The American gazette, or, the Constitutional journal — Salem, Mass., 1776-07-16 00:00:00, page 2

I'S Grace observed, that the justice of the
. - American war, the rights of the mother
country, apd the claims of America, had
‘been so fiequently and so amply difcuflfed, that
he thould avoid, as much as possible, every fatt
and argument that could possibly tend to introduce
those subjects into the present debate. He should
gndeavor (o confine himfelf to the terma of his mo
gion refpeting the treaties, and only advertio such
parts of the condu& es adminitration, and the
ameans hitherto adopted in the prosecution of the
war as diretly applied tothem. The frft ground
ke took was, giving a thort history of the several
_treaties entered into with the Landgraves of Hefle,
beginning with that made in the yearl7o3, and
ending with those several explanations and modi
ications of that mode at the commencement of the
Jate war, down so late as the year 1761, when his
Serene Highness was indemnified for the losses fuf
zained in his Landgraviate, by that country’s being
frequently made by the enemy the feat of war. In
_ghis historical deteil, his Grace shewed that tha fuc
“ceflive Landgraves flill from time to time rose
in their demands, and fiill s they continued to ex
“gort better terms, they never failed to establish the
former extortion as a precedent for the basis of
*_she succeeding treaty, always taking eare to make
_fome new demand on this country. This he infilt
wd was the c%ﬁ:‘of the present, The preceding
wreaty to a subsidy added its continuance toa cet
tain period. The ome now under cocfideration
doubled the subsidy, His Grace then entered io
“to several computatiens os the different heads of
pay, lévy money, subsidy, viGtualling and trans
port service for the troops, which he affirmad
wonld amount 10 1,196,000, aad that thit, with
transport service for the vigtusllsrs, would make
9,320,000), and if the other articles under
the head of contingencies, &c. were included,
the expence of which could not now be al
‘certained, ‘he had little doube that the whole,
taken together, would be full one miliion and
“an half. He contended that this was a most en
-ermous sum for the affitance of only 17,300 men,
an expence,he would ventare to maintain, confider
“ing thenumber to be employed, mot knowa in
_she history of mamkind. Those matters, how
“gver serious in the present miserable state of our
finances, and the enormous load of public bur
~dens we Jabor undér, were not, he said, what
preficd so forcibly en his mind. It was the re
nor of the treaties, the ambiguous terms in which
‘shey were worded, in some places, the dangerous
precedents they eftablithed were glided ia ; that
~principally alarmed his fears., He observed with
. grief and the best founded jealousy, that an over
“guling influsnce had for some years pait pervaded
" @urCouncils ; that this influence has been exercilcd
in effeting measures of a most dangerous and
dark complexion ; that it sometimes made its ap
proaches by stealth, at other times made ifelf visi
ble in open day, and proceeded to atts of violence.
Haooverians had beea brought into the domiai
« ons ‘of the Britith Crown without the consent of
Parliament. An attempt was made to introduce
“a body of foreigners into Ireiand which mifcar.
vied. He said ke underfond that the fime at
‘tempt would be repeated, though he did not pre
tead to authenticate it as a mater of fact, ‘And
if any deubt remained, the present treaties afford
ed ample matter for great and serious alarm,
In the firt place he observed, that they were
formed on no found principle of alliance or reci
procal fapport. It is true, they were said to be
formed on the basis of mutual succor and support,
“but those exprefions imported wothing, they
were mere words of course. It was a downright
mercenary bargain, for the taking iato pay a cer
tain’ numbér of hirelings, who were bought and
fold like so many beasts for slaughter. There
“was no common interelt which mutaslly bouad
the parties ; and if there was the condu® of the
foreign Princes was the most extraordinary that
was ever known, ‘They were to be subsidized.
They were to hive levy money. They were to
have doable subsidy. Their corps were to kept
up complete. ‘They were to be paid vatil the
troops were retarned to their refpefltive countries ;
and the subsidies were to be continued according
.20 the tenar of the relpetive ticalics, one or iwo
years afier the traops cealed to be of any service
o us, But raking it oo the other ground, that
the treaties were formed on the trae basis of
_alliance, what would be the confequ=nce ? - 'That
if any of those powers were attacked, or should
wantonly provoke any attack, for the engagement
was left geaesa! and uaconditional, that we should
give them (Jonmer) all the succor in our power.
Thu, for the aftance of afew thoafand fureign
MOUSE or LORDS,
THurspaY, March s.
Duke or RicHMOND,
( Continued from our last.)
mercenaries, we are not only to pay. &on’ﬁe‘iég
we are to enter into a solemn engagement to exert
_out whole force to give them all the succor in
our power, if the Land ,a:u. or Duke shall be at
tacked or disturbed in the poffeifion of his domi~
nions.. His Grace begged next to recall to the
memory of their Lordships, the language held by
the friends of the present measures towards the close
of the late war, He said a very ingenious gentieman
(Mr. Maulit) at that period wrote a pamphler,
entitled, * Considerations on the German war,”’
in which-he introduced several computations of the
cost of every Fieach scalp to this mation ! and made
it amoun to ten thonand pounds per head. He
therefore recommendsed to the noble. Lords who
then spproved of that gentleman’s elimate, to con
fider what an American scalp would colt, “when
17,000 foreigaers would stand us in at the rate of
one million and a half perannym. He gbferved, he
had many noble Lords in ‘his eye, who prof:ii:d
themselves of that opinion.” One noble’ Lord,
now absent from his place, { Lord Bate made ufs
of the very arguments here adverted 10, in debate.
And a noble Duke now deceafzd (the Duke of Bed
ford) maintained the fime opinions. He remem
bered a little after, w hea we were vitorious in every
quarter of the giobe, when all we wanted was mo
ney and all we had to contend with was climate to
preveat us from possessing ocurfelves of the whole
of Spanith Americe, the {ame twon oble Lords and
their friends juftificd the peace on no other ground
but our inability to raile new taxes. [hey al
lowed that conquelt was eertain, but that the
natiogal debt was enormeus, Where then was
the material change of circumfances, after the con
clusion of the present compaign, when the debt
which was after a thiriéen yedr’s peace, not
reduced above seven millions, where the conquest
was net certain, and where if it were, it would be
a conquelt over our own fubjcéts, operating o our
owa ruin, maaccompanied by either fame, honor,
or reputarion : Would not we then, at the close of
the late war, be in a situation, when even to pro
secute certain conquest would be the height of folly
and political frenzy ?
His grace then proceeded to point out several
exceptioneble passages in the treaties, He re
marked o the danger of keeping a body of 12,000
foreigners together, under the absolute commind
of one of their own Generals 3 of the poflibility
though he fhonld consent to serve under.a junior
officer, of his arriving te she fupreme.command ;
and of the coafufion which might be created by
-a difference on this head, beiween the foreign Ge
‘neral and the Commandertn Chief. He laid great
stress on that paflige in the Heflian treaty, ia which
it was provided, article g, that his Majetty shall
make use of this body of troops by land in Euarope
whenever he shall think proper. He said, he could
_not fee what operations they could be employed
i, unless it were in this country, in case of a re
bellion, or a revol:, which none forefaw but the
advisers of the present measures. He observed,
that the foreign troops were to be double officerad,
which was aeother weighty and ul:lefls expence ;
that is, evety company of 100 men were to have
two Captains two Lieutenants, two second Lieu
tenants, and two Eafigns, and so in proportion
in servants, &¢. So that out of the whole number,
upwards of 3000 men were not to be rank and file,
contrary to every rule of war, which, in his given
number of men, endeavors 10 render 'lhe rank
and file as numerous as the nature of the service
will possibly allow ; because itis on them that the
weight of attack or defence generally rests. Icis
so in our own treops, and has always been aa
eftablithed usage, never to aliow more then four
officers to a corps of 180 men.
- His Grace made several poianted observations
on the fape:feflion of the fiveral officers in the
civil and military departments, in which he
. maintained that nothing like it had ever hap
pened in the Britith service, withoutl complaint
or withcut enquiry, Greet faults had been
found with General Gage and Admiral Graves ;
the milcarriage which happened were impated to
their want of condutt ; yet no charge is made a
gainfi them, but they are recalied. To keep up
the farce, the former is received cooly, butin a
few days atter a mew commiflion is made out, ap
pointing him Commander io Chief; and in a few
days again, without any cause even pretended, for
there could be none as he remained on the spot,
he is fuper{ided, and General Howe appointed in
his room. Yetthat is not the best of it ; Admiral
Shuldham isappointed to succeed Admiral Graves;
but before he could take pofleflion of this com
mand he is superseded, and Lord How appointed
in his room. Such an extraordinary condutt was
surely pever known ; that perhaps the {operfeded
Admiral might think himfelf ealy under this in
dignity, if what was reported was true, that he
was to be created an Irith Peer. \ For the horor,
however, of the noble Lord who perfides 2t the
head of the Admiralty, he hoped his Lo:dfhip
would rife and gxplaia this last offigial ridd'e, apd
fairly, and xfeh his;-.uiialf.cgndbf, i_nfbrm,l&
House, = whether those drrapgemeats “eriginate
from him, or whether he was really, as was res
ported, over-ruled ia the cabinet.
| This chopping aad changing, appointing and
Huperfeding, besides the instability it denoted,
ﬁ’fe{ghte& aother matter well worth theif Lords
ship’s consideration. It shewed that the service
was difagreable on the one hand, or that tie {u
perior sthicers were passed by and negie&ed'mr@
other. He said, there were some officers of long
service and tir’d abilities present, as well as feve.
#al others of high rank in the army. He waunld
‘be glad to know from them, what were the motives
thac induced administration to pass by the senior
‘officers, and devolve the command upen a very
young Major General. He knew that it mait
proceed from an aversion to the service; ora to
tal want of refpec to their persons.
( To be Continuea. ) =
Wil Lt 1 AMSBURG. .
Juwg 15, Welearn from Gloncefier; that Lord
Dunmore bas erected hyfpitals u’gpﬁq g:}:ﬂ?; Ej/[éﬁlg §
that bis old fritnd Andrew Sprowle, is dead, and
that they are innoculating the blacks for the ynad
pox. His Lordfbip before the departure of the fieet
from Norfolk harbor, had tawo of those ‘awretches ine
noculated and fint afbore, in order te Jpread the
infection, buy it was bappily prevented. -
The men of war have made prize of a Spanish
brig that awas bound te Philadelpkia, reported tohave
on board 12,800 dollars. Some deserters from the
Fowey, it is fard, give this account ; likewise, that
they were wery aweat spon the island as to é“"‘&'}
fearful of being aitacked, and ciiefly depend udom
the fleet for their protection. . @6
“Mr. Robinson, lats of York town, awho bas been
-a prisoner on board the fleet for Jome time: pas, &us
escaped Guwyn’s Island, confirms zbe\ above accounts
awith refped to dndrew Sprowle’s dearh, and ib*
capture of the Spnaifh brig, awhich was fromthe Hd‘
wannah, taken off tbe Capes of Dilaware, and f‘b
in by the Liverpool ; but that Capt. Bellew had res
sained the dollars. This gentleman further faysy
that there are ot above 300 blacks mow alive, 75
at least baving died auithin fix days after they lgjl
Norfolt, and that the number of awbites on jbors iz
wery inconfiderables’
PHILADELPHIA, Juwx g.. 7=
By accouats from the Capes we aseluformed 3
that a brig from St. Thomas’s with 400 barrels
of powder, arms, dry goods, &c. coming inte
our Capes on Saturday last, was chafed by the
King-Fisher, and run aground off Cape-May.
Captains Barre and Weekes sent their boats te
affilt in unloading her ; having taken out all the
arms canuon, 160 barrels of powder, and some
dry goods, as much as their boats would hold,
they discovered the men of war’s boats coming
to her upon which they opened the remainder of
the powdar, and spreading some doubled canvass
upon it they 11id on the canvass lives coals and
left her—oae of the men of war’s -boats having
got along fide, they had hardly boarded her be
fore the blew up. : e
Extras of a letter from an_officer in St. Mary's
county, Maryland, dated the ninth ult. -
¢ Qur neighbor Dunmore has removed up to
Gwyn’s [fliad, and has there intrenched himfe!f.
Four days ago he fenta party of marines and
sailors athore to get wood, to the amount of fifty,
“who to a man deserted, with their arms and
tools. Three of them would have ialifted with
vs, but we being full, could rot take them,
They fay he intends to make a push at usin
harvest. I apprehend his crop will hardly be
worth gathering.”
.NEW.Y ORK, Jurr 4
On Suaday last, one of our cruisers on the south
fide of Long-Island, took a large Bermudian buile
sloop from Halifax, laden with intrenching tools,
&c. bound for this place ; in which were anom
ber of the Boston Refugees, among whom it is
said, is Robert Auchmuty, lifq; late Judge of the
‘Admiralty at Boston, and brother to the Rev. Dr,
Anchmuty, of this city.
Last Sunday arrived at the Hooek (like the
swarm of locusts, efcaprd .from the bottomless
pit) a fleet said to be 130 fail of ships and vef=
fels from Halifax having on board Gen. Howe
&c. sent out by the tyrants of Great-Britain, afe
ter destroying the Eaglifh conftitutien there, on
the pious design of enfliving the Britith Coloaies,
and plundering their property at pleasure, or mura
dering them at once znd taking poffeflion of all,
as Ahab did of Naboth's vineyard.
It was apprehended they inteaded to penetrate
into the interior parts of ihe island, or'to some of
the neighboring towns, but it does not appear
that they have yet attempted it, or done any thing
on shore, except taking up a lictle bridge on the
causeway between the Landing and the Highlands
at the Ferry, We hear Gea. Mercer, with a de
tachment, was yellerday difpaiched t 9 watch