" All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" — so does it make him a dull and stupid man. Men, in truth, cannot always be employed ; and those who are unable to supply the tedium of bodily inertness, by the exercise of the mind, will — I say will, amuse themselves in some way or other. If you afford them the means of attending church on the Sabbath — the most dangerous day of the week, because a day of idleness — whatever be their motives for going there, both their morals and their manners will be softened, by having some object for decency in dress and behaviour; and something salutary to attract them in the dangerous interregnum of a day of leisure.

Having answered your first inquiry, I shall take up the others when it suits my convenience ; or when I have nothing else to write about. Good bye.

Yesterday we laid by at the lUtle town of

W . It was court time, and two lawyers, the

pick of the whole country round, were to take the field against each other, in a suit between a wagoner and a batteauxman, in a case of assault and battery. You are to understand, the beautiful river Shenandoah passes not far from this town, and is navigable for batteaux ; while at no great distance runs the great western road, which is travelled by the west country wagoners — some of whom, you know, are " half horse, half alligator;" others " part earthquake, and a little of the steam-boat ;" and others compounded, according to their own accounts, of ingredients altogether different from the common constituent parts of the rest of mankind. The batteauxmen are for

the most part composed of materials equally combustible ; and the consequence is, that occasionally, when they meet, they strike fire, and blow up the powder magazine each carries about him in the form of a heart.

The history of the present contest, as detailed by the Counsel for the plaintiff, is as follows : One summer evening, when the mild air, the purple light, the green earth, and the blue sky, all seemed to invite to peace and repose, the batteauxman fastened his boat to the stump of a tree, lighted his fire to broil his bacon, and began to sing that famous song of " The opossum up the gum-tree." By and by a west country wagoner chanced to come jingling his bells that way, and stopping his wagon, unhooked his horses, carried them round to the little trough at the back of his vehicle, gave them some shortSy sat himself down at the top of the bank, below which the batteauxman was sitting in his boat, and began to whistle " The batteauxman robb'd the old woman's hen-roost." The batteauxman cocked up his eye at the wagoner, and the wagoner looking askance down on the batteauxman, took a chew of tobacco with a leer that was particularly irrirating. The batteauxman drew out his whiskeybottle, took a drink, and put the cork in again, at the same time thrusting his tongue in his cheek in a manner not to be borne. The wagoner flapped his hands against his hips, and crowed like a cock ; the batteauxman curved his neck, and neighed like a horse. Being, however, men of rather phlegmatic habits, they kept their tempers so far as not to come to blows just then. In a few minutes the wagoner swore " he had the handsomest sweetheart of any man in all Greenbriar." The batteauxman jumped up in a passion, but sat down again, and took a drink. In a few minutes the wagoner swore '' he had the finest horse of any man in a hundred miles." The batteauxman bounced up, pulled the waistband of his trowsers, took another drink, and bounced down again. A minute after the wagoner swore " he had a better rifle than any man that ever wore a blue jacket." This was loo much — for the batteauxman wore a jacket of that colour, and of course this amounted to a personal insult. Besides, to attack a man's rifle ! He could have borne any reflection on his sweetheart, or his horse j but to touch his rifle

was to touch his honour. Off went the blue jacket; the batteauxman scrambled up the bank, and a set to commenced, that ended in the total discomfiture of the wagoner, with the loss of three of his grinders, and the gain of " divers black and bloody bruises," as honest Lithgow says. The batteauxman waited till the moon rose, when he went whistling down the stream to carry the news of his victory to Old Potomac; and the poor wagoner went " to take the law," as a man says, when the law is about to take him.

The honest batteauxman was arrested on his return for assault and battery on the west country wagoner. It being you know the great object of the law to find out which party is in the wrong, the lawyer of each side of course labours to throw the imputation on his adversary's client. It appeared clearly enough that the batteauxman made the first assault, but it also appeared in evidence that crowing like a cock was a direct challenge, according to the understanding of these people ; that to undervalue a batteauxman's sweetheart or horse, whether he had any or not, was a mortal insult ; and that to insinuate any inferiority in his rifle, was an offence which no one could put up

with witliout dishonour. That such points of honour constituted the chivalry of these people, that no class of mankind is without something of this nature — that however low a man may be, there are insults he cannot submit to, without being disgraced among his equals, who constitute his world — and that to oblige him, in any situation, to put up with disgrace, was to debase his nature, and to destroy every manly principle within him. Trifling as this case may appear, it called forth a display of talent, and a depth of investigation as to how far it was possible, and if possible, how far it was salutary to attempt to repress the operation of those feelings which spur men in all situations to avoid disgrace at the risk of every thing, that gave me a high idea of the two advocates. They were both young men, new to the bar, he. yet they spoke with a degree of fluency as well as self-possession which is seldom exhibited by our young lawyers of the cities, whose genius is too frequently rebuked by the presence of an audience they can hardly hope to please, disheartened by the supercilious airs of the elder counsel, or overpowered by the deadening sense of inferiority.

I am fully convinced, that the shortest as well as the most certain way for a young man of talents in this profession to attain to eminence, is to go to some nevvly-scttled part of the country, where, in comparative solitude, he can discipline his mind, and cultivate the reasoning faculty without interruption ; where he has neither bad models to imitate, or good ones to discourage hrs first exertions. To speak in public, in the presence of those we feel to be our intellectual superiors, is a task from which the timidity of genius will ever shrink j and can only be performed by minds hardened by practice, or insensible from natural stupidity. The result of this timidity on one hand, and hardihood on the other, is, that in the great cities genius sinks too frequently into hopeless despondency ; while the strong-nerved blockhead, who despises the opinions of bis superiors, not because he feels himself above them, but because he don't feel at all, rises, in spite of his destiny, to notice and independence.

The young lawyer, therefore, who would rise into consequence and wealth, before his head grows gray with age, would do well to emigrate to some one of the new States, instead of running

to seed in the cities, or supporting a precarious existence by watching the docks, to incite sailors to go to law ; diving into stews for assaults and batteries, or haunting the quarter sessions to get a fee of five dollars from some wretched Bridewell bird. There they would take root with the first planting of the community, and grow up with the growth of numbers, wealth, and business. They would soon afford to take an office by themselves, instead of joining stocks, and hunting in couples like leashed hounds, as they are forced to do in cities, for want of gallant enterprise to emigrate to the glowing west, where talent and industry are the sure forerunners of an independent fortune and political consequence. Thus riches and lionour beckon him to pursue — for whatever may be thought of these matters upon Change, it has lately occurred to me, in the course of my expe- ) ience, that a Judge, or a Member of Congress, is nearly as important a personage as a President of an Insurance Company, a Bank Director, or even a rich Money Broker. To you, who have lately .seen ten times the interest excited by the election of the Directors of the U. S. Bank that there was for the election of a President of the United a

States, this may appear absurd. And so it wouIJ be, if all the rest of this country were like the great cities, where not only they worship the divinity of gold, but adore a spurious counterfeit in rags — where respect is paid to nothing else, and where the value of money is splendidly demonstrated by its power to elevate the lowest reptile to the rank of man, and to an association with human beings. In such a place, where ninetenths of those with whom you associate, and whose opinions influence your's are more or less dependent for existence on Banks, a Bank Director may indeed be the depository of incalculable dignity ; but where the invincible moneygetting demon has not yet worked his way in the human heart like a worm in a chesnut, men derive their dignity, respect, and consequence from sources far more pure, noble, and elevated. — They must possess talents ; and if destitute of principle, must at least affect what they do not feel, and thus pay homage to the shrine which ihey have deserted. Thus even hypocrisy may become useful by showing how valuable that virtue must be, the mere counterfeit of which is th US' eberished and rewarded. FarewelL

In ranging up the valley from Staunton to W -

where I now an), we passed througb a fine country of limestone, abounding in gay meadows, and pure springs, and bordered on all sides by mountains. The distance is about one hundred miles, and there are several towns in the way, which, however, do not exhibit any great appearance of growth or prosperity. They are generally the country seats, and depend in a great degree on the expenditures of those who are brought there by law business, and the employment given to the tradesmen of different kinds, by a circle of the surrounding country, of which each town forms a sort of centre. As new towns are founded in various places, this circle of course diminishes ;. and as new roads are made, or obstructions in the

rivers removed, the little trade they enjoy 13 carried very often in another direction. Hence it is that our little towns are so apt to grow up prematurely for a while, when they are all at once arrested in their growth by neighbouring rivals, or by a change given to the course of business, and often decay with the same rapidity they arose. The truth is that we have too many towns; and so it will ere long be found, if I am not mistaken. We have too many traders of various kinds, at least in the Atlantic States, who will ere long be obliged to turn to some other profession, or emigrate to the new States. It appears sufficiently evident to me, in the complaints we begin to hear, of the want of business and of employment among all classes of people in the cities, which is in some degree owing to the general pacification of the world, which has turned millions of soldiers into other directions, and enabled millions of people to supply their own wants, who before depended upon others. The people thus thrown out of employment in the cities and towns must emigrate, as I said before, or resort to new professions, or become paupers, and eat soup at others' expense. It is a shame to