Dunlap's Pennsylvania packet , The general advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-01-22 00:00:00, page 2

i^ /K PUBLIC ADVERTISED
% the P EOPLE rs Great-Britain.
'friends, Countrymen, and Fello w Subjects,
\]l™ H E melancholy circumstance of the war in
North America, fiiould not affect your minds
with re fentmeut against the Americans, but ffiould
irritate your minds against a sett of men who have
planned the deftrd&ion of the Constitution, and
hire begun their mo^hinarions in America. 'Tis
to them, and them only, are owing all our griefs,
adour Anxiety. Ye, my countrymen, are deceived
by appearances, and wickedly instigated by the
enemies of liberty, think the Americans are in open
arms against this country ; ye execrate them as
rebels whom ye ffiouid reverence for theirvi tuous
fortitude ; they are fighting for us, and on them
depend the liberties of this country ;. mould they
fail, the present Tory administration will have so
far advanced. Can it be fuppo'ed, because it has
become the general cry of all the hungry depend
ants of Lord Bute, that thole who ventured life
and fortune to dethrone the present reigning fa
mily, are now so violently attached to it, or that
any confidence can be had irrthe friends of a day ?.
Fools may believe it and some in high Rations do.
Their restoration to their fortunes and country I
hope will make them ' better citizens, though the
experiment is dangerous in every refpte^; but that
.is not worth conlideiation did net the example
encourage such attempts. ,„
My friends, it has been said that this outcry
has been raised against the prefect ministry, to dis
possess them of their power and emoluments ; but
cannot we distinguish between the friends and ene
mies of the revolution? This is the touchflone,
this proves the beneficence towards, or malignity
toy the constitution, as affirmed and confirmed at
that glorious period ; the abomination of Tories,
and the most hated by evil ministers. As, by our
constitution, the law equally refpeds each indivi
dual, and our fellows areour judges ; while that
continues these mifereantsy who with to enslave
mankind, have no opportunity to destroy, con
found, despoil or enthral. Fellow fubjeAs, many
so whom I do not write; as they equally despise
me and my sayings, have proven their wickedness,
either positively or negatively—positively in every
aa of wanton riot and ' dmpation; and when re
duced to necessities, have facrificed their country
on the altar of venality. Negatively who either,
from an 'id'e dissipation or increase of expences,
have, in order to raise their lands, lettthe fame in
large parcels to overgrown farmers, to the abfo-
Jute deftruftionof the poorer farmers; or other in
duftrious labourers, who are obliged to seek new
habitations, or go to America: In fhorf, their
vices are the origin of eviry affliction the poor feel,
and they hate us in proportion as they have injur
ed us. Let us cast our eyes to Scotland and Ire
land, we shall find that oppreflion, the old leaven
of the ancient feudal tenure, though happily de
stroyed in both by nhe expansion of the English
constitution, yet has lately been, by an increase of
expence and a mode of qiffipation before unknown
in Scotland, and by an increased expence in the
landholders in Ireland r both in the foolifhly la
vishing their money here, and on the continent,
bppreflion has become the practice in both king
doms, and the emigrations in proportion: Nay,
in England the fame infraion has fp^ead itfelf,
r 11 more if the small farmer and poor cotta
ger is thus elbowed out of possession. —My
friends, I am well aware, it will be urged in reply,
that this iucreafed dissipation circulates money,
and employs many, who without it would be idle,
or but half employed.
The luxuries of the great are confined to this
metropolis ; the country in which their estates
are, is very little benefitted, and their retirement
into the country, or to any of the watering places,
is an ceconornical scheme. Here it is they lavish
those vast sums which exposes them as the ready
tools of corruption, and the janissaries of delpo
nfm. It is owig to these wanton rfeceffities that
rents have been raised, a id lands so contrasted in
the possession ;' that the labourer, defraying of em
ploy, and drove from his cottage, flies either to
town, where the cold hand of pinching want drives
him to the commission of some deed which termi
nates the feene at Tyburn, or he emigrates at the
pub ic expence to Maryland. In Scotland we read
of whole villages, parishes, &c. going toGreenock.
What can drive people to such methods but op
pression ? The country is not overstocked,ncr has
the hand of Heaven been less favourable. The
fields have much mare luxuriantly yielded the fruits
of the earth, cul ivation and agriculture are carri
ed on in Rofsihire and Sutherland now as would
nqt have been believed 40 years finee, owing to
opening the midis as well as the lands, and by
emancipating the people from the cruel oppre&n
of heritable jurifdißions, and making them par'ak
era of the English constitution. When utility ex
tended its influence, and would have rendered this
people happy, the great landholders there, be
holding with regret the universal bleJing, like the
rays of light, rejoicing the hearts of the people,
the Lairds checked its progress in their exa&ions,
2nd could not bear the people fhou'd be so hap
py. This was qure consonant to the nature of
the government of Scotland formerly; an here
ditary aristocracy, the worst of all tyrannies. In
Ireland the left of power has raged with the fame
cruelty and the fame fiercenefs ; oppression has
been the conßant mode from the firft fe^lement
of the English there; and though the natives were
Invited to participate of ohr constitution, yet, from
being kept ignorant of our language the true spi
rit of freemen oas prevented; yet the l< ve of li
berty (actuated from the multiplication of violence
in the defeendants of the firft Englifli settlement)
shewed itfelf. The native Irish (am humane, open
hearted, generous people to the distressed visitor,
though boldly brav^ and ferocious against invasion
and the force of arms) were purposely kept in ig
norance, and traiteroufly mifieprefented, Conti
hnal wars for 400 years, only hardened obfiinacy,
fed increafel antipathy: ,And though by an aft
of the most ba r barcus injustice, a noble family,
one of the most ancient in Europe, was all, except
Although the lucrative trade of pamphleteering;
reinforced by an handsome pension, may be a dou
ble spur to the author's industry, yet I confefs I
am not his convi&, nor do I feel the force of his
proportion, that
“ The supreme power of every community has
" a right of requiring r om all its fubje&s such
" contribution, from which there is no appeal
“ which admits no reftri&ions, exempt itfelf from
" queßion or controul, and bounded only by
“ plnhcal necessity."
Faffire obedience and non-refiffance, here so
manifestly difpayed, so often taught by men as
leaded and as encouraged as the author, and as
often rejected, u^lels accompanied by corruption,
are {efficient; alone to deter me from embracing
such dangerous proportions; but, Sir, indepen
dent of this, they are too genera' proportions
upon which the validity or invalidity of ads are
determined, cannot be too firmly laid down, or
too cauriodfly admitted. Can it be truly said that
the supreme power has the right of requiring,
from all its fubje&s contributions? or, as the
author afterwards explains himfelf, taxing them
in this dominion that has so many dependencies,
such as Ireland, America, &c,! Upon such a
principle Ireland may be taxed by our parliament
(as the Supreme power) when the contrary is the
eftablilhed fyffem of government. Can it be tru
ly said that there is in this constitution some pow
er from which there is no appeal which admits of
no reftriaions, bounded only by physical necessi
ty, when Magna Charta declares those a&s invalid
that are repugnant to fundamental law, " as they
shall be holden for none," and when Epsom and
Dudley were hanged for allowing an aft of parlia
ment contrary to our charter ? Is that power ex
empt from controul which has been more than
once controuled by the people, when exercised
derogatory to their rights and the prefect family,
eftabrifhed in virtue of a succeeding resistance ?
I wifi more regard was paid to those grand max
ims, the foundation of all society, of all law, the
protection of the fubje&, and that no tax be levi
ed ^thout the conient of the people, or their re
prelentatives. Upon these government is found
ed, and the charters to the colonies were granted :
some of which expressly give, and all of them ini
ply, the exclusive right of taxing themselves.
Surely the meaning of the words '• give and
grant," inferred in all a&s of supply, need not
be explained. Can that be given which is taken
away? or can that be granted which is wrested
from them? Such narrow principles as the au
thor's may be consistent with the measures of ad
miniftfation, but disgracefully impotent in a great
government, whose views ought to be more ex
tentive than that of railing revenues. “ That
men cannot enjoy the sunshine when they have
qu tted the shade," is literally true, but bears no
analogy to the situation of the Americans. Pub
lic liberty is diffufed through the whole world;
no man can quit it; force only can retrain it by
arbitrary laws, which are no longer binding than
submitted to. The author finally wiffies the Ame
ricans obedience may be secured, and adds, '• no
thing can be more noxious to society than that
erroneous clemency which, when a rebellion is sup
pressed, exa&s no forfeiture." Is this the libera
. lity of sentiment, the acquisition of literature, or
chfiftianity? Was las void of charity, nay hu^
macity, I might infer the hungry author has a
longing e y e to a good farm well cultivated and
stacked, the Spoil of unfuccefsful virtue.
This polemical giant has carefully confined him
felf to the right of taxation, and that only upon
the proportion of unlimited authority; but he
ought allo to have considered it in a commercial
light, when the very existence of commerce ulti
mately depends upon it; I repeat ultimately, as
America is the last resource of this nation, loaded
with taxes; the landed interest ravenously devour
ing the tenant, inevitably enhance the price of pro
visions, and in consequence that of labour, utterly
prevents our felling, so cheap as our neighbours.
One instance alone might confirm us, if not blind
ed to our interest. The silk manufacture univer
sally known to be on the decline in England, ow
ing to different manuE&ures set up in different
parts of Germany, and the French underselling
us in foreign markets, was railing its drooping
spirits by the increased exportation of it to Ame
rica; Administration, as if determined to wound it
mortally, revived the pernicious ads of taxation.
one infant, niurdered here, under the fanAion of
law ; yet that, nor all the preceding severities pro
duced the least alteration. No sooner were the
mists of ignorance dispelled, and our constitution.
communicated to the country, generally, then,
(as that ornament to his own country, and bene
fit to us, fays in bis late excellent speech, in the
Hoafe of Commons) then it was that the consti
tution conquered, where arms 'or so long before
had failed: Ireland was not conquered by En
glish arms, it was by the English constitution.
The enemies of the poor, these base enviers of the
happinefsof mankind, then deviled means to ob'
viate the Slewing, and despoil the people of what
the constitution had so liberally granted ; by these
inereafed exactions and oppreflions they have en
deavoured to render that ufelels which our laws
conferred, and have continued the slavery, not
withßanding out endeavours to extend freedom
to each individual. In & word, there is a general
conspiracy against freedom, either directly or indi
redly. In Scotland and! Ireland it is carried on
by the tyranny of the nobles; id America it is en
deavoured to he efhhlifhed, by a Tory admini
stration, by force of arms ; in England our views
are so compleated, and corruption has become so
general, that the Few who have not lifted the hand
nor bowed the knee to Baal, ate not seen in the
amazing croud of the idolaters.
One of the Public.
IF the fabjefl of America is trot exhaled,
whch I think the importance will deny,a few
thoughts, as they occurred to me upon read
ing an extraft from a pamphlet entitled “ Taxa
" tion no Tyranny." may not be deemed supera
bundant.
I cannot reffe& upon the ides of Sep.ember with
out emotion, when a total non-exportation of in
digo, logwood, rice, hemp, flax feed, tobacco,
tar, turpentine, masts, yards, and Raves, will en
sue. Such accruing evils will ' not fail to bring
along with them such convulsions which experi
ence alone can express. I cannot exaggerate the
confequenCes; a simple view of the evidence, de
livered at the bar of the House of Commons, will
confirm the unprejudiced of the effect of a pon ex
port and nun-import to and from these dominions.
I he total of exports to the Weft Indies for the
last feventeer . years, ending at 1773, exceed nine
teen millions—two thirds British goods—ditto to
North America for the fame period forty millions
—three fourths British goods—ditto to Africa for
the fame period eight millions —two thirds British
goods—and at an annual medium for 1771, 72
and 73 the total exports to all countries whatever is
sixteen millions, of which eight millions and an half
arose from the Colony branch, Viz. North-America,
Weft Indies and Africa. If this trade is loft, the
revenue muff fuffer in proportion, wfich loss must
be rew,Rated by an additional tax on land and pen
fioNS, and must therefore affe& the author, who may
be indulging himfelf, and feeding his vanity with
the smiles of a court uninterested in commerce ; he
may be careless as to the consequence, till the
cloud breaks where he is not aware, when he may
regret ^e trifled with the bulwark of his country,
and be the., too late convinced that our importance
was not founded upon collecting a paltry tax,
which, if right, was impolitic.
We have been told our Colonies and Plantati
ons are very chargeable, and have increased our
national debt. But are we not as able to support
them as the French? They are at a proportion
able expence for their settlements, nay their en
couragement is superior according to an intelli
gent writer: “ They are under the care of a
" council of commerce, twelve of whom confiftof
“ the most intelligent traders, who" (so far from
being refufed their information, as was the case
soma time ago) " are paid a^ handsome salary for
“ that purpose; and the most competent judges
“ are summoned to be examined in general:
" Their Colonies pay no taxes, and they who be
“ gin new plantations are exempted. What com
“ modities go to them pay no duties at all ; and the
“ few taxes which are levied are remitted to those
“ planters who fwffer by misfortunes." But nei
ther reason, interest or example will convince.
The change of empire is hastening on, and the
steps of administration concur in the progress ; and
if the decline of the Roman Empire was distin
guished by the names of Virgil and Horace; if
Boileau and Darcier marked the extinction of Lew
is the fourteenth's glory, it may hereafter be said
the commercial splendor and dignity of Britain
expired in the days of Dr. Johnson.
The Dolor's language is indubitable, but his
principle is arbitrary and reasoning indicifive; the
great objects of commerce and policy are omitted,
Men, whose understandings are contracted in the
walls of an University, and even afterwards more
in the closet than the world, are more adapted for
the belles lettres than to define,the maxims of po
licy, or investigate the intricacies of commerce,
but above all if in the noxious air of a court they
grow diseased. The qualities of a courtier have
been in all ages, and in all countries, the fame,
from the effeminacy of Persia to the corrupti n of
an Engliffi palace. Accustomed to cringe to those
they hate, and to extol those they despise; so ha
bituated to deceit, their ideas become contaminated
By the embrace of a pension, and like a bawd,
whose purse increases with the number of her pros
titutes, they administer the poison with the most
pleasing allurements in all the glare of words and
pompofty of didion, and become at length fitfub
je&s only for the Divan, to linger under the ac
cumulated evil of a Tyranical Taxation.
WHETHER Gen. Gage has gained any re
putation in America as a warrior is uncer
tain; but that of a fine writer cannot be refufed
him. His late proclamation has fixed it for ever.
The art of fine writing is to convince, please and
persuade. We shall find upon examination that
these qualities abound in his proclamation.
The General begins by proclaiming the multi
tudes to have been long infatuated, and that the
disease, as is natural, is now increased to a phren--
zy. As a nev and infallible remedy for this, he
folds out the word. "Every man must a& in hs
• rofeßon. The soldier employs his (word; the
physician would order the lancet. 1 heyare equal
ly proper, because blood-letting is allowed to be
the best application to frantic people.
But the General, I believe, had another mo
tive for declaring them in an insane Rate. It was
a motive of humanity; for when they come to be
tried for treason, they have only to plead their in
sanity, and five the proclamation in evidence ;
and then, as I take it, they cannot beexecuted.
The General goes on to reason with this insane
multitude on the dreadful consequences of their
insanity. In this, it must be allowed, be shews
great judgment, not only in the plan, but in the
execution. Frantic people are very apt to listen
to reason; and the General's arguments are cal
culated accordingly sot men who are not in their
senses to judge of them.
“ Many thousands of these madmen," fays the
General, " assembled on the 19th of April last,
and from behind mails and lurking holes attacked
a detachment of the King's troops, who, not ex
peCiing so consummate an ad of phrenzy, unprepared
for vengeance, and milling to decline it, made use
of their arms only in their own defence."
From the happy manner io which this is intro
duced ore would not have the least suspicion that
this detachment was sent out by the General upon
a secret expedition to seize the friends ofthe peo
ple, and destroy their magazines § that is, to com
mence war with them by the most infamous trea
chery : And yet he sent these troops unprepared
for vengeance, and not expe&ing such an ad of
phrenzy as refinance. As a farther proof that he
did not expeQ it, he feat the light infantry and
SO^^^OO o ,^-^*-,^, sg r ,@^
L O N D 0 N, October 4.
I At ELY died, at Hythe in Kent, univerfatiy
_J lamented by all who knew him, Demetrius
James, Esq; formerly of ightham, in that county.
He lerved a great many years in the army, and wan
late Lieu enent Colonel ofthe 23d regiment ; hue
being almost worn our by the long and painful fa
tigues he had undergone in the service of his coun
try for more than forty years, he had perrniffior 3
soon after the conquest of Quebec, to quit the ar
my, and had retired to Hythe to Ipend his latter
days in his native country in the family of his eld
est daughter. His firft services were in Ireland^
where he continued several years. He was from
thence ordered to Minorca where he was Ration
ed for many years, and then returned to Ireland;
from whence he very soon after went with the re
giment to North-America, where he served dur
'ng greatest part of the wars in the late King's
reign with the highest reputation, and was ap
pointed to thecommand of fort Cumberland, fort
Piffaquid, and other forts in North-America ;
which he bravely defended with small garrisons;
and though very frequently attacked night after
night by the French and Indians in the most in
clement fealons, he constantly maintained and pre
ferred bis Rations and small garrisons, and in ma
ny skirmishes defeated the enemy with ebnfidera
ble loss; and when they had, after an unfuccefsful
attack upon the fort, plundered the country, and
carried off a very large quantity of cattle (the
loss of which must have proved fatal to the garri
son and the neighbouring country) he, by a forced
march through woods and defines in a most incle
ment season, intercepted the enemy at a dißanc
passage, and with very inferior numbers entirely
defeated them, and retook all the cattle a-d pro
visions they had plundered.
By the many constant fatigues, and the vicissi
tudes of the climates in which he served, from
the violent heats of Spain to the extreme cold of
the remote parts of North-America, where the
centinels were often found frozen to death upon
their posts, he contrasted such weaknesses and
disorders in his limbs, and par ocularly in his feet,
that some of his joints became con'raded, and a'l
his toe nails were obliged to be cut out, and he
underwent the most Severe pains and dißrefß',
notwithstanding which he went through all the
fatigues of the fevered services with the most he
roic firmness and fortitude. After the conquest
of Quebec, lie had permission, on account of his
infirmities, to quit the army, with the most df
tinguifhed testimonials of honour from al the Ge
neral Officers in command, and was actually out
ofthe army at the time of the second battle <f
Quebec; but his fuceefTor in office not being then
arrived, he continued to act in command in ih/t
engagement ; and by Iris perfoca! valour and cm -
dud was greatly instrumental in the success if'
that important victory, and the prefervaticn of a
cqnfiderable part of the British aimy. His cho.
ratter through life was in every Ration, both pub
lic and private, excellent and exemplary. He
lived beloved by all who had the pleasure of know
ing him, and died universally regretted, and h.s
Idrhis adihaed family dUconfoHte fur ms lyf.
I observe the Ministry are too much ashamed of
the proclamation to admit it into the Gazette. Ic
is the only proof of their wisdom that I have seen..
Such a performance would disgrace them over all
Europe. It begins with infatuation, proceeds with
falihood and folly, and e^ds with an hypocritical
affiliation of prayer. My earnest prayer is, that
God and the people may, in their justice, soon
bring this foolish General, and the abandoned
Ministers who sent him, to condign punithment.
', - A BOSTONIA N.
die picked and cf™% men of bis rrt
/CT Miele in the nigbt. This is a demonkrauQ
that he did not expert such an a& of phrenzy frouw
these in fatuated^eople; and his letter to Governor
I rumbull will prove that he had no reason to ex
ped it. “ You cannot wonder," fays he, “at
my fortifying tie town of Boston, or making any
other military preparations, when you are assured
that, previous to my taking these steps, such were
the open threats, and such the 'warlike piefrarationf
throughout this province, as rendered it my indis
penfible duty to take every precaution in my power
for the protection of his Majesty's troops under my
command from all hostile attempts." And again
—“ When the resolves of the Provincial Congress
breathed nothing but tear ; when those two great
and essential prerogatives of the King, the levying
of troops and disposing of the public monies, were
wrested from him, and when magazines were form
ing by an Assembly of men, unknown to the con-
Ritution, for the declared purpose of levying mar
a g ain ^ ^e King; you must acknowledge it was
my duty to prevent, if possible, the calamities ci
civil war, by defraying such magazines."
It is impoflible, I think, to conceive that any
men upon the face of the earth, but General
Gage and his detachment, could imagine that in
this slate of things they might march into the
country, and commit open a^s of hostility with
out opposition, cr that such an attempt would
not be more likely to produce than to prevent the
calamities of civil war. There wanted bat this
ad to set fire to those combustibles which he pre
tends were cohered, and blow up the Civil Go
vernment. The fad is, that General Gage, like
thofe who sent him, asserts whatever the wicked
purpose of the moment .calls for, without any re
gard to truth or decency. I shall not comment
on the propriety of the expressions, “ from be
hind lurking holes—vengeance for an ad of
phrenzy—willing to decline the vengeance for
which they were unprepared." The confuhon and!
absurdity of all this is a consequence, I prefume>
of the infatuation with which the proclamation}
commenced. Infatuated, like drunken men, are.
very apt to accuse others of the infirmity under*
which they themselves labour. After all, he may
obj^d to the fairnefs ^f applying the judgment
of sense to that which he has addressed and adapt
ed to persons whom he supposes to have loft their
senses.