The New-York gazette, and the weekly Mercury — New-York [N.Y.], 1775-05-15 00:00:00, page 1

Monday, May Is, 177$. TH^ [N0.1231.fc,
NE^^rO R A r ^^^flG A Z ETT E:
WEEKLYM E R C U R Y.
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ASSIZE of BREAD. Flour at i6s. per Cent.
A White Loaf of the fineft FLOUR, to weigh
ilb. 130 Z. for 4 Coppers.
Published 3d April, 1775.
The SPEECH of the Honourable HENRY
TEMPLE LUTTRELL.
UPON a former occasion I presumed to state a
few of my sentiments to the House, relative
to the war impending over the Americans,
because I was sure I could not answer it to
my own feelings. I thought I could not answer it to
my country, had I neglefted at the very earliest moment
that might offer, to declare my utter abhorrence of
those unconstitutional, arbitrary, and diabolical pro
je&s, devised by his Majesty's ministers for the
deftru&ion of that unhappy people.
I flatter myfelf a certain illustrious character may
soon be left out of this opprobrious lift of projectors;
there seems to be a divine gleam of radiance coming
round his temples ; and I forefee almost, if not
altogether, as marvellous a conversion into the rich
path, as that which happened in days of yore, to the
great persecutor of the chriftian followers on the
plains of Damascus.
To what black storm in the political firmament
we are indebted for this sudden change, I, Sir, move
in too contra&ed a fpbere to discover ; but the noble
Lord will allow me to tender him my hearty con
gratulations, that he is at length awakening to that
clemency, and to that justice, which will belt agree
with the innate temper of his heart. There is a
long line of statesmen seated in firm array not far
from your chair, who have, ever since the birth of
this parliament, uniformly shrunk (and I am
sure their consciences always muff shrink, whatso
ever their politics or their eloquence may do) from
the great American question ; they have wished to
defer to the latest hour possible, all discussions of
this critical topic, in hopes, as they term it, to learn
what is actually doing on the other fide of the At
lantic. Sir, I can inform them, there rises dot a
fun in that hemisphere, but sets to such additional
grievances and outcries, as the molt soothing future
concessions, the most exemplary future facrifices on
your part, will scarce be able to atone for.
However grating to the tars of some individuals
the fubjeCt may be, I (hall take the liberty, with the
indulgence of the House, to affirm, that these mea
sures of compelling the Americans by force of arms
to acknowledge the paramount and unlimited autho
rity of parliament, in the taxation of their property,
a property created by their faculties, and by their
industry, are not jug, are riot politic., are not practi
cable, but a traitorous infringement oh the constitu
tion of the colonies, which rests upon the fundamen
tal principles that uphold the property and uphold
the franchifes of every native of this island.
Sir, I ever will contend, that the united parlia
ments of England and Scotland cannot legally im
pose a tax on the fubje&s in any other part of the
British dominions, without the consent of such sub
je&s, either by themselves in person, or by their
representatives. Let the champions of despotism avail
themselves of all their knowledge and sophistry, I
will venture to maintain this proposition, not arro
gantly presuming on my talents or (kill to manage it,
but on its own intrinsic merits, and the conviction
that to every dispassionate mind must naturally result
from its investigation.
The coerrion proposed militates against the privi
leges of all emigrants of their description, from the
time of the patriarchal disjunctions to this day;
emigrants who carried with them (as their penates)
certain inherent rights natural to mankind, immu
table and unalienable; confirmed to them for an
heritage, by that blessed constitution of Saxon con
texture under which they were born.
Laws established on firft neceflity and impotence
between them and the present state, either by express
or tacit assent, were not of. an universal, indefinite
obligation, they were of a fiduciary nature (of the
nature of a trust) adapted to the comparative state
the contrasting parties, for the purpose of temporary
expedience, and must of course vary conformable to
such other relative alterations as lapse of time and
the vicissitude of human affairs may effeft.
A&s of parliaments, or other diplomatic titles,
may be produced to Ihew a formal, and perhaps un
contested assumption of power at some given period
of time, but will not countervail the primeval and
indefeasible rights of mankind, whenever such rights
shall be asserted by a clear major part of the commu
nity. On this ground, and this ground only, rests
our spiritual reform under Harry the Vlllth, and
that most glorious of all civil revolutions---The Re
volution by which James 11. loft the throne of these
realms.
These gentlemen who plead for the omnipotence
of parliaments, and the infallibility of their codes,
Should advert to the many absurd, contradictory posi
tions and doCtrines laid down during the contention
of the several pretenders of Plantagenet line, and
afterwards of the heiresses of the House of Tudor.
In fa&, Sir, your statutes of those days borrowed
too frequently their maxims and complexion from
whatsoever brow might happen to be encircled with
the regal diadem. In the reign of king Richard 11.
a law puffed to transfer the power of both Houses of
parliament to twelve barons. By an aft under one
of the Henries, the King's proclamation, with the
consent of his privy-council, was thenceforward to
carry with it the force and efficacy of a law of the
land. And we all know that the parliamentof 164.1
voted itfelf perpetual, never to be dissolved nor pro
rogued but by its own consent; and the aft read by
an honourable member to the committee on the pre
sent resolution, and which he treated with so much
deference, because it declared the people of the Maffa
chufets-Bay in a state of revolt, was passed by this
immaculate parliament.
Now, Sir, let us suppose (what in these our uncor
rupt days there can be re,foa to apprehend) that a
0 Printed by HUGH GAINE, Printer, Bookseller, and Stationer, at the Bible and Crown, in Hanover-Square.
statute should be procured by some future minister
and minion of the Sovereign, vetting the whole
legislative as well as executive power in the crown,
totally to abolish both Houses of Parliament ; would
such statute be valid and binding on the fubje&
throughout Great-Britain and America? All per
sons have natural rights---a free people have legal
rights, independent of parliamentary edi&s, and of
which no form of government whatever can deprive
them. Laws not founded on constitutional justice,
are in themselves null and void ; nor are the makers
of them legislators, but usurpers.
A very wife and learned writer ( judge Blacks
ftene) has in his commentaries the following pas
sage : " If the Sovereign power advance with gigan
tic strides to threaten diffoiation to a state, mankind
will not be reasoned out of the feelings of humanity,
nor will facrifice their liberty in a scrupulous ad
herence to those political maxims, which were origi
nally established to preserve that liberty."
If the powers and pretentions of a few adventurers
and fugitives, occupying about two centuries ago
a small corner of a graceless defart, and possessed of
none of the good things of this life, are to ascertain
the powers and pretentions of three millions of peo
ple, spread over a land flowing with milk and honey,
and a thousand leagues in circumference, they may,
with the fame justice and propriety, be brought two
centuries hence to ascertain the rights and pretensions
of thirty millions, when the inhabitants of this
diminutive isle (hall scarce reach a fourth part of
that number : neither can I own such disparity in the
calculation of increase to be at all exaggerated, if
we coniider the various drains fitm this country,
and the daily influx of persons of both sexes at the
very meridian of life into these inviting regions ;
besides, new settlers usually reftri& themselves to
hunting and agriculture, to toils which afford vigour
to the body, and enterprise to the mind. They live
on plain, wholesome diet ; their progeny is healthful,
and of boundless increase ; whereas in nations that
have reached their full zenith of luxury, the mass of
the people are occupied at sedentary arts and manu
factures, drawing in, from morn to eve, an impure,
confined atmosphere, or brooding over unwholesome
furnaces: hente the vital flamina are hurt, the appe
tites soon appaled, the spirits easily deprefled ; they
become enfeebled e'er the sand of their mortal glass
be half run out ; their offspring is sapless and emas
culate;
America has Been loudly charged with ingratitude
towards the parent country, from whom the received
prote&ion during the late conflict of war. Tis not
quite clear how far the balance of that account is in
her favour! however, she cannot be so ignorant
of the real firings of war or peace, as to persuade
herfelf that your numerous embattled legions, under
triumphant fleets sent to her coasts, were supplied
purely from motives of parental affection, or sym
pathetic benevolence. Had, Sir; that vast territory
been planted with Portuguese scions, irittead of those
from your own stock, ponderating as the political
scales of Europe then were, would you riot have
offered to a people, in their natural and moral cha
ra&er as far from union with yourselves as discord
is from harmony, an equal supply of men and trea
sure ? Remember, Sir, your prowess at the eve of
that fame war, near the banks of the Tagus.
The love or enmity of one people to another, cari
not be estimated by their occasional alliances, coin
pa&s, or guarantee, as a body politic. It is but a
century ago that our English brigades served with
unparalelled ardor in the army of that arch-enemy
to civil and religious liberty, Lewis XIV. of France ;
the execrated revocator of the edi& of Nantz ; the
aspirer to universal despotism. We served, Sir,
against a people, whose tolerance and charity of reli
gion, whose whole system and freedom of govern
ment we at that very time held in emulative venera
tion ; a people whose assistance we fopplicated and
obtained, scarce twenty years after, to deliver us
from monarchical tyranny.
Such coertion were highly impolitic, because it is
from the prosperity, peace, and contentment of her
colonies, that resources of wealth and laurels of
honour are won to a mother country. Hidoiy
teaches us, that populousness and affluence are the
produ& of that clime alone, where the people may
reap in security a full harvest of their labour ; where
they have affluence in their leaders and governors;
where no exa&ions are infli&ed by an alien hand ;
where the municipal, if not the imperial jurifdi&ion,
together with the power of levying taxes, are vetted
in substitutes of their own free choice or approbation.
That faying of a despot, “ Oderint dum metuant,''
may be applicable to the swarthy sons of the opposite
division of the globe ; but, Sir, it will never accord
with the sentiments of our brethren in America.
Threats and violence uled against hearts of the
fame sturdy temper with your own, muff induce
the most calamitous events to both parties. There
will be feeds of equal courage and perfeveraoce found
in the one battle as in the other, with this difference
at the onset, that the arm of the aggrieved is usually
braced to bolder, more decisive efforts of rage and
despair, than that of the aggressor “ Aquila non
generant columbus.” Let us, rather rejoice that out
breed has not degenerated ; that these colonists have
a sense of rational freedom, becoming the sons of
such high mettled progenitors.
11l would it answer your purpose to bring their
bodies under a short-lived fubje&ion, and to leave
impressed upon their minds an unabating rancour
and aptness for revolt.
Revenge is an unchristian passion, yet how rarely
do we find the human foul possessed of a fabling
heroism, without this alloy ! /
Mondays 44 Min. after 4
Tuesday, 25 Min. after 5
Wednesday, 16 Min. after 10
Thursday, 10 Min. after 7
HIGH-WATER at NEW-YORK, this Week.
Friday, 20 Min. after 8
Saturday, 23 Min. after 9
Sunday, 15 Mm. after 10
Last Quarter next Sunday.
It has been made evident to you, that a defection
of the northern colonies will loon bring on the com
plete ruin of your Welt-India settlements, widen
cannot otherwise afford to provide themselves with
cattle, lumber, and divers other articles requisite
for the support of a plantation.
Let us turn our eyes to the inland trading towns
here at home ; those large iron founderies to supply
the anchors of commerce and implements for hus
bandry and the ingenious arts, are now set at work
^n moulding the sword and the bayonet to enslave
America. From the former commiflions there ac
crued confant returns of profit, and numberless
comforts ; from the latter; what can be expected but
poverty, deje&ion and mourning ! Peace with Ame
rica will make your thousands of manufacturers and
artisans a thriving, obedient people ; war with Ame
rica will make them idle, profligate, and tumultuary.
In fliort, the firtt open hostilities committed by your
troops on that continent, will realize to the race of
man, from one extremity of the earth to the other,
more fatal evils than were even contained in the
fabled box of Pandora.
Neither, Sir; am I altogether unacquainted with
the people of whom I am now speaking. Curiosity
once led me to travel many hundreds of miles along
their flourishing and hospitable provinces. I found
in most of them the Spartan temperance, inmag the
Urbanity of Athens ; and, notwithstanding the base
arid grotindlefs imputations on their spirit, which
the cankered tongue of prejudice and slander has
with' so licentious a virulence here poured forth against
them, they will, I am confident; if let to the proof,
evince the Roman magnanimity, ere Rome tell under
sceptered usurpation; But, Sir, it a foreign enemy
should appear at your gates, and you heed their
assistance, will there then be found among them
many a foriolanus ? He hands single aS a prodigy
of forgivenefs, in the annals of a people whole at
tachment to their native land was carried to the Ut
most height of enthusiasm. How soon that foreign
enemy may appear at your gates, I know not. Ac
cording to the horological predictions of a mod en
lightened state soothsayer, we have about seven years
more of profound tranquillity with the House of
Bourbon to trust to ; but, from the fymptons <;
domestic didra&ion, and the improved state of the
government and finances of our neighbours, I fhouid
judge it prudent to be somewhat better provided than
we are at present for an early rupture ; hot entirely
to dismantle our ports and our coatis of loldiers and
seamen, lent to immolate the martyrs to liberty of
their own flefh and blood, on the distant continent
of America.
It is well known, through melancholy observation,
drawn from the fate of the Assyrian, Persian, and
Roman empires, that national societies, as well as
the individual mortals of whom thole societies are
eompofed, have their non-age, their adult vigour,
and their decline. Whatsoever share of indulgence
and independency Great-Britain shall, in this her
florid and athletic stage, generously bestow on her
rising colonies, they will, no doubt, amply repay to
her in some future generation, when ffie is verging
towards that aweful goal which must close her race
of glory.
The military coertion of America will be imprac
ticable. What has been the fate of your famous
bills passed in the last session of the deceased parlia
ment ? I mean, Sir, the Bolton port bill, and the
bill for altering the charter of Maffachufets-Bay.
America, as an earheft of her triumph over the fu
ture labours for which envy and malice may reserve
her, has, like another Hercules in the cradle, already
grappled with those two serpents sent for her destruc
tion. Neither shall we be long able to sustain the
unhallowed War.at so remote adiltance;---unexplored
defarts, wood-land ambufeades, latitudes to which
few of our soldiery have been seasoned ;---the south
ern provinces scarce to be endured in the summer
months, the northern provinces not approachable in
the winter season ;---fhipwrecks, pehilence, famine.
The unrelenting inveteracy and carnage of York and
Lancaster, will here be joined to all the elementary
hardships and maladies of a bigot crusade. Shall
not such dreadful arras in our earlier chronicle, serve
us for beacons at this perilous crisis ? Those rash ex
peditions indeed, undertaken by a few martial zealots
on milconceived piety, began to decline at the death
of the hot-brained, savage-hearted King, under
whom they were firft enterprized; and the sluices
of kindred blood, which had long inundated the
land in the red and white roses, were at length hap
pily put a flop to, by a tingle matrimonial contrail.
Now, Sir, who can look forward to a probable epoch
in the red volume of time, when the sword drawn
in thisquarrel shall be sheathed in peace ! I can fee
no end, till daughter, prosecution, extirpation, shall
totally have annihilated either the one or the other
people.
Far be it from me to anticipate by conje&ure to
either country so dreadful a sentence; but, Sir,
without a gift of preternatural forefight, I may
remark that there are features in the afpe& of infant
America, which denote at maturer years a molt
colossal force. The Helvetic and Flemijh confederacies
have demonstrated what extraordinary obstacles a
small band of insurgents may surmount in the cause
of liberty. The Helvetic confederacy confided of a
few draggling peasants, bannered against a mighty
prince ; yet firmnefs and desperation supplied that
energy, which the best disciplined numbers could not
resist.
The tragic feenes of Numantra, and of Saguntum,
(hew to how dire a catastrophe a spirited people will
devote themselves, sooner than submit to an unjust
^ff^rt It appears from one of the American
^Jate date brought to your table, that the
Wheatper Bushel, 6s. 4d.
Flour, 15 $ - 6(L
Brown Bread, 15s. od.
Weft-India Rum, 3s. 4d.
New-England, do. 2s. 6d.
PRICE-CURRENT, in NEW-YORK.
Mufcovado Sugar, 645. od.
Single refin'd ditto, is. rd.
Mblaffes, 2s. od.
Beef per Barrel, 48s. od.
Pork, 655. od.
At a Meeting of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of
the Townihip of Newark, in New-Jersey, on
Thursday the 4th Day of May, Anno Domini,
1775.
Doaor WILLIAM BURNET, in the Chair.
AN Aflociatiem having been entered into
and fubferibed by the Freeholders and
Inhabitants of laid Town, a Motion
was made and agreed to, that the fame
be read ; the fame was accordingly read, and is as
follows :
Newark, May 1,177 c.
ARTICLES of ASSOCIATION agreed to and
fubferibed by the Freeholders and Inhabitants of
the Townlhip of Newark.
WE the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the
Townlhip of Newark, having deliberately considered
the openly avowed Design of the Ministry of Great-
Britain to raise a Revenue in America, being affe&ed
with Horror at the bloody Scene now a&ing in the
Mallachufets-Bay, for carrying that arbitrary Design
into Execution ; firmly convinced that the very Exig
ence of the Rights and Liberties of America, can,,
under God, subsist on no other Basis than the most
animated and perfect Union of its Inhabitants,
and being sensible of the Necessity in the present
Exigency, of preserving good Order, and of a due
Regulation in all public Measures, with Hearts
perfectly abhorrent of Slavery, do solemnly, under
all the sacred Ties of Religion, Honor, and Love to
our Country, associate and resolve,
That we will personally, and as far as our Influ
ence will extend, endeavour to support and carry into
Execution whatever Measures may be recommended
[For the Remainder fee the lag Page.]
inhabitants of Boftdn were inclined to copy in part
these dire examples; that they meditated to abandon
the town with their wives and families, and the
reducing it to allies.
Did not we burfelves give a very fti iking proof at
the commencement of the 12th century, to what an
incendiary height the flame of vengeance might reach;
when we invited over, and received into the very
center of this island, a whole army of Frenchman to
aid us against a tyrant monarch arid his iniquitous
counsellors ? We owe perhaps that sacred palladium
ofour liberty, Magna Charta, as much to a Dauphin
of France, as to a King of England.
The Americans alledge, that what they now
contend for is that reafonablh portiot ibf liberty with
which they were chartered as their birthright, not by
any earthly potentate, but by the King of Kings,
"to make their lives happy, in the possession of
which liberty they do now hourly invoke that King
of Kings, or to make their death glorious in its just
defence."
What is the airri arid feepe of the refoltition before
you? To lure some of the less refractory provinces
of America, to diffoclate from, and betray their
fe!lqw-fufferers; to join in raising a contribution
throughout one half or the colonies ; to support your
armaments and outrages against the other half, with
a view to annihilate trade, cut off every natural
channel of livelihood and subsistence, and butcher
the disobedient; and how are these feceders to be
recompensed for such signal perfidy ? Why, by a
temporary exercise of certain empty forms and modes
of taxation; confirming at the fame time a right in
the crown and parliament of Great-Britain, to fix
the gross amount of all continental subsidies what
soever; that is, in fa&, they are to he still fubje& to
a minirterial majority in this House, which may levy
imports on them, not by any fair scale of proportion
to the burthen laid on the mother country, but the
demandmay perhaps be carried beyond their abilities,
or they may be liable to the difeharge of an immense
national debt. By way of earned, however, against
the numerous abuses in future to which this curious
plan lies open, they fliall instantly repose entire faith
and confidence in the present set of the King's
ministers at Weftminifter, so remarkable for consis
tency, lenity and wisdom.
The noble lord on the other fide of the House puts
me in mind of King Arthur, in our modern dramatic
mask, where that firft of the British worthies hands
balancing between Grimbald and Philadel. He has
just caught a glimpse of the cloven foot of the infernal
fiend by whole dazzling snares and incantation he has
been thus long fafeinated, and is turning to the fair,
heavenly spirit, who would guide him into the ways
of happiness and honour. Let him not stop short,
but pm sue the only track that can save his country---
perhaps save himfeif from perdition.
I should be as strenuous an advocate for the just
authority of parliament as any man ; but I think we
ought candidly and effe&ually to relinquish all vain
pretences to fbpreme sovereignty, in cases where they
are not maintainable on principles of justice, of
found policy, or the constitution of the land.
If you perfirt in pride arid error, what will be the
consequence ? Intertine enmities will be increased
devastation and havock must ensue;
When queltions of such weight and magnitude as
these now in agitation, concerning America, (hall
come before you, ev^ry member ought to reflet, that
the fate of a whole nation may possibly depend on his
single vote.
Whosoever gives the powefr of oppression, is in
fa& a tyrant---whosoever gives the power of murder,
is in fa& an assassin.
I am against this resolution, because I think, that
so far from extinguishing the flame, it. will only
throw oil upon it to aggravate its fury ; and, however
fpeciotis, however conciliatory, it may seem at firft
fight, when it comes to be analized on the other fide
of the water (falhioned as it now stands) it cannot
possibly have any other conftru&ion put upon it,
than that of adding infelt to injury.
Fine Salt, 3s. 3d
Coarse Salt, 3s. °d
Bohea Tea, 4s. 6d
Indian Cornperßu. 3s. 4d