388 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817- 



animals very little superior to 

 brutes. The Parliament too be- 

 lieved the stories of another foolish 

 general, I forget his name, that 

 the Yankies never felt bold. Yan- 

 key was understood to be a sort 

 of Yahoo, and the Parliament did 

 not think the petitions of such 

 creatures were fit to be received 

 and read in so wise an assembly. 

 What was the consequence of this 

 monstrous pride and insolence ? 

 You first sent small armies to 

 subdue us, believing them more 

 than sufficient, but soon found 

 yourselves obliged to send greater ; 

 these, whenever they ventured to 

 penetrate our country beyond the 

 protection of their ships, were 

 either repulsed and obliged to 

 scamper out, or were surrounded, 

 beaten, and taken prisoners. An 

 American planter who had never 

 seen Europe, was chosen by us to 

 command our troops, and con- 

 tinued during the whole war. 

 This man sent home to you, one 

 after another, five of your best 

 generals baffled, their heads bare 

 of laurels, disgraced even in the 

 opinion of their employers. Your 

 contempt of our understandings 

 in comparison with your own ap- 

 peared to be not much better 

 founded than that of our courage, 

 if we may judge by this circum- 

 stance, that in whatever court of 

 Euiope a Yankey negotiator ap- 

 peared, the wise British minister 

 was routed, put in a passion, 

 picked a quarrelwith your friends, 

 and was sent home with a flea in 

 his car. But afcer all, my dear 

 friend, do not imagine that I am 

 vain enough to ascribe our success 

 to any superiority in any of those 

 points. I am too well acquainted 

 with all the springs and levers of 



our machine, not to see, that our 

 human means were unequal to our 

 undertaking, and that if it had not 

 been for the justice of our cause, 

 and the consequent interposition 

 of Providence, in which wc had 

 faith, we must have been ruined. 

 If I had ever before been an Athe- 

 ist, I should now have been con- 

 vinced of the Being and govern- 

 ment of a Deity ! It is he who 

 abases the proud and favours the 

 humble. May we never forget 

 his goodness to us, and may our 

 future conduct manifest our gra- 

 titude ! 



But let us leave these serious 

 reflections, and converse with our 

 usual pleasantry. I remember 

 your observing once to me, as we 

 sat together in the House of Com- 

 mons, that no two journeymen 

 j)rinters within your knowledge, 

 had met with such success in the 

 world as ourselves. You were 

 then at the head of your profession, 

 and soon afterwards became a 

 member of parliament. I was an 

 agent for a few provinces, and now 

 act for them all. But we have 

 risen by different modes. I, as a 

 republican printer, always liked a 

 form well plained down; being 

 averse to tliose overbearing letters 

 that hold their heads so high as to 

 hinder their neighbours fr©m ap- 

 pearing. You, as a monajchist, 

 chose to work upon crown paper, 

 and found it profitable ; whilst I 

 worked upon pro patria (often in- 

 deed called fools-capj with no less 

 advantage. Both our heaps hold 

 out very well, and we seem likely 

 to make a pretty good day's work 

 of it. With regai'd to public affairs, 

 (to continue in the same style) it 

 seems to me that the compositors 

 in your chapel do not cast off their 



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