cause, I know not; but of this I can affure the pubs lic upon the word and honour of a gentleman, that fince his arrival in America he has never had the leaft concern or acquaintance with them; nor has he, as you have related, Mr. Porcupine, ever condefcended to treat with them for the editorfhip to their Gazette. CANDOUR.

Swanwick.-To JOHN SWANWICK.-Sir, Although it is a well-known fact that your actions through life have been governed by intereft and ambition, and of course cannot create furprife in any one who is acquainted with you; yet your conduct through the different stages of your political career, from the day on which you first mounted the roftrum in the State-house yard (preparatory to becoming a candidate for a feat in our State Legiflature) to the prefent time, has been marked with fo many circumstances of evil tendency towards Government, and fo fubverfive of the good order and happiness enjoyed by every good citizen of the United States, that it is a duty incumbent on every man who wishes for a continuance of that bleffing to expofe the wickedness to which your meafures would lead.

Impreffed with this opinion, and from a fincere regard to the welfare of my fellow-citizens, I fhall in this addrefs lay before them fome matters which have paffed unnoticed in all that has hitherto been written on the fubject; for the present I fhall confine myself to two. Firft, that a few years ago no man could have expreffed more exalted opinions of Great Britain (your native country) than you did; and then, according to the ideas you held out in all converfations regarding her, fhe was the moft generous and the most powerful nation on earth-a nation with which the United States muft, both from. intereft and policy, form the clofeft connexions. Secondly, the greatest enemy of France could not

have reprefented that nation in a more contemptible point of view than you have done; it was a nation (to use your own words) on which America could place no dependance; her policy was always dangerous to the world; her merchants were men deftitute of honour, and totally ignorant of the true principles of commerce; a nation, in fhort, with which our intercourfe muft for ever be very limited.

With fuch avowed fentiments and opinions of the two nations at the period mentioned, let me afk you, my fage politician, how you can reconcile them to thofe you now hold out to the world in your laboured fpeeches in and out of Congrefs. Is the British nation lefs generous, or is it lets the intereft of America to form a connexion with her at this day than it was when she was fo much your boaft? What new discovery of virtue have you made in the French people? Has their conduct in the courfe of this war, which they wage againft heaven and earth, been fuch as to imprefs on your mind a more favourable opinion of them than that in which you formerly held them? or rather, my virtuous citizens, have you been so charmed by Genet, Fauchet, and Adet, in the nocturnal communications you have fo frequently had with them, as to become a profelyte to the cause of France, and to advocate her atrocities towards the countries in Europe, and even her repeated injuries and infults to this country, which adopted you, and wherein you have received fo many benefits? Finally, let me afk you, is your conduct the result of precious confeffions to Father Fauchet, which, as one of his penitents, you have been in the habit of making to him? and has he by his gentle admonitions eafed your tender confcience on the score of your fins in having been once attached to Old England, or pretending to be fo, abfolved you from it? But the truth is, my little Statefinan, as I

obferved

obferved before, you hold no opinion or fentiment either of countries or of men, that is not connected with your intereft and ambition: to gratify them, you would facrifice the world; nay, not excepting that country of which you are now a partifan.

MONDAY, 3 JULY.

Munroe.-On Saturday last, about three o'clock in the afternoon, was performed, in fome tavern in this city, a moft ludicrous farce, called "The Welcome to Citizen Munroe." The principal characters were the Virginian Philofopher, Mrs. M'Kean's husband, and Monfieur Citizen Tazewell, of the ancient dominion, commonly called the Land of Debts.

An analyfis of this performance will be attempted in my next; in the mean time let the Ex-minifter and his welcoming crew grease themselves well over, for I promise them a roafting,

Paine's Age of Reafon; Comments on it by a German Clergyman.-Citizen Paine, The papers have announced your arrival in America, and therefore my time is come to attack your Age of Reason. When encountered face to face, you may defend yourself if you think proper, and have no reason to complain of foul play. The treatment which I intend to give you fhall accord with your deferts; that is, I fhall confider you as a profane fool, and if you can offer any thing in your vindication I am willing to hear it. Text. It has been my intention for several years past to publish my thoughts on religion.

Comment. Your motives are pretty well known. You wrote the firft part of the Age of Reafon to fave your ugly head from the guillotine, and the second part to procure a little fomething to eat.

Text.

Text. The circumftance that has now taken place in France has rendered a work of this kind exceedingly neceffary; left in the general wreck of fuperftition, &c. we lose fight of morality, of humanity, and of the theology which is true.

Comment. You offer wonders of inconfiftency for our digeftion. We are to believe you on your word, that we infallible men of reafon, having the Bible of creation (as you call it) daily before our noses, are, notwithstanding our omniscience, in imminent danger of lofing fight even of morality, humanity, and theology. That a work, a written book on religion, is not only necessary, but even exceedingly neceffary, for our preservation: that our Creator has not provided for such a work, but has abandoned mankind to the pernicious effects of feduction and immorality: that he is furpaffed in benevolence by you; and that he left the fabrication of a work exceedingly neceffary in a moral view, to the care of poor filly Tom Paine : -the deists may believe this article of your faith if they choose, but certainly I fhall not believe it.

Text. When a man has fo far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to fubfcribe his profeffional belief to things he does not believe, he has prepared himself for the commiffion of every crime. He takes up the trade of a prieft for the fake of gain, and, in order to qualify himself for that trade, he begins with perjury.

Comment. This is a gloomy, but it may be an exact delineation of your own heart. We are told by a certain Mr. Oldys that you have frequently been guilty of perjury; that you tried for the priesthood, and were rejected; that your itch of preaching was fo great, that, for a time, you went fcreeching about as an itinerant preacher among the Methodists. This, probably, is the principal caufe of your malevolency; you aimed at the priesthood, and could not obtain it. The grapes are four, faid the fox when he could not reach them. From

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From your disappointment, the acrimony which you manifeft against the priests may be fufficiently explained. Now you argue in the manner of the thieves and the pickpockets, who furmife, from a consciousness of their own difhonefty, that all the world are dishoneft. A whore will hardly believe that any woman is chafte; nor you, from a knowledge of your infincerity, that any prieft is fincere. But the French priests have faved the honour of the clergy by a confutation of your calumnies with their blood. At the time that you wrote your book, at the time that you, pitiful wretch, denied the Lord who bought you, in order to fave your life at the expenfe of your falvation; at that time, thousands of them fuffered their throats to be cut for the fake of a good confcience. As they have done, the Chriftian priests of every country will do when the hour of trial fhall come; and fuch actions as these cannot be obfcured by the ravings of an apoftate and a debauchee.

Text. As feveral of my colleagues, and others of my fellow-citizens of France, have given me the example of making their voluntary and individual profeflion of faith, I will alfo make mine.

Comment. You were a citizen of France then, though you denied it in your letter to General Washington. A liar ought to have a good memory. But as to the circumftance of your profeffion of faith, that is pleasant, as we fhall enjoy the opportunity of obferving the apifh grimaces of a French Legiflator faying his creed.

Text. I believe in one God, and no more.

Comment. What do you call the God that you believe in? Is it whisky, punch, or Madeira wine? It appears like rebellion against the majefty of reafon to hear a fot talk of his believing in God. But, as the God defcribed by the modern deifts feems to be a deified