The recorder (Richmond, Va.), 1803-04-30 00:00:00

THE RECORDER;
PRINTED BY HENRY PACE, & JAMES T. CALLENDER, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA; PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY. SUBSCRIPTION FOUR DOLLARS PER ANNUM, IN ADVANCE.
SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1803.
THE MANCHESTER MILLS.
ARE now offered on LEASE, for 3, 5, or 7 years. The superior advantages which they possess over any other mills in the neighbourhood of Richmond are too evident to require comment. For terms, apply to Mr. Samuel Jones , or to
JOHN MAYO.
Richmond, } April 19, 1803. } 62. 1.
THIRTY DOLLARS REWARD.
TO RUN AWAY from the subscriber on Sunday the 17th inst. two apprentice boys, shoe-makers by trade, the one named Timothy McRae , about eighteen years old, dark front hair, fair complexion, about five feet five inches high; had on when he went off, a long brown coat, white waistcoat, brown pantaloons and half boots.
The name of the other is William Jordan , about eighteen years old, dark hair, dark complexion, and about five feet seven inches high; had on when he went off, a grey round jacket, white waistcoat, dark striped pantaloons and half boots. Whoever takes up said lads and lodge them in any jail, or bring them to me, shall have the above reward, and all reasonable expenses paid them, by
DAVID LOGAN, Shoe-Maker.
Richmond, 18th April, 1803.
N. B. All masters of vessels and other persons are forwarded from harboring them, at their peril. 31. 1.
STEPHEN BROWN,
GUN SMITH, FROM LONDON,
GRATEFUL for the patronage he has received from his friends and the public, begs leave to return his acknowledgements, and assures them, that nothing shall be wanting, on his part, to secure to himself a continuation of their favors. He has by him a great number of guns and pistols left with him to repair, which have been long unfinished. As he has suffered many inconveniences from the want of the different sums due him on this account, he feels himself constrained to request the proprietors respectively to pay charges and take them away. Those who fail to comply with this request are informed that all articles of this description which may remain on hand after July 20, 1803, will be sold at public sale, to defray the expenses of their repairs.
Richmond, April 19, 1803.
N. B. One or two apprentices wanted to the above business.
S. Brown, has on hand, for sale, a variety of guns and pistols. 31. 1.
STALLD BEEVES,
Muttons, and 15000 weight of choice Bacon, FOR SALE.
FOR cash, or respectable merchants notes at sixty days. I can furnish a purchaser with seventy or fat bullocks as any in the state, perhaps not quite so large boned as the cattle from the South Branch of the Potomack, but equally fat. In preference I would sell them on the spot where they are stalled, but will drive them to Norfolk, Richmond, or Petersburg, if previously engaged by a butcher, or any other person inclined to buy, and as it may not be convenient, to take, or pay for the whole at one time, a purchaser may have any part not less than ten if taken here, but if driven by my own people, they must all go at one time. I have also a number of exceeding fat muttons, and 15000 weight of choice bacon, the hams salt-petred with particular care, and the whole made out of large fat hogs, and intended for the use of private families. Letters, post-paid, directed to me by mail to MARSHALLSVILLE, MECKLENBURG county shall be duly noticed.
WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM, for Sir PAXTON SKIRWITH, Baronet.
At a meeting of the Common Hall, for the city of Richmond, called by the Mayor, and held at the house of William Rose, in the said city, on Monday the 28th day of February, 1803. Resolved, that the Mayor give notice in the newspapers, that the Hall have adopted a plan for a POOR HOUSE, and will receive proposals from undertakers for building the same, at any time before the third Monday in next month. The plan is lodged in the hands of Mr. Robert B. James. The proposals must be made in writing.
A copy Teste ADAM CRAIG, C. C. H. C. R.
TO THE PUBLIC.
MANY gentlemen residing in states north of this have addressed letters to us, to send them the Recorder; and requested we would name any person in Philadelphia, or New York, where they could send their subscription money. We take this opportunity of informing the public, that Mr. Lewis, paper-maker, at Philadelphia, will receive any subscriptions sent for the Recorder, and Mr. Coleman, printer of the New York Herald, at New York.
BURR MILL-STONE MANUFACTORY.
THE subscriber takes this mode of returning his thanks to his former patrons, and informing the public in general, that he has (by desire of his friends) re-commenced the MANUFACTURING OF BURR MILL-STONES, and having furnished himself with a supply of the best materials, and having had sixteen years experience in the business in Baltimore, Petersburg, and Richmond, hopes to be able to give satisfaction to his employers. The stones he will warrant to be as good as any in the United States.
Any orders left with Capt. WILLIAM PENNOCK, Norfolk; Capt. WILLIAM CHAMBERS, Staunton; Mr. WILLIAM HAY, Wythe County; or Mr. ROBERT MOORE, Petersburg, shall be duly attended to, and country produce received in payment at the customary prices.
TWO APPRENTICES will be taken to the above business, and short time required. WILLIAM DAVIDSON. Richmond, Jan. 10th 1803. (lt.)
N. B. For sale, PLASTER OF PARIS, in stone or ground, for the improvement of land, with directions for the use thereof.
RICHMOND MILLS.
THE public are hereby respectfully informed, that we shall continue to furnish Meal and Hominy for next quarter at the same prices as the last, viz. for Meal per bushel of 50 lbs. 3s 6d. Hominy per bushel of 50 lbs. 3s. 3d. And they are requested to take notice, that these articles will only be delivered hereafter to tickets which may be had at our counting-house.
T. RUTHERFOORD & Co.
March 31st. 1803.
TO BE RENTED,
THAT large and convenient BRICK TENEMENT in this city, lately occupied by Mr. Robert Turner, as a Tavern and Boarding-House, situate on the corner of the Main-Street; and that leading to Col. May's Bridge. The central situation thereof cannot fail (if rented by a gentleman qualified for the purpose) to ensure a considerable number of respectable boarders; or, it is an eligible residence for a genteel private family. The premises may be entered, on the first day of March next, or immediately, as circumstances may suit; for terms apply to
ROBERT GAMBLE
Who has for sale a handsome assortment of CARPETS and CARPETING, and genuine PORTWINE, in pipes and quarter casks.
THE SUBSCRIBERS
TO the Washington Federalist are respectfully informed, that I am empowered by Mr. William Rind, to receive payment of the balances due to him in this city, and neighbourhood. THOMAS TAYLOR. Vendue Master. Richmond, Feb. 26th. 1803.
TO RENT,
AND possession given the first of next month the upper part of the house occupied by the subscribers, in which there are five convenient rooms, together with a good kitchen and stable for three horses. There is a well of water in the yard.
Apply to THOMAS AND AMOS LADD. Richmond, April, 2d. 1803. (lt.)
CITY OF RICHMOND.
In Common Hall, Jan. 17th 1803 WHEREAS the present funds of the corporation are not adequate to the expense of erecting a WORKHOUSE for the city, which would combine within itself all the conveniences which a well regulated institution of this kind would require; having a regard to the future population of this city, yet it is wise and expedient that the funds now destined for this useful institution should be laid out in such a manner as to answer the present purposes of the corporation, and to admit of such future additions as the increasing population may require. Your Committee, therefore, beg leave to recommend it to the consideration of the Common Hall, to call in the aid of those who have experience of such institutions; and to offer a premium for the best plan of a Workhouse, which will be so contrived as to admit of being erected in parts, as the funds of the corporation will from time to time afford.
Resolved, therefore, that the committee appointed to prepare a plan of a Workhouse be discharged from further proceeding therein. And that the Mayor be requested to give notice in the newspapers, or otherwise, that the sum of thirty dollars will be given by the corporation, as a premium to the person who shall produce to the Hall, on the third Monday in February next, the best plan of a Workhouse, constructed as above mentioned, and to be approved of by the Hall, estimating the cost at four thousand dollars.
Copy Teste ADAM CRAIG, C. C. H.
NOTICE.
THE co-partnership of Adams and Fisher, was, on the 12th of last month dissolved by mutual consent. All those having claims against that concern, will apply to James Fisher for settlement, and those indebted will make immediate payment as no further indulgence can be given.
RICHARD ADAMS. JAMES FISHER.
N. B. James Fisher having purchased the flock of goods belonging to Adams. Fisher, intends carrying the business on for his own account. The assortment of goods is equal to any in that line. Richmond, April 6th, 1803. (lt.)
RICHMOND MILLS.
THE subscriber hereby informs the public, that at length, after much trouble and expense, he has nearly completed one of his Mills on the James River Canal, in which there are two pair of Burr stones for manufacturing WHEAT, and two pair of Cologne stones now ready to grind CORN.
That the inconveniences which might arise from delay and difference of measures may be avoided, CORN will be received only by weight, at fifty pounds to the bushel, and a supply of MEAL and HOMINY will always be kept ready to give in exchange, at the rate of eighty-five pounds of Meal, or ninety-two pounds of Hominy, for one hundred pounds of Corn.
After the loss of weight by cleaning, and evaporation in grinding is deducted, the toll on Meal will be only about one tenth, and on Hominy one twentieth; it will, therefore, be much to the interest of those who keep horses, to have all their Corn ground.
As the subscriber is now providing a Fan and Screen for the purpose of cleaning the Corn effectually before it is ground, and as the Meal will be made from the best Corn only, and none but such as is merchantable will be received; he hopes that general satisfaction will be given.
THOMAS RUTHERFOORD.
N. B. The deduction for Storeage and Shrinkage on Corn, deposited to be exchanged for Meal and Hominy, will be made as moderate as possible. January 1, 1803.
BURR MILL-STONE MANUFACTORY.
THE subscriber returns sincere thanks to his friends and the public generally, for the very great encouragement he received in his line of business since his commencement in Richmond. He has lately received a large supply of excellent Burr-Stones at his manufactory, and does not hesitate to say, that he will sell Burr Mill-Stones as cheap as they were ever sold in the United States; he will warrant them to be of the best quality, and give ample security (if required) for their performance. Country produce will be taken in payment, or a share credit given; he has almost every sized Mill-Stone ready for delivery; as is PLASTER OF PARIS ground and in the stone. CARSON HOLIDAY. Richmond, Jan. 25th, 1803. (lt.)
A QUANTITY OF STONE LIME
In Pieces, for sale by
WILLIAM DAVIDSON,
Who has just received a large quantity of excellent IRISH POTATOES which he will sell cheap for cash.
Richmond, April 2d. 1803.
TO THE PUBLIC.
Gentlemen, who wish to subscribe to the Saturday's Recorder, are requested to send in their subscriptions, within a very few days. But this they need not do, unless they find, at the same time, two dollars in advance. The next Saturday's paper, to wit, that of the 25th current, is the last that can be issued to any person either in town or country, unless to those that have paid for it, one year in advance.
In pleading before the court of Henrico against the King of Clubs, Mr. William Marshall observed that "The Recorder had the most extensive circulation of any newspaper in Virginia; and that there was never, perhaps, an instance of such an extensive patronage acquired by any other newspaper, in so short a time."—This patronage has been acquired by exposing, with an impartial hand, the faults of all parties.
There never was more occasion for political vigilance than at present. As the bible says, there is DEATH in the pot. There exists an atrocious conspiracy against the liberty of the press, and of course, against the liberty of the people. This can be doubted by nobody that has heard of Cromwell's trial, on which we have enlarged at so much length.
Again, the right of electing their own magistrates has in effect, been torn from a majority of the citizens of Richmond, by a phalanx of democratical usurpers.
Take notice, also, of what follows. In last session of assembly, Mr. Venable proposed a declaratory resolution that the truth shall be given in evidence in cases of libel. This resolution was, for that time, defeated by Peter Carr, the correspondent, such as he was, of general Washington, and the confidential agent and nephew of Thomas Jefferson. There can be no doubt that Peter, like his apostolical namesake, was inspired from above.
Richmond, March 23, 1803.
JUST PUBLISHED
AND FOR SALE AT THIS OFFICE
PRICE TWO SHILLINGS AND THREE-PENCE
THE CONDUCT
OF MERIWETHER JONES,
IN A SERIES OF LETTERS,
ADDRESSED
TO THE PUBLIC,
By JAMES T. CALLENDER.
MANY gentlemen, when subscribing to this paper, have enquired for complete sets of the Recorder. These are not to be had. But this little publication will, in some measure, supply the want of them. Besides the seven letters to Jones, the last of which has rung through every state, and every second newspaper in the union, the collection contains many other articles. Among these are, Defence of Aaron Burr—vs. Samuel Coleman No. 1.—Defence of Timothy Pickering—A little more about republican economy—with a variety of small pieces.
FOR SALE.
A few likely young NEGROES,
For particulars enquire of the Printers Richmond, March, 7th 1803.

LATE attempts to stifle free inquiry, and to destroy the liberty of the press, have excited strong and general indignation throughout the country.
In these attempts we have seen magistrates, legislators, and private citizens, engage with a zeal approaching to madness, and in the pursuit of victims for their malice, we have seen the principles of law and decency violated, and the freest scope given to the most revengeful passions. The first magistrate of a great and important state, disregarding the principles and practice of his partisans, and the means by which his own elevation was procured, has publicly advocated proceedings which, in their operation, will prevent all free and full discussion of public measures, and condemn as common libellers, the whole class of republican editors. A distinguished bawler for liberty and equality, an open advocate for the freedom of speech and of the press, has had the impudence to demand, and has obtained in a court of justice, security from the editor of a public paper to prevent future infractions of law by the publication of libels. Men whose elevated stations have procured for them the appellation, "honorable gentlemen," have not only refused to hear, but vilely traduced, the defence of a late public officer of high respectability, after having made and published allegations against him, derogatory to official character and to private reputation.
The Sedition law, the nature and principles of which were most grossly and wickedly misrepresented, excited much public indignation. But this law did not prohibit a free discussion of public measures, nor full examination of public characters. It allowed the utmost latitude of inquiry that an honest man could desire. It operated a melioration of the strict principles of the common law, in regard to libelous publications, and, while it produced security to the government, it clearly pointed out the nature of the offence, gave to the citizen who was prosecuted, a just acquittal, unless falsehood and malice were proved against him. The inquisitions of jurors were confined to the truth of the publication and the intention of its author, and the power of judges was limited to the imposition of a small fine and a short imprisonment. The lenity of the punishment evinced the humane design of the legislature, and the justice of a law which indulged the freest publication of truth should not have been questioned. Against this law, however, a long and powerful clamour was excited. It was proclaimed to be an act of injustice and oppression, opposed by the constitution of the country, and in direct hostility to the fundamental principles of the government. The men who thus opposed the continuance of this law, soon rose to the direction of the public affairs. The law was suffered to expire, and those who had opposed it as oppressive and tyrannical, have since unblushingly sought security for themselves in the more rigid principles of the common law. Truth is no longer suffered to be given in evidence on a trial of a libel; the offence itself is so vaguely defined, that the conviction of the prosecuted is dependent rather upon the feelings and prejudices of jurors, than upon any known and established principles of law; and the punishment to be inflicted is regulated by no prescribed rule, but is wholly dependent upon the judgment of the court. The persons convicted of publishing a libel may, at the discretion of a judge, be fined in a sum beyond his ability to pay, and sentenced to imprisonment for a time adequate to an expiation of the most enormous offence.
Whence, it is seriously asked, proceeds this unequal distribution of justice? Why are attempts so unprecedented, and so directly opposed by the professions of those who make them, now used to silence republican presses? Have not the men who now administer this government, and those who support these men, again and again challenged their adversaries to appear,
at the bar of public opinion? Why do they now shrink from this bar, and strike the most deadly blows at the freedom of inquiry?
What sanctity of character belongs to the men who now manage the political concerns of the country, which did not belong to those who once filled the places of power and trust? Has a change of rulers produced a change in the eternal principles of justice? Does political elevation clothe its possessor with a coat of mail against which reason and argument shall not be directed? And shall those complain of reason and argument, the weapons of whose warfare have been the grossest falsehood, and the most malicious slander? Shall the common libeller be heard in his demand, that not even the truth shall be told of him? And shall the professed advocates for the freedom of the press, be regarded with reverence, when they employ violence and injustice to silence the presses of their opponents? Are the claims to respect and confidence which are now exhibited, more to be regarded than were those which appeared in the days of our beloved Washington? Do the virtues, talents and patriotism of that fame Washington, of Adams, of Jay, of Ellsworth, of Pinckney, of King, of Ames, of Pickering, of Hamilton, of Marshall, or of Dexter, fade in the comparison with those which are now presented in the persons of the sage of Monticello, the Genevan secretary, or with those of our recently appointed envoy to France, those of Mr. Charles Pinckney, or those of the Worcester FARMER.
Is the silly vanity, boyish petulance, disgusting presumption, and aristocratic pride, of that contraction of a man, Randolph , more to be honoured, valued, and respected, than the extensive knowledge, the comprehensive mind, the discriminating judgment, the clear, close and conclusive reasoning of Griswold ? Is the sullen, malignant, scowling, and defamatory Giles more attic, more terse, more ethereal, more terrible in debate than Bayard ? Is the shrewd Bullfinch , the spermaceti Dawson , the gaseous Doctor , the syllogistic Bacon , the half reasoning Davis , and the smirking, blundering, gabbling Smith , equal to him, whose wit and eloquence could make a dumb legislature speak, and a Randolph scold ? Is the fat, waddling, unwieldy, senatorial grunter of speeches, borrowed from the presidential store, more vivid, more various, more interesting, more convincing, than the rhetoric of Morris ? Is the dull, muddy, deleterious harangue of Brackenridge comparable to the deep, clear, full and resplendent arguments of Tracy , or Ross ? Is the frothy, the babbling, the monotonous, the shapeless, the nameless nothings, that proceed from a Wright , to be weighed against the just observations, and sound sense of Honest Howard ?
Has the present secretary of state more energy of character, more knowledge of men, more information relative to foreign nations, more correct views of the interest of his country, than the man upon whom malice and democracy and power have emptied the vials of their wrath? Has the present secretary of the treasury more financial skill more extensive, or minute acquaintance with the various objects, or susceptible of impost, superior faculty to equalize taxes, and to render them agents in promoting the general industry and wealth of the country, than has been evinced in the administration of Hamilton , or Wolcott ? Has the present secretary of war "more or less" talents, knowledge, and genius, for a war minister, than Mr. M c Henry ? Has Mr. Smith discovered more ability and information, necessary for well conducting the naval department, than Mr. Stoddart !
To which of these men, are the people most indebted? which of them will history select, as the founders of the their country's greatness, as the firmest supporters of its rights in adversity, and as the ablest statesmen of the times, and as having been the most basely defamed, slandered, and calumniated?
It is the acts of great men, by which history chiefly distinguishes them, and
by which they are best known to posterity. Let us anticipate the picture which history will present to posterity, and the sentence it will pronounce upon the public characters of the present day.
On one side of this picture, we behold a set of men, of nice honour, great talents, and unimpeached integrity, with a most virtuous and highly renowned chief at their head, entering upon a laborious, delicate, perplexing, arduous, and difficult undertaking. This work being finished, the same great man appears to preside over the councils of the nation. A new state of things arises out of disorder and confusion, public and private distress. The great debt of independence is funded, and its gradual and final extinction effectually provided for. National judicatures are erected, a revenue system is formed, and a revenue commensurate to existing wants and capable of easy extension, in the event of those casualties from which no nation can be secure is collected. An Indian war is successfully terminated; the boundaries for new settlements greatly enlarged; an evacuation of our military posts and country, held by Great Britain and Spain obtained; two insurrections happily quelled; peace, made with the Barbary powers, and our enslaved citizens, restored to liberty and their country. The intrigues of Genet and a French directory to mislead our citizens and embroil us in war, have been detected and discomfited; the honour of the United States has been nobly maintained on the ocean; the commerce extended; the national wealth increased; agriculture made more flourishing; and the wealth of our merchants, farmers, ship builders, and mechanics, has been augmented. The energy of our councils, and the warlike preparations to maintain them have caused our rights as a nation to be every where respected. The treasury has been made to overflow; the people have not been embarrassed by too much regulation, nor oppressed by fiscal exaction . The mouth of labour has been every where satisfied, and no poverty seen in the land.
What do we perceive, on the other side of the picture? a group of figures, behind which appeared the head of a tall, thin man, and the body of a little man, half seen and half concealed. These are the men who opposed the funding of the public debt, which restored the credit of the nation, and which, acting almost instantaneously as so much circulating medium, gave a new spring to commerce and industry. These are the men who opposed the revenue system in its most important branches, to which the country owe its overflowing treasury, and the means of extinguishing the public debt. These are the men who opposed the measure which induced Great Britain and Spain to yield up to the United States its territory, which enabled government to erect two new states, which opened a new source of revenue from the sales of land, and made room for an increased population. These are the men who condemned the measures taken by the government to quell two insurrections, which restored to the union internal tranquility, and every where obedience to, and a due execution of the laws. These are the men who opposed and condemned the councils adopted and pursued by the executive, to defeat the projects of Genet , and his employers, to save the United States from a war with England, and a perpetual alliance, offensive and defensive, with France. These are the men who resisted and deprecated the building of ships of war, and the limited hostilities waged against France, which afforded protection to trade, humble the pride of the directory, and broke asunder the chains which had bound the United States to France.* These are the men who opposed, and condemned, the warlike aspect given to the United States, which secured
NOTE.
* When the bill which laid the foundation of our little navy was under consideration in the house of representatives, Mr. Giles , in his speech in opposition to the bill, said "if the bill must pass, thank God the trees are yet growing of which this navy is to be built."
what ought to rank highest in the estimation of every American, their rights, their honour, and their independence!
We have need of patience while engaged in the contemplation of these events. The man whose head appears above his fellow men, and he who is but half seen, were the first who established a newspaper, having for its object to vilify the government, its members and its measures. These two individuals, the one by advancing money and furnishing information, the other by purchasing a number of copies and distributing them, made themselves principals in the most libelous, defamatory, and abusive work, against the government and its members, ever published in any age or country.
A most profligate libeller from a foreign country has called general Washington a murderer and a legalizer of corruption. The same being has selected and employed for the abuse of Mr. Adams the vilest phrases, and most obnoxious epithets. He has represented those who composed the late administrations, as men, the most vicious and abandoned, guilty of fraud and corruption; bribed by a foreign court to betray the interests of their country; public plunderers, defaulters and incendiaries. He has acknowledged, that he was retained in Philadelphia, and paid by the tall chieftain of the party, for his paragraphs in the Aurora , at a certain price per month. This hired foreigner, this libeller by his own confession, with a noted blasphemer, and a vile purloiner of private letters, occasionally eats at the table, with both the great and little man, while, with malignant slander, they pursue the departed benefactors of our country to their graves, and the living into their retirements. But still they have not stopped here. The abuse and calumny of public newspapers were deemed insufficient to destroy the characters of these men. — Presidential message, legislative speeches, and official reports have been smeared with false and malignant charges and unfounded insinuations against the fair fame of the men to whom our country is indebted for its glory and its independence.
Ponder! I beseech you, my fellow citizens, upon these things. Think freely, and speak boldly what you think. The times require it. Gratitude for important services rendered you, demand it. You have witnessed, during a period of more than twelve years, the most infamous slanders and reproaches heaped upon the men, to whom, under providence, your country is chiefly indebted for its prosperity; for the blessings of peace, and internal tranquility; for its overflowing treasury; for the means which have been provided for extinguishing your public debt; for your national armories, foundaries, arsenals, and other important preparations for the defence of our country, and to preserve peace on our frontiers; and for a respectable naval establishment, to protect our trade against the Barbary powers, and our seamen and citizens from slavery.
What do you further witness? The calumniators of these men, are now labouring to silence your republican presses and to stifle free enquiry. Now that detection advances upon them, in all its terrors, the defamers preach against defamation, the libellers against libels*. What think you of such men? Look at their countenances, like the mole, they would bury themselves in the earth. They would tremble at the approach of truth, like the sensitive plant at the touch of man. — They seek safety from pursuit in the pale of an office, like the Italian assassin in the sanctuary of a church. They cower and groan, like Thersites , the vile calumniator of heroes, at the merited chastisement which has at length overtaken them.
VINDICATOR.
NOTE.
* See Governor M c Kean 's address to the legislature of Pennsylvania. The resolutions moved by (I believe) Larken Smith in the Virginia assembly, and the proceedings of Mr. Hay , of Virginia, relative to Callender , &c. See also the prosecution conducted by Ambrose Spencer , attorney general of New-York, against Henry Croswell , editor of " The Balance ."

The RECORDER. RICHMOND. APRIL 30th, 1803.
WE have often been surprised at the absurdity of the publications in the Examiner; but never did our surprise amount to a higher degree than it has done this day. We did not suppose that the words "A devil incarnate," could ever have escaped from any newsprinter upon earth. But so it is, that, in the Examiner, of April the 27th current, this phrase has occurred.
The Recorder does not mean to combat such language: this paper does not mean to give battle to the depth of blackguardism and infamy. The contents of that, and of the preceding Examiner, did most exactly correspond. To reply to impropriety, like this, would be to sink the character of the Recorder. But it is impossible to pass over the weakness and absurdity of some passages in the Examiner, (and by what right it assumes the name of "The Examiner," it is impossible for us to conjecture.)
As for Mr Banks's letter, we are extremely willing to acknowledge our obligation to the literary talents of that gentleman.
As for the character of Skelton Jones, we have very little to say about it. The facts have been lately stated to the world. They do not admit of embellishment, or of exaggeration. What is the state of Virginian society, if suicide, or perhaps murder, is to be committed with impunity? The query is too preposterous to admit of an answer, and if a gentleman thinks proper to boast that he was present at a scene of homicide, or of murder; if he chooses to say that he is "with great respect and sincere good wishes," the friend of a deliberate assassin, he is extremely welcome to accept of all the honor, or of all the ignominy that must be attached to such a congratulation.
We cannot help observing, that the Examiner, of the 23d current, contains a catalogue of untruths, said to be quoted from the Recorder. One of them in this:—"The parties were intimate friends." Has Skelton Jones the audacity to deny that Mr. Armstead Selden and himself were in habits of the most extreme intimacy?
Has he the audacity, to deny that his brother, and himself, and Mr. Selden, met in the Eagle Tavern, in order to accommodate the business?
Dares Meriwether Jones to deny his own printed letter to Mr. Davis, the printer of the Virginia Gazette. In that letter he specifies the particulars of a conference, which every body in Richmond, read; and is it not the very conformation, and consummation of effrontery, for Meriwether Jones to deny the contents of his own printed letter to Mr. Augustine Davis. We once more offer to bet fifty dollars against five, as to our capacity of producing the original file of the Virginia Gazette, containing this original and identical letter from Meriwether Jones, wherein he acknowledges that Armstead Selden offered to make concessions, and wherein Mr. Jones uses an expression to this purpose, that the only charge against Skelton is that "he withheld exact acknowledgements from Mr. Selden, which, as a man of courage, he could not make."
"He quarrelled with his bosom friend, with a man, whom, above all others, he affected to love."
There is no doubt about this fact, for every person in Richmond, that knows the parties, knows that this was the case.
"He (Skelton Jones) was in the habit of firing at a mark." Mr. Banks's letter "will shew upon what grounds the parties flooded in this respect. Callender will be called upon, in a court of law to prove this atrocious calumny, calculated to injure the reputation of S. J."
As for the assertion that Mr. Skelton Jones was in the habit of firing at a mark, I saw it with my own eyes. I trust that nobody, who is in the habits of personal acquaintance with Skelton Jones, and with myself, will put his veracity upon a balance with mine. The next sentence makes a reference to Mr. Banks's letter, I have already said as much as I wish to say concerning that letter. The next sentence informs me, that I shall be called upon in a court of justice, "to prove the atrocious calumny, calculated to injure the reputation of S. J."
I should be extremely glad to be acquainted with what sort of reputation Skelton Jones thinks that he has to lose; or into what sort of a court of justice I could be called in order to vindicate my name? Bred to the law, as I have been, it is to me entirely inexplicable what kind of legal question could be put to me, previous to the trial of an advertised criminal.
(The Letter from Newbern, (N.C.))
(Continued from our last.)
Albert Gallatin, in tracing the past events of his life, down to the mob-meeting of whiskey-men, assembled in opposition to the collection of the excise, is conscious, that if he had not, by their accident, been appointed secretary to that meeting, the internal taxes would not have been repealed by Mr. Jefferson's recommendation, as a justification to the people for his conduct, as secretary to that meeting. And if, by another strange incident he had not been associated with the pole man, in the midnight enterprise upon the treasury books, Mr. Jefferson never would have risked his popularity, and debased the character of his administration, by appointing him secretary of the treasury.
Mr. Gabriel Duval is conscious, that if he had not, seemingly by mere whim or accident, during the summer and fall of 1800, written over his own name, a series of long and heavy, and dull, and tedious essays, in a pompous and laboured style of declamation, against the alien and sedition laws, the provisional army, the proceedings of the government, in other cases (the case of poor Jonathan Robins) and in favor of Mr. Jefferson's religion, addressed to the free men of the fifth district of Maryland, he would not have been chosen an elector by them, for president and vice president; nor would he now be singled out by Mr. Jefferson, in preference to all other good republicans in the United States, to fill the office of comptroller with a salary of three thousand five hundred dollars a year.
William Duane, in tracing back the past events of his life, and examining the influence which they have had upon his morals, his character, his conduct and fortune becomes convinced, that if, a number of casualties in his life, had not, accidentally given it such a capricious direction, as to conduct him to the honor of being elevated astride upon a pole, as a spectacle of infamy in the streets of Calcutta, he could not, at this day, be qualified to proclaim himself to the people of the United States, as the organ of their will. And if by a strange and singular union of events, he had not had Mr. Albert Gallatin, and others by his side as accessories, when he committed the burglary on the treasury of the United States, by stealing the books of record from it, and examining them, he is conscious, that he should not now enjoy the lucrative offices of public printer and stationer to Congress and the treasury.
All these facts concur to prove, that, the actions and lives of men are governed and directed by a peculiar destiny, which works in a manner so vagrant and whimsical, and is of a carriage and character so variable and fantastic, in the conduct of events, by which it fashions the characters, or shapes the fortunes of men, as not to be known or distinguished from mere accident. Yet every one, in looking back will recognize its agency in each occurrence of his life; and some will distinguish the influence and controul which their destiny has had over the lives, actions, and fortunes of other men. Cunning, hypocrisy, vanity, and avarice; it almost always disappoints and confounds, by giving a direction to the consequences of their labours, and an influence to the events which they bring about quite contrary to their aim. Hence, we frequently observe the enemies of a man, by the adverse operation of the schemes of their malice, envy, and hatred, contribute to his prosperity, honor and renown; while the friends of another, by the indiscreet management of their esteem, partiality and affection towards him, often, are made, to aid in his debasement and destruction as attraction and repulsion, in matter are, by alteration of circumstances converted one into the other.
The destiny of Cromwell, conducted Charles the first to the scaffold, and the French philosophers and butchers performed the same ceremony for Louis the 16th, Robespierre, and an hundred thousand others. This reasoning leads to an hypothesis, which may explain the cause of the resemblance between the queries put by the foreigner of distinction to the author of the notes, and the queries administered by you to the Calcutta pole-man. I trust that I have made it appear to the satisfaction of every candid philosopher, that, the author of the notes, could never have been elected president of the United States; nor ever have been supposed to be the most polished and elegant writer; the most profound philosopher; the most refined politician; the purest republican, and the most able statesman upon earth, had not a number of singular and mysterious events in his life, combined with adverse and unlucky incidents in the lives of other men, united all their mystic and capricious ENERGIES, to confer on him supereminent character in each of the particulars enumerated. His destiny, therefore, with a determination to these objects, turned the attention of the selfish and designing foreigner towards him, as to a machine, that might be managed to the advancement of his vain hopes and ambitious projects. Hence it appears, that the destiny of the author of the notes, was the cause which produced the queries from the foreigner of distinction. And since we find such a strong and close resemblance between the manner, form, number, subject, and object of your queries and his, is it not fair reasoning, a posteriori, to conclude that they have proceeded from the same cause, namely, the destiny of William Duane.
Should he write a book in answer to your several queries, we may be hereafter surprised to find a resemblance between the effects of his book, and the Notes on Virginia. But although, we Philosophers maintain the propen-
sity to complete resemblances, to be a vigorous principle in the human mind; yet, in this instance, I must declare, my propensity to be an exception to the theory.
The poleman is, however, preparing the way for such an event, whether he writes a book or not, in answer to your queries. He expects to be president. Like the writer of the declaration of independence, Mules, Mahomet, and Manco Capac, he begins, by persuading his followers to believe, that he appears, not in the character of a mere earthly governor, but, as an organ and interpreter of the divine will of the people; the supreme being, which the author of the Notes himself, and all other good democrats profess to worship. Because office is the paradise the deity promises, and while they have its joys in view, the divine will of the people is the constant theme of their adoration and the object of their idolatry. But as it is a mercenary deity which they worship, like the Moluccas, the Tartars, the Chinese, and many other idolatrous tribes, if the idol only appears to listen to their prayers, they feast and caress him; they graze his chops with precious fat, and fondly call it the mouth of labour. They endeavour to propitiate their idol with barbarous offerings of the reputations and characters which they have hunted down and destroyed; and they cajole it with promises of a share in the booty they may acquire, if he shall prove propitious and they should be successful. But if they happen to be unsuccessful, or, by any chance, or change, their expectations lower, or suspicious arise, as to the servility, and favor of their idol, they immediately set upon him with beating, reviling, and reproaches. Have we not, say they, you ungrateful wretch, pampered, and caressed, and flattered, and deified, and worshipped, and made you a god, and yet you are froward, disobedient, and do not favor our designs? If the idol seems sullen and does not promise amendment, they proceed after the manner in which the Chinese particularly treat their refractory and disobedient idols, to fasten a cord about his neck and drag him through the dirt. To this last ceremony of irreverence, the conduct of the organ of the divine will of the people, and that of his apostle Cheetham, will vouch for me. Did he not, during the last election for governor in Pennsylvania, drag a number of his idols, who were rather disobedient and refractory, by the neck, through the dirt of his Aurora? And has not the seer Cheetham, dragged the idol of democracy in New York, through five hundred pages of filth an nastiness, upon the suspicion, merely, that he had played some meretricious pranks with some of the federal sect?
(To be continued.)
FROM THE HUDSON GAZETTE.
THAT the readers of the gazette may perceive the propriety of publishing the receipt and certificates which follow, it is necessary to mention, that the editor of the Bee has declared "that of the sum which" Major Ten Broeck "owed, not a single cent has ever found its way to the treasury, or to any of the officers of the United States; and that there is nearly 3000 dollars still due on his account;" what degree of credit is to be given to such foul aspersions, these documents will show; Mr. Holt is a man of true humanity, and will rejoice at such an opportunity to do justice to an upright character, which he has, in the way of his duty been compelled to unwillingly to mangle. Probably there are no officers under the federal government who would not be found delinquent, as it is termed, were they to be turned out of office, and immediately prosecuted for any balance that might be standing against them.
The strongest reason we have yet seen for depriving Major Ten Broeck of his office, is the impropriety of one man's holding an office for a great length of time; it favors too much of aristocracy and exclusive privilege to permit a man to earn a part of his daily bread, in a petty office, as a compensation for lying seven years upon frozen ground, going barefooted, and risking his life in battle, though not too much for one who stayed at home, burning his shins in the chimney corner, and doing nothing; these are services, to be sure, which none but a crack'd-brain would ever presume to "boast of," under the reign of economy and true disinterested patriotism, in which it is discovered and proved, that things go best when salaries are not too high; that virtue, like a perpetual motion, will move forever, on its own springs, or in other words, that virtue ought to be left to its own reward, land services their own pay-masters; above all, under an administration, so renowned for its antipathy to the smell of gun-
powder, why talk of the merits of a soldier?
"A soldier's pay is rags and fame, A wooden leg and deathless name;" To demo's, in and out of Cong. The Leaves and Fibes all belie it.
WE the subscribers do hereby certify that we have seen in the hands of John C. Ten Broeck, the bond given by him, Daniel Penfield and Cotton Gellston, to the United States, for the faithful performance of the duty of collector of the internal revenue by the said John C. Ten Broeck; and that the following receipt and certificate, the former signed by Edward Livingston, and the latter by Daniel Penfield, are true copies of the originals indorsed on the said bond. Dated at Hudson, 15th. of April, 1803.
DAVID LAWRENCE, H. DAYTON.
New-York, January, 22d 1803
Received from Daniel Penfield, twenty six hundred and eighty-four dollars and six cents, in full for the within bond, which is hereby delivered over, and assigned to him for his security against the principal, and the other surety in the same. EDW. LIVINGSTON.
Attorney U. S.
28th January, 1803. The sum paid by me above specified was duly settled between me the subscriber and Cotton Gellston, one of the sureties within mentioned and the within named John C. Ten Broeck. I do therefore release and discharge the within bond and hereby cancel the same.
DANIEL PENFIELD.
The Bee also says, "It is well known that Mr. Ten Broeck is a public default-er as collector of the city of Hudson, and that the citizens were re-assessed to pay the sum in which he was (and still remains) delinquent."
This is equally false with the above, as receipts can be produced for every cent Mr. Ten Broeck collected, but we think it unnecessary to trouble the public with them; after the proofs adduced we are confident no person will think the worle of Mr. Ten Broeck, or any other person, for any thing that can be said in the Bee.
Recently was detected in Albany, a Counterfeit Ten Dollar Bill of the Bank of the United States. It has the letter X, dated 2d October, 1800. The letter d in the word president, is something defective. The signature of the president, Thos. Willing is rather stiff and that of the cashier, G. Simpson, something cramped. The bill, however, has a strong resemblance to those which are genuine, and requires very close inspection to be discovered. The paper has been made expressly for the purpose, having the water mark "United States" and is a very good imitation of the paper of the true bill, though rather of a harsher texture. [Adv. Gaz.
20 DOLLARS REWARD.
RAN away from the subscriber, on Monday the 25th of April, 1803, about 15 miles above Cumberland court house, a Negro fellow named DAVID. He is a low well made fellow, about 30 years old, somewhat marked with the small-pox, had on an old brown cloth coat, a striped cloth waistcoat, an old blue pair of calmer breeches, a pair of dark coloured striped stockings. I bought said fellow of Martin Turner, in Richmond, who bought him of Mrs. Sears. He has a wife in Richmond.
Whoever will take up said fellow and secure him, so that I get him, and write word of it to Mr. MARSHALL, Tavern keeper, at Powhatan court house, shall receive the above reward with all reasonable charges, by JAMES JONES.
All owners of vessels are cautioned against taking the above negro on board. Richmond, April 30th, 1803. 4t**4.
PHILIP LARUS, DENTIST.
GRATEFUL for past favors, informs his friends and the public, that he intends again to practice in the line of his profession, and hopes by his assiduity to merit a continuance of their favors. Orders addressed to him, opposite the post-office, will be strictly attended to. April 13, 1803. (4t**2.)

The following article is extracted from a book entitled, the American Annual Register, for 1795. The details are curious and authentic. They exhibit a singular statement of congressional economy, and it is believed that they will repay a perusal.
BEFORE congress raise new arms, they should be sure of making honorable provision for the present race of invalids. On the 21st of February, 1795, a law passed supplementary to one dated the 28th of February, 1792, regulating the payment of pensions to invalids. The first section directs that the pension shall be computed to commence from the time that the invalid, in obedience to the former act, shall complete his testimony before the district judge or commissioners as therein specified. No claim for antecedent arrears can be admitted. The second section should be got by heart by every person who intends hereafter to fight the battles of America. It runs thus: "And be it further enacted, that no commissioned officer who has received a commutation of half-pay, shall be paid a pension as an invalid, until he shall return his commutation into the treasury of the United States; except where special provision has been made in particular cases, for allowing pensions on the return only of certain portions of the commutation."
Imagine that an old officer was entitled to a pension of sixty pounds as half pay, for serving in the army during eight years, for performing five winter campaigns without shoes, and five in summer without a shirt. At Long Island, he ran up to the neck in a morass, and lasted for three days after the defeat of Guilford. At White Marsh, he was almost frozen to death in a hut, and fainted under the rays of the sun at the battle of Monmouth. At Germantown, he was shot through the shoulder blade; and his scull was trepanned at Saratoga. His wooden leg reminds him of the surrender at York town. The burning of his house and barn, the beggary of his wife and children, and an inveterate palsy, or rheumatism, seem to have closed the circle of his exertions and his sufferings. The government, as insolvent as himself, could not pay this annuity of sixty pounds; but six years ago, he received perhaps a commutation of three hundred, or some such sum. He has expended this money on the education of his family, or the purchase of a farm; or has lost it in trade by the burning of a store, the sinking of a ship, the finesse of a land jobber, or the bankruptcy of a senator. Hearing that half-pay is to be had, and being not master of a shilling, he calls at the treasury office to seek his money. Instead of receiving it, the secretary asks him three hundred pounds in advance, and subjoins that, six months after making this payment, he shall receive thirty pounds. We must observe the words of the law. He shall return his commutation, before he touches a dollar. The man is not worth a dollar; and the door is shut against his receiving half-pay, because he is unlucky and poor. The door is shut for the very reason for which it ought to stand open. The framers of this law were well aware that multitudes never could comply with the second section, because they had not one cent to spare in advance. In all likelihood this was the reason for which some of our legislators inserted that clause. The anecdote which follows will explain what is here meant. Just before this bill went through the house of representatives, colonel Maxwell, a land surveyor from Vermont, came to Philadelphia to solicit half-pay. He was desperately wounded at Bunker's hill, served through the whole war, or nearly so, and has in every situation exhibited a respectable character. His health was broken by the service. He is now on the downfal of life, and has begun to be unfortunate. On his arrival he waited on one of the representatives to explain and enforce his request. We want to get rid of you all as easy as we can, were words that escaped through a chink in
the conversation. Thus a former speaker of a superannuated horse. It would be unseemly, perhaps, to publish the name of this individual member, because the house, by passing the section above recited, generously took the burden from his shoulders, and placed it on their own. An officer in the late American army, who resides in Philadelphia, was presented with the author when colonel Maxwell told the story. It is pleasant, says the proverb, to die for your country. True. But it is not agreeable to starve or beg for any country. It is yet less flattering to be slighted by persons whose sculls, but for the bravery of such men as colonel Maxwell, would have been picked by the crows, and have stuck at this day on the spikes of temple-bar.
But admit that the invalid has money, or sells his plantation to raise it, and comes to Philadelphia. He pays the price of his farm into the treasury, and as he is old and infirm, dies on the road going home. His annuity dies with him, and his family are reduced to want by the farcical benevolence of this law, while the United States pocket three hundred pounds by pretending to grant a pension. Thus government becomes a jobber in annuities. If relief had been honestly intended, and if the state of public finances required, before giving a pension, that the commutation should be returned, there was a ready way to prevent all murmurs and all injustice.
Your annuity," says the legislature, "commences on a day specified. But it must be detained to repay the commutation that you have already got. Three hundred pounds will be cleared off by a pension of sixty, in five years. At the end of that time, your actual salary will begin to run. It might run from this day, by your advancing three hundred pounds; but we do not wish to handle your money, or traffic in the price of a veteran's blood. Go home, and when the commutation has been liquidated, the salary shall be thankfully transmitted. Your class of citizens is the very last on the continent whom we shall venture to neglect. In the course of human affairs, we must soon want a second army; and we cannot expect to get one, if we desert or disregard the services of the first. It is true that our administration has some little flaws. We have sent to New-Jersey for a lawyer to be director of the mint, with a salary of two thousand dollars. He is an able counsellor; was long an useful member of congress, and pointed out several abuses of the institution; but he cannot be expected to understand mineralogy. We have sent thirty miles to Wilmington, for a physician to be treasurer of the mint, with a pension of twelve hundred dollars. He has extensive practice in his own profession in Philadelphia, and our bounty enables him to save the earnings of his industry. On the same plan, we have belpoke a haberdasher to be our engraver, a dancing master for our assayer, and a bishop as chief coiner. You have no doubt, in common with the rest of your fellow citizens, given a Sardinian smile at our paying for the officers of a non-existing navy, and for chaplains of whom we are most heartily tired. But these are only motes in the sun of our legislative progress. Compared to the faults of an old government, to that happy canton of Berne, our peccadillos are but like the scratch of a pin to the gash of a battle axe. When a newspaper tells you that there is in congress a conspiracy to destroy the constitution, and that one half of your representatives are pensioned by a foreign enemy, believe not one word of it; for though we dispute and wrangle, and often have begun to give hard names, we all do the best for the service of our constituents. At an heart-rending expence of time, patience and wages, we debated for three weeks, on the meaning of three very plain lines in the constitution."
* Mr. Boudinot. * Infra. Chap. V. ff.
Such is our microscopic fidelity to the duties of our station! But we are so often in the right, that we must be sometimes in the wrong."
If it was proper that the commutation should be refunded, and this might be the case, it ought to have been deducted from the pension granted. This would be a more decent way of refusing relief. It is termed refusing, because persons intimately acquainted with the question aver, that, in many instances, the commutation already received is much more valuable than any pension which can be expected. To propose getting back the commutation, and then paying something less valuable is worse than refusing a pension. When this bill had gone without opposition, through the house of Representatives, some remarks on it were published in the Aurora, of the 29th of January, 1795; from the vain hope that it would be sent back by the senate, with the salutary amendment of striking out the second section, or, that the president at least, as being himself an old soldier, would refuse his subscription.
THE NEW EDITION OF THE REVISED CODE OF THE LAWS OF VIRGINIA,
BY SAMUEL PLEASANTS, JUN. and HENRY PAGE, Richmond, Virginia, Is now ready for Sale, at this Office.
THAT the public may be so far enabled to determine upon the merit of the work, it is thought most advisable to publish the
PREFACE.
By an act of the General Assembly of Virginia, dated December 28th, 1792, it was ordained, that a collection should be made of all such acts of the Assembly, of a public and permanent nature, as were then in force. For this purpose, several lawyers were solicited to superintend the compilation. Mr. Davis, then printer to the commonwealth, did not get the work completed till the close of the year, 1794. It, therefore, embraced all such laws, of a public and permanent nature, as were passed during the session, which commenced November 11th, 1794.
It was unavoidably to happen that this collection would almost immediately become defective; and that its defects were to increase annually, and without intermission. The new laws of the more important class were, for the most part, occupied in altering, or in repealing some of their predecessors. Hence, it was evident, that if a man of business was not regularly supplied with the additional laws, the Revised Code would be quite as likely to lead him into mistakes, as to give him proper information. The consequence was, that every practitioner of the law found it necessary to purchase annually, the large folio pamphlet, containing the laws of each succeeding assembly. In the course of a man's life, these publications would have swelled into a library; and, what was extremely inconvenient, by far the greater part of them were laws of a local and private nature, which were totally useless, and a mere incumbrance to the practitioner in a court.
This Revised Code, with all its augmenting imperfections, had become extremely scarce. The original price was eight dollars. But it was almost impossible to obtain the book at any price whatever. The constant demand for the Revised Code induced the proprietors of the present work to publish proposals for a second, and improved edition, which was to bring down the collection to date as to the end of the session of December, 1801. In the former edition, therefore, the latest act of Assembly bears date 26th of December, 1794. In the present edition, the latest statute passed upon February 2d, 1802. This makes a difference of more than seven years; and these seven years appear to have been distinguished beyond every former period of the history of the commonwealth, by the multitude and importance of the laws which in that time were passed. To give a complete idea of this fact, we have only to observe, that the edition of Mr. Davis contained one hundred and eighty one statute; and that the present contains THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN. Of these, one hundred and thirty two additional statutes, one hundred and twenty six were passed within those seven years. They compose, therefore, in point of number, more than two fifths of the whole collection. The other six laws, which make up the total additional number of one hundred and thirty two, had been passed long before the publication of the former edition of "The Revised Code." Some of them are of very considerable length. They were selected, and inserted by the special advice and desire of Governor Monroe. He was one of the gentlemen who had been appointed to revise the former edition; and it was his opinion that these six acts of assembly had been improperly omitted.
Exclusive of the index, the title page and preface, the present volume contains four hundred and fifty-four pages. Of these, the additional laws, an hundred and twenty four pages, which is not much less than a third part of the whole text. It is not necessary to say how much more convenient this concise and perspicuous arrangement must be, than to have the trouble of wandering through seven folio pamphlets, in quest of a statute. These details, without any comment of ours, abundantly prove, had, indeed, other evidence been wanting, the propriety and necessity for a
second edition of this book. It is now, also, condensed into a much more manageable size than it formerly assumed. No gentleman's pocket can, at least in the present age, contain a folio volume; and much less would it contain the enormous appendage of seven folio pamphlets. In riding ten, or fifteen miles to a county court-house, a gentleman does not always think it worth while to take a portmanteau along with him; nor indeed is every portmanteau large enough to contain such masses of print and paper. Upon this account, the present edition has been reduced to an octavo size, and printed as closely as possible. Hence, a lawyer when he sets out for the county court-house, will no longer be obliged to leave his eight folios behind him, and, amidst a crowd of competitors, to solicit the unfortunate clerk of the court to let him have a light of the Revised Code. He can now put his hand into his pocket, and take out a general portable, octavo volume, which comprehends his former library, disencumbered of all its rubbish. The type on which the present edition is printed, is either the same, or almost exactly the same with that of the last, and most esteemed London edition of Coke upon Littleton. This circumstance is mentioned here, because a complaint had been made, in one of the Richmond newspapers, by some nameless writer, that the type was too small. You cannot, at the same time, enjoy the cool, bracing breeze of winter, and the verdant vegetation of summer. You cannot, in the same book, unite the advantages of a folio, and of an octavo. If this edition had been printed upon a type as large as that of Mr. Davis, it must have been one third part dearer than it is; for the volume, including the new index, and the bottom notes, positively contains one third part more of matter, than the former edition. The price to subscribers, must have been raised to five dollars; and to non-subscribers, to twelve dollars. Very few purchasers will regret that the publication can be had at a price so much more reasonable.
The former edition laboured under more than one material defect. It was often impossible to tell at what time a statute had originally passed. Put the case, that a deed was to be contested, which bore date in 1760. It is clear that this transaction could not be affected by laws made posterior to its date. It became a question how long the law had existed, or, when a predecessor to it, or to some part of it, had been passed in; perhaps, a different form. For instance, of chapter CXXVII, a considerable part appears to have been enacted at different periods; one part in 1756, another in 1791. In the old edition of the Revised Code, the law is dated December 26th 1792.
The bottom notes of the new edition give notice, that various parts of it were in force before, although the whole had been covered by the subsequent statute of 1792. The same notes give information, that this law has been amended by another, of 1801. Again, chapter CXXVIII bears date the 26th of December, 1792. But we learn that the first clause of the statute expired in 1762, that is to say, thirty years before. The second clause, which is by far the longest in the act, had been taken from a former statute, dated October, 1775. From not knowing how far back the force of these laws extended, the court was often cast into irretrievable confusion. To discover how far back a statute extended, was often a work of great time and difficulty; and perhaps the requisite apparatus of old laws could not always be had. Gentlemen of the bar assure us, that the bottom notes, which are to be found at the foot of almost every page of this edition, are, themselves alone, fairly worth the whole price of the book. We have neither received, nor asked permission to publish the name of the supposed author of these notes. He is, however, a gentleman whose name has long been familiar to every lawyer in Virginia. He has long filled more than one interesting department in the system, and the science of Jurisprudence. In point of legal knowledge and abilities, his reputation is inferior to none.
All the gentlemen of the law, with one voice, complained of the imperfection of the former index. A new one has been entirely wrote over again, and at a very considerable expence for the present edition. In the former, there were, under the letter A, only twenty six different heads. In this edition the A are forty-nine. In the former, letter C contained only twenty five heads. This has forty seven. These particulars are mentioned to show the superior perspicuity and completeness of the present index; and how greatly it must facilitate an accurate examination of the contents of the volume. The index contains seventy two pages. The text of the laws, exclusive of the preface and title page, contains as above mentioned, four hundred and fifty-four; so that there is one page of index for about every six pages of text. A larger number of references would have been useless, and have served rather to embarrass, than assist the reader. This laborious part of the work was drawn up by Mr. James Rine, who had been employed as an assistant, by the supervisors of the former edition. We have every reason to think that his performance will give entire satisfaction.
This volume, the index excepted, was completely printed off several months ago. But it was impossible to deliver the book until this time, because of the bad state of Mr. Rind's health did not permit him to furnish the index sooner. This apology will, no doubt, be considered as sufficient for a long delay of publication, which it was impossible for the editors to prevent.
It would be the summit of frivolity to expatiate upon the importance of a work like this; because it is plain, that every family in the commonwealth, should, if possible, possess a copy of it. To judges, magistrates, and lawyers, it is indispensably necessary; and every private gentleman, who wishes to understand either his own rights, or those of his neighbours, ought to be conversant with its contents.
Richmond, April 18, 1803.
TO LETT,
IN a very eligible situation for business, a large commodious WAREHOUSE, Comping Room and two large Cellars. Immediate possession may be had. Apply at this office.
Richmond, April 27th. 1803.
(17.) 15.