ce. As philanthropists in many different countries are
labouring simultaneously to promote this great end, we are justified in
considering the present age as the harbinger of a better; and we may
rejoice in the anticipation. The progressive improvement of the human
family is a delightful subject for meditation, giving us, perhaps, a
prelibation of the joys of futurity, and animating us to contribute our
aid, trifling as it may be, to the melioration of the condition of our
country.

Before closing this article, we can scarcely forbear remarking, that the
translator of Vidocq has used various words which have been considered
by English writers as Americanisms; such as _to progress_, _to
approbate_, and _lengthy_; also _chicken-fighting_ for cock-fighting.
Whether he is an American or an Englishman we know not; but certain we
are, that nearly every one of the alleged peculiarities in language,
adopted by Americans, may be found either in old English authors, or are
known to have been used in one or other of the provincial brogues of
England. Captain Basil Hall notices the substitution of _fall_ for
Autumn; but he might have known, that though nearly obsolete in England,
it is still current in the west of England amongst the vulgar.[15] Even
the much laughed at _I guess_, is in vogue in Lancashire; so that with
the exception of _to tote_ for to carry, which, as Dr. Webster remarks,
was introduced by the negroes into the southern states, we do not know
whether a single word or expression supposed to be peculiar to the
United States, may be found, which cannot be traced to Great Britain or
Ireland. In the volume on Insect Architecture, issued by the Society for
the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, we notice the word _sparse,_ which,
till then, we had supposed to be of American formation; and a late
writer in Blackwood's Magazine says, that the New-England word
_tarnation_, is current in the county of Suffolk in old England. The
probability of its being introduced into Massachusetts from that part of
England, is confirmed by the great number of towns in Massachusetts
bearing the same names as towns in the counties of Suffolk and Essex,
and by the correspondence remarked by travellers between the dialects of
the two districts. Every one may have observed, that the
New-Englanders,--many even of the educated amongst them,--pronounce the
participle _been_, as if written _ben_; and this peculiarity, we are
assured, is prevalent in t