GENERAL HALDIMAND TO THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH.

Extract.

New-York, May 15, 1774.

The accounts received before the arrival of the packet, as late as the 14th of April, had made known the plan of operation intended to bring Boston to a sense of order and decency, so that on the arrival of Lieutenant General Gage, the inhabitants of that place will not be at a loss what they are to expect if they will prove refractory. It is the opinion of many people here, that they will acknowledge their fault, pay for it, and endeavour to reinstate themselves into his Majesty's favour by a proper submission.*

I wish it may be the case, as there is no knowing how far the factious spirit of a few leading men may carry an inconsiderate multitude, who have imbibed the most romantic notions of independence and liberty; and there will not fail to be such papers propagated amongst them, in order to spirit them up. The Act of Parliament relative to the port of Boston is already reprinted here, with such representations, as may possibly answer that end. I take the liberty to enclose to your Lordship one of those papers handed about this town gratis.

Extracts of private Letters from London, dated April 7 and 8, to persons in New-York and Philadelphia.

[Printed on the back of the Boston Port Bill, and distributed in New-York, on the 14th May, 1774.†]

April 7. With the most anxious and deep concern, I sit down to give you some account of the bitter things that are meditated against America, and through her, against England herself, and that Constitution, by which it has long been distinguished among the nations, as a land of freedom and happiness, and an asylum against tyranny and oppression. A distinction, alas! that now subsists no more! And must be for ever lost—unless kind Providence should interpose, to save us from that slavery and darkness, which has well nigh overspread the face of the whole earth.

America, the last resort of retiring freedom, is now to be invaded, and the fugitive driven from her peaceful recesses there, that so she may find no resting place on this side heaven.

A plan of despotism and arbitrary power has incessantly been pursued during the present reign; through all the ministerial changes and manœuvres, that has still been the grand object in view; and may explain all those Intricate movements of Government, which otherwise appear quite mysterious, and unaccountable, especially with regard to the Colonies; it may account for that obstinate perseverance in measures palpably inconsistent with every principle of the English Constitution, of justice, and of common sense; which have been attended with almost infinite expense, trouble, and difficulty, both to the Colonies and Great Britain itself; when at the same time, a plain, easy, and certain way to peace, harmony, and prosperity, lies so open before us, that none can mistake it, and yet offers itself in vain. An absolute, arbitrary Government, has infinite charms for a multitude of haughty luxurious parasites and flatterers, that ever surround a throne, and hope to share with it in tyrannizing over the people, and rioting on their spoils. No wonder that such as these should prevail on a young Monarch to be pleased with, to countenance, and adopt their plan. Unlimited power is generally a most desirable object, especially to youth and inexperience; and few are distrustful of themselves, or imagine that it would be unsafe in their hands.

In England, almost every obstruction to the execution of this plan is removed; places of high trust and importance are bestowed upon those who will act in subserviency to the views of the Court; those who might impede those views, are divested of power, and disabled from any effectual opposition. Experience has shown that the pensions and places, in the gift of the Crown, have as great an influence, on the nobility, whose estates might set them above dependence, as upon common men, for luxury is boundless, and can Tender the possessor of the greatest estate as needy as a beggar, and as vulnerable to the influence of a bribe. As for the Commons, those natural guardians of the liberties and properties of the people, though there are many worthy men among them, who do their utmost to stem the torrent of corruption, and preserve their country; yet, their number is too small to answer the end; the eloquence of Cicero, the most consumate knowledge of the interests of their country, and zeal for its service, the greatest abilities and integrity, are all rendered entirely useless, by a corrupt majority of ministerial tools, who vote just as they are directed; this House, therefore, which used to be the bulwark of the people's security, serves now only to give the form or appearance of legality to acts of real tyranny and oppression, by which they are deprived of their liberty and property. A great majority of the House are returned by little venal boroughs, bribed by the nation's own money, to elect such men as the Ministry choose, and afterwards command, to vote as they please. A friend well acquainted with the internal state of Great Britain, assures me, "that many boroughs in the Kingdom have scarce ten persons qualified to vote for a Representative in Parliament, and that all who are qualified, are under the influence of some nobleman, or squire, who, if he has no person of his own family to put in, transfers the election, or rather nomination, to such adventurers as choose to purchase a seat, as a means of climbing the hill of preferment. In some places, there is not even the shadow of an election, or town meeting. The Sovereign, Bailiff, or rather Returning Officer, with two or three Burgesses, go privately to the Session House, and in a moment name such a one, as duly elected, without the appearance of a candidate."

What a farce are such transactions, when the liberties of the people are thus played away at a game, wherein a corrupt Government, and an ambitious, covetous landlord, are the only gainers! All things being thus ripe in England, for the open introduction of arbitrary power, nothing seems

*A British American, who is a, lover of peace, as well as hater of every species of tyranny, whether monarchical or parliamentary, proposes to the consideration of the public of Boston, whether it would not be their wisest course in the present critical situation of affairs, to RAISE IMMEDIATELY, by subscription, a sum equal to the estimated value of the DROWNED TEAS, and deposite it in some public office, ready to be tendered to his Excellency General Gage, immediately on his first requisition for restitution of the India Company's loss, with a solemn declaration (conceived in respectful and conciliating terms,) that they make, the reimbursement with real pleasure, as they thereby have at once an opportunity of testifying their readiness to repair every private loss that individuals may sustain, in the present unhappy struggle for the maintenance of their just rights—of manifesting the cheerfulness with which they would loud themselves with any burden for the public good, whilst left to the exercise of the constitutional power of disposing of their own property for that purpose; and showing their promptness to act in consonance with the sentiments of the British Parliament in every thing they can, without sacrificing their liberties. Such a procedure will contain ample declaration of their steady continuance in their patriotic sentiments; and, at the same time, would so entirely conform to the requisitions in the Act of Parliament that now threatens their destruction, as could not fail to place them at once in the light of constitutionally dutiful subjects to the Crown, as well as zealous defenders of the liberty of the subject.

The Querist presumes, that by adopting some such mode of management as this, "good may be brought out of evil;" and that hasty act of violence, which moderate men now look on with high disapprobation, be thereby rendered a circumstance honourable to the Bostonians in particular, and advantageous to the Colonies in general, who doubtless would cheerfully bear their proportion in the sum to be raised.

It certainly would be the maddest of all possible Quixotisms to think of making an hostile opposition to such a naval and. military force as it is certain is coming out with General Gage, and therefore some plan of constitutional policy that will afford means of evading the heavy threatened evils, should be fallen upon.

NEW-YORK, May 16, 1774.

†A report having been circulated, that a printed paper, published as extracts of letters from London, dated there the 7th and 8th of April, last, which were printed on the back of a copy of the late Act of the English Parliament, for shutting up the port of Boston, and distributed about town on Saturday last; May 14th, were spurious, and that, the intelligence was not written from England, but fabricated here. As I am able to prove the said report to be entirely false, I leave every one to judge whether it comes from the friends or the enemies of the rights and liberties of Great Britain and the Colonies. The letters, whose contents, are printed on the back of the Act aforesaid, wore received on Thursday, the 12th instant, by the Samson, Captain Caupar, the latest ship arrived here from London. They were by one of the writers committed to the particular care of the gentleman who delivered them here, who is now in town, and can prove both the receipt of them in London, an the delivery here. One of the letters, which contains the most circumstantial account of the facts, is left in the hands of the printer of the New-York Journal, who can both vouch for the truth of the copies, and produce the original of the principal letter; the other two letters, which were also seen by him and several other persons: in town and are now gone to Philadelphia, by a gentleman of. that place, who was here when Captain Coupar arrived. These letters (one of which was from a military officer of eminence, both on account of his rank and literary abilities) soon after their arrival, were read to several, gentlemen in town, who thought their contents so important, that they solicited for the copies, and were at the expense of making them public.

NEW-YORK, May 17, 1774.