The national intelligencer and Washington advertiser. (Washington City [D.C.]), 1802-07-30 00:00:00

NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER,
AND WASHINGTON ADVERTISER.
WASHINGTON CITY, PRINTED BY SAMUEL HARRISON SMITH, PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. No. CCLXIX. FRIDAY, JULY 30th, 1802.
FROM THE BOSTON GAZETTE.
Messrs. RUSSELL & CUTLER. In answering the letter of 12th September 1799, published in the last Boston Gazette, Mr. Adams's correspondent appears to have entered into some discussion of the question, whether the changes then taking place in Europe would eventually prove any thing more than a change of impostors and impositions ?—This answer, like the first letter, and the reply, was confidential; it was a sacred trust, committed to the honor and good faith of long and intimate friendship.—The trust will not be abused.—The answer has never been extracted from the receiver's files, by any hand of intrusive malevolence, to be used for malignant or obnoxious purposes.—There is no necessity now to publish it, as a guard against misrepresentation or injudicious publication to the writer.—There is no right to publish it without the writer's assent.—The reply therefore is published by itself.—The commentator, who to adopt an observation of Montesquieu, knows how to excite odium, better than how to raise, a freely indulged with all the wiles they can make of it.
New York, Oct. 18, 1790.
Dear Sir,
I AM thankful to our common friend, as well as to you, for your favor of the 14th, which I received last night.—My Fair are in union with yours, that lay, word and bubble will be the materials of the new political buildings in Europe, till men shall be more enlightened and friendly to each other. You agree, that there are undoubted principles of political architecture, but instead of particularizing them, you seem to place all your hopes in the universal, or at least general, prevalence of knowledge, and benevolence. I think with you, that knowledge and benevolence ought to be promoted as much as possible, but despairing of ever seeing them sufficiently general, for the security of Society, I am for seeking institutions which may supply, in some degree, the defect. If there were no ignorance, error, or vice, there would neither be principles nor systems of civil or political government. I am not often satisfied with the opinions of Hume, but in this he seems well founded, that all projects of governments, founded in the supposition or expectation of an extraordinary degree of virtue, are evidently chimerical; nor do I believe it possible, humanly speaking, that men should ever be greatly improved in knowledge or benevolence, without assistance from the principles and system of government. I am very willing to agree with you, in fancying, that in the greatest improvements of society, government will be in the Republican form. It is a fixed principle with me, that all good government is and must be Republican. But at the same time, your candor will agree with me, that there is not in lexicography a more fraudulent word.—Whenever I use the word Republic with approbation, I mean a government, in which the people have collectively, or by representation, an essential share in the Sovereignty. The Republican forms of Poland and Venice, are much worse, and those of Holland and Bern very little better than the monarchical form in France before the late revolution. By the republican form, I know you do not mean the plan of Milton, Nootka or Turgot; for after a fair trial of its imitations, the simple monarchical form will ever be, as it has ever been, preferred to it by mankind. Are we not, my friend, in danger of rendering the word republican unpopular in this country, by an indiscriminate and equivocal use of it?—The people of England have been obliged to wean themselves from the use of it, by making it unpopular and unfashionable, because they found it was artfully used by some, and simply understood by others, to mean the government of their interregnum parliament. They found they could not wean themselves from that destructive form of government, so entirely, as that a mischievous party would not still remain in favor of it, by any other means than by making the words republican and republicanism unpopular. They have succeeded to such a degree, that with a great majority of that nation, a republican is as unamiable as a witch, a blasphemer, a rebel, or a tyrant. If in this country the word republican should be generally understood, as it is by some, to mean a form of government inconsistent with a mixture of three powers, forming a mutual balance, we may depend upon it, that such mischievous effects will be produced by the use of it, as will compel the people of America to renounce, detest and execrate it, as the English do. With these explanations, restrictions and limitations, I agree
with you, in your love of republican government; but in no other sense.—With you I have also the honor, most perfectly, to harmonize in your sentiments of the humanity and wisdom of promoting education in knowledge, virtue and benevolence. But I think that these will confirm mankind in the opinion of the necessity of preserving and strengthening the dykes against the ocean, its tides and storms. Human appetites, passions, prejudices, and self love, will never be conquered by benevolence and knowledge alone, introduced by human means.—The Millennium itself neither supplies nor implies it. All civil government is then to cease, and the Messiah is to reign. This happy and holy state is therefore wholly out of this question. We agree in the utility of useful education; but will nations agree in it as folly and extensively as we do? And be at the expense of it? We know, with as much certainty as attends any human knowledge, that they will not. We cannot therefore with safety advise the people to depend for their liberty, liberty and security upon hopes and blessings which we know will not fall to their lot. If we do our duty then to the people, we shall not deceive them, to depend upon what is not in their power, and will not relieve them. Philosophers, ancient and modern, do not appear to me to have studied nature, the whole of nature, and nothing but nature. Lycurgus's principle was war and family pride—Solon's was what the people would bear, &c. The best writings of antiquity upon government, those I mean of Aristotle, Zeno and Cicero, are lost. We have human nature, society and universal history to observe and study, and from this we may draw all the real principles which ought to be regarded. Disciples will follow their masters, and interested partisans their chiefs, let us like it or not—we cannot help it. But if the true principles can be discovered, and fairly, fully and impartially laid before the people—the more light increases, the more the reason of them will be seen, and the more disciples they will have. Prejudice, passion and private interest, which will always mingle in human enquiries, one would think, might be enlisted on the side of truth, at least in the greatest number, for certainly the majority are interested in the truth, if they could see to the end of all its consequences.—“Kings have been deposed by aspiring nobles.” True, and never by any other. “There” the nobles I suppose, “have waged everlasting war against the common rights of man.” True, when they have been possessed of the summa imperii in one body, without a check. So have the plebeians—So have the people—So have kings—So has human nature, in every shape and combination, & so is it ever will. But on the other hand, the nobles have been essential parties in the preservation of liberty, whenever and wherever it has existed. In Europe, they alone have preserved it against kings and people, whenever it has been preserved, or at least with very little assistance from the people. One hideous despotism, as horrid as that of Turkey, would have been the lot of every nation of Europe, if the nobles had not made stands. By nobles I mean not peculiarly an hereditary nobility, or any particular modification, but the natural and actual aristocracy among mankind. The existence of this you will not deny. You and I have seen four noble families rise up in Boston. These are as really a nobility in our town, as the Howards, Somersets, Burleighs, &c. in England. Blind undistinguishing reproaches against the aristocratical part of mankind, a division which nature has made, and we cannot abolish, are neither pious nor benevolent. They are as pernicious as they are false—they serve only to foment prejudice, jealousy, animosity, envy and malevolence. They serve no ends but those of sophistry, fraud, and the spirit of party. It would not be true, but it would not be more egregiously false to say, that the people have waged everlasting war against the rights of men.
“The love of liberty, you say, is interwoven in the soul of man.” So it is, according to La Fontaine, in that of a wolf, and I doubt whether it be much more rational, generous or social in one than in the other, until in man it is enlightened by experience, reflection, education and civil and political institutions, which are first produced and continually supported and improved by a few, that is by the nobility. The wolf in the fable who preferred running in the forest, lean and hungry, to the fleshy, plump and roomy sides of the dog, because he found the latter was sometimes restrained, had more love of liberty than most men. The numbers of men in all ages have preferred ease, lumber and good cheer, to li-
berty, when they have been in competition. We must not then depend upon the love of liberty in the soul of man alone, for its preservation. Some political institutions must be prepared to assist this love against its enemies. Without them, the struggle will ever end only in a change of impostors and impostors. When the people, who have no property, feel the power in their own hands, to determine all questions by a majority, they ever attack those who have property, till the injured men of property lose all patience, and recur to force, trick and stratagem, to oust those who have too much strength, because they have too many hands to be resisted any other way. Let us be impartial then, and speak the whole truth. Till we do, we shall never discover all the true principles that are necessary. The multitude, therefore, as well as the nobles, must have a check. This is one principle. “Were the people of England free, after they had obliged king John to concede to them their ancient rights?”—The people never did this. There was no people, who pretended to any thing. It was the nobles alone. The people pretended to nothing but to be villains, vassals, and retainers to the king, or the nobles. The nobles, I agree, were not free, because all was determined by a majority of their votes, or by arms, not by law. Their feuds depopulated, their “Henrys, Edwards and Richards” to gratify lordly ambition—patrician rivalry and “family pride.” But if they had not been depopulated, these kings would have become despots, because the people would not, and could not, join the nobles in any regular and constitutional opposition to them. They would have become despots, I repeat it, and that by means of the villains, vassals and retainers aforesaid. It is not family pride, my friend, but family popularity, that does the great mischief, as well as the great good.—Pride in the heart of man, is an evil fruit, and concomitant of every advantage, of riches, of knowledge, of genius, of talents, of beauty, of strength, of virtue, and even of piety. It is sometimes as ridiculous, and often pernicious, but it is even sometimes, and in some degree, useful.—But the pride of families would be always, and only ridiculous, if it had not family popularity to work with. The attachment and devotion of the people to some families, inspires them with pride. As long as gratitude, or interest, ambition or avarice, love, hope or fear shall be human motives of action, so long will numbers attach themselves to particular families. When the people will in spite of all that can be said or done, cry a man or a family up to the skies, exaggerate all his talents and virtues, follow implicitly his advice, detest every man he hates, adore every man he loves, and knock down all who will not swim down the stream with him, or them, where is your remedy? When a man, or family, are thus popular, how can you prevent them from being proud? You and I know of instances in which popularity has been a wind, a tide, and a whirlwind. The history of all nations and ages is full of such examples. Popularity, that has great fortune to dazzle—Idolatrie largesses to excite warm gratitude, sublime, beautiful and uncommon genius or talents to produce deep admiration, or any thing to support high hopes and strong fears, will be proud, and its power will be employed to mortify enemies, gratify friends—procure votes, emoluments and power. Such family popularity ever did, and will govern in every nation, in every climate, hot and cold, wet and dry—among civilized and savage people—Christians and Mahometans—Jews and Heathens.—Declaration against family pride is a pretty juvenile exercise, but unworthy of a statesman. They know the evil and danger is too serious to be sported with. The only way, God knows, is to put these families in an hole by themselves, and set two watches upon them—a superior to them all on one side, and the people on the other.
There are a few popular men in Massachusetts, my friend, who have, I fear, less honor, sincerity and virtue, than they ought to have. These, if they are not guarded against, may do another misfortune. They may create a party spirit, and a mobbish spirit, instead of a spirit of liberty, and produce another Wat Tyler's rebellion. They can do no more. But I really think their party language ought not to be countenanced, nor their Sibilants pronounced. The miserable stuff that the utter, about the well born, is as despicable as themselves. The eugenics of the Greeks—the bien-nés of the French—the well-born of the Germans and Dutch—the beloved families of the Greeks, are but a few
samples of national expressions of the same thing, for which every nation on earth has the same expression. One would think that our fobblers were all sons of redemption, or transported convicts. They think with Tacitus “In novo populo ubi omnis repentina ex virtute nobilitas sit, fulmen locum fortit ac fletum vira.” Let us be impartial. There is not more of family pride on one side, than of vulgar malignity and popular envy on the other. Popularity in one family raises envy in another. But popularity of the least deserving will triumph over envy and malignity while that which is acquired by real merit will very often be overborne and oppressed by it. Let us do justice to the people, and to the nobles, for nobles there are, as I have before proved, in Boston, as well as Madrid; but to do justice to both, you must establish an arbitrator between them. This is another principle. It is time that you and I should have some sweet commune together. I do not believe that we, who have preferred for more than thirty years, an uninterrupted friendship, and have so long thought and acted harmoniously together in the world of times, are now so far asunder in sentiment, as some people pretend. In full confidence of which, I have used this freedom.
JOHN ADAMS.
TRANSLATED FOR THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER. A SPEECH OF JACQUEMONT in the Tribune, on a plan of public instruction.
We still admire those institutions of Greece, which by habits deeply impressed on infancy, by the severity of an unrelenting discipline, gave birth to useful qualities, popular virtues, and herofism the most astonishing. Such was the power of those institutions, that in the place of the natural affections which they annihilated, they substituted factitious passions, the energy of which produced effects, which resisted the destroying power of many ages. It was by these that Lycurgus rendered sacred and inviolable, regulations the most opposed to the dictates of nature; he forbade to the Spartans the purest enjoyments of moral sensibility; he impeded on them privations the most rigorous, & duties the most painful; he fought in short to make them wretched; and when after the battle of Cheronee, all the people of Greece submitted to the yoke of slavery; Sparta alone, against all the forces of Macedonia, defended with fury the most rigorous of governments.
The art of moulding (as a piece of clay) the human mind, belonged to the genius who understood perfectly its ductility. But can the use of such an art ever spring from legitimate causes? Does the social contract, necessarily require the surrender of a part of our physical existence? How comes it that education, which, among the nations of antiquity, was the most important part of their political economy, is not even alluded to in the codes of modern legislation?
The necessity of education among the Greeks, discloses the common imperfection of their political institutions. In these memorable times when the disciples of Plato, went about disseminating among different nations, the benefits of an absolute legislation; the division and separation of the powers of sovereignty were not as yet recognized as the only foundation for liberty. The work of the legislator was not the confiding the several branches of supreme power to hands independent of each other, and under conditions the most favorable to the best employment of the whole; his wisdom rather consisted in distributing the undivided exercise, among different sections of the people, so that the operation of individual interests should not interfere with the public good. Then the government repented the best was that in which, to make a law, an act of supreme magistracy, or to pronounce a judgment, the united suffrages of three separate bodies were necessary; namely, the multitude attached to the general interest, but who were ignorant and uninformed; the minority, who possessed knowledge, but who favored the public, to private interests; or of one or more, who, opposing to the knowledge and interests of a small number, a different interest and equal knowledge, gained a superiority of influence over all.
Plato said to the Cretans and Lacedemonians, who enjoyed this form of government, that they alone had a true republic, and that elsewhere were to be
seen only cities inhabited by masters and slaves. In truth, when instead of this whimsical mixture of the forms of monarchies, aristocracies and democracies, the sovereignty was put into the hands of a single man, or of a few powerful ones, or of the body of the people; the general good depended on the passions of a blind multitude, easily seduced, or on that of a man, who possessed of supreme power, desired what he pleased. In a government of this kind the excesses of an unrestrained authority caused continual discords and seditions which suddenly changed the established forms, and gave place to new ones, that were as easily destroyed. And despotism gained strength from the very exertions made to crush it.
The worst of these governments was certainly the democratic. For a people meeting on a public square, were ever led astray by their passions and their ignorance, or by the passions and ignorance of demagogues. At Rome, where the separation of powers was little better known than in Greece, and where the exercise of a great portion of the individual sovereignty resided in the different classes of citizens; we saw the government shaken every time the multitude usurped the authority which should have been divided between the different authorities, and thus destroyed the equilibrium of the parties who ought to separate in the application of the sovereign power.
The fall of the Athenian republic is by historians likewise equally attributed to the same usurpation of the people, favored at first by Aristides and afterwards supported and consummated by Pericles.
But whatever may have been the form of these governments, their duration depended much less on the nature of their constitutions, than on the principle which animated them. It was this principle which gave motion and existence to these ill organized bodies, which envied themselves the feed of their destruction, and the gauge of national prosperity was found only in that public spirit, which held the passions and morals in subjection to the principles of each government.
This public spirit was different in different states. The dispositions, the habits, and the virtues which it required, were not the same in a democracy as in an aristocracy. They differed equally in republics differently modified; and that of Sparta could not resemble that of Athens or of Rome; every where, however, this spirit nourished an excessive love of independence, and a desire of glory, which constantly occasioned internal discords or external wars, even in the country of the arts and of philosophy.
In proportion as the principles of government were more or less favorable to the exercise of the natural faculties, the public spirit, by which it was sustained, was more or less difficult to create, and precisely in the degree of this difficulty, was the necessity of its existence, or the more feeble the political institution, the more strong should be the public spirit. Thus, it was to this point that the views and strenuous efforts of the legislature was directed. It was not sufficient to have permanently fixed the organization of government, but it was likewise necessary strongly to inculcate certain ideas in infancy, and to have them fortified in every period of life, so that the habits should become indelible by constant exercise, or in other words, that a peculiar and appropriate education should be given, which might support the fragile edifice, which would crumble into dust, were the public spirit to take a foreign direction, or the public morals be corrupted. The design of this education was not to form in the people found reason, or just and enlightened ideas; but on the contrary, to obscure their understandings by national prejudices, to blind their judgment in respect to their rights and the limits of their social duties, and to inflame their imagination with the phantoms of a gigantic and supernatural nature.
It was thus that the Greeks were formed to political morals, necessary to the maintenance of their constitutions; since these morals were to make their actions, habits and sentiments conformable to the principles of their respective governments.
Hence those precepts of the philosophers, who made morality the basis of their study, respecting the influence of morals upon the stability and preservation of the governments; hence the ancient precepts, that the laws are nothing without morals; that morals are the key to the temple of legislation, and

that after having given laws to a people nothing is yet done, if institutions are not established, in order to model, thus to speak, the mind and the heart of the governed to the principles of the government. But are these ancient maxims, equally applicable to our modern governments? Have we still need of these forced and artificial manners, these superhuman and sometimes ferocious virtues, on which the existence of the anti-atlantes depended? Some of our late civilians have appeared to believe it necessary. They seem to have forgotten that between the ancient and modern governments, no resemblance exists except in their names, which we have improperly retained. Montesquieu and Mably, particularly, have enumerated among the essential elements of our political systems, the peculiar principles of each, and the public spirit and morals which should be in harmony with these principles; as if history and experience did not point out around us governments, of the same nature with each other, but whose morals and characters bore no analogy; as if we had not seen a great part of the European states, undergoing a change in the genius and habits of the people, while their political institutions remained the same. In a word, as if for ages past this public spirit on which the destiny of nations hung, had not totally disappeared, and indeed ceased to be necessary.
The re-establishment of the ancient institutions of Greece is rendered impossible by the extent of modern states, by the existence of commercial relations between nations, and by the advanced state of civilization. At any rate they would be useless, since the introduction of the representative principle, and the division of powers. The philosophy which characterizes the age in which we live, requires every action to undergo the test of reason, and no longer allows those artificial manners, that imaginary perfection of character, or that extravagant heroism, which were once the height of virtue; to be free, it is no longer necessary to be intoxicated with glory like the Athenians, to be imitators of audacity like the Spartans, or devoted to the ambition of conquest like the Romans.
The moral virtues, which we are henceforth to cultivate, are no longer those which appertain to particular forms of government, and the arbitrary rules of which have been traced by the hands of the legislators. They are taught by reason, enforced by experience, and suggested by feeling; and their precepts are engraved on every heart by the efficient hand of nature. They embellish society, augment the sum of individual happiness, are neither in opposition to the inclinations of nature, nor require powerful institutions or painful efforts. It is necessary then to enlighten men, in order to attach them to their duties, to their true interests, to general and individual happiness. For it is the diffusion of useful knowledge among the different classes of society, which insures the liberty, independence and tranquility of nations; it is then to public instruction rather than to education, (vocally called) that the views of the legislator should be directed.
Such have been the views of the most distinguished men from the earliest days of the revolution, who have successfully turned their thoughts to this important object of social economy. And their hopes of producing this effect, have invariably been founded on some plan of public instruction.
For we must not count as nothing even these speculations, of establishing among us, the Lacedemonian system of education, which they have carried to the most extravagant extent, and which are equally opposed to the character of the present age and to the spirit of liberty and nature. These millenarian politicians certainly forgot that children were necessary to marriage beds, to the virtues and the happiness of the conjugal union; they forgot that these innocent creatures are the strongest ties of domestic harmony; that their tender cares are the sweetest reward of the labours of the indigent, and the most efficacious stimulus to the rich and indolent egotist; in a word, that their forced removal from the paternal roof wounds humanity and violates nature, and that it would be the destruction of domestic virtues, and deliver society to the disorders produced by the worst passions of the human heart.
You have not forgotten, Citizen Tribunes, the vast and magnificent plans, proposed by the constituent assembly, amid the ruins of universities and colleges, they feared that the darkness of ignorance would spread over France, and dread that even those plans were scarcely sufficient to prevent the extinction of all knowledge. But these projects of gratuitous instruction in all the arts and sciences which extended to all classes of society throughout France, were too expensive, ever to be realized. The circumstances which afterwards led to the establishment of the republic and the disastrous events of the 31st May, allowed of no further attention to this subject, until the convention re-gained after the 9th of Thermidor, that stability which was necessary for such difficult
plans. Two questions then occurred; was it necessary that a system of public instruction should be supported at the national expense; or was it better to leave to individual interest and industry the task of giving instruction? In a common state of affairs and on general principles the last mode is far preferable to the first; it is one of the enigmas of public economy equally resolvable by reason and experience. But the situation in which the national convention found the nation, offered considerations extraordinary and powerful, which altogether changed the state of the question. The intestine divisions which existed in all parts of the Republic, the diversity of sentiments, the opposite opinions and interests, which reigned even in the smallest communes, together with the disorder of private affairs, the consequence of a revolution which had overthrown the whole system of France, all these reasons forbade the hope of an accordance of wills, either as to the objects of instruction, the choice of instructors, or even the establishment of schools; and the convention could not hesitate to adopt the decree of the 3d of Brumaire, which established the system of public instruction, to be supported at the expense of the nation.
You know, citizens tribunes, all the various obstacles which retarded the execution of this law. Party spirit in many of the departments, repulsed the primary instructors, who were deprived of compensation for their services. In most of them were obliged to return to rustic labours as a means of support. The establishment of central schools had to contend with still greater difficulties, & few now exist but in name. Some parts of the law were in themselves injurious to the success of these schools; for a long while they were only a number of distinct and separate courses of study, and not a complete system of instruction. But the obstacles, difficulties and neglect, which opposed themselves to the execution of this law, were the natural offspring of a revolutionary state of affairs.
Nevertheless it would be erroneous to believe that the central schools have not been useful. The number of pupils they have sent out in the last years was considerably augmented. The order of studies and the subjects of instruction were fixed and the administration was stable and regular; the zeal and activity of the professors made up for many deficiencies, and withheld the neglect they met with from government and the want of payment. We equally deceive ourselves, if we imagine that amid the revolutionary storms, primary and secondary instruction was neglected in the cities or the countries; as the domestic troubles gave place to safety and tranquility, schools of both degrees spontaneously arose, and there is now scarcely a village which contains not a teacher of reading and writing, and in most parts of the towns are to be found professors of the French and Latin tongues, and of the elements of mathematics, who have derived from the number of their pupils, sufficient support.
These circumstances together with the security which we have enjoyed since the 18th of Brumaire, with external peace which tends to confide that withering and the general confidence of which the existing government is justly possessed, will allow it now to put into execution the best plan for the extension and improvement of public instruction.
You have, citizens tribunes, under your inspection a detailed account of the motives which have dictated the new project of a law. It is easy to understand the spirit in which it has been conceived, the end which it proposes, and the means which cannot fail of insuring success. At present then it only remains for us successively to examine the principal articles of which it is composed.
(To be concluded in our next.)
National Intelligencer.
Mr. Thomas's speech on state balances delivered in the House of Representatives.
Mr. Thomas. Mr. Chairman, I rise, with a great deal of confidence to deliver my sentiments on this floor, as I have not been accustomed to public speaking; however a sense of my duty as a representative of the United States, as well as the immediate representative from the state of New-York, impels me, on this occasion, to ask the indulgence of the committee while I make a few remarks on the subject of the bill now under consideration.
Sir, a number of the debtor states and particularly the one which I have the honour to represent, have always believed that they were prodigiously injured in the settlement that was made, they have always believed that there was something radically wrong, grossly unequal in the accounts exhibited by the individual states, and allowed by the board of commissioners; in this belief they have frequently called for information on the subject, for a re-examination of that settlement, and have as often been denied it.
Much might be said to prove, that the very economical system adopted and adhered to by the state of New-York, in limiting the prices of produce, and in
liquidating the accounts of her citizens for supplies furnished during the revolutionary war, operated particularly prejudicial to that state in the settlement. I shall, however, wave any remarks on this, for the present, and confine myself principally to the rule which was adopted, for apportioning the expenses of the war, among the several states. Sir, the committee will recollect, that by an act of Congress passed in the year 1789 the enumeration of inhabitants made in the year 1791, was adopted as the rule for apportioning this debt among the thirteen states.
I shall in the first place examine the original contract entered into by these states, and under which these expenses were incurred, and then endeavour to show the effect, which adopting an enumeration made, even or eight years after the close of the war, had upon the several states, different from what the same rule would have produced, had the apportionment been made according to the numbers in each state at that period, say 1784.
In the year 1778, the people of these states entered into a confederation for various purposes, one of which was, to prosecute the war against Great Britain. In the 8th article of this compact it was expressly agreed, that "All charges of the war and all other expenses, that should be incurred for the common defence and general welfare, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, should be defrayed out of a common treasury, which should be supplied by the several states in proportion to the value of all lands within each state, granted to or surveyed for any person, as such lands and the buildings and improvements thereon should be estimated, according to such mode as the United States in Congress assembled should from time to time direct and appoint."
This, Mr. Chairman, was the agreement under which this debt was incurred, and here allows me to ask the honourable gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Bacon) whether he was correct when he told me the other day, that this settlement had been made agreeably to the articles of confederation; and further, whether agreeably to that compact, the state which he represents would have been allowed for her losses in the Penobscot expedition, which has enabled her to become a creditor state of upwards of one million two hundred thousand dollars, and more than one third of the whole amount of the balances. Sir, had the original agreement under which these expenses were incurred been adhered to in the settlement, no one ought now to complain; but, in order to comply with it, the expenses of the war ought to have been apportioned among the several states according to the value of the lands and buildings at the time these expenses were incurred, and I do contend, that the period immediately after the termination of the war, was the only proper one for carrying into effect this stipulation. I am persuaded that no gentleman on this floor will deny, that the existing circumstances of the several states at that period, was the most proper to determine the just proportion which each state ought to pay of these expenses, by whatever rule might be adopted. Admitting then, that Congress had the power, and it was judged expedient to deviate from the original contract, and adopt as the rule of apportionment the enumeration of inhabitants as a more practicable one, ought it not to have had reference to the numbers in each state at the close of the war? Mr. L. unquestionably Mr. Chairman, no gentleman will deny this; and that the year 1784 was the proper time. It may however be said, that no enumeration was made, till the year 1791, seven years afterwards. I grant it. But will this alter the justness of my position? Not at all. It must be obvious in the mind of every gentleman who has reflected on the subject, that the relative numbers in each state had changed materially between the year 1784, when this settlement ought to have been made, and the year 1791, when it was made. In order to establish this fact, I have adopted this method; I have admitted what I believe every gentleman who hears me will, without hesitation; that there has been no material variation in the increase of population in the several states since the year 1784; that the increase was nearly, if not correctly, in the same ratio between the years 1784 and 1791, with the increase between the years 1791 and 1801; that is, that the relative increase of population in the several states was nearly if not correctly in the same proportion for the seven years previous to the year 1791 that it was for the ten years subsequent to that period.
This I have established as my data, by which I have ascertained the numbers in each state in the year 1784, and having apportioned the whole debt among the several states according to this enumeration, I find the following to be the result.
That the state of Massachusetts instead of being a creditor of 1,248,801 she would have been a creditor of only 863,267 dollars. That the state of Connecticut instead of being a creditor of 219,121 dollars, she would have been a debtor state for 255,419 dollars. That the state of Rhode Island instead of being a
creditor state for 299,611 dollars, she would have been a debtor state for 13,212 dollars. That the state of New-Jersey instead of being a creditor for 49,020 dollars, she would have been a debtor state for 360,201 dollars. That the state of New-York instead of being a debtor state for 2,074,846 dollars, she would have been a creditor state for 965,931 dollars, &c.
This Mr. Chairman would have been the situation of those states had the apportionment been made according to the numbers in each state in the year 1784—as for the accuracy of this statement I think I can with safety pledge myself; it is however, open for any gentleman who will give himself the trouble to examine it for himself. The principles on which it has been made cannot be disputed, as it respects the state of New-York, if any thing it does not make enough in her favor; for it is evident, that the emigrant into that state from the neighbouring states was greater for the first seven years after the close of the war than it has been for any subsequent seven years.
Will then, Mr. Chairman, any gentleman hesitate a moment to pronounce, the rule of apportionment which was adopted, unjust, unequal, and erroneous; will any gentleman say, Sir, that the rule of apportionment was a just one, or as just as the nature of the case would admit of, which brought the state of New-York in debt upwards of two millions—two thirds of the whole amount of the balances—when on the principles of rightness—on the principles of legal contract, or on any other principles, but an unauthorized act of Congress, that state would have been a creditor state for nearly a million.
Mr. Chairman, I admit, as the settlement has been made, and the creditor states have received their balances, that it would be improper now to take up this subject de novo, and endeavor to compel those states to refund what they have received more than they were entitled to; this is not expected, it is not asked—all that is asked of you is, that you render such justice to those injured states as the present situation of this transaction will admit of—this is all that is contemplated in the bill now before us.
Sir, as to the present situation of the state of New-York with respect to this subject, she has not acknowledged the justice of this claim, as was stated by some gentlemen when this question was under consideration the other day, she has uniformly denied it. It is true she did comply with the act of Congress passed in February 1799, and has expended and been credited on the books of your Treasury for 222,810 under that act—she did this; not from a conviction of the justice of the claim, but from motives which have always actuated her conduct as well during the revolutionary war as since—to do every thing in her power for the general welfare of the nation, whenever its exigencies required it, and also from an expectation that the other states, called debtor states would do the same, and thereby get rid of an evil which she considers as having a tendency to alienate the good will and cordial affection, so necessary to be cherished between these states, a cause Sir, which has and will, while it is suffered to exist, occasion perpetual irritation and disquiet, as well to the creditor as to the debtor states, and which may at some future period produce consequences more fatal.
I say, Sir, these were her motives in assenting to that measure, and did she not evince a magnanimous spirit by doing it? A willingness to suffer an additional injury herself, rather than not remove a cause which might put in jeopardy the peace and harmony of these United States. But, Mr. Chairman, as it can answer no useful purpose to have the remainder of this money expended in the manner directed by the act, and this I am warranted in stating to the committee, not only as my own opinion, but as the opinion of the gentleman who was employed under government, as an agent or commissioner to superintend the expenditure already made.—As no other state has evinced a disposition to extinguish these balances by paying any part of them, or by complying with any of the terms heretofore offered by Congress; and as it must be admitted on all hands, that Congress have no power to effect it by coercion, I ask gentlemen, if it would be just or reasonable, that the state of New-York, who has been injured more in the settlement than any other state in the union; who has already paid upwards of 220,000 dollars towards those balances; and who is the only state that has, or in all probability ever will, pay a cent towards them. I say, I ask gentlemen of the committee, whether it would be just that that state should now be driven to one of two alternatives? Either to draw near a million of dollars from her citizens and expend it where it will answer no useful purpose to the state nor to the nation; or to withhold any further appropriations, and thereby incur the imputation of having violated her faith. I call upon gentlemen seriously to consider whether it would not be profoundly unwise to hold that state in this predicament; neither it would not be adding injury to injustice to do it.
Mr. Chairman, I do flatter myself, that the representatives of this nation
convenient here to fix, to an fair and equitable principles, will not suffer a new wound, be inflicted on that state, but that they will unite with one accord in passing this bill now before us, and thereby not only heal the one already made on it, as well as several of her sister states; but remove a rock which may endanger our federal ship.
It is with pleasure that we remark occasionally the impartial award of praise bestowed by European critics upon American literary productions. The interesting work of our countryman Mr. Bordley, has attracted the attention of the Monthly Review, by which it is thus noticed.
Essays and Notes on Husbandry and Rural Affairs. By J. B. Bordley, Esq. p. 660. Printed at Philadelphia. Imported by Mawman, London. Price 10s. 6d. Boards.
Though perfection be not attainable in any earthly pursuit, yet a communication of fortunate discoveries and of successful efforts, in every department of science and industry, certainly tends to a gradual approximation towards this desirable point. Even in agriculture, in which the practices of one country will not all correspond with the circumstances of another, something may be learnt by comparing different modes and processes. English and American farmers are in very different situations; yet it will be advantageous to them, in some respects, to tear a leaf out of each other's book. A laudable curiosity at least is indulged, when practical information is not to be obtained; and the philosophic mind is gratified by contemplating the manner in which soil, climate, and local circumstances diversify the same profession.
These remarks appear to be applicable to the English reader of the work before us; in which the object of the author is not either to instruct or to amuse the European, but to furnish a mass of useful information for his countrymen, the American farmers. He thus speaks of himself:
'On the turn of middle age and whilst gradually quitting public employments, the author sat down on a farm in Maryland, and became enthusiastically fond of husbandry. Farmers in the neighbourhood informed him of their modes of practice; but they taught him nothing of the principles of the art. Whilst they knew how to practice in the manner common to the country, he knew neither principles nor practice; but began however with observing their practices, which he continued to imitate; until gaining information from a number of instructive experiments, he was encouraged to deviate from some of them; and became more and more assured that great improvements might be made by professional farmers, in this field of all employments, if they could be brought to relinquish the worth of their habits.'
Mr. Bordley began by writing little essays, and dispersing them among his friends; and these compositions, with others yet remaining in manuscript, form the present work. If, he says, fortunately it should induce improvements and better attention for assisting competency with domestic and social comforts, his first wish will be accomplished.
The essays treat on the following subjects:
Systems and Rotations—Grass-rotations—Grain rotations—Droog for a Grain Farm—Grain and Meadow-rotation—Farm-yard—Clover—Wheat—on Clover—Beans—Maize and Wheat-culture—Hemp—Farm-yard Manure—Barns—Cattle Stalls—Cattle Pastured and Soiled; Keep and Fattened—Observations on Cattle, Sheep, and Hogs—Maize and Potatoes as Fallow Crops and Fattening Material—Fences—Treading Wheat—Method of Registering Experiments—Principles of Vegetation—Necessaries of Productive Land—Family Salt—Rice—Country Habitations—Ice-House—Intimations on new Sources of Trade, &c.—Potato-Spirit and Beer—Diet in Rural Economy—Gypsum Manure—State Society of Agriculture—Notes and Intimations.
The first paper commences with an account of rotations of grass crops, occasioned by the application of Mr. Rigal, (a gentleman from Mandelheim in Germany, who had farmed on a small farm of 56 acres, near Philadelphia) to Mr. B. to know in what way he could best cultivate his land. As labour is scarce in America, and husbandry is managed with difficulty, even by the most experienced husbandman, Mr. B. was advised not to cultivate grain, but to confine his attention to grass crops. He was directed to permit no horse, ox, cow, or other beast, to graze on pasture, but to keep them in stables throughout the year. Hence there will be little need of division fences; and the fields, having only one general inclosing fence, will exhibit a beautiful tract of grass, only dotted here and there with clumps of trees: which are recommended to be the locust, sassafras, black mulberry, black-walnut, dog-wood, and hophornbeam, none of which materially injure the grass. The propriety of a grove of fu-

gas-maps, to the extent of two or three acres, is particularly suggested; because this gas will not only afford a comfortable and pleasant light, but will also yield for family uses, to the amount of 200 lbs. per acre. The rotations here advised consist of changes of rye, clover, and timothy-grass; which are illustrated by particular tables. This mode of practice may suggest no useful hints to the English Farmer; but, in order to prevent him from regretting that his grows do not produce maple-sugar, maple-wine, and the spirit of maple, (from any maple-tree (from a table-land note) the remark on the superior excellence of Beer; which is said to be the most of what is made in all countries, the chief in all countries where robust health is most conspicuous. It keeps labourers in steady good heart, without producing that irregularity which is commonly the effect of Rum. As v. 325, also, Mr. B. terms it 'an article conducive to liberty, health, vigor, and contentment.'
Though the plan of an American Farmer, &c. may afford rather matter of amusement than ground for practice in this country, yet some hints may be collected from it, and turned to advantage by intelligent persons. We therefore transcribe the sketch of a design of this kind:
A FARM-YARD.
Homestead and Buildings.
It is an especial object in this design that the whole yard, and its buildings, should be in view from the mansion; and that they be contained at a proper distance, neither too near nor too far from the mansion. The yard should be near to the house, live stock, for ready distribution. The yard ought to be compact; and the doors of the buildings, and the gates of the yard, seen from the mansion.
The homestead includes this yard; together with its kitchen-yard, the garden, nursery, orchard, and some acres for occasional use, such as the letting mowers, or sickle-beats run in, at liberty. There must be
Mansion.
Kitchen, Oven, and Ash-hole.
Poultry-house, and yard.
Wood-yard.
Laboratory (Laboratoire.)
Milk-house.
Ice-house.
Pigeon-house.
Closets.
Family-yard.
Pump.
Watering troughs.
Sow and Pig-sties.
Cow-house.
Boiling-house.
Elog.
Stercoraries.
Barn.
Sheep-house, and yard.
Chaff-house and stable.
Waggon and cart-house.
Implement of husbandry, house.
Work-shop.
Headsman's house.
Granary.
Stable, for farm.
Area of Budge and vault.
Bee.
Treading-floor.
Straw ticks.
Hay ticks.
Root pits.
A plate is given at the end of the work, to illustrate these particulars; from which it is evident that a Trans-Atlantic farmer must produce as many necessaries as it is possible for him to furnish within himself, and must depend little on foreign supply. The Laboratory is with him a necessary appendage. In this house, meat is cut up, salted, and smoked; lard and tallow are dried; candles and soap are made; and walling, tanning, spinning, carding, dying, brewing, and purifying salt, &c. are performed.
The Ice-house is recommended to be near the milk-house, in order that ice may be at hand to harden the butter as it is taken from the churn. Ice has been discovered to be of singular utility in preserving New-castle Salmon for the London market; and, as ice-houses are very cheaply constructed, may it not be of service, on English Farms, to have buildings of this kind, not merely for the purpose of hardening butter, but for that of keeping fresh meat in summer?
Butter (it is here remarked) is the better for having never been in water, or at all wetted, even in clearing it from butter-milk. If with slow motion for mixing it with very pure fine salt, and slowly pressing out the butter-milk, the butter be never touched with water, but instead of cooling it with water, ice be placed round and under it, in however not to wet it, and all this be done rather on a cold marble table, the butter may be expected to be greatly superior, in colour, in closeness, and in flavour. But it ought not to be heat, nor even pressed or squeezed with a quick motion. Every motion ought to be slow, in making butter. For getting out the butter-milk, sprinkle it with very fine salt, and after gently mixing it in, let it stand a while before the fluid is to be discharged. It is said, there is no making fine paste, but on marble tables; which are cleaner, sweeter and cooler than any wooden tables; and that French pastry cooks use marble. A slab of polished marble, on a stout oak frame, may be left made cold with ice; and a drawer close under the slab filled with ice, would continue the cold, whilst the butter is cleaning.
(To be continued.)
WASHINGTON CITY.
FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1802.
APPOINTMENTS BY THE PRESIDENT.
HENRY WARREN, of Massachusetts, to be collector of the customs for the district of Marblehead; vice Samuel R. Genry; also inspector of the revenue for the port of Marblehead.
WILLIAM LYMAN, of Massachusetts, collector for the district of Newburyport; vice Dudley A. Tyng.
WILLIAM R. LEE, collector of Salem and Beverly; vice Joseph Hiller.
PETER MURLENBERG, of Pennsylvania, collector for the district of Pennsylvania; vice George Lutimer.
TENCH COXE, of Pennsylvania, to be supervisor of the district of Pennsylvania.
JOHN PAGE, of Virginia, collector for the customs for the district of Petersburg; vice William Heath.
A London paper of the 9th of May, says, "The Dey of Tripoli lately purchased a 32 gun frigate at Smyrna, and has manned her with 700 picked men, for the purpose of giving battle to the American frigate Philadelphia, which has for a long time blockaded the port of Tripoli."
Information from Bordeaux of June 6, says, "Bonaparte is momentarily expected to visit this city; and the greatest preparations are making to receive him with every mark of honor and respect. He is elected consul for life; and the sovereign pontiff of the catholic church has pronounced him the greatest man that ever existed excepting the Saviour of the world."
Boston, July 20.
FROM SOUTH AMERICA.
Extract of a letter, dated Buenos Ayres, May 5, from the captain of an American ship, (chartered in this country to take a freight from that place to Europe,) to his owners in this town.
"The iron I brought for Belfast, was taken out of my ship by an order from this government, and landed in the Custom-house, but since that, it has been removed into a ware-house, where it still remains. I have not received pay for it yet, but expect to. I send you here a duplicate of a certificate I have sent before, of the landing of the iron, I also send you a copy of a memorial presented to the Vice King here, signed by those Americans whose names you will see. The memorial has been answered or noticed. I send you also the copy of a letter, lately sent to our minister at the court of Spain, signed by the same whole names are to the memorial. I know not whether I shall meet your approbation, but I could do no other than to join the others, though my situation in some respects is different from theirs. The treatment that I have unjustly experienced here from the chiefs, or directors of government, will scarcely meet your belief. Exclusive of the rascally detention I have suffered, I have had my seamen taken from on board my ship, by order of his Vice Majesty, and put on board his armed vessels to cruise upon the coast and in the rivers to capture whatever American vessels they fall in with while others of my crew have been entitled, by Spanish officers to desert my ship, and leave me in distress. On my making application to the Vice King, to have those men sent back to their duty, he immediately issued an order for me to pay them the amount of their wages, and to deliver their effects, which I promptly refused to do. All my petitions have been disregarded, by this despot officer, who has frequently threatened me with imprisonment for not paying the wages of the seamen. Nothing can exceed his antipathy of the Americans and contempt of the government of the United States!
As it has ever remained a doubt with me, how long I shall be detained here, I could do no other than to join with my unfortunate countrymen here, praying for the interference of our own government."
Copy of a letter from certain citizens of the United States, to Charles Pinckney, Esq. Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Madrid. Buenos Ayres, April 22, 1802.
Sir, (Weary of individual exertion in pursuit of that redress, which our treatment in this country so loudly demands, we feel ourselves compelled to resort for it
to the interference and influence of the American Government.
It is with much satisfaction we find that you are the Diplomatic Agent of the United States, near the Court of Spain; and we look forward, with confidence, in your well-trying patriotism, for a ready and spirited co-operation with us in our application for justice from that court.
The inclosed memorial, lately presented by us collectively to the government here, will furnish you with a general idea of the nature of the grievances we have suffered. The peculiar circumstances attending each particular case, we must defer transmitting to you, till we have time to collect and arrange them, and are able to procure the documents necessary to substantiate their truth. In the mean time we conceive it of the utmost importance to the final success of our respective claims, that the court of Spain be prepared for their formal reception, and that all improper intrigue on the part of the wrong-doers here may be defeated.
We are the more convinced of the necessity of an early attention to these points, by the departure from this province of Don Francisco Del Pino, the beginning of the present month, for Spain. He is the son of the Vice King here, and we have good reason to believe, goes charged with instructions from his father to make representations to the Spanish Court, unjust in themselves and extremely hostile to us.
The conduct of the Vice King here, indeed stands in need of a special and confidential family agent for its justification! A conduct marked by the mean and mercenary spirit of plunder on the one hand, and a shameful neglect or ignorance on the other.
While his Vice Majesty had his whole family on the alert for the discovery and seizure of some petty packages of contraband, he barely suffered our enemy of inferior force, to enter this Province and strip the King, his master, of towns and territory. With regard to us, he has, if possible, acted still more unworthily. All our petitions, whether individual or collective, have been passed over with silent contempt. Hospitality and justice have been denied us, and our persons and our property have been the sport of the most wanton tyranny. Where he dares not operate us by an active cruelty, he unfeelingly ruins us by delay. And when he cannot reach us directly with his injustice, he aims it indirectly, by encouraging or compelling individuals to violate their contracts with us.
The Governor of Montevideo has not only been his able conductor, in these ungenerous and unjust proceedings, but has ever appeared to place an ambition in excelling him.
We shall address the Government of the United States concerning these grievances and injuries; in the mean time, we doubt not you will do every thing in our behalf, consistent with your official situation.
Mr. TRUS WELLES, who will have the honor to deliver to you this letter, is a gentleman well acquainted with the affairs of his unfortunate countrymen in these ports, and fully competent to answer every enquiry on the subject.
To him we beg leave to refer you, and are, with sentiments of the highest consideration and respect, Sir, your most obedient and Humble Servants.
Thomas O'Reilly, Titus Welles, Joseph Russell, Robert Gray, Wm. Todd, junr. Silas Atkins, Job W. Hall, William Allen, Titus Conklin, Daniel M'Pherson, Jonas Williams, C. Eldredge, Henry Davidson, Isaac Haacs, Jofiah Gould, Jofiah Roberts, Leonard Jervis, 3d, Moles Griffin, Daniel Olney, John Andrey, Jonas Russell, John Grant.
MISS WILLIAMS.
Miss Helen Maria Williams continues Conversaciones at Paris, in a great style every other evening a number of Literary and distinguished characters meet in her Library where tea and refreshments are presented from eight to eleven o'clock, and where the merits of works newly offered to the Public are discussed. Authors recite their introductory poems, or their jeu d'esprits, and seem to augur, from the reception their productions meet with amongst those chosen few, their future success with the public. Miss Williams professes herself of no political party; and to judge from the heterogeneous mixture which the assembly, it seems but justice to believe her. The constant visits of Kosciusko, the famous Abbe Gregoire, and other Republican Chieftains, might induce a curious observer to believe she was not much attached to monarchical principles, if the presence of an English Peer, Lord Mountcashell, of Lord King, of many Neapolitan nobles, and other foreigners of distinction did not in some degree justify Miss Williams's affection.
[Boston pap.]
HEALTH OFFICE,
Baltimore, July 26th, 1802.
The Board of Health are happy to inform their Fellow Citizens that since the 19th Instant, notwithstanding the extreme heat of the weather, which is well known to be highly favorable to the propagation of malignant fever, not a
decided case of the disease has come to their knowledge. This is the more pleasing inasmuch as they can assert, from the best information that our city, except the cases which have been mentioned in their former report, has seldom been healthier than at the present moment.
By Order of the Board.
ASHTON ALEXANDER, President.
ADAM FOWLER, Secretary.
New-York, July, 23.
In the Provincial Parliament of Upper Canada, on the 14th inst. leave was obtained to bring in a bill, to amend an act passed in the 41st year of the reign of the king of Great Britain, intitled "An act, for granting to his majesty, his heirs and successors, &c. and for the uses of the Province of Upper Canada, the like duties on goods and merchandise brought into that Province from the United States of America, as are now paid on goods and merchandise imported from Great Britain and other places."
New-York, July 24.
In yesterday's Gazette was noticed the arrival of the frigate Essex. Capt. Bainbridge, after a fourteen months cruise on the Mediterranean station.
We are informed by Capt. B. that the island of Elba had been evacuated by the British troops.
That Minerva was to be delivered up by Admiral Sir James Saumarez on the 17th of June.
That the British still retained possession of Alexandria and of Malta.
That the day the Essex left Gibraltar, the fleet under the command of Lord Keith failed for England, except the Suerb, of 74 guns, the having remained as a guard ship.
That the Numus, a 74, and the Active frigate of 40 guns, had just failed for Algiers, on business, it was said relative to the detention of an English merchantman by the Algerines.
We have before noticed the engagement more accurately stated by captain Bainbridge, from whom we learn.
That the late engagement was only between a Portuguese frigate of 36, and an Algerine frigate of 44 guns, commanded by a Frenchman—that it took place 15 miles to the southward of Melga—and that it lasted only one hour, when the French captain had a leg taken off by a cannon ball. This circumstance had such an effect upon the crew, that they left their guns and went below; and as the Algerines were boarding the ship, the wounded captain discharged a pistol at his head, and immediately expired. None of his officers, and only 20 of his crew, were killed in the engagement. It is not unworthy of remark, that this was the first frigate ever built in Algiers, and the first frigate ever captured by them from a christian power.
By Capt. Bainbridge we have received from our correspondent, Gibraltar papers to the 14th inst. but they contain nothing but what will be found under the marine head.
Capt. B. on his arrival here, received orders to proceed immediately for Washington; and we learn that the Essex will sail for that place on Thursday next.
FROM LONDON PRINTS.
FRENCH PEACE ESTABLISHMENT.
The Peace establishment of France is to consist of 350,000 men who, according to the Orator of the Government, are to constitute their palladium of glory abroad, and of liberty at home. The troops about to be raised by conscription, amount to no less than 120,000, one half of whom are immediately to be added to the regular army, to complete the peace establishment, and the other half to form a corps de reserve, to complete the war establishment when necessary.
HERCULANEUM.
The researches at Herculaneum, says a late Paris paper, are, at last, likely to be of some utility to literature and the sciences. M. Haiser, who was sent to Naples by the Prince of Wales, to examine the manuscripts found amidst the ruins of Herculaneum, has discovered the treatise of Epicurus, intitled, "De Natura Rerum." The existence of this work was only known from a few passages in ancient authors. It appears that it formed the ground work of the celebrated poem of Lucretius. M. Haiser, encouraged by the protection of his Sicilian Majesty, employs ten persons daily in searching for additional manuscripts. He intends to publish in a short time, what is most important in the branches of history, poetry, the arts and eloquence. The treatise of Epicurus is to be immediately put to the press.
EGYPT.
Letters from Alexandria, dated March 5, state, that a subscription had been opened by the troops remaining in Egypt, for the singular purpose of bringing away the Obelisk, called Cleopatra's Needle. The sum of 2000l. is stated to have been already subscribed for the purpose.
SPAIN.
It is recorded of a late King of Spain
that the business and pleasure of his life, was to confine himself in a yard, surrounded by high walls, and to shoot at them, as they agitated with terror and with wounds, made in inoffensive efforts to escape. The renewed and augmented power of the "Holy" Inquisition in Spain, demonstrates that his present majesty is a legitimate, offspring of his royal predecessor. Of this predecessor—the Inquisitor General, with his all-in-victory against Kings—gives the following.
EPITAPH.
Here lies a glorious King of Spain,
Who whole praises every Poet pipes;
Renowned for many a big campaign,
And despatching death among the Dukes.
Let laugh not, living Kings, I pray,
Because his planets so befriended him,
This King of Spain, I dare to say,
Leaves many a fool with crowns behind him.
THEOPHILANTHROPY.
The re-establishment of the Catholic worship in France, has given a death blow to the deistical sect in France, known by the name of the Theophilanthropists; and instituted by one of the French directory. To show that most delectable institutions can assume the garb of virtue and humanity; and like modern patriotism, beguile and inculcate its thousand, we present one of the addresses of these Theophilanthropists.
"The true friends of God are the true friends of man—Simple in their doctrines, enemies of pride and wanderings, the Theophilanthropists can inspire nothing but confidence in solid minds, increase the suffrages in their favour, and generalise their principles."
"Their worship, without show, is founded on the belief in the supreme Being, on the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, on conjugal love, the respect due to old age, piety towards parents, and beneficence in general."
"That worship established itself without theological disputes, without dragonnades, without effusion of blood; for the Theophilanthropists force their belief upon no person—their gospel is the vault of heaven—and God is the conclusion of that sublime work."
"They adore no graven image, voluntarily leaving it to the care of the Catholic Priests to render God visible, or invisible, as best may suit the purposes of their avarice."
"The tabernacle of the Theophilanthropists is the universe; the figure of which displays to the doubting atheist the infinite word of the creation, and plunges the believer into perpetual ecstasy."
"The flowers, the first fruits of the autumn, the fruits which cover the earth, are spread upon their altar, and constitute its only decoration. They present them to the eternal as their acknowledgment; they offer him likewise the young infant, arrayed in the graces of his age and of his innocence; they initiate the newly-born in the elements of nature, and breathe the creative spirit into its young mind."
"For the terror of hell, the flames of purgatory, the pantomime of mass, the uncalled ear of confessors, they have substituted the rudiments of reason."
"They instil the lessons of wisdom into the hearts of children; they persuade wives to cherish their husbands; they imprint upon men the duty of cherishing their wives in turn, and with them as much happiness as themselves. They make them look upon death as the commencement of immortality, and impress upon them respect and gratitude towards the invincible defenders of the country."
"A flourishing peace will, no doubt, give to this institution a greater degree of pomp and solemnity. Then shall a symphonic harmony execute, in its full majesty, the hymn to the father of the Universe."
STOP THE VILLAIN!
ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS REWARD.
MADE his escape from me in the city of Washington a few days ago, after robbing me in a most dastardly manner, a man to follow named NOLEY, but called in Philadelphia as a true man, by the name of JOHN SMITH, where he has been some years past; from which place I had just arrived with him. He took the opportunity, on crossing the common leading to the Eastern Branch, and attacked me with intent to murder me, saying, "N'w old nallou you not!" I got very much hurt by the blows and bite I received. He is about 35 years of age, five feet 7 or 8 inches high, power-legged, and a brazier look when spoken to; his ears are off his right foot, occasioned by a burn when small. He had on when he made his escape, (which was Wednesday the 23 inst.) a pair of his duff, and a rope about his arms, but it is very likely he has them off by this time—I think if closely examined, marks on his ribs may be discovered. His clothing consisted of a brown coat and trousers, and striped waistcoat, with out a hat, it is probable he will change his dress. I expect he is making for Philadelphia, as he has a wife and three children there. Whoever will take up the said fellow and secure him in any jail, and give information to me that I get him again, shall receive the above reward; and it brought home all reasonable charges, paid by me.
GEORGE BRATT, of Patrick,
Living in Prince George's county, near of Maryland, 6 miles below the Federal City.
N. B. I forward one person harboring the said fellow, and 20 dollars for each taking him up at their peril.
G. B. June 28, 1802. ep38