hundred and twelve_ crushed the last vestige of her
delusive anticipations."

Such is his preposterous assertion, the absurdity of which will make an
Englishman laugh; but the corollaries drawn from it are serious, as they
are intended to feed the hostile feeling still existing against this
country; for he attempts to prove that from the time the Independence
was ratified by George the Third, that we have ever been trying to
reduce America again to our sway; and that all the hostile attempts of
the various Indian tribes, all the murders of women and children, and
scalping, since that date, were wholly to be ascribed to the agency and
bribes of England, who hoped by such means to drive the Americans back
to the sea coast, where they could be assailed by her navy.

A little reflection might satisfy any reasonable American, that when
they wrestled by main force, and without regard to justice, those lands
from the Indians which they had hunted over for so many generations, and
which were their own property, it was very natural that the Indians
should not surrender them without a struggle. But the wish of Judge
Hall was to satisfy his countrymen that their exterminating wars against
the Indians have been those of _self defence_, and not of _unpardonable
aggression_. At that period there were many white men who had either
joined, or, having been captured, had been adopted into, the Indian
tribes. All these Judge Hall would make out to be English emissaries,
especially one whom he very correctly designates as the "infamous
Girty." Unfortunately for Judge Hall the infamous Girty was an
American, and born in Philadelphia, as is proved by American authority.

This obligation to write for their own countrymen, and for them alone,
has very much injured the sale of American works in England, for
publishers having read them find so many offensive and untrue remarks
upon this country, that they will not print them. But it does more
harm, as it cramps genius, harrows their ideas, and instead of leading
in the advance, and the people looking up to them, they follow in the
rear, and look up to the people, whom they flatter to obtain popularity;
and thus the pen in America, as a moral weapon, is at present
"_niddering_."

The remarks of Miss Martineau on American literature are, as all her
other remarks, to be received with great caution. Where she obtained
her information I know very well, and certain it is that she has been
mo