ments that conduce to human comfort or security-grist mills, paper mills, breweries of beer and porter, rope walks, distilleries, foundries, manufactories of nails, &c. &c. &c. In the neighbourhood of Lexington, about 2000 tons of hemp are raised annually. The culture has greatly increased of late. Besides hemp, the state produces for export, tobacco, Indian corn, wheat, rye, oats, barley, flour, horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, mules, &c. &c.

There are three papers published in Lexington, two political and one religious. In the state there are from 20 to 25.

Kentucky has suffered greatly by the fluctuations of her paper currency, by the bankruptcy of her banks, and by her relief laws, &c. &c. She is now recovering from her difficulties, and has one specie-paying bank, with a number of branches, of which the paper is in a perfectly sound state. Her broken banks are winding up their concerns. The bank of the United States has two branches in the state, one at Lexington, and the other at Louisville.

Louisville is a very thriving town, and is supposed to have about 6000 inhabitants. The important canal at the falls will probably be completed in a year or two. Opinions are much divided as to its effects upon the prosperity of the town-some believing it will prove highly beneficial, and others directly the reverse. The former opinion appears the more natural. It will probably be injurious to Shippingport, a town about two miles from Louisville, containing above 2000 inhabitants, the prosperity of which depends in a great measure, upon being the depot for merchandise, which, except when the river is high, cannot be conveyed round the falls, by water.

In Lexington and Louisville, a custom prevails, which adds greatly to the comfort of society, and which is not usual in our great cities. In nine cases out of ten, where intimacies exist between married men, they extend to the females of the respective families. Whereas it is well known that in Philadelphia and New York, intimacies frequently exist for years between married men, whose wives are unknown to each other. It now remains to take a rapid sketch of the character of the citizens of Kentucky. That character is on the whole estimable. Its distinguishing features are, a high degree of shrewdness and intelligence-natural politeness, untrammelled by the formality, the etiquette, and the distinction of castes, that generally prevail in older stages of society-and genuine

hospitality towards strangers. In these three very important items, Kentucky will advantageously compare with any state in the Union. This character is derived from an impartial examination of its citizens, in steam boats, in taverns, in stages, at ordinaries, in private circles, and in large parties. I am well aware that it by no means corresponds with the prejudices of the generality of the citizens of the other states, and shall endeavour to show whereon those prejudices rest, and the reason why they are so erroneous. Such prejudices are highly pernicious when they prevail among members of the same family of nations, exciting alienation and hostility-and I therefore hope that the attempt to obliterate them will not be regarded with indifference by those whose good opinion is worth cultivating.

There are few sources of error more prolific, than the habit to which mankind are prone, of generalizing without adequate data-and from individual cases inferring the character and qualities of communities and nations. We have heard of travellers, who pronounced dogmatically on the character of a nation from an intercourse with a few persons in a town or cityand one is particularly renowned, who having seen, on the day of his arrival, a number of old and homely women, and none either young or beautiful, is reported to have very judiciously entered among his memorabilia, " N. B. All the women in this place old and ugly."

It is not very honourable to human nature that this tendency to generalization is more prevalent as regards deformity of character than the contrary. Fifty upright or virtuous individuals, of any particular profession, community, or nation, will not be so likely to induce us to pourtray the whole mass couleur de rose, as ten or a dozen fraudulent or worthless persons to lead us to assume a general worthlessness.

When once a national character is blemished, whether correctly or otherwise, every incident that occurs, tending to afford any sort of support to the blemish, is caught at with avidity, and regarded as "confirmation strong as proofs from holy writ." Whereas ten cases equally strong, occurring in nations not lying under such blemish, attach no national disgrace.

It is within the recollection of most of us, that a strong prejudice prevailed against the people of New England, at no very distant day; and every petty trick perpetrated by a New Eng land man was triumphantly adduced in full proof of the cor

rectness of the prejudice. Thus a whole district of country, containing above a million and a half of souls, was made responsible for the misconduct of every individual in it. The injustice of this procedure is now well known and acknowledged by men of liberal minds-although it still lingers among a few of the low and the vulgar.

To apply this reasoning to Kentucky. Among the carly settlers in that state, as in most newly settled countries, were some profligate characters, by whom it was regarded as a place of refuge, an asylum for the abandoned and worthless. Though those characters bore but a very small proportion to the mass of the population, they served to affix a stigma on the whole. Such a stigma once fixed is not easily removed-and it is to be regretted that little or no pains have been taken to remove it, although now without the least foundation-and although the people of the state may fairly vie with their fellow citizens of other states. The following testimonials of the character of the early settlers fully show the fallacy of some of the prevailing opinions on the subject-in the other states.

Filson, in his history of the discovery, settlement, &c. of Kentucky [1784] says of the inhabitants, "They are, in general, polite, humane, hospitable, and very complaisant. Being collected from different parts of the continent, they have a diversity of manners, customs and religions, which may in time be modified to one uniform. As yet united to Virginia, they are governed by her wholesome laws, which are virtuously executed, and with excellent decorum. Schools for education are formed, and a college is appointed by act of assembly of Virginia."

Imlay, in his letters descriptive of the Western Country, testifies in glowing colours, to the simplicity and excellence of the manners and society of Kentucky at an early period.

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"Such," says Marshal, speaking of the period about the year 1781, was the pressure of danger, the simplicity of manners, the integrity of the people, and the state of property, that there was but little use for criminal law, until a later period."-History of Kentucky, vol. i. page 119. Edition of 1824.

One circumstance which tends to perpetuate the prejudice is the conduct of the Kentucky boatmen on the Ohio and the Mississippi, some of whom appear to pride themselves on the roughness and rudeness of their manners-" half horse, half alligator," &c. But it would be quite as just to characterize the inhabitants of New York from the conduct of the boatmen

or porters who ply at the ferries on the Hudson or the East River, as the people of Kentucky from the boatmen of the Ohio and Mississippi.

Many people believe that human life is most wantonly sported with in Kentucky-and that there is danger of murder in passing through the state. This is a miserable error. That homicide has increased within a few years in the United States, is a lamentable truth-and that Kentucky has partaken of the crime is beyond doubt. But it is equally true that it is full as prevalent in some, and more prevalent in other states, to which no particular censure attaches on this ground.

The writer of this has travelled a considerable distance through the state-sojourned some time in Lexington and Louisville, and had very extensive intercourse with citizens of various descriptions, and different parties: and during the whole time never met with or saw a single instance of the slightest departure from the strictest rules of propriety and decorum, even in classes among whom such a departure is elsewhere not unfrequent. So far as Lexington is concerned, he believes that in every thing that renders society respectable, it is not inferior to any city or town in the Union.

· Philadelphia, Aug. 23, 1828.

CIRCULAR.

It is self evident, that as man is an imitative animal, the dissemination of striking instances of the social virtues, charity, generosity, liberality, gratitude, heroism, public spirit, &c. cannot fail to have a salutary tendency, by exciting a spirit of emulation, and approximating the human character to that standard of perfection at which it is frequently exhibited in history, not merely among foreign nations and in remote ageş, but in the United States, particularly during "the times that tried men's souls," when country was every thing, and self and sordid interest, comparatively nothing-an object that must be deeply interesting to all good men. It may, therefore, be regarded as a duty which we owe to society, to diffuse, as generally as possible, the knowledge of such virtues-which is the more necessary, as almost every instance of vice, or crime, that occurs in this country, throughout its wide extent, and, in

addition, the atrocities of Europe, are collected in most of our newspapers, and widely circulated; and the more heinous, the more secure of publication, and the more eagerly read—thus producing, to a certain degree, an infectious moral atmosphere. Under these circumstances, the best interests of society require a constant effort at counteraction, by disseminating, as far as practicable, the antidote pari passu with the poison.

Under these impressions, I have judged that I could not employ some of my leisure hours to more advantage, than by collecting facts falling within the above description of the social virtues. I have already published two series, of three numbers each, But from the difficulty of procuring materials, notwithstanding they abound throughout the country, and from the indifference unfortunately displayed on the subject, by those capable of furnishing them, the publications have been, "like Angels' visits, few and far between."

The importance I attach to this object, induces me to make an attempt to resume the publication, and to continue it periodically; for which purpose I request you will be so kind, not only to furnish such communications as may be suitable for my purpose, but to urge your friends to pursue the same I would not confine them altogether to this country, but shall occasionally insert a few of foreign occurrence. The former, however, will have a decided preference. To enable you to form an opinion of the plan, I enclose a copy of one of the former numbers.

course.

That these essays will have a favourable effect, I fondly hope -whether to the extent of my wishes, is a matter of uncertainty. We are told by high authority, that no good effort is wholly lost-and I therefore cherish the idea that some of the noble and beneficent actions which I thus record, may, even during the very short period of life that remains to a man in his seventieth year-but, at all events, when I am laid in the grave —produce that “divine spark” of emulation, which is the parent of nearly all the goodness displayed in this world, and without a portion of which, man is little more than a sordid, selfish, worthless animal.

Philadelphia, Feb. 9, 1829.

* I regret to state that this invitation produced no effect. I have not received a single communication, since the publication of this circular, al