all serve to make him peculiarly valuable to his own party, and dangerous to an opposition in a deliberative body.  But the fact that a man is a lawyer does not advance him in politics so much as it once did.  Fortunate it is so!  For though learning will always have its advantages, yet no profession ought to have exclusive privileges.  Nor need the lawyer repine that it is so, inasmuch as it is for his benefit, if he desires success in the profession, to discard the career of politics.  The race is not to the swift, and he can afford to wait for the legitimate honors of the bar.  I will conclude by saying that I regard Minnesota as a good field for an upright, industrious, and competent lawyer.  For those of an opposite class, I have never yet heard of a very promising field.

LETTER V.

 St. Paul to Crow Wing in two days.

Stages—­ Roads—­ Rum River—­ Indian treaty—­ Itasca—­ Sauk Rapids—­ Watab at midnight—­ Lodging under difficulties,—­ Little Rock River—­ Character of Minnesota streams—­ Dinner at Swan River—­ Little Falls—­ Fort Ripley—­ Arrival at Crow Wing.

Crow Wing, October, 1856.

Here I am, after two days drive in a stage, at the town of Crow Wing, one hundred and thirty miles, a little west of north, from St. Paul.  I will defer, however, any remarks on Crow Wing, or the many objects of interest hereabout, till I have mentioned a few things which I saw coming up.  Between St. Paul and this place is a tri-weekly line of stages.  The coaches are of Concord manufacture, spacious and comfortable; and the entire equipage is well adapted to the convenience of travellers.  Next season, the enterprising proprietors, Messrs. Chase and Allen, who carry the mail, intend establishing a daily line.  I left the Fuller House in the stage at about five in the morning.  There was only a convenient number of passengers till we arrived at St. Anthony, where we breakfasted; but then our load was more than doubled, and we drove out with nine inside and about seven outside, with any quantity of baggage.  The road is very level and smooth; and with the exception of encountering a few small stamps where the track has been diverted for some temporary impediment, and also excepting a few places where it is exceedingly sandy, it is an uncommonly superior road.  It is on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, and was laid out very straight.  But let me remark that everybody who travels it seems conscious that it is a government road.  There are several bridges, and they are often driven over at a rapid rate, much to their damage.  When Minnesota shall have a state government, and her towns or counties become liable for the condition of the roads, people will doubtless be more economical of the bridges, even though the traveller be not admonished to walk his horse, or to “keep to the right,” &c.