The barbarity of the English, the Danes, and Normans, in deftroying all the monuments of Scotch, Irish, and Welsh antiquity, has robbed the philofopher, if not the divine, of maby a precious light. At all events, this wonderful affinity between Irish, Scythian, Scotch, Carthaginian, Welth, Hebrew, Syriac, Perfian, Shanfcrite, and other ancient diaJects, is a throng and interefting proof of holy writ; as it goes to prove that at one time there was a univerfal language. But the ufe 1 fhall make of it is, to fhew the ignorant and provoking infults which the English have heaped upon the Irish; not only in the times of their own barbarity, but fince letters had made progrefs among them. When Queen Elizabeth found ed Trinity College, fhe would have had an Irish profeffor, but Lord Burleigh diffuaded her, faying, it was a barbarous language, and repeated illiberally fome phrafe which he pretended was Irish, but which evident. ly was nonfenfe, and perhaps aukward enough in his mouth. You may remember it in Hume's Hiftory of, England. The English of it, according to this hiftorian, is, that " The white ox eat the black egg!"

Now, upon the fame illiberal fcheme, if any Queen, for instance Queen Dido, who spoke good Phoenician, wifhed to have an English profeffor, and one of her favourites was to pronounce to her even in the court lieft manner, "Length, breadth, wedth, ftrength, thicknefs, thankfulnefs," and foforth, would it not shock the delicate ears of the queen, and damn the profeffor? Yet it would not be fo unfair as to fay that "The white ox eat the black egg!"

When we consider that the Irish vernacular tongue was to be traced with little corruption to the higheft antiquity, and identified with holy writ, there is fomething contemptibly OЯober, 1810.

ftupid in this manner of treating it, and more fo, when we confider that the language of the English, although long fpoken by one of the first and the most learned nations of Europe, to the polish of which Parnell, Brook, the Sheridans, Burke, Goldfmith, Sterne, Swift, O'Leary, and a multitude of other Irishmen, have contributed fomuch, cannot yet be reduced to any rules of grammar, or spoken or written with any ordinary perfpicuity. Look into an act of parliament, where precifion is necessary, or into a legal conveyance, and read the wherefoevers and whenforvers that abound-the be's, the he's and the they's; the any manner of person or perfons, thing or things, and fuch paraphrafes and amplifications, which never could be neceflary in a language poffeffisg either concord or inflexion: and the crude origin and construction of which, tafte, learning, or genius, has not been able to reform. Indeed, fome of the very acts of parliament, enacting penalties against thofe that spake Irith, or dwelt amongst the Irifbry, are fuch a queer compound of Danish, Norman hog-latin, and I don't know what, as to be the most biting fatires upon the Englishry, and thofe that fpake English. For we must acknowledge, that whatever our anceflors, the Irifk, were, in the time of Strongbow, our anceflors, the Engif, were clumfy enough.-You recollect it was about that time that the luxurious Thomas A. Becket was impeached for ftrewing his floors with green rushes, and other fuch effeminacies; and it is an authentic fact, that as late as that, our ancestors the English, fold their children and their pregnant wives to our ancestors, the Irish, for flaves. The market was held, where now ftands the great city of Liverpool. Some traces of wive-felling ftill exist in England. (To be continued.)

3 L

THE

THE CASE

OF THE PRESENT

SIR CHARLES ASGILL. Written by Thomas Paine, in a letter to Sir Guy Carleton, then commanding the British forces, employed in Ame rica, topprefs the growing spirit of Independence.

TO SIR GUY CARLETON.

It is the nature of compaffion to affociate with misfortune; and I address this to you in behalf even of an enemy, a captain in the British fervice, now on his way to the headquarters of the American army, and unfortunately doomed to death for a crime not his own: A fentence fo extraordinary, an execution fo repugnant to every human fenfation, ought never to be told without the circumflances which produced it: and as the destined victim is yet in existence, and in your hands reft his life or death, I fhall briefly ftate the cafe and the melancholy confequence.

Captain Huddy, of the Jerfey miJitia, was attacked in a fall fort on Tom's river, by a party of refugees in the British pay and service, was made prifoner together with his company, carried to New-York and lodged in the provoft of that city: about three weeks after which, he was taken out of the provost down to the water fide, put into a boat and brought again upon the Jersey fhore, and there, contrary to the practice of all nations but favages, was hung upon a tree, and left hanging until found by our people, who took him down and buried him.

The inhabitants of that part of the country where the murder was committed, fent a deputation to General Washington, with a full and certified flatement of the fact Struck, as every human breaft must be, with such bru

ith outrage, and determined both to

punifh and prevent it for the future, the General represented the cafe to General Clinton, who then commanded, and demanded that the refugee officer who ordered and attended the execution, and whofe name is Lippincut, fhould be delivered up as a murderer; and in cafe of refufal that the perfon of fome British officer fhould fuffer in his ftead. The demand, though not refufed, has not been complied with; and the melancholy lot (not by felection, but by cafting lots) has fallen upon Captain fgill, of the Guards, who, as I have already mentioned, is on his way from Lancafter to camp, a martyr to the general wickednefs of the caufe he engaged in, and the ingratitude of thofe he has served.

The first reflection which arifes on this black bufinefs is, what fort of men muft Englishmen be, and what fort of order and difcipline do they preferve in their army, when in the immediate place of their head-quar ters, and under the eye and nofe of their commander-in-chief, a prifoner can be taken at pleasure from his con finement, and his death made a matter of sport.

The hiftory of the most favage Indians does not produce instances ex actly of this kind. They, at least. have a formality in their punishments. With them it is the horridness of revenge; but with your army it is the ftill greater crime, the horridness of diverfion.

The British generals who have fucceeded each other, from the time of General Gage to yourself, have all affected to speak in language they have no right to. In their preclamations, their addreffes, their letters to General Washington, and their fupplications to Congrefs (for they deferve no other name) they talk of British honor, British generosity, and British clemency, as if thofe things

were

were matters of fact; whereas, we whofe eyes are open, who fpeak the fame language with yourselves, maný of whom were born on the fame fpot with you, and who can no more be mistaken in your words than in your actions, can declare to all the world, that fo far as our knowledge goes, there is not a more deteftable character, nor a meaner or more barbafous enemy, than the prefent British one. With us, you have forfeited all pretenfions of reputation, and it ie only by holding you like a wild beaft, afraid of your keepers, that you can be made manageable. But to return to the point in question.

Though I can think no man ingocent who has lent his hand to deftroy the country which he did not plant, and to ruin thofe he could not enflave, yet abftracted from all ideas of right and wrong on the original queftion, Captain Afgill, in the prefent cafe, is not the guilty man. The villain and the victim are here feparated characters. You hold the one and we the other. You difown, or affect to dif own and reprobate, the conduct of Lippencut, yet you give him fanctu ary; and by fo doing you as effectually become the executioner of fgill, if you put the rope on his neck, and difaffed him from the world. Whatever your feelings on this extraordinary occafion may be, are beft known to yourself. Within the grave of your own mind lies buried the fate of Afgill. He becomes the corpfe of your will, or the furvivor of your juftice. Deliver up the one and you fave the other; withhold the one, and the other dies by your choice.

as

On our part the cafe is exceeding plain; An officer has been taken from bis confinement and murdered, and the murderer is within your lines. Your army have been guilty of a thousand inftances of equal cruelty, but they bave been rendered equivocal, and

fheltered from perfonal detection.Here the crime is fixed; and is one of thofe extraordinary cafes which can neither be denied nor palliated, and to which the cuftom of war does not apply for it never could be suppofed that fuch a brutal outrage would ever be committed. It is an original in the history of civilized barbarians, and is truly British.

On your part, you are accountable to us for the perfonal fafety of the prifoners within your walls. Here can be no miltake; they can neither be fpies nor fufpected as fuch; your fecurity is not endangered, nor your operations fubjected to mifcariage by men immured within a dungeon.They differ in every circumstance from men in the field, and leave no pretence for feverity of punishment. But if to the difmal condition of cap. tivity with you, must be added the conftant apprehenfions of death; if to be imprifoned is fo nearly to be entombed; and, if after all, the murderers are to be protected, and thereby the crime encouraged, wherein do you differ from Indians, either in conduct or character!

We can have no idea of your ho nor, or your juftice, in any future tranfaction of what nature it may be, while you fhelter within your lines an outrageous murderer, and facrifice in his ftead an officer of your own. If you have no regard to us, at least fpare the blood which it is your duty to fave. Whether the punishment will be greater on him, who, in this cafe, innocently dies; or, on him whom fad neceffity forces to retaliate, is, in the nicety of fenfation, an undecided question. It refts with you to prevent the fufferings of both. You have nothing to do but to give up the murderer, and the matter ends,

But to protect him, be he who he may, is to patronize his crime, and to trifle it off by frivolous and unmeaning

enquiries

the land of Seriad, describes the fuccelions and reigns of their monarchs feveral thoufands of years before the period of the creation mentioned by Mofes.

The Chaldeans go up fill higher; they maintain that they have made aftronomical obfervations forthe space of four hundred thousand years.

The Chinefe calculate on a revolution of forty thousand years, and affert, that they have made obferva tions a long time previous to the crea tion.

The learned reject these chronologies as entirely fabulous, and confider the pretended obfervations of the Egyptians and Chaldeans as unknown to the ancient aftronomers. They fhew that the pillars of Hermes is a mere fiction that falls by itself; for by general confent, Hermes was the first inventor of alphabetical charac ters, and the land of Seriad was un known to the ancient geographers. As to the Chinese chronology, it has been demonftrated, that their preten, hions were contradicted by the Ephe. merides. It has been demonftrated that the most ancient obfervations acknowledged by them as authentic, are thofe of the two fixed stars, the one in the winter folftice, and the other in the month of March, in the time of their king YAO, who reigned after the deluge. if their historians give forty thousand years duration to their empire, it can be grounded only on an equivocal and uncertain tradition, be caufe as they themselves acknowledge all their books were configned to the flames about two thousand years ago, by order of their emperor Zio, and at prefent they poffefs no monuments more ancient than that period.

The fame reveries have found credit amongst the Arcadians, who af fert, that they are more ancient than the moon; and the Sicilians, who boatt exceedingly of the origin and

antiquity of their cities; they pretend for example, that Palermo was founded in the time of the Patriarch Ifaac, by a colony of Hebrews, Phonicians and Syrians; and that Saphu, grandfon of Efau, was governor of a tower in the fame city, called Baych They cite, agreeably to the example of Manethon, fome ancient infcriptions, much of the same stamp with thofe of the pillars of Hermes. We may pass the fame opinion on the pretended antiquity of Meflina, which, fay they, was enlarged by Nimrod.

Neither is the origin of the Romans better eftablished, for authors differ on this pent. Some afcribe it to the Trojans; others to other founders. But without going fo far to explore thefe prodigies of antiquity, fabricated by vanity, have we not the hiftory of Brutus, invented by Geoffrey of Monmouth, an English monk of the twelfth century? This religious, zealous for the glory of his nation and defirous to give it an illustrious ori gin, brings one Brutus, great grandfon of Eneas the Trojan, to people Britain; and by this fortunate difcovery, he finds at the fame time the origin and the name of Britons. This fyftem did not fucceed, for it was rejected by those whose greatest intereft it was to fupport it, principally by Newbridge, Polidore Virgil, B chanan, Camden, Baker and others.

The higher we afcend to the ancient history of every country, the more obfcure we thall find it. It is probable, that the old Milesians dealt in the marvellous as well as the other cotemporary nations. The great an◄ tiquity to which they lay claim, will doubtless appear astonishing. We can fcarcely conceive, that, a people, ob. fcure, and almoft unknown, could point out its origin, and trace genealogies to fuch diftant periods, whilft the most confiderable nations in Europe, at this day, are novel and yet

fcarcely