from a conviction of superior value in the political system that secures to them freedom, happiness, and plenty.

the whips and scorns o' th' time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,'

with all the black catalogue of rigours and subjections, springing from the tyranny of kings, are remembered by them, hateful only to be despised. Disgusted at these, and thankful for the blessings they now enjoy, we see them reverencing our institutions, and becoming good and useful citizens.

'If they come of themselves,' says Mr. Jefferson,' they are entitled to all the rights of citizenship, but I question the expediency of inviting them by extraordinary encouragements. I mean not that these doubts should be extended to the importation of useful artificers. The policy, of that measure depends on very different considerations. Spare no expense in obtaining them. They will, after a while, go to the plough and the hoe, but, in the mean time, they will teach us something we do not know. It is not so in agriculture. The indifferent state of that among us does not proceed from a want of knowledge merely; it is from our having such quantities of land to waste as we please. In Europe, the object is to make the most of their land, labour being abundant: here it is to make the most of our labour, land being abundant.'

The concluding remark, by his own showing, confesses the real truth of our wants more men, more Europeans to call into ac tion new resources of the soil, in the knowledge of which, it must be owned, we are deficient. Or why these impoverished lands and diminished crops? To substitute, if possible, the European for the coloured labourer, is undoubtedly a politic object, conducive to the best interests of the country. He is better skilled, more assiduous and careful in the performance of his duty. The black is a slovenly performer of work in general. He neither ploughs deep, nor does he seem characterized by profound perseverance. It is otherwise with the European.

The increase of foreigners, calculated for the last year, at only three per cent. on the native stock, will ever be neutralized in political effect, by the rapid strides of our own population. In Camden, thirty years ago known only by the name of Mifflin's Cross Roads, the site of but a dozen of houses, we have now one hundred and twenty buildings, including eleven stores, two meeting houses, and a spacious academy, with between four and five hundred white inhabitants-a proof of increase beyond the calculations of Franklin, and the economists on the United States in ge neral. We have, in truth, nothing to fear, but every thing to hope from the influx of settlers among us. In connexion with the pro ject of colonizing Africa with the free people of colour from these states, let us look forward, at no distant day, to repair the evils of a peasantry composed wholly of those persons, or of slaves. Of slavery it is difficult to speak without being prolix in reprobation,

let me here mention only one of its concomitant evils, as displayed in this free state:-the temptation to deprive coloured individuals of their legal rights, by forcibly transporting them away into the southern states; a practice denounced, it is true, by our laws, but persevered in to a degree alarming to every good man, who feels as a father, husband, friend. To no purpose is it that benevolent individuals release, gradually, their slaves from bondage, if mercenary outcasts of society are to profit by their charity. The system of kidnapping, as it is termed, has raised up a class of persons lost to all sense of shame or religion, and familiar with the basest moral turpitude. It has placed its votaries, as it were, out of the pale of Christian denomination. It has unfitted them for the discharge of any decent calling, as useful citizens. Accordingly we find instances of a return to the same offence petition of guilt after punishment had been inflicted.*

of a re

To obviate crime, by the most effectual method of prevention, viz. the removal of all temptation to its commission, has been the study of the wisest legislators and philanthropists in every age, and if the attainment of this delightful object be admitted as an argument in favour of the gradual commutation of slavery for hire, I shall indeed rejoice that the contemplation of a Morning's Walk has not been without its advantages.

It is one of the recommendations of researches of this nature, when they enable us to record discoveries important to man. Pyrola umbellata is a plant not unknown in Pennsylvania, but, it is believed, peculiar to this state, and the upper parts of that, or at least unnoticed by botanists elsewhere. In my excursions through the neighbouring woods, I find it crossing my path in the humble character of a common weed. The Indians in this quarter, tradition says, termed it the king of plants, having found it surprisingly efficacious in the cure of cancer and scrofula, and from them its name, Pipsissewa, is no doubt derived. It may be distinguished from the Pyrola maculata, or Spotted Pyrola, (which, growing promiscuously with the other species, and being of a poisonous quality it is necessary to guard against) by observing that the leaves of the Pyrola umbellata are uniformly green, and broadest near the extremity, while the leaves of the Pyrola maculata, or Chimaphila umbellata, are variegated with whitish stripes, and are widest near the last stock. This sovereign winter green is used in infusion, instead of Chinese tea. Dr. Mitchill of New York writes me, that when he was in congress, Mr. Bradley of Vermont and he, drank the infusion the greater part of a winter, as an ingredient of breakfast. It is celebrated for removing intermitting fevers, and in the last number of the Medical Repository,

* Two men, traders to Georgia, were lately convicted of this offence, and underwent the sentence of the law, at Dover, viz. to stand in the pillory for the space of one hour, with both ears nailed thereto; and, at the expiration of that time, to have the soft part of each cut off.

vol. 19, p. 107, it is mentioned as a diuretic for removing dropsy. In this state it has been greatly extolled for its efficacy against cancer, and as a purifier of the blood. The following cases occurred within my personal knowledge.

Peter Meany, 45 years of age, was seized with an affection of his back about 13 years since, termed by the physicians a wolf cancer. Nine years ago it was extracted. In three years after it again appeared, and was a second time extracted. In less than three years more it made its third appearance, and with aggravated symptoms. Despairing of the effect of the knife, the patient was induced to try the tea of Pipsissewa, the use of which, in one month, stopped the progress of the disorder, and in a short time all inconvenience was removed.

George, negro boy, about five years of age, was seriously affected in the face and lips, with danger to the left eye, the mouth considerably distorted. Medical aid had proved unavailing, but the symptoms yielded readily to the decoction of this plant, and he is now perfectly recovered.

It is much to be desired that the properties of plants in general were more accurately inquired into, and extensively known. I question if the resources of the healing art might not be infinitely extended, on a proper understanding of the virtues of simples. What boundaries have as yet ever been assigned to the science of physic? What lights does it not borrow from a materia medica perpetually enlarging! Who ever conjectured, until the discoveries of Roxburgh, the medicinal combination of the Swietenia febrifuga, or anti-febrile bark of the East Indies? Nature has revealed but an inferior portion of her secrets, yet is she always yielding to the inquisitive solicitations of man.

I should not conform to good example were I to omit glancing at eminent characters, native to our soil, and reared in our institutions. The names of Bayard* and of Rodney, will survive as long as profound intellect and political philosophy constitute the pride of a state. On the ocean we boast a Jones and a Macdonough, foremost among the defenders of the republic by sea; each characterised by the highest professional skill, and that true intrepidity which springs from ardent patriotism.

Such worthies have a just rank in our regard. They incite the emulation of our youth to excellence, and form in others the best ornament and safeguard of our country, which are to be found in the virtues of its citizens. Distinguished for eminence in every department of genius, the two great commonwealths of antiquity commanded the then known world by the arts of civilization and knowledge, no less than by their arms. It was not until the discouragement of learning, and the decline of that vigor of character, which freedom inspires, that we trace the real sources of their decay. In the time of national prosperity, says Sallust, good conduct both in peace and war, characterized our citizens. By

*Mr. Bayard was born in Philadelphia.

ED. AN. MAG.

two means, valour in war, whereby peace issued, and equity in peace, they supported themselves and the commonwealth. "Domi militiæque boni mores colebantur. Duabus artibus, audacia in bello, ubi pax evenerat, æquitate, seque remque publicam curabant."

IT

ART. V.-On Training.

T is well known to every person conversant in the modern management of race horses, that there is no dependance to be placed either on their speed, their wind, or their bottom, unless they previously undergo a period of discipline in respect of diet and exercise, which shall insure their muscular exertions to be at the maximum of capability, immediately preceding the hour of competition.

Among the Greeks of old, the athletæ, or wrestlers, pancratiasts, &c., at the olympic games, regularly underwent a course of dietetic discipline previous to their public contests: this discipline, which seems to have introduced our modern training, consisted in

1st. Moderate evacuations, to get rid of superfluous corpulence.

2. Drink was allowed but in small quantity: the diet was chiefly of animal food; pork was preferred. Galen says, that if they lived even for one day on any other kind of food, they perceived a diminution of strength.

3. Abstinence from wine and other debilitating indulgencies. The ancients were not quite ignorant of the modern axiom, that gout is the offspring of Bacchus and Venus.

4. They were allowed to sleep as long as the disposition to sleep continued.

5. Exercise gradually increased to the maximum that the person in training could bear with moderate fatigue.

6. The warm bath, long continued frictions, and anointing with oil.

The boxers used to practice with the cestus, in striking at the air, to exercise the arms: an exercise more severe than the modern sparring, as any person may experience on trial. St. Paul alludes to this, when he says, so fight I, not as one who beateth the air.'

The practice of training, however, among the gentlemen of the turf in England, in which country only it is known as a science, appears to have commenced, from observing the healthy state that was consequent on sweating the jockies down to the required match weight. When not carried so far as to debilitate, which it may be, the benefits of sweating so as to diminish the weight of the whole body about one-thirtieth, is manifest in the clearness of the eye, the suppleness of the limbs, and the spring in the step. From the jockeys, the practice was transferred to the horses, who were purged and sweated, previous to being put upon training exercise. At length the diet also in quality and in quantity

was attended to, and the whole system matured to its present extent. The same system also has been very successfully applied to the training of game cocks.

From the horses, when the modern amusement of boxing matches became fashionable, it was transferred to the boxers, and then to the persons engaged to run against time. Those who have never attended to the subject, are not aware of the increase of health, strength, and activity, that may be thus acquired by persons who will submit to the discipline usually imposed; which is little more than full exercise, accompanied and supported by generous diet, nutritive but not stimulating. Among all the remedies for gout, that opprobrium medicorum, there is none that promises to be so thoroughly and radically efficacious, as a course of training for about three months.

In England, this has been foreseen, and sir John Sinclair in his Code of Health has collected all the information he could, upon the various methods of training race horses, boxers, and pedestrian performers against time. The information thus collected, is likely to turn out a public benefit, because it is certainly applica ble to every kind of debility and languor, induced by too much indulgence in stimulating food, accompanied by too little muscular exertion.

Captain Barclay, the pedestrian, seems to have studied this subject with more assiduity than any other person, and has been more successful in his training than most of those who have undertaken to direct such a course of preliminary exercise. method has been detailed at length by Mr. Thom, who published some years ago the History of Aberdeen.

His

As the methods of training seem founded on just notions of the animal economy, and promise to be applicable in more cases than those to which they have usually been adapted, your readers may probably be glad to know, at least the outline, of the science of training.

The two great purposes meant to be effected by training, whatever mode be adopted, are, to get rid of superfluous fat, and superfluous moisture, and to increase muscular power. This is done 1. By purging at intervals.

2. By sweating at intervals.

3. By using food that contains the greatest portion of nutriment in the smallest compass.

4. By using food of the most simple kind, and least likely to disorder the stomach, or induce difficulty of digestion.

5. By a sparing use of liquids.

6. By a sparing use of stimulating liquors in particular. 7. By exercise daily out cautiously increased, until the maximum of exertion be ascertained.

8. By particular attention to the state of the skin. This is better understood by those who train horses, than by those who train men.