[214] First published in the _Freeman's Journal_ in several installments, the first appearing Jan. 8, 1783. Hugh Gaine began as a printer in New York in 1750, and two years later established the _New York Mercury_. His imprint for many years was "Printed by Hugh Gaine, Printer, Bookseller, Stationer, at the Bible and Crown, in Hanover Square." Upon the beginning of hostilities with England he at first sided with the patriots. "Gaine's political creed it seems was to join the strongest party. When the British troops were about to take possession of New York in 1776, he left the city and set up his press at Newark; but soon after, in the belief that appearances were against the ultimate success of the United States, be privately withdrew from Newark and returned to New York. At the conclusion of the war, he petitioned the State legislature for leave to remain in the city and, having obtained permission, his press was employed in book printing, etc., but his newspaper was discontinued when the British army left."--Thomas' _History of Philadelphia_. I have used the text from the edition of 1809.
[215] "It is to be questioned if Gaine ever wrote a petition."--_Paul Leicester Ford._
[219] "To gain a mere trifle, a shilling or so."--_Ed. 1786._
[220] _General Gage's Soliloquy_, and _General Gage's Confession_, both printed in 1775.
[221] "Under orders from the New York Convention Isaac Sears, in the night of the twenty-fourth of August [1775] removed cannon from the battery of the city. Captain Vandeput of the _Asia_, a British man-of-war in the harbor of the city, kept up a heavy but ineffective fire on the working party, who succeeded in removing twenty-one eighteen pounders with their carriages. It was feared that a bombardment would follow and families began to retreat into the country."--_Bancroft._
[222] This line and the following not in the 1786 edition.
[223] "At first we supposed it was only a sham."--_Ed. 1786._
"With his paunch of a hog, and his brains of an oyster, Whence the mischief came he with his radical moisture."--_Ed. 1786._
[227] This line and the three following not in the edition of 1786.
[228] This line and the three following not in the original version.