The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1808-02-11 00:00:00, page 2

i Singula* Custom.
The women in Poland have a watch
ful eye over their daughters, and in the
district ol' Samogitia make them wear
little bells, to give notice where they
are, and what they are about.
Heathen Darkness.
The Tar tar who worships little ratio
images, dressed in rags, as the Deity,
with which he makes very free, having
been so taught from his childhood, be
lieves that on this depends his eternal
happiness.
'1 lie* Carcassian, likewise, whose reli
gion is Paganism, who offers his own
sacrifices at pleasure, who is taught to
offer the most solemn of them on the
death of his n. arcst friend, believes im
plicitly, whe n lie has brought his he
g*>at into the field, slain him, broiled
and cat his flesh, and drunken so freely
of the Apia Vitae, as to end his ceremo
ny in a quarrel, that he has performed
his most sacred duty, and atoned for
the most heinous offences of his friend.
Oa the Character of Nations.
'1 he character of nations consists in
a certain general, habitual disposition of
their inhabitants. This temperament
is observable to prevail more among one
people than another, although it is not to
be met with in every member that com
poses the community. For example,
the character ol the French is levity,
gaiety, and a love for their rulers.
In nations that have subsisted for a
long time, we perceived a fund of cha
racter that has n ver changed : As, for
instance, the Athenians, in the time of
D emosthenes, were great lovers of
ftevi s ; they were so in St. Pan ’s time ;
and they are so at this day. We read,
in that admirable hook of Tacitus, on
the manners of the Germans, several
characteristic strikes, which are even
now verified in their descendants.
It is more than probable,.that climate
has the greatest nfluence on national
character-; which cannot entirely be at
tributed to the forms of government,
because they are-so li;bio to chan jes at
certain periods of time. We must not,
however, intin.lv exclude the form of
‘government, if it lud subsisted for a
long time, from a share of influencing
the characters of nations.
It is r-. markable, that, wherever a
despotic government is made to prevail,
■there the people soon become indolent,
and ioud of frivolous amusements.
Th e manly taste for the real beautiful,
and for the fine arts, is soon lost among
them : And, in such a state, no one ei
ther performs, or thinks of great things.
For the Wheeling Repository.
Upon examining the Richmond En
quirer oi the 21st of January, my curi
osity was excited by the following pas
sages in an extract of a letter from Gen.
J. Wilkinson to a member of the House
of Delegates. “My Court will pioceed
the day after to-morrow, whe n I shall
open with a preliminary address, in
which you shall see something deve
loped respecting Clarke, to excite the
chagrin of every Burrite, Randolphite
and Tory in our country. Clarke, after
much affectation and more Juplicity,
alter twisting and writhing under the
anticipation of the horror which awaits
him, lias come out with a farrago of per
juries, transcending, if possible, Major
Bruff himself.”
Immediately upon reading this pa
ragraph, I rummaged over the papers
to find this address. I was indeed anx
ious to peruse this developement, which
authorised the General to place the j
traitor Burr, and John Randolph, the j
foreman of the grand jury that found
the indictments against him, in the same
class. . Upon examining the address,
however, I could not discover that any
thing was developed, or any fact stated,
which tended to place Burr and Ran
dolph upon the same level. In fact, to
me the address appeared to fall far be
low what the General had promised his
friend at Richmond.
But though the General’s address did
not, to my understanding, dev elope any
fact®, it contained abundance of asser
tion, and was couched in a style of ex
cellent and bitter sarcasm ; so that I
was much amused w ith both the matter
and the manner. The first thing that
excited my attention, was the sarcasm
contained in the insinuation, that it
would be improper u to complain of a
failure in those chaste observances and
delicate regards, which arc due to the
unfortunate, who may become the sub
jects of public accusation.” I felt, as a
first impression, that towards a man of
respectable standing‘accused of crimes,’
every respect and delicacy was due,
which w < re consistent with public jus
tice : hut it occurred to me, that the
Genera!, when he was making thiueom
plaint, ought to have recollected with
what “chaste observance and delicpte re
gard ’ he had treated those “unfortu
nate” men, whom he uaccused of crimes ,w
about twelve months past, at New-Or
leans. Those whom the General treated
with the “chaste observance and delicate
regard*’ of imprisonment and trans
portation, have all passed the “ordeal* •
of the country, and no one of them has
been accused of crimes” by a grand ju
ry. 11 this had occurred to the General,
he.might have reflected,^ that he had ‘
much less cause to “complain of a failure
of those chaste observances mid delicate
regardsthan Messrs. Adair, Ogden,
and Alexander ; that when he was am
accuser, he had failed in these particu
lars, to an extent as great as Messis.
Randolph, Clarke, and Rowan. But it
is common to measure our own conduce,
and that ol others, by different stan
dards.
lhe next thing which excited my at
tention, in this address, as the bitter
ness with which the General recrimi
nated upon his accusers. He thus de
scribes Randolph and Clarke : “ The
one writhing under the anguish of pub
lic detection and merited dishonour,
whilst in this awful crisis of national ai
iairs, he seeks the distraction of the
public councils, to promote a SINI
S1TR AMBITION, and indulge his
vengeful passions. The other, scarcely
a citizen, the enemy of our country, and
a disturber of the public repose—who
has sought to embroil us in the lace of
treaties, and in the face of the law, with,
a foreign power, for the promotion of
those infamous designs which be now
charges upon me, and which w ith inflat
ed zeal he now affects to reprobate, and.
who, when stripl of imposture, w ill pre
sent a spectacle to the world, from which
the eye and the mind will revolt with'
detestation and ahlw rrence.”
This mode of defence brought to my
mind the arguments advanced by the .
General's friends in June last, li was
then t out* nded, that th^e accusations
brought forward by Burr and his friends
against Wilkinson, their accuser, \\<is
strongev idtiicp of their guilt. It seemed
to mef that thenu was a striking analogy,
bet ween the two cases, and I rummaged
the page’s of the Aurora, in order to as
certain wh t was the proper inkrence to
be drawn irom this recriminating con
duct of Wilkinson. In that paper of
June 2Jd, 1 fj07. I found the following
, paragraph.
[ “Wc understand that, pursuing his
d