ill news spreads apace

Aware of the too great proneness of his countrymen to ideas of despondency, knowing that ill news spreads apace, and that in an overgrown metropolis few have the opportunity of ocular demonstration of the state of the country's agriculture, this insidious letter has been written, that it might become the subject of conversation, and thus glide unawares into the ears of those who are inclined to view things on the gloomy side— If it only raise doubt, much of the writer's or his abettor's views are answered; but where it is received as fast, and thus propagated to others, every purpose he intended is fulfilled.