was to devise the means of lessening the poor-rates), and that the evi- dence taken before that Committee (and printed with the Report) contains the following statements, by the several persons here named: — By Mr. Lister, of Minster, in Kent : That " the convicts (on board the " hulks) are a great deal better off than our labouring " poor, let the man (the convict) be ever so bad a man; ** that the convicts come on shore to work; that they ** do not work so hard nor m many hours as the com- ** mon labourers, and that they live better ; 'that it is ** very common for the convicts to save money, and to « carry from ten to forty pounds away from the hulks " when they are discharged ; that the witness has ** heard several labouring men declare, that if they " could commit any act so as to be condemned to la- ** hour in the hulks, they would gladly do it." — By Mr. < Henry Botce, of Waldershire, in Kent, who did himself infinite honour on this occasion : ** That he ** has seen 30 or 40 young men^ in the prime of life^ \i !•] WHETHER ADVISABLE. 11 ** degraded by being booked on to carts and wheel- ** barrows, dragging stones to tbe highways, because '* they could get no employment elsewhere ; that, in ** the parish of Ash, there is a regular meeting every ** Thursday, where the paupers are put up to auction, '* and their labour sold for the week, and it often hap- ** pens that there is no bidder ; that this want of em- ** ployment does not arise from an overstock of hands, " bat from the want of money in the farmers to pay the " hands out of employ." — By Mr. Nathan Driver, of Ferneux Pelham, Herts : " That the labourers " in the parish are let out ; and that when a young man '* has a bastard laid to him, he chooses now not to enter " into bonds to maintain the bastard, but to go to prison." •—By Mr. Lister Ellis, of Liverpool : " That in ** the workhouse in that place, they make the labour as '* irksome and disagreeable as they can devise, in order ** to induce the labourers to resort to their own re- ** sources; that he thinks that the able-bodied labourers " are made too comfortable in this workhouse ; that " when any of them have been sent to the House of ** Correction from the workhouse, and come back, they " say they would rather be sent to the House of Cor- " lection again." — By a Wiltshire Magistrate, who is not named : " That, according to the price of " labour in the neighbourhood of Hindon and Salisbury, ** oj the 24th of June 1828, the weekly * earnings' of *^ a man, wife, and one son, amounted tonine shillings « a week ; and if the man had j^ve children besides, ** he was allowed in ' relief , \s. 9d. a week, in addi« *' tion to the earnings; and as the bread was Is. 3d. ** the gallon-loaf, at the same time and place, each of ** these people had 160 ounces of bread in a week, or 'I 12 XMIGRATIOK, [letter ** 21 ounces a day, and nothing else^ and nothing for " drink, fuel, clothing, or lodging /" That, according to a return of places and pensions, laid before parUament in die year 1808 (no return of the like sort having since been submitted to the pablic), there were several hundreds of persons belonging to noble families who received pensions, or the amount of sinecures, out of the taxes raised upon the people ; that there were whole families maintained in this manner^ women and children as well as men, without any, even the smallest, pretence of their ever having rendered any service to the country; and that no parliamentary committees have ever sitten in (u-der to devise the means of lessening the charge of keeping these people. That, during this last session of parlianaent, a bill passed the House of Commons, authorizing the keepens of poor* houses, of hospitals, and of debtor-prisons, to dispose of thb dead bodies of the most unfortunate part of the poor, 'for the purposes of dissection; that though this bill did not pass the House of Lords, the Prime Minister said that he approved of Uie principle of it; that the man who brought the bill into the House of Commons, and whose name is Warburton, has given notice that he will revive it next year ; and that no hill has ever been proposed to authorize the tax-payers, or any public servants whomsoever, to dispose of the dead bo- dies of these men, women, and children, k^t out cf the taxes, nor of the dead bodies of the ** poor clergy of the Church of England," who, according to the financial returns laid before parliament, have been "relieved" out of the taxes, as die poor are relieved out of the rates. That a petition, presented to the House of C<»nmons in 1793, by Mr. Grey, now Ears. Grey, and received I] I] WHETHER ADVISABLE. 13 by that House, stated, and offered to bring proof to the bar, that a decided majority of that House was returned by 154 persons, some of them peers, and some of them rich commoners; that the House of Commons, during the last session (though no reform has taken place), voted 114 against 44 that there were no decayed boroughs f and other places, for which members could be returned through the instrumen- tality of money ; and that a return laid before the same House in 1805, shows that the then members ' of that House received amongst them, annually, £178,994 of the public money. 4« A large volume'-would not contain a bare statement of the facts which might be stated as bearing directly on this case. But, if here be not enough, no man can imagine enough : if here be not enough to make a man, who has some money left, and a family to provide for ; if here be not enough to make such a man look about him, and begin to stir, nothing is enough : he must be fashioned for slavery, and, finally, for being a subject for the sons of " science.*' However, the present case is not half described in the above prqMsitions ; for, by the last measure relating to the money of the country, the taxes will, in reality, be doubled before Christmas next. Dreadful is the ruin already ; but it must be, beyond all measure, greater in a few mouths* time. By die time that the small notes bhall be all taken in, and their eircnlation put an end to, every man will pay just twice as much, in reality, in tax, for a pot of beer, or a bushel of malt, as he paid only last year. It will be the same in all other cases. Tradesmen and farmers, are now pushed to their wits* end ; they are daily declining in their circum- stances : any money that they may have saved is melting away ; their property is, .under this diminution of the quan- tity of small noteS; butter before an April sun ; but, by- S ,!i n '\, -a_f i 14 EMIORATIOK, [lettee and-by, the remainder will, under the total abolition of those notes, be butter before a July sun. 5. The parliament has separated, and has left all the taxes unrepealed : while they have left the Small-note Bill to cause to be doubled in value the money in which the taxes are paid. One of two consequences will result : the Jive-pound notes will all be drawn in hy degrees; or, there will he J as there was in 1797, a run upon all the banks » and upon the Bank of England in particular, unless this be prevented by a law of legal tender, like that q/'1797. If the former, prices will be much about what they were la 1792, before the five- pound notes came out; and the tax- payers, and even the tradesmen and farmers, will be reduced very nearly to bread and water. Let me explain this mat* ter ; for, though I have, in other writings, done this a thou- sand times over, it may now be necessary to do it once more. 6. This affair of fa per- money, which boasts of a greater number of victims than famine, pestilence, and the sword, all put together, has always been a species of mys- tery ; and, notwithstanding the dreadful sufferings which it has occasioned, it is, generally speaking, a mystery still. It is irksome to repeat what one has so often said ; but, upon this occasion, I must repeat. Many who disregarded what I said formerly will now pay attention to the very same words. First, then, taxes are so much taken away for ever, so much clear loss to those who pay them. Second : the greater the quantity of money that there is circulating in any country, the higher the prices will be in that country : for instance, if meat be to-day 6d, a pound, and if, to-morrow> the quantity of money be doubled, meat will then be Is. a pound ; and, on the contrary, meat will be 3d. a pound, if the quantity of money be reduced in the proportion of one-half. Third : so that the government^ "^i«, I.] WHETHER ADVISABLE. 15 by causing the small notes to be drawn in, and thereby lessening the quantity of money circulating in the country, cause all prices to be lowered; cause a shop full of goods, or a farmer's stock, to sell for much less than either of them sold for before ; and the farmer who has to pay a fixed rent, and whose stock was bought when it was at a high price, loses greatly by this change in the value of money ; and the shopkeeper, who has bought his cloth, for instance, at 20s. a yard, is compelled to sell it for I5s. perhaps; and if either of these be in debty he is a ruined man ; and this is the case of hundreds of thousands of farmers itnd trades- men at this very moment. 7. Let us take an instance: A is a London wholesale dealer in shirts^ which he has made up, and which he sells to retail dealers in town and country. He has bought liis cotton, of which the shirts are made, at Is. a yard, ard a shirt takes 3 yards, and the making is Is., so that he must, to have a profit, sell the shirt for more than 4s. But the government lessens the quantity of circulating money, and A can sell his shirts for only 2s. each ! If he have saved any money, he thus loses it ; if not, he is ruined. His shop, his scale of living, the wages of his work-people, all have been bottomed on the 4s. shirt. For his shop he must still pay the same sum ; and, though he turn off half his work, people, and reduce the rest to Qd. a shirt, he must be ruined, unless he have saved money beforehand. 8. But, suppose him to have save(2money, and to be able to get over this blow ; suppose him to be able to bear the loss on this shopful of goods, and that he (as he will of course) take care to buy, next time, sufficiently low to save himself from loss ; still there are the taxes. These, direct and indirect, take from every tradesman and farmer more than one half of his profits, including the interest on his capital, or money embarked in his business. The small i 16 EHIGRATIOK, [lettek M :,i notes being circulating freely, and the quantity of money ia die country being great, farmer B has to pay, altogether, 100/. a year in taxes ; and, as wheat is 10s. a bushel, he has, in fact, to give the tax-gatherer 200 bushels of his wheat. But the government having drawn ia the small notes, and made money, in quantity, one-hrUf what.it was before, wheat falls to 5s. a bushel, and farmer B has to give the tax-gatherer 400 bushels of his wheat ; and this works fanner B to an oil, though he cannot think how it is that he becomes poor; and he, if base enough to be ready to crawl on his belly to the government, abuses any one that tells him that he is beggared by the taxes ; '^ be** cause," says he, " I pay no more in tax now than I did years ago." The brute does not, and he will not, perceive, that, though the sum is the same in name, it is, in fact, doubled in amount. If the slavish brute were to pay in wheat instead of money, he would perceive how he was ruined ; but such is the baseness of many fEurmers, that, even then, such brutes would, for the far greater part, lay the blame on something other than the conduct of the government. 9. Besides, the THING is crafty enough to deceive the devil himself. It comes at the people in so many different, and in such cover/ ways, that it requires a degree of atten- tion and penetration, much greater than that which falls to the lot of men in general, to enable a farmer, or any body else, to discover, or even to guess at the amount of the taxes that he really does pay ; and when you talk to farmers in general upon the subject, you hear them say that it asnnot be the taxes that make the distress, for that they pay no taxes, except " a trifle for dog, horse, gig, and windows." They do not, and will not perceive, that in the cost of malt and hops taken together, more than a half is tax ; that ia the cost of soap and candle more ikut a half is tax ; that. «.] ^•' I] WHETHER ADVISABLE. If in the cost of tea, two* thirds are, before it reach them, tax; . that, in the cost of sugar f three-fuurths are tax ; that, in the cost of tobaccOy nine-tenths are tax ; that, in the cost of spirits, seven-eighths are tax ; that, in the cost of shoes, more than one-half is tax ; that, in the cost of ottier wear- ing apparel f including the taxes on wool ^ on cotton, on silk, 'On dyeing stuff, and on some of the goods themselves, after made, full one-half is tax ; that, in the cost of pepper, at this moment, the price is 3d. and the tax 2s. a pound ! Let me say this in words, lest the world should not believe it. Pepper, at this moment, costs threepence a pound, iii the port of London ; and the tax on that pound is two shillings. It is much about the same with all other spices, drugs, and the like. Besides those articles, there is the iron, and the leather, and timber, used by farmers and others. In short, vre can touch nothing, we can see nothing, that is not taxed; and it is an indisputable fact, that every tradesman and farmer pays, in one way or another, to the government, in taxes, more than one-half of the profits of his business, in- cluding the interest of the money employed in that business. If we ride in a chaise, or a coach, or on a horse ; if we keep a di^ ; if we have a window to see through, or servant to assist us, a large part of the cost is tax. We can have no title to property, no right of occupation ; we can neither lend nor borrow ; nor pay, nur receive money ; nor can we ask for law or justice ; without paying a tax: and when the breath is out of our bodies, the government demands a strict account of our bequests, and takes from our children, or others, a large part of what we leave behind us. The poor taxes must be included, because they are caused by the ether taxes4 If a labouring man got his malt for 3$. a bushel, his beer for l|(f. a pot, his tea for 1$. 6d. a pound, his sugar for 3d. a pound, his meat for 2d. a pound, his bread for ld.K pound, his spirits at Is. a gallon, and'^o on, as 4^N ,- 1 1 ( ^ mm ' t 11 EMIt RATION, [LETT21 I.] Is now the case in America, there would be no need of poor rates. This being the case, how is a farmer or tradesman to inake head against these taxes now, when they have been, within three years, augmented in real amount one-thirdi and when it is evident that they must soon be doubled ? , 10. But, now, look at another part of this process of ruin, Some years back, the salaries of the judges, those of the police magistrateSy the pay of the army, the allowances to Royal Family, and, in short, the pay of all persons in office, who wer^ paid out of the taxes, was augmented ; doubled in some instances, and more than doubled in others. And, pn what ground was this done ? Why, expressly on the ground that the great quantity of paper-money that was cir* lating had caused prices to rise ; had made the money of the country less valuable ; and, of course, that the sol- diers and others ought to have a larger sum of it. Well! Jf this were just then, what ought to be done now, when the paper-money is become small in quantity, and when prices are as low as they were before the salaries and pay wercC augmented ? Why, those salaries and that pay ought to be reduced, to be sure, to their old nominal amount: but the government have no notion of this ; and the tax- eaters are^ apparently, to continue to receive, in fact, more and more, until, at last, the tax-payers must be reduced to absolute beggary. Observe, too, that almost the whole of the debt wss contracted i~; money not half so valuable as the present money ; and yet we are now to pay,^and do pay> to the fundholder the same nominal interest ; or, in other words, we pay him twice as much as we ought to pay him ; and, mind, the government cannot reduce the interest of the fundholder without reducing their own salaries ! So that now the tax-payers have, if they remain here, and if no re- duction of taxes take place, certain ruin and degradation before Hheir eyes : they must daily sink lower and lower^ I.] WHETHER ADVISABLE. while the tax-eaters daily tower higher and higher above them : and, observe, the Prime Minister declared, on the 26th of May, in his place in the House of Lords, that, even if the whole of the debt had been contracted in money of the low value, good faith required that the interest should be paid in money of the present value, that is to say, in money double the value of that, in which the great part of the debt was contracted ! Of course, there can be no intention on the part of government to lessen the no- minal amount of the taxes, while it is clear that, in a few months' time, the real amount will be twice as great as it was only about two years ago ! Under such a burden, no trade, no agriculture, can be carried on without loss: trades- men must spend their savings, live on their creditors, or quit their buriness ; and farmers must spend their savings, pay no rent, or flee from their farms. The placeman and pen- sioner gain, on the contrary, by this operation. There is, for instance, little Hobhovse's Father, who has twelve hundred pounds a year, as commissioner of the Nabob of JlLrcot*s debts, and a house to live in. The rise in the value of money, which has been caused by the withdrawing of the one-pound notes, really doubles Old Hob house's salary. That salary will buy him and his wife and family twice as much to eat, drink, or wear^ as it would have bought them in the year 1825. But, while the drawing in of the small notes does this for the family of Hobhousb, sec what it does for the tradesmen, whom the Rump enable young HoBHOUSE to insult by calling them his " constituents*' One of these has sent me a statement of his receipts, in ready money, in each of the months during the last ten years, I will here insert his letter to me, as well as his statement of receipts ; and when I have done so, I will add some remarks : • i H I'lv- « «0 SMIOBATIOK, [letter TO MRj COBBETT. Sir, London, iSth May, 18t9. On reading your letter to the Duke of WellingtoDi in the Register of the 2d instant, relative to the receipts of the Market Gardener^ I could not but think with you how applicable the statement was to all classes of persons en- gaged in every sort of business. I have, therefore, the first opportaoity, ascertained from my own books for ten years past the sums I have taken across the counter ; that is, in ready money, totally independent of money paid me on the credit business. You see. Sir, how my receipts cot- respond with his. I should have gone back to the year 1816, as he has done, but cannot conveniently lay my hand upon the book having the account previous to 1819. I have stated the receipts of each month, merely to show how quick the effect of PeeVs bill was felt j pray mark Prosperity RobinsorCs year ; and then see the extraordinary fall-off in the following year of 1826. As you say with regard to the Market Gardener's expenses remaining the tame, so do mine, as far as respects house-rent and taxes. I have lessened my expenses, as far as I possibly can, by discharging my assistants ; but still it will not do: but how long the thing may hold together we can only guess. My hope is, that the Minister may hold to the bill, as I am as certain as of death, that it is the only thing that will ulti- mately cause stability in prices, and give stability to the government itself. One thing is certain, that to your shop they must at last go. For myself, I care but little ; but, unfortunately, I have property of some very worthy people in my trade; and I grieve that I cannot abstract it there- from. — I have sent you, Sir, my name and address; you • will at once see, that by publishing them I might run the risk of being seriously injured ; as such you will please to refrain from doing so. I am. Sir, Yours, &c. »•] . .31 "■ — . «* M 00 M — • so N • CO oo M c» 00 __ w^ o . •M M o M 00 •-N M 00 • V— * f^ s . *. 2 00 .% M CO ••« i .s^ -mm «» » m i 00 a» M "« *< .ta S£ ja ^ «« 00 •_: p4 «t a 1 V 1 • M K 00 ^ m -^ — •• ' d « OO ^ i e m a m ^' ij 'WHETHER ADVISABLI •• VI ■J**" ■or -JT^ n£ w» " "'^~ *« to 4 "i •• ••" M 6\ ON H M 6 M « ^ ON ^ 6o *« w^ o o vo w» NO M NO M NO M ♦ M ON «« 00 a •o M M M S 3; lO nS» s ■^o6 CO M 00 »o NO o\ «o ON to 6 6 m • -^ ^o e\ o "♦ 00 •♦ M ^ • 00 2 00 M M M <;f o N? 00 s» 00 ON NO o "«r *• to o m *o *» 00 • w2 1ft o ON M ON ♦o M «4 ON O NO ON M 00 ■« ^2 ^ ^ r 00 M S5 nS^ M M t« 1. ^00 00 «0 "<■ 6 tf) M r« <*N Nd <>* to ON 4 00 a* 00 fO •o w» "♦ M »« O M M M M ^2 NO N§^ M M M «o »o to t» NO t« N? M O N? M N ^VO M NO 11 u» ON O M NO to ** M ft; J? 00 N 00 to 00 M NO m M M ON 00 M to M 00 M M to ^00 Ml NO e< MS 6 M ON O M O M m t^ NO «o 1^ <*^ o eo w 00 o o VO NO CO m 00 NO M 00 p4 ^00 ^ ON M MJ to m t< «« •i • ^Ox NO M ->*• 00 eo '^ o •♦ PO o 00 lO M 6 •^ 00 ^? OS rn M M N 00 ^ S IQ ss M M NO M •»" «o w ON M nA ««• wj M w 6 ON o db 6 w^ M fO o "♦ to 00 NO ON NO 00 si's M o o M M 00 m o to M ON ON p4 ^ON 00 ON •* "♦ NO 00 «« to « O M • w^ 00 V} M eo 00 ON 00 M to NO M ■ui o\ »» 00 . o ^2 00 M to to 5 M to • s 1 S < ^ s 9 • bo 5 • • 6 o 1 'i H S3 EMIGRATION, [letter Wi 'm ■ ! 11. Now, tax-payers, look nrell at this statement, and say where this ruin is to atop I See how the receipts fell, from 1819 to 1822, while the small notes were going tn; also sea how those receipts rose, from 1823 to 1825, while the small notes were coming out ; and then see how they PELL again from 1826 to 1828, while the small notes were going in. Look at the receipts of 1828, compared with those of 1 825 ! Look at the whole thing ; reflect that we are by no means^ as yet, got near to the lowest point ; and, then, if you be not a tax-eater, hope, if you can, to escape utter ruin, unless you flee in time. If you have nothing to lose, you can lose nothing ; but, reader, if you have any thing left ; if you be tradesman or farmer ; if you get nothing out of the taxes ; and if you would rather keep your property for the benefit of your own family than give it up for the benefit of the family of Hobhou»e, or the like, begin to look about you I 12. Let us see, now, the manner in which this works on. This tradesman receives goods from the manufacturers in the North, and sells them out of his shop in London, some by retail and some to little dealers. In consequence of this falling off in his trade, his orders are lessened in proportion ; the people in the North have a like falling off; those that they purchase food and raiment from have the same ; the London tradesman keeps less servants, and spends less on eating and drinking ; all these parties become poorer and lower than they were before; while the tax -eaters are, from the very same cause, becoming richer and higher : the tradesman must sell his horse and gig ; but old Hobhouse, or such like placeman, can afford to clap on an additional plur of horses to bis carriage. The Duke of Welling- ton seems to think, that it would be a good thing to make the'tradesman come down to a lower state than that which he is in at present; but, there can be no stop: there "-^.■Fw: erhaps, a sheep would soon be sold for a pound in money, and for two or three pounds in papei*. The 8tate must be a beggar in a very short time ; and this is what will to a certainty take place, if the government put out the one-pound notes again. So that, thus far^ we see the government left to choose between the "utter ruin and degradation of the people on the one hand, and the beg' garing and overthrow of the state on the other. There is, however, another course; namely, the EQUITABLE ADJUSTMENT, prayed for in the Norfolk Petition. This would he effectual^ just, and safe ; but this ia my remedy^ and, therefore, will not be adopted. 18. ^f the small notes were to be put out again, and be accompanied, as they must be, with bank-restriction and legal tender, and these followed ^ay Ckstignats and two prices, the times would be good for tradesmen and farmers, espe- cially for poor ones ; and, as even the present measures, if well followed up, must give the whole system a terrible shaking in a year, or two, or three ; this being the case, I, if I were a tradesman or farmer, with little or no money, thould be disposed to remain to see the upshotf or, at any ■; WHETHER ADVISABLE. 27 rate, to remain a year or so longer, especially if my age and family were such as not to render the loss of a year or two of much importance. But, if I were a tradesman or farmer, and had money sufficient to set me down in a farm, or in a shop, or in any business in the settled part of the United States, and had a family to provide for, not one single penny more of that money should go to pay the doubled sa- laries, doubled pensions, doubled soldiers' and sailors' pay, and doubled dividends to the fundholders, notwithstanding the hero of Waterloo says, that " good faith " requires such payment. I, without finding fault with those who are fond of a dear government, would seek a cheap one ; without by any means setting myself up as a critic on the taste of those who like to pay for archway s^ the bare sculpture of one of which costs thirty-four thousand pounds, I would certainly go to a country where the Chief Magistrate costs the nation less than that sum in five years I In short, having the money, I would put it out of the reach of those who would, if I remained, take it from me and give it to the fundholders, soldiers, sailors, placemen, pensioners, dead- weight, sinecure people, and parsons. And, were I a gentleman, carrying on no business and following no profession, and able to remove my property, I would do the same. I could not live here without giving to placemen and the rest much more than half my income. I defy any one to point out the means of avoid- ing this. If, therefore, there were nothing particular be- longing to me to induce me to remain, in the hope of being able to effect something in behalf of myself and my neigh- bours ; if thr^'e were nothing to make me believe myself able and likely to assist in producing some change for the better, not a penny more of my income should the double-salaried placemen have. 19. It being, for the reasons which I have here stated, my opinion, that things are now such, in England, and the pro- b2 ,,«*j(Si*l 38 EMIGRATION. [LETTEH gpects such, that it is, in numerous cases, advisable for people to emigrate in order to save themselves fron^ ruin, from de- gradation, from the poor-house, and, finafly, from the knives of the human-butchers ; this being my opinion, and having now a pile of letters, nearly a hundred in number, from anxious tradesmen and farmers, requesting my advice on a subject so momentous to them ; thinking thus, being thus applied to, and it being quite out of my power to give an- swers, or to give an interview, to these respectable applicants, for whom I feel most deeply interested ; thus situated, I will, in a series of Letters, give such information and ad- vice as I think likely to guide any rational man through the enterprise of emigration, not only with perfect safety, but with ease and pleasure. In these Letters (of which this In- troductory Letter is No. 1) I shall treat — Of the descriptions of persons to whom emigration would be most beneficial — Of the preparations some time previous to sailing — . Of the parts of the United States to go to, preceded by reasons for going to no other country, and especially not to an English colony — On the sort of ship to go in, and on the steps to be taken, relative to the passage and the sort of passage ; also to stores, and other things to be taken out with the Emigrant ; and especially how to carry, or transmit, money — On precautions to be observed while on board of ship, whether in cabin or steerage-^On the first steps to take on landing — On the way to proceed to get a farm or a shop, to settle in business, or to seat youV" self down as an independent gentleman — Of the prices (in different parts of the country) of land, labour, food, ■clothing, house rent, and other things — Of such other matters, a knowledge relating to which must be useful to 4very one going from England to the United States. Wm. cobbett. Ml 11.] PERSONS FIT FOR IT. 29 .-■ ::-M ./■•■ .' LETTER II. On the description of Persons tcr whom Emigration would be most henejicial. 20. I HAVE not labourers in view, so much as persons in trade, and fanners, and manufacturers, iivho have some little money which they would rather not have taken from them by the tax-gatherer. Nevertheless, there are a great many labourers ; a great many journeymen tradesmen, and a great many operative manufacturers ; that is to say, working ma- nufacturers ; for I detest the other nasty word, the offspring of false pride, which but too generally accompanies a slavish disposition. A workman is a workman, and a master is a master ; there is nothing insolent in the assumption of ,the latter, and nothing mean in the recognition of the former. 21. As far as relates to labourers in husbandry, to me- chanics, and the like, who have to work for their bread , and "who must expect to work for it every where, none but the able ought to go abroad. The aged, the infirm, the helpless, from no matter what cause, might be better oJBf indeed, if they yrexe now in America ; but, there is the going thither; there is the pullingup and transplanting, and the taking root again ; and there are toil and sufferings of some sort or other at- tending thes8 movements ; and therefore they are not to be 30 EStlGRATION. [letter undertaken, unless the party see before him pretty nearly a certainty of bettering his lot. Above all things, no man ' should remove to another country for fear of being compelled' to load a parish in this country. Let no man afflict his mind with fears of that sort ; for he, a thousand to one, has already done more for the rich, than they will ever do for him. I do not wish by any means, to inculcate ingratitude ; and I hold it to be perfectly proper, that people in the lower walks of life should carry themselves respectfully towards those, whom birth, or superior talent, or industry, has placed above themselves; but, generally speaking, the poorer part of the people of England have, of late years, been so cruelly treated, even by the laws themselves, that there is seldom / to be found a mai> of any of the labouring classes from whom gratitude is due to any persons in the higher classes. There- fore, if the party has no other motive for removing, except that of sparing the purses of the rich, I advise him to re- main. I have just heard, that, in Wiltshire, a young man has been sent to prison for a monthy for no other of- fence than that of not going to shut a gate, when the Bailiff of the owner bid him do it. Two young men had passed through the gateway of a field, and left the gate open. The Bailiff ordered one of them to go and shut it ; the young man, who was not in the service of the Bailiff^s master, did not do it. The Bailiff summoned him before a Magistrate, who, for that offence alone, which he described as a bad crime^ sent him to prison for a month, the county having to maintain him *n prison and to pay the constable about I2s. for taking him thither. In that same parish, from -which this young man Is sent, the county rates are nearly seven times as great as they were thirty years ago. The . Morning Herald newspaper, of the 29th June of this year, says: * ast week a poor man, named Aiaka^mh. ** Gentry, aS sentenced to three months' imprisonment ; -w n.] PERSONS FIT FOR IT. 31 ** in Chelmsford jail, for stealing three cabbageSt the pro- ^'pertyof Mr. Wm. Moore, of Great Burstead.** 22. Such is the treatment of the labourers of England. Why, if thepro^yrietor of a field in America wdre to attempt to punish a man for taking even a cart-load of cabbages ; that IS to say, to punish him by sending him to jail, he would not have his brains knocked out, to be. sure; but he would never have a neighbour to come near him again as long as he lived. Until of late years, to take cabbages, or such things, was merely a trespass according to our law, for which trespass the depredator was answerable by civil action ; and such is the law in America now ; and , as to sending a man to jail for leaving a gate* open, that Is directly contrary to the laws as they now stand. But, what means of redress has this poor young man : how is he to call the magistrate to account? Where is he to find a defender? He has no defender : he has no redress ; and he has nothing to support him under the oppression but the just vengeance treasured up in his heart. 23. In what manner English labourers are treated when they get to America, I shall have amply to show in the next letter. I would add here, that, if they be of a timid cha- racter ; if they be slavishly inclined ; if they be of that character which fits them for slaves, it is no matter where they are, and they may as well have task-masters here as any where else : but, if they be of a di£ferent character ; if they be worthy of freedom and of happiness, the way to obtain that freedom and happiness will be pointed out to them in the next letter. ^ 24. As to tradesmen and farmers, those amongst them who are willing to continue to be underlings all their life long ; those who are too timid to venture beyond the smoke of their chimneys ; those who cannot endure the thought of 39 EMIGRATION. [letter encountering things which they call inconveniences; and especially those who cannot be happy unless they have slavea to serve them, will do exceedingly well to remain where they are. There is a description of persons who are quite willing- to be slaves themselves, provided they are able to play the tyrant over others. This character is now become a great deal too general ; and all persons of this character ought to remain where they are ; for, never will they find a slave, not even a black one, to crawl to them in America. 25. Provided a man be of the right stamp ; provided he be ready to encounter some little inconvenience in the removal ; provided he be a man of sense, and prepared to overcome the little troubles which the removal nust necessarily give rise to; and, especially, provided that he be of that character which will make him happy without seeing wretched crea- tures crawling to him, his age is of little consequence; and the age and number of his children are of little consequence-' also. I have known men of sixty years of age go to Ame- rica, take a family with them, settle that family well, and, after living many years surrounded by them, leaving them with a certainty that they would never know want. There are thousands of tradesmen and farmers at this moment in England, that know not what to do; know not which way to turn themselves;. know not whether to keep on busi(iess or to leave off, fearing, do what they will, that they shall lose the earnings of their lives. They look wildly about them, in- anxious search of hope, and every ^where they behold the- grounds of despair. They think of emigration : they hesi- tate : there are the fears of their wives : there are their own fears and doubts; and, while they are hesitating, doubting, and fearing, their money goes away; and, at last, they must land in America as mere labourers or journeymen, or they must remain to pine away their lives in penury, and, perhaps^ II. \ II.] PERSONS FIT FOR IT. 33 to die with the moral certainty that their bodies will be con- signed to those who will mangle them to pieces for the im- provement of science. 26. Why, if such people were, even after they had spent their money, to land in America with nothing but their clothes on their backs, their emigration would be an im- provement of their condition : they would, with one half of *the industry which they have been accustomed to practise here, possess more of money and of estate than they ever possessed here ; and this, bold as the assertion may appear, I pledge myself to prove in the next letter. But these things are demanded in order to ensure success : first, health of body with tolerable strength ; second, a willingness to labour, and a character sufficient to enforce obedience in the family ; third, an absence of that base pride which will not suffer a man to be happy without having somebody under him. 27. There is one other quality, without the possession of which all the rest are of no use ; namely, that quality which enables a man to overcome the scruples, the remon- strances, and the wailings, of his wife. Women, and es- pecially English women, transplant very badly, which is indeed a fact greatly in their praise. It is amiable in all persons to love their homes, their parents, their brethren, their friends, and their neighbours; and, in proportion as they have this love in their hearts, they will be reluctant to quit their home, and especially to quit their country. English women have an extraordinary portion of this affec- tion ; and, therefore, they are to be treated with all possible indulgence in the case here contemplated, provided that in- dulgence do not extend so far as to produce injury to their families and themselves. Some of them, by no means destitute of these amiable feelings, have the resolution voluntarily to tear themselves from ruin and slavery for the b5 t EMIGRATION. [letter sake of their children. Others have not thlA sort of reso- lution; and there are some who are obstinately perverse. It is a misfortune when this happens to be the case ; but it is a poor creature of a man who will suffer this obstinacy to make him and his children beggars for the remainder of their lives. Nothing harsh ought to be done or attempted in the overcoming this difficulty ; but, harshness and firm* ness are very different things : this is one of the great con- cerns of a family, with regard to which the decision must be left to the head of that family ; and, if a man should have the misfortune to make part of a family, of which there is neither head nor tail, but which consists of a sort of part- nership, without articles or bonds, it signifies very little in what country the family is; or whether it be living in u good house, or quartered under a hedge like gipsies. A family without a head, a real efficient practical head, is like a ship without a rudder. It would be a great deal better, that the wife should be the head than that there should be no head at all. In France, man and wife are a sort of partners. The wife calls every thing mine, and the man sits and holds his tongue while she is gabbling about the com-ern. 23. There is one thing which every English wife ought to be told, when a husband is proposing to emigrate ; and that is, that the American husbands are the most indul- gent in the world ; but, at the same time, she ought to be told, that the American wives are the least presuming, the most docile, the least meddling in their husbands' affairs, and the most attentive to their own affairs, of all the women upon the face of the earth. America is a country full of writers and talkers upon politics ; full of political quarrels and of angry political discussions; and I do not recollect that I ever lieard a wife in America open her lips upon any such subject. They appear to have no preten- sions to any right to meddle with their husbands' concerns ; m '£R l<^ ^ II.] PERSONS FIT POR IT. and the husbands, on their part, are certainly the most gentle and the most indulgent in tke world, but not more so than is merited by such wives. I never did know an American that was married to a French woman ; though I have known several American women married to Frenchmen. This last does very well ; but the other would produce strange work: Jonathan would certainly decamp or hang him- self before the end of a month. At any rate, however, if this difficulty cannot be overcome by the English emigrant ; if he meet with perverseness, and cannot completely subdue it, and root it out on this side of the water, he will do well to remain ; for it is the very devil to be baited and worried on the other side of the water ; to be reminded every time the flies settle upon the preserved peaches, that they do Tiot do this in old England; and to have to show your wit, by observing, that it would bf difficult for them to do it in England ; and to add the question, whether it were not as well to be annoyed by flies in the eating of pre- served peaches, as not to have any peaches to eat ? To live in a state of petty civil warfare like thiiii, and that too several hours in every day, in clear addition to the ordinary inconveniences of life, is too great a deduction even from the advantages attending a residence in Ainerica; and, therefore, unless a man be man enough to eradicate the perverseness on this side of the water, let him remain here and resign himself with the reflection, that he is one of those mortals that were predestinated to be the slaves of Borough- mongers. 29. Nevertheless, this work of eradicating perverseness, even perverseness itself, should be performed with a very gentle hand. Great pains should be taken to persuade, to con- vince ; every appeal should be made to the understanding of the wife, and to her natural affection for her children ; and even perverseness itself ought not, in a case like this, to be I ■^^z^ m EMIGRATION. [letter rudely dealt with. A man is not so much bound to home by his habits; he who can take a journey to York ; who goes- here and there without ceremony; who mixes amongst utter strangers, without any reluctance or inconvenience; tvho can take a bed any where : and, in short, who is in the habit of changing place and seeing new faces, and all this without the least dislike. A man ought to consider, that women, and especially women with families, have been long bound to their homes ; to their neighbourhood ; to their small circles; most frequently much in the company of their mothers, sisters, and other relations ; and that, to tear themselves from all these, and to be placed amongst strangers, and that too with the probability, and almost the certainty, of never seeing their circle of relations and friends again ; and to begin their departure on the wide ocean, the dangers of which are proverbial^ and perfectly terrific to female minds; for a woman to do all this, without the greatest reluctance, is too much for any reasonable and just man to expect; yet, if the necessity arise, it is still his duty towards hir children, and even towards the wife her- self, to persevere in the effectiitg of his object 30. Every effort should be made to convince her, that her apprehensions are much more imaginary than real ; that,, as to separation from relations and friends, the separation caused between Canterbury and London, or between Sussex and Warwickshire, is just as effectual as a se- paration caused by a removal to America. That.the far greater part of persons separated by the distance between Sussex and Warwickshire are able to communicate only by letter; and that, in this respect, the wide separation differs but very little from the narrow, the parties still hearing^ from one another, in the former case as well as in the latter. That, as to neighbours and friends, and language and man- ners, and habits and morals, they are pretty much the same m- II.] PERSONS FIT FOR IT. 37 on both tides of the water, with the exception (as I shall amply prove in the next letter) that the people in America are better neighbours, more friendly, more disposed to assist strangers than the people of England are ; and this for the best reason in the world, because in America they live in a state of ease and abundance, and that in England they do not and cannot. That, with regard to the dangers of the seas, they are of very rare occurrence, and are magnified, as the dangers of riding in stage-coaches are, by the circumstance of omitting, when accidents are recorded, to state the vast number of journeys performed with no accident at all : the broken ribs and bruised hips are faithfully put upon record, but the innumerable safe and pleasant journeys are never men- tioned at the same time. That thus it is, with regard to sea voyages : the wrecks, the strokes of lightning, the founderings, are all faithfully detailed ; but the safe passages are too common, too uninteresting, even to form the subject of a newspaper. Few wives are so timid as to be afraid to take a journey in a stage-coach from London to Exeter and back again ; and yet that journey is more perilous, and far more perilous, than a voyage across the Atlantic in Ame- rican ships commanded by an Americart captain. A sea voyage is disagreeable j it is a prison, with more inconve- niences than a prison presents ; but these inconveniences do not kill, and they are the contrary of being injurious to health ; and, after all, these inconveniences have an average continuance of not more than five or six weeks. 3 1 . All these things should be represented to a wife ; her wait- ings should be heard with patience ; even perverseness should be borne with as far as possible, if perverseness should unhap- pily possess her ; but, after every possible effort has been made to reconcile her to the enterprise, go she must, or stay behind by herself: the law would prevent her husband from taking her away out of the King's allegiance by /orce 5 but, ) 1 ' 1 1 ' r Ir 38 EMIGBATIONT. [letter III. ^e law will not compel the man to stay himself. It is to be hoped, that there will be few instances in which things will- be brought to this extremity ; but, as it is the man whose body must answer for his debts ; and as it is his duty to do. that which he thinks is best for his children and his wife, the decision musty and ought to, rest with him. 32. We have recently read in all the newspapers, of a maa being committed to prison and hard labour for a month, be^ cause he had no home ; and it has just been proved before the. magistrates in quarter sessionsin Berkshire, that the honest labouring men, in that county, are allowed less food than the felons in tlie jail of that county. With these two facts before him, and with the facts which will be stated in the next letter, relative to the happy state of people in America, a man with a family of children must not only be weak, but criminal, if he be restrained by the alarms, the fears, or the perverse- ness, of a wife ; that is to say, if he be in such state as to make him run the smallest risk of falling into poverty here. On i re m ^ 3c whic habi but I danc latio Thei num othei tion to bf that relig 3^ as tl pock thos an € nies. here III.] PARTS TO GO TO. 3» .'! ; * . ' ^ > r LETTER III. am On the Parts of the United States to go to, preceded by reasons for going to no other Country , and especially not to an English Colony, 33. TuEkE is no other country, except English colonies, in which the English language is spoken, and in which the habits and manners are the same. This is one great thing; but there is no other country in which there is a superabun- dance of good lands, and in which an increase of the popu- lation must necessarily be an advantage to the country. There is no other country where there is any room for numerous strangers; and, besides all these, there is no other country where the people have to pay so small a por- tion of taxes, and where kind and generous neighbours are to be found in abundance. To all these advantages add that of perfect civil and political liberty ; and that, as to religion, the law knows nothing at all about it. 34. In English colonies the English language is spoken ; and, as the support of the governments there comes out of the pockets of the people of England, there are few taxes in those colonies, though I perceive that they have already an excise even at Botany Bay. But, in the English colo- nies, there is a worse species of government than there is here ; greater state of dependence, and less protection from I 40 EMIGRATIOlf. [letter the.Iaw. In the year 1826, some persons, displeased with the freedom of opinion exercised by a printer iu Upper Canada, did not prosecute him 3 but went by force and demolished his press, and flung his types into the lake. In fact, there is very little money in those colonies (I am speaking of those that can be considered places to emigrate to), except that which passes through the hands of the government. There are no persons of considerable property ; scarcely one worthy of the name of farmer; and no man in those colonies ever thinks of any degree of peace or safety, which he is not to derive from persons in power. 35. As to New South Wales, as it is called, and Van Diemen's Land, the distance, in the first place, makes the voyage a terrible undertaking. ^ When arrived, you depend on the public authorities for a grant of land. If you have money to purchase pieces of ground already cleared and cultivated, your servants are convicts, and you are at the joint mercy of them and the murdering natives. Even for the service of the convicts^ your sole dependence is on the pleasure of the public authorities ; and, in short,^ you are infinitely more dependent than any rack-renter under the most greedy and tyrannical Boroughmonger in England. If you find yourself miserable, and wish to return, preferring the wretched state that you have left to that which you find, your means of return are gone, and you have to undergo another voyage of ^ven or eight months, and to return to England a dejected and broken-^ hearted beggar. 36. The English colonies in North America consist of Lower and Upper Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward's Is- land. These form an immense extent of country; but with the exception of a small part of Can a da, and here and there a little strip of land in New Brunswick, which have III.] PARTS TO GO TO. 41 been pre-occupied, the whole is wretchedly poor: heaps of rocks covered chiefly with fir-trees. These countries are the offal of North America ; they are thie head, the shins, the shanks, and hoofs, of that part of the world ; while the United States are their sirloins, the well-covered and well-lined ribs, and the suet. People who know nothing of the matter frequently observe, that the United States will take our American colonies one of these days. This would be to act, the wise part of a thief, who should come and steal a stone for the pleasure of carrying it about. These miserable colonies, the whole of which do not contain, army, blacks, and all, a population equal to that of the single state of New York, are fed, with the exception of Canada, chiefly by food brought from the United States. Flour, beef, pork, and even fresh meat, are brought into these countries from the United States : even green peas and many other vegetables are carried from the United States to regale the petty sovereigns who strut in that country, - and are maintained by taxes raised in England. England has possessed those countries for more than a hundred years, except Canada, and has possessed that for pretty nearly a century ; she has squandered hundreds of millions upon them ; and if she were to withdraw the supplies of money, which she now sends thither, the whole of them, with the exception of some parts of Canada, would be totally aban- doned in less than a year, except that some of the pointa near the sea would be, as they formerly were, resorted to by fishermen in the fishing-season. These are no countries to go to: a small part of Canada might become passable; but even there, the government and the state of dependence are such, that no sensible man will hesitate for a moment between that country and the United States, where land is equally abundant, where the products are fine and of infinite variety, and where, with a moderate portion of labour and l\\ IK. 11 «i.' \\ 42 EMIGRATIOK. [letter III.] ti care, every man may do wellv In short, the choice lies be- tween the country which has to send for green peas to another country, and the country in which the greea peas grow : I am for the Utter, and so I think will be every man who has only a moderate portion of very com- mon sense. - , 37. I have, in my " Year's Residence in America," given an account of the prices of laud, of labour, of food, of clothing, house rent, and the like. I shall speak of all these by-and-by ; but they will be found to be mentioned inci- dentally in certain original letters from English emigrants in America to their friends in England ; and here also will be found a striking instance of the worthlessness of the. English colonies compared with the United States. I shall here insert these letters, first giving an account of the source from which I have obtained them, and what led me to seek fi)r that source. The reader is to be informed, then, that, since the publication of my " Year's Residence," several parishes in the East of Sussex have got rid^ as they call it, o£ many families, that were a great burden to them, or likely to be so, by shipping them off, at the parish expense, to the United States of America ; and the letters in question having been received by their relations in Sussex, a gen- tleman of the name of Benjamin Smith published a part of them for the fnformation of others. I did not know Mr. Smith, and, therefore, I thought it necessary to go to the parties themselves, and obtain the originals. I did this, and the originals are now in my hands. I have found Mr. Smith's publication to be perfectly correct, the orthography only being mended, and a little pointing supplied ; and, therefore^ I avail myself of his publication, in the republishing of the letters, which form the most interesting collection of docu- ments that ever passed under my perusal. With these let- ters before him, and with no possible doubt as to their au- III.] PARTS TO GO TO. 43 »» thenticity, every man will be able to judge of, every man will know to a certainty^ the exact state of things in the United States; especially as far as regards the fitness of that country as one to emigrate to. 38. 1 shall NUMBER the letters for the purpose of more easy reference, when I come afterwards to speak of the contents. The parties writing the letters, are John Watson, who went from the parish of Sedlescomb near Battlb ; from Stephen Watson, his brother, who went from the same place; from Mary Jane Watson, a daughter of Stephen Watson ; from John Parks, who went from Ew- hurst near Northiam ; from John Veness, who went from Mountf ield near Battle ; from William Davis, who went from Robertsbridge; from Mary Veness, who went from Mountfield ; from John Thorpe, who went from Sedlescomb ; from John Harden, who went from Robertsbridge, and from Thomas Boots, who went from Robertsbridge. To these I shall add two letters since received by a gentleman at Rye, and I suppress not one single word of them. The originals will be deposited at Fleet Street, for one week after the publica- tion of this book ; and, when that week is passed, I shall return them to the parties from whom I have received them. I shall lodge them at Fleet Street, for the purpose of being inspected by any gentleman who may have the curiosity to do it ; and I do it also to the honour of the parties who have written the letters. We read the other day (Morning Chronicle of the 24th of June) of the execution of nine cul- prits at once, in the happy colony of New South Wales ; and read in the same paper that the governor had, by pro- clamation, just increased the duties on tobacco and spirits, while, at the same time, part of the country was in a state of great alarm, en account of the existence of a "formidable body of bush-rangers mounted on horseback, and well ^4.i ^ ■ k'i (t #, 44 EMIGRATION. [ LETTER III.] r *^ armed." If any man, not actually tired of his life, can prefer emigrating to a country like this to emigrating to the United States, he is waoUy unworthy of my attention. 1 have pointed out certain passages of the letters by italics^ to which I request the reader's particular attention. 39. I begin with the letters from John Watson to his father Stephen Watson of Sedlescomb. This John Watson, it will be perceived, was carried to our sweet colony of New Brunswick ; but he soon found that he could not live there ; and it will be seen with what wond- rous toil and perseverance he removed himsrlf, his wife, and his children, first into Lower Canada, then into Upper Canada, and then into the United States. Let this man's progress be observed : see the English pauper become a good solid landowner in America, in the course of only five years ; and then come to your decision. You will re- mark, that in the very first letter, John Watson tells his father, that he was discouraged from going to the United States ; and that many had come from the States to New Brunswick! These lies had been stuffed into his head, as into the heads of thousands of others; but they all, if they be able, soon quit the miserable colonies, and get to the United States. I take the following extract from a newspaper, called The Enquirer, published at New York, in the month of June, 1827. ** In one canal- " boat were eighty settlers, coming into the United " States from Canada. King George /7aj^s their pas- " sage^ and gives them a trifle for pocket-money ; and the " moment they land at Quebec, without waiting (o wash " a shirt, all the single able men cut and run for the ^* United States ; and we have all the benefit of the *' emigration." This Editor is mistaken : King George does not pay them for their passage, nor give them the III.] FARTS TO 00 TO. 45 pocket-money ; for King George pays no taxes. Thus, then, the United States send food for the colonies, for which we pay ; we pay for sending out mouths tc eat it ; and the mouths which have arms and legs attached to them, go to swallow green' peas in the place where they are raised. No. 1. " *. ( ■* '- ' ' • ' '■ ' ' '' Queeiisbary,iV*w BrMWsn icA',* • J ^> ' .' ', » Oct. 16, 1810. V Dear FAtHiit,— I arrived in. St. John the 16th day of June, alVer a disagreeable passage. We were struck with lightniog in a storm, in which ^e lost one of our saiiurs. When I came into the above place I saw no prospect of doing any thing there, end pro- ceeded to Frederioton, and bad many proposals made me there, hut did not accept ihem. I am now situated 120 miles up the river St. John. The gentleman in whose employ I am, has built me a house in which I now live. I am to have it, and 10 or 12 acres of land, rent free, for three years. I expect to be able to maintain my family on this until I get land from Government. Every married man is entitled to 200 acres, and every single man 100. As to sa^'ing po- sitively what labourers get, I could not ; but they are paid according' to what they can do. I got five pounds the first month and my diet. I must now tell you we are not pestered with revenue ofiicers. We are a free people ; free from rates and taxes. The following are the prices of provisions : — Flour, two pounds ten shillings per barrel, of 1 96 pounds weight ; butter, from \s. 3d. to It. 6d. per pounds mut- ton and beef, from 6d. to Sd.per pound; all wearing apparel are as dear again as in Et^land. St. John river is a very fine river, so that brigs of any size can come from St. John to Fredericton. A man may catch as many fish in an hour as would do for him and his family for a day. Along the above river it is but thinly inhabited, and very few back settlements. There is plenty of land, but we want men to work it. You would really wonder to see so many « On the River St. John, in New BauNsmcK, abont 130 miles from tlit Bav ofFvNnv. I XT' ' I 1. ' i ! '■ I 111 ' ; '1 \n 46 EMIGRATION. [letter 111.] ft tbousandt of acrns of woody land idle, and good land. I bad every idea of going to the States, but the accounts were $o discouraging that I would not go there, I assure you there are many coming from the States here. Tell my brothers that I have no doubt, after • while, they would do well here, but I would not advise them to eome now, for they little know the difficulties they would have to undergo before they would get settled', but if they (or I) was once settled here, there would be no fear but they would do well. Tell William Turner and Samuel Turner, that if they could come here, and bring their sons, they could be settled, provided they had 60/. ; or they could get land (cleared) on the half part of what they could laise, and osen to plough it. Tell William Glover that I can get a gentle- man to send for him next spring, and to send me an answer if he is willing to come or not. My wife would be obliged to her brother if Apps would send or take a copy of this letter to her father. We are well, thank God, and it is the sincere wish of your friend, that I may see you all here, but not until I hear something before you come. And am, dear father, Yours truly affectionate, -. John Watson. N. B. Direct to Mr. John Hustis, Queensbury County, York, New Brunswick, British America. My wife would be obliged to you, when you write, to send word how all her friends are. Mr. Stephen Watson, Sedlescomb, County of Suttex, EngUnd. I> ! No. 2. Seneca,* County of Ontario, State of. New York, August 13th, 1620. Dear Father, — We left Brunswick on the 8th last March. 7%e severity of the winter determined me to take this step. We proceeded up the river St. John towards Quebec. On our way we encountered great difficulties, arising from the cold, and the country being almost an entire wilderness through which we passed. From Quebec we proceeded up the river St- Laurence to Montreal ; from thence to Kingston, and up the lake to Niagara, where we crossed over irUo the United Slates, and travelled east into the State of New York, 100 miles, to the English settlement (as it is here called), where I now * A town, of 4,602 inhabitants, about 200 miles iVom New York. III.] PARTS TO GO TO. 47 live, but do not intend to remain here long ; the land is all taken up, and too dear for ■ person in my circumstances to hay. The Ohio is xnj ultimate ohjeet ; there land may be bad in plenty for a dollar and • quarter, or Bs. 6d. sterling, per acre. I arrived here about the mid- dle of June, and have been, for the principal part of the time since, in the employ of a Mr. W atson, an Englishn^ , from Northumber- land, of whom / bought a cow, for which 1 paid him in warh, be- sides supporting mp family. An honest, industrious man can main* tain his family better by three days' work here, than he can in England by six. It is the universal custom here for the employer to find the person employed in victuals. Grain is very low at present ; wheat may be bought for 1«. 6d, sterling money ^ per bushel ; and the other kinds of grain proportionally low. Butcher's meat, of all kinds, is exceedingly cheap ; every farmer here has an orchard, in which the apples and peaches hang almost tts thick as pour hops. Clothing is about the same here as in England. Money is scarce at present, owing to there being no demand abroad for grain, hut every thing else is in the utmost profusion ; and I look forward, with a con> fident and well-founded hope, to the time, as not far distant, when I shall be a freeholder, and call no man by the degrading name of master. This, you will possibly say, is all idle rant ; but no, I am acquainted with many here who came to this country poor and penny- less, who now possess fine freeholds of from 100 to 300 acres, fine houses, bams and orchards, thriving fiocks of catUe, sheep, Sfc, What others have done why may not I accomplish? This is, in truth, the land of hope. Labour is a pleasurable exertion, because all its profits go to enrich yourself and not another. As your letters to me may possibly not arrive before I depart to the Ohio, direct them to Robert Watson, to be, by him, forwarded to me. Your dutiful son, John Watson. Mr, Stephen Watson, Sedle$eomb, near Battle, County ofSuutx, Old England. No. 3. '■■ ' ■ '\' • -■'■ Aurors,* Dearborn County, Indiana State^ June Ifith, 1H2S. Dear Fathsr, — Recollecting my promise to you, not to write till I was perfectly settled, you would not expect a letter so soon as you ■ - f; .1 V • Popnlation 549. 4i i r ^^ i^^ 1\ I ''^ ■> > - I '■* ■ r i R I 48 EMIGRATION. [letter J ! ( I ) ; ' might otberwise have done. I now consider myself as so settled ; and, though I have, some time ago, written a letter to you, yet it may have miscarried ; and I not only think it right that you sliould be acquainted with my situation, but I wish that jou, with all our family and friends, could be with us. We have suffered many hard- ships, as the statement of our journey will show you; but they were occasioned by my being a stranger to the country. You will recol- lect that I started, with my wife and our children, in the brig Ifel' Ungtotif for St. John's, New Brunswick, where we arrived June loth, 1819, after losing one of our mates, by lightning, and one sea- man ; there we remoined till March 15th, 1820. New Brunswick, the winter too severe to profit much by farming, I determined to leave it, at all hazards; I, therefore, with my wife, got a hand- sleigh, in which I placed the children, and drew thetn on the ice up the St. John's river, about 360 miles, Mary and myself walking, drawing the children after us. You must also recollect that 100 miles of this was not settled, being all wood. We arrived at the Lead of St. John's river. We travelled on in the same manner, across anow and ice, to the great river St. Laurence, about 180 miles below Quebec ; there we found the country, along the bank, thickly set- tled. I then built myself a light waggon, and liad all our family provisioned during the time of making the waggon for ** I thank jfou:" the good people, who were French Canadians, wishing us v^Tj much to stay with them. In this waggon oyr children were drawn by myself for upwards of 400 miles, to Kingston, at the mouth of the lake Ontario. There (as every other place, we met with un- common kindness) a gentleman, quite a stranger, not only sent ua by the steam-boat, free of all expense, to Fort George, but put six or seven dollars in our pocketa besides. From Fort George we crossed into the United States, snd passed the summer at Geneva, Ontario County, New York State. Hearing a more favourable ac- count of the State of Indiana, I once more started on a ramble, and, travelling across the State of New York, I came to O'Lean Point, on the Alleghany river ; which river, a very rapid one, I came down in a flat boat to Pittsburgh ; here I staid two days, and, passing on, after being detained by head winds, and the water being very low, landed at Aurora, situated at the month of Hogan Creek. Here I found myself a stranger, without friends, acquaintance, utensils of any kind, or money, having spent our lau'. dollar a day or two before ; LETTER ) settled; ou, yet it Du sltould th all our any hard- hey were vill recol' Wig ird- ved June [ one sea- rum wick, rmined to t a hand* the ice up ■ walking, that 100 ed at the ler, across lies below licklv set* !/r family " I thank rishing us Iren were the mouth t with un- ly sent us It put six leorge we t Geneva, urable ac- nble, and. Point, on down in a Bp on» after »w, landed re I found la of any 6 before ; I III.] PARTS TO 00 TO. 49 added to which, myself and all our family were oaught by illness for six or eight weeks, without the power of doing any thing. But r.o sooner was our situation known, than we had plenty of provisions brought tous, and, as our strength recovered, I obtained work at dig- ging, &o. My wife took in sewing, and, by degrees, we have worked it to that I have 2 cowSf 2 calves, 9 pigs, and 1 calf expected ia August. James is now at school, and I intend to send two in the winter. I have joined with a farmer in cropping : that is, I received one-half of the produce, and had tlie team found roe< I now am working for an English gentleman, named Harris, who is building ia Aurora, and owns four quarter sections up the Creek. Much good land can be bought, far distant, for one dollar and a quarter per acre, and improved land for not much more : indeed, so good is the p os- pect fur a man who must live by industry, that I wish all my friends and acquaintance were here with me. I can safely say, I would not, nor would my Mary, return to Eugland on any account whatever. We are now all in good health, and are very desirous of hearing from -you. Direct to John Watson, Aurora, Dearborn County, Indiana State, United States. I wish you woiHd also be very particular not to put the letter into the post-ojffice, as it will be so long in coming ; but put it into the letter-bag of some ship bound to New York or Philadelphia. In >he earnest desire of hearing from you, i » V ;, • I remain yours, John Watson. The best port for you to come to would be Philadelphia or Baltimore. Mr. Stephen Watson, Parish of StdUscomb, near Battle, Sussex, Old England. '\ ■ ■ y ■ - ■ No. 4. . Aurora, Dearborn County, Indiana, April 26th, 18-23. Dear Father and Mother, — I no'w write with greater pleasure than I have eyer yet done, as it is in answer to yours, dated Feb- ruary the 2nd, the only one I have received ; the others, I suppose, must hare gone to Canada, where you might think I was settled. It proved very gratifying to us to hear that you all enjoy such general good health, excepting father Vaughan and sister, who could not bare been expected to remain long, having been ill so long. Though your letter was written by several persons, we cannot answer thein se- C f •I ■ 1 . ;r! t. ^ ji 50 EMIGRATION. r [letter 1'^- *w pantely, but mutt beg of yon to read all to them. You should hara mentioned who my brother Jamea married ; we auppoae it muat b* Henry Freeland'a aiater. H'e would recommend all our acquaint' ances, who are tired of paying tithes and taxee, to eome here^ where taxes are unknowHt and taxes hardly worth mentioning^ compared to what they are with you. The only tax we have paid ia 1 day's woric on the road, and 50 eenta, or is, 3d. tot one yoke of oxen* You soy England is in a very bad state, and farmera are got very low. Vie would say, let them oome here : we were worth nothing when we landed at thia place, and now we have 1 yoke of oxen, 1 cow* 9 hogs, and we intend having another cow. We are not much oon> oerned about Michaelmas and Lady-Day here, for as many farms at we choose, we could h ave for paying one-third of the produce. We liave just taken 10 acres upon these terms, and John ia busily en- gaged in ploughing for corn ; he wishea hia unole Edward was with him to help. Brother Stephen inquires i^ie could get employment ; we answer, that any person desirous of obtaining a living may do its and that easily : if he comea, let him bring all the money he can, and what clothing he has ; but not to spend any money in buying unnecessary things in England ; here the money will pay him much better than there in land. Rabbits and pigeona, particularly the lat- ter, tire very abundant ; and squirrels, which are very fine eating. There are also great plenty of fish in the river for those who take the trouble to catch them. Partridges are also very numerous, and wild turkeys. We bought 1 for 25 cents, or 1«. i^d. of your money, which laated ua for 4 meals. Meat we buy for 2 cents per pound, John often talks of his grandmother, and saya we could keep her without working. Whilst this letter is writing my wife is eating preserved peaches and bread, and washing them down with good whiskey and water. Wlien our last letter waa written, I mentioned I waa working for Mr. Harris, an English gentleman ; I am atill working for him, and, probably, shall do for aome time. You ex- press a wish to know all our children ; John, bom April 22nd, 1809 ; James, October 18th, 1813 ; Naomi, February Ttlt, 1815 ; Henry, April 11th, 1818 ; Eliza Anne, born January 21st, 18Sl,'in langley township, on Hogan Creek, Dearbbrn Counly, Indiana. Henry is rery well, generally in miachief, like all other children, and received B kiss, aa did all the others, from aiater. All our frienda who come we would recommend to come in an American ahip, and land either •t Baltimore or Philadelphia j bat we should advise them to start I I J III.] PARTS TO OO TO. 51 immediately after landing from the weatem States, as they afford • better proapeot for poor people, or indeed any other, tbnn the raitern or older Slates. Among' many other advantages we enjoy in this country, we oan make our own soap, candles, and iugar$; which we ntke by tapping the maple tree, in the breaking of the frost, and boiling the water down, clearing it with eggs or milk. We wish very naoh to see brother William and Stephen ; if they come they cannot be in s worse situation than we were when we landed, and for many months after : hut then their prospects would be better than by re> maining in England. Our brother William, sister Sarah, and our dear mother, must not be hurt if we did not mention them in our last letter ; it was not an intentional neglect, for our affections for them •re as strong as ever, and very often do we wish they were here ; for we think it would be- much better for them, as well as William Glbver, of whom we wish to hear. — nothing being said of him in your letter. Mary begs you will be particular in mentioning her relations in your next letter, which you muat not be angry if we ask to be written closer, so as to contain more information^ as the postage of letters is rather expensive ; not that we grudge the money, but we think the sheet might be made to hold more. And now, our dear Father and Mother, as it is not very likely that we shall meet on this side the grave, may it be our fervent prayer, that in the life to come, where there shall be no alloy, no griefs or difficulties, we may all unite ; and there may you, with all the blessed, salute your ever dutiful and affectionate children, John and Mary Watson* F.S. If Stephen comes, we wish him to bring some rye-grass, tre- foil, broom sped, cabbage seeds, and all garden seeds. Be sure* if he does come, or any others of our friends, to let us kijow as soon as pos- ■ible. Mary has just made a bushel of soapy which cost me nothing but her attention and a little labour. T/iose animals called ia your country Excisemeriy are not known in this country, so that we boil loap, make candles, gather hops, and many other things, without feu-, which you must not do. We are under no fear about our chil' drennot having food', we hvTQ finer pork and fowls than you have, and plenty of them. Fowls are sold from 2«. Sd. to Ss. ^\d. per dozen ; pork at Id.per lb., eggs i^d. tor six dozen. Mr. Stephen TTaltoM, Sen., SeiUetcomb, near Battle, Sut$ex,,Old England. Per first paol^et from New York to Liverpool. Paid to New York« ' : • ci h I 52 EMIGRATION. [lettee -'- - ■ •• No. 5. ' , Aurora, niarcbOtb, 1825. Dear Father and Mother, — It is now 3 ^eara since we heard from you, excepting in a letter from brother Stephen, sayinpf you were all well. We are longing to hear what you are all doing ; the particulars of all the family : when you sent the letter, you did not say any thing about William and Sarah, neither who James and Ann was married to. I want to know what is become of William Glover, and whether he loves drink as well as he used to do ; if he does, tell him there is plenty of whiskey here ; if a man wants to kill himself, he need not be long about it, for he may get a gallon a day and his board ; but I hope better things of him ; I hope he has seen iuto the folly of it before this. We should be very glad to hear from all our friends : we think they would do a great deal better here than in England ; we cannot think what makes so many of them go hack, for we would not come bach again for Mr, Tiddcn Smith's farm and all he has got. The poor home-sick things ! were it not for their poor children, wo would not care if they went to bed without supper all their lives! As for brother Stephen, we should like to know if he is gone back too ; for we expected him \his last winter, but have been' disappointed ; we are rather uneasy at not receiving a letter before this ; if you know any thing about him, we should be glad if you would let us know. We are still farming, have got this season about 10 acres of very promising wheat, 7 acres of oats, 13 acres of com, 1 acre for flax, between 1 and 2 acres for potatoes and other garden stuff. We have got a horse, a yoke of oxen, a pair of young steers, a milch cow, and plenty of pigs and fowls. There are plenty of Eng- lish people in and around our neighbourhood : we rent land of an English woman (true enough, for /have written this letter). We feel ourselves at home among the people : we have regular preaching cby the Methodists and Baptists, but no parson to tithe us. We make our own soap and candles ; we have just got bett'Jeen 40 and 50 yards of linen from the loom from our last year's flax. Land is IJ per acre, Congress price ; but land near the Ohio is chiefly taken up, and Iiigher priced. We live a mile from the river. Aurora is on the bank of the Ohio, so of course we are the same distance from it. We have another little daughter, named Sarah Joana ; she was born on the 29th of February, 1824 ; the other children are all well ; John is grown very much lately ; he is almost like a man ; he has just been v III.] PARTS TO GO TO. • 53 oat a month, and earned himself a summer's suit of clothes, though he is employed at home on the farm. I let him have bis wish ; he sends his best respects to his grandmother. There is plenty of walnuts, hickory nuts, wild grapes, plums, &c. in the woods ; peached grow in great abundance ; the trees bear in three years from the atone. Apples, melons, pumpkins, and a variety of other fruits, aie very easily raised. Write soon, and direct to John Watson, Aurora, Dearborn County, Indiana. From your affectionate son and daughter, John and Mary Watsok. F.S. We should be very happy to see you ; but as we do not ex- pect to see you this side of Eternity, we beseech you to prepare for the awful day, when we must all give account of the deeds done in the body, it is the one thing needful : do not put it off till it ia too late, but Ay to the arms of a bleeding Redeemer, who is willing to save you, Mr, Stfphen Watson, SedUscomb, Battle. ' ' * ■-' ■., ; No. 6. I' ... .' Dearborn County, Indiana, November 20th, 1828. Deau Father and Mother,— We gladly embrace this oppor- tunity of wilting to you, to say that we are all enjoying gcod health at present, and we sincerely hope that,, at the perusal of these fevir lines, you will be the same. We received your letter November 8th, which gave us great satisfaction that you are well, and we are glad to hear that some of you intend coming to America : and we greatly desire that you would all come to this rich fertile country ; for we assure you that there is sufficient room for you all in this Palestine land ; though we do not believe every part of America so good as where we live, and especially the part of America where brother Stephen lives ; for we know, by experience, that it is not half so good a country for a poor man to get a living as where we are, though they are well sntisiied where they live, and we believe their country far better than Old England. Yet we know that their coun- try is not half so good a part of America as where we live. But they know no better, for they have not travelled through America to see the difference. But it is not so with us ; for we travelled 2000 or > 'I f mi^ iM EMIGRATION. [LETTER S 3000 miles through America before we settled ourselves ; therefore we are better judges than they can be. Here pou can rent landhjf giving one third of what is raised on the lands and a man can get 18 pounds of pork or heef for a deof's work, or 3 pecks of wheat, and every other kind of provisioa cheap accordingly. Men who labour by the day get the above articles, and are boarded in time of doing the work. We are highly gratified to think of father and mother coming, and more so shall we be if you all will come. We advisa jou to come to New York, and up the river to Albany, where Stephen lives. 1'bere you can get information of the road to my house ; but if so be that you are willing to pome to us without coming by Stephen, we think it much the best for you to land at Baltimore, and come from there to Pittsburgh, on the Ohio river, where you can get « passage in the steam-boat, for a very few dollars, to Aurora, within five miles of my house. ' It would be a great deal cheaper and nigher from Baltimore or Philadelphia than Albany, from either of the threa ports. You must inquire for Pittsburgh, on the Ohio river. We vrant you to fetch with you early-pork, sugar-loaf, curtie, savoy, and red cabbage seeds; and trefoil, lucerne, and a little broom seeds and we wish you to tell James Bridges to come to America if he can, for we know that he can get a comfortable living with half the labour he has to do at Itome. Plenty of land can be bought within 20 miles of our house for one dollar and a quarter per acre. We ad- vise you to comi' :n an American ship ; and, fintilly, we think it too tedious to mention all the good things in America, but invite yon to come and see for yourselves. So no more at present from your affec- tionate son and daughter, John and Mary Watson. ^ . . ,■' No. 7. ..-'•' ,>: ,<.irt V ' .. . 7 Albanjr,+ October 6th, 1823. Dkar Father and Mother, — This comes with our kind love to you, and all brothers and sisters, and all friends, hoping to find you all in good health ; for all our children have been ill with their insides 'with fresh food : and we are got to Albany safe. We was about 7 I I I. W ^ I Mll^ IMll. IM f I - ■ ■ - - l« ■ ■ M^IMII l' - '"I 1 ' -' ^-"-— ■f A city in the state of New York, on the banks of the Hudson, 144 miles firon Mew York, with a population of 1S,630 people. fi III.] TARTS TO GO TO. m w«eki on paisage to New York. We itopped at New York a week, «Dd then sailed to Albany, which is 165 miles ; and we was ses'sick about 16 days : and I went up to Utica, which is 96 miles, and I could not find the country any better up there than at Albany ; so I returned back to my family again. And a gentleman has took Jane, and he is to keep and clothe and to send her to school ; and Thomas, Mr. William Fisher has taken. And John Gardiner has found Lis brothers ; and James Gardiner is moved from where he was at first ; and we see Richard Cutney at New York, and he was very well, and he talked of coming to England again, and to send a particular ac« oount of what Thomas Rolfe said when he got back to England. But not to make yourselves any ways uneasy about us ne'er the more for his coming back ; for if we can't get a living, here is a poor-house Just the same as in England : and they will keep us till the spring, and then send us back to England : /or there is thousands of Irish here. And if I can't support my family, I shall come back in the spring ; for if a man can't support his family, they will send him back in the spring to England again * for I had not got half money enough to get up to my brother ; so I wrote to him, and I have not had any answer as yet ; 1>ut when I get an answer I will send to you again: and I can t|;ive you any good account about coming as yet, for there is 80 tnu rich keep coming every day, and they work so cheap, that ii f.< -i?'" it' bad for labouring people. • and we live neighbours with James Fisher and Richard Fuller from Bodiam. And the ways of the people and the country is very different from what they are ia England ; and the land is not half so good ; for when they clear land* as they call it, they chop the wood off about 2 feet from (he ground, and then plough and sow between the stubs : and it is most the Indian corn in this part of the country. William is at work filling waggons with the stuff that comes out of the canal. / have 4 dollars pei' week. A dollar is 8 shillings of New York State money. People work very hard her^ ; for they work from sun-rising to sun-sA ; cat- tle the same. And beef is from 2 cents to 4 cents per pound; and there is a hundred cents in a dollar. But the meat is not so fat as ic ia in England. Tobacco is from is. to 2s. per pound; and clothing is about as it is in England : and shoes are about the same, but the .leather is not so good. No nails, only sparrowbills about. Here, in •ummer, half the people go without shoes, stockings, and caps. And there is plenty of apples ; you may buy them from Is, 8 cents to Ss, par bushel of this money, end peaches very cheap. And tell my 'il . 56 'EMIGRATION. [letter father and Henry Osbom I have not seen • Yolioo at yet ; but if I come home in the spring I will bring thetA home some tobacco ; and tell my mother I will bring her some tea : for we can get it for is, per pound this money. And we desire you to remember our loves to Levi Crouch and his wife; and Stephen and Elizabeth give their love to Elizabeth's dear mother : and if we can't get a comfortable living here, we shall see her again in the spring. But Elizabeth likes this country very well as yet : and I should be glad if Edward would take this letter to Rye to Elizabeth's mother as soon as possi- ble, and for them to send us an answer about all things as soon as they can. And we have got two young shuts to live upon this winter : andt to tell George Nokes to make himself contented where he is till I can give a more particular account of the country, for if I can get o comfortable livingy get a Terj good living here if they are industrioai. My father ii doing very well, and ia very irell satiified to atay in this > country. He hat got a cow of his owitf and nine hogs. My mother haa been lately confined of a daughter ; ahe ia very hearty : her name ig Sarah Anne. Little Myram ia a very pretty ehild ; we think very much of her : I think she ia indulged too much in having her own way. Tbomaa and Naomi are living out. Thomas is living in the country with Mr. Fisher. I have apent two yeara out to the eastwaid with the captain I came over with. I took much comfort and oonso- ,lation with them in the two years. But now I am returned home to my parents. I like living in Albany better than I did to the east. I have been very fortunate. T ha'' t good clothes, and / can dress as well as any tody in Sed omb, ''n eiyoy a silk and i .< . 'rock, and crape /rock and crape veil, and Morocco shoes, without a parish grumbling about it. If you are not dressed well here, jou are not respected. The girls here that go out to doing house-work, dres as well as any lady in Sedleacomb. I don t think of going to meeting with leatlter sJtoes on ; we wear Morocco and prunella. Altogether Leghorn hats are worn here very much. Straw bonnets are very fine and handsome i I have got one cost about twenty>four shillings. I had a present of a very handsome, long, kerseymere shawl, by Cap» tain Champlin : he brought it me from London : it cost about forty* eight shillings. You cannot tell the poor from the rich here; they are dressed as good as the oihti/. You can get things just as well as you can in England. We have wrote to uncle John, but received no answer. Father wants you to write us word whether he has written to you since you received our letter. We want uncle William to come over to America very much ; and if he comes, to bring some ferrets with him, for they have none here. If you come on board a ship that has got cabin passengers in it, you can get plenty of fresh meat for them. Dear uncle, you must be sure and come, and bring all your working tools with you. I was surprised to hear of my uncle Edward'a marriage ; but I hope he has got a good wife, and I wish them both well, and a happy journey through life. Give my love to all my uncles and aunts and cousins, and all inquiring friends. I think my young acquaintance have forgotten me ; I never hear any thing about them in your letters. Tell them I think about them very often. Give my love to Harriet Crouch, and send me word whether she ia married yet: tell her I want to know. Give my respects to 'i V.' ■WWw^ 60 EMIGRATIOV. [letter . t I 1 my beloved grandmother in Rye, witli much affeetion. Brogil sends his love to her ; he leys he can remember her mother. And father wishes to be remembered to her, as their beloved mother. Mother •ays she -wishes she had brought her with us ; she has thought more about her since we have been in America, than ever she did in her life before. Have not found many trials in coming to America. Don't be discouraged now, because some come back. DonU do as Mr. Rolfe did, step on shore, and before you know any thing about the place, go right back again. Any respectable person may get a l^ood living by industry. It is a good place for young people ; they can get good wages for their work. Naomi gets 18s. a month, and I get 249. I was loth to leave my English friends, but thank God we are all much better situated here. It wcu the best thing that ever father did for his family to take them to jfmerica. Tell aunt and uncle William they must not be discouraged about coming, but be sure and come if the parish will send them. We don't live but / I No. 11. • 1' Albany, April 11,1626. My dear Grandmother,— We received your letter on the 10th of April, and was very glad to hear from you. We are all well in health, and hope this will find you enjoying the same blessing. We received a letter from uncle John on the 7th of this month, requesting us to write immediately to you to tell you not to write to him till he writes to ybu ; for he has gone from Aurora to Mississippi, and thinks of settling on the Mississippi river. He stated as follows in his letter :— " Dear Brother, — We wish you to write to England immediately, and let father and mother know that we received their letter, dated July, in the beginning of this month : it must have laid a long while in the post>office. They wanted to know particularly about Morgan. Tell them we have never h^ard nor seen any thing of him since we parted in York State. Tell William we are astonished at him doubt- ing the truths of our letters : we can assure him the letters don't get altered before they reach him. America is as good as we have stated before ; and he would find it so if he had heart enough to Gome. When he has, he can easily get victuals to eat : we have no lack of good food. They may have a good opportunity of knowing all about us this next summer, as one of our neighbours is going to England on buainess : it is the same person we rented land of these last two years. She is a widqw, and knows all our aflfairs : you may depend on her honesty j she can tell you pretty much as if we wai I ^ ,^ I ^^ M 62 EMIOaATXON. [letter tliera ouraelvei. She does not «zp«ct to b« there before Jn\y «r August : she will write to fether when ehe gets there ; and if h« will take the trouble to go to Yorkshire, he will have good entw- *-'nment free of expense, except coech fare. Wa should be uncom* monly glad if father could spare money enough to go." This ends the copy of uncle John's letter. Tell aunt Gardiner, John was down to Albany about two weeks ago, from Uiica. He said James had been very siok, near two montbs,'but was got better, and able to work. William is down the canal to work, H sawing. John is gone down again this spring : he came up to Al- bany the beginning of January. James has got a good place, at 100 dollars a year, and his houie>rent and fire-wood found him, and as much cider as he wants to drink, and he is doing very well. James has drinked very much since he has been in this country. John and William have been very sober and industrious, and a great help to James, both in sickness and in health. Tell aunt she need not be ia any trouble about her sons, for they are doing very well. Tell her she would not know John if she was to see him ; for he is altered both in speech, looks, and dress : he is very polite, Dorcas has got fiive children, the oldest girl is living out. I will write to James at goon as I can. John left directions where to write to James, but we have lost it : they live in Henkimen village, this side of Utioa. Mn> Hannah wishes grandmother would go to Mr. Fuller's, and tell them ahe thinks it very strange she don't hear from them. She has not bad a letter for this two years. They are very well, and doing well. Give my love to Thomas and grandmother, at Rye, and ask her if she will come over here \fl come over for her. I was very glad to hear that ahe was doing pretty well. If I could only see her once more, I would give all that J have in possession. Father and mother aende their kind love to grandmother, at Rye, and they wish they had brought her with them. Mother hopes you will look to grandmother, for ahe has nobody to take care of her. Mother and father send their kind love to you and grandfather, and aunt and uncle Lawrence : tell them we wish they was here. Our love, to aunt and uncle Free- land ; tell them, — will not promise them,— I think if I can get a chance with the captain I came over with, I shall come back to Eng- land to visit them all in a year or two. Mother and father wished to be remembered to all their sistera and brother, and to Mrs. Crouch and Mrs. Bryant. Give my love to Harriott Parks, and tell her I ahould like to see her and her sen. Aunt Mary has sent a letter to III.] PARTS TO GO TO. 63 ber brother John, •nd hai reoeived no answer. I told you in the iMt letter that Albany was about as large as Rye ; but they tell me it is tliree times as large, and very pleasant. Father says he has no,rea- son to complain of America all the time he can get as good living u be gets now, for he is happier than ever he was in his life. He has been sawing all winter with Mr. Fuller } they have as much as they can do. He said he never wiH leave Albany while he can do as well as he does now. Father said you said if be came to America he could not get back again ; but we could come back very well. Father wishes to be remembered to all inquiring friends, but cannot mention every one's name. I have no more at present ; so remember me to be your Affectionate grand-dnughterj i Mary Jane Watson. Mr, Stfpken Wotion, StdUteomb, ntar Battle, Suaex, Great Britain, No. 12. Albany, Decembrr mh, 1827. My Dear Grandmother,— It is a very snowy unpleasant day. I took a walk up to mother, and retired to write to you a few lines, which is a pleasure to me, and expect it will be pleasing to you. I was married on the 13ih of November last, to a man in good circum- stances ; and I am very comfortably situated. We neglected writing, because we expected a letter from uncle John. We have received a letter from him ; as I will give you a copy on the remainder of this sheet. We are enjoying a very good state of health, and hope this 'will find you enjoying the same blessing. Thomas, Naomi, and Eleanor, send their love to you, and would be very glad to see you. Unele John wants us to go up to Indiana, but mother is not willing: she baa got acquaintance here : and says she will sthy here. Father and mother send their love and lasting affection to you, and would be very happy to see you j but fear they will not this side of the grave. But I hope you may all be prepared for to meet in a better world. James Parks and his wife Hsrriot Grove arrived in Albany a little before I was married } they saw me married. They lived with mother a little while ; and now they are moved over the river, in a place called Greenbush, about two miles from us, where they can have a good winter's work; they have got things comfortable in their house to use, and both seem contented, Mif dear Grandmother I Oh that I could see you once more* We often regret that we did not m 64 EMIGRATION. [letter ( bridg you tlong with us : we did not know wLat we ilioald come to. / hnve not forgot your past kindness to me. I muit conclude with wishing you well, and all our kind loves to you and inquiring friends. Farewell. Adieu. From your affectionate and ever grateful grandchild, Mary Jans Coulson. To Grandmother at Bye :— v. When in scenei of dUtant Joy You rove with footntepi frer, Soft to your heart thia gentle atream Shall lay, remember me. Jamb Coulbon. To Footland. Stephen and Elizabeth Watson. My Esteemfd Grandparents,— I will send you the particulars of uncle John's letter, hoping it will find you enjoying a good state of health and peace of mind. He writes to father as follows : — *' State of Indiana, Dearborn County, Octobf 12, 1827. « We gladly embrace this opportunity of informing you, that we are all w ?1I at present ; aad it is our sincere prayers, that at the perusal of these few lines you and yours may be found enjoying the same llessing. Dear brother and sister, remember in your last letter we was going to move down the river : we also did move as low as the falls of Ohio, where we continued one year and six months ; in which time we, by our industry and good economy, earned twf* ' htmdred and twenty dollars, beside maintaining our family. And not being satisfied with the country, about the falls, we removed from thence to Aurora last August, where we formerly lived ; and have now purchased a tract of land, 75 acres, a comfortable dwell- ing'housey and a very good orchard of apples and peaches i where I expect to settle." I must conclude : paper spoils me. I cannot give you so long a copy ns should wish, but I have no more room to write. Father and mother send tlieirlove to you and all my uncles and aunts. I conclude with my love to you. I hope you will an- swer this letter immediately, and- send us word how you are* Give grandmother at Hye this letter if you please. I am your affectionate Jane Coulson. Mr. Stephen Watton, Sedlescomb, near Battle, Sussex, England.* * This is an enclosure. III.^ PARTS TO 00 TO. 65 No. 13. Ntw York, Dectmber 8'*, 1827. Dkar Fathbr, — Tbia comes with our kind luve to you, homing to fiod >ou all in good bealtb, aa it learea ua in good bealtli, axcept one of my thumba and one finger, wbich ia ao bad tiiot I cannot hold my pen} it is with difficulty that 1 can write, but I ahall make it plain enough for you to underatand it. I hurt my hand with a large piece of timber : thia ia the firat day I have been unoble to work with it } but to-morrow is Sunday. 1 think I shall be able to work on Monday. / am learning the carpentering' trade. I have 5s, per day. (N. B. you reckon all our New York shillings equal to an English 6d.) Journeymen'a wages are about i'2s. per day ; some that take their work in lots earn 16$. per day. You would be aurpriacd to see pro- visions so oheop ; we buy the best of meat for 4d. per pound, which is not more than id. English money. The labouring people ''.ve by the best of provisions ; there i$ no mch thing as a poor industrious man in New York : we live more on the best of every tiling here, because we have it so very cheap. I must now give some ac- count of our voyage. We had a long voyage, wind very much against us; and we were all sea-sick about one week. James and his two cbildron was very dsngerously ill, and our Lois with the bowel complaint. Lois died : all the rest got pretty well before we got here. Hester Lois died !28th September, and was buried the aame evening : it was a very fine day, and a dead calm ; nothing else particular, but rather short of provisions till we got here oa the 2nd Noyember. One of Martha's children was ill before we got liere, and both the others since ; but we are all better : they live in Brooklyn, aboat half a mile from the city of New York, across the water, in the same place that John Eldridge and Offins live. Philip is apprentice to a tin -worker in the city ; Henry is apprentice to a hatter, about 30 miles from New York ; Joseph is gone with James to Albany ; Josiah has got a iilace as hostler about seven miles from the city ; I live at !295, Hudson Street, not more tli"^' Ave or six rods from Mr. Selmes ; they are great friends to u.burning, and ia doing pretty well. I have left Albany ; I live across tba river Hudson from Albany at a place called Greenbush. Green- bush is a village about like Burwash town. Albany is a very «legaut city, stands on, a rising ground on the banks of the Hudson . , - . * The popttlatioB at OaaaifBusH is 9,7M. MA, \m. III.] PARTS TO GO TO. 67 rirer; u a aurprising place for trade. There commences the graateat canal I auppoae that tbia world produoea, which goea above 300 milea into the weatern country, and was all dug by band. 3e- fore tbia waa dug, great many farmera bad to carry tbeir corn and grain S^nd 300 milea to market with waggona ; but now they can bring it into the canal, and then it goea to market for a trifle, by the canal* boats. The Hudson river is most beautiful , every little way there ia little ialanda in it, aome 10, aome 20, aome 40, 50 and 100 acrea in an island ; all cultivated, and houses on them : there's about 20 steam -boata up and down it, and three or four times as .many sloops. We have had the mildest winter so far that waa ever known, though some very cold weather. I believe America ia the fineat part of the world any man can get into : here's no complaining we can't' get a living; and it's a very foolish notion in England that the Americana doa'c live ao well as the English. Tell Thomas Avann to come to America ; and tell him to leave hia atrap (what he weara when he haa nothing to eat in England), for some other hat/starved slave. Tell Mirium there'a no aending children to bed without a supper, or husbanda to work without dinnera in tbeir baga, in this country. See if you can't make Americanites of the Wimbletott Compapy. Thank God I am not old ***, nor yet ****'salave: is is an erroneous notion of you English, that if a man cannot through any misfortune maintain his family, that they may atarve ; — ^it'a an abominable lie. XFe have poor-laws and poor- taxes : the tax in this town (for tbia country is divided into townships instead of parishes) amounts to aboin 30 or 40 dollars per year for the wftole town, and there's more people than (ft Ewhurstf We have no gypsies, swing* kettles, pikies, trampa, beggars, &c. ; they are not allowed to be . about. In dfla country labourera do not go to work without knowing what they^pa going to have before they begin work. Farmera by nomeanaxarry the away in thia country; but the meanest. And come by all n^eans: coms^ouA;()| that worse than Egyptian bondage j and knowing the evila, persuaA'lI^riot'a friend and brothers to try to come. Check them of their 1«. 6d. per day for me, and tell them here ia plenty of wood-cutting in thia countryv., I cannot but per* auade them and you ; tell Levi and wife to try t». come with you. You had best come away as soon as possible, as the latter part of the sommer ia not ao well to come ; and when you come, asnd me a letter '^ I + The population at EwHuasT ie 1,935b 'm. / Mu af ■ ( I I EMIGRATION. [letter as soon as yoa know you are coining, and let mu know what tlie name of the ship is, and when it will sail, and what the Captain's name is if you can ; and then perhaps I shnll come to New York to meet you. Direct to me, James Parks, to be left at Heppingstall aod Scot, Little State Street, Albany ; os I do not know how long I shall be in Greenbush, and they will help it to me. If you come, wliat money you have bring in gold, and not go buying of dollars in England, as you can hare a premium on gold here. I shall now tell you a little of our money. The only copper money we have is cents, about the size of a halfpenny. Our silver is sixpences, shil- lings, Pistoreens, that is Is. 6d. each ; quarter-dollars, half-dollars, and dollars; 100 cents is one dollar ; X\. of English in New York will buy 4 dollars 73 cents. I got 21 dollars a month, but most other trades get more ; and I mean to have more when my time is up, at the 1st of May. Carpenters get about 10 or 13 shillings a day; bricklayers about the same as brickmakers. Tell Edward, Fisher gets very high wages : some will get 40 dollars per month, and board. Day-labourers get about one dollar per day ; and in busy time in summer get thi'ir board into it. When you come, Harriot wants you to bring her 6 or 8 yards of lace, and 3 or 4 yards of net, for caps; pretty good if you can» Be sure and don't let that infernal rogue lay in your provisions, nnr any body else ; but see it all put up yourself. Don't bring a great deal of beef ; and what you do, get a cask and salt it down yourself ; for we had beef two years old, not fit for a dog ; our tea was not half tea ; our oatmeal was half*ground pease ; our split pease, gray pease ; our biscuits was the worst that could be got. Be sure to bring plenty of flour, some dried ham, and other bacon, plenty of potatoes, plenty of butter, sugar, tea, coffee, oatmeal, patent groats, rice, salt, pepper, vinegar, a few bottles of port wine to make sap if you are ill. Take care yoar biscuits are good : be sure to bring plenty of flour and rice ; don't be ifraid of bringing too much, nor few. But you can sell what you don't want, but don't sell too soon. Great many in our vessel would give three times the value of a thing before they got over. Take ginger with you for sap ; plenty of rush candles : we had not near enough. Joseph is quite well; he has sold his nailed half -boots to be put in the Musium in Albany. Harriot and children are quite well : remember us to all that inquire after us ; and tell the others that we expect we are more missed than wanted. We measure that by our own yards. I know that I come away a little in debt, but if I II] III.] PARTS TO GO TO. 69 Lad stopped it would have been worse ; I hope I shall settle up before a great time with them, which is my intention. I want you to bring me a dozen of collar needlesj most of them small ones. I hare heard from uncle York last week. He is in Upper Canada, has a good farm of 200 acres, lives within 28 miles of a good market, and is doing well. William York is in Albany. Eleanor sends her love to you ; she )S married ; has one little girl. Since J begun this letter I have taken a shop in Albany^ but be not gone back to live yet, but go over the Hudson river, night and morning, in a U'.^^e boat. Joseph B has let me have 200 dollars to set vp with. He is a Yorkshire man, and a Methodist, and brother to Eleanor York's husband. He snys he longs to see the old fellow from England : he is pretty rich, and getting money very fast. He says he is sure there is no business in tliis country a man can't save money at. I think it agrees with Harriot, for she is as fat as a pig. Tell Wimbletot folks once more to try to come : we are very anxious to hear from you. Harriot sends her love to her father, mother, sisters, aiid brothers. I fear they not got much love for me since I have took Harrfot away ; but I'll send them plenty of mine since they let her come. Tell Thomas Avann to try to come, again and again. America for ever for me. So no more from Your son and daughter, James and Harriot Parks. I direct to be left at the t for fear you should be moved. Mr. James Parks, to be left at Mr. Benjamin Booth, Wheelwright, Staple Cross, in the Parish of Enihurst, near Northiam, in the County of Sussex, Old England, Great Britain. No. 15. - / ; ' Greenbush, November \9lh, 1898. ' Dear Father and Mother, — It's with pleasure that I take my pen in band to send a few lines ; but it would be more a pleasure to see you here : but let's hope you will get here in time. You want to know what we are all about ; I tell you as well as I can. Stephen - is about 20(} miles west of Albany. They wrote to roe some time ago } they was all well and hearty then, and thought they should do pretty well there. Boss* thought of getting them a cow. I V i^ * Boss is an American word for matter or employer, taken from the Dutch ia the StateofNew York, I believe. V i 70 EMIGRATION. [letter live where I did, in Greenbusli village, opposite side of tbe Hirer Hudson from Albany. My trade has been very dull this aummer, bat's some better now. I got me a good cow ; gave thirteen doUars for her. I Villed o good little hog last week ; have two more fatting. (Jllharles Crouch lives with us ; he has got a real little bantom cook and hen ; he gave four shillings for them. John, I believe, liveff about four miles from York ; at work at farming- work : was well the last I heard of him. Josiah lixes about 30 miles west of Albany, learning to be a blacksmith ; gets eight dollars per month, and board : he was at my house about four weeks ago ; was quite well. Joseph is where he was in Albany : he says mother was so afraid he would not make out very well in America without her ; and now he is afraid yon wont do very well there without him. I guess yoa would scarce known him. He is grown this year, and dresses like a gentleman} looks better than ever you see him : and I believe he is giving his heart'to the Lord, and striving to please him. He has joined the Methodist Society in Albany, and is a teacher in their Sunday-school. Henry .s in Long Island, opposite York, learning to be a hatter ; was well the last 1 heard of him. Philip, I don't know whether he is in York with his old Boss or not ; for he has had some notion of going to live where Henry does, to learn that trade ; it is not so bad to get places for boys here as in England. ^ Daniel and Stephen could earn their own living if you had them here. I give you my thoughts of England and America in the fol- lowing lines of my own make : — Stay in England who will ; I'll never return till your tyrants are kind, or most greatly reformed ; but to such as would live independent of man, the advice I would give is. Come here if you can. Advice I have just said, not per* suasion at all, lest the place you should hate, and the blame on poor Jemmy Should fall. — ^Try all you can poaaibly to get here in the spring. Try to get away as soon as possible, as to get here before the hot weather if you can ; and by so doing you will avoid danger by ice, which begins to loose from the north, and float about the first of May. If you come, all of you take physic before yoa start : and when you go to sea, mind^ and take care of yourselves at first ; for I almost lost my life through neglect at first. If you find yoor insides bound up, take gentle physic directly ; if on the opposite* then take a little something for that immediately. Mind your pro* vision is good for your passage ; for ours was not fit to board a dog over. I have a hope that I will see you again in this world ; if I ^•w.-- .•-- ' yvrtjf*:- III.] PARTS TO GO TO. ft •bonid not, if we are found faithful in Christ, we are assured that we will meet in a better country than America. So no more at present from yours, &e., . '' James and Harriot Parks. Bring Harriot some lace for caps. No. 16. " - .- ( / ' ' Brooklyn, • January 14tb, 1828. Dear Father and Mother,— I now take the pen to say a little of what has passed since we left Englauu. We had a long voyage ; we bad bead winds nearly all the way, and sometimes rough weather ; in coneequeuce of which we were out of such provisions as we could eat, being sick : and our pork and beef and biscuits were a disgrace to Mr. ^— — ^ ; and we chose to eat potatoes alone, and leave the black-looking beef alone. Little Stephen caught a great cold, and was so ill, that when we arrived we were obliged to remain, for be could not be dressed ; and Mr. Offins was so kind as to take us in till we got a place to live in. But I should have said we arrived on the Snd of November : we hired a room, and my husband bought a saw, and went sawing wood and doing any thing, and we thought we should get through the winter pretty well ; but when we had been here about three weeks, husband was taken ill ; we were not aware that it was any thing but a cold ; it proved to be the typhus fever, and it is now six weeks since be was taken, but is now mending Tery fast. We have bad no parish to apply to for relief; but you would be astonished at the friends I have found, or rather, that have - found us : for people that were quite strangers have called to know if a sick Englishman lived here : and one kind gentleman sent for a doctor, and another good old Methodist gave me leave logo to the grocer's for any thing in his name, and others were equally kind . in short, I should never thought to find such friends among strangers ; they seem to feel a great pleasure in doing us good ; and we have to thank them, and to praise the Lord for all bis mercies. I am as well as usual, and the children are growing fat. You may have heard that James and Joseph went directly to Albany ; and James works at bis trade. Joseph has got a place at a currier's. John is a * A town in Long Island, jnst opposite New York, and separated from it by a water passage of twenty minutes, in a steam -boat. Population 7,176. k 1 I I EMIGRATION. Jlettir wotk u carpenter, for the winter ; his Boss gives him 5f. a day, our money, which is a little more than 2«. 6d. English money. Josiah is at New York at work, as lime«burner. Henry is 30 miles up the country as apprentice to a hatter : he sent us word he likes it. Phi- lip is in New York, at one Mr. Hogbin's, formerly an apprentice to Mr. Burgess. Battle, he is not hound, he has only agreed for the winter ; be has a good place in one sense, but his master thinks like Mr. Offins; but he says he has no objection to Philip doing and thinking like his father. Philip likes his place, and he earns a little for himself, and that gives him encouragement ; he was here to-day, for I wash and mend for him. Uncle David is at New York ; I don't know what he is doing ; but Sara has plenty of work ; and the girls have all been at service, that they might be no burden to them ; but Harriot is como home again. Mrs. Hayter, formerly H. Neve, has been to see us ; and she says that Anne might get a very good place here. They tell us that winter is a dead time in America ; but we have fdund it as well and better than we expected. We can get good flour for lid. English money ; good beef for 3(2. or 3d. do., and mutton the same price ; pork about 4(f. ; sugar, very good, 5d. ; butter and cheese is not^much cheaper than in England ; clothing is jrather dear, especially woollen ; worsted stockings are dear, and you can't get good balls of worsted here. We hare heard that Captain Griswell, that takes this letter, is a very good captain ; and about the beginning of March expects to set sail from London : and we thought if you could suit to come it would be well. We don't wish you to come with such a company as we did : — from the captain to the lowest sailor they were abominable wicked ; and there was no order, but swearing, cursing, and drinking, &c. When you come, don't let Mr. lay in provisions; but be sure have plenty of flour, oatmeal, rice, and sugar ; and, if you can, it would be well to have some home-made bacon ; and see your biscuits and have the^n good. Please to bring me a pair of new gigs, for they wear such things here. We have not been able to meet society as yet ; and, through affliction, we are almost deprived of any outward means ; but we trust our faces are Zion*ward ; and we beg an interest in prayers. And we must conclude. Stephen and Martha Tvrneb. To Mr. James Parks, Sen., Cripses Cotner, ./ . Enkurtt, near JBatUtt Sussex, Enyland. III.] FARTS TO GO TO^ No. 17. n \ New HartforJ.-l- June 30th, 1828. Deaii Fatiieii and Mother,'— I now take the opportunity of writing to you since our long joiimev. But am very sorry to tell you that we liad tlie misfortune to lose both our little boys ; Edward died 29th April, and William 5th May ; the younger died with bowel complaint, the other with rash-fever and sore throat. We were very much hurt to have them buried in a watery grave : we mourned their loss ; night and day they were not out of our minds. We hnd ^ minister oa board who prayed with us twice a day : he was a great comfort to us, on the account of losing our jioor little children. He said. The Lord gave, and taketh away ; and blessed be the name of the Lord. Wo should make ourselves contented if we hud our poor little children here with us : we kept our children 24 hours. There were 6 children and one woman died in the vessel. Master Bran lost his wife. Mrs. Cusbman, from Bodiam, lost her 2 only chil- dren. My sister Mary and her 2 children are living at Olbourn, about 80 miles from us. Little Caroline and father is living with us ; and our 3 brothers are living within a mile of us. Brother James was very ill coming over, with the same complaint that William had. We were rery sick for 3 weeks, coming over : John was very henrty, and so was father. We were afraid we should lose little Caroline ; but the children and we are hearty at this time. Sarah and Caroline are often speaking of going to see their grandmother. Mary's children were nil well, except little John, he was bad with a great cold. We have no more to say at present concerning our family. 1 have got a house and employ. I have 45. a day and my board ; and in harvest and haying I am to have 6s. or 7s. a day and my board. We get wheat for 7s. ]ier bushel, of our money ; that is, about 3;. 7d. of your money ; meat is about 3d. per pound ; butter from 5d. to 6d. ; sugar about the Bomc as in England ; shoes and clothes about the same as it is with you ; tea is from 2s. 6d. to 3s. 6d. of your money ; tobacco is about 9d. per pound, of your money ; good whiskey about 1*. Id. per gallon ; that is 25. of our money. I went and got a gallon the day I wrote this letter : brandy and rum is very cheap and good. If you feel disposed to come, I should like you to it. We send our kind:~ . ; -^. t Aboat270 miles from New York: the population 3)493. 9 ^ I ! I : JPiE'' £MIGRATION. [letter love to our brothers and siiters ; and if they are disposed to come, I •Lould like them to it, for here is plenty to eat and drink, and plenty of work. We work long days from sunrise to sunset i a person tnttst not think of coming' here to get a living wit hgut working} and they despise drunkards ; but if a person keeps steady.^ he is respected much more than in England: he is admitted at the table with the farmer* I have not heard any person find fault or grumble ; but they appear to be satisfied with what we do : we generally work by the day. If you think of coming, or any of my brothers, I shall be glad for you to send roe word as soon as you can. I desire to be remembered to my uncle and aunt Steed, and uncle and aunt Veness. I wish you to send or bring the direction of my brother William, and send word if you have beard from him. Father sends his love to his brothers, Boxell and John Willard, and his brothers Samuel and James Davis, and to his sister Mary Veness. I wish to be remembered to all in- quiring friends ; and if any wish to see this letter, let them do so. We don't know where any family is except John Crouch ; he is with his brother, about 90 miles from us. We are at a place called New Hartford, about 270 miles from New York. We join in love to you all. ' And believe us to be your affectionate son and daughter, John and Harriot Venesb. To Mr. John Veneti, ifountfield, near SatUe, Sussex, England. P. S.. John Davis desires to be remembered to Mr. John Smith, at Whatlington : tell him he saw his brother and sister Bumstead, and they were very well. If Jane and Anne and John like to come, there is plenty of places for them. 18. New Hartford, November 16tli, 1838. Dear Father and Mother, — I once more take the pleasure of writing to you, hoping this will, find you all in good health, as this leaves all of us at this time : was sorry to hear of mother being so unwell. You said it was a great pleasure in receiving a letter from, us ; and be assured it was as great one, receiving one from you. The death of my brother was affecting to us ; but was glad his master had the kindness to inform you. Mary has been here, and I told her: she is living about 4 miles from us; is well, and so 'are the children. Mary was much surprised when we told her, as you know III.], PARTS TO GO TO. 76 death hat an affectionate feeling over us all ; bat we must all pay the debt Booner or later. You want to know all particulors about our paaiage over to America We waa from the 14tb April we aet teil from London ,and on the 17th Maj we landed in New York ; at (b the uaage we had waa good, and we have no eomplaint wbaterer to make, aa we had plenty to eat and drink. As to the affliction of losing our dear children, you will be better able to judge than we ean describe ; but, alas ! death separated us on the billions ocean, which you, dear friends, must know would be great affliction to us all. My wife feels much better than might be expected, through such a scene of troulle as she had. Sarah and Caroline talk much about their grandmother and grandfather. We have all plenty of employ, and wages good, according to the price of other things. I get about 2f., your money, a day and my board. I will give you the price of pro- duee in America. Wheat is worth Os., your money, and this is a great price for this country ; it is in general about is, 6d., your money ; Indian corn is 2t. 6d.y your money, per bushel ; rice is 3«. 6d, s bushel; pork is Sd. per pound ; beef is 2|d. per pound ; mutton the same, — you will think this very low : butter is 6d, to 7d. a pound ; tea from Ss. XoAs., your money ; {(ugar 6d. to 6d. a pound. I think I can make a comfortable living for my family and self if I have good health. I think oi going on a farm next Jpril, on shares ; the maa finds ihe land, com, and fire-wood, and I shall do all the labour, md bav^ haAf what I raise : this is a way yon know nothing about ; but it is o«ie much practised in America. You want to know if I like America* better than England : I must say I do ; for I think I oati make a better living a good deal. Jnd when 1 go to work for a man, J sit at the table with the family ; and Jack is as good as his master, I should be glad to see father and mother in America ; and such as I have you would be hearty welcome to : but I shall advise you not to come before May, if you should come. ^0 no more from your son and daughter, John and Harriot VsNE8f« Please to give our love to uncles and aunts, and all inquiring friends. Father Davis is living with me, and gets plenty of employ, and has had pretty good health ; but he had the misfortune to cut hiS leg; which vrM sore a long time. • d2 \i 76 EMIGRATION. No. 19. [lettee f V Dear Sons and Davghteh, — My kind love to yea all, likewimi John's, and James's, and Henry's. You will want to know how w« are getting along. I am living with John Veness, and work out* John, my son, lias a most excellent place, and gets about lis. or lig^ your money, per week ; likes liis place. James is hired out till tb« first of April ; works on a farm } he has 1/. per month, your money, •nd he is well liked. And Henry has a good place, and he says h« never wants to come back to England. Heury gets his living and clothes, and three months' schooling, till the tirstof April ; and then he will have a new bargain to make. Harriot and her husband give their kind love to you all. We should feel glad to see you all in America, as there is a good living to be got, easier than iu England, should we have our healths ; and, without health, over in England or America, we should be poorly off ; so we trust, in Providence. I want to know what you all are doing, and where you are living: please to send me word as soon as possible. Give my kind love to my brother and sister, and all inquiring friends. . I remain, your affectionate father, William Davis* I think if Thomas Veness wos in America, he would do much better than he can in England ; as a man can get places for his children, and get wages too : so a man with a large family lias a good chaoc«« Mary Veness to all her friends desires her love and respects. Jar. John Veness, Robertsbridge, Mounffield, Sussex, England', No. 20. »l * Clinton,-f December 6th, 1828. Dear Friends, — I suppose by this time you are quite anxious to hear from me and my children. We are all in good health. I am very sorry that I could not write to you before ; but many circumstances Lave prevented. When I landed in New York, I met a gentleman, who took me and Harriet and John to Auburn, about SOO milea from New York ; I lived in his family nearly six months. I was then lUO miles from my brother-in-law and Caroline. I left Auburn be- * On the Hudson River, a hundred miles from New York. Population €^611. III.] PAHTS TO GO TO. 77 eaune I wns so for from my friends, and felt unhappy. I left Jolin an Auburn, in a very good place. He has been to spe me to-day, and says he likes his place very roucli, and wishes to return. After I left Auburn, i lived about four miltts from my brother-in-law, in a pleasant place, and have for my wages one dollar a week. 1 wish two or three of your girls and my sister were here. I hope you will not maiie yourselves unhappy about me, for J have had very good lack since I have been in this country. Brother Thomas parted from me at Albany, and has never written to me. I inquired about him of Air. Cruioh : he said that he was in service and doing very welt. I ■appose he is between 1 and !200 miles from me. In j\ ril I expect to Borse Harriot, and to live witli the m, as brother intends going on a farm, and wishes me to live with them. 1 sometimes think how far lam separated from you, and this makes me feel uythaypy ; but I know I am better off here than I should bo there. Hemember me to my sister Phila, and George : tell them I hope to see them in Ame>' rica } it would be much more pleosant for me were they here. The worst is, t)ie Voyage over the ocean. I and my three children en- joyed good health coming over, excepting the sea*sickness, which lasted a fortnight ; it did not hurt the children at all hardly. Harriot is now living with sister Harrfot ; I heard from tliem to-day ; they Tvere all well. 1 would not return to England to live, though I should like to see you. Mr. Davis is living with brother ; ho called here last Sabbath : his boys have all good places, and are doing well. I hope when you receive this letter you will send to my dear mother. I often feel very unhappy in thinking that I never shall see her ; yet I hope it will please God to spare our lives, to see each other once more in this w^orld. I hope, my dear mother, you will not make your- aelf unhappy about me, for I am doing well ; and though I wishv^ry much to see you again, yet I do not wish to return to stay. How is your'a and father's health, and my little brcther's? Remember me to him and to father. How is sister's boy I Does he ever think of his friends in America 1 I suppose you would liko to know some- thing about this country : it is very pleasant ; provisions are cheaper than in England ; beef and mutton are much cheaper. WJiot we heard about the country is pretty much true. A mun can get6&a day for work and his board : there is work a plenty for those that wish. Since I have been here, I have heard the very unpleasant news of the death of my husband. I felt very much grieved wheu I heard this : hutf know I should not feel very unhappy ; for had he lived, it was 78 EMIGRATION. [lettf'w quit* uncertain if I ihould ever Me him afpin, w« were so far aep t rated, end bis business was sueh. After you bare read this, joa may send it to mother Veness. I send much love to her, and father •lao. My little boy, John, felt rerj bad that you did not mention bim in the letter you sent to me. How is William 1 Does be not often think of his absent mother, and sometimes wish himself with lier 1 I was in hopes to hear that my mother was better, and that •he was well. I hope she will get able to come to America, with father and William, in the spring. Tell William, John is a good boy, and is liked in the places where he has lived. America is a fine plao« for good boys ; if they wish to get good places, they must be gooA themselves. I wish to know how much the gentlemen in the paridi give you for the aupport of William. If you ahould oonolnde lo come to America in the spring, you will send me word ; and I will d« what I can to help William, after you get in New York, up in the country.' I make myself happy about him, because I know lie is well off; but I should like to see him and you all very much. Remember ne to all our neighbours, to Martha Mepham. I want very much to write to ]ier. Remember me also to Sarah, William, Richard, and I'homas Davis. When you receive this, I want you to write to me | lor I long to hear from you all : the least thing will interest me. I wish some of my neighbours would write. News from absent frieadi is very desirable. I did not find the land and oouniry very different from Englsnd. Do write very soon to me. With mucU love to joa all, I dose. '"' Your affectionate daughter and alster, * Mary Veness. Mr. Htxtkittk Harvey, Mount field, netr Robnltbriige, SuiHX, Engluni* No. 21. Hadion,t SUte of New York, July «th, 1828. '' T&AK Parents, — I now sit me down to write to you, to let you know that we are all safe arrived to America, and are all much better than we have been : thank a merciful God for it. I often look back on*the scenes that we have passed through. While we were passing t One huadred and ten miles from New York, on the banks of the Hadaon* J'opalation 5,910. XII.] PAHTS TO 00 TO. 79 over th« water our ■uir«ringa were great ; but ihnt God ttiat is loving to all them that truit in him, hat brought us through. I will not griere your hearts with all our lufferingi, for iny paper will not hold it. Little Mary was very ill with the fever that so many died with, —7 children and one woman ; to hear their cries and moans, it was Tery bad. I was so ill myself that I was forced to crawl out of my bed, and lay on the floor while John made the bed. If you know of •ny coming here, tell them never to come where the vessel is so full ; for we was shut down in darkness for a fortnight, till so many died ; then the hatch was opened. I will not grieve your poor hearts with more about what we poor oreaturea suiTered. I counot tell you what day of the month we landed into New York, but we was about 33 days coming over, which vras a good passage called. We landed on Saturday. On Sunday we found the chapel, and went twice, — a large chapel, and very full. After preaching the people came round to know what part we was from, and gave John a paper to carry to a gentleman, who gave us if dollars, and a letter to carry to an English gentleman in Hudson, for work ; and he set them on, «nd there they work still. John gets 7s. a day. James gets 7s. Richard and Daniel work at the factory, and get ts. each a day. Thomas is gone to live with that gentleman that we took the letter to,— a very good place ; he ii olaas-leader of the church of the city of Hudson, and gets iOs. a week and board. Harriot lives in the city of Hudson, with an old gentleman and lady of the same church, — a very good place. We lived in the same city 4 weeks, but they had 5 miles to go to their work, and could not como home but once a week, so we tee moved to their work. We live close by a large river, so I can look out of my sash-wiudow right into the river. A very fruitful place ; for apples, cherries, raspberries, grapes, plums, growing any where, any one may get them without money, what they please. Dear mother, 1 fear you will be troubled to read that side, it is put so thick ; for my paper is not half big enough to say all that I want to «ay: but tliis 1 can say, that we want for nothing ; bless God for it > for we can buy a leg of mutton every day, and green pease or French beans brought to the door, and we have got in 32 gallons of cider for \As. I wish you was all here to help drink it. Tell my dear sis- ter if she was here she might earn 8f. or IO9. a day, for they charge «o much for work. I was forced to give 12«. for a cambric bonnet for Harriot. And now I must tell.you a little what friends.we met with when we landed into Hudson ; such friends as we never found in 80 EMIGRATION. [letteii |J ' ry England; hut it was chiefly from that people that love and fear God. fVe had so much meat brought us that we could not eat white it was goody a whole quarter of a calf at once; so we had 2 O' 3 quarters in a little time, and 7 stone of beef. One old gentleman came and brought us a waggon load of wood, and 2 chucks of bacon. Some sent flour, some bread , some cheese, some soap, some can-- dies, some chairs f some bedsteads. One class leader sent us 3s. worth of tiu ware, and many tither things; so we can truly say godliness is profitable unto all things. We are ia aland of plenty, and, above all, where we can hear the Boutid uf tlie Gospel. TLe gentleman that we work for has preaching in his own parlours, till he can build a chapel } it is begun not a quarter of a mile from where we live : — and may poor sinners be brought to Christ; for here is many that are drinking in of sin, like the ox the water. And now, my dear sister, I must say something to tliec. I hope these few lines will find you all well as we are at prdseot : thank God for it. William told us to be sure to let him know how it was here ; und if we liked the place he would come : so you must let him know all about it : and if he likes to come, no fear but what he will do well : but I know you cnnnot let him come without you. I want you all here, if you could go through the hardships of coming over. When you get here you may do well: I only wish I had come before. Give my love io Elizabeth, and tell her if she wants fine clothes she is to come here ; it would be the mak' ing of her. Dear sister, I should be glad if you would be so kind to write to John's brother, Thomas Thorpe, at the Priory, Hastings, and let him know the concerns of this letter. The flowers ara much here as yours : provision is not very cheap ; flour is 1^. 7d. a gallon, of this money, about lOd. of yours ; butter is Is., your money 6d. ; meat from 2d. to 6d., yours 1<2. to 3d,', sugar 10(2. to Is., yours 5d. and 6d. Tell father I wish I could send him 9 or 10 pounds of tobacco ; for it is Is. per pound : I chaws rarely. Dear sister, I hope you will write to us as soon us possible : please, to direct to I\Irs. John Thorpe, Hudson Printing Factory, County of Colurahia, in the State of New York, in America. Please to copy this letter out before you show it to any one, it is wrote so bad. Give my love to all inquiring friends. Send me all tlie news you can ; so no more at present from your absent son and daughter, J. and E. Thorpe. The spirits of brandy is 3s. 6d. a gallon ; and rum is cheaper. The weather is very hot here^ and a great deal of thunder, very sharp. lU] PARTS TO GO TO. 81 Pray for us, and we will do ti)e same for you ; so now, dear friends, farewell till I see you. We landed into New York the 19th Mny. Mr. Thomas Cooke, Cripsemmtr, Sedlescomb, Sussex, near Robertsbridge, England. No. 22. A\^ J July 7th, 1828. Dear Father and Mother, — I write these few lines to you, liopirig this may find you in a good state of health, as it leaves us all at present. I hope you will not be uneasy about me ; for I am better off here than I was in England : for I have a good house and garden, 90 rods of ground, and some fruit trees, for 25 dollars per year. I live in a good neighbourhood as any one wishes to live in. The best of this country-people, they are so friendly with one another ; for they think of a poor man in this country, that keeps bim^blf honest and sober, much more than they do in England: so 1 hope you will not be uneasy about me, for I have not suffered for any thing yet. 1 have neighbours here like father and mother to us. Now I •hall give you an account of my passage. I left Liverpool on the 20th of April, and landed at New York tlie 20th of May. There I. took a boat and rowed to Albany y for 11, ^s. in our money ; then I went beyond there r I might have gone b»' water. I am not 180 miles from New York, and about 4000 miles from you. We had as good a ship, captain, and sailors, as any one wishes to come with ; we had only 18 hours rough sea. Now you may thinks as I didf that it could not be as people wrote wordy that every thing was cheap, and labour was high. I will tell you the price of goods : wheat Ss. per bushel : all other grain 4s. per bushel ; beef and mutton 2 or 3 cents per pound; veal 3 cents; pork 8 cents : sugar 10 to I'Z cents ; tea 75 cents per pound ; spirits 3s. 6d. per gallon. If a farmer Las 100 acres of land, he has to pay only from 10 to 12 dollars a year tax ; and that is all he has to pay : tftat is the reason they pay welt for labour. Now this is a good country to come into. If Bicbard and Thomas was to come into this country, it would be the making of them : they might get from 8 to 10 dollars a month, wash- ing and mending. One that takes his work, has from 4^. to 5^. and 8s. ; if a man can do all sorts of work you have this pay, and your grub found in the house : work here is different from what it is where you are ; w work from sunrise to sunset. I have 2 shops a mile and D 5 \t 82 EMIGRATION. [LETTeUt 9 balf from me; 2 meetings a mile off; one Church of England, sq^ a water-roil], a mile from my house. Single passengers yiay coxaci from Liverpool to New York for 4Z. 10«., — 30s. for provisions. A dollar in your country is 4s. 6d., but here it is 85. / bought a pig^ for 5s. in this money. I can buy as much for one of these shillingSf as you can for one of yours. I live near Crouch ; I have not seen him. I will thank you to write back as soon as you can. Our Phoebe and John are quite well. John bowls about the house, and says Moom, moom. I and Mary give our best love to you all. Aipen. John Harden, . Direct to near Milton Town,t State of New York. • "> To Mr* Jame$ Foster^ Robertsbridge^ Sussex^ Englandm No. 23. CoDstantia,* December 2nd, 1828. ' Dear Childhen, — I now write for the third time since I left Old England. I wrote a letter, dated October 8th ; and finding that it would have 4 weeks to lay, I was afraid you would not have it : and as I told you I would write the truth, if I was forced to beg my bread from door to door, so I now proceed. Dear children, I write to let you know that we are all in good health, excepting your mother ; and she is now just put to bed of another son, and she is as well as can be expected. A.nd now as it respects what I have got in America : I have got ]2§ acres of land, about half improved, and the resr in the state of nature, and 2 cows of my own ; but if I ^lad not had a good friend in England, I could not have bought it. We can buy good land for 1^5. per acre : but buying of land is not one quarter part, for tiie land is as full of trees as your woods are of stubs ; and they are from 4 to 10 rods long, and from 1 to 5 feet through them. Yoa may buv land here from 185. to 195. in English money; and it will bring from *«0 to 40 bushels of wheat per acre, and corn from 20 to 50 bushels per acre, and rye from 20 to 40 ditto. Youtaay buy beef for i^d. per pound ; and mutton the same ; saltbutter 7d, per pound { cheese Sd. ; tea 45. 6d. ; sugar 7d. per pound ; candles 7d. ; soap •I- Thirty miles North of Albany, and 174 from New York. Population 3,779. t Population 767, in Oswsco County, on the borders of the Lake Oswsoo. III.] FARTS TO GO TO. 83 fd. ; and wheat 4s. 6d. per bushel ; corn and rye ^s. per bushel, jind I get 2a. id. a day and my board; and have as much meat to eat, 3 times a day, as I like to eat, fiat clothing ii dear : shoes 8s, ; half boots 16s, ; calico from Qd. to Is. 4d. ; stockings is. 9d. tb 3s, 6d. ; iannel 4s. per yard ; superfine cloth from 4s. 6d. to 1/. : now all this is counted in English money. We get 4s. per day in summer, and onr board ; and if you count the difference of the money, you will soon find it out. Qs. in our money is 4s. 6d, in your money. And unong the good things of America, we have good laws, as good as they are in England, and much better attended to. For if a maa comes to America with a family, and falls sick or lame within 6 months, the county must take care of them ; if they have been here 6 months, then the town, which you call a parish, must keep them. So people need not fear of suffering ; and people are a great deal more friendly here than they are, or can be, in England : because they have it not in their power as they have here ; for we are all as one, and much ti.i/re friendly, I have found plenty of good friends here, such as I never found in England, — only one. As it respects this world's goods, and in the regard to Christian privileges, I enjoy myself much more than I did in England. For we have preaching twice on the Sabbath-day, and prayer-meeting in the week ; and all within but a mile of my house. I forgot to tell you that I had built a framed house upon the land which I had bought. Now, I think, if you can or do credit what I write, as it ia truth, that it will suiHce you. But amongst the conveniences of America, there is some ill- conveniences : first we have ^ or 3 miles to carry our grist to the mill ; and 4 miles to go up to the store, which you call a shop : and when we ..ue tu vards poor people; though we find instances of that sort running through the whole of these letters. 45. In No. 17, we have an account which is very curious; four shillings^a day and board ; in hay time and harvest six XII.] PARTS TO GO TO. 87 or seven shillings a day and board ; and wheat at 7$. the bushel ! That is to say, then^ more than a buiihel of wheat per day all the year round ; for there is the board into the bargain ; so that, to live as well as these people in America, a labourer in England ought to receive, at this time, about iixiy-four English shillings a week ; and what they do get, on an average, is less than seven, taking one time of the year with the other. 46. In No. 18 John Veness gives an account of his being about to go on a farm in shares ;- that is to say, the landowner finds land, corn, and £re-wood, and Veness is to find labour, and is to have one half of the crop. Thus this English '' Pauper " becomes a farmer all at once. ^ 47. No. 20 is a letter from Mary Veness, who ap- pears to have taken out some of her children with her, and to have left her husband behind. She provides at once for all her children ; she appears to feel a good deal on account of her absence from her mother : but she hopes that she, her father, and brother, will join her in the spring. Talk of affecting romances ! Read the letter of this woman ! 43. Letter 21 is from John and Elizabeth Thorpe, and the wife seems to have been the writer. Read it, you blackguards who have calumniated the Americans ; read it, you lying travellers, for it cannot lie. I have the original letter, which Thomas Cooke gave me himself; and give it me he did with tears of joy in his eyes, and tears of gratitude to the benevolent people of America. The good woman who writes this letter, being a Methodist herself, seems to have thought that this goodness was confined to her own sect. If she had been of any other aect, she would have found things just the same, without any questions being asked as to what was her religion. 49. John Harden, in Letter No. 22, gives an account of the cost of a house and garden. He speaks of other things I i •' , t^^Kc m EMIORATIOK. [LliTTEA f^H also; and he particularly notices that his friends may think as he used to think, that every thing could not be cheap and labour high at the same time ; hut he found it true, and he states the wages and the prices in proof. 50. Thomas Boots, who writes, in Letter No. 23, to his children in Roberts bridge, closes the series with a very interesting letter. He states the inconveniences of Ame- rica ; and it is curious to observe what they are ; the dis- tance from a mill, the distance from a shop, the absence of a brew-house, the want of yeast to bake with, and the bad roads; but he concludes, ** with all the inconveniencesi / " bless God for sending me to America." '^■' 51. These letters, even without these comments of mine, will have amply spoken for themselves ; but there is one thing that the reader should attend to ; and that is, the difference of the prices iti the same thing at different places. If the reader will look at the dates of the letters, he will see a very good reason for land, meat, flour, and all the produce of the earth, being much cheaper at one. place than at another; and also for a similar difference between the prices of sugar, tea, and all articles that come from abroad. When the place is situated at a great distance from the sea board, as at CoNSTANTiA, (Letter 23,) you perceive, that tea and sugar are dear, compared with the price of those articles at New York ; and that, on the other hand, whila beef and mutton are stated at from two pence to three pence a pound at New York, they are sold at seven farthings a pound at Constantia, This must be attended to, or else the reader will not acquire from these letters a correct view of prices. The farthci you get from the sea, and from great navigable rivers, like the Hudson, all articles that are either imported, or manufactured in great towns, become dearer, and, the price of the produce of the land diminishes in value. This is very well for a man like John Watson, who lives from the III.] PAILTS TO GO TO. 89 land ; but it is not the same for a man who intends to farm principally for the market, and thereby increase his riches. John Watson says, in No. 5, " We make our own soap and candies;" and he has just %ot forty or fifty yards of linen from the loonif made of his last years flax I And this is a pauper of whom the farmers in Sussex wished to get rid ! This No 5 letter of Watson announces the birth of another child, and announces that his eldest son has attained the height of a man, and that '* he has just been out ybr a months and earned himself a summer suit of clothes." Pray, reader, look at the close of this letter, No. 5, and also look at the postscript ; look at the signatures of the letter, and then ask what the state of England must be, when it is desirable to pay for getting rid of such people ! 52. Thus far with regard to the fitness of America hr English labourers. There remains to be stated that which ivill show that it is the place also for tradesmen, for farmers^ and for people who livo on their means already acquired. I have, in my " Year's Residence," spoken of these mattera also; but I have now three letters, received from Mr James RussELLj of Rye, accompanied by a letter from himself. I shall insert the whole, beginning with the letter of Mr. Russell. These letters will, in a great measure, speak for themselves. They come from well-informed men, and they give a detail of prices of land, and of rent of house and land, extremly interesting to tradesmen and farmers. I vrill first insert the letters, and then speak about their prices particularly, this, being a very important point; and the prices of this species of property differing very widely in dif- ferent parts of the country, and differing also according to the situation of the place relative to navigable rivers. Therefore, when I have inserted the letters, which are full of interest in themselves, I will, give full explanation of these matters. These letters are, comparatively, of very recent .y 90 [! 1 EMIGRATION. [lettee date, the first two being dated in the month of August, 1828, and the other in the month of January, 1829, r id they all come from men of business. The firtt two letters are written by Benjamin and Theoprit.us 'FowLB, addressed to Mr. Daniel DoBELL,of Smaht.'£n, in Kent, and the last letter, that of Thomas and Eli- zabeth FuLLA6AR,addressed to Mr.WiLLiAM Mercer, of High Halden, in Kent. So that here is nothing left to doubt, nothing left to question ; here is every thing fully stated ; here are the parties alive and present to be referred to; and here, in the face of all England, are these state- ments made ; and tbeiefore these statements cannot be false. To Wm. COBBETT, Esq. A. Rye, Jane 89rthing left liing fully e referred Bse state- t be false. SSrd, 1S89. ediateljr, to owing you from many idosed two tioalarly as 9 WMdd of re a great FcfwUt are 1. He was ) error (not ble (rowMe was let off I one part of lecting the luthors are rablish, as :o do, or to any conae- ou and my and them> III.] PARTS TO GO TO. B. CaledonUif AaKQit3Atb, 1698. Dbar Cousin,—! received youri of April 3nl, and truly the contents were gloomy ; the reverse is truly the case in this country ; so much that I think Miere never was a period since the full of man, nor a country to be found on the globe, where peace and plenty so generally abound as in tha northern states of America. The laws are as pure as can be ezpeote<^ to be formed by man, and are executed by a wise and judicious mogistracy, chosen by the people ; every umu is promoted by meritf no titheing, no ettablished religion^ yet all protected, and stand or fall on the principles of their own conduot and faithfulness to each other. You requested me to inform you of all the disadva s in this country. I will, to the best of my knowledge. First, ^uk. timber is not so good in this country as in England. Secondly, the 8hoe« leather is not well manufactured, consequently, not so firm and dura- ble as is yours. Thirdly, we have more dry hot weather than you hare. Fourth, it is with great difficulty that a good girl can be pbtained to do the work of the house for 111, 10s» sterling ; good girls •re in great demand, for wives. Fifth, new cleared land is full of atumps, wluch are yexy troublesome for seven or eight years, and jBometimes ten or fifteen years, till they rot out. Sixth, and lastly, I have ransacked my brains to make up these objections. We have not more than one in a thousand that retain the degrading principles of the old country ; viz., that pride and conceit of being too good to sit at the same table, to eat and drink with their own servants, or those who labour for them. Thus I have given you all the account that I think worth mentioning to you, respecting the disadvantages; but to enumerate all the advantages time would fail. I have heard your son arrived safe at Utica. Respecting the enjoyment of the necessaries of life, and the comforts too, the rich and t/tepoor, ail fare much alike. Our bread is made of superfine flour. Have beef, pork, and mutton in abundance ; and I have no desire to live any higher than the common industrious poor now live in this country. The tea mostly used is old and young hyson, hyson skin and twankay we purchase from 3s. 4d. to 5s. Qd. per pound ; pork 2d. per pound (fresh) ; beef at li/d.; butter 6d,', cheese 4d. per pound; wheats at i v. [] ' H luSSSLt* t In the State of Nuw Yobk, on the Genese River, about 300 miles from New York. Poiiulatioa 2,64d. . *■. i 1 IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 1.1 128 Um m 12.2 ■u m-xA mam a m i i 2.0 IL25 i 1.4 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporalion r-C^ \ ^^ o I* keepers will many of them, sell one kind of bread and pack up another kind not half so good. I live with brother B., and never was so well off in my life. In this part of the country I have seen pigeons flying from tlie south to the north this spring a thousand in flight ; and have <8een twenty or thirty such flights in a day. This is, I think, tlie best country in the world. The common people are as #ell off as the farmers in Kent, and tlte farmers here live as well as they can wish to live. I am fully satisfied that you would like it if you were here. You can have no . idea about it. I cannot tell you one half of the advantages. r I remain, - *: Your affectionate Cousin, Theophilvs Fowls. •ETTER 's vrages 3/. 78. to [lis state, h settle- tides in lunds. I id I find 1 charge, takes the ring is so ary. My FowLE. 5th, 18^8. England, lutiful and [ren, werd an I ever ;re was 80 — . We idustrious you think imposed see to the of them, good. I In this ath to the twenty or itry in the in Kent, am fully a. have no FoWLE. III.] PARTS TO GO TO. 93 .jiK^r^^ • D. ' • * Utica,-^ Hopper Farm, January 7th, 1899. Dear Ukcle, Aokt, and Friends, — We have been v«ry much gratififd by the receipt of your two letters from your priest-ridden country. Your three sons are quite well, and happy ; they drank tea with us on New Year's Day ; and, I do assure you, you need not con- cern yourselves respecting their moral conduct, or any thing that may prevent their succeeding in this country, as their conduct is a suffi- cient recommendation for tlie promotion of their happiness. You desire me to inform you how much it will require for you and Mrs. M. to live on the interest in this country ; the legal interest is seven per cent, per annum on real security. The living is much cheaper in the country than in town. I will give you a detail of the prices of pro- visions, house-rent, fuel, land, &c., and leave you to judge of the money you will want. House-rent in this village is very high ; for such a house as you would want would be from 80 to 100 dollars ; fuel from 2 to 2| dollars per cord ; 8 feet long, 4 feet high, and 4 feet wide. In the country the rent of a house, with a large garden, about 16 dollars per annum, and fuel a mere nothing. Land is at variom prices. The unimproved land, 6 or seven miles from Utica, is about 10 dollars per acre. I can purchase a farm of 87 acres, with a good new house, bam, lodges, stable, and styes, the land fenced into fields, with rails, and about 70 acres cleared, with a good orchard, for SOOO dollars, six miles from Utica. If this farm could be well stocked, I have no hesitation to say, a man, with all his own money for purchase, &c., may live, in comfortable independence, without a tyrant Lord domineering over him for killing his own game. He has no taxes to pay, except bis equal share for the support of the civil government, which is but a mere trifle. He has no poor's- rates ; fur he dwells in a land where government does not interpose its greedy hand to snatch the cup of industry from the lips of the feeble. He has no tithes to pay, for here are ^o hireling priests, such are the blessings enjoyed by the American farmers. Mr. £- 11, of Tenterden, with all his great powers of mind, which he thinks he possesses in his objections ■. to the comforts of America, is as ignorant as a blind man is of colours. Land, half a mile from this village, is worth 8 or 900 dollars per acre for building lots ; such lots also sell very high in Utica. Stephen Pot, and George Hopper, late of Tenterden, have bought some unim- t Ninety-three miles W.N.W. of Albant. Population 2,971 I' V !'(' m iMIORATXOir. id [LETtitt proved land 30 milei north of Syraouse, for two dollars per acr«k^ They are tt> pay 20 dbllars per annum, till they hare completed their parobaae ; anil se /en per cent; per annum interest ftrpurehase money in arrear. I will bei« subjoin a list of the prioea of proviaiona, &d« Slour, Bvperfine, per barrel of 196 poinds, 8 dollars and 50 eenfii> It i» 3f dollars dearer than it was' hat April; owmg, I suppose, tH the wet summer, it has been 10 dollars. Beef, per pound, at the mar- ket, 4 cents to 6 cents, fore quarters, and 3f dollars per cwt. ; fbr hind' quarters 4§ dollan ; for pork 6 cents per poiind ; fbr mutton add ▼aal 3 cents per pound; butter 14 cents; cheese? cents; tea 75 cents ; candles 1S§ cents ; soap 7 cents ; sugar 12} cents ; loaf ditto S5 cents ; snuff S5 cents ; tobacco 18 cents ; new milk, in summer, 3- cents per quart, in winter 4 cents; eggs, per doaen, tH oen^ ; fowls, duckt, and turkeys, 7 cents ; geese of 7 or 8 lbs. 25 cents; the Yankies don't love geese. Indian com meal, per bushel, 50 cents ; buck-wheat flour, per lb., 3 oenta ; rye flour, per bushel, 62f cents ; hay, per ton, 8 dollars ; whiskey, per gallon, 25 cents ; brandy add rudk 1 dollar ; potatoes, per bushel, 25 cents ; oats 21 cents ; wheat If dollar; cider 38 gallons, 75 cents to 1 dollar; applea 25 centa peir bushel. There are some people who emigrate to thia coufltry, and^ not seeking correct information, return again to England'; but those who come with a resolution to persevere, and an idclinatiOb to live li«re,are well satisfied that the^ have escaped Arom misery and starva- tion. This shows the importance of persona making' theuselres ac- quainted aa much as possible with the country. Respecting the heakhfulness of this country, we have been here 13 montha, and none of us have had a visit from any apothecary. We are, dear uncle and aunt. Yours, aflectionately. Tugs, and Eliz. Fvllaoar. . i 53. What I have said respecting the prices mentioned iii the former letters, applies, in general, to nothing btttprot;tston« and labour. But these letters, which I have just inserted, apply to lands and houses. Mr. Fullag ar*s letter is par«' ticularly valuable ; as it gives a detail of prices which can leave us no possibility of falling into error. His account-isr that land (uncleared land), at about six or swea miles ■,"^"W-, ETTttt er uct^J^^ led tbeir le money o&a, &d» eenfM> tpote, fA tiiemir- wt.; ftr itton ■lid' S tea 75 loaf ditto suanief, S oen(ji; iitti; the cents; !f cents ; ' aad rufb vbettt If oenls p«ir ltry» and^ butthosa |i to live tdstarra- teWes wt' ttiog tho and notta 111.] FARTS TO GO TO. 95 JIOAB. edinthe ovisions Dserted, r is par*' ich cvi »unt-Mr to- miles Drom Utica, is to be bought for tea dollars an acre. But,, then, he gives an instance of a farm of eighty-seven acrety vbich he could purchase for 2,000 dollars. The dollar Mug 4s. 6d, sterling, this is £450, which, being divided by* 87, brings the land to something more than Gxe pouAds ao' acre. Seventy acres of the land are cleared, and are fenced into fields : there is a good orchard', a new house, barn, lodges, stable, and styes. This, then, we may regard as the price at Utica. Where, then, is Utica ? Utica is si»>' mated on the south bank of the Mohawk river, 93 miles from Albany. It is a very flourishing place, with a population^ some years ago, of 2,973 souls, has 7 churches of all sorts, an* academy, and four printing-offices. It is a central pointy where the turnpike roads from various parts of the States unite ; and Dr. Morse, from whose American Gazetteer I take these facts, adds, *' that it forms the key of trade and travel between a large section of the Western country and the Atlantic ports, and that the canal passes through it, and adds to its importance." Now, it is within six or sevens miles of this plac that land is to be bought for about £2 an acre, which I suppose to be uncleared land ; and that fiums are to be bought as above described. 54. This place being ninety- three miles from Albany, and Albany being 144 from New York, is, of course, 237 milea from the sea ; but there is a water communication to Al* bany, and a ship communication from Albany to New York. Now, if such be the prices of land and of farms ia a- situation like this, they cannot be more than double the- prke, even at twenty or thirty miles from New York, Phi- ladelphia, or any other great place. Let us now look at the prices of provisions at Utica. The flour was, ifer appears, when Mr. FullaoaR wrote his letter, 34 dollars', difcarer than it was the year before'; but if we take it at 6< dollarSi that brings it to seven<4uad-twenty shillings English^ 1 r I -i iv'r 4 t- lli t i If 96 EMIGRATION. [letter for the 1961bs. A hundred and ninety-six pounds are equal to three bushc Is and a half of English flour ; aud thia' American flour is superfine ; and this is Is. 3^cf. the bushel of 561b8. Beef at the market is, at this Utica, four cents to six cents the pound. A cent is the hundreth part of a dollar; and, therefore, as near as can be, equal in value' to an English halfpenny ^ which makes the beef from two pence to three pence the pound. Bearing the value of these cents in mind, and not forgetting that mutton and veal were three cents per pound, look at all the rest of the prices ; but, as you proceed, always bear iu mind the comparative value of the cents. This letter was written in the month of January, when eggs were probably at five or six times the price they bear in the spring and in the summer. The milk is always comparatively dear in America, on account of the labour which attends it. Fowls, ducks, and turkeys, at 3^ you descend what is called a hatchway, by the means of a step ladder. Please to keep this description in your mind, and then read the first part of letter 21. Never were gloom and sunshine more strongly depicted than in that same letter. It appears that the steerage of the ship was crowded to an excess ; and as to the sufferings of the poor people, it VI.] PRECAUTIONS ON BOARD. 109 •is impossible for me to make it so perfect as that which has been given by Mrs. Thorpe herself. But, as you read this true and dismal description, recollect that wh^t is here re- lated was a thing of a most extraordinary occurrence, an occurrence much more rare than that of persons being burnt to death, by the firing of their houses ; and, because the latter sometimes happens, we do not refuse to live in houses, and to make fires, and bum candle. I went to America, the last time, in a ship which had forty grown-up steerage pas- sengers, fourteen or fifteen of whom were women ; several of these had children, and four or five afforded evident symp- toms that the like would soon be their lot. During the whole of the passage, which was of the ordinary duration, we never had a sick person on board, except the Captain's brother, who had come to England for the recovery of 'his health, who died on board, at about half seas over, and whose brother took him to America in a puncheon of rum. We had sea-sicknesSf a plenty, for about ten days. While that is going on, certainly, the miserableness of the creatures cannot well be surpassed. While it lasts, you will hardly have any reflections at all : you will think, if you do think, that the world ought never to have been made, particularly the watery part of it. Some people, however, are never sea-sick at all. I never was but once, which I ^ave always ascribed to abstinence from strong drink, and to my mo- derate eating, as well previous to the voyage ^ during it. There are some very good hints on the subject of taking physic preparatory to a voyage, which you will find at the close of the Letter No. 15. 70. The steerage has berths to sleep in ; placed along the side of the ship ; these berths are separated by boards, and are so constructed as to prevent your rolling out when the ' ship leans on one side. Every .man's senses will guide him in choosing the best berth he can for his wife, and every de- 4./ i^ SMIG RATION. [LETTjBR )-v ( Wf :. { cent single man will give way in t\.ch a case. At the best, however, it is a state of great inconvenience : without any description from me, a married man will easily conceive tbff many awkward, ludicrous, and painful circumstances thajt must here, occur: but, having prepared liimself for them, they will be the mpre easily overcome. It is a case of ab- solute necessity; and this very temporary inconvenience must be borne with, as part of the price of obtaining a great and permanent good. When the object is to secure the peace and happiness of wife and family for life, and for the lives of the children which will succeed them, what is the amount of these inconveniences ? As to the work of un- dressing and dressing, however, this is managed in a very decent manner. If there were men so brutal as not to go upon deck, and leave the women to themselves, the Captain would instantly interfere, and compel them to do it. How- ever, this is what never happens^ I believe. The greatest and most injurious inconvenience is, that the modesty of English women too frequently restrains them from- relieving themselves by going to the usual place for the purpose* which place is, and must be, upon the deck, and within the sight of all those who are upon the deck. This reluctance, however amiable in itself (and very amiable it is), has oftea produced very disagreeable, not to say fatal consequences* That mode of relief has been pointed out by natuse ; it is in- dispensable to animal existence ; retention to a certain extent is destructive ; and the sufferings experienced on thjb ac- count are very great. French women must be excellent sailors; but English women, or American women, must change their natures, before this can cease to be a subject of really serious importance. Use every argument in your power to get over this difficulty with regard to your wife ; lose no opportunity of overcoming her scruples ; be very attentive to her in every circumstance and point attending I'V VI.] PRECAUTIONS ON BOARD. Ill this matter ; and, if she be in a state, from her sea-sickness (which is frequently the case), not to admit of removal from her bed, you must be prepared, not only with the utensils suitable to the case, but you yourself must perform the office of chamber-maid ; and this, you will observe, must be the case in many instances, whether you be in the steer- age or the cabin : for, as to her servant-maid, if she have one, you are pretty lucky if you have not to perform the same office for her ; for there is no woman on board able to go to her : a thousand to one they are all sick together ; and as to any other man performing the office for her, where is such a man to be found ? 71. However, all this is but of ten days* duration : things grow better in a very short time ; the stomach to eat returns ; the blood takes a new flow ; the sea air braces, and you are in comparatively happy society ; all are in better humour than they were before; children never suffer se- verely from sea-sickness ; and their little tumbling upon the deck, and their observations on the sea, tc^ether with various other circumstances, render their company as pleasant as it was on shore. 72. During the time that you are on board, indulge, if you be a cabin passenger, in as little familiarity as possible wit|i the captain : begin to act upon the American motto (Always eivil, never servile) ; you will not find him much disposed to talk, and very rarely will he do any thing to give you offence ; but, however well you may like him, and however < • 'J t). J '.A 112 .11 SMIORATION. [letter iO'J but they might be in great danger with regard to the Bailors, to whom they should, if possible, never speak, except in case of absolute necessity. Talking with them interrupts them in their business ; you can gain no useful information from them ; none but the cook can render you any real service, and him you must pay as before directed, 73. Now, it is a great question very frequently, whether a man, in middling, or rather low circumstances, should go in the s^'^erage or the cabin. Much must depend here on the way of life of the party ; on the way of life which he has chalked out for himself, and particularly on the disposition, age, and state of health of his wife, if he have one. For a single man, farmer, or mechanic, the steerage is really as good as the cabin, and, in some respects, better. The fresh meat consisting of pork fed in the long-boat ; of mutton from sea-sick sheep, with eyes as white as those of whit- ings; of turkeys and fowls that are never killed until at the point of death ; and of ducks and geese that would notjdie, indeed, but that wilk be poor as a dog-horse : this firesh neat is miserable stu£f, and^ therefore, you have, in fact, every thing in the steerage which you have in the cabin, if you take proper pains to lay in the stores. Neats' tongues, ijocently salted, are excellent things: during the whole of my last voyage, I never tasted any other meat, though there was fresh meat for a considerable part of the voyage. Little cakes ^f bread baked by the cook, these neats' tongues, now and then an egg, washed down by water, or by tea or co£fee (for I then used the slops), were my diet during the voyage. It was not long, to be sure, but I landed in health just the same as that with which I set sail. If a man have a thousand pounds, or two, or more to take out with him, and, if the whole of his .family be healthy and strong ; if his business have been that of carpenter, mason, farmer, or even shopkeeper ; and if he be hale, and moderately young, I • Tl.] PRECAUTIONS ON BOARD. 113 tbetteenge may be the most proper place for him. Suppo«ing him to have a wife and four children, the expense of a cabin pauage would be about £150 ; while a passage in the steerage for the same persons would be, for the passage alone, only about £16; and as to the provisions, if they r«)st£12, there would be a superabundance, and that part which would be left would be by no means to be thrown away, all being of a durr.ble kind ; so that the steerage passage would cost £22, which makes £1 28 di£f«rence. Here, then, are five hundred and seventy-six dollars, and if you turn back to the letter of Mr. Full agar, letter B, yoii will find that, in the neighbourhood of the town of Utica, a good farm, with house, buildings, orchard, and all, are to be bought for two thousand dollars. Now, 576 dollars are more than a quarter of that sum : and, in letter No. 2, you will find that John Harden had got a good house to rent, a garden with ninety-two rods (Aground, with fruit-trees, for 25 dollars a year. Take these at twenty-five years* pur- chasei and they amount to 625 dollars ; so that you would save enough to buy a place like this, all but 49 doUara I do not recommend such saving if it be attended with great additional suffering to your wife ; but if she, upon a yiew of all the circumstances, upon a fair representation of the matter, can be brought to give l^er consent, what is the in- convenience for six weeks, when it is to be repaid by " a good house and garden, ninety rods of ground, and some fruit-trees ;" and these too, be it observed, your own clear property, wholly untithed, and nearly untaxed. The steerage is, in point of safety, equal to the cabin : they are both in the same ship ; onfi cannot sink without the other, and, indeed, neither ever sinks any more than towns are lost by earthquake^ in England : they are' on a perfect equa- " lity in this respect, and, as to your being kept from going on the quarter-deck) and being looked upon by the cabin )v 11 Ut u 114 EMIO RATION. [lettek {•i u t: [ pMsengers aa an inferior, a man, or a woman, thoie who can think any thing of these, are wholly unfit for enjoying the blessings to come at which they have undertaken the voyage. 74. While on board, you should pay great attention to the alarms of your wife : as for yourself, you must get over them as you can ; but it will be necessary for you to be ready on all occasions to allay her fears, and to cheer her up. The howling of the wind through the shrouds of the •hip : the sudden calling up the hands on the deck in a dark night ; the rattling upon the deck by the falling of ropes and the hand-spikes; the trampling of the feet of the sailors ; the bawling of the speaking trumpet, to overcome the roaring of the wind, and the doleful answer of the sailors in the shrouds, in a tone of voice just the contrary of that of cheering : in times like these, be you very watchful, very attentive ; tell her it is nothing ; go upon deck, if you can, and if you cannot, cheer her by telling the truth: make the best of the matter, at any rate ; for Dr. Pa let ■aid that it is not lying to tell a madman falsehood in order to prevent kim from doing mischief ; and then I am sure it is not lying for you, while you pat your wife's cheek, and afiect to laugh, to tell her that the captain says that there is not the least danger, and that the ship is going on at a famous rate, though, perhaps* that he has told you to get down belqi^, and keep out of the way of him and his men, And has given you no sort of answer to your inquiries about dangers. The dangers, when they happen to take place, are. in fact, very soon over in general ; you laugh i^t what alarmed you, and you have prevented your wife from being very much alarmed, and that is a duty by no means to be neglected ; but always bear in mind that, in every part of the ship, the danger is the same. 75. Children, too, if they be of an age to estimate danger. CTTBK VI.] PRECAUTIOM'B OW BOARD. 115 ho can Qg the sn the I to the It over 1 to be eer her of the ck in a lling of feet of eroome of the trary of atchful, , if you truth: Palet in order sure it ek, and at there ou at a to get lis men, a about 3 place, E^t what n being -ns to be rtofthe danger^ or to understand others when they talk of it, are net to be negleoted, especially if they be girls ; for these early frighu have frequently a great effect, not only upon their minds, but upon itieir bodies. The care, as to provisions, is greater in the steerage than in the cabin. The cooking place, called the cabboosef is for the whole ship, and you, if in the eteerege^ must seiae your opportunity when the pots and other things are disengaged. You must yourself be cook, except as before excepted, in the case of the use of the brandy bottle, which latter must be large in proportion to the number of your family, and the frequency of your culinary preparations. I have before mentioned a large bag of biscuits of the best quality, and fresh made, which I regard as a store against short allowance and famine. Flour, in its various modes of use, fine and excellent flour, is the great resource. Apples, excellent, refreshing; and apple puddings are easily made. Your wife will sit up in her berth,in very rough weather, and make thepuddings in a large tin pan, which you ought to take out for the purpose. The cook will boil them for you ; he will bake or broil cakes for you, and boiling water is all that you want for the slops of various descriptions. Gruel, during the sea-sickness, is pretty nearly all that you want. Plenty of tin thing§ to hold tea, coffee^ gruel, wetter^ for glass and crockery ware must be smashed to pieces. You will want no cookery of meat, except the broiling of a rasher, or the boiling of a ham, or of a bit of bacon. What these Sussex people mean by sap, I do not know ; though I suppose it to be gruel ; but one great thing is to avoid, when your stomach is good, to make it bad again, by overloading it with any thing ; it being not so much the nature of the thing, as the quantity ofit. 76. There is one thing which, though it may appear to be a trifle, is, nevertheless, worthy of your attention; I -i \y. :\ ft: r iv 116 BMIORATIOW. [letter 'I.. H', <> and it ic thU, not to ihoWf while you are on board, an extra- ordinary degree of anxiety for the termination of the voyage : endeavour to feel this anxiety as little as you can : be think- ing less about the voyage than about what you are to do after it is over. Eternal questions to the captain about the latitude and longitude in which he is ; about the way that he has made, and about the time when he thinks that the ship will arrive ; these are all very disagreeable to him and his mate ; who will not like you (the cabin pas- senger) for seeming to be in such indescribable haste to get out of their company. They like the ship : they can see no reason for disliking her ; they know her to be the best piece of stuflf that ever swam upon the water ; they look upon the cabin as a paradise ; and, think what you will of the matter, they will like you none the better for ex- pressing, by fair implication, your dislike of their ship and their company. And, as to you (steerage passenger), bait not the poor sailors with your questions of the same sort ; for they, instead of wishing the voyage to be short, always wish it to be long; and, instead of wishing for fair weather and smooth seas, always wish the former to be moderately ibul, and the latter moderately rough ; and are never so happy as when tied by ropes to the bulwarks for fear of being washed overboard, and when all the sails and yards are taken down and stowed away, and when the masts are lowered to the lowest possible point. . Tied to the bulwarks, they sing like birds in a shrubbery. But, if it be only a gale of wind, they are at work in the shrouds, and in- cessantly pulling and hauling ; if a fair wind, and gentle breeze, or even stiff breeze, and fine over-head, or if it be a calm without rain, there is plenty of work for them, mend- ing ropes, mending sails, putting things to rights below, washing and scraping the decks ; in short, they are at work. So that their interests induce them to wish precisely for ETTBR extra- oyage : tthink- «re to n about he way thinks cable to bin pai- le to get can see the best ley look will of for ex- khip and ;er), bait |ine sort ; ;, always weather idera,tely never so fear of ad yards lasts are mlwarksy only a and in- gentle if it be a mend- t below, at work. isely for VI.] PRKCAVTI09S ON BOARD. 117 a that wind and weather which you diftlike, and to wish for a long voyage while you wuh for a short one. The captain, and he only of the whole of the shi(i*s company, wishes for a short voyage, which saves him provisions in th# cabin ; and he being paid by the voyage, and not by the day. 77. The best way is, not to pester any of them with questions, and not to seem impatient even if you be so. When you approach the land, and get sight of it, it i« better not to express (for indeed yoU cannot, if you would) the pleasure that you will feel. The women and children, especially the former, will express enough upon this subject for themselves and you too. Take it all patiently ; let the ship come quietly to anchor ; and be in no hurry to get upon the shore. Give no money for it : the ship will bring you to the edge of the wharf at the next tide, or the next tide but one, and then take your family and things on shore without any expense worth speaking of, and save yourself the expense of boats, from which I verily believe more accidents arise, on an average, than from the ships them- «elves. \^ \\ ■i MM 0.1 V.!..\ ■■1 .^. ' '.d 118 . EMIORATI&N. [letter r.'" .' '."--'•■ W,'. >:st I h--' .!«.. - -, ■ .-• _/:'•? '^n>ry i? i * ^ ■■ •■ ^ • f.'r ■! ' ■; v;H ■■ ■ .■A r,v^ ■- :P.f . : ■1 LETTER VII. J--'. •> On the ^r St steps to be taken on Landing, IP ; / » r1 ' ■ H 78. I AM speaking of New York, though I suppose it is pretty nearly the same in all other sea-ports ; but New York is the great port of all, and I am better acquainted with it than with any other. I am to suppose you to land without knowing any person in that city. This is not the case, I dare say, in one half of the instances, there being such numbers of English people in that city, and in that STATE ; but I am to suppose this, and then I am to inform you, that there are not inns and public houses in the cities, to which people go for the purpose of lodging ; but, instead of these, places called boarding houses, where people board and lodge for so much per week. There are hotels of a very grand description, one of them I believe far surpass- ing any one in England, not only in size and elegance, but in expense of entertainment too. These places, however, are out of the question with every one who has not got handfuls of money to fling away. The boarding houses are of all grades, from twenty dollars per week for one person, down to four : I have never heard of any less than that. At these houses, the parties are lodged and boarded, without any trouble at all to themselves ; and they are kept, I might say, without an exception, by persons of unquestionably i ETTER ,1 <■ pose it is lut New squainted L to land B not the lere being jl in that to inform in the ing; but, ire people hotels of surpass- ;ance, but -ever, are handfuls tre of all jn, down Ithat. At \, without t, I might estionably viij STEPS ON LANDING. 119 good character. The meals are brought to one general table, three times a day ; and the variety and plenty are every where pretty much the same ; the room, and style, and manner, constituting all the difference between the highest and lowest. • ^ ^ ■- y . 79. It would be prudent for you, whether cabin or steer- Age passenger, if you have a family, or even a wife, to go on shore yourself, first, and look for and fix on a boarding house to go to. There generally ^are, I believe, boarding- house keepers of rather low description, that is to say, whose boarding is at low price, to come on board of ships which have emigrants on board, to engage them to go to their houses ; but it is better to go and examine for yourself. When you have fixed upon the place, you get a card in a minute, give the man the number of the boarding house, bid the ship, the sails and the rigging all farewell, and trudge off to the house with your family. The custom- house officers will look at your boxes and trunks, but will give you but very little trouble, and you will see, for the first time in your life, persons acting under the govern- ment, polite and respectable, be your dress as mean as it may. "'^.--^ .^ ^ ''^'y '{''.- ' '■■ -■ 80. Now, you may have to remain some little time in New York ; and, if you be farmer, shopkeeper, or any person in the middle rank of life, to whom it was an object to save the 576 dollars in the afiEiair of the passage, it must also be an object not only to save as much money as possible in the boarding ; but to get to a cheaper place as soon as convenient ; even before you take any steps for settling. A labourer, or an artisan, settles by getting work : that is his settlement ; and here let me givie every such man one piece of advice. Two men, a tailor and a collar-maker, were amongst those steerage passengers that went out in the flame ship with me, the last time I went to America. In \V ^ r I it I'O k [11 i- 120 EMIGRATION. [letter y'l \ ':■ about a month after I had been in Long Island, they came to see me; and, perceiving them to be still as meanly dressed as they were upon going £rom the ship, I asked them what they had been doing ? They said they had been doing nothing : I was surprised, and asked them whether people had left off wearing coats, and horses harness. They said no; but they could 'not get as high wages as others got. I found that each could have got a dollar and a half a day, that is to say, 65. 9d. a day, English monty, or forty shillings and sixpence a week ; and that they could have boarded even at ,a boarding house for eighteen shil- lings a week : and at very decent private houses for fifteen. I am here speaking of English money. I advised them to go by all means, and accept of the terms offered by the masters : and told them that, at any rate, I had nothing to bestow upon men, who could, if they would, clear their teeth, and save 25s. 6d. a week. 81. Now, the sensible, and even the just, thing, is, for a man to go to woik at once, for whatever ^ages he can get. No man will offer him so little that he cannot live well by his work, and save money too. When he has once got a footing, when he has got a little bag of dollars, which he may have in a short time, if he will, he can look abroad, he can move about, he can change his place, and do, in short, as the Sussex emigrants have done. 82. With regard to men in the middle rank of life, and especially those who have families, the advice which would suit those with a considerable sum of money would not be suitable to those who have a small sum ; such as have this small sum ought to go to the cheap boarding house, for, if there be the man, the wife, and the four children, the ex- pense would vary from eighty dollars a week to sixteen. Cer- tainly the man with little money will prefer the sixteen ; and, as to his wife^ she will, if he talk reasonably to her, choose ri '■ ifi ITTER J came meanly '. asked id been vhether They } others a half )nty, or ay could Ben shil- r fifteen, them to I by the )thing to ;ar their is, for a can get. e well by ice got a which he jroad^he in short, life, and ch would Jd not be have this ise, for, if I, the ex- en. Cer- .en; and, ir, choose VII.] STEPS ON LANDING. 121 the cheap house; especially the living there will be the most abundant she has ever seen. Persons widi more money may go to a dearer house if they please ; but still the scale ought to be kept as low as it can well be made> since the money thus saved will purchase so much of solid property. 83. But, unless New York be to be your final destina- tion, it will be well to quit it as soon as convenient ; for, why should the money be wasted by lingering here ? No intel- ligent man, whether tradesman or farmer (for gentlemen another set of observations will be necessary), will be in New York three days, without getting information from as many Englishmen as he pleases. No one will have an interest in deceiving him ; every one will communicate freely with him : every one would wish him well, and advise him accordingly to the best of bis knowledge ; but there is this to be guarded against, every man has his partialities as to place : if he like a certain place, he thinks that all others ought to like it : if he prefer a certain line of business, he is apt to think that it ought to be preferred by every other man ; for, you will observe, that there is no rivalship there : no man wants another . man's land, or another]|man's business. 84. If you find a situation to eiuit you, and have the means to purchase a farm, or set up a shop, go to it at once, and thus prevent the waste of money. If not, remove to the country as soon as you can, where the board and lodging are not in boarding houses, but in taverns, and, still better, in farm houses ; where, generally speaking, they are ready enough to take in lodgers and boarders. Here you can wait at a little expense; and, while the wife and children remain quite safe from all thieves, robbers, and every evil- minded person, you can traverse the country, having re- lieved yourself from the expenses of New York. While .»' ■A I il i jgl>fTkii'^^mm». 122 BMIG RATIO V. [lkttba (1/ K,' .' yoiLreniain in that populous and elflgank ciiy* jour wife^ aid davghtera, if you have any of the latter, will begin to chugoi tbeir dress. The pretty thiogs mentioned in letter 10,. hf-. Mart Jane Watson, once of Sbdlescomb, will he. very pleasing to tbeir eyes; and, as the expense is so- triOing, there is no reason that they should not be indidgedL in this matter. If they have been restricted to rotten cot- tons in England, how gladly will they exchange them for gowns, and crapes, and shawls, from China; and, whcA. they walk along the main street of New Yorjk, that solid and beautiful street, compared with which, the miserable plaster of Regent Street is beggarly, they will^ like the Sussex emigrants, bless God for bringing them to Anneriea; and will say, with Mary Janb Watson, that ^*^it was tlie best thing that father ever did for his family."' The indulgence even of their full desii'es in this respect, would cost next to nothing when compared with the cost of things here. This is not a thing to be neglected by any means ; for it will tend to reconcile the wife to the country ; it will furnish her with a comparative argument in favour <^the change; every time she looks at the American dress, she will not fail to whisper to herself the fact, that she must have lived and died in England,, and never possessed sufi^ things. 85. When you remove to the country, as a temporary residence, she will perceive, to her astonishment, that a farmer's, a shopkeeper's, an artisan's, and even a labourer's -wife, never trudge on footf even for a single mile, to visit her friends and neighbours. She will find people quite ready to carry her and her children about in their gigs, or light wagons ; and she will every where find, that she is received with as much cordiality as one of the family ; and the more destitute she appears to be of friends and acquaint* auces, the more she will find such to flock about her. ITTBII ▼ni.j! TO GET FARM, SHOP, &C. 123 !»• ifeaBd 10^ by, will hn. sn cot-^ , wh«A. B, that ch, the ey willy them to >N, that family, respect, ) cost of by any ouatry; n favour in dtw9, that she tosaessed mporary that a jibourer'a to visit >Ie quite , or light received and the ic<^aint» LETTER VIII. On the way, to proceed to get a Farm or a Shopy to settle in Business^ or to set yourself down as an inde" pendent Gentleman. 86. I SHALL speak first of the farmer j but, before I do that, let me suppose the case of a farmer who is able to work and who has little money ; and let me suppose the same of a tailor, shoemaker, carpenter, or other handi« craft business. If such a man have little money, not enough to purchase a farm worthy of the name ; and at the same time somewhat approaching towards a sufficiency, his best way is to purchase, or rent, a suitable place to live in with his family, and to go to work himself for some other man. We see that John Watson, after recovering from illness, set to work, and that his wife, though with a grow- ing family, took in sewing, and that presently they had two cows, two calves, and nine pigs. We find him, at a liEiter period, with a farm, which he had earned in a year and six nronths, besides keeping his family. His farm was not great, to be sure ; but he had earned it, and kept his family too. The daughters, if eleven or twelve years of age, and strong, should go out to help, as it is called, and the best of employers would be happy to have them. The same with regard to the boys. The expense of living becomes next to nothing ; and, if a man land with only two f2 .'1! i ^K«4>*i*«»:-^-»(tHi.-- 124 EMIGRATION. [letter 't or three hundred pounds, the addition to the sum soon enables him to purchase a farm. In the meanwhile he may Jarm on shares, as is mentioned in Letter No. 18. There his industry and skill have their full reward : he is a farmer at once ; and nothing but want of health (which will de- pend in a great measure upon himself) can prevent him from being in that happy state^ so finely described in the letter Cof Mr. Theophilus Fowle. 87. The artisan should do the same if he have not money to begin his trade at once ; and it would be an ad- vantage to him, too ; for, amongst brother workmen he would get thoroughly acquainted with all the customs of the country. With regard to the shop-keeper, who knows how to do nothing else but to keep shop, and yet has not money to set up a shop, which is there called a store, he, if not an old man, could help in the shop of another. If he be willing to work at any thing, his little stock of money must increase, and if store-keeping continue to be his taste, he will soon find the means of keeping stores ; for new scenes for doing this are continually opening; an increase of people and of produce, naturally and inevitably demand an increase of stores. • 88. If the farmer have the means of purchasing a farm at once, he will, of course, proceed to get it ; and I advise him to see many places, and to make full and minute inquiries before hv. establish himself : but by no means to go to back woods or new settlements, for which Americans are per- fectly well qualified, and for which Englishmen are wholly unqualified. Men are tempted by the cheapness, as it is called, of land ; but if they examine well, they will find thri .trery acre of land (beyond the immedi-ce Vicinity of to^' .) bears a price pretty exactly proportioned to the price of produce, taking all the articles together. Let me beg the farmer's attention to this. The price of flour, and ETTER VIII.] TO GET FAUM, shop, &C. 125 n soon be may There farmer /ill de- !nt him in the Bive not an ad- e would of the > knows has not fore, he, . If he f money ^is taste, for new increase demand , farm at vise him inquiries » to back are per- •e wholly ;, as it is will find cinity of i to the Let me lour> and of some other articles, does not appear to vary much between Utica and New York ; but there is a great difference between the price of turkeys, ducks, fowls, and geese, at Utica and New York, to which Mr. Fullagar might have added, apples, peaches, fruit of all sorts, together with melons, water-melons, squashes, and various other things, which, at Utica, can be hardly worth raising, and which, at New York, fetch, though at a low price, ilrom the great quantity and the ready market, a great deal of money. Be- sides this, the tuoodf which at Utica sells from two to two and a half dollars a cord, sells, on an average, at about seven dollars at New York ; and every farm in America consists partly of woods. Cider, Mr. Fullagar tells us, sells thirty-two gallons from 75 cents to a dollar ; that is to say, thirty-two gallons for about 3s. 6c?. English money, which is very little more than a penny a gallon. At and near New York it sells for about seven times the price ; so that, though it is cheap enough even there, I do not know that this is precisely the price at New York now ; but it is manifest that an orchard at Utica is a very different thing from an orchard at twenty or thirty miles from New York. We see, by Mr. Fullagar's letter (letter C), that mutton and veal were, in the month of January, three cents a pound at Utica ; th t is to say, three halfpence English; but, by number 16, we find that mutton was two or three English pence a pound at New York, or at Brook- lyn, which is the same thing. We find that pork, which was six cents a pound at Utica, was eight cents, or four English pence a pound at New York, or Brooklyn. The difference between the two sorts of pork at the two places is not so great as the difference between the two sorts of fresh meat at the two places ; and we find butter and cheese at New York pretty nearly as dear as in England, while at Utica the butter is fourteen cents, or seven-pence : IP .It! 1' I.' ! 1 i 'V "i ^i '«! UA ft ■ ,;ii I 126 EMIORATIOV. [lbttbe Eog^sh, and the cheese seveo cents, or threepence half- penny English; and please to observe, when Mr. Fullaoajb wrote, be spoke of the English prices which he left behind htm, which must have been those of about the year 1825. 89. So that, if you look at the great difference in the price of all these perishable commodities ; and especially if you take in the poultry, which is one great part of the pro- duce of a farm near New York, where a goose sells for fifty cents instead of twenty-five cents ; and where a turkey of ten pounds sells for five English shillings, instead of sell- ing at three, as at Utic a. If you take this into view, you will find that the 87 acres of land, witli the buildings de- scribed by Mr. Full AGAR, which, in the neighbourhood of Utic A, could be bought for 2000 dollars, would be wgallon at New York. The orchard would produce you much more than enough ; but, without taking it into the account at all, let us suppose the servants to drink each of them half a pint of spirits every ■H l I ^' 4= •i^. 132 EMIGRATION. [letter VW' day; this makes 319 gallons in a year, including women as well as men ; and these 319 gallons of spirits cost, according to Mr. Full AGAR, 79 dollars. There remains drink for the family : I hope in God it will not be much ; but, they might be pretty jovially drunk, if I could suppose such a thing possible, at a very moderate expense. Brandy and rum (both foreign articles) were one dollar a gallon at Utica, and must be much cheaper at New York. I have seen a great deal of claret at New York, and very good, at a dollar and a half the dozen bottles ; that is, 6s. 9c?. the dozen. Madeira wine used to be, I think, about double that price ; but, suppose it all to be an English shilling a bottle, and sup- pose a thousand buttles to be drunk in a year, and fifty gal- Ions of brandy and rum, exclusive of cider and of the spirits drunk by the servants, there then is 225 dollars a year for drink for the family and visiters. Now come the groceries, which must be monstrous indeed, with tea at 35. a pound, and sugar at bd.^ if they exceeded 100 dollars a year. On clothes, and carriages and horses, and plays and balls, and " Virginia waters," any thing may be expended ; but having got now 1054 dollars exclusive of interest of money, on the house and on the farm; having provided for every thing exclusive of the clothes and the playhouse money, and the book money and ball money ; if that can exceed 596 dollars a year, including the interest of money laid out for horses and cows and pigs ; if that can exceed 596 dollars, this family ought to perish. After that, then, there are a thousand dollars a year left to lay by to make each of the children, in due time, a fortune something approaching to that of their father, when his fortune shall be added to the savings, and divided amongst them. 95. This is what may be done with £10,000 in America. Half the sum will of course do half as much ; and a quarter of the sum, which yields nearly 800 dollars in the year, is 1 Vlll.] TO GET FARMy SHOP, &C. 133 and enough for the independent maintenance of a decent family. Two thousand five hundred pounds, why it is the mere dregs of many a wasted fortune in England. Many a man has more than that after he has become what is called a beggar ; and I say that at any village, not within a very short distance from New York, 800 dollars are sufficient to keep even a genteel family well, without any income other than that. One great advantage in America is, that there is nobody to overshadow men of moderate property ; no swaggering, shining, tax- eating wretches to set examples of extravagance, pride, and insolence, to your sons and daugh- ters, who are brought up in the habit of seeing men esti- mated, not according to the show that they make, not ac* cording to their supposed wealth, not according to what is called birthf but according to the real intrinsic merit of the party : this is a wonderful advantage : there are no dis- advantages that I know of: there are none that I call dis- advantages ; but there must be many and great disad- vantages to overbalance this one single advantage. 96. A s to sports of the field , as they are generally called , there is an abundance of them. Horse-rac«s near all large towns : there are two racing places within 30 miles of New York ; and though the thing is not so showy as it is here, the horses are pretty nearly as good ; and, generally speaking, all sorts of horses in that country are better than they are in this ; and I never saw in that country the thing which we call in this country a poor horse ; very rarely indeed a blind horse ; and pretty nearly as rarely a horse with broken knees or wind. The truth is, that the easy circumstances in which men live prevent them pushing horses so hard ; and when an accident happens to a horse, the same circumstances enable the owner to get rid of him at once by killing him. Of hunting f in our style, there can be very little, and, indeed, I never saw it at all; but, take the whole together, shooting'^' ■D m i %v m ■4#V -ur light therwiae, ild geese Emt, that ed with I truth is, e do not VIII.] TO GET FARM, SHOP, &C. 135 set a high value upon them; but if you like duck-shootiog, here you have it during the Tvhole of the winter months. So that, as to sports of the field, they are finer than they are here; of greater variety, exclusive of the hunting and coursinir ; and are, at any rate, sufEcient for the diversion and exercise of any man ; and this, too, without any game laws : without the smallest idea of trespass in the pursuing of these diversions ; without any necessity of asking the leave of any body ; and without any drawback whatever from these rational and health-preserving pleasures. I have here been speaking of the vicinity of New York ; it is much about the same with regard to all other great citi^ and towns : there can be no very great difference other than that which arises from the difference in the soil, and the nature of the country, as to water, woods, and so forth. f i m 1:1 H % I' « r V \^ 136 EMIGRATION. [letter LETTER IX. On the means of obtaining Education for Children^ and literary and scientific Amusement and Knowledge for yourself. 97. It is next to impossible to make people in England be- lieve that the United States contain any establishments worthy of being called " learned." It is the business of lying travellers to represent the people of that country as uncouth, unedu- cated, and illiterate ; of all things illiterate. The truth is, however, that there are quite a sufficiency of really learned men, and the science of the country is proclaimed in some- thing better than books ; in the grandest canal in the whole world ; in bridges over rivers, more than a mile wide ; in ships, by far the finest and best the world has ever seen ; in steam- boats (an American invention) compared to which our very best are beggarly things; in pilot-boats, several of which have crossed the Atlantic Ocean ! A feat never performed by any other nation^ nor even attempted to be per- formed In a vessel of the same size : in every department of maritime affairs ; in house building ; in legislation ; in law ; in surgery and medicine ; in every science useful to man ; and, indeed, every science cultivated by man, the Americans i \ ssasaa LETTER Irejif and ^dge for gland be- lts worthy travellers h, unedu- e truth is, / learned in some- the whole wide; in seen ; in which our everal of eat never to be per- irtment of ; in law ; to man ; fVmericans IX.] MEANS OF EDUCATION. 137 are our equals : they have our machinery as well as we ; they have our players (greater is their misfortune). In short, if we surpass them in some branches of literature and sci- ence, they surpass us in others. 98. There are every where schools of all grades, just the same as in England. Our national schools, which are a sort of begging concern, form but a poor imitation of their public schools, one of which they have in every townshipj esta« blished by law, and supported by a tax. Then, for a higher order of persons, there are day schools, boarding-schools, academies, every where, where they are wanted. We have seen'that at Utica, a place which has three thousand per- sonp, there is an academy, and seven printing-offices. 99. There are twelve Colleges in America, for the education of gentlemen, priests, or ministers, lawyers, and doctors ; and we see from Dr. Morse's account, that, during the ten years, from 1800 to 1810, there were 2792 gentlemen who graduated, and 458 ministers. In the last ten years it has, most probably, been twice or thrice that number; and a man ^ cannot become lawyer or doctor in that country any more than in this without some of these previous steps to qualify him and to give assurance of his qualification. These places of education are conveniently distributed throughout the coun- try : the printing-presses and newspapers are endless : there is no book that is read here which is not immediately re- published there. Even English newspapers are to be found at New York, in the Hotels, as regularly as in those of London. 100. What, then, can a gentleman want more with regard to the means of education, and of amusement, and of learning through the means of books? Dr. Mitchell, of New York, who was formerly a practising physician, may be fairly regarded as one of the most learned men in the world ; and, notwithstanding his great learning, he has about him i* I 4 ' .1 ' ill r, {ii 138 EMIGBATIOV. [lettir ell the familiarity and frankness of an Amerioan faroMiu The Doctor has done as much as any man living to ooaa- municate his knowledge to ail classes of persons without any exception of rank or nation. When I was last in America he received a diamond ring from the Emperor of Russia, ^n return for a plough that he had sent to some one in Rvt- siA, where, as he had heard, or ^ believe, seen, the people were defective in point of ploughs, of which, by far the best that I ever saw are made at New York ; so that Engliak farmers need not be afraid that they shall not find Itusbandry implements in America. It would have been very long hefure Doctor Mitchell had received a diamond ring for any thing sent to England. Our Sovereign might, probably, have ordered a letter to be written to him: that is a possibility; but the Emperor Alexander wrote one with his own hand, which, however, the Doctor 0wed, probably, more to the far-sighted policy of the Em- peror Alexander, than to his gratitude for the Doc- tor's very sincere desire to promote the good of I4;ricultttie in Russia. We do every thing to offend that great and rising people ; we, by our reviews and other raantfestly faired pubUcatious, take care so to cheer on every blackguard tra- veller that puts forth a heap of lies and abuse relative to America ; %ve take care to make their dislike of our govern- ment as great as possible, and to povide for ourselves as great a stock of just hostility as we can possibly get together. We are now squandering liundreds of thousands, and even millions, in fortifying the beggarly and barren rocks to the nofth of the United States ; and this, as it were, forthe flole purpose of urging them to go to war with us at the first fair opportunity ; and this, too, whale we rtand with our armft folded up, and inmost in tears, at seeing Russia avurrun&ing Turkey. 101. T«o return to the subject of Edacation, the manam [LETTm in farniMb g to ooas- itbout any i America e in Rvft- ,he people tr the best tt Eogliftk Itusbandry very long mond ring ign migbt, to him: £XANDEa 8 Doctor * the £m* the Doc- igrioultttfe great and estly faired ;uard tr»- relative to ur govera- trselves as it together, and even >ck8 to the tre, ferthe kt the first withoitr ; Russia B manaen XX.] MEANS OF EDUCATION. 139 of the teachers are, of course, the manners of the country. But, if any one should think of going to America as school* roaster or teacher, and especially as schoolaiistress or female teacher, it is necessary to observe to such persons, that the Americans are extremely scrupulous as to character ; and that they look with a very inquisitive eye at all those under whose care they place their children. No better country in the world for schoolmasters of good character, good life, and with talents equal to the undertaking according to its degree. But, the character must be unquestionable here and, as to females, the character must bear the strictest scrutiny. It would be impossible for a man to take his mistress to America and palm her upon any circle for his wife, unles amongst the mere labouring people and artisans. Even at a boarding house at New York, unless of the very lowest description, there must be no doubt upon this point to get admission. People there do not bow low to fine clothes or heavy purses: they have fixed prices: there is always a respectable mistress of the house, who sits at the head of her own table ; and she will not suffer any one to sit there whose character is suspicious, or who has any thing equivocal in her condition or connexion. Not only can no mistress pass for a wife ; but nojwoman will find admiissioa to these houses, if she have had the misfortune to be connected by anticipation with her husband, which I used to think was being starched rather overmuch. However, such ir, the case ; and it is good for persons who go to America to live, and have incurred the misfortune arising from this hymeneal haste, to know that, unless they be in the lowest state of life, the sooner they get under a roof of their own the better. To road the works of our lying travelleFS, who would suppose the Americans were more nice in thie rei^cct than people are here ? Yet, the fact is that they are m ; and it is quite surprising how quickly, after an r 'ii' ■i). rl '4 m ■ t' '^fk: 140 EMIGRATION. [letter J \l y English woman has landed, every circumstance, even the most minute, relative to the history of her conjugal affairs, is sifted out; and with what despatch, and, at the same time^ with what good-nature, her society, if circumstances demand it, be dispensed with. 102. This is very well worthy of the attention of many persons ; for they may be assured that the unpleasant cir- cumstances in which, from causes of this sort, they are placed here, will all revive, and in deeper colours in Ame- rica. In such a case (and the case may happen to very amiable and good people, though it is generally the contrary), the sooner a man becomes a farmer under his own roof the better. The less he hears of women's tongues for a year or two, a great deal the better. It takes a great deal to stop them ; and their eyes are so piercing ; so penetrating ; and they are so very much disposed to make interpretations and assumptions, and to draw disadvantageous conclusions, that, really, it is better, in any of the cases above supposed, to keep as much as possible aloof from all temptations to this species of pruriency. After a time ; after a man and wife have',been jogging on, for a year or two, like other men and wives ; and after children have been born, or been growing UD, and all seem to be in the usual way, there is no food for curiosity, there is no one to inquire, or to think of in- quiring, into the age of the oldest child, and to compare it with the date of the marriage ; and every thing will go on smoothly. 103. Now, if any one should happen to say, that these pre- cautions suggested by me, imply a slander upon my country- women, I, in the first place, deny the charge ; and, in the next place, I say that I am not only justified but called upon to suggest these precautions, when I read, even in a report laid before the House of Commons, that the parson of the parish of Little Horwood, in Buckinoiiamshirb, _LETTER even the affairs, is Line time, 3 demand of many isant cir- they are \ in Ame- n to very contrary), n roof the ' a year or >al to stop ting; and ations and lions, that, pposed, to ms to this and wife men and m growing is no food ink of in- connpare it will go on these pre- y country- ind, in the ailed upon n a report son of the M SHIRE, IX.] MEANS OF EDUCATION. 141 f and an overseer of the paiish of Peliiam, in FIertford- SHiRE, declared, to a committee of that House, in July, 1828, that it was a general thing for the brides in the country to be in a fair way of being mothers before they were married. If there be slander then, it comes from the House of Commons, and not from me. It may be said, that the parson and the overseer confine their observation to poor people; but will not the Americans, to whom all these things are regularly made known, be disposed to be- lieve that, where this practice is general amongst the poor, it cannot be entirely unknown amongst the rich ; especially as they are not accustomed to make wide distinctions between rich and poor. 104. I have mentioned that America is a good place for schoolmasters of good character and the necessary talent ; because there are new places continually rising up, towns continually increasing ; and because the law makes pro- vision for a schoolhouse and a schoolmaster in every town- ship ; and further, because it is the general practice to make schooling a part of the payment of young people who are put out to service ; accordingly we find, that Mary Jane Watson, the poverty of whose parents would have pre- vented her from ever knowing a letter in England, was put to school during the time that she was in service in Con- necticut; and she was thus enabled to write the letters No. 10, 11, and 12, which are worthy of universal admira- tion^ But, a man should not pretend to be a schoolmaster, even of a Country Township, until he have qualified himself for writing well, for performing the several workings of com- mon arithmetic, and for teaching at last the rudiments of grammar. To undertake the task without this degree of fitness, would be to disappoint his employers, and finally injure him- self. Mere clerks, or young men who call themselves such, and who have been used to live by mere sitting and writing f' I 11 II III !| '^ ^ I 142 EMIGRATIOy. [letter at a desk a few hours of the day, are almost the only persons, except lawyers, attorneys, and doctors, that are not wanted io America. These persons lead easy lives : all men like easy lives, and the Americans as well as others; and the general prevalence of hook education in that country gives it a native stock of white-fingered idlers quite sufficient for its wants. But if a young man, who has been what is called a clerk in England, can resolve to strip o£f his coat and bustle about in a store^ there is no such young man who iray not mend his lot by the change, and who may not marry without going and taking the hand of his bride, trem- bling all the while, lest they should starve together : and here I dismiss this letter, with a remark which all young men will find greatly useful if they attend to it. Women are very just persons : they never make any distinction with regard to nation : they take the party for what he is worth in their estimation without any extrinsic circumstances; and the girls in America are beautiful and unaffected : perfectly frank, and, at the same time, perfectly modest ; but, when you make them the offer of your hand, be, for God's sake, prepared to give it, for wait they will not. la England we frequently h?ar of courtships of a quarter of a century; in that anti-malthusian country (where Mal- THUS would certainly be burnt alive) a quarter of a year is deemed to be rather " lengthy* »> [letter y persons, 9t wanted men like ; and the ntry gives Bcient for t is called coat and man who may not ide, trem- ther: and all young Women ction with e is worth Distances ; laffected : f modest ; d, he, for not. la arter of a re Mal- a year is »! tU MISCELLANEOUS MATTEIl. 143 LETTER X. On ttich other matters, a knowledge relating to which must be use/Ul to every one going from England to the United States* 105. First, as to the manner of taking and transmitting mone^. If the sum be small, you take it in gold in your chest, if large, Bills of Exchange are always to be had ; and you should remember that many a ship has been lost while the crew and the passengers have been saved. This hap- pens when ships are driven on rocks or on shore ; or when met at sea in a shattered state, and when the crew and passengers are taken out by another ship. Therefore, some little ready money in your pocket, carrying out bills for the rest, leaving the duplicates of those bills in the hands of trusty friends is the proper way. Merchants in London are the persons to apply to for the bills : and there is scarcely any man of property so destitute of friends in London, as to pre- vent him from acquiring a sufficient degree of knowledge with regard to this matter. But the times are ticklish ; and amongst the good things of America, our bad things find their way most speedily amongst merchants. When you consider, that the United States ship goods to this kingdom to the amount of about ten millions sterling in the year, and receive goods from this kingdom of much about the same amount, you must be sure, that, as far as mer- i 4 ( ' U, I ' ''1 k ■ h .a n t'f) I! r I * If: t i. 144 EMIGRATION. [letter y; \m chantB are concerned, one country cannot be in a shattered state, without the other being shattered in a great degree. New York has much more to do with Liverpool than it has to do with all the other great cities and towns of the Ame- rican Union. If all the merchants in Liverpool were ruined to-morrow, all those in New York would be ruined on about the lOlh of September. So, that, take care of whom you purchase the Bill of Exchange ; take care to whom you give your money for that bit of paper ; for, it is per- fectly fatal to land in that country with a bill to be pro- tested. Even if you finally recover the money, you are harassed to death with anxiety in waiting for it. To divide it, is perhaps best ; for though the sea has some pos- sible dangers, those dangers are not to be compared with dangers attending the transactions of merchants in these ticklish times. Having my view of the matter before you, consult with your friends, and do that which you find to be best. 106. The next thing is, my earnest advice that, be your rank of life what it may, not to meddle much with the politics of the country. The first time I was in the Un ited S.tates, it was my business to meddle, for I published a newspaper, and I meddled to some efi^ect ; but, when I was there the last time, I meddled not at all, except in pointing out one act of great injustice done to the South Americans, in an Act of Congress: and the Congress, which was then in session, had the candohr and good sense to pass a new Act to rectify the other, and to avow without scruple that it was an error which they were obliged to me for pointing outf though I never went to Washington, and never spoke but with two members of the Congress while I was in the country. You will every where find the peop!e divided into two political parties ; but, as you will have no right to vote at elections until you have resided five years in the country. \h [lettir a shattered eat degree. ooL than it of the A me- were ruined 9 ruined on re of whom re to whom r, it is per- [ to be pro- ey, you are )r it. To s some pos- npared with tts in these before you, »u find to be X.] MISCELLANEOUS MATTER. 145 le your rank e politics of D S.TATES, newspaper, IS there the out one act ASS, in an vas then in a new Act that it was r pointing lever spoke was in the livided into ight to vote he country, it will be much the be England. The Americans are a sensible people, and, tliough not suspicious and apt to impute bad motives, their observation has taught them that this species of flattery of thuir country is not a characteristic of the best of men. It is unnatural for a man to rave in general terms against his own country : it is, in a less degree certainly, like railing against one's own family. To speak with truth and with proper feeling against the acts of the government in Eng- land ; to speak of its misrule and consequent miseries, may be, and is, right enough and perfectly natural ; for, these form the ground of your quitting your country. But, to rail against England in the lump ; to pretend to believe that it is a mere nothing of a country ; to speak against the people in a mass, is not only A'ery foolish in itself, but it is sure to make with regard to you a disadvantageous impression on the minds of your hearers, who, if you were to talk to your last breath, would never be persuaded that England was not a great, a fine, and a glorious country. God forbid that any Englishman should ever endeavour to remove this persuasion from the mind of any body'. It is, indeed, now in a wretched plight : it is hardly possible to describe its state of depression; but this cannot last for ever; the country must and will renovate itself; and, if you were to endeavour to convince an American that it never would do this, he would not contradict you, but you would sink in his opinion. 108. On the contrary, do not be endlessly bragging about i ( I ri Hi V 1 1 \ -I 1 \'i 146 EMIGRATION. [letter U i I England. If you see posts and rails, instead of quickset hedges ; if you see that which appears slovenliness about the fields, the meadows, and the homesteads ; and if you see- the plough and the scythe im|)eded in some cases by rocks and stumps of trees, do not seem in your conversation tO' despise a state of things so different from that in England, and do not draw the disadvantageous comparison. Do not be everlastingly saying, " We have such and such things in England ; " for, though the Yankees will not askif jthe poor people here have, or if you yourself ever had, fowls, turkeys, ducks and geese, and preserved peaches upon your table ; though they will not ask you whether England gave you beefsteaks with your tea ; though they will say nothing to you, they will form an opinion less advantageous of you than they otherwise would have formed. 109. The best way is to take things as you find them, and make the best of the blessings you enjoy : wish for the happiness of your native country, and be faithful and grateful to that to which you have transferred your alle- giance. When the proper time comes ; when your term of probation has expired ; when yon enter upon the enjoyment of all the political rights of the citizen, then it is your duty to meddle with politics ; it is your duty to do there as you would have done here if you could ; prevent public m'schief, promote public good, to the utmost cf your power. 110. There are some i nconveniences with respect to which I think it necessary to warn you. The first is, that you will, in spite of any cheerfulness of disposition, find yourself, at first, whether you be married or single, in that sort of state, which is described in the old saying, like a fish out of water, I who have changed my local situation so often, and who have experienced changes so great, am well qualified to speak relative to this matter ; for, if the changes hav« always had an impression upon a buoyant spirit like mine. 1 ETTEa uickset about pu see* . r rocks ition tO' Qglandf Do not lings iii ;he poor turkeys, r table; ave you thing to i of you d them, ti for the ifu! and >nr alle- : term of ijoyment >ur duty e as you n'rd it, a light i rank ter be \e, she spirits Du will scount. II, ivho jceive ; ention. sd, and eat and City of ess hot, ' lontrary oaber is o some known. :ount of ibed its is fact; I three to very 10 clear, harvest so com- it is no- If you lute cir- 115 other ier to the s Resi* iisquitos, and grashoppcrs ; but these are inseparable from the heat that will give you orchards of peaches, bearing great crops at three years or four years from the tossing the stone into the ground, and hanging on the trees (as John Watson says in Letter No. 2) " almost as thick as your hops." Nature has said that you shall not have these, and melons, and water melons in the natural grouc>d, and apples, and cherries, and plums, and thexest, the fruit following the blossom upon all as surely as the night follows the day ; nature has said that you shall not have all these, unaccompanied with flies, musquitos, and grashoppers, the latter of which, however, are but occasional plagues, and the two former of which may, by great care, be pretty nearly avoided. 113. In the "Year's Residence" you mil find an ac- w^untof the beautiful weather in the autumn. For my part, le winter were a great deal more cold than it is, and the (iummer a great deal hotter, I would endure them for the sake of this autumn, two months of which generally pass without a cloud in the sky, the sun shining upon the finest verdure that ever eyes beheld. This is a fine season for the sports of the field ; for travelling, for enjoyments of all sorts ; and, though it is followed by a cold winter, it is not followed by a wet winter, which is £l great deal worse thing. The climate has been the teacher of the people : the horses which draw the gigs, and coaches, and wagons, in sum- mer, draw sleighs upon the snow : and when the roads are a little beaten, a single horse will draw ten or a dozen peo- ple. Into these sleighs people toss themselves, with sheep* skins under their feet, with furs on their hands and round their necks ; and this is the gay season ; for now the visit- ings, the assemblings, the dancings, and all the merry meet- ings of the country are going' on. 114. Vegetables are housed for the winter. Necessity has taught how to preserve them, and the substantial ones III ■I I fl 'I MM* 150 EMIGRATION. [letter M I are a« plentiful in the winter as those of a less substantial na- ture are in the summer; fresh meat keeps any length of time; and there are many other advantages attending this, as it would he called in England, horribly hard winter. 115. In conclusion, let me observe that, without healUi, life is hardly worth having. I have said, frequently, that I never knew the want of health in America. I have,ia my '* Year's Residence," given instances <^ extraoiw dinary longevity in that country. Mr. Brisbot, after a very minute inquiry and comparison, ascertained that people once grown up, lived, on an average, longer in the United States than in France. By the letters from the Sussex emigrants, you will perceive, that they had, generally sjpeaking, exceeding good health. The family of Watsok, is, you perceive, very numerous and of various ages ; and yet fdl but one has had excellent health. 116. Now, be you assured, that the greatest enemy to health is excessive drinking, I know, from observation) that this is the great destroyer of the health of the Ame* AiCANs; 1 have seen many a bright Englishman totaUy ruined in his health, and fortune too, by indulging in this abominable vice ; and, therefore, let me hope that every one who reads this wiU abstidn from that vice, to the indul* gence in which the temptations are so strong, while the «:Xii pense of the indulgence is so small. Pray .look at Letter No. 11, written by that good and sensible girl, to whom I have so often referred. In that letter she is speaking of her brothers James and John and William; and pray mark ; she says, in one place, *' James had been very sidi " near two months, but was got better and able to work." She says, presently afterwards, "James has drinhed ** very much since he has been in this country, Johk ''and William have been very sober and industrious^ and a great help to James both in sickness and in health."^ 4i X.] MISCELLANEOUS MATTER. 151 If thia do net make a lasting impression upon the mind of the reader, I eould not produce it, were J to Vrrite till doomsday. 117. "But what are people to do who work, seeing "that they must have something besides water?" This question is the general one ; but it includes an assertion^ the tnith of which I deny as applicable to any persons but those engaged in hard work. How many miles have I tra- velled in America ; how many hot days endured ; how many days' and weeks' and months' toil,, from morning till night, carrying a gun and a game bag in July, August, and Sebtember; and yet I do act recollect that I ever tasted spirituous liquors during any of these toils, except once when I was out with a Philadelphia lawyer, who car- ried a little canteen of brandy, and who prevailed upon n^e to mix a little with some ^ater in the crown of my hat. I was dght years, when young, in the colony of New Brunswick, where rom was seven-pence a quart, and whei^ not one single man, out of three or four hundred, was, at a xedcontng time, sober for above a week, except myself; jmd> during the -whole of the time that I lived amidst all that 'drunkenness, I nevidr once tasted spirituous- liquors, except npon one occasion, when I made a journey through the woods for a wager, and expected to be out all the night. The winter in that countiy is of seven months' duration; and sometimes so severe that you cannot go ten yards with- out being frost-bitten, if fingers or nose be exposed ; yet 1 never, except in that one single case, tasted spirituous liquors during the whole of thai time ; and every man that died with us in that country was killed by drink. lis. My drink in that country was generally goat's milk .and water. Five or six tifmes I might drink some English por^ tdr; but, generally speaking, the pure water and goat's milk tvas my drink. In the United States, at my own home in ;i I 152 EMIGRATION. [letter LoKO IsL A KD, milk and water; sometimes cider, and the same at neighbours' houses. Just before I came away^ I bought some claret, at about seven-pence, English money, a bottle, and mixed it with water. In Pennsylvania, ' iirhen I used to go shooting, water from the brook or well, or milk and water or cider, was my drink ; but my great drink was milk and water, summer and winter;' and, if thirsty while shooting, I made for the first farm-house ; and if travelling, drew up to the first farm-house that I came near, if I found myself at a distance from a tavern. 1 19. Why, I passed eighteen years of my life in coun- tries stinking with rum, with brandy, and with whiskey, and I never knew a day's illness, except a short spell of yellow fever in Philadelphia, which, as the doctors told me, was rendered slight by my great sobriety; I being, otherwise, a fine subject for it to maul. Yet, at very hard work, and in very hot weather, when the perspiration pours from the body, as is the case when men are mowing, and at « «ome other labours in the fields; in these cases a small portion of spirits may be necessary, and I believe it is. It would be better if the labour were more moderate, the wages lower, and the drink abstained from ; but this is a change of customs that cannot be effected. From the little necessary, men proceed to the little unnecessary, and from that they proceed to the great deal. The vice steals upon you by imperceptible degrees, till at last, you have not the power to shake it off; and when you arrive at that pitch, itjequires an effort too great for your remaining sense of danger. Oh ! how many men — how many bright men — how many strong men, have I seen sink into mere nothings in consequence of this detestable vice. You must give drink to those whom you employ ; and it must be according to the custom of the country. You cannot alter the cus- toms and the manners : you cannot teach morality to a -i» «!»/••,»»'■ LETTER and the away» I money, VANIA, or well, iy great and, if se; and I came • n coun- whiskey, spell of )RS told I being, ry hard on pours , and at « a small ire it is. ate, the his is a he little nd from Us upon not the It pitch, sense of men — nothings ust give ;cording he cus- ity to a ^.] MISCELLANEOUS MATTER. 15^ nation : but you can be the monitor, both by example and precept^ to your own family ; and if you neglect this duty, this most sacred of all earthly duties, be assured that the duration of your repentance will be from the day that you see a son become a lad, until the day of the termination of your own life. William Cobbett. 1 ■ c5 ( 154 ) POSTSCRIPT. Wolverhamptony bth May, 1830. 120. After I had published the Emigrant's Guide, in the month of August last, I was frequently applied to, in person, by men of property ^ for information with regard to prices and rent of houses, farms, &c. in Long Island; and I was very often asked to give an exact description of pieces of property that I myself had a personal knowledge of It was difficult to do this ; it took up a great deal of my time; and, besides, though I knew the several farms and places very well, and could describe them accurately and minutely, I could not state the value of them, except by guess J because I had never asked what was the value ; and, if I had, I had made no memorandum on the si^bject. 121. Therefore, I wrote, in October last, a letcer to Mr. John Tredwell, of Salisbury Place, in Long Island, re- questing him to give me answers to thirteen questions, which I numbeced from 1 to 13, keeping a copy of them, and also the numbers, and requesting him to put his answers against the numbers ; I knowing him to be a man of perfect know- ledge of the subject, and a man on whose judgment and word I could safely place reliance. The questions were as follows, as contained in his letter tome, dated the 13th of January last, and which letter found me at Cambridge, on the 2&th of March. TS'W PRICES AND RENT OF HOUSES. 1 55 No. 1. What is the yearly rent of a house in New York, not for businesH of Vi.ny sort, but for residence^ for a mid- dling-sized genteel family, in a clean and healthy street ? 2. What is the legal interest of money lent on mortgage of land? 3. Are such mortgages easy to be got ? 4. What is the price, bought out and out, of a country- house and farm like yours, at 20, 30, 40, or 50 miles from New York, and in Long Island. 5. What is the price of a country-house, as large as yours, with out-buildings, a garden, or^ ard, and a bit of ground for cows and horses «o run in, supposing the whole to be fifteen acres ; and suppose the property to be within 20 miles of New York, and on Long Island ? 6. What are the number of acres of A*s farm ; and what is that farm worth ? 7. How many acres is B's farm ; and what is that farm worth ? 8. What is the yearly rent of a good-sized, genteel house, orchard and garden,- and bit of ground, at Flatbush, Flushing, or Jamaica^ 9. What is the yearly rent of such a place, at Jericho ? 10. What is the number of acres of C's farm, and what is that farm worth, house and all ? Not what he would ask for it; but what such a place is worth, at that distanct from New York ? U. What is the worth of D's taverUf with the land be- longing to it? f „i,aJ8* MO.' -m 158 POSTSCRIPT. cost is, you see, 800/. our money, out and out. more would stock it well. 200/. No. 7. I know this farm also. It has better and more ample buildings than No. 6. The fences will last many years without repair. The land is, in quality, like No. 6. ; but in much better cultivation. The woodland is in sufficient proportion. A nicer farm no man need wish for. The value is 1,600/. our money; and 300/. more would stock it most amply. No. 8. This supposes a house with garden and orchard and run for a cow ; but not on the scale of No. 5. Quite sufficient, however, for eab/ and genteel life; And the cost is, you see, at most, 40/. a year, our money, with no taxes, or rates, worth speaking of. The taxes and rates alone on such a place, including tax on gig and dog and servant, will, in Englanr^, amount to 501. a year. No. 9. This takes you about 25 miles from New York to a very pretty and pleasant inland village ; but, on ac- count of the distance from the city, the place is 30/. a year, instead of 40/. No. 10. This' C.'s /arm is one of the finest that I ever saw in my life. It has a large proportion of valuable wood- land ; I should think 18 acres of orchard; and these the very finest that I ever saw even in that country. The quantity of apples, pears, and peaches, beyond all conception of those who have never been in America. I once saw one of the orchards (about 10 acres), the trees loaded with the finest apples, and the ground below bearing a fine cfbp of Indian corn. The house cannot have less than 12 or 14 rooms in it ; and the out-buildings and yards all upon a large scale, and in PRICES AVD 11E19T OT HOUSES. 1.59 200^ I more ill last quality, . The fkrm no nonfiy; ird and No. 5. ie\ life ; ear, our king of. tcluding inglan'', ork to a on ac- 13 302. a jver saw e wood- nd these country, lyond all Lmerica. res), the ground he house and the ., and in perfect repair. Suppose it be 20,000 dollars, that is 4,000/. of our mouey ; and the land is tithe-free^ and .the whole so nearly being tax-free, as for taxes and rates to be hardly worth naming. This place is at about 20 miles distance from New York. No. 11. Is a TVtvern, about 15 miles from New York, on the turnpike road. A large house with all conveniences for a tavern. A garden ; and, I think, from 15 to 20 acres of land attached to it, part of the land beiug woodSt which, observe, supply all he fuel. 800 f, buys this tavern out and out, land and all ; and rhus a man gets it for a sum that will not yield him, hx inte- rest, on mortgage, more than 32/. a year, in E> jland. No. 12. An explanation here will settle the whole matti ; and here is the owner j speaking in his own vrmey and I know all about every part of the land ani th^ pre- mises. The house has four rooms on a floor, spacious kitchen and cellars beneath ; it has a little farm-house and dairy attached ; has a very neat garden, with a greenhouse in it; has a piazza on two sides of it ; and is, in all respects, as neat, as substantial and convenient a house as I ever saw. Barn, stables, cow-houses, pig- .pens,corn-cribs, yards, every thing of the best description. An orchard of, I should think, seven acres, which is, observe, a pasture as well as an ^rchasd. The land, which contains a due proportion vi woods, is fenced in the best and most lasting manner, and is in the best state of cultivation ; and, as you aim, there are 290 acres of it, all lying in one i^t, v.nth the house nearly in the middle of it. Now, as to the quality of the land. In this part of Long Island, they put soper*s ashes on the ' land, as we do iAalk on the clays of Hampshire ; and these, which cost .about 3/. an acre of our money, last i i 160 ^Vl'-l; .Ij-:: POSTSCRIPT. the land for 20 years, i think, that Mr. TR£D^v ell's land was all ashed. But I can speak of that which I occupied, and which had never been ashed. Those who have read my Year's Residence in America,h2Lve read of the fine crops of Swedish turnips that I grew there ; and my land was only at about 200 yards from that of Mr. Tredwell. Those were the largest and the finest that I ever saw. Cabbages and kidney-beans and peas, very fine, I had in the same land. Land of easy tillage ; and, on Mr. Tredwell's farm, I have seen as fine crops of corn, grain, and clover, as any man need wish to see. And this estate is worth 2,600/. our money. Freehold, tithe-free^ nearly tax and ' rate-free. A good proportion of woods ; as pleasant ' " a spot, according to my fancy, as can be found in the world. The interest of this sum, on mortgage, in England, will not now bring more than 104/. a year. You cannot occupy such a place in England without paying 150/. a year in rates and taxes, and without tithe to the amount of 50/. a year at least. Very little can any family want beyond the produce of this estate : flour, beef, mutton, pork, veal, poultry, butter, milk, eggs, cheese, cider, malt, apple:: pears, peaches, apricots, dried fruits of all sorts, feathers, wool, fuel, food for horses, wood for implements and bnildings. What more, but the clothing, and some wine and groceries, all except the clothing at less than half the English price ; and the materialc for clothing as cheap as in England, and, generally, cheaper, even if English ; and if from China or India or France, at half the English price, or less. 123. 1 cannot conclude without quoting a most interesting part of Mr. Tsed w^sll's Letter : «* As you had the breaking PRICES AMD RENT OF HOUSES. 161 >w ell's which I Those ca, have ; I grew rds from and the ey-beaDS Land of , I have , as any ti 2,600/. tax and pleasant ad in the gage, in a year, without without . Very :e of this r, butter, peaches, )ol, fuel, tiiildings. ;ine and half the as cheap English ; half the iteresting breaking it « ** in of Richard HAiNES,you will, no doubt, be pleased to " hear, that he has strictly followed your advice, * to stick * his legs under another nian*s table, and to stretch his * body in another mans bed,* and that, though he has *' a secon^d wife and a young John Bull, he has saved more '* than two thousand dollars, in the nearly ten years " that he has been with me." That is, more than 400/. of our money. Now, this was a young man, twenty years of age, who escaped from jpau;7er-pay in Berkshire, in 1818; he got to "New York in January, 1819; I hired him by the month till October, 1819; when I came away, or soon afterwards, he went to Mr. Tredwell; he was a mere farm-labourer ; he could neither write nor read ; but he was a sober and excellent young man ; and there he now is with the means of purchasing a farm of 100 acres, and all the buildings on it, at 100 miles from New York, and one of half the size at 20 miles from New York. 124. Now, the reader will perceive, that I have here spo- ken only of Long Island, and near New York. Farther o£F, farms and houses are cheaper ; but, all these matters are fully stated and explained in the former part of the Emi" grant*s Guide, which contains information on every matter connected with emigration. But, I cannot lay down my pen without once more most earnestly exhorting Englishmen not to have any thing to do with Emigration Associations ; not to go to back-woods ; but to settle in the well-inhabited parts; to see what the people do; to follow their customs; to live as they live ; to mix with tlicm ; and not to attempt to form any separate society, or community. 125. Let every emigrant remember the sad fate of poor Birkbeck and his associates : they had the visionary scheme of formm^ ^n English settlement. They were to have a society of their own. They were to make a garden, a land of promise, in a wilderness. They were soon in confusion •» •■ irii.iiu*J«S»»:¥*-,:faii(-.-s'-»,«ra-. mt I. 162 FOSTSCRIPT. •'r t ■_ "and ruin. The Americans know best how to clear lands : left them do it, and let Englishmen carry their money and •skill to places already well inhabited, and congenial with their habits. I have always said, and I now repeat, that I grieve to think it my duty to put forth any thing having n tendency to cause men to quit England ; but when I see BO many families that must be ruined and brought to beg- gary, if they remain here, it is my duty to give the inform- ation that I now give. t*--^'"' i^ ill 11 yny . nffi .,r■■^♦.^I^^»t'%^ (163) ' ♦■>■: r iands : mey and Dial with Bat, that ; having ben I see b to beg- » infonn- ■4t; '*1 SECOND POSTSCRIPT. BrUtolf 27th June, 1S30, . 126. Since I wrote the foregoing postscript, I have seen sevetnl farmers, who, not able to extricate themselves from the ruinous concerns in which they are involved, are sending their sons to America. The situation of those sons is as unhappy a one as can well be conceived. They have been^ generally speaking, brought up in the expectation of living in the m^anner in which they have seen their fathers live. Without any positive promises or assurances to this effect, they have naturally concluded that this would be the casei and, accordingly, their dress, the horses they rode, their manners, their expenses, their society, have all been in pro«- porticm to this scale. This scale was produced by the sys- tem of taxing and of paper-money. This did, in effect, cause an anticipation of means throughout the commu- nitp ; and, the fine dress and boarding-school education were things borrowed as much as the money that makes up the national debt: the high life of the farmers was as much a debt as any other thing acquired by anticipation, A monstrous injury has this been in all the ranks of life : from the king down to the very labourers, all has been subr limatton and extravagance. 127. But, now the time is come for payment; and the gen- tility of the^armers' sons having been borrowed, the debt must ;. i 164 POSTSCRIPT. be paid by their coming to labour for their bread. This is a bard thing to do ; to throw off the gentility and take to the liEtbourer's manners and life are very hard. Yet this, or worse, must be the lot of this description of persons. Very hard to cast off the genteel coat and put on the smock-frock ; very hard to exchange the dishes, and decanters, and dessert, with a servant to wait on you, for the luncheon bag and bottle, carried on your own shoulder. Very hard to ex- change the soft and white hands for hands as hard as a bit of wood. And, harder still, to have to do all this under the eyes of thousands who have known you from your infancy ; and to have to be the equal and companion of those, who have hitherto pulled off their hat to you, or, at the least, called you Sir and Mister ! And all this, moreover, with the certainty of never, no never ^ being able, by whatever in- dustry, care, and frugality, to be anything better than a mere labourer t destined, at last, to be a miserable pauper. 128. Such is the real state of a very great part of the/ar- mersi' sonSy at this time. They are not lazy ; they are willing to work, but not to be degraded. They would gladly come down, but they cannot in the presence of those labourers under whose eyes the> have always lived. In precisely this state I saw a young man, about twenty years old, some time ago. I advised him to go to America. There^ said I, you must go to work ; butthere you will begin the world anew ; there you will have no spectators of your stoop ; you have all God's greatest blessings, youth, health, and strength ; you know how to labour; you are the master of your own morals; you will pass for just what you are worth: and there you have the power within yourself of acquiring property and ease by means of your own labour, 129. I was asked what would be necessary to^t out such a young man in a suitable manner, in a manner to make him start fairly f and in a way to give him every necessary ad- POSTSCRIPT. 165 > i. This d take to t this, or 8. Very ck-frock ; d dessert, bag and d to ex- i as a bit under the infancy ; liose, who the least, ', with the atever in- an a mere ter. I the/ar- tre willing adly come labourers ciscly this some time laid I, you rid anew ; you have strength ; your own ortk: and acquiring t otit such make him ;essary ad- vantage. My answer was, that, if the parents could afford it, he should have clothes for two years ; that he should have plenty of sea stores ; have his passage paid ; and have, on landing, 100 dollars as a beginning of his savings. The lists of clothes and of sea-stores I gave his parents in the following two lists, No. 1 and No. 2. LIST— No. 1. 1 Chest, 3^ feet long, 20 inches deep, and 20 inches wide ; strong and dove-tailed, with iron cleets, and good lock ' and key, 10 Good, large, strong, decent, white linen shirts. 4 Good large checked shirts well 'put together. 6 Pair of good long worsted stockings. 6 Pair of long cotton stockings. 3 Pair of shoes, two of them neatly made, and light. 10 White neckcloths ; 1 black ditto. 1 Straw hat. 2 Gingham short coats, good stuff for summer. 6 Thin waistcoats without sleeves. 6 Pair of thin striped trowsers, made loose. 2 Short coats for winter. Decent strong cloth, one of them blue, for Sundays, the other dark grey to work in. 2 Winter waistcoats with sleeves, one for Sundays and one for working days. 2 Pair of cloth trowsers for winter, one better than the other. 1 Good, large, strong, decent great coat, without great capes, and of a dark drab colour. 6 Good, strong; large brown towels, hemmed and with loops to them. 1 Emigrant's Guide, to read before you go. 1 Year's Residende, to read on board of ship. 1 Advice to Young Men, to read always. 4 f h •P. '-,si!»^j'i.'rts?^-*i(» •■ ?r 16^ BOSTSCRIPT. a *-.Jl No. 2. . ,' Sea. Stores. ' <^i, 461b* of biscuit. 30Ib. of flour, fine. 41b. of plums. lib. of tea. 61b. of moist sugar. * 301b. of bacon, of home growth. 'it 6Ib. of cheese, ver^ good. 61b. of salt butter. 41b. of oatmeal. 1 Bottle of wine for gruel. 2 Quarts of vinegar. - Some ginger. Some onions. Some potatoes. Mattress, blankets, sheets for ship-board. 1 Gallon of brandy to bribe the cook with. 1 Tin thing to hold the butter. 1 Tin little cup or mug to drink out of. « 1 Tin thing, about two quarts, with a lid to boil water or potatoes in, or gruel. 1 Tin tea-pot. 1 Tin pint pot. 1 Good strong pocket knife. 2 Pewter spoons. 1 Small gridiron. i^« 1 Gallon wooden bottle to hold the brandy. ^< 1 Two-quart wooden bottle to hold the vinegar. 130. Clothing is as cheap there as it is here, exeept in the making ; but, even if the making were ascheap, the rey spectability of such a stock of clothes is worth, under such circumstances, a hundred times the cost pf it. He hask to i'. water or Bxeept m >, the re*- ider such ) hasit to POSTSCRIPT. 167 show, at once ; the contents of the chest give him a charaC" ter better than any words can give. He starts at once on at level with the best young farmers in that country. His re* spectable appearance opens every farm-house door to him j, he may choose his employer ; and, if his conduct be good, he beginssaving money directly. The S£a Stores that I have named, are, most likely, twice as much as would be wanted ; but he will find the old saying true, that " Store is no sore." The part that he may not want, he will find plenty of people to purchase, even before he lar ; and, be- sides, such a young man ought to be provided against all chance of short allowance. The cost^ then, is as follows : Clothes, about £13. ; Stores, about £7. ; to put his things on board 7s. ; to pay for lodging and boarding at New York for a weeky 18 s. ; passage in, the steerage, £5. All this is £26. OS. If you add 100 dollars to form the begiiming of his savings, the whole is £48. 1 5s. Now, even leaving out' 100 dollars, I, at twenty years of age, should have thought myself the happiest fellow in the world to have had such a start; and I, who know all about this matter, solemnly de* dare, that such a young man would be better o£f, so provided with clothes, landed at New York, even without the 100 dol- lars, than with thiee thousand pounds in his pocket and be compelled to remain in England under the present taxes, or under atiy taxes, exceeding ten millions a year for the whole kingdom. 131. My advice to this young man was, that he should , by no means, go to work near any great town ; but go to some far- mer, put his legs under another man's table, stretch his body in another man's bed, serve him faithfully and diligently, live with him by the year or the month, be boarded, lodged and washed in the house, and save all his earnings. At the end of the two years, before he would want new clothing, he would have a bag of dollars as- heavy as he wotdd like to V m^m m sz^^sdCnsis: 168 POSTSCRIPT. > ■\^ carry. His good character w'ould soon gh'b him his choice i^mongst those who wanted farmers upon shares ; and, in a few years he would have the means of providing for his ruined parents, when they had been brought to the verge of the poor-house by the borougljmongering and taxing system. Alas ! how mr.ny young men will linger away their prime here, in vain hope, mortification, in miserable attempts to disguise their shame, when they migfit thus carry their heads alcft, be independent, free from care, beloved and happy ! As to the silly and infatuated creatures, who go to Swan River, Van Dieman's Land, Botany Bay, Canada, Nova Scotia, or any English colony, they merit neither my care nor my pity. They have been duly warned ; they are slaves by nature or by habit ; and it signifies very little what be* comes of them. They almost, literally, jump out of the frying-pan into the^re : but they do it by cAoice; and they have nobody to blame for the consequences. The latest pa- pers from New York say, that the quantity of gold carried thither by emigrants, since last winter, has been so great as ** to make the exchanges six per cent in favour of America more than they were before." Good ! Parry that thrust, boroughmongers ! Every man and every thousand pounds that go, make the difference, to you, of two men and two thousand pounds. This cause is silently, quietly, at work^ unseen, unheard, but by no means unfelt. 132. As to all other matters, connected with emigration, prices of house rent, of land, wage^, provisions, and all other things, and relating, too, to persons in all ranks and condi- tions of life, they will be found fully detailed in the former parts at this book. THE END. /:t \,. Ihis choice and, in fj for hit e verge of Ing system. eir prime ttempts to heir heads d happy ! to Swan ada, Nova er my care are slaves what be* ' out of the and they e latest pa- old carried 1 so great as of America Ihat thrust, land pounds en and two y, at work^ emigration, nd all other and condi- , the former K. B. All the Books undermentioned, are puhliahcd by A, Cobbett, at No. 10, Red Lion-court, Fleet'ttreei^ London ; and are to be had of fV, Willis, Manihes^ teVt and all other Booksellere, *. SELECTIONS nou ^^ C088BTT*8 POX.ZTZCAZ. WORKS 8 BBIN9 A Complete A bridgment of the 100 Volumes which comprinc the writings q/*" Porcupinb/* and the "Weekly Politicai. RBOiSTsa" (/rom 1794 (0 1836). WITH N0TB8, HISTORICAL AMD BXPLAMATORY. BY JOHN M. COBBETT AND JAMES P. COBBETl". NOW rVBLISHINO, In Weekly Numbers, and in Monthly Parts : price 6d. the Number. THE C088BTT-iiXZ81iAXlir. WuKN I am asked what books a young man or young woiuaii ought to read, I always answer, Let him or her Iread dll the books that I have written. This does, it will doubtless be safd, smell of the shop. No matter. It is what I recommended ; and experience has taught me that it is my duty to give the recommendation. I am speaking here of books other than THE REGISTER; andi^ven these, that I call my LIBRARY, consist of thirty ^ine distinct books; two of them being translations ; seven of them being written by my sons; one (Tull's Hus- B AN i^bt) revised and edited, and one published by me, and written by the Rev. Mr. O'Callaghait, a most virtuous Cadiolic Priest. I divide these books into classes, as fol- lows: 1. Books for Teaching Language; 2. Qn |)o- MBSTic Management and Duties; 3. On Ei^ftAX A'FAiEs: 4. On the Maitagement or Natkokaj^ .^:- a: ■^ 2 List of Mr. Cobbett'ji Books. Affairs; 5. History; 6. Travels; 7. La^^s; 8. Miscellaneous Politics. Here is a great variety of subjects; and all of them very dry: nevertheless the manner of treating them is, in general, such as to induce the reader to go throuffh the bttok^ when he has once begun it. I will now speak of each book separately under the several heads above-mentioned. N. B. All the books are bound in boards^ which will be borne in mind when the price m looked at W.C. ■{■' 1. BOOKS FOR TEACHING KNOWLEDGE. BKO&ISS 8FB&&iiro-aoox. 1 have been frequently asked by iDotbers of fantilies, by «»nic fathers, and by suiiie schoulmasterg even, to write a book that they could begin tenchiiii; by ; oue that should begin at tbe begin- ning of book learning, and Binooth the way along to my own English Grammar, w4iicli is th* eutrauce-^ate. i oftea promised to cbmply with these requests, and, from time to time, iu the in- tervals of pulitical heats, 1 have tliought of the thing, till, at last, i found time enough to sit dowa and put it upon paper. The ob> jection to the common spulling-bouks'iit, that the writers aim at teaching several important sciences iu a little book in which the whole aim should be the teacb>it£ ^f spelling and reading. We are presented with a little Akithmbtic, a little Astronomy, a little Gbooraphy, and a good deal *•£ Religion ! No wonder the K)or little things imbibe a hatretf^^'^Mesmen from usina false p-rammar : " aud I really wish variety of he manner nduce the s begun it. the Mvertl > bound in e price is List or Mr. Cobbetv'h Books. 5 •)ook. Thousauils upou thousands of young- nitfii have l>eeD made oorrect writers by it ; and, it is iitrxt to nn|iosstble tliat tliry »hould kmrt read with attention withoai its producing sucti effect. It ia a book of principleMy clearly laid down ; and when once these are fot into the nnind they never quit it. More than 100,000 of this work have ba prumisc4 , ill the in- till, at last, r. The obi iters aim at n which the ading, W« PRONOMV, a wonder the St that they have care- tw; namely, work 1 liave as children illustrations «♦ SteppiHg' is de&i^iied M of p«intf, >ok is in the price iiB 2s* —This work vben he was re it went t« d how able of tb« i'TA- I IN iTAl*. intended to really wish COBBE'lT'S FRENCH GRAMIVIAR 'Price 5s.); or. Plmn Instruction* /or the Learning of French. — This liouk has had, and has, a very great etfeci in the producing of its object. More young Msea have, T dare say, learned French fn>m it, than from ail th» other books that have been published in English fur the last fifty years. It is, like the furnier, a book uf piinciplest clearly laid down. 1 had this areat aed it out, hit by bit, and knew well haw to rentwveall the difficulties i I remembered what it was that bad puxxled and retarded me ; and 1 have taken care, in this my Grammar, to prevent the reader from experiencing that which, in this retpect, 1 experienced myself. This Gram mar, ao well as the former, is kept out of schools, owing to the /ear thai the masters aMtl Miistresses have of iHriug looked upon as CoBBETTiTEJi. So nuch (he worse for the children of the stupid brutes who are ihe ernmoe of this fear, wkkh aetuibtt peoi^le laugh at, and avail them- aelvcs of the«dvantaies teudcred to them in the books. Teaching Hrenehhi English Schools h, generally, a mere delusion : and as to teaching the prtmunciation by ruies, it is the grossest of all human absurdities. My knowledge of French was so complete thisrllf'SeveH years ago, that the very first thing in the shape of a book that J wrote /or the press, was a Grammar to teach French- men £urlish ; and of course it was unitten in French. 1 must know all about these two languages ; and munt he able to give advice to young people on the subject : their time is precious ; and I advise them not to waste it upon what ure called lessons from masters and mistresses. To learn the pronunciation, there is no way hot that of hearing those, and speahing with those, ^ho Uptttk lUxt language well. My Gramma^ will do the rest.—W. C. ▲ ajUAMAiAit oDt vtta tTAUAsr XiAirovAoa Or, a Plain and Coinpendioos Introduction to the Study of Italian^ By jAttee Paul Cobbktt. This work contains explanations and '4lMMi|4ffB to teach the langaage practically ; and the principlet of c6ttBtraetidn are illustrated by {mssages from the beat Italian antbbri. JkftAtfkir •KAMMAit. A LA11N GRAMSf AR, for the Use of English Boysj being an ExplisnatiMi of the ftudiinents of thj Latin l^aoguage. By Jambs Paul Cobwktt. Price J«. boards. nrn< -fe fc: \< ) J'\ ^,. List of Mr. Cobdett's Books. : BXBlkOZSSfl, EXERCISES TO COBBETTS FRENCH GR\\m\R (Price 2») i» Just iiublistied. It is an accoitiManiineut to th«f Frencit - ijraminar, and h neceMary to the learner who has beeo diligent in his rcadipg of the Graininar. By Jambs Coubbtt. ritSZTOB AXTD BITO&ISB OZCTXOXrAlbT. COBBETT'S FRENCH AND ENGLISH DICTIONARY— This bu<)l< if now published. Its price it I2t, in boards; and it is a thick octavo Tolume. 011001iAPBZOA& BZOTZOWAltT OF BirOAAWB ASro -WTilABfl. This book was sufcgested to me by my own rrecjuent want uf the ii>rormbtion which it contains ; a >ugi;«8lion which, if every compiler did but wait to feel liefore he puts his shears to work, would spare the world many a vuluminout and useless book. I am constantly receiving letters out of the country, the writers living in obscure places, hut who seldom think of friving more than the name of the place th&t they write from ; and thus have 1 been often puzzled to death to Knd out even the county in which it is, before I could re- turn an answer. I one day determiued, therefore, for my own con- T«nience, to have a list made out of every parish in the kingdom ; but this being done, I f^ound that I had still townships and hamlets to add in order to make my list cimplete ; and when I had got the nork only half done, I found it a t>ui:k } and that, with the addition of bearitig, and population, and distance from the next market- town, or if a mark»-t-town, from Loudon, it would be a really use- ful Geographical Dictionary. It is a work which the learned would call sui generis ; it prompted itself into life, and it has grown ia my hands ; but I will here insert the whole of the title*^age, for tiiat contains a full d9«triptiou of the book. It is a thick octavo roluroe, price I2s. — ^W. C. «< A GEOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OP ENGLAND AND " WALES; t-ontainiug the names, inAlpliai)eticalOrder,of alltbe " Couutif s, with their several Subdivisions into Hundreds, Lathes, " Rapes, Wapentakes, Wards, or Divisions ; and an Account of " the Distribution of the Counties into Circuits, Dioceses, and " Parliamentary Divisions. Also, the names (under that of each *■' County respectively), in Alphabetical Order, of all the Cities, *' Boroughs, Market Towns, Villai;es, Ham'ets, andTitbings, with ** the Distance of each from London, or from the nearest Market *' Town, and with the Population, and other interesting particulars <* relating to each ; besides which there are MAPS ; first, one of the .1 *whole country, showing the local situation of the Counties i«la* "tivelv to each other ; ami, tl)eu, each County is also preceded by ' 'a Map, showing, in the same manner, the local situation of the «' Cities, Boroughs, and Market Towns. FOUR TABLES are ** added ; first, a Statistical Tahleof all the Counties; and tbeo ** three Tables, showing the new Divisions and Dittributions en- ** acted by the Reform-Law of 4th June, 1832." lh« French leea dUigvnt kItT. lONARY.— tards I a»d it uent want uf lich, if every lears to wurk, ig book. 1 am ritiTS living itt than the name I often puxxled fore I could re- tmy own con- be kiosdoin ; 9S and hamlets I 1 bad got the tb the addition i next market- le a really uie- learued woujd i has grown in ti«le-?age, for a thick ocuvo GLAND AND )rder,ofallthe idreds. Lathes, an Account of , Dioceses, and er that of each all the Cities, TilbingB, with Dearest Market tparsous put together since miue were published. There are some parsons who have the good sense jand the virtue to preach them from the pulpit.— W. C. 3. BOOKS ON RURAL AFFAIRS. TViVS BTr8Bil.irDRT. i COBBETT'S EDITION OP TULL'3 RUSBINDRY (Price 1S«): THE HORSE-HOEING HUSBANimY; or, A Trba* YiBB on the Principle*) of TiLLAOR and Vbortation, wherein is tilught a Method of iutruduoing ft sort of Vinbyaro Cui.TURKiftlo ^iaR»«!*Wii«tMft'aBK*t(!;-»'. ,.f • " ■ "^anmiatt^fs^:' ^ . ^Zz^.^.'J^J£i'.:r.i^l^;-l:. :■■ ^..^ '/ peiises uf Housekeeping, and of the usual Manner of Living ; of theManuersaiid Customs of the People; and of the Institutions of the Country, Civil, Political, and Relijcione; iu three Parts.— The Map is a map of the United State<>. The book omtains a Journal of the ff^eather for one whole year ; and it has an account «)>" my farming in that country ; and also an account of the causes of pour Mirkheck's fiiilure iu bis undertaking. A book very necessary to all men of property who emigrate to the United States. — W. C. TBB SiarOZiXSB OARDBITER. COBBETT'S ENGLISH GARDENER {PriceGs.) ; or, A TaUA- TisB on the Situation, Soil, Enclosing and Laying~out of Kitchen- liardens; on the Making and Managing of Hot*Beds and Green- Housvs ; and on tiie Propagation and Cultivation of all sorts of Kitchen- Gai den Plants, and of Fruit-Trees, whether of the Garden or tlie Orchard. And also on the Formation of Shrubberies and Flo wei -Gardens ; and «>n the Propagation and Cultivation of the several sorts of Shrul)s and Flowers; concluding with a Kalbn- DAR, givin<; Instructions relative to the Sowings, Plantings, Prun- ings, and other labours, tu be performed in the Gardens, in each Month of the Veur. — A complete book of the kind. A plan of a kUchen-gardtn, and little plates to explain the works of pruning, grafHug, and budding. But it is here, as in all my books, the - p-ri/tciples that arc valuable : it is a knowledge of these that HIU the reader with delight iu the pursuit. I wr(>te a Gardener for America, ami the vile wretch who pirated it there had the base- ness to leave out the dedication. No pursuit is so rational as this, as an amusement or relaxation, and none so innocent and so use- ful. It naturally leads to early rising; to sober contemplation; and is conducive to health. Every young man should be a gar- .jdeuer, if possible, whatever else may be his pursuits. — W. C. THE VrOOBl«AllBB« COBBETT'S WOODLANDS {Price Us.) ; or, A Treatisb on the Prepa'-iugof Ground lor Plautiug; on the Planting; on the CuUivatiog } uu the Pruning; and on the Cutting oown uf Forest t;r.JiW.nn->~-wy«»— •~»- I; and dimiutsh borne, in the jcTioN,expla- istory and Di- rertain Experi- m this faiuuus »g» gardetiing, root of the sub- of effects, but :he foundation .C. IRICA, WITH ! Ctiuntrj'. the itiugthe Laud, lut ; of the Ex- ■ of Living ; of e Institutions of ■ee Parts.— The itaiiis a Journal account of my le causes of poor ry necessary to tates.— W. C. i.) ; or, A TaUA- -out of Kitchen- Jeds and Green- u of all sorts of ,er of the Garden Shrubberies and lultivatiou of the with a Kalen- Plantings, Prun- Uardens, in each nd. A plan oj a ifurks of pruning, ill my books, the uf ihese that tilb e a Gardener for lere had the base- > rational as this, oceiit and so use- er contemplation i , should be a gar- iuits.— W. C. or, A Treatise o« Planting i o» '*»« ing aown of Fore«l List of Mr. Cobbett*s Books. 7 Trees and Underwoods ; describing the usual Growth and Size and the Uses of eai h sort of Tree, the Seed of each, the Season and Manner of collecting the Seed, the Manner of Preserving and Sow- ing it, and also the Manner of Managing the YuuHg Plants until fit to plantont'; the Trees being arranged in Alphabetical Order, and the List of them, iucludiug those of America as well as those of England, anle Adjustment between the Nation aud it# Creditors." Price 2$. COBBETT'S RURAL RIDES. (Price 5«.)— RURAL Rll>E8 in the Counties of Surrey, Kent, SuRAex, Hampshire, Wiltshke, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Somersetshire, Oxronlshire, Berkshire, E^si'x, Suffolk, Norto!!'., and Hertford- shire : iNpiih Economical and Political ObservHttoos relative t* Matters applicnhle to, and illustrated by, the State of those Coun- ties respvctively.-^These rides were performed on hortehtiek. If iiie members of the Government had read them, only just tteti them, Inst year, when they were collected and printed in a volume, they coHldnot have helped foreseeiu!; all the violences that have tiken place, and especially tit these ver^ counties : and fore- seeinj; them, they must have been devils in reality if they had Hot done somethini^ to prevent them. This is such a book Mstaiesmen ought to read. — ^W. G. »ooit MA,ir*s ntzBsrsi. COBBETT'S POOR MAN'S FRIEND {Price M.) ; or, a De- fence of the Ri((ht Wiltshire, erset shire, Hertford- relative t* ose Coun- tehMk. If just tiai a volume, tliat hftve and fore- ey bad liot istatetmen or, aDe- he Battles. >on It than )ved, that, le is to die ) ; in Ten [;ontaininp >e about to iii^ letters eiaiioDS in d, recently «>n. — Here he Uuited Kfticuiars; te starved, ry.— W.C. is a Aizntt ic Lectnrei In them , and hare e. I hav« Sinecures and I defy ; hook. It od, I meta IC. VSUltT XiA'WS. USURY LAWS (Price 3*. 6rf.) ; or Lbnuing AT Interest ; also, the t^xactiuu atid Payment of certain Church-fees, such as Pew-rents, Burial-fees, and ihe like, together with forestallin{; Traffic; all proved to be repugnant to the Divine and Ecclesiastical Law, and destructive to Civil Society. To which is prefixed a Narrative of the Controversy between the Author and Bishop Cup- ]»ingt-r, and uif the su(feriu(;s of the ftirmer in cou&equence of his Adherence to the Truth. By the Rev. Jkkemiah O'Callaghan, Roman Catholic Pric6t. With a Dedication to the " Society of Friknus," by William CottnRTT. — Every young man should read this book, the history of which, besides the learned matter, is very curious. The " Jesuits," as they call them, in France, ought to read this book; and then tell the world huw they can find them- putlence to preach the Catholic Religion and to uphold the funding fjfstem at the same time.— W< C. rKSGACS* TO XiABOintBltB ; Or, What is the Right which the Lords, Baronets, and 'Squires, hot* to the Lands of J^inglandl In Six Letters, addressfd to the Working People of England ; with s. Dedication to Sii Robert Peel. By Wm. Cobbett, M. 1*. for Oldham. Price, neatly bound, Sixteen-pence. XtEGAcr TO viksi-sosrsa Or, Have the Clergy of the Established Church an equitable right to the 'J ithes, or to any other thing called Church Property, greuter than the Dissenters have lo the same ? And ought tiiere, or ought there not, to be a separation of the Churcti from the State? In Six Letters, addressed to the Church- Parsons in general, including the Cathedral and College Clergy and the Bi^lops; with a Dedication to Blomfield, Bishop of London. By Wm. Cobbktt, M.F. df Oldham. Third Edition. Price, neatly bouvif- Eighteen-pence. 5. HISTORY« »]LOTB8TA»T '*B.SE&lbMATZed States of America. This is the source whence are now pouring iu the petitions for the aboMitn o/tithe$l—W, C. ^"•^^"" 'f T' \ ! I tf '*^ i*''^'.S?ysf.Tr **^" Aj^e«^S:»l|g|^wi*>Rv OF THE Empbrors, Ih Frbnch Rud En«li8H : befng^ a continuatiou of the History of thb Roman Rbpublic, piibtislMd hy thf same Adthors, on the same |>lan, fir the me of schnoU ttnd voung' persons in general.— This work i8>tn fVemck and Bufl^k. It is inteudftd as an Erercise-book, to be used with my Fteixh ttrtantnar\ and it is sold at a VKVff i«w price , to place it withfin the reach of young men rn general. As n historif it is edifyittg. it is necessary f<»r every man who has any pretensions to wHik- koowiedge, to know something of the history tiff that fftiKiHis pao- pie; and I think this is the best abridgment that ever was piufeHstiiBd* As an Exe'-cise-bonk it is complete, the translation being as literal and simple as possible. It consists of two thick duodecimo volumes, and is, therefore, as cheap as possible tn Kvoid loss upon mere paper and print; but I wish it to he within the reach of gredt numbert of joaug men.— W. C. aura or AWDStB-vr yaoksoit.. HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF ANHREW JACKSON, PRE- SIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMER} A, from tfis Birth, in 1767, to the present tinve « with a Portrait. Abridlged tMid compiled by Willi AM CoBBBTT, M.P. for Oldbam. Price 2s, bds. B.BCMnro'T Attn at«xoir oi* •aesftoft rr*- COHBETT'S HISTORY OF THE REGENCY AND REtCN OF GEORGE IV.— This work is publUhed in Nos. at Sd. eac'h ; and it dots justice to the late *' miltl nnd merciful" King. Price, in boards, I0». 6rf.— W. C. LAFAYETTE'S LIFE. {Price U.) A brief Account of the Life of that brave and honest mun, ^anslated from the French, by Mr. JaMks Cubabtt. 6. TRAVELS. Ma. JOHN COBBKTT'S LETTERS FROiV? FRANCE (l»rtc« ic. 6d,) ; containing Observations on that Cot\ntry during h l«fir<- Bcy from Calais to the South, as far as Limoges ; then %>M:k to Paris; and then, after a Residence, from the Eastern parts of IPrance, and through jiart of fUe Netherlands ; commviieit)*g in April, and ending iu December, 1824. ItllMi S» nkAWOB* ikSR. JAMES COBBETT'S RIDE OF EIGHT HUNDRED MitES IN FRANCE Oihelliird Edinion, Price 2». 4>i{.) ; eon«i4n- ittga SketcN of the face of th« Country, of its Rural Kcont^rAy« of the Towns Wd Villr ge;^, ^ ManuflMturert nmA Trad*, and of v«eli of Jl, iWnKM List of Ma. Cobb£tt*9 Books. II , I. in En- tWell«liile rorttitttse >e it wilElirtn is «Mfy4« the Manners and Customs as materially difl'er from those of Eiic* land ; also, an Account of the Prites of Land, House, Fuel, Food, Raiment, Labour* and otb«r Tilings, in iliH'ereut parts of theCouO' try ; the design being to exhibit a true Picture of the present State of th^ People of Prance ; to which is added, a General View of tbe Finances uf tlie Kingdom. VQVm, nr STAIiT. MR. JAMES COBBEirS TOUU IN ITALY, and «!«(» in Part of FRANCH: and SWITZERLAND {Price is. 6t/.) ; the RiMite being from Paris through Lyons, to IVIar»>eiUe8, and thenca t<]^ Nice, Genoa, Pisa, Fiureuce, Home, Naples, and Mount Vesur vius; and by Rome, Terui, Perugia, Art^zzo, Fioreuce, Bui<^gua, Ferrara. Padua, Venice, Veronn, Milan, over the Alps by iVi.i>unt St. Bernard, Geneva* and the Jura, bavk into France. Tlie space of time being t'roni October 1821 to September 11)29; containing a Description of the Country, of the principal Cities and their most striking Curiosities; of the Climate, Soil, Agriculture, Horticul- ture, and Products ; of the Prices uf Provisions and uf Labour; aiul of the Dresses and Couditiuns of the People. And also some Account of the Laws and Customs, Civil and Religiuus, and of the Morals and Demeanor uf the Inhabitants in the several States. T3VII. m 8COTX.AKB. TOUR IN SCOTLAND by Mr. Cobbbit : the tour taken in the autumn of 1832, and tbe book written during the tour. It is a small^uodecimo volume, the price of which is two shillings aod sixpence. 7. LAW. MAmT«ars*8 EiA-w or WATZOirS. COBBE'rrs TRANSLATION OF MARTENS'S LAW OF NATIONS {l*rice \7s.) ; being tbe Science of National Law, Covenants, Power« &c. Founded upou the Treaties and Customs of Modern Nations in Europe. By G. F. Von Mabtkns, Professor of Public Law in the University of Gottingen. Translute^i from the French, by VVm. Cobbbtt. To which is a«lded,' a List of the Principal Treaties, Deilaratiuiis, aod other Public Papers,^ frofn the Year 1731 to 1738, by the Author; and continued by the Translator dt>wn to November 1815. (The Fourth Edition.) — This is a ]-\i^ti Octavo. It whs one of my first literary labours. An excellent Commuu* Place Book to the Law of Nations. — W. C. TKB ZiAlUr OV TVRVrZKVfll* MR VVM. COBBETT'S LAW OF TURNPIKES (PWce3*.6«EL> brf.) ; e«n**>ln- il Econrr*jr» of ,»«dofv«c»»«»» "^«i*si.) *t»- >vw [■■■•I '■',.^',' I "•'^•* ■7'7r"**-*7rx;;3MV^ : i 4^ I i . ■i; i ' I ■'<» M ' if. . ik; if • ii§ 11 'j 4 \\ ( i' ; 12 List of Mr. Cobbctt's Books. 8. MISCELLANEOUS POLITICS. 00&&BOTIVJB GOBEMBWTJiltnBa M COBBErrS COLLECTIVE COMMENTARIES : or, Re- marks on the Proceed! II xsia the Collective VVisiluin of the Nation, during the Session which began on the 5th of February, and ended en the 6th of August, in the 3rd year of the Reign of King G«brgetlie Fourth, and in the year of our Lord 1832 *, being the Third Session of the First P«rlianie»t of that King. To which are subjoined, a comi*lete List of the Acts pasied during the Session, with Elucidations; and other Notices and Matters; formiog, altogether, a short but clear Hi^tury of the CoHective Wisdom for (he year. This is an octavo book, and the price Is 6s. vwo-pamrx taasb. TWO-PENNY TRASH, complete in two vols., 12mo. Price only Sf» for the 2 vols. This is the Library that I hwa created. It really makes a tolerable shelf of books ; a man who understands the pontents of which, may be deemed a man of great iuforma- tioQ. In about every one of these works I have pleaded the cause of the working people ; and I shaU now see that cause triumph, ia spite of all that can be done to prevent it.— W.C. Juat publishtd, price 6»., boardt, * THE ENGLISH HOUSEKEEPER; OR, MvnvMl of IBnxatiiit ^anajtemmt: Containing Advice on the Conduct of Household Affairs, in a Separate Treatise on each particular Department, and Practical Instructions concerning ><-* THB KITCHSN, THK LAEDBR, THB 8T0RB-R00M, THE BRBWHOVSE. THB CELL\R, I THB OVEV, THE PANTRY, | THB DAIRY, Together with Hints for Laying Out Small Ornamental Gardens ; Directions for Coltiv i^!:*tig ST^d Preserving Herbs ; and some Remarks on the best Means -J Kt& iering Assistance to Poor Neighbours. Th- whole being iateudcd FOR THE USE OF YOUNG LADIES WHO UNOBSTAEK THB SUrBBINTINDBNOB OF THBIR OWN HOUSBKBBPINO. BY ANNE COBBETT. Pttblishsd by A. Cobbett, 10, Red Liun-coitrt, Fleet-street. i .4;— ICS. 18* lES : or, Re- (>r the Nation, February » aod Reisn of King «2 •, beiug the g. To which ed durinti; the and Matters; f the CoMectWe the price is 65. Is., 12nio. [t really makes iderstands the great iuforma- ive pleaded the v^ see that cause prevent it. — EEPER ; lold Affiairs, in a Bnt, and Practical I'HB BTORE'ROOM, [•HE BEKWHOVSB. as; Directions for marks on the best >ur8. lES JWN HOOSKKSKPIN*. i, Fleet-ifereek. ■ 1^1