ADVERTISEMENT. WHEN I determined to discontinue the publiCation of Porcupine's Gazette, I intended to remain, for the future, if not an unconcerned, at least a silent spectator of public transactions and political events; but the unexpected and sweeping result of a law-suit, since decided against me, has induced me to abandon my lounging intention. The suit to which I allude, was an action of slander, commenced against me in the autumn of 1797, by Doctor Benjamin Rush, the noted bleeding physician of Philadelphia; it was tried on the 14th of December last, when " the uprightly en"lightened, and impartial republican jury" assessed, as damages, five thousand dollars; a sum surpassing the aggregate amount of all the damages assessed for all the torts of this kind, ever sued for in these States, from their first settlement to the present day. To the five thousand dollars must be added, the costs of suit, the loss incurred by the interruption in collecting debts in Pennsylvania, and by the sacrifice of property taken in execution, and sold by the sheriff at public auction in Philadelphia, where a great number of books in sheets (among which was a part of the new edition of Porcupine's Works) were sold, or rather given away, as waste paper; so that, the total of what has been, and will be, wrested P 2 from from me by Rush, will fall little short of eight thousand dollars. To say that I do not feel this stroke, and very sensibly too, would be great affectation; but, to repine at it, would be folly, and to sink under it cowardice. I knew an Englishman in the Royal province of New Brunswick, who had a very valuable house, which was, I believe, at that time, nearly his all, burnt to the ground. He was out of town when the fire broke out, and happened to come home just after it had exhausted itself. Every one, knowing how hard he had earned the property, expected to see him bitterly bewail its loss. He came very leisurely up to the spot, stood about five minutes looking steadily at the rubbish, and then, stripping off his coat," Here goes," said he, "to earn another !" and immediately went to work, raking the spikes and bits of iron out of the ashes. This noble-spirited man I have the honour to call my friend; and if ever this page should meet his eye, he will have the satisfaction to see, that, though it may not be possible for me to follow, I, at least, remember his example. In the future exertions of my industry, however, pecuniary emolument will be, as it always has been with me, an object of secondary consideration. Recent incidents, amongst which I reckon the unprecedented proceedings against me at Philadelphia, have imposed on me the discharge of a duty, which I owe to my own country as well as this, and the sooner I begin the sooner I shall have done. On Monday, the 24th instant, therefore, I shall publish the first number of A Periodical Work, which, as it is intended to assist the public view, in the inspecting of various tenebrious objects, will be called, and not, I presume, improperly, a Light; and, as the appearance of this light must be attributed wholly to the Philadelphian phlebotomist, gratitude gratitude will sanction the propriety of prefixing to it the name of Rush. Thus, while the great literary luminaries of this enlightened nation emit their effulgence through vehicles which they most significantly term the Aurora, the Star, the Constellation, the Comet, and the Sun, I am content that my glimmering efforts should steal forth under the appellation of the RUSH-LIGHT. I must, nevertheless, do myself the justice to assure the public, that, with the Rush-Light in his hand, any one (if the poor soul be not stone blind) will be able to see a good many very pretty things, which, notwithstanding the splendour of the grand luminaries above-mentioned, would, without the aid of my little taper, remain hidden from him all the days of his life. THE RUSH-LIGHT. No. I. 15th Feb. 1800. RUSH AND HIS SUPPORTERS, IF variety have all the charms which it is said to possess, I am afraid that the life I lead must excite no small degree of envy; for, of all the mortals occupied in the use of the pen, surely no one ever treated of subjects so various and so opposite in their natures! yesterday I finished the history of the Italian Campaign; to-day, I am beginning that of Rush and his Supporters. When I contemplate this transition; when I view myself descending from the glorious deeds of the princely Suworow, to record the low tricks of an ignoble herd of Philadelphians, I remind myself of Swift's indiscriminating fly, which, after sipping the nectar from the rose and the carnation," drops down, and "finishes its meal upon an excrement." I must, however, declare, that neither fickleness, want of discrimination, nor a propensity to dabble in filth, has produced this disagreeable change in my labours. The loathsome subject now before me, is not taken up from choice, but from a sense of duty, I am actuated by neither malice nor revenge; but, in holding up, in their true light, the Rushes, the Hopkinsons, the Meases, and the rest of the tribe, I look upon myself as acting in the capacity of a public executioner, who, while he per P 4 forms |