Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1821-08-09
From the Philadelphia Onion.
nkrEg

DATES.
There are but few readers Of general
history that cannot sympathise with Vol
taire, who, when one of the king of Prus-
sia's generals corrected him as to the date
of battle, replied, Well, fool, it uas
fought, and what matter whether in sum-
mer or in autumn"
In looking through the vast vista of
time past, considering the fate Of the ma
tions now extinct, or viewing the great
chain of cause and effects, which bind,
the incidents of history in one connected
series, it seems of little matter to us
whether some of the greatest events on
record, happened in spring or in autumn,
in the year 1000, or in the year 1901. If
we can arrange facts in our minds in
something like their order of occurrence,
we are contented, and TO greater accura-
cy is requisite for general purposes. But
to the journalists of the times, and to the
reader Of the news. a greater degree of
exactness is necessary, and mistake of
one week or one day, may lead to impor-
tant errors.
Our attention has been drawn to this
subject by some remarks which appear
ed in the Aurora one day last week, rela-
tive to accounts from Peru received by
way of Jamaica. These, the editor Of
that paper is of opinion, should be regard
ed as second edition of the intelligence
circulated about a month before, the date
changed from the 10th of February to
the 10th of March, and the whole new
vamped to suit the purposes of political
and commercial agents We are mach
of the same way of thinking; and, indeed,
most of the news from that quarter is of
SO equivocal a nature, that we lay it down
as general rule to believe nothing re-
speeding South America, but what is es
tabtished by the mouth of two or three
witnesses, who, to all appearance, have
no sinister designs to answer, and no in
clination to impose on the public The
editor Of the Aurora has exposed the fal-
lacy of many rumors from those regions,
and from the attention he pays to the af-
fairs of the patriots, we should place con-
siderable reliance On his deductions. did
we not suspect that his warm wishes for
the success o. the independents, some
times blinds his judgment Remember
the Neapolitan catastrophe. A little
more care in comparing accounts, might
have shown the state of the European re-
volutionists, and prevented those prema-
ture reioicings, which, when the truth
became known, were followed by so sud-
den a depression of spirits; besi es saving
us the trouble of making sundry profound
and learned dissertations on the future
condition of man in the eastern hemis
phere, and the modification most of our
editorial brethren experienced in finding
their professional sagacity SO much less
acute than they supposed it to be.
A little attention to the miscellaneous
department ofthe gazettes will shew their
accuracy in respect to dates.
An obituary notice of Mr. Matthew
M'Renney, who died in a Jail in the state
of n York, where he had been confined
thirty years for single debt, has lately
been going the rounds of the newspapers,
calling forth the Obs! of the Just. and the
Ahs! of the merciful. A few weeks ago
on opening an old magazine, we found
the same death recorded. the same cir
cumstances related, and some very pretty
moral reflections appended
Like to this is The tale recently pub
lished, Of a man near St Clairsyille, Ohio.
who having his bacon stolen, rubbed ar
senic on it in order to detect the thief.
whereby labouring man, his wife, and
several children were poisoned The ed
itor ofthe st. Clairsvillo Gazette declares
that no such event had occurred in that
neighborhood, and traces the story to it's
origin in some intelligence received from
Europe about the close Of the last war:
The narrative Of the Berner's street
hoax, which has lately appeared in sever
al papers. was originally published more
than six years ago; that of the dandy in