EUROPE.
FRANCE.
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY.
Paris, Ofiober 17.
ON WednefJay the 14th, a deputation from
the Jews of Alsace and Lorraine desired to
be heard 011 the peifecutions to which they are
fubjeifl; and after fame debate, being admitted
to the bar, prefentedthe following
ADDRESS.
" Gentlemen,
" IT is in the name of the eternal author of
justice, and of truth ; in the name of that God,
who, by giving to all the fame rights, hath pre
scribed to all the fame duties ; in the name of
humanity, outraged for so many ages, by the ig
nominious treatment which the unfortunate de
fendants of a people the nioftantient of all have
undergone, iu almost every country 011 earth, that
we this day come to conjure you to vouchfafe to
take their deplorable deltiny into conlideratioi\.
"Every whereperfecuted, everywhere delpif
ed, and though always held in fubjet'tion, never
rebellious ; among all nations, objects of indig
nation and contempt, though del'erving tolera
tion and pity—the Jews whom we represent at
your feet, have ventured to hope, that, in the
niidft of your important labours, you willnotre
jecft their prayei-s, you will not disdain their com
plaints ; that you will listen with some degree of
feeling, to the timid remonstrances which they
dare to form iu the bosom of that profound hu
miliation in which they are buried.
" We should waste your time, gentlemen, by
enlarging on the nature and jultice of our claims.
They are recorded in the memorials which we
have lubmitted to your infpedtion.
" May we be indebted to you for an exiltence,
less miserable than that to which we are con
demned ! May the veil of obloquy, which hath
covered us so long, be at length rent from our
heads ! May men look upon us as their brethren !
May that divine charity which is so particularly
recommended to you, extend also to us ! May a
complete reform take place in the ignominious
institutions by which weave enslaved ; and may
this reform,hitherto so in effectually defired,which
, we now solicit with tears in our eyes, be the work
of your labor, the gift of your country !"
The President returned for answer :
" THE grand principles to which you appeal
in support of your demands, do not permit the
Aflembly to hear them with unconcern. The
Aflembly will confideryour request, and be hap
py to restore your brethren to tranquility and
happiness ; and of this you may inform those
whom you represent."
The committee of enquiry reported, that ;hey
had found no proof of the charges a ;.in(t the
Baron de Bezenval, and moved that he be dif
cliarged. The motion meeting witli oppoficion,
the Duke de Liancourt offered to pledge hiinfelf
for the Baron's appearing to take his trial, if re
quired.
M. de Mirabeau proposed appointing a new
committee, to collect the proofs against the pri
soner. which v ere fufllcient to support a charge
of high crimes against him, in order that he
might be tried by the new tribunal, to be eftab
li/hed by the constitution. But the number of
persons in custody for similar offences, andtheex
penceo'f guarding the Baron, induced the Aflem
bly to resolve,
" That the Chateht of Paris shall be authorised
provisionally, to institute and prosecute to judg
ment, criminal procefles against all persons ac
cused of, or in custody for, treason."
LONDON, Nov. j.
In consequence of the number ofprifonei s held
in custody iu the goals of Paris, for various crimes,
M. de la Fayette made a virtuous and seasonable
attempt to reform the criminal process in favor
of the culprits. At his instance the representa
tives of the Commons of Paris sent a deputation
to the National Alfembly, requesting them to con
firm a relblution, which they had come to for
granting the accused the right of cliufing their
own counfcl—that the prosecution should be pub
lic—that persons accused should have the right of
furnifliing proofs of their innocence ; and that
sentence should be given with the consent of a ma
jority of the Judges on the bench. The Nation
al Aflembly referred this application to a com
mittee of seven.
An extraordinary mode of depredation was
prac r tifeda few evenings fmce upon a gentleman
that was going through Stepney-fields between
fix and seven o'clock. He was accosted by aper
fon of genteel address by his moving off his hat,
and telling him that as he believed that the trifle
he lent him at the last Epsom races, had flipped
his memory, he should thank him now to repay
it. The gentleman, struck with surprise, protest
ed that he had never been there ! but was prevent
ed from proceeding, by the coming up of another
confederate, to whom, as the firlt appealed, he
swore he remembered the Gentleman and the
circumstance perfectly well, when two other fhab
by looking fellows coining up likewise, the gen
tleman being intimidated, thought it prudent to
fay he recollected fometliing of the debt, which
they being plealed to fay was three guineas and
a half, lie fufFered them to take it within a tew
(killings, [all he had about him] after which,
wilhinghim a good evening.
A manuscript, said to be found in the Baflile,
aflerts, that the man with the iron mask, was
Lewis de Bourbon, Count de Vermandois, born
the 2d Ocflo. 1667, of the Duchess of la Valliere.
A Hint.—A friend to humanity begs to inform
the public, that in the dangerous cafe of pins
swallowed by accident, swallowing one egg, un
drefTed, and in the course of an hour after ano
ther, is an infallible remedy for carrying oft the
pins, if done immediately after they have been
swallowed, i. e. before the pins have worked
tliemfelves into the coats of the stomach.
The King of the Two Sicilies, the oldest Mo
narch in Europe, is yet the youngest man in it
who wears a crown, except Selim 11 Id. and Lewis
XVI. He has been a King since the year 1 759, and
was born in 1 751, so thai he has worn a crown
ever since he was eight years old.
His father, the late King of Spain, governed
more countries successively, than any Prince that
ever lived before him. He was Sovereign of Par
ma, and ceded it to his brother, Don Philip.
He was Sovereign to Tufcany, and ceded it to
the Emperor.
He was Sovereign of the Two Sicilies, when his
eldest brother Ferdinand VI. King of Spain, died
without ifliie ; theSpanifh Monarchy thus devolv
ed upon King Charles, who gave his two king
doms of Naples and Sicily to his third son, Ferdi
nand, thenachild, who uow reigns over them.
The prefentKing of the Two Sicilies had two
elder brothers, Don Philip, Duke of Calabria,
who being an ideot, was declared incapable of in
heriting his father's dominions.
And DonCarlos, now KingofSpain, whom the
late King, his father, took with him from Naples
to Spain, created Prince of Afturias, and declared
Heir Apparent to theSpanifh Monarchy, to which
Providence was pleased to make him lately suc
ceed.
When the Auftrians took pofleffion of the fort
refsof Belgrade, they found 1280 of the garrison
dead, who had been killed in the course of the
three preceding days, but whom the garrison had
not time to bury. During the fame period 1700
of the Turks were drowned.
Good men, in all ages, have 6een indued with a
prophetic spirit !
HOUSE OF COMMONS, Dec. 21, 1775.
LONDON.
LORD NORTH'S PROHIBITORY BILL.
MR. HARTJ.EY.
Q
U IR, upon this pause which is offered to you
by the return of this bill from the Lords, I con
fefs that I feel a kind of superstition to wish for
one lait word to deprecate the fatal blow, and
that our unremitted oppofitionandremonftrance
from the firft to the very last stage of this bill may
remain as a memorial, thatfomeof us, atleaft, la
ment this fatal separation of America with an af
fectionate regret. We are overpowered by num
bers, and all our entreaties and remonstrances are
in vain. An inflexible majority in Parliament
have now declared all America to bean indepen
dent hostile State. Disputes originally between
administration, and America, are become, thro
ministerial influence, the ground of a parliamen
tary war with America. The fenfeof the nation
is not with that war, and I trust it never will be.
However speaking in Parliament to ministers as
they seem determined to drive all things to ex
tremities, I mult alk whether you are to expedt
that while you burn their towns, take ordeftroy
their ihips, and property, they will set with their
arms folded, or whether they will not be driven
to repel injury by injury. You have found their
acftive powers of defence by the experience of the
last campaign, when by your orders the shedding
of the fiift civil blood was precipitated on the fa
tal 19th of April, before your pretended concil
iatory motion could be proposed to any of the
American aflemblies ? Why were you found un
guarded i» Canada ? Two regiments are taken
prisoners. Your officers are hostages, and yet
you procced in this unjust and unnatural war,
with fire, sword, and rapine. What farther hos
tages may fall into their hands at Boston, or what
blood of our fellow fubjccls may be shed there, I
contemplate with horror. I dread some fatal
event there. Public report threatens. When
the provincials shall of their late and
lult petition, and wlien tliey lee all profpetfl of
peace become desperate, what can you expe<ft but
that they should exert every power to destroy
your land forces in America during the severity
of the winter, before you can support or relieve
them. Who will be answerable for these things.-
When this bill of rapine, which now lies before
you gets to them, they will set themselves to re
taliate upon your fleet. Your land force has been
disgraced and annihilated in the firft campaign,
notwithstanding all your boastings ; are we not
then to expedt, that those ministers of vengeance
who shall prefson a naval war with America, (hall
be responsible to their country, for the conse
quences of their head-strong and wilful measures,
if the navy of this country should be brought to
disgrace and defeat ? Weigh the confequencesr.
If you fend large ships they will not be able to acft.
Iffmall ones may they not be overpowered ?—
Confiderthe diftanceof your operations. Every
port in America will be a Dunkirk to you. We
know their /kill and bravery as privateers in the
last war. In any cafe you are laying the founda
tion of an hostile marine in America, which, has
been, and ought to be the source of the marine of
Great-Britain.
I cannot bean adviser, or a well-vrifher to any
of the vindiiftive operations of the adminifh ation
against America, because I think the cause unjust ;
but at the fame time I niuft be equally earnest to
secure British property and interests from destruc
tion ; neither a vidlory of Great-Britain over
America nor of America over Great-Britain can
afford to us any matter of triumph. Both are
equally deftrudtive. If nothing can abate your
fury against the Americans in this ministerial
war, wefhall expetfi at least that you should guard
our own vulnerable parts. Are you guarded at
Newfoundland ? Are you prepared against any
expedition of retaliation if the provincials should
meditate any thing to the deftruftion of your
fifheries there ?
Administration have been the aggreflors in
every thing, step by step. By this fatal bill of
separation you now declare the Americans to be
enemies in form, therefore it is yourselves that
force upon them the rights of enemies. You
must now be responsible to your country for the
events of your own war, to which they have
been forelucftant and you so precipitate. When
this country shall come to open its eyes, to fee
and feel the consequences, they will know of
whom to require an account. Sir, I shall now
move you, inlleadof agreeing to the amendments
of the Lords, to adjourn the consideration of
them for fix months ; I confefs with very little
hopes of averting this bill, but from a supersti
tious feeling in my mind, to perform the last ce
remonial office of affection and everlasting fare
wel to peace, and to America. The fate of Ame
rica is cast. You may bruise its heel but you
cannot crush its head. It will revive again. The
new world it before them. Liberty is theirs.
They have pofleflion of a free government, their
birth-right and inheritance, derived to them
from their parent state, which the hand of vio
lence cannot wrest from them. If you will cast
them off, my last wish is to them ; may they go
and prosper. When the final period of this
once happy country ihall overtake ourselves, ei
ther through tumult or tyranny, may another
Phoenix rife out of our ashes !
When
The bird of wonder dies, the maiden Phoenix,
Her alhes new'create another heir,
As great in admiration as herfelf.
So (halt (he leave her bleffednefstoone,
(When Heav'n shall call her from this cloud of darkness)
Who from the sacred ashes of her honor,
Shall ftarlike rife, as great in fame as Ihe was,
And so (land fix'd. Peace, plenty, truth, love, terror,
That were the servants of this chosen infant,
Shall then be his, and like the vine grow round him*
Wher'er the bright fun of heav'n shall ihiue,
His honor, and the greatness of his name
Shall be, and make new nations. He (hall flourifh,
And like the mountain cedar, reach his branches
To all the plains about him. Children's children
Shall fee this and bless Heav'n.