National gazette. (Philadelphia [Pa.]), 1793-03-23 00:00:00

National Gazette.
By P. FRENEAU: Published WEDNESDAYS and SATURDAYS, at THREE DOLLARS per annum.
NUMB. 42 of VOL. II.]
SATURDAY, March 23, 1793.
[Total No. 146.]
Debate on the Official Conduct of the Secretary of the Treasury, (continued from our last.)
FRIDAY, March 1.
Mr. MADISON—(in continuation.)
The want of any apparent authority from the President had led several gentlemen to insist on presumed authorities, superseding the instructions joined with the commission to the Secretary: But here again the fair inference was to be reversed. A communication of the authorities given by the President to the Secretary as to the application of the foreign loans, had been expressly requested by the vote of the house: It was not to be supposed that the Secretary, if he had received further authorities or instructions would have failed to produce them or to refer to them, in the justification of his conduct. Far less could it be presumed that the President, if he had given any superseding authorities or instructions, would not have caused them to be communicated to the house; or that he would have suffered a partial communication to mislead the house into an error, as to so important a fact. The President was the last man in the world to whom any measure whatever of a deceptive tendency could be credibly attributed.
Thus far (said Mr. M.) his observations had departed as little as possible from the question in its strictest sense. He should now avail himself of the opportunity afforded by the terms of the last clause which spoke of drafts, generally to take a more particular notice of those recently made, in doing which he considered himself safe within the rules of the house, which were so rigorously enforced against the affirmative side of the question.
The whole amount of the foreign loans transferred directly or indirectly to the United States, appeared from the several statements to be about three millions of dollars.
The amount of the direct drafts was 2,304,769 dollars 13 cents.
Of the drafts made since the 16th of April 1792 and sold by the bank, or payable into it, before the first of April next, amount to 1,220,476 dollars. Of this sum 510,000 dollars have been drawn in the course of the present session of Congress.
With respect to the times and the amount of these draughts, hitherto absolutely unknown to the legislature, because the account of them had remained in the books of the bank without ever appearing in the books of the treasurer, Mr. M. confessed that he had found no explanations that to him were satisfactory. He had looked through all the reports and all the communications before the house, without discovering either that they had been made by the authority or with the knowledge of the President; or had been required for, or applied to the purchase of the public debt; or had been ever communicated to the trustees of the sinking fund, who had the direction of such purchases; or that they were the effect of any necessity that could justify them.
And if there was no evident necessity for the proceeding, it was the more to be lamented that whilst we were every where sympathising with our allies, in their arduous struggles for liberty, and echoing from every part of the union our congratulations and good wishes, the pecuniary succours, so critically necessary to their cause, and the most substantial proof of the sincerity of our professions, should be silently withdrawn across the Atlantic, from the object for which they were intended; succours, too, which were not merely a tribute of gratitude, of generosity, or of benevolent zeal for the triumph of liberty; but a debt moreover of strict and positive obligation, for value acknowledged and received. In contemplating the subject in this point of view, he felt a pain which he could not easily express; and to which he persuaded himself, the breast of no other member could be a stranger.
Laying aside, however, all these unfavourable considerations, the important question still remained, why the legislature had been uninformed of the monies so unexpectedly drawn into the bank, and to so very great an amount. If the drafts had received every requisite sanction; if they had been produced by the most justifiable causes, the existence of 1,220,476 dollars, in a situation so very different from what had been contemplated, was a fact, which the representatives of the people had a right to know; which it was important to them, and their constituents, that they
should know; and which it was the indispensable duty of the officer charged with it, to have made known.
This omission was the more remarkable, when considered in relation to the measure above mentioned, of paying off at once the whole sum of 2,000,000 dollars, payable to the bank by instalments in ten years. A bill to this purpose had been introduced, and was on its passage. The object of it had been patronized by a report of the Secretary not long since made. In one of his last reports, he expressly states among the inducements to such extensive drafts of money from Europe, that they were made "with an eye to placing within the reach of the legislature" the means requisite for this object. Was it not extraordinary; was it not unaccountable, that so important a measure should be recommended, and be actually introduced, and that money otherwise appropriated in Europe, should be transferred to this country and deposited in the bank, in order that it might be within the reach of being applied by the legislature to that measure: and yet that no disclosure should be made to the legislature of the fact, that the money was so drawn and lay at the bank within their reach to be applied.
If any thing could heighten astonishment on this occasion, it must be the reason assigned by the Secretary for an obscurity that might have hung over our finances—"that till the last resolutions, no call had been made on the department, which rendered it proper to exhibit a general view of the public monies and funds, or to shew the amount and situation of such as were unapplied." Mr. M. would not decide that the legislature was free from blame, in not using more full and efficacious means of obtaining such informations, as would have removed all obscurity: but whatever degree of blame might fall on them, it never could be admitted, that their calls on the department had furnished no proper occasion for exhibiting a full view of the public finances. He referred generally to the various resolutions, which, without the least force of construction, would have extended to every proper article of information. He reminded the committee of the latitude of reports under certain orders of the house; and asked whether less freedom of construction was to be allowed when information was to be given, than when power or discretion was to be exercised? But independently of this view of the matter, Mr. M. held it to be clear and palpable, that the very situation of the money afforded an occasion which rendered it proper, that the house should be informed of it. If a liberty could be taken, of removing money from Europe, where it stood appropriated by law, to this country, where there was no legal object that required it, and with an eye, as was stated, to an object to which no money was applicable, without the authority of the legislature, how could it possibly be supposed improper to take the further liberty of communicating what was done to the legislature?
He concluded with recurring to the particular form, in which the subject presented itself to the committee, and repeating that whatever quality might be attached to the facts charged, or however improper it might be thought by some, to proceed in haste to any affirmative decision on them, it appeared irreconcilable with the evidence which had been produced, to decide, by a negative vote, against the truth of the facts.
Substance of the observations made by Mr. W. Smith, on the following resolution, viz.
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Treasury has omitted to discharge an essential duty of his office, in failing to give Congress official information in due time, of the monies drawn by him from Europe into the United States; which drawing commenced in December 1790, and continued till January 1793; and of the causes of making such drafts.
Mr. Smith said, that after the vote which had just prevailed by so considerable a majority on the preceding resolutions, the committee could not with any propriety exonerate the Secretary for failing to give the information alluded to—because by that vote it had been established that the Secretary had only acted under the authority of the President, and conformable to his instructions; if there had been any omission to communicate information to Congress, that omission was surely not chargeable to the Secretary. But it had already been clearly shown, by documents
in the possession of the house, that the necessary information had been communicated. The Treasurer's accounts, which had been from time to time laid before the house, exhibited the amount of monies proceeding from the sale of bills, and the Secretary's report of February 1791, conveyed full information of the drawing. It was there stated that a sum of about 600,000 dollars, the proceeds of bills which, as had been remarked by a gentleman (Mr. Madison) did not appear in the Treasurer's account; but this was owing to the sales of the bills by the bank not having been closed at the time the last quarterly account was rendered, and consequently that sum could not appear in the Treasurer's account.
Mr. Madison said he had not meant to blame the Treasurer.
Mr. Smith proceeded. The gentleman however had attributed misconduct to the Secretary, for withholding information of the amount of monies in the Treasury, accruing from foreign loans, when directed by the house the 19th of January 1792, to report whether the existing revenues were adequate to face the additional expense of the Indian war. Mr. Smith could not forbear expressing great surprise at this remark of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Madison) when he recollected what had been just before said by the same gentleman in support of the former resolution. The gentleman on that occasion, in his attempt to disprove the right of the Secretary, ex officio, to superintend the monies derived from the foreign loans, had endeavoured to establish a nice distinction between the ordinary internal revenues of the country, and the resources resulting from foreign loans. The law, constituting the treasury department, he had said, gave the Secretary power only over the revenues, which embraced only the ordinary resources; whereas, loans were distinct things, the management and disposal of which was specially entrusted by law to the supreme magistrate, and in relation to which the Secretary could exercise no authority whatever that was not derived from the President. The gentleman now argued that the Secretary was blameable in not giving information of the state of these extraordinary resources which were not within his department, when only called upon to state the amount of the ordinary revenues, which were within his department. He left it to the gentleman to reconcile this contradiction, for certainly his doctrine was erroneous on the former occasion, or it must be so now; if the monies obtained from foreign loans were to be deemed the revenues of the country, then they fell of course under the management of the head of the treasury department; and it was wrong in the gentleman to impute misconduct to the Secretary for exercising legal authority. If on the contrary, those monies were viewed as an extra resource, and not within the purview of the Secretary's functions, then it was wrong to censure him for not communicating a state of those monies which required only to report the ordinary revenues.
Without admitting the soundness of the distinction set up by the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Smith said that it was never in the intention of the house, nor in the idea of any individual member, to call for a state of the monies proceeding from the foreign loans when they passed the order of the 19th Jan. 1792.
That order was in these terms—"Ordered, that the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to lay before this house, such information with respect to the finances of the United States, as will enable the legislature to judge whether any additional revenue will be necessary in consequence of the proposed increase of the military establishment." This call was fully complied with, for the Secretary laid before the house an estimate of the internal revenues, which unquestionably were the only revenues in contemplation of the house at the time, and the house being satisfied that they were incompetent, laid additional duties.
The house knew as well as the Secretary that loans had been made and that monies had under them been drawn into this country, but they knew that those monies had been specially appropriated to the sinking fund; and it never entered into the ideas of any member to divert them from that beneficial object, in order to apply them to the current service. It was not to be presumed that the Secretary would have recommended such a division.
To impute blame to him for not communicating the amount of monies drawn
from time to time, there must have been some law or order of the house requiring the communication, or it must have been necessary to some object depending before the house. What law or order of the house could make it necessary? None.—The law authorized the loans and prescribed their objects; the rest were mere executive business, and no communication was necessary to any measure depending before the house.
But though the Secretary would not have been censurable for omitting to give the information, the truth was that the President's speech of Dec. 8, 1790, the Secretary's report of Feb. 25, and the act of March 3, 1791, were conclusive proofs that the legislature knew that the proceeds of the loans were in a train of being brought to the United States, and the accounts of receipts and expenditures presented in the first week of the session, informed the house a large sum was drawn for, and the Treasurer's quarterly account contained further information on the subject, all which was prior to any call of the house for such information. Hence Mr. Smith deduced, that it was not a fact that the Secretary had failed to give the information, as stated in the resolution, and that even had he so failed, he would not have been censurable for a breach of an essential duty of his office.
It had been said by a member from Pennsylvania, Mr. Findley, that the late news of the information from the Secretary made it inconvenient to go into an enquiry of his official conduct so near the close of the session.
To this Mr. Smith replied, that he did not expect such a remark from that quarter of the house. If the gentleman had not been prepared for the enquiry, or thought it an improper season to enter upon it, why did he second the motion for bringing forward the charges? If suspicion had to long existed against the integrity of the Secretary, why was not information called for at the beginning of the session? Why was the call delayed till the session was within a few weeks of its termination?
It was admitted that the Secretary had obeyed the order of the house with wonderful alacrity and promptitude; it was indeed strange that the gentleman who brought forward the charges would be the first to complain, that this was not time for their consideration.
Mr. Smith concluded by noticing the observations of Mr. Mercer and Mr. Madison, that the opinion of the house on the preceding resolutions, would not change the truth of facts, and that the public would ultimately decide whether the Secretary's conduct was criminal or not. This, said Mr. Smith, was like the conduct of a prosecutor, who having chosen his jurisdiction, and being nonsuited, wished to appeal to another tribunal. Why were the resolutions brought before the house? Was it not to substantiate the truth of them by a vote? And had the prosecution succeeded, would the Secretary have had an appeal to the public? No—the resolutions would have been sent to the President; and the Secretary would have been removed, disgraced, and ruined forever, without appeal.
Mr. Ames prefaced his remarks on the business before the committee by some observations on the nature of the charges brought forward. He was happy that they were determinate, and conceived that the defence could be crowded in a nutshell. As to the first charge in the resolution immediately before the committee he had seen no proof in support of it brought forward. It is founded only on assertion, and he conceived that contradiction was sufficient to meet it. No authority, it was said, was given to the Secretary to obtain the loan under the blended authority of both acts. This is not one of the charges included in the resolutions before the committee, and therefore this is not the time to answer it. However, if this were fact, nothing criminal could, in consequence, be imputed, and since the purposes of both laws were carried into execution, there could be no ground for saying that either was violated. He said much on the impracticability of the line of conduct which some gentlemen appeared to think should have been followed by the Secretary. It was impossible to
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FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.
LONDON, January 14.
On the 27th of December, Lord Grenville, his majesty's principal Secretary of State, received a note from M. Chauvelin, stating his appointment, as minister plenipotentiary to the court of Great Britain from the French Republic. M. Chauvelin was informed by the Secretary of State, that as, since the 10th of August, the king had suspended all official communication with France, his appointment could not be acknowledged. To this answer the executive power of France replied on the 7th, making sundry explanations relative to the conduct of the nation in several particulars, especially the opening of the Scheldt, giving the strongest assurance of a desire for peace and good understanding with Great Britain, and concluding in the following emphatical words:
"After so frank a declaration which manifests such a sincere desire of peace, his Britannic majesty's ministers ought not to have any doubts with regard to the intentions of France. If her explanations are yet insufficient, and if we are yet obliged to hear a haughty language; if hostile preparations are yet continued in the English ports, after having exhausted every means to preserve peace, we will prepare for war with a sense of the justice of our cause and of our efforts to avoid this extremity. We will fight the English whom we esteem, with regret but without fear."
On the same day (January 7) M. Chauvelin transmitted another letter to Mr. Grenville, complaining that the king of England had on the 15th of November, by proclamation, prohibited the exportation of grain and meal from the several British ports, and that in consequence thereof many vessels legally freighted and ready to sail for France had been detained notwithstanding the law which expresses that the ports should not be shut till 15 days after the date of the proclamation; that another proclamation soon succeeded, which excepted the grain of foreign growth from the liberty of exportation, in consequence of which all the vessels loaded with foreign grain upon account of France were arrested in the English ports, by order of the government. The letter concludes thus:
"Think, my lord, that in the bosom of peace, and far from any appearance of war, that the English government have profited upon the good faith of the affairs of Europe, and the security of a friendly and neighbouring country, in order to draw to its ports such commodities as it has stood in need of. But if, at present, the same minister should profit upon the first hostile measures, which he alone is the author of or shall have provoked, to withhold these commodities, in hopes, it may be, that a famine might be added to the internal agitations of France, what punishment would he not deserve for such an act of perfidy? or, what would he obtain by the success of such an enterprise, but the shame of having employed means, that even in the midst of a terrible war, an enlightened and generous nation ought to look upon with horror; an action which had disgraced the commerce of England, in violating the sacred asylum of its markets."
An account of an ambassador from the Pope having appeared, the following statement is said to be the fact: A person arrived lately in town, directed to Dr. Douglas, the Catholic Bishop of London, entrusted with letters from the Pope, which Dr. Douglas was desired to present to his Majesty's Ministers, requesting the assistance of this country in repelling the intended invasion of Italy by the French. Dr. Douglas immediately acquainted Lord Grenville with the circumstance; his Lordship doubting whether he was justified in receiving an emmissary or papers from Rome, advised with Mr. Burke upon the subject, who the next day took the opinion of an eminent counsellor of Lincoln's inn, who informed him, "That although it was contrary to act of Parliament to receive any bulls or instruments from Rome, yet he thought that his Lordship would incur no danger by receiving the papers in question." In consequence of the opinion, Lord Grenville informed Dr. Douglas that he could not see the ambassador but would receive his papers, which were accordingly sent. It is not known what, his majesty's ministers have determined on the subject.
The executive government of France displays its usual consistency in calling on the United States of America to fulfil the treaty defensive or offensive, entered into by them with Louis XVI. while his deposition from the throne is considered by that very government as a ground for violating every treaty they had unfortunately ratified with the powers of Europe. A very little attention, however, to the affairs of the American states, since the last peace, will dissipate every idea, that they can so far forget their best interests, as to take a part in the dissensions of Europe. All the advantages which could be derived to them from becoming parties in a war, would be the casual, partial and dishonour-
able gain, which might result to individuals from privateering expeditions; and the loss, in such a case, would be, the infinite benefits, both civil and political, which an infant state must derive, in a very pre-eminent degree, from the blessing of peace. The never failing care and commanding influence of Mr. Washington, which have hitherto preserved his country from the misery of feuds among its people, will, we doubt not, be effectually exerted to save it also from the calamities of war with other nations.
On Monday January 7th, Messrs. Byrn, Keagh, and the other Roman Catholic Deputies, had their last conference with Secretary Dundas. To every liberal mind in England, we may be permitted to give the cheerful consolation, that the claims of this great body of people are to be complied with, and thus the harmony and peace of Ireland is preserved.
The first orders, sent by the admiralty to the Navy Board, were for the equipment of thirty eight line of battle ships and forty frigates, which added to the twelve sail then in commission, makes the number of fifty sail of the line: the best conditioned of which and the stoutest frigates, were ordered to be the first got ready.
The French naval force in the Mediterranean, amounts to twenty sail of the line and many large frigates. The republican, a first rate, is at Toulon.
The promotion of British Admirals now daily expected, is to be immediately followed by the appointment of flag officers to three fleets, equipping for sea.
Three English frigates have failed up the river Scheldt after the French frigates, Commodore Murray, who had been ordered to Flushing with four others has notified his arrival to the States General and the Prince of Orange.
If the rulers of France imagine, that any appeal to the passions of the people of England, will have the effect they may wish on British seamen, they will be out in their reckoning; those brave fellows will still fight with as much courage and zeal against the enemies of their country as ever: a despotic monarch, or a furious tyrannic convention who know no bounds to their ambition, and who disturb Old England's tranquility, are equally its enemies, and just objects of national vengeance.
Orders are gone from the war-office for two regiments of foot to be immediately embarked from Gibraltar, to reinforce the islands of Dominica and Barbadoes, in the West-Indies.
Every day, and every new event, confirms the opinion, that a war with France is an event at no great distance.
We are given to understand, that a manifesto on the part of our court is already in preparation. The publication of it sooner or later, of course, will depend on future events; but the conduct of the French and the late audacious address of the minister Le Brun, on his majesty's speech to parliament, will probably accelerate it. The refusal of lord Grenville to confer with Chauvelin, the agent of the French in London, is said to have been immediately succeeded by Le Brun's threatened solemn appeal to the English nation, which came over ready prepared, in the same dispatches with the order for a conference with lord Grenville.
The preparations for war making by our government are principally directed to the protection of our trade. On this account it is, that such an unusual number of frigates had been put in commission, some of which are to be commanded by Admirals. The duke of Clarence we understand, is to have a new ship of 98 guns now nearly ready for sea at Portsmouth.
The Dutch are extremely busy in placing their marine on the most respectable footing. Several line of battle ships were put in commission in the course of the last fortnight.
War being now considered by many, as certain, and not, on any terms short of abject submission, to be avoided; all descriptions of persons under government, are using exertions, to meet that event, altogether unexampled in any country. Nevertheless, so much at variance seems the public opinion, (and the perpetual and considerable fluctuation of the funds, is the fullest proof of the last) that whilst the immediate dependants on government and those whose trade is war, call most vehemently for it, the bulk of the nation, that wishes well to the civil and religious liberties of the French, hope and believe that so destructive a calamity will be averted.
Jan. 21.—Our learned and eloquent Secretary of State sets out, in his elaborate rescript with saying that he shall give M. Chauvelin no credit, but as he is accredited by the king of France. No such personage being now in existence, what degree of credit can be given him? He would then, it seems, in no sort whatever treat with a minister from the republic of France? in his own highmindedness, & highmindedness, not allowing that country to alter its government, when the majority of it think it fit. What would Oliver Cromwell not only have said, but have done, had Mazarine refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of the republic of
England? He would have destroyed with his fleet all the sea-ports of France towards the Mediterranean.
It is known that government, upon the present occasion, are providing for the defence of the kingdom, by an encrease of the army—the readiest and least expensive mode of doing which is, by raising independent companies.
PARIS, Jan. 7.
Extracts of a letter from General Dumou-rier, to the President of the National Convention. dated Dec. 31.
"The whole German empire is arming against us. We have cut off some of the heads of that hydra, Despotism; others spring up; but we shall still humble them, or die in a manner becoming the sons of freedom. Such are the sentiments of your fellow-citizens in arms. I am a surety for them, for I have had a share in their labours, their dangers, and their victories."
"They are far from being intimidated by new dangers; but they have need of clothes, arms, horses, and a certain supply of provision. They have no occasion for encouragement, but they ought to be rewarded.—Your Generals have need of your confidence. You are the Representatives of the nation in the Assembly; your Generals are its representatives at the head of the armies. Their functions are more laborious than your's, and they are besides under the most terrible responsibility—death and the inflexible judgment of posterity."
"I am better acquainted than any one with the courage of the French, and the resources of my country. If its forces are well distributed, it can resist all Europe. The experience acquired in different offices which I have held during the space of thirty-six years of a very laborious and busy life, has given me the knowledge of all the means of this beautiful republic. I offer to it my vigilance, my experience, and my life: I am not afraid that I shall be suspected of aspiring at the dictatorship or stadtholdership of the Belgic Netherlands, though such absurdities have been published by malevolent persons, whom I consider as greater enemies to the republic than to myself."
"I have taken an oath, and I here repeat it, that I will retire from all public employment on the conclusion of a peace. I shall then have done enough for my country, and for history. Should this precaution be not sufficient, when the republic is delivered from the scourge of war, to remove all suspicions, I promise to impose upon myself the most rigorous ostracism."
Extract of a letter from Gen. Valence (dated Liege, January 2.) to the Minister of War.
"I have the honor of informing you, that a detachment of the van-guard, commanded by General Neuilly, has been sent into the country of Luxembourg, under the command of Colonel Colomb, who announces to me, that he has seized in the Emperor's treasuries, cash to the amount of 200,000 livres. When I receive that sum, I shall transmit it to the pay-master of the army."
Ostend, Jan. 16. A recommendation has come to the merchants of Dunkirk from the executive Council of France, to sit out all the privateers they possibly can, against England.
In consequence of this, all the vessels at this port, that are fit for the purpose, are buying up; but no merchant of this city will be engaged in fitting out any vessel against Great-Britain.
The following are the particulars (by letter) of a recent action (Jan. 6.) at Hockheim between a body of French and Prussian troops.—"This action was very smart on both sides.—The French troops stationed at Cassel, under the command of General Newinger, wanted to force their way to Hockheim, but the Hessian and Prussian troops contested the passage.—Prince Hohenloe attacked the French in flank, which forced them to make a hasty retreat to their entrenchments at Cassel. When the king of Prussia entered Hockheim, twelve Frenchmen, who were concealed in the tower above the town gate, fired down with muskets and carbines upon his majesty, who was then very close, but escaped without injury. A Hessian detachment immediately rushed into the tower, and cut the 12 Frenchmen to pieces.—The French left 300 men dead and wounded on the field. The Hessian Chasseurs have suffered considerably. This afternoon (says the letter) 160 Frenchmen and 12 pieces of cannon were brought into Hockheim, preceded by 12 trumpeters, as trophies of the engagement. More prisoners are expected to-morrow."
NATIONAL CONVENTION,
January 1, 1793.
SPEECH OF M. KERSAINT, on the British War.
[Translated from a French paper.]
The National Convention has referred to you the memorial of the minister of fo-
reign affairs on the present conduct of the British government, and the proposition that I have made to prepare for a maritime war if the safety and dignity of the republic should require it.
I shall divide the result of my reflections on this important matter into two parts; in the first I shall endeavour to penetrate into and bring to light the intentions of the British ministry; in the second, I shall boldly anticipate the consequences of the war with which we are threatened.
If the cabinet of St. James should declare war against you, you will discover the combination of the maritime powers, and you may be sure before hand, that you will have to fight them all at once: but it is not of their number, or of their wish to hurt us, that I have any doubt, but of their power. The governments of Britain, Spain, Holland, Russia, and Portugal are our enemies, for they are all despotic. Let us confine ourselves at present to the most powerful of them, because it governs a people who formerly enjoyed some degree of liberty; and that single advantage had rendered it formidable while ourselves were slaves. Let us consider what the British government can do; let us unravel its designs and discover the end that it wishes to obtain. I perceive three distinct interests, all equally foreign to the British people. The hatred which the king bears to the French, and his fears for the safety of his crown, is the only motive of the interest that he has manifested for Louis XVI; this interest is strengthened by that of the nobles, and of the episcopopians our natural enemies. The anxiety of the prime minister, Pitt, the absolute master of England for eight years past, and whom the storm of a revolution or of a war equally threatens to hurl from his seat of power; this party is connected with the other by the aristocracy of monied men and the numerous agents of government: the war will bring about a coalition of these two interests, and such is their force, that they will carry England along with them. The ambition and genius of Fox, and the intrigues of his party, endeavouring to avail themselves of every circumstance in order to lay hold of the reins of government; flattering with great address the various hopes of reformation which he thought the most proper to keep the nation in a ferment, which hopes the idea alone of a revolution has converted into fears; so that the leaders of the opposition, deprived of their former weapons, have been left at the mercy of the government: a just punishment and a memorable example, which ought to warn free men of the danger of intrigues. The cause of this event which perhaps will be fatal to the world, is characteristic of that celebrated orator, who by his genius maintains the reputation of a party, the last frail support of the defenders of liberty in England; a friend to the rights of man, and a flatterer to the king; an opposer of the measures of government, and yet a superstitious admirer of the British constitution; a popular aristocrat, a democratical royalist; Fox has but one view, that of raising himself on the ruins of his rival, and avenging for once, so many parliamentary defeats not less fatal to his interest than to his glory.
His prudent adversary has need at this moment of all his strength, for he must at once defend his popularity and his party, evidently aristocratical, royalty and its power evidently absolute; and if war should break out, can he be sure of preserving amidst the events that will be its consequence, that preponderance which is disputed with him in time of profound peace. It is a fact well known in England, and which a crowd of examples has made a political axiom, that the minister who begins a war never sees the end of it. Pitt considers war as the termination of his authority, therefore Pitt does not wish for war; but what are his views? What are the views of the various parties concerned in this grand conflict? George the third would have war from the impulse of his passion. Fox would fain lead the ministry into false measures and compel them to defend the abuses of government. Pitt hopes to extricate himself from this dilemma, by offering his mediation to the belligerent powers, he has the weight of government, with him, all the branches of which are in the hands of his creatures; he has for him the theory of corruption, his eloquence and the key of the treasury. Our emigrants and the aristocrates who surround him, urge him on to the two determinations which he seems to have taken: viz. to check the rapid course of our victories by land, by the fear of a maritime war, and to bring us to an accommodation with our enemies by means of his mediation.
It is natural that Pitt should be seduced by these ideas; and the partial knowledge that he has of our situation makes him look on his success as certain; for our internal agitations, the apparent disorder of our legislative deliberations, the mass of our expenses, the violence of our parties, all those external characteristics of the most violent crisis which a nation ever experienced, are, we must own, well calculated to ground the hopes on which that minister rests—He does not know that the immensity of public danger will re-unite us;

he does not know that those agitations, so much talked of, shew an excess of strength, and cannot belong to a debilitated body; that our expenses however enormous, are nothing, if we compare them to our resources; that the whole of France is here, and that we have yet several milliards in store, of which we cannot make a better use than in employing them to found our internal and external independence; he does not know that the number of our enemies, far from discouraging us, will call forth our activity and our resources; and that a people who bring into a common stock, their hands, their courage, and their fortunes are invincible; that they can neither want soldiers nor money; in fine, he does not know that such is our situation, that we must no longer count our enemies, and that they have placed us under the glorious necessity of conquering them or perishing in the attempt. If Britain without a motive, in contempt of the law of nations, should declare war against us, Frenchmen, remember Cortez burning his vessels in sight of his whole army landed on the shores of Mexico.
But after having drawn your attention to the actual state of the British government, permit me to call it now to the disposition of the British people, for that people is not yet reduced to that degree of servitude that they should be reckoned for nothing in the supposition of an approaching rupture with their government. We have been accustomed to designate under the generic name of Englishmen, three different nations whom nature has separated, whom force had brought together, whom interest constantly divides, and whom the principles of our revolution have variously affected.
The English people, like all conquering nations, have long oppressed Scotland and Ireland; but it must be observed, that these two last nations, always restless and secretly revolting at the injustice of the English nation, have obtained at different periods, such concessions as have left them the hope of regaining their full independence. I shall not here expatiate on the circumstances which form the difference between Ireland and England. Every one knows her parliament, her vice-roy, and the kind of political liberty which she obtained by open force during the American war; but what is not so well known is, the difficulties which the British parliament continues to throw in the way of the industry and commerce of Ireland, and their constant opposition to the freedom of that commerce. The Catholic sect is yet subjected to the Gothic and barbarous laws of intolerant ages; and with this kind of partial independence, the Irish seem to turn their eyes upon us and tell us— Come, shew yourselves and we are free.
Scotland labours under other grievances; she is represented in parliament, but in a manner so disproportionate to her riches, her territory and her population, that she must be sensible that she is in fact, no more than a colony dependant upon the English government, and yet the Scotch know their rights and feel their strength; the principles developed by the French nation, have found their zealous defenders, who have deserved the first honors of the persecution of the British government; but those persecutions have made proselytes, & no where have our triumphs been celebrated with greater joy, than in the cities and towns of Scotland, the principal of which have been illuminated on those occasions. Ireland and Scotland, attentive to the progress of the French revolution, know with what regard we have spoken of the people of England; it will be hard to persuade them that in contempt of every idea of equity, they ought to pay fresh taxes to make war upon us, because we have restored to a nation the navigation of a river which opens to them a communication with the ocean, and even affords to the trade of England a shorter and surer road, to secure to herself the rich products of the Belgic provinces. But can the people of England, properly so called, in their present hostile disposition towards us, dispose of the resources of government as they please, to make an unjust war upon us?—I ought to say, however, that the citizens of London, and the principal towns of England are labouring for that purpose, at the present instant, with infinite pains.
Such is the power of the government in England, that it can do every thing. It engrosses to itself a multitude of men thro' the medium of interest. The aristocracy of the cities and revenue departments, is infinitely greater than in France when the revolution took place in 1789. These descriptions of men are now the auxiliaries of the court and the parliament, and make a great outcry at our state of confusion, our anarchy, our weakness, and certain misfortunes of the present day, which it seems we are to blot from the pages of our history. They are afraid of the people in the country; and the British clergy and the episcopalians, employ that hypocrisy which is congenial to them, and their influence, over the minds of the people, to efface the impressions made by our successes, and the evidence of the truths we have proclaimed.
In fine, have you forgotten that the British government made war against their colonies, contrary to the will of the English
people, and to satisfy the private resentment of the king?—O thou land, heretofore the theatre of liberty, unfortunate country of Sidney and of Milton, who can without grief turn his eyes to this quarter? Who can see the tower of London metamorphosed into a Bastille of Paris, so long an object of horror to the people of England—Who can see the liberty of the press and the liberty of opinion banished from a country where these two palladiums of public liberty were framed by the tutelary genius of the Rights of Man—the philosopher Priestley persecuted, Thomas Paine proscribed, Cooper and Walker besieged in their houses for having asserted that men are equal and free!
Such is at this moment the situation of an island, lately so famous. Such is the power of the aristocracy, of the nobility, of the rich, and of the priests, at London, that our debates of the National Convention, that are read with such avidity, so earnestly listened to, and which occupy so large a space in all the French gazettes, are wholly excluded from those of England. Who would believe it? Even a Spanish inquisition could do nothing more craftily tyrannical, than what the English government has dared to do at this instant to distract the national opinion, to awake the old prejudices of the people against us, and to intercept the light of truth in a country which the government has condemned to ignorance and slavery.
In the mean time, the rigorous measures of the government, and its fears are a proof, and may determine the progress the French opinions have made among the people.
[The remainder of M. Kersaint's speech will be given in our next.]
PHILADELPHIA.
MARCH 23.
Extract of a letter from Oporto, to a respectable House in this city, dated January 15.
"We are hourly expecting to hear, that England, Holland and Spain have declared war with France: These combined forces by sea, intend to prevent any provisions entering the ports of France, without respect to the flag of any country; Prussia, Germany, &c. &c. will harass them by land; in short all Europe seems combined against that nation. Most people are of opinion, that Portugal will maintain a neutrality, which will be very happy for us.
Accounts from Dominica state, that an armed copper bottom ship had arrived there from England about the 20th of February, after a remarkable short passage, by which intelligence was received that a war with France was now become inevitable, and that eight guineas bounty were given for entering seamen, when she sailed.
[From a Correspondent.]
"It is said that the American Royalists have been much embarrassed, as to the manner of evincing the sincerity of their grief for the "murder" of his most Christian majesty —Whether by musing the bells, in all the large towns and cities, for the space of twelve months at least ; or by cloathing themselves in the sable garb of mourners, on the occasion. The last mode has met the approbation of a majority; but a respect for men in power , which is characteristic of these mourning gentry, has deterred them from halting putting their scheme in execution, until the court shall have time to lead the way.—It has been suggested, that, in order to show their marked abhorrence of the "murder" of Louis, they ought to burn in effigy, the six hundred and ninety three members of the convention, who sacrilegiously dared to declare their Sovereign guilty of those crimes which brought him to the scaffold. The mourners, it is said, would be inconsolable, did they not entertain the most sanguine hopes, that the accession of Great-Britain, Spain, Portugal, Holland, and the Germanic empire to the last year's combination of kings, will be sufficient to enable the duke of Brunswick, to put his last year's threats in execution; to "take an ever-memorable vengeance" on the French revolutionists, by putting every man of them to the sword; and "totally to demolish the city of Paris, not leaving one stone standing upon another." It would be extremely hard that such laudable hopes should be disappointed!
We are requested to contradict the information in our last relative to Col. Proctor's "having received word from the Indian chief Cornplanter, that his people were inclined for war, and that it might not be prudent for the Colonel to pay them a visit"—No such communication, it appears, was made to Colonel Proctor, and the whole account is by him, since his return from his western tour, declared to be unfounded.
Caleb Strong, Esq. is chosen Senator, in the Senate of the United States, for the state of Massachusetts.
About the eleventh of January a party of Indians appeared near Fort Jefferson, who were fired at from the fort and one wounded. This is the only party that have ap-
peared in the neighbourhood of Fort Jefferson since the beginning of November last, when they engaged with Major Adair.
An American gentleman just arrived from France, where he had every opportunity, and spared no pains to collect the best information, communicates the most agreeable accounts from that quarter. The city of Paris was in a state of perfect tranquillity, and under the strictest police; the military under exact discipline, the order in the convention great, considering the number of its members, the natural vivacity of the French, and the unbounded variety of business they have to transact. La Fayette, he also informs, meets with good treatment in his confinement.
We hear from Jamaica that the government of that island is putting all the fortifications into the best state of repair, and numbers of troops are soon expected, additional to those now in the island, to garrison the various forts and other places of defence.
Since our last there are no arrivals that further confirm the former accounts of the execution of the king of France on the 21st of January. From a variety of corroborating circumstances, however, the truth of the matter is now considered as beyond a doubt. The last letters state that he suffered about 4 in the morning, by torch light: his head being severed from his body, fell into a hole below the scaffold, and his body was thrown in after it.
The following is from a late Charleston [S. C.] paper. and (as prefixed to the Resolutions ) signed by a very large number of reputable names.
WE whose names are under-written. magistrates, planters, merchants, and other citizens of South Carolina, have, on mature deliberation, come to the following resolutions.
When we consider the toils and perils which the people of this state have passed through, in order to establish liberty and equality, and the fond predilection with which they regard the republican system; it is not without regret that we see titles and appellations of distinction of rank and superiority, gaining ground in our country, and now almost established by universal consent. We allude to the titles of Excellency, Honourable and Esquire, given to our magistrates and principal citizens. Although all such titles are expressly abjured by our constitution, as slavish badges of the debasement which prevails in the governments of enslaved Europe, yet we find those titles publicly assumed by our magistrates and leading men, who uniformly dub each other with those titular appellations, which are now considered so far as a matter of right, that to omit them would be giving offence; and we find them inserted in the proceedings and public acts of our legislature. In short, a few men in our country, composed of the legislators, judges, general, and field-officers of militia, our delegates in Congress, justices, lawyers, and rich planters—to this elevated class, the governing, ruling part of our citizens, are given those high titles; while the individuals which compose the great mass of the governed , the people, are called each by the appellation of Mister , from Mester , a trade, a word in its origin denoting a person of inferior, low life; thus avowedly asserting, in the face of the republic, an inferiority of condition between men belonging to the same society, and who, from the nature of our government, are every way on a footing of civil equality, except that the one are rich, or are servants of the community, and the others not. We are not insensible that many will think, and others pretend, that those titles are only terms of civility, and of no consequence: but any one who knows the nature of ambition, and with what eagerness a human creature seizes on a trifle, light as a feather, to establish a line of separation, and raise himself above his equals; that it is the strongest bias of his nature to aim at such distinctions; and that the thinnest disguises, and feeblest reasons, are strong enough to serve him as a pretext. He who considers these things, will view this representing of honorary titles, by high offices, great opulence, and lucrative professions, to be of some moment. We ask is not this splitting, this partitioning out of society into two orders or classes, these in and out of office? The honorable and not honorable , or ignoble , reverend and irreverend , aristocrat and Mister —do not all these amount, not to an untitled , but something like a titled nobility amongst us? Is not the title honorable at least equal, is it not superior to noble or right honorable ? And is not honorbility , or some such high-founding appellation, one day to arise out of this servile language to our public servants? Is it not as likely to produce degradation among the people of South Carolina, as nobility has done in Europe? O! this shameful, odious prejudice of our's in favor of kingly, high flying distinctions, serves to prove, that the poison of royalty, have not yet been sufficiently eradicated out of our soil: and if it be true that we are fond of them, it is debasing to the manly character and simplicity of republicans.
Let us therefore, freemen of Carolina, reject them altogether; let not the people renounce the right of equality, but guard that patriotic jealousy against terms and fashions of servility, which, brought into usage, and gaining strength by time, would enter into the habits and manners, into the very blood and spirits of our citizens, and prepare them for that slavish inferiority and debasement, the source of all the oppressions and miseries of the whole world.
Convinced of these important truths, we therefore, resolve, &c.
[For the resolutions, see our paper No. 144.]
Reflections upon Several Subjects.
[From a late French Gazette.]
1. THE cloyd of hand-bills and advertisements that infest the streets and public papers at the approach of an election, may be compared to those vast flocks of crows that cover the tops of trees at the eve of a battle. They are black, croaking, feed upon the putrified flesh of the dead, and hover over the field of battle several days after. It is very difficult to decide who is the most silly, the advertiser who tells all the world that he is the only honest man in it, or the reader of the paper, that is weak enough to believe what he says.
2. The liberty of the press, like the liberty of speech, is the liberty of saying a great many more foolish than wise things, because there are many more fools in the world than men of sense; and every body knows that fools are always very fluent of speech, having the more to say as they are exempt from thinking.
3. I once knew a man who insisted upon calling himself my friend, altho' I had one previously engaged. He always rose before me in the morning, in order to be the first to say good morrow; he praised me for every thing I did; if I beat my wife, he descanted liberally upon my mild temper; if I spilt my soup upon my cravat he was sure to admire my neatness; did I run my nose against a wall, he then extolled my prudence; in short, there were no follies I could commit, but he recommended them as instances of my ingenuity. At last he so far gained on me, as to induce me occasionally to lend him money, and, as usual in such cases, never paid me. We quarrelled, and he called me one of the best natured souls in the world—I forbade him my house, and he called me a model of hospitality; but his absence has cost me no less than 115 thousand livres!
4. Education is the vivifying soul of a free government. Without it the efforts of liberty degenerate into a fever that consumes a nation, and in the end leaves them a prey to tyrants. It is of the highest importance that primary and secondary schools be established without further delay, and that those to whom they are entrusted should be strictly enjoined to read every day to the people the renovated laws of France, and such instructions as the legislature or executive powers shall decree to be disseminated thro' the various departments of the republic. It is also absolutely necessary that the salaries annexed to these schools should be such as to attract the attention of wise and virtuous men, whose views of ambition however, are so far bounded, as to make these schools the object of their most assiduous care.
5. Public opinion is that stormy ocean upon which the great ship of the republic, and of liberty, must expect to sail. Public instruction is like that salutary oil which calms down the waves that had been raised by ignorance and the passions of men. Without it, the agitation of public opinion will at last occasion a tempest that will swallow up all our hopes—Men only govern each other by means of acquired ideas; the enemies of public peace can only mislead a nation by deceiving them. Only afford to a free government sufficient means to convey to every individual the truths necessary to direct and support its administration, and it will be secured from all convulsions.
6. The best monument we can raise to Liberty is Liberty herself. It is not statues and pyramids that ought constantly to keep her in our view, but good laws and good morals. As long as we carry her in our hearts, her mere image need not be before our eyes, and if we should be forced to withdraw from our country, her pyramids and statues would be only a torment. The human virtues had at no time more statues and temples in Rome, than at the very time they were in a state of exile from the capital. Let us take care then not to imitate their example in filing our metropolises with vain symbols, as they are by no means a proof of the presence of the real deity—besides, France has no bronze medal now to spare for these idle purposes: war must be waged, and every pound of brass and copper will be wanting to repel the forces of despotism. The French republic has in formly neglected every preparation for erecting statues and pyramids, and when brought before the grand council of the nation, they were constantly slighted by an immediate call for—the order of the day.

keep different funds differently appropriated so invariably separate as that one might not used for the object of the other: all was right he conceived provided what was taken was to be replaced. He was also of opinion that the overflowing of one fund could be applied to make up the deficiency of another, and that all that is necessary is to give priority to the appropriation. The money paid in Europe for interest on the loan was said to have been improperly applied; because the fund appropriated for the purpose was here; he insisted, that that money was absolutely represented here by an equal sum, and he contended, that tho' the interest was not paid in the identical coin appropriated, yet by allowing a very reasonable latitude of expression it could be said that the interest was paid with the money appropriated, for the applicability of the sums there depended on the existence of the fund here.
He next turned to the second charge in the resolution, and after shewing, that the natural presumption was, that the Secretary either was instructed or had a discretionary power, he then vindicated his conduct in respect to the drafts of money to this country.
He did honor to the motives of the gentlemen who had instituted the enquiry, and concluded an elegant speech, of which we cannot pretend to give the most faint idea, by a contrasted picture of our former and present situation as a country, dwelling upon the importance of preserving harmony, and insisting on the danger of giving rise to suspicions against a highly responsible officer, and of bringing forward charges not to be supported by proof.
After Mr. AMES had set down, the question was taken on the 1st resolution; and the committee divided, 14 to 38 against it.
Mr. GILES, inclined to withdraw the remaining resolutions, conceiving that a division on the first sufficiently expressed the sentiments of the committee.
Mr. Steele insisted on taking a question on each.
The Chairman informed that they could not be withdrawn; they were referred to the committee; a report on them must be obtained.
The second was lost without a division. The third, which is as follows came under consideration.
Resolved, that the Secretary of the Treasury has omitted to discharge an essential duty of his office, in failing to give Congress official information in due time of the monies drawn by him from Europe into the United States, which drawing commenced in December 1790, and continued till January 1793; and of the causes of making such drafts.
Mr. Findley rose in support of it, and expressed himself as follows:
[If my hopes respecting the government have not been equally elevated with those of the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Ames), neither is my mind so much depressed with fears: But I hope I am equally anxious for the stability, and prosperity of the government, and though we differ in opinion on this question, yet I am firmly persuaded, that the part I take is the best calculated to promote the virtue of its administration.—As the gentleman in an elegant discourse has explained no difficulties, produced no proofs in support of his opinion, I willingly add, that I believe the government to be so well established and so much beloved by the citizens as not to be endangered by the house of representatives examining how the laws have been obeyed in the application of the public money, and giving their opinion as a result of that examination.
That the Secretary has not reported fully to this house in due time is so much within the knowledge of every member, that it is impossible to doubt of the fact, however we may differ about the propriety of the conduct.
To go no farther back than last session, besides the references to the Secretary to report upon the ways and means, and to inform the house what revenues were necessary, on the 30th of February 1791 a standing order was resolved, directing that he should report unto the House, within a few days after the meeting of the next session, an accurate statement and account of the receipts and expenditures of all the public monies—in which shall be distinguished the expenditures which fall under each head of appropriation, and that it shall be shown the sums if any, which remain unexpended. Were not the monies drawn upon loans,
public money, and were these loans appropriated? Undoubtedly they were strictly so. It is a weak evasion to say, that by these expressions, only the current revenue is intended. Arguments must be scarce when this becomes necessary. On the 19th of Jan. last he was called upon to lay before the house such information, with respect to the finances of the United States, as will enable the legislature to judge whether any, or what additional revenues will be necessary.
In consequence of the recommendation of the President and the wishes of this house to commence the discharge of the redeemable part of the funded debt, a reference was made to the Secretary requiring him to report a mode for the application of the public money for that purpose, the house being assured by the gentleman who moved the resolution, that no new tax was intended or necessary; but the secretary so far from informing the house how much money he had subject to his discretion in the bank in notes, he proposed a new and partial tax as the foundation of a new system of loans.
When the memorable bill to authorise another loan of 2,000,000 dollars was before the house, a few weeks ago, we were told by a gentleman on this floor, that there was not time for argument, that the bill must be passed in three or four days, &c. and when we wanted information we were told by some of the friends of the bill, that it was not convenient to give information here; that we might procure information elsewhere, as they had done. I confess I did not comprehend this method of legislation; but the secretary has since explained it in one of his reports, by complaining of the house because the members did not go to his office and ask information, instead of requiring it to be publicly reported.
Even when this favourite bill for a new loan was before the house, the secretary did not condescend to inform us, that he had without authority provided 1,500,000 dollars for that purpose. He did not inform us how obligingly he had drawn bills upon our bankers in Holland to have the money put in our way. Thus in order to anticipate the payment due to the bank he did what he could to induce Congress to break the public faith, by repealing the existing appropriation made for securing the discharge of a debt of justice and gratitude to the French nation. From this and other instances it appears, that however high the secretary's regard for public credit may be, there are other considerations which have obtained a higher degree of his attention, than obedience to the laws.
The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Madison) has so clearly explained the nature of that discretion with which the Secretary is vested, and so fully proved, that there was no necessity to justify a departure from the appropriations made by law, that it is not necessary for me to explain further on that head. However, I cannot help remarking, that the discretionary powers were pretty freely exercised. The drawing of bills began early indeed, and was continued to a recent period.—The times of drawing fortunately corresponded with the necessities of the bank, and the power of employing agents was pretty freely used. The same agents were frequently both the sellers and the purchasers of the bills. Perhaps this was necessary; no doubt it was convenient; probably it was safe; but who can say it will be always so?
I have not said so much to prove the truth of the facts expressed in the resolution, for of this there can be no doubt—It is as clear as the sun shining in day-light but in order to prove the propriety of this committee expressing its disapprobation of a conduct so unjustifiable. That information was withheld unduly is evident from the lateness of this discussion. That it was obtained with difficulty, is evident from the numerous applications we were obliged to make in order to obtain it.
Mr. Boudinot read several items in sundry reports of the Secretary, to shew, that he had reported under a distinct head of loans, the money drawn from those loans: he insisted, that the Secretary had in this matter literally complied with the order of the house.
Mr. Madison remarked that he had not reported monies laying in bank before they were transferred to the Treasurer's account.
Mr. Boudinot insisted that no sums
were drawn but what were included in the report he had just referred to.
Mr. Lee supported the affirmative. Mr. Hillhouse the negative. Mr. Madison next rose in support of the resolution, and was followed by Mr. W. Smith, who expressed himself nearly as follows:
He said, that after the vote which had just prevailed by so considerable a majority on the preceding resolutions, the committee could not with any propriety criminate the Secretary of the Treasury for failing to give the information alluded to, because by that vote it had been established that the Secretary had only acted under the authority of the President and conformably to his instructions; if there had been any omission to communicate information to Congress, that omission was surely not chargeable to the Secretary. But it had been already clearly shown by documents in the possession of the house, that the necessary information had been communicated. The Treasurer's accounts which had been from time to time laid before the house exhibited the amount of monies proceeding from the sale of bills, and the Secretary's report of February 1791, conveyed full information of the drawing. It was true there was a sum of about 600,000 dollars, the proceeds of bills which, as had been remarked by a gentleman (Mr. Madison) did not appear in the Treasurer's account, but this was owing to the sales of the bills by the bank not having been closed at the time the last quarterly account was rendered, and consequently that sum could not appear in the Treasurer's account. (Mr. Madison had said he had not meant to blame the Treasurer.)
Mr. Smith proceeded: The gentleman however, had attributed misconduct to the Secretary, for withholding information of the amount of monies in the treasury, accruing from foreign loans, when directed by the house 19th of January, 1792, to report whether the existing revenues were adequate to face the additional expense of the Indian war. Mr. Smith could not forbear expressing great surprise at this remark of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Madison) when he recollected what had been just before said by the same gentleman in support of the former resolution. The gentleman on that occasion, in his attempt to disprove the right of the Secretary, ex officio to superintend the monies derived from the foreign loans, had endeavoured to establish a nice distinction between the ordinary internal revenues of the country and the resources resulting from the foreign loans.—The law constituting the treasury department, he had said, gave the Secretary power only over the revenues, which embraced only the ordinary resources, whereas loans were distinct things, the management of which was specially entrusted by law to the supreme magistrate, and in relation to which the Secretary could exercise no authority whatever, that was not derived from the President. The gentleman now argued that the Secretary was blameable in not giving information of the state of these extraordinary resources, which were not within his department, when only called upon to state the amount of the ordinary revenues, which were within his department. He left it to the gentleman to reconcile this contradiction, for certainly his doctrine was erroneous on the former occasion, or it must be so now; if the monies obtained from foreign loans were to be deemed the revenues of the country, then they fell of course under the management of the head of the treasury department, and it was wrong in the gentleman to impute misconduct to the Secretary for exercising a legal authority; if on the contrary, those monies were viewed as an extra resource, and not within the purview of the Secretary's functions, then it was wrong to censure him for not communicating a state of those monies when required only to report the ordinary revenues.
Without admitting the soundness of the distinction set up by the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Smith said that it was never the intention of the house, nor in the idea of any individual member, to call for a state of the monies proceeding from the foreign loans when they passed the order of the 19th of January 1792.
The order was in these terms, "Ordered that the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to lay before the house, such information with respect to the finances of the United States, as will enable the legislature to judge whether any additional revenue will be necessary in consequence of
the proposed increase of the military establishment." This call was fully complied with, for the Secretary laid before the house an estimate of the internal revenues, which unquestionably were the only revenues in contemplation by the house at the time, and the house being satisfied that they were incompetent, laid additional duties.
[Debate to be concluded in our next.]
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.
   MARCH 1793.   D. H. Bar. Ther. W. nd. Weather.     Tuesday, 12. 7 29. 75 40 W. Cloudy.   2 29. 65 43 do.   Wednesday, 13. 7 29. 95 38 N. W. Cloudy.   2 29. 0 39 do. Fair.   Thursday, 14. 7 30. 3 26 N. E. Fair.   2 30. 3 44 do.   Friday, 15. 7 30. 4 32 S. W. Fair   2 30. 21 50 do.   Saturday, 16. 7 30. 12 52 S. W. Cloudy.   2 30. 1 62 do. do.   Sunday, 17. 7 30. 1 51 S. S. W. Cloudy.   2 30. 0 72 do. Fair   Monday, 18. 7 30. 0 50 calm. Hazy.   2 30. 0 69 S. S. W. Cloudy.  
PHILADELPHIA, January 12, 1793.
MATHEW CAREY
Respectfully informs the Citizens of the United States, that the Maps for his intended edition of
Guthrie's Geography
IMPROVED,
Are now engraving—and as soon as a sufficient number of them are finished, to secure a regular supply during the publication, which will probably be early next Spring, the work will be put to press.
He returns his acknowledgments to the very respectable number of subscribers, who have come forward thus early to patronize this arduous undertaking. He assures them and the public in general, that no pains or expense shall be spared in the execution of the work.
Terms of the Work:
I. IT shall be published in 48 weekly numbers, each containing three sheets, or twenty-four pages, of letter press, in quarto, printed with new types on fine paper.
II. In the course of the work will be delivered about thirty large maps, of the same size as those in the European editions, viz. most of them sheet mss on pot paper.
❖ Besides the maps in the British Edition, this work will contain nine or ten American States Maps.
III. The price of each number will be a quarter dollar, to be paid on delivery.
❖ No advance required.
IV. Subscribers who disapprove of the work, on the publication of the three first numbers, are to be at liberty to return them, and shall have their money repaid.
V. The subscribers' names shall be prefixed as patrons of the undertaking.
*** Subscriptions received in Philadelphia by the intended publisher; in New-York, by all the booksellers; in New-Haven, by M. Beers; in Hartford, by Mr. Patten; in Boston, by Messrs Thomas and Andrews, and by Mr. West; in Baltimore, by Mr. Rice; in Richmond, by Mr. J. Care; in Charleston, by Mr. W. P. Young, and by sundry other persons throughout the United States. t.f.122.w.
FOR SALE.
THE Subscriber wishes to sell the HOUSE and LOT in Princeton, now in the tenure of William Worlb, it is an eligible stand, either for a private family or a tradesman, being situated on the North side of the street, near the centre of the town, and a little east of the market house—The lot contains forty-two feet in front, and upwards of two hundred feet in depth; on the premises is erected, and in good tenonable order, a two story dwelling house, twenty feet front by 26 in depth; two rooms on the lower floor, with an entry six feet wide; three rooms on the second floor, and a room in the garret, lashed and plastered. In the rear of the house, and adjoining thereto, is a large kitchen, and the cellar extends under the whole of the house. In the yard, there is a well of excellent water—the yard and garden are enclosed with a good pale fence. This house and lot might be an object to some gentleman who might wish to educate his children either at the College or the Latin or English schools, which are conducted upon an improved plan—The title is indisputable, and possession may be had the first of April. For terms apply to the subscriber in Princeton. JARED SEXTON.
PRINCETON, Feb. 23. 4w22w
A FEW COPIES OF THE TRANSACTIONS
Of the Society instituted in the State of New-York, for the promotion of AGRICULTURE, ARTS, and MANUFACTURES,
May be had at this Office. [Price HALF a dollar.] Jan. 5.
For sale, at the printing office, a few copies of the first volume of the National Gazette.
PRINTED BY CHILDS AND SWAIN, AT THEIR OFFICE NO. 209, HIGH-STREET, NEAR FIFTH-STREET, PHILADELPHIA.