whims, caprices, vanity, superstition, and irritability of his brethren the wise men of America assembled together in Congress.

The third letter is from the same hand to Colonel Warren, President of the Massachusetts Congress. In the beginning of his letter he severely, but justly remarks on the weakness of Hancock, the President of the wise men; and honestly confesses that all of them are so confounded with business in which they have involved themselves, that they hardly know what they are doing, or what to do. It is, doubtless, a puzzling affair to establish a treasury without any money. As he began with criticism, he finishes in the same stile. Warren had written to him the same oddities of General Lee; to which the Braintree Lawyer replies, that the old General is a queer creature, and advises his friend to love the General's dogs.

It has become fashionable in America for the Saints to have their procurers and their Dalilahs. Whilst the General is fighting the Lord's battles in Massachusetts, his procurer, the holy Mr. Benjamin Harrison, is fitting pretty little Kate, his washerwoman's daughter, for the Lord's General. Even Hancock, who presides over and directs the collective wisdom and virtue of all America, travels with a VESTAL in his train. He himself can never fit her for the General, though pious Benjamin, the procurer-general to the Congress, may.

A BOSTON SAINT.

Richard Draper continued the sole proprietor and conductor of the News-Letter till May, 1774, and devoted it to the maintenance of the British sovereignty, and the defence of all the proceedings of the British troops in Boston. In that month, he took in John Boyle as a partner. Boyle was a native of Marblehead, and served an apprenticeship to the printing business under Green & Russell. This partnership was of short duration. Draper died on the sixth of June following. Margaret, his widow, in partnership with Boyle, carried on the business for a few months, when Boyle, finding his connection with a Tory newspaper not quite pleasant to himself nor agreeable to his friends, left the concern. His place in the firm was supplied by the admission of John Howe, as a partner, by whom the paper was con

ducted, till the town was evacuated by the British troops, in March, 1776. With the termination of the siege, the News-Letter was discontinued, and never after revived. It was the only paper printed in Boston during the siege. It was published, without interruption, for a period of seventy-two years.

Before he became connected with Draper, Boyle had a printing-office of his own. He began business, as a printer and bookseller, and published a few books. When he retired from the partnership, he resumed the business of printing and bookselling, but soon after sold his printing materials, and confined himself entirely to the selling of books and stationery. He kept, from the commencement of business on his own account to the close of his life, in Marlboro'-street, a few doors north of Bromfield-street. He died in 1819.

John Howe was a native of Boston, and there served an apprenticeship to a printer. "His father was a tradesman, and kept in Marshall's-lane."* He was quite a young man, when he connected himself with the News-Letter. He, with his partner, Mrs. Draper, left Boston with the British troops, and went with them to Halifax, where he printed a newspaper, and was printer to the government. He also had an office of some emolument, and was connected with the colonial administration. He died about the year 1820.

Margaret Draper remained but a short time in Halifax. She went thence to England, and received a pension from the British government, and enjoyed it till her death, which happened since the beginning of the present century.

*History of Printing, vol i. 394.

In the year 1719, William Brooker was appointed Postmaster of Boston. On the 21st of December he published the first number of a paper, entitled The Boston Gazette, and to the title was added, "Published by Authority." The head was decorated with two cuts, a copy of one of which is here given; the other was the representation of a ship under full sail. A notice on the first page, dated at the Post-Office, says, "The publishing of this paper has been in compliance with the desires of several of the merchants and others of this town, as also at the repeated instances of those people that live remote from home, who have been prevented from having their News Paper sent them by the Post, ever since Mr. Campbell was removed from being Postmaster." From which, it is presumed that Campbell was so angry at his removal, that he refused to supply his customers by the mails. The character and style of

Campbell's reply may be inferred from the rejoinder of Brooker, which appeared on the 11th of January:

The good manners and caution that has been observed in writing this paper, 'twas hoped would have prevented any occasion for controversies of this kind; but finding a very particular advertisement published by Mr. Campbell in his Boston News-Letter of the 4th current, lays me under an absolute necessity of giving the following answer thereunto.

Mr. Campbell begins in saying, The Nameless Author-Intimating as if the not mentioning the author's name was a fault: But if he will look over the papers wrote in England, (such as the London Gazette, Postman, and other papers of reputation) he will find their authors so. As this part of his advertisement is not very material, I shall say no more thereon; but proceed to matters of more moment. Mr. Campbell seems somewhat displeased that the author says he was removed from being Postmaster. I do hereby declare I was the person that wrote the said Preamble, as he calls it; and think I could not have given his being turned out a softer epithet. And to convince him (and all mankind) that it was so, I shall give the following demonstrations of it.

Many months before John Hamilton, Esq. Deputy-Postmaster-General of North-America displaced the said Campbell, he received letters from the secretary of the Right Honorable the Postmaster-General of Great Britain, &c. that there had been several complaints made against him, and therefore the removal of him from being Postmaster was thought necessary. Mr. Hamilton for some time delayed it, 'till on the 13th of September, 1718, he appointed me to succeed him, with the same salary and other just allowances, according to the establishment of the office; and if Mr. Campbell had any other, they were both unjust and unwarrantable, and he ought not to mention them. As soon as I was put in possession of the office, Mr. Hamilton wrote a letter to the Right Honorable the Postmaster-General, acquainting him that he had removed Mr. Campbell and appointed me in his room.

Mr. Campbell goes on: saying, I was superseded by Mr. Musgrave from England. To make him appear also mistaken in this point: Mr. Hamilton not displacing him as soon as was expected, the Right Honorable the Postmaster-General appointed Mr. Phillip Musgrave, by their deputation dated June 27, 1718, to be their Deputy-Postmaster of Boston; and in a letter brought by him from the Right Honorable the Postmaster-General to John Hamilton, Esq. mention is made, that for the many complaints that were made against Mr. Campbell, they had thought it fit to remove him, and appoint Mr. Musgrave in his stead, who was

nominated Postmaster of Boston almost three months before I succeeded Mr. Campbell, which has obliged me to make it appear that he was either removed, turned out, displaced, or superseded.

The last thing I am to speak to, is, Mr. Campbell says, it is amiss to represent that people remote have been prevented from having the News-Paper. I do pray he will again read over my introduction, and then he will find there is no word there advanced that will admit of such an interpretation.

There is nothing herein contained but what is unquestionably true; therefore I shall take my leave of him, wishing him all desirable success in his agreeable News-Letter, assuring him I have neither capacity nor inclination to answer any more of his like Advertisements.

With the office of postmaster, the Boston Gazette passed into the possession of Philip Musgrave, a few weeks after its first publication. In 1726, it went into the hands of another postmaster, Thomas Lewis, and the next year, it became the property of a third postmaster, Henry Marshall. It was printed for him till his death, in 1732. John Boydell succeeded Marshall in the post-office, and kept possession of the Gazette, till he died in December, 1739. It was printed for his heirs till October, 1741, when it was purchased by Kneeland and Green, and incorporated with the New-England Weekly Journal. The publication, under the title of The Boston Gazette and Weekly Journal, was continued by them till the dissolution of their partnership, in 1752, twenty-five years after the first publication of the Journal.

A few months after the discontinuance of this paper, and the dissolution of the partnership of Kneeland & Green, Kneeland issued another paper, under the title of The Boston Gazette, or Weekly Advertiser. The first number was published, January 3, 1753. It was printed in the quarto form, on the type that had been used for the Gazette and Journal, and was spoken of in the