“Summary, From the Essex Register”

Date

4-7-1812

Newspaper

The Times

Page and Column

Page 2, Column 2-4

Newspaper Location

Charleston, South Carolina

Serial Number

411

Abstract

News summary that mentions earthquakes, from the Essex Register.

Transcript

SUMMARY FROM THE ESSEX REGISTER, March 21. It has been observed of Russia, that a people void of policy were formed into an empire by their unbounded confidence in one man. The fact is for the contemplation of all ages, but the power of one man to render a nation great is not a solitary truth. It has been known in all ages, and in successive periods receives new force and additional illustrations. It is for some men to give military character, and for others to combine civil and commercial views with the advancement of their powers. Peter the Great is contemplated at the point which all the labors of preceding princes are connected with glory. It was for his successors to perfect the plan he had begun, and we see in a successor the great design of associating with the power of Russia the most extensive means of national superiority. When we see every object embraced by the present Emperor of France, we see him as we do Peter the Great, profiting by all the labors of his predecessors, and collecting from the world, as Peter did his dominions, all the means to elevate and to preserve the power which he possessed. What Peter had not accomplished, Catharine II. attempted, and the example has been followed by the French Emperor in the Codes he has published, and to which he has given in Europe the authority of law. We notice on the present occasion the articles in the grand instructions given to the Commissioners to frame a Code of Laws for the Russian Empire, as composed by Catharine II. in regard to commerce and its resources. "Agriculture, says she, is the first and principal labor, which ought to be encouraged to the people. The next is the manufacture of the produce of their own country. In the machines employed in manufactures, we ought to distinguish between what we manufacture for our home consumption, and what we manufacture for exportation into foreign countries. Too much use cannot be made of machines to shorten labor in our manufactures which we export to other nations who do or may receive the same kind of goods from other nations. Commerce flies from places where it meets with oppression, and settles where it meets with protection. The liberty of trading does not consist in a permission to merchants of doing what they please, this would be rather the slavery of commerce. The object of trade is the exportation and importation of goods, for the advantage of the state. The duty exacted is likewise for the advantage of the state. For this reason the State ought to preserve the utmost impartiality between the duty and the trade, with such regulations that they may not interfere. Then the people will enjoy the free liberty of commerce." Such is the basis of that system which this great woman contemplated about half a century from our times. The laws of commerce, says the code of the French Empire, "should be in harmony with its needs, its habits, and its true interests. These should be severe only against fraud, prevent evils from imprudence, lessen them from misconduct, and provide for them under misfortune." But it is justly added, "the times of peace are to open the seas to the nations, and to restore the common privileges of commerce. And in such times we might hope the code of wise commerce would be the code of the universe. A state of war cannot be the time for experiments favorable to the advancement of commerce, but by new contests, and new powers, new rights have been discovered, and general benefits have been understood and enjoyed. The rights of commerce must be settled by consent and war is just till such consent be obtained any rights are ascertained. With such an example before our eyes even in Russia, to give commerce its sure principles, we may remember that the same empire will give us instruction respecting the best methods of advancing power, and of the consequence to those who promote the power of any nation by fraud or violence. The Abbe Chapet who died in America, as Humboldt says, a victim of his zeal and devotion for the sciences, has given, an example of that insensibility we have to the obligations drawn from the services we have performed, with a guilty trespass upon the private honor of our own character. Lestoc placed Elizabeth upon the throne of Russia. A foreign surgeon attached to the princess, in conjunction with a foreign ambassador, formed the design of placing her upon the throne. The Regent had suspicions, and sent for Elizabeth. Her countenance satisfied the Regent of her innocence, but Elizabeth told Lestoc of the discovery and of the danger. Lestoc prepared to finish his work immediately. He had an eye to every circumstance, and as soon as the sun rose, she was acknowledged throughout the capitol, and soon alter by the whole nation. The Reagent was ordered to her own dominions, but afterwards detained, and made a prisoner with her son for ever, and in this revolution not a drop of blood was shed. But mark the event, This same Lestoc was afterwards banished by the same empress to whom he gave a throne, and lived in Siberia in most rigorous confinement till her death. Whatever we purchase by dishonesty, we hold with dishonor; and we fear rather than love the instruments by which we have gained the prosperity which blesses us. We are told that the Russians have not lost the character they sustained under Peter.-Their disciple is severe, but it is their ancient discipline. In the army they feel a subordination not very different from that at home. The peasant in his liberty is not altogether unlike the soldier. In attachments, they forget their subordination, and by making the loss of their life their ambition, they face death without terror, and meet all their hardships in the field of battle, with the sons which cheer them in the labors of the field for harvest. The Russians are great under great princes; courageous under brave officers, and rich when their labors are well directed. These are the ages which precede that national greatness, when the greatness of each is the self-direction and independence which he possesses, by which it carried back all the strength to the heart for prolonged life and existence. We have no late news from Europe by which we can judge of the progress of the war, the policy of the European courts, or the partial arrangements of commerce. From Congress we have the different opinions respecting the disclosure of Mr. Henry. The subject is received with all the prejudices which could arise out of our national affairs, and the different prejudices will be received in minds of the same development with the same emotions. But the interest all take in the event discovers that it makes a deep impression, in whatever manner it is received. The high friendship with which we have welcomed the administration of Mr. Madison, and the unequivocal approbation we have given of the chief magistrate of Massachusetts, ought not to leave a douubt of the opinions we entertain of the true happiness of our country. And from our present convictions, we find a full concurrence in all the measures which may tend to advance the friends of the present administration of the general government, and to continue the appointment of the present Chief Magistrate to our highest honors. And for these purposes we shall concur in such measures as will tend to restore in Salem the confidence of the citizens in the general government, and to place all her honors in the absolute possession of those citizens, who profess these confidence in the present administration. And we trust that we shall be ready for any sacrifices we can be called to make by our utmost zeal, and with our most sacred patriotism, in the times when danger is the name for duty. The late Earthquakes have given occasion for many tales, few of which are found to be correct. That of the Volcano is abandoned. Indeed the new theory of philosophers has not increased the number of those substances which were supposed to have been of Volcanic origin, but has found a more powerful and extensive agent. Yet Volcanoes have been named as existing in America. In the latitude of 60 degrees north, a Spaniard relats, as Humboldt reports, that at the northern extremity of Prince William's Sound, he saw a great mass of ice and stones thrown up to prodigious heights in the air, with dreadful noise, and these eruptions were judged to have been of a Volcanic nature. And Dentrecasteux, who went in search of Peyrouse, saw on the newly discovered coast of New Britain, an eruption, and perceived a torrent of lava precipitating itself into the sea. So that these works of nature are in our portion of the globe, and are found to exist even in northern latitudes, of which we had notice from the discovery of Iceland. Iceland contains these hidden fires on the opposite side of America, and in a higher latitude, at a distance exceeding 100 degrees of longitude. The convulsions of the atmospheric have been as great as those of the earth, and with mere extensive evils to the inhabitants of our globe. The severity of cold has been uncommon. A great mass of snow still is lodged upon the surface of the earth, and threatens to do great evil, if hastily removed by the return of spring. The rivers have been swollen in the southern states in an extraordinary manner. We have hard of some local maladies have been fatal and alarming through the spreading not overexpansive

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