The New Hampshire Gazette

We hear from PHILADELPHIA. August 20.

that

On Monday last, a Committee of the Ministers of this City waited on his Honour the Governor and presented the following Address and Remonstrance, in Behalf of themselves and the Subscribers.

To the Honourable JAMES HAMILTON, Esq; Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania, and the Counties of New-Castle, Kent and Sussex on Delaware.

The Humble ADDRESS and REMONSTRANCE of the Protestant Ministers of the Several Denominations in the City of Philadelphia; together with the Church-Wardens, Vestry Men, Elders, and Representatives of their respective Congregations.

May it please your HONOUR.

As you are the supreme Magistrate of this Province, entrusted not only with the execution of the Laws now in being, but impowered also (where they are deficient) to propose as well as to assent to new Ones; permit us in the present deep Affliction of our Hearts, to unburthen them to your Honour, (as we trust) in the Spirit of Gospel Meekness, and with a fervent Desire for the Maintenance of true Religion and Christian Morality in this Place of our Residence.

It hath been with the greatest Concern for some Years past, that we have observed among our Fellow Citizens an immoderate and growing Fondness for Pleasure, Luxury, Gaming, Dissipation, and their concomitant Vices. The Impropriety as well as Ingratitude of such a Conduct is too remarkable to be passed over. 'Tis but a few Years since our Frontiers were swimming in Blood, and this Province groaning almost under every Calamity that could befall a People. We then thought it our Duty to humble ourselves before the Lord in Sackcloth and Ashes. Days of Fasting and Mourning were appointed, and from our solemn and crowded Attendance upon these Days, it was trusted that suitable Impressions of Religion, Seriousness, and Decorum, had been generally made among us. But alas! these Impressions (if ever they were real) seem in too many Instances to have vanished with the Danger that created them.

Last Winter we heard of high Scenes of public Gaming added to, and mixed with the usual Diversions of the Seasons. And yet, not content with these, our Projectors of Pleasure, our Leaders in Modes and Fashions, as if they were afraid to leave themselves or their Followers one Moment for Business, or sober Conversation, or serious Reflection upon what they were sent for into this World, have set on Foot a SCHEME for filling up the Summer Season also with the like Scenes of Dissipation, Idleness and Excess. The Scheme we mean (as far as it is yet avowed by them) is a large Subscription Lottery, for erecting public Gardens with Baths & Bagnios among us. How destructive such Places of public Rendezvous are to the Morals of a People, what they usually terminate in, and how ill suited they are to the Circumstances of this young City, and the former Character of its Inhabitants, we need not mention to your Honour.

The People of Philadelphia have been remarkable for their Sobriety, their Frugality, their Industry, and serious Turn of Mind. The divine Religion of our blessed Lord and Saviour seemed to have had some Hold of their Consciences. People at a Distance, who had Children to breed to Merchandize, Law, Physic, or the Mechanic Professions, gave a due Preference to this Place above others; and by such Means as these we are become a great and flourishing People.

But alas! Things are now like to be fatally reversed; and of all the Schemes that could possibly have been devised to corrupt the Morals of our Citizens and hurt us as a trading People, to make good and sober Persons of other Places shun us, and to induce the Profane and Dissolute to come and settle among us, the present Scheme seems the most effectual.

Were there nothing more in View than what is pretended, it might be effected with near as few hundred Pounds as there are thousands proposed. Were a hot and cold Bath necessary for the Health of the Inhabitants of this City, they might at a small Expense be added to the Hospital, put under the sober Government of that Place, and kept separate from those used by the Patients; and as to a public Place of walking, the State-House Green, or Garden, by a Law of the Province, is already set apart for that use--But much more than this lurks under this Scheme, and will certainly attend its Accomplishment.

We well know that Gaming Tables, a House of Entertainment, Places of Drinking, and the like, make a part of publick Gardens; and from many Circumstances attending the Projection and Carrying on of this Scheme (which we forbear to mention) we have no reason to think that less is intended by it.

We do therefore in the most solemn and earnest Manner remonstrate and bear our public Testimony against it to your Honour; most humbly requesting and beseeching you, by your own known Regard to whatever is decent in publick Life, by your Regard to the Morals of the present and future Generations, and to the Success of the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST, on which their chief Happiness must depend, to discountenance and discourage the said Scheme, by every Means in your Power. In that Case we doubt not the Opposition that will be shewn to it by grave and good Men of every Degree, under your Honour's Protection and Countenance, will effectually crush it. But should we be deceived in this, there are still other Means in your Honour's Power as a Branch of the Legislature, on which we partly ground the Propriety of this Address, as the only Thing she could do during the Recess of the other Branch.

We are

May it please your Honour,

with the utmost Regard and Esteem

Your Honour's most obedient humble Servants,

CHURCH of ENGLAND.

Robert Jenny, William Smith, William Sturgeon, Jacob Duche, Ministers.

14 Church Wardens and Vestry men.

William Macleanan, Minister, Thomas Charlton, Thomas Leech, John Moyes, William Smith, senior.

PRESBYTERIANS.

Robert Cross, Gilbert Tennent, Francis Alison, John Ewing, Ministers ; and 17 Elders and Committee Men.

Baptists.

Morgan Edwards, Ebenezer Kinnerstey, Ministers; and 12 Elders & others.

German Lutherans. John Frederick Handschuh, Church, Minister ; and six others.

To which his Honour was pleased to make the following ANSWER:

Gentlemen,

THE Zeal you express for Religion, and your Concern for the Morals of the People are very becoming your Functions and Characters, and therefore cannot but be acceptable to me.

I agree with you in Opinion, that multiplying the Scenes of public Diversion, in so young a City as ours, may be attended with many of the Mischiefs and Inconveniences set forth in your Remonstrance: for which Reason, as well as because the Means, proposed for carrying the projected Scheme into Execution, are contrary to Law, you may be assured it will receive all the Discouragement I am able to give it.