The Connecticut courant, and the weekly intelligencer — Hartford [Conn.], 1782-01-15 00:00:00, page 2

Newton, gravely fitting over a tab of water,
with a pipe in his mouth, blowing air-bubbles;--
anfat other times dropping pebbles from the top
of St. Pauls steeple both which a boy of twelve
years old could have done full as well as he; but
this is philosophy. I have heard of his being so
engaged in thinking of some philosophical tricks,
that he made use ofa lady's finger instead of a
tobacco stopper; and yet this fame Sir Isaac (with
all his nonferife and inattention to politeness) is
Did to have been a scholar and a great philoso
pher. Follow the virtuofe ; fee what a dance
a Ju/Mtfvcan lead him; and with what case he
saves a moth; which all the world besides him-
fdf would wish should be destroyed :^--He is a
Phihfopher. There's another, A man who
thinks of nothing under heaven but antiquity :—
he has a large estate in ancient coins, and yet can
hardly find money enough to go to market :—he
would give an hundred guineas (if he had them)
for the male tick which was preserved in Noah's
ark, and thrice that sum for an authentic copy of
the deed bywhich St. Peter conveyed the lands of
infidels and hereticks to the Pope. Such are the
lons of faience ! —Bleffed Ignorance ! thy vota
ries know no such follies, no such toils as these.
Men of education are constantly haranguing
on the advantages of learning; and, in many
parts of the world, have had much success; but
it must give infinite fatisfa&ion to every lover of
his country, to fee that the good sense of Ame
rica will baffle their attempts amongst us; Here
no man meets with refpe& on account of his
knowledge, and the teachersof the fcienges (those
of dancing, hair-dressing, and millenary except
ed) are held in the utmost contempt, and ranked
with the lowest of the people. Should our pre
sent fondnefs for ignorance continue, America
may become the elyfium of the world. To en
courage us in this expedation, let us briefly re
view some of the advantages we have already de
rived from it.
All the skill of British financiers has only serv
ed to fiddle their nation with a debt of two hun
dred millions of pounds sterling; while America,
ignorant of the fubjed, has reduced a debt of
TWO HUNDRED MILLIONS of Spanish
milled dollars to less than five.
Again; while we remained ignorant ofthe true
nature of a circulating medium of trade, our le
gislators could stamp what value they thought
proper upon a scrap of paper :—it became a pen
ny,-a Spanish milled doller,—a pound,-an half
johannas of Portugal,--or any thing else at their
pleasure: but the .moment we w@re informed of
its intrinsic worth, the imaginary value vanished,
and the rag dwindled into its original infignifi-
Gance.
Here we have the most ineonteftible evidence
that ignorance exceeds knowledge, at least in the
ratio of one hundred feventy-foe to one.
Many other instances of the benifits we have
deceived from ignorance might be enumerated
but these shall fullice, that I may not impose up
on that patience to which I am indebted for so
indulgent an attention.
Upon the whole, whether we form our judg
ments from the declarations of the wife ft of men
from the dictates of nature,or from our own ex
perience, we mcy conclude, that ignorance is
preferable to knowledge: and should any man
be so unfortunate as to possess the latter, (it will
be a mark of orudence in him (as Solomon judi
cioudy suggests) to conceal it.
Since then all knowledge is at best but vain,
Since it not lessens, but increases pain,
It is most evident, we may conclude
That in sheer ignorance consists all good;
That to be happy we need know no more
Than (nor so much as) two and two make four;
And therefore, as they care fornought that passes
The happiest creatures in the world are affes.'
AN APOL I S, Derember 27.
By Captain Martin, who arrived this day from
St. Croix, in the Brig Otho, in 24 days, we are
favoured with the Royal Danini American Ga
zette, printed at St. Croix, Chriftianfted, Satur
day, December 1, 1781, fromwhich are extract
ed the following paragraphs ;
Letters received here yesterday morning
from St. Thomas fay, that St. Euftatius was ta
ken, and in possession of the French on Monday
laft.'
A vessel arrived here yesterday afternoon from
Angunla ; the Captain of said vedel confirms the
above account, and further adds, that St. Mar
tin's was ta<en possession of by the French on
luelday last.
A letter from New-Jersey, dated Dec.
2 5, I 7' I > ")'% "An embarkation of 2or
3@oo men is taking place at New-York,
said to be for South-Carolina; from whence
they have an account of an action, but as
yet we Cannot learn the issue, however the
fending a reinforcement is a good omen."
Whatever the news from Carolina may
be, Mr. Rivington has given his readers,
in his paper of the z2d, what an elegant
writer in the fame paper, fpeakiag of a
lye, calls a whapper.
" Copy or a letter received from Sta
ten Island, dated December 20, " A per
son is come from Jersey this morning, and
fays General Leslie has killed and destroy
ed General Greene's whole army, the re
bels make long faces, and fay it is the
greatest loss they ever met with. The
account was brought by express ; I be
lieve it, and make no doubt but you will
loon have a confirmation."
" The person who brought the letter,
added, that General Greene was killed in
the adion."
As Mr. Rivington was much afraid that
his readers would not believe the above,
he adds,
" The printer begs leave to mention,
that the above is communicated by a well
informed friend who never yet* deceived
him on oecafions of such great importance.
* Here Rivington should have said.
“ before."
, AL T .IMO R E, December 2;.
I he General Alterably of South Carolina, are
to meet at Cambd^n, on the Bth of next month.
Arrivals in this port. A flip and a sloop from
Saiem ; Captain Brown in a sloop, from Provi
dence; and Captain Champlin, in a Brig, from
New-London.
PHILADELPHIA, January 1,
Extras of a letter from General Heath, dated
Quarters, Highlands, Dec. 25, 1781.
I have the honour of acquainting Congress,
that on the night of the 23d instant, Capt. Wil
liams 01 thexdew-York levies, who are doing du
ty ° n "'~ line's or this post, with 2; volunteer
horse, made an excursion to Moriffailia, took and
brought off one captain, one lieutenant, and fe
ve' privates or the enemy prisoners, without any
loss on our lide. I his enterprize was conduc
ed much to tne honor or Captain AVilliams and
volunteers, who were with him. Captain
Pritchard, the regular troops, with a detach
ment of infantry, was sent down to cover the re
treat ofthe hone if necedarv^ but the enemy did
not attempt to pursue them."
Published by order df Congress,
CHARLES THOMPSON, Sec'ry.
By the Joanna, Captain Tanner, arrived
here yesterday morning, after a passage
of eighteen days from'St. Thomas, we
have the following advices.
LOND O N, Oftober 12.
On the 4th instant, in the afternoon.
General Vaughan arrived at Lord Lif
burners house in the admiralty, from the
Weft-Indies, but last from Cork.
Yesterday Gen. Vaughan was at court
and introduced to his majesty.
The fame day Colonel Ferguson, lately
arrived from Tobago, was at court, and
had a lon^ conference with the king.
Yesterday the honorable major Stan
hope, brother to the earl of Harrington,
arrived at his lordships house in the liable
yard, St. James's, from the Weft-Indies.
Major Stanhope was the commanding of
ficer at Tobago at the time of its surren
der to the arms of Ae French.
X^^day 4di@ Rodney and his la
It is with (ham© and indignation that
we now proceed to fay a few words rela
tive to the inglorious loss of the island of
St. Euftatius, which has been too fully
confirmed. The Marquis de Bouille land
ed on Sunday night the 25th ult at a place
called Tumble down dick, on the back of
the island, with a handful of men 0n1y...
some accounts fay but 250, others go to
380 ; but we have not yet heard any bo
dy exceed the latter estimate. It seems he
had three or four times that number up
on the expedition, but the landing was so
bad that it was with the utmost danger
and difficulty those few had got on shore,
and not without the loss of some lives'
In landings their boats were stove, and the
Marquis de Bouille finding it impossible
either to get more men on shore or to re
gain his fhips,which last it is said he would
willingly have done, instantly formed the
gallant resolution of attempting the con
quest of the island with the small force he
had ; and to the eternal disgrace of the
commander,in chief there (if the circum
stances narrated, that is, prove alftrue,)
they succeeded without any resistance on
our part, at least without any worthy no
ticing. What number of troops the En
glish had, it is not in our power to afeer
tain ; but we have not heard any military
gentlemen estimate them lower than 500.
The 15th regiment and part of the 131/1
which formed the garrison, are transport
ed to Martinico, and from thence will,
we presume, be speedily conveyed to
France,
4 The Sybil frigate, which went into
English harbour yesterday morning, part
ed with the B itifh fleet, consisting of 18
fllips of the line, on Wednesday last, (two
others with the Nymph frigate had sepa
rated in a gale of wind,) and it is suppos
ed they mutt ere this haveairived a Barba
dos. They bring back with them the
69th regiment. The remains of the gal
lant 4@ih were left to form part of the gar
rison at New York. We are happy in
adding that Captain Forbes, whom fame
had- at one time numbered among the fal
len at the brilliant affair of Fort Griswold,
is Bill in the land of the living, and in to
lerable health. He came from New-York
in the Barfleur, but arrived here in the
Sybil.
dy were at court and took leave of their
majesties, previous to their going to Bath.
St. JOHN'S (Antigua) December 4.
Having but one piece of good news to
tell our readers, we will set out with it,
merely for the lake of avoiding that qae
relous kind of exordium which we have of
late had too many occasions to repeat.
That the long expected Cork fleet has
fafeiy reached Barbadoes, may certainly be'
estimated as an article of very good news.
They came under convoy of the St. Al
ban's and two frigates, and have been se
veral days arrived? They had once weigh
ed anchor to proceed this way, but return
ed; for what reason is not mentionedjn
any of the letters we heve seen, but it mly
be presumed that the reports of the arri
val ofa very powerful reinforcement to
the French, and the hourly expectation of
our fleet from North America, were the
co-operating eaufes.