[No. L.]
THE TABLE T.—No. L.
« There is a propensity in mankind to refifl as well
is to enforce dominion."
PERHAPS there is riot more nicety in any
question, than -whether men are more a
verse to obey than to be obeyed Few dispositions
are naturally prone to give obedience, and pro
bably as few are willing to relinguifh it. From
this original fountain have flowed perpetual
llreams of oppreflion 011 the one hand and sedi
tion on the other. The secret of curbing the ex
cefl'es ofthefe propensities is found to conlilt in a
well-balanced, well-administered government,
and it admits of no other remedy. Reason, re
ligion, benevolence, good humour, patriotism
and every other ufeful attribute, that can be na
med are utterly inadequate to the purpose of re
straining the turbulent spirit of man from enor
mities.
As the propensity I am fpeakingof is a natural
one itdifcovers itfelf moll strongly among men
least removed from a state of nature. A lavage
has more of it than can be found in any poflible
itage of civilization. Tho the objects, about
which his will is exercised, are few and limited,
vet wherever he fixes a purpose he disdains re
iiftance. This love of rule and hatred of oppo
sition likewise break out, with far greater fury,
among the lowest and vilell part of the communi
ty, than among the sensible and enlightened.
The cruelty of a waggoner over his liorfes is in
comparably greater, than any acfts of severity
that are ever exercised by a man, who moves in
a higher sphere of life. Overseers of negroes
and other laborers discover a temper more domi
neering and wrathful, than can often find a
place in the breasts of tliofe whole employment
is lei's servile.
When a monarch or other elevated characters
discover an arbitrary, opprelfive difpolition, they
excite the attention and complaints of the world.
The infamy of their conduit is perpetuated and
mankind are warned against such evils. But
there are many persons wliofe whole life is a scene
of cruelty and revenge, and yet whole enormi
ties pals unpunished or unregarded. The fa&is,
■ man is too ferocious a being to be let loose. In
many refpedis the law reflrains him. There are
however a thouland instances which the law can
not reach, where men exhibit flriking demon
strations that one of the moll natural features of
the human character, is the love of enforcing as
well as refilling dominion. The propensity to
do both is so active and llrong, that no compari
foncan be drawn to fettle the quellion, which is
the moll universal and irrefillable. From tliefe
Iketches we deduce the necellity of checking the
extremes to which the different lituationsof men
are liable. Men in power mult be rellrained,
and so mull men out of power. One will other
wise be licentious and outrageous, the other op
prelfive and tyrannical. Tliefe hasty remarks
are introductory to a more copious difcullion oi
the fubjeift, which may probably be brought for
ward in foine future speculation.
NEWPORT, SEI'TEMIER 24.
THE following Address of the Society of Cin
cinnati in this State, was lately presented to his
Excellency the Prefidentof the United States, by
the Rev. Dr. Manning :—To which his Excellen
cy was pleased to return the answer thereunto an
nexed.
To the PRESIDENT rf~7he UNITED STATES.
SIR,
EXPRESSIONS of refpe<sl and attachment are a
tribute which thecitizens erf Americaowe to your
prudence, your patriotism, and valor ; to the fuc
cefsfuldifplayof which, they are already indebt
ed for their freedom ; and from a continuance of
the exercifeof thole qualities they may anticipate
the highest state of political happiness : under
these impreflions, Sir, we the society of the Cin
cinnati of the State ofßhode-Ifland, molt sincerely
congratulate you upon your appointment to the
chiefniagiftracy of the Union, by the unanimous
fuffrage of more than three millions of free citi
tens ; an appointment rendered the more digni
fied by the manner in which it was contered,and tin
more pleasing to your fellow-citizens from a con-
T 'ftion that they could nowhere place the sacred
deposit, for which they have so long and ardu
ouily contended, with equal fafety to themselves,
and honor to their country. We cannot help ex
prefling at the fame time the ftrongobligatiops we
'eel for the facrifice of domcftic ease and retire
me nt, to which we are sensible the iove of your
country alone could have prompted you—and
although we are not admitted to a participation
or the good effects of the government over which
so deservedly preside, ver we fondly flatter
SA sUNDAY, 1739.
ourselves that the period is not far distant, 'when
the mistaken zeal which has lately prevailed in
this State, will give way to a more enlightened
policy. We can only add, Sir, our ardent wishes
for your health and happinefe. Long, long may
the United States be blefled with a life to which
they are so highly indebted, and may the close of
your days be as peaceful and happy to yourfelf,
as the meridian of them has been ufeful and glo
rious to your country.
ISAAC SENTER, President.
Robert Rogers, Sec'ry.
Rhode-Island, September 3, 1789.
To the President and Members of the Rhodc-l/land
State Society of the Cincinnati.
GENTLEMEN,
IN returning my grateful thanks for the flat
tering and affetftionute sentiments exprefled in
your address of the 3d instant, I beg you will do
justice to the fincericy of my regard, which reci
procates, with great pleasure, the warmed wishes
for your happiness, political and personal.
Under a persuasion of the candor and support
of my fellow-citizens, I yielded obedience to the
voice of my country—and imprefled with a sense
of duty, I forfook the pleasures of domestic retire
ment, to promote (if my best exertions can have
such tendency) the object of a dearer interest—
Those expectations of support have been amply
fulfilled, and fnv fondeft hope of their candor
has been gratified by a kind and partial country.
I am much pleased, Gentlemen, with the hope,
which you entertain, that mistaken zeal will give
way to enlightened policy—and I desire to repeat
to your society, alliirances of the most affectionate
esteem. GEORGE WASHINGTON.
Utiited States, September 14, 1789.
MARIA ANTONIETTA of Austria, QUEEN
of FRANCE,
TO THE NATION.
MY heart was yet bleeding at the loss of a
Prince to whom I had given birth, when it was
allailed by sorrows of a much more diltreffing
nature. All France was in tears, groaning under
the weight of oppression : The horrors of an ap
proaching famine had nearly reduced the people
to despair, and I hear my name mentioned "with
murmuring and impatience—Suddenly I was in
formed that all Paris was in arms, and that fire
and sword were desolating the capital—ln a mo
ment I saw my court disperse and fly far awaj
from me. My royal consort hallened immedi
ately to his good city, carrying thither at leafl: thai
internal peace which the purity of his principles
has always made him to enjoy, and which th«
consciousness of his love for his people made him
certain of imparting to them—but nothing could
quiet my tender feelings, alarmed for the citizens
of Paris and for all France, whose universal de
solation filled my heart with unutterable distress.
Thus forfaken and reduccd to the most de
plorable situation, I shut myfelf up with my chil
dren—l prefled them a tlioufand and a thousand
times to my bosom—l mixed my tears and bittei
cries with their infant waitings ; in their tender
and innocent carelles I could find some alleviation
to my %wn misfortunes, but those of the nation
left me inconsolable.
A Princess, whom Heaven has formed and be
llowed on mortajs for the liappinefs of all those
to whom her cares may extend, and for the fa
tisfa(ftion of all who know her, the mast tender
and affectionate of women, came and mixed liei
tears with mine.—YeFrenchmen! Ihe is my cou
lin —the Duchess of Orleans, (with the live
liest gratitude I mention her name, the found oi
which is as grateful to your ears as her amiable
person is dear to your fouls). The Duchess of
Orleans opened her heart to me.—What an inex
haustible source of riches and consolation was
there ! O what a powerful support against mis
fortunes, a woman, nay, even a reigning Princess
may find in a virtuous friend ! May this holy
truth be forever deeply engraved in the heart of
every mortal woman who is deltined to fit upon
a throne. —It will teach her how difficult it is,from
that exalted feat, to make a proper choice of
friends ; it will lay open to her the falfehood
antl treachery of courtiers, andpreferve her from
the dangerous poison which infects every court.
As fincereas she is tender, endued with courage
equal to her sweetness and gencrofity, this true
friend, in the effufion of her foul, could not dis
semble from me that, I was loudly accused by the
nation to be the author of its calamities.—How
lively and moving were her expressions ! —What
a language they fpokc to my heart ! —lt was op
prefled. —It was torn with grief.—Nothing less
than the affectionate and unwearied cries of that
Princess, could have made me bear so rude a ihock
without expiring with grief.
[. (jti Wednesday and Saturday
O ye, whose wife discernment has never fuffer
ed yon to remain long under any error ! Ye just
and enlightened nation ! YcFrehch men ! whose
name alone is the elogium of your minds ! Ye
people, cherished by the Princess who enjoys the
inei'timable advantage of reigning over you, and
who now addreflesyou with a confidence that is
due to you on 'so many accounts ! Ye models of
love for your Sovereigns as well as for your
country! Ye heroes ! whose great and valiant
fouls have made you so often fhedyour blood for
those Sovereigns as well as for that country !Can
it then be poifible that you have not known —that
you have forgot your Dauphinefs, who pofl'efies
all your tenderness, and who ever since has so
sincerely loved you ? Ever since the alliance which
has united her to the Prince who has afterwards
become your King until this melancholy seta,
when her misfortune compels her to juftifyher
felf, she never ceased to cherish you—(he had a -
dopted you from inclination, as Ihe had your Au
guit Dauphin. Yes, ye Frenchmen, in allying
myfelf to you, I had placed all my felicity as well
as all my glory in one day sharing his throne and
reigningover your hearts. Inthe teftinionies of
love which I received from you with so much fa
tisfacftion, and the remembrance, of which will
ever be infinitely deartoine, be lure that you ex
prefled no more than a just gratitude. Ever since
the crown has been placed on the head of my
Royal Consort, my heart never ceased to be filled
with those sentiments ; they are invariable as
their nature —as their principle :—1 will preserve
and cheriih them until the Divinity is pleased to
call me to his bosom ; here let me renew the solemn
promise, to which I swear by the sacred and pre
cious title of Queen of Ffance.
But I will confirm to you with my own mouth,
this promise so pleaftng to my heart—l will go
into the bosom of the capital, and there expand
my foul into that of the nation : I will let them
fee all my grief; and 1 sincerely wish that fame
nation may bring back serenity and joy. My
principal with is to persuade the people, that it
will be the important business of my whole life,
to promote their felicity with all my power. Ah!
may I one day make them forget, that, deceitful
courtiers ; ministers without honor and without
faith ; public plunderers of all kinds, infhort, an
odious, cruel and bloody junto had prepared
their ruin ! Oh ! How happy I lhali then esteem
myfelf ! But I shall never eejoy either tranquility
or fatisfaiftion, until the moment when I shall
have carried into the minds of that most amiable
and most loving nation, that degree of convicftion,
which will restore and ensure to me for ever the
hearts of all my dear Frenchmen.
Let us diflipate our alarms and our fears ; let
us strengthen, by frefh mutual afliirances of re
ciprocal tenderness, the bands that unite us to
each other ; let us render them indifloluble ;
let all the unfortunate apply tome with unbound
ed confidence !—they will find my heart ever open :
I will pour into theirs, every consolation which
beloved children have a right to expecft from a
tender and affectionate mother whom they love :
I will be eager to give them all the afliftance in
my power ; —I will be their patroness and their
support ; —I will love to weep and grieve with
those that grieve and weep; I will find an infinite
sweetness in wiping off their tears, and I will place
my happiness in drying up the source of them.
Placed on the throne of France, my ainbition.ftill
prompts another fond wish, which will fully fatif
fy my heart : it is, that all Frenchmen maycon
fider me as their best friend.
A wife and economical minister is restored to
us: the restorer of affairs is coming ; perhaps
he hears me at this moment: our misfortunes are
then going to vanish : we may rely on his zeal
and care, as well as on the love of our King for
his people.
EUROPEAN ACCOUNTS, BY THE LAST ARRIVALS.
VIENNA, JULY 8.
An Austrian officer, who arrived here the 3d
instant. in quality of a cotirier from Semlin,
brings the important news that the Ruffian fleet,
under Admiral Wainowich, had attacked and
completely defeated the firft division of the
Turkifhfleet, near Beflarabia. The division had
under its convoy some transports with provisions
for the Grand Vizier's army, which are captur
ed by the Ruffians. After destroying and dif
perling the Turkilh Ihips, the conquerors made
a descent npon the coast, and reduced Kalat and
Ketftaga to ashes by lire.—This vidlory is the
more important, as. it will tend tooccaficn afcar
city of provisions in the Ottoman army.
News of the above event has caused great con
fternatiou in Cpnftantinople, where the guards
are doubled, and cannon drawn upon the banks
of the Canal to rtfiii the approach of the Ruffians.