THE LETTERS OF THE BRITISH SPY. West AVE EIGHTH EDITION, WITH THE LAST CORRECTIONS OF THE AUTHOR. BALTIMORE: PUBLISHED BY FIELDING LUCAS, JUN. DISTRICT OF MARYLAND, $8. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on this twenty-fourth day of May in the thirty-fifth year of the Independence of the ********** United States of America, Fielding Lucas, jun. of the SEAL. said District, hath deposited in this office, the Title of a *********** Book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, in the words and figures following, to wit. "The letters of the British Spy. Fourth edition, With the last corrections of the Author." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, Entitled, "An act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned," and also to the Act, entitled, An Act supplementary to the Act, entitled, An Act for the encouragement of learning, by securing, the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprie tors of such copies during the times therein mentioned, and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching historical and other prints." PHILIP MOORE, Clerk of the District of Maryland. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE FOURTH EDITION. THE publisher having become possessed of a copy of "The British Spy," which has passed through the hands of the author, eagerly embraces an opportunity of submitting a correct edition of that work to the patronage of the publick. These letters were originally inserted in a daily journal; and they appeared with all the imperfections to which such a mode of publication is unavoidably liable. In the present edition, a variety of errours have been corrected; and nothing has been spared which it was supposed could add to its value. Of the literary merit of a work which has passed the ordeal of criticism with honour, not only to the author but to his country, it would be impertinent to speak. Common fame has decided it to be the fruit of an American pen; and classical taste has pronounced it to be the offspring of genius. To those who would inculcate the degrading doctrine, that this is the country "Where Genius sickens, and where Fancy dies," we would offer the letters of the British Spy as an unquestionable evidence that America is entitled to a high rank in the republick of letters; and that the empyreal flame may be respired under any region. * Clifton. |