punishment is much too severe for
the offence, but what is still more to be deprecated, the innocent do
occasionally suffer with the guilty.

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"A similar case is to be found at the present day, west of the
Mississippi. Upon lands belonging to the United States, not yet
surveyed or offered for sale, are numerous bodies of people who have
occupied them, with the intention of purchasing them when they shall be
brought into the market. These persons are mailed _squatters_, and it
is not to be supposed that they consist of the _elite_ of the emigrants
to the West; yet we are informed that they have organised a government
for themselves, and regularly elect magistrates to attend to the
execution of the laws. They appears in this respect, to be worthy
descendants of the pilgrims."--_Carey on Wealth_.

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN.

REMARKS--CLIMATE.

I wish the remarks in this chapter to receive peculiar attention, as in
commenting upon the character of the Americans, it is but justice to
them to point out that many of what may be considered their errors,
arise from _circumstances_ over which they have no control; and one
which has no small weight in this scale is the peculiar climate of the
country; for various as is the climate, in such an extensive region,
certain it is, that in one point, that of _excitement_, it has, in every
portion of it, a very pernicious effect.

When I first arrived at New York, the effect of the climate upon me was
immediate. On the 5th of May, the heat and closeness were oppressive.
There was a sultriness in the air, even at that early period of the
year, which to me seemed equal to that of Madras. Almost every day
there were, instead of our mild refreshing showers, sharp storms of
thunder and lightning; but the air did not appear to me to be cooled by
them. And yet, strange to say, there were no incipient signs of
vegetation: the trees waved their bare arms, and while I was throwing
off every garment which I well could, the females were walking up and
down Broadway wrapped up in warm shawls. It appeared as if it required
twice the heat we have in our own country, either to create a free
circulation in the blood of the people, or to stimulate nature to rouse
after the torpor of a protracted and severe winter. In a week from the
period I have mentioned, the trees were in full foliage, the _belles_ of
Br