The New Hampshire Gazette

From the Boston Gazette, October 30.

Messieurs Edes and Gill,

Please to give the following Letter a place in your next paper, and you'll oblige your Customer, R. T.

Sunday-Evening, October 29. Ferry House at Chelsea.

To Mr. Benjamin Hallowell, Shipwright.

SIR,

AFTER I had settled all my Accompts in Boston (excepting yours) and taken Leave of all my Friends in an amicable Manner, and was proceeding on my Journey home to Portsmouth, a Gentleman in the Ferry Boat with me thought proper on some Occasion. to mention your Name. and turning to me, asked if I had settled my Accounts with you, hearing we had had some Disputes. To which I replied, Mr. Hallowell was the only person with whom I had not settled.& was sorry to say I found him a very litigious person, and that he had served a single Writ on me,in order to have his Account determined by Law--Upon which the Gentleman told me. we differed greatly in our Accounts of one another; for that you publickly reported, (1) I refused laying my Accounts before Men. (2) That you would write home to Bristol, to your Correspondent there. two Sheets, of post paper, to set forth the Inconsistency of my Conduct with Regard to my pompous Advertisement (as you were pleas'd to term it.) (3) That you had already wrote a long Letter to your Friend at Portsmouth, to set my Character there in a proper Light ( as you think.) (4) That I had with Tears. in presence of your Family, made Acknowledgments of your Lenity, but that I now ungratefully slight you. (5) That you would make it appear in the Boston Gazette, that I had treated you very ill, and had not acted agreeable to what I would make the World believe.

Now Sir, Honour. * Character. * and Reputation. * call on me in this public Manner, to convince your Friend in Bristol.and that in Portsmouth, as also the Readers of the Boston Gazette, that you or I state the Matter wrong-- Tho' I must confess. it is not the Business of a Merchant or a Shipwright to enter into print : Time and place I hope will apologize for my Incorrectness.

In Answer to your several Assertions, Shall be short with you. And in Answer to the first,

1. Before some of your Family, and Mr. William Greenleaf. Merchant, and several other Gentlemen, then standing before Mr. Dowse's Office, and often to yourself, made Offers to lay our Accompts before Men,and even pray'd you to chuse the Men ; and told you my Intention was to give every Gentleman I owed a Shilling to in Boston, Interest for their

* In Bayley's Dictionary you'll find the Explanation of these Words.
1. Monies, though none of them could demand any, and so intended to have treated you, could you have acted the Gentleman. Sure you cannot forget Mr. Samuel Hughes, Merchant, went with me more than once to you, in order to be my Bondsman, for my standing to the Award.

2. Should your Friend in Bristol be like his Friend in Boston, I despise his Acquaintance, like your Writings, if they were a Folio, believing it would not appear much more pompous than my Advertisement.

3. As I intend to be at Portsmouth To-morrow, I may chance to see your Friend there (if any) and so may be able to judge of you in a proper Light likewise.

4. It's true I shed Tears at your House when you mentioned Mr. Perkins's attaching my Vessel, &c. and said I was obliged to you for your not doing the like; however, Samuel Wentworth, Esq; of Boston, who paid Mr. Perkins the Balance of his Account, is a Judge of your Conduct in that Affair; the true Reason for my shedding Tears was, the mentioning of that Affair brought to Mind some of the many unhappy Trials and Distresses I have waded through. And the Reason why I take any Notice of this paragraph is, because it was the only point in which I knew you advanced any Truth, and so was willing to give you the Credit of it.

5. The Gentlemen that reads this public Account, and the Account you are to print, will be able to judge of a Fact. You are Benjamin Hallowell, And Sir, I am ROBERT TRAILL.

P. S. Mr. Hallowell, provided you can find any Gentleman in the Town of Boston, or any Man but you, that will say I have not in every Degree, Manner, and Respect (having when providence put it Out of my power to pay agreeable to my Intentions) treated them in a most genteel and honourable Manner, and that I have not made all the generous Offers to you that were necessary to induce you to settle Accounts amicably, I'll publicly ask your pardon, and desire the World to look upon me in the same Light I now look upon you; and being in Hopes you would have left your Accounts to Men, asked eight or ten different Gentlemen if they would undertake to settle your Account and mine, and they all to a Man told me they would willingly render me any Services, but said they would not be concerned with Mr. Hallowell on any Terms. Be careful how you answer this, or enter into a paper War with me; for I can draw a Picture to the Life when I have an Original to take off from. As this now is only the produce of sudden, hurried, and worried Thoughts, so you may believe it's only a meer shadow of the picture you must expect, Sir, from R. T.