Thefe audacious meafures of the French awakened the jealoufy and roufed the indignation of Great-Britian, and caused the war between the two nations, that ended in 1762. In that war, the policy and energy of Pitt, aided by the prowefs of the British and Provincial troops, completely triumphed. Canada and Nova Scotia were wrefted from the French: the two Floridas were ceded to Great-Britain; and the French government was constrained to cede to Spain all its territories to the Weft of the Miffilippi, together with the town of New-Orleans-this ceffion was made, the day before the preliminaries of peace were figned between France and Britain. This procedure," forfooth, muft now be correƐled. France muft be inflated in the full poffeffion of all her former clains. "The French if they are wife," will reclaim all the territories in America," which were taken from them unjuftly by the mifconduct of their kings.' "Like the Romans, they might here provide for twenty or thirty thousand veterans." "This common advantage of colonization (lays our prophetic writer,) would be a valuable acquifition to the French republic, and might afford a convenient office to Bonaparte,-or fome other general, as governor or prefident.”

"

Nuw I folemnly call upon the citizens generally throughout the United States; I folembly call upon suy brethra in the Weften country, to confider and weigh thefe things. Can it be doubted, that vipers have been nurfed in the bolom of our country, which have gnawed upon her vitals and fattened upon her blood? Can it be doubted, tha it has been the zealous object of a party to proftrate the United States at the footitool of France'?-For the accomplishment of the aforementioned prophecy, Bonaparte is now in the full tide of fuccesful experiment." He has obtained the cefon of Lonifiania, and his ultimate object it is not difficult to conjcaure.

Even the lazy cowardly Spaniard, in obeitence to the fuppofed dilates of France, begins to buffet and spurn us. In violation of a folemn treaty, the ftipulated navigation of the Miffiffippi is obftru&ted, and the produce of the induftrious farmers of the Weltern country is perifhing on their

hands.

Great Washington!" Thy name a hoft," where art thou? Alas! Cold is the heart, that inceffantly beat for American freedom and independence; and nervelefs is thy once mighty arm !

1

fame, who for his gallic attachment and pufillanimity was formerly recalled from France by Wafhington ;-the fame who advised a loan to the French directory, and expreffed an high opinion not only of the talents, but of the integrity of the directors ;--the fame, who declared, in fubftance, to the French agents, that, if their fyftem of depredation upon the American commerce were really for the intereft of the French republic, the people of the United States, "would bear it not only with patience, but with pleasure."

The philofopher of Monticello reigns : -and it is the voice of fupplication, that we hear. An Ambaffador, with an expenfive outfit and salary, is difpatched to Spain and to France, to negociate with the mighty Dons and with the terrible Corfican. Mr. Monroe is this diplomatic agent :-the

By the confummate policy and redoubtable energy of this man, our grievances are to be redreffed, and the infulted honour of the nation will be vindicated!

My country!

"If thou beeft fhe; but O, how fall'n! how chang'd!"

SIDNEY.

Mr. ATTORNEY-GENERAL SPENCER's LATE ATTACK

ON THE

Liberty of the Prefs,

IN THIS COUNTY.

from the preffes oppofed to government, must be checked, or all that is dear to man would not be worth preferving. He said, he had been urged to this profecution more particularly by what fell from one of the Judges in his charge to the grand jury laft feffions. [Judge Sylvefter here interrupt ed Mr. SPENCER. He flated, that he had, in his charge to the grand jury, alluded to, turned their attention to all immoral pub-. lications, and had particularized "The Temple of Reason," an infamous deistical paper published weekly at Philadelphia ;. but that he had never alluded to the Wafp," or to any other particular pa per.] Mr. SPENCER replied, that he did not fuppofe that his honor had done fo. He could not believe that his honor would conduct as a certain federal judge once did. He then related to the court, that falfe and infamous flander about judgeCHACE, which is believed to have originated with DUANE That when he entered Richmond, he fent for the public profecutor and advised him, if there was any democratic printer in the city, whom they could get hold of, to profecute him immediately under the fedition law. But, Mr. SPENCER faid, his motives had nothing to do with the queftion. The court were bound to pronounce the law. And whatever might be faid about freedom, libery, and the rights of man, if the law was as he contended, it must have its courfe until altered by the Legiflature.

Written by a gentleman who was at court during the whole transaction, and who pledges himself that the detail is substanstially correct.

[CONCLUDED.]

MR.

Mr. SPENCER then reviewed the authorities which he had before quoted. He faid that Blackflone and Hawkins concurred in the doctrine, that any one who fpeaks words "tending to fcandalize the government," who fpeaks "words of contempt of any officer of juflice," or who publishes an obfcene book, may be bound to their good behaviour. He asked, if Mr. CROSWELL had not publifhed words tendR. SPENCER began his reing to fcandalize the government. If, ply by facing, that he could not avoid befaid he, a man may be bound to his good lieving, that the declamation of the gentle-behaviour merely for writing an obfcene, inen who preceded him, was addreffed more to the ears of the fpectators who furrounded the bar, than to the found diferetion of the court. They had made fine fpeeches, and travelled through the whole field of invective. They had invoked all the powers of liberty and independence, and attempted to press them into their fervice. But thefe, he faid, were delufive founds. At a distance they appeared enchanting; but when clofely inspected, they proved to be Jacks o' th' Wifp, calculated to bewilder the judgment and lead it into error.

book, for which he cannot be indicted at common law, is it not abfurd to say that for an indictable offence he cannot be fo bound? A libel is an offence of a very heinous nature. And he contended that, from the whole courfe of the authorities, a libeller was fubje&t to this recognizance. But, faid Mr. SPENCER, the gentlemen have told us that this man is not a libeller; that, he cannot be fo confidered by the court until he is pronounced guilty by a jury of his country. But here is an indictment found againft him for libelling THOMAS JEFFERSON. This is prima facie evidence of guilt. Befides, faid Mr. SPENCER, read the words which he is chargto have published. Mr. JEFFERSON is charged with violating the conftitution, which is, in fact, a charge of perjury. He is charged with having paid a villain for li

||

The gentlemen, he faid, had indulged themselves to a great extent, in reproaches. and had, not very politely, impeached hised motives. As to his motives in this profe. cution, he faid they were pure. The torrents of flander which pour inceffantly

belling that great and good man, that departed patriot, our beloved Washington. Can the court doubt that these are libels ? Or can they say that the man who publifhed them is not a libe'ler? Or, upon fo flimly a pretext, will they fuffer this calumniator, this flanderer, this affaffin, to continue his flanderous publications. [Mr. WILLIAMS interrupted Mr. SPENCER. He demanded that the court fhould protect Mr. CROSWELL from the abufe of the Attorney-General. Admitting the charges made against Mr. JEFFERSON ever fo falfe (which he denied) ftill the court could nev er know that Mr. CROSWELL was the publither, until he was declared so by a jury. Mr. CROSWELL, he faid, was neither a flanderer, or a calumniator. And as to the term affaffin, Mr. CROSWELL was as free from blood or crime as the man who would take this daftardly advantage of his fituation to abufe him with impunity. Mr. SPENCER explained, and faid he only meant an affaffin of reputation.] He then quoted 3d Burn's Juftice, page 348 and 349, to the fame effect with the quotations already given. And from the whole argued, with confiderable force and at fome length, that a man ftanding indicted for a libel might be bound to keep the peace and to be of good behaviour.

a

In anfwer to the authorities refered to by the counfel oppofed to him, he faid. that the book first introduced, called " digeft on the law of libels," was anonymous. It was probably a fugitive catchpenny production of fome English Barrifter, and confequently entitled to but litle credit. As to the cafe from 3d Wilfon's Reports, he faid it did not touch the prefent queftion. Wilkes, he faid, was a member of parliament, and excused on that account from the bonds demanded. In anfwer to the paragraph cited from Mr. Fox's fpeech, he contended, that parliamentary debates in 1791 could not determine the law in this country in 1803; that, altho' Mr. Fox was a great flatef man yet that he was no lawyer; that, altho' be used the term "previous restraints in the form of previous fureties of any kind for good behaviour" yet that he meant only fuch reftrictions as could prevent the publication.

He therefore contended, that his doctrine food unoppofed by any fubftantial authority.

Mr. SPENCER alfo contended, that his doctrine did not at all reftrain the freedom of the prefs and fair difcuffion. He agreed that the true liberty of the prefs confifted in freedom from all previous reltraint; but infifted, that the recognizance demanded would be no previous restraint. It would, he faid, tend to reftrain its licentioufnefs. It would tend to check thofe libels which weekly iffued from the press of

the defendant. He faid it might as well be contended that a profecution for a libel was a previous reftraint on the prefs. He read a long paragraph from 4th Black. Com. pages 151 and 152, and contended, that from these it was clear, that Blackftone, by the words "previous reftraint,' meant only fuch power as could prevent the publication. If the publication was permitted, he contended that it was proper that the publisher should be accountable to the law, and refponfible to the pub. lic for the confequences of every fyllable. And whether he was punished for a libel, by the forfeiture of his bonds, or by the verdict of a jury, could be of no confequence to the true freedom of the prefs or of fair difcuffion.

He denied that it curtailed the rights of jurors. He faid there was two kinds of juftice, known in our law; the one called deftributive, and the other preventitive jus tice. Under the latter diftinction fell the present motion. He then entered into a long argument, to fhew, that in many inftances, a man may, by our law, be deprived of his liberty without trial by jury. He inftanced a recognizance for the breach of the peace, where a man may be required to give bonds to keep the peace and be of good behaviour, and in cafe of refufal. may be committed to gaol. He contended that this was a parallel inftance; and that it was abfurd to fay, that in the one cafe a man may be compelled to give bonds, and in the other could not; that in the one cafe, the liberty of action might be reftrained without trial by jury, and in the other the liberty of libelling could not. Befides, he faid, if Mr. CROSWELL was charged with a breach of his recognizance, by hereafter publishing a libel, the court had the power of referring that charge to a jury. And in that cafe, unless he fhould be convicted by a jury, his bonds would not be forfeited. As to the habæs corpus, he did not deny that Mr. CROSWELL might be relieved by it from thefe bonds, if he chose to be committed. But admitting the fupreme court would immediately dif charge him, that was no rule for this court. This court muft exercife its own difcretion; and if the gentlemen advised. their client to refort to the fupreme court, it would then be time for that court to exercife their power.

Mr. SPENCER concluded with profeffing that he had no intention to fetter the prefs. He knew its value-but he felt its licentioufnefs; and he trufted the court would exert their power in this goodly attempt to check thofe floods of calumny which threaten the destruction of our country.

It is not pretended that the precise language of Mr. SPENCER is here copied—but it is believed that every material argument is given. And altho' the every material argument is given. And altho' the

writer of this holds in abhorrence the political character of Mr. SPENCER; altho' he considers this attempt as a tyrannical effort of "a little brief authority," to smother the voice of truth, and to bind in chains the real freedom of the press, still he must say, that in his opinion, with the exception of a few indecent expressions, which arose from vicle: ce of temper, or of party spirit, this was one of Mr. SPENCER'S most ingenious speeches. It was, in short, making the best of a very bad cause. After Mr. SPENCER sat down, the Judges consulted for a few moments on the Bench, when Judge FORD delivered it, as almost their unanimous opinion,* that Mr. SPENCER should take nothing by his motion,

V

ARIOUS traditions and fables among ancient nations, which had not been acquainted with the writings of Mo. fes, feem plainly to have had their origin in the event of the deluge. The old and generally received pagan fable of the war of the giants againft heaven, and their horrible overthrow by the prowefs of angry Jupiter, may rationally be fuppofed to have been founded upon that astonishing event. The general concurrence of ancient nations, in making the Olive-branch an emblem of peace, feems plainly to allude to the circumftance of Noah's dove, that plucked off an olive-leaf and returned with it to the ark; which was confidered as a token that the terrible war of the elements had ceased, that the waters were affuaged and that there was an implied declaration of peace and fafety to the fmall remnant of the human race.

But not to infift upon these and a variety of other traditions and fables ;-if there had been no tradition of the kind-if there had been no hiftorical or written documents in relation to the deluge, we ftill fhould have occular demonftration of the exiftence of fuch an event, from the condition of the various parts of the earth.The appearance of marine fubftances, fcattered over the face of the earth, is a certain evidence that the earth has undergone a fubmerfion from the waters of the

oceans.

The celebrated Doctor Goldsmith remarks, Whatever depths of the earth we examine, or whatever diftances within land we feek, we moft commonly find a number of foffil fhells, which being compared with others from the fea, are found to be exactly of a fimilar fhape and nature. They are found at the very bottom of quarries and mines, on the tops of even the highest mountains, as well as in the vallies and plains and this not in one country alone, but in all places where there is any digging for marble, chalk, or any other terreftrial matters, that are fo compact as to fence off the external injuries of the air, and thus to preserve these fhells from decay."

Difcoveries of this kind have been greatly enlarged and multiplied fince the time of Goldfmith. In the prefent inquifitive almost every year adds to their num

age,

ber; and they have become by far too nu. merous to be particularifed, unless in a large volume.

Only one or two, from among the moft remarkable of these discoveries, fhall here. after be mentioned.

W.

Agricultural.

FOR THE BALANCE.

ON THE SPECIFIC DIFFERENCE OF PLANTS, WHICH ARE OF THE SAME COMMON NATURE.

As

S well among vegetables as animals, there are often found different fpecies, which have the fame common name and are claffed under the fame Genus.

In the New-York Magazine, it is related that Mr. Ifbel in Virginia, about nine or ten years ago, obferved in his field a fingle ear of wheat almoft ripe, when all fingle ear of wheat almoft ripe, when all the reft was in flower. This ear he carefully preferved and fowed it by itself, rightly judging it to be a peculiar fpecies:and from it there have proceeded many thoufand bufhels. It ripens fifteen or twenty days earlier than other wheat. It is never deftroyed by ruft. Its ftraw is fhorter and lefs cumbrous than that of the other kinds of wheat; and consequently gives a better scope for the growth of cloI believe (but am not certain) that this is the fame that has been advertised in the fouthern papers, by the name of red Araw wheat.

ver.

annually of his ears of corn was topped over with kernels, in the manner of those ears, which he had preserved for feed.

Medical.

FOR THE BALANCE.

COW OR KINE POX.

ALTHO

LTHO' this benign fubftitute, has made rapid progrefs thro' all ranks of fociety in Europe, and has full credit with characters moft diftinguished for information in every profeffion amongst us; yet by far the greatest number ftill remain doubtful of its affording a compleat fecurity from the attack of the moft loathsome of difeafes. From decompofed and contaminated matter; and from the spurious and full-explained cafes that have occur red (arifing from the want of the neceffary knowledge of the genuine operation of the Vaccine Virus) this ftate of doubt is not to be wondered at; and nothing can effectually diffipate it, but fubmitting one difeafe to the teft of the other; and it becomes neceffary that thefe tefts fhould be fome time after the Kine Pox, on account of the objections of fome Small-Pox Inoculators, who alledge that the Kine Pox is a barrier no longer than while the Kine Pox is in circulation.

I have good authority to affert, that the Kine Pox has been an effectual fecurity from the Small-Pox, for fifty-three years, in England; but time only can give us that fatisfaction in America, unless we are thoroughly acquainted with the effects of both difeafes on the human fyftem that it fecures the fyftem from the Small-Pox for nine months, has lately been demonftrated by experiments, as certified below; and if it is a fure barrier for nine months it is for life, in the opinion of the public's humble fervant.

E. ELMORE. Canaan, Dec. 21ft, 1802.

This certifies that on the 24th of March laft, Dr. E. Elmore inoculated two of my daughters for the Kine Pox, which was evident from its not being contagious; and on the 2d day of December inft. Dr. Ifaac Averill inoculated them with SmallPox matter, which infected their arms from the third day after the operation to the eighth, when they were well without one trace of disease.

per me,

WILLIAM JOHNSON, Surgeon. Canaan, Dec. 22d, 1802.