The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

The following is extracted from the Providence GAZETTE of the 6th of October last, which perhaps may serve as a Hint to some other Places.

Without imputing our Misfortunes and Hardships to others, let us see if we cannot find the Source of them in our own past Behaviour and Management; and I think we may, if we look back upon what we have done, and what we have neglected to do, for these thirty Years last past.

As to the first of these: I think, we have been not only too greedy of Commerce, but our Trade hath been, for the most Part, under a wrong Direction. Is there a People upon the Globe, excepting ourselves, who dwell in a Climate where Persons of all Conditions must be thick cloathed eight Months of the Year, that buy their Cloathing at Three Thousand Miles Distance, especially when every Material used in making them grows upon the Spot, and in the greatest Perfection.

Every wise Community will strive to furnish from their own Manufacture, as many of the Necessaries of Life as they possibly can; because whatever depends upon a Foreign Commerce, is precarious, as we have felt from sad Experience; when a War has put twenty per Cent. Advance, upon what we could not do without. It is a sad Mistake, that we have not yet found Means to manufacture at least the coarser Part of our Cloathing, both of Linnen and Woolen, amongst ourselves. If we had been wise enough to have done this, we might have smiled with Safety. And that this important Business has been, and still is neglected, I impute to our over great Passion and Fondness for Foreign Commerce. Have we not constantly exported our Provision, until the Price at Home was so advanced, that the Poor was forced to follow it abroad, as they must always do? And who is there but knows, that the Price of what the Manufacturer eats, regulates, in great Measure, the Price of the Manufacture he is employed in: And that there is the same Difference between exporting the Provisions of a Country, and consuming them at Home by industrious Inhabitants, as there is between carrying off Hay produced by a Meadow, and foddering it out upon the Spot? In Poland, Westphalia, and other Parts of Germany, Denmark, and indeed in Ireland, until since the Linnen and other Manufactures, where great Quantities of Provisions are exported, the Common People are few in Number, poor and miserable, whilst in Holland, where the greatest Part of their Provisions come from abroad, they are at Ease.

Have we not also in Exchange for what we have sent abroad, instead of Necessaries, received for the most Part, such Things as we cannot afford to buy, or do not want? We vie with the Sugar Islands and Southern Colonies in Splendor & Luxury, without possessing their Wealth. Expensive Attire and Tea, is not confined to our Towns, as in other Countries, but it has made its Way into the remotest Parts of our Settlements. Were one of the first Planters to reconnoitre a modern Meeting-House, on a Sunday, he would imagine the Congregation to be drest for a Masquerade, or that some Pantomime Performance was in Hand.

I have now done finding Fault, and do heartily concur with Britannus Americanus, in the Means he prescribes for our Recovery; namely, that we consume as few Foreign Commodities as possibly we can. But I congratulate the Town of Boston, as the Place where it is first put in Practice. The Names that have led the Way to this Reformation, must be delivered down to Posterity as the Decii and Curii of New-England. And after this, may we not hope soon to hear of a Lady that has breakfasted upon Milk-Porridge, without sickening, and walked to Meeting in a Leather-Shoe, without stumbling, or being put out of Countenance. I should think myself bound to salute the Toe of her that dare do this, with the same Reverence as a good Catholic does the Pope's. In a Word, one Maxim of the great Duke of Sully, is worth all the Dreams of Plato, Moore, and Harrington: Namely, that the only Way to restore an exhausted Country, is for the Inhabitants to earn as much, and consume as little as they can.

But we must not stop here. I cannot think that a Step of so much Consequence as taxing America, is to be ascribed to the Policy and Influence of any single Person. No Doubt those that have been busy in taxing her in one Branch of her Commerce, have promoted our whole Tax. We know what our old Friends of the Sugar Islands have been at, these thirty Years last past: they have said little, but have Acted systematically; and as they are connected in Point of Interest, they combined against us, and being rich, their whole Weight fell upon us, with a Force, which we, in our disunited State, could not resist. This last taxing of North-America, doth but complete the System of the Sugar Planters; and if we go on in our old Way of dealing with them, we shall very soon be as much their Servants as their Negroes are.

After all, I would propose to my Countrymen two Things, that one would think, under our present Circumstances, must be very acceptable to them: the one of which must end in a Repeal of the Tax Act: and the other would put us upon a better Footing both with our Friends the Islanders and at Home.

It is evident from the Act of Parliament for taxing us, that the Money to be levied by the Tax, is to be a Fund for our future Defence. Now if we keep our Provisions at Home, employ our People upon making our Cloathing and other Necessaries, and in cultivating our Land, (very little of which is brought to any tolerable State of Improvement) instead of sending them to die of Fevers in the Sugar Islands, as a great Part of our Youth do at present, we should fill our Country with healthy and robust Inhabitants, and consequently should stand in Need of no Assistance from without us; and the Cause for making the Tax being removed, it will be no longer necessary.

As to our Friends the Islanders, altho' we cannot rival them in Wealth, and consequently in Influence, in their own Way; yet a little Self-denial would effect every thing necessary for us, and put us upon better Terms with them and others. Surely we can do without them better than they without us; let us keep at Home, and try the Experiment. I know who must squeal first. We can do with little Sugar, and submit to pay the Duty on what little Molasses we want at Foreign Ports, whilst our Masters get Lumber, and Food for their Negroes as they can, and hoop their Sugar and Rum Casks with Thongs cut from their Hides. This would soon make us of more Consequence, both there and at Home; therefore I cannot think our Case desperate, whilst we can find a Cure in our own Reformation; tho' the Cup is bitter, let us drink it off. If it is not palatable, it may be medicinal. If we have less Rum, we may live the soberer; if we import less Cloathing, we shall be more industrious: and if we are made to understand our true Interest, we shall be the wiser. And is it nothing to be made sober, industrious and wise, at the Expence of our Adversaries?

I hope soon to see Associations for these and such-like Purposes, set on Foot in every Colony concerned, whilst we act singly, we are a Rope of Sand, and can accomplish nothing.