which had been formed by our illustrious countryman, with regard to the future destiny of America; and whatever may be our opinion of their correctness, as prophecies, or of the period of their fulfilment, they cannot be read without interest, as the poetical predictions of this great philosopher.

"There shall be sung another golden age,
"The rise of Empires and of Arts ;
"The good and great inspiring epic rage,
"The wisest heads and noblest hearts.

"Not such as Europe breeds in her decay,
"Such as she bred when fresh and young,
“When heavenly flame did animate her clay,

By future poets shall be sung.

"Westward the course of Empire takes its
“The four first acts already past,

s-way,

"A fifth shall close the drama with the day,
"Time's noblest offspring is the last.”

At the distance of 12 miles from Newport, we waited for the Providence stage, in a country tavern, kept by a Quaker lady; her ten blooming children, from 3 to 25 years of age, handsome and well-dressed, and particularly respectable in their manners. I did not expect to find such good manners in Rhode Island, although it is as celebrated as Lancashire, (and justly celebrated,) for its blooming

beauties.

I saw on the island, more of the old English farmer, and met more Darbys and Joans jogging away on their farm horses, than in any other part of the United States. We had a dark uncomfortable ride hither, where we arrived late at night, on the 3d January, as glad to reach the end of our journey as you probably are.

The following day was Sunday, and I attended the Presbyterian chapel in the morning, and the Baptists in the afternoon, as there

was no Episcopal church. The appearance of these places of worship, and of the congregation, corresponded much more nearly with British ideas of New England, than any thing I had previously seen. The former, simple and plain, almost to parsimony; the latter, cold, grave, and in a very homely dress. In the smallest town in New England, where I had spent my Sundays before, the churches and congregations were, in appearance, pretty much on a par with the average in England. The preachers, too, in New Bedford, had more of the nasal twang than I had generally met with; indeed, so much as to be almost ludicrous, at least, to those who connect English associations with it.

On the 5th and 6th, I delivered my letters of introduction, and received and accepted several invitations. The pleasantest house that I visited was that of, whom I had met, with the agreeable females of his family, in Canada. Our conversation turned principally on the subject of missions among the American Indians, and of the dispositions which England and America ought to feel towards each other. I endeavoured to convince them that they were not sufficiently sensible of their hereditary honours, nor of the degree in which they were hourly indebted to Europe, for many of the elements of their rapid prosperity; and I tried to induce them to imagine what America would have been at this moment, if left to her internal resources only, and cut off from all intercourse with Europe, from the date of her independence. One of the young ladies, (they were extremely well-educated,) took part with me in the argument, and we had a lively and agreeable evening. They pressed me to stay to a large dinner-party the following day. The society of New Bedford is very limited, and exhibits the plain homely appearance we are accustomed to associate with the idea of thrifty New Englanders. Some of the families, indeed, live in handsome houses;

but the genteel, and indeed, gay style of the young family I visited, forms a striking contrast with all around them.

The town has risen almost entirely on the whale fishery, which is still profitable, and in which the little island of Nantucket has 70 ships engaged.* You know these are sometimes absent for two or three years, and sail quite round the globe, before they return. I could not see Nantucket from the New Bedford shore, but Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands were distinctly visible. I heard so much of these when beating off the coast, on our passage out, that they seemed like old acquaintances. Indeed, Nantucket shoal cost our captain and a British naval officer a night's rest, and induced us to peep out of our births while they were so gravely examining their chart, and listening to the seaman who was heaving the lead.

The severe winter has been keenly felt at Nantucket, all intercourse with the main land having been entirely suspended for four or five weeks; and the supplies of wood, as well as of other comforts, having been thus cut off.

See a very interesting account of the wreck of a whale ship from Kentucky, in the Appendix, D.

Letter XXXVE.

Portland, State of Maine, 17th February, 1821. AT six o'clock, on the 7th, we took leave of New Bedford, and set off in the stage for Boston. It was a dark morning, with rain and sleet, but not cold. The country seemed laboriously cultivated, but very barren; and occasionally we skirted the native forests of slanted pine and cedar. We breakfasted at a poor house, where we met with civility; but where the meagre fare, so little in the American fashion, evinced that we were either on a road little frequented, or in the track of travellers who still retained some tincture of the right thrifty economical habits of their New England ancestors. I still observed, however, the neat, clean dress, which distinguishes the children even of the poorest farmer in New England; and indeed, generally throughout America, Rags and a dirty squalid appearance will be quite new to me on my return, as I have scarcely seen an instance of them since I left the Slave-States; and there, generally speaking, only among the blacks.