"various than tastes. Thus, for instance, nou"rishment of every species is called food, and we "all like food; but while one is partial to roast "beef and plumb pudding, another is distractedly "fond of flummery and mush; so is it with respect "to liberty, of which, out of its infinite variety of sorts, yours unfortunately happens to be precisely "that sort which I do not like.

"When people care not two straws for each "other, ceremony at parting is mere grimace; " and as I have long felt the most perfect indiffe"rence with regard to a vast majority of those "whom I now address, I shall spare myself the "trouble of a ceremonious farewell. Let me not,

however, depart from you with indiscriminating " contempt. If no man ever had so many and "such malignant foes, no one one ever had more "friends, and those more kind, more sincere, and "more faithful. If I have been unjustly vilified by "some, others have extolled me far beyond my "merits; if the savages of the city have scared children in the cradle, those children have, "for their father's sake, been soothed and caressed by the affectionate, the gentle, the generous in"habitants of the country, under whose hospitable "roofs I have spent some of the happiest hours of my life.

66 my

66

"Thus and thus, Americans, will I ever speak of you. In a very little time, I shall be beyond "the reach of your friendship, or your malice; "beyond the hearing of your commendations or

your curses; but being out of your power will "alter neither my sentiments nor my words. Aş "I have never spoken any thing but truth to you, "so I will never speak any thing but truth of you: "the heart of a Briton revolts at an emulation in "baseness; and though you have, as a nation,

"treated

"treated me most ungratefully and unjustly, I scorn to repay you with ingratitude and injustice.

"To my friends, who are also the real friends of "America, I wish that peace and happiness which "virtue ought to ensure, but which, I greatly fear, they will not find; and as to my enemies, I can "wish them ho severer scourge than that which they are preparing for themselves and their country. With this I depart for my native land, "where neither the moth of Democracy, nor the "rust of Federalism doth corrupt, and where thieves "do not, with impunity, break through and steal "five thousand dollars at a time.",

These, Sir, were the last words I published in America. From the determination which I then expressed, I am resolved never to depart. Never will I knowingly and seriously utter an assertion, or an insinuation, respecting America, the truth of which I cannot establish. My Prospectus contains no indiscriminate charge against your countrymen ; and as to the facts to which you suppose me to allude, you know, if you have really read my American paper, that every one of them can be proved: nay more, you know that they have all been stated over and over again, in the newspapers of your own

country.

I repeat my assertion of Thursday, that I have "as many friends in America as you have, however "extensive your connexions, or exalted your rank." Nay, I know I have more and better friends in America than any man in the world has. And as to the vile transactions on account of which you imagine I entertain a "grudge," it has produced a precisely opposite effect. In less than a month after the monstrous sum of five thousand dollars was so unjustly assessed, your countrymen would have paid it every farthing; and I certainly should have accepted of it at their hands, had the payment not been already voluntarily

voluntarily provided for by British Gentlemen in Canada and the United States. Judge, then, if I can harbour any "revenge" against the people of America in general.

But, Sir, while I entertain, as I ever shall, the sincerest regard for my friends in America; while I respect very many public men in that country, and while the people, considered in a mass, have my best wishes for their prosperity and happiness, they cannot be so unreasonable as to suppose, that I am bound to smother the multitude of useful truths of which I am in possession. Yet I might do even this, were the " good effects," (as they are called) of republicanism not only made use of, to inveigle Britons across the Atlantic, but for the more nefarious purpose of exciting rebellion and revolution in this kingdom. So long as this continues to be the practice of the enemies of my King and country, so long shall I appeal to the example of America; and all that you or your country have a right to demand of me, is, that I confine myself to the truth.

Yet, Sir, give me leave to observe, that it is from British forbearance alone, that the Whigs of your country have any quarter to expect. Their feelings are very tender, but they have little consideration for the feelings of others. When you were writhing under the sting of my Prospectus, you probably forgot the floods of infamous calumny which are daily poured out on our gracious Sovereign, and all his faithful subjects, from the presses, the pulpits, and legislative halls of America. But this subject I shall reserve for a future

remonstrance.

P. PORCUPINE.

PRISON ECLOGUE,

First re-published in the London Porcupine, on the 1st of November, 1800.

One of our files of papers, lately received from America, has brought us the following poem, entitled, "A PRISON ECLOGUE," to which we think it necessary to prefix a short explanatory preface.

Most of our readers will remember, that Thomas Cooper, of Manchester, was, while in England, a most malicious enemy of his King and country; and that, after having made a sort of reconnoitring trip to America, he wrote a book on Emigration, in which he highly extolled the Government of the New Land of Promise. He returned to America again in the year 1795, and settled in the neighbourhood of Doctor Priestley, at Northumberland, a small town in the state of Pennsylvania. These two disinterested patriots made divers efforts to get into place. At first they proceeded by hints, which became broader and broader, till at last, impatient for a participation in the republican loaves and fishes, Cooper made a direct application to President Adams, backed by the recommendation of his friend Priestley.

The request was refused, and from that moment the Doctor and his brother emigrant availed themselves of every convenient opportunity of indulging their enmity against Mr. Adams. The season, for open opposition to the Federal Government was for a long time inauspicious. The summer of 1799 warmed the dormant faction into life. In Pennsylvania, M'Kean, the avowed friend of Jef

ferson

ferson, and the devoted tool of France, became a candidate for the important office of Governor. To him, therefore, who had in his state ten times as many offices in his gift as the President, the emigrated philosophers looked with confidence for that profit and importance which they had in vain solicited from the Federal Government; and that they might not be destitute of a ground for their pretensions, they zealously, ably, and efficaciously supported his cause in the canvass which preceded the election.

During this canvass, this six months of disputation, of intrigues, of reciprocal calumny, of anxiety, of hope, of fear, and of hatred, Cooper, who is possessed of talents that would do honour to a better cause, voluntarily became the editor of a newspaper in his neighbourhood; during which editorship he published, in his own name, a number of essays, which did infinite injury to the federal party. One of those essays was made the ground of a criminal prosecution on the part of the President, under the Sedition Law of that republican country; and poor Cooper was, for a writing much less libellous than almost every number of each of our opposition prints, sentenced to pay a fine of four hundred dollars, and to be imprisoned six months among the felons in the philanthropic prison of Philadelphia, in which enviable situation the poet brings his friend Priestley to visit him.

With this previous information, the reader will enter with more advantage on the perusal of the. poem, which comes from the classical pen of Mr. Dennie, a native of New England, and a writer, whose various productions are very deservedly the boast of the new world.

VOL. XII.

I

PRISON