distinguished consideration, and a hundred subscribers, at ten dollars each, were immediately secured for a course of lectures on Experimental Philosophy. He did not, however, give them, but shortly proceeded to Philadelphia, where he received a complimentary address from the American Philosophical Society, and was unanimously chosen as Professor of Chemistry in the university. But this he did not accept, and soon proceeded to Northumberland, a town on the Susquehanna, 132 miles northwest from Philadelphia, where his sons had settled, and which he made his permanent residence. There was at first no postal connection with the place, but a mail was soon established, running to Philadelphia twice a week. His house in Northumberland was situated in a garden commanding one of the finest prospects on the Susquehanna. A library and laboratory were built for him, which were finished in 1797, and he was able to arrange his books and renew his experiments with every possible facility.
While Dr. Priestley was received in this country by many with the honor that was due to so eminent a man and the sympathy to which his persecutions at home naturally gave rise, it was not to be expected that he would quite escape from the interference of the intolant and narrow-minded. There was, at that time, a powerful party in this country in sympathy with the English policy, and they very naturally participated in the English feeling toward Priestley. He did not choose to be naturalized, but, while advising his sons to become so, he said that, as he had been born and had lived to advanced years an Englishman, he would die one, let what might be the consequence. He did not interest himself much in American politics, but continued his congenial pursuits and studies. About the year 1799, during the Adams Administration, the friends of freedom were greatly alarmed at the promulgation of principles less liberal in many respects than were those of the British Government. Dr. Priestley, who never concealed his sentiments, was opposed to the administration and freely criticised it in private conversation. At the same time, violent attacks were made upon it by a Northumberland newspaper. But, although Dr. Priestley was not their author, and had nothing to do with them, they were charged to him, and such were the bigotry and party zeal of the period that he was represented as an enemy to the Government, and it was intimated to him from Mr. Adams himself that he had better abstain from saying any thing on politics lest he should get into difficulty. The "Alien and Sedition Law" passed under that administration was then in operation, and Dr. Priestley might have been sent out of the country at a moment's warning, without being charged with any offense and without even the right of remonstrance; and it was hinted to him that he was one of the persons contemplated when the law was passed. The epithet alien, which was used as a term of party reproach at that time, was freely applied to him. In consequence of all this, Dr. Priestley wrote a
