clerks for marriage licences in the year 1837, one thousand and forty seven were unable to write their names.”  The governor adds, “these statements, it will be remembered are confined to one sex:  the education of females, it is to be feared, is in a condition of much greater neglect.”—­The editor of the Virginia Times published at Wheeling, in his paper of January 23d, 1839, says,—­“We have every reason to suppose that one fourth of the people of the State cannot write their names, and they have not of course any other species of education."[A]

[Footnote A:  “American Slavery as it is,” page 187.]

The destitution of the means of moral and religious improvement is in like manner very great.  A recent number of the “Monthly Extracts from the correspondence of the American Bible Society,” contains the following extract from the 28th annual report of the Virginia Bible Society:  “The sub-sheriff of one of our Western Counties stated the following fact to your agent.  A jury was to be empannelled in a remote settlement of this country—­he happened to have left his home without a Bible—­there was no Bible in the house where the jury was to sit, and the sheriff travelled fourteen miles calling at every house, before he found a Bible.  Pious surveyors stated to your agent that they had traversed every settlement in a remote section of one or two of our south western counties, that they had frequently inquired among the settlers for a Bible, but had never seen or heard of one in a region, say sixty miles by fifty.”

There are few things more striking in the free States than the number and commodiousness of the places of worship.  In the New England States, however general the attendance might be, none would be excluded for want of room.  The other means or accompaniments of religious instruction are in the same abundance.  How is it possible to evade the conclusion that Christianity flourishes most, when it is unencumbered and uncorrupted by state patronage?  What favored portion of the United Kingdom could compare its religious statistics with New England?

Religion and morality, viewed on the broad scale, are cause and effect—­a remark which is fully borne out in the Northern States, and in no instance more remarkably exemplified than in the spread of temperance.  A few years ago the consumption of ardent spirits, and other intoxicating drinks, was as general as in England, and the effects even more conspicuous and debasing.  It is now very rare, in the free States, to see a drunken person, even in the most populous cities.  At the large hotels, as far as my observation extended, it is the exception, not the rule, to take any spirituous or fermented beverage at or after dinner; and no case of inebriety came under my notice in any of these establishments.  I have already remarked, that some of the first hotels in the principal cities are established on the strictest temperance principles.  I believe, in private hospitality, intoxicating drinks