since my return home. And to all this must be added the damning
fact of _Te Deums_, orations, toasts, and processions of the clergy,
and the judges, with all the leaders of the federal, or opposition
party, in celebration of the success of the Spaniards in restoring the
_Inquisition_, and recalling the _reign of superstition_ and _terror_;
against which _we_ have been preaching and praying ever since the
first settlement of our country.

Our American newspapers, if they are not so correctly written as the
London papers, are informing and amusing.--They show the enterprize,
the activity, and the daring thoughts of a free and an intrepid
people; while the London papers are filled with a catalogue of
nobles, and noblesses, who were assembled to bow, to flatter, to
cringe, and to prink at the levee of the _Great Prince Regent_, the
presumptive George the IVth, with now and then some account of his
wandering wife, the _Princess of Wales_. We are there also entertained
with a daily account of the health and gestation of _Joanna
Southcote_; for whose reputation and welfare, "thinking Johnny Bull"
is vastly anxious; insomuch that were any continental nation to run
obstinately counter to the popular opinion respecting her, we do deem
it not impossible that the majority of the nation might be led to sign
addresses to the Prince to go to war with them, in honor of Saint
Joanna! Their papers, likewise, contain a particular account of the
examination of rogues by the Bow-street officers, highway robberies,
and executions; together with quack puffs, and miraculous cures.
These, together with the _most glorious_ and _unparalleled_ bravery of
their _officers_ and _seamen_, and of their _generals_ and _soldiers_,
with the highest encomiums on the _religion_, the learning, the
generosity, _contentment_, and _happiness_ of the people of Britain
and _Ireland_, make up the sum and substance of all the London papers,
_William Cobbett's_ alone excepted; and he speaks with a bridle in his
mouth!

This month (February) Captain Shortland stopped the market for six
days, in consequence of some unruly fellows taking away certain wooden
stanchions from Prison No. 6. But the old market women, conceiving
that the Captain encroached upon their copy-hold, would not quietly
submit to it. They told him that as the men were going away soon, it
was cruel to curtail their traffic. We always believed that these
market women, and the shop and stall keepers,