The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1782-03-16 00:00:00, page 1

" And your majesty's faithful fftbje& hro r e
been loaded with a burthen of taxes, which, even
if our victories had been as splendid as our de
feats have been difgraceful; if our acceffiou of
dominions had been as fortunate as the dismem
berment of the empire has been cruel and dis.
aftrotis, could not in itfelf be considered bur as a
great and grievous calamity,
'^ We do therefore most humbly implore your'
majesty to take all these circuniftances into, our
royal consideration, and to compare th, preient
Situation of your dominions with that uncom
mon State of prosperity to which the wisdom of
your royal ancestors, the spirit and braverv of
the British people, and the favour of Divine
Providence, which naturally attends upon prin.
aples ofjuftice and humanity, had once railed
LONDON, December i;.
The following is the Petition which was agreed
upon on Monday by the inhabitants of Well
minfter, assembled in Westminster hall.
To the KING'S most excellent Majesty.
The humbleAddrefs, Petition, and Remonstrance
of the Electors, and other Inhabitants paying
taxes to government, jefident in the city
and liberty of Weflminfter.
'' IMPRESSED with an awful sense of the dan-
JL gers which surround us, feeling for durfelves
and our posterity, anxious for the glory of a
country as much renowned for the virtues ofjuf
tice and humanity as for the splendor of its
arms, we approach yourthrone with sentiments
becoming citizens at so alarming an hour, at the
fame time with that refpeci which is due to the
monarch of a free people, and a prince of the
illustrious house of Brunlwick,to which we feel
ourlelves in a particular manner attached by all
the ties of gratitude and affection.
“ It is with inexpreilible concern that we have
heard your majesty declare, in your speech to
both houses of parliament, your intention of
persevering in a system of measures which has
proved so disastrous to this country. Such ade
claration calls for the voice of a free and injured
people. We feel the refpeft due to majesty ;
but in^this critical and awful moment, to flatter
is to betray. Your majesty's ministers have, by
falfe assertions and^allacious fuggeftipns, deluded
your majesty and the nation into the present un
natural and unfortunate war. The consequen
ces of this delusion have been, that the trade of
this country has fuffered irreparable losses, and
is threatened with final extinction.
" Your majesty's fleets have loft their wonted
fopetiority.
" Your armies have been captured.
" Your dominions have been loft.
" The manufacturers in many valuable branch
es are declining, and their supply of materials
rendered precarious, by the inferiority of your
majesty's fleets to that of the enemy "in almost
every part of the globe.
" The landed property throughout the kt#g.
dom has been depreciated in the most alarming
degree.
" The property of your Inajefty's fubjeftS
veiled in the public funds, has loft above one
third of its value.
" Private credit has been almost wholly an
nihilated by the enormous interest given in the
public loans, superior to that which is allowed
by law in any private contrast. Such of our
brethren in America as were deluded by the pro
mises of your majesty's minivers, and the pro
clamation of your generals, have been funendur
ed by your majesty's armies to the mercy of their
enemies.
By the Antonie, Captain ANGUS, in
32 Days from I'Orient, we have the fol
lowing ADVICES, extracted from Eu
ropean Papers.
SATURDAY,
VOL. XI.I P UBLISHED EVERY 1 tESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY -Price Six-Pince.
^^^^^^ll
GENERAL ADVERTISER.
'' We wifli to declare to your majesty, to Eu
rope, to America itfelf, our abhorrence of the
continuation of this unnatural and unfortunate
war, which can tend to no other purpose than
that of alienating and rendering irrecoverable
the confidence of our American brethren, with
whim we still hope to live upon the terms of
intercourse and friendfhip, so necessary to the
commercial prosperity of this kingdom. We do
therefore further humbly implore your majesty,
that your majesty will be gracioully pleafcd to
dismiss from your presence and councils, all the
advisers, botli public and Secret, of the measures
we lament, asa pledge to the world of your ma
jesty's fixed determination, to abandon a System
incompatible with the interest of your ciown,
and the happiness of your people."
[The above petition is an exact copy verbatim
of the address, &c. agreed to by the livery of
London at the common hall on Thursday last.
Ihe lord mayor, aidermen and livery ordered
the Sheriff's to wait on his majesty, to know
when he would receive it; when his majesty
was pleased to lay, " I Ihall take time to confi
" der of the manner in which I (ball receive it,
"and the time when, and will let you know."
The nth December lord Hertford informed the
Sheriffs, that his majesty would receive the Ad
dress, &c. at the levee, on the 14th; but as the
fheriffs were ordered to present it to his majesty
fitting on his throne, and in no other mode,
the Address was not presented at all.]
Lord North had no object on to theday aligned
and it was accordingly fettled that the motion fornid
bethen entered upon.
The house being now full, fir James Lowther enqui
red of the gentlemen on the traafury bench, whether it
was resolved by administration, that the motion on the
sup dies for the army should be madeto-d<y 2 . ,
, He was answered, fetch was tne intention: but th t
notice haying been given of a previous motion, it had
been confrquently deferred. Upon receiving tins
formation, fir James fiid that the mot on of whkh the
house naj Leeu apprized, he now rose to give them
Sir James said, the king's speech had fuihed of the
prolecution of the war, in a manner that h&d alarmed
the whole country ; that notwi; branding me endea
vours of ministers to explain away the words of the
speech, and of the address, which that house h*d agreed
to present to the throne upon it, it was univerfaU, wb,
HOUSE of COMMONS, Wednesday December id
MR. Powys observing the house to be very thin
about four o'clock, apprized it of a motion of
the ftrtt magnitude to tins country, which wa>
intended to be made w, en tuere ffiouid be a fuller an
penance, previous to celling for the order ofthe daw.
Lord Mahon fotoe time afterwards arose to intimate
to the home, that he defined, at the mofi convenient
season to them, to move for an enquiry into the Bate of
the gold and silver coinage, as also the exportation
and importation of gold and friver bullion. He (aid it
was a matter of va lt moment to the country ; however,
h^ did not with to hurry gentlemen in office intomy
precipitation and would mer tore be glad to krio&
if the firft day of February next (being the day after
the propoled call of the house) would be convenient to
them.
" We do beseech your majesty no longer to
Continue in a delusion from which the nation
has awakened; and that yotir majesty will be.
gracioully pleated to relinquish entirely and for
ever the plan of reducing our brethren in Ame
rica to obedience by force; a plan which the
fatal experience of palled losses has convinced
us, cannot be prosecuted without manifest and
imminent danger to all your majesty's remain
ing pofleffions in the western world.
[Mr. Rivington in, what he calls, his Royal Ga
zifte, of March 9, bis given some account of the
Debates in the British house of commons, on two Mo
tions of fir James Lowther, rTpefting the American
war; but as his account.is touch abridged and very
incorrect, we Ihall present out Reader^with the whole
Proceedings of that day, from the Whitehall Eve
hirG Post, of December 13, 1781.]
this happy country, the pride and envy of all
the civilized world !
O R, T HE
THE
" ad. That this house is of opinion, that all further
" efforts to subdue the Americans to obedience by
“ force, will be ineffectual, and injurious to the inter
“ efts of Gteat-Britam, by tending to weaken our en
“ deavours to refill our ancient and natural enemies."
Mr. Powys, in one of the ablest Creeches ne ever
made in parii ment, fupporrd flr James Lowther,
and seconded the motions Mr. Powy 3 ffiorriy and
pointedly reviewed the difaftefrs of the war, comparing
each event with the language of miniflers from time
to litre, and asking, whether our continuing the w r
with America had served to protect our Wefi-Fndia
Hlanda fr<M the fuccefsful attacks of our'ancem ioes ?
After dwelling for some time on this fu bjed, he pr fair
edthe Aoufe with the portrait of a declining empire
from the celebrated work of Mr. Gibbon, and Shew
ed the analogy between the declension of Rome and the
vifibit dtclenfion of Great-Britain, in a ft r in of most
fucce&fui irony. He afterwards quoted another passage
from the fame author, in which the emperor Honorius
is flatei to have held most haughty language in the
hour of his greatest difirefs, and to have resolved on
purging eternal and implacable war, whn from tie
slate of his resources, and the difopderly rebellion of the
province,be w^almoft ^capable of continuing any fort
of w^r was ever. Mr. Powys ascribed the long pro
fecutmn of the American war fotely to the obfiinacy
of minifies, and their anxiety to hold their fixations
He paid toe majority some compliments, declaring he
knew they were not the corrupt and venal slaves of the
mmifler, which some gentlemen had rt presented them'
but th^ there were among them, men who hid nei
ther office nor emolument from adminifiration men
who were perfectly honest, difintetefled, and indepen
dent, and whose support of the measures of govern
ment was founded ^ po n the 1 purer principles !He
called upon those gentlemen to step forward at that mo
ment and save them country, for (he declared) on the
event of that day depended, not only the crisis of the
session, but @ crisis of the British empire the fate of
wi ich was within a Angle vote of perdition !
, Lord North said, he rafe thus early, not witha view
to prevent the house from hearing what sentiments
other g ntlemen might feel refpeding the fubfra thert
under consideration, but bvtaufe tee motions invoh d
ib? them a quafhon of the firft magnitude and import
anye, cow dering the present furious and critical fitu
at^n of the affairs of the kingdom: up left, than the
quehion whether the American war ffiould be abandon
ed or not? he had therefore presented I imfelf to the
fpraker's eye at that moment, from an idea hat tie
house would expea to neat wnat 1 e had to fay upon
the lubirft, and me sooner the bet,er, as they would
th/ n be able to judge fob themfaves, m what maun /
it w s most wife apriexpedient to dis, of e di ti e motion
that had been moved by me honourable baro.nt mi
Bonded by the horiohraTe gentleman who had ; ud
latdown. He meant to feak to both m m.^ at 0 ' ce
as .the ' e f°°Q va , a Gonftquence drawn from the pre-'
mfr ^birthed by the firft ; and Therefore re cm
nr.tioi iwas so inbparable that he preLmed geutb
men monoid it perffy: air for him to take both'
into cenfiderauos at the sane time. IVit^ regard to
tre motions th-mielw,, he could hot but acknowledge
they were fair, moderate, free from p.ffon, net fem -
edoh personal refemme t, and therefore, as far th%
file of them was in querijoo, perfectly unfeption^
H °* CT f t'' h : y — ^ how far ^ey ^e ne.
Canary rt -nd how far it was either prudent, or polite
for the house to accede to them at that were
very different confrierwion. The honourable X nth
man who seconded them, h^d treated arguments tngf
been used by him. Mother gemifr % on
out occasions Of difeuffon during the war, with 3 /'rone
-defreof ridicule arid no small share of Contempt. The
# honourable ge^fon had tendeavotired to laugh J
the teto th e^mfw getting informs 01 a
" tfl. That it is the opinion of this house, that all
" our efforts to reduce America to obedience by force,
have been [ineffectual, an 1 have only tended to weak
" en this country, and exhaust its refcurces, 'while
“ they have served to ftrem then the hands of our an
“ cient and natural en mies :' 'And
derftood that the address had pledged the house to the
prosecution of the American war ; therefore on thatac^
count, a# well as from a consideration of the melancho
ly state of our affairs, in consequence of the various
calamities of the war, and especially the late dreadful
drafter that had befallen lord Cornwallis in the Che
fapeak, he thought it highly incumbent on that house,
previous to their voting the army, to come to some
solemn refutation, in order to mirk and define their
idea ofthe American war, and to convince their con
fiituents, that they were awake to the real state of the
Ctuntry, and anxious to do their duty in a manner
becoming the representatives of a great and free people.
Sir James concluded with reading two motions to the
following effed:
MARC H 16, 17^2.
[NUMB 859