OR, VULCAN S PEAK. 143 tioned, and the governor took all of the old seaman s ile at the very top of the market. This purchase at once ele vated Betts in the colony, to a rank bat a little below that of the gentlemen, if his modesty disposed him to decline being classed absolutely with them. What was more, it put him in the way of almost coining money. The brig he purchased turned out to be as fast as he expected, and what was more, the character of a lucky vessel, which she got the very first cruise, never left her, and gave her com mander and owner, at all times, a choice of hands. The governor sold the Jonas to the merchants, and took the Martha off Belts hands, causing this latter craft to run regularly, and at stated hours, from point to point among the islands, in the character of a packet. Twice a week she passed from the Reef to the Cove at the Peak, and once a fortnight she went to Rancocus Island. In addition to her other duties, this sloop now carried the mail. A post-office law was passed by the council, and was approved of by the governor. In that day, and in a com munity so simple and practical, new-fangled theories con cerning human rights were not allowed to interfere with regulations that were obviously necessary to the comfort and convenience of the public. Fortunately, there was yet no newspaper, a species of luxury, which, like the gallows, comes in only as society advances to the corrupt condition ; or which, if it happen to precede it a little, is very certain soon to conduct it there. If every institution became no more than what it was designed to be, by those who originally framed it, the state of man on earth would be very different from what it is. The unchecked means of publicity, out of all question, are indispensable to the circulation of truths; and it is equally certain that the unrestrained means of publicity are equally favourable to the circulation of lies. If we cannot get along safely without the possession of one of these advantages, neither can we get along very safely while existing under the daily, hourly, increasing influence of the other call it what you will. If truth is all-important, in one sense, falsehood is all-important too, in a contrary sense.
