ADVERTISEMENT

[To the Second Edition, 1783.]

Since the publication of this volume, we hear that Mr. St. John has
accepted a public employment at New York. It is therefore, perhaps,
doubtful whether he will soon be at leisure to revise his papers,
and give the world a second collection of the American Farmer
Letters.




TO THE ABBE RAYNAL, F.R.S.

Behold, Sir, an humble American Planter, a simple cultivator of the
earth, addressing you from the farther side of the Atlantic; and
presuming to fix your name at the head of his trifling lucubrations.
I wish they were worthy of so great an honour. Yet why should not I
be permitted to disclose those sentiments which I have so often felt
from my heart? A few years since, I met accidentally with your
Political and Philosophical History, and perused it with infinite
pleasure. For the first time in my life I reflected on the relative
state of nations; I traced the extended ramifications of a commerce
which ought to unite but now convulses the world; I admired that
universal benevolence, that diffusive goodwill, which is not
confined to the narrow limits of your own country; but, on the
contrary, extends to the whole human race. As an eloquent and
powerful advocate you have pleaded the cause of humanity in
espousing that of the poor Africans: you viewed these provinces of