gain to heaven. Our laws, our government, our religion, all demand our utmost exertion. The voice of pofterity, the cries of unborn millions call upon us, to unite for the public good. Our country is threatened not from foreign invafion, but by domestic diffention. By inflaming party difcord we precipitate her downfall. In vain we fupported an age of toils; in vain we fought, and bled in the defence of freedom, if it is unworthy of prefervation. Oh liberty-heavenly fugitive dear to thy votaries only during the toils, the pangs, the agonies of thy birth. But when fecured in peace, forfaken, perfecuted, deftroyed. Fatal inconfiftency! Infatuated Americans ! Once the glory and admiration of the world; but foon to become the fport of anarchy, a prey to civil diffention. Once the fcourge and terror of defpots, but foon to fall the victims of yourfelves.Ye grafs-grown monuments of our revolution! Ye dear heights, who inherfe within your bofoms the precious duft of Warren and his brave warriors, fhall forever witnefs our difgrace! The indignant heroes, who fell in the cause of libetty, fhall fpring from their tombs, to brand their degenerated pofterity with curfes of infamy. From the high realms of bliss the fainted fpirit of our departed father frowns with anger on his deluded children. The echo of each foot-step is the voice of his admonition; he fighs with every breeze, with every dew drop he fheds an immortal tear. But let us not too deeply fhade the picture of future evils, nor o vercharge the gloomy profpect of our dangers. Repentance of our political errors may delay them; reformation will prevent them. A cheerful fupport of our prefent administration will preferve the tottering fabric of our liberty; national unanimity will render it immortal. Columbian fair! generous difpofers of our happiness, and amiable protectors of our felicity. To you it belongs to rule the milder empire of virtue. Long continue, as at prefent, the watchful guardians of our morals ; and by the perfuafive mildnefs of your converfation, and the fovereign influence of your example, foothe party difcord to friendfhip and unity. Remember, no heart can refift the voice of patriotifm, when urged by the lips of beauty and innocence. Americans, the clofe of the eighteenth century will be com memorative of the moft diftrefsful events. Our orphan ftate had not unveiled her mournful face for the lofs of her patriot Sumner, before fhe was fummoned with all America to that agonizing event, which made "a nation fatherless, a world in tears." Ah! how different is this from our former anniverfa ries. The fhouts, which always spoke a nation's joy, are now drowned by a nation's fighs. Afflicted countrymen ! check not your tears. To weep for Washington is filial gratitude; to grieve is manly virtue. Wonderful man! heroic warrior, immortal legislator, father of Ainerica, parent of the patricts of all nations, benefactor of mankind i the praifes of the whole congregated world would be too fmall for thy virtues. Thy memory fhall be cherished by all ages, thy fame fhall expand with creation, thy veneration fhall increase with time, thy glory fhall be commenfurate with eternity. Ye fainted patriots, who bore the toils of freedom; ye who glorioufly fell in the field of battle, and ye, who expired in the arms of a weeping country, while ye celebrate this anniversary with new tranfports in the blissful courts of heaven for the prefence of your illustrious chief, oh bow your immortal heads, to accept the bleffings of your grateful country. Affembled before the altar of our independence, we all fwear to defend thofe rights pur chafed by your toils; to obey the laft precepts of our great political father; and to unite with zeal in the caufe of God and our country. Imagination withdraws the curtain from futurity, and unfolds to our enrapturing view that joyful era, when the rifing fun of glory fhall arrive to its meridian fplendor in this western hemifphere; when the empire of America shall be unbounded as her happiness; when the deep rooted thrones of defpotifm fhall crumble into ruin; when thy temple, O Liberty,shall be the whole concave of heaven ; thy altar the hearts of all mankind; when a new world fhall merge from the chaos of the old, and a new WASHINGTON to ren der it happy. e. For the COLUMBIAN PHENIX. COMMON SENSE IN, DISHABILLE. THE A new theory of Liberty, HE prefent is an age of theories. Philofophy for years pait has been fyftem-mad; and the whole world feems about to become the bedlam of her difciples. In vain do the greatest orators, ftatefmen, and divines, extol the old order of things, and cry down novelty. The attractions of novelty are ftill more powerful than the voice of eloquence, the charms of graceful periods, or the authority of rea fon. Even in grave Old England No. XLIV. the new discovery of a ftar, that fcarce ever fcattered a beam of light upon its inhabitants, has excited more admiration than the fun, moon, and all the visible lamps of heaven, that have, time out of mind, been trimmed and burning for their common ufe. The sober monarch of this Island has attefted his rage for novelty in the remoteft heavens; by christening with his own name this new edition to an old fyftem. To compare fmall with great, thou, Reader, art giving another proof of thy love of novelty. Caught by the title of this number, thy eye is tracing my pen with an avidity, which has feldom been its attendant, when pufuing its common, though far more ufeful courfe. Extreme evils fometimes counteract themselves. Perhaps the kingdom of fyftems, divided against itself, like Satan's, will fall to the ground. With fubmiffion to wifer politicians and philofophers, I fhall oppofe a new theory of liberty to all thofe more deftructive ones, which have entployed fo many contending fwords and pens in their defenfive and offenfive operations. It is this: All nations have an equal share of freedom. And am I, fayeft thou, as much a flave as the fubject of the Eastern defpot?-Precifely.-As well might it be afferted that Brag-dig-nag, and the Lilliputians were born of the fame mother. Is not the Afiatic compelled in dull fervility to tread the fame track of profeffional employment with his father, and forefathers; and obliged to quit his repofe at dawn,and pay his profane homage to the rifing fun? Is not even the exercife of his reafon forbidden by the dogmas of an abfurd and fanguine religion; and every right of freemen abridged, by the more abfurd and cruel defpotifm of man? The anfwer is, tyranny has various qualities, and appears in different forms. The quantity is the fame in all countries and ages. The water which is forced thro' an aqueduct, is fubject to the ty ranny of the tube which confines it. That which meanders in nature's eafier path, through winding vallies, is occafionally dictated in its courfe by the lordly banks: If their sway is not fo abfolute, the furplus of freedom is wiped off by the domination of the capricious winds, or angry tempeft. While Law, with a partial hand, is measuring out varied portions of restraint to man, in the different parts of the world; Fashion, with her thousand wings, is flying from place to place,to fill upthe full measure of his oppreffion. In the dark reign of popery, the tyrant Law, at the "curfeu's knell," drove moping man to the prifon of his own house, extinguihed the cheering lamp, and laid him under the requifition of his wife at eight in the evening. Dark ages, indced, when fober night, clad in her fable robes, purfued her folemn course unlighted round the world! But fince night, with the mind of man has become illuminated, and the restraints of law broken down by a" flood of day;" what is the acquifition on the fcore of freedom?-Fashion binds man to his bed, and deprives him of the richeft repaft that heaven gives to earth, the enjoyment of the 66 golden morn!" Not fated with this tyranny, the drives him like a "whip-galled flave," through the dreary abodes of night, harraffed and fickened with all the expenfive toil of her painful pleafures. In fome countries the tyrant Law,lays his enormous tax on the merchant's and tradefman's thrift, and "wrings from the hard hands of peasants their vile trafh." In ours, more cruel Fashion, like modern France, impofes her incalculable requifitions on all claffes without distinction. In China, inexorable cuftom lays its hard reftraint on the female, and with a fhoe, fitted to the infant's feet, curbs the expanfive power of nature from the cradle to the grave: nor is its fway lefs arbitrary over male, than female, in most countries of Afia. It lays its restraint on the vanity of both, by enacting the fame mode of drefs, from age to age. In America, this tyranny of law and custom is not known. But Fashion fupplies the deficiency, by her defpotic and capricious fway over every article of dress and ornament, from the toe of the fhoe, to the cockade that rifes at her beck, on the hat of her pa triotic fons, and the feather that waves on the bonnet of her obedient daughters. At her fimple dictum, without rule or reason, the most coftly garments must be laid aside, and new ones, more congenial to her fancy,purchased in their ftead. Thefe are fome of the facts, which lead me to conclude, that the tyranny of Fashion, is in the inverse proportion to the tyranny of law, and established customs; and that the compound proportion of both, forms the true ratio, and equal portion of oppreffion in all countries. If there are any exceptions to this general rule, I shall leave it with more accurate obfervers to determine whether the balance lies in favor of the vaffals of deipotic tyrants, and rigorous laws; or the flaves of fashion, and freedom. From a PHILADELPHIA PAPER. ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF BOXFORD PARISH, MASSACHUSETTS. APARAGRAPH, under the Newburyport head, of June 10th, states that a number of the inhabitants of Upper Boxford Parifh affembled the day after the election, for the purpose of killing Black Birds; that in the courfe of that day,they destroyed 1575 birds and eggs. The account concluded with a "recommendation for our farmers generally, where thofe pernicious birds abound, to turn out the fame feason annually, for a fimilar purpose.” As an American, having the agricultural intereft at heart, I of fer this addrefs to the farmers generally, and hope they will appre ciate the motive. The study of nature has been my favorite purfuit of late years, and while collecting fubjects of na tural history for my museum, I have always been delighted in viewing the economy and manners of various animals whose fupport and very existence depend oneach other: thusforming agrand fyftem of unity, manifefting the boundless wildom and goodnefs of the great Creator. Not In one of my lectures on birds, which I delivered laft winter, defcribing black birds, I quoted Pennant, p. 256, who fays, "fome of the colonies have eftablished a reward of three pence a dozen, for the extirpation of the jackdaws: and in New-England, the intent was almost effected to the cost of the inhabitants; who at length difcovered that Providence had not formed even thefe feemingly deftructive birds in vain. withstanding they caufedfuch havoc among the grain, they made ample recompence by clearing it of noxious worms, the catterpillar of the bruclus pisi, or pea beatle, in particular; as soon as the birds were destroyed, the reptiles had full leave to multiply; the confequence was the total lofs of the grafs, in 1749; when the NewEnglanders, late repentance, were obliged to get their hay from Pennfylvania, and even from G. Britain." This may be confidered as a cafe in point. Many other animals alfo claim your protection, and I am forry to find feveral celebrated authors have fuffered their prejudices to fufpend their enquiry after truth, while they defcribe animals as noxious, which, on a fuller investigation, would be found highly useful to man : fuch are the wood-peckers. They are furely fuperficial obfervers, who fay, thofe birds deftroy our fruit trees. If they pick holes in the bark, what is it for? but to get the worms that they hear knawing within, which if left alone, would fpeedily fap whole orchards: thus inftead of fuch quantities of choice pippins, we should not have a single apple tree left to give us fruit. Be-. fides, does not the beautiful variegated plumage of the woodpecker delight the eye, as we pafs along the road, or ramble thro' the foreft? Are not their fhrill notes a fine contraft to the cooing turtle-dove? How pleafing thefe varieties of warblers! Even the rattle which the woodpeckers fometimes make on the roof of the barn is infinitely more pleafing to my ear, than the rub-a-dub of the foldier's drum, or the clangor of trumpet's found: the fore runners of rapine and murder. Thefe numerous birds that live on flies of various kinds, how im menfely ufeful to man and other animals, who have a confiderable dependence on the vegetable creation for food! Then wherefore kill the bird which deftroys a numerous and fubtle enemy? The chain of mutual depen. dence may be traced in a thoufand turns, and the difcontented grumbler fhould be taught to know, that this world was not made for him alone. Not to extend further in a newspaper addrefs, I will conclude with an earneit endeavour to defend a very harmless and ufeful, tho' hated reptile. I mean the black and garter fnakes. They are the farmer's belt friends, as they feed on field mice and other animals, which might otherwise increase too fast. Examine their mouths, and you will find that they have no fangs to inflict poifon-their fmall teeth will not Ggg |