S44. 
icription, which is now ina thriving way, 
and has diffufed the tafte for reading 
among all ranks. . 
The people of better rank are intelli- 
gent, and attentive to their affairs, and 
Jive in a fociable manner with one another; 
and as we have regular aflemblies through 
the winter, as many good-looking well- 
dreffed ladies will be feen there as in any 
town of the fize in the kingdom ; and I 
-muft not omit, that we have occafionally 
a fet of players, who meet with rather 
more encouragement than they ought to, 
do. 
The common people in general are 
~decent: fome of them are rather too much 
given to exceed in whifky ; but, compared 
with the inhabitants of other towns, they 
will not fuffer by the comparifon, 
The bulk of the people“Are of the Pref- 
byterian religion, and ufed to attend re- 
gularly in the parifh-churches : but I do 
not Know but they have ftill fome of the 
old leaven of John Knox, for of late years 
they are much given tc change, and 
there is an inundation of preachers come 
among us, of what names and principles 
it will not be eafy to find ovt; and they 
all get hearers, fo that, iaftead of two or 
three meetings of fectaries we had till 
lately, Iam fare we have now a dozen ; 
and new meeting-houfes and tabernacles 
are erecting every year, though there 
is a handfome new church lately built, 
though net yet finifhed. As the churches 
we have are not half filled, it is incum- 
bent on our clergy to beftir themfelves, 
otherwife they will have to preach to bare 
walls. 
_ Since the bridge was finifhed, the town 
has increafed in extent, fo that now we 
have crefcents, terraces, and places, and 
may probably foon have circufes and 
fquares ; and as the new houfes are hand- 
fome, and built on a regular plan, this 
town already makes a genteel appearance, 
and the beauty of the place is much aided 
by the village. at the other end of the 
bridge being now laid out, and many neat 
villas built on the banks of the river. If 
you think this worth publifhing in your 
Magazine, you are welcome to it. 
A. W. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR; “ 
T is now five or fix months fince I 
received intimation, from various 
quarters, of the unprovoked . calumny 
committed againft me by Mr. William 
Beliham, ia the fifth volume of his ‘* Me-, 
moirs of the Reign of George the Third:” 
Mr. Thelwalls Fuftification: 
[May 1, 
and it was then the declared opinion of my 
friends, on all hands, that fobafe and unau- 
thorized an afperfion of my perfonal character 
ought not to be paffed overinfilencey Their 
advice, upon this occafion, did not very 
well accord either with the ftate of my 
feelings, or the objeéts of attention by 
which my mind was occupied. For five 
years I had endured—unrefiftingly en- 
dured—all the injuries that could be in- 
flicted by the refentment of thofe I had 
formerly oppofed, or by the more felfifh 
defertion of others, whom, from motives 
of difinterefted principle, I had endea-. 
voured to ferve. Inthe gloom of folitude 
—in the vortex of calamity—I had found 
it neceffary to lull my lacerated mind into 
a fpecies of infenfibility to the virulence 
with which I was affailed—to fhut my 
ears againft the howlings of calumny— 
to efcape into ignorance of the malignity 
I was too feeble to refit. Confcious of 
the integrity of my own heart—proudly 
confident that (whatever general abufe 
might be heaped upon me by perfons who 
difapproved the opinions I had upheld, or 
thofe which had been attributed ta me) the. 
being did not exilt, who, in any of the 
various intercourfes of focial or of private 
life, could impeach my moral conduéi— 
fuftained alfo by the unfhrinking affection — 
of a virtuous few, whofe names will be 
fufficient teftimony (when the circum- 
ftances of the times fhall no longer render 
it a point of obligation to conceal them) ; 
and exulting in the remembrance of that 
teftimony, from perfons of the firft refpec- 
tability, which (upon the moft awful oc- 
cafion of my life) drew forth an emphat*c 
panegyric from the Bench itfelf—I had 
trutted with confidence, that time} would 
be my able vindicator :—TI had perfuaded 
myfelf that the fury of profeription would 
abate when it was no longer oppofed—and 
thar (divorced as I. was from the purfuits 
that had given birth to animofity) my 
conduct muft ultimately live down the 
ealumnies which political hoftility had 
alone excited. ‘The event had feemed to 
juftify my calculations. The fury of pre- 
judice appeared to be fubfiding. The — 
time was evidently approaching when & 
might be\permitted to ‘¢ claim again my 
ftation in fociety’’—-when a portion, at 
leaft, of mankind would be dilpofed to 
take the portraiture of my mind rather 
from the natural features it might exhibit, 
than from the diflorted carigatures of my 
enemies. 
dered my feclufion no longer fapportable} 
and a fenfe of duty to my yet furviving 
family, had urged me to make fome ad-— 
2 vances 
Domeftic affliction (which ren-  ~ 
