the hands of the Rev. John Jones Spooner, corresponding
member. The picture is harsh, but drawn by a vigorous hand, without
fear, favor, or affection.

In point of natural advantages Virginia was surpassed by few countries
on the globe, but in commerce, manufactures, education, government in
church and state, was one of the poorest and most miserable. The staple
tobacco swallowed up every thing, so that the markets were often glutted
with bad tobacco, which became a mere drug, and would not pay freight
and customs. Perhaps not one hundredth part of the land was yet cleared,
and none of the marsh or swamp drained. As fast as the soil was worn out
by exhausting crops of tobacco and corn, it was left to grow up again in
woods. The plough was not much used, in the first clearing the roots and
stumps being left, and the ground tilled only with hoes, and by the time
the stumps were decayed the ground was worn out. Manure was neglected.
Of grain the planters usually raised only enough for home consumption,
there being no market for it, and scarce any money. But their main labor
in this crop being in the summer, they fell into habits of indolence
for the rest of the year. The circumstances of the country, destitute of
towns, and consisting of dispersed plantations, were unfavorable for
mechanics, then called tradesmen. The depression of this useful and
important class although lessened, continues in the present day, and
appears to be inevitably connected with the system of negro slavery. It
is a tax paid by the whites for the elevation of the black race. The
merchants were the most prosperous class in the colony, but they labored
under great disadvantages, being obliged to sell on credit, and to carry
on "a pitiful retail trade," and to depend on the receivers who went
about among the planters to receive the tobacco due, and this mode of
collecting was subject to great delays and losses. The native-born
Virginians, who for the most part had never been out of the colony, were
averse to town life, and felt dissatisfied, like Daniel Boone in more
modern times, whenever "the settlements became too thick." The scarcity
of money was aggravated by the governor, who found it to his interest to
be paid in tobacco. The current coin of the dominion of Virginia
consisted of pieces of eight, the value of which was fixed by law at
five shillings; and the value being made greater in Pennsylvania money,
they were consequently drained from Virg