The Pennsylvania ledger, or, The Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, & New-Jersey weekly advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-02-10 00:00:00, page 2

opposition of four or five of the le/Ter. I cannot
help conjecturing, that William, the firfl Prince of
Orange, called the Taciturne, the ablest man, with
out dispute, of the age he lived in, not excepting
even the Admiral Coligny,* and who had the mo
delling of the Republic as he pleased; I conjecture,
1 fay, that the Prince of Orange would never have
fullered iuch an dbfurdity to have crippled that
government, which he was at the head of, if he
had not thought it ufeful to himfelf and his family.
He covered the greatest ambition with the greatest
modesty, and declined the infignificant, outward
signs, as much as he desired the solid substance of
power: Might he not therefore think, that this ab
surd, though requisite unanimity, made a Stadt
h%der absolutely neceffiry, to render the govern
ment pra&icable? In which case he was very sure
the Stadthouder would always be taken out of his
family,; and he minded things, not names. The
Petitionary^ thinks this conjecture probable; and
as we were talking the other day, confidentially,
upon this fubjed, we both agreed that this monll
rous and impracticable unanimity, required by the
constitution, was alone fufficient to bring about a
Stadthouder, in spite of all the measures of the
Republican party to prevent it. He confeffed to
me, that upon his being made Penfionary, he en
tered into solemn egagements, not to contribute,
directly nor indirectly, to any change of the present
form of government, and that he would fcrupu
lotifly observe those engagements; but that he
forefaw the defects in their form of government,
and the abuses crept into every part of it, would
infallibly produce a Stadthouder,§ tumultuously
imposed upon the Republic, by an infurredion of
the populace, as in the case of King William. I
told him, that in my opinion, if that were to hap
pen a second time, the Stadthouder so made would
be their King.f He said, he believed so too; and
that he had urged all this to the most considerable
members of the Government, and the most jealous
Republicans. That he had even formed a plan,
which he laid before them, as the only possible one
to prevent this impending danger. That a Stadt
houder was originally the chief spring upon which
their government turned; and that, if they would
have no Stadthouder, they must substitute a fucce
daneum. That one part of that fuccedaneum muff
he to abolish the unanimity required by the present
form of government, and which only a Stadthou
,roved of the treaty. This was accordingly done in
two or three days, and then they agreed. This is a
frong infiance of the absurdity of the unanimity re
quired, and of the use that is often made of it.
However, foould,one, or even two, of the lesser
provinces, who contribute little, and often pay less to
the public charge, obfinately and frivoloufly, or per
haps corruptly, perfjl in opposing a measure which
Holland and the other more considerable provinces
thought necefary, and had agreed to, they would fend
a deputation to those opposing provinces, to reason
with, and persuade them to concur; but if this would
not do, they would, as they have done in many infian
ces, conclude without them. The fame thing is done
in the Provincial States of the refactive provinces ;
where, if one or two of the leaf considerable towns
pertinaciously oppose a necessary measure, they conclude
without them. But as this is absolutely unconfituti
vnal, it is avoided as much as poffble,. and a complete
unanimity procured, if it can be, by such little con
cefions as that which I have mentioned of the Briel
Major.
* lam persuaded, that had the Taciturne been in
the place of the Admiral Coligny, he would never
have been prevailed upon to come to Paris, and to
have put himfelf into the power of those two monsters
of perfidy and cruelty, Catharine of Medicis and
Charles the Ninth. His prudent escape from Flan
ders is a proof of it; when he rather chose to be
Prince fans terre than Prince fans tete.
^ Monfeur Slingelandt, the ablest Minifer, and
the bonefefi man I ever knew. I may justly call him
my Friend, my Master, and my Guide. For I was
then quite new in buftnefs; he inftruCed me, he loved,
he trufed me.
§ It has since appeared that he judges very rightly.
f And so he ought to be now, even for the fake and
preservation of the Seven Provinces. The necessary
principle of a Republic, Virtue, fubffs no longer
there. The great riches of private people (though
the public is poor)' have long ago extinguished that
principle, and defrayed the equality necessary to a
commonwealth. A commonwealth is unquestionably,
upon paper, the most rationable and equitable form of
government ; but it is as unquestionably impracticable,
in all countries where riches have introduced luxury,
and a great inequality of conditions. It will only
do in those countries that poverty keeps virtuous. In
England, it would very soon grow a tyrannical aristo
cracy ; soon afterwards, an oligarchy ; and soon after
that, an absolute monarchy; from the fame causes
that Denmark, in the las century, became so ; the
intolerable oppression of the bulk of the people, from
those who they looked upon as their equals. If the
young Stadthouder has abilities, he will, when he
grows up, get all the powers of a limited Monarchy,
such as England, no matter under what name ; and,
if he is really wife, he will defre no more ;if the
people are wife, they will give it him.
Her could render practicable by his influence. That
" the abuses which were crept into the military part,
of the government, muff be corrected, or that they
alone, if they were fuffered to go on, would make
a Stadthouder; in order that the army and the
navy, which thepublic paid for, might be of some
use, which at present they were not. That he had
laid these and many other con fiderations of the like
nature before them; in the hopes of one of these
two things; either to prevail with them to make a
Stadthouder unnecessary, by a just reformation of
the abuses of the government, and substituting a
majority, or, at moll, two thirds, to the absurd
and impracticable unanimity now requisite. Or, if
they would not come into these preventative regu
lations, that they would treat amicably with the
Prince of Orange, and give him the Stadthouderat,
under ftrid limitations, and with effectual provisions
for their liberty. But they would listen to neither
of these expedients; the firft affected the private in
terests of most of the considerable people of the Re
public, whose power and profit arose from those
abuses. And the second was too contrary to the
violent passions and prejudices of Messrs. d'Obdam,
Booted ter, Hallewyn, and other Heads of the high
Republican party. Upon this, I said to the Pen
fionary, that he had fully proved to me, not only
that there would, but that there ought to be a
Stadthouder. He replied, “ There will most cer
" tainly be one, and you are young enough to live
" to fee it. I hope I shall be out of the way firft;
" but, if I am not out. of the world at that time,
, I will be out of my place, and pass the poor re
" mainder of my life in quiet. I only pray that
“ our new Mailer, whenever we have him, may
" be gently given us. My friend, the Greffier,*
" thinks a Stadthouder absolutely necessary to save
" the Republic, and io do I, as much as he, if they
" will not accept of the other expedient; but we
“ are in very different situations; he is under no
“ engagements to the contrary, and I am." He
then asked me in confidence, whether I had any in
ftrudions to promote the Prince of Orange's views
and interest. I told him truly, I had not; but that,
however, I would do it, as far as I could, quietly
and privately. That he himfelf had convinced me
that it was for the interest of the Republic, which
I honoured and wished well to; and also that it
would be a much more efficient ally to England,
under that form of government. “ I mull own,"
replied he, "that at present we have neither strength,
secrecy, nor dispatch." I said, that I knew that but
too well, by my own experience; and I added,
laughing, that I looked upon him as the Prince of
Orange's greatest enemy ; and upon that Prince's
violent and impetuous f enemies to be his friends;
for that if his (the Penfionary's) plan were to take
place, the Prince would have very little hopes. He
interrupted me here, with faying, Ne craignes rien,
Milord, de ce tote la ; mon plan bleffe trop I'interet
particulier, four etre recue a present pue l'amour du
public n'exife plus.\ I thought this conversation
too remarkable, not to write down the heads of it
when I came home.
The Republic has hardly any navy at all; the
single fund for the Marine being the Imall duties
upon exports and imports; which duties are not
half collected, by the connivance of the Magistrates
themselves, who are interested in smuggling: so
that the Republic has now no other title, but cour
tesy, to the name of amaritimepower. Their Trade
decreases daily, and their national debt increases. I
have good reason to believe, that it amounts to, at
least, fifty millions sterling.
* The Gieffier Fagel, who had been Greffier, that is Secretary
of State, above fifty years. He had the deepen knowledge of
business, and the founded judgment, of any man I ever knew in
my life ; but he had not that quick, that intuitive sagacity, which
the Penfionary Slingelandt had. He has often owned to me, that
he thought things were gone too far, for any other remedy but a
Stadthouder.
I These hot-headed Republicans pushed things with the un
jufteft acrimony against the Prince of Orange, They denied him
his rank in the army; and they kept him out of the possession of
the Marquifat of Tevere and FJeffengen, which were his own
patrimony ; and by these means gave him the merit with the
people, of being unjustly oppressed.
Had he been an abler man himfelf, or better advised by others,
he might have ava±d himfelf much more fohdly than he did, of
the affection, or ratner the fury, of the people in his favour, when
they tumultuously made him Stadthouder ; but he did not khow
the value and importance of those warm moments, in which he
might have clinched and fixed his power. Dazzled with the
show and trappings of power, he did not enough attend to the
fubllance. He attempted a thing impossible, which was, to p'eafe
every body; he heard every body, begun every thing, and finifhed
nothing. When the people, in their tury, made him Stadthouder,
they desired nothing better than totally to dissolve the Republican
form of government. He should have let them. The tumultuous
love of the populace mull be seized and enjoyed in its firft trans
ports; there is no hoarding of it to use upon occasions ; it will
not keep. The most considerable people ofythe former govern
ment would gladly have compounded for their lives, arid would
have thought themselves verywell off in the cattle of Louveftein;
where one of the Prince of Orange's predecessors, sent some of
their ancestors, in times much less favourable. An affected mo
deration made him lose that moment. The government is now in
a disjointed, loose date. Her R, H. the Gouvernante has not
power enough to do much good; and yet she has more power
than authority. Peace and economy, both public and domestic,
should, therefore, be the sole objects of her potitics, during the
minority of her son. The public is almost a bankrupt; and her
Ton's private fortune extremely incumbered. She has sense and
ambition; but it is, Hill, the sense and ambition of a woman ; that
is, inconsequential. What remains to be done, requires a firm,
manly, and vigorous mind.
t Never fear, m, Lord; apian so prejudicial to private interest
•will not be adopted, where Patriotism no longer fubfifa.
The decrease of their Herring-fifhery, from what
it appears by Monsieur de Witt's memoirs of Hol
land, in his time, is incredible; and will be much
greater, now we are, at last, wife enough to take
our own Herrings upon our own coasts.
They do not, now, get by freight one quarter of
what they used to get 5 they were the general Tea
carriers of all Europe. Thea& of navigation passed
in Cromwell's time, and afterwards confirmed in
Charles the Ilds, gave the firft blow to that branch
of their profit; and now we carry more than they
do. Their only profitable remaining branches of
commerce arc, their trade to the Eall-Indies, where
they have engrossed the spices; and their illicit trade
in America from Surinam, St. Euftatia,Curacoa, &c.
Their woolen and silk manufactures bear not the
least comparison with ours, neither in quantity,
quality, nor exportation.•
Their police is still excellent, and is now the only
remains of that prudence, vigilance, and good dis
cipline, which formerly made them esteemed, ref
peded and courted.
-%•-%•-%-%-%%-•s-%<:-% *%*-%#^
WILLIAMSBURG, January 27.
An express arrived here on Tuesday, with ad
vice, that last Sunday morning near a hundred of
the enemy landed at Norfolk, from the men of war,
under a heavy firing of cannon, which continued
when the express came away. They had set three
houses on fire, but were soon forced to retire; the
loss they sustained was then uncertain. Three of
our men were killed by cannon (hot, two of whom,
it is said, belonged to Capt. Blentford's company
of minute-men.
By yeferday's Pofifrom the Eafward we have the
^ following intelligence."
CAMBRIDGE, February 1.
Last Thursday morning, Capt. Manly, being on
a cruize in the Bay, discovered a ship a league or
two S. E. of Boston light-house, he immediately
gave chafe to, and took her within fight of the Ships
in Boston harbour. He then flood for a snow, which
he elpied off Cohaffet; and soon coming up to her
she struck to him without hesitation. Just as Capt.
Manly had manned his last prize, a schooner of 8
carriage guns, with many swivels, and full of men,
convoying two little provision vessels from Halifax,
came up, and began an engagement with Captain
Manly; but being soon convinced of her error, she
Sheared off for Boston.—Captain Manly would un
doubtedly have taken her also, with the two provi
sion vessels, had not his crew, (which was at firft
much Short of the complement) been weakened by
manning the two prizes. In the engagement, his
gunner was wounded, and his rigging Something
damaged. We have not heard what loss the enemy
sustained. Both of the prizes, which were loaded
with coal from Whitehaven, in England, Captain
Manly got fafe into Plymouth the ensuing night.
It is said about 100 fail of transports may be soon
expected on the coast from England.
Last Tuesday an express arrived from Canada,
with dispatches for his Excellency the General,
dated the 15th ult—We have the plealure to hear
that our army, notwithstanding the loss sustained
in the late unfortunate attack upon Quebec, still
continues the blockade of that city; and that we
have good grounds to hope that the reduction of
that capital will be compleated before spring, as
we have authentic intelligence that reinforcements
from various quarters have been poured in to the
assistance of our brave little army.
The following is the Form of Government lately
assumed by the Colony of New-Hampshire.
In CONGRESS, at Exeter, January ^, 1776.
E the members of the congress of the colony
of New-Hampshire, chosen and appointed by
the free fuffrages of the people of said colony, and
authorized and impowered by them to meet to
gether, and use such means, and pursue such mea
sures, as we should judge best for the public good ;
and in particular to establish some form of govern
ment, provided that measure should be recom
mended by the Continental Congress: And a re
commendation to that purpose having been trans
mitted to us, from the said Congress; have taken
into our serious consideration the unhappy circum
stances into which this colony is involved, by means
of many grievous and oppressive ads of the Britilh
Parliament; depriving us of our native and conffi
tutional right and privileges; to enforce obedience
to which ads, a powerful fleet and army have been
sent into this country, by the ministry of Great-
Britain, who have exercised a wanton and cruel a
buse of their power, in destroying the lives and pro
perties of the Colonists, in many places, with fire
and sword, taking the fliips and lading from many
of the honest and industrious inhabitants of this co
lony, employed in commerce, agreeable to the laws
and customs, a long time used here.
The sudden and abrupt departure of his Excel
lency John Wentworth, Esq; our late Gover
nor, and several of the council, leaving us destitute
of legiflatibn ; and no executive courts being open
to punish criminal offenders, whereby the lives and
properties of the honest people of this colony, are
liable to the machinations and evil designs of wicked
men: