those gentlemen have ever done him an injury. He could not have been moved by personal interest; since his conscious inferiority, as well as the nature of his pursuits, remove him far from the possibility of being ever brought into collision with either of those gentlemen. He could not have been impelled by diabolical envy, or the malicious agony of blasted ambition; since his country has already distinguished him far, very far, beyond his desert. And of the malevolence of heart which could intentionally do a wicked, a wanton and unprovoked injury, he is persuaded that either of the gentlemen, if they knew him, would most freely and cheerfully acquit him.

If he be asked why he published the letters describing those characters? He an

swers,

First, for the same reason that he would, if he could, present to the town, a set of

landscape paintings, representing all the lovely prospects which belong to their beautiful city; to furnish them with the amusement and pleasure, which arise from surveying an ac- ́ curate picture of a well known original: and this implies, that he could not have believed himself adding new information, as to the originals themselves.

Secondly, he hoped that the abstracted and miscellaneons remarks, which were blended with the description of those characters, might not be without their use, to the many literary young men who are growing up in Virginia.

If the letters of the British Spy have gone beyond these purposes; if they have given pain to the gentlemen described; (for as to doing them an injury, it is, certainly, out of the question) there is no man in the community disposed to regret it, more sensibly,

than the man who furnished those letters for

publication.

But while honour and justice compel the writer of this article to give these explanations, and make these acknowledgments to the gentlemen immediately interested, he begs he may not be considered as descending to the meanness of begging mercy on his own "glass house." On the contrary, the person, who has published the polite hint in question, is welcome to commence his assault as soon as he pleases. He can scarcely point out one defect in the person, manner, or mind of this writer, of which he is not already conscious. And if he meant by his menace any thing more; if he meant to insinuate a suspicion to the publick, that the honesty, integrity, or moral purity, of the man who furnished the letters of the British Spy for publication, are assailable on any ground of truth; if such was his intention, he has intended an injury, at which this

writer laughs in proud security: an injury, for which his own heart, if it be a good one, will not forgive him so soon, as will the heart of the man whom he has attempted to injure.

The writer of this article tenders in return this hint to the hinter: that before he commences his hostile operations, he will be sure of his man. As to the person who really did furnish the British Spy-the finger of conjecture has been erroneously pointed at several who reside in this state. It would be unjust and barbarous to punish the innocent for the guilty, if guilt can be justly charged on the British Spy.

17*

LETTER X.

Richmond, December 10.

In one of my late rides into the surrounding country, I stopped at a little inn to refresh myself and my horse; and, as the landlord was neither a Boniface, nor "mine host of the garter," I called for a book, by way of killing time, while the preparations for my repast were going forward. He brought me a shattered fragment of the second volume of the Spectator, which he told me was the only book in the house, for “he never troubled his head about reading;" and by way of conclusive proof, he further informed me, that this fragment, the only book in the house, had been sleeping unmolested in the dust of his mantlepiece, for ten or fifteen years. I could not meet my venerable countryman, in