The Virginia gazette — Williamsburg, Va., 1777-03-14 00:00:00, page 1

,3151181114- 1777- _. - T H E NUMBER xzi.
sssissFsisi-Y—ssssctssY—GINIA sissctctss G ZETTE,
Asiwns ron LlBERTY ss AND THEPUBLlCKGssOOD.
: High HEAVEN to dtrectx the STOBMQ
'Gonclasz m of th: debate: Of: the motion for
an AD DRE S S ,
&- Thomas Townshend, with his
usual warmth, entered on the sub
jedt at the address, pronouncingit, as his
friend governour johnston had declared
it, a farrago ofdeceit and hypocrisy. He
said we were on the point of a war with
France, and were altogether in a defence
]ch state. That our arm'y in England,
and our army in lreland, were contemp
tibly weak in point of numbers. That the
serviceable part of our fleet, the frigates,
_ and small ships, were all on the coast of
America; and therefore, if we were at—
tacked, we were in a most deplorable situ
anon.
He attacked the treasury bench with
great asperity, nnd (observing that lord
North had quitted the house) he took oc—
css.si0n to observe, tint pzriiament was
now treated by the minister with the ut
tnosl contempt; that the first man in office
considered a debate on the most serious and
important subject as a matter unworthy
his consideration, and was better pleased
in ciosettinsig a member in the morning,
or whispering with a friend in the lobby in
the evening than in attending his parlia
menmrv dutv.
szihg satirically remarked, that the
last speaker had used strong- argument
without dcchmntion, he also replicd to
particular passages inllis speech. 'He said,
that miuish'y had been most illibcral in en
.cctsimraghng their dependents in. aspersing
the officers who conductcd the attack on
Sullivnn's island, and after speaking, as
govcsnour jnhnflon-had done, much in
favour . si'ir Pater Pctrkcr, he said, that..
gcncrasisi =??r,1*.";:. 'css'flss; thc officer who had
most rea'sn: *r— .1' himscis, susi." that he:
was well lsisl'ff-ssmui that general was him
sclsninctcczzz days usiyingthc soul, and that
at last it turned out in could not in all that
time discover whether the ford was eigh
tccu inches or sevensect deep.
_ Speaking of" the capturc of Long [Hand,
he described the turning of the flank of an
enemy's army as an ordinary military
manoeuvre. known to every man qualificd
in the arc oswar ; and spoke of the {laugh—
ter of the provincials, in cold blood, as an
act osthe most snvngc barbarity, for which
no defence could he made ; and thcrcsore,
he ssixia], he vsi-uchl ascribc it to no particu
lar lside os the 11'001151.
Sceino lor ! Norch cum: backw hls seat,
he returned to lus utt le on the treasury
bench, and sziicl. lt hsiul ever been the
plan usth: members who filled that'seat
m conceal, na much as pnffible, intelli—
gence-from p Fl'sidfllkjht ; that they cm1ceal
c*-I-:v11!;-.z;-_-, am! kcpz. thee [I; us.;tct con—
thm xiiy sin H.:c chrk, 'I'hrlc cwn on that
" w "he ! it w 15 usl 1': sir the House to
m.1!i1c'*5'si as :! day ni in [- lsiH y ., and when
iv wx (siqzct: r<l 'h 11 th: m: Him);1 sh. mld
Pss'n'c- sum: shaH sidti m on ('a -h mxc! inns as
th?- mzvnhsrs mZ-sisssisiht LhYH'x-s it ncc it try to
pu'si to hi n, thcsi tirsik mn m GffiC; had,
swalked out
' at moment
a majorlty,
, tion to the
and report " - . .
Mr. Townse -'- o -' t painsto show
that the members of administradon were
highly censumble, and concluded with
giving his assent to' the amendment.
Lord Northimmediately arose, and said
he thought himselfcalled' on to say a few
words, and that he chose to speak in that
part of the debate, for fear that honour—
able House, is he spoke halfan hour later,
should forget the cause of his speaking;
and for seasir that the world. should be told
in an epigram, or a paragraph, that in ::
debate on the moltimportant subject that
perhaps ever would occur in that House,
a debate which might possibly last fourteen
hours, he had been absent ten. minutcs.
He said, as a speaker, he might poflibly
be very deficient; in other respects, he
might also be found deficient; but in point
osactention to that House in general, and
every individual member, he trusted no
gentleman could charge him with neglect.
This was the first time he ever knew that
the particular behaviour of a member was
at} object worthy animadversion, or that it
was of any importance whether a gentle
man went once to the door, or once re
turned to his seat, in the course of a long
debate. As. however, the last speaker
had pictu'red Z-zis leaving his seat asa mat
ter of infinitcimportance , he would trou ble
the House so far as to state to them why
he: Lest his; seat. He had within the last hour
received a. letter, the subject onhich re
quh'sizdimmediatc attention; and asit would
chinfsissit of no dchy, he went out to answer
The moment he had given the repl
he returned to his seat, and the whole
time he had left the House he found
amounted to ten minutes. This, he de
clared, was the tery great crime he had
perpetrated; this was the soundation of
the learned and ingenious argument of the
last speaker. He trusted, however, that
every gentleman present would acknow
ledge that no member of that House was
longer in his place, he meant only his
place in parliament [this created a loud
laugh] or sat with greater patienceduriog
a debate, than he did:
flavmg cleared mmlelt from the charge
of desrespect to the House, his lordship
said, he was so far from desiring to con
ceal informatiOn from parliament that he
was always exceedingly ready to give every
information thatcould be given with safety.
He repeated the words " with shjety,"
because he appealed to the House whether
the laying theletters government received ,
at large, before parliament, with the
names usthe writers , and the full con tents,
had not deen attended with manisest in—
convenience. That with regard to the
questions which had now been agitated,
he wishedto give the mostimpiicitanswer,
His majesty in the speech said, he had the
strongestassurances osctthe pacisickintemions
of" France and Spain, and yet he thought
it necessary to prepare against a sudden at
tack. The assertion was sounded On fact.
It was true thaf Spain and Portugal had
been for the last year on the point of dif
fering about the frontiers of the Brsi-sszfls,
and that his majesty had interposed as ::
mediacoc, and eqdeavoured to accommo
date the dispute between the two point;;
that his mediation promised a happy ac
commudation, and in all probability the
dispnte would terminate amicably. lt '
was also true that France had for some
time been busy in warlike preparation;
and that he was now sitting out a small
armament ; he called it a small one, as he
wa's well informed is only consisted of sissx'
ship's osthc line and four srigates. From
the present afl'urances of the court. of
France, and thosi: assurances Were as strong
as words could make them, that kingdom
had no design to molest England. To
repare for the worst, however, his ma—
jesty had thought it. right to be able to
cope wun any enemy. [( has been said,
that our srigates were all abroad; the as
sertion went too far; many were with
lord Howe, but several were at home,
and several were now building ; and it was
well known s figures Were sooner built than
larger shipping. We had 23 guardships,
which were partly mapned, and twelve
more sh'zps of the line ready for sea, all
but manning; and that would, his lordship
doubted not, be soon effected. ln fact,
all our large ships were at home but two
or three. .
His lordshipdeclared, he verily Believed
France had not any intention ofdisturbissn
us; but he begged it to be understood,
that he spoke only'as to the present lime.
He was no prophet; and therefore he
made no pretensions to a knowledge of
sumrity. ,
His lordship observed, that an honour-ss
able gentleman had declared one part of
his majelly's speech was certainly designed
as a stroke of humour, as the sentence
could not carry a serious meaning. He
begged to read the sentence. The words
of it were, " My desire is to restore to
then! the bleffings of law and ]iHerty."
ThZZ-ss7 hislordship humbly conceived , was
perfectly intelligible, and-as sound logicksi
as the English language could coni'ssey.
Law and liberty were undoubtedly fled
from America; this was the land of law
and liberty. He thanked God the present,
debate proved it, proved that liberty of
speech, that sreedom os thou ght, that free
dom of action, existed here; and he be;;
ged to tell the gentlemen, who had in the
course of the debate thrown out so many
severc rcflections on administration, that.,
it was well for them the were not in_
America, and had not usec the same ex—
pressions against the Congress. They
would then have sound the difference of
the two countries ; they would have found -
that both law and liberty were banished
rom America. His lordship declared,