A NATIONAL PAPER, PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS BY JOHN FENNO, No. 69, HIGH-STREET, PHILADELPHIA [No. 88, of Vol. lII.] Wednesday, February 29, 1792. FOR THE GAZFTTE OF THE UNITED STATES. IF a people are to be governed by force, perhaps they cannot know too little—the moic ignorance, the more peace and 4111- etuefi. But in a free country, the people in effc£t govern them selves. The more knowledge is spread among them, the better. The reason and good sense ot the public, make the i*fic light to those who administer its affairs. Experience haj verified, and is every day confirming thcrfe ob servations. We are to thank the good (rnfe ot the great bodv ot the American nation for the happy constitution we enjov. T'ie people saw and felt the neceflity of a fnmer governmrnt, and their imderlhndings approved the plan which was submitted to their eonfideration? All Europe saw with aftonifhmcnt a whole peo ple quietly reasoning down a deleflive government, and matur ing a revolution which has diffuf d a lustre on the national charac ter. As no other people ever did the like, it may not be deemed arrogant to conclude, that no nation has been Co generally well informed as to admit o{ it. The latt does more honor to the great body of our citizens, than victorious fleets and armies ever pro cured for a nation. These reflexions afford all the hope we have of the continuance and profperitv of the national government. At this time, it is peculiarly consoling to a friend of the country to recoiled* these ta&s, so honorable to our citizens. For the number and nature of the late publications against the government and its mealutes,ma ny of them finally virulent in their Spirit, and profligately bold in their aspersions, would have an alarming influence upon public order and tranquility, if our countiymen in general were not great ly superior both in virtue and discernment to these writers. But as the good sense of the people caused the government to have a bring, it may he relied on to support it. It is only necessary to •warn them that men are not wanting who would destroy it if they could. Indeed if the numerous writers against its measures bt their own charges, they may be excused for theattempt. If! rum its funding law, from the impure fountains of corruption and {pe culation, flow Jlreams which will poison your country and your prospe rity, if under the fin&ion of that law plans of opprefjion are laid, equal ly injurious to the general welfare as any firaflifed under the BntiJ/i ju~ rifdiftion, if tho you took up arms againjl opprefjion, you are (as it is inftnuated) read\ bridled andf-tddledfor your reprefentatwey, with whips in their hands, to ride you from one end. of the United States to the other, The inference is natural and wai rantable, that these writers wilh to deftmy the government which is the cause of all this evil. The rvewfpapers have poured fort>h a torrent like the foul Oeci ipcn.given above. Men of sense and virtue read these effufions with proper contempt. Theydeferve to be further diicounte n a need—for tho the public is too well informed to be imposed upon by these means, yet there is a disgrace fullered by their pub lication. The moral state of a country may be known, and it is also considerably influenced by the manner in which political de putes are managed. If the chargesagainft men and measures are ufuarllv made tem perately and supported by argument, you may be iure the people are thought capable of conviction by those means, and by no o ther. Th.c people are some improved, and not the worse served in conference. But when the basest suspicions are insinuated without any proof, and the moil absurd and unfounded afTcrtions are solemnly made, the writers mull depend for fucccfs upon the bafeuels of their readers. The worst of men are the moll ealy to believe eil repons. If truth is treated with total in the public papers, no man will doubt that the tendency is perni cious to morals. The public are in dar.ger of being cjrrupied by the daily example of men who let their paftions loole, and exert all their faculties to communicate them to tneir rcadeis. It isthe business of education to subdue the violent paflions. With every precaution they are apt enough to run to excess. But this is a course of v cious education to inipire the fharpell resentments in the readers brcafts, and to indulge them by t?»e facrificc of the ob je£U yf thern. There are some falfhoods which affront the reader by their grolTnefs. Tlvey (hew bow little the writer refpeds him or h>s undemanding. A writer in a late infLmmatory production,fays, " The public debt became so great by the meaiures of the fpecu -44 latorsto enhance the nominal value of the certificates in their 44 potlcflion. Who can believe (fays he) that they could have a -44 lifeu to a $th, or even a lOth ot the magnitude, without the in -44 terference of a system of {peculation ? Not a small portion ot • 4 them originated, like the mushroom, under cover ot the night— cf shall we pay taxes to discharge principal or interest of debts, 44 created piincipally tor the emolument of speculators ?" None who can read, aie fa foolilh as to believe that the specu lators made their own certificates, or altered the face of them to increase the futn, and that the funding ad, instead of providing for an old debt contracted before the newspapers were adorned wit h the word fpeculatoys, created a new one tor the emolument ot rhefe men—lf there is weakness enough to believe all this, the writer has found a market for his work of fallhood. But the dif cerningreader who will the abfu dity of these aflertions, wi l be shocked at the profligacy of the auihor, who in the midst oi them—fays, w The all-beholding eye which controuls the 4i universe pierces thro the deception of these men (fpecuiator )and " pronounces the pait of their rep« c fcniaiions to be lies." — Such solemn expretlions in the very ad of deceiving ! The read er will make his own comments. It is not easy to believe that the people can be made wiler, or the government more honest by wicked attacks upon its meaiures — Free enquiry can do no injury to either. The di feu Hi on of public queltions cannot be exocded to be kept within the bounds nt moderation and candor. But writers, even ol loose principles, (hould be made to pay some lelpcd to truth and decorum. LONDON, November 19. THE Spanish Amballador at Peteriburgh has made a present to: he cm pre f's i n the name of the society of coimnei ce at Cadiz, of several tons of excellent Malaga wine. The empress accepted them very graciooily, and h.is permitted all such wine to be imported into Peicrfourgh, dutyfree, during the year ) 7Q2. Prince Ferdinand of Prussia and all his family were lately in danger of being poisoned on their road to Aix la Chapelle, at a;; inn, where some provisions were dressed in copper veflels : they were all feizcd in the night with violent pains, and the princess Louisa was so ill, that her lite was despaired of. They are now, however hap pily recovered. A veilel is now lying in the river, waiting to carry out colonists for the new eftablilhinent at Sierra Leona. About three hundred adventurers, some of them very refpeJtable, are upon her lilt of paflengers. At a late meeting of the royal college of phy sicians of Edinburgh, there were presented ro them some scarce and curious books from the ho norable Lord Hailes, with a very polite letter from his Lordship lo one of the fellows, in the following words : " Some time ago you furnifhed me with a copy of the catalogue of the books belonging to your faculty. While putting 1113- books in order, I found three volumes in the medical line, which are no: in your catalogue. " 1 beg that the college would accept of them, not as a present valuable in itfelf, but as expres sive of my vvifh that private gentlemen would fol low the example, and transmit the medical books of which they mny be poflelled to the faculty. There they may be ornamental, if not tifeful ; in private hands they are neither. Were this plan generally adopted, 1 imagine that even in this narrow country a large accession of books might be obtained. 1 have always had a fort of enthusiastic zeal for public libraries, where a man might have hopes of finding any book con nected with the studies of the society to which the library belongs." The Royal college accepted his Lordfiiip's pre sent with mod hearty thanks for it, and for the letter which accompanied it ; the sentiments ex prefl'ed in which are so jult, and so truly liberal, that there can be no doubt, if they were gene rally known they would be as generally adopted. December io, The situation of Lord Cornwallis is certainly to be pitied, opposed by the elements, and depen dent on the faith of Indian allies. The integri ty of his mind, and his high martial talents, mult, however, always render his Lordlhip an objetft of refpeiti and confidence. This country, in conjunction with Prussia and Holland, at prefeni plays the leading part in Eu rope. The diflinifiion, it mull be owned, is en viable, and it remains only to improve and se cure its advantages by a moderate and enlight ened policy. The Americans are about to eftablifti a Mint. This is one of the prerogatives of Sovereignty, which they have not exercised hitherto, being content to make use of the Englifli and Spanish coin, which they procure ill exchange for their commodities. Lifoon is at present benefiting not a little by the access of Englilh persons of diltindiion.— There are the Duke and Dochefs of Northum berland, the Earl of Shrewftjury, and laltly the Margravine of Anfpach, who can afford together to spend about an hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year. On Monday lad arrived his Majefly'sfliip As surance, from Halifax, with troops ; which place (he left 24 days ago. She parted company with the Argo on Sunday in a hard gale of wind. The Argo is not yet arrived. The Afliirance's palTage has been the quickell that has been made lately, having run into foundings in II days from her leaving Halifax. A perfoti under imprifoiiment for forgery has written a letter ro the President of the National Afl'cmbly, in which he exculpates M. Varnier from the treason laid to his charge, and takes the crime upon hiinfelf. This, you will fay, is a suspicious defence. True, but have patience ; this affair of M. Varnier is one of the mod mys terious, perhaps the blacked combination of guilt, that has sullied the lteps of this unaccount able revolution. This is not the only letter behold the history of another celebrated epifHe ; M. Bazire denounced M. Varnier as guihy of having written a letter to a Monsieur Noiror, of Dijon, also in prison, which contained a plan for a counter revolution, &c.— M. Varnier being Ihewn the signature, acknowledged the refem blunce of the hand writing, which hefaid was an adroit imitation, but denied it tobehis. He was not shewn the contents of the lettei. M. Bazire refufed to explain how such a letter came into his pofleffion till the High National Court should be afleinbled. M. Varnier, ignorant of the crime. 349 [Whole No. 296.] is committed ro pi-ifon, where no person is ad mitted to fee liim, and where l<e remains. L»lt night the President of the National AlJenibly re ceived a letter from the Municipality of Auxonne, containing a declaration and a paper, committed to their keeping by a Monsieur Voulon, a lock finith of that town. M. Voulon had received a letter by the post from M. Bazire, the Deputy, thanking him for the communication of M. Varnier's crime, and the honor he had done him in feletfling him to be his accuser. Astonished at such a letter, ha ving never written to Mr. Bazire, knowing no» thing of any crime or imputation against M. Varnier or M. Noirot, he flies to the Municipa lity, where he makes such a declaration, and dc pofits the letter he had received. M. Bazire, in his defence, produces the letter he had received, and which is his authority for accusing M. Varnier. Letter, to M. Bazirf. " SIR, " MY comrade courts the daughters of Madame Damont, inn-keeper, in this town ; Monsieur Noirot, our tax gatherer, lodges at Madame Da mont's—he is gone to Pontarlier f«r a few days ; my comrade having been to fee the daughter of Madame Damont, found her putting Monsieur Noirot's room to rights ; he saw upon a table a letter which Monf. Varnier had wrote to him for a Counter Revolution. He took the letter, and has given it to me ; I fend it to my cousin at Paris, that he may deliver it to you, for the purpose of your accusing the author. (Signed) " VOULON." The Assembly, upon the reading of this letter were naturally embarrafled and alarmed with a thousand successive and contradictory thoughts and opinions upon this dark affair. Will it be believed that, instead of liberating M. Vamier who has no longer any accnfer, whose original accuser is demonstrated to be a lyara.id a forger for the worst of frauds, that they finiihed with referringthe papers to the Archives, from whence they will be taken by the Grand Jury, and pro ceeded to name the Solicitors of the National Aflembly in this inock trial. Mr. Garran de, Coulon was chosen. There was not in favor of any other person that majority which the Confu tation requires. The High National Court is therefore to be, formed, and to fit at Orleans for the trial of Monf. Varnier. The King has refufed his fanAion to the fa*- guinary bill brought in againlt his brothers, of ficers, arid nobles, who have placed the Rhine between them and the usurped authorities, which seem to only to denounce and provoke ven geance and forfeiture on their heads ! But when once the High National Court is in stituted, the Assembly may, according to the Constitution, denounce and accuse any perfou before them ; and it is not Monsieur Varnier, but Monsieur, and the Princes of France, the Emigrants and the Non-conformifls, who are to be aecufed at this tribunal. Thus is an engine of terror eretfled againit the Nobility, the Church and even the Throne, who having there no ne gative, no power of pardon, may fee its belt and molt faithful friends ignominioufly dragged t» a popular trial, where an accusation is the fore and dreadful harbinger of a sentence. I cannot comment upon this abominable at tempt ; may its violence, its evident injufticc and fraud defeat iis purpose ; may the Clubs ot Jacobines, and the Jacobines of the Aflembly, detedted and detested, give up their horrible en terprize in delpair ; but let their attempt never be forgotten ! NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, Dfc. 2. The Commiifioners of the Fund of Extraordi naries Itated, that the sales of national property far November, amounted to 156,269.000, making with the former (ales 1,117,000,000 of livres. M. the Minister at War, sent along memorial oij the various objects of his depart ment, in which he announced his relignacion, and the King's acceptance of it. Several Members complained that he had not accompanied the notice of his resignation with an account of what the law required of him, ami moved, " that he should not leave the kingdom before giving an account of his administration observing that M. Montinorin was no longer in their power.
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