490 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



distinguished consideration, and a hundred subscribers, at ten dollars 

 each, were immediately secured for a course of lectures on Experimen- 

 tal Philosophy. He did not, however, give them, but shortly pro- 

 ceeded to Philadelphia, where he received a complimentary address 

 from the American Philosophical Society, and was unanimously chosen 

 as Professor of Chemistry in the university. But this he did not accept, 

 and soon proceeded to Northumberland, a town on the Susquehanna, 

 132 miles northwest from Philadelphia, where his sons had settled, 

 and which he made his permanent residence. There was at first no 

 postal connection with the place, but a mail was soon established, 

 running to Philadelj)hia twice a week. His house in Korthumberland 

 was situated in a garden commanding one of the finest prospects on 

 the Susquehanna. A library and laboratory were built for him, which 

 were finished in 1*797, and he was able to arrange his books and renew 

 his experiments with every possible facility. 



While Dr. Priestley was received in this country by many with 

 the honor that was due to so eminent a man and the sympathy to 

 which his persecutions at home naturally gave rise, it was not to be 

 expected that he would quite escape from the interference of the intol- 

 ant and narrow-minded. There was, at that time, a powerful party 

 in this country in sympathy with the English policy, and they very 

 naturally particij^ated in the English feeling toward Priestley. He 

 did not choose to be naturalized, but, while advising his sons to become 

 so, he said that, as he had been born and had lived to advanced years 

 an Englishman, he would die one, let what might be the consequence. 

 He did not interest himself much in American politics, but continued 

 his congenial pursuits and studies. About the year 1*799, during the 

 Adams Administration, the friends of freedom were greatly alarmed 

 at the promulgation of principles less liberal in many respects than 

 were those of the British Government. Dr. Priestley, who never con- 

 cealed his sentiments, was opposed to the administrati/)n and freely 

 criticised it in private conversation. At the same time, violent at- 

 tacks were made upon it by a Northumberland newspaper. But, al- 

 though Dr. Priestley was not their author, and had nothing to do 

 with them, they were charged to him, and such were the bigotry and 

 party zeal of the period that he was represented as an enemy to the 

 Government, and it was intimated to him from Mr. Adams himself 

 that he had better abstain from saying any thing on politics lest he 

 should get into difficulty. The " Alien and Sedition Law " passed 

 under that administration vras then in operation, and Dr. Priestley 

 might have been sent out of the country at a moment's warning, with- 

 out being charged with any ofiense and without even the right of 

 remonstrance; and it was hinted to him that he was one of the per- 

 sons contemplated when the law was passed. The epithet alien^ 

 which was used as a term of party reproach at that time, was freely 

 applied to him. In consequence of all this. Dr. Priestley wrote a 



