gallows in England, and the latter by one Cheethum, formerly a hatter in Manchester, who fled from thence in the year 1797-8 for sedition, and was conveyed on board an American ship at Liverpool, in a chest. These are the instruments who dictate to a majority of the United States, and are the present ornaments of the American press. The Americans pretend to say, that the many thousand outcasts who have fled from Europe, to take refuge among them, have given a contaminated feature to the American character, with regard to faith and honor; but if we look beyond the period of their independence, we shall find that their faith and honor has long been the subject of complaint. The Archives of the Board of Trade, whose presses are loaded with complaints and memorials against American injustice and chicane, will furnish ample proofs. These complaints, about one hundred and eight years ago, gave rise to a declaratory law, the 7th and 8th of William the Third. But this act did not restrain them, for at that time there was no country in the world that could boast of so many law-suits, or so much barefaced chicane, for the law was then as it is now, their general study. It would be endless to state the different means to which they resorted, to deceive the British creditor. Volumes would not contain them. In the year 1732, the merchants of Great Britain, finding themselves so shamefully duped of their property, petitioned parliament for redress, and obtained a second act, which contained special clauses for defeating the schemes of their ingenious friends, the Americans: however, they were even then so fertile in invention, so fruitful in the arts of deception, as to defeat the intention of this supposed salutary act by perjury. Since that period perjury became, as it were, a privilege. A subsequent act was obtained, to put an effectual stop to American subtlety;

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but this act shared the same fate with the rest; all the acts in the universe would not compel them to do justice to the British creditor.

Prior to their revolution, as they term it, the common custom was, when a British creditor sued his debtor, the latter found means to procrastinate the suit to an inordinate length, which it seems these people, so expert in the knowledge of the law, discovered the art of doing with a small expence; but when they could not ward off the evil day of execution any longer, and their effects must be sold, their last resource was to get a friend to buy them back again at Vendue, in which case the worthies, or, as the celebrated Edmund Burke called them, "good men and true," were sure of being "true" to each other in defiauding the common enemy, as they then styled the British.

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The same practice has been followed ever since. A young man serves a while in a store, that has kept up credit and reputation with some of the merchants and manufacturers of England. This young man embarks for either London or Liverpool, loaded with letters of introduction; and in consequence of these letters, he returns with a great quantity of goods on credit. He may find it convenient to make good the first and second payment agreeable to the time stipulated, which he is enabled to do, by sacrificing part of his goods at public vendue. In consequence of this, he procures a double quantity of goods, for which he never intends to remit, but disposes of them with as little loss as possible. The term of payment comes, and the British creditor is anxiously looking out in vain for a remittance. After a while, powers of attorney arrive from England, and are acted upon. Executions being out against him, he takes lodgings in the limits, whence there is little difficulty

in getting extricated. As the laws are so very favorable, he takes the advantage of the three-fourth act, by which means he is soon enabled to retire from the limits with a large fortune, a fortune, which the laws of his country have put in his power, by defrauding the British merchants and manufacturers. This, Sir, is the most common and readiest way of making a fortune in America, of which many hundreds have availed themselves, and which they deem meritorious.

There is another source of vexation which I wish to point out, in order that it may be clearly understood. The American captains encourage, as much as they possibly can, the desertion of the British seamen. When they get here, they can at any time be made citizens for the value of a dollar each, which is given to a person, who makes oath that they, or any of them, were born in the United States: upon this the collector of the customs grants a protection; and should they happen to be pressed, they are claimed by the government as Americau citizens.

About the beginning of September, Citizen Jerome Bonaparte arrived in Philadelphia, and made a splendid appearance driving about every day with a curricle and pair. A paragraph, inserted in the Philadelphia Gazette, insinuated that it was the same of which he had robbed a Mr. Myers, at Cape Francois, in February 1801. That such robbery had been committed, was flatly denied by Citizen Jerome's friends: and the editor of the gazette, willing to substantiate his original assertion, said that he should feel happy if the implicated person, or any of his friends, would satisfy the public of his innocence, but at the same time, he knew an English gentleman at New York, who was present at the time the robbery was committed. Under these circumstances, I addressed the following letter to the editor, which he published:

" SIR,

"NEW YORK, 15th September, 1803.

"I am much surprised that any person would be found to deny the robbery which Citizen Jerome Bonaparte committed, in the seizure of the curricle belonging to the late Mr. Jacob Myers, at Cape Francois;-if it was not a robbery, it was an abandoned deviation from justice. I was at the Cape at the time, and saw Citizen Jerome order it out of Mr. Suckley's store, where it was deposited, and rode away in it, accompanied by his sister, Madame Le Clerc.It was never returned to Mr. Myers, nor the value of it; but the citizen may say he acted according to the French commandment: "Covet and take whatever you see,

"French liberty makes all things free.”

About the middle of this month, the fever, after having swept away several hundreds, began to abate. It is deplorable to reflect, that this State, which composes a wealthy and respectable portion of the Continent, seems to be doomed to endure something more than its portion of natural and political evil. We find her capitol periodically scourged, by the visitation of a dreadful and destructive malady, and her internal tranquillity perpetually disturbed, by all the angry and malignant passions which spring from the base and perverse spirit of party. No where in America does the fire of faction and calumny rage with such ungovernable fury. Here the goddess of discord holds the fluctuating balance, malignity smiles at its perpetual vibrations, adding her torch to the fire of resentment, which consumes in its destructive progress, every moral principle and every social feeling; the ties of friendship, consanguinity, and every domestic enjoyment are destroyed in the dreadful conflagration. Every day brings forth some new incentive to wrath, and mingles fresh gall in the bitter cup of resentment.

Vale.

LETTER XX,

A Cursory View of the Historical Events in St. Domingo, from the year 1790 till 1802.

DEAR SIR,

NEW YORK, December, 1803

SOME time ago, vague accounts reach

ed me of the death of my much lamented friend Ge neral Toussaint. Although it is not, by any means, a continuation of the subject I have been attempting to delineate, yet I cannot resist the temptation of giving you an abridgement of my travels in the island of which he was governor, where I had the opportunity of being acquainted with one of the best of men, that ever governed a kingdom or a colony-whose character will form a striking contrast with those of Picton or Hood, the remembrance of whom I wish to expunge from my imagination.

Nothing of any consequence can be said of my friend Toussaint till the early period of the French revolution, when the endeavours of Les Amis des Noirs, prevailed over the African slave-dealers, after a contest of five years; when the moral and physical evils of that disgraceful traffic were fully developed and ascertained to the French people. The conviction of truth was then followed by a glow of honest indignation, and the voice of the people

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