Of the literature of America you are almost as well informed as myself. I have looked into most of the native productions of this country with an impartial eye, and am sorry to say that its literature does not rank so high as one might be led to suppose from the intelligence of its people and the nature of its political institutions. Literature does not receive that encouragement and patronage under this Republic, which are calculated to give it a vigorous growth or a permanent and healthy existence. There is not much individual wealth, and few can afford, if they had the inclination, to purchase the productions of native authors. There is, however, another cause which operates to the disadvantage of American literature, and will continue to do so, until some measure be adopted to remedy the evil; it is the cheapness and facility with which the productions of the British press can be republished is this country. The American author has to struggle against many disadvantages, especially when young, unknown and inexperienced. British works of established reputation can be obtained at little or no expense, and reprinted in this country, while the native writer is often obliged to publish the productions of his mind at his own cost, or give them to any one that will undertake to put them to the press. Few can afford to write for mere fame, and no great inducement is offered to write for any thing else. Hence there are but few, if any, professional authors in the United States. For a long time too, the people of this country were disposed to underrate their own literary powers, and many believed that none but the works of the British press were worthy of perusal or patronage. This prejudice is, however, now beginning to wear away, especially since the critics of our country have been forced to acknowledge the genius and literary excellence of some of the native writers of America. But still when the extent, population, age, and comparative refinement of the United States are considered, it must be a matter of surprise that so few authors of distinction are to be found within its widely extended limits. May not this very extent be prejudicial to the cause of American letters? The expense of transportation from one portion of the Union to the other is so considerable, that the publisher finds it safer and more profitable to confine his sales to a limited and convenient range, than to spread his books over an almost boundless surface, from which but few satisfactory returns are ever made. The Americans, though not a nation of shop-keepers, as ours has been denominated, are nevertheless a money making and thrifty people, and almost all are engaged in some lucrative kind of business or occupation, which affords them but little leisure for either literary pursuits, or the cultivation of a taste for the fine arts; and though most of them are readers, their reading is generally confined to newspapers, and the political productions of the day.