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Tory, but a Printer. I detest and abhor hypocrisy. I had no more regard for General Howe or General Clinton, or even for Mrs. Lowring or any other of the Chaste Nymphs that attended the fete Champetre, alias Mischianza,† when I printed in their behalf, than for the Congress on the day of their retreat. It is pretended that I certainly did in my heart incline to the English, because that I printed much bigger lies and in greater number for them, than for the Congress. This is a most false and unjust insinuation. It was entirely the fault of the Congress themselves, who thought fit (being but a new potentate upon the earth,) to be much more modest, and keep nearer the truth than their adversaries. Had any of them brought me in a fie as big as a mountain it should have issued from my press. This gives me an opportunity of showing the folly as well as malignity of those who are actuated by party spirit; many of them have affirmed that I printed monstrous and incredible lies for General Howe. Now pray what harm could incredible lies do? the only hurt, I conceive, that any lie can do, is by obtaining belief, as a truth; but an incredible lie can obtain no belief, and therefore at least must be perfectly harmless. What will those cavilers think, if I should turn this argument against them, and say that the most effectual way to disgrace any cause is to publish monstrous and incredible lies in its favour? In this view, I have not only innocence, but some degree of merit to plead. However, take it which way you will, there never was a lie published in Philadelphia that could bear the least comparison with those published by James Rivington, in New York. This in my opinion is to be imputed to the superiority not of the Printer, but of the Prompter or Prompters. I reckon Mr. T.- to have excelled in that branch; and he had probably many coadjutors. -What do you think of 40,000 Russians and 20,000 Moors, which Moors too were said by Mr. Rivington to be dreadful among the women? as also the boats building at the forks of the Monongahela to carry the Congress down the Ohio to New Orleans? these were swingers. As to myself and friend Hs, we contented ourselves with publishing affidavits to prove that the King of France was determined to preserve the friendship that subsisted between him and his good brother the King of England, of which he has given a new proof by entering into and communicating his treaty with the United States of America. Upon the whole I hope the public will attribute my conduct, not to disaffection, but to attachment to my own interest and desire of gain in my profession; a principle, if I mistake not, pretty general and pretty powerful in the present day. 3dly. I hope the public will consider that I have been a timorous man, or, if you will, a coward, from my youth, so that I cannot fight-my belly is so A married lady, said to have been the mistress of the British General H-e. See Battle of the Kegs.

A public exhibition in honour of the British General Howe

big that I cannot run-and I am so great a lover of eating and drinking that I cannot starve. When those three things are considered, I hope they will fully account for my past conduct, and procure me the liberty of going on in the same uniform tenor for the future No just judgment can be formed of a man's character and conduct unless every circumstance is taken in and fairly attended to; I therefore hope that this justice will be done in my case. I am also verily persuaded that if all those who are ewards as well as myself, at who are better off in other respects, and therefore can and do run whenever danger is near them, wou'd befriend me, I should have no inconsiderable body on side. Peace be with the Congress and the army mean no reflections; but the world is a wide field, ardi wish everybody would do as they would be done by. Finally, I do hereby recant, draw back, eat in, and swailow down, every word that I have ever spoken, written or printed to the prejudice of the United States of America, hoping it will not only satisfy the good peo ́ple in general, but also all those scatter-brained fellows, who call one another out to shoot pistols in the air, while they tremble so much they cannot hit the mark. In the meantime I will return to labour with assiduity in my lawful calling, and essays and intelligence as before shall be gratefully accepted by the Public's most obedient humble servant, BENJAMIN TOWNE."

THOMAS PAINE.

THE popularity of Paine's writings resulted rather from accident than from any merit which they possessed, but his political essays made him famous for a day, and every one connected with the press become anxious to engage his services. Aitken, the publisher of the Pennsylvania Magazine, contracted with him to write

a certain number of pages for each number of that

periodical, but Paine's indolence was such that he could rarely procure his articles in season, and on one occasion he went to his lodgings and complained with severity of his not finishing articles in the proper time. Paine heard him patiently, and coolly answered, "You shall have them in time." Aitken expressed some

doubts on the subject, and insisted on Paine's accompanying him and proceeding immediately to business, as the workmen were waiting for copy. He accordingly went home with Aitken, and was soon seated at the table with the necessary apparatus, which always included a glass, and a decanter of brandy. Aitken ob served, he would never write without that." The first glass put him in a train of thinking; Aitken feared the second would disqualify him, or render him untractable; but it only illuminated his intellectual system; and when he had swallowed the third glass, he wrote with rapidity, intelligence, and precision; and hia ideas appeared to flow faster than he could commit them to paper. What he penned from the inspiration of the brandy, was perfectly fit for the press without any alteration, or correction

THE END.

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