necessary for his Majesty's service that the said General Court should be dissolved:

I have, therefore, thought fit to dissolve the said General Court, and the same is hereby dissolved accordingly, and the members thereof are discharged from any further attendance.

Given under my hand, at Salem, the 17th day of June, 1774, in the fourteenth year of his Majesty's reign.

T. GAGE.

By his Majesty's command, T. FLUCKER, Secretary.

GOD save the King.

BOSTON (MASSACHUSETTS) RESOLUTIONS.

At a legal and very full Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the town of Boston, by adjournment, at Faneuil Hall, June 17, 1774.

The Honourable JOHN ADAMS, Esquire, Moderator.

Upon a motion made, the town again entered into the consideration of that article in the warrant, viz: "To consider and determine what measures are to be taken on the present exigency of our public affairs, more especially relative to the late edict of a British Parliament for blocking up the harbour of Boston, and annihilating the trade of this town;" and after very serious debates thereon,

Voted, (with only one dissentient,*) That the Committee of Correspondence be enjoined forthwith to write to all the other Colonies, acquainting them that we are not idle; that we are deliberating upon the steps to be taken on the present exigencies of our public affairs; that our brethren, the landed interest of this Province, with an unexampled spirit and unanimity, are entering into a non-consumption agreement, and that we are waiting with anxious expectation for the result of a Continental Congress, whose meeting we impatiently desire, in whose wisdom and firmness we can confide, and in whose determination we shall cheerfully acquiesce.

Agreeably to order, the Committee of Correspondence laid before the town such letters as they had received in answer to the circular letters wrote by them to the several Colonies, and also the seaport towns in this Province, since the reception of the Boston Port Bill; and the same being publicly read,†

Voted, unanimously, That our warmest thanks be transmitted to our brethren on the Continent, for that humanity, sympathy and affection with which they have been inspired, and which they have expressed towards this distressed town at this important season.

Voted, unanimously, That the thanks of this town be, and hereby are, given to the Committee of Correspondence, for their faithfulness in the discharge of their trust, and that they be desired to continue their vigilance and activity in that service.

Whereas the Overseers of the Poor in the town of Boston are a body politic, by law constituted for the reception and distribution of charitable donations for the use of the poor of the said town,

Voted, That all grants and donations to this town, and the poor thereof, at this distressing season, be paid and delivered into the hands of said Overseers, and by them appropriated and distributed, in concert with the Committee lately appointed by this town for the consideration of ways and means of employing the poor.

Voted, That the Town Clerk be directed to publish the proceedings of this meeting in the several newspapers.

The meeting was then adjourned to Monday, the 27th June, instant.                   Attest,

WILLIAM COOPER, Town Cleric.

ADDRESS FROM THE MERCHANTS AND FREEHOLDERS OF THE TOWN OF SALEM, PRESENTED TO HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOUR GAGE, ON SATURDAY, JUNE 18, 1774.

May it please your Excellency:

We, who are Merchants and Freeholders in the town of Salem, beg leave to present you our dutiful respects on your appointment to the Government of this Province. The universal tribute of thanks and applause paid you for the wisdom, mildness, and exact regularity of your conduct in another command, cannot fail to excite the most just expectations that this Province will enjoy the happy fruits of your benignity.

We are deeply affected with a sense of our public calamities; but the miseries that are now rapidly hastening on our brethren in the capital of the Province greatly excite our commiseration; and we hope your Excellency will use your endeavours to prevent a further accumulation of evils on that already sorely distressed people.

By shutting up the port of Boston some imagine that the course of trade might be turned hither, and to our benefit; but nature, in the formation of our harbour, forbids our becoming rivals in commerce to that convenient mart. And were it otherwise, we must be dead to every idea of justice, lost to all the feelings of humanity, could we indulge one thought to seize on wealth and raise our fortunes on the ruin of our suffering neighbours. But so far from receiving a benefit, we are greatly injured by the shutting up the harbour of Boston, as it deprives us of a market for much the largest part of our West India imports; and there is not a town in the Province but will feel the ill effects of it. Permit us then, sir, to apply to your clemency and justice to afford us every alleviation in your power, and to procure for us every possible relief from this extensive mischief.

We account it the greatest unhappiness that this Province, which has ever been foremost in loyalty to the Kings of Britain—in its efforts to defend their Territories and enlarge their Dominions—should be the first to feel our Sovereign's severest displeasure. Our fathers fled from oppression, braved every danger, and here began a settlement on bare creation. Almost incredible are the fatigues and difficulties they encountered to subdue a dreary wilderness filled with savage beasts, and yet more savage men; but by their invincible resolution they rose superior to them all; and by their astonishing efforts greatly facilitated the settlement of the other British Colonies in America. Yet, sir, we speak it with grief, the sons are checked and dishonoured for exhibiting proofs of their inheriting some portion of that spirit which, in their fathers, produced such astonishing effects.

A happy union with Great Britain is the wish of all the Colonies. It is their unspeakable grief that it has in any degree been interrupted. We earnestly desire to repair the breach. We ardently pray that harmony may

* The town meeting was as full and respectable as ever was known; their unanimity and firmness was never exceeded; not one, though often called upon, had any thing to offer in favour of paying for the tea, in compliance with the Boston Port Bill; all appeared disposed to stand the utmost efforts of tyranny, rather than make a free surrender of the rights of America. The speeches made on the state of American affairs would do honour to any assembly.

The Solemn League and Covenant for a non-consumption of British merchandise, is an axe at the root of the tree; by coming into it we establish our own manufactures, save our money, and finally our country from the destruction that threatens it.

† BOSTON, June 20, 1774. The present aspect of public affairs is highly favourable to the liberties of America; the whole Continent seems inspired by one soul, and that soul a vigorous and determined one. Virginia is all in motion; and Maryland has made amazing progress for the short space since they have taken this fresh alarm from the Boston Port Bill. Meetings of towns, counties, and by Delegates of the whole Province, either have been held, or are going rapidly on. Besides the doings of Annapolis and Baltimore, those of Chester are deserving of our warmest acknowledgments. Subscription papers have been set on foot in that county, and considerable sums already subscribed for the relief of our poor in this devoted town. Philadelphia is following the generous example, as well as the Jersies, New-York and Connecticut. New-Jersey is very forward, and are on the point of choosing their Deputies for the Congress by a very regular method, viz: Of meeting in towns and neighbourhoods, sending Deputies from those meetings to county meetings, and others from those to a. Provincial one. Committees of Correspondence are not now confined to the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Lord North's Administration is become so important that nearly every subject of the Empire feels himself deeply interested in it, and insists upon being acquainted with the very minutia of all his plans.

The zeal, firmness and unanimity of our late House of Representatives, and the steady support they received from the Honourable his Majesty's Council, does honour to the good sense and patriotism of the parties, who at this trying season committed the conservation of their inestimable, and now much endangered rights, into such worthy hands. Some exceptions we must allow there have been; but ignorance, ambition for the fancied honours of commissions, civil and military, and rank cowardice respecting the event of contending to blood for our rights, daily giving way to the better information abounding through all ranks of people, afford, us the comfortable hops, that in a little time our House of Representatives shall emulate that of Virginia, in which a gentleman lately from thence says, there was not so much as a lukewarm member, much less a dissentient from the cause of his country.

We hear that the patriotic inhabitants of Philadelphia have generously voted to give the poor of this town fifteen hundred barrels of flour, five hundred of which, it is said, may be soon expected.