The Virginia Gazette

PHILO. DICAIOS.

Give me leave to assure you, Sir, I never should have guessed at, the person concealed, under the mask of, C B. D. much less have hurled at a Burgess, a "thou art the man," had not your sagacity, seen through, the disguise. Your other accomplishments, as a writer, I, before, have commended; for I venerate, what is laudable. although, in a foe. But these, all, "bide their diminish'd heads" at this, blaze of, penetration. With what conviction do You, "bring to light, the hidden things of darkness!" From the form, under which he lay hid, hath this Devil, at the touch of your pen
"for no falsehood can endure
Touch of celestial temper"
started up, into his own likeness, discovered.
But may I not ask, if truth, be not truth, whenceoever it proceed? And, whether, to have substituted, a little of. argument, you might not, in part, have forgone your invective? Would it not have been as proper, in refuting a charge, to have furnished a reason, instead of, assertion? For aught you have offered, C. R. and PHILO DICAIOS may still be, one person: Or, at least, as nearly connected as, the two Kings of Brentford; not smelling at, the same nose say, indeed; but however, at the same plant of, tobacco. Till this charge be refuted, how does it happen, that your property in the address, is, anyway, injured?-Or, your good name at the bottom of it, filched away from you? Your property, Sir, I do not disclaim; nor do I dispute, that yours is, a good name. The Shandeian hypothesis, on this subject, I long have adopted, and PHILO DICAIOS hath my approbation :-Though, perhaps, not, in so high a degree, as if, you had been better acquainted with, Greek. But, may I, enquire, "who gave you this name?" From a regard to justice, did you gain, this addition? Names, sometimes, mean the contrary of what they express. In calling B. D. a "false calumniator," you, yourself, give us, an example to, the rule. A false calumniator!-Let conscience inform us, if you meant not for a screen, this, equivocation. It is too transparent, however, to render indistinct, the identity of C. R. and PHILO DICAIOS. The former, looks backward, like the elder face of a JANUS, while, under the latter, you look forward with, the younger. Or, to use a similitude, more apt to the subject, like a sick crab, that has just shed its shell, C. R. may be the old one, and PHILO DICAIOS the new. After all, if this be not true, I will readily allow, what you have affirmed, that he that hath filched from you, your good name, hath taken that, which enriches not himself; and, if the loss of it make you poor, you must be, poor indeed! So much for B. D. whom, I should not have noticed, had not his cause been, blended with, my own,

Notwithstanding you assert "there is no truth in my paper," I cannot forbear suspecting, that you really think so. Could you not have disproved, what you, pass by, in silence, as well as, what you "proclaim, from the top of the house?" But, perhaps, over an enemy that is fallen, you are too generous to triumph! To your strictures, however, give me leave to reply. "In the first place. you say, he charges me with declaring that this law hath W the eccle, dox, this, it fifl of vi. nes of your But, as there 1. of ame," w. s t. your situation w't to quote SHAKES the following reflection. "Ibu Like little wanton boys, in a But far beyond my depth; At length broke under me an to the me Of a rude stream, that must, for