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tranfinitted by Congrefs to the inhal itants of Ca<nada, in the month of October, 1774, it is emphatically declared, "You are fubjected to the impo'fition of EXCISES, the horror of all free States; thus wrefting your property from you, by the most odious of taxes, and laying open to infolent tax-gatherers houses, scenes of domestic peace and comfort, and called the caftles of English fubjects, in the books of their law".

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Thus (exclaimed an old Tory, at the time when this remonftrance was prefented), thus has WASHINGTON lived to fee the very words which he employed to urge the Canadians to rebel against their and his fovereign, made ufe of to ftir up rebellion against himself. 66 Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and "hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falfe"hood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is "fallen into the ditch which he made. His mifchief "fhall return upon his own head, and his violent "dealing thall come down upon his own pate."

If the old man remembered fo much of Holy Writ, of which I much doubt, this denunciation of the Pfalmift muft have occurred to him on the breaking out of the Western Infurrection. I well remember hearing him deliver to Congrefs, the fpeech in which he detailed the rife, progress, and termination of the revolt*. Shame feemed to have no small fhare in his feelings; and when he came to name the particular counties that had revolted, which, unfortunately, were thofe of WASHINGTON and FAYETTE, he faltered, and trembled like a criminal reading his confeffion. What a train of ideas muft thofe names, pronounced on fuch an occafion, have excited in the minds of his hearers! At that moment what would he not have given to wipe away the remembrance of his deeds?

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But though the western discontents certainly owed their rife to thofe principles, which were inculcated during the rebellion against the mother-country, they probably never would have produced an open infurrection, had it not been for the encouragement the malcontents received from the Democratic Societies. By means of this affiliation, they conveyed their pretended grievances to every corner of the Union, whence they inftantly received affurances of aid and support from the clubs; and thus prompted, they at laft, after two years spent in refolves, remonftrances, and threats, took up arms against the Government, following, in all things, the precepts and example of thofe who had first taught them the holy right of infurrection *.

For an account of the progress and termination of the Infurrection, fee WESTERN INSURRECTION, vol. i.

Mr. Jay's miffion to England has been purposely omitted in this Summary, as it is fully treated of in the fubfequent facts, particularly the Proceedings relative to the British Treaty, vol. ii. p. 233; and in a Little Plain English, vol. ii. p. 281.

ADDRESSES

ADDRESSES

ΤΟ

DOCTOR PRIESTLEY,

WHILE the Infurrection in the Western Counties of Pennsylvania was upon the point of breaking out, Doctor Priestley arrived in America, and added one more to the partifans of France. Upon his arrival he was addreffed by feveral Societies of fcoundrels, under various denominations. But before I infert the addreffes, which he received in America, I must give a place to one that was delivered to him upon his leaving Europe.

The Society of United Irishmen of Dublin, to Jofeph Priestley, L. L. D.

SIR,

Suffer a Society which has been calumniated as devoid of all fenfe of religion, law, or morality, to fympathize with one whom calumny of a fimilar kind is about to drive from his native land, a land which he has adorned and enlightened in almost every branch of liberal literature and of ufeful philofophy. The emigration of Doctor Priestley will form a ftriking hiftorical fact, by which alone future ages will learn to eftimate truly the temper of the present times. Your departure will not only give evidence of the injury which philofophy and literature have received in your perfon, but will

prove

that accu

mulation

mulation of petty difquietudes, which has robbed your life of its zeft and enjoyment; for, at your age, no one would willingly embark on fuch a voyage; and sure we are, it was your own with and prayer, to be buried in your native country, which contains the duft of your old friends, Saville, Price, Jebb, and Fothergill. But be cheerful, dear Sir; you are going to a happier world-the world of Washington and Franklin,

In idea, we accompany you. We stand near you. while you are setting fail. We watch your eyes that linger on the white cliffs, and we hear the patriarchal bleffing which your foul pours out on the land of your nativity, the afpiration that afcends to God for its peace, its freedom, and its profperity. Again do we participate in your feelings on first beholding nature in her nobleft fcenes and grandest features, on finding man bufied in rendering himself worthy of nature; but more than all, on contemplating with philofophic prefcience, the coming period when thofe vaft inland feas fhall be fhadowed with fails, when the St. Lawrence and Miffiffippi fhall ftretch forth their arms to embrace the continent in a great circle of interior navigation; when the Pacific Ocean fhall pour into the Atlantic; when man will become more precious than fine gold, and when his ambition fhall be to fubdue the elements, not to fubjugate his fellow-creatures, to make fire, water, earth, and air, obey his bidding, but to leave the pure ethereal mind, as the fole thing in nature free and incoercible.

Happy indeed would it be, were men in power to recollect this quality of the human mind. Suffer us to give them an example from a fcience of which you are a mighty mafter; that attempts to fix the element of mind, only increase its activity, and that to calculate what may be from what has been, is a very dangerous deceit. Were all the faltpetre in India monopolized,

Did not

monopolized, this would only make chemical refearches more ardent and fuccefsful. The chalky earths would be fearched for it, and nitre-beds would be made in every cellar and every ftable. that prove fufficient, the genius of chemistry would find in a new falt a fubftitute for nitre, or a power fuperior to it. It requires greater genius than Mr. Pitt feems to poffefs, to know the wonderful refources of mind, when patriotifm animates philofophy, and all the arts and fciences are put under a ftate of requifition, when the attention of a whole fcientific people is bent to multiplying the means and inftruments of deftruction, and when philofophy rises in a mass to drive on the wedge of war. A black powder has changed the military art, and, in a great degree, the manners of mankind. Why may not the fame fcience which produced it produce another powder, which, inflamed under a certain compreffion, might impel the air, fo as to thake down the strongest towers, and fcatter deftruction?

But you are going to a country of fcience, that is turned to better ufes. Your change of place will give room for the matchless activity of your genius; and you will take a fublime pleafure in beftowing on Britain the benefit of your future difcoveries. As matter changes its form, but not a particle is ever loft, fo the principles of virtuous minds are equally imperishable; and your change of fituation may even render truth more operative, knowledge more productive, and, in the event, liberty itself more univerfal. Wafted by the wind, or toft by the waves, the feed that is here thrown out as dead, there shoots up and flourishes. It is probable that emigration to America, from the first settlement downward, has not only ferved the caufe of general liberty, but will eventually and circuitoufly ferve it even in Britain. What mighty events have arifen from that germ which might once have been supposed to be loft for

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