Alexandria gazette, commercial and political. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1812-1817, 1817-04-23

tIlOn WIS Ill IOuhuot toi
not believe your old friend. who
told you repeatedly, that, by those
measures, England would lose her
COLONIES. as Epictetus warned in vain
! Ibis master, that he would break his
LEG. You believed rather the tales
you heard of our poltroonery, and i'm
lpotence of body and mind. DO you
mot remember the story you told me OF
1.-The Scotch sergeant who met with a
party of forty American soldiers, and
Tho alone, disarmed them all, and
brought them in prisoners A story
almost as improbable as that of the
lIrishman, who pretended TO have
alone taken and brought in five of the
enemy, by surrounding thcm.-And
yet, my friend, sensible and iudicious
as you are, but partakins OF the &C.
neral inflammation, you seemed to be-
Ilieve It. The word general puts me
! in mind Of General. your General
Clark, who had the folly to say, in my
hearing, at Sir john Prinsle's, that
with Thousand British grenadicrs.
he would undertake to so from one
end OF America to the other, and geld
all the males. partly by force, Il partly
10y little coaxing. 1t is plain he
took US for species Of animals very
little superior to brutes. The parl!a-
ment, too, believed the stories Of a.
mother foolish general. ] forget his
name, that the Yankees never felt
bold. Yankee was understood to be
a sort Of Yahoo, and TIE Parliament
did not think the petitions OF such
creaturcs were TT 10 be received and
iread in so wise an assembly. What
was the consequence ofthis monstrous
pride and inso!ence You frst sent
small armies to subdue US, believing
them more than sufficient but soon
found yourselves obliged to ser3 great
er; these whenever they venturcd to
penetrate our country beyond the pro-
lection of their ships, wee eithe"re
pulsed and obliged to scamper ont, or
were surrounded, beaten and taken
prisoners.
An American planter, who had
never seen Europe, was chosen by
rs to command our troops and con-
tinued during the whole war. This
man sent home to YOU, one after ano-
thcr,fi of your best generals balied.
their heads bare Of laurels. disgraced
evea in the opinion Of their employers.
Your contempt Of our understanding,
in comparison with your own, appear
ed TO be not much better founded, than
that of our courage, if we may judge
! by this circumstance, thatin whatever
court of Europe Yankee negociator
appeared. pu. in a passion, picked a
quarrel with your friends, and was
sent home with a flea in his ear. Bat
after all, my dear friend, do not ina
ginc that l am vain enough to ascribeI
our success 70 any superiority in any
Of those points. | ain too well &C,
quaintcd with all the springs and le-
vers of our machine. not to see that
our human means were unequal to our
Undertaking, and that if it had not,
been for the justice OF our cause, and
the consequent intcrposition of Provi-
Idence, in which We had faitI,we mustI
have been ruined. III had ever been
an Atheist, l should now have been
convinced of the being and govern
ment of a Diety! Ii is he who aliases
the proud, and fayors the humble.
May we never forget his goodness 10
US. and may our future conduct mani
fest our gratitude
But let us have these serious re-
Elections and converse with our usual
pleasantly. remember your observ-
i ing once to me, as we sat together I'M
tie house of Commons, that no tw"|
| jomneymen printers, within your
knowledge lad met with success in
the world as ourselves. Yeu were
then az the head OF your profession,
and soon afterwards became mem-
Der Of Parliament. | was an agent
, fora few provinces, and now act for
them all. But we have risen by diff
lfercnt modes. /, as a republican
!printer. always Fixed form well
lplained down. but being aversc To-
those ovcrbearing letters that hold
their heads so high rs to hinder their
neighbours from appearing. YOU
as a monarChist. Chose 70 work upon
crown paper, and found it profitable 3
while worked upon propatria (otten,
t;,bool c,lIoJ p,,,Ic ca,\ with ,,n lpSs