Gazette of the United-States. (New-York [N.Y.]) 1789-1793, September 05, 1789, Image 4
The RIGHT CONSTITUTION of a COMMON WEALTH EXAMINED, (in continuation.) I iIL example of Paulus is equally lioflile to our author sfy (leni, and equally friend ly to that which we contend for. The firfl consul of thatnanie, the conqueror of Illyricum, in 533, although he returned to Rome in triumph, yet, at the expiration of his office, he was cited before the people, in their tribes, and accused of having converted part of the spoils to his own use. /Emi -1 ius'had great difficulty to escape the condemna tion which his colleague fuffered. This great pa trician and consul commanded, and was killed at the battle of Cannas. His son, of the fame name, whole filter /Emilia was married to the great Scipio, distinguished liimfelf by avoiding those intrigues, solicitations, carefles, and other arti fices, pracftifed by molt candidates, even at tliis r \ me > 562- His pains were employed to make himfelf esteemed by valour, justice, and ardour in his duty, in which he furpafled all the young men of his age. He carried the oedile/hip agaiiilt ten competitors, every one of whom was so dis tinguished by birth and merit as afterwards to ob tain the conlulfliip. By his wife Pupiria he had two foils, whom he procured to be adopted into the molt illttflrious houses in Rome ; the ehlelt by Fabi us maximus, five times consul and dicta tor ; tlie younger by a son of Scipio Africanus. His two daughters were married, one to a son of Cairo he censor, and the other to Tubero. 111 he gained a complete victory over the Lufi tanians, in which he killed them eighteen thou land men, and took their camp, with thirteen hundred prisoners. In the offices of xdile, and ol augur, he excelled all his contemporaries in the knowledge and practice of his duty: and military discipline he carried to greater perfection than had ever been kijown : nevertheless, when he flood for any office, even in those virtuous times there was always an opposition ; and he could not obtain the consulship till after he had fuffered fe deral repulses. Why? Because his virtue was toe severe ; not for the senate, jjut the people ; and be cause he would not flatter and bribe the people. Before the end of the year of his firfl consulate he fought the Ligurians, and gained a complete victory over them, killing more than fifteen thou sand men, and making near three tlioufand pri soners, and returned to Rome in triumph : Yet witli all his merit, when he flood candidate, fomc years after, for the consulate, the people reject ed him ; upon this he retired to educate his chil dren. He was frugal in every thing of private luxury, but magnificent in expences of public duty. Grammarians, rhetoricians, pliilofophers. sculptors, painters, equerries, hunters, were pro cured for the inflruction of his children. While he was thus employed in private life, in 583, four teen years after his firfl consulship, the affairs of the Republic were ignoranily conducted, and the Macedonians, with Perfeiis at their head, gained great advantages againlt them. People were not fatisfied v. ith the conduct of their consuls of late years, and began to fay, that the Roman name was not supported. The cry was, that the com mand of the armies niuft 110 longer be given to faction and favor. The Angular merit of jEmi lius, his splendid f'ervices, the confidence which the troops had in his capacity, and the urgent lieceffity of the times for his wisdom and firmnefs, turned all eyes upon him. All his relations, and the senators in general, urged him to stand can didate. He had already experienced so much ingratitude, injuflice, and caprice, that he shun ned the present ardor, and chose to continue in private life. That very people who had looften ill used him, and rejected him, now crowded before his door, and infilled on his goino- to the ; and his presence there was universally considered as a sure presage of victory, and he was unanimously elected consul, and appointed commander in Macedonia. He conquered Per seus and his Macedonian Phalanx, and in the battle he formed Fabiufes and Scipios to be the glory and triumph of his country after him. He plundered the immense wealth of Macedonia and Epirus : he plundered seventy cities, and demolished their walls. The spoils were fold, and each soldier had two hundred denarii, and each of the horse four. The soldiers and com mon people, itfeems, had little of that disinter estedness for which /Emilius was remarkable. They were so offended at their general forgiving so little of the booty to tliem, and reserving so much to the public treasury, that they raised a great cry and opposition against his triumph ; and Galba, the soldiers, and their friends among the plebeians, were determined to teach the great men, the consuls, generals, &e. to be less public fpirited—to defraud the treasury of its wealth, and be 'low it upon them : they accordingly op posed the triumph of this great and difinterefled general, and the firfl tribes absolutely rejected it. —Who, upon this occasion, saved the honour juflice, and dignity ofthe republic ? Nottheple beiaus but senators. The senators were highly enraged at t his infamous in ] uflice and ingratitude, and this daring effort of pioputar licentioufhefs and avarice, and were obliged to make a noise, and excite a tumult. Servilius, too, who been consul, and' had killed three and twenty en emies who had challenged him in.single combat, made a long Ipeecli, in which he lliewed the baseness of their conduct in so linking alight, that he made the people ashamed of tliemfelves ; and at length they conlented to the triumph,but to all appearance more from a desire to fee the show of Perseus laden with chains,lcd through the city belore the ch iriot of the vitftor, than from any lioneft and public spirited design to reward merit. 1 he lum which he caused to be carried into the public treasury on the day of the triumph was one million three hundred thousand pounds ster ling, and caused the taxes of the Roman people to be abolished. At his death, after the sale of. part of his slaves, moveables, and some farms, to pay his wife's dower, the remainder of his fortune was but nine thousand three hundred and fe v enty-five pounds sterling. As he was dcfcendecl from one of the moll noble and ancient houses of Rome, illustrious by the highest dignities, the fmallnefs oi his fortune reflects honor on his an cestors as well as on liimfelf. The love of sim plicity was flill supported in lome of the great families, by extreme care not to ally tliemfelves with luxurious ones ; and vimiilius chose Tubero, of the family of ./Elii, whose firft piece of plate was a silver cup of five pounds weight, given him by his father-in-law. These few families item raed the torrent of popular avarice and extrava gance. EUROPEAN ACCOUNTS, BY LATE ARRIVALS. St. Petersrurgh, May 15. The son of Ge neral Kaniefkoy, who commands the army in Moldavia, arrived here yesterday with the news, that 011 the 27th of April, General Derfelden compelled the Turks to retreat to within twenty xverlts of Brailla, near Mackfunene, 011 the river Sireth. Jn this 40® of the enemy were killed, and a considerable number drowned. A Pacha of Two Tails, who commanded in Molda via, was taken prisoner, with about 100 men, one piece of cannon, and three standards. A second Courier arrived this day from Gene ral Kamefkoy, with an account that on the 30th April, General Derfelden had attacked the ene my in the camp near Galata, 011 the Danube, and that after an obstinate engagement of more than three hours, lie had totally defeated them. Fif. teen hundred Turks were billed, and a Pacha oi 1 lir'ee 1 ails, with a considerable number of officers, and above 1000 men taken prisoners. The cainp, with the artillery, standards, &c. feli into the hands of the conquerors, whose loss amounted only to 60 men killed,and 100 wounded. Vienna, May 30. Intelligence has been re ceived that the Grand Vizir, with an army of t 00,000 men has left Rufchuck, and is advancing along the banks of the Danube, towards in Servia. London, July i. According to advices from Gibraltar, the arrival of Admiral Peyton's crui zers inform, that the States of Barbary, Algiers, 1 unis, Tripoli, Barca, &c. are making much more formidable naval preparations than were ever before known at any period of time whate ver; all in aid of the Ottoman Porte in its wara gainft the two Imperial Courts. It was even said that tliefe conjoint forces are meant to attack some of the Imperial or Tuscan ports in Italy. By the last advices from Madras, we learn that General Meadows was on his way from Bombay, to succeed Governor Campbell, but that he had' not then arrived. General Meadows is to be succeeded by General Abercrombie, in the government of Bombay. Much praise is due to Sir Archibald Campbell, for the excellent slate of defence in which he has left the Carnatic. The disposition of the troops ftatloned in that province, is such as does honorto his military Jkilf, while it eifetftually secures, at the fame time, that province from the sudden in sults of Tippoo Sultan. July 2. All attempt is said to have been made on the life of Monf. Necker, by poison ! The Minister however, happily discovered the matter in time to prevent its effects ; for the dish which he had tail ed, upon_ further trial, killed a dog ; and some fiiuff, which had been conveyed into a box before him, in a few minutes destroyed another animal ! 111 the last attempt, the artifice was this : The box was a jac simile of Mr. Neckar's, and it was placed, according to (hat gentleman's cultom, 011 the mantle-piece. He had a narrow escape, for the box was in his hand, when he discovered his own in his pocket ! ! ! It is needless to add, that Mr. Neckar is now on .us guard ; his chief food is hen's e<rgs, which Madame Neckar fees boiled in her own room. The spirit of the people, now urged on by def peiation, seems capable of the mofl darino- at tempt. Ihe 7 ters Etat, of the Commons, as they are proud to call themselves, are prevailine more and more The only rjueftion now is,—whether the foldiefy will or will not adhere to the Court If the army prefer the intrefls of their fellow citizens to thole of the Crown, there is an end to the (lelpotifm of the French Monarch! \ ! ABn.DGc.MENr of the STATE of. POLITICS for last FRANCE. AMIDS T the various figures that fill UD t i,„ litical scenery for this week, the moft,w P °' still is the com motions in France The dHV'' C "° US i„ that kingdom f« m „„„ t0 bc foine caVaftrophe. We wait, for the eventful ilTue. The Third £ltate ,' in number to the Nobility and the Clergy iS have allumed to themselves all the powen ?f?' States General. They have endeavored t °£ vert their decrees into laws, which the?l! printed, publilhed, and diitribnted in the 1 vinces. Detachments to Ipeak in the mili? ar °v stile which must 100-.be too powerful, Nobility and Clergy have joined their corps - ai thus a foundation is laid for a civil war which it now appears, is altogether inevitable • f ort „ order of the Nobles, formidable by their num. beis, weaiih, high l'pirus, and Connections in the army have lent a remonstrance to the Kine in which they express their resolution to mainrah the perogatives of the Crown, and the preron tives of their own order. This body, rendered compact and mdivilible by a military spirit anda fenie of honor, presents a front of opposition that is not to be appalled by threats, nor eulily cajoled by concessions. The French nation is therefore divided into two great parties ; or rather they have fallen into two div-fions. The Kim under the influence of Mr. Neckar, and the Cora' 111011s lorin one division ; the great body of the Nobility and the Clergy the other. In these cir cuinftances an appeal will naturally be made to the army. It is said that several gentlemen of the army have caught the infection of freedom as well as the mals of the people. The Frenchrecri ments thatferved in America, in thelate war,are particularly diltinguifhed, as might have been naturally expected,by their zeal for liberty. Were this enthufiai'm general among the military <ren tlemen, the mutters in dispute would be fetlled at once. But this, we have been allured by pri vate intelligence, which we cannot doubt, is by no means the cafe. The great part, by far, of the officers of the army, commi'llioned and non commiflioned, dependent on the crown for their f übliftence, their consequence in society* and their luture views, fee with jealousy the riling powti of an order of men whom they were accullomed to treat with insolent contempt. And though the present Monarch, Louis XVI. leans towards the Commons, they conlider this as a dereliction of the Royal Prerogatives ; as a temporary phrenzy which connot be lalling. They make adiftinc tioli, in short, between the person of the Sove reign, whole sentiments and inclinationsare un certain, and the Throne, which they conlider as fixed and permanent. EAST-INDIES. By late advices from India, we have been in formed, that our affairs in that quarter wear a flourilhing afpe<si, though there be a pretty gene ral dillatisfaction among the fervantsof the Com pany, as might be expected, at the rigorous reforms carried on by Lord Cornwallis. In a political view it may be questioned, how far it is prudent, before the powers of our govemmentbe more accurately defined, and our authority more firmly rooted in India, to dry up the resources by which individuals acquire fortunes ; or to dil courage men of family and spirit from entering into the Company's service. Presents and per quilites are natural in Alia. THE NATIONAL MONITOR No. XVIII. " Combine ye sons of freedom, ah, combine, " 7 he people are invincible who join; " Fuel ions and feuds will overturn the State, u Which union renders flonrifhing and great. AT the commencement of the revolution, Union was the word.—We juflly considered this as the gnat axis 011 which our political exif/ence turned. Our t%- perience verified the idea ; for, 11 'Twos Union fav'dvtin the trying hour." Can it be thought less important thatwe Jkould be as full) impressed -with this important fentimentnow! Jtcan not.—This led us to empire and independence. —This has given us the glory of this wtf em region, and the envy and admiration of the worli- Union alone can preserve and perpetuate this intf timable jewel—without which Freedom is but * name.—Laws, and government being perhaps more necessary to its preservation, than they are for the ft curity of life and property The Conflitution has faf fed a fiery trial, and Hike gold has come forth wit' additional lufire —it is now the " Sutreme La* of the Land"—that great uniting bond that holds the States together,and on which all our hopes of nation"' happiness am}glory depend.—Let us then view with ab horrence and indignation, every• attempt to fo'Ji J"' feeds ofjealouj), dijlruft and dijunion among ourftl vcs —every effort to injure, deface, or depreciate the merits of the Conflitution. In an especial manner It us spurn every attempt to fully the -reputation, the feelings, or dejlroy the ttfefulnsfs of those j> at ' rioticcharacters, which the people have appoint to admit/iJJ'er the new Government. There ar! sons in every community whose element is confufon " for the people to countenance such incendiaries, is to J' their own house on fire. _ Published by JOHN FENNO, No. 9, Maide* 1 Lane, nearthc Ojwego-Markct, New-York. —[3 dol-.p r ' ar^