A Friendly Check, from a Kind Relation, To the Chief Cannoneer, Founded on a Late Information, Dated N. E. Castle-William, 1720, 21.
THE Measures which I hear you Take are no ways proper for your high Station. What, Sir! Only to flush, or Fire your Touchhole with the Dust, or sweepings of the Powder-Room, in receiving that Capital Enemy, Amicus Patriae, who Boldly with all his Canvas abroad, with his Jack, Ensign, and Pendant proudly Flying, has, [within the Reach of your Guns] Entered our Chief Harbour; with a plain Design of Mischief to many Principal Gentlemen, hoarders of [Page 2] our Bills in our Good Country; And plainly intends to break the Measures of such Eminent Benefactors to the Publick? And comes with a farther Aim of doing hurt, Scil. To Teach our Unfortunate and Oppressed Neighbours, how they shall grow Rich too: That in a little Time the Gentilities which is supported by the Wise Monopolys aforesaid, will daily Impair and grow out of Date, if he prevails, and other mean Fellows will grow so Rich, that they will turn Gentlemen too; which must needs alloy, and much suppress the Coat-Armour, and Ancestry of our Country. And is not all this next to a Fellony!
Therefore Fellow Souldier! For you that stand in so high a Post, and only to Fire off a few [...] of Old-spent-Powder, at such a Brazer and Daring Attempt as he has made in passing our Castle, and entering our Country; you deserve by the Law of Arms, if not to be Pistoled and Tumbled cross the Britch of your Cannon, yet to ride the Wooden-Horse, for your Cowardize. Therefore at your Utmost Peril; when he shall weigh Anchor, and come to Sail for the High Seas, bring him too; And if he is so hardy and cholerick, as to stand a Brush; Then Charge with French Powder and Ball, [Page 3] as your Usage has been; And give him Broad side, for Broad side, and don't stand flushing at him at this Cowardly Rate; for if you do he is so haughty a Nature, as only to Laugh at you for your Pains.
Don't you see how Proudly he Rides in our Chief Harbour, with all his Colours abroad, and in the heart of the Country; and has Cast our Gentlemen hoarders into miserable Paroxisms in the Lower Bowels, that they are in hazard of falling into Old King James's Pickle; which will be a great Misfortune to their Ladies, &c. And also he has so awakened, and universally Alarmed our Country that they are fully Resolved not to be Hectored or wheedled into unsolvable Penury and Vassalage, for want of a Plentiful Medium, whence it is in their own Power to Remove those who stand in their way, and supply themselves. Therefore Cuz! at your Peril, Mind what I say; or if not, [as well as I love you] I will assuredly Article [somewhat against you to the Commander in Chief, as a Traytor, for that your Measures are apparently full of Cowardice; and know by Camp Law, a Traytor and a Coward, signifies one and the same thing in War. [Page 4] Therefore to make short my Caution, Kinsman, and Fellow Souldier! Don't act the Fool or the Knave any more in so great a Concern; but be more Manly.
From a Near Kinsman, in a Country Village, to be left at Castle-William, February 1720, 21.
THe Moral of the Premises is to make Known a Desire that if any Gentlemen think it agreeable with the Interest of this Province, to Write in Opposition to Amicus Patriae, that they will do it Solidly and not Pevishly; and he engages his Thanks to any Man that will fairly subvert him. And for the present, it was thought Reasonable to Answer the late Advertisement from Castle-William in the foregoing manner. It being very proper to Answer a fool according to his Folly, least he be Wise in his own conceit, Prov. 26.
A Letter from Amicus Patriae, to his Son.
THE Report from Castle-William, is so mean a thing, so Little in Argument, and Pevish in Temper, its Beneath a Wise Man to Resent it; at least no otherways than you see in the Inclosed. But however to satisfy your self as to my Domestick Affairs, which you tho' so nearly Related are a stranger to.
Therefore some time within less then Three Years, we took out 1000l. and put into the Publick Bank, an Estate of 2000l. which we would not take Five and Twenty Hundred for now. (Indeed such fat things Draw these Hungry Crows by a strange Instinct) We thought it might be very pr [...]per both for the Publick good and our own pr [...]fit so to do. And thro' Mercy we have Reaped great Ease and Benefit by it. For that we have solved our former Money Obligations, and furnished the business of the Family (under your Brother's Sole management) to very great purpose, for since that our Business has gone on with such Success, that we have pa [...]ed into the Bank about 200 l. with the Interest, and have another 100 l. ready to answer in that Affair. [Page 6] And not only so, but the Temporal Business of the Family is so well Qualified and Adjusted, that thro' Divine goodness, and by the Assistance of the Auspicious and Prosperous Bills, we do not fall short of Three Hundred Pounds Annual Income. And not only so, but tho' the Pevish Gentleman (If he be a Man) does allow if we put in 2000l. which is already grown in Value, but also their Remains in our hands no ways intangled by the Bank, in Rich housen, homest [...]ad, Remote Lands, and other Estates to the Value of One Thousand Pounds, or not much under. That considering what we have Done in less than Three Years towards the solving the Bank, &c. I am full of Assurance that in the Remaining Six Years, by Divine Aid, and by a Frugal and Prudent Management we are quite out of Danger, as to Crows and Vultures,
Therefore what I have Wrote on the Bank of Credit, was purely in Love to my Country, that all Men in their Affairs, may be as Prosperous as I have been. At Least that our Country may Universally Flourish in their Outward Affairs.
That the Reader might not be at a loss where to meet with the N. E. Castle-William Advertisement, to which the preceeding Pages refer, it was thought reasonable to insert the same.
N. E. Castle-William, February, 1720, 21.
N. B. THat Amicus Patriae a late Author is Worldly Wise Man, and has spoke two Words for himself, and not one for his Country, as Actions will better shew a Mans designs then his Words; it would have been but the ingenious part in him, to have told us that from Twenty Years long experience he has not been able to pay Interest for Money borrowed of Private People, and of Twelve Hundred and Fifty Pounds (of his Miracle working Paper Money) borrowed of the Government by himself and two Sons he has yet paid but 250 l. of it in again; 'tis therefore that he declares, and will insist on it, as the best way to enrich his Country, to make Paper Bills enough for every body to take what they please, and further (in his whole bustle of words) sayeth not.