was much distress in the country, in consequence of
the general stagnation of trade and manufactures,
and the low price of agricultural produce; but of
late a favourable change has taken place: the ma-
nufacturers are generally well employed, and the
agricultural produce makes a fair return to the
farmers.

This country has made great efforts, as well as
very considerable pecuniary sacrifices, to induce the
nations of Europe

to abandon the odious slave trade,
and they are likely to be successful at last; and,
after the lapse of two years, I trust, it will no longer
exist. We continue to go on here in promoting phi-
lanthropic institutions; but it requires much good
judgment, and a perfect knowledge of the world, to
select those which, in their practical effect, shall pro-
duce that good to the community, which will com-
pensate the expense and gratuitous labour which is
required. Theories are often fallacious, although of
much promise, and it is only in their practical effect
that their real utility is discovered.

Our London hospitals have undergone much im-
provement of late, especially since they have attracted
the notice of the legislature; and, I trust, they will
be farther ameliorated.

We find here the same corruption of morals, arising
from the immoderate use of ardent spirits in vulgar
life, which you experience at New York

. It is a
malady in the moral world which is difficult to cure,
and our only hope is, that the rising generation, from
being better taught, in consequence of the general
dissemination of free schools, will conduct themselves
with more propriety. The quantity of gin drank by
the lower orders of society in this great and over-
grown metropolis, in which so many loose and dis-
solute characters are congregated, exceeds all calcu-
lation, and there is no doubt of many thousands
being sent prematurely to the grave, by indulging in
this odious vice. I have for twenty-five years, as a