LETTER II

_Illinois, near Albion, Aug. 16._

MY DEAR FRIEND,

AFTER many interruptions I removed from Lexington to this place, at which we arrived on the 2nd of July, spending in our way a week at _Harmony_, that wonder of the west.

You have heard this settlement mentioned, and it is worth visiting to see, and observe the effect of united industry, regulated by sound wisdom and discretion: here perfect equality prevails, and there are no servants; but plenty of persons who serve. Every man has his station appointed him according to his ability, and every one has his wants supplied according to his wishes. He applies to the mill for his supply of flour; to the apothecary for medicine; {17} to the store for cloaths, and so on for every thing necessary for human subsistence. They do not forbid marriage, as some have represented; but it is one of their tenets that the incumbrance created by families is an hindrance to the spirituality of christians, and it is this opinion which discourages marriage amongst them. They have also an aversion to bear arms; this would not allow them to remain in Germany, and they emigrated to live in the manner they have adopted, and have certainly the outside appearance of contentment and happiness.

After travelling through the woods of Indiana, the hills divide to the right and left, and a fine valley opens to your view in which the town stands. The hills assume a conical form, and are embellished with fine cultivated vineyards; and the valleys stand thick with corn. Every log-house is surrounded by a well cultivated garden, abundantly supplied with vegetables, and ornamented with flowers. It was the beginning of wheat harvest when I arrived, and the entire company of reapers retired from the fields in a body, preceded by a band of music: their dress is like the Norman peasants, and as all are of the same form and colour, may properly be designated their {18} costume. The men marched first, the women next, and the rear rank composed of young women, with each a neat ornament of striped cedar wood on their head, formed one of the prettiest processions I ever witnessed. The sound of French horns awakened them in the morning to their daily labour, which is moderate, and performed with cheerfulness; the return of evening appears to bring with it no fatigue or symptoms of weariness.

Besides the gardens of individuals, there is a public garden of five acres, the outside square planted with fruit trees and vegetables, the inside with herbs medicinal and botanical. In the centre is a rotunda of the rustic kind, standing in the midst of a labyrinth, which exhibits more taste than I supposed to be found amongst the Harmonites. It is from this hive of industry that Albion and its vicinity have drawn their supplies, and its contiguity to such neighbours has been of great advantage.

Having given you this account, I arrive at the point at which, my dear friend, I know you feel most interest, and proceed to give you an account of the state in which I found my friends, and the English settlement in general. I have great satisfaction in being able to inform you that almost every individual I {19} knew in England, was much improved in appearance, all enjoying excellent health. The same blessing is also our lot, and if I can form a proper estimate from six weeks residence, I must pronounce this to be as healthy a situation as any America affords, and much preferable, in this respect, to the eastern states. What travellers have recorded, that the thermometer does not rise so high as in the east, is true, and we are never many hours without a fine breeze. The nights are cool, the thermometer dropping 10 degrees, and you can obtain refreshing sleep. In the eastern states the thermometer being at 98 in the day, remained at 96 at night, a suffocating heat. The average of our days are from 80 to 86, but we have had a day or two at 90, which produces a thunder gust and a cooler atmosphere.

Now, my dear sir, as to the questions which agitate the minds of thousands in your country. The advantages of emigration to America, and the comparative advantages of eastern and western climates. I am, most decidedly, for settling in the west, on account of the prairies, and the facility with which they are cultivated.

The cultivation of new land, incumbered with heavy timber, presents a formidable feature; {20} labour incessant and unremitting, before a small tract of land can be tolerably cleared; but here I can enter either as a farmer or a grazier immediately; fine wide spreading fields of grass, inviting the flocks and herds to come and partake of the bounty with which they are loaded. In answer to the enquiry as to the proper mode of farming, I sit, and from the place I am now writing, see a beautiful herd of cattle of nearly two hundred in number. I have one hundred tons of fine hay collected for spring provision. Every head of cattle, the expence of herdsmen deducted, on a moderate calculation, promises a fair profit of at least five dollars per head; and yet Mr. Cobbett, in his weekly letters, very _modestly_ asserts, "There is no farming for profit in the west!"-- I state these facts for the information of those who may wish to join us, and in direct contradiction to the ill-founded assertions of this writer on the subject.

It is also stated by Mr. Cobbett, that "the obstruction by bush and briar are such as to prevent early or easy cultivation."--In contradiction to this assertion, I affirm, that I can put the plough into thousands of acres where there is no such obstruction. One {21} gentleman in our settlement has grown eighty acres of fine corn, although he only arrived last year; this alone is a sufficient contradiction to all Mr. C. has said on this subject. There is also a sufficiency of corn and grain grown this first harvest to supply the wants of the settlement: next year there will be a surplus for brewing and distilling.

If a person enters heavy timbered land, it is by great exertion he clears ten acres the first year; but he has only here to enclose and take his choice of farming and grazing, or enclose enough for corn and pasture, his cattle feeding on the unoccupied range of grass which the neighbouring cultivator cannot stock himself, and which is much improved by the feeding of cattle.

Now, my dear Sir, as to the persons who come here or to any other part of America, I would have them consider for what purpose and intent they emigrate. It is certain as regards farming, that there are only two ways in which it can be performed: the one, labouring by his own hands; the other, by his capital, stocking his farm, and hiring his labourers. It is thoughtlessness and folly to tell any person, if he bring with him one hundred pounds, he can place himself in comfort; but, it is certain, that a {22} hundred pounds here will go as far as five hundred pounds in England; and that the person who has that sum in possession, is certainly five times better off than in that country. The person who has this sum may enter his quarter section of land, build his cabin, enclose his garden, keep his cows and pigs; but then he must be a man of that description who has been in the habit of milking his cows and tending his pigs: all such persons will find vast advantage in emigrating to this place. Every farmer in England (of which there are thousands) who holds the plough, or his sons for him, will find an easy life, and the abundant supply of every good thing. As to the reward of his industry, every farmer who can stock a farm in England, may here become the proprietor of his own soil with that capital which affords him only a tenant's station, a precarious subsistence in his own country; an inducement, I should think, sufficient to make thousands follow our steps, and taste the blessings of independence and the sweets of liberty. Let all who are bending under the weight of taxation, and trembling at the approach of every quarter-day, come here and partake of ease and abundance. If the affluent, also, are tired of the system of the British government, {23} and feel the effect it has upon their fluctuating property, here they will find the wide domain, the natural park, whose hills and boundaries are beautifully capped with woods, inviting them to build their dwellings and sit down in ease and content. These parks are already stocked with deer, all which they may purchase, where previous entry has not taken place, at the land office price, two dollars per acre. These prairies appear as if that eminent improver of parks and grounds--_Repton_, had been consulted in laying them out to their taste.[52]

[52] Humphrey Repton (1752-1818) was a well-known English landscape gardener.--ED.

It has been reported that we can get no servants: this is true in a degree, because the price of service is such, as soon to elevate the servant to a state of independance: but I have found no want of persons to work for hire, even in domestic stations; those that are most wanted are farming labourers; good ploughmen are in request, and can obtain twelve dollars per month and their board. Female servants from eight to ten dollars, according to their respective merits; these are in great request; and what perhaps is to them still more pleasing, their industry is the certain road to marriage. Our young females are almost all engaged in this way, and we certainly lose good servants, {24} but have the pleasure of seeing them well settled.

Now, my dear Sir, as to the state of the settlement and the progress it has already made.

On a tract of land from the little Wabash to the Bonpar[53] on the Great Wabash, about seventeen miles in width, and four to six from north to south, there were but a few hunters' cabins, a year and a half since, and now there are about sixty English families, containing nearly four hundred souls; and one hundred and fifty American, containing about seven hundred souls, who like the English for their neighbours, and many of whom are good neighbours to us. We have nothing here like loneliness. In our circle of English acquaintance, as well as in that of American settlers, we find companions who are often found interesting and intelligent. In good deed and in truth, here is, to the industrious, a source of wealth more certain and productive than the mines of Golconda and Peru. Industry of every kind has its ample reward: but for the idle, the drunkard, and the vicious, there is no chance; spirits are cheap, and a short existence is their certain portion. All persons feeling anxieties that attend agricultural pursuits may be released {25} from those anxieties by emigrating to the Illinois.

[53] A misprint for Bonpas. This stream flows almost directly south and forms the present eastern boundary of Edwards County. It joins the Wabash about forty-five miles below Vincennes.--ED.

Your newspapers, the Farmer's Journal in particular, relate the particulars of the distress of the farmers, and the ruin in which many of them are involved. It is in vain that you petition for relief. By your own account your ruin is inevitable, and your destruction sure. Escape then to a land where the efforts of your industry will be rewarded, and the produce of your labour will be your own. You will escape, not only from the tax-gatherer and tithe-collector, but from the expence attending the frightful system of pauperism, which is constantly making demands, not only on your pecuniary resources, but calling you to the most painful personal exertions.

In the extensive region from New York to this place, I have had but one application for relief, and that was from an Englishman. In this country peace and plenty reign.

I have mentioned a scarcity of servants: this arises much from emigrants bringing out with them a better sort, or confidential servants: the only sort wanting are females who can work in the kitchen, milk the cow and attend to the dairy. All above this class can earn too high wages by their needle. A good sempstress, {26} earning a dollar per day, will soon quit servitude, and put on the airs of American independance, with an addition of some little insolence; but a cure is not unfrequently wrought, and that by various easy methods.

A gentleman hired a female servant of this sort, who would insist, as a condition, on sitting down at the dinner table, with the family; her christian name was _Biddy_, the condition was consented to, and a project for cure at the same time engaged in:--A party was invited to dinner, and Biddy took her place at the table, being above waiting, or being in any degree more than a HELP. When anything was wanting, a gentleman arose from table and offered it to Miss Biddy. Miss Biddy was asked to drink a glass of wine, first by one gentleman and then by another. Miss Biddy was desired not to trouble herself about any thing, and was ceremoniously treated, till she felt the awkwardness of her situation, and said, the next day to her mistress,--"Madam, I had rather give up dining at your table,"--which she did, continuing in their service for some time. I have had to do with people of the same cast, though not quite so foolish as Miss Biddy:--I have hired persons to certain employments, and they have been discontented {27} and spoiled by their notions of equality: "Very good," said I; "we, then, are equal; I like the idea much; it pleases me greatly: you, of course, mean to take no money of me for what you please to do for me; and, if that is the case, I shall be as perfectly satisfied with your notion of things, as you appear to be; but, if you take my money, you must perform the service I have pointed out to you."--This perfect notion of equality does not suit, although it is too reasonable to be much objected to.

It is generally supposed, that this high notion is of republican origin; but it is the contrary, and originates in the insolence of those who keep and domineer over slaves. Any thing that a black is made to perform, is pronounced unfit for whites; and, although many who have held slaves as their property, are far inferior in understanding to the slaves they hold, and are sometimes reduced to poverty, they deem it degrading to perform any work that a slave can perform; and those persons who, like myself, are far from thinking all men equal in character, are little disposed to engage with such persons in any service. With our superiority in our consistent love of freedom, and our having escaped from political {28} slavery, we shall never fail to oppose the extention, and even the continuance of personal slavery.

The arguments for a state of slavery, urged by Americans, are just such as might be urged by Algerines for taking the ships of America, and making slaves of her seamen. Both consist in the right of force, and not of reason or justice; and when a person hears members of congress pleading the cause of slavery,--personal slavery,--with the pretence _they are my property_, one cannot help blushing for human nature. Those who appear to love freedom, both personal and political, making use of such a pretence, forces the tear of sorrow from the eye of humanity. One human being the property of another. No! the whole race of mankind is the sole property of their great universal parent; and he who enslaves another, whether his skin be black, white, or intermediate, insults the right of his God, and blasphemes the name of his Creator.

I rejoice, my dear friend, in the choice the English have made of a free state; and am certain we shall be able to cultivate from the services of free men, cheaper than those who cultivate them by slaves.

But to return to our settlement and its infant {29} capital _Albion_. Log houses, those cabins unpleasant to the cleanly habits of Englishmen, the receptacles of the insect tribe, are no longer erected. I have had the pleasure of laying the first brick foundation in Albion; it is for an inn where travellers I hope may find rest without disturbance from insects. We have also nearly completed our market house which is sixty feet by thirty. A place of worship is began. Religion, I mean the outward form, has not been unattended to: a selection from the Church of England service, and a sermon has been read on the sabbath to a few persons assembled in a log room: our psalmody is excellent, having some good musicians, and singers amongst us. The Americans here think all who take money for preaching, _hireling_ ministers, and several well-intentioned farmers preach to small assemblies in the neighbourhood. The worship of God, and the keeping his commands is the thing which I believe all will agree in, as being the end to be produced by public worship. As we have not, and I trust never shall have, that grand corruption of Christianity, an establishment formed and supported by statesmen and politicians, I hope christianity in its original purity, will for ever flourish in the Illinois. We intend also our place of worship for a library, {30} and to open it on a Sunday afternoon; a day when all persons have leisure to read, and are clean in their dress and persons. The strict sabbatarians will doubt the propriety of this proceeding; but any thing which will have a tendency to promote moral and intellectual improvement, and keep men from the vices of idleness and drinking, is justified by him who put the question,--"Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath?"

But to return from spiritual to temporal things. I spoke of our market house being finished. The price of provisions in this place is as follows.

A fine turkey, a quarter of a dollar.--Fowls, twelve cents each.--Beef four to five cents per pound.--Mutton none yet at market.--Eggs twelve and a half cents per dozen.--Cheese thirty cents per pound.--Butter scarce, owing to the heat of the climate, sixteen cents per pound.--Bacon at this time fifteen cents per pound, half the price in winter.--Flour nine dollars per barrel.--Deer, a fine fat buck from one dollar to one dollar and a half including skin.--Melons, such as cannot be procured in England, twelve and a half cents each in great abundance.--Honey of the finest flavour, one dollar per gallon.--Whiskey one dollar per gallon {31} retail.--Fine Hyson tea two dollars per pound.--Moist sugar thirty one cents.--Coffee sixty-two cents per pound: wholesale from New Orleans much cheaper.--Fine fish three cents per pound.

We leave it to the public to judge of our danger of starving, as some writers have hinted.

Here then you have the situation of our rising settlement; progressing with rapidity in the eye of Americans, though to Englishmen, setting and watching for fresh intelligence, but slowly.

You ask me, dear Sir, whether there is any sale for books here? We have no bookseller yet, and the writings of your favourite authors, in defence of civil and religious liberty, would not sell here: the love of civil and religious liberty is unbounded in every Illinois heart; there are none to dispute the truth of the principles of complete and perfect freedom; and when controversy ceases, controversial writings must of course lose their interest.

I would not for the world invite persons, no! not a single individual, if I did not think that his happiness would be encreased: it may be said that I am an interested person, and so are those who take such pains to prevent persons from coming westward. Emigration {32} from the eastern states, has already reduced the price of lands there.

When I passed New York, I heard a popular writer say, "I'll be d----d if I don't write down Birkbeck and the settlement:" those who are familiar with this writer's usual phraseology in conversation, cannot, I think, be in any great danger of mistake as to the person alluded to:[54] how far he has succeeded, the public will be a proper judge when they carefully peruse the facts I have stated, and compare the evidence they receive from time to time through the various channels from the Illinois. We have here plenty of scribes, and the truth--the whole truth will appear before both an American and British public.

[54] This statement was made by Cobbett; see Flower's note, _post_, p. 164.--ED.

I remain, Your sincere friend, RICHARD FLOWER.

THE END

FLOWER'S LETTERS FROM THE ILLINOIS--JANUARY 18, 1820-MAY 7, 1821

Reprint of the original edition: London, 1822

LETTERS

FROM

_THE ILLINOIS_,

1820. 1821.

CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH SETTLEMENT AT ALBION AND ITS VICINITY, AND A REFUTATION OF VARIOUS MISREPRESENTATIONS, THOSE MORE PARTICULARLY OF MR. COBBETT.

By RICHARD FLOWER.

WITH A LETTER FROM M. BIRKBECK; AND A PREFACE AND NOTES BY BENJAMIN FLOWER.

_Thou shall bless the_ LORD _thy_ GOD _for the_ GOOD LAND _which he hath given thee:--beware that thou forget not the_ LORD _thy_ GOD.

_Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour._

DIVINE COMMANDS.

London:

PRINTED FOR JAMES RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY

_By C. Teulon, 67, Whitechapel_.

1822.

[_Price Two Shillings and Sixpence._]

PUBLISHED BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Price One Shilling

Letters from Lexington and the Illinois, 1819; containing a Brief Account of the English Settlement in the latter territory, and a Refutation of the misrepresentations of Mr. Cobbett.

PREFACE[55]

[55] This pamphlet was seen through the press by Benjamin Flower (1755-1829), a brother of the author; he also contributed the Preface and the concluding Notes. Benjamin had started in life as a London tradesman; but having failed, travelled for several years on the European continent as agent for a Tiverton firm. Being in France during much of 1791, "the most innocent part of the revolution," he became imbued with some of the ideas of the French revolutionists; and although not a revolutionist in England, he entered the lists as a Radical pamphleteer, bitterly attacking the English government for engaging in war with France. Richard, a man of substance, and although a Radical rather moderate in his views, was largely concerned in establishing the Cambridge _Intelligencer_, a Radical organ. Benjamin was chosen editor, and became widely known as a controversialist, Cobbett being one of his especial _bêtes noires_. In 1799 he suffered six months' imprisonment in Newgate and the payment of a fine of £100 for libelling the bishop of Llandaff, a political opponent. When released, he married a young admirer, set up as a printer, and conducted the _Political Register_ (1807-11). He wrote a life of Robert Robinson, a famous Baptist minister and hymn writer, prefixed to editions of the latter's works (Harlow, 1807, 1812), also several pamphlets on political and family matters. He was esteemed for his honesty and courage, but the vehemence of his temper largely nullified his influence. Two of his daughters became well known as musical composers--Eliza Flower (1803-46) wrote several political hymns, and Sarah Flower Adams (1805-48) was the author of "Nearer to Thee," often wrongly attributed to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe.

A review of the pamphlet here reprinted will be found in the _London Quarterly Review_, xxvii, p. 71.--ED.

TWO of the following letters have before appeared in a respectable periodical publication, in which the editor has impartially inserted the communications of writers of different opinions, on the subject of emigration;[56] but as they may be said to be a continuation of former letters, and connected with those now for the first time published, I have thought proper to insert them.

[56] _Monthly Repository_, August and October, 1820.--B. FLOWER.

Readers who are desirous of forming just opinions on this subject, are requested to bear in remembrance the precise stations described in the following pages. However unworthy or base may have been the motives of certain writers, who have grossly calumniated the English Settlement, there are others, {iv} to whom it would be uncandid to impute such motives, but who are chargeable with misrepresentation, which appears to have arisen from their not having considered that the spots they are describing are not those described by others; and that, of course, it is not fair to charge others with statements they have never made.

I have publications before me in which Mr. Birkbeck and my brother are charged with unfairness in their statements, because they do not apply to the situations the writers had chosen, one of which was fifty, and the other four hundred miles from the English Settlement. There are at the Illinois as in almost all other countries, situations pleasant and unpleasant, healthy and unhealthy, and that emigrant does not act a very wise part, who fixes on a station unless he had carefully examined it himself, or at least had the recommendation of some intelligent friend who would scorn to mislead him.

Emigration to America, after all that has {v} been written on the subject, and the various advantages it certainly presents to different classes of society, is an affair of such importance, that those who propose it should seriously reflect on the turn of their own mind, their disposition, habits, circumstances, &c. Some who have emigrated to America find themselves as unhappy there as they were in their own country. Those who are averse to labour, fond of luxuries, and whose minds are rivetted to the artificial distinctions of society in Europe, have found to their cost, that America is not the country for them; and unless they can learn wisdom, and form resolution sufficient to alter some of their habits, and if not to despise, to regard with indifference most of those distinctions, they can never be reconciled to Republican manners and institutions. Respecting a few persons of this description at the Illinois, one of the principal settlers exclaimed:--"What are such people come here for?"

For the Notes to the following letters, with "all their imperfections on their head," I am {vi} solely responsible.--I am not without apprehensions that there may be even candid readers, who may think that in my Reflections on _Infidelity, Civil Establishments of Religion, &c._ I have somewhat wandered out of my way: to such readers I beg leave to offer a word or two by way of apology. True religion, I consider as the most important concern of life; and were I, when reflecting on the state of society which too generally characterizes this globe, even its most civilized parts, and on the various follies and vices which have so sadly deformed mankind--on the adversity of the righteous, and the prosperity of the wicked,--were I not, amidst such reflections, supported by divine consolations, suggested by a firm belief in the _Being_ and _Providence_ of God, and of the truth of the christian system which assures us that "all things shall be subdued and reconciled to HIM," I should indeed be "of all men the most miserable;" and, as I am firmly persuaded that the success of the gospel is not more hindered by open infidelity than by {vii} the corruptions of christianity, I have from the circumstances which are stated in the following letters respecting the state of religion at the Illinois, thought proper to express myself on the subject with my usual freedom. So little has been done towards the restoration of primitive christianity in this country for the two past centuries, although there has been of late, an unusual bustle in the religious world,--so inveterate are the evils resulting from STATECRAFT and PRIESTCRAFT united, that although I believe with a firm and unshaken faith, _that the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ_, I confess my ignorance as to the period, and the means by which those glorious events predicted in the sacred writings will be accomplished. I cannot however but indulge the hope that mankind will, by observation and experience, under the blessing of heaven grow wiser; and that in the formation of new settlements, many of the evils referred to, may with proper care be avoided. With this hope, I {viii} have endeavoured to give a helping hand, however feeble, to those who have at heart the best interests of their fellow creatures.

For the language I have made use of in exposing bad men, and more particularly a notorious political impostor, who when indulging his deep-rooted prejudices and violent passions, cares not how he throws off the common feelings of humanity, or sets truth and decency, or the principles of honour and honesty at defiance, scarce any apology is necessary. Should any one think my language too strong, I might plead the example of some of the greatest and best men in different ages; but I shall confine myself to that of the sacred writers. The prophets and apostles, yea, our Saviour himself, when describing the COBBETTS of _their_ day, have used much stronger language than I have done; and if it be a duty at any time to _rebuke sharply_, or as critics inform us the words should be rendered, with _a cutting severity_, or _cutting to the quick_, it is when we have to do with men of such a description.

{ix} In conclusion, I ask I hope no great favour in claiming on behalf of Mr. Birkbeck, my brother, and myself, that credit for our statements, until they are refuted by evidence, to which persons who have little character to lose, cannot lay claim; and that we may on the present occasion obtain belief when we have nothing to contradict us but the confident language of a man "known to be wholly indifferent to truth;" and who has, in the compass of three months only, for his scandalous libels on private characters,--on one of those occasions for having invented the atrocious charge of FORGERY against a former associate--most deservedly smarted in a court of justice. Should I, however unintentionally, have committed any mistake, I shall deem myself bound to acknowledge it.

B. F.

_Dalston, Jan._ 16th, 1822.

* * * * *

P. S. Mr Cobbett somewhere remarks--"That he would sooner join the fraternity of _gypsies_ in this country than the settlement at the Illinois." This is not so extravagant as some of his assertions, as he has proved himself pretty {x} well qualified, in one respect at least, for a member of that fraternity; namely, by his numerous _gipsy_ prophecies. To select one class only:--How frequently has he in terms the most unqualified and confident, predicted that the Bank of England would _never_ return to cash payments; how frequently has he fixed the _period_ beyond which it was impossible for bank-notes to preserve their value! Perhaps he had in his eye the accomplishment of his favourite plan,--a general forgery of those notes, as the grand means of bringing about his predictions. Notwithstanding the complete failure of those predictions, (and I could produce numerous instances of similar failure) he, although apparently sadly mortified, goes on with his prophecies, and renews the senseless and injurious advice to the farmers, which he has been giving them for many years past, but which he knows, alas! they cannot follow--to hoard up the gold "because in two years it will buy twice as much land as it will buy now!" It was not many months since he gave them the same advice respecting silver, assuring them "that a bundle of silver would _shortly_ prove a mine of wealth."--_Address to the Farmers._ (_Register Dec. 15_). In which publication Mr. C. has, in his language applied to Mr. Webb Hall, so justly drawn his own picture, that I hope the farmers will keep it constantly in view.--"The truth is, Mr. [Cobbett] is a conceited man with a great deal of loose and indistinct stuff in his head; and, having great power of front, he puts the stuff forth without hesitation. A modest man may be a weak man and yet not deserve our contempt; but impudence and folly joined claim as much of contempt as man can bestow."--If the farmers can swallow such "stuff," they have indeed, what Dr. South {xi} calls an "iron digesting faith," and should the Jesuits visit this, as they are now visiting other countries, they will doubtless consider Mr. Cobbett's boasted "disciples" as well prepared to swallow down the doctrine of _Transubstantiation_!

LETTERS, &c.