Lor 1 . Ho-rtmad.- a fig;al for fevcral ships to give ctiuee ; whicL they did, and camc up io fact, that before i o'clock, two of our sup» began to fire : but whether from their fnp rior judgment, or our wilful tku pi 'ity, I know not, but on the rooming of the 19th no: a Frencjl (hip wis to be ft"i. It wis th;general opinion that we could capture ever/ one of them. So fan gnine were We in our expc&ationt, and at the lam? time so confident of fucceCs, that calculations \v. re made of the prize money which fhotild fall to each m n, but thele hopes entirely vaniflird with, the return of light. Ne'er was such apparent oifcon tc.it seen, as in the morning when the French fleet had to clear off." The troops left at Guernsey with the Earl of Moi'.a, are mostly sick, The ex pedition is certainly fruftrated for the p, ;fent. Whether or not it will ever be reluiried, is another que!t ion. THE DUKE OF YORK's ARMY. Geneial orders of his royal highness the commander in Chief. Head quarters, Tournay, Dec. 13, 1793 His royal highness the commander in chief cannot fuffer the troops to go into v. inter quarters without expressing to them, pv. vious to toeir separation, the sense he entertains of the intrepidity, patience, and perfcverance they have difplaved, so much to their own honor and his fatisfaftion, in the course of the campaign. His royal highness detires the officers and men will accept his warmed acknow ledgements, and be allured their meritori ous exertions have made an iiripreffion on his mind that never will be effaced He is persuaded that the good conduct of the troops in quarters will equal their gallan try i.i the field.—His royal highness de- Ares the officers will explain to their mtfti the good consequences which mull natur ally ensue from their conciliating, by their gocd behaviour, the affection of our Allies, the fubjeft* of his Imperial Majesty; and bis royal highness is perfectly allured, that every officer, feeling the importance of this obi eft, will take every opportunity of giv ing it the weight it so iuftly deserves, both by precept and example. His royal highness crders, that all the troops under his command pay proper re peft to the Hv/i, and all other religious processions. He directs that all sentinels carry their arms when any religious pro cession is puffing; and demands the atten tion of all officers, but particularly thole on dutv, to prevent impropriety being com mitted on these occasions. His royal highuefs is confident,that the troops under his command will ever bear in mind, that, though we differ iu some of the ceremonies of religion, we unite with our gallant Allies, and it is our gldty to do fo,iu everyfentirnentof devotion to our Creator, and attachment and loyaltv to sovereigns. Every regiment of the line on the Iri(h Eftablilhment Is toconfiltof 1,200 men, two Lieutenant Colonels, two Majors, and two additional Captains. For lie GjiztTTS of the Usited States- Mr. Fbnno, As a friend to the Old Soldiers, you are requested to give our thoughts and complaints to our Fellow-citizens especial ly to members of Congress. Learning by your Gazette, that ano ther petition is now before Congress for the payment of the New Emi/Jion Bills, our hope of speedily receiving our due, is revived. We took these bills in payment for part of the time we served in the ar my, and were told they would be as good as Gold and Silv :r, as the individual States solemnly promised to pay them, and also to make it certain, the United States in Congress insured the payment of them, and pledged their sacred faith and honor to pay the interest annually until the bills were paid. But as the war was so expen tive, Congress could not raise money to pay every demand as it became due, we patiently waited until the war ended, but ft ill we were told, there was not money to pay us. When the new government began to talk about paying the public debts, we expelled these t>ills which were secured by a double promise, would be the fiilt paid.—lt is painful to fay, what has been our difpapointmerrt—Our bills are not paid—N'cw-York, with true faith and honor, paid her bills in silver, years ago, Knd we suppose other States may have dohe as well; but we never depended on uny State for payment, bat on Congress under jvbofe authority we ferved—wliofe sacred promite we lelied on—and to Coh grrjs, we now now look up for speedy jus tice. If the faith of Congrefe is not as good as that of New-York, the world is turned upside down, and Hands on the lit- end ! —But, will iyuii.faU !. We have Teen, with iorrow, great debts paid—millions funded, and the interest paid—and State debts afiumed—and onr bills, the price of pOr sweat and blood, remain, to this day, unpaid—not even the interest !—Altho' our demands are small, they are more neecflary for u>, than thou sands to rich men- One hundred dol lars, to an Old Soldier, is a great thin j, and would sweeten the life of his whole family for a long time. Certainly, every good ma* in Congress will be our friend, and we hope they are now all good. OLD SOLDIERS, For the Gazette of ths Unit&j States. Mr. Fenno, A number of Citizens, wish to be in formed, why the Mayor or Recorder of this city, has not agreeably to the provi sions of the Ast of A (Terribly, parted the Bth of March, 1792, been required by a vote of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Com mon-Councilmen; to iflue a writ, direct ing a new election, to be held to supply the vacancies occasioned by the death of MetTrs. Jacob R. Howel, Jacob Schriner, and John Wood, and the resignation of Mr. James Abercrombie, of the Common- Council. It may be remarked, that conformably to the Ast of incorporation ; a general election for Council men, will not take place before the second Tuesday in April, '795, till wh ch time, a period of 1301- 14 months ; (if the vacancies are not pre viously supplied,) our representation will be incomplete. It is well known, that those members of the Common-Council, who have died or resigned, wereufeful active members of that body : —And it is certainly proper that an opportunity (hould be given to the citizens, of supplying their places by men, equally refpeftable, and equally worthy of their confidence. If it be said, that is scarcely worth while to call the citizens together, for the purpose of electing ortly four Cciuncil men ; —I reply that four is not an incohfi-. derable number, particularly where the loss of four such men as have died or resign ed, ii to be supplied ; and that btfides, as it is not probable that more than four vacancies in 3 years time, will ever hap pen, and as the Legislature has thought proper to make special provision, for sup plying vacancies, they mult have had it in contemplation, that a new elec tion Ihould be had whenever such a num ber of vacancies Ihould take place. The, Legislature has expressly said, that the Common-Council Ihould cotifift of 30 members, and have enacted that when the number (hall fall (hort of that, there may be an election—and has the corpora tion a right to fay otherwise ? such a doc trine would indeed be a dangerous one. I have been informed, that a difficulty has often arisen in collecting a quorum for the purpose of proceeding to business, to conllitute which fixteenCommon-Coun cilmen are neceflary, with the Mayor or recorder, and 8 Aldermen :—This dif ficulty will not so often occur, if the re prcfentation be complete, and regard is had to the election of such men, as will attend closely to the duties of their ap pointment. From the effe£t produced, we haverea fon to think, that the incorporation of the city, was a wife measure ; the prin ciples on which it was incorporated, were well considered, and generally approved, and the continuance of these good effects may be bed fccured by the preservation of these principles—and taking care that the number of representatives be fufficient, and the representation complete. I trull that these considerations will have due weight with the members of the cor poration ; and that they will comply with the wilh of a large number of their fel low citizens, in causing a n#w election to be had. PHILADELPHIA PRICE of STOCKS. 6 per cent«, 16/9 3 ditto, 5/5 Deferred, 10/" U. S. Bank, 5 per cent. adv. CONGRESS. House R rfircfeft t ati ites. January 30. In cbmmittee of the whole oh Mr. Ma/lifon'i resolutions etch of Mr. Madifw. [continued.] 4. It had been an objc&ion to folutious, that they might deprive us of the aid of British capital and credit, which were necessary to the prosecution of our commerce. Mr. M. did not admit either that the effect would happen, or that it would be ruinous-to our commerce. Unless Great Britain fbould, of her own choice, put a flop to the commercial intercourse with us, which for reasons be fore given would be so much more hurt ful to herfclf than to this country, that it never could be presumed ; the resolutions would operate only by abridging some of out importations, and by varying the channels of others, Her capital, as far as requisite here, might continue to be em ployed here. On the general question concerning our dependence on British capital and credit, he observed that it could not be denied that more use was made of them at pre sent, than was either necessary or benefi cial. Credit when extended to consumers, as was the cafe throughout the southern states, was extremely injurious; as had been well explained by a member of Vir ginia (Mr. Nicholas,) and as he himfelf h'ad equally witneffesj. When confined to merchants, it might, within certain limits, be an advantage ; but it was not only his own opinion, but that of better judges, that the credit given to our mer chants, was at present excessive and inju- rious. In order to form a very precise judg ment on this fubjeft, it would be necefTa ry, he said, to calculate the amount of out own capital, and its proportion to the amount of our trade. This was a thing he supposed, which could not well be done. If he had concurred in the doctrine, of which so much had been heard both with in and without doors, that a funded debt and banks of discount, were equivalent to affive capital, he should have a ready an swer to the difficulty,. The paper of the two kinds, in the United Staffs, cannot amount to less than onehundred millions of dollars ; whilst the amount of our ex ports or our imports, does not exceed one fourth of that capital. It is true, a part of both the public and the bank (locks, is in foreign hands ; but, with the mod am ple deductions on that account, the residue, if ope:ating in any considerable degree, as attive capital, would be a competent re source. As he did not however view the doc trine in the particular light in which it had been painted ; it would he more to his purpose, to observe, that there was certainly in this country a real mercantile capital to a very refpe&able amount; — that this was fall inereafing with our in creasing population and wealth ; —that if the foreign capital of one country (hould be withdrawn, the vacancy would proba bly by degrees be occupied by that of other foreign nations J that if it I'honld happen otherwise, there was reason to be lieve. that a reftriftion of our use of fo reign credit, would be rather salutary than disadvantageous ; that in fine, as long as we had twenty millions of dollars worth of produce, wanted by other nations; and were willing to take for it, twenty mil lions worth 1 of what they wished to part with, he was under no apprehension that the means of effefhiating an exchange, would not be found. Both merchants and capital would qiiickly be generated by such a state of things, if they did not pre viously exist. 5. It had been observed by fevcral members, in allusion to the alledged pro portion of British manufactures consumed by us to the entire mass of her manufac tures, that Great Britain would never part with her navigation ast, in order to avoid a loss of four per cent, in the demaud for her manufactures. To this obje&ion he anfwercd; that the eomparifon ought to be our consump tion, not with the entire mass of her ma nufactures, but with the part entering in to her foreign trade ; and then the loss would not be four per cent, but, at least twenty pet cent ; that this would not be the only loss (he would sustain, if (he (hould be unwise enough to (lop the in tercourse between the United States and her dominions; that it had been ilreadf (hewn, that, when '.he apprehended a re ftriftive system on our part, {he was wil ling to pievent it, by relaxing herreftric tive system ; that in times of war, when an adherence to that system would distress her, {he frequently suspends her navigati on act; that at this moment it is suspend ed in relation to the Wsft-Indies; that there could be little doubt, if the tempo rary necessity, were likely to' be made permanent by firm and judicious measure* 011 our part, chat the remedy for it would be. made permanent alio. 6. It was objected that the present wa« an improper time for such rcfolutions. The principal reason given for this was, that the negociation between the secretary of state and the British minister here, was ftill depending. To (hew that this reason was unsound, Mr. M. went into an histo rical view of what had palled in reference to commercial arrangements. He read the mefiage of the Prelident tp the House of. Representatives, oh the 14th of February, 1791, acquainting them, that steps had been taken to ascertain the difpofitionj of the British court on the fubjeft, and that there was no ground for favorable expec tations. He dated, that in consequence of this communication, a committee was appointed, who reported that foreign vefc fels ought not to be allowed to bring into the United States any articles not of the produce or manufacture of the country to which they belong, and that an additional duty of twelve and an half cents ought to be laid on all diitilied spirits, the produc tion of any country or place from which veflels of the United States were not per mitted to bring them ; that it being very near the end of the session when this re port was made, it was referred to the se cretary of state, with an inftru&ion to re port to the next feflion an account of the foreign commercial regulations affecting the United Stales, with his opinion, &o. that at the next feiiion, a letter was re ceived from that officer, intimating that in the a&ual state of circumstances, the report would not be given in, unless called for by the House ; tuat at the present ses sion, the report now before the commit te.', was given in, without being called for; and was ther fore a proof, that the circumstances which had caused the delay ha J van fh :d, and t'.iat at present there was nothing in train, according to the o pinlon of the secretary of state, which ought to r.ftrain the Legiflaturc from proceeding in the business. In answer to suggestions, that the Bri tish minister had, 11 the correspondence with the secretary of state, lately commu nicated by the President, manifefted a fa vorab'e dif-ofitioi, which hid not been improved—Mr. M. recurred to the paf fagc which related to this point. He read from the firft letter of Mr. Jeffcrfon to Mr. Hammond, dated Nov. 29, 1791, a paragraph requesting Mr. H. « to fay, whether he was authorized to conclude,, or to negociate arrangements with us, which may fix the commerce between the two countries, on principles of reciprocal advantage ?" To this reqiieft Mr. H. on the 30th of Nov. 1791, answered, "That the King was sincerely disposed to promote and facilitate the commercial intercourse between the two countries, and that he was authorized to communicate to this government, his majelty's readiness to en ter into a negociation for establishing that intercourse upon principles of reciprocal benefit." On Dec. 6, he wrote to Mr. J. in order to prevent misapprehension, that although he was not yet empowered to conclude aiiy definitive arrangement with refpeft to the commercial intercourse, he still meant it to be Understood, that he was fully authorized to enter into a ne gociation for that puipofe, Sec. The re ply of Mr. J. on the 13th of Dec. inform ed Mr. H. that he had laid his letters be for the President, and was ready to re ceive a communication of his full powers, for entering into the negociation, See. This was followed next day by a letter from Mr. H. stating, that he had no spe cial commiflion to conclude any definitive arrangement upon the fubjeft of commer cial i ltercourfe—but that he conceived himfelf fully competent to enter into a ne gociation, and the difcuflion of principles that might be the bafisof such definitive arrangement—and that this opinion of hit competency was founded on the instruc tions which were to regulate his personal conduct, and the general plenipotentiary chara&er in which he had been sent, and received. (Speech to is continued,)
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