Constitutional Whig

To censure our neighbours of the Compiler, for the imposition practised a few days since, on our citizens, through the medium of their paper, is manifestly ungenerous and unjust. A well dressed stranger, of genteel appearance, presented an advertisement at their office, stating that a Mr. Priest, Professor of Music, who was desirous of locating himself in this City, would the next day, at a certain hour, deliver a lecture on the principles of his art. For this advertisement, which he requested the Editors to insert, he paid. To the great disappointment of many individuals who attended at the appointed time and place, Mr. Priest was not forthcoming, and the affair turned out to be a hoax.--There was little wit in it, we must confess, but no blame on this account, can, certainly, with any degree of propriety, be imputed to Messrs. Pollard & Co. No man of common sense or common liberality can suppose, that when an advertisement of this character is offered for publication, that it becomes the duty of an Editor to visit every public house and every private dwelling in the City, to ascertain whether there is really any such being as Mr. Priest or Mr. Any-body-else, and to enquire whether if he be in the City, he intends to deliver a Lecture on Music or any other given subject. It is enough, that our subscribers and the public, expect us to be acquainted with every thing past and present, without exacting of us also a knowledge of the future. The Editors of the Compiler could not foresee the disappointment which the citizens would experience in consequence of Mr. Priest's non-attendance. They only performed their duty, in publishing the advertisement, and in doing so we can perceive nothing in the slightest degree reprehensible.