Before we entirely drop this disagreeable subject, we wish to refer the reader to the modes for a gradual emancipation, proposed by the following philanthropic gentlemen: Mr. Jefferson, St. George Tucker, and Dr. William Thornton. There are many other plans proposed, all which do honor to the humanity of the writers; but we mention these southern gentlemen, because it would afford more satisfaction to find any work of reformation, begin at home. The plan of any citizen of a state where there are no slaves, would be less impressive on the minds of those who may be called to make an important effort; but where this is recommended by persons equally interested, their good intentions are more likely to prevail. In order however to assist to this, we wish to recommend a comparative view of the progressive improvement of those states where slavery is abolished. The total valuation for the state of Massachusetts, is said to have quadrupled in six years; while that of Virginia, under other equal advantages, has not doubled in the same period. A return of the exports of each state, comparing 1791 with the last return in 1795, may illustrate a part of the view; but the monied companies, or minor republics of the eastern states, are a more striking proof of their comparative increase in more solid establishments both of riches and of the republican equality ever attendant on facile wealth.

In all monarchical, and military or aristocratic forms of government, the minor republican institutions, as well as those of other commercial origin, were regarded with a jealous eye by mere military robbers, who had a natural antipathy to fair commercial exchanges, long before that which occasioned the wanton destruction of Carthage by the Romans; but such views, we hope, are now obvious. Many of the young gentlemen of the southern states are now bred to commerce, who if we had remained colonists, would have yet done nothing, Some of the most active of our sea officers are from the southern states this is a glorious circumstance for the honor of our country; for the original materials are every where the same, and slavery only makes the difference; for which we are often too severely reviled by foreigners. A sudden and universal emancipation is impossible; but perhaps a law passed to prevent more than a certain number of the infants born in any one family, in any one year, from remaining slaves after 25 years of age, would be well received; provided the blanks for the time, and for the number, was well adapted to the present circumstances of the day. Another law for each and every state would have an excellent tendency to extend neat husbandry, viz. After the ****** year no citizen or single freeholder should hold more than ***** acres, in any one county or state. If it be true, that all republics are finally ruined by the monopoly and tyranny of their overgrown land lords, we cannot be too well guarded against the danger in the older counties of the several states. All this will occur in due time, or an agrarian must be the consequence, as in times of antiquity, unless the minor republics, or monied asso

L

ciations, and generally commercial habits should secure and perpetuate the glorious freedom of America.

We repeat, that our population increases at least 3 per cent. by an annual compound, by which we double our population in about 23 years. We shall do this in less, if we become more commercial, and encourage by all means, further useful emigration: this we ought to do, to place our country immediately in a state invulnerable to foreign invaders. The easiest means are first, an increase of foreign loans; and the rest will then follow of course, as we trust we shall fully evince in other parts of our book.*

"The real riches and strength of a nation, consists rather in the quantum of the industry of its inhabitants, than either in their number, or the quantity of lands they possess. If so, it ought to be the study of those who wish to promote its internal felicity, to take every possible method for promoting the general industry of the people; and this can only be effectually done by securing to every individual a certainty of being able to benefit himself, in the first instance, by every vigorous exertion he can make. No labour, carried on by slaves, can ever be done at so little expense as by freemen. Nothing that is performed by hirelings, can ever be performed so cheap as by men who are working for their own behoof."

"All essential labour must ever be carried on chiefly by the poorer ranks of people; but a dependent mind will never attempt to make any improvement, nor be brought to adopt one, however plainly it may be pointed out. Let your attention, therefore, be turned chiefly towards those in the poorer ranks in society; free them not only from dependence on yourself, but protect them also from the rod of others.. Cherish them in thy bosom with lenient tenderness; they will soon abundantly requite you for all your pains. Instead of that stupid torpor that now renders them insensible even to kindness; their minds will be taught to glow with the warmest effusions of grateful esteem, (for gratitude is only to be met with in cultivated minds). Instead of that listless apathy, arising from a total suppression of hope and desire, which makes them at present alike neglectful of good offices, and regardless of the bad; their minds, enlivened by hope and tender desires, will become feelingly alive and active, so as to be sensible of those delicate stimuli that actuate the cultivated mind, and from the influence of which alone proceed those glorious actions that so conspicuously elevate man above all the other creatures of God."

Our view of houses is confined to pages 58 and 196, for want of more satisfactory data, than the vague total valuations of the United States, for the direct tax, and those of the states, which are commonly at less than one sixth of their value, We have, therefore, deferred a minute valuation till a future occasion.

For colleges, &c. see national university....an institution founded by WASHINGTON, in his last will, for which there are subscriptions now open throughout the United States.

If a general, without his army, may with any degree of just ice be called a shadow without a substance, with still greater propriety may the labouring class of the people upon the estate of a gentleman of landed property, be called his substance, sinews, arms, and strength; for without these he becomes a mere ideal phantom; a name without a substance. His large possessions, and high sounding titles, would, in that case, only serve to hold him up a little above the crowd, to make him a more conspicuous object of derision, and of public scorn. Without money, without influence, he becomes the abject tool of those who feed and clothe him and instead of defending the state by the vigour of his arm, or aiding it by the wisdom of his counsels, he sucks out the blood of the industrious poor, and thus drains his country of her vital energy and strength."

"We need not go to distant nations in search of an example of these important truths; nor need we ascend to the fabulous era of antiquity for facts to illustrate these assertions. Spain is at this moment little better than the ghost of a mighty empire, reduced to the very borders of perdition; not by her riches, for they stimulate to industry" in a republic; but owing to the viciating practice of enobling, as it is called, when a man receives a pillory in a ribbon; or fetters and stocks, or handcuffs, in a ring or a garter.

"Spain is entirely covered by those leeches (a nobility and gentry divested of landed revenue,) who have been suffered to seize upon her, that there is no room left to administer a remedy for her. It is these vermin alone that are alive and active, who greedily seize to themselves every drop of blood as it is slowly generated, so as effectually to prevent it from contributing towards the increase of her real strength and vigour."

"About two hundred years ago, Spain contained a numerous and active peasantry, who, by their vigorous industry, lived happy in the enjoyment of their own property; and being themselves in affluence, supported by their labour, with becoming dignity, a reputable body. of independent nobility and gentry, whose many brilliant actions at that time afford the most striking contrast to their present abasement. But by a fortuitous concurrence of unlucky circumstances, the national industry received a check; which having been disregarded at the time as insignificant, on account of the dazzling objects that then attracted, the attention of all ranks of persons in that country, the labourers gradually became poor, and were not able to afford the wonted returns to their superiors. The nobles and gentry became of course more straitened in their circumstances than formerly, and by consequence more avaricious. The poor, instead of being seasonably relieved and supported, were more and more oppressed, till those who had any remains of spirit, were forced to emigrate to other regions; and the few that remained, sunk at last into their present state of abject debility. The grandees thus finding it impossible to draw a sufficient revenue from their estates, flocked to court, in hopes of obtaining those posts, or pensions, or lucrative monopolies, which

the misguided court (a court necessarily misguided by the counsel of those who hoped to share in the spoils of their country) distributed with the most destructive liberality."

"When Mr. Anderson treats of the principal modes in which national industry may be exerted, viz. Agriculture, trade, and manufactures, he shews in what manner the prosperity of each naturally depends upon the flourishing state of all; and that every attempt to promote one of these arts, by depressing the others, must prove hurtful to the community, and in the end, destructive to that very art it was intended to serve. No state can be in its highest degree of prosperity, but where an happy alliance subsists between these three great sources of employment and beneficial intercourse, as they then mutually support and strengthen one another. He agrees, with most political writers, in thinking that agriculture forms the surest basis for the prosperity of any state, because the advantage derived from thence is less liable to be affected by the accidents or vicissitudes of the times, than any of the others. It also happens that every plan which tends to promote the interests of agriculture, must, of neces sity, promote the general prosperity of the state."

"Sometimes men have been so short sighted as to think that agriculture might be promoted at the expense of the two sister arts; the futility of which idea he thus exposes :

"There are some instances, he observes, of nations peculiarly situated, which have flourished by means of commerce without agriculture; there are also a very few examples of manufactures flourishing among a people who could have little dependence on the produce of the soil: but there is not among all the records of past ages, a single proof of a people who have enjoyed, for any length of time, a spirited agriculture, without the aid of commerce or manufactures, or both."

"Nor is it possible that it should be otherwise. For without commerce or arts, what inducement has the farmer to cultivate the soil? In this case, every man will only wish to rear as much as is sufficient for his own sustenance, and no more; so that if the soil could afford a hundred times the produce that is sufficient for them, it will be allowed to remain an uncultivated waste. And if, in that country, any man should be so foolish as to rear large crops, what would it benefit him? Every man has enough for his own subsistence, so that he wants none of that superfluous produce. It must, therefore, be suffered to perish without being of any use at all to the owner."

"For this reason a nation peopled only by farmers, must be a region of indolence and misery. If the soil is naturally fertile, little labour will procure abundance; but for want of exercise, even that little labour will be burthensome, and often neglected; want will be felt in the midst of abundance, and the human mind be abased nearly to the same degree with the beasts that graze the field. If the region is more barren, the inhabitants will be obliged to become somewhat

more industrious, and therefore more happy. But miserable at best must be the happiness of such a people.'

"Those, therefore, who wish to make agriculture flourish in any country, can have no hope of succeeding in the attempt, but by bringing commerce and manufactures to her aid; which, by taking from the farmer his superfluous produce, gives spirit to his operations, and life and activity to his mind."

"Without this stimulus to activity, in vain do we use arguments to rouse the sluggish inhabitants, in vain do we discover that the earth is capable of producing the most luxuriant harvests with little labour: our own abundant crops are produced as undeniable proofs of this in vain. But place a manufacturer in the neighborhood, who will buy every little article that the farmer can bring to market, and he will soon become industrious. The most barren fields will then become covered with some useful produce. Instead of listless vagabonds, unfit for any service, the country will abound with a hardy and robust race of men, fit for every valuable purpose; and the voice of festivity and joy be heard in every corner, instead of the groans and misery, and the sighs of discontent."

"As a striking example of the justness of this reasoning, he gives the following very curious account of the present state of the town of Aberdeen; the authenticity of which cannot be disputed, as the author lives in its neighborhood:

"The town of Aberdeen has made great advances in trade and manufactures, within these thirty or forty years past. The number of inhabitants has increased greatly within that period. Money has become more plenty there than formerly. Their manner of living is now more elegant and expensive; articles of luxury have encreased. In consequence of good roads having become more common, horses and wheel-carriages have also become extremely numerous. On all which accounts, the demands for fresh vegetables has greatly increased in that place, within the period above mentioned."

"But, on account of the particular situation of that town, it was a matter of some difficulty to augment the produce of the fields in that neighborhood, and supply the daily increasing demand for these..... This city is placed in the midst of a country that is naturally the most sterile that can possibly be imagined. For, unless it be a few hundred acres of ground that lie between the mouths of the rivers Dee and Don, close by the town, there was not an inch of ground for many miles around it that could supply the inhabitants with any of the necessaries of life. On the east is the German ocean; on the south the Grampian mountains come close to the river, terminating in a head-land on the south side of the harbour, called the Girdle Ness; and on the west and north, it is environed for many miles with an extended waste, the most dismal that can be conceived; in which nothing can be discovered but large masses of stone heaped upon one another, interspersed here and there with a few bushes of starved heath, or