The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

The following spirited EULOGIUM on the Liberty of the Press, is extracted from that admirable treasury of the Muses, BELL's FUGITIVE POETRY.

The press restrain'd! tremendous thought!
In vain our sires have nobly fought:
While free from force the press remains,
Virtue and freedom cheer our plains,
And learning largely bestows,
And keeps uncensur'd open house.
We to the nation's public mart
Our works of wit, and schemes of art,
And philosophic goods this way,
Like water-carriage, cheap convey,
This tree, which knowledge so affords,
Inquisitors with flaming swords
From lay-approach with zeal defend,
Lest their own paradise should end.
The press from her fecundous womb
Brought forth the arts of Greece and Rome;
Her offspring skill'd in logic war,
Truth's banner wav'd in open air;
The monster superstition fled,
And hid in shades its Gorgon head;
And lawless pow'r, the long kept field,
By reason quell'd was forc'd to yield.
This nurse of arts, and freedom's fence
To chain, is treason against sense;
And liberty, thy thousands tongues
None silence, who design no wrongs;
For those, who use the gag's restraint,
First rob, before they stop complaint.