The Pennsylvania packet, or, The general advertiser — Lancaster, Pa.;Philadelphia, Pa., 1777-11-29 00:00:00, page 4

I, O ND O N.
MOUSE or LORDS, fare 3, 1777.
Sit. //..nee <.J Lord Chatham's speech, in the House of
Lords, on Friday la/t, co delivered by bis Lordfotp,
his Lordfeip fitting in his place with his bat on,
both of which deviations from the cuflomary rules of
/•' d e hr prayed as an indugence.
Mr Lords,
r | 1 0 it o/^rs of this country are in so precari-
J cus and critical a filiation, that I could not,
cor Uftent wi h my duty, any longer postpone sub
; : *CT; ?rv rb^iht< to 'he Hone, in humble ex
pe&dtion, that whatever 1 may offer will be receiv
ed as intended only for the dignity, honor, and in
terest of my country, to promote the luftre of the,
crown, the case and happiness of my Sovereign, and
tne general beoelh of every part of tire Bririfh Em
pire. If the effift of the motion lam going to pO
- to your Lirdfhips ffiould arrest the hand of
power, ad were to anfver the z%l and earned
wi(hes of him who m ; kes it, he would indeed be
eqti-"v happy and foccefsGl.
My Lords, in explaining the obje&s of my raoti
-0% f with to keep every thing from your recollecti
on that may give you pain; but wkiie i relate to
yoer Lord (hips the grounds of the proposition I ^n
about to make, it is irAfpenfabiy necessary that 1
them'd tell your LorLhics wQathas caused the evils
u^ which we%reat present threatened. My Lords,
you voel away the property ofthe Americans with
out their content; when they complained, you would
rent hear thei r complaints; you called them factious,
fe i ious, and rebel im^. hu quarreled wuh y.<r
fa!j : fts on the other fide of the Atlantic about a
'pahry tax upon tea, you have spent many millions
in ftpe nt if th^ tax. The war, my Lords, is got
to a cghrro man c did so efee; to a height which
mow threatens rwn and deftruaion to this country.
America is loft. I fear England is undone. What
have you done, my Lords? You have rendered Bri
tain a dependent state; d pendant on the precari
ous fritnd&G, or the more precarious neutrality of
France. What did you do, my Lorcis? Yon con
deinn m d a whole province without hearing, even
without demanding fat&aion for the injury you
fiftaiced. You proscribed them; you flint up their
ports aud harbours; you robbed them ot their
chartered rigins; you deprived them, my Lords, of
their most vriuab e % privileges, of the unalienable
birthright of an Englishman, the trial by jury; the
trial ot the vicinage, of Judges unacquainted with
the parties, the offence, the provocation, and the
measure of pc-Chment. What was the consequence,
my Lords' Three millions of people refufed to be
bound by your arbitrary edids. --I beg your Lord
ships pardon; Mimfteis were miltken; it was Eng
lishmen that Were to be bound and enslaved. My
Lords, they refufed it. The (kill and bravery of
"your Generals, the prowess of your tro ps, the
flienjh add pride of this once powerful country,
your navy was found inefficient. What, -my Lords,
were you obliged to do? You could not procure
men at home; Englishmen do not like to enslave
Englishmen, nor trample on the rights of theirfel
low fubje&s. What did your Lordihip do? You
hired 20,000 German boors; your Ministers, I fay,
hired them, to cut the throats-of your inoffending
colonies. Those colorifc are now, my Lords, cal
led rebels; they are stigmatized with every base and
abusive epithet in the English language. Yet, my
Lords, 1 remember when this country was waging
war with the united powers of France and Spain,
when there was a rebellion, and a Scotch rebellion,
within this land; I remember when our fleets were
tifelefs, our armies unfucce r sful, that those men now
described as the blackest and basest of all rebels:
bay more, that very colony which has been repre
footed as the hot-bed of (edition aid treason ; that
colony against which the keenest lightnings of go
vernment are denounced, and have been direded. I
remember, I fay, my Lords, this very colony fend
ing forth the four regiments of undisciplined militia,
which gave the firft check to France in her proud
career, and erected the standard of conquest on the
walls of Louifburgh. But, my Lords, we need not
point cut particular fads in proof of the bravery,
the zeal, the duty and affection of this people; the
annals of the last war will tell fitch of your Lord
ships as are not old enough to remember, how they
fought, how they bled; they will tell you, how ge
reroufly they contributed, how like loving brethren
they shared the common burthen and the danger.
These, my Lords, ate the unhappy men you have
cruelly devoted to deftrudion; whole towns you would
raze, whose commerce you would annihilate, whose
liberties yo» would dedroy by the sword, whose
properties you would conffcate, and woofe petfens
LANCASTER: Printed by J OHN DUNLAP, in Queen-ftrect. [Price Fifteen Penee.j
yet would enslave; these are the people whom your
Ministers would extirpate. What has been the sys
tern pursued by Administration, ard what have been
the measures taken for carrying it into execution ?
Your system has been a government, ere&ed on the
ruins of the constitution, and founded in conquest,
and you have swept all Germany of its refufe as its
means. There is not a petty insignificant Prince,
whom you have not solicited for aid : You are be
come the fuitois at every German court, and have
your Ministers enrphd in the German Chancery,
as the contrasting parties, in behalf of this oace
great and glorious country. The laurels of Britain
are faded, her arms are disgraced, her negotiations
are spurned at, and her councils fallen into contempt.
My Lords, you have vainly tried to conquer Ame
rica by the aid of German mercenaries, by the arms
of twenty thousand undifei,lined German boors,
gleaned and collided from every obfeure corner of
that country; you have subsidized their masters ;
you have tavifhad the public treasures on them ; and
what have y®u effe&ed? Nothing, my Lords, but
forcing the colonies to declare themlelves indepea
dant Rates. You have caused them, my Lords, to
a& with vigor and refohition; you have united and
combined them; you have, by this unnatural ad,
cemented them.and given them but one foul. Their
breads, my Lords, are fired with indignation; they
a e fired with just resentments; they burn with ar
dor to revenge their injuries, and retaliate with in
terest on their cruel and merciless oppressors. Yes,
my Lords, 1 fay, three millions of freemen will ne
ver submit to twenty thousand mercenaries. No,
my I -.:'.-, the id 1 is prepofErous ; the attempt is
absurd; as well might I expert to Conquer them
with this crutch, as to suppose America will ever
submit to so contemptible a fotce.
I would recommend peace to your Lordships at
all events; the longer the unhappy canteft is conti
nued, the more difficult it will be to conciliate, and
the less able we mail be to prosecute with vigor and
effect, or accomodate with honor or advantage:
Ministers, as ' they blundered from the beginning,
are led into a fatal error, refpe&ing cur natural ene
mies the French. They imagine that nothing is to
be dreaded from that quarter, because France , has
not interfered direcHy in favor of America. But,
my Lords, do Ministers, when they build luck migh
ty things on this circumstance, recollect, that they
argue as if France were mad ! Would they have
France run the rifle, hazard and expence of a war,
when Britain is doing all for France (he can pebbly
with or defirel,lt w?s a gross mfeoncepti oco tup
pefe, that France ever thought a hog e minute about
giving a direct aid to the Colonies; file never meant,
my Lords, to interrupt th?s country in its wild ca
reer, nor stand between it and its Colonies: No,
my Lords, die has taken care from her conduct, to
feed and nourish the mad notions of corqueft and
dominion which have unfortunately prevai ed with
in these walls. She has been equally Sedulous to
give just that degree of countenance and protection,
which has hitherto served to keep the civil w^r a
live so as to baffle your designs and to waste your
strength.
This cruel a: d unnatural war, my Lords, I dread
will be a fatal war; you have proscribed your own
children; you have turned a deaf ear to their dutiful
petitions, their fervent entreaties, and have inter
preted their honest constitutional remonstrances into
Treason and Rebellion. You have, my Lords, loft
America; you tve poured the riches of America
into the lap of Le House of Bombon. Will France
forget her own interest so much as to think of war ?
To effect what, my Lords? What this country is
effecting at the rate of twenty millions per ann^m.
France, my Lords, knows her own interest
better. France is filling her arsenals with naval
stores, flie is ddpefing of her manufactures. She is
accumulatir g in her storehouses the produce of A
merica. She is thereby preparing for war; she is
cultivating and extending her commerce, and wife
ly opening new sources of internal wealth, and ex
ternal strength, whjle we continue daily to waste
our own strength; while our commerce languishes,
and while out specie leaves the kingdom to purchase
those commodities, which besides the common ad
vantages derived from them in a commercial view,
were all received in exchange for our own manu
fadures.
We have, my Lords, tried hitherto to no pur
pose. Is there the most distant rational profpea
that affairs will bear a better face at the end of this
year, than they did at the last. We have exerted
owr utmost length to little or no purpose. We
have talked of conquering America. Have ve done
it? No, my Lords, we have nothing to boast of
but a few trifling advantages, which, when we con-
sider the price paid for them, and the circumftnnces
which attended the obtaining them, wear in Ld, c
very appearance of defeat. We continue to fend
troops, and have voted millions; and what, ry
Lords, are we told? That our army, a r er fuc •
normous fupp'ies, will be just equal to what it ws
last year, when it effected nothing, or next to no
thi °^
His Lerdfaip shewed the absurd ; t, of relying lon
ger on the mere force of arms, and very pathei r al
ly pressed the neceffoy of a speedy cosci iaiien. We
were, he said, on the brink of a precipice; on the
very verge of deftrudion; and desired their Lord
ships to Inatch the present moment, as probably the
last, in which they would have the opporunty of
procuring the national falvari n. A few wc r ks, nay,
a tingle day's delay might be too late. War, fays
his Lordihip, has been tried ; let us, my Lords, fee
what c nciliation will d,; let *, recri e& cu r crid
c.l situation; let us c nfider, ihouiw- persevere
in the wine wild, ruin us and epprHive (yfFm,
the inevitable alternatives with which we are sur
rounded on either h-nd. Should we Icie America,
America will be added in faO to tie French Em
pire. Should we prove fuccefs'u! in the flbugale,
debiliated, exhausted and impaver sh ed as we muff
be, we (hall in that event have conquered America
for France. If not waiting for either of tho'e e
vents, France fuould change her prefect system,
which I can hardly think (he will, except by feme
unexpected change in her Councils, then America
as a master of emrfe, will be loft for ever to his
country. Shc.'d this latter be the case, ard that
flie Ihould m/<r t ,üb ! ic avowal of her lenime s,
by fopporting • ' ^:r'e cf America; though wehad
but five (hips of w^r in the world, I would v.dhnry
be for declaring r against her, as the only repara
tion that could polfibiy fatisfy the wounded honor
of a great nation, be the event what it might. His
Lordship reminded the House, iikewife, of the pra
pofitions moved by his bill and motion, early in
1775, before a drop of blood had been fhd on ei
ther fide; pointed out the fatal policy which cat
fed their rejediol, and the very violent and mcEcprt
manner in which they were rej-fled. Bis L. 1-
fliip spoke for above fifty minuses.
Lord Cambden, in one of the able/ifreshes e er
heard, went through the whole jrfehf/wte of ./-
merican afairs, ord in a most rnaf^y manner fu^-
ported his noble friend Lord Chatham, representin',
the danger ofthe brefent erfs to England from the
preparations of Erdnee, and their own conduct in
particular. (Eds mofl excellent freeth fall have
a place tn our text.)
Xr^ ► X+X4-M {-* rWl#'+M+X+
Head Quarters, Whitemarfo, Nov. I, 1777.
AGer^ral Court Martial, ot which General Shl
livan was frefiuent, was held the 2; h. 26s ,
27 h aadgoth of O^ober last, for the trial of Ge
neral. Wayne, 00 the following charge, viz.
“ That he had timely notice of the enemy's in
tention to attack the troops under his coran and, on
the night of the 2®th September luff, ao4 notwi h
ftanding that intelligence, rejected m.ki g a dilpo
fition until it was too late, either to annoy the ene
my, or make a retreat wi h at the umoft danger and
confufion;" upon which the Cmre pronounced the
following fentenee."
The Court having fofy cinfic'ered the charge
against Brigadier Gei&^rWayoe, and the evidence
produced to then, ate unEnmoifo of opinion; iCai
General Way hc s not guilty of the charge exhibited
against him; bit that he on the night of' rhe zc h
ultimo (that is of September) did every thing that
could be expend from ah active, breroeatt vigihr.t
officer, under tie orders he then had. The Court
do acquit him with the b'gheft honor.
The Commander in Chief approves the sentence.
The action of that night has caused much {pecula
tion. The tope bf flanker has net been idle-.—
However Gogh feme gendemcn Were iw rheirat
tempt to detrad fretri the merits of the General, and
his faithful officers arid (bidders, who with unparal
leled bravery &d the bayonet of the enemy; saved
all the artillery, and in the face of evetfdifficulty
and danger, efe&ed ah Kbiiorable retreat with the
loss of no morethan ^^ fcen killed wounded ard
taken; yet they find themselves egregioafly disap
pointed.
AMX^<^^X^X^ x^^<^^
Lancajier, Nov. 26, 1777.
W A NY' E b 30 K T F'T,
A Commodes DWELLING-HOUSE,
with or without a flab,le. Enquire of the
Pricier.