The Attache | Page 3

could not, if I would."
By that accidental shot, I obtained a great name as a marksman, and by
prudence I retained it all the voyage. This is precisely my case now,
gentle reader. I made an accidental hit with the Clockmaker: when he
ceases to speak, I shall cease to write. The little reputation I then
acquired, I do not intend to jeopardize by trying too many experiments.
I know that it was chance--many people think it was skill. If they
choose to think so, they have a right to their opinion, and that opinion is
fame. I value this reputation too highly not to take care of it.
As I do not intend then to write often, I shall not wire-draw my subjects,
for the mere purpose of filling my pages. Still a book should be perfect
within itself, and intelligible without reference to other books. Authors
are vain people, and vanity as well as dignity is indigenous to a colony.
Like a pastry-cook's apprentice, I see so much of both their sweet
things around me daily, that I have no appetite for either of them.
I might perhaps be pardoned, if I took it for granted, that the dramatis
personae of this work were sufficiently known, not to require a

particular introduction. Dickens assumed the fact that his book on
America would travel wherever the English language was spoken, and,
therefore, called it "Notes for General Circulation." Even Colonists say,
that this was too bad, and if they say so, it must be so. I shall, therefore,
briefly state, who and what the persons are that composed our
travelling party, as if they were wholly unknown to fame, and then
leave them to speak for themselves.
The Reverend Mr. Hopewell is a very aged clergyman of the Church of
England, and was educated at Cambridge College, in Massachusetts.
Previously to the revolution, he was appointed rector of a small parish
in Connecticut. When the colonies obtained their independence, he
remained with his little flock in his native land, and continued to
minister to their spiritual wants until within a few years, when his
parishioners becoming Unitarians, gave him his dismissal. Affable in
his manners and simple in his habits, with a mind well stored with
human lore, and a heart full of kindness for his fellow-creatures, he was
at once an agreeable and an instructive companion. Born and educated
in the United States, when they were British dependencies, and
possessed of a thorough knowledge of the causes which led to the
rebellion, and the means used to hasten the crisis, he was at home on all
colonial topics; while his great experience of both monarchical and
democratical governments, derived from a long residence in both, made
him a most valuable authority on politics generally.
Mr. Samuel Slick is a native of the same parish, and received his
education from Mr. Hopewell. I first became acquainted with him
while travelling in Nova Scotia. He was then a manufacturer and
vendor of wooden clocks. My first impression of him was by no means
favourable. He forced himself most unceremoniously into my company
and conversation. I was disposed to shake him off, but could not. Talk
he would, and as his talk was of that kind, which did not require much
reply on my part, he took my silence for acquiescence, and talked on. I
soon found that he was a character; and, as he knew every part of the
lower colonies, and every body in them, I employed him as my guide.
I have made at different times three several tours with him, the results

of which I have given in three several series of a work, entitled the
"Clockmaker, or the Sayings and Doings of Mr. Samuel Slick." Our
last tour terminated at New York, where, in consequence of the
celebrity he obtained from these "Sayings and Doings" he received the
appointment of Attache to the American Legation at the Court of St.
James's. The object of this work is to continue the record of his
observations and proceedings in England.
The third person of the party, gentle reader, is your humble servant,
Thomas Poker, Esquire, a native of Nova Scotia, and a retired member
of the Provincial bar. My name will seldom appear in these pages, as I
am uniformly addressed by both my companions as "Squire," nor shall
I have to perform the disagreeable task of "reporting my own
speeches," for naturally taciturn, I delight in listening rather than
talking, and modestly prefer the duties of an amanuensis, to the
responsibilities of original composition.
The last personage is Jube Japan, a black servant of the Attache.
Such are the persons who composed the little party that embarked at
New York, on board the Packet ship "Tyler," and sailed