The New Hampshire Gazette

From the Monitor, or British Freeholder. No. LII.

(Published every Saturday in England.)

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and
shew my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob
their sins. Isaiah, ch. lviii. v. 1.

To the MONITOR.

In the midst of the general mourning of these king-
doms for the loss already felt, and for what must
infallibly follow, unless timely prevented by an al-
teration of measures, I am amazed to find no sorrow.
no uneasiness, no repinings, no forebodings, no
earnings for the publick safety, amongst those, who recom-
mend, appoint, and direct the Officers and operations, by
whose misconduct and polliminity I hope, not treachery,
(Minorca,) the security of our Levant trade, is lost to our
ill in commerce: and our most valuable possessions in
America, without which neither our fleets could be mann'd,
nor our manufactures can be employed, have severely
groan'd under the enemy's sword; and, if not promised to
be yielded up, are in a manner abandoned, and almost ru-
ined by the dilatory measures of those, who are entrusted
with the means raised in these dominions for their protecti-
on. And I even dread the effects of that indifference with
which the advices of our late misfortunes have been treated
by some of the m--y.

Where's their judgment and wisdom, if they were igno-
rant of the usefulness and necessity of a British settlement
in the Mediterranean to protect our merchantmen, to an-
noy our enemies, to give weight to our councils, and to
maintain an interest with the princes of Italy and the Otto-
man Empire? or where's their honesty, if Mahon has been
sacrificed to any private interest, or in consequence of a
private article of some treaty not yet made known?

Had the m-g-y been ignorant of the enemy's intention,
some allowance might have been made for deception: but
the French, contrary to their accustomed secrecy proclaim-
ed their resolution to invade Minorca, some months before
any provision was pretended to be made to resist them.

Had the m--oney been cramp'd for money for such a ser-
vice, it could not have been expected from them: but the
parliament had supplied the Exchequer with a sum that
exceeded the greatest in any one year when England beat
the enemy out of the seas, took Gibraltar and Minorca,
and threaten'd to carry their arms to the walls of Paris.

Had the parliament plann'd their operations, or interfered
in the stationing of the fleets, marching their forces and
granting commissions; who could have blamed the m--y
for sending so late, and such a weak squadron and rein-
forcement to Mahon, under the command of men, who
had never given proofs of their conduct and courage, in a
preference to officers of experience, courage and fidelity?.
who could have blamed them for keeping forty thousand
seamen in pay, cooped up in our harbours at home, to give
the officers an opportunity to display their effeminate ca-
pacities in balls and masquerades? or for consuming the
treasure of the nation in the importation of foreign forces
from Hesse and Hanover; in an extraordinary augmenta-
tion of our national troops; in the extravagant parade of
incampments, and trains of artillery? or in the new method
of settling exorbitant pensions on their fellow labourers in
the works, which make a national and speedy enquiry, in-
to the causes of our present disgrace and misery, absolutely
necessary, to prevent a total annihilation of the British name?.

But should it turn out; upon the most impartial exami-
nation into their conduct. that the great officers of state are
the only men who have been entrusted with all our money,
and invested with all the power to defend our King and his
British dominions. where ever situate: that they have not
made use of those means put into their hands by the nation,
to answer the necessary purposes for which they were given;
but have permitted the enemy to surprize our territories, &
our property, and our strong holds for want of relief, or a
sufficient strength by sea or land; and that they have tri-
fled away both their time and our money when they met
in consultation;

Not for the sickly patient's sake;
Nor what to give, but what to take.:

If it should appear, that instead of uniting in the first
principle of British government, which is to secure the li-
berty and property of the nation; they agree only to keep
in power by sacrificing every thing to their ambition and
avarice: that they have endeavoured to lay a restraint up-
on the King,-by sowing jealousies and misrepresentations
in the royal mind, in order to deprive him of the council
of his most faithful nobles and gentry, and to compel him:
to acquiesce in and authorize the most unconstitutional
measures: and that they under fictitious reports of an inva-
sion, have not only abandoned our colonies and fortresses
to destruction, but have formed a design to render their
m---y absolute, and to change the government into an
oligarchy by the aid of a powerful standing army of natives,
Hessians and Hanoverians; it would become every true
Briton to take such measures, as the constitution of the na-
tion might enable him, in his proper station, to prevent
the fatal consequences of their corruption and aspirings,
and to bring them to a true sense of their crimes.
Is Minorca torn from the British crown by a nation that
dares not meet us on the ocean, and in sight of a British
squadron, either not provided, or not instructed, to main-
tain the dominion of the seas: and shall they, to whose
management this service properly belonged, escape their
deserts? we have laughed off, and almost forgotten the dire
catastrophe of the armament, Mediterranean, and of Car-
tagena under Ogle, Mathews, and Vernon: but shall
we forget Mahon so soon; if we do, other nations will not.
We shall ever be, what we now are, the reproach and con-
tempt of every nation in Europe, unless we bring the authors
and perpetrators of this treachery, cowardice or pusillani-
ity to justice. To be silent and tamely permit the British
lion to be chained by his keepers, while the leopard is pul-
ing him limb from limb, is as little becoming the sons of
liberty and honour, as to submit to arbitrary power.

If we cast our Eyes towards America, can we discern
any better prospect of military conduct? was not the im-
portance of those valuable colonies made the immediate
argument to engage our representatives to grant eight mil-
lions of money this last session, to protect them and support
our rights to the possessions and trade of North America?
and shall they, who were intrusted with that immense sum
for those particular purposes, not be called to an account
for leaving them exposed to the enemy? not to espouse
their cause and revenge their sufferings would have been
such a reflection upon our glory, as time could ne'er efface;
and perhaps the neglect of a vigorous and timely exertion
of the power committed to the ministry for that service,
may be so heavy a blow upon our naval and mercantile in-
terest, as millions may not be able to repair.

How have death and destruction; unexampled barbari-
ties and horrid devastations stagnated trade, penetrated into
some of our finest plantations, and are ready to cut them
off from the interest of their mother country? while that
money has been applied to hire an army of Russians, ano-
ther of Hessians, a third of Hanoverians, and another of
Wolfenbuttleans: to pay a large subsidy to keep the King
of Prussia in temper, for fear his maritime forces, when
joined to the enemies, should prove too powerful for us;
and to pay a standing army in Britain: to maintain an in-
active fleet; and shamefully to increase the number of pen-
sioners to the state. And was it ever known that a nation
thus deceived; thus misguided and brought to the brink
of ruin; whose liberty was endangered; whose debts were
more than he was able to pay; whose monarch was con-
troubled by his servants, and whose subjects were driven be-
fore the sword of the enemy to perish in woods and deserts,
or dismayed at the horrid spectacle of their children slain
and scalped, and themselves at last expiring in the flames
of their own houses; could remain insensible of its griev-
ances, or afraid to complain and pursue the author of its
misfortune: or can Britons at the time France lighting up
her forges of death, and collecting together such a quantity
of materials and engines. as if she intended to make an uni-
versal sacrifice of mankind, remain inactive spectators, and
improvident stewards of the public money.

If upon examination it should be discovered, that there
are any at the helm so lost to the love of their country, as
to create a suspicion of their acting in concert with her ene-
mies; or so estranged to glory as to be the infamous instru-
ments of executing any private measures and stipulations to
the disgrace and hurt of the nation, cry aloud and spare not!
Can a people, who boast of freedom, and their right to
These are the words of Britons, who espouse no party
but that of their country; and would engage in no quarrel,
where the British honour and interest are not concerned.
Autumn is gone, and with it gone our Trade!
M
Next farewell Liberty, celestial Maid!
But whence this sudden Gloom; this deep Distress?
Whence this reverse of BRITONS Happiness?
Ah! that's the Question; and 'twere some Relief,
Cou'd we but reach the Authors of our Grief.
Wou'd Lords and Commons give to Justice Hand,
The base Betrayers of this sinking Land:
If not from Naval Chiefs—Our Misery's come,
We've surely Traitors near the Helm at Home.