land, or by the public funds, without burdening himself with the toils of the tradesman, or the hazard of the merchant. Those who buy land on the expectation of re-felling it at an advanced price, must not, however, buy in the thickly-settled part of the country, for there land is nearly at the maximum price it will arrive at for many years: he must not buy large tracts, far from all prefent fettlements, unless he can force the speedy fettlement of them by his own connections and influence. If he can do that, he may buy indeed, any where, ufing common prudence in chufing the fituation but if he cannot induce an emigration thither by his own exertions, he must buy where the current of population is evidently tending, but where it has not yet reached. Certainly, land fpeculations in America, prudently entered upon, are extremely profitable: made at random they are otherwife.* If these do not fuit, part of the American stock pays above fix per cent. per annum, and the deferred stock above feven. The American debt is funded in three kinds of stock, viz. the three per cent. ftock, the fix per cent. ftock, and the deferred stock; this latter bears no prefent interest, but interest at fix per cent. will become payable upon it, from and after the first of January, 1801. In the beginning of June, 1794, the prices of American stock were in London, Per cent. £. s. d. . Six per cent. stock, ninety pounds per cent. thus paying an intereft of Three per cent. fifty pounds per cent.-paying an intereft of . 6 13 4 6 Deferred stock fifty-feven pounds per cent. upon which, if compound intereft be reckoned at five per cent. until 1801, the fifty-feven will amount to eighty pounds, which therefore will yield . . Shares in the American bank, which has hitherto paid eight pounds per cent. at one hundred and fix pounds per cent. paying an interest of 0 0 7 10 Q 6159 *Purchasers in this country, and meaning to stay here, will not find it their intereft, in general, to embark a portion of property fo fmall as not to pay for an agent on the fpot. In this cafe, it should be a joint concern. But fo much caution is requifite to perfons not going themfelves to America, that we cannot recommend the inveftiture of a fortune there, unless the principal, or fome of the principals, act upon personal knowledge. The The furplus revenue of the United States is about one million two hundred thousand dollars, or two hundred and seventy thousand pounds fterling, per annum; this is laid out on the principle of a finking fund, to discharge the debt. But on the whole, it is certainly beft for a man of middling fortune, that is, perfons of from two hundred and fifty to five thoufand pounds fortune, to become farmers. We do not know that large fortunes are to be made by farming, but affured we are, that a moderate fortune may as certainly, eafily, and more pleasantly, produce a common average profit in that line than in any other. A hundred and fifty acres of land, with a tolerable house and barn upon it, and fufficient land cleared, for a perfon immediately to begin as a farmer, may be purchased in many parts at four pounds currency an acre,* payable one-fifth, perhaps, down, and one-fifth every year, with interest. We doubt whether this is more profitable, than the purchase with the fame money of a large quantity of unimproved land, if the fettler chufe to encounter the difficulties of the first twelve months, which are difficulties to Englishmen only; to Americans they do not appear under that form. The land thus purchafed is a fpecies of property that must of neceffity receive an annual increafe in value, from the natural population of the country, befides that which the industry of the proprietor may confer upon it; we think we speak within compafs, when we say that an induftrious cultivator, befides making a plentiful liveli hood and good intereft of his capital, will find his farm quadrupled in value at the end of ten years, if he bought it in any cheap part of the back country, which was at the time in the course of fettling. To perfons with a family, the advantages are much on the side of farming; the value of the produce of America is much higher than in England, when the lightnefs of the taxes, and the cheapnefs and fertility of the land are confidered. Among farmers, there is not, as in great towns, a perpetual temptation to unneceffary expense, or a style of living above income; and a man who has lived in the eafe and plenty of middle life, need not give his fon a better or a more certain establishment at setting out in the world, than five hundred acres of land and five hundred pounds to begin with; and this, ten years hence, will eafily be within the compafs of men of mode rate fortune, who begin their American career now. Not quite fifty fhillings fterling. M Many things are daily prefenting themfelves, by which the profits of land will be greatly enhanced in the United States. They have hitherto imported a great part of their drink from abroad, viz. rum, brandy, gin, &c. but they find, by extending their breweries so far as to render thefe fpirituous liquors in part unneceffary, that they will want above two millions of bufhels of barley for the purpofe, and large quantities of hops, belides having ufe for a farther part of the immenfe quantities of fire-wood and coal, with which their country abounds. They have alio obtained the European cotton mill, by means of which, and a few of their innumerable mill feats, the owners of lands, in the fix fouthern States, will be called upon to fupply great quantities of cotton. The movements of a mill for spinning flax, hemp, and combed wool, have also been conftructed there, by which the farmers, throughout the Union, will be called upon to fupply farther quantities of flax and hemp, and to increase their sheep. The rolling mill for iron and other metals, and the tilt hammer for all large iron work, have been lately brought into extenfive ufe, and will, no doubt, be erected in all the States. But the detail of water works, and mechanifm, which may be introduced into a country, that has, moderately fpeaking, ten thousand, and probably nearer twenty thousand mill feats, would be endless. The term "farmer" is not fynonimous with the fame word in England, where it means a tenant, holding of fome lord, paying near feven-eighths of the produce in rent, tythes and taxes: an inferior rank in life, and occupied by perfons of inferior manners and education. In America a farmer is a land-owner, paying no rent, no tythes, and few taxes, equal in rank to any other in the State, having a voice in the appointment of his legislators, and a fair chance, if he deferves it, of becoming one himself. In fact, nine-tenths of the legiflators of America are farmers. A man may buy three hundred acres of rich, but unimproved, land at prefent, in the well-fettled part of the back country, for thirty fillings per acre, currency, payable by instalments. In the course of a summer he may, with a couple of men to help him, clear ground enough to maintain fome cattle through the winter, and may have a comfortable log-houfe built, which he may improve or enlarge at his leifure. To do this, to put one-t e-third of the whole into an arable state, and to pay the first and second inftalments, will coft him, with the wages of the men, the keep of himself and a moderate family for twelvemonths, and the neceffary cattle and imple ments ments of hufbandry to cultivate this quantity properly, about four The above is the price of prime land in very eligible fituations, What is the state of politics in America ?Is the Commonwealth of the United States likely to prove durable? With respect to the ftate of politics in America, they have among them a few suspected royalists, exclufive of fome Englishmen fettled in the great towns, whom the Americans regard as unreasonably prejudiced against their government, and infected with a kind of maladie du pays. The rest of the Americans are republicans, but of two claffes: the one leaning to an extenfion rather than a limitation of the powers of the legiflative and executive government; or, in other words, rather leaning to British than to French politics; inclining to introduce and extend the funding, the manufacturing, and the commercial fyftems. In this clafs rank almost all the executive officers of government, with the Prefident at their head; the majority of the members of the fenates, and the greatest part of the opulent merchants of the large towns: this party is denominated the Federalifts, partly because they were the chief introducers and fupporters of the prefent federal government, and the conftitution of 1787; and partly from the very ingenious feries of letters in favour of that conftitution by Mr. Hamilton, termed "The Federalist." The other party are called, "Anti-federalists;" not because they are adverfe to a federal government, or wifh, like the French, for a republic, one and indivifible, but in contradiftinction rather to the denomination of the other clafs. The Anti-federalists, at the time when the prefent American conftitution was in agitation, were hoftile to the extenfive powers given to government, and wifhed for more frequent returns to the people, of the authority they were to delegate to their trustees in office. This party objects to the falaries given to the officers of government as too large, to the state and distance affumed by fome among them. Not even excluding the Prefident Washington, 4 Washington, whofe manners and mode of living, cold, referved and ceremonious, as is faid, have tended in fome degree to counteract the effect of his great abilities and eminent fervices. The Anti-federalifts alfo rather lean to the French theory, though not to the French practice of politics; and they are averfe to what they deem the monopolizing spirit, and infulting arrogance of fuperiority in England. This fpirit of animofity against Great-Britain has been prodigiously increafed by the part fhe is supposed to have taken in fomenting the Indian war, in exciting the hoftilities of the Algerines, in feizing. the fhips and obftructing the commerce of the American merchants, in refufing or neglecting to give up the posts upon the lakes, or to make reparation for ftolen negroes. The conduct of the British Court has certainly given strength to the Antifederal party, among whom may now be ranked the majority of the people, and the majority of the houfes of reprefentatives. It will be easy to conjecture from the preceding account, that the Federalifts are the ins, and the Anti-federalifts the outs of the American government; and this is in a great degree, but not univerfally true. With refpect to the ftability of the American Commonwealth, there is great probability that its duration will be longer than any empire that has hitherto exifted: for it is a truth univerfally admitted, that all the advantages which ever attended any of the monarchies of the old world, all center in the new; together with many others, which they never enjoyed. The four great empires, and the dominions of Charlemaigne and the Turks, all rofe by conquefts, none by the arts of peace. On the contrary, the territory of the United States has been planted and reared by a union of liberty, good conduct, and all the comforts of domeftic virtue. All the great monarchies were formed by the conquefts of kingdoms, different in arts, manners, language, temper and religion, from the conquerors; fo that the union, though in some cases very ftrong, was never the real and intimate connection of the fame people; and this circumftance principally accelerated their ruin, and was abfolutely the cause of it in fome. This will be very different in the Americans. They will, in their greatest extent and population, be one and the fame people; the fame in language, religion, laws, manners, tempers and purfuits; for the fmall variation in fome districts, owing to the fettlement of Germans, is an exception so very flight, that in a few ages it will be unknown. The |