The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

Recrimination being always the resource of the guilty and inexcusable, may be some apology for a certain production in the last Spy. Had it been possible for the publisher for one moment to have divested himself of that self-sufficiency and arrogance which seem to be implanted in his nature, and increasing with his years, he never would have made so insidious an attack on the Editor of the GAZETTE, merely for following his example, in inserting a few lines in his paper at the special request of a customer, who, in point of respectability is, at least, equal to his boasted gentleman, who could prevail on him to wound the feelings of his readers by publishing one of the most cruel, horrid, and barbarous transactions that ever disgraced human nature; sufferings exaggerated beyond the bounds of all credibility, and which must have put an end to the existence of any mortal long before the diabolical perpetrators had half finished the shocking execution there described; but whether the circumstances be true or false, what could induce the publication, but that it might afford an opportunity of introducing those concluding lines, whose sublimity and elegance need no comment? unless, being sensible of the painful sensations his narrative must occasion, thought it necessary to change the scene and affect the ludicrous; without the least regard to names, age or characters, he introduces in a very contemptuous manner the whole medical faculty of the town; gentlemen, who, notwithstanding his satirical sneers, are ornaments to their profession and patterns of humanity, affectionately beloved throughout the sphere of their practice and equally respected abroad. But we can furnish him with a motto peculiarly congenial with his nature, and equally a propos as that bestowed on Doctor Pindar. I use MY pen as an assassin uses his knife. As to the lines that have so nettled the publisher of the Spy, it cannot be supposed that the author stooped too low for a weapon to chastise his childish impertinence; the only question is, whether his nonsense merited any kind of notice? To answer a fool according to his folly (though strongly cautioned against) is sometimes allowable, for had he cast pearls before him he doubtless would have turned again and rent him. The reflection on the author, 'That his insatiable thirst for satire had more than once led him to overleap the bounds of decency and common sense,'—considering its source and misapplication, is doubtless thought too contemptible to merit any serious notice. On the whole, the Editor of the Gazette seriously advises the publisher of the Spy, that whenever he feels an inclination to indulge his puerile wit, to reflect on Doct. Watts's observations to children—'That boys may throw about fire in jest, but that whoever gets burnt is always in earnest.'