eeded to Albion,
the settlement made by the late Mr. Birkbeck.

Albion is at present a small insignificant town surrounded by prairies, on
which there are several handsome farms. Messrs. Birkbeck and Flowers
purchased large tracts of land in this neighbourhood, for the purpose of
re-selling or letting it to English or other emigrants. These two
gentlemen were of the class called in England, "gentlemen farmers," and
brought with them from that country very large capitals; a considerable
portion of which, in addition to the money laid out on purchase, they
expended on improvements. They are both now dead--their property has
entirely passed into other hands, and the members of their families who
still remain in this country are in comparative indigence.

The most inveterate hostility was manifested by the backwoods people
towards those settlers, and the series of outrages and annoyances to which
they were exposed, contributed not a little to shorten their days. It at
length became notorious that neither Birkbeck nor Flowers could obtain
redress for any grievance whatever, unless by appealing to the superior
courts,--as both the magistrates and jurors were exclusively of the class
of the offenders; and the "Supreme Court of the United States" declared,
that the verdicts of the juries, and the decisions of the magistrates
were, in many cases, so much at variance with the evidences, that they
were disgraceful to the country. A son of the latter gentleman, a lad
about fourteen years old, was killed in open day whilst walking in his
father's garden, by a blow of an axe handle, which was flung at him across
the fence. The evidence was clear against the murderer, and yet he was
acquitted. Whilst I was at Vandalia, I saw in a list of lands for sale,
amongst other lots to be sold for taxes, one of Mr. Flowers'. The fate of
these gentlemen and their families should be a sufficient warning to
persons of their class in England, not to attempt settling _in the
backwoods_; or if they have that idea, to leave aside altogether refined
notions, and never to bring with them either the feelings or the habits of
a _gentleman farmer_. The whole secret and cause of this _guerre a mort_,
declared by the backwoodsmen against Messrs. Birkbeck and Flowers, was,
that when they first settled upon the prairies, they attempted to act the
_patron_ and the _benefactor_, and considered themselves _entitled_ to
some respect. Now a west-country American wou