Dunlap's Pennsylvania packet , The general advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1774-07-11 00:00:00, page 5

so„ 4 L ON D 0 N PAPE R.
<^ ^^^ HREESCORE years did the op
'd, "<^' pressed united provinces maintain a
~^T war i n defence of their liberties against
'"' 'ben P ower ' u ' kingdom of Spain
with all the wealth of the Indies at its
' + ,y?%p command; and finally obliged it to
k^ ^ ^^* acknowledge their independency in a
formal treaty, fitting down with the loss of territory,
treasure and reputation, and with a broken strength that
has never since been recovered.
Contractors, jobbing mercantile members of Parlia
ment, officers starving on half pay, and gunsmiths who
toast, as the papers tell us, a speed, and a perpetual -war,
may wish, rather than no war at all for a civil one in
America. These in all conversations, to encourage us
in undertaking it, flight the strength of those distant
people, think nothing of that enthusiasm for liberty,
which in other countries and ages has supplied all de
ficiencies, and enabled a weak people to baffle the ef
forts of a stronger; but tell us that half a dozen re
giments are fufficient to reduce in less than a year every
province on the continent. Haifa dozen being or.ee
engaged in this blessed service, it is easy to write and
shew the necessity for more : the more there are the greater
the profits to those gentry. And whatever becomes of
us poor Devils that live by manufactures or by trade,
that are to pay taxes, or that have money in the funds,
they will amass fortunes, buy our estates, bribe cur bo
roughs, and vote in Parliament the rectitude of the
measure.
I believe our officers and soldiers as brave as any in
the world; and from that very opinion of their bravery,
I conjecture they would not generally relish the be
ing ordered on this murdering service against their coun
trymen; to shed English blood, to ftifle the British
spirit ofliberty now railing in the colonies; that Liberty
which we should rather wish to fee nourished and pre
ferred there, as on a loss of it here (which, from our
vices, is perhaps not far distant) we or our posterity,
may have occasion to resort to and participate of; and
possibly, some oftbe ablest officers may choose rather to
resign their commissions. But whatever may be the bra
very and military prowess of our troops, and whatever
the zeal with which they would proceed in such a war,
there are reasons that make me fufpe& it will not be so
soon terminated as some folks would have us believe.
My reasons are drawn chiefly from a computation
founded on fads. It is well known that America is a
country full of forefts, mountains, &c. that in such a
country a small irregular force can give abundance of
trouble to a regular one that is much greater: And that,
in the last war, one of thesis een colonies we now have
there (and one far short of being the strongest) held out
free ,ears against twenty five thoufond British regular
troops, joined by twenty five thoujand colonies on their
own pay, and aided by a llrong fleet of men of war.
What the expence was to this nation, our treasury books
and augmented debt may shew. 'lhe expence to Ame
rica, as their pay was higher, could not be much less.
The colony we made war upon was indeed aided by
France, but during the whole contest not with more
than five thousand men. Now fuppofingthat thetwenty
five thousand colonists that then joined us Should here
after be against us, and that this makes no difference,
and considering that instead of one colony to conquer,
we are to have ^ee^, and that poflibly some of our good
neighbours may think of making a diversion in their fa
vour, I apprehend it not out of the way to allow five
years still to a colony; and this, by my computation,
will amount to just fevent, five years. I hope Messieurs
the company of gunsmiths will for the prefect, be so
good as to be content with a civil war of /eventy five years,
as perhaps we may scarce be ab e to afford them aperpe
tual one.
And what are we to gain by this war, by which our
trade and manufactures are to be ruined, our strength
divided and diminished, our debt encreafed, and our
reputation, as a generous nation and lovers of liberty,
given up and loft? Why, we are to convert millions of
the King's loyal fubjeds into rebels, for the fake of
establishing a newly claimed power in Parliament to tax
a distant people, whose abilities and circumstances they
cannot be acquainted with, who have a constitutional
power of taxing themselves; who have never refufed to
give us voluntarily, more than we can ever exped to
wrest from them by force; and by our trade, with whom
We gain millions a year !
And is there not one wife and good man to be found in
Britain, who can propose some conciliating measure that
may prevent this terrible mifehief?—l fear not one. For
Qios Deus vult perdere, domentat prius !
POSTSCRIPT to the Pemifyhaitia Packet. No. 142.
B, tie sap Lady Gage, Captain MesnARD, arrived at
New-Cork from London, we have the following ad
vices, viz.
PETERSBURG H, Zpril §.
V" ESTERDAY we received the agreeable news,
I that the troops under Gen. Bibikow had attacked
the principal corps of the rebels, commanded by Pugat
cheffin person, at Sotoczinfka, about 150 werfts from
Orenbourg, and entirely routed them : Amongst the
prisoners taken was the person in whom Pugatcheff
places his chief confidence.
Zpril 8. The last advices from Orenbourg give
hopes, that the public tranquility will soon be re efta
blilhed there. There has been a sharp engagement of
Gen. Bibikow's troops, commanded by Major Jelgin,
and a body of rebels. It is assured that the latter were
entirely routed, and loft on that occasion forty pieces
of cannon.
From the Danube, April 13. The last letters from
the Ottoman army advise, that Haffan Bafhaw, who, as
well as the Bafhaw of Widdin, has laid waste a part of
Wallachia, has returned beyond Nicopolis, and is actu
ally encamped within a small distance of Bazardzic, in
older to cover these two places. This retreat is attri
buted to the desert state of Wallachia, but some people
think that it was occasioned by the motions of the
Ruffians, as their troops have left their quarters, and
have advanced towards Jalonicza and other places in
Wallachia. The advanced poll of the Ruffians at Bra
hilow, Galatz, and other towns along the Danube, have
been reinforced. The Ruffian cavalry which, for want
of subsistence was obliged to take up winter quarters
at Ezundo, and along the Niefter, is already arrived at
the head quarteis, where all the necessary preparations
are making to open the campaign. This array has not
yet been able to aft, on account of the heavy rains which
have rendered the roads almoil impaflable.
The Ruffian army is a&ually very formidable. The
Turks expert that the Ruffians will again pals the Da
nube, and do their utmost to make themselves masters
of Varna and Siliftria. Acting according to this plan,
Hussein Aga has taken post along the Danube, with the
body under his command, which has been reinforced
by 15,000 men from the Grand Vilir's army, so that
he may be supported by Haffan Bafhaw; and these two
Generals are to watch the motions of the Ruffians, who,
if they attempt to pass that river, to attack the above
mentioned places, bloody engagements may be expeded,
as the Ottomans seem determined to defend both lides
of the river with the utmost obstinacy.
LONDO N, %' 3.
The order of the day for the third reading of the
bill for regulating the civil government of the province
of Massachusetts-Bay, and for receiving the bill for the
more impartial administration of justice in the laid pro
vince was read, upon which a very strong debate ensued;
the principal speakers in which were Sir George Saville,
Mr. Dunning, Sir William Meredith, Mr.T. lownfhend,
Col. Barre, Lord Carmarthen, Lord Beauchamp, Lord
Germaine, Lord North, C. Fox, Mr. Jenkinfon, Sir
Gilbert Elliot, Gen. Conway, &c.
Alar 4. We are informed that the fubfeription for
the tickets in the ensuing lottery, are to be given to the
American merchants, in order to make them recom
pence for the damage they will sustain by the three
Bolton bills.
Ma, 5. An order is issued for the muller and return
cf all the forces in the gai rifons of England, Scotland,
and Wales.
The French and Spanish fleets now in the Mediterra
nean are known to amount to sixteen capital Ihips of the
line, betides frigates, and other small veflels, and even
their merchant Ihips are provided for fighting as in time
of war. The English squadron confilis of only three
64 gun fliips, one 74, and two frigates.
As Sir J yA t has, it is laid, declared to a
great Cabinet Counfellor, that he would engage to
march from one end of the continent of North-America
to the other, at the head of 5000 men. He, or some
friend for him, is delired to inform the public, whether
he meant as a friend or an enemy.
Never in all the annals of this country does it appear,
that the French were permitted to arm themselves, as
in the present case, at all points, without being so much
as questioned about their intentions.
Some malicious persons do not scruple to assert that
the Ministry, instead of being concerned are highly de
lighted at the American bustles, as conceiving they
may be rendered a covering for other more capital ar
ticles of mal-adminiftration.
The tax upon tea, intended to be imported into Ame
rica, will not, we hear, pay the expence of collecting
it, though it should be permitted in the full extent
contended for.
The bill for making more effectual provision for the
government of the province of Quebec in North-America,
is to be read a second time in the upper Houfc on Mon
day next.
The mortifying contempt with which the Premier
received all the offers of the Rockingham and Shelburne
gangs is never to be forgotten; hence, fays our corre
spondent, the malignity of Polypheme, the hungry tur
bulence of Edmund, the pert nothingness of B g, the
Oliverian bronze of S ge, the fomniferous ditties
of D 11, and the cadaverous blasts of an old Dog-
Rose.
We hear that Lord Chatham will be in his place at
the House ofPees to-morrow, when the American bill
is to be taken into eonfideration; but few doubt its
pafling, as in the other House.
As the Emperor of Germany is this month expelled
to pay a visit to Paris, it is supposed it is not a mere
visit of form. After he was raised to the above dignity,
he paid a visit to the King of Prussia, and had some pri
vate conferences with that Monarch, item which a lad
ing friendship seemed to be cemented, and by the mte
A report is Very current in the city, that the Spanish
settlements of Coquimbo and Cha&ane, in the South
seas, have fallen into the hands of the Chilefe Indians,
who have massacred all the Europeans.
The Agents for the colonies of New-York, Philadel
phia, Rhode-Bland and New-Hampshire, have received
orders to attend the Earl of Dartmouth on Monday
next at the Plantation Office, Whitehall, on private
affairs.
Ma, 7. It is whispered that the Duke of Grafton is
again coming into administration; and that a resignation
will very fliortly take place, in order to make way for
him. It is also said, that Lord Camden will be again
at the head of the law before the general election. If
thefe,fads should happen, it is evident they are intended
only to serve some private purposes, and therefore are
not likely to be of a very long date.
At four o'clock the order of the day for the third
reading of the bill for the impartial administration of
justice in Massachusetts-Bay in New-England, being
called for, the bill was read a third time, and several
amendments made, and a clause added; and a motion
bring made, that the bill do pass, a short and warm de*
bate ensued; and the question being put, the House di
vided. Ayes 127, and Noes 24.
acquisitions in Poland he appears to have profited from
it. What the iffueofhis present intended visit to France
may be, time will difeover; but as dominions are so
easily dealt out of late, some dates are not quite cafy
on the fubjedl.
What is the intention of taxing America, only to
partially bring into the Treasury a certain sum for the
use of the King and the Minifter —while at the fame
time the nation loses three millions annually?
Ma, 6. A motion was made for leave to bring in
a bill relative to fubfeription to the 39 articles. Re
jected without a division.
It is imagined that the debate on the bill for regu^
Jating the future government of the province of Massa
chusetts-Bay, which was intended for this day in the
Upper Assembly, will go off till the beginning of the
next week.
A Writer in the Virginia Gazette concludes as follows.
I HAVE now before me the stamp ad. Good God!
how inequitable, how tyrannical, and arbitrary!
My blood is frozen with horror while I glance my eye
over it. What a melancholy reflection it is, that so
many brave and virtuous men, in different ages and
countries of the world, should fall as viTims to the law
less power of tyrants, while the execrable tyranny of
an injudicious tool of an abandoned Ministry is buffered
to go unpunished. You genius' of Britain, what le
thargic dumber had then closed your eyes! Why rose
you not up indignant to blast the man who would build
his own greatnels on his country's ruin ! Why was he
(offered to go in peace to his grave, who aimed to sap
the foundation of a free constitution, and opened a door
for the oppression and servitude of three millions of his
Majesty's mod ufeful and affectionate fubjedts ! But it
feemshe was a good Minister, \ery expert at deviling <wa, 7
and mean , and his Majesty (God bless him) could not
afford to part with so ufeful a servant. A certain emi
nent writer, in treating ofour constitution, after bellow
ing all the praises on it the nature of it well deserves,
laments that it will have an end. This constitution,
fays he, like all the free constitutions the wisdom of
men have framed, will have a period, will be ruined,
whenever the legislative becomes more corrupt than the
executive power. I appeal to you, my countrymen,
whether this prediction is not fulfilled.' Is not the con
stitution violated? Is not that palladium of cur liberty
infringed, “ that the English fubjeft cannot be taxed
without his consent, exprefied by himfelf, or his repre
sentative ?' If the fubjeCt, then, cannot be taxed unless
by himfelf, or representative, and if a submission to such
an unconstitutional tax, whereby his property may be
taken from him without his consent, is the condition of
a slave, does it not naturally follow, my countrymen,
that you fouft exert yourfclves to repel the hqftile invasi
ons of your enemies, or submit to that ignominious yoke
of slavery that now impends over your devoted necks?
Either alternative you may yet chafe, while you are
free. The Icaft delay is dangerous, and may ruin you
forever.
Jove fir'd it certain, flat whatever da,
Maxes man a face, takes half Ids worth awar.
Pope.
An A N E C D O T E.
WH EN General Pepperell went against O^
Breton the war before last, with a handful of
undisciplined New-England troops, a number of gentle
men in this city, who reasoned entirely from the rub
ber and discipline of the French soldiers, and the strength
of the walls of LouifSourg, declared the expedition to
be a foolish one, and the defeat cf the General to 1 *
certain; Dr. Franklin (who was one of the compare ;
begged leave to differ from them in opinion, and thought
the probability of the success of the expedition was very
great, “ for (said he) the New-England troops hr ^
one immense advantage over the French ; they outd@
them in praying."