The little tour which gave birth to the following remarks, was taken
immediately after the exchange of the ratifications of a peace,
necessary, but not inglorious to my country, after a contest
unexampled in its cause, calamity, extension, vicissitudes and glory;
amidst a people who, under the influence of a political change,
hitherto unparallelled, were to be approached as an order of beings,
exhibiting a moral and political form before but little known to
themselves and to the world, in the abrupt removal of habits and
sentiments which had silently and uninterruptedly taken deep root
in the soil of ages.
During a separation of ten years, we have received very little account
of this extraordinary people, which could be relied upon. Dissimilar
sensations, excited by their principles and proceedings, ever partially
and irregularly known, have depicted unaccording representations
of them, and, in the sequel, have exhibited rather a high-coloured,
fanciful delineation, than a plain and faithful resemblance of the
original. Many are the persons who have been thus misled.
These fugitive sketches, in which an attempt is made to delineate,
just as they occurred, those scenes which, to my mind at least, were
new and interesting, were originally penned for the private perusal
of those whom I esteem; and by their persuasion they are now
offered to the public eye. Amongst them I must be permitted to
indulge in the pride and pleasure of enumerating William Hayley,
esq. a name familiar and dear to every elegant and polished mind.
Enlightened by his emendations, and supported by the cherishing
spirit of his approval, I approach, with a more subdued
apprehension, the tribunal of public opinion; and to my friends I
dedicate this humble result of a short relaxation from the duties of an
anxious and laborious profession. If, by submitting to their wishes, I
have erred, I have only to offer, that it is my first, and shall be my
last offence.
Totnes, August, 1802. JOHN CARR.
