The Newhampshire gazetteer — Exeter, N.H., 1791-11-21 00:00:00, page 1

EXETER, (New-Hampfoire) Printed and Pußlifhed by HENRY RANLET, at Nine Shilling, per annum.
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Newhampfhire
MONDAY, November 21, 1791.]
ff Publifoed, \ , v,
DIVINE hymns— or,
SPIRITUAL SONGS;
For the nfe of Religious Affembli, and
Private Christians —being a collection by
Joshua Smith —and others.
The Third Exeter Edition corre^efr
with ^n Addition of THIRTY TWO
HYMNS —containing in the whole. Iff
Hymns of various metres.'
Printed and Sold at the Printing-Of
fice in Exeter, by wholesale or retail—.
Sold allo by Mr. Samuel Sleeper, at his
house in Poplin, October 7.
On PUBLIC HAPPINESS.
NOTHING is more delightful to a
benovelent mind than the fight
of human happiness and the. traveller
who beholds it in any country will by
the help of nature (hare in the felicity.
Every traveller in the country will
have his feelings powerfully excited by
feeing the happiest people on earth,
with profpeas unbounded—heaven,
ever propitious to America, is crowning
the year with health and plenty, and
we every where behold the vivid coun
tenance and the smile of joy. The
old query and complaint " Why yuere
the former days better than theses ' is not
heard in the land. The people have the
intelligence,they know the superiority of
their blessings. "out of the heart the
mouth fpeaketh,"and there is 3 voice of
contentment and glow of gratitude—
there is a triumph of sentiment which
is American. Religion, which is the
cordial of human existence, now ex
pands the virtuous mind with senti
ments of felicity while recounting the
favors of Providence, and the wide
proipeft' of future "good to the world,
from the events daily unfolding here —
difinter&fted benevolence is Heaven in
miniature.
• The United Stares have only to con
tinue their exertions and progression io
the line they are in, and they will rife
with the flow of timfy until their popu
lations and improvements exceed ail the
nations 'of the world,,. This appears to
be ad irrefutable conclusion from rhe
foundation laid by nature, and the pre
fect Rate s os things—ln truth there is
nothing that can he opposed to this
happy conclusion, Sat a conjecture : that
the people of ifinerfcamay become
ignorant, fools, and madmen—But as
such a copjd, r e is agaioft alb^afoh,
it vanishes from the mind, and Heay^i
the field of hope blofoming with flowers;
and the moral hemisphere brightening
into day.—From the beginning of
time there were never so many causes
in operation to diffufe universal Lienee,
and such powerful and multiplied means
of enlightening the whole people as are
now feen'im this country. If the design
of providence can be learnt from th%
long chain of causes and events which,
have conspicuously marked the hiltory of
this country, moral reasoning will
confirm the conclusion from nature and
present fads. Every appearance in
reason and nature, the past and the
prefect, express in capitals the glowing'
profpeXs and preeminence ofColumbial
Lee the EDUCATION OF THE
CHILDREN so-ever 6e cobfidered and
parfued as the firft concern—by legiflg-.
tors, judges, clergymen, and by ALL
men. This, and this only will crown
with perfea and never fading glory, the
empire of freedom.
: ^ A TRAVELLER.--
>*/>*<>Q<>&<>s!><>^?< ?^5 ^^ ^^
Smith's Hymns.
From the Columbian Centinel,
RIGH T) of MAN:
The French constitution fays," There
foal: be no title ;",nd of coofequence,
all that class of equivocal generation,
which in fume countries is called " ar
iflocrac,,'' and in others" nobility ,'' is
none away, and the peer is exalted into
man.
Being an ANSWER to Mr.
Burkes ATTACK on the
FRENCH REVOLUTION.
Bv Thomas Paine,
Secretary for Foreign Affairs to Congress
in the American War, and Author of
the Work entitled Common Senfa
Titles are but nick name's, and.every
nick name is a title. The thing is per
fectly harmless in itfelf, but it marks a
fort of foppery in thd human cllaraaer,
which degraded it. Jt renders man into
the diminutive of man in things which
are great, and the counterfeit of woman
in things which are little. It talks about
its line blue ribbon like a girl, and shew c
its new garter like a Child. A certain
writer of lome antiquity fays," When
1 was a child, I thought as a child ;
but when I became a man, I put away
childish things."
Lit is, property, from the. elevated
rAind of Fiance, that the folly of titles
have fallen. It has outgrown the ba
by clothes of Count and; Dike, and bree
ched itfelf in manhood. France has
not levelled; it has exalted. It has
put down the dwarf, to let up the man.
The punfifm of a senseless word like
Duke, or Count, or Earl, has ceased to
pledl Evcn%hofe who possessed them
have disowned the gibberriih; and, a
they outgrew the rickets, have delpifed
the rattle. .. The genuine mind of man
thirfling for its native home, society,
contemns the gewgaws that separate
him from iL.tTitles are like circles
drawn by the magician's wand, to con
trad the sphere of man's felici y. He
lives immured within the Baftile of a
word, and forveyfat a distance the en
vied life of man. ',
Us it then any wonder that titles
mould falEin France ? Is it not a greater
wonder they should be kept up any
where ? What are they ?• What is their
worth, and " what is their amount?"
When we think or ipealz of a Judge or
a General, we a ffbciate with it the ideas
of office and character; we think of gra
vity in one. and bravery in the other:
butwhen we use a word merely as a
title, no ideas associate with iti Thro'
all the vocabulary of Adam,there is not
such an animal as a poke or U Count;
neither can we conned any certain idea
tq the words. .Whether they mean
ftrehgtl or weikn'efs, uifdom or folly,
a child or a man, or the rider or fe
horse, is all equivocal. What refped
then can be paid to that which describes
nothing; and which means nothing ?
Imagination has given figure and cha
racter to centaurs, satyrs, and down to
all the fairy tribe ; but titles baffle even
the powfr of fancy, and are a chi
merical nondescript.•
But this is hot all. Asa whole coun
try is disposed toroid them in contempt,
all their value is gone, and none will
ownthem^ It is, common opinion only
that makes.them anything or nothing/
or worse than; nothing. ^ There is no
occasion to fake' titles away, for they
take themfelvea away when society con
curs to ridicule them. This species of
imaginary cenfefovee has visibly de-
BUT, to return to the matters of the
iconstitution — ;
[ln continuation.]
^^rc4ff§mQfy>
( r'% raffle%
THE
car. the father or mother contemplate
their younger offspring. By nature they
are children, and by marriage they are
;heirs; but by aristocracy they are bast
ards andorphans. They are the flefh
'and blood of their parents in one line,
and nothing akin to them in the other.
To restore, therefore, parents tp their
children, and children to their parents
—-relations to each other, and man to
society—and to exterminate the "mon
ster Aristocracy, root and branch—the
French Confti:ution has destroyed the
law of Paimogen ituresm.ip. Here
then lies the monster ; and Mr,, Burke,
if he pleases, may write its epitaph.
!'Hitherto we have considered aristoc
racy chiefly in one point of view. We
have now to confider it in another. But
fide ways, or any way else, domestically
„or ppbJickly it is still a monster. &,
jh France,, aristocracy had one feature
lets in its countenance than what it has
in some other countries. It did not
compose a body of hereditary legislators.
It was not "a corporation of aristocracy,
for such I hare hearh M. de la Fayette
whether we view it before or behind, or
racy shews itfelf to us in this law. It is a
law against every law of nature, and na
ture herfelf calls for its deduction. Ef
tab/ifh family juilice an,;ariftocra
cy falls. By the ari ftocratical law of
primogtyturefhip, in a family: of fix
children, five are exposed.. Aristocracy
has never but one child. 'The rest are
begotten to be devoured. They are
thrown to the canibal for prey, and the
natural parent prepares the unnatural
repast..
As every thing which is out of nature
in man, affects, more or less, the inter
est of society, so does this. All the
children which the aristocracy disowns,
(which are all, except the eldest) are, in
general, cast like orphans on a parish,
to be provided for hi the public, but at
a greater charge. Unnecessary offices
and places in governments and courts
are created at the expense of the public,
to maintain them.\
others, arose out of the governments
founded upon coaqueft. It was origi
nally a military order for the purpose of
fapppTting military government (for
such were all.governments foundedin
conqu^ft) ; and to keep up a fuccelfion
of this order for he purpose for which
it was eflabliihed,. all the younger
branches of those families were disinhe
rited, and the law, of primogeniturejbip
set up.
The nature land character of ariftoc
If no mifehief had annexed itfelf to
the folly of titles, they would not have
been worth a serious and formal deftruc
tion,fuch as the National Assembly have
decreed them ; and this makes it necef
tary to inquire further into the nature
and character of ariffocracy. , .
That, then, which is called aristocra
cy in some countries, and nobility in
clined in every part of Europe, and it
battens to its exit as the world of reason
continues to rife There was a time
when the lowest class of what are called
nobility was more thought of than the
highest is now, and when a man in ar
raoar riding throughout Christendom in
quest of adventures was more flared at
than a modern Dike. The worlo has
seen this folly fall, and it has fallen by
being laughed at, and the farce of titles
will follow its fate. The patriots of
France have difeovered in good time,
hat rank and dignity in society m-ft
cake a new ground. The old one has
fallen through. It must now take the
substantial ground of chara&er, inflead
of the chimerical ground of titles ; and
they have brought their titles' to the al
tar, and made of them a burnt offering
to reason. .
With what kind of parental reflexions
Gazetteer. \
. . [Numb. 20 of Volume 6—
The French constitution has reformed
the condition of the clergy. It has rai£
ed the income of-the lower and middle
classes, and taken from the higher.
None are now l^fs than twelve hundred
livres (fifty pounds sterling) nor any
higher than "about two or three thousand
pounds. ' What will Mr. Buike place
agaipfttbis ? Hear what he fays?
He fays, c< that the people of England
can fee without paid, or grudging, an
arahbifhop precede a duke ; they can fee
a bi(hop of Durham,cr a bishop of Win
chester in pofft flion of £lO 000 a year;&
cannot fee why it is in worse hands than
estates to the like amount, in the hands
of this carl, or that 'fquire." And
Mr. Burke offers this as an example to
France,
As to the firft part, whether the
archbishop precedes be duke, or the
duke the bishop, it is, 1 believe, to the
people in general, femewhat like Stern
hold 2nd Hofkins, er Hopkins and Stern
hold; you: may put which you please
firft : and as I confer that 1 do notun
derftand the merits of this case. I will
not contend ir with Mr. Burke.
But with refpea to the latter, I have
fomethirg to lay. Mr. Burke has not
put the case right. The comparison is
out of order by being put between the
v Thirdly,.becaufe the idea of heredit
ary legifla ors is as iucorfidenc as that
of hereditary judges,or herwtary juries ;
and as absurd as an hereditary mathe
matician, or an hereditary wife man;
and as ridiculous as an hereditary poet
laureat.
* Fourthly, because a body of men
holding themselves aacoun able to .j
--body, ought not to be trutted by any
bodv.
Fifthly, because it is continuing the
uncivilized principle of Governments
founded in conquest, and the base idea
of man having property in man, and
governing him by personal right.
Sixthly, because aristocracy has a
tendency to degenerate the human fee
cies. By the universal economy of na
ture it is known, and by the instance of
the Jew, it is proved, that the human
species has a tendency to degenerate,in
any Imall number or perlons when sepa
rated from the general dock of lociety,
and intermarrying conftantiy with each
other. It defeats even its pretended
end, and become in time the oppefite
of what is noble in man. Mr. Burke
talks of nobility ; let him (hew what it
is. The greatest characters the world
have known have rose on a democratic
floor. Ariflocracy has not been able
to keep a proportionate pace with de
mocracy. The artificial Noble shrinks
into a dwarf before the Noble of Nature;
and in the few inflances (for there are
feme in ail countries) in whom nature,
as by a miracle, has survived in aristo
cracy, those men dfp/e it. But it is
time to proceed to a new fubjed.
describe an English House of peers Let
us then examine the grounds upon
which the French confti^ution has re
foired againtt having such an House in
France.
Btcaufe, in the firft place, as is alrea
dy mentioned, arittocracy is kept no by
famJv tyranny and injustice.
Secondly, because there is an unnatu
ral unfitneft in an aristocracy to be le
gii]a ors for a nation. Their ideas of
dijiributiiej,flice are corrupted at the
very source. They begin life by tramp,
ling on all their younger brothers and
lifters, and relations of every kind, and
arenaught and educated so to do. With
what ideas of juttice or honor can that
man enter an house of legislation, who
absorbs in his own person tne inheritance
of a whole family of children, or doles
out to them some pitiful portion with
the insolence of a gift ?