80 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



This tissue of falsehood and scurrilous invective states, that General Washington was 

 in favour of a monarchy ; that Mr. Jefferson exercised a pernicious influence over Mr. 

 Adams ; that Franklin was but a small philosopher ; that Rittenhouse was an English- 

 man ; that no such character as a respectable country gentleman is known in America ; 

 that it is impossible to bring a thief to justice, &c. These violations of truth were 

 selected as we casually cast our eyes over this review, and they are brought forward as 

 specimens of the whole performance. The authorities to which the writer has appealed 

 for his slander, are some newspapers, the Works of William Cobbett, and the Travels 

 of Janson, Priest, Ashe, Wansey, Weld, Lambert, and Parkinson. Scarcely one of 

 these had any pretensions to literature. Ashe, if such a person ever existed, was, in 

 all probability, never in this country ; Priest came over as a musical adventurer ; of 

 Parkinson we may say, in the words of Congreve, " Ferdinand Mendez Pinto was but a 

 type of thee, thou liar of the first magnitude." The others, under a more decent garb, 

 are equally regardless of truth. The character of Cobbett is known in Europe, as well 

 as in this country ; if we are desirous of attaining truth we must reverse his asser- 

 tions. Janson published his book in a quarto form in London, in 180T, under the title of 

 " The Stranger in America, by Charles William Janson, late of the State of Rhode Island, 

 Counsellor at Law;" but who, we learn from good authority, was a barber in that state. 

 It abounds with offences against truth, and, considering his long residence in the United 

 States, exhibits a great dearth of information, and a great want of intelligence : take, for 

 example, an extract from the first page I have opened: "Soon after Mr. Jefferson's 

 advancement to the presidency, the tithes of the episcopal clergy were entirely abo- 

 lished, and the church lands sold for the Use of government; all religious sects are, there- 

 fore, on the same footing, without supremacy or limited salaries." 



As a conspicuous example of the reviewer's total disregard of candour and justice, I 

 might refer particularly to his unworthy attack upon Messrs. Emmet, Sampson, and 

 M'Nevin, whose genius, learning, and virtues, would reflect honour on any country. 



NOTE B. 



Governor Bcrnet was a man of extensive reading and information. He wrote a com- 

 mentary on the Apocalypse, and made many useful astronomical observations. Swift 'a 

 Discourse on the Mechanical Operation of the Spirit was supposed to be addressed 

 (o Governor Hunter. In the fifteenth volume of Swift's Works there are two letters 



