experience nor inclination is likely to lead them into such circumstances,
my opinion is, that send the finest army Europe can produce into this
country, in six months, the forests, swamps, and deadly rifle, united,
will annihilate it--and let it be remembered, that at the battle of New
Orleans, there were between two and three thousand British slain, and
there were only twelve Americans killed, and perhaps double that number
wounded. In patriotism and personal courage, the Americans are certainly
not inferior to the people of any nation.

There had been lately throughout the States a good deal of excitement
produced by an attempt, made by the Presbyterians, to stop the mails on
the sabbath. This party is headed by a Doctor Ely, of Philadelphia, a
would-be "lord spiritual," and they made this merely as a trial of
strength, preparatory to some other measures calculated to lead to a
church establishment. Their designs, however, have been detected, and
measures accordingly taken to resist them. At a meeting at which I was
present at Cincinnati, the people were most enthusiastic, and some very
strong resolutions were passed, expressive of their abhorrence of this
attempt to violate the constitution of America.

Good farms within about three or four miles of Cincinnati, one-third
cleared, are sold at from thirty to fifty dollars per acre. Cows sell at
from ten to twenty dollars. Horses, at from twenty-five to seventy-five
and one hundred dollars. Sheep from two to three dollars. There are some
tolerable flocks of sheep throughout this state, but they are of little
value beyond the price of the wool, a most unaccountable antipathy to
mutton existing among the inhabitants.

Whilst on the banks of Lake Erie, having heard a great deal of
conversation about the "lake fever," I made several inquiries from the
inhabitants on that subject, the result of which confirmed me in the
opinion, that the shores of the lakes are quite as healthy as any other
part of the country, and that here, as elsewhere, the disease arises from
stagnant pools, swamps, and masses of decayed animal and vegetable matter,
which are allowed to remain and accumulate in the vicinity of settlements.
When at New York, I met an old and wealthy farmer, who was himself,
although eighty years of age, in the enjoyment of rude health. He informed
me that he had resided in Canada, on the shores of Lake Erie, for the last
fifty years, and that neither he nor any one of h