66 amend my writings. When a proof of it was taken off, old Bradford proposed a fulsome addition to it; give the old boy a littte more oil," said he. This greasing I refused to have any hand in, and notwithstanding I did not know how to write, and was a needy hireling, My Lord and Master, Bradford, did not think proper to make any alteration, though I could have no reasonable objection, as it was signed with his name. While the old man was attempting to wheedle. the President and the officers of the Federal Government, the son, Samuel, was wheedling the French Minister: the Bradfords love a double game dearly. He spent whole evenings with him, or at least he told me so. According to his account they were like two brothers. I cannot blame Mr. Adet, who undoubtedly must have a curiosity to know all the secrets of Bradford's press. For my part, as soon as I heard of this intimacy, I looked upon myself as being as well known to the French Minister as I was to Bradford. But, there is a tale connected with this, which must be told, because it will give the lie to all that -young Lampblack has said about correcting and altering my works. His design is to make people believe that I was obliged to submit to his prunings. We shall see how this was in a moment, In the New Year's Gift, speaking of the French Minister, I make use of the following words: "not "that I doubt his veracity, though his not being a Christian might be a trifling objection, with some weak minded people.". -The old Goosy wanted me to change the word Christian for Protestant, as he was a good friend, and might be useful to his son. He came himself with the proof sheet, to prevail on me to do this: but if the reader looks into the New Year's Gift, he will see that I did not yield. Bradford K 3 Bradford never prevailed on me to leave out a single word in his life, except a passage in the Con gress Gallery. "Remember" (says the son in a triumphant manner) "Remember what was erased "from the Congress Gallery."--I do remember it, thou compost of die-stuff, lampblack and urine, I do remember it well; and since you have not told all about it, I will. The passage erased contained some remarks on the indecent and every way unbecoming expression of Mr. Lewis, on the trial of Randall, when he said, that gentlemen would have served his client right, if they had kicked him out of the room. Bradford told me he had a very particular reason for wishing this left out, and as it was not a passage to which I attached much importance, left out it was: but, had I known that his very particular reason was, that he had engaged Mr. Lewis as his counsellor in a suit which he had just then commenced against his deceased brother's widow and his own sisters, the passage should not have been left out, for him nor for Mr. Lewis neither. I fear no lawyers. From this fact we may form a pretty correct idea of the independence of Bradford's press, when left to his own conducting.* I think, the further we go the deeper My Lord Bradford gets in the mire. Let us stop the career, then. Let us dismiss him, his sons, his press and * Bradford pretends to detect me in a lie about my having a press. I have two now at work for me, and the printers are always paid the instant their work is done. Can a Bradford say as much? He tells me something about my being obliged to pay my taxes. To be sure I am; but did any tax-gatherer ever dare clap his hand on any of my goods or chattels? No; but the land of Thomas Bradford; back-land which he got out of the old soldiers, who were fighting last war while he was a sort of jailer: this land was sold last year by the Sheriff, and that to pay the taxes too--- You see, My Lord Bradford, that you have refreshed my memory to some purpose. his shop, with a remark or two on one more passage of his son's letter. "You" (meaning me) 66 can "declaim and scandalize with the greatest hero of Billingsgate, yet, in sober argument and chastity "of manner, you are a mere nincompoop." -The reader must have observed, that Boileau, Roscommon and Pope, in their poetical rules, always convey the precept in an example; so we see here, that young Lampblack gives us an example of the very manner he decries.- -But, a word more about chastity: not quite in the same sense, though not so far from it as to render the transition very abrupt.Chastity from the pen of a Bradford! Chastity I say, from No. 8, South-Front Street! Chastity from the bawdy-book shop!I have no pretension to an overstock of modesty or squeamishness. I have served an apprenticeship in the army; yet have I often been shocked to see what the Bradfords sell. Not, perhaps, so much at the obscenity of the books, as at the conduct of the venders.. I do not know a traffic so completely infamous as this. In London it is confined to the very scum of the Jews. It is ten times worse than the trade of a bawd it is pimping for the eyes: it creates what the punk does but satisfy when created. These literary panders are the purveyors for the bawdyhouse.- -However, as far as relates to the people in question, the sons are not to blame : a father's "wish is a law with them." I shall conclude with observing, that though Bradford's publication was principally intended to do away the charge of having duped me in the one and seven pence half-penny job, he has left it just as it was. His son, has, indeed, attempted to bewilder the reader by a comparison between the prices of the ensuing pamphlets; but what has this to do with the matter? His father took the Observations, was to publish them, and give me half the profits. Long after, many months after, every copy of the K4 work work was sold, I asked him for an account of it, which he brought me in writing, and in which my half of the profits was stated at one shilling and seven pence halfpenny, or, about twenty-one cents.-Now, nothing posterior to this could possibly diminish the barefacedness of the transaction. I did not actually receive the twenty-one cents; I threw the paper - from me with disdain; nor did I ever receive a farthing for the publication in question from that day to this. I now take leave of the Bradfords, and of all those who have written against me. Peoples opinions must now be made up concerning them and me. Those who still believe the lies that have been vomited forth against me are either too stupid or too perverse to merit further attention. I will, therefore, never write another word in reply to any thing that is published about myself. Bark away, hellhounds, till you are suffocated in your own foam. Your labours are preserved, bound up together in a piece of bear-skin, with the hair on, and nailed up to a post in my shop, where whoever pleases may read them gratis. END OF THE CENSOR. NO. V. |