Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

though it is, without doubt, a tissue of the
most impudent falsehoods and the most
contumelious irony, that any state paper
ever embraced, or that any enemy, how-
ever insolent or insidious, ever dictated.
At its first appearance the predominant
party was exhilarated beyond measure, and
our merchants were generally credulous
enough to suppose that the golden
era of
an unshackled and universal trade
was about to be revived.
A little reflection
since has damped the expectations of both.
The merchants, prone as they
must be
to credit the possibility of any state of
things conformable to their seeming inte-
rests and their eager wishes, lose confidence
as they reflect upon the contradictions
which it is necessary to reconcile, before
any reliance can be placed upon the decla-
rations, or any positive opinion be formed.
concerning the intentions of Bonaparte.
The well meaning members of our majori-
ty, whose infatuation on the subject of
France extends to a most extravagant ad-
miration as well as panic fear of her power,
were perplexed by the duplicity of the lan-
guage, and somewhat disgusted with the
grossness of the flattery, which are but too
apparent, even to their own eyes, in this
diplomatic billet-doux.
But the active and
designing spirits; those who, either from
treachery or blindness, are so industriously
labouring to convert our mild republic in-
to a furious democracy, and our free coun-
try into a province of France, exulted in
the opportunity which this new vicissitude
seemed to afford them, of ripening the po-
pular discontents against England, and of
confirming their own dominion. They saw
at once the utility of the crisis for their ee-
lections, and the immense advantages to be
obtained over their antagonists by affecting
to credit the benevolent professions of Bo-
naparte. The same belief is to be imposed
upon the multitude, and they are then, be-
fore the sequel is known, to be represented
as the saviours of the country, in having
thus, as it were, miraculously charmed
down his antipathy.
The chief source of elation for them, and
the most important consideration for the
public, is the tendency of the new decree to
widen the breach between this country and
Great-Britain. It is notorious that there
is not wanting here a multitude even of in-
telligent men so strangely infatuated as to
desire a war with England, and to hail, al-
most with transport, every incident calcu-
lated to promote that object. To many,
the destruction of the land of our forefa-
thers would be the most satisfactory of all
public events, and in the estimation of one
a few, the great modern drama could have
no other catastrophe more conformable to
the interests of the United States. Should
Great Britain now refuse to abandon her
system of blockade: from which we are,
for many reasons, inclined to suppose that
she will not depart, and which our demo-
gogues are very far from wishing to see
relinquished; no efforts will be admitted, no
passions or prejudices left unassuaged, that
may reconcile the public mind to the most
desperate of all measures, a war with that
power. The country has been more than
once drawn to the brink of this fatal preci-
pice, and it is now sanguinely expected.
that we will cast ourselves headlong into
the abyss.
Such is the doctrine which is already
urged in the democratic gazettes, and we
must confess that we are not without our
fears with regard to its success! Unless
the majority be enlightened on this sub-
ject, and roused to a just sense of the dan-
gers to which they will be exposed by any
form of alliance with France, our folly may
swell to the pitch which her emissaries and
her dupes have in view. Men of weak un-
derstanding and vain tempers may be
heated and blinded by arguments plausibly
urged, and the person who is now the in-
tensible head of the prevailing party may
either suffer the moderation of his temper
to be overborne by the violence of his asso-
ciates, or consent to respond their axioms.
FOR SALE,
LEASE for lives, for 312 acres of land
lying in the county of Fairfax, and be-
ing part of the tract of land called "Ravens-
worth," the annual rent of which is only dol-
lars. It is about nine miles from Alexandria,
the Little River Turnpike Road passing near
it. There is on said tract very convenient and
log houses, and a good apple
orchard, and about fifteen acres in clover
equal to any in the neighborhood. Many lie
same quantity of (quantity outside of fence)
ient quality, and as much more unimproved
This lease is divided into five lots, one (
cing in to darats de renudr (t an is nn do
posed of by the hurt of O trade, I wid iead
it fur lives. It is so situated as to make con-
tedments, Any gent wishing to purchase
or lease could farm four five. and please opp!
to the subscriber residing on the premises
Joseph Promill.
Sr.