The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1782-03-02 00:00:00, page 2

From the Royal Gazettes, printed at New
-1 ork the 20th and 23d of February.
Debates in the House of Lords on bis Majefly's
Spe ch.
,J CRD SOUTHAMPTON lamented the kfs wehad
' lately' fuftaiped in the capture of lord C^ftwallis
and his army, and complimented that noble and gallant
commander in terms of warm panegyric, as well for
his general bravery, spirit and good conduct, as for
his haytag fu?ren4ertd on capitulation, in a moment of
great 'exigency, and thereby prevented his army from
becoming a faerifice to the sword, which mus shave been
the inevitable consequence of Dis landing out longer a
,gainfl a force every way so much lbs superior in point
of numbers and advantage, as to fituatioi, artillery,
&c. After descanting for some short time on this me
lancholy circumflance, he took occasion to observe,
,that it ought not to make too deep an impression on
the minds of their lordfllips, because that their exam
p'e would naturally be looked up to by the rest of the
y kingdom, and the moment of calamity, and the pressure
of misfortune, was by no means the moment for a great
peop'e to give way to despondency. His lordship then
• called the attention of the house to the preCent Rate of
our affairs in India, and argued that if our arms had
been less fuccefsful in America, than the justice of our
cause was entitled to, it was some convolution to find
that the cau'e was different in another quarter of the
globe. His lordship summed up his speech by earnestly
exhorting the house to recoiled that the eyes of all the
world were turned upon their Lordships, and that it de
pended on the proceedings of tnat day, to fliew man
tf kind in general, that the people of England would not
tamely submit to the dismemberment of their empire,
but like their prince, poffefling true magnanimity of
mind, derived frefh ardour from affliHion, and that in
creafeof danger and difficulty only addec to the energy
of their exertions. His lordship concluded with mov
ing an address to the king, which he read to the house.
Lord Walfingham in a very elegant speech seconded
the motion, and added frefh arguments to prove the
impolicy of relinquishing the pursuit of the American
war. He stated the fatal consequences that would un
avoidably follow such a meafurc, exclusive of extreme
imprudence of adopting it in a moment when we had
fhftained so great a calamity as the loss of 6000 gallant
troops and their noble commander, whole zeal and acti
vity exemplified in a variety of striking instances, made
both the capture of him and his veteran troops, a
matter of deep regret and unfeigned sorrow. To re
solve just now to abandon the war, would not only be
clearly owing to all Europe (what he hoped this coun
try would never find its felf either willing or obliged
to avow, ) that she was unequal to the preservation of
her dearest and most essential rights, but by giving up
your trans Atlantic market, the beftof all we had to
ref rt to; giving up our fifheries, which were not
merely important as an objed of commerce, but on a
variety of other material and weighty considerations,
and giving up to our natural enemies a country which
abounded in naval stores of every description. Having
dwelt for some little time on these events, which it
must be obvious to every reflecting mind, would be the
result of our relinquishing the pursuit of the war, his
lordship warmly pressed the house to fliew itfelf unani
mous in their resolutions to assist his majesty ; and
further as their lordships could, the royal determina
tion to pursue the war with unabated vigour and re
newed exertion. His lordship before he fat-down, took
a view of the alarming state in which our territorial
acquisitions were but last year, and contrasted it with
the most pleasing accounts that had lately arrived.
He shewed that by the flrange negleH of the persons
in power in India, Hyder Alley had been fuffered to
march his army to the gates of Conjaverom, but
that such had been the exertions of fir Eyre Coote,
that he had been obliged to retire and abandon his
conquests with as much precipitation as he had advan
ced. His lordship spoke also of the flourifhing Rate of
the province of Bengal, and added some frefh argu
ments on the heceffity of continuing the war with ani
mation and energy, and concluded with declaring the
address, as moved by the noble lord, had his hearty
assent.
Lord Shelburne opposed the address, and moved the
amendment which was inserted in this paper last Wed
nesday. His lordship was followed by his grace of
Richmond, who wished to change the fyflem of the war,
to carry it on defenfively, not offenfively. The great
error was, we had afled on the offenfive, without the
power to do so with any effect; by changing it to a
defenfive war we might recover, and bye and bye be
able to aft on the otfenfive ; and his grace begged the
house to understand that by a defenfive war, he meant
to advise a war by sea, to strengthen our navy, the
national security of the kingdom, and to lessen the ar
my. He declared that it was the middle of a war, he
made no scruple to recommend it most firenuoufly to
government immediately to let about diminishing the
army, and that as much as possible. There was the
greatest probability, that a reconciliation might in
time be-effefted with the colonies if the Americans were
left to themselves, and that they would bye and bye sue
torus and solicit our protection of them from the opref
fions of the French, their present unnatural allies. His
grace added, that if the motion was unfuccefsful, he
mould not tire the house with the farce of debate this
sessions, and concluded with moving, that, the second
paragraph of the address as original y moved, be omit
tel, and that if (land only the firft paragraph, and
then the earl of Shelburne's amendment.
Mr. COURTENAY'S Speech in the House of Commons.
Mr. Courtenay said, no man could be more affefted
by what fell from the honourable gentleman (Mr. Pitt,)
than he was. His splendid diction, his manly elocuti
on, his brilliant periods, his pointed logic, conveyed
in a torrent of rapid and impressed eloquence ; brought
flrongly to his recollection, that great and able flatef
man,whofe memory every grateful and generous Briton
reveres. The honourable gentleman flood high by his
own superior abilities, yet flill the memory of that
great man threw a ray of glory round him. Mr.
Captain , run a brig ashore in the Chefapeak,
but could not get her off ; however he made fhift to ob
tain 10 or 12 hogsheads of her Tobacco, amidst a hot
fire of cannon and small arms.
A fleet of io fail of ships are to leave Baltimore about
this time for Europeahd the. Weft-Indies ; and another
large fleet are to leave York-River about 6 weeks hence ;
ni a /J WO French frigates had failed from Virginia for
Old France about 14 days ago; and that all the French
NEW.Y ORK, February ,8.
The privateer schooner Shark, captain , return
ed from a cruize last Thursday night: fix days ago he
took the schooner Polly, captain Addison, from Potow
mack, for St. Croix, with 50 hogsheads of Tobacco,
and ordered her for this port, but she is not yet arriv
ed.
Courtenay said he would only trespass on the indulg
ence of the house fora few minutes, as on such a great
and important question he did not choose to give a si
lent vote. At this difartrous and calamitous moment,
the house of commons were called upon by the proposed
address, to support the just and necessary war in which
we were engaged, against the united force of France and
Spain, and againftAmerica as their ally, ft was a
war of necessity, of cruel and dire neceflity, on which
principle alone he would attempt to juftify it.
Mr. Courtenay observed that much had been said on
the American war; he was ever ready to avow his
sentiments on that fubjed; he had always thought it
neither wife, politic, or expedient ; on every occasion,
when that war had become the fubjefl of conversation,
he had very freely, perhaps sometimes indiscreetly, de
clared his opinion, infignificant as it was ; yet bill the
sentiments of the meanest individual, in a free country,
on a great, intereffing, constitutional question, were
of some conftquenee. On the firft day he had the ho
nour of (peaking in that house, he h:d expressed the
fame sentiments, to which he should always adhere.
He had voted for the address on the explanation of the
ministers who had got up in their places, and had ex
plicitly declared, that the house was not pledged, or
meant to be drawn in by the words of that address,
(which,to some gentlemen seemed so very exception,
able) to carry on tne war, for the express purpose of
subjugating America, but on general terms to carry
on that just and necessary war in which we were engag
ed, in the most effectual manner, for the fafety and ho
nour of Great-Britain, and the proteaion of his ma
jefly's dominions.
Mr. Courtenay fail, he did not like the voice of de
spondence : that he traded there was an elasticity in
a British mind, which would always rife in proportion
to the pressure of calamities ; but that he was furpriz
ed and mortifyed to hear a noble lord of the admiralty
assert, as an apology for the,acknowledged inferiority
of the British fleet at thi; awful moment, that France,
from her great resources, was enabled to have a supe
rior fleet ; that in the reigns of king William and queen
Anne, she had one ; if there was truth in this voice, it
founded the funeral kmell of Britain, and might well
appall the ears of the people, but Mr. Courtenay
added, he was happy to find that the assertion was not
founded; it was contradicted by historical faffs; and
the noble lord who made it seemed to have forgot the
glorious annals of his profeffion ; he seemed to have
forgot the aHion of La Hogue, where the marine of
France received a blow, from which it never recover
ed. He seemed to have forgot that memorable action
where British valor was so very conspicuous, that king
James, in the exultation of his heart, forgetting his
own situation, and that every hope was blafied with
the dt flruftion of that fret, destined to restore him to
his throne; forgetting every thing for one moment,
bit that he was an Englishman, (the only moment of
his life which merits an eulogium) burst out into this
,generous exclamation, on feeing the seamen in swarms
scram ling up the high sides of the French ships from
their boats, “ Ah, none but my brave English could
“ do so brave an aHion." The noble lord, when he
made the affection, must have forgot the a&ion of Ma
laga, when fir Cloudefley Shovell defeated the French
fleet, though superior to him in number of guns and
men, as well as in weight of metal. The noble lord
niuft have forgot the conjunct expeditions which were
carried on inihofe reigns, the reduction of Barcelona
and Gibraltar, which could not have been effected with
out maintaining that superiority at sea on which the
very existence of this country depends. The ruin of
the colonies and commerce of France, the deftrudion
of her marine, the absolute annihilation of her naval
power at the conclusion of every war, in which she has
been engaged with this country since the revolution,
are the mortifying topics on which her most eminent
political writers have displayed the^r talents and inge
nuity. While the naval superiority of Britain (from
her insular situation) has been ever pathetically la
mented by French patriots, as the fatal check to their
ambition and glory. Let not then, the glorious reign
of king William, the triumphant reign of queen Anne,
be quoted as a precedent to apologize for the present
inferiority of the British navy. Let not the memory
of whig ministers fuffer by such an injurious suppositi
on ! It would be presumptuous in him, Mr. Courtenay
said, to point out any reafon'for the present avowed
and difgraceful inferiority of the British fleet ; he will
only fay it could not be juftified by precedents, drawn
from the glorious reign of king William and the tri
umphant reign ofqqeen Anne.
Mr. Courtenay concluded by faying, that no men
could lament more than he did, the late drfaftrous event
in Virginia; he liflened with indignation to invidious
comparisons on theevent. Lord Cornwallis had fallen,
Dot ignobly, by the united arms of France and Ameri
ca ;he had not fallen in the pride of pre-emption,by 'the
hue and cry of the peasantry, by the pone comitatus
of the country ; he had fallen admired and refpe&ed
by the enemy, and his chains were wreathed wi^yy
rels: may he then live to receive the reward of his ▼a
lor from the hands of his difeernihg sovereign! He is an
honour to his profeffion, and will add alu ftre to the
highest honor that can be conferred on him; and the
sacred and applauding voice of the people willfanftify
their sovereign's choice.
Major Coffin with 70 British cavalry, routed 400 re
bels, under colonel Richardson, at Smith's plantation,
of whom 57 were killed and 20 taken ; out loss was cap
tain Archibald Campbe I 71st, killed, and captain Al
exander Campbell and a dragoon wounded ; among
the rebels was a number who had submitted to govern
ment and afterwards revolted. A great many prizes
are carried into New Providence, where near 4000 bar
rels of Philadelphia, &c. flower, had been in a short
time landed. It is (rid that Mr. John Mathews is
elected by the rebel assembly to be governor, and Mr.
Richard Hudson lieutenant governor of South- Caroli
na ; and Mr. Greene appointed a lieutenant general in
the French service, and had difearded the Congress uni
form.
The French ship, bound to Mauritius, prize to the
Jupiter, mentioned to be arrived at Jamaica, brought
accounts of the five Dutch Eart India ships, prizes to
Commodore Johnftone, having proceeded on their voyage
with the transports under convoy of the Hero of 74, and
cavalry that were at York-Town, had lately taken
their route for Charleftown South-Carolina.
We are informed that the merchants of Philadelphia
have contrived to get about eight thousand pounds
worth of English manufaQured goods from the island
of St. Thomas,;how this will accord with the late pro
scriptions (at the instance of their ally) against such
fuppli s being introduced to the continent, a little time
will decide.
Sir George Rodney has hoisted his flag on board the
Conqueror, of 74 guns, and is appointed to succeed the
late lord Hawke, as vice admiral of England, he is
supposed to have failed for the Weft Indies with a pow
erful squadron about the firft of January.
Feb. 20. On Monday arrived at the Hook the ship Wil
liam and James, captain Hafleden, in eleven weeks from
Liverpool.
On Sunday last a vessel with a flag of truce, arrived
here from Chefapeak-bay, and on Monday another
from the fame place ; by them we learn, that a French
frigate of twenty-fix guns, named la Diligente, com
manded by the Chevalier Clonard, run ashore eleven
days ago two miles to the Southward of Cape Henry -
the vessel was entirely loft, and about twenty of her
crew drowned. The officers of the frigate imputing the
accident to the ma'ice or inattention of the pilot (wh®
a&ed in that station on board his majefly's ship Iris
when file was taken by the French fleet in Chefapeak
last September, and was forced to take charge of la
Diligente much contrary to his inclination) threw the
unfortunate man overboard, and he perished along-fide
of the wreck.
Feb. 23. On Thursday arrived his majefly's ship
Savage, in fifteen days from Charleftown, South-Caro
lina; by her we learn, that the king's troops in that
province are very healthy, amply supplied with pro
visions, and by no means difeoncerted at the return of
the.-ebel general Greene. By the latest accounts re
ceived at Charleftown from Savannah and St. Augus
tine, the troops and inhabitants of those places are in a
similar situation. Mr. Greene's army keep at a refyed
ful distance from the British ports. The fortifications
about Charleftown are so truly formidable, that who
ever presumes to attack them, will pay dear for their
temerity. The Savage on her passage captured and
brought in here, a rebel hoop from North-Carolina,
bound for Rhode-Ifland, with a cargo of indigo, fpi
ritspf turpentine, pitch, tar. &c.
Last Sunday a flag of truce from St. John's Antigua,
with a number of rebel prisoners, bound for Philadel
phia, was spoke with by his majefly's (loop off war
Savage, commanded by lieutenant Crawley. The mas
ter of the flag related, that some French troops having
landed on the island of St. Chronopher, the British
retired to Brimftone-Hjll ; the French fleet confining
of twenty-four fail, landing off and on that island;
and that fir Samuel Hood, with a fleet of twenty-two
fail of the line, and amongst them some three deck'd!
ships, had failed for the relief of theifland; the intel
ligence of which, had occasioned some anxiety to the
French Admiral for the return of the troops on board
his fleet, apprehensive he myft be brought (unwillingly)
to an engagement, orabandon them to their fate on t e
island, as fir Samuel Hood was determined on an action
if the enemy should not quit his station.
— —Another report fays, that admiral
Hood had arrived to the relief of St. Christopher's, in
terposed the British fleet under his command, between
that island and the French squadron, the latter having
hitherto declined battle.
Yesterday arrived an armed ship le Perfeverence,
laden with sugars, coffee and Cotton, prize to his ma
jesty's ships Garland, Amphion and Centurion, bound
from Cape Francois to Old France, she being one of
an hundred and fifty fail, under convoy of fix fail of
the line, which left Cape Francois the 13th of January.
Part of her cargo, it is said, confifis of 200,000 pounds
of coffee, 2GO hogsheads of sugar, cottoh, &c. &c. A
very handsome capture.
Brigadier general Meadows is appointed a major
general in the Bast-Indies.
From the South-Carolina -Gazette, arrived here on
Thursday, by the Savage, we have collected the fol
lowing particulars.
Same day was brought to Sandy-Hook, a small ship
formerly purchased here by messieurs Hodgzird and
Graham, and called the Chatham, with 116 hogs
heads of Tobacco; also a brigantine with 105 hogs
heads of the fame article, both taken off the Chrfepeak
by his majefly's ship Amphitrite, captain Biggs, who
was in the late severe weather blown out of the Hook,
and, from that event, fortunately pounced upon these
re :el traders*
We are told that colonel Moncrieff, in a late view of
the works at Savannah, has made considerable improv
ments ; so, that since the garrison has been reinforced
with about a thousand additional troops, nothing is
apprehended from the menaces of Mr. Greene.
On Thursday arrived a brigantine, laden with fait,prize
to the Orpheas frigate, captain Colpoys, who lately
ran on (Lore a brigantine of 14 guns, and a sloop, both
supposed from the Weft-Indies; he likewise took a
North-Carolina sloop, which (after securing the na
val stores) was burnt.