In the whole of my correspondence with the unlettered part of the people of the western country, I have observed a brevity of language, that seems to be occasioned by their not being acquainted with {263} an extensive vocabulary. Their manner of speech is grave, apparently earnest, and adapted to business more than to intellectual enjoyment. It is seldom that any thing jocular, or any play of words, or circumlocution, or repartee, is uttered by them. If a question is put, it is usually answered in the shortest manner possible. Sometimes abridgments are made that render expressions inconclusive, and give them the form of the inuendo, even where ambiguity is not intended, and by people who, if they were accosted in ironical terms, would make no other reply than an astonished gaze. Technical language is, for obvious reasons, much limited. I have had opportunities of seeing a number of Americans and Irish, who were engaged in the same sort of employment, and could not omit noticing the contrast formed. Where work was let by the piece, the Irish (although previously strangers to one another) uniformly joined in working together in large groupes, and amused themselves by conversation, occasionally introducing the song, the pun, and the bull; while Americans, under similar conditions, preferred working alone, or in parties not exceeding three, and attended to their business in silence. The conversation of those whom _you_ would call the lower orders, shows that they have a very considerable knowledge of the institutions of their country, and that they set a high value on them. Their discourse is usually intermixed with the provincialisms of England and Ireland, and a few Scotticisms. This might be expected, since America has been partly peopled by the natives of these countries. They also use some expressions the original applications of which I have not been able to discover. These I must call Americanisms, and will subjoin some examples.