The New Hampshire Gazette Newspaper, November 9, 1759, Page 1

THE | New-Hampthire e e ———— — " Containing the Frefbeft Aduices. IR e }d .. Continued from our lak, of November 2. My eighth, and laft reafon, for removing Mr. , S———y P—t from his M -y's prefence and b2 councils for ever, is, becaufe be is an HONEST ( MAaN, ; 4 Be not Righteous over much :— Why fhouldt thou deitroy thyfelf 2 SovL, AM fenfible that many of my worthy readers will ftart at this extraordinary ; reaflon, and yet, on mature refleflion, 4 they will find it as conclufive as any of the former ; -and here 1 will fairly con- fefs that I heard it five or fix times mentioned, before I confidered it.as any thing elfe than a piece of raillery agninft the enemies of the new m—r. But having been lately informed by a friend from the other end of the town, that this is the objettion againft Mr, S——y P—t that weighs moft in the breafll of the far greater number of his wife and honourable oppofers ; I fet down with all.the coolnefs and impartiality of which I am mafter to confider the force of it. I was f{ocn convinced that there is trath and juftice in this objeétion : and I am well aflured I fhal! be able tc prove it to the fatistalion of all my reader.. ; ] \ ‘ The firft thought that occurred to me in my ] enquiring into the mifchievous tendency of mo- ral honelty, was the {tation or profeflion of the perfon to whom it is objefted. Much is to be Jearned from that, as you will foon perceive. Be pleafed to obferve then, that tho® it be very ¥4 - gpothecary to give you poifon, yet for a high- ‘s wayman to levy your money, or a fhop lifter to convey away your geods, or an attorney to perplex and proleng your fuit, cou!d not rea. fonably farprife you, becauie each of thefe aftions is doae in charadter, and is a part of the refpeCtive calling or profeilion. Now it muft be remembered, that the perfon in queftion is neither a mercer, draper, nor a grocer, but the fisf m—r of a great'nation. And one Ma- chiavel, a moft excellent political writer, has eftablithed this maxim, that it is impoflible to govern a great kingdom to purpole, unlefs the ‘ perfon: governing lays afide all fort of regard to ) ¢ moralf] efpecially to the plebeian virtae, com- 3 ' monly called honefly. | ) But honeily is the great fault which Mr. P—1’s oppofers lay to kis charge ; and which entirely difqualifies hint from ruling the flate. They allow that he means well, and is a man of fome parts ; but then, fay they, the rigour of his principles is intalerable. . ‘I'here have been periods, they add, when fuch kind of men have been ofeful to a ftate, In one of the re- publicks of Greece, for initance, fuch a man as be wou!d have been a noble bulwark againtt the torrent of corguption,which drove Greece head- long into the fuares of Philip, the Macedorian, Or in the city of Rome, a Mr. P—t might have preferved the freedom of the Rate, and sverted the dominion of a perpetual dictator for an age or two longer ; or evea in the barba- rous times of Charles I. his talents might bave availed in bridling prerogative on the one hand, and in {eiting bounds to the rage of privilege on the other. But in the prefent age, when men and manners are polithed to the laft de- /grce, when the e'egaat arts and the (ofter virtues " have refined the human fou! ; in thefe happy days of moderate vice and traflable virtue,when cvafion having come in place of tran{greflion, men are governed more by love than by fear ; and when gratitude for benefits received, and clteem of the benefalors, are more powerful 4 criminel in-a barber te cut your throat, orin an principles thap (-!:ca’d of the laws and regard to the conftitution ; fuch a charater as that of Mr. P—t 1s out of ita_place, it comes not ig with propriety ;.it mals the p'ot of the play, and ‘thetefore ought to be fupprelt altogether. Such is the candid langaage of Mr. P—t's oppofers ; and the effetts of raifing him fo un- feafonably to power, are #zeady kg too appa- rect. - ;Not many months ago, patriotifm and publick virtue were quite exploded. . Experi- ence had taught the nation that thefz were only ideal qualities that had no exiftence in nature, None but odd fellows ever fo much as named them, except in derifion : and all men of fenfe publickly owned that private intereft was their {ole purfuit. But of late our coffee hcufe con- verfation is fet to 2 new tune ; and difinterefted- nefs, and the love of our country, is the burden of the fong. Now this is a very great evil, for men of fuch notions will be very aptto thwart the meafures of the government : and it will be extremely troublefome and expenfive to the m—r, who fhal] then govern, to take them off. Let any maa but ferioufly confider the pre- {ent ftate of this great nation, sad he will {oon come to think with me, that honefty is the moft unminifterial of all qoalities. On this article, inftances croud. fo tatt upon me that [ am puz- z'ed to which I (hall give the prefeience. To be a {uccefsful minifter;a man muft have a mul- titude of friends to allit him, otherwife the wheels ef government cannot be kept in mo- tion. And the orly fure way of making friends, is to give to every man every thing he afks, But hunefly mzlkes 2 man difficaly and nice in his choice, and leads him to confider the fitnefs of perfons for offices, which, if made a rule, would probably cit off ninety - nine of a hundred. Honefty would make 2 m—r endeavour to dif- charge part of the national debt as foon as pofl- fible, left we fhould ccme into the flrange mo- dern fituation of being a rich people and a poor ftate. Lut then what would become of all the worthy money brokers and ftock jobbers, toge- geiher with the whole children of I{rael, who have ferved the publick for nothing fo faithfully and fo long ? Honefty mighg excite the m—r to fcore out ail fine cares and penfions from the civil lif, and to invent methods of raifing the taxes at a cheaper rate. But where would we had fich another body of firm and active friends to the court thto’ every rebellion, fuch brave champions for the: adminiftration thro’ evesy change of min—y ? Honefty it is poflible,might move the m—r to make the ftatute book of the land be copied over in & more legible hand : perhaps he might abridge what is clear, unravel what is perplexed, and omit what is ufclefs, al- together. But then what would become of the venerable body of the law, from the filver tongued counfellor, who ralls in a chariot of flate, down to the buriough attorney, who, by indcfeafible right,fleeces the lieges around him, to make himfelf a garment, (I had almoft faid to build himf(elf a palace) of their wool ? Ard, to mention no' more, honefly might tempt a m—r to turn his eyes upaon, and {iretch his re- forming hands, even fo far, as our facred femi- naries of learaing. But then it is probable they would become academies for the liberal educa- tion of gentlemen,and no longer remain cloifters for difciplining monks and friars, which was the original defizn of their inftitution. And ifhonefty in general be a vice in 2 m—r, I take that branch of it called difintereftednefls to be abfolute foliy. There is an_inflance of this kind that has been often boafted of, by fome of oar great man's half -witted friends. It feems that on the payment of one of the fubfidies to a NEWBURY and YORK LOTTERY Tickets fold Foreign and ‘Dame/z‘ick. S ———— faithful ally, a very handfome fum fell due to Mr, P—t, then pay— g——1, as a perquifite of his office. But how do you think this haaghty man behaved when it was offered him ? He difdainfully refufed the royal gratuity, and told the aftonithed Italian, ¢‘that the k—g his mafier, paid his fervants too well, for them to accept of fees from foreign princes. . This flory has been. {pread cver Eurepe, .. And what do you think foreigners ( the Dutch for inftance) will entertain of fuch a ftatefman 2 Will not they, and all- the world, be undera ftrong temptation to cheat us to the utmoit of their power, while they have 1o do with fuch a fimpleton of a m—r? Nor is this the only ™ inftance of his folly and difintereftednels : for much of the fame nature is the tax on places and penfions, which he and his friends and fa- vorites carried through Jaft year with fo much applaufe of the unthinking multitude. Bat thus do I, and all men of fenfe, reafon upon the fubje@. ¢That if the f—Is have{o [ittle regard - to their own intereft, and are {o uncapable of managing their own affairs, it is truly fhameful to eatruft them with the bufinefs of the nation.” Before I come to a conclufion it is peceffary for me, in juftice even to Mr. P—t, (with whom, as a chriftian I would chufe to be in charity, though not as a m—r ) to make this public declarztion, that, although I have afed his name all along 8s the chief and head of his party,and although I know that, generally {peaking, one man is the life and foul of all co- partners, yet .I am very. far from afcribing all the evile that I have exumerated to himalone. No, there are many cthers, who, though guilty in a lefs degree, becaule. they have had lels mifchief in their power, yet a8 they have dif- covered the fame malice of intention as often as they could, are therefore to be confidered as his brethren in iniquity, and fhares with him in the fame condemnation... ; Itis high time for me, fellow-citizens and countrymen, to bid you farewell. 1 have now difburdened my confcience, and if the nation ig ruined, I take you to witnefs that I have wafthed my hands of her blaod. It is very true that my predeceflor in founding the trumpet of alarm, the learned Dr. B—n, is entirely confuted and- difcredited by the importance of Britain in the prefent war ; and foreigners, from hence, will learn to look ontranfations, and not in books, for the charaflers of nations : they will learn to difinguith between the genius of a miniftry, and the genius of a people ; perhaps they will be convinced that the {pirit of a great nation is not always wholly extinguithed, when her gover~ nors happen to be bale, weak, or pufillanimous. But though my lateft predcceflor has, in the end, been unfortunate enough, yet I know you too well to fear that you will wait till events juftify or refute thofe plain reafons of mine: L mean fuch of them as are predictive s for the greateft part of them are already confirmed by whatis patt. In like manner, as you read my learned friend’s book with infatiable avidity for many months, and believed every word it con- “tained, I know you will alfo read and believe ‘mine. And my bookfeller will find this little piece fuch excellent property, that I hope he will give me whatever I afk for my next per- formance. But you muft fpeak and a&t as well as believe otherwife your credulity is good for nothing. That band of illuftrious patrists, whom I have fo often mentioned with honcur, can turnith you with a man (or with {everal men) who has been trained up in thofe principles of found poizcb)_'_,; ) ¢ by the Printer hereof. 1 ‘? . 4