Note 67 — NO. XVI.—THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1807.

It would seem that, in this sentence, the sage Mustapha had reference to a patriotic dinner, celebrated last 4th of July, by some gentlemen of Baltimore, when they righteously drank perdition to an unoffending individual, and really thought “they had done the state some service.” This amiable custom of “eating and drinking damnation” to others, is not confined to any party: for a month or two after the 4th of July, the different newspapers file off their columns of patriotic toasts against each other, and take a pride in showing how brilliantly their partisans can blackguard public character in their cups—“They do but jest—poison in jest,” as Hamlet says.