'There is in this instance of the treatment of a negro, nothing that in this State is at all singular; and much as I condemned New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, when in those sections, I must now give them the character of enlightened humanity, compared with this State, in which such conduct as that I have described is tolerated and approved, and where such public notices as the following, extracted from a newspaper, are of every day occurrence:

"20 DOLLARS REWARD.

""RAN AWAY on the 27th instant, a NEGRO MAN named JACK, about 5 feet 6 or 7 inches high, very stout made, of a dark complexion, and has several of his fore teeth rotten or out, about 25 years of age. He was brought from Lexington, Kentucky, by Messrs. Jacoby and Stone, negro traders, where I think it is likely he will try to get to. The above reward will be paid on his being apprehended and lodged in any jail, so that I may get him, together with all reasonable expenses, if brought to the subscriber. BASIL LAMAR."

-pp. 242-5.

Notwithstanding all this, and a great deal more to the same purpose, Mr. Fearon does not feel himself competent (he says). to confirm or deny the general claim of the people of Kentucky to generosity and warmth of character,' though he admits that they drink a great deal, swear a great deal, and gamble a great deal.' He has reason also to believe, (he adds) that the barbarous practice of gouging still exists among them,' as well as another practice, ' nearly akin' to the former, called ' gander-pulling. The consanguinity is not very apparent to us;-but the diversion' (as it is called) consists in tying a live gander to a tree or pole, greasing its neck, riding past it at full gallop, and he who succeeds in pulling off the head of the victim, receives the laurel crown.* p. 247. There is another species of diversion which Mr. Fearon seems to have overlooked, in which these genteeler sort' of Americans are even more adroit than in gouging and gander-pulling-namely, scalping Indians, whose territory no Kentuckian who has the least turn for economy ever dreams of approaching without a tomahawk and a scalping knife. During the late war, in an affair near the Raisin River, a Kentuckian regiment, after scalping the Indian prisoners, proceeded, with a dexterity peculiar to themselves, to cut razor-straps from their backs.+ Mr. Fearon, perhaps, saw nothing of all this. Tears for the 'murder of the American prisoners at Dartmoor,' the' disgraceful conduct of Admiral Cockburn at Havre de Grace,' and the buc

This diversion appears to have been overlooked by Inchiquin the Jesuit.' We cannot pass the opportunity of paying our tribute of respect to the name of this intelligent and accurate observer. He has been accused of exaggerating the defects of the American character (and we, who followed him, have been involved in the censure); but every publication on the subject, which has since come to hand, refutes the charge, and bears honourable testimony to the fairness and truth of his observations.

The Federalist. Answer to the Olive-branch.

caneering

caneering expedition against Washington,' appear to have effectually blinded his eyes to objects of this kind.

This is the smallest part of the disgusting scenes which Mr. Fearon witnesses in his excursion through this plague-spotted State, which-and it is a fearful consideration (though Mr. Fearon introduces it without being aware of its tendency)-as the strongest. member must of necessity influence the growth and healthfulness of the whole western body, where men in theory proclaim the principles of equal liberty, and in practice continue, nay, boast of the most demoralizing habits, treat their fellow creatures worse than brute beasts, and sell buman beings like cattle at a fair.' (p. 254.)

We are glad to escape from such 'sociality,' and shall therefore take leave of the Kentuckians with the following Advertisement from a Lexington newspaper, which, after the horrors through which our readers have just waded, may serve to amuse them.

“TAKE NOTICE,

"And beware of the swindler JESSE DOUGHERTY, who married me in November last, and some time after marriage informed me that he had another wife alive, and before I recovered, the villain left me, and took one of my best horses-one of my neighbours was so good as to follow him and take the horse from him, and bring him back. The said Dougherty is about forty years of age, five feet ten inches high, round shouldered, thick lips, complexion and hair dark, grey eyes, remarkably ugly and ill natured, and very fond of ardent spirits, and by profession a notorious liar. This is therefore to warn all widows to beware of the swindler, as all he wants is their property, and they may go to the devil for him after he gets that. Also, all persons are forewarned from trading with the said Dougherty, with the expectation of receiving pay from my property, as I consider the marriage contract null and void agreeably to law; you will therefore pay no attention to any lies he may tell you of his property in this county. The said Dougherty has a number of wives living, perhaps eight or ten, (the number not positively known,) and will no doubt, if he can get them, have eight or ten more. I believe that is the way he makes his living.

Sept. 5, 1817."'

MARY DODD.

We deem it unnecessary to follow Mr. Fearon through his general observations on the Illinois territory, which are in fact merely what he has gathered from the reports of others. The inhabitants of these back woods, as we already knew, consist of a medley group of Indian hunters, squatters, land jobbers, lawyers, doctors, and farmers occupying lands on speculation. The surface is almost one unbounded flat of swamps and forests, and when our traveller says the wildness of the country implies an unformed climate,' he might have added an unformed society.'

The

The Sixth Report' marks the progress of our traveller from the Illinois territory by Natchez to New Orleans, and from thence to Washington. He sets out by stating that, having travelled two thousand miles, since the date of his last report, he lamented to say there was not one spot, in the whole of that vast distance, in which either he or any man among his employers, could be induced to make a permanent settlement. 'The white population are the victims of demoralizing habits. The native Indians present of course nothing but a picture of mere savage life; and the poor negroes suffer even more than commonly falls to the lot of their oppressed and degraded situation."

At the landing place of Natchez on the Mississippi are about thirty houses, the greater part of which are whiskey shops and gambling houses; and in these, says our traveller, there is a degree of open profligacy, which I had not before witnessed in the United States.' Here too he observed fourteen large vessels called 'flats,' full of coloured people, particularly females, whom he concluded to be emigrants in search of a settlement. On a closer examination, however, these vessels proved to be freighted with human beings for sale, who had been collected in the several States by slave dealers, and shipped from 'the warm and generous' soil of Kentucky for a market.

Natchez is so very unhealthy, that one fourth part of the population had been entombed in the church-yard, in the course of five weeks; yet an inhabitant of that town was about to challenge a stranger, for daring to say that his city was sickly to be sure (he added) five hundred people have died in a short time, but men do not live for ever, even among the Yankies. (New Englanders) -I say, Sir, that there is not a more healthy place in the world than Natchez.' p. 273.

New Orleans is described as being in a most flourishing state, in consequence, as Mr. Fearon supposes, of a free and unshackled trade. The general manners and habits are, however, very relaxed. The first day of my residence here (he says) was Sunday, and I was not a little surprised to find in the United States the markets, shops, theatre, circus, and public ball-rooms open. Gamblinghouses throng the city: all coffee-houses, together with the exchange, are occupied from morning until night by gamesters.'p. 276. Sunday seems to be considerately reserved for the more elegant sports. We know not that we can furnish a better specimen of the taste for public amusement than the following seductive advertisement. It is somewhat akin to gander-pulling,' and we cannot therefore wonder that the polished and humane Kentuckians, when they arrive at this place, are, as Mr. Fearon says,

at

at the height of their glory,' finding neither limit to, nor punishment of their excesses.'

"EXTRAORDINARY EXHIBITION.

"On SUNDAY the 9th inst. will be represented in the place where Fire-works are generally exhibited, near the Circus, an extraordinary fight of Furious Animals. The place where the animals will fight is a rotunda of 160 feet in circumference, with a railing of 17 feet in height, and a circular gallery well conditioned and strong, inspected by the Mayor and surveyors by him appointed.

1st Fight-A strong Attakapas Bull, attacked and subdued by six of the strongest dogs of the country.

"2d Fight-Six Bull-dogs against a Canadian Bear.

"3d Fight-A beautiful Tiger against a black Bear.

"4th Fight-Twelve dogs against a strong and furious Opelousas Bull.

"If the Tiger is not vanquished in the fight with the Bear, he will be sent alone against the last Bull, and if the latter conquers all his enemies, several pieces of fire-works will be placed on his back, which will produce a very entertaining amusement.

"In the Circus will be placed two Manakins, which, notwithstanding the efforts of the Bulls, to throw them down, will always rise again, whereby the animals will get furious.

"Admittance, grown persons one dollar; children, half-price."'— p. 277.

When we add, that Mr. Fearon witnessed gratis, from the window of his hotel, a conflict of more furious brutes, than those of the hand-bill, in which he supposed one of the parties to be dirked; and that he assures us these things are of every-day occurrence,' we shall be thought to have said enough of New Orleans. Our traveller concludes his remarks on it in a very Christian-like manner. Notwithstanding what has been said, to all men whose desire only is to be rich, and to live a short life but a merry one, I have no hesitation in recommending New Orleans.'-p. 281.

We find our traveller next at Washington: how he got there does not appear. Of this new capital of the United States, Alexandria, he says, may be considered as the port, Georgetown the residence of shopkeepers, and Washington the depôt for officeholders, place-hunters,' (again!) and keepers of boarding-houses' none of whom would appear to be in possession of too much of this world's goods.' Mr. Fearon's account of it is as meagre and disjointed as the straggling city itself. He makes some amends, however, by subjoining the following lines from Moore:

In fancy now, beneath the twilight gloom,
Come, let me lead thee o'er this modern Rome,
Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davi bow,
And what was Goose Creek once is Tiber now.

The inhabitants are described as being 'a century inferior to Boston, and half a century behind New York.' What engrosses the morning besides 'place-hunting,' we are not told, but conversation, tea, ice, music, chewing tobacco, and excessive spitting, it seems, afford employment for the evening.'At the chief tavern, most of the door-handles were broken; the floor of the coffee-room was strewed with bricks and mortar from the crumbling of the walls and ceiling; and the charges were as high as at the first hotel in London.' In Mr. Fearon's lengthy dissertation on the Congress, the lawyers, the judges, the caucus,† &c. there appears to be little or nothing that could give pleasure to his employers, unless they found satisfaction in hearing that the worst degree of corruption which the inventive malice of the worst jacobin ever charged on the government of this country, is more than realized in the very citadel of pure republicanism, the focus of American virtue!

At Washington our traveller found a Mr. Hulme, a Lancashire cotton-bleacher,' and a great friend of Mr. Cobbett, who had just emigrated, self-banished,' perhaps, like his worthy precursor. The purport of this honest gentleman's visit was to induce the congress to lay double duties on all British goods. (p. 295.) and it speaks volumes in favour of the disinterested love of li

* Epistle from Washington.

+ This Caucus mightily puzzles our traveller. He may find an illustration and example of it in that Committee, which, after dragging England's Pride and Westminster's Glory,' at an enormous expense, through all the mire of Tothill Fields, into the House over the way, has the modesty (like Mr. Fearon's transatlantic friends) to talk of the purity of election !

Since this was written, Mr. Hulme has obligingly furnished us with his history. It appears to be drawn up by Cobbett, for Hulme himself is said to be totally illiterate. He was brought up (he tells us) to farming-work, apprenticed at fourteen to a bleacher; set up for himself at a village near Lancaster, employed 180 people, and acquired considerable property. This he determined to remove out of the reach of those from whom it had been gained, and, therefore, emigrated with it to America, having first tried a variety of plans to bring about a revolution, or, in his own phrase, to effect a reform. His last exhibition was in Palace Yard, I was one of the delegates, (he says) whom Sir F. Burdett so shanie fully abandoned.'

Of all the unnatural vipers who have sucked the nutriment of their country, and then turned to sting her to death, this is the most rank and poisonous. His language is that of an infuriate demon: the foam gathers round his mouth at the mention of a priest, and curses and execrations pour in full tides from his lips whenever the name of England occurs to him. We bless Providence for having put it into the heart of such a wretch to exhale his venom elsewhere.

berty