The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1782-10-01 00:00:00, page 2

A SPEECH addressed from a Father to his Daughter.
From the French of M. Rousseau.
TCrOU ^re now, Sophy, grown up to woman's estate;
I and you are not rn remain always Angle. Your
mother and I would have you happy, because
our happiness depends on yours The happiness of a
virtuous youeg woman, is to mke an honest man nap
py : we mofi therefore think of marrying you. We
mufl rink o' this betimes, for your site through life
depends on your marries ; and we cannot think too
much upon it.
Nothing perhaps is more difficult than the choice of
a good hufband,;xc-pt perhaps toe choosing of a good
wife. You, Sophy, will be this rare woman ; you will
be thy pride of our li es, and our happiness in old
age. But however great mrit you may have, there
are men who ha^e hill more There is no man who
ought not to think it an honour to obtain you ; there
are mnv whom it would do yrw honour to obtain
Amonaruis number toe hufi est is to find one suitable
to you, to get acquainted with him, and to make him
acquainted wim you.
The greatell happiness of marriage, depends on so
many points of agreement, that it would be a folly to
think to find them all; the mod important mulibe
made sure of, preferably to the rest ; if the others cAi
be procured too, so much the bettr ; if they'cannot,
they muff be overlooked. Perfea happiness is not to
be found in this world ; but the greatest of misfortunes,
and that which may always be avoided, is to be un
happyby aim's own fault.
There is a fuitabfaefs which may be called natural;
there is.alfo 'afuitablentfs arising from the inftitutibns
of men, and a suitableness that depends wholly on
opinion ; of the two last, parents are the proper judg
es; of the firfl, the children alone can ju ge. In mar
riages made by the authority of parents, those suita
blenesses that arise from civil institutions and opinion
are alone minded; tie matches are not between the
persons, but between their rank and fortunes ; but
both these are fubjeft to change : the persons alone re
main the fame, in all places, and at all tiroes; the
happiness or unhappiness of the marriage date depends,
in spite of fortune, on personal suitableness.
Your mother was a woman of family, f had a large
fortune; these were the foie considerations that influ
enced our parents to join us together. I have loft my
fortune, she has Til her rank ; forgot by her family,
what doth it fignify to her that the was born a lady ?
In the midst of our didrefs, the union of our hearts
made up for every thing ; the conformity of our tafles
made us choose this retirement. We live happy io our
poverty ; each is to the other inflead of all. Sophy is our
common treasure; wethank the almighty for giving
her, and taking away every thing else. You fee, child,
whither Providence hath brought us. Those conside
rations which occasioned our marriage are vanished,
and that which was accounted as nothing makes all
our happiness..
It is for man and wife to suit themselves. Mutual
inclination ought to be their firft tie ; their eyes, their
hearts ought to be their firfl guides; for as their pri
mary duty, after they are joned together, is to lore
one another, and as to love, or not to love, doth not
depend on us, this duty necessarily implies another,
namely, to begin with loving one another before mar
riage This a law of nature which cannot be abrogat
ed; those who have reprinted it, by many civil laws,
have had more regard to the appearance of order than
to the happiness or themorals of the people. You fee,
my dear s that the morality we pr^ch to you is not
difficult; it tends only to make yo^your own mdlrefs,
it! to make us refer ourselves entirely to you for the
li<oice of your husband.
After giving you our reasons for leaving you at full
liberty to make your own choice, it is proper to men
tion those which ought to induce you to use it with pru
d o e Sophy, you have got good nature, and good
, much integrity and piety, and those qualificati
ons which a woman ought to have; and you are not
disagreeable, tut you have no fortune; you have the
bed rides indeed, but you want those which are most
valued by the world. Do not aspire, therefore, to what
you cannot attain to; and regulate your ambition not
by your own judgment, or your mother's and mine,
but by the opinion of men. If nothing were to be con
sidered but merit equal to your own, I know not where
I should set limits to your hop-s ; but never raise them
above your fortune, which y@u are to remember is ve
ry small. You never saw cur prosperity; you were
born after we failed in the world. You have made our
poverty pleating to us, and we have shared in it with
out pain. Never, child, seek for that wealth which
we thank Heaven for taking from us ; we never tailed
happiness until we loft our riches.
You are too agreeable, Sophy, not to please some
body ; and you are not so poor as to render you a bur
then to anhohe.fi man. You will be courted, and per
haps by persons who are not worthy of you. If they
show themfelves.what they really are, you will form a
just estimate of them , their outside will not irapofe up
on you long ; but, though you have good judgment,
and can difeern merit, you want experience, and know
rot how far men can dissemble. An artful cheat may
study your taste, in order to seduce you, and coun
terfeit before you the virtues to which he is an absolute
flranger. Such a one, child, would ruin you before
you perceived it; and you would not fee your error,
until it was past recovery. The most dangerous of all
Snares, and the only one from which reason can restrain
you, is that into which the passions hurry one : if ever
you have the misfortune to fall into it, yon will fee
nothing but illusions and chimeras, your eyes will be
fafeinated, your judgment will be confufed, your will
will be corrupted, you will cherish your very error; and
when you come to fee it, you will have nodefire to leave
it. It is to Sophy's reason, not to the bias of her heart,
that we commit her ; while passion hath no afcendency
overyou, judge for yourfelf ; but whenever you fall
in love, commit the care of yourfelf to your mother.
This agreement which I propose to you, shews our
esteem for you, and refipres the natural order. It is
usual for parents to choose a hufrnd for their daugh
ters, and to consult her only for form's fake: We
shall do just the contrary ; you ffiall choose, and we
(hall be consulted. Make use of this right, Sophy,
freely and wifely ; the husband that is suitable for you
ought to be your own choice, and not ours : but it is
we who roust judge whether you are not mistaken in
his suitableness for you, and whether you are not do
ing, without knowing it, what you have no mind to.
Birth, fortune, rank, or the opinion of rhe world, will
have no weight with us. Take an honest man, whose
person you like, and whose temper is suitable to you ;
whatever he be in other refpeHs, we shall receive him
for our fonin-law: his income will be always large
enough, if he hath hands, and good morals, and loves
his family. His rank will be always be high, if he
ennobles it by virtue If every body should blame us,
what doth it fignify? We seek not the approbation of
the public ; your happiness fufhees to us.
L O N D O N, July r 5.
T\ISPATCHE3 were yeflerd;y received, brought by
the antelope packet, at the office of the (outturn fe
cretary,from gen. fir G.y Carleton,at New-York.They
bring the important information, that he had received
a decisive reply from congress, upn the fubjeft of
tile proposals which had been submitted to them from
this country; the purport of which is as follows :
that they absolutely refufe to treat with this country,
even upon the acknowledgment of their independence
as the bafisof it ; tnat they confider independence as a
blessing already in their own possession; that they will
not therefore submit to receive it from any quarter as
a boon ; that they can at this time enter into no treaty
with Great. Britain, in which France is not concerned ;
and that every application for a future negotiation
must be conveyed through their medium.
The above dispatches operate as a complete demon
flration, that the di inftion which took place in the
cabinet between Mr. Fox and hisTTdoous colleague,
was by no means a (hade, as it was humourously re
prtfented; for had the opinion of the late Secretary
been adopted, all hostilities must have ceased at dnce
with America, whereas from the wtak principle of mak
ing independence only, the foundation of'a treaty, a
cooceffien which it appears the Ameri ans totally re
jed, the one or the other of these tTHs mufl follow,
that we mull permit tnem to aflame to themselves what
we would not give, and to preclude the possibility of
friendship with them, or make our way into their ami
ty and good graces, through the difgraceful medium
of France, our old and natural enemy.
There was Something very Significant in the look cf
Mr. Fox, on Tuesday lad, in the house of commons,
when he whispered over the table to general Conway,
the few words PRICE:F peace, as the condition of
American independence. This circumfiance admit: of
a mod fair comment, and evidently points out, that
it was upon this ground that a contrariety of opinion
had obtained in the cabinet. Is it reasonable to Sup
pose that a great people, such as the Americans, who
have vindicated their privileges as citizens «f the world,
as erectors of a great empire, are fs deflitute of every
.distinctive idea of their own immunities, established by
the magna charta cf nature, and Supported by the
sword, will barter the sirs lrights of humanity, or ac
cept of them upon Sale from a nation which ought to
aft upon m re liberal Sentiments, and to acknowledge
independency to be the birth right of nations? Such
juggl °g trices may Succeed in the twilight, but can
not have effeH when the Sunof freedom has arisen, with
a bright though early radiance, to Aluminate the great
empire.
Short as the admininration of the marquis of Rock
ingham wgs, it must always form a brilliant point in
the dark pages of the hiflory of the present times; the
freedom of parliament having been extended by the ex
pulfion of contractors from the house of commons, aod
the freedom of election, by incapacitating revenue.
ficers from voting for representatives.
The firft Symptom of peace with America, that
attended the earl of Shelburne's adminiflfation, v :
the appearance of one Arnold, rt the levee, where
he had not ventured to ihew his face since the a,.e„;
July 16. Lord John CavendiSh, Mr. Fox, and Mr.
Burke, after having yesterday, in the house of com
moos, Severally given the lie dired to what fell from
the new premier the other day in the house of lords,
finifhed the session in a very fob ran manner, by fixing
an indelible ft'gma on the character of the latter: for
the law of God and mao concur in affirming, thatf'in
the mouth of two or three witnesses every truth Shall be
established."
A gentleman well known in the patriotic world, has
ordered a handed copies of the debate in the hccfe of
commons on Tuesday lift (in the course of whicn the
cause of Mr. Fox's resignation, and the great question
of American independence, came unde coafidpration)
to be neatly bound up, as a prefect to the American
congress.
Captain Afg:ll, now confined by general Washing
ton, ** mentioned in the London Courant of Saturday
last, is the only son of fir Charles Afgill, and is ju , , 5
years of age. Before he embarked for AJ T ;>. his
father made him an offer of goool. a year promAd i^
would give up his cornmiffion, but this the young gen
tleman Spurned at, preferring a military life to est and
plenty at home. This amiable youth ha written.a
letter to his father under his unfortunate confix em^nt
but without dismay or complaint, expressing only the
uneasiness of having disobeyed him in his perfev^auce
in his duty to his country, and calling on him for his
blessing and forgivenefs, in consideration of its LM^
the only a& of his life in which he had done so.
Sir Charles Afgill, having been judged past recede
ry when the last express arrived from America, he has
not been informed of the abo^e melancholy fixation
of his son.
The debate in the house of commons on Tuesday lafl,
now in the pref', is said to br the most complete as
well as the most important ever published. Upwards
of five hundred Copies are already bespoke, and there
is Scarcely a gentleman retiring into the country, who
has not ordered his bookseller to fend one or two after
him.
Extract of a letter from New- Mills, Burlington coun
ty, September 23, 1782.
" Last evening, about eight o'clock, a man armed
with piflols paffid through this town. He being wrap
ped up in a great coat, excited the curiosity of Some
boys who were playing in the road to interrogate him
whither he was go ng, on which he knocked one of
them down, this dispersed the rest, and he made his
escape to the pines : however, the neighbours we e
alarmed and collected together, but to pursue through
woods in the dark was fruitlefs; Sentinels were
placed out as usual, and about 12 o'clock at night two
of them who fl&od together Spied a man coming from
the woods, who proved to be the fame that had been
in the town in the evening—he was properly hailed Se
ven or eight times, but refufed to answer, and still kept
advancing towards them ; one of the centinels attempt
ed to fire, but his piece did not go off; the man on
feeing this rufned on them as fall as he could run, evi
dently appearing with an intent to Seize on the centi
nel, but the other who was not discovered by him,
fred and wounded him in the thigh, so that he died
this morning. He was very obflinate, and refu fed to
give any ac<ount of hunfelfmtber than that he was one of
Cornwallis's men,and had made his escape from Lancaf
ier in Pennsylvania ; but as this is the full cf the moon,
at which period the infamous Bacon and his plunderers
infeft te country ; and as we have had information
that they were in the neighbourhood, it is believed here
that this man was one of that banditti sent here as a
spy ; and it is hop d he has met with hisjuß deserts."
The firing which was heard toward New-York on
Sunday lab, was fuppofid to be on account of thean
niverfary of (he British king's coronation.
On Friday she 6th infl. departed this life, after a te
dious and painful illuefs, which he bore with a great
deal of fortitude, the brave captain Adam Hyler, of
N w Brunswick ; his many heroic and enterprising ads
in annoying and difireffing the euerhy, endeared him to
the patriotic part of ail his acquaintance; he has left
a wife and two small children to bewail ' his death;
his rennins were decently interred with a display
of the honours of war, in the Dutch burial
ground, attended by a very numerous concourse of
his acquaintance.
ment of the marquis of Rockfogham to be at the head
of the treasury.
The capture of the Bahama inlands form another ar
ticle of the catalogue of our territorial losses, and is
another unhappy confluence of the late fy flem. No
thing has arrived from Gibraltar; but on the conti
nent it is implicitly believed, that admiral Hughes has
been defeated ; and that Hyder Ally has obtained a vic
tory.
The mildness of the weather proves extremely for
tunate to the minifteral prints, as they are not obliged
to whitewash the new minister, but also blacken th©
friend of the people.
The Herald and Poss, whitewafliers in ordinary to
the Black-a-more minister, have taken on an addition
al number of hands, but on this condition, that they
shall be discharged at aday's notice, as it is very un
certain how long they may be wanted for the work.
The present minister may not be inaptly compared
toa certain mercer, who advertises his new fafhioned
silks for summer wear !
BOSTON, September 19.
T Last Monday arrived fife in port, the state Sloop
Winthrop, George Little, tfquire, commander, after a
fuccefsful cruise of fix weeks, during which she has
captured a privateer brig of 16 guns, (which she cut
out of Penobfeot) a privateer Schooner of eight guns,
and a prize belonging to each, one of which is a sloop
laden with lumber, 'he other an empty coaster, all
four of which are arrived fafe in po ty
The Ship of the line the Fantafque, belonging to hia
most chrifiian majefly, being at this time unnecessary
for his service, is to be lett, with her appurtenances,
rigging and tackling, as she new lies in the rive r of
Providence.
The consul general of France, residing in Boston,
will receive any reasonable proposition on that head.
31st August, 1782.
PROVIDEN C E, September 14.
On WednefJay captain Lemuel Jenkins, in a brig,
arrived here from Guadalou pe.— He informs, that the
continental fllip Alliance has retaken a sloop called the
Fortune, which had been captured by a privateer brig
from Bermuda ; the former master (captain Short) be
ing on board the sloop, was sent in here as prize-mafi
ter to Cape Francois.
T R E NT O N, September 25.
We are told, that a large fleet of British ships failed
on Saturday last from the Hook, among which are se
veral of the line ; but their destination we do not cer
tainly learn.
It is confidently told by persons from New-York,
that Mr. Fox, who lately resigned his office as one of
the principal secretaries of state in Great Britain, is
again reinflated.
By the fame authority we learn, that the account of
the capture of admiral Hughes, with Several ships of
the line in the Eafl- Indies, is thought to be authentic •
and that the fleet which left Sandy H^k on Saturday
last is to join the garrison of Charleftown, and then to
make a defeent on one of the French Weft-India
islands.
Smith Hetfield, an infamous refugee, who has been
committing depredations on the innocent inhabitants
along t he lines ever since the commencement of the war,
and was taken prisoner Several months ago, made his
escape from the guard who had him in charge, on Sa
turday night last.
We learn that upwards of 7000 inhabitants of New-
York have signed a paper of agreement for removing
to Nova-Scotia.
Yesterday Joseph Davifon and John Mulliner, who
were Sentenced at the last Supreme court to be hanged
here for horfe-flealing, were pardoned under the gal
lows.