The RIGHT CONSTITUTION of a COMMON
WEALTH EXAMINED.
IT is agreed that the " people know where the
" shoe wrings—what grievances are most heavy,"
and therefore they Ihould always hold an inde
pendent and eflential part in the legislature, and
be always able to prevent the shoe from wringing
more, and the grievances from being made more
heavy ; they Ihould have a full hearing of all their
arguments, and a full /hare of all consultations,
for easing the foot where it is in pain, and for les
sening the weight of grievances, or annihilating
them : but it is denied that they have right, or
that they Ihould have power, to take from one man
his property to make another easy, and that they
only know " what fences they ftaiyl iu need of to
" shelter them from the injurious aflaults of thole
" powers that are above tliem ;" meaning, by the
powers above them, senators and inagiftrates,
though, properly speaking, there are no powers
above them but the law, which is above all men,
governors and senators, kings and nobles, as well
as commons.
The Americans have agreed with this writer in
the sentiments, " that it is but reason that the
" people ihould fee that none be interelted in the
" supreme authority but persons of their own
" election, and such as mult, in a short time, re
" turn again into the fame condition with them
" selves." This hazardous experiment they have
tried, and, if elections are loberly made, it may
answer very well ; but if parties, factions, drun
kenness, bribes, armies, and delirium, come in, as
they always have done sooner or later, to embroil
and decide every thing, the people mult again
have recourse to conventions, and find a remedy.
Neither pliilofopliy nor policy has yet discovered
any other cure, than by prolonging the duration
of the firft magiltrate and senators. The evil
may be lellened and poltponed, by elections for
longer periods of years, till thej become for life ;
and if this is not found an adequate remedy,
there will remain no otherbut to make them he
reditary. The delicacy or the dread of unpopu
larity, that should induce any man to conceal this
important truth from the full view and contem
plation of the people, would be a weakness, if'
not a vice. As to " reaping the fame benefit or
" burthen by the laws enacted that befals the
" reft of the people/' this will be secured, whe
ther the firft inagiftrate and fenape be elective or
hereditary, as as the people are an integral
branch of the legislature ; can be bound by no
laws to which they have not consented ; and can
be fubjed'.'dto no tax which they have not agreed
to lay. It is agreed that the " ifl'ue of luch a
" constitution," whether the governor and senate
be hereditary or eleiftive, must be this, " that no
u load be laid upon any, but what is common
" to all, and that always by common consent ;
" not to serve the lust of any, but only to sup
" ply the neceflities of their country."
The next paragraph is a figurative flourifh, cal->
culated to ainufe a populace, without informing
their understandings. Poetry and myllics will
answer no good end in difcuflingqueftionsof this
nature. The simple style, the molt mathemati
cal precision of words and ideas, is belt adapted
to discover truth, and to convey it to others, in
reafoningonthisfubjed:. There is here aconfu
fion that is more than accidental—it is artful :—
the author purposely states the question, and
makes the comparison only between simple forms
of government, and carefully keeps out of fight
the idea of a judicious mixture of them all. He
seems to suppose, that the supreme power must
be wholly the hands of a limpie monarch, or
of a single senate, or of the people, and studi
ously avoids considering the sovereignty lodged in
a composition of all three. " When a supreme
" power long continues in the hands of any per
" son or perlons, they, by greatness of place, be
" ing seated above the middle region of the peo
" pie, fit fecurefrom all winds and weathers, and
" from those ltorms of violence that nip and ter
" rify the inferior part of the world." If this is
popular poetry, it is not philosophical reasoning.
It may be made,a question, whether it is true in
fact, that persons in the higher ranks of life are
more exempted from dangers and evils that threat
en the commonwealth than thole in the middle
or lower rank ? But if it were true, the United
States of America have eltablifhed their govern
ments upon a principle to guard against it ; and,
" by a fuccellive revolution of authority, they
" come to be degraded of their earthly godheads,
" and return into the fame conditions with other
" mortals and, therefore, " they must needs
" be more fenlible and tender of what is laid upon
" them."
Our author is not explicit. If he meant that
a fundamental law should be made, that no man
Ihould be chosen more than one year, he has no
where laid so. He knew the nation would not
have borne it. Cromwclland his creatures would
all have detested it ; nor would the members of
the Long Parliament, or other constitutions, have
approved it. The idea would have been uni
versally unpopular. No people in vhe world will
bear to be deprived, at the end of one year, of
the service of their belt men, and be obliged to
confer their fuffrasres, f rom year to vear. on the
next best, until the rotation brings them to the
worst. The men ofgreateft interest and influ
ence, moreover, will govern ; and if they cannot
be chofeu themlelves, they will generally influ
ence the choice of others lb decidedly, that they
may be said to have the appointment, if it is
true that " the strongest obligation that can be
" laid upon a man in public matters, is to fee that
" he engage in nothing but what mult either
" offenfively or,beneficially refWl upon himfelf,"
it is equally true at least in a mixed government
as in a finiple democracy : it is indeed, more
clearly-and universally true, because in the tirft
the reprelentatives of the people beingthe special
guardians of equality, equity, and liberty, for the
people, will not consent to unequal laws ; but in
the second, where the great and rich will have
the greatest influence in the public councils, they
w ill continually make unequal laws in their own
favour, unless the poorer majority unite, which
they rarely do, set up an opposition to them, and
run them down by making unequal laws againlt
them. In every society where property exists,
there will ever be a struggle between rich and
poor. Mixed in one aflembly, equal laws can
never be expedted : they will either be made by
numbers, to plunder the few who are rich, or by
influence, to fleece the many whoare poor. Both
rich and poor, then, must be made independent,
that equal justice may be done, and equal liberty
enjoyed by all. To expert that in a single so
vereign aflembly no load (hall be laid upon any
but what is common to all, nor to gratify the
pailions of any, but only to supply the necelfities
of their country, is altogether chimerical. Such
an aflembly, under an awkward unwieldy form,
becomes at once a finiple monarchy in effe<sl :
some one overgrown genius, fortune, or reputa
tion becomes a despot, who rules the state at his
plealure, while the deluded nation, or rather a
deluded majority, thinks itfelf free ; and in every
relblve, law, and acft of government, you fee the
interest, fame, and power, of that single indivi
dual attended to more than the general good.
(To be continued.)
~L ~0 ~N D 0 N.
HOUSE of COMMONS.
MAY IJ.
The following PROPOSITIONS were fu'bmitted by-
Mr . Wilberfok ce—which wire by consent order
ed to tie on the table.
I.—That the number of (laves, annually car
ried from the coast of Africa, in Britilh veiiels, is
supposed to amount to about 38,000.
That the number annually carried to the Bri
tilh Weft-India islands, has amounted to about
12,500, on an average of four years, to the year
I 787, inclulive.
That the number annually retained in the said
islands, as far as appears by the custom-house ac
counts, has amounted on the fame average, to a
bout 17,500.
11. That much the greater number of the ne
groes, carried Sway by European veiiels, arebro't
from the interior parts of the continent of Africa,
and many of them from a very great distance.
And the slaves may in general be clafled under
some of the following del'criptions 1
1 ft. Prisoners taken in war.
2d. Free persons fold for debt, or 011 account
of real or imputed crimes, particularly adultery
and witchcraft, in which cases they are frequent
ly fold with their own families, and sometimes for
the profit of those by whom they are condemned.
3d. Domestic slaves fold for the profit of their
mailers.
4th. Persons made slaves by various a(fts of op
pression, violence, or fraud, committed either by
the princes and chiefs of those countries on their
fubjefts, or by private individuals on eacli other,
or lastly by Europeans, engaged in this traffic.
111. That the trade carried on by European
nations an the coast of Africa, for the purchase of
slaves has neceflarily a tendency to occasion fre
quent and cruel wars among the natives. To en
courage acfts of opprelfion, violence, and fraud,
and to obstruct the natural course of civilization
and improvements in those countries.
IV. That the continent of Africa,in its present
state, furnilhes several valuable articles of com
merce, highly important to the trade and manu
factures of this kingdom, and which are in a great
measure peculiar to that quarter of the globe.
V.—That the slave trade has been found by ex
perience to be peculiarly injurious and destruc
tive to the Britilh seamen, who have been employ
ed therein.
Vl.—That the mode of transporting the slaves
from Africa to the Weft-Indies, neceflarily expo
ses them to many and grievous fuft'erin'o-s, for
which no regulations can provide an adequate
remedy.
Vll.—That a large portion of the slaves fotranf
pot ted has also perished in the harbours in the
Weft-Indies, previous to their being fold. That
this loss is stated bv the aflembly of the island of
Jamaica, at about four and a half pr. cent, of the
number imported.
Vlll.—That the loss of newly imported negroes
within the firft three years after their importa
tion, bear?, a large proportion to tliewhok num
ber imported.
IX—That the natural increase of pop U i at ;.
among the slaves in the islands, appears to ha
been impeded principally by the follow injrcaufo
i ft. The inequality of the sexes in the i lni ,or'
tations from Africa. A
2d. The general diflblutettefs of manners
mong the slaves, and the want of proper reeul "
tions tor the encouragement of marriages a'"d
of.rearing children. '
;d. The particular difeai'cs which are prevalent
among them, and which are, in some instances
attributed to toofevere labour, or rigorous treat'
ment,and in others to infulficient or improperfW
4th. Tliofc diseases which affe<si a large pro'
portion of negro children in their infancy and
thofeto which the negroes newly imported from
Africa have been found to be particularly liable to
X.—That the whole number of the slaves in the
island of Jamaica, in 1768, was about 167 0M
That the number in 1774, was, as Ha
ted by Gov. Keith, about io;ooo
And that the number in Dec. 1787, as
stated by Lieut. Gov. Clark, vyas
about ' ' * 256,000
Xl.—That the whole number of flares in'the
island of Barbadoes was, in the year 1764, accord
ing to the account given in to the committee of
trade, by Mr. Braithwaite, - y 0
That in 1 774, the number was, by the
lame account - - 74,874
In 1 780, by do. - 6Sj ' 27()
In I 781, after the hurricane, accord
ing to the fame account, - 63,248
In t 786, by do. - * 62,115
Xll.—That the accounts from the Leeward
Islands and from Dominica, Grenada, and St.
Vincent's, do not furniih fufficient grounds for
comparing the state of population in the faidill
aiuls at different periods, withthe number pfflaves
which have been from time to time imported in
to the said islands, and exported therefrom. But
that from the evidence which has been received
ref'pe (fling the present state of these islands, as well
| as of Jamaica and Barbadoes, and from a conli
deration of the means of obviating the causes
which have hitherto operated to impede the na
tural increase of the slaves, and of lefloning the
demand for manual labor, without diminifliing
the profit of the planter, it appears that no con
siderable or permanent inconvenience would re
sult from discontinuing the farther importation
of African slaves.
To the Printers of the Daily Advertiser.
I ENCLOSE y«u a hand-bill, pointing out a modeofpra
venting the dreadful consequences of the BITE of a MAD DOG.
I received this hand-bill a few daytfmce, from Dr. Hagaxth,
a phyficianof great ability and Angular probity, at Chester, in Eng
land. The recommendation of so able and humane a physician,
together with iny own opinion of the efficacy of the modepropo
fed, induce me to request you, and all other printers in the United
State*, to re-print it : and to continue it for some time in the
newspapers, that it may be as generally communicated aspoflible.
I am persuaded, that your regard for humanity, will be a fufficient
motive for complying with what I requrft.
I am your mod' obedient servant,
ARTHUR LEE.
BITE OF A MAD DOG.
NEAR Wrexham, in North-Wales, three men died of canine
madnrfs, in Oftobcr and November, 1788.
These melancholy cases spread a general alarm. But it ought
to give great comfort and fatisfadlion to any one who may be bit,
to know that there is a lafe, easy, and effetlual method ofj>revem
ing the infection ; which can seldom give pain, or require fkill,acd
is in the power ot every pcrfon to employ. It is univerlally al
lowed by physicians that the spittle of a inad animal, infufed into
a wouna, 1$ the only cause hitherto known, that can communi
cate canine madness to the human body. This poison does no
immediate mifchief, but is slowly absorbed into the blood,and
Efficient opportunity is given to remove it, before any danger can
arise. Whenever a person is bit, the plairt and obvious meansof
preventing future injury, is, firft to wipe off the spittle with a dry
cloth, and then to wash the wound with cold water—not (lightly,
and fuperficially, but abundaptly, and with the most persevering
attention, in bad cases, sos several hours. After a plentiful effu
fion of cold water, warm water may be employed with fafety and
advantage; a continued stream of it, poured from the fpoutofa
tea-pot, or tea-kettle, held up at a considerable diihnce, is pecu
liarly well adapted to the purpose. If the canine poison infufed
into a wound were of a peculiar color, as black, like ink, we should
all be aware that plenty of water and patient diligence wduld walK
out the dark die ; but this could not be expected by a flight and
fuperficial ablution. After the full careful washing, «pply to the
bite, saliva, colored with ink, indigo, &c. and by the second wash
• ng, a visible proof may be obtained, how soon and how perfect
ly it can be cleaned out of the wound. As a proof that flight waHi
ing of th« wound is not fufficient to cleanse it effectually from the
poison, we may mention, that in some cases, after inoculation for
the small pox, the poisonous matter has been attempted to be
walhed out of the wound, by peifons who wished to prevent its
v ffe£ts : yet the inoculated small-pox appeared at its proper per
iod . These unfuccefsful attempts were performed lecretly, haflity
and timidly, by a female hand. But, in a cafe when the ablution
was more perfe6Hy performed, inoculation Was prevented from
taking effect, though the patient was susceptible of infection.
They teach us the importance of patient perseverance in wadung
away the poison ; but they need not abate our confidence that i uc 1
perseverance will certainly be fuccefsful. .
The ablution should be accomplished with great diligence, an
without delay, and may be performed bv the patient or any a
fiflant. However, as the apprehension of this dreadful diiord<- r
always excites the grcateft anxiety, a surgeon's advice and affiliate
ought to be obtained as soon as p'offible, in nil cases where the Uijj
is injured. He will execute those directions most dexterously an
completely. In a bad wound, the poison may be conveyed ec P
into the flkfh, by long teeth, or by lacerations. In such circum
ltances, he will open, cup, syringe, and wash every fufpic
place, and whenever any uncertainty can remain, that ma y oC< \j
lion future solicitude, he will previously (have off the fur face, a
cut away the jagged or other parts of the wound —by
of purification it cannot be doubted that every particle 0 po*
and, confcquently, that every cause of danger may be e e
.removed.
PubliThedby JOHN FKNNO, No. 9, MaU> eN "