Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

Domestic Articles.

NEW-YORK, May 3.

Pestilence is not perhaps the worst of all evils, but it surely falls little short of the worst. One would think, at first sight, that the inhabitants of cities, liable to this evil, would take great pains to shut it out; that if the miseries of others can, in any case, produce compassion in us, it would be the miseries consequent on pestilence; and that, if any motives were sufficient to make men forego their private interest, and to sacrifice a little sordid gain to the general welfare, the removal of plague from the doors of the industrious and the indigent would produce that effect.

This, however, is the speculation of cloistered and visionary men; who draw their ideas of human nature from the contemplation of theoretical systems, and not from the speculation of life and manners. Experience shews us that men can, not only be indifferent to the sufferings of their fellow creatures arising from plague and war, but can even desire the continuance of these evils, when they happen to promote their own selfish interest. Whole nations are ravaged with fire and sword merely for the sake of glory, and there are men who would willingly enrich themselves at the expense of the lives and fortunes of half their fellow-citizens.

Our city has been twice desolated by a contagious disease. Various schemes have been suggested to prevent the return of this malady. All these schemes resemble each other in their costliness. Very large sums of money are required to carry them into effect. The momentous question has therefore been, how is this money to be procured?

It seems tacitly admitted that it cannot be raised in the way of taxation, much less will munificence of wealthy individuals open of their own accord their hoards, and contribute the needful sums, without any hope of recompense but that which flows from the consciousness of having performed a good action.

Twice the sum required is, indeed, consumed in idle or pernicious luxury, in the course of a few months. Men throw away on sycophants and baubles, that which would prolong the life and enhance the comforts of thousands. Yes, and the same use will continue to be made of it. The age may wonder, and the satirist may rail at the depravity of mankind; but that depravity will continue undiminished. Our purpose can only be effected by making it the pecuniary interest of the rich to contribute to the general happiness. Convince them that by placing their money in this fund, they will merely be placing it at interest, that they will gain more by this appropriation than by any other, and contributors will not be wanting.

A single man will contribute a twentieth of the whole sum, though the whole sum may amount to two millions of dollars. Call at his door for a tax or a donation of a dollar, and he will probably refuse; or if he complies, will comply lowly and with murmurs and reluctance.

To gain an excellent purpose, we must profit by the avarice and selfishness of mankind. We must accept the contribution, even upon sordid terms, since it cannot be obtained on any other conditions. We must erect a chartered company; afford new incitements and gratifications to the lust of gain; generate a new swarm of stock-jobbers and enlarge the field of artifice and speculation, if by that means we can save ourselves from pestilence or war. We are reduced in this, as in most other cases, to a choice of evils—and though the evils of a joint stock company are great, those of pestilence and war are greater.

A company of this kind has accordingly been erected by the Legislature of this State for the purpose of supplying the city with water, and thereby furnishing the only or the best security against the visits of contagion. If the institution answer this end, all must second and applaud it, but some have insinuated doubts that no other end was intended or will be accomplished by it, but the enriching of a few persons, by whom the project was contrived.

This is a flagrant imputation, and surely merits to be thoroughly examined. Have any persons employed the pretence of a beneficent and public purpose, merely to enhance their own wealth? Have they profited by the general terror of the yellow fever, in order to gain a political sanction to a scheme by which merely new occasions and new means are afforded to luxury and vice? Will not the funds thus created be applied to the salvation of the city, or have we been cheated by nefarious artifices into a grant by which eight or ten persons will be made richer by some thousands than they are at present and by which the crafty and the prodigal will be supplied with new materials for fraud and new means of dissipation? Is this to be the issue of our toils and lucubrations?

Surely this is a matter that ought to be investigated. It is our duty to detect the posture by which our understanding is deluded and our country betrayed. These schemers ought not to be suffered to hug themselves in the success of their wiles, but if their project cannot be effectually counter-worked if the institution cannot be dissolved by the power that made it—if their golden prospects cannot be hindered from being realized; let their success be circumscribed within due bounds let their recompence be wealth, but not honor let their projects be seen for what they are, and if they deserve the suspicions that are cast upon them, let every honest hand contribute to drag them from their covert, and hold them up to the abhorrence and contempt of mankind.