The New-Jersey gazette — Burlington [N.J.], 1778-12-31 00:00:00, page 1

It is evidently the deJign of the Count D'Eftaing, in
the following Proclamation, to induce the Canadians
to comply witls the invitation which Congress for
merly gave them, by joining in the Confederacy of
the United States, Accordingly he employs such per
fuafives as in their present Jituation are most likely
to prove effectual ; bolding up to view how pleaJing
.such a flep would be to their former Prince, and the
whole French nation, as well as the absolute freedom
refpecling religion which Congress had engaged they
should enjoy.
A DECLARATION.
ADDRESSED in the Name of the KING of FRANCE
to all the ancient French in North-America.
[franflated from the French.]
fno H E Undersigned, authorifed by His
'Majefty, and thence eloathed with the
noblest of titles, with that which effaces
' all others ; charged, in the name,of the
Father of his Country, and the benefi
cent Protector of his Subjects, to offer
a flipport to thole who were born to enjoy the bless
ings of his government —•
To all his Countrymen in North-America.
You were born French ; you never could cease to
be French. The late war, which was not declared
but by the captivity of nearly all our Teamen, and
the principal advantages of which our common ene
mies entirely owed to the courage, the talents, and
the numbers of the brave Americans, who are now
fighting against them, has wrested from you that
which is most dear to all men, even the name of your
country. To compel you to bear the arms of parri
cides against it, must be the completion of misfor
tunes: With this you are now threatened : A new
war may justly make you dread being obliged to sub
mit to this most intolerable law of slavery. It has
commenced like the last, by depredations upon the
most valuable part of our trade. Too long already
have a great number of unfortunate Frenchmen been
confined in American prisons. You hear their groans.
The present war was declared by a mefiage in March
last from the King of Great-Britain to both Houses of
Parliament ; a most authentic add of the British sove
reignty, announcing to all orders of the State, that to
trade [with America] tho' without excluding others
from the fame right, was to offend ; that frankly to
avow such intention, was to defy this sovereignty ;
that flic would revenge it, and deferred this only to
a more advantageous opportunity, when fne might
do it with more appearance of legality than in the
last war : For she declared that the had the right, the
will, and the ability to revenge ; and accordingly flie
demanded of Parliament the supplies.
The calamities of a war thus proclaimed, have
been restrained and retarded as much as possible, by
a Monarch whose pacific and disinterested views now
reclaim the marks of your former attachment, only
for your own happiness. Constrained to repel force
by force, and multiplied hostilities by reprisals, which
he has at last authorifed, if necessity should carry
his arms, or those of his allies, into a country always
dear to him, you have not to fear either burnings or
,devastations: And if gratitude, if the view of a flag
always revered by those who have followed it, should
recal to the banners of France, or of the United
States, the Indians who loved us, and have been
loaded with presents by him, whom they also call
their Father; never, no never shall they employ
against you their too cruel methods of war. These
they must renounce, or they will cease to be our
friends.
NEW-JERSEY GAZETTE.
It is not by menaces that we shall endeavour to
avoid combating with our countrymen; nor shall we
weaken this declaration by invectives against a great
and a brave nation, which we know how to refped,
and hope to vanquish.
As a French gentleman, I need not mention to
those among you who were born such as well as my
felf, that there is but one august house in the universe,
under which the French can be happy, and serve
with pleasure ; since its head, and those who are
most nearly allied to him by blood, have been at all
times, through along line of monarchs, and are at
this day more than ever delighted with bearing that
very title which Henry IV regarded as the firft of his
own. I shall not excite your regrets for those qua
lifications, those marks of diftinftion, those decora
tions, which, in our manner of thinking, are precious
treasures ; but from which by our common misfor
tunes, the American French, who have known so
well how to deserve them, are now percluded. These,
I am bold to hope, and to promise, their zeal will
very soon procure to be diffufed among them. They
[Vol. I.]
THURSDAY, December 31, 1778.
To the Printer of the VIRGINIA GAZETTE.
S UR
T"' dispositions of the human mind are as vari-
X ous as the human countenance, and it is said
every man's character may be viewed in as many dif
ferent lights as his face. A certain wandering being
has just made his appearance in this country, and
however multifarious the talents and features of this
genius are, I will attempt to delineate them. Nature
has not given him a face to belie his heart, —sharp
canine eyes,—alarge, luminous, Aquiline nos hard
visage—a livid complexion—a four, restless, difeon
will merit them when they dare to become the friends
of our allies.
I shall not ask the military companions of the Mar
quis of Levi; those who hiared his glory, who ad
mired his talents and genius for war, who loved his
cordiality and franknefs, the principal chara&eriftics
of our nubility, whether there be other names in
other nations, among which they would be better
pleated to place their own.
Can the Canadians who law the brave Montcalm
fall in their defence, can they become the enemies of
his Nephews? Can they right against their former
leavers, anti arm themselves against their kinsmen ?
At the bare mention of their names, the weapons
would fall out of their hands.
I shall not observe to trie Ministers of the Altars,
that their evangelic efforts will require the special pro
tection of Providence, to prevent faith being dimi
nilhed by example, by worldly interest, and by so
vereigns whom force hasfrimpofed upon them, and
whole political indulgence will be lessened proporti
onably as thole lovereigns /hall have lets to fear. I
shall not observe, that it ishecefiary for religion, that
those who preach it ihoual form a body in the hate,
and that in Canada no other body would be more
conlidered, or have more power to do good than
that of the Priells, taking a part in the government ;
since their respectable conduct has merited the confi
dence of the people.
I shall not Icprefent to that people, nor to all my
countrymen in general, taat a van monarchy, having
the fame religion, the fame manners, the lame lan
guage, where they find kinsmen, old friends and
brethren, must be an inexhaustible source of com
merce and wealth, more eafoy acquired, and better
secured, by their union with powerful neighbours,
than with strangers of another hemisphere, among
whom every thing is different, and who, jealous and
despotic lovereigns, would tooncr or later treat them
as a conquered people, and doubtlcls much worse than
their late countrymen tbeXmericans, who made them
victorious. I shall not urge to a whole people, that
to join with the United States, is to secure their own
happiness, since a whole people, when they acquire
the right of thinking and acting for themselves, must
know their own interelt : But I will declare, and I
now formally declare in the name of his Majesty,
who has authorifed^ and commanded me to do it, that
all his former lubjeCts in North-America, who shall
no more acknowledge the supremacy of Great-Britain,
may depend upon his protection and support.
Done on board his Majesty's jbip the Languedoc,
in the harbour of Boston, the 28th day of October,
in the year 1778. E STAI N G.
Bigrel De GRANDCLOS, Secretary, appointed by the
King to the Squadron commanded by the Count D'
Eftaing.
Printed on board the Languedoc, by F. P. Demauge,
Printer to the King and the Squadron.
Mr. Collins,
ff HE attempt of a certain General Officer lately con
„ demned by a Court-martial for bis mal-conduG, to
rafe a party in his favour, by calling in quefion the
abilities not only of our illaJlrious Commanderin Chief,
but that oj all our General Officers —has ju/lly raised
toe indignation of every honfl man.—His publications
cue an induct to America. It is a degree of vanity
without a parallel, even to hope to raise bimfelf into
importance, by affecting to be a competitor for popula
rity with that Great and Good Man — There is no more
similarity between their characters than there is between
virtue arid vice—good and evil —And he may afore
himfelf that before he can raise a party in America in bis
favour, he must f„ deprive the people of their senses,
and teach them that light and darhnefs are synonymous
terms. —But as the character of this genius appears to
be particularly delineated in an old Virginia paper of the
year 1775, Ifend it you, and defre you will re-publifb
the fame in your ufeful Gazette. It is true, the writer
oj this piece appears to be a tory ; yet truth spoken by an
enemy, is notwitbranding truth fjll---and the conduct of
tout officer jince that period fully verifies the character.
THE
tented countenance form no bad index to the foul
within. This man is by profeffion what is called a
Mercenary soldier, that is, a man who is altogether
void of principle, who never consults conicience, but
is ever guided by interest in his puriuits, anu changes
lides for one tarthing more added to his pay. It is
difficult to ascribe any other motive of conduct to our
Hero than avarice,—avarice has got possession of him
before her time, and though not past the middle age
of life, he is a miser of eighty—though an epicure by
inclination, was it not tor the hospitality of the Ame
ricans, he would starve himfelf to death to save his
money ; and from this cause, in his rambles, his body
fufiers much by his abstinence. Yet he contradicts
the Poet when he fays,
One matter passion in the brealt,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest.
For our Hero with this sordid quality, which is com
monly deemed fufficient ballast against levity, has in
him a spice of Quixotilm, to account for which, would
require feme altronomical knowledge in the system of
a neighbouring planet, under whose influence the na
tivity of our Hero is supposed to have existed. He is
an ever conitant attendant of the Daemon of Dis
cord, and has run over the whole world in search of
her till he found her in Poland,—a molt ample theatre
to glut his diabolical passion—he firft engaged with
the mal-contents, then entered into the service of the
unhappy Sovereign of that country as a Colonel, but
the distress of his Majesty being too great to fatisfy the
rapacity of the Mercenary, he quitted that service,
but prevailed with his Majesty to confer upon him the
nominal honour of a General before his departure,
being indebted for this piece of civility, to a vehement
desire of getting quit of him. After this he offered
his service to the Ruffians and alternately to the Turks,
but being disappointed on all quarters, he returned
without laurels or profit, sullen and difeontented, to
bis native country, with however some hopes of pre
ferment there. These were soon blasted—his worth
was too well known, for him to rife beyond the com
mon road of promotion. The unhappy diffentions
with America, afforded him a pleasant profped, he
hies him immediately to that quarter.-—They nave
placed this Apostate at the head of their mmies.
What glorious success may not be expected from their
choice ! Fafeinated as they are, they may be deliver
ed over bound to those they are in arms against, in
order to secure the future peace of the Mercenary
and not to belie the uniformity of his character, when
the alarm of the Philistines are upon Thee
will be too late. This man calls himfelf a patriot,
and his audacity in assuming this character, can only
be equalled by the credulity of the deluded multitude
he imposes on—destitute of every component quality
of patriotism, what claim can he have to that ho
nourable title ? He is a perfect * Samnite in his hatred
of mankind and his love of dogs—sordid and covetous
to extreme, void of religion, honour, truth or friend
foip. Compare him with the famous villain of an
tiquity—Cataline, was a contemner of the gods, pro
fligate in his morals and a parricide of his' country ;
here the parallel breaks, for he was also profufe in his
expences, a lover of women, true and steady in his
attachment to his favourites, and with all graceful in
lus appearance, and good natured in his manners. In
his frantic fits our hero affefts the Alexanders. Alas I
vain weak man ! how soon will thy dreams be at a
period? A Gordian Knot placed by a hand infe
rior to a deity's will baffle all thy powers of art.
You have nothing now but to exclaim with the hero
of Milton,
So farewel hope,
Farewel remorse ; all good to me is loft;
Evil be thou my good :
You've fairly become a candidate far infamy,
Ravifh'd with the whittling of a name,
See Cromwell damn'd to everlasting fame!
But even this damn'd fame you will not attain to.
As your life will prove dilhonourable to yourfelf, so
posterity will not be emulous of drawing honours
from so ignominious a source—The tomb of oblivi
on will be the best record of your epitaph.
S COURG E.
' Vide, Plat. Vit. Cats.
f See the letter to G 1 B e.
Refolded, That the thanks of this Congress be given
to the Honourable Henry Laurens, Esq. late President,
for his conduct in the chair and in the execution of
public business.
The foregoing Resolution being communicated to
the Honourable Henry Laurens, Esq. he returned the
following aufwer in writing:
In CONGRESS, December 15, 1778.
[Numb. 56.]