cion; to check, in their refpective fpheres, the efforts of mifguided or defigning men, to fubftitute their mifreprefentation in the place of truth, and their difcontents in the place of ftable government; and to call to mind, that, as the people of the United States have been permitted under the Divine favour in perfect freedom, after folemn deliberation, and, in an enlightened age, to elect their own government, fo will their gratitude for this ineftimable blefling be best diftinguished by firm exertions, to maintain the conftitution and the laws. And, laftly, I again warn all perfons whomfoever and wherefoever, not to abet, aid, or comfort, the infurgents aforelaid, as they will anfwer the contrary at their peril; and I do alfo require all officers and other citizens, according to their feveral duties, as far as may be in their power, to bring under the cognizance of the law, all offenders in the premifes. In teftimony whereof, I have caused. the feat of the United States of America to be affixed to thefe prefents, and figned the fante with my hand. Done at the city of Philadelphia, the 25th day of September, 1794; of the independence of the United States of America, the 19th. GEO. WASHINGTON. By the prefident, CHARACTERS. CHARACTER S. Anecdotes of Dr. Paul Hiffernan, from the European Magazine. T HIS author may be well reckoned amongst the extraordinaries of modern literature; not that he excelled his contemporaries either in genius or learning: he derives this character from his eccentricities, and to this he was fairly entitled from the peculiarity of his familiar habits, his fiudies, and his writings. Dr. Paul Hiffernan was born in the county of Dublin, in the year 1719, and received his early education at a grammar fchool in that county. From this, at a proper age, he was removed to a feminary in Dublin, where the claflies were taught in good repute, and where he was educated for the profeflion of a Popish prieft, his parents being of the Roman Catholic perfuafion. For the better finishing his education in this line, he was afterwards fent to a college in the fouth of France, where he became acquainted with feveral ftudents, fome of whom were afterwards much renowned in the Republic of Letters, and particularly the celebrated Rouffeau and Marmontel. The first of thefe, he used to obferve, gave at that time no promife of his future greatness, being very modeft and fimple in his manners, and more perfon who knew his natural turn, which was that of an unconquerable love of indolence and dipation. The regularities of any profeffion were circles too confined for him, and the day that was paffing over him, was generally to decide what he fhould do. With this temper, instead of cultivating his profeffion, he fought the receptacles and convivialities of his countrymen; and as he was a good fcholar, abounded in anecdote, and might, at that time, have imported fome of the agreeable manners of the French, he found a ready chair at feveral refpectable tables in Dub lin. About this time a doctor Lucas, a man who afterwards was much celebrated for his oppofition to the government of Ireland, started up, and by thofe bold measures that propofe quick and fudden reformation of abufes, gained fo much of the popular attachment, that the citizens of Dublin returned him as one of their members in parliament. Another party oppofed thefe meafures, and Hiffernan being confidered as a young man of good education and lively parts, he undertook to write against Lucas in a periodical paper, which was called "The Tickler." It is feldom that the merit of this fpecies of writing outlives its original purpofe. We have feen many of thofe papers, which, however, the doctor (as Hiffernan was ufually called) might pride himself on, poffefled little elfe than perfonal a bufe, or contradictions of oppofitional statements. Now and then, indeed, fome of the doctor's whim appears, but it was of that kind as muft induce his best friends to transfer the laugh more to the man than to his writings. "The Tickler," however, as a party paper, made its way for fome time, and procured at leaft this advantage to the author (which he unfortunately prized too highly through life), of living conftantly at private and public tables. An author by profeffion at that time of day in Ireland was no common fight, and gained many admirers. Thofe who had their great opponent in politics periodically abused, felt a gratification in the company of their champion; amongst thefe he numbered many of the alder men of Dublin, and Hiffernan was a man very well qualified to fit at an alderman's table. If our author had the fatisfaction of being well-known and careffed by his friends, he had at the fame time the misfortune of being equally known and hated by his ene mies; and what was worse, his ene mies by far out-numbered his friends; in fort, he became a marked man, and as he was one that gave an improper licence to his tongue, as well as his pen, he met with feveral infults in coffee-houses and public places. The doctor parried this for fome time, but as Lucas's reputation carried all before it, and as he was univerfally esteemed a man of good intentions, Hiffernan fuffered additionally by comparison; fo that being chafed out of all pub lic places, and, as he used to tell himfelf," in fome danger of his life," he, by the advice of his friends, directed his course to London, there to try his fate as an author," in this general home of the neceffitous." What year he came to London, we cannot exactly ascertain, but it muft, muft, from fome circumftances, be between the years 1753 and 1754. In that and the next year, he publifhed five numbers of a pamphlet which he called "The Tuner," in which, with more humour than he ever thewed afterwards, he ridiculed the then new plays of " Philoclea," 66 Boadicea," Conftantine," "Virginia," &c. His firft employment was in tranflations from the French and Latin authors; but though a good fcholar in both languages, he wanted that familiarity in his own, which rendered his ftyle stiff and pedantic. He was not always punctual too in his engage ments, fo that after repeated trials, he was found not to answer the reputation he brought with him from Ireland; and he was, through neceflity, obliged to ftrike into a new line of authorship. Whilft he was purfuing his ftudies at Paris and Montpelier, as well as whilft he was in Ireland, he amufed himfelf with writing feveral things on occafional fubjects for the entertainment of his friends, and partly, perhaps, with a view to keep up that paffport to their tables in which he fo much delighted. Thefe, with fome others on more general fubjects, he refolved to publish; and accordingly, early in the year 1755, he gave them to the world under the title of Mifcellanies in Profe and Verfe, by Paul Hiffernan, M. D." The oppofite character of Polonius, however, has been adopted by all the performers we have ever seen play this part, except one; we mean Munden's late performance of it at Covent-Garden Theatre, where, indeed, the whole of the reprefentation of Hamlet is got up very creditably to the tafte of the manager. Munden fhews Polonius free from all thofe blemishes of buffoonery, with which our beft actors, who have gone before him, have loaded him; he is in his hands, though fomewhat of a formalift, and attached to the modes of a court, a wife, a prudent, and upright ftatelman; and this the audience felt on the first night, to be fo much the real draught of the character, that, notwithstanding all their former prejudices, they gave it their univerfal applaufe. His." Theory on the Art of Acting," is only to be remembered for its eccentricity. In delcribing the mechanical manner of the players generally "But the heavens are just !" Here he is to look wifhfully and repentantly towards heaven, then a ftammer, "I-I—I.” As half of the last I-(O has reigned long enough for the other vowels to take their turn) is pronounced, he is to have the rattles in his throat, which are to be accompanied by the wifh abrupt, the half ferew, two kicks, and the flop fupine, equivalent to the failors phrafe ("Good-night, Nicholas !") when they are going to the bottom." What profit the publication of thefe mifcellanies might bring him is uncertain; if he depended entirely on the public fale, we fhould fuppofe very little; but Hiffernan had the art of getting off his books amongst his friends and acquaintances by perfonal application, and other nodes of address not fo very creditable either to learning or delicacy. The line of authorship he took up after the publication of these mifcellanies was, any mode which prefented itfelf to gain a temporary exiftence; fometimes by writing a pamphlet, and privately fubfcribing it amongst his friends and acquaintances, and fometimes by becoming the patron or defender of fome novice for the ftage; or fome artift who wanted to make his way to public notice by puffing, or other indirect means. It is faid he had feveral players and painters under contribution for this purpofe; and as he was a man of fome plaufibility, and had a known intimacy with Garrick, Foote, and many of the literati, it is no wonder that he fometimes gained profelytes. His grand place of rendezvous was the Cider-cellar, Maiden-lane; a place he ufually reforted to on thofe evenings, when, to ufe his own expreflion, "he was not houfed for the night." Here it was be played the part of patron or preceptor with fome dexterity. If any painter found his favourite work excluded a place in the Exhibition, or wanted his piece puffed through the papers, Hiffernan was "the lord of infamy or praife." If any player took dudgeon at his manager or rival brother, our author's pen was ready to defend him; and if any perfon as a candidate for the stage, |