PREFACE.

SINCE the Grand Rebellion there has constantly been, in this kingdom, a certain portion of the leven of republicanifm. Sometimes it has remained, for years together, in a dormant ftate; but whenever it has found materials to mix with, it has never failed to revive, to ferment, and to fwell the difcontents and the calamities of the country. Of late years it has been enlivened, cherished, and augmented by various means, but by nothing fo much as by the fuccefs of the American rebellion, and by the long and uninterrupted series of mifreprefentations and falfehoods, which have, through every poffible channel, been propagated respecting the new-Government and rulers of the United States.

Having fucceeded in feparating the Colonies from the mother-country, the leading Whigs in America very naturally exerted their utmost efforts to perfuade the world that their country was benefited by that Separation; and though this was, by every one, who was a witness of the effects of the change, well known to be falfe, it nevertheless paffed uncontradicted those perfons in America who were dif posed to remove the deception, had it not in their power. The Whigs had the exclufive poffeffion of the prefs, to make ufe of which, for the purpose of fhowing the evils which had refulted from the rebellion, would, till within the laft feven years, have

coft the life of him who fhould have had the temerity to persevere in it; befides, the loyalifts who had, by various ties, been bound to the foil of the States, had feen themselves formally abandoned (in the peace of Lord Shelburne) by the only power from which they could poffibly hope for protection; and, therefore, in the fervice of that power, there was no reafon for them to hazard that property and peace which, in fecret and in filence, they were permitted to enjoy. If, in fome few inftances, indignation, at the fhameful falfehoods of the Whigs, burft forth in defiance of reafon and of intereft, the cruel perfecution, which invariably followed these indiscreet ebullitions, foon fiifled the feeble voice of loyalty and truth.

During my refidence in the United States, few men had a better opportunity of learning the real and undisguised fentiments of the people, and very few ever turned such an opportunity to greater profit; and I folemnly declare, that I never met with a man, in whatever rank or fituation of life, who did not regret the feparation of the United States from the mother-country. Many men differed widely from me in political maxims; many juftified the proceedings of the Rump Congrefs; many more condemned the conduct of Great Britain; and I have met with feveral who were loud in their clamours against kingly government, however modified; but I never knew one American who, in his calm and candid moments, did not acknowledge that the country was much happier before the rebellion than it ever had been fince. All thofe who had arrived at the age of maturity previous to the fatal rupture, used to answer my obfervations on the distracted state of their country by defcribing its peaceful and happy flate thirty years ago; and, on fuch occafions, it has happened to me, not unfrequently, to hear thofe, who had carried arms against their King, fhift the fin from

their own fhoulders to thofe of the pretended patriots of England. But this candour never extended to the prefs, which, in fpite of the inward conviction of the people, was conftantly employed in boafting of the happy effects of the feparation, and in difguifing all the numerous calamities which had arisen therefrom.

The reluctance, which all thofe, who had been active in the rebellion, muft neceffarily feel, to fee the evils of that rebellion expofed, is quite fufficient to account for the mifreprefentations of the American prefs; and, if to this reluctance we add the interest, which every man of property had, in whatever tended to invite new settlers, and to enhance the value of the funds and the land of the country, we shall not be furprifed, that, in fpite of party animofities and domeftic broils, the fyftem of deception has been conducted with an unanimity and an efprit-de corps, that would not difgrace a community of monks.

While the prefs, which is now become the ruler of the opinions of men, was, in America, thus enlisted under the banners of the republicans; in Europe circumftances rendered it not lefs devoted to their fervice. France, which on the Continent gave the fathion in fentiment as well as in drefs, was compelled to efpoufe their caufe, in juftification of her own conduct; and though it was exceffively ridiculous to hear her monkeys chafter about giving liberty and happiness to British Colonics, the envious nations of Europe, who all, either openly or fecretly, rejoiced at the humiliation of England, liftened to them not only with patience, but with pleasure and applaufe.

In England alone exifted the means of detection and expofure: but, here, the reins of Government had paffed into the hands of the very men, who had juftified the refiftance, and who had, in a great meafure, become partifans of the Americans. They did,

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indeed, fet themselves feriously to work to repair the financial and commercial injuries which the rebellion had brought on their country; but the political injuries they were obliged to leave untouched, or to acknowledge their own errors, an effort of candour never to be expected from a political party. Lord North and his adherents might have done much; but, as if fate itfelf had declared in favour of delufion, they formed a connexion, which for ever afterwards fealed up their lips. There were, indeed, still men enough in England who abhorred the American rebellion, and who were able and willing to expofe its mifchievous and difgraceful confequences. It was too late; the torrent of error was become irresistible; the floodgates were burft open, and the inundation enfued. From that time rebellion ceased to be a crime, and loyalty to be a virtue. There is, in ninetynine hundredths of mankind, a propenfity to approve of whatever is crowned with fuccefs; hence, many of thofe, who, while the iffue of the contest was doubtful, expreffed a becoming deteftation of the conduct of America, have, fince the clofe of the war, appeared amongst the forwardeft to congratulate her on the event, and to eulogize thofe who were, and who ftill are, branded with the name of rebels, in the refolutions of the Parliament, and the proclamations of the King.

While this rare combination of circumftances confpired against truth and monarchical government, the British prefs, than which nothing ever was, or ever can be, more fervile, kept an exact pace with the delufion of the nation, till, at laft, it is become a matter of courfe for us to read of the American rebellion (which has been foftened into revolution), not only as a juftifiable but a meritorious act, which has 'led to the formation of a Government the most perfect in the world, conducted by men the moft virtuous, and rendering the country the most profperous,

and

and the people the most happy in the univerfe. I fpeak not of that part of the prefs which is under. the controul of fectaries and republicans; from them fuch fentiments are ever to be expected: I allude to publications which profefs great loyalty, and in which America is faid to have "fhaken off the yoke," to have "gained her freedom," to have "fuccessfully refifted unlawful controul," to have "emancipated herself," and to have "taken her place amongst the family of independent nations, of which The is the happiest fifter, and to which she is a bright example.". Nay, a modern compiler, a Clergyman of the church of England, and Fellow too of St. Mary Magdalen College, Oxford, to be plain, the REVEREND ARTHUR HOMER, D. D. has, in his Pro pofals for publishing a Bibliotheca Univerfalis Americana, thought proper to reprefent GENERAL WASHINGTON, the man who, while he bore a commiffion under his and Dr. HOMER'S Sovereign, was the very first in the Colony of Virginia to subscribe to a fund for raifing troops to fight against that Sovereign; the man who afterwards commanded the rebel army, who, in cold blood, and contrary to the laws of war, executed the gallant ANDRE; the man, in fhort, whofe fame rests on his having been the principal inftrument in cutting off an empire from the crown of Britain; this is the man whom the REVEREND ARTHUR HOMER has thought proper to reprefent as "the GREATEST and MOST VIRTUOUS character that the New World has ever produced;" and the Reverend Gentleman has the modefty to prefume, that in this his opinion, 66 every GOOD MAN and every LOYAL SUBJECT of this country will at prefent concur." The death of "the greatest and most virtuous character that the New World has ever produced," induced Dr. HOMER to alter his propofals, in a new edition of which he proposes to dedicate his book to the BISHOP OF LANDAFF. It would feem, that the New World

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