The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1781-09-05 00:00:00, page 1

An EXTRACT from Mr. BURKE's SPEECH on
the St. Euftatia business.
HE now begged the house would particular
ly attend to the sequel of these oppressive
proceedings, which, for the honour of
humanity, of this enlightened age, and
Bill more for the Christian character, he blushed to
relate. It was resolved, that the unhappy inhabitants
of St. Euftatia should be still further punished, and,
together with their property, their perlons should
feel the vengeance of the conquerors : but firft, and
more peculiarly, this lath species of persecution fell
upon the Jews. That unhappy class of men, after
being Gripped of all their property, after being made
to pat's through a weigh-house, a building much like
those of the fame name we find at turnpike gates,
where, under a strong guard of soldiers, they were
ftrialy searched to the ikin, to difeover if they had
secreted any money ; they were ordered to perpetual
banifbment from their houses and from their families;
they even begged to take their wives and children
with them, as a solace under such accumulated
wretchedness, and were most inhumanly refufed.
Thus torn from the arms of every tender relative,
and destitute of all means of support, except a few
pieces of silver that were returned to them in charity,
thirty of these poor inoffending wretches were sent
on board the Shrewfbury man of war, to be conveyed
to St. Kitt's; but the rest, after paring the weigh
houfe, were sent back to witness the dißreffes of their
famlies, and to fee others possess that property their
industry had acquired.
Mr. Burke now particularly mentioned three of
these Jews by name, as remarkable inßances of injustice
and oppression ; one of them, whose name was Mo
loch, had been, with all his family, zealously attached
to the British government, and was encumbered with
the families of two brothers, who had been both
expelled from Rhode-lfland by the rebels, and bereft
of all their properties for refuting to swear allegiance
to the Congrefe ; yet this man, he said, with all his
dependent connections, was, like the rest, reduced
to beggary. Here, with many amiable and liberal
sentiments, of which both sides of the house warmly
expressed their approbation, he expostulated on the
unchristian nature of the partial persecution. The
Jews, as members of no community, were under
the tutelage of every state in the world that avowed
itfelf civilized and generous ; they had no protection
but the humanity of that people with whom they
were incorporated; no state on which they could
call as dependent members of it to avenge their
wrongs; to persecute them, therefore, was mean
and ungenerous in the extreme. If a Dutchman
was oppressed, the dates of Holland were his protec
tors; if aFrenchman, he might call upon his sovereign;
if a Briton, his country was able to defend him, or
at least ought to be so, if degeneracy did not prevent
her ; but the poor wandering alien Jew had no resort,
no protedor ; he could only call on the brave and
generous of every society to defend the cause of
humanity. There was not a class of men more
valuable in any society than those ; for they were of
a commercial spirit; and, dispersed as they were,
in every state, from the remotest corner of Asia to
the weitern extremity of Europe, they became links
of communication in the mercantile chain ; or, to
borrow a phrase from eledricity, the conductors by
which credit was transmitted through the world.
Nor should they be censured, if some vices were
particularly imputable to their character as a people,
for the habitual dependence in which they lived was
a natural source of depravity. It was an obferva^on
as old as Homer, and confirmed by the experience
of all ages, that in a state of servitude the human
mind loses half its value.
The next fubjed of personal oppression to the Jews
had been the Americans, who were peremptorily
ordered to depart the island within a limited time,
he believed within a day after the proclamation;
and this without any diftindion of persons, though
many inhabitants of that description had been faithful
fubjeds to his Majesty, and were refugees from the
oppression of the powers of Congress on the continent;
afterwards those Dutchmen who belonged to Amster
dam were expelled in like manner ; and at last all the
fubjeds of the United States, the natives excepted.
Mr. Burke now proceeded to state the various
applications that had been made to the commanders
in chief in behalf of the oppressed inhabitants of St.
Euftatia, and the British fubjedW whose property
had also been confifeated there ; for he observed that
there had been no diffb@on of country in this refped.
He read the substance of several petitions and remon
strances from 'he merchants of St. Christopher's,
presented to Admiral Rodney and General Vaughan,
[Vol. IV.] T H E [Numb. 193.]
NEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
W E D N ESD A. Y, September 5, 1781.
by a committee of their body, with the answers
returned by those commanders; allo a letter to the
Admiral from Mr. Granville, the Solicitor-General
of St. Kitt's, the answer thereto, and Mr. Granville's
reply. It would take up too much room to enter
particularly into these papers, but the general purport
of the applications ano ,o. fluences they retcired to
was this: The merchants contended, that under
several Ads of Parliament, particularly the Grenada,
the tobacco, and the cotton Acts, they were legally
intitled to carry on trade a:th St. Euftatia, conic
queutly that a contilcation of their property was
unjust, and they therefore , deraauded to have it rettor
ed. They urged also as a precedent, the behaviour
of the French at Grenada, and warned the com
manders, that the enemy might retaliate on us tor
the treatment 01 the Dutch inhabitants. The Ad
miral and General, in return to these expostulations
said, that the merchants might Lave removed their
property before the expedition took place; that the
aces they referred to were aufurd, and obtained for
factious purposes; that an unnatural and perfidious
enemy ihould not be treated like one or another
description; that the French would not dare to retali
ate ; and that, if they thought themselves aggrieved,
they might appeal to the laws of their country tor
redress. Mr. Granville's reply to some of these
arguments was extremely ingenious and strong.
Mr. Burke thought it a production worthy of any
Solicitor-General in the world. He particularly re
torted upon the Admiral, by faying, that if it was
illegal in the merchants to fend their property tor
sale to St. Euftatia, the naval officers had likewise
tranigreffed the law, by felling their prizes there.
After a deal of ingenious and systematical reason
ing, Mr. Burke again adverted to the conduct of
Admiral Rodney, and the rcafons assigned by him
injuftification of hisconduCt : Ail which he endeavour
ed to refute. The Admiral had told the merchants
they must go to law for the recovery of their property.
True it was, they might iCcover their property by
law, but at the fame time,thofe men Ihould be
punished who drove them to the necessity of doing so.
It would be a strange juftification, should the Crown
lay hands on all the property in this country, to tell
the parties injured, the Courts are open to you.
But how were many of the fufferers to prosecute the
offenders ? Stripped as they were of their poffeflions,
how were they to pay the expences of a lawsuit,
while their antagonists might combat with their own
money ? He would state a case to the house, of an
unfortunate lady, who had been recommended to him,
that he might exert his influence among the merchants
for her relief. Her husband had been sixteen years
absent, and died abroad, leaving, after a variety of
misfortunes, 90001. behind him at St. Euftatia, which
was to be the sole dependence of his widow and her
children ; but every farthing of this had been confif
cated, and the unhappy family were now wholly
destitute of support. How was the to profit by the
justice of the laws ? She had no means of authenticat
ing the case from abroad, and no substance to go to
law with.
With refpedl to the perfidioufnefs of the Dutch,
that was the very cause of our declaring war against
them, and therefore could not afterwards be made
use of as an argument for aggravating the horror
that was in their pundhment; for it was a firft
principle in the law of nations, as laid down by every
writer, that to expound the rights of war, we muff
conceive each party to have justice on its fide, and
every thing preceding the commencement of hostili
ties muse be forgotten in that supposition.
The Admiral's ideas concerning the retaliation of
France he reprehended severely: " She would not
dare to do it." What was this but provoking the
enemy to exercise that power already in their hands,
by revoking the immunity granted to our fellow
fubjeds in Grenada; the inhabitants of that island
would then have to curse the injustice of our govern
ment, but could not reasonably complain of their
conquerors; and an old refpedable merchant, who,
ninety years ago, fled from the tyranny of the French
monarque to the protection of this government, might
look back, with astonishment, on the vicissitude of
human affairs, when he found himfelf saved by the
generosity of a French King, and ruined by the unjust
rapacity of Great- Britain."
Mr. Burke concluded his speech by moving, "That
an humble address be presented to his Majesty, pray
ing that he will be graciously phased to order his
MiAfters to lay be fore the house copies of all letters,
papers, and correlpondencies, officially received from
the Weft-Indies, relative to the capture of St. Eu-
Batius, and other Dutch ifjands in those parts."
UTREC II T, May 7.
IT appears that, by final! degrees, the Americans
wui at lalt obtain from this Kepublick, what they
have thought incumbent on them to refute hitherto,
both tor tear of giving dilpleaiure to the Court of
London, and ado bccauie the Slates-General wdhed
to perkverc in their refutation of not interfering either
directly or indirectly in the quarrel that had arilen
between Greai-Biitain and her Colonies. An art cle
from the Hague mentions, that Mr. Adams, who is
furnilheu with lull powers 101 lupporting the charac
ter ot Manlier to the United States of North-Ameri
ca, whenever uw interest of his 'conftituents Ihall
makci. neo hary, and who only made his appealance
at the ixc-gue incognito, has now taken up his reti
cence cutie, and has been preluded at the hcuie of
the Fitment to the AIR rnbiy ot the States-General,
hl. Le Bare- de Lynden tot hemmcn filled the above
puce, on the part of the province of Gpelcuiand;
and it is tarn, that Mi. Adams being desirous of
presenting his letters of credence to him in quality
of Miniltci to the Congrets, ^. He Baron de Lynden
informed him, " That as the Repubuk had not
yet acknowledged the independence cf the Colonies
of Notth-America, he could not accept his creden
tials, but he would make report of them to the
Aiiembly."
They add, that upon this reply Mr. Adams retired;
that the province of Zealand would not deliberate
upon the repoit made by the President, but that the
Deputies or the nx other provinces.had accepted of
it, with a delign ot transmitting it to their reductive
Bates, for the purpoie of receiving their opinion 011
this important lubjedt.
Maundy April 27. The last letters from the Com
manders ot the blockade ot Gibraltar advise, that
the fire ot that place wounded three ot our lo.diers
the 16th ; and that our hre has mane a frefh h..vock
among the enemy's batteries, and has agam set fare
to several parts of the town. A bomb tell on the
powder magazine, but had no c£chi. The die of
our gun-boats and bomb-ketches annoy very much
the enemy s Ihips, but we perceived it did not prevent
their unloading tucin with precipitation.
The 17th, tee faihe fire was continued, and we
perceived that the flames had deltroyeu the Convent
of La Merci, which served tor a magazine ; and that
several buildings were on fire. Notwithiiancing that
Blips of every rate were cruiling in the bay, one of
our Feluccas took an Englith Tartan with 11 men,
laden with provisions. due 18th and 19th, we con
tinued to molest the enemy's snips, even in their
anchorage, and the hre from our line on the town
burnt another magazine.
The 20th, at ten in the morning, our gun-boats
attacked again, and fought for upwards 01 an hour,
the Ihips of war at anchor in the bay, and several
others that were under fail, and did not give over
until the wind became too strong tor them. The
fire from our line again caused another conflagration
in the town.
The wind beginning to blow from the East, the
enemy began to prepare to leave the Straits, and
they hurried their manoeuvres in iuch a manner
during the night, that the whole fquadroii had got
into the ocean without waiting for the convoy from
Mahon. During the Bay in the port they had good
weather, favourable to the unloading of their Boies,
and which did not permit us to make ule of our
firefllips that were* in readiness for the purpole
LONDO N, May 24.
The last letters from Jamaica mention, that a Span
ish man of war, of 90 guns, built of mahogany and
cedar, was lately launched at the Havannah, where
two more Blips of the line are in great forwardnefs.
Advice was received by the last Flanders mail,
that a large American privateer was in a violent storm
driven 011 Ihore near Flushing, and entirely loft ;
most of the crew were drowned. She was bound
to the Texel to take in feme ammunition, &c.
On W ednefday a General Court was held at the
Bank of England, when the proprietors w ere inform
ed, that government had agreed to renew the charter
of the Governor and company of the Bank of England
(which will expire anno 1785) for 25 years, on
condition that the Bank advances to government
2,ccc,cocl. at the interest of three per cent, per an
num, to be paid off within three years out of the
finking fund.
Exirad of a letter from Paris, Ma, 23,
" At noon an express was sent off from the office
of M. de Caftraes, for M. d'Estaing to put to lea
with every ship that is ready, as soon after he receiv
ed the orders as possible, and follow the King's most
fccret inftruiftions which accompany them. These