THE PRIVATEERS OF RHODE ISLAND. [To THE EDITOR OF THE
" SPECTATOR."] SIR,—You are always so friendly to this country that I think your review with, the above heading in the Spectator of April 17th must reflect the tone of Mr. Munro's book rather than your own im- pression of New England. For better or worse, " stern New England Puritanism" was never prevalent on Narragansett Bay. Massachusetts was founded by Puritans as a State in which they could follow their consciences. Rhode Island was founded by Puritans as a State in which all could have such freedom, and at once attracted these not Puritans—among them Cavaliers, Quakers, and Freebooters.. Inheriting the traditions of Providence (the city. at the head of Narragansett. Bay), of. Newburyport, Massa- chusetts, and Portland, Maine, I have never thought of the war of 1812 as one through which we " waded in English dollars," but as fought in the spirit shown when two captains, British and American, were buried here side by side, with equal honours. An earlier, kinder review in your columns spoke of that war as I have always, heard of it. I have not seen the log of the Yankee.' Whether she burnished or tarnished the name she bore, it is that of men who sowed the seed of. Freedom, seed brought from England, the harvest of which is going back to England by every Portland, Maine, U.S.A.
[Certainly we did not mean to say an unsympathetic word about New England. Our reviewer, as our correspondent suggests, tried to reflect the spirit of the American author, but even so not without some passing irony.—ED. Spectator.]
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