The American gazette, or, the Constitutional journal — Salem, Mass., 1776-06-25 00:00:00, page 1

S A L E M, June 25.
The demand fortbe Gazette Extraordinary
of Wednesday hfl, fronts frying them to our
friends in the Country, therefore Jhall infers in
this Day's Paper all the material Articles Con
tained therein.
By Capt. Cook, from Canfo, in Nova-Scotia,
woe are favored with Two Halifax Papers, of the
Fourteenth and -Twenty eighth of May. Caps. Cook
inform us, That on the Seventeenth of April last, on
bis Prflage from Sandwich, he being bound to St.
Peters, a French Island, to procure Arms and Am
munition for the Uji of the Continent, was taken by
•ne of the Ministerial Pirates, and carried into Can
fc, who, after robbing bis VefJel of the greater Part
ufthe Cargo, Provisions, all bis Hands, and Forty
Dollars, tbefe kind Plunderers were Jo genteel and
polite as to give him kis Vtff again, and permitted
him to proceed on his Voyage without Men or any
Thing, efe necefor, for the Profantion thereof, which
obliged him to fell bit Vtjel and the small Remains of
the Cargo for left than half their Value. —Before the
VeffP was boarded by the Enemy, the Captain defray
ed his Letters and Papers.-Captain Cookfurther in
forms, That at the Ifand of St. John's they have
been greatly distressed for Previfens, and man, have
Suffered within a few Months bast. He also gives
the following Shocking Infance of the Scarcity of
Provisions, at St. John's, viz. That as a Boat hav
ing on board a Family, was goingfamthence to ano
ther Island, a Child of Eight Years of Age perished
with Hunger on the Parage, when the unhappy Pa
rents were obliged to eat the dead Body thereof to
preserve their ®wn mifrable Lives.—He also fays,
that at the River St. John's, the Indians are highly
incekfed againf the Miniferial Party, and are deter
mined at all Hazards to join the Americans.
HALIFA X, May zi.
Las Sunday Morning arrived the Schooner Three
Friends, Capt. Stalker, from Londqn, by
whom we have received Prints to the Nineteenth
of April, from which the following Articles are
taken, viz.
L OND O N, Match 16.
House of Lords, March 14.
CONSTITUTIONAL
Debates on the Motion for a Treaty es
Reconciliation with the American
Congress.
LORD Lyttlteton said h 4 entertained a very
high opinion of the spirited defence a no
ble Earl (Lord Hillfboroegh) had given of hit
conduct refpeding America while he was in ad
ministration, but be thought he had gone a little
too far in explanation of his letter to the colonies,
as he did not conceive that any Lord ought to be
deprived of his free agency in parliament by a
promise made by ethers in office. For his part, he
solemnly prbtefted against foregoing the claim of
•f taxation, a claiih inherent to the British parlia
ment, which neither argument er arms could re
move. He allowed that it might be inexpedient to
Carry futh a claim into exertion at this moment,
and probably it might shew the wisdom of the te
giflature to wave it lor force time, but he never
would consent entirely to abandon it. The moti
on before the House, his Lord Grip observed, was
a motion which, if carried, would degrade the dig
nity of parliament, and fink us tba molt con
temptible depth of disgrace. What ! shew to all
Europe, that with a force prepared to subdue our
rebellious colonists, who had destroyed our courts
of justice, contemned our laws, invaded the natu
al rights of mankind, aid trade war upon the
empire, we were afraid to pursue the objects for
Which the face was levied, and defeended to as
AMERICAN
V O L. I.
THE
O R,
TUESDA Y, June 25; 1776.
I^^ArPOtf^
' ^^ rail W^z '
J^^^^
infamous, a cowardly treaty ! Allowing for a mo
ment that it was prudent, that it was humane,
that it was equitable to come te a treaty, with
whom we were to treat! The Congress we all here
know to be the body of delegates Item the feverJ
provinces of America ; would any Lord appear
so insensible of his own honor as to fbnd forward
the adviser of the King id consider the Con
gress as a legal assembly ? The Ceng/cP,
whose publications breathe the molt daring spi
rit of refinance, rebellion, and treason ; whole
fyltem of government is founded on the groffelt
tyranny and despotism —-who; in the very mo
ment that they have the presumption to fay they
contend only tor liberty and freedom, are counte
nancing the most Unprecedented and indefensible
violations of both. Let the Lords who are ad
vocates for America confider the case of the New-
Y"ofk Printer, as listed by the noble Earl near
him, (Lord Sandwich) let them bring that man's
hard lot home to their own breads, and then let
them confider how property they used the equity,
humanity, and juftiee, when they urged them as
pleas for the rebels; His Lordffiip, after very
warmly contending that it would be the molt
impolitic Hep that could possibly be suggested, to
flop the vigorous exertion of our armament, gave
his hearty negative to the motion.
The Bishop of Peterborough followed Lord
Lyttleton. He declared he had attended with
great minuteness to all the arguments urged, and
although every Lord in office profeffed to wish
earnestly for an accommoda ion, yet the main
purport of what had been said by them appear
ed to be a coincidence of fentim^nt, that nothing
Short of unconditional submission would be ac
cepted, and that adminiftratioo were refolded to
push matters to the last extremity. As a ground
for so fatal a resolution, some Lords had taken
infinite pains to Shew.that independency was the
real aim of the colonists, and that therefore it was
necessary, by force of arms, to reduce them to
fabjedion, and convince-them of the Superiority
of the mother-country,—He gave full credit to
the ingenuity of the speakers who maintained this
doctrine, but he thought it incumbent upon him
to deliver it as his confeientious opinion, that the
general idea of the colonists was hot a fepafration
from this country. In times of public diftra&ion
the cry for independency might spring as one of
the hydra heads, which it was natural to expe&
would grow out of that monger, civil Tumult ;
but it was unfair to hold it up as the general ex
pression of a people so numerous as the inhabitants
of North-America. His Lordship ascribed the
present Unhappy quarrel to the fatal measures re
seeding the Stamp-Ad ; and he flattered him.
felf that were the present motion carried, all
might yet be well.
Lord Gower spoke against the motion, and
made some few remarks on the letter written by
Lord Hillfbotough in 1769, which had been re
ferred to by the Duke of Richmond ; in order to
fheiy that a speedy end to the dispute Was more
likely to be procured by ctercive measures, than
by lenitive and ill-timed moderation, his Lord
ship read a letter to the Governor of a refractory
colony, written by a member of administration in
1 77 h which threatened punishment for disobe
dience, and which immediately produced the
defirotfs eftfed.
Lord Camden rose next, and entered into a
legal difeuffion of the Capture a&, denying the
power of the Crown aft, denying the power to
any cne Commiffianer or more, to pardon a
whole b<dy of people. His Lordship begged to
know the meaning and extent of the words " well
difpofeo" in the clause of that aft, and laughed
at the terms accommodation and reconciliation as
used by the Lords in office, declaring that Shakef
peare'^ Bardolph treated the word accommodation
as fignificantly as it appeared to be treated now.
His Lord drew a pathetic pidure of the probably
fatal consequences if Commissioners were sent out
to treat with America^ or any part of it, under
the present ad of parliament, lamenting the fate
of that Commander in Chief who would venture
to aft under it, as it would certainly be at the
hazard of his neck.
Lord Mansfield was called up by Lord Cam
den's law argument. His Lordship replied full,
to it, and declared it as his opinion, that the aft
alluded to, afforded every necessary power to in#
Commissioners. His Lordship observed that ever^
propofiuon relative to the American fubjed lhud
been argued and dwelt upon in the course r - &
debate, but that propofi ion which the meuca
held forth. Much had been said relative to th&
tea ad ; there was net a word in the motion about
the ad of 1769. A g^eat deal had come from
one of the supporters of the motion about the na
vy;—there was not a word about the navy in the
motion. Another Lord talked of convicts and
vagrants ; there was no allusion to convi&s and
vagrants in the motions A third mentioned the
Marquis de Montcalm ; a fourth the East-Lidia
Company; a fifth the military arrangement of
Ireland—all matters foreign to the motion. Hit
Lordship said that he had, when he came to th#
House, no intention of fpenking in the debate,
but as he was up he would now fay a word or two,
and that should be to the motion. He declared,
there was nothing more true, than that every
thing said in Parliament was immediately wafted
to America, and converted to the purpofc of coun
teracting the measures to which it related. Oa
the prelent occasion, it had been argued, that th#
^ar with America was legislative—so was the suc
cession to the crown ; the King's title was fettled
by ad of parliament—how idle therefore to dwell
upon matters so trifling, and of so little confer
quence.—This country (continued his Lord
ship) is now at a very tremendous crisis, just com
mencing a war of a nature entirely new; a war
that must necessarily be very expensive, and the
issue of which no one can foretell. America haa
rebelled, America is in arms; not defenfively,
but offenfively ; even if we were willing to ceafa
hostilities they are not: We must therefore a&
with vigor, and we mull at least shew ourfelvea
determined to formount their opposition. Happy
would it be for us, my Lords, if any means could
be devised of Ending the quarrel without blood
ffied ; but does the present motion tend to fuels
an effed / Without attempting to save a Filling
of the enormous expence the nation has been at
in providing the present armament, it allows
that the troops shall all go, and when they ar
rive in America it ties up their hands. What
then ? Why then Commissioners are to treat with
the Congress ; they are to prepare a petition of
grievances, which the Commissioners are to bring
to England. The Congtefs will laugh in their
sleeves at our folly; they will reprint their de
claration of war under the new title of a Petition
(for that Hates what they term their grievances)
we shall lose a campaign, of which loss they will
take infinite advantage, and next soring we fhai
have the whole to begin again. This, my Lords,
I conceive will be the issue of the present motion,
were it Carried. I therefore oppose it as nuga
toiy, ill-timed; arid ineffectual.
, Lord Weymouth spoke to the assurances from
France and Spain of the pacific intentions of
those courts, which had been questioned in the
course of the debate.
JOURNAL.
GAZETTE:
N UMB. 2.
T HE