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Article THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF PETER PORCUPINE; ← Page 5 of 8 →
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The Life And Adventures Of Peter Porcupine;
certain blasphemous gazettes , winch , though kicked from the door with disdain , fly in at the window . Now has this ever been the case with the works ofPeter Porcupine ? Were they ever thrust upon people in spite of their remonstrances ? Can Mr : Bradford say that thousands of these pamphlets have ever been paid for by any agent of Great . Britaivi ? Can he say , that I have ever distributed any of them ? No ; he can say no such thing . They had , at first , to encounter every
difficulty , and they have made their way , supported only by public ap-. probation . Mr . Bradford knows that the British Consul , when he purchased six of them , insisted upon having them at wholesale price ! Did this look like a desire to encourage them ? Besides , those who know any thing of Mr . Bradford will never believe that he would have lent his aid to a British agent ' s publications : for , of all the Americans I have yet conversed with ,. he seems to entertain the greatest
degree of rancour against that nation . I have reason to' believe that the British Consul was far from approving of some of my publications . I happened to be in a bookseller's shop , unseen by him , when he said , tiiat 'I was a miildfellovj . ' ' On which I shall only observe , that when the King bestows on me about 500 I . a year , perhaps I may become a t ante fello-w , and hear my mastermy countrymenmy friendsand my parents belied and execrated
, , , , without saying one single word in their defence . Had the Minister of Great Britain employed me to write , can it be supposed that he would not furnish me with the means of living well , without becoming the retailer of my own works ? Can it be supposed that he would have suffered me ever to have appeared in the scene ? It must be a very poor king that he serves , if he could not afford me
more than I can get by keeping a book-shop . An Ambassador from a King of the Gypsies could not have aaed a meaner part ! Where was all the gold of Pitt P That gold which tempted , according to the Democrats , an American Envoy to sell his country , and twothirds of the Senate to ratify the bargain : that gold , which , according to the Convention of France , has made one half of that nation cut the throats ofthe other half : that potent gold could not keep Peter Porcupine from standing behind a counter to sell a pen-knife , or a quire of paper . ?
The notion of my being in British pay arose from my having taken upon me a defence ofthe charaaer of that nation , and of the intentions of its Government towards the United States . But have I ever teazed my readers with this except when the subjea necessarily demanded it ? And if I have given way to my indignation , when a political divine attempted to degrade my country , or when its vile calumniators called it ' an insular Bastille' what have I done more than
, every good man in my place would have done ? What have I done more than my duty ; than obeyed the feelings of my heart ? When a man hears his country reviled , does it require that he should be paid for speaking in its defence ? My writings , the first pamphlet excepted , have had no other objeft than that of keeping aliye an attachment to the Constitution of the
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Life And Adventures Of Peter Porcupine;
certain blasphemous gazettes , winch , though kicked from the door with disdain , fly in at the window . Now has this ever been the case with the works ofPeter Porcupine ? Were they ever thrust upon people in spite of their remonstrances ? Can Mr : Bradford say that thousands of these pamphlets have ever been paid for by any agent of Great . Britaivi ? Can he say , that I have ever distributed any of them ? No ; he can say no such thing . They had , at first , to encounter every
difficulty , and they have made their way , supported only by public ap-. probation . Mr . Bradford knows that the British Consul , when he purchased six of them , insisted upon having them at wholesale price ! Did this look like a desire to encourage them ? Besides , those who know any thing of Mr . Bradford will never believe that he would have lent his aid to a British agent ' s publications : for , of all the Americans I have yet conversed with ,. he seems to entertain the greatest
degree of rancour against that nation . I have reason to' believe that the British Consul was far from approving of some of my publications . I happened to be in a bookseller's shop , unseen by him , when he said , tiiat 'I was a miildfellovj . ' ' On which I shall only observe , that when the King bestows on me about 500 I . a year , perhaps I may become a t ante fello-w , and hear my mastermy countrymenmy friendsand my parents belied and execrated
, , , , without saying one single word in their defence . Had the Minister of Great Britain employed me to write , can it be supposed that he would not furnish me with the means of living well , without becoming the retailer of my own works ? Can it be supposed that he would have suffered me ever to have appeared in the scene ? It must be a very poor king that he serves , if he could not afford me
more than I can get by keeping a book-shop . An Ambassador from a King of the Gypsies could not have aaed a meaner part ! Where was all the gold of Pitt P That gold which tempted , according to the Democrats , an American Envoy to sell his country , and twothirds of the Senate to ratify the bargain : that gold , which , according to the Convention of France , has made one half of that nation cut the throats ofthe other half : that potent gold could not keep Peter Porcupine from standing behind a counter to sell a pen-knife , or a quire of paper . ?
The notion of my being in British pay arose from my having taken upon me a defence ofthe charaaer of that nation , and of the intentions of its Government towards the United States . But have I ever teazed my readers with this except when the subjea necessarily demanded it ? And if I have given way to my indignation , when a political divine attempted to degrade my country , or when its vile calumniators called it ' an insular Bastille' what have I done more than
, every good man in my place would have done ? What have I done more than my duty ; than obeyed the feelings of my heart ? When a man hears his country reviled , does it require that he should be paid for speaking in its defence ? My writings , the first pamphlet excepted , have had no other objeft than that of keeping aliye an attachment to the Constitution of the