heart-The ftrings that fix it to my bofom are trembling for her.-t She glows with a generous love of freedom.-She has been condemned without a hearing. She was stabbed into resistance. The fword was held to her throat ere fhe thought of felf-defence. Conflagration, famine, and parricide, have entered her late peaceful: habitations. The common bounties of Providence have been denied her. The blood of citizens, of brothers, and of friends, are flowing in rivers through her streets.

"I have not, Emma, been one of those who hawk about my principles, and faunter in babbling ignorance from coffee-houfe to coffee-houfe. I am fixed in my politicks, and think my steady adherence to them a part of my religion. Since we are cruelly taught to make a fanguinary mark of distinction betwixt an Englishman and an American, I own myfelf the latter, and deplore the infirmities that prevent me from rushing to the field. My child, my child, I know the ruinous rapacity, the murder, the VILLAINY of this unnatural war. I enter deeply, and pathetically, into every wrong which America fuftains. It is the only point wherein I am enthufiaftic, and it is the only point where enthusiasm is great and glorious! Do not imagine, rash girl!--monftrous thought! do not DARE to imagine, ungrateful Henry fhall ever receive the hand of Emma. Spare me, beloved daughter, in this one part-this fore, this tender part-and in every other, command your father! You owe me this fubmiffion, you owe me this FAVOUR, this indulgence. I would have preferved your Hammond, and oppofed his entering into this wicked employment, but it was impoffible. High of heart, he fcorned to be even tenderly controulled. I endeavoured to win him generously over to an honourable caufe, He called it infult, bribery, bafenefs. The military diftration was throbbing in every vein. When I argued, he justified every measure of minifry. Great Britain, he faid, was grofsly abufed-her lenity scorn. ed her laws defied-her fublime prerogative contemptuously fet at nought. He fpoke loud and vehement of American rebellion. The honour of the empire, he faid, now depended on the exertion of each individual, and it was the duty of every young man (whom every tie of intereft, every bond of loyalty, and every principle of policy called upon) to manifest his zeal, his courage, and his attachment. He went on, my child, in all the foaming folly of youth, declaring, that he fhould account himself bafe, were he to deny the contribution of his arm. The greater his love for Emma, the nobler his facrifice, he faid. He was determined: he had made up his mind and was refolved to defend his country or gloriously perish in her ruins. I pitied his delirium, yet venerated his ardour. Well directed, of what was it not fufceptible! He was above admonition, and kept erring on. In true tenderness to thee, my Emma, I forgot the dignity of age, and even ftooped to intercede. After all my letters to him were in vain, I privately fought a perfonal interview, but his boiling spirit took fire. I reluctantly` withdrew, and gave up the point.

Oh,

Oh, America, thou bleeding innocent, how art thou laden with oppreffions! Oh, my child, my child! Nature, Religion, and Religion's God, are on her fide; and will you take to your arms, and to your embraces, a youth who propenfely violates thefe !-a cruel youth whofe reeking blade may at this moment fmoke with kindred gore! Tyranny hath not a referve of barbarity in ftore. She is exhausted. Your Henry is a volunteer amongft thofe who, as an acquifition to the British army, have added the tomahawk, the hatchet, and the fcalping knife. And will the tender-hearted Emma continue to love fuch a barbarian? Away, away, it will not bear a thought! Banifh, obliviate, deteft him. He is in open rebellion against the laws of nature. Let your affections flow into a fairer channel-ah, fuffer a parent's hand to pilot them. He has a friend in referve, my dear-fuch a friend

"But tell me that you have refumed yourself. Tell me that you are indeed my daughter. Adieu, CHARLES CORBETT.

"To Sir Robert Raymond.

"YOU force me into a very unwelcome explanation. Unwelcome, because precipitate; and which I defigned to have opened at a proper opportunity, in the hour of confidence-however, as the circumstance is thus haftened on, I must fuit myself to it.

"I am not by any means fo rich as I was at your departure from this country for India: yet I ain too rich and fhould think myself fo had I only one guinea upon the earth to marry Emma to your fortune to mend mine. I did love Hammond, even with a father's love, and in a legal fenfe to be his father was my favourite intention. Yet that idea is now, of all others, the farthest from my mind, and never CAN be revived. It is a little hard, that you have got me into fuch an exigence as to make it impoffible for me, with any credit, to keep the great fecret of my life.

"Henry Hammond is, against all advice, and perfuafion, violently attached to thofe cruel Spoilers, who have gone fword in hand into the bowels of a country, where my dear fon has fallen a victim-a country which is most barbaroufly butchered, and to whofe welfare I am bound by ties the most tender and interefting. I would reject you, I would reject an Emperor that should pretend to the hand of Emma, and yet facrilegioutly pollute his ozun hand, in the life-blood of AMERICA. Oh, thou hapless land! thou art precious to me beyond the breath which I am now drawing!beyond every hope that I can form on this fide heaven!-beyond my daughter-yes even beyond Emma, becaufe thou art equally the object of my love, and more of my pity! The rapacious Henry is gone to plunge another poignard in thy bofom ?-the bofom of my country-the tomb of Emma's brother, and the vault of every generous affection. Nature herfelf lies bleeding on thy shore, and there the inhuman mother has plunged the dagger (with her own barbarous hand) into the bowels of her child!.

"But oh, the deep and tremendous reftitutions are at hand; I

Rr 2

fee

fee them, with a prophetic eye, this moment before me. Horrors. fhall be repaid with accumulation of horror. The wounds in America thould be fucceeded by deep-mouthed gashes in the heart of Britain! he chain of folemn confequences advance. Yet, yet, my friend, a little while, and the poor forlorn one who has fought and fallen at the gate of her proper habitation, for freedom for the common privileges of life-for all the sweet and binding principles in humanity-for father, fon, and brother-for the cradled infant, the wailing widow and the weeping maid. Yet, yet, a little while and he fhall find an avenger. Indignant nations fhall arm in her defence.-Thrones and dominions fhall make ber caufe their own, and the fountains of blood which have run from her exhaufted veins, fhall be answered by a yet fuller measure of the horrible effufion. Blood for blood, and defolation or defolation! O, my poor Edward!-my buried property! -my maflac.ed America !

"You remember it was amongst my first questions that I defired to know your opinion of the war? I received the anfwer which foothed my heart, and it was not till after that moment, I fuffered my full tide of ancient tenderness again to flow,

To Henry I break no promife. Emma's attachment, I think, may be fubdued by gentle means. O, if the still unites her heart (even her fecret heart) to that volunteer murderer, these filver hairs fhall defcend in fudden forrow to the grave. But indeed, I do not apprehend it, She is all duty, She loves the fource of her exiftence, Come then. Discover to her your virtues, and try to fave me from the diftrefs of her preferring a rafh boy, who is bent upon deftroying those which are fo valuable to your CHARLES CORBETT

"To C, Corbett, Efq.

"You astonish me. I imagined you were, like myself, a citizen of the earth, and of no particular party. For my own part, I have travelled away all enthusiasm of the fort you mention. There is indeed, fomething like a natural affection, which one bears to the place of one's nativity; because, there our beings were first linked to the chain of fociety-there first shot up our ideas-there grew our connexions, our affections, our hopes, and our wishesthere our little loves were firft formed, and our little wants first accommodated. It is upon thefe accounts that I am more happy to contemplate the fcenes of England than those of India-that I rate more highly my own than I do a foreign language-that I look with fondeft partiality at the spot (which is marked in everlasting traces on the memory) devoted to the paftimes of my infancy, and that I continue fome fort of grateful tendernefs for the very trees, whofe fhades so often foothed me in the fummer of my childhood, My predilection, for my native country, friend Corbett, hath this extent no more.' It has been my fate to travel-I had almoft faid wherever Europeans are difperfed. I have travelled too, where civil fociety hath yet made no progrefs, but I have

never

never travelled (and oh, may I never) where the human face divine' did not meet my eye. However varied by colour, bý tint, and by feature, I faw enough to difcover my kind, and, to acknowledge it. I difputed not about the white or black, the tawny, or the yellow; nor about the different mixture fhade, or diftinction of thefe.-I saw my Species; and in this very ferious moment I declare to you, that I felt attachment to the ge neral figures of men and women, wherever I beheld them, even before I knew any thing of their particular difpofitions. In looking more close, I beheld amongst every people, whether favage or civilized, many things to like, and many to diflike: but not one to cut them wholly from my tenderness. Foremost of thofe points, Corbett, which burt me, were the bickerings that fubfifted between one state and another. In paffing through a variety of countries, and feeing them all, either engaging, preparing to engage, or healing the wounds of an engagement pal, I began to think the paffion for honourable death (i. e. cutting throats and lopping limbs for fubfiftence or for glory, for pride or pique) was univerfally peculiar to these ages of iron and fteel; till, devoting a cool hour to examine the map of the world, and perceiving that, from the creation (or very foon after) even unto this day, to shed blood in this manner has been the conftant practice, I gave up the idea of calling my fellow-creatures cruel or fanguinary upon this account, and deplored a custom which I could not approve. Yet, in every army are characters to be loved; and the human affections fpread themselves, more or lefs, over every clime. In confidering the caufes of wars, between different proportions of the fame fpecies, (of whom numbers without numbers have been flain) I have found them fo wretchedly inadequate to the horrible effects, that I have often melted into tears, but never have been inflamed with anger. Tens of thousands, my friend, have been facrificed to the frown of a favourite, the whim of a prince, or the fmile of a proftitute. The occafions are contemptible, but the event is murder. What can a good-natured man do, but commiferate the abufe of power, and the madness of ambition? In point of propriety there is feldom a pin to choose on either fide; and even when it is Juftice herself that draws the fword, and heads the phalanx, the blood of many an innocent is fhed in the conteft; and in the warmest moment of fuccefs, while Victory is enjoying her jubilee,-if all the milk of human kindness were not drained out of the hero's bofom-there is as much caufe for him to forrow, as to rejoice. Oh, Mr. Corbett, were he to retire after the fhout of acclamation to fome quiet folitude, and there think on the means by which the conqueft has been gained-were he to confider, that heaps of his countrymen as well as of the enemy (all of whom were human beings) lie cut to pieces upon the plain-while another heap, yet more to be regret ted, are groaning in hofpitals-would not the laurel wither on his brow? would not the fenfe of rapture be checked, fympathy stream from his eye, and recoiling horror freeze up the blood about

his

his heart? Such are my opinions. I caught them, my friend, from the fountain-head of a moft touching experience. They flowed immediately from the wounds of my fellow creatures. Appointed to the office of furgeon, at a period of war, in the earlier part of my life, it was the fortunes of our fhip more than once to feel the fhocks of public hoftility. I had fo much bufinefs upon my hands that it was almost too much for my heart. At the conclufion of the voyage, an opportunity offered to quit my cruel station, and I readily embraced it. Since that time I have kept myfelf unengaged from scenes for which nature did not form me; and I am not of any party. I deteft war, and the thoughts of war, but I fincerely with well to every human creature. That England is at variance with her colonies is unhappy. In both countries I have friends who are dear to me. In both I have property. But I dare not lean either way, left I fhould unfettle that fyftem of general loving-kindness which, for a great while, has been the bafis of my happiness. I affiduoufly avoid political converfation, and it is a certain prudence in your conduct (which feldom fuffers you to mention these things) that makes me fo pleafed, my dear Corbett, with your fociety. I am now too far advanced in life to begin the cares of a partizan, but as I have fome feelings, I cut out fome more congenial employment for them. I love my jeft. I love my friend. I love you; and I love your daughter. Your ardent principles now convince me, that an alliance with Hammond would be to unite fire with fire: I will therefore try, for her father's fake, and for mine, how far Emma may be brought to like a man of peace. I have only to defire that you will confider me as one who remains neuter upon the fame principle that you take a fide, viz. becaufe I think it is right, and because I feel it to be happy. This condition observed, our ancient friendship will stand firm, and I fhall ever be, yours, ROBERT RAYMOND.'

And here we fhall bring to a fufpenfion at leaft, our furvey of this compofition: promifing, nevertheless, at a future opportunity, to take up the pen of merited encomium once more, juft to introduce to our readers an episode to be met with in thefe volumes, which our fympathizing hearts affure us is little inferior to the divine ftory of Le Fevre. We must however juft observe that the quality of this work ought to be as excellent as they are; for the dexterity of the printer has been exerted fo adroitly that the quantity of two volumes is run into three,

An Account of fome Particulars relative to the Meeting held at York, on Thursday the 30th of December, 1779. By Leonard Smet, Eja. Becket.

IS.

Mr.