On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
I should not have intruded on your readers on this occasion ; but when I consider myself as having been the channel of conveyance of some of those communications , the truth of which is , in language the most unjustifiable , called in question , I deem it necessary to offer a few observations by way of defence of the calumniated .
I beg leave generally to remark , and I hope the remark will be attended to by all future writers on this subject , that many of the reflections cast on those who have encouraged emigration to the Illinois , and whose accounts are
chiefly limited to the stations they have chosen for themselves , their families and neighbourhood , obviously arise from the very different stations the writers in- question have chosen for their own residence . It is but common
justice due to the favourable statements of Mr . Birkbeck , and to those of my brother , Richard Flower , at least equally favourable , constantly to bear in mind the precise spots they are
describing . Had your correspondent I . W » , with whose respectable character I am well acquainted , attended to this circumstance * he would not have so committed himself as to represent writers with whose characters for
veracity he is not unacquainted , as merely intending to " amuse" their countrymen , by holding out ** nattering statements , as baits to catch the unwary "—<< concealing the main body of the picture ; " for what I will eall the base purpose of deluding them to a spot
six thousand miles distant ; and that they have wilfully kept back the truth " because it would damp the ardour for emigration : " nor would he have published what I doubt not all your readers ( except I . W . ) will agree with me in terming a gross , false and
scandalous libel on Mr . Birkbeck , written by some meek-spirited Quaker , who , I will venture to guess , will himself be thrown into to . fit of quaking when he finds his libel published to the world , and from which fit there may be some difficulty in recovering him , if he should
preserve sufficient power to reflect , that he may be one day called Upon to add his name to his libel . At present , however , I . W . is , as it regards hi 3 own character , responsible for pending to the press the libel , " that Birkbeck And his book ought to be burnt toge-
Untitled Article
ther , for imposing so grossly o ^ f the world . " How I . W . can possibly j ustify this stab in the dark , is a serious question , which must be left to his own conscience to answer . I cannot but express my surprise that any person of common reflection should allow himself to be imposed upon by such a writer as William Cobbett , whose sentiments on almost all subjects are as changeable as the
moon ; and who , when his strong prejudices and violent passions obtain the mastery over him , cares not how he outrages truth or decency , or how he libels all classes , even the greatest and best characters of the present and past ages . It is not only Birkbeck and
Flower , but Waithman , Burdett and Fox , L # ocke and Addison , Sydney and RusseL , Milton and Shakespeare , cum mult is alltSy whom this man has reviled , and whose ignorance respecting the state of affairs at the Illinois has only been equalled by his effrontery . What can we think of the man who had
never been near the Illinois 5 who , before Mr . B . had been settled a twelvemonth , exclaimed in the profane language which characterizes his
conversation , " I'll be if I don't write down Birkbeck and the settlement ! " * This is the man of whom the correspondent of I . W . observes , ¦ * ' Although Mr . C . has in some instances committed errors in his report
of this western country , yet the great body of his arguments are correct , and the picture he draws of disappointment to be experienced by English settlers is true ; and whatever Mr . B . may say , cannot alter what is . " Some apology perhaps , may be made for this
anonymous writer , by charitably supposing that he wrote , not for the press , but for some friend only , and that he had heard froth others what he imagined might confirm Cobbett ' s assertions ; but I know not what apology I . W .
can offer for publishing a statement which he might easily have seen completely refuted in two pamphlets published nearly a twelvemonth sines , one of which was impartially reviewed in the Mon . Repos ., [ XIV . 763 , 2 and in each of which it is prorod to dernonstra ¦ | g- T t- ii ' . jr . 1 1 - - ' — . * Letters from ; the Illinois , by R . F ., p . 32 . , . . .
Untitled Article
from the Buck Settlement * in America . < 563
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1820, page 663, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2494/page/35/
-