The enquirer (Richmond, Va.), 1804-09-15 00:00:00

THE ENQUIRER.
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SATURDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 15, 1804.
[VOLUME 1.]
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FALL GOODS.
WILLIAM TEMPLE has received by the ship Edward and Charles , from London, AN EXTENSIVE ASSORTMENT OF GOODS, suitable to the approaching season. He expects an ADDITIONAL SUPPLY, to compleat his assortment, by the ship Sally from London, and Latona from Liverpool; which he will dispose of on his usual low terms. Sept. 8. epif
CONGRESS.
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
Wednesday, March, 1804.
SPEECH OF MR. THOMAS M. RANDOLPH,
In the Debate on Georgia Claims, in committee of the whole, on the Bill providing for the settlement of sundry claims to public lands lying south of the state of Tennessee.
I hope the house will not consent to postpone these resolutions. I hope it will on the contrary immediately proceed to consider them and conclude by adopting them; for, taken generally, they meet my warm approbation in the principles they contain, and I am anxious to see the last one, which is a corollary fairly deduced from the others, incorporated into the bill now before us. It is with reluctance I trouble the house this session after so long forbearance, with my opinions or sentiments; but my opinion on this question is so decided, my sentiments at this moment are so strong, and I know them to be so consonant to those excited by the subject, as far as the affair has been known, in that district of Virginia I have the honour to represent, that my inclination and my duty combined, impel me irresistibly to make an attempt to communicate them. Besides, when an opinion must be as publicly pronounced as mine must be in giving my vote on this question and it seems obnoxious, perhaps unsafe, to assign sincerely in bold and apt words the reasons which give rise to it, then, in my opinion, it is not many to retain or to veil those reasons. When hatred, perhaps danger, is likely to ensue from the declaration of truth in public affairs, then, above all times, I deem it my duty to utter it, for when many decline that necessary service, none of those who are willing to undertake it, can be spared. I have little hope of performing that task in an agreeable or an impressive manner; but I shall perform it. To do what I conceive my duty, is my business: the peculiar way in which I do it, necessarily results from the manner in which nature formerly did hers towards me. My opinion is, that it will cast a broad stain on the American character, as it must be exhibited in our future parliamentary history, for this body, which so fairly represented the nation, to grant compensation for their pretended losses, under whatever form iniquity may invent to disguise it, to any of those adventurers who made the spurious contract with Georgia in the year 1795, for the purchase of her western territory, upon the ground that such a bargain could give the least shadow of title to any part of that territory. This opinion is a conviction irresistibly given to my mind by an impartial investigation, that what were at that time called companies of land adventurers were, (with the exception of a few mild individuals, whose delusion and consequent implication I sincerely lament) no other than shameless bands of sharpsers: that what was impudently called a contract, was in reality a fraud of unprecedented enormity; and what has since been declared an unjust interpolation of the primary sovereign authority of the state to cancel a fair bargain, was no more than the regular & proper application of the most efficient means to redress a cheat of unparalleled audacity and magnitude. I am sorry, by entertaining this opinion, to differ from so many on this floor, with whom it is my pride to think; but I am not much surprised at that difference: Very rarely indeed have I heard of questions which did not divide opinions: never have I been present at a criminal trial, where numbers did not doubt the reality of the crime. Such is the difference in the impression made by the same testimony upon different minds. Were it not for this extraordinary circumstance, which almost precludes unanimity, and which completely defies explanation upon any natural principles of the moral structure of man, there could be but one sentiment in this house on the question now before it.  The information which has satisfied my mind, I have derived from the declarations of the counties of Georgia, in their petitions and remonstrances presented to the convention of that state, which assembled in the month of May 1795; from the acknowledgment made by that convention of the dignity of those applications, and the respect due to them, in the resolve which referred them to the consideration of the succeeding legislature from the proceedings of the general assembly of 1796, upon the matter they contained, and the evidence it collected and recorded relative thereto—and, lastly, from certain declarations and provisions concerning those proceedings, and thereby establishing that evidence, which were made by the convention of 1796, and which exist now in the body of the present constitution of Georgia. The same means of information are within the reach of all: the evidence, I might say, should be satisfactory
to all, since the witnesses are so numerous, so respectable, and so little interested; and their testimony has been received as conclusive by the great body of the people of one of our most respectable states.
It has not been my object in making this enquiry, to learn in what sharpers' brain the scheme was first engendered; which of the associates stood most prominent in the development and execution of it; how the price paid for this flagrant treason against posterity was apportioned; or how the spoil obtained by such a stupendous larceny committed upon the inheritance of the unborn, was divided. I have not desired to know, and it could not be important to the house to be informed, which of the associates had no moral sense at all, whose conscience was subdued by his avarice, or who unthinkingly gave the control of it into the hands of his friend. I will not to see any name consigned to infamy: of those which have come to my knowledge, a few I yet respect; the remainder have not more distinct images appropriated to them in my mind, than those of the men who conceived and executed the South Sea in England, or the Mississippi fraud in France.
But from the investigation I have made, I have learned as certainly as the actions of men can be known to others than the actual beholders of them, that the legislature of Georgia, which commenced its session in the autumn 1795, was assailed by every possible artifice of seduction, to procure from it the act of 7th January 1795, which constituted what has been since called the Yazoo contract: That it yielded to those artifices, and a considerable majority of its members became treacherous to their constituents and deaf to the voice of their own honor: That bribes were daringly offered and unblushingly received for votes in favor of the law; that the landed property of the state of Georgia, to the value of forty millions of dollars, when estimated only at one half of the price for which the same property is now sold by the United States, was sold by those trustees of the people of Georgia, for one half million, and purchased by themselves in combination with certain abject worshippers of gold, who had artfully infused into them their blind fanaticism: That another offer of four fifths of a million of dollars made by other men at the same time was rejected, no doubt because the majority of the Legislature itself was concerned in the first: That the chief magistrate of the state after one feeble effort of resistance, and a declaration which ought to have bound him to an obstinate opposition, with a conduct which to my mind manifests a thorough knowledge of the corrupt views of the legislature, and a want of energy to defeat them, yielded to the impulse and ratified the fraudulent sale: That the moment his irrevocable hand gave the illusive sanction to the vain and ineffectual deed, this ravenous pack of speculators, keen with the hunger of avarice, unkenneled, and scoured the whole peopled territory of the union in quest of their appropriate game, the simple, the credulous, and those who are hoodwinked by the excess of their own cupidity. The most voracious of them fought the great cities, where numbers of the thirty sons of gain became their prey, while numbers more joined in the promising chase, led the way to the victims, and fattened on their spoil. Many, more fell in their nature though less insatiate in rapacity, traversed the tranquil country of New-England, scenting the homely puffs which hung in the lonely corners of peaceful cottages, into which the solitary dollar had been dropped with religious punctilious every week, perhaps every month only, by the hand of the provident father from the time the first birth under his roof had gladdened his heart. Great numbers of these receptacles of hard-earned gain, with all their rusty treasure, the fruit of long continued frugality and toil, destined to endure to numbers of the rising race the innocent joys of a life of industry in their own fields, were devoured by them, and that happy destiny perhaps in a moment changed for short periods of certain pain, and too probable vice in moving prisons on the ocean.
The promulgation of this law produced one general murmur of indignation throughout the state of Georgia. The crime committed by the representatives of the people was strongly denounced by the grand juries of all the succeeding courts. An assembly of special representatives which had been summoned for constitutional purposes, meeting in the succeeding spring, was addressed from all the counties of the state with memorials, petitions, remonstrances, according to the different degrees of excitement, setting forth in the strongest terms the nefarious act, complaining with bitterness of the perfidy of the legislature, requiring, urging, imploring the convention to proclaim the fact and annul the fraudulent sale.
No laborious investigation into the huge and naked scheme of peculation was asked; no troublesome search after testimony to expose the frauds of it was necessary: nothing was requisite but to receive, condense and record the plain evidence voluntarily offered from all quarters. But this easy and legitimate task, that convention thought fit to decline; naturally enough too, as many of its members were themselves openly concerned, and many more secretly interested in the purchase. The speculators and their agents were then in full pursuit: the game was falling abundantly into their jaws: it could scarcely be expected that those who had set on foot this chase, who expected to share so largely in its profits, should sound the horn of alarm to the objects of it. It quickly, however, occurred to a majority of that body, that a reference of those addresses to the legislature of the next year would not only give time for the prosecution of the scheme, but might be productive of something like safety in the after-possession of the spoil obtained, while it afforded them also some shield against the discontent and indignation of the people, which a total neglect to desirable to themselves would inevitably have brought upon them. Notwithstanding this conduct of the convention, before midsummer of the same year, the fraudulency and consequent invalidity of the sale must have been unequivocally known throughout the union by the ferment in the state of Georgia. Early in the succeeding year, all the records of state relative to this transaction were publicly burned; all recorded evidence of private contracts which had arisen out of the law were destroyed; and all others cancelled or forbidden to be renewed or afterwards admitted in the courts, by the subsequent legislature, acting under the authority to consider the petitions and of course to redress the evil complained of in them, which had been given to it by the convention, and also under the express injunctions of the people themselves, laid on the individual
members of that body at the elections. But the speed of the sharpsers had out-stripped the slow steps of the state. They had in a great measure executed their swindling scheme, and numbers of their dupes were already, instead of cursing their own credulity, infinitely and infinitely accusing the perfidy of Georgia.
Thus was a blot made which never can be completely expunged from the page of American history. It is local, however, & as yet stains but one small spot of that fair sheet. Shall we then, the representatives of the American nation, influenced by the clamours of sharpsers and the complaints of their dupes, by passing the bill before us, by rejecting the counteracting resolutions proposed to us, extend it over the whole? I hope we shall not! I trust we will, by adopting the one and rejecting the other, diminish the unseemly spot, so that it shall scarcely be offensive to the eye of the reader of distant futurity. If we do not, it must appear to that eye deeper than any stain of venality in the annals of that nation, which affects to believe that corruption is politically wholesome; blacker than any blot of deception, exaction or rapine ever thrown upon that page by the unnatural alliance of Christian avarice with Mahometan cruelty against that devoted country, in the oppression of which the vices of the crots have been combined with the crimes of the crescent; in so much as we declare public and private morals to be the only pillar which can support our system, while they openly avow the desire of gain to be the most valuable spring of human action. Let us not show to day that this belief is feigned. Let us demonstrate it to be serious. Let us go farther, and display the same tenderness for the future reputation of the American people of our time, which we individually feel for our own private fame hereafter. We may afterwards yield to the impulse of charitable feelings, and relieve by moderate grants of land (and land only I hope) all those claimants, who were entirely innocent of this fraud, and sincerely ignorant of its perpetration. That innocence and ignorance, or the contrary guilt or knowledge of the fraud, may be collected with considerable certainty by attention to the times and places where they are named on the written evidences of the pretended claims; as those must display the information about the origin of the transaction, which might have been, and therefore probably was, possessed by the purchasers. Some atonement was due from the state of Georgia for the perfidy of so many of her exalted citizens. She has acknowledged that it was due; she has provided for making it by placing five millions of acres of land in our hands, as a fund for that purpose. The task of applying that fund we have voluntarily assumed. Is it possible we should coolly resolve in performing the confidential service, to insult, most grossly to insult, that respectable state, by granting a part of the fund to men whom it has solemnly pronounced infamous, and whom its representatives on this floor continue, by the part they take in this question till to denounce? It is not possible, surely, we should give this insult to the state of Georgia; we know the insult must have intended, that if not an actual discrimination, at least an exclusion of all the parties to the original fraud, and all notorious propagators of the mischiefs of it, should be carefully made. What would we think ourselves, of trustees who should so construe an instrument of trust, as to bestow upon the robbers or incendiaries themselves the best part of a donation placed in their hands, by charitable persons, for the relief of sufferers by robbery or by fire? I trust we shall apply the fund for the relief of the real sufferers. I know it to be both ample and apt enough for that purpose; and I hope the United States will not be forced to contribute to a farther and unnecessary aptitude, by a large creation of stock, for an indiscriminate indemnity: A stock it is true, apparently to be redeemed through the proceeds of the lands granted by Georgia, but really to be paid directly from the treasury; as those lands will remain unsold, or an equivalent portion elsewhere must remain so, till a period immensely beyond the time of payment of the principal of it.
I repeat that I wish to see the real sufferers relieved by grants of land. I trust we will revive the hopes of those good parents of New England: we will restore the happy destiny of their injured children; but I cannot think we shall consent to admit to a share of the bounty of Georgia, along with them, the wicked contrivers of their distress. Those eagles in human form, although they were driven with disgrace from the gigantic prey at which they had audaciously stooped, have borne off no small share of spoil in their rapacious talons. I have been assured that some what more than a million of dollars has been really amassed amongst them all by their fraudulent sales, and that of the half million which was paid to Georgia for a property worth then forty millions, and rapidly rising in value, till checked by a late occurrence, five sixths parts have been withdrawn by them with her permission from her treasury, where it lay deftly and untouched, as polluted trash. Not yet glutted, they now threaten, infolently threaten to return to the reserved prey, and under assumed, for ought I know innocent names, boldly seize ten millions from the nation as the price of their abandonment of it. Nay they have become so fastidious now, that they disdain any portion of the prey itself: they require their indemnity for it, having been forced out of their talons, in American stock! Yazoo stock! ten millions of Yazoo stock! Heaven preserve our ears from this fightful sound! That of Algerine tribute has always been to distressing to mine, that I have often wished the nation would risk some of its blood to purchase the eternal suppression of it. When once they become liable to be assailed in passing the walls of our treasury, by the hideous note of Yazoo stock; from that moment they must become for ever callous to all tones which convey the intima of my country. What excuse can we make to the nation for not denying them that additional emolument from their inequity, which they now so boldly expect? can we say we have no discriminating powers at our command, by which we can separate the sufferers by this fraud from the contrivers of it, and the selfish propagators of its mischiefs? Surely we cannot.
I have already said how that discrimination might in some degree be made. The original list of the four companies including all the associates, certainly cannot be so carefully hidden as to elude all search. Surely an attention to the proximity or distance of the residence of those claimants, who were not originally involved, from the scene of the iniquitous act, and a notice of the period when that inquiry became notorious, will enable any tribunal to distinguish
the innocent and ignorant purchaser from the fraudulent and conscious speculator, with some degree of accuracy, if not with a precision sufficient completely to satisfy justice. Are we compelled by our agreement with Georgia to throw down what her humanity has put into our hands for the relief of the innocent sufferers, (and surely we will not insult her by presuming the meant to include the guilty) that it may be scrambled for by all the claimants, and seized in the proportions which antecedent cunning and swindling dexterity may have predetermined? We cannot say we are. Yet what else shall we be doing, if we pass this bill and thereby confine our commissioners to the literal proofs of those false, though specious claims: If we neglect to give them the power; if we fail to instruct them, I ought to say carefully to sift out of the claims all evidence of the original fraud or of a probable acquaintance with it, which they may contain, and reject or admit them by that test? Ought we not to expect that all the disinterested in the nation will be struck with astonishment, if while some of us are proclaiming the odious origin of these claims, a majority without disproving our assertions should pronounce them all to have some legal foundation and proceed to give indiscriminate relief to the holders of them? For myself, I must hear much more than I have yet heard in support of that opinion to remove my amazement at it. Surely there cannot be so wide a difference between law and justice, that the former can embrace what the latter must loath. I have heretofore thought notwithstanding the simple, uniform, universally manifest character of the one, and the complicated, various, occult nature of the other, that their essence was the same. I have always believed and till now thought all men concurred with me in the belief, that whatever was manifestly fraudulent must be illegal; that no lapse of time, no change of circumstances, no complication of numbers or of influence, could legalize it. I have farther believed that no act of any legislature manifestly immoral, and unjust could be deemed genuine, and be afterwards calmly received as binding on the state. These points of belief I shall ever retain, and were my tenderness less for the gentleman who differ with me on this question, I should not hesitate, trusting yet to their concurrence, to conclude now by calling on them to disprove the history we have given of those claims or to withdraw their favour from the claimants to consent to the consideration of those resolutions, and ultimately to the rejection of the bill before us.
But my deference for the sentiments of those gentlemen leads me for a moment to abandon these all important axioms of social and political morality which I have just stated and they seem to disallow by advocating the claims; for a moment to admit that a legislature may in some way derive from a constitution the power to do acts manifestly immoral, unjust and treacherous; that corruption may be purified, fraud may be sanctioned, robbery may be made to give a valid title, by legislative authority. They will, I make no doubt, with equal complacency permit me to demand some admissions of the same nature from them. A government can then by construction or inference derive from a constitution the power of plundering the state, and may legitimate the act so that individuals, into whose hands the plunder may fall, shall be able afterwards to defend their possession of it in courts of justice. Because no literal prohibitory declaration exists in the constitution of the United States, any more than in the former constitution of Georgia, to guard against what honesty could never have foreseen, their government too may legitimately transfer, for a trivial consideration, to its own members or to favored individuals for their private emolument, the best property of the nation to any amount. Congress can now constitutionally pass a law to divide the contents of the treasury among the friends of the individual members, for imaginary or trivial services, after stipulating a participation; because it has the power to give compensation to those who may render real service to the nation. Nay, because the senators and representatives may by their own vote, take a compensation for their services from the treasury, they might, also, applying a loose construction, to the term compensation, divide the contents of the treasury amongst themselves, to indemnify them for the long privation of domestic happiness they are here compelled to undergo; and they would be liable to nothing more, therefore, than the neglect and contempt of their constituents.
These positions admitted, I could not refuse to grant, that the legislature of Georgia of 1795, could have legitimately sold to companies composed of their own members and others, for a price less than the annual quit rent the same lands would have paid formerly to the crown of Great Britain, forty millions of acres of the finest lands in the world belonging to that state. But in granting it I should deem it my duty immediately to move this house to take into consideration, with all speed, the necessity of increasing the list of prohibitory clauses in the federal constitution. I would recommend, along with numberless others which would be as necessary, the following:—The senators and representatives shall not plunder the treasury under the pretext of requiring themselves for their services: the members of the government shall not engross to themselves the national possessions. Certainly, if it is maintained that a subsequent legislature could have no power of punishment or of reformation, where the plain letter had not been disregarded, such prohibitions as these ought, without delay, to be adopted into the federal constitution. Otherwise, then is the Yazoo tenure ridiculous indeed, for by that doctrine alone could it be supported.
My respect for our opponents in this question still prevents my concluding here. I will endeavour to show them that that tenure was contradictory, not only to the general laws of equity, but also to the then existing constitution of Georgia, and accordingly, absolutely null. I have always understood that in equity a bargain, (above all for land) though quite clear of any other symptom of fraud, could not be valid unless it included a valuable consideration: That the circumstance of the consideration being so ridiculously trivial, as what was agreed to be accepted by the legislature of Georgia, would be sufficient to cancel any bargain for land between individuals, even after it came into the hands of a subsequent purchaser, if he had made his purchase after open denial of the contract, and public reclamation by the original owner. This was not only a rule of equity in Georgia, but a principle recognized by a positive law of that state—(See Marbury's digest of the laws of Georgia, page 116.)
The price agreed to be paid to Georgia, was one cent and one fourth of another cent for the
acre. The lands sold were in great part among the most fertile of the earth, situated in one of its finest climates, and adapted to all its richest productions. They were sold too, not to citizens of the state alone and even with agricultural views, but in a great measure to strangers, and altogether to speculators, who meant to demand some hundreds of cents from the subsequent purchaser with cultivating intentions. This immense difference would soon have disappeared, swallowed up in luxuries; perhaps the farmer would have been ejected from his farms, because his toil did not produce fast enough for impatient appetite. The people of Georgia, the true owners of these lands, immediately reclaimed them, as I have shown, in the most public manner; and among other stronger reasons, upon the ground of the insignificance of the consideration stipulated for by their trustees—they instructed their next representatives to return them. These representatives did so. Their act of doing so was solemnly ratified by a convention.
But many gentlemen here contend, notwithstanding, that the law was irrepealable, and that the contract made by it, however irreconcilable, was valid and indefeasible. I shall make no other reply to them than to endeavour to expose, still farther, the illegal foundation of that contract, taking my eyes for a moment from the fraudulent nature of it. I will endeavour to look seriously into the constitutional character of the pretended law, which established it. I will examine more nearly the ground upon which it was framed. I trust I shall be able to show that it stood on a basis of perjured miscontruction, which the first honest breath blown against it completely overturned. It is not requisite to show that the legislature of Georgia, which convened in December 1794, had no powers but such as were directly, or through honest inference, granted to it by the convention of 1789. The members of that legislature themselves claimed no others. It is not necessary, either, for us to search throughout that instrument for a special grant of power to support the law of January 7th, 1795. The members themselves selected the head which they pretended to believe, contained that grant: let us examine it—"The general assembly shall have power to make all laws and ordinances which they shall deem necessary and proper for the good of the state which shall not be repugnant to this constitution." Under such a narrow and firmly cloak did they expect to hide this giant fraud. But this was the peculiar folly of those times. Under such another, did certain political assassins, not long after attempt to strangle the infant liberty of America.
The very next section of the constitution says "The general assembly shall have power to alter the boundaries of counties & to lay off new ones out of them as well as out of the other vacant territory belonging to the state;" again, "and when any new county shall be laid off in the vacant territory of the state, such county shall have a number of representatives, &c." How could it be other than repugnant to the constitution, to render expressly nugatory this important provision of it? Does not the constitution plainly enough prescribe a division into counties before a sale by this provision for a representation in that case, and by totally neglecting to make any kind of provision for the case of sale before a division? Is it possible the framers of the constitution could have foreseen, imagined, or deemed possible, the case which actually happened, and at the same time have used the language they did? If the term county was understood to imply representation of course, and the constitutional power to divide remained after the sale, why was so particular provision made for representation in those counties to be formed out of the waste and unappropriated lands? A power is expressly given to lay off counties within other counties, or in the vacant and unappropriated lands of the state, with a view that representation should coexist with population. The territory, after the sale, was neither: of course no power remained to divide it into counties; but that power being expressly given, none could have been given to defeat it; yet that was completely done by the law on which these claims rest. One preceding legislature had laid off the county of Bourbon on the Mississippi, no doubt supposing that to be the true meaning of the constitution, which we have given, and had actually proceeded to make grants or sales of land within it. Another had rejected an application to purchase the territory in conformity with the report of its committee consisting of one member from each county in the state, which report it is likely was founded upon the construction we maintain. One it is true had acted otherwise; but the eagerness with which the succeeding one seized an occasion which presented itself for retracting the steps of the former, is an additional proof that what we contended for was the sentiment of the state. But the legislature of 1795, actuated by the motives I have displayed; its prime movers, perhaps instigated by certain juggling politicians from the North, who preferred to attain the justly desired end of separating that territory from the state, and thereby diminishing the dangerous size of Georgia by intrigue rather than the plain means since adopted: the legislature of 1795, I say, in contempt of the general sentiment of the state, in open violation of the constitution, made one sweeping sale of the whole territory for a contemptible price. Nay, with the words of their oath "I solemnly swear I will give my vote on all questions as in my judgment will best promote the good of the state;" with these words yet vibrating on their tongues, they rejected 4-5ths of a million offered at the same time on the same terms of payment, and to promote the good of the state according to their peculiar judgment of it, we must suppose took one half million.
But perhaps they knew that those who offered the eight hundred thousand dollars were not as sure paymasters as themselves; or perhaps they thought the honorable body of notables of Georgia, which, although members of it expressed a noble disdain and indignation at the transaction, was yet fully represented in the companies; perhaps they thought that was the true thing meant by the term state in the constitution. Such an hypothesis was not unfashionable in those days, above all in what were supposed the most enlightened parts of the union. I might have been abruptly stopped by an observation that we had no right to consider the constitutionality of the laws of Georgia, any more than the morality of her lawyers; but a field which has slanted so many days, from the mouth of our noses of the present day, from fonder of making feints, than hurling seriously at it, stands interposed between me and that attack. I have only to repeat time in considering the question before

us, we must pronounce between the law of '95 and that of '96: That to execute the trust we have undertaken for Georgia, we must decide upon her discordant legislation. I will go on with considering further the constitutionality of the law of '95. Those particular arrangements which we have been made by the Georgia constitution of '89 for the incorporation of the western territory into the state, surely ought to have extinguished, even in the womb of fancy, all embryonic constructions for alienating that territory from the jurisdiction of the state; yet the law of 1795 did most completely alienate the jurisdictional right of Georgia along with the soil. The territory, after the grant, could not have been divided into counties. Its inhabitants, by an express provision of the grant, could not be taxed by the ordinary legislature until represented, nor could they have been represented in it under the then existing constitution until divided into counties. The provisions of the constitution for the incorporation of the territory could not have been applied after the grant, for they were expressly made for vacant and unappropriated lands. The jurisdiction of the territory was then left to Georgia, and of course transferred, though informally yet substantially, and no doubt legally, to the United States: Definitively, I make no doubt, for by this renunciation of state jurisdiction, thus artfully interwoven into the contract, the value of the lands was so greatly enhanced. Purchasers from abroad and from the other states would have come forward in greater numbers and with much greater alacrity, knowing privately that the territory would come immediately under Federal jurisdiction, and be soon created into new states. Who can believe that the associates and those who held under them, once settled in their territory, and this hidden grapple I have endeavoured to uncover, once thrown out by them upon the Federal government, the strength of Georgia ever could have broken it? But until the constitution of 1798, no power ever existed in Georgia, unless in the whole body of the people collectively, to make an alienation of the territory of that state. Authority for that since made to the United States, was given by the convention of '98, and such a power, it seems to me, can properly flow only from that prime source in any of the states.
That there is a necessary and inherent power, even in our national government to alienate and acquire territory at will, I am not ready to admit. It cannot be necessary where a recurrence to the primary authority is so frequently, so easily and so safely made as with us. To say it is an inherent power in all governments, from the nature of government, even though not absolutely necessary, would be looking abroad again for analogies, and so far relinquishing our own peculiar and excellent theory. Having purified so well the turbid waters we drew from the political fountains of Europe, better to cut off all communication with their impure sources, than again to admit from them any little rill which might once more discolour our now almost transparent stream. I can never admit a right in any government which is founded upon the sovereignty of the people, whose sole legitimate end is their good, to grant monopolies of the unappropriated soil. No possible restrictions can, in my opinion, prevent such monopolies from operating powerfully against that good and against the essential principles of such governments. Besides, many individuals among the people, have, according to my idea, just claims upon the nation for free grants of such lands. Poor men who have lost their limbs or their health in defence of their country, even though they may have received a pittance of daily pay: poor persons upon whom nature has bestowed an uncommonly numerous offspring: poor and virtuous citizens who have married early in life, and have the prospect of families to maintain sooner than the savings of labour could accumulate sufficiently to ensure that maintenance against accidents to the parent, which might suspend the power of labour: All these, I contend, have that right, and it is at least as well founded as that of the familiar for subsistence, from society.
There are certain conditions, it is true, not improper to notice here, though not altogether pertinent, upon which alone this right should be acknowledged on the part of government. These are, an actual settlement of the lands immediately, an abandonment of the right of alienation during the first lives, an equal division among successors. This right is necessarily limited by the calls for new establishments of those who are able to purchase, which will continually from the increase of numbers, and of agricultural capital. By answering such at a just price, the national strength which consists in the number of proprietors, is equally increased as by gifts, and at the same time the national resources are enlarged in the most desirable way, the voluntary contributions of the able. The liberality of a nation it is true, like that of a rich individual, should always keep in view the ratio of necessary expense, to the amount of the certain and natural resources. It should be more ready, yet at the same time not less prudent and discerning. But by monopolies of the soil, this right of certain citizens which I have mentioned, is destroyed, liberali, itself, is extinguished; the national resources are sacrificed for the pernicious aggrandizement of those already too high, to the still greater debasement of those already too low. Innumerable are the evils arising out of them, which appear at once to the examiner's eye, and demonstrate that the power to grant them cannot constitutionally exist in any of our governments unless especially delegated.
If this view I have endeavoured to lay open of the grant from Georgia, which is the basis of these claims, be fairly taken, no one I think, can seriously apprehend the legal excitement from their possession, of those who may make purchases or receive donations from the United States in the territory pretended to be claimed by the Yazoo adventurers. I cannot believe myself that they will ever venture into the courts of justice of the union with their fictitious title paper in their hands; in every line of which the word fraud will appear at once in large & indelible characters. If they should, contrary to my expectation, bearing enough, I cannot think so injuriously of any judge of the union, as to apprehend that maintaining the power, which sold, to be legitimate, shutting his eyes upon the unexampled perjury of the sellers, denying the early publicity of the fraudulent nature of the transaction, rejecting the authority of the subsequent legislature to resume the property upon evidence of these, and also the paramount authority of the convention to annul the law, which was acknowledged by the adventurers themselves in withdrawing their money; last of all, declaring the consideration paid by the original purchasers to be sufficiently valuable; he will pronounce the law of Georgia, of 7th Jan. '95, to be binding and to preclude equity from the state. No! every judge on the bench of the union will, I firmly believe, at once declare this law null, all contracts made under it void, and all considerations given upon them returnable. If I thought otherwise I would readily acquiesce in any, however strong, remedial measures. I would vote for a law forbidding the admission of such evidence into our courts. If not, I would even give my voice in this house for imposing a heavy penalty
on the man who should dare to assert such a defensible claim to the indisputable property of the nation, and thereby disparage that property. Our opponents say, the danger of being dragged into courts of justice at any distant day, however uncertain the apprehension of that anxiety, which the most distant prospect of being dispossessed in our old age of buildings, orchards, gardens, established by our own hands, must naturally create in men, will keep all purchasers aloof, will effectually prevent all sales, and keep our most important and most exposed frontier forever weak and defenceless. I answer, let those lands then remain unfilled: the nation will sustain no damage in its interest thereby, for it has more at market elsewhere than the demand is likely to take for a great length of time. It is even my opinion that interest will be materially forwarded by the suspension of sales there at this time. It is not now I say a weak & defenceless frontier which it is so necessary to strengthen immediately with new settlers, that the attainment of that end could justify our giving a bounty to fraud. The most vulnerable point of the union is now removed many hundred miles farther from the centre, and every settlement made elsewhere at present contributes to diminish our means of covering that point with the impenetrable armour of a republican militia. Shall we permit those motives of policy to govern us in this happy time of assured peace, unexampled prosperity and rare tranquility and unanimity, which we should always reject with disdain if it were not that, if not the fraternal and deceitful, at least the forbearances towards fraud, vice and crime often necessary in actual war, are though in some degree justifiable also in certain other periods of national danger, embarrassment or difficulty. For myself, I never could have lent my voice in this house to support that policy even when such reasons had their strongest force. Much less can I acquiesce now. I cannot consent that this government should draw a veil over its eyes to admit the approaches of fraud. I cannot give my consent that it should tamely suffer itself to be bullied out of such a serious portion of the national wealth, as 2,500,000 dollars, which a former act of their house has led our commissioners to offer in order to quiet these unfounded claims. I have yet the strongest hopes we shall dismiss them unsatisfied by rejecting this bill. Surely we will not by passing it ennoble with legislative favor the mysteries of speculation; we will not hold out to the tribe of speculators an expectation that this government will in future gratuitously underwrite on all their land adventures, if they will be moderate in their insurance. Our bounty to the innocent sufferers will do no trifling mischief by removing from credibility its only restraint, timidity and doubt, which otherwise must have been greatly fortified by this distressing example. I hope however we shall extend that bounty to them. But upon the adventurers themselves, or on those who knowingly embarked with them in this desperate and infamous scheme, the nation's forgiveness and its silence is the only boon I will ever give my voice to bestow. We shall, I ardently hope, grant them no other here. If they reflect I think they will accept that and retire: let them do so, and in retiring let them silently return thanks to the great creator of all things for his bounty to man in granting him through this life a free will uninterrupted, unrestrained by heavenly interference. But for this bounty, the wrath of heaven would have arrested them in the commencement of their scheme. They have made that use they thought best of heaven's favor: they have coolly projected, and pursued their own chosen plan for advancement in life: let them not look to this government for aid to bear them up under the disappointment of its failure. But a few days since their hopes were high; they expected immediately to attain by our indulgence, the end of their forcibly moderated desires. Thank heaven, by the bold use of its most noble gift, which was then made by one gentleman particularly in this house; they were suddenly stopped in their progress, & that hope, unless they are thoroughly blinded by their own ardor completely extinguished. They escaped the thunder of heaven, but they have not the certain earthly punishment. Since that day they have stood in the eyes of an indignant nation, riven, blasted, stripped of all the lovely foliage of reputation by the lightning of eloquence.
to bear them read, reading, and with his head uncovered; and that the said letters shall be afterwards transcribed into your registers, and a note made of them in the margin of the arrest of condemnation.  GIVEN at the Palace of St. Cloud, under the seal of the empire, the 4th of Messidor, (year 12.)  (Signed) NAPOLEON. By the emperor. The secretary of state, (Signed) H. B. MARET. Seen by us the arch chancellor of the empire. (Signed) CAMBACERES. The grand judge minister of justice. (Signed) REGNIER. ER.
LONDON, July 11.  We this day continue our extracts from the Paris Journals, which reached us yesterday to the 1st inst. With respect to the execution of the conspirators, they communicate no new details of interest. The imperial letter of pardon, in which the conspirators commutes the capital punishment of eight of them for deportation after four years imprisonment, is not less remarkable for its affection of sensibility, than the various acts of hypocrisy with which the tyrant has too frequently attempted to mask his cruelty, and to palliate his sanguinary deeds. Who is there that can avoid feeling either indignation or contempt at the impudence of the usurper, when he dares to talk of the "clemency which he has always held in singular predilection?"
In the banishment of Moreau to the United States, we shrewdly suspect some trick, not unworthy of the acknowledged clemency of his imperial majesty. It is highly probable that he will not be allowed to land in any place belonging to that part of the American Continent.  House of Commons, July 7, 1804.  The Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered the following message:  "G. R.—His majesty relying on the experienced zeal and affection of his faithful commons, and considering that it may be of the utmost importance to provide for such emergencies as may arise, is desirous that this House will enable him to take all such measures as may be necessary, to disappoint or defeat any enterprise or design of his enemies, and the exigencies of affairs may require."
July 13.  Every possible measure is taken to render the ceremony of the Usurper's Coronation splendid and imposing; and the Mayors, of the thirty-six chief Cities of his empire are to assist at the ceremonial, and to lend their hands in fixing the crown more firmly on his head.  The last accounts from Vienna reach to the 21st ult.—The Emperor of Germany, not content with sending an Envoy Extraordinary to congratulate his new brother of France, will also, it is mentioned, dispatch an Ambassador for the express purpose of assisting at the imperial Coronation. The French Funds are at 58 6-10ths.
The gallant Earl of Moira is about to be honoured with the fair hand of that beautiful heiress, the Countess of Loudon. The nuptial ceremony is expected to take place at Viccountess Perth's in Grosvenor-square, in the course of a few days. The Lady is in her 22d year; she possesses one hundred thousand pounds in funded property, and considerable freehold estates in the North.
July 14.  The French force now at Havre, consists of 140 gun vessels and boats, of which seventy lately came down the Seine. Letters from the British squadron employed in the blockade of that port, state, that expectations are entertained by our officers of an attempt being shortly made by the enemy to force a passage along shore.  A report prevails at Dover, that nearly one hundred sail of the enemy's gun-boats, under convoy of a loop, have within these few days effected their escape from Boulogne to Cherbourg. They proceeded so near in shore, that it was impossible for our ships either to intercept them, or in any material degree to interrupt their progress. We trust that the small craft now fitting out to annoy the enemy in shoal water, will be fitted out with all possible expedition.
The moment appears to approach when it will be impossible any longer to avoid a serious rupture with the court of Madrid, and we apprehend that one with Portugal will take place at no great length of time from the former. Can it be denied that British subjects in both these countries have been harassed and insulted, while the subjects of France are treated with extraordinary indulgence, and even the laws strained and violated for their accommodation and interest? Private letters also state, in positive terms, that commercial treaties, highly injurious to our trade, have been concluded between Spain and Portugal and his Imperial Majesty Bonaparte. The best informed politicians have long doubted the wisdom of our inactivity with respect to these countries, in whose councils the fiat of the usurper is every thing; but we believe that a very short time will elapse before the reasons and grounds of this inactivity must become the subject of public discussion.  To the protest of Louis 18th, against Bonaparte's assuming the title of emperor of the French, may be added the refusal of Russia to recognize him with that title.  According to the last accounts from Rome, a demand has been made of his holiness, in consequence of which the Pope will grant full powers to Cardinal Fesch to crown, in his name, the emperor of the French.
IMPORTANT CORRESPONDENCE.  The Moniteur, No. 184, having asserted, that M. Prévost, the English minister at Madrid, in conversation with the Prince of Peace, had said, "that assassination and murder are lawful in the present state of things, to save England from the extraordinary situation in which it is placed;" the English minister demanded of the Prince of Peace, that he should contradict the calumny.—But this Spanish minister, waved the subject, by attributing the assertion to an unofficial Gazetteer, of which no notice ought to be taken, Fesnel persisted in his demand; and drove the war of Bonaparte into a small corner.
The Correspondence, (says the Sun) between the British minister at the court of Madrid, and the Prince of Peace, relative to the infamous assertions in the Moniteur, imputing sentiments and expressions to the former, tending to sanction assassination, forms so very extraordinary a State-Paper, that it would almost be reasonable to doubt its authenticity, if the mean submission which has been shown towards France by most countries, except Great Britain, did not give it a character of probability and truth. On one side we see a man of honor, anxious for his own reputation and that of the government of which he is the Representative, requiring a justification from the person who, as the British minister properly observes, is at once the only "Judge and Witness." On the other side, we see studied caution; artful reserve, and an abject avoidance of all explanation upon the subject in question. The British minister perseveres, as well from a sense of insulted honor, as from the principles of duty towards the august monarch by whom he is deputed. The other, however, maintains the same artful silence, and endeavours to turn the Correspondence into matters that have no relation to the subject.—But the design of the Spanish minister is frustrated by his very attempt to disguise it, for it is evident, that if he could have confirmed the infamous statement in the Official Journal of France, his submissive policy towards that country, would have induced him to do so without hesitation. After such conduct, it cannot be wonderful that the Spanish minister should retain the name of the Prince of Peace, so far as relates to his measures respecting France, and there can be little doubt that, whatever may be the conduct of France towards Spain, the Spanish minister will always endeavour to preserve his pacific appellation.
MR. FOX'S BUST.  His Grace the Duke of Bedford has erected, in the Garden at Woburn, a Temple consecrated to Friendship, and decorated with busts and poetical tributes to his most valued intimates. Several votaries of the muses, including General Kirkpatrick, have attempted to celebrate Mr. Fox; but his Grace, who acted as Maecenas, has given the preference to the following tasteful lines from the elegant pen and refined genius of the Duchess of Devonshire, inscribed on a pedestal supporting a very fine bust of Mr. Fox:
Here, mid the friends he lov'd the man behold, In truth unuhaken, and in virtue bold; Whose patriot zeal and uncorrupted mind Dar'd to assert the freedom of mankind; And whilst, extending defolation far, Ambition spread the baleful flames of war, Fearless of blame, and eloquent to save, 'Twas he—'twas Fox—the warning council gave! 'Midst jarring conflicts stemm'd the tide of blood, And to the menac'd world a fear-mark flood! Oh! had his voice in mercy's cause prevail'd, What grateful millions had the Statesman hail'd! Whose wisdom bade the broils of nations cease, And taught the world humanity and peace! But though he fail'd, succeeding ages here The vain yet pious effort shall revere; Boast in their annals his illustrious name, Uphold his greatness, and confirm his fame!
JESUITS.—What was formerly only rumour is now truth. Government has ordered the establishment of this useful and respectable institution, to prepare foreign missionaries. We say useful, with regard to commercial relations, which it can favour in a most eminent manner; and respectable, with regard to religion, to preach the dogma and morality of which it sends its members to the most savage, distant and unhealthy countries. We recollected yet with a tender emotion, the services rendered to humanity by the Barthelemi de Las Casas, by the Xavier, by the Vincent de Paul, by the L'Amaz, by the Tachard, &c. &c. Journal de Paris.
MILITARY INVENTION.—A singular wager, for the sum of 50 guineas, was decided last week in a rough fandangle near Birmingham: and as the circumstances of the tale are of a novel and interesting nature, (especially at this particular juncture, when naval and military consideration are all the rage) shall endeavour to point out such particulars as have transpired with regard thereto:  An ingenious gentleman, of the name of Reddell having invented what he calls a Carrade or Parapet, for the use of the infantry, some disputes it seems arose relative to the ease and expedition with which such articles might be removed from place to place: and, the bet was, that two men should draw 112 lb in one of the said carrades, farther than any two men could carry the like weight; and as it was supposed that a heavy rough road would be in favor of those that carried the weight, the privilege was allowed of choosing the worst (within a certain number of miles) that could be thought of. Accordingly four very stout looking men started at the time appointed, and after marching about 14 miles in three hours, the men with their burdens on their backs, gave up the contest, as the advantage proved to be greatly in favour of those with the carrade. The one that was used on the above occasion runs remarkably easy on 2 light, but firmly constructed wheels (about the size of those to common wheel barrows) which wheels are placed in a peculiar manner in the inside of the carrades, and nearly out of sight, and have fleet cutters placed so as to prevent their clogging in the wheel of roads. It forms a commodious seat for the two men, and underneath it, there is a place to hold the necessary articles. The back of the seat is between 4 and 5 feet high, and about 3 feet wide, covered with sheet iron, and some other ingenious contrivances which are said to render it perfectly bullet proof. It is armed with strong and sharp iron spikes at the top, and it is proposed to make them of any height, from four and a half to six feet. The low one adapted to fire over, and the high ones to have a suitable place to fire through. There are fastenings, by means of which, it secures any number of them may be instantly firmly linked together, to form a strong iron barrier, to secure the infantry not only from the fire of the enemy's musketry, but from their bayonets, and the charge of the cavalry; with suitable places for the arms, ammunition, &c. which would always be kept dry: and, by placing the carrades in a double row at a certain distance, a covering may at any time be elevated over them in less than a minute, so as to form a commodious tent, or, when fastened together, a sort of fortified camp which nothing but cannon could force. It is also said, that an army provided with carrades, would be able to secure themselves from the effects of the enemy's cannon at any time in less than 3 hours, by means of a particular form of intrenchment, from which they might either advance in good order, with the carrades in front, or retreat in the same order, if required, which intrenchments would be of little or no use to the enemy, if they gained them, unless they were provided with carrades. In short, it seems that this plan would introduce a new and unexpected mode of warfare, which would greatly harass and distress the enemy (in case they should make good a landing) and no doubt but it would greatly add to the comfort and convenience of the volunteers in particular, and inspire them with additional confidence.—For with the hearts of lions, and ramparts of iron, what enemy (though their numbers were ever so great) could possibly conquer us, especially as the advantage would be so very much in our favour in this enclosed country: for in addition to the aforementioned considerations, it is said that it is proposed to paint the carrades so as when formed in a line, exactly to represent a hedge row, and still further to heighten the effect, if occasion required, by tying small bushes on the pikes at the top, which would cause the enemy to suspect that every hedge they saw was a portable bullet proof mask in the front of an army. This plan, like all other new inventions has no doubt to encounter a multitude of prejudices; but it is generally thought, that it might prove of infinite importance in case the enemy should be able to escape the vigilance of our wooded walls and land in great numbers in this country.
SINKING FUND.  FROM CORBET'S WEEKLY POLITICAL REGISTER.  It has been recently doubted, in a contemporary publication, whether any benefit arises to the nation from the Sinking Fund; as we are still paying interest on the whole amount of the national debt 581 millions, though we are told that 77 millions have been redeemed or paid off. We are happy to have it in our power to lay before the public a calculation by which it will appear that the most beneficial effects do positively result to the nation from the operation of the Sinking Fund; and we have no doubt but every well-wisher to his country, every BRITON, will rejoice with us, when assured that not only a total redemption of the present national debt will be effected in twenty-eight years, or perhaps less, if the present system is persevered in; but also, even should that debt be increased 300 millions, by loans or the funding of exchequer bills during those twenty-eight years, that 12 years more will pay off those 300 millions also. We shall then for an end to all taxation, but for the
current expenses of the year, which at present are estimated at 50 millions; and consequently the interest of the debt will be extinguished. In the following calculation, the sum at the disposal of the commissioners for liquidating the national debt for the present year, is stated at 6,311,926, being the amount quoted by them on the 5th of January last. This sum, supposing the average of their purchases for the present year, to be at 3 per cent. will buy 10,892,818 stock. The interest of this last amount at 3 per cent. is 326,489, which added to the 6,311,926, will leave 6,638,019, in the hands of the commissioners for the year 1804; and so on. The price of the funds I have stated high throughout; should it be lower, of course the more advantageous it will be for the Sinking Fund. And for this reason the effect of that fund will be greater in war, when the price of stock is low, than in peace when it is higher, so that the war itself, which we are told is to ruin our finances, will accelerate their re-establishment.—58 is above the average price of the average price of the commissioners, purchases to this time; and the price of the funds is stated gradually higher; as no doubt, the more we advance in redeeming them, the more the price will advance also. Should it not, the sooner will the debt be discharged.
We may not be exactly correct in quoting 20 millions, as the sum actually paid to the 5th of January last; but we believe it is pretty nearly so. One million per annum having been first voted in 1782—then one and a half, afterwards two—and last two and a half millions.
   January 5. Sum at the disposal of the Commissioners. Price of Funds. Will purchase 4 Stock. Stock redeemed to this date. Millions redeemed.     1804 6311626 58 0822113 77693167 20   1805 6638089 58 1144491 88580589 21 1-2   1806 6981436 58 12036958 100025561 25   1807 7342513 58 12659550 112062519 27 1-2   1808 7729228 58 13314458 124272075 30   1809 8121757 60 13536261 138096453 32 1-2   1810 8527853 60 14131071 141572694 55   1811 8954230 60 14923721 163713765 57 1-2   1812 9401134 60 15669906 180709486 40 1-2   1813 9872041 60 16443401 196400992 40 1-2   1814 10365648 70 14806061 212862753 45   1815 10809883 70 15446591 227670854 47 1-2   1816 11273161 70 16104515 243118545 50   1817 11759296 70 16764708 259218645 55 1-2   1818 12260137 70 17351441 276018768 55   1819 12785609 75 17074425 292574492 57 1-2   1820 13196991 75 17579312 310574652 60   1821 13628870 75 18148493 328003365 61 1-2   1822 14083022 75 18717029 345742475 65   1823 14567302 75 19296089 363518507 67 1-2   1824 15082882 80 19245490 381512576 70   1825 16139942 80 20173655 405806066 72 1-2   1826 16744132 80 20990165 423919721 75   1827 17372055 80 21715043 446909896 77 1-2   1828 18023385 80 22559336 465624929 80   1829 18699364 85 21999251 491154285 82 1-2   1830 19392340 85 22775694 513155346 85   1831 20042600 85 23579338 535929226 87 1-2   1832 559508768  
Thus by the operation of the sinking fund, the whole debt of 561 millions may be paid off in twenty-eight years from this period, or forty three years from the first establishment of that fund, with a capital of eighty seven millions and a half only. It is we believe, pretty generally understood, that the origin of the sinking fund was the appropriation of a million per annum, (and which million was now increased to two millions and half) for buying up stock on account of the nation; the interest of which stock be bought up, was, and continues to be, annually added to the sum appropriated and applied to the same purpose. So that the public continues to pay interest on the total amount of the national debt, (which, of course, includes the amount so bought up) yet that interest is received again by the public; and by being applied to the purposes of the sinking fund, the nation is in fact paying simple and receiving compound interest; and hence arises the benefit, the astonishing extent of which we have shown by the preceding statement. The amount so bought up, cannot perhaps be literally paid to be paid off, whilst the public continues to pay interest on it; but may it not be said to be redeemed, since the public have absolutely paid the original individual creditor? And though interest is still paid on it, that interest, as said before, is repaid to the public, for the purpose of buying up or redeeming more stock, and thus in time positively cancelling and paying off the whole.
In the critical and important contest in which we are at present engaged, and struggling under the burthen of taxes, when we consider that it is more than probable that our haughty and insatiable enemy trusts more to the hope of our not being able to support those taxes, than to the sword; we flatter ourselves the statement we have now presented our readers, will prove the more acceptable; and that they will give us credit for the motives with which we have brought it forward to animate our countrymen to bear their present burthens cheerfully, by pointing out to them, if they persevere, a resting place almost within their grasp. We trust the system of the sinking fund will be persevered in to its full extent. But should the exigencies of the times ever require its suspension, it will be seen by what we have now laid before the public, that by suspending its operation for the moment, funds adequate to any emergency, or pecuniary embarrassment, may be obtained, without laying an extraordinary load upon the people. For instance in the present year, in case of invasion or other unfortunate casualty, the sum of £. 6,311,926 would be at the disposal of government, by suspending the operation of the sinking fund only for one year; and in case of greater emergency, the sum of £. 77, 698, 368, by suspending its operation altogether. Thus, whilst it must raise our spirits (if they require at all to be raised) it must damp those of our inveterate foes; and, whilst it brightens all our prospects, must cast a fallen gloom over all their projects. From their arms or intrigues we are persuaded that we have nothing to fear: and when we thus see our resource without the reach of their manoeuvres, we may treat their designs on our finances, with the same contempt we cast their threats of invading our coasts.
BRITISH CIVIL LIST.
Mr. Pitt called the attention of the House of Commons, to the embarrassment of the Civil List, which he placed under three classes: 1st. The expenses incurred by foreign ministers and ambassadors: 2dly, the extra expenses of the household; and 3dly, the extraordinary expenditure for secret service in the present important conjuncture of affairs. The ground for the house to proceed upon was the same on which it acted in 1802 and he would shortly state the exceedings to be at present accruing, since the year before mentioned, 590,000l. In his opinion, there were many of these charges, which, instead of hanging as a burthen on the civil list, should be annually laid before and voted by the parliament. The expense of prosecutions, and many other estimates were liable to vary according to circumstances, and could be foreseen at the time the house might vote the necessary sums for his majesty's civil list establishment. All these charges he should not at this time propose to transfer but should confine himself to the amount of about 135,000l. which would exclude the heads of exchequer messengers, and various other expenses, which would be explained in the detail. Gentlemen must know, from their own private affairs, that since the year 1786 when Mr. Burke's bill passed, household expenses had increased to 60l. per cent. The large augmentation of expense must, of course, take place in the royal as in other families. In some departments the expense of the civil list was much diminished, and particularly in that of pensions, for which there was an allowance of 92,000l. and one of which there had been for some years past, a diminution of 12,000l. annually. The excess of the expenses for foreign ministers in consequence of the war, and numerous transactions connected with it, was, in this year, 10,000l. There was also another consideration to which he wished to point the attention of

the house, namely, to the illustrious princes of the royal family, to each of whom he had no doubt that every gentleman would think an allowance of 60,000l. a year instead of 40,000l. which they now received would be extremely reasonable. He concluded with observing, that the additional sum to the civil list, which he intended to submit, was 60,000l. a year, and moved, in the first instance, that this sum 591, 515l. 8s. 10d. be granted for the payment of the arrears of his majesty's civil establishment. The motion was opposed by Mr. Burke, on the ground that the clauses of Mr. Burke's bill had never been strictly complied with, and that the increase of arrears in the civil list had, upon an average, been more than trebled within the last two years; and by Sir E. Burdett, on the principle that a time at which the comforts of the people were diminished by the grievous taxes imposed upon them; those who were in the cause of that diminution, ought to participate in their privations. After a reply from Mr. Pitt, and several observations in support of the measure from Mr. Addington, the motion was agreed to.
NEW-YORK, Sept. 6.
The arrival yesterday, of the Liverpool Packet, from Liverpool has furnished us with London dates to the 15th ult. Arrivals at Boston have anticipated their contents. Some extracts, however, which seem worthy of perusal, have been made.
STATE PAPERS.
Translation of an Imperial Ukase, issued by the Emperor of Russia at St. Petersburg, the 7th of May, 1804, relative to the admission of foreigners into his Imperial Majesty's dominions.
1st. To enter our frontiers, all persons except in the undermentioned cases, are to be provided with passports from our Ministers and other Agents residing in foreign countries. Particular instructions will be sent to our Ministers and Consuls as to the manner in which such passports are to be granted, so as to cause the least inconvenience to trade or general intercourse.
2d. Persons coming from cities or places where we have neither missions nor consuls, must produce passports at the frontiers from the governors or chief officers there. Passports from inferior officers, from the country justices of commissioners, or from the magistrates will not be acknowledged. The governors of our frontier provinces will receive instructions in what manner they are to communicate with the Governors of provinces belonging to another power relative to this point, and directions will be given at the barriers where passports are to be acknowledged.
3d. Russian subjects, traders, and other persons usually residing in Russia, having passports to go abroad for a limited term, will be permitted to return with the same passports.
4th. Persons owing allegiance to two powers (Sujects mixtes) must, from our side, be provided with a passport for a year from the regency of that government in which their property lies, with which during that term, they may pass out and in without interruption.
5th. All persons must produce their passports at the frontiers; and, if conformable to these regulations, they will be allowed to pass without molestation, except such as may be particularly ordered to stop.
6th. These regulations are to extend to all foreigners so far as regards passengers arriving there. Ship masters, and persons serving on board ships, are to be admitted upon the former existing regulations.
7th. All these regulations shall be enforced for the nearer ports of Europe within two months; and for the more distant, namely, Spain and Portugal, within four months, reckoning from the day of this ordinance (Ukase), which shall be published in the newspapers of both our capitals.
8th. The daily communications of persons residing on the frontiers will remain on the former footing.
9th. The intercourse with various Asiatic nations on the frontiers of the Cuban, on the lines of Caucasia and Orenburgh, and also with the Turkish subjects in general, will remain on the former footing.
10th. Passports will be granted to persons going out of the country as formerly.
Signed with his Imperial majesty's own hand, ALEXANDER. Countessified, Count V. Kotchubey.
PARIS, June 23.
A gang of thieves is now (June 23) before the Criminal Tribunal, at Lyons; they were taken in the magazine of a rich merchant there, citizen Fliniez in the very act of carrying away several bales of silk. Their Chief, called Dufour, has subsisted by thieving and cheating, for 16 years past, or since the beginning of the revolution. In 1792, however, he suddenly became a famous Jacobin, and a staunch patriot; and in 1793, and 1794, he was one of the revolutionary judges, who condemned so many Lioneze people to death and confiscated their property. Of these confiscations, he appropriated to himself four millions of livres, (166,000l.) went to Paris, bought an hotel, kept his mistresses, invented all foreign ministers and fashionable people to his balls, routs, assemblies, &c. &c. In 1799, to court a young Mademoiselle Beaumanoir, a niece to our empress; but in the interval, having met with other rogues, more clever than himself, he was carried to gambling-houses, and plundered of his savings. Being reduced to the barest coot in which the revolution found him, he collected together all discontended Terrorists or Jacobins out of place, and formed a gang of thieves, coiners and forgers, and restored to the patriots places defined for them by nature, and which it had been a blessing for France if they had never quitted. Some of his accomplices have already perished, others occupy the prisons and the galleys, but Dufour himself had hitherto escaped the searches of the police, when a faithful female betrayed his faithless lover. His plan for his last robbery was excellent. He had hired several boats on the river Rhone, on the quay of which Fliniez's magazine is situated. He had posted at twenty steps distance between each ten centies, in case of alarm, and entered thereabout boldly, at nine o'clock in the evening of the 19th of May, the magazine with false keys. The hired boats were under the care of twenty two other accomplices, of whom he ordered 6 to join him, and had twelve persons with him in the magazine, to assist in packing up its contents. At a certain signal, however, five police agents, and eight guards d'armes, concealed in a small closet, rushed forwards captured Dufour and those thieves within doors, whilst other police agents and gens d'armes seized the remainder of them on the quay and in the boats. He had the impudence, before the tribunal, to claim intimate acquaintance with our Emperor and Empress, having treated them both, and been treated by them in April 1792. He even pretended to possess the Emperor's promise of a place in the Tribune, but the survivor, or survivor, though signed, Bonaparte, was visibly a stranger, which the fact will force him to confess. He has acknowledged before the Tribunal, that, besides the four millions, he as a patriot appropriated to himself at Lyons ten years ago, Rewbel had procured him opportunity, by contracts for the army and navy, to gain three millions more, which funds were lost by him within eighteen months, at the gambling tables at Paris. He is only thirty-four years of age, and will probably pass the remainder of his days in the galleys, should he not obtain the pardon of the Emperor, for which he hopes.
LONDON, July 19.
A letter from Paris says, "The day before Bonaparte went to Campagne he ordered the Members of the Marine and Military Sections of the Council of State to St. Cloud, and was closeted with them from nine o'clock in the morning to five in the afternoon; the Ministers of War and of the Marine, and the Admirals Thugot, and Bruix, were besides present. What was discussed is not entirely known, though many think that the grand plan of invasion was the subject. Bruix has since returned to the coast, but Thugot has resigned his command, and Count Decrès, who commanded as interim, is now the Chief of the French fleet. It is said, that Thugot strongly opposed the idea of exposing the remainder part of the French fleet to the issue of a battle, and even predicted a defeat, should it engage. This Admiral is now in complete disgrace, and has been ordered to reside 50 leagues from Paris, and 50 leagues from the coast. As Talleyrand is Thugot's personal enemy many think that his intrigues and influence have not been idle on this occasion."
DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 8.
An intelligent merchant of this city, has favoured us with the following important letter received from a character of the first respectability at Cadiz, dated
"July 20th, 1804."
"In my last of the 19th ult. I advised you of the failure of our crops, since which our harvest has turned out even more unfavourable than was at first apprehended, and I know not from whence we can receive supplies adequate to our wants, unless from your side of the Atlantic. The threatening appearances of hostilities between this country and yours, have lately arisen to so alarming a height, that your Ambassador Mr. Pinckney, has actually demanded his passports, and I presume before this time has left Madrid. If war takes place, we shall be reluctantly forced into the measure in defence of our dearest and best rights, and as it must be interesting to you to be informed of the principal cause of dispute, I enclose you an extract of a letter I have just received from a Spanish gentleman at Madrid, who possesses the best opportunities of information. It will explain to you the unfounded pretensions of your administration in regard to the extent of Louisiana, who in order to enforce a submission to their unwarrantable claims to West Florida, may involve our countries in a contest, which would be deeply distressing to us, and could never be approved of or become popular in the United States, because unsupported by even a plausible pretext or the shadow of Equity."
Madrid, July 12, 1804.
"Although 'tis understood that the refusal of this Government to ratify the Convention with the United States was produced by the inadmissible demands of the latter respecting the extent of Louisiana, yet the most alarming grounds of misunderstanding between our court and Mr. Pinckney, are in reality the pretensions set up by the American government to West Florida, which is all that tract of country lying east of the Perdido, and extending as far as the river Mississippi, excepting however there from the Island of New Orleans, which attaches to Louisiana."
This territory, Spain will never relinquish unless for a fair equivalent, but, she does not dispute the title of the United States to Louisiana properly so called, although France has never complied with those conditions by the execution of which she was to have acquired a right to that Province. In regard to East and West Florida, they were originally ceded by France to England by the treaty of peace of 1763, who at the same time ceded to Spain the Island of New Orleans and territory west of the Mississippi, which we have held ever since without any alteration of boundaries whatever.
In 1780, we conquered from Great Britain all the country east of the Mississippi, then divided into East and West Florida, which conquests were confirmed to us by the definitive treaty of peace of 1783. It is here to be observed that West Florida, has ever since retained that name, and formed no part of Louisiana, as originally ceded by France to Spain, but having been conquered by the latter it remained a separate government as when under the dominion of England, and independent of Louisiana, possessing a Governor appointed by the Crown, who was in a certain degree as well as the Governor of Louisiana dependent on the government of Havana.
It is evident that the treaty of Cession of Louisiana, first by Spain to France, and secondly by France to the United States, never did or could in the remotest degree contemplate or include West Florida, in as much as that instrument makes no mention of Florida by which name alone that country has been known ever since 1763, a period of 41 years.
The description of the ceded territory given in the royal order of the Spanish court addressed to the intendant of Louisiana to deliver up that province to General Victor, is also clear and precise, 'tis therein styled a Retrocession of Louisiana, with the same extent it possessed when ceded by France to the Crown of Spain.
As well might the American Government claim East Florida also under her construction of the terms of cession, because previous to the year 1719 France claimed all the country East of the Mississippi under the appellation of Louisiana, and did actually grant an exclusive privilege to the commerce thereof, to the famous Crozat.
If any thing further can be required to render the treaty still more clear and definite on this head, the intentions and meaning of the originally contracting parties must surely be deemed conclusive and final. The Marquis de Cailla Calvo, commissioned on the part of Spain, and L'Aufat on the part of France, had respective orders, the one to deliver, and the other to receive Louisiana, without any reference or allusion whatever to West Florida , and the act of delivery was thus completed conformably to those instructions from the two courts.
The interruption given by the United States to the treaty of cession, is therefore equally extravagant and untenable, and will never be sanctioned or submitted to by the Spanish court although the annihilation of the monarchy should become a possible consequence of its rejection of so degrading a proposal.
You may judge from the translation of my friend's letter, of the unjust pretensions of your government, an adherence to which, and that too for a barren and unimportant tract of country compared with Louisiana, would for ever tarnish the honor of your nation, and stamp it with the character of that grasping ambition from which she alone of all the powers of the earth has been heretofore exempt."
COMMUNICATION.
WHAT was mentioned in private letters, is now confirmed by the Governor's well-timed proclamation; that the Connecticut intruders, in a part of what was lately the county of Luzerne, have organized an armed force in opposition to the authority and laws of the State, and of the United States, and proceeded to acts of affiliation and violence against the settlers under Pennsylvania.
Thus is the state threatened with a civil war, by a set of desperate and deluded men, who are misled and urged on to support the unfounded claims of a few designing land-jobbing sales-men, without any colour of legal right or authority from the State from whence they came, or the least countenance from the people of the frontier old townships.
If a check is not speedily given, by the strong arm of government, to these lawless invaders of private property, and the peace and safety of the state, they will gather strength by delay, and probably proceed to greater acts of violence, and overrun a larger tract of country. [Am. Daily Adv.]
The following paper was stuck up at Mentz, on the 17th of June last:
"Long live the general in chief, Moreau! He is too justly renowned to be without enemies. The more he has acquired, by sincerely and constantly devoting himself to the defence of his country, can only increase in scat , thro' the absurd calumnies by which it was attempted to be obscured. The wishes of the whole nation are, and will always be, for the prosperity of this great man."
"Virtuous Citizen! Father of the soldiers! Enjoy at this moment the delicious rewards which thy innocence
causes us to feel, and which millions of true Frenchmen concentrate within their hearts!"
"May all those, whom fortune blinds, & whose personal interest is the spring of their actions, henceforth take truth for their only model. France would then have in her bosom none but faithful servants, and friends to her repose."
NEW-YORK, Sep. 6.
The brig from Liquia, mentioned in the Mercantile Advertiser of Tuesday, has been captured by the British frigate Leander, was a privateer of 16 guns, having on board a cargo of tallow, hides, and coffee, and had no papers nor name. She mistook the Leander and Cambrian for the two French frigates now in our harbour, and inadvertently put herself into their possession. She was ordered for Halifax.
[Mer. Adv.]
ENQUIRER.
RICHMOND: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1804.
EASTERN BOUNDARY OF LOUISIANA.
OUR conjecture, it seems, was not altogether inaccurate. One of the principal sources of difference between this country and Spain, really arises from the difficulty of adjusting the Eastern Boundary of Louisiana. Spain, it is well known, is anxious to limit the dimensions of that country by the Western Bank of the Mississippi. We on the contrary extend our claims as far to the East as the Perdido river; and we appeal to the treaty of 1763, and to the definitive treaty of 1763, and to the internal jurisdiction of Florida, established by Spain both after the treaty of 1719, and 1783, as the solid basis of our pretensions. What is in truth the Eastern Boundary of Louisiana? becomes, therefore, a question of considerable importance, both as it respects our own rights, and our obligations to Spain. Is this boundary really formed by the Mississippi, or the Perdido river? On this question our federal government has no doubt formed a conclusive opinion; and there can be no doubt also, that Mr. Pinckney has been engaged in expressing this opinion, and in negotiating with the Court of Madrid a corresponding arrangement. But it is the property and the duty of the people also to make their own enquiries, and to form their independent opinions. If, as some persons declare, this difference between the two nations is likely to terminate in a war, or even if it be likely to produce a long and interesting negotiation, the people are particularly called upon, by all their political duties, to direct their attention towards this curious, and as it may appear to some, this complicated question.
On this question my researches have not certainly been very extensive; but as far as they have gone they have conducted me to the conclusion, that our newly acquired country of Louisiana, extends beyond the Mississippi as far as the Perdido river. The contrary opinion; the opinion, that it is bounded by the Mississippi, is unsupported either by the treaties which have been formed by Spain, or by the jurisdiction which she has established in Florida. The principal arguments, which have appeared in favour of this opinion, are given (in this day's Enquirer) in the extract of a letter from Madrid, dated July 12th. To determine then in a certain degree the truth of this opinion, it will be necessary to analyse the contents of this letter. In every part of it, it appears to me deficient in accuracy of fact, or accuracy of conclusion.
It is not true that "East and West Florida were originally ceded by France to England by the treaty of 1763." The terms of East and West Florida were never known in Spanish or French geography. This distinction was first introduced by the English government, after the definitive treaty of 1763. By this treaty, all the country E. of the Mississippi, except N. Orleans, being given up to them, they divided the whole territory S. of Georgia, and E. of the Mississippi, into the two distinct provinces of E. and W. Florida. This assertion is indeed expressly confirmed by the writer himself, who says afterwards that previous to 1780 this country had been divided into the two Floridas.
It is not true that France "at the same time ceded to Spain the island of N. Orleans, and territory W. of the Mississippi." I have examined every article of this definitive treaty of 1763, (and it was said to be given at large) and I have been unable to discover a single article which relates to this cession. The truth appears to be, that this cession was stipulated for in a secret treaty of 1762, made between France & Spain.
The conclusion that may be drawn from the first of these assertions, is consequently inaccurate. If this country was not divided into E. and W. Florida, in the year 1763, it would be absurd to seek in the Western boundary of W. Florida for the western boundary of Florida itself. It would be absurd to assume the boundaries of this country, as it was laid off by the Spaniards before the treaty of 1763 under the denomination of Florida , as the boundaries of a new territory, which that very treaty might have created, and which the English had afterwards divided into two separate provinces, discriminated by two original names.
That a new territory was created by this very treaty of 63; that Florida as owned by Spain and rendered by them to England, did not embrace the same extent of country, as East & West Florida, owned and governed by England, will appear from the very treaty itself. By the 7th article his most christian majesty (that is France) makes the middle of the Mississippi river from its source to the Iberville and from thence down the Iberville, the boundary between his possessions and those of his Britannic Majesty. In other words, France cedes to England all the soil which it possesses to the E. of these rivers. But all the soil, which lies between these rivers and the Atlantic ocean, did not belong to it and therefore it could not be ceded.
For we discover in the 20th article his Catholic Majesty (that is, Spain) ceding and guaranteeing Florida, with all that it possesses to the East of these rivers, to G. Britain. By this treaty then it would appear, that E. and W. Florida, which G. Britain afterwards discriminated were composed of all the territory, which France possessed to the E. of these rivers, and of the part which Spain possessed; that is, of Florida. What part then did France possess; and what part did Spain possess; can only depend upon the geographical discrimination, which had existed previous to the treaty of 63. But this discrimination had been made by the treaty between France and Spain of 1719, and had continued from that time till the year 63. By this treaty the boundaries of Florida, inhabited by the Spaniards and of Louisiana possessed by the French, were fixed at the Perdido river. The conclusion therefore, which this writer wishes to draw from his second assertion is consequently inaccurate. Even had the definitive treaty of 63 ceded to Spain all the country to the East of the Mississippi, it would not have followed that it had ceded the whole country of Louisiana; because this territory did not constitute the whole of Louisiana.
It is not true (I am induced to believe) that after the territory of the Floridas had returned under the jurisdiction of Spain by the treaty of '83, "West Florida retained that name, and possessed a separate government, independently of Louisiana." The fact seems to have been, that the distinction between East and West Florida was never maintained by Spain; that the part of the country which lies between the Apalachicola and Perdido rivers was put under the administration of the Governor of St. Augustine; and that the remaining part between the Perdido and Mississippi rivers were subject to the superintending power of the Governor of New Orleans. If this statement be accurate, it is evident that Louisiana and Florida had each of them the same extent, when they were "actually in the hands of Spain," that they had, when France possessed it. And by the treaty of 1763, the boundary line was fixed at the Perdido river. But if this statement be not accurate; if the Florida, over which Spain exercised a jurisdiction after the treaty of '63 extended to the Mississippi, while the Florida, which belonged to it previous to this treaty, did not extend farther than the Perdido river; a curious question will occur, when
after the Louisiana which has been ceded to us, is to have the "same extent which it actually had in the hands of Spain," or the extent "that it had when France possessed it." The spirit of the treaty appears to embrace the last condition. The Perdido river, therefore, seems to be the true line of demarcation between the American territory of Louisiana, and the Spanish province of Florida.
The most candid and luminous view, perhaps, which has been published of this subject, was taken by Mr. J. Randolph on October 9th, in the debate on the Louisiana Treaty. This view I now present to the inspection of my readers. For the most complete account of Louisiana (taken at all its extent) I refer them to Morfe's American Gazetteer, published during the present war.
"As long ago as the year 1673, the inhabitants of the French province of Canada explored the country on the Mississippi. A few years afterwards (1685) La Salle, with emigrants from old France, made a settlement on the bay of St. Bernard, and at the close of the 17th century, previous to the existence of the Spanish colony of Pensylvania, another French settlement was made by the governor D'Iberville at Mobile and on the Isle Dauphin, or Mobile, at the mouth of that bay. In 1719, a short time previous to the peace of Utrecht, Louis XIV described the extent of the colony of Louisiana (by the settlements) in his grant of its exclusive commerce to Crozat. Three years subsequent to this, the Spanish establishment at Pensylvania was formed, as well as the settlement of the Acadians on the river Mexican. After various conflicting efforts, on both sides, the bay and river Perdido was established, (from the peace of 1719) as the boundary between the French province of Louisiana on the one side and the Spanish province of Florida on the other;—this river being nearly equidistant between Mobile and Pensylvania. Near the close of the war between England and France, rendered memorable for the unexampled success, with which it was conducted by that unrivalled statesman the great Lord Chatham, Spain became a party on the side of France. The loss of the Havannah, and other important dependencies, was the immediate consequence. In 1762, France, by a secret treaty of contemporaneous date with the preliminary treaty of peace, relinquished Louisiana to Spain as an indemnity for her losses, sustained by advocating the cause of France. By the definitive treaty of 1763, France ceded to England all that part of Louisiana which lies east of the Mississippi except the island of New Orleans. The rest of the province to Spain. It is to be observed that although France ostensibly ceded this country to England, virtually the cession was on the part of Spain; because France was no longer interested in the business, but as the friend of Spain, (having previously relinquished the whole to her) and because in 1763 restitution was made by England having acquired this portion of Louisiana, together with the Spanish province of Florida, annexed to the former that part of Florida which lies west of the Apalachicola and east of the Perdido; thereby forming the province of West-Florida . It is only in English geography, and during this period, from 1763 to 1783, that such a country as West-Florida is known. For Spain having acquired both the Floridas in 1783 reannexed to Louisiana the country west of the Perdido subject to the governor of New Orleans, and established the ancient boundaries of Florida; the country between the Perdido and Apalachicola being subject to the governor of St. Augustine. By the treaty of St. Ildefonso, Spain cedes to France "the province of Louisiana with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain;" viz. to the Perdido—"and that it had when France possessed it"—to the Perdido—and such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between Spain and other powers;" that is saving to the United States the country given up by the treaty San Lorenzo. We have succeeded to all the rights of France."
"HIGHLY IMPORTANT."
The republican printers throughout this state are requested to state in their papers that the election for Electors of a President and Vice-President of the United States, will be held on the first Monday of November next at the Court-house of each county and corporation in this commonwealth; and that the persons chosen as Electors, are to meet at the Capitol in the city of Richmond, on the first Wednesday in December next, to vote for a President and Vice-President.
Sep. 13, 1804.
Mr. George Tucker was on Thursday elected one of the Directors of the Bank of Virginia, in the room of Mr. George Jefferson resigned.
An apology is offered to the author of the present member of the Rainbow, for its appearing in so small a type. The Editor has one only excuse to offer: Inadvertence. He trusts however that the interest of the theme will more than compensate for the manner of its appearance. He trusts that there is no enlightened inhabitant of this country, let his eye be ever so much dimmed by age, or his attention ever so much arrested by the labour of reading, that will not eagerly peruse an essay "on American Genius."
It is rumoured, says the New-York Daily Advertiser of the 8th inst. that M. Jerome Bonaparte, and his little Baltimore beauty, have taken French leave, and tacitly slipped off in the vessel which carries General Armstrong, our lately appointed Minister, to Nantz.
The rev. Eliphalet Nott, of Albany, is elected President of Union College, at Schenectady, in the room of Dr. Maxey, who has accepted the presidency of the University of South Carolina.
Extract of a letter from Liverpool, dated June 20.
"On the 20th June 1804, an additional duty of 12 1/2 per cent. was imposed on all articles imported from the United States of America, except cotton."
A PETITION will be presented to the next General Assembly, to establish a FERRY on the lands of PETER RUST, in Richmond County, to his said RUST's lands in Essex County. September 15.—[Smp.]
ALL persons having claims on the estate of Col. Philip Pendleton dec. whether founded on private contracts, or his responsibility as Sheriff of King & Queen county; are requested to bring the evidences of their respective claims, before Thomas Claiborne Boomer, residing at King & Queen courthouse, (to whose management the aforesaid estate has been confided) in order that prompt commensuration with the demand may be immediately made by EDWARD HILL adm'r. with the will annexed. Spt. 13. ($240.)
Printings.
IN ALL ITS VARIETY, EXECUTED AT THE OFFICE of the ENQUIRER.

THERE is not a country on the face of the globe, to which nature has been more bountiful than to the United States. The felicity of our situation and the diversified blessings we enjoy, have been the theme of panegyric...
Europeans have sometimes accused America of a poverty of genius and weakness of intellect, which place her much behind the ancient world; and even the enlightened Buffon has adopted the idea that nature is more feeble in her efforts, in the Western than in the Eastern Hemisphere.
This reasoning is at first sight specious and imposing; but cannot withstand the test of rigid enquiry. I shall assume the hypothesis most disadvantageous to my position—that America is as old and has been as long peopled as Europe, Asia or Africa.
Whoever has observed the progress of the human mind, must have perceived that its first struggles with ignorance are always more painful and difficult, than its subsequent efforts.
If these propositions are correct, it will follow that when we compare two nations with each other, we should first enquire whether their situations have been equally auspicious to their gaining this first step...
ed to preserve, enlarge and ripen it, after it was transferred to the Greeks. As this period is more within the compass of history, our conclusions from it will be more just and accurate, than from any prior Era.
The watch was at the distance of seventeen feet and an half; and, when it was laid into the cross-trumpet, it was heard equally well at the end-trumpet.
The commission of Savans, charged by the French government to inspect and execute the official publication concerning Egypt, has sent a report to the Minister of the interior...
The London Monthly Commercial Reporter for June last, says, "the traders of the American States continue to enlarge their traffic with the East-Indies; but there is no danger to fear that they would injure the trade between England and the East, unless the price of freight from England to India should be enhanced enormously above what it is at present."
The Bishop of Tourney, in an address to the new Emperor, says, "God formed Bonaparte for the Throne, because he confided to him all the necessary talents."
RUN AWAY from the subscriber in July last, a negro man, by the name of KITTY, who formerly lived in Manchester and was the property of Robert Smyth.
THE BROAD-ROCK FALL RACES will commence on Monday the 24th day of September next, and continue four days.
FROM THE FORT FOLIO. NEW LIFE OF DR. JOHNSON. Mr. G. KEARSLEY, one of the London booksellers, has published a very perfect and commodious edition of Dr. JOHNSON's Dictionary of the English language...
From the British Monthly Magazine. It appears from some experiments made by Mr. E. WALKER, that acoustic instruments may be constructed for conveying at a distance, without the assistance of tubes to convey the sound.
NEAL NELSON, BOOT & SHOE MANUFACTURER, MAIN-STREET, RICHMOND.
WANTED ON HIRE; A WOMAN without a Child, who is a good Cook, Washer, and Ironer. Liberal wages are offered for one who can come well recommended.
WANTED ON HIRE; A GIRL, from 12 to 16, who has been accustomed to wait in a house. Apply at the Enquirer Office.
MADEIRA WINE, Of a superior quality, which we offer for sale by the hogshead and quarter-cask.
FOR RENT, The Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern.
(BY AUTHORITY.) SCHEME OF A LOTTERY...CLASS No. I. TO BUILD AN ACADEMY IN THE CITY OF RICHMOND.
Table with 3 columns: Tickets at 10 dollars each, Prizes, Amount. Includes entries like 3750 Tickets at 10 dollars each, 1 Prize of dollars 5000, 1 Do. 2000, 5 Do. 1000, etc.
1542 Prizes. 2208 Blanks. 3750 Tickets at 10 dollars each.
This Lottery has been authorized by the Legislature of Virginia, for the laudable purpose of erecting a Seminary of Learning in or near the Metropolis of this State.
It is hoped that the gentlemen who have purchased Tickets in the Richmond Academy will still hold them, as the division of the former Lottery into four classes was deemed necessary by the Trustees, to insure success to so useful an institution.
The town of Belfon (to the honor of its citizens) has public schools in which are about sixteen hundred pupils.
The Trustees of the Richmond Academy, have about thirteen acres of ground, nearly one half is accepted as a donation, and the remainder they have contracted for, on which they intend to erect the Academy.
Tickets may be had of the said committee, at the Office of the Enquirer, at A. Davis's Office, of Messrs. Gallego, Richard & Co. Messrs. Burton, Brown, Messrs. Thomas Taylor & Co. of Wm. Prentis of Petersburg, of Dr. John Brockenbrough, jr. Samuel Pleasants, jr. and William Pritchard.
FOR RENT, FOR A TERM OF YEARS, The Farm whereon James Harris, decd. lived about 18 years ago in the county of Caroline. It is beautifully situated on Pamunkey River, commands a handsome prospect, and is extremely healthful.
THE FIRST VOLUME is ready for Subscribers at the Book Store of Wm. PRICHARD. Richmond, August 18, 1804.
THAT the Common Hall of the City of Richmond, will at their next monthly meeting proceed to recommend to the Court of Hustings for the said City, one of their proper persons to be appointed a CONSTABLE of the said City, in the room of Leighton Wood, who has resigned.
WANTED to hire or purchase, a Wet Nurse without a child of her own. Enquire of the Printers.
Mediterranean Passports. NOTICE is hereby given, that it has been deemed expedient to change the form of the Mediterranean passport issued to vessels of the United States; that from the 8th day of July next, those of the new form will be issued at the custom houses to every vessel, for which application may be made on a compliance with the terms prescribed by law and surrendering the former passport of which they may be possessed, if any, in which latter case no fees will be required for the exchange; and that by an arrangement agreed upon by the Barbary powers with whom we are at peace, either the old or the new form of passport will be sufficient to protect the vessels of the United States, from capture until the 1st of July 1805, after which the old form of passport will be unavailable and the new one alone in use.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, 23rd of May, 1804. The printers of the laws of the United States are requested to insert the above in their Gazettes twice a week for the space of six months, and the Collectors of the customs to keep copies of it posted up in their offices.
FAIRFIELD RACES. ON Monday the 1st of October next, will be run for over the FAIRFIELD COURSE, a Sweepstakes for Colts three years old, two mile heats. Seven Colts are entered at two hundred dollars each, and the subscription closed. Weights, agreeably to the rules of the Jockey Club.
On Tuesday, the 2d day of October, the Jockey Club Purse of 400 dollars, will be run for, four Mile Heats.
The following day, the Purse of the proprietor of the Course, three Mile Heats.
WEIGHTS AS FOLLOWS. Aged Horses 135 lbs. 6 years old 118, 5 years old 112, 4 years old 106, 3 years old 90.
Mares and Geldings allowed three pounds. Richmond, August 18, 1804.
SHERRY WINE, of an excellent quality, in pipes and half pipes—for sale by SAMUEL MYERS.
SCOTTVILLE JOCKEY CLUB. ON the second Thursday in September, will be run for, over the Scottville course, the Jockey Club Purse of £. 100—three mile heats.
The day after, the Purse of the Proprietor of the Course, of £. 50—two mile heats.
Weights as follows: Aged Horses, 135 lbs. Six Years Old, 118, Five Years do. 117, Four Years do. 106, Three Years do. 90.
NOTICE. THE office of Supervisor of the Revenue for the District of Virginia being discontinued, and the unfinished business of the said Office transferred to me; the Collectors of the Direct Tax and Internal Revenue, whose accounts have not been finally adjusted and paid, are hereby informed, that they are now required to call at my office, in the city of Richmond, without delay, and pay the balances due to the United States.
As most of the abovenamed lands were sold in Dec. 1803, the privilege of redemption will continue until December next.
The money received by me for the redemption of the said lands, will be returned to the purchaser, with interest at the rate of 25 per cent per annum on the purchase money, to the day on which it may be paid to me.
VALUABLE HOUSES & LOTS. THE SUBSCRIBER OFFERS FOR SALE OR RENT, That handsome BRICK TENEMENT in which he at present resides, beautifully situated on Shockoe Hill, a short distance from the Capitol, in a very healthy and agreeable part of the city.
ALSO, FOR RENT OR LEASE, A final, neat, two-story BRICK TENEMENT, (in the neighbourhood of Mr. Thomas Rutherford) containing five good rooms, passages, closets, &c. &c. with the requisite out buildings, and a good well of water.
AND FOR SALE, Several handsome unimproved HALF-ACRE LOTS, eligibly situated on the Hill.
SPOTSWOOD LIPSCOMBE. VIRGINIA: AT A HIGH COURT OF CHANCERY, HOLDEN AT THE CAPITOL, IN THE CITY OF RICHMOND, 5th March, 1796.
BETWEEN Mary Ruffin, executrix, and Herbert Claiborne, James Ruffin and William Ruffin, executors of Robert Ruffin, and James Ruffin, William Ruffin and Sterling Ruffin, prosecuting in their own behalf.
AND William Maclin, Isaac Hicks and Nancy his Wife, William Gee and John Gee, Defts. THIS cause, which abated as to the plaintiff Mary Ruffin, by her death, came on the 5th day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, to be heard on the bill, answers, exhibits and examinations of witnesses, and was argued by counsel: on consideration whereof, the court doth direct one of its Commissioners to state in account of the payments made, if any payments were made, towards discharging the debt, interest and charges intended to be secured by the indenture in the bill recited, and also to examine the bills of credit alleged to have been tendered by John Jones, on behalf of the defendant William Maclin, on the ninth day of December, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty one, in order to discover whether such bills of credit could be legally tendered at that time, and the Commissioner is empowered to examine the Plaintiffs in solemn manner, and require their acknowledgment or denial of such payments, and tender and to report the matters, as they shall appear to him, to the court, stating specially such as to him shall seem pertinent, or by the parties shall be desired to be so stated; and the bill is dismissed, as to the defendant John Gee, who hath by his answer disclaimed any title to the land conveyed by the indenture aforesaid.
A Copy, Teste, PETER TINSLEY, C.C. COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE, RICHMOND, May 23d, 1804.
The parties concerned are desired to take notice, that I have appointed Friday the twenty-third day of November next, for carrying into effect the within Decree, upon which day their attendance is required at my office, with their papers and accounts ready for examination.
JUST PUBLISHED, And For Sale at Wm. Prichard's Book-Store: VOLNEY'S VIEW OF THE CLIMATE AND SOIL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA—with MAPS and PLATES.
WANTED ON HIRE; A WOMAN without a Child, who is a good Cook, Washer, and Ironer. Liberal wages are offered for one who can come well recommended.
WANTED ON HIRE; A GIRL, from 12 to 16, who has been accustomed to wait in a house. Apply at the Enquirer Office.
MADEIRA WINE, Of a superior quality, which we offer for sale by the hogshead and quarter-cask.
FOR RENT, The Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.
THE Tenement in which the Office of the Examiner was formerly kept, situated on Shockoe Hill immediately below the Swan Tavern. The House and lot has lately undergone a thorough repair. The land is supposed to be an excellent one for a Grocery and Dry Good Store; for which purposes the front Room is neatly fitted up. The above tenement may be rented with or without a Kitchen. Application to be made at the Office of the ENQUIRER.