called domestics or assistants, instead of servants, if that would please them. They might retire from service, to a freehold of their own, after three years of fidelity and industry, and for the remainder of life, enjoy all the pleasures of abundance and independence. In eight years, by settling in the new counties, the men might reach the dignity of legislators, justices of the peace, or even associate judges; and the women might safely count upon becoming the wives of similar dignitaries.

I trust, that I am one of the last to join in the vulgar hue and cry against aristocracy. I believe with Pope-" some are and must be greater than the rest." There is but one place, where all can be exactly on a level, and that is the grave. It is as much a law of nature that men should excel one another, as that the trees of the forest should be of different heights, or that hills should rise above plains, and mountains above hills. The universe is filled with diversity, and man forms not an exception. Society cannot exhibit a dead level. As well might you look for a waveless ocean. But while I bow to the aristocracy of nature, and find myself penetrated with a spontaneous feeling of profound respect and admiration, whenever I see a man rising above others by the force of his own efforts, I look with as much contempt as any other person, and more than I know how to express, upon those artificial distinctions, by which one is placed above another, from adventitious circumstances. And I deem it no small recommendation to Ohio, that prescription can give no man power or place. It can neither bring one into good society, nor keep him out. The question is not, who his father was? but, what he is? The ridiculous cant about good family and high connexions, of which so much is bruited in the older cities, even of this republican country, I have scarcely heard this side of the mountains. It is a general observation that the laboring classes are more respected and have more influence, in new states, than in old; this is eminently true in reference to Ohio; and the inference is, that so far as ambition for office and pride of character are motives to emigrate, Ohio appeals to them with great effect. As I have before hinted, every man who wishes it, even if he begins with nothing, can soon become a freeholder. And the moment he has a farm of his own, he may promise himself leisure. The land brings forth almost spontaneously. You have but to sow, and you are sure to reap. The farmer is not obliged to be eternally delving for a scanty subsistence. He finds time to inform and interest himself about public affairs. He talks politics, becomes known, is elected to office, and soon finds himself an influential man. The mechanic has a similar advantage, from the exorbitant price of that kind of labor.

Indeed, the only kind of labor, which is not amply compensated, is intellectual or professional. High salaries and large fees are not known. Teachers, preachers, doctors and lawyers, are miserably paid. Haud inexperitus loquor: I presume I keep within the truth, when I say that a given amount of professional skill and labor, will command a third more compensation in Boston, New-York, or Philadelphia, than in Cincinnati; and perhaps I might add, twice as much influence. For there has been a prevailing and deep-set jealousy of professional pretension and authority. In this jealousy, quackery finds

its appropriate aliment, and it feeds and fattens upon it. Every profession, therefore, has abounded with quacks, because they, from the smallness of their capital, can best afford to work for the price offered, and because, to employ them, looks more republican. In the more thickly settled portions of the state, however, this evil is rapidly diminishing, and the standard of professional excellence is daily growing higher. As wealth increases, professional compensation increases too. Men who can afford to pay well, will not trust their lives or their property in the hands of those doctors or lawyers who can afford to work cheap. And so it is with respect to education. Hitherto, no class of men have met with so little pecuniary encouragement as teachers. But they already begin to see the dawn of better things. Parents appear to feel the momentous truth, that the instruction which their children receive, does more to determine their future characters, than all other circumstances put together; and hence they become less solicitous about finding the cheapest school. On the contrary, they begin to think it something in favor of a man, that he charges a high price for tuition. It shows, at least, that he himself holds his services in high estimation, and disposes them to make trial. But what would be called a high price here, would be small in the Eastern cities. If I would have a house or a carriage built, or a coat, hat, or pair of boots made, I must give about thirty per cent. more than in Boston; but if I wish to have a cause argued, a disease cured, or a child instructed, I can have it done about as much cheaper. Nor am I surprised at this discrepancy. The physical wants of men must be satisfied, or the wheels of life will not turn. But their intellectual wants are not so peremptory; they can be neglected without danger to life. Accordingly, in a new country, mechanics are in a much greater demand than professors, and can command a proportionably higher price. This has been the case in Ohio; and even in Cincinnati, this cause still operates. The unparalleled influx of emigration makes the want of a house to live in, the most difficult want to be supplied. No sooner is the corner stone of a tenement laid, than the inquirer finds that it is engaged.

In this connexion, I will observe that one thirty-sixth part of all the land in Ohio, was forever set apart by Congress, for the support of education, and another thirty-sixth, for the support of religion. Never, perhaps, has there been a nobler instance of liberal legislation. The whole territory was laid out into townships, six miles square. These were divided into thirty-six sections, each containing a square mile, and numbered in order. The sixteenth section was consecrated, in perpetuum, to education; and the twenty-ninth to religion. The faith of the state is pledged, that these sections shall never be otherwise appropriated; and subject to this condition, they are left in the hands of the state legislature. In addition to this general provision, several entire townships have been given for the establishment of colleges. All this is the work of the general government. But, meantime, the state has not been inactive on this all-important subject. By dint of the most energetic and persevering efforts of a few public-spirited individuals, among whom, without injustice to the rest, may be especially mentioned, Nathan Guildford, a native of Massachusetts, the leader in this great enterprise, the glorious

system of Free Schools has, within seven years, been established throughout the state. This system is yet in its infancy, but it gives every promise of a vigorous manhood. To support these common schools, in addition to the profits of the land above-mentioned, a tax of three-fourths of a mill upon the dollar is levied upon all the taxable property of Ohio; and proper provisions are enacted, for carrying the system into complete effect. It may be regarded as matter of surprise, that struggles should have been required to procure such a law. But such was the fact. Although the constitution declares, in words worthy to be written in gold, that SCHOOLS AND THE MEANS

OF INSTRUCTION SHALL FOREVER BE ENCOURAGED BY LEGISLATIVE

PROVISION," yet there were many so jealous of their rights as to doubt and even deny the constitutionality of a tax, making it compulsory on every property holder to assist in the support of free schools, whether he sent children to them or not. There were still more who professed to doubt the expediency of the measure. Nor is this objection as yet, wholly removed, though daily diminishing. Indeed, the free schools themselves are their own most eloquent advocates. Their works praise them and silence their enemies. Thank heaven, the law is made, and there is no danger of its repeal. Time will but indurate and strengthen the noble fabric. While they, to whose efforts we owe it, will have, as they deserve, a bright place in the grateful memory of their posterity.

We have Lyceums too, and Mechanics Institutes. They are few as yet, but a beginning is made. In Cincinnati the lecture rooms are filled. The best taste of the city is there seen. Only one thing is wanting to their rapid spread, and that is the countenance of men, who, from the position they occupy, give, by their very names, an impetus to any good undertaking; men, I mean, who stand in the same relation to our society, that Story, Webster, Shaw, Sullivan, and the Everetts do to the society of Boston. Almost every mail announces some one of these distinguished men as a lecturer; and I want no better proof of their enlightened philanthropy. They are gaining, in this unambitious way, a fame that will wear well, for it will be written on the hearts of their fellow citizens. We have, as yet received no aid from our statesmen or distinguished lawyers. They have hardly deigned to make their appearance in the hall. The burthen has been borne chiefly by the young men of the city and some of the leading physicians. Among the latter, were it not invidious, I would mention the names of two or three, who, notwithstanding the numerous calls of an extensive practice and a professorship in the medical school, nevertheless hold themselves ready and willing to bring in their frequent and valuable contributions, to the diffusion of general information. They deserve and will have the gratitude of the community. I shall advert, at this time, to but one more fact. Slavery is forever prohibited north of the river Ohio. Fugitive slaves are permitted to be recovered and carried back to bondage; but if their master comes here to reside, and brings them with him, they are ipso facto free. They touch our limits, and their fetters fall." I cannot join in the too frequent anathemas against slave holders. I look upon slavery as a stupendous calamity, which no words can adequately describe. But it has been entailed upon the present slave holders by their an

cestors; and they are no more to blame for it, than are the hapless victims of an hereditary disease. I speak, therefore, in sorrow and

not in anger, of this dark blot upon our country's fame. And while I deprecate and abhor, as much as the slave holders themselves, the reckless fanaticism of some incendiary writers, I yet thank heaven for the eternal prohibition of slavery in Ohio, as the most transcendant blessing this happy state enjoys. Leaving out of view the injustice, and looking only at the impolicy of slavery, the example of Ohio is worth a book of abstract arguments. Kentucky, for instance, is almost as old again as Ohio. The first lots laid out in Cincinnati, were advertised for sale in a newspaper then printed in Lexington. But the clog of slavery impeded her in the race, and soon Ohio was seen far in advance. The distance between them grows wider and wider. The population of Ohio is now one third greater. To what can this be ascribed, but the prevalence of slavery in Kentucky? The advantage of mild climate is on her ide, her soil is equally fertile, and she has an equal extent of boundary on the same noble river. But her work is done by slaves, instead of freemen and freeholders; and this explains the difference. Is it not a striking fact that there is not a single non-slave-holding state in the twentyfour, which does not increase in a more rapid ratio than any of the slave-holding states except Missouri and perhaps Louisiana? But I have not time to pursue the subject further. W.

THE PROGRESS OF RIDICULE.

Says Satan to his prime minister, Ridicule, how advances your empire, on that mean little planet yclept Earth?

And Ridicule replied

"I've ranged the world, and stand alone

In my power, and pride, unholy One!

The purest, loftiest sons of earth,

Have quailed beneath my mocking mirth;
And Childhood writhed, as I passed by,

And veiled the light of its timid eye.

I've murdered Love, I 've withered Feeling,
In its most innocent revealing.

Vain were the pleadings of Wealth and Pride,
To win back the love of the plighted bride;
I came, and conquered; who could hear
Unmoved, my cold and heartless sneer?
And she disdained, with haughty brow
And fixed contempt, her lover's vow;
And flung upon her future years,
A glorious gift of sighs and tears.

A Poet o'er my pathway came,

Burning with hopes and dreams of fame;
My careless wit, and freezing tone,
Weighed to the dust, the aspiring one.
I sought the city-and there bowed

Before my steps a brilliant crowd;
Trembling beneath my withering sneer,
Proud heads drooped low; with shame and fear

The wayward ones, that dared defy,

My subtle power, and searching eye,

Within their hearts' lone cell, avowed
Like homage, with the plebeian crowd.

"I silenced Reason, quelled Romance,
With the self-same Sardonic glance.
I crushed with ruthless, fiendish arts,
The germs of pure and lofty hearts.
I conjured up, with my arch leer,
All evil passions; Envy, Fear,
Deathless Revenge, and Hate, and Pride,
Were ever thronging at my side.
I mingled, with a matchless skill
The true and false, the good and ill.
My quiet mien and fair pretence
Dismayed, and baffled Common Sense.
And though she scorned my specious wiles,
E'en Virtue shuddered at my smiles.

While springing from her crystal well,
I frowned on Truth, who reeling fell;
Time flew to raise the trembling maid,
But the proud one spurned his proffered aid,
And chose in her narrow home to stay,
I prithee, unholy Demon,-say,

Is not my mission nobly done
Is not my guerdon richly won?

L.

DEAD LETTERS,

OPENED AND BURNED BY THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL,
REVIVED AND PUBLISHED BY TIMOTHY QUICKSAND.

LIVRAISON II.,

Gaudeamus igitur.

LETTER CVIII.

Charleston, July 10, 18-.

To Peter O., Esq. Philadelphia.

SIR,

Though I have not the honor of being personally acquainted with you, I take the very great liberty to submit a few suggestions to your judgement, at the danger of appearing to you somewhat presumptuous; but, I trust, my honest wish to be of some service to the public, which alone prompted me in this case, will serve as an excuse. I understand that you are about publishing a new edition of your valuable New Universal Letter Writer, or Complete Art of Polished Correspondence-a work which has been of infinite use to a great many people. I have been informed that a young gentleman addressed his offer to a lady, and, being well aware that he was unable to compose so elegant a letter as he found ready for his occasion in your work, he copied letter XLIX. of your division COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE. The adored lady being in her turn deeply, and one may say mortally, in love with the copyist of your letter, and at the same time well acquainted with your work, so that she recognized letter XLIX. at first glance, returned,