Sir Francis and Mr. Beresford; but we feel it a duty incumbent on us to inform ourcountrymen, that Sir Francis never prefided at an Orange Lodge,to countenance the diffemina. tionof principles, which inculcated (as matter of effential policy) the extermination of Catholics and Diffenters; he never dictated proclamations, fuperfeding the civil power, by eftab lihing military tribunals of torture; he never affihed in tranfporting Eng lifh fubjects without conviction, who bad in vain implored the benefit of the trial by jury he never pol luted the hands of an exalted free man, by discharging the office of a flave-executioner; nor did he ever befet the King's highway with a band of military monfters, whofe thirt of blood, collectively and individually, was more difficult to fatiate than that of Nero or Caligula. Now, if Sir Francis had lived in this country,and promoted fuch horrible exceffes as we have juft defcribed, could we make ufe of any term more ftrongly expreffive of our hatred and horror, than to fay he was fanguinary? But our readers must not believe every report they hear of Sir Francis!" One gentleman fays he is fanguinary; another, he is feditious; a third, he has bewitched him, for he makes the hair of his head fland of an end; a fourth, he has been guilty of a breach of the high and mighty (never yet, nor ever to be, defined) privilege of Parliament; a fifth, that it is very evident now what Sir Francis means, which this gentleman did not discover before; a fixth,, a countryman of ours, who perchance may get into office again) that indeed he, is fure the Electors of Weftminfter will never again' return Sir Francis to Parliament. Now, when thefe opinions were delivered by Members of a Houfe of Commons, compofed of men, the leaft of whom in point

of moral honefty far tranfcends De WT or BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, and the majority of whom furpass, in the moft rigid difinterestedness, whatever hiftory has told us of the celebrated Roman FABRICIUS and the entire of whom are duly, fairly, and faithfully returned, by the English, Scotch, and Irish people to Parliament-not a Member for a close or open borough, not one returned by the influence of Adminiftration, not a placeman or penfioner in the House of Commons: we say that any man who doubts that what the Members (of a Houfe of Commons, fo conftiuted) fay, is truth, must be either infane or a rebel.

It is, to be fure, a good proof to us Sir Francis is wrong, that he was obliged to fubmit to fuperior force, and be conducted to the Tower: for there is apt a country under heaven, where the principle of military force and juftice, being fynonimous, is better understood than in Ireland. Sir Francis infinuated that our pres fent reprefentation in the Imperial Parliament is corrupt and dishonest, and he is very properly incarcerated for telling a lie. However, as Sir Francis's criminality arifes folely from an opinion he has formed; the queftion at prefent for us to examine is, not fo much whether that opinion is ftrictly conflitutional, according to the Attorney Generals or any other Attorney's definition, but how fuch opinions come to be execrated as odious, or fanctifled as juft. We beg to remind our readers, that Wm. Tell, of Switzerland, informed his countrymen at a certain period that they were not dealt fairly by they rebelled in confequence agaiaft their Governors and overthrew them, and William is now politically canonized in Switzerland as the reftorer of his country's liberty. The Und Provinces, by the intrepid exau ple of

fome few noble-minded men, emancipated themselves from the yoke of Spain; the Portuguefe did the like; and fure it is only the other day fince Franklin, and Adams, and Wash ington, and Gates, and Montgomery, and a host of other great men, were all rebels; but now fuch as furvive of them are free and independent Citizens, not fubject to the controul of any government but their own. I had almoft forgot the period of our glorious revolution: W1rIAM of Orange was fecretly invited to England, by lefs than 200 perfons, and they not the moft confiderable for landed poffeffions or popular influence. As chance would have it, or our good fortunes, he fucceeded; and all thofe English, Irish, and Scotchmen who fought for him, and who (if his expedition failed) would have been hanged as rebels have their names handed down to us as noble affertors of their country's freedom; and that ufurpation is called the glorious revolution of 16 8. There is alfo the cafe of Spain at prefent, a ftrong exemplification of this principle: the Spaniards are all rebels against their Sovereign, for they are fighting for the establishment of an equitable fyftem of government; and if some certain Juntas could lay hold on them, they would firft put them in towers, and hang them afterwards by way of diverfification; however, we think it is not neceffary to poffefs the gift of prophecy in order that we may be enabled to give it as an opinion, that these fame Spaniards will foon become an enfranchised and happy people, by extinguishing the partizans of their antient wholefome, defpotic, and inquifitorial inftitutions, As we have fhewn thofe that were right because they fucceeded; we think it only impartial to give a fhort account of thofe who were wrong, like Sir Francis, because they were too

1

veak to fucceed and like his friends, fome deferted them, because adverfity is contagious, others because the lex fortioris was their criterion of right, and others (who like the drunken bully, can blufter and voiciferate copioully when danger is remote), deferted their friends in the hour of diftrefs on the flightest alarm, as the barking village car fteals off with fallen ears and tail at the noife of a horfewhip.

The French Commiffioner at Toulon was hanged by Lord Hood as a rebel, because he was not strong enough to keep his Lordship out. Colonel Haines, an American officer, was hanged by Lord Moira as a rebel; for he was taken prifoner, and in fuch cafes a prifoner is always on the wrong fide. The Earl of Derwentwater, Lord Lovat, &c. were hanged in London; for they affifted the Pretender; and, being defeated, they were all in the wrong. The Duke D'Enghein attempted to reflore the Bourbons in France; he was taken and shot; he, too, was certainly in the wrong. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Meffrs. O'Connor, Emmett, &c. concerted a plan to feparate this country from England; and, after a ftruggle in which thousands loft their lives by the fword and the gibbet, the rebels were totally dif comfited; and wilk any man say (after such a refult) that they were not all in the wrong.

Hence it is very evident, that all thofe who ever yet entertained opini ons inimical to established Governments, were wrong, even though fuch Governments might chance to be imbecile, defpotic, and piratical, which we all know our Government is not; that is to fay, when fuch opinions were held by a party unable to make them manifeft by cogent arguments; and we believe it is a conviction (the result of such reasoning) which has in

duced

THE state of Kentucky is situated 36 deg. 30 min. and 39 deg. 30 min, north latitude, and 28 deg. and 89 deg. west longitude; its boundaries to the north-west are the Ohio, for an extent of about seven hundred and sixty miles, to the east of Virginia, and to the south of Tennessea; it is separated from Virginia by the river Sandy and the Laurel Mountains, one of the principal links of the Alleghanies. The greatest length of this state is about four hundred miles, and its greatest breadth about two hundred. This vast extent appears to lie upon a bank of chalky stone, identic in its nature, and covered with a stratum of vegetable earth, which varies in its composition, and is from ten to fifteen feet thick. The boundaries of this immense bank are not yet prescribed in any correct manner, but its thickness must be very considerable, to judge of it by the rivers in the country, the borders, of which, and particularly those of the Kentucky and Dick rivers, which is one branch of it, rise, in some parts, three hundred feet perpendicular, where the chalky stone is seen quite bare.

The soil in Kentucky, although irregular, is not mountainous, if we except some parts contigious to the Ohio and on this side Virginia. The chalky stone, and abundant coal mines which lie useless, are the only mineral substances wore thy of notice. Iron mines are yery scarce there, and, to the best of my remembrance, but one was worked, which is far from being sufficient for the wants of the country.

MAY, 1810.

The Kentucky and Green rivers empty themselves into the Ohio, after a course of three hundred miles; they fall so low in summer time, that they are forded a hundred and fifty miles from their embouchure; but in the winter and spring they experience such sudden and strong increases, that the waters of the Kentucky rise about forty feet in four-and-twenty hours. This variation is still more remarkable in the secondary rivers which run into it: the latter, though frequently from ten to fifteen fathoms broad, preserve such little water in summer, that there is scarcely one of them which cannot be crossed without wetting the feet; and the stream of water that serpentines upon the bed of chalky rock is at that time reduced to a few inches in depth; in consequence of which we may look upon the Kentucky as an immense bason, which, independent of the natural illapse of its waters through the chandel of the rivers, loses a great part of them by interior openings.

The Atlantic part of the United States in that respect affords a perfect contrast with Kentucky, as on the other side of the Alleghanies not the least vestige of chalky stone is seen. The rivers, great and small, however distant from their source, are subject to no other change in the volume of their waters but what results from a more or less rainy season; and their springs, which are very numerous, always supply water in abundance ; this applies more particularly to the southern states, with which I am perfectly ac quainted

E e

According

According to the succinct idea that we have just given of Kentucky, it is easy to judge that the inhabitants are exposed to a very serious inconvenience, that of wanting water in the summer still we must except those in the vicinity of great rivers and their principal channels, that always preserve water enough to supply their domestic wants; thence it results that many estates, even among the most fertile, are not cleared, and that the owners cannot get rid of them without the greatest difficulty; as the emigrants, better informed now-a-days, make no purchases before they have a correct statement of localities.

Kentucky is that of the three states situated west of the Alleghi nies which was first popelated. This country was discovered in 1770, by some Virginia sportsmen, when the favourable accounts they gave of it induced others to go there. No fixed establishment, however, was formed there before 1780. At that time this immense country was not occupied by any Indian nation; they went there to hunt; but all with one common assent made a war of extermina. tion against those who wished to settle there. Thence this country derives the name of Kentucky, which signifies, in the language of the natives, the Land of Blood. When the Whites made their apFearance there, the natives showed still more opposition to their establishment: they carried for a kang tine death and desolation, and depar after their usual mode, their prisons in the most cruel tormen's. This state of things Listed mil 1783, at which time the American population havingbee me too strong forthem to penetrate to the centre of the establishment, they were relu ed to the necessity of aracking the einigrants on their

route; and, on the other hand, they were deserted by the English in Canada, who had abetted and supported them in the war.

In 1782 they began to open roads for carriages in the interior of the country; prior to this there were only paths practicable for persons on foot and horseback. Till 1788 those who emigrated from the eastern states, travelled by way of Virginia. In the first place, they went to Block House, situated in Holston, westward of the mountains; and as the government of the United States did not furnish them with an escort, they waited at this place till they were sufficiently numerous to pass in safety through the Wilderness, an uninhabited space of a hundred and thirty miles, which they had to travel over before they arrived at Crab Orchard, the first post occapied by the Whites. The enthu siasm for emigrating to Kentucky was at that time carried to such a degree in the United States, that some years upwards of twenty thousand have been known to pass, and many of them had even deserted their estates, not having been able to dispose of them quick enough. This overflow of new colonists very soon raised the price of land in Kentucky: from twopence and two-pence-halfpenny per acre, it suddenly rose to seven or eight shillings. The stok-jobbers profited by this infatuation; and, not content with a moderate share of gain, practised the most illegal measures to dispose of the land to great advantage. They went far as to fabricate false plans, in which they traced rivers favoura ble for mills and other uses, in this manner many ideal lots, from five hundred to a thousand acres, were sld in Europe, and even in several great towns of the United States.