diffusion of learning in all parts of the earth, that I question whether any testimony to the contrary would have the least weight in the United States; neither, in truth, would it be worth the trouble, were it not for the reasons which have governed me in pointing out some other mistakes in the estimate of our countrymen concerning this nation and its government. Great efforts have been made of late, and are still making, to put republics and republicans out of the pale of humanity; to enlist every amiable feeling and passion of the mind against the system of government under which I was born, and hope to die; to prove, in short, that it is incompatible with either honest feelings or noble principles, although it is under this very system that the human mind has always attained its highest moral excellence, and displayed the noblest examples of virtuous heroism. Yet, in spite of the testimony of all history, which is directly against them, these advocates and supporters of tyranny not only labour to maintain, by assertion, their moral and intellectual superiority over the people of the United States, but to trace this pretended pre-eminence on the one hand, and this alleged inferiority on the other, to the nature and effects of their respective systems of government. Surely it behoves every American to do his best to refute this slander upon that freedom which he cherishes as one great source of his pride and happiness.

Religion, like every other great motive of action, is best known by its fruits. If in any country we find the people sober and orderly; regular in the discharge of their social duties; submissive to equal laws, that are essential to the security of person and property; decent in their observance. of the sabbath, and regular in their attendance on public worship, we may safely pronounce them un

der the influence of a salutary religious impression. But if, on the other hand, we find the princes and the nobility, the rich and the high-born, contenting themselves with eating public dinners, drinking toasts, and subscribing a few guineas annually to the support of churches they never visit, or to missions in India or Africa; while at the same time their conduct disgraces the religion they profess to assist in propagating, we may be pretty certain, that whatever the professions may be, there is little of real piety here. If money is to make atonement, without either repentance or amendment, the rich have still another advantage over the poor, who can only obtain pardon by repenting of their old, and avoiding all new transgressions. This is rather an aristocratic religion, which, I sincerely hope, will never make any great progress among our yankees.

You have no doubt heard of the million of pounds sterling, appropriated some two or three years since, at the recommendation of his present majesty, who is a great example of morals and religion, for the building of one hundred new churches in and about London. This was advertised and puffed to the uttermost corners of the earth, as if the Regent had himself bestowed this million from his own privy purse. No such thing, I assure you. It was a million extra, not drawn from his own pocket, but from the pockets of a starving people, already pressed to the earth with taxes. What rendered this appropriation still less praiseworthy, was the fact to which every man in this city can bear witness, that the episcopal churches already built are amply sufficient for all the purposes of public worship. The dissenting chapels and methodist tabernacles are indeed generally crowded; but the places of worship belonging to the established church are, I repeat again, never filled, ex

cept on some extraordinary occasion. It is true, that the present churches in this city are not sufficient to hold the whole population of London, should they all attend public worship at one and the same time, a thing that never did nor ever can happen. But they are amply sufficient for every practicable purpose, and this appropriation of a million sterling of the overburthened people's money, is therefore, I do not hesitate to say, nothing better than a robbery committed upon them by a prince and a government, for the sole purpose of putting a deception upon the world.

Much more good would have resulted from this million, if it had been deducted from the amount of yearly taxes. This would have made a difference of two millions to the nation, and these two millions would have prevented a great many people from becoming paupers. Or supposing it had been appropriated to feeding, clothing, and educating some of the thousands of little half-naked, half-starved, and wholly ignorant wretches, who prowl about this city, and seem to be nursed in crime even at the mother's breast. After having brought these to a sense of duty, and an impression of religious awe, if it were found that there were not churches sufficient to accommodate them, then would have been the season for building more. To preach to the hungry and the naked, is to howl out to the tiger and the wolf; the wants of nature must be first supplied, and the body relieved from the cravings of hunger, before the mind can receive the impression of moral and religious truths. You may as well give a stone to him who asks for bread, as religious instruction to one who is starving. For these causes it is, that whenever I hear of building new churches here, or instituting societies for inculcating religion into these hungry beings, I cannot but think, they are VOL. 1. Q

wasting their time and throwing away their money. Give them wholesome employment, and wages that will enable them to purchase wholesome food, and in no long period they will build their own churches, and learn to read and write without the intervention of charitable societies.

As it is, however, the lower orders here do certainly exhibit a deplorable want of true religious feeling and instruction, similar to that of a great portion of the higher classes. The observance of the sabbath is no bad criterion of the moral as well as religious feelings of a people. I will therefore shortly contrast the mode in which the commonalty of London and Paris amuse themselves on Sundays, and for this purpose describe some of the objects and incidents, which occurred to a friend of mine, in a Sunday's ramble not long ago.

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I began," said he, "by a visit to the church of St. Sepulchre, in the reasonable hope of an hour of quiet devotion; but even here the genius of John Bull penetrated in the form of a drunken man, who made his way up the aisle to the great disturbance of the preacher and congregation. By the aid of a peace officer or the beadle, I don't know which, he was forced out of church, and lodged in prison. When brought up afterwards to answer for this offence before the magistrate, it come out that this wretched being was a regularly ordained clergyman of the church of England, and not long since a very popular preacher at the west end of the town. He had married the daughter of a banker, and had, it appeared, a fine family of children. He was in the receipt of an allowance from the navy, which he spent immediately in drunkenness and debauchery, and passed the rest of his time in penury and distress. The magistrate, in consideration of his family, discharged him with an admonition, as I afterwards heard.

"From St. Sepulchre's, I took my way towards London bridge, which I crossed, and proceeded up Borough High Street, Long Lane, King's Road, the Blue Anchor, and so to Surry canal. It is in the environs of London that the common people frequently spend their Sundays; because of late the city is so thronged with spies, peace officers, and agents of the societies for suppressing vice, that the genius of John Bull is quite repressed within the bills of mortality. But in the out-skirts, and the fields adjoining the city, there is not so much of the fear of the police before the eyes of the people, and it is there that one sees a variety of Sabbath amusements, that redound very little to the honour of Old England. Though the taverns affect to be shut at these times, yet drinking goes on as merrily as ever. In one place you could see a group of tipplers, who were disposing of a part of their week's wages in spirits, noisy and turbulent beyond control-at another, a fat rogue nodding over a pot of beer, like the genius of stupidity in his most stupid mood, saturating himself with this inspiring beverage, and making merry after the fashion of what they call sober, decent, and moral people here. I occasionally observed one of these regular fellows, with his wife and children, forming a family party at beer-drinking, and nothing could possibly equal the sleepy brutality of the whole group. Drinking indeed seemed to be the sole amusement left to the people on this day of rest, except occasionally a snug little boxing match, a fight between two bull dogs, or something of that kind sufficiently exciting to awake their beer-smothered energies.

"I had the good fortune to witness one of these pleasant and amusing spectacles, in a snug little by-place, where the ten millions of eyes of the police did not penetrate. As it is quite impossible