acre.

a table, and six chairs: with these moveables and sixty or seventy dollars, to which the wife adds fifteen or twenty out of her savings, the couple begin their husbandry by purchasing one hundred acres of woodland, at one dollar an With the assistance of neighbours they build a cabin, with a stable and a barn, and in the course of two years they are free from debt, as they are both accustomed to work hard and lead a plain life. Their pastimes are welshcornhuskings, and cabin-blockings, and such frolics, besides the singing school. Generally they meet

for this purpose during the

night preceding the

Sabbath from a distance of from three to five

miles.

CHAPTER XI.

Religion-Clergy-Synods-Sects-Roman Catholics

Unitarians.

ONE of the wisest resolutions ever taken by a legislative body, was unquestionably that of allowing perfect freedom of conscience, and of ample religious toleration, or rather of placing all religions on equal terms. Whether this resolution be the result of philosophical inquiry, or of the simultaneous principles and opinions of the first leading characters of the Union, is of little consequence. Whatever may have been their views on that measure, the effects are no less beneficial to the State. By giving the ascendency to none of the established forms of worship, and by refusing to the minister of religion any salary out of the public treasury (a measure for which the Union is principally indebted to the immortal Jefferson, who laboured incessantly till he had succeeded in rescinding all such grants), religion, from being the means of livelihood to its ministers, as in almost every Christian country

in Europe, became the property of the people, and even when apparently deserted, its absolute necessity became the more visible, and its dominion was the more firmly established. Although the dogmatic system of the different Christian forms of worship may have suffered from this adaptation of them to the popular opinion, and though many an inquiry may have taken place, at which an orthodox believer would have shuddered, the true Christian religion cannot but have gained by the change. The most unbelieving sceptic must surely feel inclined to serious reflections, when, in a country so perfectly free to choose whether he will believe in religion or not, he sees that religion, which was less than twenty-five years ago an object of derision and contempt on the continent of Europe, and is only just reviving, displaying in America a multitude of churches erected to its honour, and frequented with an eagerness that affords the clearest evidence of the truth of Christianity, and of its natural and necessary operation upon the human mind. The American is religiously inclined, and if not so in reality, in appearance at least, he is more sincere than the European.

In Philadelphia there are at present above

1

eighty churches and meeting-houses, all of which are much more frequented on the Sabbath than those on the continent of Europe. If we take into consideration that the American has to provide for the support of the church and its minister, and that these expenses frequently amount to more than the public taxes he has to pay, the religious character of the people will appear in a more striking light.

In Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and the larger commercial towns, the style of buildings is splendid, and exhibit a taste and liberality equally conspicuous. These are visible in their elegant carpets, splendid lustres, richly decorated pulpits and communion-tables, together with a gilded organ and tasteful pews. I allow that vanity may have had some share in these embellishments, but the display of it on these occasions is entitled to indulgence. In the flat country from Philadelphia to Harrisburgh, a distance of one hundred miles in length and breadth, there are many churches in a style of architectural beauty, which would not disgrace any European city, and these are erected by country congregations at their own expense. It is not unusual to see a farmer in but moderate circum

stances, subscribe from two to three hundred dollars. Pittsburgh, which is not more than fifty years in existence, has now ten churches, amongst which is the Trinity church, completed in 1825, in a style of Gothic elegance, worthy an European metropolis. Several members of its congregation subscribed five hundred dollars; and yet this city though, perhaps, wealthy, is far from being very opulent. Greensburgh, on the Philadelphia road, thirty miles on this side of Pittsburgh, has, for a population not exceed ing eighteen hundred souls, no less than four churches, and the country congregation which is without at least a wooden meeting-house, is either very small, or a very poor one indeed.

About Greensburgh there are seven German congregations, who have elegant brick churches, each consisting of from fifty to sixty families. Not long ago one of these was finished at the expense of six thousand dollars. If we consider that amongst the number of the congregation, ten families may be said to possess some wealth, fifteen or twenty with a bare sufficiency to live upon, and the rest absolutely poor, who, under the existing pressure and the low prices of produce, can hardly contribute anything, it will