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to ascend at Rock Fish Gap. After a steep ascent of two miles and a half, we reached the summit, and had a fine view of the valley between the Blue ridge and the North mountain. A hundred paces brought us into another world, as we began to descend into the deeper valley on the eastern side; and for some time I enjoyed one of the most magnificent views which can well be conceived. I think I never shall forget the half hour I spent in contemplating this scene; first, gilded by the rays of a glowing sun "going down to the inhabitants of the valley while it was yet day," and then losing every feature of sublimity and beauty in the indistinctness and obscurity of night. I thought of you all; of our summer evenings, and our mountain views; and rode to a quiet inn at the foot of the Blue ridge, the retirement of which allowed me to indulge my home recollections till I went to bed.

The next morning at four o'clock, I proceeded to Grock's, an excellent inn, to breakfast, where I saw some journals containing recent British news; and among other articles of intelligence, the sentence pronounced on Thistlewood and his associates. We shortly afterwards passed through Charlottesville, where General Tarleton was nearly capturing Mr. Jefferson and the Legislature in the Revolutionary War, being prevented only by a private intimation from a female relation of one of the officers a few miles distant, at whose house the General and his suite had invited themselves to breakfast. Here we saw an extensive university, which the State is erecting under Mr. Jefferson's auspices, and to which it is intended to invite

the ablest professors which Europe can supply. We arrived at Monticello, three miles farther, at eleven o'clock, ascending the southwest mountain, on which the house is situated, by a winding carriageroad through the woods. I sent in my letter to Mr. Jefferson, who came out, and gave me a very polite reception; but of my interesting visit to this philosophic legislator, I must give you the particulars when we meet. Crossing the Rivannah at the bottom of Mr. Jefferson's grounds, the water up to our saddle skirts, we proceeded to Mrs. Boyd's tavern, about eight miles distant. On the 19th (the 18th being Sunday,) we resumed our journey; and on the 20th reached Richmond. We breakfasted that morning at a very comfortable inn, with a rich tobacco planter and his wife, who were going to Richmond. The lady's Black maid rode on horseback behind; and I suppose nothing would have induced them to admit her into the carriage. The Black servants who drive their masters or mistresses in gigs generally sit on the steps, which has a most unpleasant and unsafe appearance. I was particularly struck with this at Charleston and Savannah.

Excuse a long rambling letter, written under a degree of heat more oppressive than I ever yet experienced. Yours, &c.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer.

I Now send you my concluding packet of letters written during my late journey through North America. It consists of three letters, comprising my route from Portland in New-Hampshire, to New-York. Had I originally had any intention of sending my epistolary communications to your repository, I might probably have been inclined to introduce into them a larger proportion of specific religious remark and allusion; but I must now leave my readers to fill up this chasm for themselves. If I have not always detailed my more serious moralizings, I have endeavoured so far to act the part both of a Christian observer, and a Christian reporter, as to furnish a variety of facts and incidents replete with high moral and Christian interest, and which a well informed and religious mind may follow up with many salutary reflections. One very prominent object which I have had in contemplation has been to exhibit to the readers of your miscellany, somewhat of the bitter evils of slavery; a subject respecting which, I fear even the religious part of the British public are not yet sufficiently informed or impressed., Earnestly and confidently would I hope that the efforts now in progress to awaken a general interest to this most important question, with a view to the adoption of a practical remedy, will not be long without complete success. Some of the facts which have been detailed in my letters written while passing through the slave-states of America,

must have appeared a little startling to such readers as have been seduced into a belief that the horrors of slavery are extinguished; that, under the mild and mitigated systems which are said to have been generally adopted, the Negro slave has been elevated to a level with the European peasant, in all that respects his physical enjoyment, his social comfort, and his opportunities of intellectual and religious improvement; that nothing is left of slavery but the name; and that the waters of bitterness which the slaves are supposed by visionary philanthropists to drink, are rendered palatable at least, if not sweet and delicious, by the cordials poured into their cup by the overflowing kindness of their free and sympathizing brethren. Since sending you the above letters, I have received a fresh illustration of the erroneous nature of such ideas, and of the light in which slaves are regarded even in Maryland-a state whose northern limits form the line of demarkation between the free and slave-holding states of America; within the influence, one would suppose, of those fresh and genial gales of freedom which the agitation of the pure atmosphere of Pennsylvania would occasionally waft over the boundary line (a line discernable only by a most striking contrast between a free and slave population,) and within sight of the capital of Washington, the temple of freedom, to which she sends her delegates to represent her, and whose walls I have so often heard resound with the declaration of the first principle of their government; All men are by nature free, equal, and independent. The illustration to which I refer

occurs in a letter which I sometime since received from a friend at Baltimore. The subject of slavery is introduced quite incidentally by my benevolent correspondent, who is giving me an account of the proceedings of "The Young Men's Bible Society." I send you the extract with the more pleasure, because, while it illustrates the general feeling with respect to the Slaves, it indicates also the progress of benevolence, and affords evidence of those philanthropic efforts by which many of the inhabitants of Baltimore are eminently distinguished. My friend observes:

"I am very certain it will give you much pleasure to learn that the coloured part of our population are beginning to benefit by the very great and general exertions that are now making in this country to ameliorate the condition of the wretched. I can speak more particularly of the state of Maryland. As an instance, application was made at our board of directors of the Young Men's Bible Society, for a donation of Testaments for a Sunday-school in a distant country, under the following circumstances. A gentleman who had a number of slaves, determined to teach them to read the Scriptures, and for that purpose formed them into a Sunday-school, the superintendence of which he took on himself. So strong were the prejudices of his neighbours against him, that for some time he was compelled to go armed to his school for his own protection; but persevering in his good work, of teaching his ignorant servants, and such others as could be received by him, he at length overcame all opposition; and his neigh

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