Oracle post — Portsmouth, N.H., 1803-11-01 00:00:00, page 1

F"Vol. XIV.]
-/so*trtefct=&3=ttat&—
OF ALL THE DISPOSITIONS AND HABITS
WHICH LEAD TO POLITICAL PROSPERITY,
RELIGION and MORALITY ARE INDIS^ENSA
*LR SUP% ORTS.—WASHINGTONS Legacy.
^^===-;^—__ —
POETRY.
■HI—WHIWIW-I I —
From the New-York Evening Pest.
MAJESTIC Hudson, on th, wave worn bank,
i White youthful blood courfcd fwiftly thro' my veini,
2 What eager draoghu of pleafilre have I drank,
Heedleft of life'sheen anguiffi, or its pains.,
Ye fairy atons, foiftly have ye fled,
Soon has the dreg# of plcafure's cup appeared,
Each early fritend is numbered with the dead,
& friend#, by the fendeft Sympathy endeared.
In yonth, all nature brightened in my light,
^ Garriy 1 pluck'd each proferc ' flower,
oom manhood came, my infant jov# rd b!;~ht,
T^Tailof tofre on Ocean's vast profound,
Dy the rude tempest and o'erwhelming blast,
Looks on, the Heavens are hung with clouds around,
And leaps with joy when aid hath come at last.
So from the storm-worn rock of life I spy,
My little bark, by passion's temped borne,
To Heaven I (end the eager burning sigh,
And look for Death, co five me from the fto rm,
ACASTO.
New-Yorfo Odt. to.
q,tffyifo^eH. 3 #¥+> ^ te fe#«,fy.
MORALIST.
MEMO RY.
Far from my native vale, and oppressed with
toe exiting evils of life, my mind wandered into
(he garden of Memory to seek for confolarion.
[,She led, me to the bank where, in my; infancy, (
Lid plucked the earliest flowers to deck my gar.
%nd of delight. We then entered a grove,
where all the companions of my youth were as-
Ambled, and the song and the dance went round
on the daisy enamelled green. We then retired
to a sequestered foot, where the M^fe seated her
felf by my fide, and taught my faultering tongue
,„ breathe the <ffnfions of my foul. Here I be
held Fame, high seated in the clouds, who, I
thought, beckoned to me, and held a wreath of
here! in her hand 1 then visited many a path
tfhere the fofter Pabons attended on all my Reps;
. tend where Hope and Expectation joined us in the
and pointed out the distant regions of Hap.
■tflnefi. Absorbed in thisvifion of pafl times, my
remind, for a while, forgot its furrows. The vi
con was too delicious (Kit to be repeated ; till
■formed by each fwect remembrance, I resolved
rcvifit in person ere feenes which, in the eyes
Memory, appeared so replete with Enjoyment !
vhat a change !—The hills and the vallies re
plained, but all betide were so much altered, that
fey no longer bore resemblance to what Memo
^had represented them ! The pastoral stream
bid been converted into mill ponds, and the
fpves, once dedicated to Pleafare, which adorn
a its margin, were levelled with the ground !
-4Thefe alterations said I, may be profitable to a
sordid individuals, but they are death to the
/Limental traveller, who revisits his paternal
@da after years of absence.” Almqft every
imitation had undergonea transformation; and
1 knew not the people that possessed them ! of
foie that paired me in my walks, few indeed
,:re the faces which I could recognize ! but in
imerable were those which I had never seen be-
Le; and I was a Granger in my native vale! I
4 quired after the lovely maids, and the youths
Lo had once formed our circles of Happiness,
LI was conduced to many an urn raised over
relics of juvenile beauty, and to many a stone
M* covered the remains of many an untimely
'defaced friend ! and all these things had hap
■ Fled within the Ihort period of a few years !
My mind sickened at the view, and I found
tyit Memory by preserving the feenes of past en
, torments, does but augment the force of existing
CPU I returned pensively home, and invoked
fe:p to repose myagitated spirits—Sleep, which,
in he absence of positive pleasure, is the firft blef
fr; in life.
IAMUSEMENT.
,gn Arabian Anecdote,
free fa an incident for the next Ro
mance of our modern Novel writers.
'Tp'tor, a rich and exalted Arabian, eat, drank, gam
indulged himfdf in every species of diflipation.
fcCThen he was tormented by that irksomeness, which
ic follower of satiety, he was fliuck with a curi
pf rifting the fcpulchrc of his ancestors. He de
ad wandered between two rows of rotten bones
the solemn reflexion that his must one day be
:h them, but with the idea of a voluptuary, that
y coo! and pleasant.
b his eye was attra^pd by the following half
;ripfion:.,
rnearh is more hidden treafere than wa, ever pop
Craftier.,„, ,
tort, uhofc wealth was not tn a fall degree ex
ordered the vault to be immediately opened, and
Q/manihandful of dust, under which was a marble flab
these words— .
«ffiou deluded mortal, with daring hand, profaned
^^ reigned tiere-unintfaff pcace-a tru^
; ; itia crefus never possessed."
A&lU&e blacksmith, that fancied himfelf sick, would
sols teaze a neighbouring phyfeian to give him re
1^ physician knowing him to be in perfed health,
raJtJ% to offend him, told him he must be very
his diet, and not eat any thing that was heavy
^w&^ ^be."
^^t, back he polls to the do^or, who being out
rip K M^kfinith"""'' Why then 1 Anil tell you, (AC coc
T MTOVTr la hMVV lfld TOUT BELLOWS BTC
Q -donee cat either, and you'lldo well enough.
ORACLE POST.
Ito a .London paper.
Provide ^ Deliverance.
The following intcreftioff narrative has been made pub
lic by Dr. Lettfom :
“ The following bite, ?faconvi& was related by Mr.
Livius, a native of New-H topffiire, in America, and then
Chief Justice of Quebec, \<n fer General Carlton. He was
now in London, and, on reiling a morning paper, he ob
served a paragraph to the Allowing import :—“ Tomor
row, the noted house-breaker Cox, with •. • •, of Pifcata-,
way, in New-Hampshire, 1 ^returning from transportation,
will be executed, at Tybur the Chief Justice had never
'Em Newgate; and obferv nj that a perfou from his own
native country was condem ep to expiate his crimes on the
gallows, w„ifldteed to vis this prison, and fee his coun
tryman. Hit relation w %as well as I can recoiled,
(for the traufodton hap: ; ' ibeut the year £780,) as fol
lows; it vm fiowevcr teretling ever to be obli^r.
%ed iron /; • r^z^otj -ouvici had been an Amer-'
\ fr^ ^ fr ^ .fa, ;,,^ off
v,%pmg, to the ihore, the boatman informed him that he
co^id fill him fsme cauvafs, Efficient to make him a ham
mack, very cheap; the price was sixteen (hillings. Within
a fhorc period afterwards be was arretted for purchasing
flolen goods and proof being adduced to the court that
the canvass was Worth twenty-four (hillings, he was con- ,
defined to be transported to America, then under the crown
of Great Britain: this he said, he did not much regard, as
he could work his way thither, from his feamadinip, and
his father lived in New Hampshire.
Some time after his arrival in America as a transport, he
hired himfelf in a vcffel chartered to Lifhon, and which
he underflood was not to touch in England. The agent at
Lifen, however, received orders, from a merchant in Lon
don, to load the veffcl for the latter port; this at firft a
larmed him greatly ; but he reconciled himfelf to the voyage
under a resolution never to go on Shore whilst on the river
Thames; he kept his resolution till the day before the veffcl
was appointed to fail, upon which occasion the Captain had
given all his men the privilege of going on Shore, and tak
ing leave of their acquaintance. The unfortunate American
was the only sailor who did not accept the offer—the
Captain remained also on board, and, recelleaing Some
thing that he wanted in from shore, requeued the only sea
man he had with him to take the final! boat, and fcall her
on Shore, to procure what he then wanted: he made feme
frivolous excuses, till at length, by the persuasion of his
Captain, he consented to go on his errand ; but Scarcely had
he Stepped on Shore before he was recognized and arrested.
In the presence of his judge he was identified, and the gal
lows was his Sentence. Chief Justice Livies observing to
him, that be Teemed to have some comfortable food in his
cell, enquired how he could afford to purchase it—he re
plied, that a person, he believed a Roman Catholic Clergy,
man, gave him money, in hopes of his dying a papist : 'but,'
added he, 'I am no papist in my heart; and as for dying,
I have hardships enough not to care so much about it as a
bout my wages which I want my wife and children to re
ceive for me,' He was asked if he knew Mr. Livius's
family which he described immediately.
“ The whole hiftory appeared to the Chief Justice to
merit further investigation, and ioftantly he proceeded to
inquire refpeding the circnmftances attending the charter
ing and failing of the Ship, and also the particulars of the orig
inal trial and fubfequeut Sentence, which corresponding with
the faifor's nffatiob the worthy o,,'^, h^° ^er
'Co/uWeyriduth's6,J&, and thence to the King, at Wind
sor, and returned to Loudon just in time to Stay the fatal
rope. After the trials and circumGances attending them
were revised, the King was pleased to change the Sentence
to transportation during his natural life, and he was Ship
ped off from London Soon after this a& of mercy. Livius,
however, who felt a lively interest in the fate of his coun
tryman, whom he believed guilty from ignorance and not
design, renewed his importunities, and at length got an or
der for pardon; he hurried with thte glad tidings down
the river, and overtook the convi&s at Gravefend, where
he found on board the transport Ship the poor sailor chain
ed to another convict. The order from the Secretary's of
fice was Shewn to the Captain, who absolutely refufed to
refiga him agreeably to the pardon, because he had received
these cenvi&s from Mr. Akerman, to whom atone he was
anSwerable, and that the prisoners were qo longer under the
jurifdiftion or control! of a Secretary of State. Difap
^pointed as Mr. Livius was in the profpea of liberating the
prisoner, he hafteued to town again, and got a proper legal
order from the late humane Akerman ; he then hired a
Graveknd boat, and did not overtake the transport till he
arrived at the Norc, whence he conveyed the convia to
London, where a few merchants on 'Change, on hearing
the whole tranfaaiou, colleded sixteen guineas, with which
the tar, honelt in principle, failed a freeman to the Amer
tan continent.
Natural Hiftory.
FROM THE ARE.
Almost every day, some new evidence prefects
irfelfiri Support of the Abbey Raynal's opinion that
thiscontineut was on,e covered by the ocean from
which it has gradually emerged. ,But that this im
mersion is even Comparatively speaking, of recent
date, Cannot be admitted : dniefs the comparison
be made with the creation of the earth ;—and e
ven then in order to juftify the remark, the mra of
the creation, must, I fear, be fixed much farther
back,th m the period which has been inferred from
the Mosaic account.
The foMowido tads are authenticated beyond a
ny kind of doubt, During the last Spring, a gen
tleman in the neighbourhood of Wiiljamfburg, a
bout fitly miles below this place, in digging a ditch
on his farm, discovered, about 4 or 5 feet below
the Surface of the earth, a considerable portion of
the Skeleton of a whale. Several fragments of the
ribs and other parts of thelyftem were found ; and
all the vertebra: regularly arranged and very little
impaired as to their figure. The Spot on which
th s Skeleton was found lies about 2 miles -from the
nearest Shore to James River, and fifty or Sixty
from the Atlantic Ocean. The whole phenome
non bore the clearest evidence that the animal had
perished in its native element ; and as the ocean is
the nearest resort of the whale, it follows that the
ocean must once have covered the country at least
as high up as Williamsburg. V;
Again, in digging several wells lately in this
town, the teeth as Sharks were found from sixty to
ninety or an hundred feet below the furface of the
earth. The probability fa that these teeth were de.
posited by the Shark itfeif ; and as thia fifh is never
known to iaftft very fallow waters', at all events
these teeth must be considered as ascertaining what
was once the furface of the earth here ; thatof James
River. N<>w if it be confidcred that there has been I
no perceptible difference wrought in the figure or
*elevation of the coast, nor, confequcntly, in the
I precipitation of the interior streams since the earli.
est recorded discovery of Virginia, which was two
BgwaawMiwwMiawM^ ...^ 11
TUESDAY, November 1, 1803.
hundred years ago, will followthatJamesßiver must
tir many hundreds perhaps thousands of years been
tinning, at least here with a very rapid headlong
errent : the friaion whereof is much deeper than
Was at the time of the deposition of these teeth.
,ne result is clear that the Itre^m, which even now
after all this friaion and confiqu^rit depression, is
so nearly ona level with the site of the Mark's teeth,
o>uft originally have been much higher.—l take
tis to be kn irrefragable proof that the land here
was, then, inundated ; and as there is no ground
between this and the Atlantic, b oer than that onj
,rich Richmond is built, it teems to me indifpu.
;' iy certain, that the wh de of this beautiful coun
ts Was once covered with a dreary waft, of water.
v ha, curious and "injerefting reflefiions does
lead us ! Over t.hj,.hißwh"'h,*<nnow
writing at my eatt, and ^q, . which J
look with delight, on the landscape that fmileb a.
round me—over this hill and over this landscape
the billows of the ocean have rolled in wild and
dreadful fury, while the leviathan, the whale, and
ail the mongers of the deep, have disported thenr
felves amid the fearful tempefl.
Where was then the Chore of the ocean? From
this place, for eighty miles to the westward, the af
eent of the country is very gradual ; and even
up to the blue ridge, marine (helis and other phe
nomena are found, whic lidernonftfrates that that
country, too, has been V *Uby the ocean.—How
then has it emerged? Has irWen by a sudden con
vulsion ? Certainly not. —No observing man, who
has ever travelled from the blue ridge to the atlantic
can doubt that this immersion has been effected by
very flow gradations. For as you advance to the
east, the proofs of the former submersion of the
country thickens upon you. On the shore of York
river the bones of whales abound ; and I have been
n6t a little amused in walking on the find beach of
that river, during tie recess of the tide, and looking
up at the high clift or bank above me, to observe
strata of lea fheHs hot yet calcined, like thole which
lay on the beach under my feet ; interspersed with
strata of earth (the joint result no doubt of fahd and
putrid vegetables) exhibiting at once, a famplc d's
the manner in wiiich the adjacent foil lias been
formed, and proof of the comparatively recent de
fection of the watch.
As to the weftejn part of this continent I 'mean
that which lies beyond the Allegany mountains, if
it was not originally gained fron the ocean, it has
received an accumulation of earth by no means less
wonderful. Far beyond the Ohio, in piercing the
earth for warter, the slumps of trees, bearing the
most evident impressions of the axe, and on one of
them the rust of canfumed iron, have been difeov.
cred between nirtety and an hundred feet below rhe
; ^CT^?^ M sth earth. i,js is a proof by,
the by, not only that this immense depth of foil has
been accumulated fin that quarter ; but that, that
new country, as e inhabitants of the Atlantic States
call iq is indeed, a very ancient one, and that North
America has undergone more revolutions in point
of civilization than have heretofore been thought of
either by the European or American philosophers.
fybfcfyifetfcfr 5•»•&•&•$••►•,»*►&•&•
MISCELLANY.
(From the Dublin Freeman's Journal.)
—o—
— Sheridan.
In the truly great and Patriotic conduft he has
adopted, in these proud principles of general in
depeideace which exalt him above the petty con
fideruticn of party, and enable him to spurn the
influx,* of faction, Mr. Sheridan sets an exam
ple wlroevery man in the Britifli empire should e
mulate at such a crisis as this, when public una
nimity is so necessary to the public fafety. His
is no hedge firing policy, skulking behind the
the alteration bf conftitutibnal oppofiiton, and
in a kind of negative alliance with the common
enemy, difeharging the missiles of distempered
eloquence against the honor, the spirit, and the
dearest interests ofhis country. No 1 he fees the
happy people who have the advantage of his
principles & inspiring oratory, threatened by the
most implacable foe ; the common enemy of civ
ilized man, and unbought and unsolicited, he
boldly, unequivocally, and honestly Hands for
ward, like the Hero of Thermopylae to pour forth
his eloquence,and if necessary his blood,in thegap
of his country. How different from this manly
decision of charader, and honest application of
talent, in the mean 2nd envious opposition of an
Ex Secretary (Mr. W.) who seems never to en
ter a certain great assembly, but to collect and dis
charge the venom ofdifappointed ambition. Mr. S.
inftrufted by hisown noble mind,& confeious how
dear to the brave is the approbation of his country,
could not have proposed a more, seasonable or
more ufeful motion to the House of Commons,
that a Vote of Thanks to the Volunteers of the
United«ingdom..
The incredible zeal & promptitude with which
they have come forward in defence of theempire,
have well entitled them,inthis Rage of theirfervi
ces, to such an acknowledgement on the part of the
Legislature ; the past it rewards and it Emulates
future patriotism ; and it is a weak and peevish
objection to fay,that it is foreftaliing the English
boon which can attend their ultimate fervjccs.
On the contrary, Parliament cannot too often be
llow the rewards that are honorably and foffi
ciently earned. Let the thanks of the Legist
ture be repeated again ^nd again—directed to
such a glorious objeQ, they can never lose their
value.—-it is their base and dilhoneft application
that alone can render them worthleft. When
our gallant fellow Citizens, who, on Sunday last
Ihone resplendent in armsand in loyalty,fhall have
communicated to them, the thanks of the great - |
est, the wisest, and freed assembly on earth ; they
will feel that it is something to earn such a proud
reward, and they will exult thab the land whfah
they defend, has had the honour of giving birth
to that honest and dignified patriot, who moved
so honourable a tribute to their services, and who
fiews by his condud, that he knows nothing so
unworthy and so unseasonable as to prefer the
views of fadion to the interest of the date ; and
that however he may love his private friends he
LOVES HIS COUNTRY BETTER.—
From a Bermuda paper.
I The great Sir James Mirriot, one of the most
learned ,ft judges Great Britain could ever boast
of was (he moll impartial in the world. He would
fit from 8 in the moining, until the latest hour at
night to hear with patience a finite cause, but of
,ir is not ng&itft fe r '^ mfe& #a£#Q & Wed
ift one day, ano whenever there were appeal cases ft
was next to certainty their being reversed. The
impolitic act which has swept away the vice admir
alty courts has absolutely ruined this ifland,as well
many as in the Weltlndfeswi regard so privateering,
f>r Who will fit out privateers against the French,
Dutch, or Spaniards, when they do not know wbat
to do with their prizes after taken, the risk & fen
ding them to Jamaica, is equal to that of fending
them to England, and in winter it is not possible to
fend them to Halifax for trial. Sir William Scott
having been the cause of difeontinuing the vice ad
miralty courts in the Weft-Ind : a minds, has almost
ruined them ; icarcely a privateer is fitted out in
thole ifkods, and there is no profpea of a single one
being fitted out here a r prefeht. At the commence
ment of the late war, between thirty and forty pri
vateers were fitted out in these islands in few weeks,
the French may therefore ride triumphant in those
seas, and commit their depredations with impunity.
Perhaps the British Parliament never passed so im
p dine an aft, particularly for these seas.
From the Philadelphia Gazette.
VACCINATION.
Several of our Calcutta papers are filled with
original documents in favor of the efficacy of the
kine-pock. Among others we notice the follow
ing, as farnifhing an instance ofthe Vaccine dis
ease being communicated by accidental contact
a point which we believe, is disputed by the fac
ultX'.
To Tfemas Chiijiie, efq. M. S. G.
Six,
I have the honour to state to you the follow
ing particulars of the case of vaccine difeafe,com
municated by accidental conta&.
It occured in the person of ate of the Chaliah
cast named Baftiah, aged about 27 years. Her
device rtfa about the 15th of Odober, he flepg
in the fame bed with a man of the fame cast.
who had come from Columbo, after having been
innocculated with cow-pock, and who had the
disease on both arms. About fix or seven days
thereafter he felt a fm art pain, confined to a
'„" 'P ot > immediately oyer the centre of the
right scapula. This pain was immediately suc
ceeded by a pimple, which rapidly encreafed in
size, and broke, during his sleep, on the 7th day.
It continued to discharge matter in small quan
tities for two of three days, and then became
His comrade pronounced it a real vaccine pup
tule, from the appearance.
When I firft saw him on the zd instant, the
diseased spot had exactly the appearance of the
true vaccine puftle on the thirteenth or fourteenth
day. The dark coloured scab in the middle was
„ remarkably diftihd.
The pain had then ceafed,but the appearance
of the areola could be divinely traced, and the
man declared, that he had a faart fever for two
days with a cut pain extending to the axilla.
On a reference to my remitter, I find that
the man by whom the disease had been commu
nicated was innoculated on the 4th of October,
and permitted to return to his home,on the tenth
day thereafter, having the disease diftindly mar
ked on the arms.
There cannot be a doubt that, in this cafe,the
diseased appearances produced, were caused sole
ly by the application of vaccine virus in an a^ive
Bate, to the furface of the (kin. The only cir
cumdance in which it differed from the dis
ease produced by innoculation, is in the length
of time which elapsed before the vaccine action
took place. This however may be easily accoun
ted for frqi& the nunner in which the virus was
applied..
I am sorry I have not been able to afcertaim
so completely as I could with, the success of the
ex eriment with matter from the secondary
pustule. Only one of the three persons innqsula
ted from it, has attended regulaily at my house.
In this case, however, the disease has been pro
duced in the most perfed form, differing in no
one particular from & other cases produced by
original matter.'
I have further the pleasure to acquaint you that
the ipfaut son of lieutenant colonel Robertfon,af,
ter having undergone the vaccine difeafe,was in
noculated op the 6th inst. on both arms,
with active variolous matter, and has complete
ly refilled its a&ion. J have the honor to be &c.
JOHN ORR, Med. S@. C, D.
Colombo, November 5, ISO 2.
The Mammoth.
The Chelmsford Chronicle fays, "a few day#
since was discovered, by the falling down of a
piece ol the cliff on Walton Shore, near Harwich,
the ^elcum ot an enormous animal, near 50 feet
to<w luppofcci to be the Mammoth. .Some of the
bones were nearly as large as a man's body, and fix
or seven feet long ; ihe cavarie, which contained
the marrow were large enough to admit the intro
dy@i% of a man's arm ;the bones, on being han.
died, broke to pieces . %of c he grinders of this
wonderful creature was carried to'fcb@ by
[No. 3.