If, as I have already obferved, he had fallen into the hands of a French mob-but ftop; we have no occafion to crois the fea :-If he had fallen into the hands of an American mob, how would he have fared? Let us fee.

"About twelve perfons, armed and painted black, "in the night of the 10th of June, broke into the "houfe of John Lynn, where the office was kept, "and after having feduced him to come down stairs, " and put himself in their power, they seized him, "threatened to hang him, took him to a retired "fpot in the neighbouring wood; and there, after cutting off his hair, tarring and feathering him, "fwore him never again to allow the ufe of his

houfe for an excife-office: having done which, "they bound him naked to a tree, and left him in "that fituation till morning. Not content with "this, the malcontents, fome days after, made him "another vifit, pulled down part of his house, and put him in a fituation to be obliged to become "an exile from his home, and to find an afylum "elsewhere."

66

This is no "hazarded affertion," at any rate; unlefs Mr. Hamilton hazarded it; for it is taken from his Report to the Prefident of the United States.

This mob ftopped the mail, cut open the bags, and took out the letters. This mob killed feveral perfons, took others prifoners, and ufed the Marshal, in particular, extremely cruelly: they even went fo far as to present their pieces at him, with every appearance of an intention to affaffinate. And yet, neither the Marshal nor Lynn has ever had any thoughts of emigrating.

Has any thing of this kind ever happened to Doctor Priestley? Has the weight of a fingle finger ever been laid upon him, or any of his family?" You have," faid the addreffers at New-York, " fled

66

" from

66

"from the rude arm of violence, from the rod of "lawless power. We have learned with regret "and indignation, the abandoned proceedings of "thofe fpoilers who deftroyed your houfe and "goods, ruined your philofophical apparatus and library, committed to the flames your manuscripts, pried into the fecrets of your private papers, and, "in their barbarian fury, put your life itfelf in danger. We enter, Sir, with emotion and fympathy into the numerous facrifices you must have "made, to an undertaking which fo eminently ex"hibits our country as an afylum for the perfecuted "and oppreffed." All this was extremely apropos in the midft of the Western infurrection. If it was "barbarian fury" to put life in danger, what was it to take life away? The people over the mountains seem to have revolted on purpose to make these addreffers a laughing-stock. Are they not ashamed to have made a canting fympathetic addrefs to a ftranger, whofe fufferings, if real, they knew nothing about, while they have borne with a more than ftoic firmnefs, and without a fingle addrefs, the wellknown fufferings of their own countrymen? They want the Pittsburg affair forgotten; why then do they want to perpetuate the memory of the Birmingham riots? Thou hypocrite, firft caft the beam out of thine own eye; and then fhalt thou fee clearly to caft the mote out of thy brother's eye."

The Doctor complains again in his preface, of partiality in the courts of juftice; and fays, "I am "not unaffected by the unexampled punishments "of Mr. Muir and my friend Mr. Palmer, for. "offences, which, if in the eye of reason they be any at all, are flight, and very infufficiently proved. But the fentence of Mr. Winterbotham, "for delivering from the pulpit what I am perfuaded "he never did deliver, and which, fimilar evidence.

"might have drawn down on myself, has fomething ❝in it ftill more alarming.' Aye, aye, very alarming, without doubt, but nothing like Doctor Harrington's New Year's Gift.

This is another pretty bold trait of modesty and moderation. Here are three courts of juftice, three grand and three petty juries, all condemned in the Jump. If what the Doctor fays be true, then were the English all become a neft of fcoundrels and perjurers, except his innocent felf, his three fons, and his worthy friends the Botany Bay convicts; but, if what he fays be not true, what did he deferve at the hands of the English, for thus aiming a ftab at their reputation?

There are fome among us, who pretend to have a belief in this partial justice in Great Britain; and the hobgoblin accounts of it have been noifed about thefe States, in a ftyle that would have founded well from the top of a chimney, or at the bar of a brothel ; but, unfortunately for our political vultures, the trial of Hardy has undeceived every one that is capable of thinking.

When the account of this trial firft arrived, it caufed nearly as great joy among fome people, as did the " taking of Amfterdam," or the fending of "the Duke of York to Paris in an iron cage;" in fact, it was almoft of feftivic confequence. But this was foon perceived to be an egregious blunder. People began to reflect. What! faid they, there is fome juftice left in Engiand then? The nation is not become "one infular Baftile?"

What a chance would poor Hardy have food before the Revolutionary Tribunal at Paris or Bourdeaux? Would he have had eight days trial? Would he have had eight minutes? Would the fans-culotte populace have carried him home amid acclamations? No: unless it had been to his laft home.It appears that Meffrs. Erfkine and Gibbs have received

2

ceived great and deserved applause for their able defence of an innocent man, and that the Government has not touched a hair of their heads. Where is Monfieur De Malesherbes, the generous De Malefherbes, who stepped forth at the age of 75, to defend his innocent and deferted Sovereign? Where is he? Numbered with the dead! Gone to the receptacle of all that was estimable in France! Neither his admired talents, his long and eminent fervices, his generous fidelity, his gray hairs, nor his spotless life, could fave him from the fury of those regenerated ruffians, whom Doctor Priestley does not blush to call his dear fellow-citizens *."

Every man that is condemned in England, whether it be by the public voice, or by a court of juftice, is fure, according to fome people, to be vilely treated. The people are flaves; the jury was packed. But how would this measure fuit if meted to ourselves? A fellow, who was hanged here the other day, told the crowd, just as he was going off, that he had no doubt but the greater part of them merited the fame fate. This "farewell fermon” was full as modeft as Doctor Priestley's; but if the English were to pretend to believe that the majority of us deserve the halter, should we not call them a fet of narrow-fouled, ill-natured, envious wretches? Certainly we thould, and with a great deal of juftice too.

I should here put an end to my obfervations, flattering myself that the whole bufinefs of the Doctor's emigration has been fet in a pretty fair light; but as he has lately published fomething, which he calls an Anfwer to Paine's Age of Reafon, and as he there

* Monf. De Seze, the fecond counsel of Louis XVÍ. faved his life by flight.

See the American Daily Advertiser.

attempts to wipe off the charge of deifm, I look upon myself as called upon to fay a word or two in reply.

This Anfwer confifts of a number of letters addreffed to the Philofophers in France and to a philofophical unbeliever. In the preface, the Doctor fays, "The more I attend to this fubject, the more fenfi"ble I am that no defence of Chriftianity can be of any "avail till it be freed from the many corruptions and "abuses which have hitherto encumbered it." Among thefe corruptions he numbers atonement, incarnation, and the Trinity; and, fays he, "The expofing of "these corruptions I therefore think to be the most "effential preliminary to the defence of Chriftianity; "and confequently I fhall omit no fair opportunity "of reprobating them in the ftrongest terms, to "whatever odium I may expofe myfelf." He has been as good as his word; for the whole piece appears to be an attack on the doctrine of the Trinity, rather than an Answer to Paine *.

He begins the first letter with telling us, that he has "read with pleasure, and even with enthusiasm, "the admirable report of Robespierre on the fubje& "of morals and religion." Now it is well known, that this report contained a regular plan for establishing a deiftical worship in France; and it is alfo well known, that Paine wrote his book to flatter Ro

* If the reader looks over the first and second chapters of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, he will fee every thing that is neceffary to confirm him in the doctrines that Doctor Priestley thinks it his duty to reprobate in the frongest terms. But the Doctor gets rid of this proof, which he knows to be in every one's hands, by telling us that those two chapters are "fpurious;" that is to fay, falfe. This is a knock-me-down argument. He will certainly tell us, that the first chapter of the Gofpel of St. John is "fpurious" allo; and thus he may go on, till he leaves us but just enough text to make up an Unitarian creed.

bespierre,