TO THE EDITOR OF THE VIRGINIA ARGUS.

Sir,

THE manuscript, from which the following letters are extracted, was found in the bedchamber of a boarding house in a seaport town of Virginia. The gentleman, who had previously occupied that chamber, is represented by the mistress of the house to have been a meek and harmless young man, who meddled very little with the affairs of others, and concerning whom no one appeared sufficiently interested to make any inquiry. As it seems from the manuscript that the name by which he passed was not his real name, and as, moreover, she knew nothing of his residence, so that she was totally ignorant to whom and whither to direct it, she considered the manuscript as lawful prize and

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made a present of it to me.

It seems to be a

copy of letters written by a young Englishman of rank, during a tour through the United States, in 1803, to a member of the British parliament. They are dated from almost every part of the United States, contain a great deal of geographical description, a delineation of every character of note among us, some literary disquisitions, with a great mixture of moral and political observation. The letters are prettily written. Persons of every description will find in them a light and agreeable entertainment; and to the younger part of your readers they may not be uninstructive. For the present I select a few which were written from this place, and by way of distinction, will give them to you under the title of the British Spy.

LETTERS.

LETTER I.

Richmond, September 1.

You complain, my dear S......., that although I have been resident in Richmond upwards of six months, you have heard nothing from me since my arrival. The truth is, that I had suspended writing until a more intimate acquaintance with the people and their country should furnish me with the materials for a correspondence. Having now collected those materials, the apology ceases, and the correspondence begins. But first, a word of myself.

I still continue to wear the mask, and most willingly exchange the attentions, which would

be paid to my rank, for the superiour and exquisite pleasure of inspecting this country and this people, without attracting to myself a single eye of curiosity, or awakening a shade of suspicion. Under my assumed name, I gain an admission close enough to trace, at leisure, every line of the American character; while the plainness, or rather humility of my appearance, my manners and conversation, put no one on his guard, but enable me to take the portrait of nature, as it were, asleep and naked. Besides, there is something of innocent roguery in this masquerade, which I am playing, that sorts very well with the sportiveness of my temper. To sit and decoy the human heart from behind all its disguises: to watch the capricious evolutions of unrestrain

ed nature, frisking, curveting and gambolling at her ease, with the curtain of ceremony

drawn up to the very sky-O! it is delightful!

You are perhaps surprised at my speaking of the attentions which would be paid in this country to my rank. You will suppose that I have forgotten where I am: no such thing. I remember well enough that I am in Virginia, that state, which, of all the rest, plumes herself most highly on the democratick spirit of her principles. Her political principles are indeed democratick enough in all conscience. Rights and privileges, as regulated by the constitution of the state, belong in equal degree to all the citizens; and Peter Pindar's remark is perfectly true of the people of this country, that "every blackguard scoundrel is a king "* Nevertheless, there exists in Virginia a species of social rank, from which no country can, I presume,

* The reader needs scarcely to be reminded that the writer is a Briton and true to his character.