The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1779-03-16 00:00:00, page 1

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GENERAL
F6r the PENNSYLVANIA PACKET.
Mr. DUNLAP,
IH AVE lately read the King of England's speech and
the answer thereto, ornamented at the top. like an ale
houfe-keeptr's sign, with the letters W. H. D. and like
wise Governor Johnftohe's. speech, and Governeer, what's
his name's answer to the fame, in Thursday's paper, signed
An American, and can but admire with whatjudgment
the parties have paired and pitted themselves. The two
firft are a dead match of dumefs to aulnefs, and the battle
is to be fought over again next winter. The following is
the plan of the late attack, and the manner in which it
began :
“ W, H. D.
lc To the King of Great-Britain."
"Sir,
« Your royal voice to your Parliament on the 27th of
" November last, has, at length, reached the ears of free
“ men on the western more of the Atlantic."
It muff be the devil of a voice that can be heard from
England to America ; and as, according to theufual velocity
of fe^nd, it should have arrived here in a little more than
four hours we are obliged to suppose, that this fame royal
voice was cast away in the air and obliged to put into a
cloud to refit. And as that cloud might, in the mean
time, be frozen into ice, and' the voice with it, it was
again obliged to wait the relief of a fun beam before it
could get out. And as it might after that be canted about,
like the vessel of Ulysses, the accident of being nine weeks
on its passage instead 61 four hours is e.fily accounted for.
Ulysses was kept out near twenty years, though he had,
at one time, got the winds in a bag, and could let which
blow he pleased.
However, the voice came, and in the night I fappofe, for
I heard nothing of it. But it seems that W. H. D. did;
for though he has not described what fort of a thing it
was, he has described what it was not "Itis a found,"
fays he, " very different from the roaming of a lio, , by
which he flily intimates, that it was something like the
braying of an ass. If so, it must be a more wonderful ass
than B loam's; and as I (lull mark the time when, or
whither, the evict of W H. D. arrive in England, wefhall
be able, by next winter, to judge which of the to has
the dronpeft lungs, and lay our bets accordingly.
N. B. Tue Devil backs the King of England, and S.
Deane backs W. H. D. because he has good " ears, and
they are not “shut.” Thus far for the two firft champions.
The next two, the Governor and the Governeer, have
taken another fort of ground. Their contention is about
the honour of dying in a " ditch"—Aic jacet. And as it
is somewhat preferable to the honour of dying in the air,
tie swing-um, I commend their choice.
Yet the v ry mention of such an undesirable fate seems
to have awakened, in the brain of rhe Governeer, a con
fufion of unnatural metaphors, dressed up in as complect
bombafl, as ever filled a page in Sir Richard Blackmore.
He has mistaken theatrical rant for elegance, and has yet
to learn, that affeßation of language is incompatible with
humour. Wit may be elegantly fpokefy but humour re
quires a peculiar quaintness of expression, just fufficient to
give birth to th@ conception, and leaving, at toe fame
time, room enough for the fancy of a reader to work upon.
But this genius has Succeeded in neither one line nor the
other.
Governor Johnftone had declared, that “ the maxim of
" dying in the last ditch was his principle" and his com
batant, the Governeer, though seemingly fond of the ex
preflion, has undertakeri to ridicule the application of
the maxim to the present war. The last trench would have
been a phrase purely military, and conveyed the full idea
of fortitude unaccompanied by that association of low con
certs which naturally unites with a " ditch." To die in
the last tren r h, is dying like a soldier; but to die in a
ditch, is dying like a dog or an old horse, and the conceit
cannot be Separated from the description.
" The Great Nassau," fays the Governeer, “ made
" the fame declaration, and in the mouth of a hero con
'' tending for freedom, after the loss of many battles
'' against superior force, and almost exbauftlefs refources^
" it hasa dignity and elevation which description cannot
" reach." —For my part, lamat a loss to fee where the
difficulty arises, as the sentiment is very easy of concepti
on, and the description may be made with a (hovel.
" But when," continues theGoverneer to tire Governor,
" it is used to colour obstinate perseverance in a ridicul
'' ous war, for the fake of a bubble, a feather, or a name,
" it is hardly within the compass of language to descend
"to such a deep profound, This I set down for perfect
nonsense. The words convey no ideas that correfporid
with the fubjeft. For, in the firft place, there is fume
thing which " it is not within the compass of language to
" defeend to." Query, What is it ? A ditch. But as the
impossibility cannot take place on so simple an object, this
fame ditch is here failed a' “ deep pr^ound.
The Governeer still continuing the figure of a ditch,
proceeds to aik the Governor " in what ditch he would
'' chufe to die ?" And here follows as ridiculous a piece
of rant and bombast as was ever (pouted# " Shall," fays
he, " the rich current which glides through your vein*
[Price Fifteen Pence single, One Shilling by the quantity. Published every Tuci'day, Thursday and Saturday.]
TUESDAY,
" dash along the roaring Susquehanna, (well the great
“ Potowmac, or fill the bay of Chefapeak ?"
When a natural probability is admitted, the introduc
ing impossible figures or circumstances to unite with it, is
absurd ; and as there is nothing improbable in supposing
a man to die in a ditch, the figures intended to ridicule
the boasting misapplication, mdfild, in supposition, be
equally as probable, otherwise the laugh will be loft, if
that can be said to be loft which cannot be prodded. A
man may, it is true, be drowned in either of those places,
and so fafr the figures are confident. But where is the
comparison between the roaring Susquehanna, the great
Potowmac, the bay of Chefapeak, and a “ ditch ,” or
where is even the supposed possibility that the blood of a
drowned man should fill the latter.
Still on the wing of school boys eloquence, he continues
to ask, “ shall it empurple the C madian snows, shall it fer
" tilize the arid sands of Florida, cr slain the rocks of
' Nova Scotia, hard and unpitying of the generous facri-.
'' dice ?" Whether the rocks, foft before, are to be Trained
bard, or hard before, are to oe stained foft; or whether,
like the paper he has blotted, they are to be stained to no
purpose, does not clearly appear from the conftrudion of
the expression. Yet those three figures, ftript of the
words hard and unfit, ing, have each of them pcffibility,
but at the fame time the possibility contains no humour,
the sense of it being simply this, will you die in Canada,
Florida, or Nova Scotia ? As to the Epithets of empurpling,
fertilizing, or flaming, as being the confluences of death;
are not in t;ernfelves fubjeßs for diverfipn ; besides which,
they are tue natural and unalterable properties of blood,
and the fame effe&s would, and must, be produced from
any kind of anim 1 killed in either of those places,
The only field for ridicule which thi- rodomontade de
scription contains, is the error wh ch the writer has made
hiibfelf, in the unnatural disproportion, between his new
railed relative figures, arid his original antecedent figure,
a ditch. For either Canada, Florida, and Nova Scotia,
with their snows, sands, or rocks, must, in idea, be
diminished to diicbes, because he has relatively put them
for ditches, or, his original ditch.muft be extended to a
country. How this can be accomplif!, d, is far above er
below mine, or the powers of magic to conceive. And
as this writer, by following a voill with a wife, (for such
appears to be Johnftone's charader as well as Mr.
Deane's) has written himfelf into a ditch, I shall leave
him to scramble out as well as he can, with this consola
tion to them both, that bic jacet is better than bic fwing
um.
I have been the more free in these remarks, not only
because such gafconade productions tike away from that
character of wisdom and serious fortitude which America
hath hitherto f pported, and that without even giving wit
in its place; but because they have a tendency to introduce
a falfe tafle among youth, who are trio apt to be catched
by the extravagance of a figure without considering its
justness.
COMUS.
F S. A fuort Canto, privately printed, arid called a
Duumvirate, is just come to my hands; it has neither
an author or a printer's name to it. And as those gen
try who were concerned in putting it together, have not
spirit enough to publish it, (for they appear to be con
foundedly afraid of getting again into my clutches) I shall
therefore publish it for them, with such explanation as
may be necessary. C
On the twenty-sixth instant, on the premifa,
A CERTAIN Plantation or 'Fraa of Land in Up
per Makefield, Bucks County, containing one hun
dred and fifty acres, about ninety of which are cleared,
the rest well timbered ; about ten acres of meadow, and
as much more may be made; a good dwelling-house
with a cellar under it, a b?.rn, a good spring of constant
water re?r the door, also a young orchard, and feme
wheat in the ground. The place was part of the plan
tation formerly belonging to Samuel Baker, at Baker's
Ferry. The Vencue to begin at One o'clock, P. M.
where due attendance will be given, and the terms of
sale made known, by
2. GEORGEBENNET.
CTOLEN out of the fubferiber's chest, between
° the sixth and twelfth of March instant, Four Tickets
of the second ciafs of the United Stares Lottery; the
numbers are as follow, 53,905, 53,,°6, 53,908, and
53,909. The fubferiber icquetts the Managers to flop
said Tickets if any prizes arise therefrom.
i. JOHN MURPHY.
WAS TAKEN UP near Fithkilb, the begin
ning of December last, by Captain Bittin, of the
tenth Pennfvlvahia regiment, A HORSE. The
owner is defied to prove his property, pay charges and
take him away.&
To be SOL I) by Public Vendue,
^WM^^^^^ffir;rc ^MX^
1 MA
THE
IBWWWI
THE
ADVERTISER
To be SOLD by Public Vendue,
On Saturday tie twenty-seventh infant, at the Coffee
h,u(e, in two LOTS adjoining each other,
— VALUABLE Tra& of LAND, consisting of
ft fix hundred and xwenty-fe.cn acr^s, (with an al
low nee of fix acres per hundred for road; &c.) situ
ate in the townthip ol Muntey, in the county of North
umbeJmd. Tiie land is exceeding good and well tim
bered, and watered with Several springs and a fine creek
of water running through the whole, abounding with
trout and cth.r ssh . . .
Lot 2. containing 313 acrei, with allowance.
For particulars apply to John Wigglesworth, in
Second rtreet, Philadelphia, where a plan of the estate
and rule deeds may be fieri. : ,
N. B. Tnere are an; le conveniences on the premife#
so. ending law or goft mills, upon a conftent fleam
of wut^r, with plenty of lime and greet-stone near at
bind for the completing of such works.
ROBE R T CO C K 8,
Has removed fiGm Market street to the eatt fide of Se
cond fleet, t^e third door below the corner of Arch
ftreet, Pudadeb hir, where ms, be had,
P EST old Spirit Weft India Rum, Mufcoyado
£) Sugars in h%ftcads and barrels, Madeira Win%
G n in cases, good Chelhirc and Gloucester Cheese, and
a lew Tamarinds.
Neau-Windfor, Bucks County, March to.
TO B E SO L D,
^ LIKELY, healthy Negro Man, about thirty-fi*
years o age, a compitat coachman, farrier and
gro >m, is maft^r of every branch of cultivation on a
farm, &:. &c: For terms apply to ,
THOMAS RICHE.
Notice is. hereby given to John
M'Murray, and Patii k M'Murrsy his son, sup
posed to be in S Herman's Valley, Cumberland county,
T^at S;arret M'Murray, son of said John M'Marray
and brother of said Patrick M'Murray, died the tenth
day of September, 1778, and that there is something of
value coming to them, which they may be informed of
by, q tiring of CHARLES GREER, Butcher,
living in Eighth street, at the coiner of Arch street,
Philadelphia.
Philadelphia, March 12.
ALL persons indebted to the estate of Wil
-11 Liam Wilson, late of Whiteclay Creek hun
dred, Newcastle county, deceased, or for goods bought
at the vendue of said deceased's estate, are once more
defined to discharge the fame before the fiift day of April
next, otherwise they will be dealt with as the law di
re&s, without refp.a of persons: And all those who
have any just demands against said estate ate requeued
to bring them in, properly attested, to the fubferiber,
at the Prothonotary's Office in Philadelphia, or to Wil
liam M'Clay, merchant, and James Coupar at
Chrifttana B idge, in Newcastle county aforefaid, in
whose care the books, &c. of the deceased are, and who
are impowered to fettle the fame.
JAMES WILSON, Executory
NOTICE is hereby given to all persons that have
any demands on the estate of Aaron Depvi, Es&
deceased, are requested to bring in their accompts be
fore the firft day of August next, that they may be ad
justed: Likewise all perlons indebted to said estate ard
defined to make speedy payment to
JEMIMA DEPUI, Administratrix.
Lower Smithfield tonnfop, Northampton
county, Pennfyluania, Feb. iB, 1779.
Philadelphia, March it
WHEREAS some villain did paftc up, or cause
to be pasted up, in the public market of this ci,
ty, a libellous paper, in which he made a scandalous use
of my name. As these are the effects of some malicious
dirty Tory, of whom I have good cause of fulpicion,
These are therefore to inform the (coundrel, that should
I difeover him he may expert to have little favor ihewu
him, but he shall be treated as his crime defervei. And
I do hereby offer a reward of Forty Dollars to any per
fer twho will difeover the perpetrator.
GEORGE FELCKER.
N. B. I hereby also call upon the author of the fail,
scandalous libel to make known his name.
A PERSON acquainted with making
FLAXSEED OIL may hear of employment
b y applying to James Smith, in Burlington, or Ri
chard Wells, in Arch-ftrtet, Philadelphia,
L> t 1. containing 313 acres, with allowance.
MARCH 16, 1„%