This is a short nomenclature of the vices of the Indians of North America. If it were necessary, I would quote the chapters and pages of the authors who have established, by their observations, the truth of the character I have given of them. I am not disposed to enter into an examination of their virtues, but I cannot help supposing them to be rather the qualities of necessity, than the offspring of feeling, or principle. Their hospitalitiy their friendships-their patience-and their fidelity to engagements, are the effects of necessity, and are as essential to their existence, as honesty is to a band of associated robbers. Their politeness in never contradicting any person, I believe is the effect of indolence, for I know of nothing that lazy people dislike more than to dispute, even where truth is on their side, or where victory is certain.-Where is the man that in a lazy fit (to which all men at times are subject) has not heard false and absurd opinions advanced in company, without contradicting them?

The taciturnity of the Indians which has been so much celebrated, as a mark of their wisdom, is the effect of their want of ideas. Except in cases of extraordinary pride, I believe taciturnity, in nine cases out of ten, in civilized company, is the effect of stupidity. I will make one more exception to this rule, and that is in favour of those people who are in the habits of communicating their thoughts, by writing for the public, or by corresponding with their friends. Ideas, whether acquired from books, or by reflection, produce a plethora in the mind, which can only be relieved by depletion from the pen, or tongue.

But what shall we say to the encomiums that have been lavished upon the love of liberty which characterizes our savage neighbours?Why-that they arise from an ignorance

of the influence of property, upon the human mind.-Property, and a regard for law, are born together in all societies. The passion for liberty in an Indian, is as different from the passion for it in a civilized republican, as the impurity of lust," is, from the delicacy of love. There is a certain medium to be observed between an affection for law, and for liberty. An excess of the former has sometimes led to tyranny, while an excess of the latter, leads to idleness and vice. The Athenians appear to have been intoxicated with an excess of liberty when they spent their whole time in hearing and telling news. There is always an excess of law or liberty in a community where poor men are idle, or where vices of any kind are suffered with impunity.

The only reflections that I shall add upon this subject, shall be, how are the blessings of civil government which exter pates, restrains, or punishes the vices that have been mentioned! and how great is the efficacy of christianity, which, by purifying the heart, renders the practice of the contrary virtues natural and agreeable?

OBSERVATIONS UPON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HABITUAL USE OF TOBACCO UPON HEALTH, MORALS, AND PROPERTY.

WERE it possible for a being who had resided upon our globe, to visit the inhabitants of a planet, where reason governed, and to tell them that a vile weed was in general use among the inhabitants of the globe it had left, which afforded no nourishment-that this weed was cultivated with immense care-that it was an important article of commerce that the want of it produced real misery-that its taste was extremely nauseous, that it was unfriendly to health and morals, and that its use was attended with a considerable loss of time and property, the account would be thought incredible, and the author of it would probably be excluded from society, for relating a story of so im probable a nature. In no one view, is it possible to contemplate the creature man in a more absurd and ridiculous light, than in his attachment to TOBACCO.

This weed is of a stimulating nature whether it be used in smoaking, chewing or in snuff. Like opium and spiritous liquors, it is sought for in all those cases where the body is debilitated indirectly by intemperance in eating, or by excessive application to study, or business, or directly by sedative passions of the mind, particularly by grief and fear. Persons after losing relations or friends by death, often resort to it. One of the greatest snuffers I ever knew, used it for the first time, in order to console her under a presentiment she entertained, that she should die in childbed. Fear creates a desire for Tobacco. Hence it is used in a greater quantity by sol

diers and sailors than by other classes of people. It is used most profusely by soldiers when they act as picket guards, or centinels, and by sailors in stormy weather. Persons labouring under that state of madness which is accompanied with a sense of misery, are much devoted to it, hence the tenants of mad-houses often accost their attendants and visitors, with petitions for TOBACCO.

The progress of habit in the use of Tobacco is exactly the same as in the use of spiritous liquors. The slaves of it begin, by using it only after dinner-then during the whole afternoon and evening, afterwards before dinner, then before breakfast, and finally during the whole night. I knew a lady who had passed through all these stages, who used to wake regularly two or three times every night to compose her system with fresh doses of snuff. Again the progress in the decay of the sensibility of the nose to the stimulus of snuff is analogous to the decay of the sensibility of the stomach, to the stimulus of spiritous liquors. It feels for a while the action of Rappee; next it requires Scotch snuff, afterwards Irishblack-guard-and finally it is affected only by a composition of Tobacco and ground glass. This mixture is to the nose, what Cayenne pepper and Jamaica spirits are to the stomachs of habitual dram drinkers.

The appetite for Tobacco is wholly artificial. No person was ever born with a relish for it. Even in those persons who are much attached to it, nature frequently recovers her disrelish to it. It ceases to be agreeable in every febile indisposition. This is so invariably true, that a disrelish to it is often a sign of an approaching, and a return of the appetite for it, a sign of a departing fever.

In considering the pernicious effects of Tobacco, I shall begin agreeably to the order I have laid down, by taking notice of its influence upon health; and here I shall mention its effects not only upon the body, but upon the mind.

1. It impairs the appetite. Where it does not produce this effect,

2. It prevents the early and complete digestion of the food, and thereby induces distressing, and incurable diseases not only of the stomach, but of the whole body. This effect of Tobacco is the result of the waste of the saliva in chewing, and smoking, or of the Tobacco insinuating itself into the stomach, when used in chewing, or snuffing.I once lost a young man of 17 years of age, of a pulmonary consumption, whose disorder was brought on by the intemperate use of segars.

3. It produces many of those diseases which are supposed to be seated in the nerves. The late Sir John Pringle was subject in the evening of his life to tremors in his hands. In his last visit to France, a few years before he died, in company with Dr. Franklin, he was requested by the Doctor to observe, that the same disorder was very common among those people of fashion who were great snuffers. Sir John was led by this remark to suspect that his tremors were occasioned by snuff which he took in large quantities. He immediately left off taking it, and soon afterwards recovered the perfect use of his hands. I have seen head-ache, vertigo, and epilepsy produced by the use of Tobacco. A Physician in Connecticut has remarked that it has in several instances produced palsy and apoplexy; and Dr. Tissot ascribes sudden death in one instance, to the excessive use of it in smoaking.