Southern recorder. (Milledgeville, Ga.) 1820-1872, August 14, 1821, Image 1
SOUTHERN
O
RECORDER.
-> '. *■;,
JSu’W>
VDL. II.
MILLEDGEVILLE* TUESDAY, AUGUST 14, 1821.
PUBLISHED WEEKLY,
(OH TUESDAY*)
JBY \ anA.YTLAJVD tf R. M. ORME'
AT THEE DOLLARS, IN ADVANCE, OR FOUR
DoSpARB AT TUB EXFIRATION OF THE
*4*
(EPhdvertiiements conspicuously inserted at
Idle citomary rates.
GENERAL LA FAYETTE
linre allotted a considerable por-
»f our paper to-day to a speech of
ral La Fayette, delirered last month
he French Chamber of Deputies—
anl n doing so, we shall gratify, as we
hot), that deep feeling of interest with
svfci h every act of that “ soldier of A-
meica,” as he proudly calls himself, is
looted upon by bis fellow-citizens of the
Unjed States. It will be seen, that,
trulto his early principles, this veteran
fri/nd of freedom still maintains the doc
trines to which this country owes its ex
igence and glory, and which, shackled
aid fettered indeed, but still prevailing
lit has the high honor of having trans
planted, sheltered, and under all chan-
J s adhered to, in France. It has in-
ed been truly and beautifully said of
La Fayette, that he was, among those
who toojc an active part in the French
revolution, perhaps the only one “ who
had nothing to ask of Oblivion.” Pure
and disinterested in his views and in his
conduct, the public good has ever been
his object and his sole aim ; and the
blessings of this great nation, in whose
favor he early drew his noble sword, and
the respect of every lover of liberty in
every clime, bear testimony to the con
sistency of a life which, amidst every va
riety of changes and perils, has never
been sullied by meanness, nor dishonor
ed by a crime.—.V. Y. Amer.
[trasslated for tbf. Americas]
During the discussions on the budget,
On the 4th June, which, in making ap
propriations for the expenditures of the
country, laid open to remark all the va
rious interests of France, M. La Fayette
having been culled on to speak, present
ed himself at the tribune, and, after the
lively expression of interest which his
presence there excited in the chamber
had subsided, spoke aS follows :
“ The general discussion of the bud
get gives us the right of making some sum
mary remarks upon each of its provi
sions. The public debt, however con
tracted, is sacred. I regret, in common
with others, its recent increase ; but
without recriminations here as to the
•errors of the first restoration which pro-
-duced the 20th March, or as to the Fatal
landing which came to mingle itself wjth
the progress of a more salutary and less
turbulent resistance, or as to the condi
tions of the last treaty of peace stipulated
exclusively between the powers at war
with France and the august ally of those
powers; 1 will confine myself to drawing
from the past an important lesson for the
future, which is, that it would have cost,
as I said at the time, much less to expel
the coalition of foreigners than to treat
with it: and that, if ever such a state of
things should recur, and. following the
example of Napoleon and the provision
al government, the rulers of France
should'hesitate to call out the people en
masse, it would be alike the duty and the
safety of that people themselves to leap
to their arms—(murmurs on the right.)
and combining with one accord the
million arms of her warlike generation
and devoted youth, to bury beneath them,
as she might do, the violaters of her in
dependence. (Bravos on the left.) The
civil list has been voted for the whole
duration of this reign ; but when, in
consequeuce of encroachments and dila
pidations, forty million francs of personal
revenue, for the monarch and his family,
begin to be considered as insufficient, it
is allowable to look at, (1 will not say that
country of ten millions of inhabitants,
where the salary of the chief magistrate
is not equal to that of a French minister,)
but at the monarchal, aristocratic, & ex
pensive government of England ; where,
nevertheless, the provision for the prin
ces is smaller than in France ; and where
more than half the civil list is employed
in paying the diplomatic corps, ministers
anil judges ; where the sum for which
the kins is not bound to account does not
exceed a million fiia half of francs.******
Whatever may have been the losses and
the pressure caused by a just defence a-
eainst the aggressions of European cabi
nets and which the ambition of a con-
nueror provoked, it must be owned, by
more than one act of perfidy on the part
ofthose courts has since immeasurably
increased, the enormous amount ot the
tension list arising from other causes.
These are to be found in the rapid suc
cession of the different governments in
France, each anxious to create vacancies
in favor of its friends, and, above all, in
the recent irruption of a crowd of pre
tenders, all claiming rewards for having
either in will or in deed, in foreign pay
or in domestic insurrections, on the
hiehNay* or in obscure idleness, and e-
ven beneath the imperial liveries, mani
fested, or dissembled their opposition to
those governments, which each flattered
jn )ts tuiPi are now all called illegitimirte
It is thus that, by deviations and uposta-
cies from a revolution of liberty and e-
quality, we have finished by seeing Eu*
rope during some years, inundated by
two complete assortments of dynasties,
nobility, and privileged classes. (Vehe
ment exclamations and interruptionirom
the right.)
M. La Fayette, resuming with calm
ness—But if, on the score of these pen
sions, and the consolidated rentes, there
is no relief to be had, but in their gradu
al extinction by the sinking fund, is it not
lamentable to see the whole scheme of
the ecclesiastical pensions overturned,
not with a view to console and relieve
the inferior ministers, or to fulfil towards
decayed priests and ancient nuns the in
tentions of the Constituent Assembly, but
to multiply bishopricks, to provide, in
the re-establishment of the right of sub
stitution, for some young nobles of the
court, and to carry into effect, as has
been always intended, the ultra-montane
and anti-revolutionary concordat, which
the public indignation has heretofore re
jected ?
1 come now, gentlemen, to the second
part of our expenses, the contingent part
of the budget; but, before remarking
upon its items separately, I would ask,
how we can conscientiously support, by
voting the ways and means, a government
so scandalously expensive, and of which
the system is hostile to the rights and to
the wishes of almost all those who con
tribute to its support; and who, doubt
less, only pay these contributions with a
view to be honestly served, and by those
who will study the national interest.—
(Fresh murmurs on the right.) It is to
be hoped that this year the special ap
plication of every sum to the object for
which it was voted will be closely scru
tinized, as is the case in other countries.
* * # # * *
The greatest desideratum, however,
is, to be enabled to subject to fixed rules,
and to actual personal responsibility, the
numberless hierarchies of the agents of
government, whom theiv chiefs have lat
terly endeavored to convince that, accor
ding to the scheme of a representative
government, they were exempted from
ail restraints of law or conscience—and
that too, when our criminal code, despo
tic as it is, has placed boundaries even
on the obedieuce of a gen d’arms. It is
necessary that the citizen should be
taught what demands may be lawfully
made of him, and what he may lawfully
resist; for in countries new to liber
ty, that sympathy”which considers the
wrong of an individual as a public wrong
is not sufficiently felt. In such countries,
too often, the friends of order confound
with the movements of sedition, that vi
gorous display of the public feeling, with
out which the national feelings and peace
would always be at the mercy of the
lowest faction, particularly at those cri
tical periods when the audacity of those
factions can only be checked by the intre
pid & active resistance of good citizens
(Clamour and interruption on the right.)
The honorable speaker paused for a
moment,.and then continued with the
same dignity.
In wishing, with your committee, that
sound organization of the judiciary
should elevate the character of the ma
gistracy, and improve the condition of
those subject to their jurisdiction, a re
suit; be it cursorily remarked, that the
re-establishment of parliaments would
not pro'luce, I will only mention the civil
code here, to remark how precious that
emanation of the new social order has be
come to those nations where victory has
bore with it our arms. As to the article
relative to the council of£t;Ue, doubtless
it will not be passed over wihout defin
ing and limiting its nature and powers.—
But it is the criminal justice which it is
necessary to denounce ; its system, per
fected by the most sagacious despotism,
has rendered the “lettres de cachet’
mere luxury ; the excessive rigor of its
provisions, as acknowledged by those e-
ven who, notwhitstanding the fallacy ef
human opinions, and after the number
of judicial murders—[Fresh clamor and
interruption from the right, with cries of
order, order l]
The President.—The speaker’s re
mark refers to the past— [The clamor on
the right continues.]
General Foy. Certainly, the speaker
does not allude to the future.
The President.—I enquired of M. de
la Fayette if his remarks were applicable
to the existing judiciary, and he answer
ed me, that it referred to that pretended
judicial system under which he lost a
portion of his family. [Deep silence]—
The speaker resumed : And afier the
number of judicial assassinations which
we personally have had to deplore, do
not coincide in any wish to see the pen
alty of death abolished. The name of a
jury, given to our assizes, is a cruel
abuse of words. If the constituent as
sembly rejected the motion for the es
tablishment of the American and English
jury in all its purity, it was in the hope
of improving on its provisions, while its
spirit should be preserved, notwith
standing all that, w ith a rare ignorance of
facts, men, and opinions, has been said
to the contrary from this tribune ; but
all the modifications that have since been
proposed have arisen from hatred of the
institution itself * * *
My unwillingness to vote for the ex
penses of foreign affairs arises from the
conviction that our diplomacy ot present
is an absurdity. In truth, gentlemen,
the system, the agents, the language, all
appear to me foreign to regenerated
France; she is again subjected to doc
trines she had branded, to powers she
basso often conquered, to habits contract
ed among her enemies, to obligations for
which, on her own account at least, she
has no cause to blush. In the mean
while, Europe, aroused by us thirty
years ago to liberty, checked indeed
since, ns it must be confessed by the
view of our excesses and the abuse of
our victories, has resumed, and will pre
serve, notwithstanding recent misfor
tunes, that great march of civilization,
at the head of which our French place is
marked—a place in which the eyes ot
all people who are free, or aspiring to
become so, should nut seek us in vain.
Great sensation in the assembly.]
Well, gentlemen, in this division of
Europe, betweeu two banners, on the
one side despotism and aristocracy, on
the other liberty and equality, [by many
voices, from the right, “ or death,”] that
liberty and equality which we first pro
claimed there, where do we find the soi-
disant organs of France '! Exempt, it is
true, and I am happy to acknowledge it,
from a hostile co-operation in the aggres
sion of the satellites of Troppau and
Laybach, whom a success of little dura
tion, as I hope will only render more o-
dious ; they are also entitled to our
thanks for not having insulted France by
any positive participation in those recent
declarations of the three powers, which,
in order not to offend the majority in this
house, 1 will only characterize by repeat
ing my ardent Wishes, the wishes of my
life, for the emancipation of the people,
the independence of nations, and the mo
rality and dignity of the true social order.
We have, nevertheless, seen the agents
of the French government, in their sub
altern participation in the first delibera
tions of these Congresses, not even able
to raise themselves to the level, so easi
ly attained, of liberality evinced bv the
British diplomatists * * *
Such are not the doctrines of France.
I speak not now of my personal incredu
lity of the doctrine of the divine right of
kings ; but I will recal to you that.ulrea-
dy, long before ’89, the era of the Eu
ropean revolution, when we Soldiers of
America felt honored by the names of
rebels and insurgents, then lavished upon
us, all in virtue of social order, by the
English government, Louis the 16lh k his
ministers had expressly recognized the
sovereignty' of the United States, found
ed, as it was, upon the principles oftheir
immortal Declaration oiTmlependence—
[murmurs ou the right, bravos on the
left.]
The principles, since received into the
bosom of the constituent assembly, pro
claimed io a de.cree sworn to by the King
and his august brother, amidst the great
est of our patriotic solemnities, have
been since acknowledged, even in the
usurpations of the imperial despotism—
they were since repeated from this tri
bune, as a protecting truth, by the friends
of the charter and the rnyal throne, cn
the 19th March, 1816; for then it was
not said that the charter was the counter
revolution—[bravo from Gen. Foy] and,
indeed, in order to ascertain tho share
due to the revolution of the rights recog'
nized by the charter, that share which
hut so often been denied, it would suffice
to read again an august proclamation,
dated from Verona, in July, 1796.—
These principles professed at this day
among that people, who are our natural
diies, outweigh all the exploded preten
sions which we have seen renewed the
moment that a noble effort of the nations
subjected by our arms had forced their
old governments, in spite ot themselves,
to recover the independence which they
had so completely* so servilely, so affec
tionately alienated, for the benefit of their
conqueror ; to whom, in a recent note
from Troppau, they have preserved the
noblest title he ever bore, in calling him
the soldier of the revolution. [Bravos on
tlie left.]
In truth gentlemen, the crimes and
misfortunes which «e deplore, are no
more the revolution than the St. Bartho
lomew was religion, or those who would
call monarchical the 18,000 judicial mur
ders ofthe Duke of Alba—* * * * * *
Nor will ive consent to insult n free &.
friendly people, by imputing their nation
al organization exclusively to the inter
position of the bayonet. It is not indeed
remarkable, that those who only saw dis
cipline’and attachment to public order in
the revolt of some Spauish regiments,
when, they seconded the attack by Fer-
dinand|7th upon the Cortes and the so
cial cotipact, cannot now understand how
citizeni soldiers, refusing longer to be
the instruments’of despotism add aris
tocracy, should have ranged themselves,
with thte whole nation, under the consti
tutional and fundamental laws of their
country ? Is it not more remarkable
that t^ig reproach of military interventioa
should Be made by a party, who, fqr a
long time in the pay of the enemies of
1‘ ranee, and scorning to owe any thiog to
the national will, have taken a strange
pride in owing every thing to the force
of foreign bayonets ? In surveying ra
pidly tho ministry of the interior, and
leaving to my honorable friends the dis
cussion of this enormous and perpetual
administrative lie, (royal or imperial, it
is indifferent to me)—(explosion on the
right)—yes, it is indifferent to me, re
sumed the speaker—in virtue of which,
the wishes, the,wants, the offices, the
expenses, the local police even, if the
citizens are committed in their name to
mayors, municipal and departmental
counsellors, of whom not one is of their
choosing, and all holding their appoint
ments at pleasure.—* * *—1 will make
only one remark as to the public instructi
on. The constitution of’91 said, “There
shall be organized a system of poulic in
struction open to all citizens, gratuitous
with respect to the indispensable ports of
education, & widely disseminated.” Your
committee, on the contrary, exalting
themselves to the height ofthe Emperor
of Austria’s address to the professors at
Laybach, looks upon gratuitous instruc
tion as a Social disorder, and particularly
is desirous to suppress the amount des
tined for the encouragement of elemen
tary instruction, principally because it
serves to favour the Lancasterian system,
which your committee does not think
will harmonize with the actual spirit of
our institutions. Now, gentlemen, the
Lancasterian system is, since the inven
tion of printing, the greatest step which
has been made for the extension of
prompt, easy, St popular instruction. * * *
Although I find the accounts of the
War Minister better arranged than last
year, I regret that the laws I proposed
two years ago were not passed. * * *
Upon the whole, we cannot but have
been edified at the civic indignation of
our adversaries against the submission of
the army to the arbitrary acts of late
powers. This imputation was at once
repelled with an eloquence which re
called the motto of 1 * honor and country”
—it may be said, that this same army,
formed at first ofthe regiments of’89, &
ofthe battalions of national volunteers,
reinforced afterwards by crowds of pat
riots persecuted by the anarchy of ’92
and ’93—became on the frontier the ren
dezvous of true civism, as much as of glo
ry, that we swv it refuse unanimously tp
execute a decree of death against its pris
oners, saving, whenever it could, the e-
migrants out-lawed by their country, and
abandoned to their fate by (he foreign
ers—we may udd that the consulate for
life and the empire had fewer military
than civil votes in proportion—llmt since
that time, the duty of resisting tyranny,
holy and necessary as it is, was no where
exercised—that French officers, in pas*
sing to be Kings, as our soldiers used to
say, in other countries showed Jess ob
sequiousness and servility to their old
commander than nw»s»r<;hs whose legiti
macy was of older date, and, finally, that
siuce our illustrious army of the Loire
received the highest honour of war, that
of beiug, declared reduced as it was, in
compatible with the duration of foreign
oppression, we find its soldiers by their
firesides full of national feeling, and rea
dy again to manilhst it—(strong sensation
in the House.) * * * * Is there not
room to apprehend that, by degrading &
ruining officers, you may make them all
think that the C’obienlz party will never
accustom itself to the recollection of that
glory, which it so much regfeted ; that
it sighs for the times when regiments
were formed by recruiting officers, claims
to be employed were regulated by a ge
nealogist, and when, some years earlier,
the plans of campaign were matured in
the chamber ofthe King’s mistress—(ap
probation on the left.) ******
The expenses of the Navy Depart
ment are enormous. The navy of tho
United States has already been cited to
you. That navy, whose flag, since its
establishment, and during two spirited
wars against the flag of Britain, has ne
ver once failed with equal, and often with
inferior force, to gain the advantage.—
The provisions, the pay, every thing
there, as has been observed to you, are
higher than with us. Its cruisers amount
ed lately to two ships of the line, nine fri
gates, and fifteen smaller vessels, protec
ting the commerce oftnore than 1,200,000
tons, without including the fisheries or
the coasting trade. The expenses of
their Navy Department were fixed last
session at two aud one half millions of
dollars, and half a million more to build
new vessels, making 16 millions francs,
calculated indeed for 12 vessels ofthe
line aod twenty frigates, Sic.—but what
a difference between this sum and 50 mil
lions of francs, which are said to be in
sufficient for our navy t * * * *
As to the Minister of Finances, I will
not interfere with the observations ofsorne
honorable friends, whose intelligence and
experience appeared either inconsidera
ble or superfluous to the majority which
appointed your committees. But I shall
not consider it as a departure from the
question under discussion, ns to the gene
ral administration ofth$ kingdom, if, by
a rapid examination of the ancient re
gime, I shull endeavour to furnish an an
swer to the wishes and regrets of which
it still seems ths object. It was from the
destruction of this regime, that we saw
disappear that corporation of clergy,
which exercising all sorts of influences
and refusing all share in the common bur-
tiieon, increased continually, and never
alienated its immense riches, but divided
them among themselves—which, ren
dering the, law an accomplice in vows,
too frequently forced, covering France
with monastic orders devoted to a fo
reign head, collected contribution both in
the garb of wealth and mendicity ; and
which, in its secular organization, for
med so considerable a portion of the idle
and unproductive class, that the daily
ministers ofthe altar were the most-in
significant portion of what was called the
first order of the state.
We saw disappear that corporation of
sovereign courts, where the privilege of
judging was veqal of right, and in fact
hereditary in the nobility ; when feudal
judges, chosen and revocable by their
Seignc urs presided ; when the diversity
of codes, and the law of arrests, made
you lose before one tribunal the cause
you had gained before another. *****
We saw disappear that financial cor
poration, oppressing France beyond en
durance, and by leases, whose monstrous
government exceeded in expense and
profit the receipts ofthe Royal treasury,
whose immense code, no where record
ed, formed an occult science, which its
agents alone had the right or the means
of interpreting, and which, in rewarding
perjury and informers, exercised over
all unprotected men a boundless aud re
morseless tyranny.
We saw disappear those distinctions of
provinces,French,conquered,foreign, Sic.
Sic. each surrounded with a double row
of custom-house officers and smugglers,
from whoso intestine war the prisons, the
galleys, and the gibbet, were recruited,'
at tho will of the stipendiaries of him
who fanned the revenue, and those other
distinctions of noble or common proper
ty, when the pnrks and gardens ofthe
rich paid nothing, while the laud and the
person of the poor man were taxed, in
proportion to his industry, when the tax
upon the peasant and upon his freehold
recalled, to nineteen-twentieths ofthe
citizens, that their degradation was not
only territorial, but individual and per
sonal.
By its destruction that constitutional
equality was consecrated which makes
the general good the only foundation of
distinctions acknowledged by law. The
privileged class lost the right of distribu
ting among themselves exclusive privi
leges, and of treating with contempt all
other classes of their fellow-citizen*.-—
No Frenchman was now excluded from
office because he might riot come of no
ble blood, or degraded, if noble, by the
exercise of an useful profession. * * *
Wbat more is there to regret ? Is it
(he scheme of taxation, regulated by the
King, at ths will of a minister of finance,
whom I myself have seen changed twelve
times in fourteen years, and which taxa
tion was distributed arbitrarily amon^ the
provinces, and even among the contribu
tors ?******
Is it the capitation tax, established in
!702to achieve the peace, and never af
terwards repealed ? the, two-twentieths
diminished on the contributions ofthe
powerful, and made heavier on those of
the poor, the land tax, ofwhich the basis
was in Auvergne 9 sous out Of 20 and a-
rnounling sometimes to 14, on account of
the vast increase of privileged persons,
created by the traffic in places ? Final
ly, is it the odious duties on consumption,
more odious that the droits reum's of Na
poleon ? Is it the criminal jurisprudence,
when the accused could neither see his
family, his friends, his counsel nor the
documents by which he was to be tried ?
# H A
When the verdict, obscurely obtained,
might be aggravated, at the pleasure of
the judges, by torture—(Exclamations
and interruption on the right)—for the
torture preparatory to the examination
had been alone abolished. * * * *
Must we regret that state of religious
intolerance which condemned a great
portion of the population to a legal state
of concubinage, bastardy, and disherison ;
that mode of legislation, striking at all
natural and moral rights, and duties,
which Louis 14th established, and which
an illustrious prelate characterized “as
the worthiest of his reign, the molt as
sured proof, and most glorious exercise
of authority”—-which forbade, under the
severest penalties, all individuals from
receiving into their houses, under the
pretext of charity, any sick person ofthe
Protestant religion; that legislation which
prevailed even to the time of Louis 16,
at jxhose consecration, contrary to the
advice of Turget and Malesberbes, the
oath to exterminate heretict was still ad
ministered ? * * * *
Shall we regret the ecclesiaaticnl and
seignorul tithes, the feudal duties, bur
densome and humiliating, whether dis
charged in kind, or commuted by a pay
ment which recalled its origin ; the ma
nor privileges, which forced the citizen
lb*
ofthe
only to grind at (he mill of 1
game laws, and those districts t
right, the harvest vial
voracity ofthe game,
the field subjected to the <
extortions of gams-kteperrj
ishments, amounting even tie
condemnation io tee gaiiey
warded by a tribunal named!
roander ef the District, and wf
ed upon the testimony
alone ? Do we regret the
cachet” distributed in blank
tors, governor!, intendants, kc. <
* * #
Yes, Frenchmen, this was the
regime which the revolution .
the restoration of which was the «v _
object of the emigration to Coblente, i
of the coalition of Pilnite, and the
of which has met ceased to animate '
more or less hidden interest «t <
comparison with which ministers are <
thing, and which, as early as 1814, efr
iaily proclaimed, ‘ ‘ let us enjoy tbs pres-
ent—I answer for the future.’*
It has been said at this tribune, ths*
Napoleon was “ the incarnate revel**
(ion.” It is a mistake ; that was not
er the revolution ef’80, when the lew*
der of the state declared that a veil should
be cast over the declaration of right**
and concurred ih that frightful system of
terror which, profaning toe most respeo
table names, was itself excluded from •*
very political denomination.
It has been said, with more truth, that
(he restoration is the counter revolu
tion. * * VVe did hope, however, tw
have succeeded in erecting barriers a-
gainst the partisans of the old regime.—
But this hope is now completely des
troyed, k after having last session point
ed out the progress of this counter revo*
lution. which is invading nil our rights,
and spoke of the new duties Which in «t
opinion it imposes upon us i after having
denied that omnipotence to Parliament,
when claimed by former,governmenta,
which the counter revolutionists new as
sert, I have only here to proclaim aloud
my fear that our institutions, as now con-
conducted, are insufficient to the salve-
don of the country. I rote against due
budget. .
The House, after a discussion on tb*
subject, refused to print this speech t
which was replied to by the Minister gf
Foreign Affairs.
FROM THE SALEM OAtlYfX.
From the following Ironical letter of rtf*
sideot Adams (which we And in the Boston k
Patriot) it may be inferred that the feetingw
of the father uiid son are congenial in regard
to Great Britain.
MoNTiZixxe, 16th Inly, IBM.
Gerry Fairbanks, Esq.
Sir—I thank you for an ingenious and
pleasing oration, pronounced by you on thw
fourth of July. The spirit of moderation
and impartiality, which runt through it, it
very amiable, and keeps pace with the Spi
rit of liberty and patriotism which adorns it.
It is not in my power to point out particu
larly the beauties or the faults in this compo
sition—but I beg leave to suggest a.query,
whether it is tearth while Jar ue, to take much,
notice of the British daime <f superiority eve*
us f We must candidly ackowlsdge,' mat
they greatly exceed us in many respects.—
First, in antiquity—We are but two hundred
years old—They are two tliousand—end if
the bards ami ballads of the Welsh, and thw ‘
monuments of literature and science of the
Druids, had not been unfortunately lost, they
might, but for what we know, boasted of
two thousand more, nearly as respectable aw
any. Secondly, their gentlemen’s seats in
the Country are much mors elegant than
ours. Our Lymans and Quincy*sour Per
kins’and Derbys; oulr WeTls’ and Parsons’;
our Gores and Prebles.-pn exhibit nothing
comparable to Hagley, Mount Edgcomb or
Stowe. We have no pleasure grounds op
gravel walks, winding round a compass of
half a dozen miles, in Hogarth’s waving lino
of beauty, ornamented with flowers and ro
ses with forest trees £c shrubberies, collected
from all parts of the world, to be compared
with theirs. We have no country houses
presenting a front of thirteen hundred ani
fifty feet, with proticoes, supported by pil-
lurs of marble and of composition, of splen
dor and magnificence, to be compared to
theirs. We have no temples to Bacchus, or
to Vcnu3, or to Victory. We have not a
Corinthian gate, which would cost the priew
of a county, with us through which you en
ter, to behold with surprise (ha astonishing
front of the palace. Indeed we have nwt ms
ornamental farm to be compared with that
at Woburn, Payn’s hill, or even Shenstohe’w
Leaaowes. Thirdly, they excel us in a na
tional debt, that inexhaustible source of na
tional and individual wealth, by a eapciouw
speculation in which, a man may mske a.
hundred thousand pounds sterling in a night.
Such a debt is a fertilizing source of litera
ture and science. It enables thousands aid
tens of thousands to purchase books aid ' -
libraries, to the great encouragement of au
thors ; to employ their leisure and exert tboif
genius in illuminating the world. Fourthly,
we have not as yet been blessed with gen '
and admirals whose bravery and patrii
have conquered sixty or a hundred mil
of people, abounding in all tho richest
ductions of the earth, or who have swept
from the ocean, all the commerce of the
world. There ere many other article* ia
whkh they outstrip us in the race of com
petition : but I have not timo to enumerate
more, and must conclude abruptly by —R-
scribing myself your obliged friend and huaff-
ble Servant,
JOHN ADAMA
[Mr. A. has heretofore, without saraasm.
altewed the English another blessing—a corn
stitutiou, “ the most stupendous fobric of hm
o;an wisdom.”}—Salem Gea^ >