-bodied men, who seemed to be as perfectly at leisure as the
loungers of Europe. This love of indolence, where labour is so
profitable, is a strange affection. If these people be asked why they so
much indulge in it, they answer, that "they live in freedom; and need
not work, like the English."

In the interior of the United States, and in the back settlements,
_land_ may be purchased, both of individuals and of the government, at
very low rates. The price of uncleared land, or of land covered with
trees, and not yet in a state fit for cultivation, is, in many
instances, as low as two dollars an acre. The public lands are divided
into townships of six miles square; each of which is subdivided into
thirty-six sections, of one mile square, or 640 acres; and these are
usually offered for sale, in quarter sections, of 160 acres. The
purchase money may be paid by four equal instalments; the first within
forty days, and the others within two, three, and four years after the
completion of the purchase.

Mr. Birkbeck thus describes the mode in which _towns_ _are formed_ in
America. On any spot, (says he,) where a few settlers cluster together,
attracted by ancient neighbourhood, or by the goodness of the soil, or
vicinity to a mill, or by whatever other cause, some enterprising
proprietor perhaps finds, in his section, what he deems a good site for
a town: he has it surveyed, and laid out in lots, which he sells, or
offers to sale by auction. When these are disposed of, the new town
assumes the name of its founder: a store-keeper builds a little framed
store, and sends for a few cases of goods; and then a tavern starts up,
which becomes the residence of a doctor and a lawyer, and the boarding
house of the store-keeper, as well as the resort of the traveller. Soon
follow a blacksmith, and other handicraftsmen, in useful succession. A
school-master, who is also the minister of religion, becomes an
important acquisition to this rising community. Thus the town proceeds,
if it proceed at all, with accumulating force, until it becomes the
metropolis of the neighbourhood. Hundreds of these speculations may have
failed, but hundreds prosper; and thus trade begins and thrives, as
population increases around favourite spots. The town being established,
a cluster of inhabitants, however small it may be, acts as a stimulus on
the cultivation of the neighbourhood: redundancy of supply is the
consequence, and this demands a vent. Water-mill