PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS BY JOHN FEN NO, No. 41, BROAD-STREET, NEAR THE EXCHANGE, NEW-YORK [No. 30, c/" Vol. 11. j DISCOURSES ON DAVILA No. XV. (Concluded Jrom our lufi.) First follow nature and your jud*ment frame By her just standard which isftill the f»me. AMERICANS ! In your Congress at Philadel phia,on Friday,the 14th day of Oft. 1 you laid down the fundamental principles, for which you were about to contend,and from which it 13 >to be hoped you will never depart. For aliening and vindicating your rights and liberties, you declar ed, '' 1 hat by the immutable laws of nature, the " principles of the English Constitution, and " your several charters or compacts, you were " entitled to life, liberty and property : that " your ancellors were entitled to all the rights, " liberties and immunities of free and natural " born fubjdeits in England: that you, their de " fcendants, were entitled ro the exercise and " enjoyment of all such of them as your local " and other circuinftances, enabled you toexer " cife and enjoy. That the foundation of En " glifh liberty, and of all free government, is, a right in the people, to participate in their " legislative council. That you were entitled " t6 the common law of England, and more ef " pecially to the great and inestimable privilege " of being tried by your peers oi" the vicinage, " according to the course of that law. That it " It indispensably necejfary togood government, ar.d " rendered essential by the Englijh Confutation, that " the conjlitueilt branches of the legislature, betr.de " fender oj each ether." These, among others, you then claimed, demanded and infilled on, as your indubitable rights and liberties. These are the principles, 011 which you firft united and aflociated, and if you lleadily and consistently maintain them, they will nbt only secure free dom and happiness to yourselves and your poste rity, but ydur example will be imitated by all Hurops, and in time perhaps by all mankind. The nations are in travail and great ?*enrs piuit have birth. " The minds of men are in move ment from the 801 iithenes to the Atlantic. Agi tated with new and llronir emotions, they swell and heave beneath bppreiiion, as the seas within the polar circle, atthe approach of spring. The genius of philosophy with the touch of Ithuriel's spear, is trying the eftabliflinientt bf the earth. The various forms of prejudice, superstition and servility, start up, in their true lliapes, which had long imposed upon the world, under the re vered feuiblances of honor, faith and loyalty. Whatever is loose mult be shaken ; whatever is corrftpted inuft be lopt away ; whatever is not built on the broad balls of public utility, mull be thrown to the ground. Obscure murmurs ga ther and swell into atempell ; the spirit of en quiry like a severe and searching wind, pene trates every part of the great body politic ; and \vhatever is unsound, whatever is infirm, fhriuks Ar the visitation. Liberty, led by philosophy, diffuses her blelfings to every class of men ; and even extends a finile of hope and proniife to the poor African, the victim of hard impenetrable avarice. Man, as man, becomes an objet r tof re fpeift. Tenets are transferred, from theory to practice. The glowing sentiment, the lofty fpe culat.loll, no longer fer\e " but to adorn the pag es of a book they are brought home to men's bulincfs and bosoms ; and what fume centuries ago, itw;is daring but to think, and dangerous to express, is now realized and carried into effect. Syfletns are analysed .into their firft principles, iuid principles are fairly pursued to their legiti mate consequences." This is all enchaining.—But amidst our enthu fiafin„ there is great reason to paul'e, and pre serve our sobriety. It is true that the firft em pire of the world is breaking the fetters of hu man reason, and exerting the energies ofredeem td liberty. In the glowing ardors of her zeal, ihe condescends, Americans, to pay the molt fcrupolous attention to your maxims, principles and example. There is reason to fear/he has co pied from you, errors, which have cost you very dear. Affilt her, by your example, to redtify then before they involve her in calamies, as much greater than as her population is jnore unwieldy, and licr lituation more exposed to the baleful influence of rival neighbours. Ainidlt all their exultations, Americans and Frekciimen Ihoula remember, that the perfec tibility ot man, is only human and terreftial per ieitibility. Cold will Hill freeze, and fire will never cease to burn : disease and vice will conti nue to disorder, and death to terrify mankind. SATURDAY, JULY 24, 1790. Emulation next to felf preservation will forever be the great spring of human acftions, and the balance of a well ordered government, will alone be able t-o prevent that emulation from degene rating into dangerous amotion, irregular rival ries, deftru<Sive factions, wafting feJitions and bloody civil wars. The great queftior, wi/i forever remain, -who Jhall work f Our ; r _. cannot all be idle. Leisure for study must evt? be the portion of a tew. Ihe number employed in government, mult forever be very final) * Food, raiment and habitations, the indifpenfihle wants of all, are not to be obtained without the continual toil of ninety-nine in an hundred of mankind. As reft is rapture to the weary man, those who la bor little will always be envied by thole who la bor much, though the Tatter, irj reality, be pro bably the most enviable. With all the encou ragements public and private, which can ever be given to general education, and it is fcarcelypof (ible they iliould be too many or too great, the laboring part of the people, can never be learn ed. The controversy between the rich and the poor, the laborious,and the idle, the learned and the ignorant, diftinfttons as old* as the creation, and as exteniiveas the globe ; diftintftions which no art or policy, no degree of virtue or philoso phy can ever wholly destroy, will continue, and rivalries will spring out of therri. These parties will be represented in the leglflature, and must be balanced, or one will oppress the other. There will never probably fce found, any other mode of eftablilhing fucli an equilibrium, than by constituting the representation of each, an independent branch of the legislature, and an independent executive authority, such as that in our government, to be a thin! branch and a me diator or an arbitrator I><- ween them. Property must be lecured, or libc " cannot exist : but if unlimited, or unba/anniij po»v r of, difpci£ng property, be put into the hands of thole/ -who have 110 property, France will find, as We hnvt; round, the lamb committed to the custody of the wolf. In such a care, all the pathetic exhorta tions and addrefles of the National Allenibly to the people, to refpecft property, will be regarded 110 more than the warbles of the fonglters of the sorest. The great art of lawgiving coufills in balancing the poor again ft the rich, in the legis lature, dnd in constituting the legislative, a per fect balance against the executive power, at the fame lime, that no individual or party can become its rival. The ellence of a free government con sists in an effertfal controul of rivalries. The executive and the legislative powers are natu rally rivals : and if each, has not an effectual controul over the other, the weaker, will ever be the lamb in the paws ot the wolf. The nation which will not adopt an equilibrium of power, must adopt a despotism. There is 110 other al ternative. Rivalries must Le controuled, or they will throw all things into confufion : and there is nothing but despotism, or a balance ©f power, which can tontroul them. Even in the simple monarchies, the nobility and the judicatures, constitute a balance, though a very imperfe<ft one against the royalties. Let us conclude witji one reflection more> which shall barely be hinted at, as delicacy, if not prudence, may require in this place foine degree of relerve. Is there a poflibility, that the government of nations may fall into the hands of men, who teach the molt disconsolate of all creeds, that men are but fireflies, and that this all, is without a father ? Is this the way, to make man, as man an object of refpeit ? Or is it, to make murder itfelf, as indifferent ss /hooting a plover, and the extermination of the Rohilla na tion, as innocent, as the swallowing of mites, 011 a morsel ofcheefe ? If fuchacafe lhould happen, would not one of these, the most credulous of all believers, have reason to pray, to his eternal na ture, or his almighty chance, (1 he more absurdity there is in this address the more in character) give us again the gods of the Creeks—give us again the more intelligible as well as more comfortable fyf tents of Athauajiui and Calvin—nay y give us again our Popes and Hierarchies, Benedißines and IcfuitJ, with all their fuperjlition and fanaticijm, 'mpoflurcs and tyranny.—A certain Dutchefs of venerable years and niafculine understanding, said of some of the Philosophers of the eighteenth century, admirably well, " On ne croit pas, dans le " Chriftianifme, mais qii croit, toutes les fottifes '■ pofiibles." 533 TRANSLATED FOR THE GAZETTE OF THE UNITED STATES. P4RJS. INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE COLOMES, Presented to the National AJJtmily, in the name of the Committee appointed for that pufpc/e, the 23d March, 1790. By Mr. Barnjvi, Deputy fiora Dauphiny. CONTINUED. ' I ''HE National Afieinbly having pointed out A the mode of forming die afiemblies, which are to preiVnt the views of the colonies, is also obliged to fix certain principles as a basis for their plans of conftitutiofi, to render as as far as pofli ble all iuch as may be offered fufceptable of be ing received But it is defi-ous to reduce its conditions to the molt simple terms, to the most nnconteftable max ims—-and it does not wifhto add any thing which may impofeany limits to the libei ty of the colo nial afiemblies, beyond what conltitutes the fun damental connexion beween tlie colonies and the metropolis. I he colonial afiemblies, engaged in the bufi nefsof the Coiiftitution will perceive the distinc tion between the legislative, executive, judiciary and administrative functions ; they will exa mine how it will best answer to organize the'iri in the constitution of this colony f the forms, according to which the legislative and executive power ought to be exercised, the number, com poution and hierarchy of the tribunals ; into whole hands the administration ought to be in truftt d, the number, formation and fubordina ti-jn of the different afiemblies which ought to concur therein ; the qualifications which may be required to constitute an aiftive citizen, for the purpose of exercising the different employ ments ; in a Word, whatever may enter into the composition of a government, the best adopted to secure the happineft aud tranquility of the colonies. Tlie nature of their intcrefts, which can never be entirely blended with those ofthe metropolis locals and particularly objeasrcfpecfimg the pre paration of their Jaws ; in short, the diltance of places, and the time necellary to arrive at them eftabliih a great difference between them and the provinces of France, and consequently occa fton a difference in their constitutions. But in endeavouring to find these Out, we ought never to lose fight that they form however a part of the French empire, and that the pro tection which is due them by the whole national strength ; that the engagements which cutrhc to exilt between them and the commerce "of France ; in a word, that every tie of reciprocal utility which attaches them to the metropolis can have 110 kind of solidity, without the exist ence of political connections to serve as a basis. From these different views, it appears with re fpectto the legislative power, That the laws designed for the interior reg'j. lation of the colonies, independent ofthe relati ons which exifl between them and the metropolis may and can be prepared without any difficulty within tliemfelves. 3 That these laws when they are of a preffinr nature, may be provisionally executed with the lanction or the governor ; But that the right of approving tliein defini tively, should be reserved to the legislature of rrance ana the King. To the legifliiture, because it is inverted with »he national power, and because it would be im polnble without its participation, to be sure tha* the laws prepared in the colony, would not in terfere with the engagements contracted with the metropolis. To the King, because the fanttion of all the functions of royalty, are attributed to liini over the colonies as well as over all the other parts or the r rench empire. It in like manner follows, that the Jaws which relpect the connections between the colonies and the metropolis whether they are demanded by the colonial Aflembly, or have been prepared in the National Aliembly, ought to receive their exiltence and authority from the latter, and can not be executed, even provisionally until they have been decreed by it. A maxim oflegiflatiort which has 110 connection with momentary excep tions, which pressing and imperious wants may require, reflecting the introduction of provifi 011s. r From the fame views refuits with regard ro (tte [Whole No. 134.J
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers