Sales catalogue 513: Maggs Bros

Date:
1928
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/70
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 513: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    from the states of New York, Vermont, Massachusets, and Connecticut, in that Country, who assured him, that many thousands of their Country-men who had fought through all the last year, to avoid becoming British subjects, had now of their own accord, settled in Canada, & taken the oaths to the British Government, altho’ it is absolute in that Country, having left Liberty, Equality, and the rights of Man, their former Idols, behind them; and what is still a greater Satyre, on the friends of Liberty and Republicanism he likewise assured me, that great numbers of Irishmen, who had abandoned their own Country, for want of Liberty, & a Reform in Parlt. on finding their Settlement, in the United States, difficult, by the extorsions of the Land-Jobbers, had settled in Canada where they had no Parlt. to reform. They could not endure the British Government in Ireland, where it was limitted by law, but they have readily submitted to it in Canada, where it is absolute and unlimited. Altho, one of their professed design of emigration was to avoid paying tythes to the Protestant Clergy, yet they readily submit to pay tythes to the Roman- Catholic priesthood. I had heard of these things, several years ago, but did not believe them, and I am now assured that Emigration to Canada still continues, & that numbers have emigrated this present year.’’ Htc. ‘* It is said here that the British vessels, in the Delawar, are to be seized by way of an indemnification for 111 American vessels, seized by the English Fleet, in the West Indies. This is another Scheme of those who have been provoking a war against Great Britain, ever since the French Revolution, altho Genet is disgraced, and his party in France executed, yet the mischief that he did here, is likely to remain. He has taken the oaths to our States, in order to prevent his being appre- hended by his successor, and sent to France. I hope the violence and barbarity of the French, and their declared resolution, to annihilate England, have reconciled your people to the War against France. If your Fleet and Army succeed in the West Indies, it will have the best effect in this Country, as our people will naturally side with the Victors, in that Quarter. Should our people still think of going to war, the English fleet, if they drive the French out cf the West Indies, will have it in their power, to burn our Sea ports, one after another, in spite of any thing that the United States, & the Sans Cullottes could do to prevent it. Our people indeed, talk of fortifying their ports, but they forget that they were all taken last war, after all the care that has been taken to fortify them. If the English did not then burn their Towns, it was only because they hoped to possess them but it cannot be expected, that they would be restrained by this consideration, when they make war against us as a Foreign Nation. I am at a loss to guess, on what pretensions the English consider our people as Enemies, unless it is, because they have owned a treaty whereby they are obliged to guarantee the possessions of France in the West Indies. But this appears to be very narrow ground, for making a war, as no overt Act has yet taken place on the part of the United States in consequence of their acknowledging the said treaty. The attempts of Genet, to raise an Army in this Country for attacking the English in Canada, and the Spaniards in Florida, have become abortive both by a prohibition, on the part of our Govt. and by the revocation of the Commissions, on the part of the French. If a War should now take place, between Great Britain and this country, I am persuaded it will be a war of passions, on both sides. America might be profitable to England, by taking their Manufactures, if our people could be brought to pay their debts, and England might be profitable to America by furnishing us with such articles, as we could not obtain
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