National gazette. (Philadelphia [Pa.]), 1792-05-10 00:00:00

National Gazette.
By P. FRENEAU: Published MONDAYS and THURSDAYS, at THREE DOLLARS per annum.
VOL. I.
THURSDAY, May 10, 1792.
NUMB. 56.
For the NATIONAL GAZETTE.
ON THE INJUSTICE OF THE EXCISE LAW AND THE SECRETARY'S REPORT.
THAT the Excise Law has a tendency to contravene the principles of liberty, to deprave the morals of the citizens who live by farming; and that it injures industry and interferes with the business of distilling; I presume the scope of this investigation has abundantly proved. That it will require a vestiture of powers, and an exertion of force, arbitrary restrictions, and excessive penalties, to give effect to the operation of the law, experience has already evinced to the candid and disinterested, and must be impressed even on the mind of the inflexible Financier, and the whole tribe of his dependants, by the future progress of the system.
To prove that the excise is unjust, impolitic, and contrary to the design of the constitution, is the object which I shall now attempt; and, I am persuaded, that to demonstrate how inequitable and partially oppressive it is, I shall only have the trouble of applying the facts which I have already stated.
The produce of the soil in all the old settlements, and especially in the eastern states, (except in some places a small quantity of brandy) is free from excises; and this immunity extends to all the manufactures of the soil. Rum made from molasses that is imported from the West-Indies, bears an excise of ten cents per gallon, on the lowest proof, and sells, by wholesale, in this city, where much of it is still, at the cash price of 5s per gallon; the demand for it is so extensive, and the consumption so great, that the manufacturer is able to incorporate the payment of the excise with the charge, upon the consumer, notwithstanding the present adventitious scarcity and high price of molasses in the islands. Whisky, however, is wholly extracted from grain, which is both raised and distilled by the farmer; it is prepared in situations remote from the market, and it makes a part of the subsistence, not only as a substitute for other ardent spirits, but also for cyder and beer, for these rarely exist where whisky is most generally manufactured. I have already stated that it is also used as an article of barter, as a kind of circulating medium or substitute for money, for where it abounds, money is exceedingly scarce, though even there rum will procure it.—But I shall forbear to recapitulate, and will refer the reader to the statements I have already made on this subject. I will here admit the cash price of whisky to be 3s. or 40 cents, at the place of distillation (tho' I cannot support the supposition) an excise, at eight cents per gallon, would be rating the whisky at one-fifth of its price. Without claiming therefore, though I justly might, a preference in favour of whisky, as it is drawn from the produce of the soil, and as not being generally a cash article; but putting the two kinds of spirit on terms of perfect equality, when the whisky pays the proposed tax of 8 cents, the rum ought to pay about 13, estimating the rum at the present cash price in Philadelphia, viz 5s. or 66 2-3 cents, so that there is a bounty of three cents per gallon in favour of rum: is not this going far to give it a monopoly in the market? But I will state the comparison still more favorably for the rum, and admit that it sells at 4/6 or 60 cents, and the difference in its favor will be one-sixth of the excise, which is more than one and one-half cents of a bounty; but admitting, what I am sure is not true, that the common selling price of whisky is raised to 56 cents, and taking the rum at 5/3, or
70 cents, which was the actual wholesale price since the petitions for a revision of the excise law were laid before Congress, and the rate of excise is equal, viz. one-seventh on each.
How deeply engaged to serve a particular interest must the secretary have been, and how hard pushed to find the means of doing it, when he committed his reputation so far, as to state, for a fact, what he had not vouchers to support;—the most favorable construction on I can put upon his conduct, is, that he has suffered himself to be imposed upon by some whose interest it was to deceive him. Upon a careful enquiry, I have found one house which hath purchased some choice whisky brought into the city, at 3/9 or 50 cents, and that solitary instance is the only one I can find; how could he then in his report state, that the common rate, where it was in greatest abundance, distilled and excised, was 56 cents, or 4/1 1/2 a gallon? Even if he had designed to impose on Congress the price of a choice quantity hauled into Philadelphia, which is a very false rule, yet even that does not appear to be true. Even though it has been rendered scarce by so many farmers ceasing to distill, and tho' subject to the excise, it is now sold even in old settlements, within seventy or eighty miles of the market, in small quantities, at 2/9 a gallon.
I will make another comparative statement nearer the truth than any of the former. I will suppose whisky at 2/6 or 33 1/3 cents, and it has more frequently been sold below than above that price where it abounds most, and where the excise must be paid; and I will estimate rum at 4/10, or almost 65 cents; on this estimate it would pay towards the excise two thirteenth parts of the cash price, and the whisky would pay almost one fourth; consequently, the owner of whisky would, on the sale of 100 gallons, receive 12l. 10s. and pay to government 3l. and the owner of rum, on the sale of 100 gallons, would receive 24l. 3/4, and would pay to government 3l. 15s. or the rum would almost pay 3/9 on the pound, and the whisky near 4/5, consequently there is a bounty still of near 3 cents to the gallon in favour of rum, but I will admit it to be 2 1/2, and the amount of preference, in 500hds. would amount to 137 1/2 dollars, and it is sold in such, or perhaps much larger quantities at one sale; but who ever saw forty or fifty hds. of whisky sold at once; the owner of that despised liquor must wait long, in most places, and have good fortune if he gets money at all. The partiality of this measure in favor of the distiller of rum, and the oppression of the farmer, is too evident to need a comment: if this is justice, that cardinal virtue must have changed its nature and degenerated into corruption.
I have said, the whisky does not spread the sail of commerce, and that it is not in demand in the seats of elegance and wealth. I would not however be understood to mean, that there were no instances of its being carried abroad, or drank in the capital of America. Probably some of it may have been transported to the West Indies as a curiosity; and I have said, I believe that some choice samples of it are used here in the houses of the opulent as a rarity; but this occurs upon the same principle that yams from the West Indies are exhibited, with other exotic dainties, on the tables of Philadelphia, not because we esteem them equal to our own vegetables, but because they are a novelty.
I have not brought brandies distilled from fruit into the comparison; because they are made in small quantities, and are rarely, if at all, to be met with very far from market. Peaches make an excellent spirit, which can command a price both from its goodness and its rarity; but the fruit must be gathered in
the busy season of the year; and peach orchards, from their hasty decay, their uncertain bearing, especially in limestone lands, and their being much on the decline throughout the country, would rather call for a bounty to encourage the distillery of spirit from their fruit, than justify the imposition of an oppressive tax. Although apples may be chiefly made into cyder or preserved for food, yet there is a certain proportion of them that is fit for no other use than making spirit; but I have always understood that the labor and expence of preparing it was nearly equal to the profit.
The injustice and oppression of the excise are still more evident, when we take into view the relative situation of those persons who are concerned in it. There are more than 100,000 inhabitants of Pennsylvania, nay, I suppose that I may safely alledge that one fourth of the people contained in the state, which extends to the Alleghany and Ohio waters, (and in a short time of peace the proportion will be greater) who have neither beer nor cyder; and consequently to them it is an excise upon those liquors, upon every restorative or exhilarating draught, or, if you please, upon every liquid that will intoxicate. The Secretary (who too frequently proclaims his ignorance on this subject, when he would be thought to express the most accurate information) whilst dictating to the legislature of the most extended and various empire that ever was governed on the principles of re-presentation, takes his data for internal taxation from as limited a scale of information, as if he was reporting upon the finances of the little republic of Geneva, or the canton of Bern. In the first age of new settlements, whilst they have their land to clear and their buildings to raise, which require the greatest exertions of bodily strength; (and it is well known that persons, while engaged in those exertions, can consume, with a salutary effect, much larger quantities of spirits, than people otherwise employed can do without danger of intoxication) I say, while such labor is to be performed, and not a draught even of cyder is to be procured to save the whisky, the secretary's 16 gallon average is, to such laborers, a short allowance indeed. The new settler first raises his buildings with the assistance of his neighbours, in the cabin form, with clapboard roofs: and, as he is able, proceeds to clear his land; in doing which he deadens or girdles the large timber; so that in the western country, where timber greatly abounds, and is exceedingly lofty, what is called a new field, is in fact a towering forest of dead trees, the very roots of which take up a great portion of the soil. After the first period of a few years, in which only the smaller limbs of the trees fall, the settlers have annually to procure the assistance of their neighbors, to roll the logs in heaps for burning: and thus I have seen a field, containing perhaps little more than 10 acres, for the cutting, rolling and burning the logs with which it was covered, the Secretary's 16 gallons would certainly be no unreasonable refreshment. There are yet but few shingle roofed buildings within 100 miles of the extreme settled parts of Pennsylvania. I once attended the raising of a barn and I found that 2 men were employed on each corner, until it became so high, that ropes were necessary, when three men were required. This process, therefore, demands from 16 to 24 on the corners: and to select the timber, direct the business, carry and push up the logs, a number of workmen from 30 to 40 will be pretty laboriously employed. The raising of a double barn or a good house will occupy two days. I cannot then suppose, that during such exertions, and exposed to the scorching sun, the allowance of
a pint of common whisky, per day, to each man, can be deemed extravagant; and, consequently, I conclude that the Secretary need be under no apprehensions of drunkenness, even tho' the family should consume more than his 16 gallons at a raising which continues two days; and certainly some refreshment was necessary and proper at the time of felling, hewing, and hauling the timber. The number of hands at a raising may vary according to the size of the timber. A farmer, with whom I once lodged, informed me that he had just come from the thirty first rolling at which he had assisted that spring, and I think that the Secretary himself might very civilly and safely have drunk one fourth of the sixteen gallons average, during so considerable a period, at so fatiguing a service. I have not brought reaping and mowing into the account, because the farmers in the old settlements likewise consume spirits on those occasions, but with a greater abatement if they have cyder.
I repeat, that I should be ashamed of detailing this subject so minutely, were it not rendered necessary by the ignorance of circumstances, and misrepresentation of facts, that are applied by others to their shame and compunction, to support injustice. But it must not here be forgotten, that the people residing on the western waters, have no other possible method of reducing their grain to a portable form, by which they can be enabled to bring it to market, or to improve it as an article of barter, supplying the place of money in paying for goods or labour. The fair and candid conclusion therefore, is, that the existing excise law has, in relation to the proportion of the citizens, the same operation, as if a rate of excise, equal to one fourth or one fifth, of the value, were laid upon beer or cyder, consumed by the farmer, or upon the flour, tobacco, rice, indigo, pot-ash, horses, lumber, onions, &c. exported.
If these facts be true, and the inference which I have drawn be just, there never was, in any country, under any form of government, a more partial, oppressive, and unjust instrument of revenue.
The constitution of the United States, with a design to afford security against partial combinations and undue influence in the legislature, has declared that direct taxes shall be levied, equally, throughout the territory of the union: but by the construction given to that clause, in support of the excise law, it has been rendered (instead of a restriction calculated to maintain the equal rights of the members of the confederation, and to restrain the hand of power by the honorable limitation of equity and impartiality) an instrument of oppression and injustice; at the same moment blasting the fair prospect of that freedom, which the triumphs of a ten years war pictured to our hopes; steming the wholesome current of domestic industry, and prostrating, for the purposes of an insidious and sordid policy, the genuine and only permanent props of a republican government, public confidence, and private virtue. Regarded in the light in which I have fairly placed it, the same principles will apply as properly to raise an excise of one fourth or one fifth upon the indigo or tobacco of the southern states, and upon the potash, the horses, the onions, or the manufactures of New-England: should the middle states, or either the eastern or southern states, combine with an influential minister, who has a facility of making statements suited to such designs, the one part, may, in this way, go free of direct taxes, whilst the other parts of the union are oppressed.
It is as easy to change the nature of things, or to change truth itself into error, as to destroy the force of this conclusion, if such principles are admitted to govern the legislature.

To say that the western people contribute through no other channel to the support of government, is a wanton asperion, or a gross misconception. In the western part of Pennsylvania alone there is probably, from fifty thousand to sixty thousand bushels of salt consumed, from which a more extravagant impost is levied than from articles of the highest luxury—and those who commit themselves by such assertions, inferring likewise that our western citizens pay nothing upon the consumption of European, East or West-India goods, ought, for the sake of candor and truth, to collect information from the merchants of Philadelphia, Baltimore, &c. whose accounts would at once correct the mistake, remove the prejudice, and confound the malice of the argument drawn from this source in favor of the excise.
But it is to be lamented, that few will search for a truth which they dread or dislike to discover, nor while measures are pursued, which dare not be avowed, can we be surprised to trace all the machinations of an inventive genius, directed to amuse and perplex, not to inform and convince. Some politician has said, "if the people will be deceived, let them be so." But to the citizens of America, the desire of knowledge is habitual, and such men never will, nor can be deceived.
SYDNEY.
CONGRESS.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
FRIDAY, May 4.
A bill (from the Senate) to continue in force an act to provide for mitigating or remitting the forfeitures and penalties accruing under the revenue laws in certain cases, and to make further provision for the payment of pensions to invalids,—was read three times successively, and passed with an amendment.
The Senate agreed to the said amendment. A bill for the relief of the river and bay fisheries, was reported by a select committee and read a first time.
Mr. S. Bourne, from the committee of enrolment, presented to Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker signed, and the committee presented to the President, for his approbation, three enrolled bills, viz.
A bill for the relief of persons imprisoned for debt: A bill authorizing the grant and conveyance of certain lands to J. C. Symmes, and his associates;—and
A bill to alter the time for the next annual meeting of Congress.
The House proceeding to the consideration of the report of a select committee, on a message from the President and a letter from the Secretary of State, on the account of J. B. Cutting.
The galleries were ordered to be cleared. A committee was appointed to bring in a bill to allow J. B. Cutting a certain sum for expenditures and services to the United States.
After the opening of the doors, the committee reported a bill to that effect, which was twice read, and referred to a committee of the whole House to-morrow.
A bill for settling the demands of A. W. White against the United States, was considered in committee of the whole, reported without amendment, and ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.
The following resolution was agreed to, and sent to the Senate for their concurrence, viz.—
"Resolved. That the resolution of the 24th ult. authorizing the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to close the present session, by adjourning their respective Houses on the 5th of May, be repealed; and that, instead thereof, they be authorized to adjourn their respective Houses on Thursday the 10th, to meet again on such day as shall by law be appointed."
The Senate returned the resolution with an amendment, fixing Tuesday the eighth for the day of adjournment.
The House concurred in this amendment.
The committee of the whole was discharged from the further consideration of the business of the commissioners of loans in New-Hampshire and Rhode-Island; and
A select committee was appointed to bring in a bill or bills to provide for the payment of the hire of clerks, and for stationery, in the offices of the several commissioners of loans.
A motion, made by Mr. Seney, for the appointment of a committee to bring in a bill to compensate Dr. R. H. Coates, was ordered to lie on the table.
Mr. Secretary Otis notified the House, that the Senate had passed (with amendments) two bills, viz. a bill concerning the duties on spirits distilled within the United States; and a bill relative to the compensation of certain officers employed in the collection of the duties of impost and tonnage.
The bill supplementary to the act making provision for the public debt, was again considered by a committee of the whole,
and reported with amendments; which being taken into consideration by the House, were, with some modifications, agreed to; in consequence of which, the sixth and seventh sections stand as follows:
Sec. 6. Be it further enacted. That the interest on so much of the debt of the United States, as has been, or shall be purchased or redeemed for or by the United States, or as shall be paid into the treasury thereof, in satisfaction of any debt, or demand, and the surplus of any sum or sums appropriated for the payment of the interest upon the said debt, which shall remain, after paying such interest, shall be and hereby are appropriated and pledged, firmly and inviolably, for and to the purchase and redemption of the said debt; to be applied under the direction of or any of them, with the approbation of the President of the United States, for the time being, and in manner following, that is to say,
First, "To the purchase of the several species of stock constituting the debt of the United States, at their respective market prices, not exceeding the par or true value thereof, and as nearly as may be, in equal proportions, until the annual amount of the said funds, together with any other provisions which may be made by law, shall be equal to two per cent. of the whole amount of the outstanding funded stock, bearing a present interest of six per cent."
"Thenceforth, Secondly. To the reduction of the said last mentioned stock, according to the right for that purpose reserved to the United States; until the whole amount thereof shall have been redeemed; and,
" Lastly. After such redemption, to the purchase, at its market price, of any other stock, consisting of the debt of the United States which may then remain unredeemed."
And such purchases, as far as the funds shall at any time extend, shall be made within thirty days next after each day on which the quarterly interest on the debt of the United States shall become due; and shall be made by a known agent, to be named by the said commissioners."
"Sec. 7. And be it further enacted. That all future purchases of public debt, on account of the United States, shall be made at the lowest price, at which the same can be obtained by open purchase, or by receiving sealed proposals, to be opened in the presence of the commissioners, or persons authorized by them to make purchases, and the persons making such proposals."
The question, on the engrossment of the bill, was called for: but
Mr. B. Bourne again declaring his intention of bringing forward his motion for a further assumption of the state debts,
The bill was ordered to lie on the table.
SATURDAY, May 5.
The amendments, proposed by the Senate, to the "bill relative to the compensation of certain officers employed in the collection of the duties of impost and tonnage," were agreed to, as were likewise their amendments to the "bill concerning the duties on spirits distilled within the United States."
Mr. Madison, from the committee of conference on the subject of the disagreeing amendments of both houses to the process Bill, reported, that the conferees had agreed in part.
Mr. Goodhue informed the House, that the senate had little or no business to do, and suggested that it might be expedient to discharge the committee of the whole from the consideration of the "bill for the registering and recording of ships or vessels," and send it to the Senate that they might proceed with it.
This being objected to, as an improper and uncongressional mode of proceeding, the proposal was dropped.
An engrossed bill authorizing a settlement of the demands of A. W. White against the United States, was read a third time and passed; yeas 30, nays 23.
Sundry petitions were presented and laid on the table.
A message was delivered by Mr. Secretary Lear, informing the House, that the President of the United States had approved and signed two acts, viz.
"An act authorizing the grant and conveyance of certain lands to J. C. Symmes, and his associates;" and
"An act to alter the time of the next annual meeting of Congress."
Mr. Secretary Otis notified the House,
That the Senate had passed a "bill for regulating foreign coins, and for other purposes," in which they requested the concurrence of the House:
That they had considered the "bill authorizing a settlement of the demand of A. W. White against the United States;" and resolved that the further consideration thereof be postponed until the next session of Congress;—and
That they had resolved that a committee should be appointed on their part to meet such committee as the House might appoint, to wait on the President of the United States, and inform him of the intended recess of Congress on Tuesday next:—in
which they requested the concurrence of the House.
The bill supplementary to the act making provision for the public debt, being taken up,
Mr. B. Bourne, moved for a further assumption of the state debts, to the amount of six millions, six hundred and forty four thousand, five hundred and forty dollars, viz.
   In the debt of Dollars.     New-Hampshire 150,000   Massachusetts 1,838,540   Rhode-Island 500,000   Connecticut 313,000   New-York 23,000   New-Jersey 30,000   Maryland 400,000   Virginia 225,000   North-Carolina 800,000   South-Carolina 1,965,000   Georgia 400,000   Total 6,644,540  
After a lengthy debate, the subject was wholly set aside by the previous question, which passed in the negative; yeas 23, nays 35.
YEAS—Messrs Ames, Barnwell, Benson, S. Bourne, B. Bourne, Fitzsimons, Gerry, Goodhue, Gordon, Huger, Laurence, Learned, Murray, W. Smith, Steele, Sterret, Sumpter, Sylvester, Thatcher, Tucker, Vining, Wadsworth, Ward.
NAYS—Messrs Ashe, Baldwin, Boudinot, Brown, Clarke, Dayton, Findley, Giles, Gilman, Gregg, Griffin, Grove, Heister, Hillhouse, Jacobs, Key, Kitchell, Lee, Livermore, Macon, Madison, Moore, Muhlenberg, Niles, Page, Parker, Schoonmaker, Seney, J. Smith, I. Smith, Sturges, Tredwell, Venable, White, Willis.
Motions were then severally made by Mr. B. Bourne, and Mr. Baldwin, for a further assumption of the debts of Rhode-Island and Georgia, not to exceed in either case 300,000 dollars.—Negatived.
An amendment was added to the bill, excluding the certificates issued by Patrick Travers, commissioner of Cumberland county, in the state of North-Carolina, and those issued by the commissioners of army accounts at Warrington in the same state in the year 1786, from being received by the commissioners of loans, on account of the frauds practised in issuing the same.
The bill was then ordered to be engrossed for a third reading; and
A motion, made by Mr. W. Smith, that the House should meet on Sunday, being negatived, the House adjourned.
MONDAY, May 7.
Mr. Speaker signed and the committee of enrolment presented to the President of the United States, the following enrolled bills, viz.
"A bill to continue in force the Act to provide for mitigating or remitting the penalties and forfeitures accruing under the revenue laws in certain cases, and to make further provision for the payment of pensions to invalids:
A bill relative to the compensation to certain officers employed in the collection of the duties of impost and tonnage; and
A bill concerning the duties on spirits distilled within the United States.
An engrossed bill supplementary to the Act making provision for the debt of the United States, was read a third time, passed, and sent to the senate for concurrence.
A bill (from the senate) to regulate foreign coins &c. was twice read, and ordered for commitment.
A bill for making compensations to the commissioners of loans, for extraordinary expenses, was read a first and second time, engrossed, read a third time, and passed.
A committee was appointed, to join the committee appointed by the senate, to wait on the President of the United States, and notify him of the intended recess of Congress.
A bill concerning the claim of J. B. Cutting against the United States, was considered in committee of the whole, reported without amendment, engrossed, read a third time, and passed—Yeas, 23; Nays, 22.
YEAS—Messrs. Ames, Barnwell, Benson, Boudinot, B. Bourne, Clarke, Fitzsimons, Gordon, Griffin, Heister, Huger, Laurence, Learned, Lee, Livermore, Madison, Muhlenberg, Murray, Page, W. Smith, Steele, Sterret, Tucker—23.
NAYS—Messrs. Ashe, Baldwin, S. Bourne, Brown, Giles, Goodhue, Key, Kitchell, Macon, Moore, Schoonmaker, J. Smith, I. Smith, Sturges, Sumpter, Sylvester, Thatcher, Tredwell, Venable, Ward, White, Williamson,—22.
A bill, making alterations in the Treasury and war department, was considered in committee of the whole and reported with amendments. The amendments were agreed to by the House, and the bill passed.
The report of the select committee on the memorials of Mr. Ceracchi respecting the national monument, being recommitted to the same committee, they reported (and the House agreed to the report) that it appears at present inexpedient to go to the expense proposed.
The report of the conferees, on the amendments to the Process Bill, being taken into consideration, the house agreed with
the senate in some particulars; but disagreed in two, one of which was a clause authorizing the creditor to pursue a capias ad satisfaciendum , until a tender be made of debt and costs, in gold and silver."—The house resolved to adhere to their amendment for striking out this clause:—Yeas 30; Nays, 17.
YEAS—Messrs. Ashe, Baldwin, Brown, Clarke, Findley, Giles, Gregg, Griffin, Grove, Heister, Jacobs, Key, Kitchell, Lee, Livermore, Macon, Madison, Moore, Muhlenberg, Page, Parker, Seney, I. Smith, Sumpter, Tredwell, Tucker, Venable, White, Williamson, Willis—30.
NAYS—Messrs. Ames, Barnwell, Benson, Boudinot, S. Bourne, Fitzsimons, Gilman, Goodhue, Hillhouse, Learned, Murray, J. Smith, W. Smith, Steele, Sturges, Sylvester, Ward—17.
Mr. Secretary Otis notified the House, that the Senate had passed the bill for making compensations to the commissioners of loans for extraordinary expenses; and the bill supplementary to the Act making provision for the debt of the United States.
The bill for regulating foreign coins &c. was considered in committee of the whole, reported without amendment, amended in the House, read a third time and passed.
Mr. Speaker signed two enrolled bills, viz.
A bill making compensations to the commissioners of loans for extraordinary expenses; and a bill supplementary to the Act making provision for the debt of the United States.
A bill making certain appropriations, was considered in committee of the whole, reported without amendment, and ordered to be engrossed for a third reading.
Mr. Otis notified the House, that the senate had (with an amendment) agreed to the amendments proposed by the House to the bill making alterations in the Treasury and War departments:—The amendment was agreed to by the House.
TUESDAY, May 8.
After a session of six months and twenty-three days, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the President pro tempore of the Senate, this day adjourned their respective Houses, about eight o'clock P. M. to meet again on the first Monday of November next.
The minutes of this day's proceedings shall appear in our next.
PHILADELPHIA.
MAY 10, 1792.
Extract of a letter from a gentleman in Marseilles to his correspondent in this city, dated March 11.
"You will receive this by the American ship Louisa, of Baltimore, Capt. Birkhead, who arrived here on January 24th with 382 hogheads of tobacco to my address, of which I have already sold 220, from sixty to sixty three livres per quintal, marked weight, tare 12 per cent. free of the duty for the owners. The ship now lies ready to sail with the first fair wind, with a fine outward cargo consisting of brandies, refined brimstone for making gun-powder, Smyrna and Syria wool-cotton, Calile soap, olive oil for falls, capers, olives and anchovies, almonds and black prunes, Smyrna raisins, confectionary, gloves, umbrellas, fans, silk stockings, &c. &c. These articles, taking one with another, have almost doubled in price on account of the loss on the assignats, which are now our only current money, and are offered this day at 40 per cent. loss against French crowns; but notwithstanding tobacco and all kinds of imported commodities have risen in proportion to the exports, it is more eligible to take goods in return than send vessels back in ballast and make remittances in bills on London, which are now at fifteen and three-fourths to fifteen pence for a three livre assignat, and likely to fall still lower. As to other matters, I will briefly mention what has occurred here during Capt. Birkhead's stay in this port.—One night the arms of the Spanish Consul were taken out from the outward door of his house, and hung at the iron collar of the public market, where they remained till nine o'clock in the morning. In the afternoon they were returned by order of the municipality to his house; but he having in the mean time sent an account of this insult to his court, they were not replaced. He has since departed, whether by order from his court or not, is uncertain. The municipality, however, issued a proclamation, forbidding such illegal excesses, whatever might be the national complaints against the conduct of certain powers.—A fortnight ago about 1200 of the national guards arrived here, with guns mounted, &c. and took their departure again for Aix (sixteen miles north of Marseilles) without any orders except from the club of Jacobins. At Aix they were joined by about 6000 others from the country, and mounted 18 pieces of cannon round the barracks, where the brave Swiss regiment of Heraest had been stationed by order of the commander in chief of the military department. A sort of capitulation ensued, and in consequence of orders from the same department, the whole regiment, officers

and soldiers, marched off, leaving all their fire-arms, swords, &c. (which became the prey of the conquerors). They proceeded, without halting, to Roquelaure, where they were received as if they had destroyed the nation, and were obliged to go to the Beau-siset, where they passed the night in the open air, and were scarcely able to procure victuals for their money. They were not permitted to come into Toulon at all, and are now at a village in the vicinity of that place. The only crime alleged against them is, their having always remained subordinate to their officers, and during their stay in Marseilles prevented the merchants from being plundered of their property. On the return of the army a huckster woman, on the course, having said it consisted of brigands (banditti), was dragged by the people to the municipality, and thrown into prison; but the populace, not satisfied with this, about four o'clock in the afternoon, forced the prison door, wrested her from the hands of a municipal officer, who did all in his power to prevent these excesses, and in the presence of her husband, hung her up at the municipality's lantern; the first female victim to the revolution in France.
"We are, here, in great want of wheat and flour, which I fear will be the case for a long time. The crop now in the ground according to a very unfavorable prospect. American wheat would now being fifty livres per charge, and superfine flour sixty livres per barrel, which you may calculate on a the stated price at our market for those articles, deducting loss on remittances from the net proceeds. Those who may undertake to supply this place with wheat and flour may therefore expect to find themselves amply benefited by their adventures."
By a late arrival at Norfolk, in Virginia, from London, English papers are received to the 6th of March. Nothing very material had at that time taken place upon the political stage of Europe. Germany and its several petty dependencies were crowded with troops, prepared to act as occasion and circumstances should require; but the absolute certainty that the Belgic provinces would join France the moment any thing like hostilities were declared against her by the Emperor, and his allies, seems to have thrown a damp upon the projected exertions of this monarch in favor of the disaffected part of the French Nation.
Accounts by the same vessel say, that the Dutch East and West India companies appear to be in the last stage of a speedy dissolution, and that the commerce itself of the republic is on the eve of ruin.
On the 27th February last the Irish Senate House at Dublin (said to have been one of the most elegant and best accommodated of any in Europe) took fire and in a few hours was reduced to ashes. The library and papers of importance were saved.
We hear that a special meeting of the directors of the manufacturing Society are called to meet at Newark, on Tuesday the 15th instant, for the purpose of fixing upon the permanent seat of the said factory.
The pilot-boat which sailed from New-York some time since for London, and which created so much conjecture as to the cause of her departure, was sent by the directors of the New-Jersey manufacturing Society, to secure the 50,000 dollars, as mentioned in their report.
We hear that a Stockbridge Indian is arrived in town from Canada, with information that a general meeting is shortly to be held at French Creek, to consist of two Sachems and two warriors of each of the tribes of Indians now at variance with the United States. The objects of this meeting are said to be—to consult on their general interests—the several deputies to lay before the meeting a statement of the causes of the existing hostilities; and finally to endeavour to bring about a treaty with the general government, for the purpose of establishing a permanent peace.
Mr. Paine's second part of the "Rights of Man," combining principle and practice, is now in the press in this city. The copy was brought by Dr. Winship, just arrived from London.
The American intercourse bill had, when the late accounts left England, undergone a second reading in their parliament; but no commercial prohibitions whatever had taken place, except the enforcement of the act of Charles the second, forbidding American produce to be imported in foreign bottoms into the islands of Guernsey and Jersey.
French papers of a late date inform that M. de la Peyrouse, the celebrated French circumnavigator who was wrecked in the Indian seas, has at length returned to the Cape of Good Hope, with about one third of his crew. They are said to have undergone every thing, in the line of suffering, that it is possible for human nature to bear.
† The Report of the Committee of Congress appointed to enquire into the causes of the failure of the late expedition under Major-General St. Clair, was intended for this day's paper, but is unavoidably deferred for want of room, till our next.
THE session of Congress just closed has been distinguished by several circumstances highly interesting to the United States.
The negative put by the President on the bill for apportioning representatives being the first exercise of that power, and being interposed in defence of the constitution, is worthy of particular regard, both as it illustrates the wisdom of that check in the government, and the dignified and patriotic firmness of the Chief Magistrate. It must consequently be viewed with no inconsiderable mixture of satisfaction, even by those who did not concur in the construction which prevailed.
The decision of the judges against the constitutionality of an act in which the executive had concurred with the legislative departments, is the first instance, also, in which that branch of the government has withheld the proceedings of the others; and being another resource admitted by the constitution for its own defence, and for security of the rights which it guarantees to the several states, and to individual citizens, it may be contemplated under some very pleasing aspects, without undertaking to decide on the merits of the particular question.
A militia system, the true and equal guardian of freedom and a free country, which at several preceding sessions experienced insurmountable obstacles, has at the present been at last accomplished.
Whilst Congress have reasonably kept the door open for all non-subscribers to the public debt already bound upon them, they have made a successful stand against the alarming policy of swelling the public debt, by further and unnecessary assumptions.—They have also in several provisions and unfinished proceedings, exhibited a disposition, which presages more effectual efforts for rearing public credit on its true, unartificial and natural foundations, for rescuing us from the evils of a public debt as fast as the public faith and resources will permit, and for discouraging those mischievous speculations and abuses which have been no less mortifying to the virtuous pride, than they have been injurious to the true interests of a republican people.
In general it may be observed, that the sentiments and proceedings of the legislative body are assuming a complexion more in conformity with the republican principles of the government and genius of the people. In what degrees the change is to be ascribed to the force of truth operating on involuntary error, to the new fund of abilities and sentiments added to and mingled with the antecedent mass, or to the salutary reflection and re-action from an enlightened and awakened public mind, is a calculation that might be curious, and not without its use, but which it is neither necessary, nor perhaps as yet practicable, to execute with exactness. It is of more immediate importance to draw from the fact the consolatory hope that the aberrations of the government in any instances from the plain and direct path of republican policy, will be gradually corrected by the influence of reason and responsibility, until every great public measure shall be in due accord with the tone of a virtuous and well-informed public mind, and tend to the accomplishment of the beneficent purposes which a free people had in view when they planned and adopted the present national government.
The following is a List of the ACTS passed at the late session of Congress.
 1. AN ACT granting farther time for making return of the enumeration of the inhabitants in the district of South-Carolina.  2. An Act for the relief of David Cook and Thomas Campbell.  3. An Act making appropriations for the support of government for the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two.  4. An Act for carrying into effect a contract between the United States and the state of Pennsylvania.  5. An Act to extend the time limited for settling the accounts of the United States with the individual states.  6. An Act concerning certain fisheries of the United States, and for the regulation and government of the fishermen employed therein.  7. An Act to establish the post-office and post-roads within the United States.  8. An Act relative to the election of a President and Vice-President of the United States, and declaring the officer who shall act as President in case of vacancies in the offices both of President and Vice-President.  9. An Act for making farther and more effectual provision for the protection of the frontiers of the United States.  10. An Act declaring the assent of Congress to a certain act of the state of Maryland, and to continue for a longer time an act declaring the assent of Congress to certain acts of the states of Maryland, Georgia and Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, so far as the same respects the states of Georgia, and Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations.  11. An Act to provide for the settlement of the claims of widows and orphans barred by the limitations heretofore established, and to regulate the claims to invalid pensions. 
12. An Act providing for the settlement of the claims of persons under particular circumstances barred by the limitations heretofore established.
13. An Act for the relief of certain widows, orphans, invalids and other persons.
14. An Act supplemental to the act for making farther and more effectual provision for the protection of the frontiers of the United States.
15. An act for finishing the light-house on Baldhead, at the mouth of Cape-Fear river, in the state of North-Carolina.
16. An Act establishing a mint, and regulating the coins of the United States.
17. An Act supplementary to the act for the establishment and support of light-houses, beacons, buoys and public piers.
18. An Act to erect a light-house on Montauk-Point, in the state of New-York.
19. An Act for ascertaining the bounds of a tract of land purchased by John Cleves Symmes.
20. An Act for fixing the compensation of the door-keepers of the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress.
21. An Act for altering the times of holding the circuit courts, in certain districts of the United States, and for other purposes.
22. An Act to compensate the corporation of trustees of the public grammar school and academy of Wilmington, in the state of Delaware, for the occupation of, and damages done to the said school, during the late war.
23. An Act for apportioning representatives among the several states according to the first enumeration.
24. An Act concerning consuls and vice-consuls.
25. An Act authorizing the grant and conveyance of certain lands to the Ohio Company of Associates.
26. An Act to indemnify the estate of the late major-general Nathaniel Green, for a certain bond entered into by him during the late war.
27. An Act for raising a farther sum of money for the protection of the frontiers, and for other purposes therein mentioned.
28. An Act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions.
29. An Act for the relief of persons imprisoned for debt.
30. An Act authorizing the grant and conveyance of certain lands to John Cleves Symmes, and his associates.
31. An Act to alter the time of the next annual meeting of Congress.
32. An Act concerning the duties on spirits distilled within the United States.
33. An Act relative to the compensations to certain officers employed in the collection of the duties of impost and tonnage.
34. An Act to continue in force the act entitled, "An Act to provide for mitigating or remitting the penalties and forfeitures accruing under the revenue laws in certain cases, and to make farther provision for the payment of pensions to invalids."
35. An Act supplemental to the act making provision for the debt of the United States.
36. An Act for making compensations to the commissioners of loans for extraordinary expenses.
37. An Act making alterations in the Treasury and War departments.
38. An Act making certain appropriations therein specified.
39. An Act to provide for a copper coinage.
40. An Act for regulating processes in the courts of the United States, and providing compensations for the officers of the said courts, and for jurors and witnesses.
41. An Act concerning the claim of John Brown Cutting against the United States.
42. An Act to compensate the services of the late colonel George Gibson.
43. An Act more effectually to provide for the national defence by establishing an uniform militia throughout the United States.
44. An Act respecting the government of the territories of the United States northwell and south of the river Ohio.
RESOLVE, directing the Secretary of the Treasury to furnish the several collectors with printed Clearances, stating the accounts of the methods that have been used to obtain fresh water from salt, &c.
"Mad dogs! mad dogs! mad dogs! Enemies to the government! Mad dogs! mad dogs! mad dogs!"
SUCH is the hue and cry raised, by three or four writers, against every man who writes on the measures of government, without dipping his pen in molasses, to sweeten every line with panegyrick. But if those important clamourists will only suffer me to be heard, I will tell a short story, that will set this matter in its proper light.—
A pack of rogues, Mr. Editor (no offence I hope to any honest man) a pack of rogues once took possession of a church, famous for miracles,
***** "the attack upon the government is renewed—these enemies of the government—[they will] to make the resentment of the people the means of its destruction—their destructive principles—they are enemies—audacious scribblers—they attempt to write down a republican government—their own disordered imaginations—they rave about monsters because they are out of their wits."
All these courtly compliments are extracted from one single publication, the Gazette of the United States of Wednesday May the 2d, printed by Mr. John Fenno, (from Boston) living at No. 69, Market Street, Philadelphia.
and held in high veneration by the inhabitants of the surrounding district. From this sanctuary they sallied out every night, robbed and plundered all the neighbours, and when pursued, took shelter within the hallowed walls. If any man attempted to molest them there, they derided him from the enterprize by crying out sacrilège , and swearing they would denounce him to the inquisition as a heretic and an enemy to holy mother Church.
Comparisons are sometimes odious, but they are often useful; and when there happens to be any thing odious, disgraceful, or improbable in them, they are then to be construed, not in a literal sense, but in a liberal one, as the words of the constitution frequently are. Thus when Homer compares one of his heroes to an ass, we are not to understand that the hero was all ass up to the ears, or that the ass was a hero that could strut upon two legs and perform the manual exercise with a half-pike or a javelin; but simply that the ass and the hero resembled each other in some one particular, no matter what. In the same manner when I compare certain writers to certain rogues, God forbid I should be understood to accuse such writers of being downright bona fide rogues, or such rogues of having wit enough to varnish over their roguery by writing in a newspaper! I only mean there is a strong resemblance between the writers and the rogues in one particular instance of their conduct, and that is the raising such a hue and cry of sacrilège , enemies , and mad dogs . However, lest any malicious person should wilfully mistake my meaning, I will farther illustrate it.
The people of fifteen united parishes, in a certain part of America, have agreed on one common religion, and erected to themselves a temple, which they hold in as high veneration as the church aforesaid. They have entrusted this temple to the care of a set of priests chosen and paid for the express purpose of performing service in it, keeping it in repair, and writing catechisms and books of useful instruction to promote "the general welfare" of the fifteen united parishes.
But if a number of those priests form a conspiracy against the others who are too few to make opposition—overpower them, bind them hand and foot, and gag them to prevent their crying out; if then the victorious party, instead of writing godly books, employ their pens in scribbling licentious pieces to corrupt the morals of their parishioners; if instead of keeping the temple in repair, they break the doors and windows, and convert the altar into a gaming table; if instead of performing divine service, they go out on frolicking parties across the mountains, to drink up the backwoodsmen's whiskey without paying for it, and cut down their apple and peach trees to boil their own pots; if they break into the negro-huts to rob the poor slaves of their salt; if by swindling tricks they cheat old soldiers of their crutches and wooden legs; if they fend out pilot-boats to strip and plunder shipwrecked sailors who are endeavoring to swim ashore; if they afterwards force the parishioners to buy up their whole flock of crutches, wooden legs and sailor's jackets at more than the original value—and in order to complete the purchase, oblige them to sign an irredeemable mortgage of the bread of their posterity for a hundred years to come; if they turn Mountebanks and hocus-pocus-men, converting the gold and silver of their parishioners into waste paper, and their own waste paper into gold and silver; if they pull down the fences and boundaries of the fifteen parishes, to erect palisades and fortifications all round the temple; if they pick quarrels in the woods with people who only come to pick blackberries, that they may have an excuse for swaggering about with sword and pistol, and bullying the parishioners into passive obedience and non-resistance; if they do all these things and a thousand things more of the same or a worse kind—what are the parishioners to do?
Nothing at all, I trow! for if we but open our lips against one of those priests, though we catch him in the very act of getting drunk on our whiskey, breaking down our fences, ravaging our orchards, or hocus-pocussing our dollars, the writers I have mentioned (like the rogues I have mentioned) will cry out ' sacrilège ', that we want to destroy temple, and that every honest man is bound in conscience to lend a hand to hang us up for a pack of atheists and rebels, enemies to the temple, the religion and the government of the United parishes.
I would not affront those writers by calling in question their flock of honesty; for as they do not appear to speculate very deeply in that kind of flock, they are perhaps not prepared for the question. But if they wish to get any credit for their wisdom, they would do well to hold their tongues and burn their pens, unless they can prove, either that the priests do not commit such actions, or that such actions are lawful, consistent with the established religion of the united parishes, and conducive to the general welfare of the parishioners. Otherwise, if they continue to call us mad dogs , why may not we in turn call them jad dogs and arrant hypocrites, who with all their pretended zeal for the temple and the established religion, are at bottom rank heathens, who have no more sense of religion than a herd of buffaloes, and only flatter the priests and encourage them to go still greater lengths, in hopes of seeing the temple at last fairly converted into a temple of mammon, and there profitably exerting their zeal and industry in the general scramble for the loaves and fishes?
ENCORE.

THE PARTING GLASS.
[Written at an Inn.]
THE man that joins in life's career And hopes to find some comfort here ; To rise above this earthly mias, The only way's to drink his glass.
But still on this uncertain stage Where hopes and fears the soul engage ; And while amid the joyous band Unheeded flows the measur'd sand, Forget not, as the moments pass, That Time shall bring the parting glass.
In spite of all the mirth I heard This was the glass I always fear'd— The glass that would the rest destroy, The farewell cup—the close of joy.
With you, whom reason taught to think, I could, for ages, sit and drink : But with the fool, the sot, the as, I haste to take the farewell glass.
The luckless wight, that still delays His drink of joy to future days— Delays too long—for then, alas ! Old Age steps in, and breaks the glass.
The nymph, who boasts no borrow'd charms, Whose sprightly wit my bosom warms, What tho' she keeps this country inn, And mixes grog, or deals out gin ;— With such a kind, obliging lass I sigh to take the parting glass.
With him who always plods on scrip, Nor throws off care to take a sip, The wretch who thrives by others woes And scatters grief where'er he goes ;— With people of this knavish class The first is still my parting glass.
With those that drink before they dine— With him that acts the grunting swine, Who fills his paze with low abuse And strives to act the gabbling goose Turn'd out by fate, to feed on grass— Boy, give me quick the parting glass.
The man, whose friendship is sincere, Who feels no guilt, and knows no fear : It would require a heart of brass With him, to take the parting glass !
With him, who loves a pot of ale ; Who holds to all an even scale, Who hates a knave, in each disguise, And fears him not—what'e'er his size— With him, well pleas'd my days to pass, May Heaven forbid the PARTING GLASS.
May 2.
Mr. Hartley's SPEECH in the House of Representatives of the United States, on the further assumption of the State Debts.
MARCH 31.
In committee of the whole, upon the State Debts.
Mr. HARTLEY—
AFTER so long a discussion my attempting to take up any great length of time, would not be excusable ; but I consider it my duty to say a word or two, in answer to some remarks and observations, used against the constitution and operation of this government ; and give a few reasons, why I shall, at this time, vote for the resolution under consideration.
It will not be necessary for me to take into view the principles upon which the constitution was framed—they were fully examined in the general convention as well as the several state conventions, and stood the test of the strictest scrutiny—they are favorable to liberty and justice.
As to the operation of this government, we may best understand it by contrasting the state of America at the adoption of the constitution with the present day. At the former period, our credit, as United States of America, was at a low ebb. Few of the individuals of foreign countries would give a credit to the individuals of this. The capitals of Europe would not be trusted in America. They doubted our justice as well as our government.
There was scarcely any credit given among individuals here. A universal distrust prevailed. Agriculture languished—the farmer diffident ; he had lost his confidence. The great spur to industry was wanting.
No ships on your stocks ; few vessels in your harbours ; commerce decayed ; the vital spirit lost. I might say more.
What is our present state ? The credit of our government is as good as that of any country.
The individuals of all nations will trust the individuals of America. Individuals (until a late unfortunate bubble or abuse of credit, arising from bad men or bad management, and which possibly may only hurt for the moment) gave full credit to each other as far as their capitals extended ; as well in the city as in the country, and confidence prevailed.
Agriculture, where the people are industrious and apply their attention to the raising of those articles which are most in demand, is in the highest improvement ever known here before. I can speak with confidence of the state I live in. The idle and indolent can expect no great success in any art or profession which depends upon the steady hand of industry.
There are ships on the stocks in every port where there are ship-builders and materials. The tonnage list will show the vast increase of the American shipping. It has far exceeded the most sanguine expectation.
Several of the first merchants state your commerce in a most respectable situation, far beyond any other period. Indeed, the returns from the Secretary of the Treasury show how great our imports, and how vast our exports are.
In point of justice, our reputation stands high with the world—Our courts will do justice.
Pray what foundation for those strong affections which have been made against the constitution and the government?
As to the funding system, I shall say little at present. I much doubt if it deserves the bad names which have been given it. Abuses will be committed in all countries ; no human plan can be secure against them.
The assumption of the state debts was fully considered upon a former occasion.—Several of us wished to fund the debts of the union alone. Many gentlemen of the south, when we came to look for ways and means, voted against us, and the eastern representatives were always ready to join in defeating us, unless the assumption of the state debts also took place.
The bill passed the House of Representatives for funding the debts of the union alone ; but the Senate sent it back with an amendment, assuming the state debts to a certain amount. After much argument, the amendment of the Senate was agreed to by the House of Representatives. Justice was nearly done to some states, others do complain, and I think Rhode-Island with strong reason.
I could have wished that the accounts between the United States and the several States had been settled : but I will give the gentlemen, who complain so much, an opportunity of satisfying the house, if they can, when the blanks are to be filled up in the bill, that the sums they demand are reasonable, and are intended to give relief to the people of their states.
I will vote for the resolution.
To which Mr. FINDLEY replied :
IF I am not altogether so elated with our present prosperity and resources, as my worthy colleague who is just sat down, (Mr. Hartley) I assure you I am not desponding—I think our resources are competent, and our circumstances not depressed,—the great industry of our citizens, and the great demand and high price for our produce in foreign markets, which took place about two years ago, gave a spring to our wealth and industry, and furnished ample resources to government ; our feelings have not been pierced with the cries of general distress, until very lately, through the abuse of the novel principles introduced in the funding system.
But though I rejoice with the gentleman in the sufficiency of our means, yet I consider ourselves in the situation of an unexperienced heir, newly come to the enjoyment of a great estate, who, being dazzled with his own splendor, and confident of his means, sets about spending without system or principles, and gets embarrassed before he is aware.
We are told, that the principle of assuming the state debts is already admitted by the last Congress, therefore it ought to be completed now ; we are just told, too, that it was fully considered there.
I ask then, Why was not the business fully completed at that time—if it was not, then what good reason can be given for carrying it further now ?—Is there any new discovery of better rules to apportion by, or is the distress of the states who have yet some unassumed debt, as pressing as when they had to bear the burthen of three or four millions more than now ? Gentlemen knew that the length this business has gone already, has given great uneasiness to those states who made the greatest exertions to extinguish their own debts, and to whose circumstances and feelings the resources applied to the assumed debts of the states, are distressing and disagreeable.
For what purpose are the commissioners employed in adjusting the accounts between the individual states and the United States, if the whole of the state debts were to be assumed previous to that settlement ? We know the government is not vested with powers to compel delinquent states to do justice ; and that if ever justice is done to those states who have extinguished their own debt, it must be by increasing of the general revenue in proportion to the money Congress will have to pay to those states, and it is an unjustifiable and dangerous policy to draw the money from the people with the one hand, to pay it to the state governments with the other.
I have such information as I can depend upon, that the commissioners will report upon the final settlement of the state debts, in the course of next winter ; and the resolution before the committee makes no provision for interest until after the year 1792. Why then take this further leap in the dark, when those states who will be actually entitled to it, will be as soon relieved according to the principles of justice, as they would by distributing the public property in this manner by rule of thumb.
I always thought the assumption of the state debts a measure which the constitution did not contemplate, and which had a tendency to sow the seeds of discontent in many parts of the United States, and now it is argued that the precedent being set by the last Congress we ought to copy it :—I admit of no principles of infallibility in Congress—and if precedents produce an obligation, we ought to be the more careful not to strengthen them by repeating such as are improper or doubtful. The only plausible reason for assuming the state debts in the last Congress so far, was to ease the burden of such states as had been most backward in providing for their respective debts, so as that they might be able to provide for what remained until the accounts would be settled, and to make some provision for the states who had done much to extinguish their debt as a security that the debts would be brought to a final settlement. Certainly those states, at whose desire, and for whose convenience so much has been done, ought to have a little more moderation.
For the NATIONAL GAZETTE.
Dulce est interdum desipere.
THE etymology of the following four words appears to me to be much more modern than is commonly supposed. They are evidently and radically of English origin, as every one learned in that history and language will readily perceive.
1. Sycophant,—was the nick-name of a man that lived in the reign of James the second. He had an old aunt that resided in the family, in a
great measure as matter of favour. The old woman having lived to an extreme age, and likely to live much longer, and the nephew, being quite tired of her, would frequently exclaim, I'm sick of aunt, indeed, I'm very sick of aunt. Notwithstanding this, wishing to heir what she possessed, he always carried a fair face to her when present. Hence arose the word sycophant, or one who flatters for selfish purposes.
2. Gospel.—An ignorant man, about the middle of the last century, took a notion all at once to learn to read. His school-master, after teaching him the first elements, soon after, and rather, prematurely, set him to, and kept him constantly reading the four Evangelists. The fellow, as might well be expected, made continual blunders, and the master would as constantly cry out, "A pretty fellow to read, surely !—go, you block-head, go spell !"—The perpetual recurrence of the cry of go spell in the school, occasioned these books at length to be called gospel.
3. Bombazine.—A thin India stuff, in which the natives of that hot country were so dressed, frequently without any under garment. The English, upon their first visiting India, said it was a shame for people to wear such stuff, which was so very thin that their bums might plainly be seen through. Their constantly talking of the Indians bums being seen, at length insensibly gave a name to this kind of slimy fabric, at present written bombazine, but originally bum-be-seen.
4. Aristocracy.—This word is, by some, tho' to be of Greek derivation. I deny it. By right it ought to be pronounced "haritocracy," and for the following reason :—During the usurpation of Oliver Cromwell there lived a printer in London, who was a violent republican. His name was Harry Huffsift. Some time before the restoration, seeing their newfangled republic was nearly at an end, he turned fairly about and began to print furiously in favor of kingly supremacy, hereditary succession, titular dignities, &c. All his old republican friends, upon this, cried out, "Harry's took crazy," certainly "Harry's took crazy."—His conduct comporting so well with the venal and servile government which was soon after established, and has ever since been continued in that country, has, as it were, appropriated the name of haritocracy, or, aristocracy, to several governments in Europe, where the liberties of the many are to this day retained in the hands of the few. Yours, &c. May 7. DEMOCRITUS.
BOSTON, April 26.
THE curiosity of the public is again excited to enquire, when and on what terms, the officers of the late army will think their merits, their sufferings, and services properly rewarded : They have assumed a distinction of superiority to their fellow-citizens ; and by the institution of the society of the Cincinnati, implicitly told them, "we are better men than you are, and deserve to stand on better ground than you do." Their country has given them five years extra pay in commutation for half pay during life : The lamentation over the ingratitude and injustice of the country towards them is still kept up. They now come forward with a petition in effect, for a discrimination in their favor, which has been denied to their fellow-citizens at large ; and if granted now, must be at the public expence, instead of coming out of the pockets of those harpies, who first depreciated the public currency, then plundered their honest fellow-citizens, made their own fortunes, and established an influence, which screens them from justice.
If it be not too late for the arm of justice to extort from those wretches, the spoils of their oppression and wickedness, for the purpose of applying, without any distinction, equity and justice to all, it would be happy for the country, to have done new, what would have been done before, i. Mr. Madison's motion, (founded on the best principles, and supported by the fairest reasons) had succeeded in the last Congress ; and in that case, that the late army should share with their fellow-citizens in the benefits resulting from it.
I feel no disposition to detract from the merits and services of the officers of the army—they were undoubtedly great ; so were those of many others in different departments : They have hazarded and suffered much ; so have many others quite as much : They have had some consideration ; no other man or description of men have had any, not even their brethren of the navy—in whose case the most metaphysical casuistry cannot make a distinction.
Most of the officers of the army (after all that has been said) were in better circumstances after the war, than they were before it : and some of them better off than they probably would have been if they had not gone into the army ; whilst most of those who served the public in different lines, could boast that they were poorer at the end than they were at the beginning of the war.
Justice is a noble comprehensive virtue, and applies equally to all men.—Favoritism, or a partiality for any man or class of men, is a narrow, contracted vice. The first exalts a nation—the last disgraces a government.
CHESTER TOWN & BALTIMORE
STAGES.
THE Eastern-shore Stages, by way of Chester-town to Baltimore, start regularly from James Thompson's, Indian Queen, Fourth-street, Philadelphia, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, precisely at 7 o'clock, and on the same mornings, at four o'clock, from Mr. Grant's in Baltimore. The cultivation of the country, and goodness of the roads, together with the attention that shall be paid by the proprietors, will, it is hoped, be a sufficient inducement for a preference being given to this route.
JAMES THOMPSON, ROBERT HODGSON,
N. B. Light Waggons for hire by James Thompson, at the Indian Queen. March 30. F.W.
Prices Current at Philadelphia.
[Dollars equal to 100 cents.]
 ASHES Pot per ton 90 Dols. to 100.  Ashes Pearl  137    ← 140.  Bacon flitches per lb. 7 cents.  shoulders  6 do.  Bees wax per lb. 25 cents to 27.  Brandy Coniac, per gl. 1 dol. 50 c. to 1 d. 65 c.  common  1 dol. 26 c.  Butter in kegs, per lb. 10 c. to 12  per bushel  20 c. to 22.  Coffee per lb. 18 c.  Cotton per lb. 30 c. to 42  Flax per lb. 10 c.  Flour superfine, per barrel 5 dols. 6 c.  Common  4 dols.  Burr middlings, best per brl. 4 dols  Meal Indian  2 dols. 67 c.  Rye  3 dols.  Ship stuff per cwt. 1 dol.  Gin Holland, per case 4 dols.  Ginseng per lb. 20 c. to 24  Grain barley, per bushel 90 c.  best shelled per lb. 3 c.  Buck-wheat per bushel 40 c.  Indian corn 40 c. 44. Oats 26 c. pr. bush.  Rye 50 c. to 54. Wheat 95 to 1 dol.  Hams per lb. 8 c. to 9  Hemp imported, per ton 120 dols. to 146 67 c.  American per lb. 4 c. to 5  Hides raw, per lb. 9 c. to 11  Indigo Carolina, per lb. 40 c. to 1 dol.  Iron bar, per ton 82 dols. 67 c.  Castings per cwt. 3 dols. 47 c.  Nail-rods per ton 96 dols.  Pig per ton 24 dols. to 26 dols. 67 c.  Sheet per ton 173 dols 33 c.  Lard hogs, per lb. 9 c. to 10  Lead in bars, per cwt. 7 dols.  in pigs  5 dols. 33 c. to 5 dols. 67 c.  Red  6 dols. 40 c. to 6 dols. 67 c.  White  10 dols. to 10 dols. 67 c.  Myrtle wax per lb. 18 c.  Molasses per gal. 44 c. to 48  Pitch per barrel 1 dol. 73 c. to 2 dols.  Pork Burlington, per barrel 11 dols to 11 d. 33 c.  Lower County do. 10 dols.  Carolina do. 9 dols.  Rice per 100 lb. 2 dols. 67 c.  Rosin per barrel 2 dols. 33 c. to 2 dols. 67 c.  Rum Antigua, per gallon 1 dol.  Barbadoes do. 77 c.  New-England, &c.  67 c.  Jamaica  1 dol. 12 c.  Windward Island  86 to 90 c.  Snake-Root per lb. 20 c. to 42  Sugar Havanna, white, per lb. 17 to 18 c.  Brown  15 c.  Muscovado per cwt. 14 dols. to 16 dols  Lump  22 c.  Loaf, single refined  25 c.  Loaf, double ditto  36 c.  Fallow refined, per lb. 9 c.  Tar New-Jersey, 24 gal. to the brl. 1 dol.  Carolina 32 gal. 1 dol. 33 c. to 1 dol. 67 c.  Tea Hysop, per lb. 93 c. to 1 dol. 28 c.  Hysop skin  53 c. to 67  Souhong  50 c. to 93  Congo  43 c. to 50  Bohea  30 c. to 34  Tobacco James River, best. per cwt. 3 dols. 60 c. to 3 dols. 73 c.  Inferior  2 dols. 67 c. to 3 dols.  Old  4 dols. 67 c.  Rappahannock  2 dols. 50 c. to 3 dol  Coloured Maryland  5 d. 33 c. to 8 d  Dark  2 dols. 40 c.  Long leaf  2 dols. 40 c.  Eastern Shore  2 dols. to 2 dols. 23 c.  Carolina, new  2 dols. 7 c. to 3 dols.  Carolina, old  2 dols. 7 c. to 3 dols.  Turpentine per barrel 1 dol. 67 c. to 2 dols.  Wine Madeira, per pipe 106 dl. 67 c. to 200 dl.  Lisbon  96 dols. to 100  Teneriffe per gal. 51 c. to 60  Fayal  44 c. 49  Port per pipe 106 dols. 67 c. to 120 dols 
RAN away on Wednesday night last, a Negro Man, about twenty-three years old ; had on a light coloured sport coat : took with him a pair of leather breeches and a pair of green stuff do. a beaver hat half worn, narrow brim and deep crown ; a pair of boots ; striped cotton and silk stockings—be is slim made—reads and writes a legible hand—has, I am informed, procured a pass and certificate of his being a free man. It is probable he will endeavor to get on board some vessel, either at this place or New-York. He has a small scar under his chin occasioned by cutting out a wen. I will give Forty Dollars reward to any person who will deliver him to me at this place, and pay all reasonable expences.
ANDREW MOORE. No. 118 Spruce-Street.
April 23.
MACKINTOSH'S DEFENCE.
This day is published, by William Young, Bookseller, No. 52, Second-street, the corner of Chestnut-street, price 2-3ds of a dollar in boards,
A DEFENCE
OF THE
French Revolution.
And its ENGLISH ADMIRERS, against the accusations of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke; including some strictures on the late production of Monsf. De Calonne—
By JAMES MACKINTOSH.
N. B.—Ditto with the French Constitution, as accepted by the King, 13th September 1791. Price in boards 3-4ths dollar.
April 13.
PRINTED BY CHILDS AND SWAIN, AT THEIR OFFICE, NO. 209, HIGH-STREET NEAR FIFTH-STREET, PHILADELPHIA.