Each day brings additional strength to the report of a rupture with America. The representtations which have been very forcibly urged by the American Minister, Mr. Pickney, include various topics of complaint. Amongst these are, the withholding of the poste of Niagara, Detroit, &c. in violation of the treat of 1783; the exciting of of the Creek and other Indians to make compensation for the property seized by the armies under Lord Cornwalis, & in the Southern States, according to stipulation; the seizure of American ships bound to France; the impressing of American citizens to man our fleets; and finally, the sullen silence which the British Minister is alledged to have uniformly maintained on the subject of the claims made by the Republic.

The American Minister has, however, so little hope of efficacy from these representations, that he has ordered in his tradesmen’s bills, and made every other preparation for an abrupt departure.

Not withstanding this alarming aspect of affairs, we still must hope, that no consequences subversive of the pacific system at present subsisting between American and Great Britain will ensue; for ill-judged and ignorant, indeed, of the true interests of his country must that Briton be (whatever his rank) who would advise another American war –a war which, reasoning of the future by the sorrowful experience of the past, can only serve to increase the sum, and to swell the catalogue of human woes.


Citation: Glasgow Advertiser (Glasgow, United Kingdom), 30 August 1793, available at the Scissors and Paste Database, http://www.scissorsandpaste.net/365.