The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1779-12-14 00:00:00, page 1

To the Author of the Mlßfto a.
"S ir,
« MOST of your predecessors have favoured the pub
lic with (peculations on travelling ; and they have been at
pains t® point out the abuses of it that from time' to time
have prevailed among u,. In the Spectator, the absurdity of
afovi mother and the mother's own-son going together to
mate the fouref Europe, in order to learn men and things',
is exposed in a very masterly manner. If I ha've nothin
mihoformed, that admirable essay is the prod#a:ioh of a
yourg man, who afterwards, by his great talent's anl emi
nent virtues, added dignity to the higifeft office in th 6 law
of England, with he filled many years which the approba
tion of all good meh.
" In the World, the felly, of fending an ignorant boo
by to travel, who looked with contempt' on the French
and Italians, because they did not speak Ehglifli. is held
dp to ridicule in a vein of wit, and with an elegance of
expreflion, that mark the compofitibn^ of the Earl of
Chefterfield.
" A correfindent in yoor own paper -has I pointed out
the fatal eff^s of a practice, unknown till within these
few years, of fending boys to foreign schools, or acade
mies, where, according to his account of die matter, they
tern nothing but vice and folly.
" Although travelling bar proved equally fatal to me,
ray case is very different from spy of those ab6've mention
ed; I ffiaU, therefore, take the liberty to-give' an account
of myfelf, from which you and your readers will be beff
able to judge. Whether making What ^called the grand
tour, be an advif Joie thing for perfwnsin my cireumflances
and fitnation.
" I am the only son of a gentleman of fortune and fa
mily. My father who was himtelf a man of letters, will
ed to give me a liberal education, and was desirous to unite
the soldiery of the aotient system- with that case and grace
which, of late, have been cultivated so much, and which,
by some, have been thought rhe most affential of all ac
quirements, S n after my 20th year, my father died,
leaving me possessed of a family-eflate of loocl. a year, and
(I hope I may fay it without vanity) with as great a fliare
of knowledge as any cf my contemporaries could boast of.
The tour of Europe we 6 the only thirty wanting to com
plete my education. Intimately acquainted With the cele
brated chsraßers of antiquity, and an enthusiastic admirer,
of their virtues, I longed to visit Italy, to fee the spot
where scipio triumphed, where Cesar fell, where Cicero
harrahgued^ Full of these ideas, I set out on my travels,
and after puffing feme time in France, I proceeded ta
Rome. For the firft while, antiquity was ray great ob
ject, and every remain of Roman greatness attracted my
attention. Afterwards music, of which I Iliad always been
a lover, and painting, for which I acquired a tafie in Ita
ly, occupied much of my time But, whilst I indulged
in these favourite pursuits, J did not neglect any opportu
nity of mingling in society with the natives, and of observ
ing tfieir manners and cufioras. I lived ton on the most
intimate footing with the British at the different courts I
vifite6; and I doubted not that the friendfllips I then
formed with men of the firft diftinaion in my own coun
try, would be as laftiog as they appeared to be warm and
sincere. If the pleasures in^which we indulged and which,
by degrees, came to occupy alrrioft the whole of my time,
Sometimes bordered on the licentious; they were at least
attended with an elegance which, in some measure, dis
guised the deformity of vice.
'' Various reasons, which it is needless now to mention,
at length constrained meto return home. As I approach
ed my feat in the county of—, I felt a tender fatisfaaion at
the thought of re-visiting those feenes where I ha^ spent so
man, happy days in the " early morn of life," and of
feeing again the companions ofmy youthful (ports, many
of whom I knew had fettled in the country, and lived on
their estates in my neighbourhood. My arrival was no
sooner known than they flocked to welcome me home.
The friends ofmy father, and their sons my old compa
nions, were equally sincere and warm in their compli
ments, but, though I was pleased with their attachment,
From the LONDON CHRONICLE.
THE MIR R O R.
[A periodical Paper, now publishing at Edinburgh.]
NO thinking man will deny, that travelling into
foreign countries is, in certain fixations, attend
ed with many and great advantages. It polishes
the manners of the courtier, enlarges the views of the
fiatefmen, and furnishes the Philosopher with a more ex
teafive field of observation, and enables him to form more
certain can&ltfons with regard to the nature and character
of.man. At the ftrne time, I have often been disposed to
doub, how far it is an eligible thing for a private gentle
man, without talents and inclinations for public life, t@
(pend ronch of his time abroad, toacquire a relilh for fo
reign manners, and a taste for the Society of a set of men,
with whom neither his station nor his fortune entitle him
to associate in the after-part of his life. The following
letter on this fubjed, will I hope be acceptable to my rea
ders.
OW^^s^%
>Mb^ fr ^^^
G E NERAL
TUESDAY,
OR
[ Published every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. J
I could not help being diftufted with the blunt plainness of
their manners. Their ccnvernation usually turned on sub
jects that I could not possibly enter into. The old got
into keen political debate, or dissertations on farming,
and the young talked over their last fox-chace, or ricited
the particulars of tneir last debauch. If I attempted to
give the conversation a different turn,.they remained silent
and were altogether incapable to talk of those fubjeds on
which I bad been accuflomed to think and to speak. If I
mentioned the Gabrielli, or the Mingotti, they were ?.s
much at a loss as I was when they joined in praising the
notes of Jund, or of Jowler; if the proportions of the Ve
nus of Medicis were talked of, ,n@ would perhaps ask,
what a dead beauty was good for ? another would (wear,
tnat, in his mind, Polly—was a better made girl than any
heathen gaddefs, dead or alive
" By degrees my neighbours gave me up altogether.
They complained ' that I was a ft range fellow, that hated
company, and had no notion of life. I confess I was ra
tner pleased with their neglea, and in my own mind pre
f#r€d.folitude to such society. But solitude at length be
came :fkfome, and I longed again to mingle in society.
With that view, I vent to the races in Edinburgh, where
I was told I fkould meet with 'all the polite people of this
'he night I arrived I was accompanied to the
aff.ni dy by a female relation, abnoft the only acquain
'a,°'°.'°"n* Ify@u, Mr. Mirror, be a freq,e>ter
of Ruolic.places, T need not tell you how nwb Iw¥ ftruclc
cn entering the room. Dark, dirty, mean, offenfive toeve-
V ^^it seemed to resemble a large barn, rather than a
^Qo'^ allotted for the reception of polite company, I had
nd sooner entered, than I was hurried along by the croud
to tue farther end of the hall, where the firft thing that
caught my eye was an old lady, who, it seems, presided
for the bight, arid was at that instant employed in diftribu
""^. tickets, te ^certain the order in which the ladies
were to dance. She'was surrounded by a clufler of per
sons of bothfexes, all of whom fooke at the fame time,
and some of them, as I thought, with a voice and geflure
father sough and vehement.
This .important part of the ceremonial being at length
adjusted, the dancing beg^n. My conduftrefs asked me,
if I did not think the ladies, in general, handsome? I told
her (and that without any compliment) that I thought
them more than commonly beautiful; ' but me thinks,'
a'd'ded I, ' the gentlemen are not, either in dress or ap
pearance, such as I should have expected,' 'O,' replied the,
• have a little patience, the met: of fashion are net yet come
in; this being the firfl day of the races, they are dining
with the Rewards.' I had not time to make any observa
tion oh the propriety of allowing ladies to go unattended
to a public place, to wait there for hours in expectation
of the gentlemen with whom they were to dance; for, at
that instant, a loud noise at the lower end of the hall at
tracted my notice. “ There they come," faidihe; and I
soon perceived a number of young ge rflemen staggering pp
the room, all of them fluttered, feme of them perfectly in
toxicated. Their behaviour (I forbear to mention the par
ticulars) was such as might be expected.
" In a few days I was quite fatisfied with the amuse
ments of Ediribufgh, and with pleasure retired once more
to my solitude at—. There, however, I again fell a fa
crifice to ennui : I could contrive no way to fill up my
time. After passing two or three tedious years, I resol
ved to make one effort more, and set out for London, in
hopes of meeting those friends with whom I had lived so
happily abroad, and in whefe society I now expected to
receive pleasure without allay.
" Upon inquiry, I fo&nd that almost all my friends
were in town, and next morning failled forth to wait upon
them. But no where could I gain admmittance. It did not
cccer to me, that those doors, which, at Rome or Naples,
flew upon my approch, could, at London, be ihut against
me. I therefore concluded I had called at an improper
time, and that the hoofes of London (with which I was
but little acquainted) differed from those we had been ac
cuftorned to abroad.
" In that belief, I went to the opera in the evening. I
had not been there long, before I.ord happened
to comeinto the very box where I was. With Lord
I had lived in habits of the most intimate friendship, and,
in a less public place I would have embraced him with
open arms. Judge, then, of my,a ftonjfhment, when he
received 'my compliments with the colduefs of the most
perfect indifference It is needless to run through the
mortifying detail. From all my friends^ met with much
the fame reception. One talked of the business of Parlia
ment, another of his engagements at the Sc^oir ^ivre,
or the Coterie. The Duke of —, who then filled
one of the greatest offices of date, alone seemed to retain
his former sentiments. One day he tock me into his clo
set, and, after force general conversation, solicited my in
terest in the county of — , for Mr. . I
tol4 him, that my engagements to the other candidate
were such, that I could not possibly comply with his re
quest. He seemed perfectly fatisfied, and we parted on
the best terms; but, from that day forth, his Grace ne
ver happened to be at home when I did myfelf the honor
of calling on him.
^^^^^^
1 —— —
ICT^rafr
^^^^^^^
THE
@6^^" (..M^ cAg
ADVERTISER
DECEMBER 14, 1779.
" Chagrined and mortified, I returned to Scotland.
When I had got within 150 miles of my own house I
observed, from ,he road, a gentleman's feat, the beauty
and elegance of which struck me so much that I flopped
the carriage, and asked the post-boy to whom it belonged?
' To Mr. Manly,' laid he. What, Charles Manly ? Be
fore I could receive an anfw.er, my friend appeared in a
held at a little distance. Manly and I had been educated
at the fame fcbool, at the fame university, and had set out
together to make the tour of Europe. But after we had
been (ome time in France, he was called home, by account#
that his father lay dangerously ill. From that time, a
variety of accidents hadp vented our meeting. We now
met as if we had parted but yesterday. The fame freedom,
warmth, the fame glow of friendlhip, heighten
ed! f pc ffible by our long Separation.
''During my flay at his house, I told him all my dis.
tresses, all my difoppointments. When I had done "T®
be plain with you, my friend," said he, “ I cannot help
thinking that most of your disappointments must be im
puted to yourfelf. Your long residence abroad, and your
attachment to foreign manners has led you to judge ra
ther hastily of your countrymen. Had you been less raffi,
you might have difeovered virtues in your neighbours that
would in some measure, have made up for the want of
that high polish and refinement which they cannot be ex
peded to possess. From what you (aw at Edinburgh in
the hurry of a race week, and from the behaviour of a
set ol men, who think that fafhionable diftinftion con
sists in indulgence in low pleasures and gross amusements,
you have drawn conclusions equally unfavourable and un
just. I know, from experience, that no where are to be
found men of more agreeable conversation, or women
more amiable and refpedable. Your late disap
pointment, in the reception you met with from your fo
reign friends, proceeds from a mistake not uncommon,
from confounding that companionship, s o apt to produce
a temporary union among young men, then engaged in
the fame pleasures and amufemeats, with real friendship,
which seldom or never has been found to subsist between
men differing much in rank and condition, and whose
views and objects in life do not in some measure coin
cide."
" lam now, Mr. Mirror, fully convinced of the
truth of Manly's.obfervations; and am every day more
and more fatisfied, that it is a misfortune for a private gen
tleman, who means to pass his days in his native country,
to become atiatched to foreign manners and foreign cuf
tems, in so confiderablea degree, as along residence a
broad in the earlier period of life, seldom fails to pro
duce."
WANTE D,
Loan-office certificates of
an early date. Those who have such for file may
hear of a purcbafer by applying to the Printer.
TUTORS WANTED-
In the several SCHOOLS of the UNIVERSITY
in PHILADELPHIA.
TUTORS qualified to teach the Latin Language;
English, Writing, Arithmetic and the Mathema
tics, are wanted at the Univeifity in Philadelphia. -
Such perfens as ihali think proper to offer th^ir service
in this Seminary of Learning, which it is intended fhfll
be put on the^moft referable footing, are desired to
apply to the Rev. D &or EWING, the Rev." Mr.
W HITE, and the Rev. Mr. WEIBERG, a Com
mittee appointed by the Trufteea for,this purpefe.
AM AN capable of taking care of a few
Horfea, may hear of an advantageous place by ap
pl.ing to the Printer immediately. None need expert
this employ without bring wril recommended.
GEORGE HAUGHTON;
Acquaints his Friends, and rhe Public in general,
r^ HAT he has taken the HOUSE and coramo-
I dious STABLES, late Anthony Fortune's, in
Shippen-ftfeet, between Third and Fourth-streets, the
hgn of the White Horse; where he will be obliged to
those Gentlemen who will favour him with their cuftcm,
as they may depend on the best of entertainment.
N. B. Horses stand at Livery.
FOR SAL E,
A QU ANTIT Yof Fuftick, about one hundred
and forty bushels of rough Rre, a few boxes of
white clayed Sugars, and a few two-pound Cannon,
and Swivels with carriages. Enquire of CHARLES
MILLER, in Arch ttreet, near Fifth-ftreet, Pl^^
delphiay Dec. 10,
THE