Page 416

COMMENTARIES ON THE CONSTITUTION
4. In 1769 Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, which had first appeared in 1767
and 1768 in Philadelphia, was translated and edited by Jean Barbeu Dubourg and printed
in Paris, although the title page gives Amsterdam as the place of publication.
Delaware Gazette, 7 May1
WONDERFUL INTELLIGENCE, copied from a St. Kitts Paper-Rosseau2
(Dominico) Feb. 3. By the latest advices from America we learn, that
the whole State of Rhode-Island is to be sold to a private citizen of
Georgia by private contract; and that Congress have resolved to apply
the purchase money to pay off their national debt.
1. Reprints by 26 June (9): Mass. (2), N.Y. (2), Pa. (2), Md. (1), Va. (1), S.C. (1). It
was reprinted in the Pennsylvania journal, 14 May, under a dateline of Wilmington, 7
May. Because the Wilmington Delaware Gazette, 7 May, is not extant, this item has been
transcribed from the Pennsylvania Packet, 10 May, the earliest known reprint.
2. Roseau is the port city and capital of Dominica.
Maryland Journal, 9 May'
Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman in London, to his
Friend in Maryland, dated jan. 31, 1788.
"People here talk much of the Distractions on your Side [of] the
Water; but, I believe, they are magnified. Men are more easily governed
than is generally thought, at least while they continue poor and vir-
tuous; the former being the best Security of the latter. Anarchy has
always ended in absolute Monarchy; but that is only in old States,
where Wealth has accumulated in the Hands of Individuals, whose
Vices, co-operating with the Profligacy of the lower Order of People,
have overbalanced the middle Rank, which is the most, or only, vir-
tuous one in all Countries. The Equality in America, one would think,
would, for a long Time, preserve Order without any Government at
all.
"The Trade of Great-Britain was never in so flourishing a State. The
Excess in the Customs, and, indeed, all other Taxes, is immense, and
People, who look no farther than Revenue, think the Loss of America
to be a Gain.-Few lament Losses they do not feel."
1. Reprints by 3 June (7): Mass. (1), N.Y. (2), N.J. (1), Pa. (2), Va. (1).
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