Your lordship will not, I dare say, be surprized to hear that the people of this colony have followed the example of the rest of the continent, in caballing and forming resolutions upon the late measures of government, with regard to the divisions in the colony of the Massachusset's Bay. The readiness with which the intemperate declarations of the Virginia assembly were adopted and re-echoed here, will have shewn your lordship that this people are but of too congenial disposition. What system the other continental assemblies have formed by their committees of correspondence, which your lordship must know have been appointed, I cannot tell, having never understood that their proceedings have transpired more than those of the committee here, of which nothing appears upon the assembly's journal, but the resolves entered into on the first establishment of that committee, and that letters had been received from the committees in the other colonies, the contents of which are held secret. Whatever measures may have been taken, the combination is assuredly at least indecent and inglorious. unwholsome a situation, whence, at the My lord; I think it my duty to acquaint your lordship, that since the Carolina deputies have returned from the continental congress, as they call it, every means possible have been used to raise a flame again in this province. Those people, it is said, solemnly undertook that this province should accede to the resolves of that congress, and we have been in hot water ever since, and I suppose, the sons of liberty here, stimulated by the Carolinians, will take upon them to pass resolves in the name of the whole province. I shall endeavour as much as possible to prevent it, but the sanction given to rebellion by the resolves and proceedings of that congress, has greatly encouraged the spirit of political enthusiasm, which many were possessed of before, and raised it to such a The first intimation that I received, ex- height of phrenzy, that God knows what cept from vague rumour, of the measures the consequences may be, or what man, lately taken here, was from the inclosed or whose property may escape their reletter of a committee at Wilmington, to sentment; the only consolation I have, the freeholders of Craven county, where my lord, is, that things cannot continue my residence is fixed. Whereupon I im- long in this state, and must come to a mediately ordered the council to be sum-point soon: indeed I hope some determimoned, that I might advise with them on nation is come to already, or will, before the measures proper to be taken to dis- the parliament rises for the holidays. I courage and prevent such unlawful and have, &c. J. WRIGHT. indecent proceedings. Your lordship will see, by the minutes of that board, here with transmitted, that on the 12th of last month I laid the letter before them, and that I issued, with their advice, a proclamation, the next day; apprehending however, that under the total inability of government to enforce even what common decorum required, the proposed meeting of deputies at Newburn, the seat of government, that was ultimately agreed to be the place of rendezvous, would be accordingly held, and considering it would be my duty to be at hand, to discourage their proceedings as much as lay in my power, and to take such measures as circumstances should require for the maintenance of order and government, I resolved there to wait until the time of meeting was past, although the very impaired state of my health made it highly expedient to remove, at that season, from so Extract of a LETTER from the Hon. Governor Gage, to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated Boston, the 26th of December, 1774. I had the honour to write to your lordship by the opportunity of col. Prescot of the English Fuzileers, who sailed out of this harbour in a transport on the 16th instant, since which time we have received accounts of an attack made by a number of people in New Hampshire, on his Majesty's fort William and Mary in Piscataqua harbour. There has been different reports concerning the transaction, but I transmit your lordship copies and extracts of letters that I have received from governor Wentworth upon the subject.A frigate and sloop of war are now in that harbour, and we have received no accounts of further disturbance since they arrived. This congress we have heard had pri- | vately appointed a commissary to provide military stores; and news is just come from Worcester in this province, that he or his deputies are providing a stock of provisions at that place. lead in this enormity are well known. Upon the best information I can obtain, this mischief originates from the publishing the secretary of state's letter, and the King's order in council at Rhode Island, prohibiting the exportation of military stores from Great Britain, and the proCopy of a LETTER from Governor Wentworth to Governor Gage, dated Ports-ceedings in that colony in consequence of mouth, New Hampshire, 14th De cember, 1774. Sir; I have the honour to receive your excellency's letter of the 9th instant, with the letter from the secretary of state, which were both delivered to me on Monday evening last by Mr. Whiting. It is with the utmost concern I am called upon by my duty to the King, to communicate to your excellency a most unhappy affair perpetrated here this day. Yesterday in the afternoon, Paul Revere arrived in this town, express from a committee in Boston to another committee in this town, and delivered his dispatch to Mr. Samuel Cutts, a merchant of this town, who immediately convened the committee of which he is one, and, as I learn, laid it before them. This day about noon, before any suspicions could be had of their intentions, about four hundred men were collected together, and immediately proceeded to his Majesty's castle, William and Mary, at the entrance of this harbour, and forcibly took possession thereof; notwithstanding the best defence that could be made by captain Cochran (whose conduct has been extremely laudable, as your excellency will see by the inclosed letter from him) and by violence carried away upwards of 100 barrels of powder belonging to the King, deposited in the castle. I am informed that expresses have been circulated through the neighbouring towns, to collect a number of people to-morrow, or as soon as possible, to carry away all the cannon and arms belonging to the castle, which they will undoubtedly effect, unless some assistance should arrive from Boston in time to prevent it. This event too plainly proves the imbecility of this government to carry into execution his Majesty's order in council, for seizing and detaining arms and ammunition imported into this province, without some strong ships of war in this harbour: neither is the province or custom-house-treasury in any degree safe, if it should come into the mind of the popular leaders to seize upon them. The principal persons who took the [VOL. XVIII.] it, which have been published here by the forementioned Mr. Revere and the dispatch brought, before which all was perfectly quiet and peaceable here. I am, &c. J. WENTWORTH. Copy of a LETTER from Captain Cochran, Commander of Fort William and May it please your excellency; I received your excellency's favour of yesterday, and in obedience thereto kept a strict watch all night, and added two men to my usual number, being all I could get. Nothing material occurred till this day one o'clock, when I was informed, there was a number of people coming to take possession of the fort, upon which, having only five effective men with me, I prepared to make the best defence I could, and pointed some guns to those places where 1 expected they would enter. About three o'clock the fort was beset on all sides by upwards of four hundred men. I told them, on their peril not to enter: they replied they would. I immediately ordered three four pounders to be fired on them, and then the small arms, and before we could be ready to fire again, we were stormed on all quarters, and they immediately secured both me and my men, and kept us prisoners about one hour and a half, during which time they broke open the powder-house, and took all the powder away except one barrel, and having put it into boats, and sent it off, they released me from my confinement. To which can only add, that I did all in my power to defend the fort, but all my efforts could not avail against so great a number. I am, &c. JOHN COCHRAN. Extract of a LETTER from Governor Wentworth to Governor Gage, dated Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the 16th December, 1774. On Wednesday last, after 12 o'clock, an insurrection suddenly took place in this town, and immediately proceeded to his Majesty's castle, attacked, overpowered, [L] wounded and confined the captain, and thence took away all the King's powder. Yesterday numbers more assembled, and last night brought off many cannons, &c. and about sixty muskets. This day the town is full of armed men who refuse to disperse, but appear determined to complete the dismantling the fortress entirely. Hitherto the people abstain from private or personal injuries; how long they will be so prevailed on, it is impossible to say. -I must sincerely lament the present distractions, which seem to have burst forth by means of a letter from William Cooper to Samuel Cutts, delivered here on Tuesday last P. M. by Paul Revere. I have not time to add further on this melancholy subject. P. S. The populace threaten to abuse colonel Fenton, because he has to them declared the folly of their conduct, and that he will do his duty as a justice in executing the laws. They will never prevail on him to retract, if all the men in the province attack him. If I had had 200 such men, the castle and all therein would yet have been safe. At this moment the heavy cannon are not carried off, but how soon they may be, I cannot say. Extract of a LETTER from Lieutenant Governor Colden, to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated New York, 4th January 1775. My lord; the measures pursued, as well by the southern as eastern provinces, put the moderate and peaceable disposition which prevails among the majority of the people of this province, daily to the trial. Enthusiasm is ever contagious, and when propagated by every artifice, becomes almost irresistible. The assembly of this province, as I formerly informed your lordship, are to meet next Tuesday. If I find that there will not be a majority for prudent measures, I shall incline to prorogue them for a short time, that the plan of the new parliament may be known here, before the assembly do any thing. On the other hand, there is room to fear, that if the assembly do not meet, an attempt will be made to convene a provincial congress, in imitation of our neighbours, which may be of worse consequence. I propose to take the advice of his Majesty's council to-morrow, upon the interesting and important situation of affairs. When all depends upon the humour of the populace, one can only, my lord, form very uncertain conjectures of future measures. I can only say, with certainty, that there is still a good majority of the most respectable people in this place, who promote peace, and discountenance violence. Extract of a LETTER from the Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania to the Earl of Dartmouth, dated Philadelphia, 31st December, 1774. I am to inform your lordship, that since my last, the assembly of this province have met, agreeable to their adjourn. ment, and have, to my great surprise, unanimously approved the transactions of the late congress, and appointed deputies to attend another, proposed to be held at this city in May next, as you will perceive by the printed votes, which I inclose for your lordship's fuller information.-There seems to be too general a disposition every where to adhere strictly to the resolutions of the congress, and the committees for this city and the adjacent districts, have already taken upon them to regulate the disposition of all British goods imported since the 1st December. They put up at public auction, in lots, and I am informed it is so managed that they are struck off to the owners at an advance of one per cent. above their first costs and charges, which, according to the recom mendation of the congress, is to be applied to the relief of the poor of Boston. The Clerk having read the Titles of the above Papers, Mr. Burke observed, there were no letters from Maryland, and desired the noble lord would inform the House whether any had been received; or whether they were kept back for political reasons ; and whether these papers contained all the intelligence the ministers had received from America. Lord North replied, that he had brought the papers, but had not examined them; neither did he know whether there were any letters from Maryland or not; that if there were any, they should be laid before the House. As to the papers containing all the intelligence from America, he would not undertake to say they did, as those he had brought were extracts, containing only the facts in the original letters; that the authors' opinions were not mentioned, it having been frequently found, that the private opinions of people in office being made public, had been attended with bad consequences, therefore his Majesty's servants had deter mined, for the future, never to mention the private opinion of any person. Mr. Burke said, that in some cases it might be proper to keep secret the private opinion of a person; yet, in so critical and alarming affair as that of America, the opinion of a man in power, on the spot, must be of great service; he therefore was of opinion, that the whole of the information received from America ought to be laid before the House, and not extracts of particular letters, such as suited the minister's purpose. Lord North moved, that the said papers be referred to the consideration of a committee of the whole House, on the 26th. Lord Chatham's Motion to withdraw the Troops from Boston.] Jan. 20. Lord Dartmouth presented, by his Majesty's command, the Papers relating to the Disturbances in North America. After which, His lordship began with censuring an eight weeks delay of communicating these papers, and the continuance of ministers to delude this country, with misrepresentations of the state of the colonies. He shewed, that the sudden dissolution of parliament was upon that principle, of deceiving the people of England; every borough in the kingdom labouring under the old delusion. There were, he said, two things which ministry laboured to deceive the people in, and had persuaded them to; first, that it was an affair of Boston only, and that the very appearance of one single regiment there, would quiet every thing. He had foretold the falsehood of both; he was conversant with that country more-more years than perhaps any man; he knew the cause of Boston would be made the cause of America; he knew the mode of the military would not be effectual. The Earl of Chathum rose.* The folThe manner of proceeding against Boslowing are the outlines of the noble lord's ton, was a proscription of a people, unSpeech: heard;-unheard in any court, either in The Earl of Chatham, after strongly condemning the dilatoriness of Administration, &c. proceeded as follows: -"But as I bare not the honour of access to his Majesty, I will endeavour to transmit to him, through the constitutional channel of this House, my ideas of America, to rescue him from the misadvice of his present ministers. I congratulate your lordships, that the business is at last entered upon by the noble lord's laying the papers before you. As I suppose your lordships too well apprized of their contents, I hope I am not premature, in submitting to you my present motion: "That an humble Address be presented to his Majesty, humbly to desire and beseech his Majesty, that in order to open the way towards a happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in America, by beginning to allay ferments and soften animosities there; and above all, for preventing in the mean time any sudden and fatal catastrophe at Boston, now suffering under the daily irritation of an army before their eyes, posted in their town; it may graciously please his Majesty that immediate orders be dispatched to general Gage, for removing his Majesty's forces from the town of Boston, as soon as the rigour of the season, and other circumstances indispensable to the safety and accommodation of the said troops, may render the same practicable.' "I wish, my lords, not to lose a day in this urgent, pressing crisis; an hour now lost in allaying ferments in America, may produce years of calamity: for my own part, I will not desert, for a moment, the conduct of this weighty business, from the first to the last; unless nailed to my bed by the extremity of sickness, I will give it unremitted attention; I will knock at the door of this sleeping and confounded ministry, and will rouse them to a sense of their important danger. "When I state the importance of the colonies to this country, and the magnitude of danger hanging over this country, from the present plan of mis-administration practised against them, I desire not to be understood to argue for a reciprocity of indulgence between England and America. I contend not for indulgence, but justice to America; and I shall ever contend, that the Americans justly owe obedience to us in a limited degree-they owe obedience to our ordinances of trade and navigation; but let the line be skilfully drawn between the objects of those ordinances, and their private, internal property; let the sacredness of their property remain inviolate; let it be taxable only by their own consent, given in their provincial assemblies, else it will cease to be property. As to the metaphysical refinements, attempting to shew that the Americans are equally free from obedience and commercial restraints, as from taxation for revenue, as the common courts of justice, or the higher, of parliament, in both of which, evidence of facts are stated in proof of criminality; but the Americans were denied to be heard: the people of America condemned, and not heard, have a right to resist. being unrepresented here, I pronounce them futile, frivolous, and groundless. "When I urge this measure of recalling the troops from Boston, I urge it on this pressing principle, that it is necessarily preparatory to the restoration of your peace, and the establishment of your prosperity. It will then appear that you are disposed to treat amicably and equitably; and to consider, revise, and repeal, if it should be found necessary, as I affirm it will, those violent acts and declarations which have disseminated confusion throughout your empire. Resistance to your acts was necessary as it was just; and your vain declarations of the omnipotence of parliament, and your imperious doctrines of the necessity of submission, will be found equally impotent to convince, or to enslave your fellow-subjects in America, who feel that tyranny, whether ambitioned by an individual part of the legislature, or the bodies who compose it, is equally intolerable to British subjects. "The means of enforcing this thraldom are found to be as ridiculous and weak in practice, as they are unjust in principle. Indeed I cannot but feel the most anxious sensibility for the situation of general Gage, and the troops under his command; thinking him, as I do, a man of humanity and understanding; and entertaining, as ever will, the highest respect, the warmest love, for the British troops. Their situation is truly unworthy; penned up-pining in inglorious inactivity. They are an army of impotence. You may call them an army of safety and of guard; but they are in truth an army of impotence and contempt: and, to make the folly equal to the disgrace, they are an army of irritation and vexation. "But I find a report creeping abroad, that ministers censure general Gage's inactivity: let them censure him-it becomes them-it becomes their justice and their honour. I mean not to censure his inactivity; it is a prudent and necessary inaction: but it is a miserable condition, where disgrace is prudence, and where it is necessary to be contemptible. This tameness, however contemptible, cannot be censured; for the first drop of blood shed in civil and unnatural war might be immedicabile vulnus. "I therefore urge and conjure your lordships, immediately to adopt this conciliating measure. I will pledge myself for its immediately producing conciliatory effects, by its being thus well-timed but if you delay till your vain hope shall be accomplished, of triumphantly dictating reconciliation, you delay | By whose advice vindictive councils were pursued; by whose advice false representations were made; by whose advice malice and ill-will were made principles of governing a free people:-all these are questions that will be asked; he means no personal charge on any man farther than his misdoings call for. for ever. But, admitting that this hope, which in truth is desperate, should be accomplished, what do you gain by the imposition of your victorious amity?-you will be untrusted and unthanked. Adopt, then, the grace, while you have the opportunity of reconcilement; or at least prepare the way. Allay the ferment prevailing in America, by removing the ob noxious hostile cause-obnoxious and unserviceable; for their merit can be only inaction: Non dimicare et vincere,-their victory can never be by exertions. Their force would be most disproportionately exerted against a brave, generous, and united people, with arms in their hands, and courage in their hearts: three millions of people, the genuine descendants of a valiant and pious ancestry, driven to those deserts by the narrow maxims of a superstitious tyranny. And is the spirit of persecution never to be appeased? Are the brave sons of those brave forefathers to inherit their sufferings, as they have inherited their virtues? Are they to sustain the infliction of the most oppressive and unexampled severity, beyond the accounts of history, or description of poetry: • Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna, castigatque, auditque.' So says the wisest poet, and perhaps the wisest statesman and politician. But our ministers say, the Americans must not be heard. They have been condemned unbeard. The indiscriminate hand of vengeance has lumped together innocent and guilty; with all the formalities of hostility, bas blocked up the town (Boston), and reduced to beggary and famine thirty thousand inhabitants. "But his majesty is advised, that the union in America cannot last. Ministers have more eyes than I, and should have more ears; but with all the information I have been able to procure, I can pronounce it-an union, solid, permanent, and effectual. Ministers may satisfy themselves, and delude the public, with the report of what they call commercial bodies in America. They are not commercial; they are your packers and factors: they live upon nothing-for I call commission nothing. I mean the ministerial authority for this American intelligence; the runners for government, who are paid for their intelligence. But these are not the men, nor this the influence, to be considered in America, when we estimate the firmness of their union. Even to extend the question, and to take in the really mercantile circle, will be totally inadequate to the consideration. Trade indeed increases the wealth and glory of a country; but its real strength |