Dunlap's Pennsylvania packet , The general advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-02-05 00:00:00, page 2

To the KING'S Most Excellent MAJESTY.
The bimbie zlddref, Memorial, arid Petition of the
Gent 'ernen. Merch ^s, ^ nd Traders of London.
.May it pieafejour Mujefy,
\^7E y° ur Majesty's nr ft dutiful and loyal
? iubj:cl% the gentlemen, merchant, and
traders of London, 'beg leave to ap,o^ch your
Majesty with unfeigned afiraoce of affection and
attachment to your Majesty's person and govern
ment. and to represent with great humility cur
fenu cents on the preient alarming date of public
affairs.v
3) the operation of divers ads of the British
PM^.^eut, we behold with deep affliction, that
hippy communion of intereffs and good offices
which had ') long subsisted between this country
and America 'impended, and an intercourse (which
augmentig, as it grew, the strength and dignity
of *our Majesty's dominions, hath enabled your
Mj-fly to defeat the ratural rivals of your great.
ne s in every quarter of the world) threatened
with irretrievable ruirr.
We should humbly represent to your Majesty,
if they had not been already represented, the dead
ly wounds which the commerce of this country
mutt feel Irom these unfortuate measures; that it
hss not yet more deeply felt them, is owing to terti
potary anj accidental capfes which cannot long
continue.,
But we beg your Majesty to call an eye on the
general property of this land, and to relief what
mule be its fate when deprived of our American
commerce.
It fills our minds with additional griefto fee the
blood and tre Jure of your Majesty's fubjefls
wafted in effeding a fatal separation between the
diffe rent parts of your Majesty's empire, by a war,
uncertain in the event, deftrufive in its consequen
ces, and the object contended for loft in the coa
ted.
Pro tin - circumftarfes of peril and distress our
f. ^ could bijgef any addition, we might ftft.y
e reel it from the refeutment of those powerful
e-etries, who have ever fliewn a readings to take
advantage of our internal commotions, and will
joy'u'ly embrace the occafi n of avenging that dis
grace they sustained during the late glorious war,
from the united arms of Great Britain and Ame
vied—and we should indeed, be reduced to despair,
but that we are encouraged to look up to your
Majesty, the comm ;n father of all your people,
as the happy instrument in the hands of divine pro
vidence, which bringeth good out of evil, for re
storing to this dftraaed empire the blessings of
mutna confidence, liberty and peace.
For the speedy effecting of which, we most hum
bly beseech your Majesty to cause hofti'ities to
ce,le in you- Majesty's colonies in America, and
to adopt such mode of reconciling this unhappy
controversy, as may best promote the interest of
comnieice, and the welfare of all your people
The number of names signed to this petition
were one thousand one hundred.
Anxious to vinditae the rational honor, we
Wmid willingly d credit reports of slaves incited
to in'orreaion, and barbarous nations encouraged
to take a-ms against our American brethren, if they
h; n t prevailed without refutation, and filled
the on.ids 0 your Majesty's faithful fubjeds with
iodigrarior and hotter.
Retraining, prohibitory, and penal laws have
failed to re establish the public tranquility; and
the piefent state of his unfortunate dispute affords
reason to believe, that as it commenced without
policy, it must be pofecuted by means which the
natural an I constitutional strength of Great-Britain
cannot bopply.
In your Majesty's justice we confide for a fair
coY^uai n of an apprehension we have conceived,
that your Majesty hath been advised to take forei ;n
tr >ops into Briti/h pay, and to rare and di cipline
Papists both io Ireland and Canada, for the pur
pufeof enforcing fubmiiHon to laws, which your
Majesty's Poteftant fubje^ts in America conceive
to be deftruftive of their liberties, and agaiuft
which they have repeatedly petitioned in vain.
We beg leave further to represent to your Ma
jesty, that in questions of high national concern,
affecting the dearest interests of a state, (peculation
and experiment are seldom to be justified: That
want of forefight is want of judgment; and perfe-'
verance in measures which repeated experience
hath condemned, ceases to be error.
We might appeal to the history cfaH C)untries
to shew, that force hath never been employed with
success, to change the opinions or convince the
minds of freemen; and from the annals of our
own in particular, we learn, that the free and vo
luntary g fts of the fubjerft have ever exceeded the
exactions of the sword. &•
The experience we have had of your Majesty's
Parral regard for the welfare and privileges
of all your people, and the opinion we entertain of
th. justice of the British Parliament, forbid RS to
b: eve, that laws, so repugnant to the policy of
former tines, would have received their fanriion,
bad ihe real circumdances and sentiments of the
colonies b.en thoroughly understood, or the true
principles of their connection with the mother
country been duly weighed: We are therefore ne
cessarily conftrainea to impute blame to those, by
whom your Majesty and the Parliament have been
designedly milled, or partially informed of those
matters, on a full knowledge of which alone, de
terminations of such importance ffiould have been
founded.
LONDON, OW ty.
Th LL rvGi address, memorial, and petition of
the genpemen, merchants, and traders of Lon
don, unanimously agreed to at a general meet
i cfled by public .advertisement, was pre
f ted to hi 3 Majesty on Wednesday lad, by
\7; ram Briber, Elq; Chairman, accompanied
1 Lon Sawbridge and George Hayley, Elps.
t oof the Representatives of this city (Mr.
Giver having been able t from town, and Mr.
1 llconfined bv ifnefs) and it not having ap
}tred in die London Gazette, it is thought
proper to adopt this method of communicating
it to the pubhe.
Thofeevil counfellors who have so long poi
soned the ear of their Sovereign, would now itake
us believe they had perverted his principles also ;
they wish us to confider the fpeeth before you,
as conveying his Majesty's own sentiments and
resolves. Sir, we know that to be impoflible.
Our King is too humane, and beGdes, too well
acquainted with the hiftorv of this country and
its constitution, with the memoirs of the Stuart
race, and of his own illustrious h^fe, to imbibe
the despotic dodrines here imputed to him. His
Maj.fty knows, that when either of the three
eftares of this empire, or the whole in conspiracy
together, (ball arrogate power to which they are
incompetent, such as infringing the original rights
and liberties of the people in any part of the Bri
tish dominions, it is the exertion of such power,
not the refinance to it which conflitutes rebellion.
If this be not the case, the glorious revolution
was above all Rebellions the most attrocious.
We who are the deputies of the people, affem
bled tege her from different counties, cities and
boroughs o'the kingdom, ought faithfully to im
part to his Majesty the real wishes and difpofiti
ons of his fubje&s. As the firft counfellors of the
crown it is our peculiar province to advise a,d di
rect bis Majesty on every national emergency like
the present. But, Sir, in order to qualify us to
to do, affection to our King>obligation to our
country, and sober wisdom, all combine in re
quiring the closest and most deliberate diffcuffions,
and the deepest researches into the true bias of
the times, previous to the offering up any Address
to the Throne whatever. An address at such a
crisis as this, upon such important and decisive
matters, cannot be considered as a mere point of
etiquette, or personal compliment to our Sove
reign; if it could, there is not a member of this
house would be more forward in duty and obse
quiousness than inyfelf. Are we not totally ig
norant of the real state of Great-Britain and her
Colonies? Si r , the sense of the society at large
is not to be afeer^ained by the signature of a score
of Provincial Corporations, under corrupt mini
sterial influence; it is not to be afeertaioed by the
voice of repletion and revelry, by a few mistaken
individuals, brought together under the hospita
ble roof of a great Baron's castle. Sir, within
those battlements Kings are not, now a days,
made or unmade*; it is not to be afeertained by
the cry of a few Tory justices, dußile Magistrates,
huddled together by their creator the Lord Lieut,
of the county, to approve of proscriptions and
proclamations, deviled in councils, where he
himfelf takes the lead as president J Sir, I will
tell the noble Lord who spoke last J that if the
people of Lancaster, Liverpool, and Manchester,
were the oracles of British law and policy, the
Electors of Hanover had never swayed the impe
rial fceptre of this realm. I admire, however,
the spirited zeal and consistency of the addraf
fing inhabitants of that part of England; I admire
their firm reverence for the divine authority of
Kings, their defence of Popeiy, of arbitrary go
vernment, and sword law. The fame ' political
tenets which now nil the heads of these loyal ad
dressers, filled also the heads of their townsmen in
forty-five and forty fix. Those heads which be
ing impaled over Temple bar in the last Whig
reign, were soon after the commencement of the
piefent, when a mighty northern Thane came in
to office, taken down with veneration, and are
now, 'tis said, enforined in a certain interior ca
binet, where a Right Hen. houfhold officer in my
eye, and others of the White Rose junto, ffe
quently offer uoon a bended knee their secret ari
fons and incense. Sir, the noble Lord whofpoke
last, and the Right Hon. Member who delivered
his sentiments earlier in the debate,ft have assured
you, that the sense of this country is against the
Americans. lam confident, as well fom the in
telligence I have been able to procure from a
multitude of perform widely different in station
and description, as by my own remarks in the
progress of many a journey through the interior
parts of this island during the lummer season,
that the sense of the mats of the people is in fa
vou/ of the Americans. They think that the
provocation given by a ralh and infuflicient Ministry
to the colony of Maflachufetts Bay, in lawless
and oppreflive exactions, enforced by famine, de
vastation, and daughter, at length constitutional
ly ju ftified an appeal to arms. A very learned
judge, who now does signal honour, to the coif,
assures us, in his excellent book of commentaries,
that every freeman is warranted in the use of
arms for defence of h.s rightful possessions and li
berty; and that great luminary of his proletTion,
Lord Chief Justice Holt, in pronouncing judg
ment on the memorable case of Tooley and De
kins, fays, “ When the I berry of the fuljA j s
invaded it is a provocation to all the fubjeas of
England." Where then will these grievances,
this civil war and carnage terminate? I shall now
borrow the words of Sir Charles Sedley, in the
last age, to express my aftoniihment, that a nati
on sick at heart as our's is, should wear so florid
a countenance. But, Sir, is it not that heßic
bloom which is frequently found to accompany a
radical decay of the constitution, or rather fume
artificial beautifier spread over the furface of a
cadaverous substance, for popular (how and dela
tion? We have heretofore found it expedient,
* Alluding to the famous Earl of Warwick, who
alternately deposed Henry IV. and Edward VI.
f Earl (Sower, in the county of Stafford.
J Lord Stanley.
Il Lord Stanley and Mr. Rice.
'SPEECH of the Non. Temple Lottrel, in the
House f Commons, on the motion for an humble
address to bis Majesty, Oil. 27.
Mr. Speaker,
WE might reasonably suppose, that the Mi
nisters which had a hand in fabricating
this voluminous speech, would be impatient to
obtain our approbation and thanks as representa
tives of the community in general, in the name
of the people of Great Britain, who are our a&u
al conftitdents; in the name of the people of A
merica, who (as they tell us) are our virtual con
stituents.
In the above brig came passengers, Mr. John
Gray, fun of Harrison Gray, Esq; of Boston, and
a regular officer, who, together with the Captains
were yesterday sent to Cambridge.
\\ e have no London papers of a late date in ei
ther of the above vessels. The Captain of rhe ship,
according to his orders, when he law he was like
ly to be taken, threw the packet over-board.
C A MBRIDG E, January 2s.
Last Friday General Clinton, with a consider
able number of Grenadiers and Light Infantry,
failed from Boston, supposed to be bound to Vir
ginia.
Last Saturday a vessel, filled with our distressed
brethren of Boston, put off from that place, and
landed her passengers at Chelsea, among whom
were Capt. Andrew Symmes, and Capt. John
Dean. It is said a considerable number more were
loon to follow.
We hear that the enemy, the evening on which
our troops burnt the houses at Charleftown, were
entertaining themselves at the exhibition of a play,
which they called the blockade of Boston ; in the
midst of which a person appeared before the au
\lience, and with great earnestness declared, that
the Yankies were attacking Bunker's Hill.—The
deluded wretches, at firft, took this to be merely
farcical, and intended as a part of their diversion•
but soon convinced that the ador meant to repre
sent a solemn reality, the whole assembly left the
house in confufion, and scampered off with great
pr ecipitation.
Since our last we have had several deserters.
One of them Rationed at Charleftown mills, pitch
ed his companion over the dam, and then run for
Cobble Hill.
Last Thursday one of our cruisers, commanded
by Capt. Mafcoll, carried into Cape Ann, a ship
of 2§o toras. She was from Lynn Haven in Eng
land, bound to Boston, and had on board, be
sides other valuable articles, 1500 blankets, 100
bolts of oznabrigs, 100 calks of oat meal, a large
number of Ihoes, and a quantity of coal.
We are assured, that Mr. Nathaniel Felt, of
Salem, within a few days past, has produced, from
only three pecks of earth, which he took from an
when this kingdom has been ffiaken to its founda
tion, from one extremity to the other, as it now
actually is; when the original compact between
the governing power and the fubjed has been dif
ferently construed; and in danger of being totally
diflblved ; I fay, Sir, that the Commons, in Par
liament assembled, have found it expedient to en
quire in the firft place, into the actual state and
condition of the nation in general: For this we
have a recent precedent, almost within the memo
ry of man, not ftfiftly speaking in the Journals of
a Parliament, but in the Journals of a national
and constitutional. Assembly, which has done
more good than all your Parliaments since the
days of Henry the Third, put together, which
restored and eftabluhed, or a firm basis, the
Protestant religion, and civil liberties of the peo
ple, and which brought in the amiable families of
Nassau and of Brunswick, to maintain that religi
on, and to prote& us in the enjoyment of those
liberties: I mean, Sir, the Convocation, of Con
gress, in the year 1688, whose a6ls and resoluti
ons ought, like the leaves of the Sybils of old; to
be fandimonioufly reverted to, at all times of
Rate perplexity and peril : I therefore desire that
. the motion made on the opening pf this Congress,
commonly called the Convention Parliament, and
which was the ground work of the glorious Re
volution, be now read.
I he motion was then read, which Hands upon
the Journals in the following words : “ That the
I Houfe do appoint a day to take into confederation
the state and condition of the nation," which mo
tion palled, nenrine contradicente, for the Mqnday
oilowing.
I now move you, Sir, that this House do ap
point a day to take into consideration the prefeat
Rare and condition of Great Britain and her Co
lonies, in order to ground thereupon an affedion
ate and dutiful address to the Crown, in answer
to his Majesty's Speech, this day delivered from
the Throne.
I am sorry not to fee the honourable Member
who proposed, and so ably supported this Ad
dress, now in his feat, for I flatter myfelf
he would acknowledge his motion premature,
and admit of the necessity to take the preliminary
step of afeertainmg the temper and resources of
Great Britain and her Colonies, in order to ad
dress his Majesty with good effect; when we shall,
I trust, open his eyes to the manifold impositions
put upon his royal confidence, by fom@ dark and
dangerous parricides, ambushed too near the
Tyrone, and help him to restore that peace,
good order, and happiness, throughout ail his
dominions; without which it is impossible that
he can continue to reign over us with Securi
ty; or that so pious and benevolent a Prince
as he is, though he wears the most brilliant
diadem in Christendom, can make it fit easy on
his brow.
s4>^4*^^^^-O^-,#^^^,#^
NEWBURY-PORT, January ig.
ON Monday last a brigantine frora Ireland,
burthen about 90 tons, Engs, Matter,
owned by Lewis Gray, an enemy to the rights of
America, laden with provisions for the ministerial
army at Boston, was taken and bro't into this port,
the particulars of her cargo are as follow ; —29
tierces, 18 barrels, and 31 half barrels of belt
beef; 150 firkins and 72 calles of butter ;64 fir
kins, 1 barrel and ic half barrels of tongues ; 10
puncheons of claret; 1 tierce, 11 barrels, and 9
half barrels of bed pork ; 8 puncheons of oats ;
2 firkins of lard ; 19 kegs of tripe ; two calks of
peas; and 109, hampers of potatoes.
On the fame evening a ship from London, bur
then about zoo tons, Bowie, Master, owned
at London, out 12 weeks, with the following ar
ticles on board, intended for the fame use as the
brig's cargo, viz. 52 chaldron of coals, 86 butts
and 30 hogsheads of porter, 20 hogiheads of vi
negar, 16 hogsheads of four grout, and 23 live
hogs, was brought in here.
", ' W-Y O, R. K, February 1.
We hear from Albany, that General Schuyter
found, at Johnstown, 5 or 600 men assembled,
who, without refinance, delivered up their arms ;
that he took from them 670 mulkets, nine pieces
of loaded cannon, and brought off fifteen prifon
ers* ,ir John, to oblige cur friend Indians, was
released on his bord and hostages.
The store-ship mentioned in our last, taken by
the people in New-Jersey, is burthen about 400
tons, commanded by Capt. Deropfter (brother to
a member of Parliament of that name) her cargo
consisted of 120 chaldrons of coal, 100 butts of
porter ;(g©o sacks of potatoes, 10 pipes of four
crout, 4 four pounders, some powder and arms,
and sundry other goods, with 80 hog., most of
which died on the passage.
PHILADELPHIA, February ^.
A London article lays, “ The Lady of Gene
ral Carleton, just arrived from Canada, is lifter
to Earl Effingham, and neice to the late Beckford
of immortal memory."
Extraß ofa Letter from an officer in the expedition.
on Long-Ifand, dated at Jericho, January 26,
^76.
“ We set out from Woodbridge, on Wednes
day the lyth instant, with about fix hundred mi
litia, and were joined at New York with a detach
ment from Lord Stirling's battalion, confining of
near three hundred; and on Friday morning we
crossed with all our troops at Horn's Hook, rear
Hell-Gate, and met with no opposition; pr 'need
ed on our way to Jamaica, took in custody feme
of the principal persons prof:ribed. lent out par
ties and brought in many of thole who votedagainft
fending Delegates, disarmed them, and required
them to sign an obligation we had drawn up, in
which we enjoin them not to oppose either the
Continental or Provincial Congrefles; but to be
fubjed to them, and not to aid or assist the ministe
rial troops in the present contest. From Jamaica
we went to Hampflead town, where we expelled
the warmest opposition, but were disappointed, for
the inhabitants came in and brought intheir arms
voluntarily for two days as faft as we could conve
niently receive them. We have got about three
hundred stand of arms, and a considerable quantity
of powder and lead. Weare now on our way to
Oyster-Bay, and shall scour the country as we go,
and shall exert ourselves to difeharge the trust en
joined on us. Col. Heard sent the detachment
home last 7 uefday, as he thought the militia fuf
ficieot. He is indefatigable in discharging his du
ty, treats the inhabitants with civility and the ut
most humanity, and even the delinquents express
themselves well pleased, that a detachment of Jer
sey men (and not of New- England) were sent to
disarm them. Many of those who are proscribed
as principals, have either fled or lecreted them
selves, several we have in custody. Some others
l believe are yet to be had, but by some means or
other they have had a lift of the persons pointed
out as principals, before oar arrival ; we are mak
ing enquiry how they got their intelligence, but
are not yet informed. Those that have come in,
and farrendered their arms, are much irritated
with those who have led them to make opposition,
and have deserted them in the day of difficult).
I conceive they will be as fafe, if not fafer, in our
custody, than at present among their neighbours,
of which fomeof them seem very apprehensive, and
complain that they have met with infulis already."
Died on the 10 infk in the 72d year of his age.
ABRAHAM DAW ES, late of Whiremarffi, in
the county of Philadelphia.— In the early pa^of
bis life he was engaged in the farigms of implor
ing an uncultivated country, which he encountered
with fortitude, and, feeing his labour blessed, was
encouraged to persevere'; by which means, in the
emphatic language of Scripture, he mad the ci}
deinefs appear like Eden, wherein he pitched ^
comfortable habitation, under whole hfpirable
roof the traveller and flranger met a hearty wel
come: And notwithstanding the many difficulties
he had been exposed to, lie w 4 s favoured wi h
health and a good constitution till his 64th year,
when being struck with the palfey^ he bore it with
the patience and resignation that is ever cc.nlpicu
ous in the Chriftiari.— This stroke did not only af
fed f himfelf and kind family, but a so was fentibly
felt by many others: For being pofieffed ofa ci i
rurgical genius, it became his concern that it rni,i.£
be ufeful to others, an 1 therefore undertook, and
performed many remarkable cures, to the great re
lief of the affiiaed and to the coQfolatiou of their
friends. 1 Ithcugh he was a real wdiwifher and
Ready (upp^rrer of the orders of g wernnicut as
far as his influence extend .d, yet, v,i,h rhe ancient
Soc/ates, he declined to accept of public ofric',
judging he might be ^herwik.nwic fervi&cablc to
der an old hearth, sixteen pounds and three quar
ters ofa pound of ge mine Salt petre.
Extrafl of a letter from a gentleman in the Weft-
Indies to his friend in Falmouth, Cejco Bay.
" We are anxious—very anxious, to hear from
you.— Don't think because we know little, we care
little about you ; for though you have here many
enemies, you have also many ftrunch friends, who,
though living in a land where iLvery is not only
tolerated, but productive of the greatest wealth
and affiuence to the mailers and proprietors, yet
retain such a sense of freedom, as openly to defend
her cause, and with zeal and warmth fide with
the Americans in their present glorious struggle
for the restoration of such of their natural and sti
pulated liberties as have been wrested from them ;
and the preservation of such as yet remain. The
conquest of America by all the troops Britain has
or can fend from her island, appears to me the molt
idle and chimerical plan ever adopted by a minis
ter, with less than half Lord North's abilities. I
can't help thinking the minister, before this, muf^
be convinced that Americans not only can, but wilt
; and in order to enforce the present mea
sures, a much greater force than they have or can
fend, will be necessary ; and therefore be induced
to propose some method of accommodation, not
unworthy AMERICANS to accede to. That
you will finally succeed, I not only hope, but be
lieve.