great nation, fhould be fuffered to pass without being in fome degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent and beneficent Ruler, in whom all inferior fpirits live, and move, and have their be ing.

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THE INTERNAL STATE OF AMERICA:

BEING A TRUE DESCRIPTION OF THE INTEREST AND POLICY OF THAT VAST CONTINENT.

THERE is a tradition, that, in the planting of New-England, the firft fettlers met with many difficulties and hardfhips; as is generally the cafe when a civilized people attempt establishing themfelves in a wilderness country. Being piously difpofed, they fought relief from Heaven, by laying their wants and diftreffes before the Lord, in frequent fet days of fafting and prayer. Conftant meditation and difcourfe on these fubjects kept their minds gloomy and difcontented; and, like the children of Ifrael, there were many dif pofed to return to that Egypt which perfecution had induced them to abandon. At length, when it was propofed in the affembly to proclaim another faft, a farmer of plain fense rofe, and remarked, that the inconveniencies they fuffered, and concerning which they had fo often wearied Heaven with their complaints, were not fo great as they might have expected, and were diminishing every day as the colony ftrengthened; that the earth began to reward their labour, and to furnish liberally for their fubfiftence; that the feas and rivers were found full of fish, the air fweet, the climate healthy; and, above all, that they were there in the full enjoyment of liberty, civil and religious: he therefore thought, that reflecting and converfing on these subjects would be more comfortable, as tending more to make them contented with their fituation; and that it would

would be more becoming the gratitude they owed to the Divine Being, if, inftead of a faft, they fhould proclaim a thanksgiving. His advice was taken; and from that day to this they have, in every year, obferved circumftances of public felicity fufficient to furnish employment for a thanksgiving day; which is therefore conftantly ordered and religiously obferved.

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I fee in the public newspapers of different states frequent complaints of hard times, deadness of trade, fcarcity of money, &c. It is not my intention to affert or maintain that these complaints are entirely without foundation. There can be no country or nation exifting, in which there will not be fome people fo circumstanced as to find it hard to gain a livelihood; people who are not in the way of any profitable trade, and with whom money is fcarce, because they have nothing to give in exchange for it; and it is always in the power of a fmall number to make a great clamour. But let us take a cool view of the general ftate of our affairs, and perhaps the profpect will appear lefs gloomy than has been imagined.

The great businefs of the continent is agriculture. For one artifan, or merchant, I fuppofe, we have at least one hundred farmers, by far the greatest part cultivators of their own fertile lands, from whence many of them draw not only food neceffary for their fubfiftence, but the materials of their clothing, fo as to need very few foreign fupplies; while they have a furplus of productions to difpofe of, whereby wealth is gradually accumulated. Such has been the goodness of Divine Providence to thefe regions, and fo favourable the climate, that, fince the three or four years of hardship in the firft fettlement of our fathers here, a famine or fcarcity has never been heard of among us; on the contrary, though fome

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fome years may have been more, and others lefs plentiful, there has always been provision enough for ourselves, and a quantity to fpare for exportation. And although the crops of laft year were generally good, never was the farmer better paid for the part he can spare commerce, as the published price currents abundantly teftify. The lands he poffeffes are alfo continually rifing in value with the increafe of population; and, on the whole, he is enabled to give fuch good wages to those who work for him, that all who are acquainted with the old world must agree, that in no part of it are the labouring poor fo generally well fed, well clothed, well lodged, and well paid, as in the United States of America..

If we enter the cities, we find that, fince the revolution, the owners of houfes and lots of ground have had their intereft vaftly augmented in value; rents have risen to an astonishing height, and thence encouragement to increase building, which gives employment to an abundance of workmen, as does alfo the increafed luxury and fplendour of living of the inhabitants thus made richer. These workmen all demand and obtain much higher wages than any other part of the world would afford them, and are paid in ready money. This rank of people therefore do not, or ought not, to complain of hard times; and they make a very confiderable part of the city inhabitants.

At the distance I live from our American fifheries, I cannot speak of them with any degree of certainty; but I have not heard that the labour of the valuable race of men employed in them is worse paid, or that they meet with lefs fuccefs, than before the revolution. The whale-men indeed have been deprived of one market for their oil; but another, I hear, is opening for them, which

which it is hoped may be equally advantageous; and the demand is conftantly increafing for their fpermaceti candles, which therefore bear a much higher price than formerly.

There remain the merchants and shopkeepers. Of these, though they make but a small part of the whole nation, the number is confiderable, too great indeed for the business they are employed in; for the confumption of goods in every country has its limits; the faculties of the people, that is, their ability to buy and pay, is equal only to a certain quantity of merchandize. If merchants calculate amifs on this proportion, and import too much, they will of course find the sale dull for the overplus, and fome of them will fay that trade languishes. They fhould, and doubtlefs will, grow wifer by experience, and import lefs. If too many artificers in town, and farmers from the country, flattering themselves with the idea of leading eafier lives, turn fhopkeepers, the whole natural quantity of that business divided among them all may afford too fmall a fhare for each, and occafion complaints that trading is dead; thefe may also fuppofe that it is owing to fcarcity of money, while, in fact, it is not so much from the fewness of buyers, as from the exceffive number of fellers, that the mischief arises; and, if every shopkeeping farmer and mechanic would return to the ufe of his plough and working tools, there would remain of widows, and other women, flopkeepers fufficient for the bufinefs, which might then afford them a comfortable maintenance.

Whoever has travelled through the various parts of Europe, and obferved how fmall is the proportion of the people in affluence or eafy circumftances there, compared with those in poverty and mifery; the few rich and haughty landlords, the multitude

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