The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1783-04-15 00:00:00, page 1

N EW- Y 0 R K, April 9.
La" Saturday evening arrived the Prince William Hen
ry Packet, from Falmouth, commanded by captain
Peters. From the English papers and private letters
we have received the following particulars. Capt.
Peters left that port on the 24th of February.
HOUSE of LORDS, (London) February 18.
PEA C E.
YESTERDAY, the order of the day being read,
for their lordships to be summoned, the prelimi
, nary articles were read by the clerk : after which
Ihe + arl of Pembroke rose, and expressed his hopes,
^nat their lordships would be of opinion with him,
tha^ nis majesty's condufl, in laying before them the
F~i <f H%9n , of peace, merited their grateful appro
bation, peace would relieve the kin dom from a load
of cax^ revive the old, and open new channels of
commerce; r r flore harmony and mutual affection be
iweo the fbjef?s of Great Britain and the united
flares of America ; and contribute to promote t e
happmefs and eflablifh the tranquillity of Europe. He
moved, ,
" That an humble address be presented to his ma
jefly, to return his rnajefty the thanks of this house
for his gracious condescension in ordering to be laid
before us the preliminary articles of the diderent trea
ties which his majesty hath concluded, and to assure
his majefly. that'we have considered them with that
attention which so important a fobbed requires.
" To express in the most grateful manner to his
majeftyour fatisfaßion that his majesty has, in con
feq ueoce of rhe powers entrusted to him, laid the foun
dation by the prdvifional articles with the states of
North-America, for a treaty of peace, which we trust,
will ensure perfect reconciliation and frieadfhip be
tween both countries.
'' That in this confidence, we presume to express
to his majesty, our just expectation that the several
Bates of North-America, will carry into effectual and
fatisfaftory execution, those measures whi h the coh
grefs is so solemnly bound by the treaty, they re
commend in favour of fuels persons as have fuffered for
the part which they have taken in the war, and that
we confider these circumflances as the surest indication
of returning friendship ; and to acknowledge to his ma
jesty, our due sense of that wife and paternal regard
for the happ nefs of his fubjeßs, which induced his
majesty to relieve them from a burthenfome and ex
pensive war, by the preliminary articles of peace,
concluded between his majesty and the mod Christian
and Catholic kings.
" To assure his majesty, that we shall encourage
and promote every exertion of his fubjeds of Great-
Britain and Ireland, in the cultivation and improve
ment of those resources which must tend to the certain
augmentation of our public strength, and that w th
these views we (hall most diligently turn our attenti
on to the revision of all our commercial laws, and en
deavour to frame them upon such liberal principles as
may best extend our trade and navigation, and pro
portionably encreafe his majesty's naval power, which
can clone ensure the prosperity of his kingdoms."
The marquis of Carmarthen (lord Osborne) seconded
this motion. He reminded their lordihips how ear
nestly the nation wished for peace, and congratulated
them on its happy accomplishment. The confederacy
that had been formed against England was dissolved.
The nation was eased of intolerable and encreafing load
of taxes. Trade would revive, commerce would flou
rifh more than it had ever done, and Great Britain,
pursuing the plans of wisdom, moderation and paace,
would hill be one of the firft powers of Europe.
The earl of Carlifle considered the preliminaries as
injurious to the interests, and derogatory to the ho
nour of Great Britain. The conclusion cf the peace
he admitted to be legal,, as the crown possessed, tin
doubtediy, the right of making peace or war. hut
though it was legal, it was not in his opinion expedi
ent. It was contrary to natural juUice and humani
ty, to facrifice to the cruel and inveterate malice cf
their enemies, men who had persevered, in the toidft
of the greatest perils and dangers, in their loyalty to
Britain; men who had left their families^ given up
their fortunes, and rifqued their lives io the service of
government. So great a violation of public faith ; so
flumeful a dereliction of hi majesty's most faithful
and approved fubjeßs, was a species of policy as un
wise as it was pufillanimbus, as it difeouraged all per
severance in loyalty in the day of trial and temptati
on, and encouraged a general spirit of revolt and -n
---furredion. Protection and allegiance are mutual. No
consideration of policy, if a disregard to good faith
and eminent deserts might be called by that name,
could juftify a desertion of the American loyalists. The
^^^!^^
VOL. XII.I
TUESDAY,
GENERAL ADVERTISER.
Published every TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY.—so SIXPENCE.
conduct of his majefly^s ministers, had not only been
unjust and ungenerous towards these men, and especial
ly to those who had borne arms in the defence of go
vernment, but in manifold instances impolitic and
improvident.
They had, through inaccuracy, or egregious folly,
drawn such a line of boundary between America and
Great-Britain, as delivered Canada and Nova Scotia,
fettered, into the hands of the American congress.
The forts, the passes, the carrying places, the fitteft
traHs for the fur trade; all, all that was valuable was
delivered up to our enemies. True we were to enjoy
a free navigation on the river M ffiffippi. This indul
gence we were to have by the treaty. But how were
we to have it? by what tenure were we to hold it ? The
line that bounded our territory carried us far wide of
the Mississippi; and it wa only by the connivance of
the Americans that we could either navigate the Lakes
or the Mississippi. Nor was it only the loyalists that
we had abandoned. The 5 Indian nations, our allies;
the Cherokees too, as well as the five nations: all these
would henceforth lye at the mercy of congress, and re
gret the confidence they had placed in what, they fond
ly imagined, as they were taught to believe, was the
greater action under the Sun,
r e Situation of Britain did not demand such exor
bitant concessions. Her power was coming forward
into full exertion, and our fleet, the glory and the
bulwark of the nation was rising, by a quick advance
ment, to a decided superiority over the united squa
drons of France and Spain. Was it so recently, after
the glorious atchievements of a noble lord, whom he
had in his eye, in the Weft-Indies, and of fir Edward
Hughes in the East? was it after the unparalelled de
fence of Gibraltar, and the glorious relief of that for
trefs by lord Howe, that Great Britain ought to record
her own infamy by applauding an unfafe, a losing, a
difhonourable peace? Was it not enough that ministers
had ceded the territories, and abandoned the fubjeds
0, the crown of Britain to their enemies ? Muff they be
praised for such infamous tranfaaions ? He trusted,
that their lordihips would never slain their honour by
approving an aft that abandoned those whom we were
bound in honour to proteff, and which ceded with pre
cipitation over and above all that the thirteen provinces
possessed, a territory, in extent, three times as great
as the three British kingdoms. His lordship moved an
amendment; and the motion, with that amendment,
run thus:
" To return our thanks to his majesty for the com
munication of the preliminary articles of peace, and for
having put a flop to the calamities of war, by a peace,
which being concluded, we must confider as binding,
and not to be infringed without a violation of the nati
onal faith.
" To assure his majefly that we feel, in the strongest
banner, the obligation of affording every relief, that
can alleviate the distresses of those deserving fubjeHs,
who have exposed their lives and fortunes for the sup
port of Great Britain ; and the fame time, we cannot
help lamenting the neceffit/, which bids us fubferibe to
articles, which, considering (he relative situation of the
belligerent powers, we must regard as inadequate to
our just expectations, and derogatory to the honor and
dignity of Great-Britain."
Lord Walfingham questioned the right of the erf^n
to dismember the empire without the content of parlia
ment ; arraigned the cruelty and injuft ice of abandon
ing the loyalists, and our Indian allies; derided the fol
ly of the British negociator, who had fix^d the bounda
ry between North America and Britain: touched on
the comparative firength of this with that of other na
tions; and, on the whole, declared his approbation of
the proposed amendment.
Lord Coventry rejoiced at the certain profpeft of
peace, as it would put an end to the calamities of war,
as it would ease the landed interests of an enormous
load of taxes and as it would be the means of break
ing that alarming Co federacy, with which this over
powered nation had ben obliged so long to druggie.
Lord Hawke did not think that the peace, by any
means, ceferved those epithets, that had been applied
to it by the noble lord, who proposed the amendment.
He thought it wa a s good a peace as we had any rea
son to expeH, considering the host of foes that affaned
us. Tne loyabfts, his iordihip contended had not
been abandoned. Congress had engaged to recommend
their cause to the assemblies of the different provinces.
He was aware, that the word re ommend appeared fee
ble and inefficatious to those who were zealous friends
to the loyaiifts. He did not wish that the loyalists
should be abandoned ; and he affirmed that all that
could be done for them, in the treaty, h d been done.
For what could congress do but recommend the loyal
ists? Congress possessed, indeed, %he executive, but
not the legislative power, and a recommendation of the
loyalists was all that was in their power. T\e crown
of Britain (poke, in the stile of recommendation to par-
O R, THE
THE
,„' The language if used was r m t fifong-r. Cun
tlJ" " ke manner recommended the cause of the
: '"' ' s ’ ' hey recommended, &y urged it
with authority and earnePie!s, and he b^oed' they
would recommend it with eff e & He nfifled upon Qe'
F/ '??""/ i 0" that had beeri formed ^ainft
England. Headmired the condud and valour of tbofe
military ^nd naval heroes, who, in the coorfe of thi#
SCT,^ had done so much honour to Brita n.—
Iheir Iki I and bravery were not loft to the r co nrv.
They enabled |& to hand on good ground, and to
demand good terms. Tee proper time for making peace
was the time of viAory. ,
Could any of their lordihips prornife , With ctainty^
that the next campaign would be more fucc^ful than
Here he painted the force that w as opposed
to Great Britain in Europe, in America, in the Weft-
Indies, and in the East On the storm that wa- ga
thering in the east, he dwelt at most lengthy, and with
the greatest pathos. The fun, s ai d his lordship, that
Mummed for a ihort time, your eaflern hemifphefe, is
occurred by clouds th t no longer dart those Livening
rays, which had almost made you forget, that your
fun had gone down in the weft. The revenues of the
empire appear greater than ycu imagined,
and their outrage and conduH, certainly not tefs. Hy
der, terrible in arms, and in name, over-runs the
Carnatic, and menaces Madras. The fortunate bra
very of a great commander reputes, but is not able to
conquer him. He retires like a lion, with flow step,
but as he recedes, presents a threatning front to his
foe., He goes but to recruit his firength, and returns
with redoubled vigour. Such being the situation of
coglifh affairs, lord Hawke was of opinion, that peace
such a peace as had been obtained, was matter of joy
and exultation to all lovers cf their country. In the
course of his speech he quoted the Abby Mably's in
troduftion to the political law of Europe to lhew that
in certaincafes, private property is to be faenficed to
public good, as in a storm the mafler of a (hip, without
the knowledge and consent of the owner, and without
having recourse to any law whatever, throws overboard
merchants goods for the purpose of lightning the (hip,
he also read that pahage in the Abbe's book, where
he takes notice that the Romans, undoubtedly tie firft
people that ever made a figure on the theatre of the
w ori d, conquered the nations more by the wifdem of
their policy than the power of their arms. It was a
maxim of that politic people, fays the Abbe, when
they were firuggliog with confederated and powerful
enemies to make peace, almost on any terms: not in
deed with a design of long preserving it, but with a
view to break the confederation, and to renew the war
the firft favourable opportunity.
Lord Dudley did not despair of the firength and
resources of this kingdom. He beflowed the highest
praise on lord Carlifle for his generous conduct. His
lordfltip did not think it juflifiable to abandon the
cause of the loyalists, which was an honorable and just
caule, on account of any views of policy whatever.
He also animadverted on that article in the treaty of
peace, which allows the French to cast a ditch round
Chardernagore. That ditch, he was afraid, would
soon rife into a fortification.
Lord Towafhend went over the geography of Cana
da, and confirmed by several additional circumflances
and observations, the reasoning of such of their lord-
Ships as had exposed the infatuation, or wore princi
ple, of that negociator, whs had agreed to the line of
boundary that had been prefcri bed by his uninformed
or Ample mind by the depth and penetration, or ra
ther, indeed, to the common sense of the American
commissioners. He did not on the present occasion en
ter into the queflion cf the resources of this country,
or of Itenabidty to carry-on the war for any length of
time. He spoke to the folly and absurdity ofthe nego--
cihtion for peace. He severely ceufured mimfiry for
fending ont such a man as Mr. Ofwaid to negociate
with, absolutely, the shrewdest and mofl artful people
under the cope of heaven. Mr. Ofwaid, he believed^
to be a good fort of man; and wortiy of all mercan
tile confidence. But to fend an obfeure merchant, ut
terly unacquainted with great national affairs, to a&
as a negociator in a treaty carried on, under the eye of
the court of Paris, between Great Britain on the one
part, and the united Rates of America on the other;
it was indeed ffiameful. Suppose such a person, said
his lordship, as fir Guy Carleton, a gentleman ac
quainted with men and manners, and the geography
of Canada, and the different territories, lakes, and'ifles;
who is acquainted with courts, and witn the refine
ments of politics; who could survey the map both with
a citizen's and soldier's eye, suppose such an accom
plished gentleman, infiead of Mr. Richard Ofwaid, had
been sent cut to negociate with the American commif
fiouers, where would have been the harm? His lord
lhip took notice that the forts, and keys, and bars,
and bolts of Canada, were all in possession of the Ame-
A PRI L 15, i„^
INt'/ 1023.