Dunlap's Pennsylvania packet , The general advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1774-07-04 00:00:00, page 2

To provid an \fy and equitable fund for pub
lick services, is the second grand object of a Le
gdl iture—~the jir/l being to secure the impartial
administration of justice.
Now if we penetrate seriously into the impor
tant history of probable events, we Shall certainly
be induced to believe, that when the numbers,
power, and revenues, of America, exceed those of
Britain— i revolution of the leaf of empire, <willfure
-1) take place.
George the First, when called to the throne of
England, never harboured so absurd a thought,
as to wield the Engli h feeptre in the Electorate
of Hanover : the centre of his dominions was the
•plac. of his choice ; nor would the nation have
Deen Satisfied without it. How long it may be
oelore a iimdar translation Shall happen in favour
of America, I will not undertake to determine
but Should the Georges in regular succession, wear
the 3ritdh diadem, ton number ranking with the
Louis's of France, many a goodly Prince of that
royal line, will have mingled his affies with
American dull : and, not many generations may
piss away, before one of the firft Monarchs of the
World, on afeending his throne, shall declare with
faulting joy, " Bora, and educated among/}you,
1 for? in t,ie name of American."
When this important day arrives, as arrive it
mod surely will, if kind Providence is pleased to
Elefs us with harmony and peace amongst our-
Ebes, can there be a more pleasing, more joyful
p'ofped for our successors, than to receive their
Monarch with a revenue ready prepared, a reve
nue ufficieot to answer every exigency of the State.
England may lark with contemptuous sneer,
ar these vain chimeras of an American brain,
but, so certainly as events follow their causes,
and the planets pursue their wonted revolutions,
''' empire of Britain will devolve on America.
ue<e are truths which I want to imprint on eve
•ymind, which I with every American to feel;
and then with manly dignity, they will assert their
rights, nor basely cringe to the lawless ufarpation,
of unreasonable power.
If it were not diverging too far from the ideaof
Pascal Refection, I would conclude them with
h zarding a conjecture which has in some fort ari
hn out of the valthefs of the fubjed.
A new world is now opening before us, and
< nrittianityisextending her wings over thele Wef
:rn regions of ignorance. Alia, Africa, and Eu
^pe have had the glad tidings of salvation founded
.^nongftthem, and bythe blessed influence ofa hea
'enly mediator are every where spreading amongst
unbelievers—perhaps when Barbarjfm and Inside
: ry are expelled from the face of the globe, and
( nriftianity has universally extirpated the feed of
'hi—Earth may have done her work—the fur
r ending impulsions on matter may be withdrawn,
a 1 i all Nature be dispersed in the twinkling of an
e, into the boundless immensity of space, when
w j ry unembodied foul fliall inftaotly flow back in
^^re, to that immenfurable ocean of love and
^ :rcy, from whence it originally derived.
Wheat bring a higher price; otherwise the
ground u<ll remain unribed. It the estate is io
circumstanced, that the rentc/w/of he lowered, the
wheat will undoubtedly rile; for the farmer will
not purine his labor without a living pay. Thus
the value of the produce of a country will ever
bear a proportion to the value of the land, if that
value cannot be abated; and of consequence every
inhabitant will be aferted in proportion as he pof
feflcs more or less property. Now lands fubjert
to ffit rexts are so circumdanced, that the value
in that relpert cannot be abated.
if we fuppde all future lands granted in Ame
rica to be charged with the annual payment of an
halfpenny dealing per acre, the consumers of the
produce of the foil, must pay a certain proportioh
bt the rest or tax; and thus there will be a pretty
equal contribution throughthe land. But tomake
Some , eater provision for a future greater day,
thelc lands might be granted at an halfpenny for
the frit 100 years, conditioned, to advance an
halfpenny every century, for jo centuries to come;
by which time, if not long before, the whole con
tinent would probably be full fettled. The neat
revenue would thin be 73 millions 4 hundred and
37 thousand 5 hundred pounds; nor would this
tax ever be thought high. Extensively wild as
these bounds may seem, they are still within the
limits which timeihall encircle. When Egbert, the
fird monarch of England, firft swayed his feepter,
it wanted but 27 years of being as distant from
the reign of George the third, as from the present
important day, to this mighty rera of American
gandeur:— and A such periods even then had rol
led away since creation began.—But to return —
If it be said, that the great difference in the qua
lities of the foil would render rhe tax unequal, it
must be observed, that the worst lands will always
be the laid taken up, and that every fabfequent
purchaser of good land will pay proportionally
more for it, as it excells in quality. In countries
where they are circumferibed within narrow limits,
and the lea almott surrounds them, the inhabitants
are obliged for fubliftence, to borrow support from
the main; therefore, when the trade of such a na
tion greatly exceeds the value of its lands, it is
reasonable to look to her commerce, for assistance
in defraying the necessary expences of govern
ment; asin England, where the whole rents of the
lexis some years ago were ertimated at only 9 mil
lions, when probably the public charges amounted
to fix.—But in this mighty continent, the inland
trails are f)immenfe, and so dirtant from the sea,
that a proper land tax, judiciouflv laid on all new
granted lands, will in all probability, in a series
of years, answer every necessary expence.
1 hope I (hall not hereby too much alarm the
landed man, by proposing to lay the whole bur
then of the tax on the landed interest: for it ought
to be considered, that with refpert to future pur
cbafers, every man now resident on the continent
stands exactly on an equal footing; and every pur
chase made after such a regulation, will be a fair
and open contract made between the purchaser and
the public: nay, it will prove an immediate ad
vantage to the present land-holder, whose lands
not being fubjert to such an import, like those in
England clear of tythes, will always command a
"higher price.
But, Sir, the proportion is so glaring; so un
precedented in any former proceedings of Parlia
ment; so unwarranted by any delay, denial, or
perversion ofjuftice in America; so big with mise
ry and oppreflion to that country, and with dan
ger to this—that the firft blush of it is fufficient
to alarm and rouse me to opposition.
It is proposed to stigmatize a whole people as
persecutors of innocence, and men incapable of
doing justice ; yet you have not a single fad on
which to ground that imputation. I expected the
noble Lord would have supported this motion by
producing instances of the officers of government
in America having been prosecuted with unre
mitting vengeance, and brought to cruel and dis
honorable deaths by the violence and injustice of
American juries. But he has not produced one
such instance ; and I will tell you more, Sir, —
he cannot produce one. The instances which have
happened are directly in the teeth of his proposi
tion. Capt. Preston and the soldiers, who (bed
the blood of the people, were fairly tried, and
fully acquitted. It was an American jury, a New-
England jury, a Borton jury, which tried and
acquitted them. Capt. Preston has, under his
hand, publicly declared, that the inhabitants of
the very town, in which their fellow citzens had
been facrificed, were his advocates and defenders.
Is this the return you make them ? Is this the en
couragement you give them to persevere in so
laudable a spirit of justice and moderation? When
a Commissioner of the Customs, aided by a num
ber of ruffians, assaulted the celebrated Mr. Otis
in the midst of the town of Borton, and with the
most barbarous violence almost murdered him, did
the mob, which is said to rule that town, take
vengeance on the perpetrators of this inhuman out
rage against a perlon who is supposed to be their
Demagogue ? No, Sir, the law tried them ; the
law gave heavy damages against them; which the
irreparably injured Mr. Otis most generously for
gave upon an acknowledgment of the offence. Can
you expert any more such instances of magnani
mity, under the principle of the bill now proposed?
But the noble Lord fays, “ We must now (hew
the Americans that we will no longer fit quiet un
der their insults." Sir, lam forty to fay that
this is declamation, unbecoming the character and
place of him who utters it. In what moment have
you been quiet ? Has not your government for
many years part been a series of irritating and of
fenfive measures, without policy, principle, or mo
deration ? have not your troops and your ships
made a vain and insulting parade in their streets
and in their harbours ? It has seemed to be your
study to irritate and inflame them. You have sti
mulated difeontent into difaffedion, and you are
now goading that difaffertion into rebellion. Can
you expect to be well informed when you listen
only to partizans ? Can you expe<rt to do justice
when you will not hear the accused?
Let us confider, Sir, the precedents which are
offered to warrant this proceeding—The fufpen
hon of the Habeas Corpus art in 1745 —the mak
ing smugglers triable in Middlesex, and the Scotch
rebels in England, Sir, the firft was done upon the
most pressing necessity flagrante bello, with a dan
gerous rebellion in the very heart of the kindom.
The second you well know, was warranted by the
most evident fads: armed bodies of smugglers
marched publickly without presentment or moles
tation from the people of the county of Sussex;
who, even to their magistrates, were notoriously
connerted with them. They murdered the offi
cers of revenue, engaged your troops, and openly
violated the laws. Experience convinced you,
that the juries of that, and of the counties similarly
circuniftanced, would never find such criminals
guilty ; and upon convirtion of this necessity you
passed the art. The fame necessity juftified the
trial of Scotch rebels in England. Rebellion
had reared its dangerons standard in Scotland, and
the principles of it had lo universally tainted that
people, that it was manifeftly in vain to expert
justice from them against their countrymen. —But
in America not a single art of rebellion has been
committed. Let the Crown Law officers, who fit
by the noble Lord, declare, if they can, that there
is upon your table a single evidence of treason or
rebellion in America. They know, Sir, there is
not one, and yet we are proceeding as if there
were a thousand.
Having thus proved, Sir, that the proposed
bill is without precedent to Support, and without
Fromthe 13 ATn Chronicle, of /foil 2s.
Col. Barre '3 frecb on Lord North's motion for
le tee to bring in a bill empowering a Governor in
North- America to fend any officer, who foal, com
mit warder in the province, to another colony, or
to England, to be tried.
Mr. Speaker,
IR ISE with great unwillingness, tooppofe this
measure in its very infancy, before its features
are well formed, or to claim that attention which
this House seems to bestow with so much reluct
ance on any arguments in behalf of America. But
I rhuft call you td witness, that I have been hi
therto silent, or acquiescing to an unexperted de
gree of moderation. While your proceedings, se
vere as they were, had the least colour of founda
tion in justice, I defined from opposing them; nay
more—though your bill for flopping up the port
of Boston contained in it many things mort cruel,
unwarrantable, and unjust, yet as they were couch
ed under those general principles of jurtice, retri
bution for injury, and compensation for loss sus
tained, I not only defined from opposing, but as
sented to its passing. The bill was a bad way of
doing what was right; but still it was doing what
was right. I would not therefore by opposing it
seem to countenance those violences which had been
committed abroad; and of which no man disap
proves more than I do.
Upon the present question I am totally unpre
pared. The motion itfelf bears no fort of resem
blance to what was formerly announced. The no
ble Lord and his friends have had every advan
tage of preparation. They have reconnoitred the
field, and chosen their ground. To attack them
in these circumstances, may, perhaps, favour more
of the gallantry of a soldier, than of the wisdom
of the senator.
/ E the fubferibers, merchants and traders of
yV Marblehead, do hereby offer to our op
pressed, but much refperted Brethren of Boston
and other neighbouring towns thereof: During
the operation of the art of Parliament, called the
Port-Bill; the free use of our stores in this town,
reserving only fufficient room for our own goods
and merchandize. We likewise assure them of
our readiness in feeing to the lading or unlading of
their goods in this town, and shall confider our
selves obliged to them for every opportunity of
thus faring them expence, and (hewing how much
we sympathize with and refpert them. We confi
dently depend on their patience and resolution, the
known chararterifticks of Bostonians and their
neighbours; and hope soon to fee them relieved
from their distress, and the liberties of America
founded on a permanent basis, by an Indissolu
ble Union of the colonies.
farts to warrant it; let us now view the cenfe
quenecs it is now likely to produce. A soldier
feels Himfclf so much above the rest of mankind,
that the ftrirt hand of the civil power is necessary
to controul the haughtiness of disposition which
such superiority inspires. You know, Sir, what
constant care is taken in this country to remind the
military that they are under the rertraint of the
civil power. In America their superiority is still
greater. Remove the check of the law, as this
bill intends, and what insolence and outrage may
you not expert? Every patlion that is pernicious
to society will be let loose upon a people unaccus
tomed to licentiousness and intemperance. On the
one hand will be a people who have been long
complaining of oppreflion, and fee in the soldiery
thole who are to enforce it upon them; on the
other, an army studiously preporteffed with the
idea of that people being rebellious, unawed by
the apprehenhon of civil controul, and actuated by
that spirit which prevails ever among the best of
troops. In this situation, the prudent officer will
find it impossible to rertrain his soldiers, or prevent
that provocation which will rouze the tamest peo
ple to resistance. The inevitable consequence
will be, that you will produce the rebellion you
pretend to obviate.
I have been bred a soldier, have served long.
I refpert the profeffion, and live in the ftrirteft
habits of friendfllip with a great many officers;
but there is not a country gentleman of you all,
who looks upon the army with a more jealous eye,
or would more strenuously resist the setting them
above the controul of the civil power. No man
is to be trusted in such a situation. It is not the
fault of the soldier, but the vice of human nature,
which, unbridled by law, becomes insolent and
licentious, wantonly violates the peace of society,
and tramples upon the rights of human kind.
With refpert to those gentlemen who are destined
to this service, they are much to be be pitied. It
is a service, which an officer of feeling and of worth
must enter upon with infinite relurtance; a service,
in which his only merit must be, to bear much, and
do little. With the melancholy profpert before
him of commencing a civil war, and embruing his
hands in the blood of his fellow fubjerts; his feel
ings, his honour, his life are hazarded, without a
possibility of any equivalent or compensation. You
may perhaps think a law, founded upon this mo
tion, will be his protection. I am mistaken if it
will. Who is to execute it? He must be a bold
man indeed who makes the attempt. If the peo
ple are so exasperated, that it is unfafe to bring the
man who has injured them to trial, let the Gover
nor who withdraws him from justice look to him
felf. The people will not endure it; they would
no longer deserve the reputation of being defeend
ed from theloins of Englilhmen,ifthey didendureit.
When I stand up as an advocate for America,
I feel myfelf the firmeft friend of this country.
We stand upon the commerce of America. Alie
nate your Colonies, and you will subvert the
foundation of your riches and your strength. Let
the banners of rebellion be once spread in Ameri
ca, and you are an undone people. You are urging
this desperate, this deftrurtive irtue. You are
urging it with such violence, and by measures
tending so manifeftly to that fatal point, that,
but that a state of madness only could inspire such
an intention, it would appear to be your deliberate
purpose. In assenting to your late bill, I refilled
the violence of America, at the hazard of my po
pularity there. I now resist your phrenzy at the
fame rifque here. You have changed your ground.
You are becoming the aggressors, and offering the
last of human outrages to the people of America,
by fubjerting them, in effert, to military execution.
I know the vast superiority of your disciplined troops
over the provincials; but beware how you supply
the want of discipline by desperation. Instead of
fending them the olive branch you have sent
the naked sword. By the olive branch, I mean a
repeal of all the late laws, fruitlefs to you, and
oppressive to them.
Ade their aid in a constitutional manner, and
they will give it to the utmost of their ability.
They never yet refufed it, when properly required.
Your journals bear the recorded acknowledg
ments of the zeal with which they have contri
buted to the general necessities of the state. What
madness is it that prompts you to attempt obtaining
that by force which you may more certainly pro
cure by requisition? They may be flattered into
any thing, but they are too much like yourselves
to be driven. Have some indulgence for yourown
likeness; refpert their sturdy English virtue ; re
trart your odious exertions of authority, and re
member—that the firft step towards making them
contribute to your wants, is to reconcile them to
your government.
Last Tuesday evening, the Committee of Correspond
ence, received the fo'lowing fubferiptien, from
ourfmpathizing Brethren of Marblehead, Jigned
by twenty-eight principal merchants and traders in
that port.
Marblehead, June 7th, 1774.
N. B. Such of us as have wharves, do likewise
heartily and freely give the use of them to our
Brethren aforefaid, for landing their goods and
merchandize in this place.
BOSTO N, Junezy
Early on Saturday morning, the 18th instant,
died at Lancaster, in the 43d year of her a^e,
Mrs. ESTHER BARTO N, wife 'of
the Rev. Mr. THOMAS BARTON,
of that place, and filter to Mr. David R 1 t
tenhousf, of Philadelphia.
It is not easy to do justice to the character ofc.
this amiable and excellent woman, without incur
r'"g 'be iufpicion of flattery among those who did
not know her. Blessed with a superior undeftand
ing, a found judgment, and peculiar sweetness of
temper, flie always knew what was propriety of
condua on every occafron, and how to be agree
able in every company. But she confdered'it to
be her highest honour, as it was her chief desire,
tofine in her own family, as a dutiful ^ife and
tender metier; setting an example of virtue and
ceconomy to her children, and preferring the calm
walk of domestic happiness, to all those fantaftic
and adventitious joys, in the pursuit of which too
many waste their precious time.
She bore, for many days, the greater bodily
pain with exemplary patience and tefignation; and
finding at last the time of her diff.lnfo at hand,
flie took leave of h • family with JAT^ G
On Friday last a gold medal was adjudged by
the Profeffor of Chemirtry in the College of this
city, to Mr. JAMES HUTCHINSON,
(a native of Pennsylvania) for his extensive and
accurate knowledge in that branch of medicine.
PHILADELPHIA, July 4.
Extrafi of a Letter from a Gentleman in the north
of England, to his Friend in this City.
" As to public affairs I have not much to tell
you, without I fay, that I believe both courtiers
and patriots art, in general, from contemptible mo
tives (that is, private interest) corruption and bri
bery on the one fide, with dissipation and want, on
the other, will make slaves of us all.—Your's is the
country, where liberty seems to be the best under
stood, or at least, the most valued Surely by the
present art they don't mean to fend offenders home
to be tried—such a stroke at your liberty, I ap
prehend, would rouse the whole Continent, and
indeed, with reason might they take the alarm, at
so unjust: a procedure—but, justice and equity
seem to be quite banished and exploded from the
present system of politics, in England, as well as in
the other parts ofEurope—Such condurt, one may
reasonably conclude, will terminate in confufion,
and then woe be to the heads of those whose evil
machinations have brought on the day of trouble."
Extract of a Letter from Capt. John Conne Iv, Com
mandant at Fort Pi:t, to his friend in Philadel
phia, June 27, 1774.
" The inhabitants in general are fled from this
place, and this country is in great confufion. I
understand, a party of Shawanefe warriors were
about to set out to annoy our settlements towards
Redstone, and I have detached 100 artive militia,
under the command of good officers, to fall in with
them if possible, and expert to hear of a Ikirmilh
between them every hour, I have sent down the
appraifments of the King's boats, which I was
obliged to tear up in the hurry to lash the pickets.
You will observe the necessity of keeping some
of the Royal Irish here, in order to protert so va
luable a part of his Majesty's property."
We hear his Honour the GOVERNOR
has ordered writs to be ifTued, summoning the
GENERAL ASSEMBLY of this" pro
vince to meet on Monday, the 18th of July', on
Indian affairs.
There was to be a meeting of the inhabitants
ofthe county of Morris, at Morris town, in New-
Jersey, on Monday last.
We hear from Suffolk county, Long-Iflahd,
that on Friday last, the 24th inst. the Committees
ofthe several towns in that county, were to meet,
in order to choose deputies to attend a provincial
convention in this city.
A committee of Gentlemen, inhabitants of this
province, will in a few days be appointed to meet
the representatives of the other colonies, at the en
suing grand continental congress, to be held on
the firft day of September next, at a place that
ihall in the interim be fixed on, agreeable to the
measures lately concerted by the Hon. House of
Representatives of the Massachusetts-Bay.
By accounts from Jamaica we are informed,
that the inhabitants of Kingston have, after thirty
years attention to it, compleated an Herculean la
bour, and brought Hope river from the moun
tains to pals through the town of Kingston, which
is now, to the unfyeakable joy of every inhabitant,
incomparably well watered, and the place render
ed more healthy than at any time since it was con
ftrurted. The wild Negroes who had threat
ened to be very troublesome, arc at length fatisfied
and returned to a state of order and tranquility.
His Excellency the Commander in Chief, hav
ing given orders for transports to fail for New-
York, and there to take on board his Majesty's
royal regiment of Welch Fufileers; we hear the
vessels are already failed, and preparations are
making here for their embarkation as soon as they
arrive.
N E W-Y OR K, June go.
By the last accounts from Scotland, we are as
sured, that no less than two thousand fouls, natives
of the county of Galloway, are on the point of de
parting for America: they are chiefly diftined
for this province, and will bring with them at least
twenty thousand guineas; this is inserted from
very good authority.
A bill for the regulation of all the American
colonies, is to be brought into the House of Com
mons in the present fellion: this intimation was
received by the last vessels arrived at Marblehead
from London.
N E W I'O A T, % : ,3.
Last Saturday arrived - here, the Ihip Black
Prince, Captain Daniel Gardiner, from Charles
town, South Carolina, which place he left the 9th
infti and informs, that the account of the block
ing.up the port of Borton arrived there two or
three days before he failed, and occasioned great
confufion among die inhabitants;' and that the
pedple of that city offered to load Capt. Gardi
ner's ihip with Rice, for the support of the poor of
Borton, but he could not take it in.