are issued, appointing a day of public thanksgiving for the blessings received in the course of the preceding year. This pious custom originated with the first settlers in New England, and it is hoped will be sacredly preserved to the latest posterity.

The greater part of the people in New England acquire their property by unremitting industry, and are consequently frugal in spending; yet there are few countries where the hapless sons of indigence or the victims of misfortune fare better. The laws compel every town to provide a competent maintenance for their poor, and the necessitous stranger is sure to meet with relief from some of their humane institutions. As the great body of the people are hardy independent freeholders, their manners are plain, simple, and unpolished; but strangers are always received among them with unaffected kindness and artless hospitality; and in short, it may be truly said, that in no part of the world are the people happier, or better furnished with the conveniences of life, than the farmers of this country.

The women of New England have, for the most part, fresh and healthful countenances, mingled with much female softness and delicacy. Many of them are accounted handsome; and those who have had the advantages of a good education, are particularly agreeable in their manners, and sprightly in conversation. They are taught, at an early age, to manage domestic concerns. with neatness and economy; and employments at needle work, at the spinning wheel, or in cooking are reckoned honourable by ladies of the first fortune; whilst idleness and inattention to family affairs are universally detested.

Dancing is the principal amusement in New England, and of this the young people of both sexes are extremely fond; but the odious practises of gambling, duelling, horse racing, and cock fighting are professedly despised by all who wish to bear irreproachable characters. The athletic diversions of foot-ball, cricket, quoits, foot races, &c. are universally practised in the country. Some divert themselves with fox-hunting, and others with the more profitable sport of fishing and duck hunting; and in the frontier settlements, where deer and other large game abound, the inhabitants find the chace extremely profitable. In the winter season, when the ground is completely covered with snow, sleighing is the general diversion; and at night the young people resort, in large parties, to a place of rendezvous, where they regale themselves with dancing and a social supper. These diversions, however, are frequently carried to excess, and it is to a sudden exposure to extreme cold after the exercise of dancing, that physicians ascribe the con. sumptions which are so frequent among the young people in New England.

In New York the English language is generally spoken, though somewhat corrupted by the 'Dutch dialect, which is still used in some counties, But as there are now hardly any Dutch schools in the state, that language; in a few generations, will probably be wholly discontinued; and the increase of English schools has already had a considerable effect on the improvement of the English language. The manners of the people vary materially, according to their situation. The ancestors of the inhabitants of the southern and middle parts of Long Island were either natives

of Great Britain, or the immediate descendants of the first settlers of New England, and their customs and manners are exactly similar to those of their ancestors.-The counties inhabited by the Dutch have adopted the English manners in a certain degree, but still retain many modes which are peculiar to Hollanders. They were the first settlers of this state, and continued to be amicably disposed towards the English colonies east of them, till an unhappy dispute arose concerning the lands on Connecticut river. They are industrious, neat, and economical in the management of their families and their farms; and whatever business they pursue, they generally follow the old track of their forefathers, seldom inventing any new improvements in agriculture, manufactures, or mechanics.-Besides the Dutch and English, already mentioned, there are in this state great numbers of emigrants from Scotland, Ireland and Germany, and some from France. Most of these are settled in the city of New York, where they retain the manners, religion, and language of their respective countries.

The inhabitants of New Jersey are a collection of English, Scotch, Irish, New Englanders, Low Dutch, and Germans; and as national attachment and mutual convenience have generally induced these several kinds of people to settle together in a body, their peculiar national customs and manners are still preserved; particularly among the lower class of people who have little intercourse with any but their own countrymen. There is also a characteristic difference which results from the intercourse of the inhabitants with different states. Thus, the people in West Jersey trade to Philadelphia, and

consequently imitate the fashions and imbibe the manners of that city. The inhabitants of East Jersey trade to New York, and regulate their fashions and manners accordingly so that the difference, with respect to fashions and manners, between East and West Jersey is nearly as great as between New York and Philadelphia.

There are comparatively but few men of learning in New Jersey; and the lower class, in which may be included three fifths of the inhabitants of the whole state, are shamefully negligent of their children's education. There are, however, several men of abilities in the civil offices and in the learned professions; and the major part of the people are industrious, frugal, and hospitable.

The inhabitants of Pennsylvania consist of emigrants from England, Scotland, Ireland and Germany. The quakers and episcopalians are chiefly of English extraction, and compose one third of the inhabitants: they reside principally in the city of Philadelphia, and in the counties of Chester, Bucks, and Montgomery. The Irish are mostly presbyterians, and as their ancestors came from the north of Ireland, which was originally settled from Scotland, they are sometimes called Scotch-Irish, to denote their double descent: they inhabit the frontier counties, and are very numerous.

The Germans compose one quarter, at least, of the inhabitants of Pennsylvania; and they reside in the counties of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Lancaster, Dauphin, York, and Northampton. They have usually fourteen or fifteen members in the assembly of the state, and many of them fill civil offices with great respect

ability; yet the lower class are so ignorant and superstitious, that they are frequently seen going to market with a little bag of salt tied to their horses' manes, in order to secure them from the ill effects of witchcraft. Dr. Morse observes, that a proportionate assemblage of the national prejudices, the manners, customs, religions, and political sentiments of all the various inhabitants will form the Pennsylvanian character. "As the leading traits in this character," says he, "we may mention industry, frugality, enterprize, a taste and ability for improvements in mechanics, in manufactures, in commerce, in agriculture, and in the liberal sciences; temperance, plainness and simplicity in dress and manners; pride and humility in their extremes; inoffensiveness and intrigue; in regard to religion, variety and harmony, liberality and its opposites, superstition and bigotry; and in politics an unhappy jargon.Such appear to be the distinguishing traits in the collective Pennsylvanian character."

Here we shall take the liberty to lay before our readers some remarks of a Philadelphian writer, on the progress of population, agriculture, manners and government, in Pennsylvania, which are too valuable to be omitted in a work of this nature.

"The first settler in the woods," says this gentleman," is commonly a man who has outlived his credit or fortune in the cultivated parts of the state, and his usual time for migrating is in the month of April. His first object is to build a small cabin of rough logs, for himself and his family. The floor of this cabin is of earth, the roof is of split logs-the light is received hrough the door, and, in some instances, through