The recorder, or, Lady's and gentleman's miscellany (Richmond, Va.), 1802-10-20 00:00:00

THE RECORDER; Or, LADY'S AND GENTLEMAN'S MISCELLANY;
Printed by HENRY PACE, and JAMES T. CALLENDER, RICHMOND, VIRGINIA; and published every WEDNESDAY Morning. Subscription Two Dollars per annum
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1802.
NOTICE.
WILL be sold to the highest bidder, at Dunkirk in King and Queen County, for Cash, on the 2d of January, 1803, Fourteen or Fifteen likely Negroes, consisting of Men, Women, and Children. R. B. CARTER.
October 14th. 1802. [87]
50 DOLLARS REWARD.
RUN away from the Subscriber in this city, in May last, a Negro man, named BAILOR.
A Black complexion, about Twenty-Six or Seven Years old, about Five Feet Seven or Eight. Formerly belonged to the estate of HOOPER and TOLSON, has worked at the Blacksmith's trade. Was purchased at Public Sale, last Spring.
Whoever secures the said Negro, and lodges him in Jail in this City, shall have the above reward by applying to William Fulcher.
THOMAS MOORE. October 15th. 1802.
100 DOLLARS REWARD.
SCHOONER TRYAL of Norfolk, was freighted from Richmond for Baltimore with bran, on the 25th of July last, John Dudley master. She is about Twenty-Five Tons Burden, Pilot Boat built, with a Red Trunk Companion. There is a suspicion that the master of the Schooner has run away with her, as he or she has never since been heard of. Probably, Dudley may have taken her to Charleston, S. C. I will give an hundred dollars to any person who shall stop said Vessel, providing that Dudley has run away with her, and who will put it in my power to get her again. Address to
JOHN TAYLOR, Norfolk.
P.S. The Printers of the Times, at Charleston, are requested to republish this three times.
JOHN TAYLOR. October 20th 1802. [67]
LIME.
A CARGO of fresh Stone Lime in Tierces, just arrived from Providence, Rhode Island, and for sale at Rockets landing by
JOHN LESTER. Richmond, Oct. 10, 1802. [34.]
BY THE LATE ARRIVALS WM. MACKENZIE, & Co. HAVE RECEIVED THEIR FALL GOODS.
Richmond, Sept. 30th. 1802. [84.]
TO BE SOLD,
FOR READY MONEY,
PURSUANT to a decree of the Federal Circuit Court of the United States, for the District of Virginia, in a suit between the executors of Hanbury's, plaintiffs, and the trustees of gen. Nelson, and others, defendants, a tract of land in the county of Prince William, on the waters of Bull Run, containing 220 acres, now in the occupation of Mrs. Gwynn; or so much thereof as will be sufficient to raise the sum of £. 259 with interest thereon from October 1797, and the costs & expenses of this sale, which will take place at Gadsby's tavern, in the town of Alexandria, on Saturday, the sixth of November next.
They above tract of land was purchased by Peyton Gwynn, deceased under the said decree, and the purchase money not being wholly paid, is again to be sold for the satisfaction thereof, in conformity to said decree, and terms of original sale.
D. M. RANDOLPH Late Marshal, v. D. Richmond, Sept. 18th 1802. [145.]
A Tutor Wanted.
A MAN who can teach the English language grammatically; also, writing, arithmetic, and geography.
Liberal wages and other advantages will be given to such a person.
A married man with a small family will be preferred.
HARRY HETH.
Black Heath Coal-Pitts. Near Richmond, Sept. 17, 1802. [95.]
A saving of time, is a saving of money, for time is even more precious than money.
FRANKLIN.
MAYO'S TOLL BRIDGE
THE Public is respectfully informed, is now completely and permanently finished, is furnished with good, strong, and substantial Hand-Rails; and will, very shortly, be supplied with Lamps, from one end to the other, so that passengers may pass it by Day, or by Night, with the utmost safety, and most unbounded confidence.
When the vast magnitude of this undertaking by a single individual; the chimerical light in which it was originally viewed by the whole community; the immense sum which it has cost; the great length of time (a period of no less than 17 years) which it has taken to bring it to its present state of perfection; but above all, the importance of it to those who travel north or south, and particularly to the whole country south of James River, in bringing their produce to market, and coming to the seat of government, are considered, a confident hope and belief is entertained that it will meet with, and always receive, universal patronage and support; exclusive of these considerations, ECONOMY itself points out this to be the CHEAPEST, (and surely it is the most AGREEABLE) mode of crossing the river; for the very small difference in the expense of going by any other conveyance, bears no proportion to the certainty, safety, and expedition, which this excellent and useful bridge affords.
SAMUEL JONES. Richmond, Virginia, Sept. 4th. 1802.
JUDGE TUCKER'S Blackstone.
PROPOSALS FOR PUBLISHING AN AMERICAN EDITION OF BLACKSTONE'S COMMENTARIES, WITH NOTES OF REFERENCE TO THE CONSTITUTION AND LAWS
OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA:
With an appendix to each volume, containing tracts upon such subjects, as appeared necessary to form a systematic view of the laws of Virginia, as a Member of the Federal Union.
By ST. GEORGE TUCKER, Professor of law in the college of William and Mary, and one of the judges in the General Court in Virginia.
Printed for WILLIAM YOUNG BIRCH, and ABRAHAM SMALL—Philadelphia.
THE PROPOSED EDITION WILL CONTAIN—
 I. An introduction, or preface.  II. Notes on such parts of the Commentaries as treat on subjects which relate to correlative powers, delegated by the constitution and laws of the federal government, or of the state of Virginia; shewing in what instance the principles of the British constitution, the maxims of that government, the general customs or common law of England, acts of the British parliament, and particular customs, or prescriptions, have been adopted or confirmed; altered and amended; or wholly changed and repealed, by local circumstances political considerations, or the express provisions contained in our constitutions and stated laws.  III. To each volume of the commentaries there will be an appendix, into which will be introduced not only a more considerable length, which cannot conveniently be inserted in the body of the work, and short tracts upon some subjects arising out of our own constitution and laws.  IV. The appendix to the first volume will contain. 1 A discourse on government. 2 An enquiry into the obligation and authority of the common law and statutes of England, in the United States; respectively; and whether the same be the law of the federal 
 government of the United States or not.  3 A view of the written law of the commonwealth of Virginia, as partaking of the constitution and laws of the federal government and treaties made thereby; as well as of its own particular constitution and acts of its legislature; together with such acts of the parliament of Great Britain as may be still supposed to have any force or obligation therein.  4 A view of the constitution of the United States; its relation, and connection with the state constitutions; a brief examination of their respective powers; a short parallel between it and that of Great Britain; an examination of some of its defects; and a view of the amendments thereto proposed by the several state conventions, and of such as may still be proper to be taken into further consideration.  5 A short view of the constitution of Virginia; an examination of some of Mr. Jefferson's positions respecting it; some hints with regard to an amendment of it. &c.  6. Observations on the right of conscience and the freedom of the press, in the United States of America.  7. A view of the origin, progress, and present state of slavery in Virginia, with a plan for its gradual abolition.  8. View of the laws respecting glebes and churches in Virginia. 
V. The appendix to the second volume will contain a short abstract of the land laws in Virginia, with a reference to such as are to be found in any general code.   2 A discourse on the law of descents in Virginia.  3 An engraved copper plate table of descents according thereto.  4 A table, shewing the manner in which estates in pecuniary shall be divided pursuant thereto.  5. A view of the laws respecting estates and forfeitures, passed during the revolutionary war, and of the rights of foreigners to hold lands in Virginia.  6. A view of the laws respecting slaves as property.  7. A discourse on the subject of the laws restraining usury. 
VI. The appendix to the third volume will contain a short view of the courts of the United States, and of the commonwealth of Virginia, with an abstract of the laws by which the practice therein is regulated, Strictures on the trial by jury in Virginia under the existing laws, and a plan for their amendment.
VII. The appendix to the fourth volume will contain an abstract of the criminal jurisdiction of the federal government, and of the commonwealth of Virginia; and a short discourse on treason.
VIII. The tracts mentioned in the fourth section together with the Editor's preface, and the Commentator's introduction, being all attached to the first volume of Blackstone will, in this edition, be divided into two parts the preface and introductions; and the five tracts first mentioned in the fourth section will be attached to the first part; and the other three tracts mentioned in the same section, will make the appendix to the second part.
** The notes dispersed throughout the work will amount to fourteen or fifteen hundred. Those which refer to the constitution and laws of the United States are very numerous.
CONDITIONS.
 I. That the work be printed with a new type, on superfine paper, and in five very large Octavo volumes; and be bound in neat law binding.  II. That it shall go to press as soon as a sufficient number of subscribers shall be obtained to make it prudent—and from the time of going to press be published in one year.  III. That the price of the whole, complete and bound, shall be twenty dollars, payable on delivery. 
ADDRESS BY THE PUBLISHERS.
It is presumed, a little consideration will make it obvious, that a work so extensive, and which will employ a large capital, cannot be put to press until a sufficient number of subscribers are obtained to make it prudent: The publishers do not recollect that any book of the same amount, has been printed in the United States, without either a part of the purchase money, being required in advance, returns made as it proceeded, by delivering the volumes as they were printed. In the present case, the whole work will be finished and completely bound, before any payment is made.
It is earnestly requested that the gentlemen
who intend subscribing will forward their names as soon as possible, either by letter (post paid) to the publishers in Philadelphia, or through the medium of bookellers in the neighbouring towns. The post-masters will also be furnished with a subscription paper, and it is presumed they will forward any names that may offer; as a remuneration, and to induce gentlemen to give it a little attention, whoever procures nine subscribers shall be entitled to a tenth copy, but it is to be explicitly understood, that the person who receives a copy for procuring subscribers, must be answerable for the payment of all the gentlemen who sign his list. The publishers demand nothing but on delivery of the books, complete; they are therefore determined not to leave a single set, without at that time receiving payment for it.
Gentlemen who forward names to the publishers, are requested to mention where the books are to be sent, and if possible, to make the place of delivery some considerable and well known town.
Subscription papers will be found in the hands of Mr. Prichard and Mr. S. Pleasants, in Richmond; Messrs. Rois and Douglas Petersburg— Mr. E. Merick, Norfolk; Mr. R. Greenhow, Williamsburg; Mr. Henderson, Fredericksburg; Mr. S. Bishop Alexandria; Mr. J. Albusis, Martinsburg; Mr. Bownen, Winchester; Mr. J. Gales, Raleigh, North-Carolina; Messrs. Bailey and Waller, Charleston, South-Carolina; Mr. J. Marsh, Georgetown, Potomac; Messrs. Ralph and Co. Washington City; Messrs. G. Hill, and Conrad and Co. Baltimore, &c. &c.
The publishers have only to add, that they believe it will be found to be considerably the lowest priced law book, of a similar extent, and including a copy-right purchase, that has appeared for many years, either in America, or Europe.
WILLIAM YOUNG BIRCH. ABRAHAM SMALL, Philadelphia, Sept. 1. 1802.
HAY'S PAMPHLET.
THIS day's paper contains the conclusion of Mr. Hay's pamphlet on the recovery of debts in Virginia. We cannot too earnestly recommend to the attention of the public this classical and truly estimable production. Every member of the next assembly should read it over and over again; and then let a law be frankly and fairly past for the seizure and sale of a bankrupt's lands, as well as all his other property, for the payment of his debts. In comparative population and importance, this state is falling fast behind both New York and Pennsylvania. This has been proved by the last census. If some effectual steps are not taken for the establishment of manufactures, it may be a painful, but it is a certain truth, that Virginia will sink into a state of only second rate importance. Ten years hence she will be what North Carolina was ten years ago. The fine business of emancipation will tend considerably to this object. The country will be gradually filled with vagabond thieves, and tramps, without owners, without employment, and with every conceivable disposition for mischief. But the want of an effective system for the recovery of debts is, of itself, entirely sufficient for stunting the growth of any country.
DUANE.
WE understand that the learned and indefatigable Duane has four sub-editors. One of these is Dr. James Reynolds; another, Mr. Thomas Loyd, stenographer; a third, one Pollard, of whom we have heard nothing, that we chose to repeat. The fourth is William Duane, junior, a young man, at whom his father desires the world to look. In this whole batch, there is not one single American but Duane himself, and he was born in Canada.
It is now four weeks since a letter was publicly addressed to Dr. Reynolds by one of the editors of this paper. As a physician, as a gentleman, and as a personal friend, he was required and expected to give an answer. He persists in silence. He does not find it advisable to support Duane in the assertion of a scandalous falsehood; and he does not choose to affront Duane by giving an explicit contradiction to his calumnies. We despise the story, and the source from whence it came too much to care a farthing for the certificate of Dr. Reynolds. But we beg leave to ask the Doctor how he came to stand by, and see his

old friend Callender so scurvily treated; and upon what principles of moral rectitude, he can prefer the Aurora to Porcupine? We should be glad to know which of the quintumvirate invented the ingenious story about the stealing of mahogany , which was afterwards reduced to the stealing of wood . We would not insult them by calling for their evidences. It is from delicacy to Callender's feelings, to be sure, that the story has been suppressed. A likely tale! Only think with what hardened impudence Duane came forward, and with what silent modesty, he now slinks away from the accusation! We should not have mentioned these particulars at all, but with a design to show the world what a shameful fibbing paper this Aurora has become. Duane charges a man by name, as a thief; and when asked for particulars, holds his tongue.
Duane introduces other people's wives, and brags of his own domestic happiness. That of his wife must be of a peculiar kind. It consists in a transition from the embraces of a gentleman to those of a house breaker, of a fellow who was hoisted on a pole through the streets of Calcutta.
Skelton Jones is going to set up house-keeping; and who, do you think, is to be his house-keeper? That identical wench for whom he quarrelled with and murdered Armistead Selden. Last week, he took her along with him in a gig, to the race ground! How long will the ladies of Richmond suffer such a fellow to sit in the same room with them. For a ten thousandth part of his offences, one of their own sex would be forever expelled from their society; and does brutality change its essence when committed by a man? Some weeks ago this criminal went to the play-house. He went into that corner assigned for girls of colour. This was his native element. His heart found itself at home in the midst of African prostitution. He called for a particular tune. The musicians did not take notice of him. He became angry, pelted them, and made ten hundred times more disturbance than all the worth of what he paid for admission. Since that time, the managers have made it a rule that no people of colour shall be admitted into the house.
SOMETIME ago, we mentioned that the canal had become half dry, and more. We are happy to say that by means of an embankment of the river, the canal has recovered a proper supply of water.
STOLEN. A SMALL BAY HORSE, ABOUT Four Years old; Reached Mane; Docked Tail, lomp with his fore Leg, has a Pulver on his Shoulder. Two Dollars reward will be given by Humphrey Brown, who lives with Mr. H. Banks, Richmond. Richmond, October 18, 1802.
THE Subscriber, leaving his present employer in the course of this Fall, will engage himself with any Gentleman, who would require his services. J. GREEN. N.B. To prevent trouble, none but liberal terms will be accepted. Shares, in those terms will be preferred.
FIVE DOLLARS REWARD. THURSDAY Septm 29th past a Small Bay Horse near the Court House of Richmond, a Small Bay Horse, with a short bob Tail, a J and an H upon his left Shoulder, is about twelve hands and an half high, about six years old. I will give the above reward to any person who will bring him to Mr. Smith and Partee, near the Court House Richmond. JAMES LYNCH. October 19th 1802.
The RECORDER. RICHMOND. OCTOBER 20th. 1802.
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.
We are surprised at the petulance of some eastern editors in still affecting to doubt the truth of Sally's story . In this state, at least as far as we can learn, every body believes it. On the second day after the first publication, when the demos were denying the whole, a gentleman came into the district court, and offered to bet a suit of cloaths, or any sum of money, with any man present, that the charge was correct. He specified a small exception, which we have since noticed. Sally did not go to France in the same ship with our French ambassador. She went afterwards; and the gentleman said something about the black wench and the captain, which we do not think it necessary to repeat. Nobody would venture to take up this gentle-
man. He was known to be capable of paying a bet; and to have the best access to family information. If we had been mad enough to publish a tale of such enormous, of such inexpressible ignominy, without a solid foundation, the Recorder , and its editors must have been ruined. All decent men would have struck out their names. We have lost but five or six in Richmond. One of these is a young man, whose own father-in-law hath since actually subscribed. Some of those who gave up their papers have been since harassing their acquaintances to lend them the Recorder . "Why did you not keep the paper, when you had it?" said a gentleman to one of those borrowers. Twelve days after the publication of Sally's affair , Mr. Ralph Wormely, a gentleman whose wealth is as great as his probity, sits down, writes and subscribes a defence of the Recorder . He thanks us, in particular, for telling so much truth of political characters. Do you conceive, but it is needless to fancy that you can conceive, that a person of Mr. Wormely's standing would hazard the strong encomiums which he has bestowed, unless after the most serious premeditation? Since the publication of Sally , we have had at least an hundred and fifty new subscribers. Many of them are among the most respectable citizens of Virginia. Strange! If all these people subscribe with the previous certainty that the editors of this paper could have propagated a base calumny. Mr. Coleman of New York, and our corps of subscribers in that city, our friends in Philadelphia, about fifty subscribers in Baltimore, and sixty in New Jersey; may all rest assured that, upon Sally's business as upon every other quarter, the reputation of our veracity is invulnerable.
MR Coleman has represented Callender, as attacking general Washington, as calling him a poltron a thief of public money a traitor to America, and to England . We take this occasion of declaring that not one of these ideas ever crossed Callender's imagination; and that, if Mr. Coleman had been the author of a book embracing such filth, we should never have entertained any correspondence with him. We shall take an early opportunity of printing the passages of "The Pro-pest" at full length; and then every man will be convinced how egregiously the author has been wronged.
The clerk of Halifax county, who, a short time since, became a subscriber to this paper, has courted public notice. He is just like our friend John Heath, so extremely little and insignificant that we cannot afford room for such a being. He is below the honor of a serious paragraph. He has attempted to rob us of three dollars in the shape of postage. This may serve as a caution to those who are so unfortunate as to have suits in the Halifax court. Let them look to their fee bills.
Jones brags about the number of his subscribers. Some days ago, the postmaster of Falmouth was in this office. He said that Jones had sent a heap of papers to his office, which the people to whom they were addressed would not take away. He wrote to Jones to save his paper. But Merry continues to send on the papers; while only one single person takes an Examiner out of that post office. Our informer added that there are more of the Recorders taken there than of all the other Richmond newspapers put together. Jones was very forward in telling us that Mr. Warden would not have or pay for this paper. The whole story was an utter lie. Mr. Warden, as soon as he saw it, came down the hill, and paid the money. He said that there was a single number, wherein we overhauled governor Giles, which was, of itself, richly worth his two dollars. From the Brunswick post office, we got the same kind of notice, as from Falmouth. The postmaster has wrote four times to Jones, but in vain; to stop certain papers. Jones says that his subscribers owe him six thousand dollars. Sometime ago, he sent a receipt for three years of subscription to Mr. John Foster, the mayor of Richmond. The answer was that Mr. Foster never had a single Examiner in his life, nor a single advertisement in the paper.
If Jones's subscribers owe him six thousand dollars, he must have a set of the most rascally supporters that ever were heard of. If he has been eight or ten years in business, he might have let them get so far in his debt; but in three years and an half, the sum is out of all proportion. Seven hundred and fifty of his subscribers have not paid him a farthing for these two years; and they will not pay him a farthing. Their bills, to wit, at eight dollars a piece, make up exactly the six thousand dollars. Such subscribers are not worth having. Jones ought to strike them out, and then he would have a very neat little subscription with three hundred names. Indeed the people do much better to keep their money to themselves than to send it to Jones, to be spent by him and the murderer, upon suppers and dancing parties with his yellow goddesses. Parties of that sort form his territorial paradise. It would not be amiss if the constables could surround such a scene of joy, and take the whole bevy, white, black
and yellow, to the penitentiary. Upon my soul, it would be a good joke. How would this project be relished by John Clark, that prince of architects, with his white wife, and his black concubine, and his ten army battalions, which cost eighteen hundred dollars? Would it gain the approbation of Samuel Coleman, who went out of this way to quarrel with the editors of this paper, and who, with a white family, dabbles to some extent in African merchandise?
Mr. James Ross, who is mentioned in another part of this days paper, was at the Sweet Springs, when the Recorder came there with Sally's history . His remark was, that this affair would RUIN JEFFERSON; that in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and the upper counties of Pennsylvania, a man standing for a public office had much better be convicted of stealing than of keeping a black girl. Mr. Ross might have said that all upon the other side of the Susquehanna it is impossible to tell in what spot such commerce is most detested. In Virginia, also, the majority against it is beyond all proportion; although a little mulatto-keeper in the neighbourhood of this office is extremely offended at the freedom that we took with "our beloved chief magistrate," and swears and hopes that such liberties with private families will ruin the Recorder . Whenever we have nothing better to do than to crush cockroaches, we shall honor him with a paragraph. Till then, THE LITTLE JURYMAN is safe.
We make these observations upon the connection between the two colours, in order that Dr. Reynolds and the house breaker, and our laughter-loving friend, Tom Loyd, may save themselves a vast deal of trouble in vindicating the character of Thomas Jefferson. For, if all three were to write their hearts out, he has not the remotest chance to keep his head above water at the next election. It is our most solemn wish and hope that Madison, that admirer of emancipation, may go to the bottom along with him. Whatever small influence the Recorder may possess shall be exerted to the utmost for this purpose.
The house of Mr. John Walker stands upon the high road that passes near Monticello. Ever since the repulse, which a certain great personage met with from Mrs. Walker, he takes care when he travels that way, to pass by Mr. Walker's house in the night time. We give this merely as a report. It implies a degree of sensibility, a capacity of feeling shame, of which we cannot suppose that the great personage is susceptible.
PUBLIC FLUNDER.
If you want to hear what prodigious attention the republican executive council pays to the expenditure of public money, attend to what follows.
It is some time ago since we stated that, when Jones printed the pamphlet for the assembly about the alien and sedition laws, the whole affair could have been completed for three hundred and seventy five dollars; print, paper and stitching. Jones never contradicted one word of this estimate. He printed a certificate, however, to prove that he received from the treasury ONLY twelve hundred and fifty dollars! for the job.
He is now printing the laws of last session of Congress. It has been the practice for him to work off sixteen hundred copies. The executive council give him a dollar a piece for them. This is very little better, if it is not still worse, than the payment of Mr. Madison's pamphlet. If the council have the least regard for the pockets of their constituents, they will not pay Jones, till they have sent for and examined two printers. They will enquire what is the real and proper price of the workmanship. This is the way that his excellency John Guerrant, Lieutenant Governor of the commonwealth, would proceed in the most common piece of business. John by the way, is an admirable economist. His presence is wanted once a fortnight, at the council board. He gets up early, swallows his breakfast, rides twenty five miles to Richmond, ties his poor horse to a stake, and sits down at the board to settle the affairs of the nation. As soon as the council breaks up, John unties his horse, and if nobody offers him a gratuitous dinner, he rides back to Goochland to eat it.
As soon as this edition of the Congress laws comes out, we design to publish an exact account of the proper price of printing them. It will be some where from four to six hundred dollars. If the council pay Jones in the former mad extravagant way, they shall do it at their peril. We trust that our readers, scattered as they are all over the state, will instruct their representatives to pay some attention to the public account.
Do you want, men of Virginia! to have your pockets picked before your faces? It is not long, as we are informed, since bills on the treasury were selling in Gloucester county for twelve shillings in the pound. The treasury was empty. It did not contain even a single four pence half penny. And why was it empty? Such beings as John Clark and Meriwether Jones had been roiling in the midst of your pretty charming and most equitable merchant tax. Look at the last number of the Recorder ! There's a notable detail for you! John Clark certifies that John Clark should get full and such sums from the treasury! If we shall go on at this rate, it will not be surprising if his black wench were signing certificates. We have more than two hundred and fifty subscribers dispersed from New-York to Georgia, exclusive of those in this state. All those other people are laughing at your expense, in suffering yourselves to be so egregiously bubbled. The very Yankie journeyman that are eating your bread in the precious armory, come here to buy newspapers, which they send home, as they say, in order to make their New England comrades laugh at your weakness, extravagance and simplicity.
Last spring, Jones received two thousand seven hundred dollars , for his salary, as public printer. What did he do for this money? We shall tell you. He printed the journals of the House of Delegates. They consisted of eighty folio pages. He worked off two hundred and fifty copies. He printed two thousand eight hundred copies of the laws of the last session of the Assembly. They filled fifty-six folio pages. This came all together, to 136 pages. He also printed a great number of blanks for public offices. For these he had the types ready standing. They cost him, therefore, nothing but paper and press-work. We cannot tell the quantity, but we feel a persuasion that fifty reams of paper, and two hundred dollars of total expense, must have covered the business. It is possible that this article may extend to three hundred dollars. And let it stand there. As for the 136 folio pages, which formed the weight of the business, we can speak with more precision. Mr. John Dixon printed the first sixteen sheets of the first volume of The Prospect . This is the same gentleman who prints for Jones. He printed at eighteen dollars per sixteen pages. This was one dollar and one eighth per page. The page held at least one half of Jones's folio page, for it was very closely printed. But, to cut off all grumbling, we shall say that one page of Jones contained three of The Prospect . This is not the case; but even after this concession, the matter is quite bad enough in all conscience. At this rate each of these one hundred and thirty six pages ought to have cost three dollars and three eights for printing and press work. We shall make it three dollars and an half. The printing and press work, would come, at this rate, to
  dollars 476   " After making a liberal allowance for waste, the paper could not come to more than thirty reams. This includes two spoiled sheets in every quire. At three dollars and an half per ream, the price of the paper, on which the Recorder is now printed, the paper comes to 105   The stitching of those copies of the laws, and of these 250 copies of the Journals could be done, and very thankfully done, for two cents per copy. But we shall call it three, which is an overcharge This produces 9150 cents or 91 1/2   Add the former three hundred dollars for blanks. This makes all together 300   Total 972 1/2 
Sometimes the journals and the laws are perhaps longer, and sometimes they are much shorter than in the last Winter session. But it may be taken as a fair medium. The writer of this article is neither a printer himself, nor has he constituted one in making out this account. But he has had great deal to do with the trade; and he knows, although they may not be very forward to acknowledge it, that the printing can be done so very cheaply. As he is not in the habit of resigning his own knowledge, and conviction, in compliment to any body, he must take leave to affirm that things are so . There may be a variation of fifty dollars. It is in the power of Jones to print the accounts of his printer, Mr. Dixon, and it will be seen what he has gained by his sinecure. But upon the rough outline, a thousand dollars will cover the business. To anticipate the old charge that we are liars of the first magnitude , observe what follows. At one time, we have been informed that 1500, and at another that 1600 copies of the laws of congress were printed by Jones. We do not know which of these accounts is the most correct.
Upon the whole, the printing may cost the state about five thousand dollars a year. In the session of December, 1799, the sum ap-

proached to six thousand dollars, and perhaps went far beyond it. For several years past, it has constantly exceeded four thousand dollars. In the case of Mr. Madison's excellent little pamphlet, it has come out that Jones got twelve hundred and fifty dollars for a piece of work which might have cost him three hundred and seventy five. And this money goes to support a wretch foremost in whatever is ungrateful, a wretch who stole money that had been remitted to him for the use of a man in prison, a wretch who is himself the cream and essence of perdition, who combines in his own person the ghastly furies of the demon with the grovelling appetites of the brute. Jones introduced his bed-chamber to public notice, for the sake of fixing upon Callender an atrocious calumny. The answer was that he kept an African wench for several days together, in his wife's own bed-chamber; that C. by accident found her there; that she wears his picture publicly about her neck; that we have seen him parade in his kitchen with a drawn cutlass, and expected nothing but to be cited, as a witness, in a trial for murder.
FROM THE EXAMINER.
TO J. T. CALLENDER, LETTER VII.
A less disgusting feature of your composition shall occupy this letter, Callender, than any with which I have hitherto confronted you; but mistake not the prospect before you, by considering it as a mark of lenity. No, you shall be forced to look into a mirror, in which without remorse or pity, shall be represented your ugly self, rendered more hideous under the agony of dissection. Now, however your pride shall be administered as a temporary lenitive.
James Thompson Callender, the setter up and puller down of Presidents for America, and the maker of governors and assembly men for Virginia!
Reader, hast thou ever seen James Thomson Callender? So, after eight years war, and twenty years peace, America has at length so admirably contrived her civil policy as that a foreigner who betrayed his friend, and fled from his country: as that this James Thomson Callender, double flocked with every vice from the room left by the absence of every virtue; shall boast that he can set presidents, governors, and legislators a scampering, as Pacolet did his horse, by turning a peg.
Gentlemen of both parties, let me seriously ask you, if this boast is true. Are you only the puppets of James Thomson Callender? And does he manage first one set of you, and then the others, not by any attempt to fix principles, and enlighten the understanding; but by creating characters or individuals of yielding stuff, and then tearing them to pieces?
Prove, Callender, your veracity in pretending to be "the prototype of the liberties of America, and of Virginia in particular, as a sort of some estate" by naming presidents, governors, and legislators, whom you mean to appoint?
First however, get over the following difficulty. You have excluded the two prevalent parties; by asserting that they are collectively and individually, knaves and fools, and to find functionaries like yourself is hard, if not impossible; although some of your qualities may be delineated, you must, taken in the whole, be assigned the place of a non descript.
But who can foresee the exploits of such a Drawcansir? He has killed, he says, the reputation of both parties by the gall of his pen; but he can bring either to life, by dipping it in a panacea. Until this is done, such has been the death which he has dealt around, that no body is left fit for office. Make haste, Callender, like Bayes, to bring some of these dead to life. Pronounce your—"Rise, rise firs and be presidents and governors." Tell us, lest the union should fall, who is to be our new president.
Callender, what vanity was ever so inordinate? Society, what nation was ever thus insulted?
A Federal Republican.
From the Gazette of the United States.
PRESIDENTIAL BAG-PIPE.
"Will you play upon this pipe?" 'Tis as easy as LYING."
Callender continues his unmerciful cas-
tigations upon poor Duane, whom he calls a Presidential Bagpipe , and who is continually wincing and struggling to get out of his reach. In the retreat, Duane takes all possible courses, but Callender at every corner meets him full in the face and knocks him down afresh. Duane lately asserted that it was He and not Callender who was hired with Mr. Jefferson's sixteen dollars to write paragraphs for the Aurora. Callender gives him the lie, and appeals to part of the persons themselves who assisted, or rather who promised to assist Mr. Jefferson in raising a purse to help on the Aurora. The following is extracted from Callender's last Recorder. [Here follows an extract.]
IN last week's paper, we took some notice of John Wood, as about to write an apology for having once more misquoted The Prospect . He wrote his piece, but could not get it inserted in the Virginia Gazette . We do not distinctly perceive what advantages that paper can be expected to derive from the assistance of a detected impostor , and forger of quotations that never existed but in his own brain! from the assistance of a fellow whose name is connected with whatever is stupid, impudent, treacherous and despicable.
WE have been obliged to leave out MRS. W. as well as several other articles; having wrote the Recorder entirely full before we were aware of having done so.
IN this day's paper, we insert the 7th letter from the Examiner to Callender. It is given as a specimen of the style of that celebrated newspaper. It is utterly beneath any kind of criticism. The writer attempts ridicule. He might have recollected that a fool can make nobody ridiculous but himself. Let those laugh that win, says the proverb. We get new subscribers by every post. Sometime ago, Jones told the public that he worked off forty seven quires of paper; at least we think that was the number which he mentioned. We also work off forty seven quires, which is ten quires more than the Virginia Gazette . Six months ago, the Recorder had but ten or twelve quires. In two months, or three, at farthest, we expect to put on sixty. If Jones were to strike out all those people who send back his paper, or who are determined never to pay him, our list would be three times more numerous than his. We have just now seen a letter from the Jersey . The writer says that "the Recorder has had an amazing effect upon the elections there. He never, in his whole life, saw people make such work about a newspaper. The moment the post comes in, every body wants to see the Recorder. It goes from hand to hand, till people have rubbed it to pieces with their fingers."
AT the commencement of the battle of German Town, the American army were entirely successful. Upon the flight of the British, they threw a regiment of infantry into a house well known by the name of Chew's house. The Americans stoop their career with the view of taking that house. This gave time for the British to rally, to form, and to attack. They attacked with success, and the Americans lost the day. So, likewise, were we to stop in our career, and make battle with the Virginia Gazette and its editors, we might neglect matters of more consequence, and perhaps, after demolishing them, find that we had gained nothing but our trouble. These are our reasons for putting up with the provocations which have been received from that quarter. Perhaps, at a future day, if natural extinction does not overtake such adversaries, we may turn back and balance accounts with them.
Mr. J. Wood, who now writes for the Virginia Gazette , has given us ample testimony that he wishes to produce a state of hostility. At present, we are engaged in pursuits of so much more importance, that we are obliged to decline the challenge. Indeed, it appears to us, that a conflict with this hermaphroditical author, and politician, would be as imprudent as it would be to stop to pick up farthings, when, by going a step further, we might gather doubloons.
GOVERNOR M'KEAN.
A CONSIDERABLE time ago, the assassin of Armistead Selden, the protégé of our present illustrious republican executive council, upbraided one of the editors of this paper with having spoken disrespectfully of governor McKean. Our answer was that, in due time, we should assign our reasons. A few of them are contained in the following extract. It exhibits McKean's conduct as a judge, in the case of William Cobbet. It was necessary, from prudential motives, to soften the picture, so that the copy is not quite so bad as the original. The truth is that Cobbet was at open war with McKean, and his
whole family. He had insulted and affronted them with all that fluency of invective which so eminently marked his pen. The Spanish ambassador, son-in-law to McKean, had, at this very time, an action against Cobbet, and, if we are not misinformed, the judge himself had another. Under such delicate circumstances, we apprehend that McKean ought not, at all, to have appeared on the bench. But when he came to discharge against Cobbet, the whole of his eloquence, to lace his harangue with gross bawdry, and then to send this whole farrago, head and shoulders, to the Aurora, was such a piece of conduct as we do not exactly understand. That none of the classical beauties of this production might escape our notice, the bawdry was actually printed in CAPITALS! This last circumstance may seem incredible; but it is actually true. We have upwards of forty subscribers in Philadelphia, and no other Richmond newspaper ever had four. Any one of these gentlemen may satisfy himself of the fact, by calling at Duane's office, and turning up the file, at the date under mentioned.
Callender was at that time writing Sedgwick and Co. a violent republican production, wherein, at the distance of four years, he has not been able to discover an error. Mr. Jefferson read it, in the sheets, and paid for ten copies. When this beautiful charge appeared in the Aurora, he was so deeply struck with its impropriety, and with the bawdry in capital, that, without going further, he sat down, and wrote the following remarks upon it, and put them into the book which he was then preparing for the press.
When Sedgwick and Co. came out, Mathew Carey, and some other republicans of his description, wondered that McKean and Gallatin should be so roughly treated; for Gallatin also comes in for a drubbing, though not in the following extract. The author's answer was, Are these quotations fair? Are these facts true? All this was, of course, granted. Then the debate was at an end. The author was under the utmost personal obligations to Mr. Thomas Leiper. This gentleman had en-joined him, under the pain of his eternal displeasure, and this injunction was irresistible to write truth just as it came in the way, without the least regard for one party more than another. In a strict and literal sense, compliance was impracticable. The violence of party would not suffer it. But still the demos did, in the course of these publications, get a great many hard rubs, which were neither forgot, nor forgiven. This is what such wretches as Duane and Jones refer to, when they say that the party could never trust Callender. With the exception of general Mason, and of one other worthy Virginian, whom it might be unsuitable to name, the friendship of Mr. Leiper was of an hundred times more consequence to Callender, than that of the whole tribe of democrats and republicans put together.
The election of McKean, as governor of Pennsylvania, did very little honor to that state. He swears like a trooper. His manners are vulgar, his temper despotic. A journeyman carpenter had once committed some act of rudeness to the Spanish ambassador. The man absconded, and McKean sent his employer to the jail of Philadelphia, for refusing to tell what had become of him. This is a specimen of Pennsylvanian freedom. What would be said in Richmond to such work? No man is less beloved than this pillar of republican principles. At the last election for governor, the party in Philadelphia would have been very glad to get rid of McKean. But he was chief justice, an office of great weight in that state. He was determined to stand for the place; and he could have produced a division of the republican interest, that might have broke up the party. On this account he was adopted, and then it became necessary to trumpet up this veteran despot, as a prodigy of public virtue. For this purpose, the Aurora was filled with whole quires of trash. At the same time, it was requisite to print hundreds of libels against his competitor, James Ross, who is by far the better man of the two. Duane attacked Mr. Ross about a small sum of secret service money with which he had been entrusted by king John. Duane's violence and impudence defeat their own purpose. With what ineffable contempt must Mr. Ross look down upon the snarling of this abandoned hireling, this presidential bagpipe , that is alike prepared to play whatever tune its master calls for.
If the party were sick of McKean before they put him in, they have been still more tired of him since. Duane, in a letter to C. has stated a number of their grievances. All McKean's sons and relations where provided for, as fast as possible, at the public expence, and without the least attention to public appearances. His son, Joseph McKean had been ringleader of the federal gang, that, in May, 1799, knocked down Duane, and who, to complete the scene of infamy, knocked down his son. This "Good for nothing" Duane, in his letter, mentions as having been preferred to a lucrative office. Such a motion was nothing less than an insult upon the whole republican party. Every fool saw that, while every man of sense had seen before, that with McKean, as well as the rest of them, the matter was a mere scramble for the loaves and fishes, and if that makes a better of it, for
the gratification of personal revenge. If we are not mistaken, Joey has since been made an attorney general. To this office, he had not the smallest pretensions upon the score of merit. The place was formerly held by Jared Ingersol, a gentleman of the most correct personal manners, and whom, as a professional character, nature might hold up, and say "here is a lawyer." The contrast between him and the ringleader of a mob was sufficiently striking.
During the governor's election, among other tricks to exasperate the people against Mr. Ross, was the following. He was represented as not a sound Christian. He did not believe something that was right; or he believed something that was wrong. We do not recollect the particular detail of nonsense that composed his impeachment; but this was the amount of it. A certificate to prove the charge was printed in the Aurora. It was subscribed by six or seven of the patriots. One of them, who shall be nameless, has often told us that he did not believe a single word of the christian religion. He rejected the bible in the lump; and then he came forward to censure James Ross for believing only half way. It is very possible that not any one of Mr. Ross's accusers believed one syllable of the christian religion; and that all the parties knew the state of each others faith. But this was a good electioneering trick, and that was all the patriots cared for. Thus it is, that the people are at once courted and despised. Mifflin, the predecessor of McKean, and every popular man, was an old soldier surrounded with concubines. What do you think was his religion? And, as for the presidential bagpipe, tell us, if you can, what is the religion of a house-breaker? That Duane is such, in the blackest and most infamous sense of the word, appears from his own statement. He published mutilated extracts from Oliver Wolcott's official books, for a few hours. The public has never yet fully apprehended the cowardice and villainy of this whole transaction. It seems that one Campbell, a clerk in the treasury, that assisted the publisher of stolen letters, has been rewarded by black Sally's husband with a commission in the federal army.
From these introductory we proceed to his excellency governor McKean.
Extracts from Sedgwick & Co.
On November, 27th 1797, Mr. M'Kean, chief justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, at a court of Oyer and Terminer held in this city, delivered a charge to the grand jury. By the definition which this judge gives of a libel, the most guarded writer cannot be sure but what the press may be an avenue to the jail.
Before beginning on this part of the charge, we may note in passing by, a paragraph where the judge mentions the Venus nefanda . He subdivides it under two of the grossest terms in our language, terms which no modest tongue pronounces, and to which no ear ought, if possible, to listen. The judge then adds that "they have been delicately and emphatically called the horrible crimes, as not fit to be named among Christians ." Why then did the judge speak of them, in the dialect of a brothel? He had no necessity to mention them at all. No trials of such a nature were to come before him.
The judge extends his remarks on libels to a newspaper column and an half. Among these he classes pictures, or signs , "in order to provoke a person to wrath, or to expose him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule." This species of libel has, till now, been scarcely heard of. When Bute became minister of England, the whole country swarmed with prints at his expence. On the opposite side, Hogarth drew Churchill and Wilkes, in the most provoking attitudes that he could devise. When North and Fox coalesced, their two faces were spliced down the middle, and joined together in a burlesque print. When George the third went mad, he was exhibited in the print shops paying his addresses to a quaker girl. He has been painted selling buttermilk. His eldest son may be seen in every London print shop, surrounded with bawds and strumpets, presenting their unpaid bills. He is also drawn in the attitude of a sharper driven out of Newmarket. Pitt himself has been ridiculed in every possible shape of engraving. Yet in all this retrospect, it is not recollectable that any one of the parties ever attempted a prosecution. About five years ago, Mr. Kay of Edinburgh drew a striking but unfavorable likeness of Henry Dundas, by far the most dangerous enemy,

whom a man in Mr. Kay's situation could have created. The print had an immense sale over Britain, and must have sensibly hurt the minister. Yet the painter felt no effects of his resentment. It is singular that a Philadelphia judge promulgates doctrines which even a British minister would not reduce to practice. Let him point out an English precedent. There may be cases of a print where an English jury would give damages for personal satire; but the circumstance, by its rarity, would be not the example of a general rule, but an exception to it.
The judge then proceeds to an exaggerated picture of the enormity of libels. He says that injuries of this kind, "are of all others most sensibly felt ." The loss of a friend, of money, or of health, is of infinitely greater consequence. If a writer publishes a pamphlet full of reproach, and at the same time advances no evidence to support or justify his stile, the attack will go for nothing, unless it is previously known that the person did really deserve it. If the accuser asserts particular charges, let him produce his testimony, and the party may defend himself as well as he can. The real character of every man is always sufficiently known to a number of his acquaintances, who will not value him the less for any printed invective. If a specific charge appears against a person, he ought, as a duty to himself, to refute it, if he is able, by a public explanation. If he can, thereafter, specify that the piece did him a real injury, that it disappointed him of an advantageous marriage, that it provoked his father to disinherit him, his creditors to call a meeting, his employer to dismiss him, his friend to send him a challenge, or his bookseller to refuse the purchase of his manuscripts; in these, or in cases like these, damages are justly due, and will be deservedly given. But in every hundred ordinary prosecutions for a libel, there are not perhaps four where such essential injury is either proved, or attempted to be so. If a man is attacked from the press, let him reply through the same channel. He fights his antagonist with equal weapons. The doctrine of libels has very frequently been a screen for powerful and profligate men, who, being unable to meet their accuser on the fair ground of argument and detail, had recourse to law, that they might overwhelm him by the expence of litigation.
In all countries, those who hold the reins of government are the persons who have most to fear from a disclosure of truth. In all countries, also, the bench has been remarkably supple to government; witness the ship money trial of John Hampden. Indeed what is in reason to be expected from a judge? As a practising lawyer, he has already spent half his life in affirming, for a fee, that black is white, and that white is black. The elegance of genius, and the refinements of taste, are apt to expire under the daily deluge of juridical barbarism. From a long familiarity with chicane and misfortune, he bears of imprisonment and forgery with the phlegm of a surgeon examining whether your leg has a simple or compound fracture. After this novitiate, he ascends the bench, and having received his office from government, sometimes holding it but at pleasure, and commonly panting for preferment, he is in general extremely forward to vindicate its usurpations, and to promote its crimes. This natural correspondence and sympathy between the judicial and executive branches, accounts for the violence with which the doctrine of libels has been so often inculcated. Indicti veritas non excusat , is a well known maxim of the civil law. The greater the truth, the greater the libel , was the translation of Lord Mansfield; as if man was born only to lie, and truth was the greatest of vices. These observations have no peculiar reference to the intelligent and respectable judge, from whose pen some parts of this charge have escaped in a moment of inattention. But they shew the pernicious ends to which the doctrine of libels hath been commonly perverted.
Mr. M c Kean then observes, that by
the twelve tables, a libel was a capital offence . The same tables authorised a creditor in executing his debtor's body to pieces. But a Pennsylvanian jury have no concern with such barbarous precedents. To find all that is savage and inhuman, the judge needs not to travel farther than the statutes of England.
The charge goes on with several remarks on the liberty and abuse of the press. They are half right and half wrong, and having already been repeated over so many millions of times, they shall not occupy room in this place. But the following passage deserves the closest examination.
"If any person, whether in a public or private station, does injury to an individual, or to the society, ample redress can be had by having recourse to the laws, and the proper tribunals, where they may be heard personally, or by good counsel, the truth can be fairly investigated, and justice fully obtained,* so that there can be no necessity nor reason for accusing any one of public or private wrongs, in pamphlets or newspapers, or of appeals to the people under feigned names."
There can be no necessity nor reason for accusing any one of public or private wrongs, &c. This is an extraordinary and alarming doctrine.
The law to which judge M c Kean refers for universal redress, is in itself too often a mass of iniquity, and the surest way to amend it, is to let every man say and print what he pleases about it. For multitudes of personal offences a court of justice can afford no remedy; and yet people, when angry, will complain from the press as well as in other ways. Legal prosecution can only be supported by a heavy purse, and the issue is both tedious and uncertain. As for public wrongs , if a fellow-citizen disapproves of the conduct of Messrs. Adams, Jefferson, or Pickering, he is not to arraign them in a court of justice, but in the first press where he can find admission. Read the last extract over again, and it will be found to go precisely to the extirpation of all political discussion , and the nation must be in an admirable train when they dare no longer say what they think of their legislators, their judges, and the rest of their own servants. As for feigned names, many productions of singular merit have appeared without the name of their author.
The judge next complains of the shameful state of the American press, and it is wonderful that, on this head, any degree of description can exceed truth: "Our satire," says he, "has been nothing but ribbaldry and Bilinggate." He has other phrases equally beyond the mark; but the faults of this charge deserve to be forgotten for the sake of one masterly paragraph, which, for happiness of irony, and keenness of censure, has not been surpassed. It is in these words.
"At a time when misunderstandings prevail between the republics of the United States and France, and when our general government have appointed public ministers to endeavour their removal and restore the former harmony, some of the Journals, or newspapers, in the city of Philadelphia, have teemed with the most irritating invectives, couched in the most vulgar opprobrious language, not only against the French nation and her allies, but the very men in power, with whom the ministers of our country are sent to negotiate. These publications have an evident tendency, not only to frustrate a reconciliation, but to create a rupture, and promote war between the sister republics, and seem calculated to vilify, nay to subvert, all republican governments whatever."
Now, the four points of the compass are not better known than this fact, that
* For instance, a person goes on board a ship in the Delaware. He is there wantonly knocked down. He commences a prosecution. The defendant's counsel attacks him in the harshest stile. In the end a fine of fifty dollars is awarded, not to the prosecutor, but the state. Quere, are not decisions of this kind equivalent to countenancing of assassination?
the Gazette of the United States is under the immediate influence of the senate and president Adams; and that it rails, with a perseverance of rancour, which cannot be exceeded, at the French revolution, the French directory, and the French nation. Hence it must be inferred, that the attempts of our cabinet to conciliate the republic are a mere pretence, and that nothing less than a French war will content the present rulers of America. This opinion is here corroborated by the powerful authority of judge M c Kean, who very justly regards the patrons of such "irritating invectives" as the promoters of an open rupture. Let this truth be weighed and contemplated, again and again; and then every man must be convinced that, till the Gazette of the United States shall change its stile, France can never confide in our executive.
REMARKS, SUBMITTED TO THE CONSIDERATION OF THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA,
(Originally Printed in 1796.)
(Continued from No. 66.)
IT is said, 1. That the proposed system will have an aristocratical tendency.
2. That the most commercial countries flourish without it.
3. That it will serve to deaden that attachment to one's native soil, which is alleged to be the parent of many virtues: and
4thly. That it will give a permanent interest in the soil to men, who are not permanently attached to the country.
It is remarkable in the present discussion, that the advocates of the proposed law are charged with promoting a scheme favorable to aristocracy: when the aristocratical tendency of the existing system has been so warmly urged, as one reason why it should be abolished. This attack, however, is supported only by bare assertion. No man has undertaken to point out the manner in which the proposed law will promote aristocracy: because no man can really believe, that a law of which the principal operation will be to transfer land from one person to another, to prevent monopolies, and to multiply owners of the freehold, can possibly contribute to accumulate or perpetuate wealth in particular families. In truth, this idea is too absurd to merit a serious notice. The immense landed estates which were held under the old government and are now held by persons greatly embarrassed in their finances, afford it the most unequivocal refutation.
The second objection is intitled to more respect. In England the same eligit law exists, yet commerce flourishes and credit is established. The inference appears to be correct, that if it be not necessary to subject real property to execution there, it is not here. But there are one or two considerations which diminish, if they do not destroy the force of this remark.
The first is, that the far greater part of the lands in that country is under lease for terms of years. In this case, the sheriff by virtue of an execution, may sell the term as a chattel. The holder, therefore, in England, who holds lands for years, is in the same situation with a planter here, whose freehold might be taken to pay his debts.
Another consideration of some importance is, that tenants in England form a class in society. Their situation is such as to oblige them to be punctual in the payment of their rents. This punctuality can never be observed without the aid of industry or economy. Where these qualities are predominant, the people have little to do with the law of execution.
A third consideration is, that most of the real property in the kingdom yields, or is capable of yielding a certain rent. If the lands chance not to be in culti-
vation, tenants are easily procured. An eligit, therefore, will pay a debt in a given time, and with little trouble to the creditor.
A consideration still more weighty is derived from the bankrupt laws. It is impossible to ascertain the proportion which the mass of trading people, and the amount of their property bears to the population and wealth of the whole country. It is probably more than one third. Whatever it is, it is under the immediate operation of a law, which at once, without the formality or delay of a suit, takes from a man every thing that he possesses.
There are other circumstances, which supercede the necessity of recurring in that country to the measure now proposed: but the remarks already made, shew so striking a difference between the situation of Virginia and Britain, that the experience of one can afford no guide for the conduct of the other.
The principal city of that country, however, affords a remarkable illustration of the truth and importance of the principles here inculcated as to credit. At what is called the west end of the town goods, it is said, are from £.10 to £.20 cent dearer than they are in what is termed the City. The reason is obvious. The west end of the town is occupied by a sort of people whose persons are exempt from arrest, and whose estates are settled upon them and their children. They are therefore, generally speaking very ready to contract debts, and very indifferent about paying them. Hence the merchants with whom they deal, take care to be indemnified for risk and delay, by putting a heavy advance on the price of their goods.
The third objection deserves notice more on account of the handsome declaration to which it has given birth, than for its intrinsic force. It is natural that a man should view with affection the place of his birth, and the residence of his fathers; but he is not a wiser man or better citizen on that account. If, however, the proposed law takes place, this sentiment will be rendered still more interesting, because the proprietor of an estate which has descended through many generations, will have before him a perpetual evidence of the frugality, industry, and integrity of his ancestors.
The fourth objection clashes with one which has been often urged in this country. It has been frequently observed, that the state of Virginia laboured under difficulties of a peculiar kind. Its trade, it is said, is conducted by people who having no permanent interest in the country, leave it with the fruits of their industry. It is now objected that this law will give them a permanent interest.
The answer to this objection is conclusive as well as obvious. Merchants will not become the purchasers of lands sold under execution. They do not want land. As long as they remain in trade, it can be of little service to them. If, however, they wish to purchase with a view to settle here, they can accomplish their purpose without the aid of this law. It may be said too, that a man's affections are generally in the neighbourhood of his interests, and that a permanent attachment will always be felt, where there is a permanent property.
Where several causes contribute to the production of the same effects, the exact operation of each cause cannot be ascertained. The science of politics has not yet attained such geometrical precision. It is not to be understood, therefore, that the evils enumerated in the foregoing pages are considered as resulting exclusively, from the exemption of real property from execution. It is only meant, that they are to be ascribed to a system, of which this exemption forms the most prominent and important feature.
In this discussion, it has been my purpose not to say all that could be said, but to present to my fellow-citizens, subjects, for reflection---In undertaking it, I have been influenced solely by a wish, to promote their welfare.
(Concluded.)