poor English have to pay the expense, till they have hardly bread to eat themselves. This is the short history of the Guelphs, or Whelps, of Hanover.

The insults which Grenville and the cabinet complain of, and the injuries and miseries the nation suffer, from the insane and mal-conduct of the present incumbent, they may thank themselves for, or rather their fathers and grand-fathers, who imported them from Hanover; and the best thing the nation can now do, is to send them away. They may then have peace.

June 1, 1807

ONE WHO KNOWS ENGLAND.

TO THE PEOPLE OF NEW-YORK.

THE election for charter officers last year was carried by the Federal and Quid trick of fortification, and now the people are to be amused and duped by a new trick of obstructions.

The only eligible mode of obstruction, is that proposed by Franklin for the Delaware, in '76, an account of which was given in the Public Advertiser of the 6th, and republished in the Philadelphia Aurora of the 8th August.*

* OF OBSTRUCTIONS AGAINST SHIPS.

The best and only eligible mode of obstruction against the ships of an enemy, is that proposed by Doctor Franklin for the defence of the Delaware, and executed in '76.

It consisted of a frame, the bottom of which is thick plank, about twenty or twenty-five feet square. On this bottom was fixed two or three beams, about seven or eight inches square, pointed with iron, and standing in the direction of A. B. The beams were braced together cross the tops, and supported by uprights from the bottom. When they were ready for sinking, they were floated to the place, and loaded with stone enough to sink them, for after they were sunk they became fast by bedding themselves in the bottom of the river. They were sunk about twenty feet from each other. An opening of forty or fifty feet was left in the channel of the river for our own vessels, and a frame ready for sinking as soon as the ships of an enemy should appear, was anchored near the opening. There were pilots to conduct our own vessels through. They were called chevaux de frize pilots; but it happened that one vessel, either by the carelessness of the pilot, or the head-strongness of the captain who would come through without a pilot, run on one of the iron pointed forks and was sunk. She had a large hole through her bow.

B

A

These, and the gun-boats, were the defence of the Delaware; and they were so far effectual, that when General Howe sailed with his army from New-York to take possession of Philadelphia, he avoided coming up the Delaware, and went round by the Chesapeake to the head of Elk, and marched to Philadelphia by land.

If the depth of water between Robins' Reef and Mud Flat is not more

The plan of obstruction now proposed for New-York is by blocks, that is, solid bodies of stone or earth, in the manner of wharves. This was first suggested by Selah Strong, chairman of the committee of the Corporation; and in a publication by Mr. Stevens, of Hoboken, which contains many just observations on ships and batteries, he adopts the same unfortunate idea of obstruction by blocks. The blocks to be "25 or 30 feet square, or larger; at the distance of 50 or 60 feet from each other." And the editor of the New-York American Citi zen, in introducing Mr. Smith's piece in his paper of Saturday last, says, why not, "to make assurance doubly sure, to give us in fact protection, carry the obstruction by blocks or other wise entirely across from Robins' Reef to Mud Flat."

This, most certainly, would prevent hostile ships coming to the city, and it is equally as certain it would prevent the tide coming up, and lay the wharves at New-York dry, and be the ruin of all the towns on the North River that depend for commerce on tide water. This, the projectors of obstructions by blocks never thought of; but projectors should think of every thing, or they will make ruinous work. If Selah Strong's project is adopted, New-York is ruined, for the obstruction by blocks cannot afterwards be removed.

Every alteration made in the channel of a water course, whether it be in the natural current of a river or the current of a tide, will cause another alteration somewhere else.

If the obstruction be across the natural current of a river, like the obstruction of a mill-dam, the water will continue rising till it overtops the obstruction, or overflow the country above; for as the daily supply from the source will connue the same, it will have a passage somewhere.

If the obstruction be to the tide water, the effect will be, that the tide water will rise to the same height at the place where the obstruction is, as it did before, and no higher, but

than thirty-six feet, it can be obstructed as the Delaware was, provided there be gun-boats to prevent the enemy taking the obstructions up or destroying them. But to attempt to do it by filling the channel up with stone, would be an endless undertaking. The obstructions in the Delaware were completed in a short time, not more, I believe, than two or thre nonths at most. The frames are soon made, as there is but l'ttle work about them. AN OLD FRIEND OF 76.

the channel above the obstruction will be deprived of tide

water.

The stone piers of a bridge, lessen the quantity and extent of tide water above the bridge. This every body knows that knows any thing of hydraulics. But to know it as a fact, if any person will look into Salmon's Geography, or Guthrie's Geographical Grammar, he will find, in their account of rivers and bridges in England, that before Westminster Bridge was built, which was began in 1738, the tide flowed to Kingston, about 17 or 18 miles above Westminster, but since the bridge has been built it flows no higher than Richmond, which is four miles short of Kingston. Now, if the piers of a bridge lessened the quantity of tide water, and shortened its extent four miles out of 16 or 18 miles, what must be the effect of a total, or even semi-total, obstruction by blocks of the channel between Robins' Reef and Mud Flat, on the wharves at the city, and on the long course of the North River?

In projecting obstructions, two things are absolutely necessary to be taken into view. The one is, the least possible obstruction to the water up or down; the other is, that the obstruction be such as can be removed afterwards. Neither of these entered the mind of the projectors of blocks, and both are embraced in the plan of Franklin. His frames had very little effect on the tide or the stream; and after the enemy went away they were taken up ; but all the power and art of man could not remove solid blocks of stone or earth, 25 or 30 feet square, sunk several feet below the surface of the water.

If the channel between Robins' Reef and Mud Flat is not more than 36 feet, it can be obstructed as the Delaware was, and the obstructions can be defended by gun-boats and batterics, and the militia can defend the shore, as the people of Norfolk have done; but for men to be always employing themselves on imaginary fortifications, or skulking behind, or within obstructions, like a turtle within his shell, lest the crows should pick him, has a very cowardly appearance. It is not the spirit of "the times that tried men's souls."

August 18, 1807.

THOMAS PAINE.

VOL. II.

62

REPLY TO CHEETHAM.

THE Editor of the New-York American Citizen, James Cheetham, has, consistently with his usual mode of abuse, published a long-winded piece in his paper of Thursday last, which, without doubt, he thinks clever, because it is spiteful. This piece, in the Citizen, is an attack on a publication of mine in the New-York Public Advertiser, of the preceding Tuesday, against the project of obstructions in the channel of solid blocks of stone or earth, because such obstructions "would prevent the tide coming up, and lay the wharves at the city dry, and be the ruin of all the towns on the North River that depended for commerce on tide water.".

Mr. Cheetham says, "that the entire obstruction recommended in this paper (meaning his own paper) would injure the harbour, is a thought which has occurred to every man in the city, vulgar or refined." Why then could not James Cheetham see it? If he had, he certainly would not have proposed such a stupid project.

Mr. Cheetham has said this, that I might not have the credit of being the first or only man that discovered the danger, and in the eagerness of his malignancy to do this, he has libelled himself; for he has proved that every other man in the city, vulgar or refined, had more sense than James Cheetham. I know not how soon other persons might see the danger of the project, but I wrote my objections against it the same day the piece appeared, which was on Saturday, and gave it to a friend on Sunday, Mr. Walter Morton, for the Public Advertiser. Mr. Morton gave the piece to the printer on Monday morning.

Mr. Cheetham, in his rage for attacking every body, and every thing that is not his own, (for he is an ugly-tempered man, and he carries the evidence of it in the vulgarity and forbid