The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1780-09-20 00:00:00, page 1

I KNOW no refpe& that is due to a man, al
though he is called King, when he keeps no
terms with the people who made him so—
-1 he injustice, the cruelty, and the opprelii
ons of your reign exceed any thing in the an
nals of this country. Like Chailes the First and
James the Second you have been deaf to the just re
monstrances of an injured people, and perhaps, Sir,
they may soon convince you of your error, as well
as of your ingratitude; nay, they may return the
compliment, and treat you with as much contempt
as you have them; we have seen instances, and they
are easily produced, where the molt arbitrary ty
rants, with all their fancied greatness, have been
pulled down, even when they thought themselves
most secure from danger, amidst a flattering croud
of their creatures and dependants.
Let me tell you, Sir, by your wrongs, by your
mismanagement, by your obstinacy, and through the
villainy of your minilters, the spirit of the people is
roused throughout every part of the kingdom; and
tho' it is pofhble the folly of some, the blind fury of
others, and the attachment of many, may fuppoi t
your caule for a time, yec thould such an event take
place, which heaven forbid, it mull prove fatal to
you, for when the people are once drove to a state
of desperation and revenge, it will not be easy to stop
their rage, and you may, nay you will be looked
upon as the principal author of all their miseries,
and you may possibly fall in the general facritice.
You will be pleased to remember, Sir, that felf
prefervation is an inherent principle; it was so in
tended by the author of our being ; it is the firft and
fundamental law of nature ; and the people now fee
the necellity of uniting together in one firm band, in
order to preserve themselves from those chains you
hare been forging for them ; they are determined to
throw off the infamous yoke of bondage. In less
than one year there will be a final end to your reign
of despotism, cruelty, and bloodied. The virtue
and spirit of the people, joined with an honest par
liament, will, after all your plans of ambition, deso
lation, and daughter, they may, nay it is their duty
to call you, as well as your ministers, to a ftri& ac
count for that wanton, scandalous, and criminal walle
of the people's money, and their blood; they may
fee it a duty equally incumbent on them to reduce
the enormity of your civil lilt, and to take off, at
this time of distress and ruin, more than the one
hundred thousand per annum, which the prelent molt
infamoufly corrupt and traiterous parliament laid on
the Ihoulders of the people, and which could be de
signed for no other purpose in your hands, than to
sap the foundations of public virtue, and to destroy,
as far as it might be in your power, the small re
mains of honor and integrity, which could be found
in the Houle of Commons.
I well know, Sir, that creating places, and brib
ing the members of parliament, in order to procure
a majority in the British serrate, was a part of the
original plan of government laid down by those arch
traitors Bute and Mansfield: They told you, that
inlets you did that, the crown of England would
never be fafe on your head ; that there was no other
possible way of governing the people of this country
with any degree of fatisfadion, but by having the
House of Commons at the devotion of the crown,
and by that means you might reign with a more ar
bitrary sway than any the most despotic Prince in
Europe, because it would be according to law, and
under ail the fan&iotf all forms of the British con
• ftitution ; nay, that by adhering to the advice of such
a parliament, you might oppress, enslave, and rob
the people of their last shilling, almost without a
murmur, and they would dill think themselves free
-and unfettered, notwithstanding they were made lit
NEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
[VOL. lII.]
The SCOURGE. [NoHL]
Saturday, February 5, 1780.
Busy in blood, and eager to destroy,
He curses all the blellings we enjoy;
Our dearest rights he studies to pull down,
And daily murders deify his crown.
TO THE KING.
WEDNESDAY, September 20, 1780.
tle better than pack-horses and llaves under the form
of law, which is the wortt of all tyranny.
It is possible, Sir, from the present spirit roused
in the Englilh nation, a few months may convince
you not only of the treason, but the treachery of
that advice, and you may have cause to lament that
you ever followed it with such persevering obstina
cy, to the almoil entire ruin of the nation, and the
loss of many thousand lives, which you and your ad
visers must answer for at the last day, when the Al
mighty shall hold inquisition for their blood.
I am lenlible truth is grating to the ears of Kings,
because they are so little accullomed to hear it ; for
few men have either honesty or resolution enough to
declare it, and courtiers dare not, Specially when it
does, not flatter the ambition or vanity of the Prince.
It seems, Sir, of no use to complain to you of the
inability, the villainy, and the wickedness of your
ministers; you appear quite callous to every sense of
jultice and humanity; the distresses of a whole na
tion, brought on by your weakness, revenge, cruelty
and lust of power, cannot pierce your adamantine
heart; you are determined to keep the fame men in
power, and to pursue the fame bloody measures,
which for years past have brought disgrace and ruin
on the nation, and may possibly end with the loss of
the kingdom ; then your bauble of a crown will lose
its iultre, and you will most sincerely lament that
you had not cultivated and deserved the affe&ions of
a generous, brave, and free people, instead of follow
ing the advice of a few interested knaves and subtle
traitors. You have already lessened yourfelf in
the eyes of the whole world; the people despise
and detest you for the obstinacy and tyranny of
your disposition ; and be assured, Sir, they have
given up all hopes or thoughts of meeting with any
redrels at your hands, for the accumulated injuries
they have fuffered during the whole course of a nine
teen years infamous and difgraceful reign, which the
prelent and future generations will be bound, by
every principle of honour and jultice, to execrate
and condemn, and which will be handed down to
our latest posterity, by some faithful historian, in
characters of blood.
I he people are now determined to redress them
selves—the power is in their own hands—a power
which God and nature gave them—a power which
you nor your creatures cannot take from them—a
power not received from Kings, but such a power
as may, if necellity should compel the exertion of it,
make you, with all your known obstinacy and boalt
ed lirmnefs, and your favourites tremble. It is a pow
er, Sir, which no mercenary German butchers, how
ever numerous, will be ever able to destroy. It is a
power which has Ihaken the thrones of imperial ty
rants, and laid them, even in the midst of their fan
cied security, prostrate in the dust; and nothing but
this power, properly exerted at this awful moment
of impending ruin, can save the people from the ty
ranny of you and your ministers, nor preserve the
nation from deltru&ion.
You will be no longer troubled with petitions and
remonstrances from an injured and oppressed people,
they will prevent your insulting them again when
they quietly alk redress ; no, Sir, they will demand
as a right, what, if granted otherwile, would have
been accepted as a favour, and instead of the curses
of the people, their prayers and blessings would have
been offered up for you.
Matters, Sir, are now come to a crisis, you must
give up your minions and creatures to public justice,
those mifereants who have brought misery and ruin
upon the land, unless, like that worst of hypocrites,
tyiants and traitors, Charles the First, you are de
termined to involve the nation in all the horrors of
a cruel and bloody civil war. Indeed, from the fa
tal experience we have had of your arbitrary, tyran
nical disposition and lust of power, there is but too
much reason to fear that will be the consequence;
for the general opinion conceived of you is, that you
would rather fee the plains of England, like those
of America, covered with the purest blood of her
virtuous sons, than give up your present ministers to
condign punishment. America presents to the world
THE
not only a dreadful but damning proof of these as
sertions. We have known you, Sir, upon the arri
val of dispatches from that feat of blood, which have
contained an account of the daughter of thousands
of the bravest men upon earth, immediately burst out
in a fit of laughter, and express a peculiar kind of
joy and fatisfa&ion at the butchery of mankind ; a
fatisfadion that would have disgraced the humane
feelings of a savage.
Shame, defeat, dismay, and infamy follows every
measure of your government in every quarter of the
world, because they are founded in despotism, in
justice, cruelty, and blood; and without an imme
diate alteration, a total change of men and measures
is speedily brought about, the empire cannot stand;
and if there is a possibility of effecting so deferable a
purpose it must be by the present associations, firm
decisions, and exertions of Englishmen : Thus unit
ed and thus determined, they may soon prove them
selves the faviours of their country, and, like their
biave and virtuous forefathers, immortalize their
names, and shew to the world, that altho' they have
been deceived they will not be enslaved by any pious
hypocritical tyrant, nor by his inteiefted adherents
and abettors.
When the spirit of the people is roused into ac
tion, it will be in vain for you, Sir, with all your ob
stinacy and Butean firmnefs to oppose or refill, even
joined with the assistance of your present venal par
liament, the whole tribe of placemen and pensioners,
and all the mercenary cut-throats you may be able
to procure. Englishmen struggling for their lives,
their liberties, and every thing held dear by man,
will be victorious against all the powers of tyranny
and hell ; and you, Sir, may soon be brought to a
sense of your duty ; and notwithstanding you have
been a long time both deaf and callous, they may
make you hear and feel, and you may be glad to of
fer up more facrifices to the vengeance of the peo
ple than they have demanded.
The good of the people is the end of government,
and the foundation upon which it stands ; and when
ever the mal-adminiitration of kings or ministers has
extended to tyranny and oppression, and to the de
ftru&ion of the constitution and the people's rights,
it has ever been held just to re-assume the right of
government in their own hands, and to reduce such
traitors to reason.
L O N D O N, June r 3.
IT is said that an order was early last week sent to
the poll-office, enjoining all letters franked G.
Gordon, to whatever quarters they might be addres
sed, to be from that time detained, and transmitted
to the office of one of the Secretaries of state. In con
sequence of this mandate, several letters, written by
the deluded young nobleman, were flopped, and af
terwards laid before the cabinet. Most of these were
directed to Scotland, and were replete (it is said)
with observations equally subversive of order, religion
and liberty. He gave a faithful narrative of the tranf
adions which had taken place in the metropolis, and
instead of accompanying the relation with those ex
preflions of horror and disapprobation which must
have actuated every good and well disposed citizen, he
seemed rather to exult in the event, as nothing per
vaded these epistles but rapturous encomiums on the
'' glorious cause," and extravagant panegyrics on the
noble spirit displayed by his '' brethren" in the de
fence of it. The uniform tendency of all these dif
ferent letters fufficiently determined the cabinet as to
the propriety, and indeed necessity, of making the
author of them an immediate prisoner; and orders
were instantly given for that purpose. He was firft:
brought before the Council assembled at St. James's,
where he was examined concerning the purport of his
various epistles, and particularly interrogated as to
the nature of his own designs and motives in writing
of them. He disclaimed all intentions of violating the
public peace, and expressed the warmest attachment
to his country, but, at the fame time, vindicated his
adherence to the cause he was concerned in. To the
question, however, which was frequently and force
ably put, by different members of the cabinet, " How
he could so far forget his dignity, as an immediate
descendant of one of the firft families of his country,
and also a legislator of England, as to unite with a set
of the lowest men in the kingdom, and to be inftru
mcntal in producing the shocking disorders and irre
(for the remainder fee the fourth fe^ge. )
[Numb. 143.]