The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1784-04-13 00:00:00, page 2

r-^—iHE author of Scipio has thought it his duty
H to dedicate in this way some of his leisure
moments to the service of his country; and
flatters himfelf that he may be of use in
giving hints, and advertising the good people of New-
Jersey (perhaps in general too inattentive to publick
affairs) of what it greatly concerns them to know; and
of which they will probably not otherwise attain the
knowledge. He conceives, in particular, that by the
peculation and mismanagement of many that are Hill
accountable to the publick, but have not been pro
perly called upon, our taxes are, and must necessa
rily continue to be, accumulated: And that were all
the monies due to us from delinquent fheriifs, delin
quent colle&ors, delinquent militia fines, delinquent
commiflioners for forfeited estates, with a hundred
other delinquencies, honestly paid into the treasury;
and that was every one who is really accountable to
the state for money received to its use, duly to ac
count, our taxes would be greatly diminished. In
the prosecution of this plan, he could not avoid in
due refped and complaisance, to propose as the firfl:
accountant, the late treasurer of the convention.—
But little did he think that in the very commence
ment of his well intended career for the publick emo
lument (how weakly soever it may be executed) he
Should be ftopt upon the Congfefs high-way (which
the law fays it is a nuisance to obftrud) by such a gi
gantick Goliah of Gath as hath come out of the camp
of the Philistines against him, brandishing his enor
mous spear, bidding defiance to all mankind, and
threatening to let the world on fire, if he is compel
led to account in a legal manner. With such bluster
ing giants every man must however expect to meet,
who really intends to serve his country from princi
ple; and who touches them in their tender part —their
purses. They mean not to account at all ;. and if
with noise, and clamour, and threats, and vocifera
tion, and confident assertions, and nonsensical adver
tisements, and calling upon anonymous authors for
their names, and demanding the production of proofs
and witnesses before the court fits, they can avert the
day of retribution, they will certainly do it. But I
hope my countrymen will not fuffer themselves to-be
amused with such fuftian as this, instead of concert
ing P ro P er measures to recover the cash. It is poor
pay. It is worse than continental money. It will
never lessen our taxes. For my own part, I Shall go
on in endeavouring to bring all those gentry to justice,
notwithstanding my being so soon attacked upon the
high-road (which ought to be peculiarly free to tra
vellers upon publick service) by this fame Goliah,
ng linft whom I trust that myfa, and [crip, I mean
law and justice, will finally prevail, maugre the hel
met ofbrafs upon bis bead, 'and bis coat of mail,
expreflions of which, when metaphorically used, every
one knows the meaning that knows him. But in this
-ferce combat betwixt us, instead of killing him out
right by whirling the flone direct into his forehead,
I purpose to dissed him by inches. He appears, by
his advertisement, very fond of dijetlions; but whe
ther he intends them in the learned sense of ana
^omifts, the more mechanical one of the shambles,
or the more domeftick one of carving a piece of roast
beef, the publick is still unfortunately at a loss. To
dissed however his proposed diffedion (in the sense of
examination) we will begin with the beginning of his
blunders, which, as usual, are to be found in the be
ginning of his work. " Your publication (fays he) in
“ Mr. Collins's last week's Gazette, the 24th of Janu
“ arv, 1784," (very particular indeed, because, as he
had dated his paper, I presume that any man, with
out being a conjurer, could have difeovered which
•was last week's Gazette, without all this parade of
chronology. Would to Heaven, he was as particular
in accounting for the money in question! Your pub
lication, fays he) “ is one among the many publica
“ tions under anonymous signatures, calculated to in
“ jure me in the minds of the citizens of this state in
“ general, and those of the county of Hunterdon in
'• particular, all of which I have passed by with that
“ negle& and scorn that they deserved; but your per
'' formance is so replete with falfehoods, that their
".confequences may have a tendency to wound the
*' faireft characters, and turn the liberty of the press
« into licentiousness." Well said my honest fellow !
I find you still determined to brave it out; and at all
events to avoid a legal trial. These kind of publica
tions have a tendency to injure you ! Why Sir, so
far as your aversion to a proper investigation into your
conduct refpeding the money in dispute, is injurious
to your character, such publications must necessarily
tend to injure it; and so far it ought eternally to be
jointed by them. Why don't you at once annihilate
the injury (if it must needs be termed an injury for
the free citizens of New-Jersey to fay that a late trea
surer, who had a large sum of money put into his
hands by the publick, for which he has never du
D^ the Liberty of the PRESS;
•And a certain nonsensical Advertifemeut against
Scipio.
PART 11.
ly accounted, ought to be called to a legal account;
and that they will not receive in payment either
speeches, or advertisements, or protestations, or ex
parte affidavits, while they are paying their solid spe
cie for taxes —why don't you, I fay, at once annihi
late the injury) by calling for a fair trial? All the
injury you can complain of is, that some of your
countrymen (whether anonymous or not, how doth it
affed the merits of the cause ?) do call for such trial.
You, on the contrary, make use of every possible fub
terfuge to evade it. Who, in this cale, is the in
jurer? Is it not rather the man who employs every
artifice to elude his being brought to a legal settle
ment, than those who think that the state ought to
compel him to such settlement ? But you have hi
therto passed by such publications mitb neglect and
scorn. —The very thing we complain of. 1 think that
a publick accountant, unwilling to account in a due
course of law, might at least give us civil language :—
But neglect and scorn is worse than no payment at all.
According to his ideas however, the state of New-
Jersey is to receive his neglect and scorn as lawful
payment for the thousands in controversy. If he be
left to himfelf, I dare fay he will continue to neglect
and scorn to the end of the chapter. But until he
can put us in a way of honestly paying our honest
debts by neglecting and scorning the publick cre
ditors, he ought to be hunted from Dan to Beerfhe
ba, and find no rest for the sole of his foot, till he has
been tried by a jury of twelve men.
But what is meant by the consequences of my falfe
hoods having a tendency to mound the faireft cha
racters? The faireft characters ! Hum !—The least
said, the soonest mended !—Hum !— Scriblerus cum
dafoo. —Perhaps better upon this fubjed, for the ad
vertiser to have been guilty of the fin of omission. —
Fairest characters ! Be it so; for I never meant to
attack any man's private character. But what plea in
bar, as the lawyers call it, is any character fair or
foul, against a man's accounting to the publick, when
he ought to account? And that is all I want this
man to do ; but he is totally against doing it.
And turn the liberty of the press into licentious
ness. Worse and worse ! The press then it seems
is turned into licentiousness, according to the opinion
of our advertiser, as soon as any man (hall pre
sume to fay, that a treasurer intruded by the publick,
with a great sum of money, and protesting, and vow
ing,.and declaring ; and by exparte affidavits pretend
ing to Ihew, before a tribunal not ultimately decisive
in the case, that he has 101 l it; ought, in justice to
the community, notwithstanding all his declarations,
and protestations, and vowings (which, in legal con
templation, are not worth one copper) and all his ex
parte depositions (which are not worth two) to be put
upon a trial by his peers, that is by a jury of his coun
try. Is faying this turning the liberty of the press
into licentieufnefs? Does any thing that naturally
rises out of the lubje& under conlideration, and that
must therefore, in order to do it justice, be taken no
tice of, as the falfe allegations of the peifon in ques
tion, refpe&ing the reasons he assigns for throwing
himfelf in the hands of the enemy—does this, I afl<,
deserve the name of private personal slander; or is the
publication of this turning the press into licentious
ness ? What then can we fay through the prels,
without making it licentious ? Where hath this &n
---accounting (and if we leave the matter to him, ever
unaccountable) mortal, learned this heterogeneous doc
trine? Sure I am, not from John Lock. Sure I am,
not from Algernoon Sidney. Sure I am, not from
any of the constitutions of the United States. Sure
I am, not in the Legislature of New-Jersey. Where
then could he have picked up this baneful, this pesti
lent tenet? I fancy he must have learned it during
his peregrinations with the Britifn army: Heterodox
school for teaching American liberty!
But how, in the name of conjuration and necro
mancy, is the county of Hunterdon thus hocufpocufs'd
upon the carpet? Is Hunterdon, which I always con
sidered as a very large, a very centrical and refpeda
ble county, .become all at once by his legerdemain
fucha dislocated dismembered nook of the state ;or has
it been carried by the late earthquake so far from the
terraqueous globe into the regions of infinite space,
that while the injury he has futlered pervades the
whole Copernican lyftem in general, the inhabitants
of that poor exiled abfeinded speck of the universe in
particular, will never hear of it, without his special
notification? Wonderful! Let us try to dissolve
the charm. Is not the late treasurer of the conven
tion a member for Hunterdon? He is. Why then all
this mystery is clearly developed. Already he seems
wrapt up in cogitation profound about electioneering.
Already coaxing and cajoling the county of Hunter
don. Better call for a far trial, and then he may,
with a more decent grace, harangue upon heavy taxes,
extravagant salaries, big periwigs, court-interef,
arifocratical party, and himfelf and the devil only
know what. Don't let him any longer treat his coun
trymen, who want to bring him to justice in a legal
way, with neglect and farn. Then it is probable
that at the next election he need not tremble at the
thoughts of a certain Doctor's remounting the slump
pulpit at Ringoe's tavern, and preaching to him such
a sermon as ere while made his ears to tingle, and
struck him with an artificial tooth-ach.
I must reserve the remainder of this fubjed for three
or four succeeding numbers. S CIPI O.
Foreign Intelligence.
LONDO N, December 27.
YESTERDAY General Burgoyne resigned his
office, as commander in chief of Ireland, to his
Majesty at St. James's.
By letters from Canada we find that all the Ger
man troops had left that province, and every thing
remained in perfed security. No inconveniencies have
yet resulted to the fur trade, which was much appre
hended by the settlement of the boundaries; for the
protection of which trade the old French works
called Fort Frontenac, are ordered to be repaired,
and an engineer, with troops and artificers, are gone
up the St. Lawrence for that purpose. Gen. Haldi
mand has also given directions for the finiffiing of the
works at Quebec, St. John's, the Isle au Noix, &c.
The troops now in Canada amount to between 3000
and 4000 men, confining of the Sth, 29th, gift, 34th,
44 th > 53 d ' and . 8 4 th regiments of foot, with two
companies of artillery. These corps are in a very
delicate situation, about two-thirds of their non-com
missioned officers and private men being entitled t@
their difeharge, which nevertheless cannot be granted
them without imminent danger to the province (the
Canadians being exceedingly difafteded) until they
are reinforced from this country, or New-York.
NEW-YOR K, April 7.
On Saturday last arrived the French Packet, le
Courier de I'Orient, Mons de Cotnempiun, Com
mander, from I'Orient, after a plTage of seventy-six
days. She brings nothing new.
Last Monday arrived, in 9 days from Charleston,
the Shelburne Packet, Capt. Samuel Bull, with the
Biitilh November mail, defined for this city, but pre
vented by extreme bad weather from arrival, and put
into Charleston harbour, South-Carolina. The let
ters are all brought to the poft-office in this city.
Last Friday afternoon, as some children were
playing in the upper part of an unoccupied liable, si
tuated in an avenue leading from Maiden-Lane to
King-ftteet, two men came to the said liable, and with
the most horrid imprecations threatened these poor in
nocents with instant death, if they did not immediately
disperse. They entered the lower part of the liable,
armed with flicks, flopped up every means of retreat,
and with the moll unparalleled cruelty, forced two of
the children to leap out of a window more than twen
ty feet from the ground, by which one of them, a
child of about five years of age, broke his leg in a
Shocking manner, and now lies dangerously ill ; the
other children who escaped unhurt, fay, that one of
those villains appeared to be a genteel dressed man,
in a brown coat; and his accomplice, a cartman, of a
most savage countenance ; they were unloading hay in
an adjacent stable.
A London paper, of Dec. 6, fays,—“ On Thurs
day morning last, the elder for. of General Skinner,
an officer well known at New-York, where he resided
during the war, for his loyalty, in railing a body of
provincial troops for the lervice of the crown, was
found hanging at his apartment at the admiralty cof
fee-houfe, Spring-gardens. The cause of this event
is said to be his inability to anfw^r the usual enqui
ries made at the navy board, previous to his being
confirmed a lieutenant in his Majesty's service."
His . Excellency John Hancock, Esq. hath, by pro
clamation, at the request of the General Court, com
manded and enjoined it upon all the citizens of the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay, that in all and
every controversy now existing, or that hereafter may
exist, between the citizens of New-York and the
people of Vermont, or between any of them, in what
ever form or manner they may exist, that they con
dud themselves according to the ftrifteft rules of neu-
American Intelligence.
B 0 S I O N, March 27.
HI S Excellency the Governor has been pleased
to prorogue the Honourable the General Court
of this Commonwealth. Before the prorogation a
Committee of both Houses were appointed, to en
quire into the existence, nature, objed, and probable
tendency or effeft of an Order or Society, called the
Cincinnati. After matuie deliberation, and for di
vers reasons, set forth in nine articles, the Commit
tee have reported it as their opinion,—“ That the
said society, .called the Cincinnati, is unjuftifiable,
and if not properly discountenanced, may be danger
ous to the peace, liberty and fafety, of the United
States in general, and this Commonwealth in parti
cular. The Committee also report as their opinion,
that it is proper the fufyfr consideration of measures
suitable and necessary to be taken, with refped to the
society of Cincinnati, be referred to the next fitting
of the General Court." The above report was read
and accepted by the two houses the 23d inst.