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He's tipsicum grave.
He's double tongued.
He's topsey turvey.
He's tipsy.
He's thawed.
He's trammull'd.
He's transported.

He has swallowed a tavern token.

V.

He makes Virginia fame.
He has got the Indian vapours.
He's pot valiant.

He is in love with varany.

He's wise.

He's a wet soul.

W.

He has been to the salt water.

He has been in search of eye water.
He 's in the way to be weaned.
He's out of the way.

He's water soaked.

He's wise or otherwise.

He can walk the line.

The wind is west with him.
He carries his wagon.

The phrases of the Dictionary are not, like most of our terms of art, borrowed from foreign or dead languages; neither are they collected from the writings of the learned; but gathered from domestic sources; no doubt many more might be added. I was almost tempted to add a new one under the letter B, to wit, brutified, but upon consideration I feared doing injustice to the brute creation, if I represented drunkenness as a beastly vice, since every one knows that the brutes are in general a sober sort of people.

This production (The Washing Day) has been generally ascribed to Dr. Franklin; though it has been also claimed for another gentleman. We have thought it fit to notice the circumstance, and its merit will be as good an apology as can be offered, should we be mistaken.

I have observed, however, one custom, which, for aught I know, is peculiar to this country. An account of it will serve to fill up the remainder of this sheet, and may afford you some amusement.

When a young couple are about to enter into the matrimonial state, a never-failing article in the marriage-treaty is, that the lady shall have and enjoy the free and unmolested exercise of the rights of white-washing, with all its ceremonials, privileges, and appurte nances. A young woman would forego the most advantageous connexion, and even disappoint the warmest wish of her heart, rather than resign the invaluable right. You would wonder what this privilege of whitewashing is: I will endeavour to give you some idea of the ceremony, as I have seen it performed.

There is no season of the year in which the lady may not claim her privilege, if she pleases; but the latter end of May is most generally fixed upon for the purpose. The attentive husband may judge by certain prognostics when the storm is nigh at hand. When the lady is unusually fretful, finds fault with the servants, is discontented with the children, and complains much of the filthiness of every thing about her—these are signs which ought not to be neglected; yet they are not decisive, as they sometimes come on and go off again, without producing any farther effect. But if, when the husband rises in the morning, he should observe in the yard a wheelbarrow with a quantity of lime in it, or should see certain buckets with lime dissolved in water, there is then no time to be lost; he immediately locks up the apartment or closet where his papers or his private property is kept, and putting the key in his pocket, betakes himself to flight: for a husband, however beloved, becomes a perfect nuisance during the season of female rage; his authority is superseded, his commission is suspended, and the very scullion, who cleans the brasses in the kitchen, becomes of more consideration and importance than him. He has nothing for it, but to abdicate, and run from an evil which he can

Singular custom among the Americans, en- neither prevent nor mollify. titled White-washing.

DEAR SIR,

The husband gone, the ceremony begins. The walls are in a few minutes stripped of My wish is to give you some account of their furniture: paintings, prints, and lookthe people of these new states, but I am far ing-glasses lie in a huddled heap about the from being qualified for the purpose, having floors; the curtains are torn from the testers, as yet seen little more than the cities of the beds crammed into the windows; chairs New York and Philadelphia. I have dis- and tables, bedsteads and cradles, crowd the covered but few national singularities among yard; and the garden fence bends beneath them. Their customs and manners are nearly the weight of carpets, blankets, cloth cloaks, the same with those of England, which they old coats, and ragged breeches. Here may have long been used to copy. For, previous be seen the lumber of the kitchen, forming a to the revolution, the Americans were from dark and confused mass: for the foreground their infancy taught to look up to the Eng-of the picture, gridirons and frying pans, lish as patterns of perfection in all things. rusty shovels and broken tongs, spits and

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under the operation: a mahogany chair and carved frame undergo the same discipline; they are to be made clean at all events; but their preservation is not worthy of attention. For instance, a fine large engraving is laid flat on the floor; smaller prints are piled upon it, and the superincumbent weight cracks the glasses of the lower tier: but this

pots, joint-stools, and the fractured remains of rush-bottomed chairs. There, a closet has disgorged its bowels, cracked tumblers, broken wine glasses, phials of forgotten physic, papers of unknown powders, seeds, and dried herbs, handfuls of old corks, tops of teapots, and stoppers of departed decanters; from the rag-hole in the garret to the rat-hole in the cellar, no place escapes un-is of no consequence. A valuable picture is rummaged. It would seem as if the day of general doom was come, and the utensils of the house were dragged forth to judgment. In this tempest, the words of Lear naturally present themselves, and might, with some alteration, be made strictly applicable:

"Let the great gods,

That keep this dreadful pudder o'er our heads,
Find out their enemies now. Tremble, thou wretch,
That hast within thee undivulged crimes
Unwhipt of justice ?-

Close pent-up guilt,
Raise your concealing continents, and ask
These dreadful summoners grace!"

placed leaning against the sharp corner of a table; others are made to lean against that, until the pressure of the whole forces the corner of the table through the canvass of the first. The frame and glass of a fine print are to be cleaned; the spirit and oil used on this occasion are suffered to leak through and spoil the engraving; no matter, if the glass is clean, and the frame shine, it is sufficient; the rest is not worthy of consideration. An able arithmetician has made an accurate calculation, founded on long experience, and has discovered, that the losses and destruction incident to two white-washings are equal to one removal, and three removals equal to one fire.

This ceremony completed, and the house thoroughly evacuated, the next operation is to smear the walls and ceilings of every room and closet with brushes dipped in a solution of lime, called white-wash; to pour buckets of water over every floor, and scratch all the partitions and wainscots with rough brushes wet with soap-suds, and dipped in stone-cutter's sand. The windows by no means escape the general deluge. A servant scrambles out upon the pent-house, at the risk of her neck, and with a mug in her hand,lations of wet floors or damp walls. and a bucket within reach, she dashes away innumerable gallons of water against the glass panes; to the great annoyance of the passengers in the street.

The cleaning frolic over, matters begin to resume their pristine appearance. The storm abates, and all would be well again, but it is impossible that so great a convulsion, in so small a community, should not produce some farther effects. For two or three weeks after the operation, the family are usually afflicted with sore throats or sore eyes, occasioned by the caustic quality of the lime, or with severe colds from the exha

I know a gentleman, who was fond of accounting for every thing in a philosophical way. He considers this, which I have called a custom, as a real periodical disI have been told that an action at law was ease, peculiar to the climate. His train of once brought against one of these water reasoning is ingenious and whimsical; but nymphs, by a person who had a new suit of I am not at leisure to give you a detail. clothes spoiled by this operation; but, after The result was, that he found the distemper long argument, it was determined by the to be incurable; but after much study, he whole court, that the action would not lie, conceived he had discovered a method to diinasmuch as the defendant was in the exer- vert the evil he could not subdue. For this cise of a legal right, and not answerable for purpose he caused a small building, about the consequences; and so the poor gentle- twelve feet square, to be erected in his garman was doubly nonsuited; for he lost not den, and furnished with some ordinary only his suit of clothes, but his suit at law. chairs and tables; and a few prints of the These smearings and scratchings, wash- cheapest sort were hung against the walls. ings and dashings, being duly performed, His hope was, that when the white-washthe next ceremonial is to cleanse and re-ing frenzy seized the females of his family, place the distracted furuiture. You may they might repair to this apartment, and have seen a house raising, or a ship-launch, scrub, and smear, and scour, to their heart's when all the hands within reach are collect content; and so spend the violence of the ed together: recollect, if you can, the hurry, disease in this outpost, while he enjoyed bustle, confusion, and noise of such a scene, himself in quiet at head-quarters. But the and you will have some idea of this clean- experiment did not answer his expectation; ing match The misfortune is, that the sole it was impossible it should, since a princiobject is to make things clean; it matters pal part of the gratification consists in the not how many useful, ornamental, or valua- lady's having an uncontrolled right to torble articles are mutilated, or suffer deathment her husband at least once a year, and

to turn him out of doors, and take the reins | the common dirt of the room, and carried in of government into her own hands.

There is a much better contrivance than this of the philosopher; which is, to cover the walls of the house with paper; this is generally done, and though it cannot abolish, it at least shortens, the period of female dominion. The paper is decorated with flowers of various fancies, and made so ornamental, that the women have admitted the fashion without perceiving the design.

There is also another alleviation of the husband's distress; he generally has the privilege of a small room or closet for his books and papers, the key of which he is allowed to keep. This is considered as a privileged place, and stands like the land of Goshen amid the plagues of Egypt. But then he must be extremely cautious, and ever on his guard. For should he inadvertently go abroad and leave the key in his door, the housemaid, who is always on the watch for such an opportunity, immediately enters in triumph with buckets, brooms, and brushes; takes possession of the premises, and forthwith puts all his books and papers to rights to his utter confusion, and sometimes serious detriment. For instance:

a rubbish pan into the yard. The tradesman had neglected to enter the credit in his book; the defendant could find nothing to obviate the charge, and so judgment went against him for the debt and costs. A fortnight after the whole was settled, and the money paid, one of the children found the receipt among the rubbish in the yard.

There is also another custom peculiar to the city of Philadelphia, and nearly allied to the former. I mean that of washing the pavement before the doors every Saturday evening. I at first took this to be a regulation of the police; but on a further inquiry find it is a religious rite, preparatory to the Sabbath; and is, I believe, the only religious rite in which the numerous sectaries of this city perfectly agree. The ceremony begins about sunset, and continues till about ten or eleven at night. It is very difficult for a stranger to walk the streets on those evenings; he runs a continual risk of having a bucket of dirty water thrown against his legs: but a Philadelphian born is so much accustomed to the danger, that he avoids it with surprising dexterity. It is from this circumstance that a Philadelphian may be A gentleman was sued by the executors known anywhere by his gait. The streets of a tradesman, on a charge found against of New York are paved with rough stones; him in the deceased's books, to the amount these indeed are not washed, but the dirt is of £30. The defendant was strongly im- so thoroughly swept from before the doors, pressed with an idea that he had discharged that the stones stand up sharp and promithe debt and taken a receipt; but, as the nent, to the great inconvenience of those who transaction was of long standing, he knew are not accustomed to so rough a path. But not where to find the receipt. The suit went habit reconciles every thing. It is diverting on in course, and the time approached when enough to see a Philadelphian at New York; judgment would be obtained against him. he walks the streets with as much painful He then sat seriously down to examine a caution, as if his toes were covered with large bundle of old papers, which he had un- corns, or his feet lamed with the gout: while tied and displayed on a table for that pur-a New Yorker, as little approving the plain pose. In the midst of his search, he was masonry of Philadelphia, shuffles along the suddenly called away on business of import- pavement like a parrot on a mahogany table. ance; he forgot to lock the door of his room." It must be acknowledged, that the abluThe house-maid, who had been long look-tions I have mentioned are attended with no ing out for such an opportunity, immediately small inconvenience; but the women would entered with the usual implements, and with not be induced, from any consideration, to great alacrity fell to cleaning the room, and resign their privilege. Notwithstanding this, putting things to rights. The first object that I can give you the strongest assurances, that struck her eye was the confused situation of the women of America make the most faiththe papers on the table, these were without ful wives and the most attentive mothers in delay bundled together like so many dirty the world; and I am sure you will join me knives and forks; but in the action a small in opinion, that if a married man is made piece of paper fell unnoticed on the floor, miserable only one week in a whole year, he which happened to be the very receipt in will have no great cause to complain of the question as it had no very respectable ap- matrimonial bond. pearance, it was soon after swept out with

I am, &c.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES

ON

POLITICAL PUBLICATIONS PRIOR TO THE REVOLUTION,

COLLECTED

FROM THE AUTOGRAPH NOTES OF DR. FRANKLIN, AS MATERIALS FOR
ARGUMENT OR REPLY.

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Hints for a Reply to the Protests of certain Members of the House of Lords against the Repeal of the Stamp Act.

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In the ATHENEUM at Philadelphia are many volumes of pamphlets, which formerly belonged to Dr. Franklin. Some of these are curious from the manuscript notes they contain in the margin. A few specimens have been selected for publication, both as having an historical interest, and as being peculiarly characteristic of their author.

Parliament; at least can give no greater power than he had himself.

Compliment the lords. Not a wiser of better body of men on earth. The deep respect impressed on me by the instance 1 have been witness to of their justice. They have been misled by misinformation. Proof of my opinion of their goodness, in the freedom with which I propose to examine their protests.

The trust of taxing America was never reposed by the people of America in the legislature of Great Britain. They had one kind of confidence, indeed, in that legislature, that it would never attempt to tax them without their consent. The law was destructive of that confidence among

them.

Other advantages of colonies besides commerce. Selfishness of commercial views. The sovereignty of the crown I understand. The sovereignty of the British legislature out of Britain I do not understand.

The fear of being thought weak is a timidity and weakness of the worst sort, as it betrays into a persisting in errors, that may be much more mischievous, than the appearance of weakness. A great and powerful state, like this, has no cause for such timidity.

Acknowledging and correcting an error shows great magnanimity. Small states and It should here also be observed, that the notes con- small republics cannot afford to do so.

tained in these pamphlets were penned at the very time when he was supposed, by some persons either unfriendly to his character or ignorant of his motives, to be secretly acting a part in England more accord

America not in the realm of England or Great Britain? No man in America thinks himself exempt from the jurisdiction of the crown, and of the assemblies, or has any such private judgment.

ant to his private aims, than to the high duties of a true lover of his country. From the tone, temper, and substance of these notes, let the reader judge with what justice such suspicions have been entertained, and such insinuations hazarded to the public. As The agitation of the question of rights mere private records of his thoughts, prompted by the makes it now necessary to settle a constiimpulse of the moment, without any design of their ever seeing the light, they must be admitted to reveal tution for the colonies. Restrictions should his true sentiments, and to exhibit the unbiassed work-be only for the general good. Endeavour to ings of his mind. convince reasonable creatures by reason. The above" HINTS" are found in the margin of Dr. Franklin's printed copy of the Protests, written at the Try your hands with me.

time (1766), from which it would appear that it was Never think of it. They are reasonhis intention to make a formal answer to these Pro-able creatures. Reasonable laws will not tests. This purpose, it is believed, was never executed.

require force.

I observe two or three Scotch lords pro- ter be trusted. Have rather an interest in test. Many more voted against the repeal. suppressing smugglers. Nature of smugColonies settled before the union. Query; gling. It is picking of pockets. All oppresIf the Parliament had a jurisdiction over the sions take their rise from some plea of utility; colonies by the first settlement, had they a often in appearance only. right to introduce new legislators? Could they sell or commute the right with other nations? Can they introduce the peers of Ireland and Commons, and the States of Holland, and make them legislators of the colonies? How could Scotland acquire a right to legislation over English colonies, but by consent of the colonies themselves?

I am a subject of the crown of Great Britain, have ever been a loyal one, have partaken of its favours. I write here with freedom, relying on the magnanimity of Parliament. I say nothing to your lordships, that I have not been indulged to say to the Commons. Your lordships' names are to your Protest, therefore I think I ought to put mine to the answer.-Desire what I have said may not be imputed to the colonies. I am a private person, and do not write by their direction. I am over here to solicit, in behalf of my colony, a closer communication with the crown.

SECOND PROTEST.

TALK with Bollan on this head. Query; Courts of common law? Particular colonies drained, all drained, as it would all come home. Those, that would pay most of the tax, would have least of it spent at home. It must go to the conquered colonies. The view of maps deceives.

The clamour of multitudes. It is good to attend to it. It is wiser to foresee and avoid it. It is wise, when neither foreseen nor avoided, to correct the measures that give occasion to it. Glad the majority have that wisdom.

Wish your lordships had attended to that other great article of the palladium; "Taxes shall not be laid but by common consent in Parliament." We Americans were not here to give our consent.

My duty to the king, and justice to my country, will, I hope, justify me, if I likewise protest, which I now do with all humility in behalf of myself and of every American, and of our posterity, against your Declaratory Bill, that the Parliament of Great Britain has not, never had, and of right never can have, without consent, given either before or after, power to make laws of sufficient force to bind the subjects in America in any case whatever, and particularly in

taxation.

I can only judge of others by myself. I have some little property in America. I will freely spend nineteen shillings in the pound to defend my right of giving or refusing the other shilling; and, after all, if I cannot defend that right, I can retire cheerfully with my little family into the boundless woods of America, which are sure to afford freedom and subsistence to any man, who can bait a

All breach of the constitution. Juries bet-hook, or pull a trigger.

OBSERVATIONS

ON

PASSAGES IN A PAMPHLET ENTITLED "GOOD HUMOUR, OR A WAY WITH THE COLONIES.-LONDON 1766."*

"THE reply of the Governor of Massachu-ward's turned out, their enemy and calumsetts to the assembly's answer is in the same niator in private letters to government here. consistent style; and affords still a stronger proof, as well as of his own ingenuity, honour, and integrity, as of the furious and enthusiastic spirit of the province."

They knew the governor to be, as it after

* The passages included within quotation marks are extracts from the pamphlet, and the sentence following each contains Dr. Franklin's observations.

"It had been more becoming the state of the colonies, always dear to Britain, and ever cherished and defended by it, to have remonstrated in terms of filial duty and obedience."

How ignorant is this writer of facts! How many of their remonstrances were rejected! "They must give us leave in our turn to ex

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