Theſe obſervations are not peculiar to any age; we have ſeen the effects of them in St. Marino, Biſcay, and the Griſons, as well as in Poland, and all other countries. Not to mention any notable examples, which have lately happened near us, it is not many months ſince I was witneſs to a converſation between ſome citizens of Maſſachuſett's: one was haranguing on the jealouſy which a free people ought to entertain of their liberties, and was heard by all the company with pleaſure; in leſs than ten minutes the converſation turned upon their governor; and the jealous republican was very angry at the oppoſition to him. "The preſent governor," ſays he, "has done us ſuch ſervices, that he ought to rule us, he and his poſterity after him for ever and ever." Where is your jealouſy of liberty? demanded the other. "Upon my honour," replies the orator, "I had forgot that; you have caught me in an inconſiſtency; for I cannot know whether a child of five years old will be a ſon of liberty or a tyrant." His jealouſy was the dictate of his underſtanding: his confidence and enthuſiaſm the impulſe of his heart.
The pompous trumpery of enſigns, armorials, and eſcutcheons, are not indeed far advanced in America. Yet there is a more general anxiety to know their originals, in proportion to their numbers, than in any nation of Europe; ariſing from the eaſier circumſtances and higher ſpirit of the common people: and there are certain families in every ſtate, as attentive to all the proud frivolities of heraldry. That kind of pride which looks down on commerce and manufactures as degrading, may indeed, in many countries of Europe, be a uſeful and neceſſary quality in the nobility: it may prevent, in ſome degree, the whole nation
