mittee to execute the work in question. It was prepared by the three first named gentlemen; the first of them, now the President of the United States; the second, the President of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia; and the third, the Judge of the High Court of Chancery, at this place. I have perused this system of state police, with admiration. It is evidently the work of minds of most astonishing greatness; capable, at once, of a grand, profound and comprehensive survey of the present and future interest and glory of the whole state; and of pursuing that interest and glory through all the remote and minute ramifications of the most extensive and elaborate detail. Among other wise and highly patriotic bills which are proposed, there is one, for the more general diffusion of knowledge. After a preamble, in which the importance of the subject to the republic is most ably and eloquently announced, the bill proposes a simple, and beautiful scheme, whereby science (like justice under the institutions of our Alfred) would have been "carried to every man's door." Genius, instead of having to break its way through the thick opposing clouds of native obscurity, indigence and ignorance, was to be sought for through every family in the commonwealth; the sacred spark, wherever it was detected, was to be tenderly' cherished, fed, and fanned into a flame; its innate properties and tendencies were to be developed and examined, and then cautiously and judiciously invested with all the auxiliary energy and radiance of which their character was susceptible. What a plan was here to give stability and solid

glory to the republic! If you ask me why it has never been adopted, I answer, that, as a foreigner, I can perceive no possible reason for it, except that the comprehensive views and generous patriotism which produced the bill, have not prevailed throughout the country, nor presided in the body on whose vote the adoption of the bill depended. I have new reason to remark it, almost every day, that there is throughout Virginia, a most deplorable destitution of public spirit, of the noble pride and love of country. Unless the body of the people can be awakened from this fatal apathy; unless their thoughts and their feelings can be urged beyond the narrow confines of their own private affairs; unless they can be strongly inspired with the public zeal, the amor patriae of the ancient republics, the national embellishment, and the national grandeur of this opulent state, must be reserved for very distant ages.

Adieu, my S.......; perhaps you will hear from me again, before I leave Richmond.

From the VIRGINIA GAZETTE.

.........

AN APOLOGY

IN REPLY TO A HINT.

THE letters of the British Spy were furnished to amuse the citizens of the town and country; and not to give pain to any one human being..... Accordingly, nothing has been said in censure of

the integrity, the philanthropy, the benevolence, charity, or any other moral or religious virtue or grace of any one Virginian, who has been intro. duced into those letters. Nothing indeed could be justly said on those heads, in censure of either of the gentlemen.. It is true, that some letters. have been published, which have attempted to analize the minds of three or four well known citizens of this state, and in order to designate them more particularly, a description of the person and: manner of each gentleman was given. This has been called "throwing stones at other people's glass houses," and the person who has communi, cated those letters (gratuitously styled their "au"thor") is politely reminded that he himself resides in a glass house." If this be correctly. understood, it implies a threat of retaliation; but all that the laws of retaliation could justify, would be to amuse the town and country with a description of the person, manner and mind of the author (as he is called) of the British Spy. He fears, however, that it would puzzle the hinter, whate-ver his genius may be, to render so barren a sub. ject, interesting and amusing to the public; and The would be much obliged to the hinter if he could make it appear that he (the furnisher of the letters) deserves to be drawn into comparison, either as to person, manner, or mind, with any one of the gentlemen delineated by the British Spr. As to his person, indeed, he is less solicit ous; the defects of that, were imposed on him by nature; and there is no principle better established than this general principle of eternal truth and justice, that no man ought to be censured for con

ingencies over which he had no controul. As to his manner, he has as little objection to a public description of that as his person.

To save the trouble of others, however, he relinquishes all pretensions either to the striking elegance which is calculated to excite admiration, and respect, or to the conciliating grace and vital warmth which are qualified to gain enthusiastic friends.....His manner is probably such as would be produced, nine times out of ten, by the rustic. education to which he was exposed.

As to his mind, it is almost such as nature made it. He cannot boast with Gray, that " science frowned not on his humble birth." But what of this? A man may very accurately anatomize the powers of a mind far superior to his own. It is not improbable that Zoilus criticisms of Homer was just; since every nod of Homer's was a fair subject of criticism. Yet who will suppose that Zoilus could have produced such a work as the Iliad? It is impossible to read Dennis's cri-ticisms of Addison's Cato without being forcibly struck with their justice, and wondering that they have never before occurred to ourselves. Yet there is no man, who will, therefore, pronounce the genius of Dennis equal to that of Addison...... These facts are so palpable and so well understood, that the person who furnished the letters of the British Spy (even if he had been their author) could scarcely have had the presumption to suppose, nor, I trust, the injustice to desire, that the public would pronounce his mind free from: the defects, much less endued with the energies, and beauties, of those which he criticises..

But where is the harm which has been done? Who are the gentlemen introduced into the British Spy? Are they young men, just emerging into notice, and concerning whom the public have yet to form an opinion? Far from it. They are gentlemen, who have long been, and who still are displaying themselves in the very centre of the circle of general observation. They have not hid their light under a bushel. Their city is built on a high hill. There is not a feature of their persons, nor a quality of their mind or manner, which has not been long and well known, and remarked, commented on, criticised, repeated and reiterated a thousand and ten thousand times in every circle and every corner of the country.

Was it in the power, then, of any remarks in an anonymous and fugitive newspaper publication, either to injure or to serve gentlemen so well and so extensively known? On the contrary, if those remarks were untrue, they would be instantaneously and infallibly corrected by the public opinion and knowledge of the subject; if the remarks were true, they would add no new fact to the public opinion and the public knowledge. Thinking thus, nothing was more distant, either from the expectation or wish of the person who has furnished the press with the letters of the British Spy, than that he was about to do an injury to the character, or to inflict a wound on the feelings of any citizen of the country. Why could. he have expected or wished any such effect? He could not have been actuated by resentment; for neither of those gentlemen have ever done him