PNT RODS FLoeN‘cl cide in matters refpecting that profeffion; but, ‘in the other cafe, as being. addreffed to profef- fional men, many of whom may be fuppofed to be equally well informed as the writer himfelf, could be confidered as little better than an infult, and

would indicate an overweening

the writer, that could only excite difguft and con-

prefumption in

tempt. Such, in fa€t, is precifely the cafe in the prefent inftance; and the words of the introdue- tory paragraph to that effay, if they were fup- pofed to be intended for publication, can only be calculated to make an impreflion on the mind

of every reader that is very little in favour of the I

writer; and what I conceive to be extremely dif- ferent from what my own charaéter, if not ob- fcured under fuch an humiliating difguife, ought naturally to produce. I feel, at leaft, that if any other perfon had written fuch a paragraph, in- tending it to be publifhed, as this has been,] fhould have defpifed him as an impudent cox- comb, whom it would be a merit to humble.

Sir John Sinclair is as ca

pable as any man of judg- ing of the irrefiftible effe&s of fuch impreffions §[

on the public mind: nor would there have been ‘any thing extraordinary in it, if he had, on re- ceiving fuch a paragraph for publication, from a man with whom he’ was in habits of intir nacy,

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