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From the National IntUigrnccr.
SURVEY OF TIIK UNITED STATES.
There arc few objects more important than
the accurate survey of the territory, embraced
within the limits of nations. The advantages
which .re derived from such surveys arc so
numerous, and so intimately connected with
the advancement of national as well as indivi
dual interests, that it is by no means surprising
that the governments of Europe have devoted
considerable attention and incurred much ex
pcncc in effecting them. It is, however, sur
prising, that the United States, where the bene
fits derivable from such surveys would be so
much greater, have betrayed so little solicitude
about them. We can only account for this ap
parent apathy from the multiplicity of impor
tant concerns which have claimed the attention
of a government yet in its infancy, and from
the varying opinions, which in some measure
prevail on this point, and which have created
;i doubt in some minds whether such a work
■would Ik the legitimate province of the govern
ment of the United States. It is high time
that the public mind should he awakened to
the importance of this object, that it should de
cide on the necessity of its attainment, and
pointout the proper organ and means of effect
ing it. This is the end of the following re
marks.
Is it necessary to go into any details to prove
tlic importance of accomplishing a complete
survey of all the lands within the limits of the
United States? There cannot surely he a man
in the United States so ignorant as not to ac
knowledge its importance. As, however, its
importance may not be fully appreciated ever,
by those who tire not a!together insensible to it,
it will not be useless to enumerate some ofthe
leading advantages that would (low from it.—
It is not perhaps a vain hope to calculate upon
thus dissipating the apathy of some men, and
animating the zeal of others.
1. It would enable the governments, gener
al .is well as state, to lay and collect taxes with
a more discriminating judgment than at pre
sent.
2. It would enable the general government
to exercise with w isdom, and on a permanent
plan, the important power of designating mail
roads. To do this it is essential that the nature
r>f the ground, the exact situation midsize of the
livers, and the distances of towns and counties,
should be known.
3. It would afford satisfactory information
to persons disposed to emigrate from one part
ofthe union to the other.
4. It would enable the state governments to
lav out roads, cut canals and improve the navi
gation of l ivers, so as to combine the greatest
present and future utility.
5. It would give an opportunity to our vouth
to acquire correct ideas of their country, and
prevent them from imbibing local prjudiccs ;
and
o. It would not fail, from the splendor and
magnitude ofthe work and the display of talent
made in it, to impress the European world
with a more true and respectful idea of us, thus
furnishing them with new inducements, if not
to court our friedship, at least to avoid provok
ing our enmity.
It is confidently believed, that a full and can
did dcvclopcmcnt of these considerations w ill
satisfy every dispassionate mind of the neces
sity of attaining this great object.
The next enquiry that presents itself res
pects the proper organ to effect it.
All will allow that it is a work far beyond in
dividual attainment.
The only difference of opinion that can arise
is, whether it ought to be effected by the gen
eral or the slate governments.
1 contend that it is the peculiar and legiti
mate province of the general government;
that i: only is competent to accomplish it; that
the states arc totally incompetent.
It is true that the constitution ofthe United
States denies to the general government all
those powers which arc not specifically bes
towed upon it. A little enquiry will, however,
suffice to shew that such a measure as is here
proposed is hut an incident of power unequivo
cally conferred, or is the best, if not the only
mean bv which they can l>e effected. It is the
duty ofthe general government to defend the
tounlry ; and it is among its powers, to lay and
collect direct taxes, and to designate the routes
to be pursued by the mail. The United States
have already, young as they are, been invaded
by a foreign force, and disgraced by an insur
rection. In both these events, it actually be
came necessary to march armies, and in one of
tuem to fix military garrisons and to erect for
tifications on a large scale. Ect those who en
countered the difficulties of the revolution (for
they alone can) recount the complicated incon
veniences, embarrassments and evils they met
with from the want of a correct knowledge of
th? precise situation of the country through
which they had to pass; and let transatlantic
events prove the infinite advantages derived
from this knowledge. It is a fact that the li
terature of France has contributed almost as
powerfully as the sword to the unprecedented
splendor of her triumphs. \V ill it then he said
that knowledge, thus important, and without
which the highest power, with which the ge
neral government is invested, cannot be fully
carried into effect, is not constitutionally within
its reach. As well might it be said that the
power to build and raise a navy did not give
the government authority to send their armed
vessels on die ocean, inasmuch as the purposes
for which they are to be raised are not designa
ted. I* is sufficient to have shewn that the
country cannot be effectually, or at least, as
well defended without the possession of Uiis
powfir as with it, to cotivif.ee U3 that it legiti
mately belongs to the government. If I have
a right to build a house, have I not likewise a
right to raise the scaffolding, without which it
cannot be erected.
The same reasoning applies to the power
given to the general government to lay and
collect taxes. To carry this power into effect,
so as to render the taxes laid, equal and unop
pressivc, it is absolutely necessary to ascertain
the quantity of land m each district, and its va
lue, which knowledge, cannot be acquired in
any other way than by such a survey as is pro
posed ; the power- to make which survey is
therefore an essential attiibuteof the power to
lay taxes.
But'.hat power of the general government,
which, in its actual exercise, hears most direct
ly on this point, and requires, towards its esta
blishment, less implication or inference, is that
of designating the routes to be pursued by the
mail.
This subjo? t might be dilated on to a great
extent; but ihc object ol this piece is merely
to oiler a text, which, it is hoped, will receive
an ample commentary from other pens.
•
MOM THE SAME.
‘I he follow ing letter has been pul inlo our
hands by a gentleman who thinks with us that
the strange transactions to which it relates have
not been sufficiently developed. We all know
something of the horrid scenes of tyranny, of
which Ireland, miserable Ireland has been re
cently the theatre. These scenes were tire na
tural offspring of monarchy and oppression—
they are every where to be found where kings
and priests govern. Shocked therefore, as our
techngmay lie at their recital, they occasion but
little surprize. But that the American govern
ment, or its representatives should become the
engine es carrying that opprssivc system into
effect; that they should aggravate the sufferings
of the. oppressed, that,-in violation of the con
stitution and laws, established principles, and
deep rooted feelings of the nation, they should
deny them an assylum in this country, when
offered to them by their tyrants is surprising
and merits perpetual remembrance. The cor
respondence between Mr. Adams, or his Sec
retary, and Mr. King, on this subject, has ne
ver been published. It could scarcely’ fail to
be the best comm entry on the time of alien and
sedition bills.
1 or prudential reasons relative to the gentle
man who wrote the letter given, we surpress
his name and some circumstances of a person
al nature.
‘1 he letter is from a respectable Irish gen
tleman, ri sident in the state of New-York, and
is date,. Match 2, 1 807.
“ My deau rmr.sn,
God knows with wlut sentiments cf fond re
membrance 1 read your letter, again and again
—lt is long since l reckoned you among the
dead, lor I had heard of such an event taking
place, before l left Ireland. But to find you
alive, ami in such respectable circumstances as
your situation indicates, gives me a degree of
pleasure which I cannot well describe.
“ ou desire me to give you an account o!
my affairs and my situation. Just 1 leaven 1 was
1 to relate the occurrences of my life, since 1
saw you, ’twould fill more than a hundred pages.
1 will in a few words tell you that I have been
for four years shut up in a dungeon—l was
arrested in the beginning of ’93 and effected
my escape from Dublin Castel ; got on board
ot a ship ot my own, and arrived in Norway ;
thence passing through Zealand and Germany,
1 got to France, where I heard that an expedi
tion had just sailed lor Ireland, I then made
the best ol my way to Hamburgh, and entered
(as a common sailor) on board of a vessel bound
for Liverpool. When I arrived there, I found
that the handful of French (1087) that landed
iu Killalla, attcr having formed prodiges of
valor, were obliged to surrender—that the
principals ol the Irish adherents were hanged,
and there was a reward ot five hundred guineas
for my apprehension. I then fled from Liver
to Cumberland, in the north of England, where
partly with a friend, and partly in a thick wood,
near his house, l remained four months; at the
end of which time, I learnt that the state pri
soners, then confined in the different jails in
Dublin, had made a stipulation with the go
vernment, that they should banish themselves
lor life to the United Stales ; and they also sti
pulated, that, it 1 thought proper, 1 might sur
render my self on the same terms. I availed
myself of this, and accordinly gave myself up,
in an unhappy hour. At this time, federalism
(hut a more appropriate term would be arristo
cracy) in this country, was in the wane, and
vei gins last to dissolution : the minister from
this to the court of St. James’s was Rufus
King, who being directed (as he said) by his
government, preferred a memorial to protest
against ns, and easily obtained the promise of
the British government not to let us come here,
without his consent first had hi writing, per
mitting such emigration. There was two per
sons of our party, Henry Jackson and John
Lynch, who through the interes ff>f some
duke or dutches (I suppose) got leave to come
to America, I also wrote to him, and received
an answer, that, “ as I was so highly recom
mended, if l would transmit him a petition,
praying for leave, he would inclose it to his
government, and he made no doubt (by accom
panying it with the document he then held in
my favor) but I would obtain the desired per
mission.”
“ This letter I answered, telling him that I
never would so solicit; that the crime I had
committed (by the bye, he made use of the
word) formed in my mind, his countrymen’s
best distinction; that I would he in goal ’till
mv locks grew “as white as the foam of the
.'rn, Lr. icc.’ 1 and other such language Ilf
suited to a courtly ear. In consequence, 1 laid
in goal three years after this; in the mean
time, the great philosopher was placed at the
head of the government of this country, but
owing to some commercial or other reasons,
King was not recalled, neither could vve tell
at the distance, and shut up as vve were, in a
tomb ofthe living, but Mr. Jefferson also coin
cided in our exclusion from this country. Be
ing now almost four years in close confine
ment, and growing grey indeed ; my affairs
all deranged, my fortune broken, my (natural
strong) constitution beginning to give way, I
obtained leave to go to Portugal. I had a little
before this time, sold seventeen ships by auc
tion, for less than half the value, the remainder
of thirty-two of which I was entire ar.d part
owner at the time of my arrest, were either
lost, taken, or the captains took them off, and
I never heard of them. But now I have time
to make some woeful calculations. I have
lost about 120,000 dollars, and more than half
of this I might have saved, only for Mr. King’s
prohibition.—As I said before, I brought my
family to Portugal, where I remained a short
time at a monstrous expcnce, and finally got
to America. I sunk a few vats here, and com
menced tanner, though a business I knew no
thing of, however, by working hard at it for
these two or three years, I have got some
know ledge, of it, and am just able to support a
family of a wife and seven children.”
From a Greenock Paper.
EXTRAORDINARY EVENT.
The following singular and interesting event
isdescribed in the Grenole Journal of the 14th
January.
In July last a corpse was found on the moun
tain of Hamas, in the commune of ValgoufF
rey, district of Grenoble. The hand was bruis
ed, an old sesr was observed on the right shoul
der, and one thigh was contracted. The peo
ple of the neighborhood soon began to talk of
the affair, and they recollected that one Peter
l ure, of the commune of Venose, had about
a month before complained of having been
robbed of a nude, and intimated his suspicion
ol James Ttirc, his youngest son, who was
married, and resided at Valgouffrcy. They
said that the father went into a violent passion
on the occasion, and that his two other sons
took his part, and implicated their absent broth
er in the robbery.
Several of the neighbours pretended to re
member that James 1 urc had a scar mi his left
shoulder, and it was known that his thigh was
contracted ; —that a report was spread, that the
skellcton was that of James, who had been
murdered by his father and brothers; even
some of the relations of the family declared,
that they had recognized the body. James had
left his father’s house some time before this
event, but his lather and brothers used to say,
that they supposed lie had come in the night
and taken off” the mule.
A short time before the discovery of the
body, a quantity of blood had been observed
along the road which led to the mountain, and
the father was met the same night with a sack
on his back, when being asked what it con
tained, he said, fresh meat which lie had just
killed! J
It unfortunately happened, that James Tore
had absented himself from home at the time
of this discovery; his father’s family were in
consequence, thrown into prison, and James’s
wife went into mourning for her murdered hus
band. On the 29 th of September, while the
family was in confinement, a letter was receiv
ed from James by a friend, at Valgouffrcy,
which stated that he was in good health, but
had been obliged to leave his residence. This
letter, however, was supposed to be a fabrica
tion, to save the family, and they were brought
to trial; a bloody shirt was even produced,
which had since been found on the mountain,
and every thing seemed so strong against the
family, that they were on the eve of condemna
tion ! While the examinations was going on,
a man rushed into tile court in a proxysm of
despair, declared that he was the identical per
son supposed to have been murdered, and de
manded the release of his father and brothers.
The magistrates, overcome with surprise, sent
for his wife, who flew into the arms of her
husband, and every doubt was decided. The
father and his two sons were instantly acquit
ted ; but their grief, occasioned by the charge,
had afflicted them with a serious illness. The
interview was so affecting, that the whole
of the spectators burst into tears. Thus
a family, which was despised by all the neigh
bourhood, was suddenly restored to honor; a
wife found her husband; a daughter, whose
marriage had been broken off', through the ac
cusation, was united to her lover; in short, six
persons were restored from misery to happiness
by an act of providence. It was soon after
wards proved, that the corpse was that of a
traveller who had been overwhelmed by an av
alanche.
PUBLIC EXECUTION.
The execution of John Holloway, Owen
I laggerty, and Elizabeth Godfrey, took place,
pursuant to sentence, on Monday morning last,
at halt past eight o’clock near Newgate. The
woman appeared to be overcome with terror ;
but the men discovered, on the scaffold, a wish
rather to appear to brave death, than to show
contrition. Before coming out of the prison
they had joined in exercises of devotion. ’ Beth
continued to protest their innoceence to the
last. But in this case, as in that of Patch, where
similar protestations were made, there can be
no doubt of the justice of their sentence. Hag
gerty was a Roman Catholic.
Melancholy as is the task of relating a p .iclii
execution, vve wculd to God that we had a not
more painful duty to discharge. But the guil
ty have not been the only sufferers on that day.
The immense crowd which had collected from
all quarters of the metropolis, to witness the
spectacle, proved too vast for the space and a
venlies that surrounded the place cf execution,
and many lives have been lost in consequence.
At Green Arbour-court, opposite to Newgate,
a cart loaded with pcopie broke down ar.d sev
eral were crushed to death. The wooden rail
ing across the Old Bailv likewise gave way,
and caused much confusion, and the loss of
several lives. On the side adjoining to Smith
field, the alarm from the castle increased the
pressure of the multitude, and caused crowds
to rush together with fury and confusion which
made many be trampled under foot. In all
directions the numbers were so much greater
than there was room for, that the fainting and
wounded were carried into every adjoining al
ley. We understand that the number who
were killed on the spot, or have since expired,
exceeds thirty persons : twenty-seven of whom
lay dead in St. Bartholomew’s Hospital; twen
ty-four of these are men and boys, and three
are women. We much fear that the melan
choly catalogue will be increased by the death
of several others, who were maimed and bruis
ed on this unhappy occasion, but whose fine is
not yet known.
The report from St. Bartholomew's Hospi
tal includes nearly the whole ofthe dead bodies,
occasioned by this melancholy catastrophe.—
29 killed—l 4 maimed or bruised. ■
A CHRISTMAS DITTY.
An Orphan, who not long before,
Had loft her parents kind and tender,
Stood near a lord and laay’s door,
Who had no child and liv’d in fplendnr,
She warbled ftraint of genuine woe,
In hope to catch the ear of pity,
Her little heart’s pulie beating low,
She tweedy fuug her simple ditty.—
“ Oh, Fortune’s fav’rites, great and good,
“ Afford rn helpless Orphan food;
“ For Christmas comes but once a year,
“ And when it comes it brings good cheer.”
In vain thus flow’d her tuneful breath
Great folks sometimes have little feeling
Poor child ! the clay-cold hand of death
Benumb’d her frame, and hufh’d her thrilling,
The neighbouring maids, wii h many a flower,
Bedeck the Orphan’s grave, with pity ;
And fancy hears each midnight hour,
When winter chills, her simple ditty
“ Oh, fortune’s favorites, great and good, j
“ Afford a helpless Orphan food ;
“ For Chiiftm ab con:e3 Lut once a vear,
“ Ar.d when it conies it brings good cheer.”
THE BALM OF SORROW.
A'O T studied consolatory speeches, not precept*
from the Cynic's tub , not a volume of last cen~
iury sermons, but employment.-— Let the
victim of ingratitude, cf grief of love, plunge
into the whirlpool of busincs, and he will feel
like the valetudinarian, Armstrong prescribes
like a physician, and exhorts like a philosopher.
—Boston Centinel.
1 ‘ Go, foft enthusiast, quit the cypress groves,
Nor to the rivulet’s lonely moaniugs tune
Your fad complaint. Go ftek the cheerful haunts
Os men, and mingle with the bustling croud ;
I.ay fehemes for wealth, nr power, or fame, the wife
Os noble minds, and push them night and day,
Or join the caravan iri quest of feenes
New to our eyes, and fluffing every hour,
Beyond the Alps, beyond the Appenines;
Or, more adventurous, rufli into the field
Where war grows hot, and raging thro’ the fley.
The lofty trumpets fvvelb the mad’ning foul ;
And in the hardy camp and toilsome march
Forget all fofter and lei's manly cares.”
A rich citizen, lately deceased, left each of
his two daughters, as their fortunes, their
weight in one pound bank notes ; on being put
in the scale, the eldest weighed 7 stone 21b.
the youngest, 8 stone. The eldest, in conse
quence, became possessed of a fortune amount
ing to 51,2001. and the youngest, being the
heaviest, to 57,3441. and it was ascertained ovC
the following scale—32 bank notes, of one
P°und each, weign an ounce averdupois ; 512
notes will therefore weigh a pound; 51,200
notes will weigh 7 stone 21bs. or !00 pounds
weight; and 57,344 notes, will weigh 112
pounds weight,or 8 stone.
A gentleman one day said, he had no doubt
lie could carry a million of one pound bank
notes; but they will actually weigh 19S&
pounds weight— London paper.
Mr. Tierney’s friends have discovered, that
bv a statute passed in tlic ninth year cf the
reign of king James the first, it is enacted,
“ lhat#no person standing convicted by a jury
ot the crime of adultery, shall hereafter be
deemed eligible to sit in parliament.” A meet
ing of .Mr. Tierney’s friends has been held, and
a petition is preparing against the return, cn the
grounds of this act. —London paper.
An Apprentice
TO the PRINTING BUSINESS is want
ed at this office. A iad of from 13 t
16 years o: age will be well treated.
February 27 ij