_26th._--I rode this day to the bench of his worship, Squire Arden, with Doctor Dawes, who was served with a warrant for a small debt for goods. I carried the Doctor's diploma, to prove him a physician, authorized to write prescriptions. The plaintiff is a neighbour of the Doctor's, who had prescribed for his family, and therefore pleaded a set off. The plaintiff then swore he would prove that the Doctor never was sent for nor came! The Doctor considers almost all here as unprincipled and conspiring against his cash. Quitting the diploma for the plough, he gave up a practice of 400 or 500 pounds a year, at Wisbeach, in England, where he was highly esteemed. His humanity here to poor exiles, distinguishes him as a patriot and a philanthropist, and entitles him to the applause and goodwill of all mankind. In September last, poor John Steed, the English Quaker, {389} was fed, housed, physicked, and restored to health, by this benevolent man. Steed was returning to England; but how to return without money? There was money for him! My warm-hearted friend, _the watchman_, a dear friend of the Rev. I. Leathes, brother-in-law of the late Bishop of Bristol, put into Steed's empty hands a purse, amply sufficient for his land and sea expenses. This was noble! It is well to praise man for his humanity to a suffering brother, but better to ascribe all the glory to his Maker, who gives all, and blesses him with a generous heart, and who has promised that "He who deviseth liberal things, by liberal things shall he stand." _March 11th._--I revisited the astronomical, mathematical, and philosophical Mr. W. Elliott, dining on vegetables only. He states that it is impossible for a sensible, honest Englishman to prefer this country to his own; and in knowing that he has quitted England for ever, he experiences a feeling indescribably painful. To return no more is a word next to death. Although he would not, at present, desire to live in England, yet he would not advise any to quit who can live in it. The soil here is unfit for man, and for an Englishman particularly. Both mind and body barbarize and degenerate. He feels, at first, sanguine, but soon after he begins to judge and compare, and finds that though the government allured him here, yet that all is not gold that glitters. He becomes {390} weak and emaciated, and drifts into the habits of the country, where he is no longer the man he thought himself at first. The labouring poor here are far behind, and more miserable than the poor, bold peasantry of England. No man needs labour here long, if he would work and not drink excessively; but he drinks and is undone. _Sunday, 12th._--Met J. G. Wright, Esq. who has consumed, in segars, for his own use, since he began smoking, twenty years since, 700 barrels of flour, at the present price. One hundred and fifty dollars annually is the cost of his smoking.