The Pennsylvania journal, or, Weekly advertiser — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-03-06 00:00:00, page 2

L 0 N /D 0 N, Nov, 4.
HOUSE OF LORDS,
r ro the aflouifliment of all present, but a few that were ih
I the secret, the Duke of Grafton rose, and attacked the
speech, the measures proposed in it, and the conduct of ad
miniGration, particularly during the last twelve months. He
observed, that the amendment did hot entirely mekt his
ideas, he therefore could not vote for it with .propriety; but
he ffiould certainly give the address itfelf a negative, when
the question came to be put oa it. His general sentiments
refpeaing America, were he said, well known; he fliould
not therefore take their Ldrdfhips time up in explaining
them. It was true, he supported administration upon a
general idea, that means of conciliation and concession might
be derived and adopted on both sides. He expressed his
ignorance of the true (Lite of America, and asserted, heptad
been misled and deceived; that for that reason chiefly,* he
could not think of concuring any longer in measures of
which he never approved; but to which he lent his counte
nance, in expectation that the Wronger government was, the
more likely matters were to be amicably adjusted. Says his
Grace, the proportion I have to make cannot originate in
this house ; a motion mutt be made in the other; because,
the object of the proportion will affect the revenue. Perhaps
it will not gain your approbation entirely this night; but
believe me, you will like it better to-morrow and better a
gain in three days hence. It will daily grow in your esteem.
In a fortnight, I promise you, it will have Gill more friends,
until atlcngth it will gain universal assent and approbation.
The proposition is only this ; to bring in a bill for repealing
ever, a 8 (I think there are thirteen) which has been palled
in this country, since the year 1)63, relative to America.
This I will venture to assert, will answer every end; and no
thing left will affeCt any thing, without fcencs of ruin and
defbuaion, which I cannot contemplate without horror.
But my Lords, though I had entertained other opinions,
opinions very different from what I do? I could by no means
consent to agree with this address in the form it is now pre
sented. I confefs I could not at anytime within my recol
lection, venture either in confeience or judgment to give it
my support. The necessity of hiring foreign troops, for gar
rifouing our two valuable and important fortreffes, is not ac
companied with fufficient information. It is indeed accom
panied by none. Besides, this address, thus penned, takes
in the whole of the measures to be adopted, without consider
ation, or enquiry. We do not know the extent of the ex
pences we may be put to, nor the operation, nor variouscon
fequences, we may bind bbrfelves to by such an engage
ment. In fine, my Lords, if I was not truly touched by the
present very critical situation of this country, I had a sufficient
apology for absenting myfelf, on account of a very indiffer
ent Rate of health; but'l trust your Lordships will credit
me, and I am convinced that my brethren in office are fatisfi
ed, that nothing but the most full and perfect couvidion of
my being in the right, could prevail on me, under the cir
cumstance before alluded to, to attend thus early in the
sessions to give my vote. I do protest to your Lordships,
that if my brother or my deereft friend, was to be altered
by the vote I mean to give this evening, I could not possi
bly refill the faithful difeharge of my confeience and my
duty. Was I to lose my fortune, and every other thing I
esteem; nay, was I to be reduced to beggar, itfelf, the
strong conviction and compaction at once operating on my
mind and confeience, would not permit me to take any
other part on the present occasion than that I now mean
to adopt.
Lord Sandwich opposed the amendment very warmly, and
jocularly remarked, that the framers and supporters of it, af
ter, in the opening, Gating the faffs, " that the disorders in
America had rather encreafed than diminished," instead of
aligning the causes that followed this affection, should have
assigned the only true cause, which was the open and avowed
support and countenance giv<n to the rebels, by men, who
under a pretended regard for their country, encouraged from
the worst motives, an unnatural rebellion against the execu
tive and legislative powers of the state, and the undoubted
rights of the people of this country. In answer to some fevare
ftriAuret thrown out by the noble Duke who spoke last, he
defended the conduct of the naval officer who commanded on
the American Nation, and seemed rather to hint some degree
of censure on the operations on fhor«. He confeffed, that
things were much altered, and that it was necessary to consi
derably augment our navy; that he had already taken every
precaution in his power; that the armament of last year had
confided of thirty armed vessels of different sizes, two of them
two decked vessels; that twenty were actually failed, or were
ready to fail to reinforce them; and that it was the intention
of administration to complete the number, by the time that
operations were to commence, to seventy vessels, which would
be such a force co-operating with the army, as would render
it impossible for the Americans either to refill, keep together,
or subsist, as they would have at once all the calamities of a
war to contend with, without the means of carrying it on;
being then cut off from all supplies they might exprift to de
rive from Europe, or elsewhere. His Lordihip observed,
that it was falhionable to cry up the prowess and intrepidity
of the Americans ; but in his opinion, if they had betrayed
any proof of cowardice and want of spirit formerly, nothing
had vet happened on their part, fufficient to wipe off the
aspersion; for it had ever been a received opinion, that an
army entrenched are at least equal to three times their num
ber of assailants; whereas the superiority on the part of the
provincials was confeffed on all hands to be in the direct
contrary proportion; and yet, the Kings troops were vidori
ous. He commented pretty fully on the proposition recom
mended by the noble Duke; and contended, it was in fa&
giving un the whole contest, and at once relinquilhing our
rights of fovercignty, and every possible benefit we are intit
led to claim in the way of trade and commerce; that though
we Ihould agree to repeal all the laws relative to America, paf
fid since the year 1763, yet in all probability the noble pro
poser, as well as the proposition, would meet with the treat
ment and contempt that made last session, by a noble Lord
how absent from his place (Lord Chatham) did, which was,
to be condemned in pamphlets and news papers, and his per
son reviled in the mod reproachful terms in scurrilous publi
cations and ballads, hawked about the Greets of their several
capitals by old women and boys. He pursued the idea of the
noble mover of the address relative to foreigners and Papists
in the instance of France and Sardinia, who conGantly retain
ed large bodies of Awifs in their armies, who profcffed the
ProteGant religion; and contended generally that if the mea
sure of reducing America was a right one, it was proper of
course to enforce it; and he was astonished to hear, the power
of the King to call the aid of his Hanoverian fubjeds to his
kffiGanee doubted, or the propriety of employing foreigners,
to effectuate measures previously determined to be necessary,
condemned. rt „ h
HOUSE or COMM ON S.
The Speech of Mr. WILKES^ Mr. Oliver's motion in the
House of Commons on Monday, Nov. 27.
#6 THAT an humble address be presented to his Majesty,
that he will be gacipufig plcafed to give directions, that
there be laid before this House the names of therfe who were
the original authors and advisers of the following measures
before they were proposed to this House. r. For taxing A
merica Without the consent of its assemblies for the purpose
of a revenue, ad. For extending the jurifdiaion of the Ad
miralty and Vice Admiralty Courts. 3d. For taking away the
charters of the province of MafTachmfetts-Bay. 4th. For re-
Graining the American fifhery. sth for exempting murder
ers from trial in America. 6th. for transporting accused co
lonies to England for trial. ,th. And most cfpeciaiJy for
establishing popcry annd defpotifni in Canada.
" Mr Speaker,
“ The address to his Majesty, which the Honourable gen
tleman has moved this day, is so essentially different from all
other late addresses to the throne, that I own it meets with my
hearty concurrence. I think it, Sir, of the utmost confluence
to know the originial authors and advisers of this pernicious
and calamitous war, which has already deluged with blood
a part of America; and fpresd horror and devaluation through
that whole northern continent. When so many provinces of
the empire are loft, and the rest actually engaged in a cruel,
civil war, we ought not to lit down in a criminal fuppmenefs.
It becomes our daty, as the grand inquest of the nation, to
find out and punish the delinquents, by whole fatal counfcls
such evils have been brought upon this convulsed, and almost
ruined Gate. We owe it to the people at large, and several
of us have it in exprefi charge from our constituents.
“ We are, I fear, Sir, on the eve of an eternal, political
separation from the western world, unless a very speedy re
conciliation Giould take plate. If the present motion meets
with success, I am sure it will do more towards a sincere,
lading and hearty union with America, than all the captious
and fallacious propofols of administration. Ihe Americans
will then believe we indeed desire a reconciliation with them,
and they will at length begin to have confidence in our coun
sels, when they fee the vengeance of parliament fall on the
authors of our common calamities. The principles of # violence
and injustice, which have hitherto prevailed, they will fie, if
the House is really in earnest to treat, yield to equity and mo
deration, a negotiation on fair, equal, and just terms may
ensue, and a general tranquillity be re-cGablifhed in an em
pire, which is now shaken to its very foundations,
“ I really think, fir, this is almost the only method now
left of extricating ourselves with honor and dignity from < ur
present alarming difficulties. You have voted fi^ts and
armies, and your forces figure greatly in the expeufive eGi
mates on your table. Butthe minister knows very well they
are not equal to the mad project of fubjugaring the vast con
tinent of America, nor do I believe the whole Grength of this
kingdom adequate to such an attempt. After a very bloody
campaign you have conquered only one hill of lets than a
mile's circumference, for you were fuffcred to land as frier ds
in the only sea-port town which you possess. Would the
noble Lord, whom his Majesty has so lately raised to one of
th highest civil offices, if he were sent on a military service
there, would he venture, even at the head of the whole
Britifli cavalry, to advance ten miles into the country : He
would not, I am perfaaded, be so ralh as to make the at
tempts And is any mini Ger weak enough to flatter himfelf
with the cooqueft of all North- America ? The Americans will
dispute every inch of territory with you, a train of most un
fortunate events will probably ensue, and the power of re
cruiting, perhaps subsisting vour forces, at such a diGance,
be loft. After n unavailing Gruggle of a very few years,
when the ruined merchant and manufacturer behege your
doors, you j-ll perhaps think of naming ambaffadois to the
general Congress, iuftead 0 you: present wild and expensive
fob, and farce, < f thirty commissioners with a salary of four
thousand pounds each, to oy peace, when there is no peace.
6 Yes, fir, I think p^ace absolutely necessary between
Grear-Britain and America, and theiefore I approve the pre
sent motion, as holding sut the olive branch ihe Ameri
cans are rapid y increafiog in population, and in the know
ledge ofaU the ufefui arts of life, even in the fashionable art
of murdering our own fp-cies. The late worthy governor
of Pemfylvania, declared at the bar of the other house, that
the province now grew more corn than was fufficient for the
supply of its inhabitants, that they perfectly under Good the
art of making gunpowder, and had effected it, that mills and
Other ioftruments for fait petre had been etea<d with success,
that the art of caftiug cannon had been carried to great per
fe&r n as well as that of fabricating small arms, and that
they were expert in fhip-buiding beyond the Europeans. He
declared tikewife, that tingle province had actually enrolled
20,000 men, and had 4.000 minute men ready on the firft no
tice of any real danger. The authentic accounts of the pre
parations for the forming, training, and difeiplining troops
io the MafTachufett's-Bay and in Virginia are equally formida
ble, nor are they inco fidcrable in the otherunited provinces.
Every idea of force, therefore, on our fide muG appear infa
tuation.
" All wife legislators, fir, have calculated the (Length of a
nation from the number of its inhabitants, the laborious,
strong, and a&ive. The population in most parts of Ame
rica is doubled in the courfc of nineteen or twenty years,
while that of this iflazd is known rather to have decreased
since the year 16,x. The emigrations of late from the three
kingdoms have been amazing and alarming. Our own peo
ple have fled in multitudes from a government under which
they starved. It appears from the nicest calculations that
many more of our fellow fubje&s have left this kingdom for
America—never to return —than I believe administration has
hitherto sent in their pay both of our fleets and armies never
to return ; in any considerable proportion I mean of the force
sent. The Americans, fir, area pious and religious people.
With much ardour and success they follow the firft great
command of heaven. Be fruitful and multiply. While they
are fervent in these devout exercises, while the men continue
enterprising and healthy, the women kind and prolific, all
your attempts to subdue them by force will be ridiculous and
unavailing, and be regarded by them with feotn and abhor
rence. They are daily (Lengthening, and if you lose the
present moment of reconciliation , to which this motion tends,
you lose all. America may now be reclaimed or regained,
but cannot be subdued.
" Gentlemen, Sir, do not seem to have considered the
aftonifbing disadvantages, under which we engage in this cou
teft against the combined powers of America, not only from
the diGance and natural Grength of the country, but the
peculiar and fortunate circumdanc.es of a young, rifiugem
pire. The Congreh, Sir, have not the monstrous load of a
debt of above 14© millions, like our Parliament to Gruggic
with, the very interest of which would swallow up all their
taxes; nor a numerous and hungry band of useless placemen
and pensioners to provide for; nor has luxury yet enervated
their minds or bodies. Every shilling they raise will go to
the man who fights the battles of bis country. They let out
like a young heir with a noble landed eGate, unincumbered
with enormous family debts, while we appear the poor, old,
feeble, exhausted and ru ned parent, but exhausted and ru
ined by our own wickedness and profligacy.
" Sir, I daily hear the Americans, who glow with a di
vine zeal for liberty in all its branches, mifreprefcnted in
this House, and the ostensible Minister diligent in propagat
ing the most unjust calumnies against them. The noble Lord
with the blue ribband told us, the liberty of the press was
loft throughout America. The noble Lord deceives us in
this, as in many other things. His intelligence can never be
relied upon. The liberty of the press, the bulwark of all
our liberties, is loft only in Button, for his Lordship's mini-
Gerial 'troops govern there only. The paefs is free at Water-
Town, but (even miles diGant from BoGon, at Philadelphia,
Newport, Williamfburgh, and in the rest of North America.
I will give the House the detnonGration. General Gage's
foolish and contemptible proclamation against Samuel Adams
and John Hancock, two worthy Gentlemen, and, 1 date to
add, true patriots, declaring them rebels and traitors, while
the Generals Washington, Putnam, and Lee, with the naval
Commanders in arms, remained by him unnoticed, was re
painted in all the American papers. His letters likewise to
Governor Trumbull and others, in which he most heroically
apologized for his inert cOndudt as necessary for the ' protec
tion of the army,' which we were taught to believe would
look all opposition into fubj<aion, awe the factious, and
give security to the well affected, these letters too were faith
fully copied, and I believe all the furious orders he has fru
ed will be found as cxa& ib the Pennsylvania, Water-Town,
and other news papers, as in the Gazette published by his
au horky at BoGon, which is as partial and falfc as that of
Paris.
“ The honorable gentleman, Sir, who spoke last, fays,
' the present address is trifling, for we already know the
author and advif& of all the late measures against America,
, that the noble Lohd with the blue ribband will avow them.
and has done it.' I wish to hear such a declaration. Will
the noble Ldrd avow himfelf the adviser of only ona of the
late flagitious measures, that of establishing popery and des
potic power id Canada ? The father of that monstrous birth
I thought had podently hitherto chofeh to remain concealed
He likewise tells us, * the motion now before us is coupled
with nothing, and'leadfr to nothing' I will tell him what
it ought 'to cad to, and be crippled with.' I mean an im
peachment, Sir, which I truftwrit follow, as the next moti
on of the honorable gentlemen who spoke firft in this debate.
Whoever did advise the measures lately pursued, which have
loft halt of our empire, I confider as a criminal of so deep
a dye, that his head would be a just fact fee to the honor of
E gland and the peace of America. The word impeachment
I hope will Gill Grike terror so the ear and heart of a wicked
and arbitrary mini Ger, a<id that the noblest and most impo*
taut prerogative of thi frea people, secured to us by or
great deliverer, King William, in the a& for the further tri
miration of the crown, aid better securing the rights And r
berties of th- subj cf, will soon have its full effect, ' that ho
pardon under the great seal of England be pleadable to au
impeachment by the Commons in Parliament,"
C A M BRI D <S E, Feb. x>.
We hear the (loop G r ampus, John Brakett, maftcr, load^
with bread and fl air, bound from Baltimore to Cape C^cl, <t
Tuesday last fell in wih, and was taken by a number <
armed vessels (part of the British navy) off the Race Point ;
they took out of the sloop the matte, mat- and all the haW:
except one, and put in their place one midfhipmao and thr:
featnen, and directed them to fail for BoGen. The mtry
ing following they (truck on Cohaffett rocks; the ;temple tool
their boats and went on shore. — The inhabitants cl C. hafr
went on board the (loop, took out part ot her <ago, am
have got off the vessel : The men ate on h.ir way to hc.io
quarters. At the fme rime the above aimed v-ttcls took
large schooner from Baltimore, and h.vr (nth. rnt 1 ofton
We hear from Derchefte that about 4 o'clock 'aft Wefovi
day morning, a large party ,f the mio&rul butchers were
difeovered crossing the ice on Boston neck to Douche? r neck
supposed to ba about 1000, the centry 'mmediatcly chfeba-vt
his piece at them, and r,n for the guatd-houfe to i form C^
Barnes, (who commanded the guard) who had already to,
the alarm by the centries firing them pice s; and from ir
formation he could get of the ccurfe they were fteer ; ngjud
ged theit detigu was to cut off 1, retrea' of t' c guard whic
confided only of sixty men. Capt. Barnes immediately tn re?
cd his guard off the neck to the edge of the marfu, ami juv
escaped them, and left the guns tha h:d been tired Giou.
not alarm the camp, he had sent eff several m ffng? rs, tl
enemy matched along with two field pieces and puffed them
selves in so advantageous a manner, that Captain Barm
could not attack th m with the haft hope of success, bi
waited for the arrival of reinforcements. In the mean tin.
the cut-throats improved v?l7 minute of their time in ri
ting fire to the buildings on DnChefter n ck while they ft*
moved towards the cattle where boats were ready to recon
them, but our troops were so chrfe upon them, that they ,
out the fire of 6 or 7 of the buildings, and reached the poi
next to the castle before the foos of Belial had cached d.
castle, who had made prisoners of 6 of the guard and c;
old man an inhabitant.
N. B. It is about two miles from the encampment at Dr
chester over the caufway, &c. to said guard-house, and u;
mile from thence to the point next the c rille.
We juG hear, that the Yankv H&.o of 14 guns, C pra*
Thomas, belonging o N^wbury-port, to. k and sent in the
last Friday a bark of about 300 tons laden with coa, po
and flour, which was detigned for the use of the minifur;
butchers in Boston.
Saturday a brig put off bom Newport for New-Londe
having on board a quantity of fait, some houfhoid +u,r
twre, &c. the hands being apprehensive that they fhon
be taken and impressed by the miniftcrijl fleet, obliged ts
Captain to put back; but in returning the vessel ran agrou,
near the entrance of the harbour, where, as (he could not b
defended, some men from Head Quarter; wenton board, ar
affixed in unbending her fails, and faviog some of the rup
ture.—Wallace difeovered her next morning, when the bun
brig and a tender took p^ffeffi m of her; a few thot were e
ghanged between them and some of our people on fhnre, b
without doing any execution. After taking out the fait, th
set her on fire, and (he burnt to the water's edge.
NEWPORT, (Rbode-I/land) Feb. r,.
Last Wednesday an apned fchooncr, from, Boston, at^v
in this harbour, and immediately proceeded up the bay
captain Wallace, who lay near Hope; the n xt dmt
whole ministerial flset moved to the upper part of P,w'e: c
where, on Friday, they landed a number of men, who ?
tacked and took a WINDMILL, on which Huy heisted
flag by way of triumph, and then bnnt the mill and four<
five ocher buildings.—Pi udence had been evacuated f 0
days before, and all the live (lock carried off, but 'tis f. an
they found a considerable quantity of potatoes, wh uh h
been left behind in cellars and holes, on account of the 1-v
rity of the weather. All the fleet c^me down to this haruc
on Saturday evening.
N E W-H A V E N, February ar.
The following is an extras of a letter from General Arno'
it is not dated, but by part of the contents, it is fuppo:
was wrote the last of January.
“ I have the pleasure of informing ^ou, my wound iz
PROVIDENCE, (Rhode-] fl and) February 24.