True information is mainly derived from experience; and if the Americans had not been gradually accustomed to govern themselves, their book-learning would not assist them much at the present day.
[Footnote j: I travelled along a portion of the frontier of the United States in a sort of cart which was termed the mail.

We passed, day and night, with great rapidity along the roads which were scarcely marked out, through immense forests; when the gloom of the woods became impenetrable the coachman lighted branches of fir, and we journeyed along by the light they cast.

From time to time we came to a hut in the midst of the forest, which was a post-office.

The mail dropped an enormous bundle of letters at the door of this isolated dwelling, and we pursued our way at full gallop, leaving the inhabitants of the neighboring log houses to send for their share of the treasure.
[When the author visited America the locomotive and the railroad were scarcely invented, and not yet introduced in the United States.

It is superfluous to point out the immense effect of those inventions in extending civilization and developing the resources of that vast continent.