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vide a competent maintenance for their poor, and the necessitous stranger is protected and relieved by their humane institutions. It may in truth be said, that in no part of the world are the people happier, better furnished with the necessaries and conveniences of life, or more independent than the farmers in New England. As the great body of the people are hardy, independent freeholders, their manners are, as they ought to be, congenial to their employment, plain, simple, and manly. Strangers are received and entertained among them with a great deal of artless sincerity, and friendly, plain hospitality. Their children, those imitative creatures, to whose education particular attention is paid, early imbibe the manners and habits of those around them; and the stranger, with pleasure, notices the honest and decent respect that is paid him by the children as he passes through the country.

As the people, by representation, make their own laws, and appoint their own officers, they can. not be oppressed; and, living under governments which have few lucrative places, they have few motives to bribery, corrupt canvassings, or intrigue. Real abilities and a moral chara&er unblemished, have hitherto been the qualifications requisite in the view of most people, for officers of public trust. The expression of a wish to be promoted, was, and is still, in some parts of New England, the di rect way to be disappointed.

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Character of the Women.

The inhabitants are generally fond of the arts and sciences, and have cultivated them with great success. Their colleges have flourished. The illustrious characters they have produced, who have distinguished themselves in politics, law, divinity, the mathematics, and philosophy, natural and civil history, and in the fine arts, particularly in poetry and painting, evince the truth of these observations.

Many of the women in New England are handsome. They generally have fair, fresh and healthful countenances, mingled with much female softness and delicacy. Those who have had the advantages of a good education, and they are numerous, are genteel, easy, and agreeable in their manners, and are sprightly and sensible in conversation. They are early taught to manage domestic concerns with neatness and economy. Ladies of the first distinction and fortune, make it a part of their daily business to superintend the affairs of the family. Employment at the needle, in cooke. ry, and at the spinning wheel, with them is honourable. Idleness, even in those of independent fortunes, is universallydisreputable. The women in country towns, manufacture the greater part of the clothing of their families. The linen and woollen cloths are strong and decent. Their butter and cheese is not inferior to any in the world.

Among the amusements of the people of New England is dancing, of which the young people of

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both sexes are extremely fond. Gaming is practised by none but those who cannot, or rather will not, find a reputable employment. The gamester, the horse jockey, and the knave, are equally despised, and their company is avoided by all who would sustain fair and irreproachable characters.

The athletic and healthy diversions of cricket, football, quoits, wrestling, jumping, hopping, foot races, and prison bass are universally practised in the country, and some of them in the most popu lous places, and by people of almost all ranks.

For promoting general science, there have been instituted, the American academy of arts and sciences, and the Massachusetts historical society, at Boston, and the Connecticut academy of arts and sciences, at New Haven. For the advancement of agricultural knowledge, several societies have been established, and many others have been formed for various charitable and humane purposes.

The people of New England are Protestant christians, excepting a few Jews, who have a synagogue in Newport, and a small society of Roman Catholics, in Boston. The Protestants are divid ed into Congregationalists, which is the prevailing denomination, Episcopalians, Baptists, Friends or Quakers, Methodists, and a few Universalists. As in other parts of the United States, so in the part we are describing, there are numbers who have their religion yet to choose. They have liberty, but no religion.

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The clergy of New England are a numerous body of men, and, generally speaking, are respect. able for their piety, pure morals, learning, and useful industry, and the great harmony and affection in which they live with their people. The cause of general literature is much indebted to their labours. Probably eight tenths of the publications in New England, from its first settlement, have been from the pens of the clergy.

The number and pious exertions of missiona

ry societies, of which seven or eight are instituted in the different states, some of them patronized by the government, do honour to the religious character of New England. At the expense, and under the direction of these societies, a large number of missionaries are annually sent among the frontier settlers, who are destitute of the means of religious instruction. The business of missionaries, is to instruct from house to house, to preach publicly, to administer ordinances, and distribute bibles and various other religious books. The good effects which have followed these exertions, in preserving and cherishing the early religious habits of these people, and guarding them against the poison of infidelity and vice, have been great beyond calculation.

END OF THE HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND.

APPENDIX.

The following elegant and appropriate extracts and poetical pieces are added as proper lessons for youth in academies and schools to commit to memory, and exhibit as oratorical exercises,

From an Oration, delivered at Plymouth, Dec. 228, 1800, being the Anniver sary Festival of the Sons of the Pilgrims.

By the Hon. JOHN DAVIS, Esq.

"IT pleased the great Ruler of the universe, to render the eastern continent, for many ages, the sole theatre of civilized man, and there to exhibit his most interesting operations. After a night of darkness and depression, a striking succession of occurrences manifested that a new order of things was to be exhibited. The revival of letters, the invention of the compass, and the art of printing so enlarged the sphere of human action, that another world seemed necessary to display its progress. At the close of the fifteenth century that world was discovered, and astonished Europe eagerly explored its wide extended coasts. The southern part of this immense continent, was the first object of attention. Some powerful stimulus was necessary to draw men from their accustomed abodes. The love of wealth impelled bold and adventurous thousands to the shores of South America. This passion was to be in a degree satiated, before common objects of colonization could have their just influence; and many millions of gold had been transported to Spain before these northern regions had been visited, but by some casual navigators.

Early in the sixteenth century, another great event commands our attention, which changes the face of Europe, and to which northern America is indebted for its earliest and most important settlements. The Reformation dawns, and in spite of the opposition of the most iliustrious in the line of pontiffs, and some of the most powerful H h

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