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THE SPANISH PATRIOTS.

IF the cause which united all America against Great-Britain in 1776, and the feelings which produced that union, ever had a parallel in history, it must be discovered in the late attempt of the Spaniards, to free their country from the oppression of a tyrant, who has derided their religion, wasted their treasure, and made their monarch a prisoner. Yet the democratick party affect to view all the honour which is paid to this glorious cause, as inconsistent with the character of the American people; and they sneer at every expression of the publick, in favour of it. Not only the democratick papers in this place, but those in various parts of the country, have discountenanced, as far as lay in their power, every hope that they should succeed. Why is all this? why are they not as favourable to Spain in 1809, as they pretended to have been to America in 1776? Because the French nation is opposed to them, and apparently for no other reason. And yet these people not only in their writings, but in publick town meetings, affect to say, that there is no French influence in the country; and that if America is to go to war, which they affirm is highly probable, they will go to war with France.

Their champions in publick town meeting, on the question of petitioning the State Legislature, expressly declared their belief, not only that the preparations for war, now making, were not directed against Great Britain, but that France was the object of hostility; and yet looking into their papers, we do not perceive a syllable which can be construed into enmity against Bonaparte, or the French government. We sincerely hope the predictions of one of the speakers may be fulfilled, "That the Orders in Council are now taken off, in consequence," he firmly believes," of the measures of the present administration."

The Dinner given on Tuesday, in honour of the Spanish nation, so far from exciting sympathy or praise in the breasts of the democrats, has been the cause of the most vindictive ebullitions of their spleen. This dinner is highly honourable to the town: for the Spaniards were not only the first to honour us in our struggle for independence, but the cause in which they are engaged, is universally acknowledged throughout Europe, to have more justice on one side, and more political turpitude on the side of France, than has existed in any dispute since the French revolution began its career. Yet black as that nation is on the catalogue of perfidious powers, and covered as her rulers have been with the reproaches of mankind; the attempt to dethrone the Spanish monarch, and place a Bonaparte on the throne, strikes a blow in the world, which is felt to the remotest nations; and as every one feels the injury, so every one should express the resentment which such injuries demand.

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MR. CANNING's LETTER.

WHAT becomes now of the assertions of those democratick gentlemen, who declared this letter to be a forgery? What becomes now of the veracity of the Monitor? With what face can the gentleman still support his party, who openly declared "that if that letter had been suppressed by the administration, it no longer deserved the countenance of the people, and that he would be one to discountenance it ?" The president has acknowledged the suppression of this document; and what excuse has he made for his turpitude? Why, forsooth, the communication of the letter alone, (Mr. Pinckney's answer to it, he affirms had not arrived,) would have accorded neither with propriety nor the wishes of Mr. Pinckney." Well done modesty, egad! Mr. Jefferson, who sent back to England a treaty, almost without reading it, negocia ted by this very Mr. Pinckney, is now scrupulous of injuring the feel. ings of that gentleman! But pray what have the wishes of Mr. Pinckney to do in preventing the communication of important national documents? According to this rule, an unsuccessful negociation may prevent any communications from being made to the people. But "it would not accord with propriety," and the answer of Mr. Pinckney had not been received. Indeed it would not accord with propriety; for it exposed, as completely as words could, the impropriety of the conduct of admininistration. But Mr. Pinckney's answer had not been received. This requires some little reflection. In the first place, we affirm that it is highly improbable, and in fact violates common sense and discretion to suppose Mr. Pinckney would send home a publick document, of this important nature, without accompanying it with as full and complete an extenuation of the government and himself, as he could possibly produce. The idea that he could dispatch Mr. Canning's letter home, without his own reply, proves that he is a great ignoramus, and, of course, must make a very ridiculous figure on the elevated station where he is placed; and that he ought to be recalled immediately, for the honour of the United States, little as there is of it abroad. We do not, however, believe that the documents did arrive separately; but if they did, we venture to affirm, the answer of Mr. Pinckney has not been received since the publication of Mr. Canning's letter, in Washington: and, if so, the duty had devolved on the presi. dent, before that time, to have communicated it to congress. It is evident, Mr. Jefferson would have suppressed the whole correspondence, if he could; it was his interest to do so: because it unmasked the treachery of our foreign negociations, and we will not for the honour of human nature suppose, that the administration could endure the complete exposure of their nakedness. It is too bloated with crime, and defiled by treachery, to be shewn to the world without abhorrence.

This subject will receive further attention, in our next number.

CONSIDERATIONS ON "THE CONTRAST”

"Between the death of a Deist, and the death of a Christian," contained in the Panoplist of November last.

We have proposed to notice some of the inferences which the Rev. Doctor Mason has unwarrantably drawn from the circumstances attending the respective deaths of Mr. Hume and Dr. Finley.

There is no object more distressing than a zealous bigot; who strives to wrest all observations from their natural direction, in order to make them accord with his views, or array them in feeble opposition, that he may more easily overturn them. The reverend author we have just mentioned, affirms in the first place, that the letter of Dr. Adam Smith, concerning the death of Mr. Hume, is a proof of an infidel attempt to set off the intrepidity or composure of a sceptical brother, and shew him to the greatest advantage at the time of dissolution. We undertake to say, on the contrary, that the letter in question is exceedingly unguarded; what need would there have been (if Doctor Smith wished Mr. Hume's reputation extended) to introduce Charon and his boat, and Lucian's dialogues of the dead? The tendency of these passages, so far from setting Mr. Hume off to advantage, in the eyes of the world, has a directly contrary effect. If so, the whole ground work of Dr. Mason's intolerant comparison is overturned. Let any one read the letter of Dr. Smith, and then let him declare whether there is, apparently, any attempt to distort or conceal circumstances, in order to make a more favourable impression of Mr. Hume's moral character. What need, if that were the intention, of mentioning the game of whist ; why not conceal it? The death of Mr. Finley, to which Dr. Mason turns with rapture, was the death of a superstitious enthusiast, and the death of Mr. Hume, that of a man who did not believe in the doctrine of the christian religion to be sure, but which can have no bearing upon the validity of those doctrines. Religion must rest upon its own basis: the breath of infidelity can no more overturn the fabrick, than the weak props of superstition can support it.

It was not expected of Mr. Hume, that he should express a belief of the christian religion; he died consistently with his previous character. And we maintain that Dr. Mason has no right to infer any thing in favour of christianity, because Mr. Hume said nothing about a God, a providence, or an hereafter. If the composure of that great writer, at his death, intrinsically considered, has any bearing on the christian system, it is not in favour of it. But Dr. Mason, by begging the question in the first instance, rushes on afterwards in a stream of superstitious eloquence, against those passages in Dr. Smith's letter, which merely described the consistency of Mr. Hume's character. How does he prove the benefits resulting to christianity, from the death of Mr. Hume? why truly, by shewing him perfectly serene and composed in

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his disbelief. This is a novel mode of conviction to be sure; but he proceeds to argue from his dying without mentioning the subject, that religion was therefore triumphant. The death of Mr. Hume was correspondent to his character; but whether the death of a christian is not more honourable than that of an infidel, is a distinct subject of enquiry, and certainly very easy of solution.

Dr. Mason takes for granted as much of the account given of the death of Mr. Hume, as suits his purpose, and rejects, or distorts the rest, to gratify his pleasure or convenience. When Dr. Black describes Mr. Hume as saying, "I am dying as easily and cheerfully as my best friends could desire;" that "when he became very weak, it cost him an effort to speak, and that he died in such a happy composure of mind that nothing could exceed it," Dr. Mason undertakes to disbelieve it. He declares all this " composure," "cheerfulness," complacency," "resignation," "happiness," to be affectation. "It is a mockery," says he, "of every human feeling; and every throbbing of the heart convicts it of a lie." Why is Dr. Mason thus violent in his rage? If the circumstances make in favour of Christianity, this effervescence of zeal is superfluous; but if the contrary, why then he should shew the superiority of Christian gentleness to infidel composure, and not denominate a gentleman a liar, in unqualified terms. The truth is, he thinks the argument makes against him, and he rages. He might, with equal propriety, have declared, the disbelief of certain tenets, expressed in the writings of Mr. Hume, to be a mockery and a lie; but would that assertion be a reply to the arguments this writer has made use of? If all those circumstances, in the life and death of an infidel, which are variant from the Christian doctrines, are proofs of the truth of those doctrines, then a man may prove, by a similar process, any contradiction in nature.

Dr. Mason says this resignation and complacency could not be, because it could not be; he opposes his inference to the assertion of Dr. Black, and there he leaves the argument.

Dr. Mason expatiates upon the nonsense of Mr. Finley, with most extravagant and enthusiastick fervour; but we hope infidelity can be more easily refuted than by the ebullitions of such zeal, and christianity be better supported, than by deviating from truth and candour, and in truth, by departing from the very rules of christianity.

The christian religion derives support from its own intrinsick excellence; the light of revelation, and the tests of experience. The beams which are shed upon it, to shew the beauty of its structure, pro ceed directly from the source of light, and irradiate its inmost recess. Do not let us attempt to build up these adventitious supports, for the consequences, without overthrowing infidelity, may be detrimental to christianity itself.

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Rara temporum felicitas, ubi sentire quæ velis, et quæ sentias discere, licet. TACIT.

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SIR,

LETTER.-No. 2.

THE gulf of distress into which this country has been involved, first by the temporising uncertainty, and afterwards by the violent pressure of your measures, threatens to involve you too in the general destruction. The chastity of your administration had always been suspected, from the prudery of its exteriour, and its captiousness at the most distant insinuation; but fortunately for the nation, the effects of illicit intercourse are growing every day more evident. You are about to retire, sir, but your shame will remain, and the execrations of the country will pursue you. You are every way to be pitied or despised, since you are every way unfortunate and contemptible. But, though your ridiculous misfortunes might disarm even personal enmity of its weapon; your treachery to the nation, will place it in the hands of publick justice, to inflict the vengeance, due to so enormous a crime. Justice has no sympathy; your faults have of late so much accumulated in her balance, that her sword is now raised, waiting for the signal of the people. Though cowardice is a protection from the resentments of courage, it is no defence against the determinations of the publick will. In your retirement from office, you cannot carry with you the infamy of your transactions; you may perish, but they will remain uninjured; for they are preserved in the tears of your afflicted country.

Since the acknowledgment of your suppression of the important document from Mr. Canning; the abuse of your polluted presses has suddenly been stopped. The prevarication of Vol. 1.

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