suit himself; here, for a subscription, or the insertion of an advertisement, he finds mouths of all sizes, and gullets of all dimensions, distended to receive his toad, with as much joy and gratitude as the young ones of the crow receives the carrion from her bill.

Judges.-There is something singularly favourable to civil liberty and free elections in the eligibility of judges to other offices, before they cease to be judges; for, a man cannot distinguish his friends from his opponents, while he is on the bench, any better than if he were not there; and, on the other hand, his office of judge enables him to prevent, in a great measure, all improper or unpleasant publications, either against the other candidate or himself. I say, therefore, that the office of judge, and the quality of candidate for that of Governor, are united in the same person with singular propriety.* Be it remembered, moreover, that if a judge fail in his election, he is still a judge; and every one must perceive, that a hard political struggle furnishes an excellent opportunity for a judge to make himself thoroughly acquainted with the faults and the virtues of all and every of the citizens; a very valuable sort of knowledge, and which, I presume, cannot fail to contribute greatly to the impartial administration of justice.—“ VIVAT RESPUBLICA!"

Dallas is pretty sure that he shall not be Secretary of State, under any Federal Governor, and for that reason, amongst others, he wishes to thrust in M'Kean. To be sure, he may be disappointed, even if MAC should get in; but he has a chance, and a bad chance is better than none. "What does he care," said a fool the other day, "he has very good prac tice at the bar." But this fool did not perceive, that he might lose that good practice with his office of Secretary of State! The poor fool did not recollect, that it is often very convenient to have one's cause in the hands of a man who has, ex officio, the ear of the Governor. If I were in danger of being hanged, in England, and the Minister were also a pleading lawyer, I should certainly employ the Minister, and give him a thumping fee. But this is not the case in England; neither Mr. Pitt, nor the Duke of Portland, nor Lord Grenville, is a pleading lawyer; and here we have complete proof of the super-excellence of Republican government, the simple manners of which permit its officers to follow their private and public occupations at one and the same time, by which means the service of the State is performed for little or nothing. Some persons may, indeed, suggest, that this economy may be attended with evil consequences; for, that a man's private occupation may be made the medium through which to obtain his influence, in his public capacity; but

The offices of Sheriff and Governer are frequently the cause of great corruptions in America, and Mr. COBBETT frequently exposed them in his Gazette and other writings. If the reader will turn to Mr. JEFFERSON's memoirs, page 69, he will find that these remarks are fully borne out by the head of the democratic party; for he says, "We have seen that, contrary to all correct ex"ample, they (the judges) are in the habit of going out of the question before "them, to throw an anchor ahead, and grapple further hold for future advances "of power. They are, then, in fact, the corps of sappers and miners, steadily 26 working to undermine the independent rights of the States, and to consolidate "all in the hands of that Government in which they have so important a free"hold estate." M'KEAN became Governor of Pennsylvania after being many years Chief Justice, and, in his capacity of judge, admitted to the right of voting, those who were to be his electors.-ED.

those who talk thus, do not recollect the maxim of the sapient Montesquieu, that " VIRTUE is the basis of Republican government."

Tench Coxe keeps harping away upon Mr. Ross, who, he says, is recommended by me. This is a small mistake; I never presumed to recommend Mr. Ross; I know nothing of him; but I see him recommended by gentlemen of high reputation, for honesty, as well as for understanding; and I see him opposed by Leib, Tench Coxe, Dallas, &c., and, therefore, I am pretty sure, he must be a worthy gentleman, and a firm friend to his country. I must, however, say that I have somewhat more knowledge of the other candidate; I know Tench Coxe's man; I know M'Kean, and I know that it is my duty, my bounden duty, to my subscribers in this State, to use all my feeble efforts to preserve them from the power of such a man. From private considerations, there is no man who need care less about the issue of the election than myself. It is out of M'Kean's power to hurt me. I will never live six months under his sovereign sway. As soon as he is safe in his saddle, I shall begin to look out for a horse. Nor will a migration of this sort give me a moment's uneasiness. It would be a durable source of satisfaction to me, that I had scorned to live amongst a set of beings who could voluntarily and deliberately choose such a man to reign over them. As I said before, I look upon it as my duty to the public to assist in opposing M'Kean's election; but, as it may concern myself, I view it with the most perfect indifference; and, above all things, Coxe ought to avoid accusing me with acting from motives of enmity to the people; for, if I wished them evil, if I desired to see their humiliation, their misery, their ruin, I should join with Coxe instead of opposing him.

JANUARY, 1800.

To the Subscribers to this Gazette.*

Gentlemen,-Agreeably to my notification, made by advertisement, on the 11th ultimo, I now address to you the farewell number of PORCUPINE'S GAZETTE.

Remembering, as you must, my solemn promise to quit Pennsylvania, in case my old democratic Judge, MAC KEAN, should be elected Governor; and knowing, as you now do, that he is elected to that office, there are, I trust, very few of you who will be surprised to find that I am no longer in that degraded and degrading State.

My removal from Philadelphia to New York would certainly be sufficient apology for the suspension of my paper from the 26th of October (when the last number was published) to this time; and, were I inclined to resume and continue it, I am persuaded it would, by the far greater part of you, be honoured with a welcome appropriate to the return of an absent friend; but, the renewal of this intercourse between us, pleasing as it would be to me also, under other circumstances, cannot take place either now or at any future time.

My Gazette, Gentlemen, instead of being a mine of gold to me, as it has generally been supposed, has never yielded me a farthing of clear profit; and, therefore, in laying it down I lose nothing but a most troublesome and weighty burden. I must confess, however, that this consi

This was published at New York,

deration was no inducement to the step I have taken. Gain was never, in any situation of life, a primary object with me. The other branches of my business enabled me to support the loss incurred by the publication of my paper; and it was my intention, even after I had fully ascertained and sensibly felt the unproductiveness of it, to continue it till the month of March 1801; but, as this intention was founded entirely on my persuasion of the public utility of the continuation, it fell, of course, the moment that persuasion was removed from my mind.

I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams; and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I looked upon him as a stately, well-armed vessel, sailing on an expedition to combat and destroy the fatal influence of French intrigue and French principles; and I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through the voyage, and of partaking, in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer.

For a first-rater, like Mr. Adams, to beat up in the very teeth of former maxims, professions, and declarations, might, for aught I knew, be not only safe and prudent, but magnanimous also in the sublimest degree; but, for a poor little cock-boat like me, rigged only for a right-forward course, to attempt to imitate the adventurous manœuvre, would have been the very extreme of vanity and presumption; while, on the other hand, to continue my course alone would have been dangerous, useless, and absurd; I therefore waited for the first fair opportunity to haul down my sails, to lie-to, and contemplate the retreating commodore, surrounded with my more versatile companions, whose happy construction enabled them to yield obedience to every signal and to trim to every breeze.

While, however, I most heartily congratulate my brethren on the pliability of their principles, and the consequent respectability of their situation; while I, admiring, behold with what speed and address they retrace their route, and congratulate them on the approach of the time when they are to receive a pardon from the much-abused Talleyrand and the other rulers of the yet dear sister republic; while I thus cordially bestow on them my congratulations, there are some few things on which I humbly presume I may be permitted to congratulate myself. Yes, I must congratulate myself on having established a paper, carried it to a circulation unparalleled in extent, and preserved this circulation to the last number, without the aid of any of those base and parasitical arts by which patronage to American newspapers is generally obtained and preserved ;I congratulate myself on having, in the progress of this paper, uniformly supported, with all my feeble powers, the cause of true religion, sound morality, good government, and real libery ;-I congratulate myself on never having, in a single instance, been the sycophant of the Sovereign People; and on having persisted, in spite of calumny, threats, prosecutions, and violence, from the one side, and of praises, promises, and caresses, from the other-in spite of the savage howlings of the SANS CULOTTES, and the soothing serenades of the FEDERALILTS (for I have heard both under my window);-I congratulate myself on having, in spite of all these, persisted in openly and unequivocally avowing my attachment to my native country and my allegiance to my king;-and, with still - greater pride I congratulate myself on being the first, and perhaps the only man, who, since the revolution, has, in open court, refused to take

shelter under the title of citizen, and demanded justice as a subject of
King George-finally, I congratulate myself on having the entire appro
bation of every man of sense, candour, and integrity, the disapprobation
of every fool, the hatred of every malignant Whig, and the curse of every
villain.
I am, Gentlemen,

Your most obliged and most obedient servant,
WM. COBBETT.

THE RUSII-LIGHT.

The Rushite System of Depletion, with a Statement of Porcupine's Reasons for opposing it.

"The fever began to ravage the city and suburbs; so that we had abundance "of work, and it may easily be conceived what a quantity of innocent blood was spilt. But, I know not how it happened, all our sick died."

GIL BLAS.

THE novel system, adopted by Rush, is most aptly denominated the system of depletion; for the merit of it entirely consists in emptying the veins and the intestines with an expedition heretofore unknown and unheard of. Of the effects of this system the people of America have heard and felt enough, but of its origin many of them are totally ignorant. For most of the great discoveries, especially those which have contributed to the depopulation of the earth, we are indebted to what appears to have been mere accident; which was, also, in some sort, the mother of the system of depletion.

RUSH had constantly endeavoured to place himself at the head of some. thing or other; and, as is common with persons possessed of vanity too great to suffer them to remain quiet in obscurity, and of talents too contemptible, or tempers too fickle, to enable them to attain superiority by the ordinary course of advancement, he had ever been upon the search for some discovery, some captivating novelty, to which he might prefix his name; and thus reach, at a single leap, the goal at which men seldom arrive but by slow, cautious, and painful approaches. To a determination to become a great man, in defiance of niggardly Nature, might be fairly attributed all the solemn fooleries of this versatile doctor, who, in his impatient pursuit after fame, had chopped and changed from science to science, till at last, like the straggling hound, he bad the mortification to see himself outstripped in the chase by the slow-motioned companions whom he formerly despised.

Various were the tricks that he tried; Religion, Morals, Jurisprudence, Literature, Economy, Politics, and Philosophy, all became, at times, the subject of his plans and his projects. Still, however, fame fled from his grasp. His "Original Essays," though aided by puffs in abundance, excited a laugh, and that was all. The learned languages were still taught in the schools; little girls still played with dolls; and parents still kept sharp knives and pointed scissors from the hands of their children; men

still used tobacco, and women continued to sweeten their tea with WestIndia sugar. Thus baffled, thus first despised, and then forgotten, as an author, the doctor saw no hope of rendering himself distinguished but as a physician. On this, therefore, he appears to have resolved, much about the time that the Yellow Fever of 1793 offered an opportunity favourable to the enterprise. He had, by those arts which men of his stamp never fail to employ, obtained some trifling marks of respect amongst certain philosophical bodies in Europe; he had thrust himself into many of the public institutions in America; he read chemical lectures to the young "ladies" in the Philadelphia Academy, and clinical lectures to the young" doctors" in the University of Pennsylvania; but all this did not make him a first-rate medical man. His practice was still confined to

that class of people who are not the best qualified to judge of, or the most able to reward, scientific merit.

To recover his lost ground, to relieve himself from this humiliating situation, and to tower over the heads of his envied brethren, he seized, with uncommon alacrity and address, the occasion presented by the Yellow Fever, the fearful ravages of which were peculiarly calculated to dispose the minds of the panic-struck people to the tolerance, and even to the admiration of experiments, which, at any other time, they would have rejected with disdain. Besides this debilitated state of the public mind, Rush had several other circumstances in his favour: the only newspaper (that of Brown), which continued to circulate in the city, was almost entirely under his control; his clamorous professions of republicanism had gained him numerous partisans amongst the class of citizens who could not flee to the country; and the physicians whose opinions he had to encounter, though highly respected by all classes, were men of too peaceable a turn to enter the field with a person who scrupled not, at the very opening of the campaign, to carry the war into the public prints; and though many of them were by no means deficient in point of spirit, they probably thought it beneath the dignity of their characters to engage in a contest of any sort with a discoverer of nostrums.

At the first breaking out of the Yellow Fever, he made use of " gentle purges;" these he laid aside, and had recourse to "a gentle vomit of ipecacuanha ;" next he “ gave bark in all its usual forms of infusion, powder, and tincture, and joined wine, brandy, and aromatics, with it :" this was followed by " the application of blisters to the limbs, neck, and head ;” these torments were succeeded by an attempt to rouse the system by wrapping the whole body in blankets dipped in warm vinegar;" he next "rubbed the right side with mercurial ointment, with a view of exciting the action of the vessels through the medium of the liver;" after this he again returned to bark, which he gave in large quantities; and, in one case, ordered it to be injected into the bowels once in four hours ;" and, at last, having found that wrapping his patients in blankets dipped in warm vinegar did no good, he "directed buckets full of cold water to be thrown frequently upon them!"

Surprising as it may seem, his patients died! Thus baffled, as he tells us, in every attempt to stop the ravages of the fever, he anticipated all the numerous and complicated distresses attendant on pestilential diseases. Heaven alone," says he, "bore witness to the anguish of my soul! But," proceeds he, in the same strain of disgusting egotism," I did not abandon a hope that the disease might yet be cured. I had long "believed that good was commensurate with evil, and that there does not

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