opinion upon our case with Connecticut, the transactions of the late war, and the declarations of our Assembly some time ago, I will take the liberty of endeavouring to set you right in some matters which you do not seem to be fully informed of, being persuaded that if I can be so happy as to place them in a different point of light from what you have heretofore viewed them in, you will be candid enough to change your sentiments.

In the year 1752, the Proprietors of Pennsylvania, understanding that the Government of Virginia were about to erect forts upon the Ohio, in order to repel the encroachments of the French on the properties of the subjects of his Britanic Majesty, they instructed their then Governor, Mr. Hamilton, to assist in any measures of that sort, taking an acknowledgment from the Governor of Virginia that such settlement should not be made use of to prejudice their right to that country, and at the same time allowed him to give assurances that the people should enjoy their lands they bona fide settled on the common quit rent. Of this instruction Mr. Hamilton not long after gave notice to Governor Dinwiddie.

In the year 1754, Mr. Dinwiddie came to a resolution of raising men and building forts to the westward, in order to repel the invasions of the French. He had fixed upon the forks of Monongahela as a proper situation for one of these forts, supposing it to be on his Majesty's lands, and issued a proclamation, expressing his purpose of erecting a fort at that place, and inviting the people to enlist in his Majesty's service against the French; and as an encouragement, promising that the quantity of two hundred thousand acres of land should be laid out and divided amongst the adventurers, when the service should be at an end; one hundred thousand acres of which to be laid out adjoining the fort, and the other one hundred thousand acres on the Ohio.

Upon the appearance of this proclamation Mr. Hamilton wrote to Governor Dinwiddie, the 13th March, 1754, reminding him of his former intimation respecting these lands, and enclosing an abstract of the Proprietaries' instructions, and also requesting from him such an acknowledgment as the Proprietaries expected; to which Mr. Dinwiddie, in his letter of the 21st March, 1754, answers:

its re-enaction at a public town meeting; from their rejection of the proposal of Government to put the expected tea in a state of safety on its arrival; from their open declaration that it should not be landed; from the fruitless attempt of a few to procure subscribers to a set of resolves calculated to prevent a forcible opposition to its debarkation, and from the appointment of a Committee to correspond and support a harmony of measures with our sister Colonies. From all these he will be instructed, that the public sense required the sending back of the one, and the destruction of the other. Let us suppose, with this vain contemner of the rights of mankind, that every London Captain brought tea to this port. Will he have the assurance to say, they all imported it like Captain Chambers, regularly cocketted and cleared for entry at our custom-house? Will he say, that they, like him, in defiance of repeated warnings, and under the guise of the most solemn and. most shamefully false asseverations, persisted in a wicked design to impart tea into this Colony subject to duty? Or is it not a public virtue, while this badge of slavery is held over us, to supply the wants of our inhabitants at the risk of a seizure, and by that means to elude the payment of the edious tax? If any of them, but his friend, who so willingly walks with him in chains, have imported tea in any other manner, let the latent and dastardly accuser stand forth with his proofs. We shall then join with him in branding them as apostates; we shall despise them as villanous informers; we shall pronounce them as deserving that infamous death which has been justly inflicted on many less dangerous enemies to their country than Captain Chambers. The spirit of this high-flying zealot for despotism is manifest in his assertion, that the unfortunate man was threatened with death for obeying; the laws of his country. A most excellent comment upon the Revenue Act! Let him point out a single passage in that statute which requires or commands all, or any of our ship Captains, to import tea subject to duty. Should such a liberal commentator become a good authority, we should soon be paraphrased out of our liberties. Does he desire to be informed who were the persons of reputation that kept the tally at the destruction of the tea? Let him stand forth himself and meet them, and he will soon know whether he or they will be supported by the public sense. If he would be told what they and their honest fellow citizens got by publicly conducting Captain Lockyer through the crowd: I answer, all that was expected; all that was intended, by one of the above mentioned publications, was, that this, servant of the Ministry, and of the East India Company, should have ocular demonstration of our detestation of Parliamentary taxes, und bear the unwelcome tale to his employers. He cannot, surely, be so weak to believe that he was carried through the greatest crowd that ever was collected in this city, merely to procure the compliment of the hat, or a smile or nod of approbation of a private ship Captain; who, though respectfully treated among us, was indebted for his good treatment to the humanity of our citizens, and their regard to due order and decorum. How, then, can it be supposed that any were mortifyingly disgusted at his not pulling off his hat, or that the huzzas of all the people were intended to insult him? But what principles other than such as would induce a man to put the most public contempt on the character of our great deliverer from slavery and arbitrary power, could induce any one to call a regular and orderly, though striking exhibition of our detestation of unconstitutional impositions, an outrage? Surely, in this fellow's view the revolution itself was an unparalleled outrage; an outrage, however, productive of the fullest security to our civil and religious liberties, and the establishment of the illustrious HOUSE OF HANOVER on the British throne! Did any man in his senses ever doubt whether that happy revolution was brought about by all the people of Britain, because every subject, to a man, did not actually enlist under the banners of the glorious and immortal King William III? How marvellously does this hero in politics discover his talents, when he attempts to be witty about the ship Nancy's disaster, and the supposed blunder of the narrator, in distinguishing between Captain Chambers's tea and the cargo of his ship? The mention of that disaster, the truth of which has been proved by the Captain's protest before a notary, was evidently the effect of the narrator's intention to give strict and circumstantial account of the events relating to the tea ship, which had been so long the object of general expectation; and our writer must be truly a novice in trade, who. knows not how to distinguish between the cargo of a ship and the Captain's private adventure.

But, Mr Rivington, let me assist you to answer the last question of this doughty hero of a Jacobite, and to end the matter with him, by giving him the following evidence, that all the bolls in the City rang at the departure of the tea ship. Rudolphus Ritzema, Esq., will in. form him that the bell of the Lutheran Church rang on the occasion; the same thing he may learn concerning the bell of Trinity Church from Messrs. Anthony Griffiths and Thomas Tucker; that of St.

George's Chapel sounded in the hearing of Messrs, Isaac Sears and Hercules Mulligan; the ringing of the bells of the three Reformed Protestant Dutch Churches can be proved by Mr. Garret Rapalje; that of the French Church by Mr. Frederick Basset; the bell of the English Presbyterian Church was rung by Mr. Brown, their sexton; and that of the German Calvinist Church by their proper sexton. So that, if the universality of the expression all the bells, can be justified, though those of the City Hall and the College could not join in the enlivening concert, the narrator has spoke the truth, and his impertinent adversary has insinuated an egregious falsehood. He is now called upon to point out which of the churches was broke open on the occasion, and by whom, and what good men hope they will be prosecuted according to law? Let him learn that the respectable public is not to be laughed, jeered, or frightened out of their liberties, by a Jacobitish, ministerial tool, whose most exalted and tremendous character is that of sworn foe to coblers and tailors; whose heart aspires at the glorious satisfaction of seeing us stripped of our cloaths, and stalking in sullen melancholy barefooted, or in rags. But, however despicably he may think of those classes in community, let Turn recollect with POPE, that

"Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part; there all the honour lies;
Fortune in men has some small diff'rence made;
One flaunts in rags; one flutters in brocade;
The cobler aprond, and the parson gown'd;
The friar hooded, and the monarch crown'd.
What differ more (you cry) the crown or cowl?
I'll tell you, friend!. a wise man and a fool.
You'll find, if once the monarch acts the monk;
Or, cobler-like, the Doctor will get drunk;
Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;
The rest is all but leather on prunella."

But to be serious; there was no alternative left between the destruction of the tea at Boston and New York, and a submission to the odious duty. Had the tea been landed without opposition, the duty must have been paid, or the commodity would have been seized; and when individuals foolishly or rashly, and against the most certain intelligence, will risk their property in the cause of despotism, or for the sake of sordid and flagitious profit, no good member of society will hesitate to pronounce, that private interest falls a just sacrifice to public utility. Thus much to you, Mr. Printer. A word or two to the public.

My friends and fellow countrymen, be excited by a frequent review of the above narrative, to a steady pursuit of that liberty, your high relish for which you have in so many luminous instances displayed! Continually provoke each other to fresh proofs of your unalterable love for the public weal. Let neither the imperious designs of an arbitrary Ministry, or the insidious machinations of your pretended friends, awe or cajole you out of your birthright. It is a sacred deposit bestowed by the great Parent of the universe on our ancestors, entrusted by their venerable hands to our care, to be preserved and transmitted by us to posterity pure and uncontaminated. Strain every nerve with an honest and spirited zeal in the common cause. Demonstrate to our dear fellow countrymen in the neighbouring Colonies that we have put our hand to the plough, and that far from looking back, we will co-operate with them tearing out every plant of slavery by the roots. Show them by your every act, that you feel the solemn obligations into which you have, with them, cheerfully engaged. Convince them by a thousand proofs, if possible, that you will never cease, till, with them, you are in full possession of civil liberty, or with them are buried in one common grave. Beware, in particular, of those among you who are well known to excite sedition, or countenance a suppression of the laudable spirit of liberty alternately; and as it suits their private purposes: who are; never be depended on either by Administration or the people; who ever wear two faces; one to recommend them to ministerial favour, another to beguile the sons of liberty into bondage; who have long practised the art of exciting and assuaging tumults, to distinguish themselves as leader of the people in the eyes of Government, that they may be courted by a sordid Minister into offices, and honours. To whom the cause of the people is no longer their cause than while some private ends are to be answered, unconnected with, and often opposed to the good of the people. I need not mention their names—their persons and their threadbare system of politics are well known to you. But for the happiness of the country, the chain of their influence is broke. Oppose it with all your might; their interest is. declining; let it never rise again till they have given you the fullest proofs of a permanent attachment to this country's weal. Persist, and if they do not alter their measures, incapable as they now must appear to lead this Colony, they must lose all credit with Government, and the swelling tide of public virtue will speedily whelm them into everlasting oblivion.

BRUTUS.