The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1777-12-30 00:00:00, page 2

ftrt nd fopport of her fattobft children. I
have done with you for the present, and re
turn to confider the effect which the loss of
our Clade and navigation has in depreciating
cur paper medium.
The loss of our trade and navigation have
great effca upon the credit of our bills,
much greater perhaps, than many at firft
view are apt to imagine. The urgency of
affairs has necessarily obliged us to throw
out large emissions of bills, and an undue
proportion of them has been brought into
the four New-England Stares, which has
filled the pockets of many persons with more
dollars, than they ever were possessed of pence,
at one time during their whole lives, which
has absolutely thrown them into a pecuniary
diftraaion, and they know not what to do
with it, as there is no Manchester velvets to
be purchased for waiflceats, or cambrick for
riffles to qualify them to commence gentlemen
°f fafoion, and daily hearing the dolorous cry
of the farmer, the monopolizer and /harper,
that our paper bills are good for nothing, that
they may be able to engross larger quantities
of them to inrich themselves, and impcroerifo
their neighbours, really believe it to be a truth.
But there is none I so sincerely pity as the
ladies, to fee them fine and grieve for the
want of a little, g^ze, lace, gimp, and a few
new ribbons of some new taste or fafhion, or
for a little of the best Kippens sass, and ready
to break out into a flood of tears, for the
want of a diSh of tea, 1 fed myfelf sensibly
moved with pity, and often tell them, they
must exercise a little patience; and when
they fay any thing which has a look as tho'
they thought our paper medium was any
embarrassment in obtaining those articles, I
five them broad bints that if their mothers
ad taught them the use of the pinning wheel,
and the art of bleaching, they might have ma
nufa£l:ured very pretty bajfat worked caps,
which by the help of a little wire which is
now manufactured in plenty and to great
perfection at Norwich, they migfa taife them
to any heighth the fashion necessarily re
quires. But to be more serious, the loss of
our trade no doubt has much operation in
bringing our paper medium into disrepute,
and there are really some very necessary ar
ticles, with which at pfefent we cannotfupply
ou'rfelves, but they are butfew, and the pro
gress we have made in some arts, must and
will aftoniffi all Europe. ^ manufacture
of feltpetre 6tiith Europeans import fronrthe
Indies, flints, le@d and brimfione, shay likewise
be had in great abundance, necessary articles
for our defence. ~The new manufacture of
ram and modffs from the juice of coraftata,
which by the fame method of manufactur
ing used in the sugar islands, will produce
ws fegar, I have not the least doubt. Can
any be so stupid as for the fake of a little
pelf to Sacrifice the liberties of these states !
But if we confider it in its true light, the loss
of our trade, is a very great advantage to the
community considered asa body. Into whose
hands would our paper medium been thrown
could we have had all this time a free im
portation of a thousand little trinkets not
worth afingle copper? Would not all have
been in the hands of the merchant ? I trust
by far the greater part would; doubtless he
would have told you it was good for nothing
---that his rifque in trade was great, and that
hemuft have a high price for his goods ; but
he would not have been so mealy mouthed, as
the farmer now is ; he would have set you a
price without notation, and taken your mo
ney, or they would have conducted otherwise
than they ever did heretofore, and when cal
led upon for your taxes, he would have
jockied you perhaps in the produce of your
farms, but nothing will fatisfy the farmer
who is daily heaping up those bills in his
chest, but the very foil itfelf. Thus I think
our loss of trade, to the mecbanick, the day
laborer, the milling farmer who lays up but a
jittle money in the compass of a year, is
" If, on the other band, we admit that they
who are aßually exchanged arepardoned, but con
tend that we may justly reserve for vengence those
who remain unexebanged, then this unpleafent and
unbandfome consequence will follow, that you judge
of the delinquency ofmen merely by the tinieqftheir
guilt, and not by the heinousness of it ; and
you make fortune and accidents, and not the
moral qualities of human action, the rule of
yourjuftice."
Extract of a letter from St. Mary's, Scilly,
May 20.
“ Tefterday two American privateers looked
into this harbour, with their colours flying: when
they found there was nothing worth their cutting
out, our invalids, poofbld fellows, began to as
femble, and hobbled to the place of arms ; but be
fore they had formed, the enemy bQput to sea, and
were almost out of fight. We hear they have
taken a vessel, bound to Ireland, said to be worth
a round fam, and two for Newfoundland."
LONDON, May 2g.
Though the Majority reasoning of the framers
of the late aft for the fuffofion of the Habeas
Corpus, and the coarse abettors of that aft with
out doors, have succeeded in regard to its being
eftabliJbed by law, the following quotation from
Mr. Bur&s excellent letter to the Sheriffs of
Bristol will best Jbew the justice of it :
" Ifo (fays this great kgiflative and eloquent
reasoner) is at prefect carried on between the
King's natural and foreign troops on one fide, and
the EngliJh in America on the oth% upon the ufoal
footing of other ware, and accordingly an exchange
of prfoers has been regularly made from the be
gining. If, notwitbftending this hitherto equal
procedure, upon some profyea of ending the war
with success, (which however may be delufae)
adminflrationprepares to aft agaifothofe as trai
tors who remain in their hands at the end of the
troubles, in my opinion, we Jball exhibit to the
world as indecent a piece of injustice as ever
civil fury has produced.
great gain, for if we do not fend our money
with the merchant what our farmers do not
oblige us to eat up, beef at Bd. wheat at 3
or 4 dollars per bulhel, we Shall have in our
pockets, to pay our taxes when called for in
defence of our country, and for liberties and
privileges worth contending for by every
one that are not tories, men of the fame arbi
trary despotic principles vr°\ the British minis
try. Some of this Jh have commenced
monopolizers and engroffers, who appear fpeci
oufy friendly to their country, but at the fame
time are its most inveterate enemies, and
have their agents abroad in these states car
rying on the fame work, while they fit easy
at home with Mr. Howe's protections in their
pockets, expecting great accumulation of
wealth^d. power in the cosclufion of the
feene of burning, murder and bloodjhed.
Is there not some chosen curse,
Somehidden thunder in the Stores ofHeaven,
Red with uncommon wrath, to blast the man,
Who owes his greatness to his country's rum.
Addison.
" If the prisoners who have been exchanged,
have not by that exchange been virtually par
doned, the cartel (whether avowed or underwood)
is a cruel fraud ; for you have received the
life of a man, and you ought to return a life for
it, or there is no parity or fairnefs in the tremfac
tion.
Our Situation bad as it is, is not yet des
perate. The credit of our bills may yet be
retrieved by a large taxation which may be
calculated so as not to ruin nor greatly distress
the honest day laborer, the mecbanick, the mid-
Zing farmer ; nor do injustice to the rich, opulent,
overgrown farmer • , nor even the engrosser or
monopolizer ; and that there is bread Suffici
ent in this fate to supply the wants of every
individual, and furnish our quota for the ar
my, and may be obtained at an honest, just
and eauitable price from the witbholder, by
laws founded in faftice and equity, which to
Ihew, in the course of these papers, Shall be
the humble attempt of "CATO,
BURLINGTON, (N. Jersey) Dec. 17.
Foreign Intelligence from the best Authority,
Mr. Carmichael writes from Paris, Jufy 16,
That Mr, Lee was returned from Berlin, having
finfad bis bufoefs there fuccefsfufy— That no
foreigners bad fubferibed to the so in England,
tbo' the advantages offered to fubferibers were
greater than ever before offered, except once
That all army and navy @raas were for fa
years, which bofpeaks war.
Mr. Bingham writes from Martinico, 08.
13, "at a packet bad arrived for the C„eral
by a beat which left Rochelle, styt. 4. fy iM
teUigenee brought was—That a courier bad been
dtfpatcbedto the Court of London, to claim all
French leffels that bad been captured by the En
glijh, without the limits, and whicbwere regularly
cleared out for any french port ; which rftfhon,
not bang complied with, is to b e the signal for re
tiring from court.—The General is ordered to put
every thing in reafofs for war, and to 1m an
embargo on aßjbsp, defined for Europe, to pre
vent their falling into the bands of the enemy..--
The miniver anounces gcoo troops, additional,
for Martinico and Guadeloupe, the tnanfperts
bring already engaged for them at Havre, Nantz,
and B^urdeaux.—At Brest, Rochford, and Ton
lon they work night and day, and the greatest
preparations arc makmg for the immediate com
mencement of bofilitiu. The reflation of the
Jbi, Seine, and her cargo, is Q, demanded
the Court of Versailles. The circum faces that
attend the capture of this jbip, are happily dis
posed to occajian reciprocal complaints and alter
cations.—-England cannot restore her without
Jewing an excefive degree of ber own weakness ;
and France cannot rehnquifo ber claim and pre.
save ber dignity -as whatever might have been
the real domination of this vessel, the General dis
patches ber as by order, and on account of bis
Majesty, as a store ship, toferve the garrisons at
Miquelon and St. Domingo..-The Britifo minify
try are publishing infamatory pieces to prove.
WILLIAMSBURG, November 38.
We hear that .the General Assembly of
Maryland have voted two thousand additi
onal troops for the Continental service, and
have also given leave to bring in a bill for a
general teh, another to seize upon the pro
prietary estate, and another for confiscating
the effects of British merchants, to be applied
to the indemnification of persons tybo have
fuffered by the British fleet and army.
The floopCongrefs,belonging to this Com
mon-wealth, is fafely arrived in James river
with the following valuable cargo, viz. Fif
teen hundred Dutch blankets, one hundred
pieces of coarse cloth, eighteen pieces Super
fine ditto, eight thousand five hundred yards
of white linnen, two thousand five hundred
pairs of cotton and wool cards, besides wire
and tacks for about three thousand pairs
more, one hundred and twenty pieces of fail
duck, twelve hundred pairs of yarn hose, one
hundred and twelve double grofa of metal
buttons, trimmings for the cloths, a large
quantity of medicine, Seven hundred bufhcL
of salt, &c. &c.
From the LondonPnblic Advertiser. Mg zB,
Flat-Bill Extraordinary.
IN the course of this fuinmer will be per
formed a new Tragic Farce, called
ALL FOR POWER,
OR
America Lost.
Captain At all, Mr. Mindeh.
Bully, Mr. Twitcher.
Budget, Mr. Boreas.
Positive, Mr. King.
Cautious, Mr. O'rfowe.
Steady, Mr. Washington.
Firm, Mr. Gates.
Captive, Mr. Lee.
Out Riders, Dr. Franklin and Mr. Deane,
Chief Mourners, 8000,000 Spectators
Knights of the Bath, Knights of the Poft,Crf.
ficers, Guards and Attendants.
Scene England, Scotland, Ireland, and
America.