of those estates have, in more than a just proportion, advanced the produce thereof, which renders every article of provisions now a third dearer than it was no longer than since the late war, yet the price of labour has not been advanced. Therefore, judge how the poor here are able to subsist, if persons in better circumstances are not able to support themselves as formerly.

In England we have the show of liberty without the reality; the shadow without the substance. Our Parliament, for the most part, are creatures of the Ministry, who enable them to carry every thing before them, right or wrong, and are, by insensible degrees, leading the Nation into a state of slavery, which is not discerned by the bulk of the people, who seldom look further than the present time; but the more judicious look further, and can see that chains are forging for them, to be made use of at a proper period. When they have obliged you Americans to submit to the yoke prepared for you, a much heavier will soon after gall the necks of the people here. By the Quebec Bill, now passed, it is easy to be seen what Government is aiming at; nothing less than despotism. Upon the whole, there is reason to believe, that if any liberty for Englishmen is to remain, it must be in the North American Colonies, where, I hope, the inhabitants will have virtue enough to exert their utmost strength to secure it to themselves and their posterity. Let their reliance for the securing this blessing be on the Lord, in whom there is strength and wisdom, and by no means to place their dependance on an arm of flesh.

WESTMORELAND COUNTY (VIRGINIA) RESOLUTIONS.

At a respectable Meeting of the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of the County of Westmoreland, assembled, on due notice, at the Court House of the said County, on Wednesday, the 22d of June, 1774.

The Reverend Mr. THOMAS SMITH, Moderator.

Several papers, containing the Proceedings of the late House of Burgesses of this Colony, and the subsequent determinations of the late Representatives after the House was dissolved, together with extracts of several Resolves of the Provinces of Massachusetts Bay, Maryland, &c., being read, the meeting proceeded seriously to consider the present dangerous and truly alarming crisis, when ruin is threatened to the ancient constitutional rights of North America, and came to the following Resolves:

1st. That to be taxed solely in our Provincial Assemblies, by Representatives freely chosen by the people, is a right that British subjects in America are entitled to, from natural justice, from the English Constitution, from Charters, and from a confirmation of these by usage, since the first establishment of these Colonies.

2d. That an endeavour to force submission from one Colony to the payment of taxes not so imposed, is a dangerous attack on the liberty and property of British America, and renders it indispensably necessary that all should firmly unite to resist the common danger.

3d. It is the opinion of this meeting, that the town of Boston, in our sister Colony of Massachusetts Bay, is now suffering in the common cause of North America, by having its harbour blocked up, its commerce destroyed, and the property of many of its inhabitants violently taken from them, until they submit to taxes not imposed by their consent; and therefore this meeting resolve:

4th. That the inhabitants of this county will most cordially and firmly join with the other counties in this Colony, and the other Colonies on this Continent, or the majority of them, after a short day, hereafter to be agreed on, to stop all exports to Great Britain and the West Indies, and all imports from thence, until, as well the Act of Parliament, entitled "An Act to discontinue, in such manner and for such time as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading, and shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town and within the harbour of Boston, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America," as the several Acts laying duties on America for the purpose of raising a revenue, and all the Acts of the British Legislature made against our brothers of Massachusetts Bay, in consequence of their just opposition to the said Revenue Acts, are repealed; and it is the opinion of this meeting, that such a non-importing and non-exporting plan should be quickly entered upon, as well on the evident principle of self-preservation, as to relieve our suffering countrymen and fellow-subjects in Boston, and to restore between Great Britain and America that harmony so beneficial to the whole Empire, and so ardently desired by all America.

5th. It is the opinion of this meeting that the gentlemen of the law should not (as long as the non-exportation agreement subsists) bring any writ for the recovery of debt, or to push to a conclusion any such suit already brought, it being utterly inconsistent with a non-exportation plan that judgment should be given against those who are deprived of the means of paying.

6th. That so soon as the non-exportation agreement begins, we will, every man of us, keep our produce, whether tobacco, corn, wheat, or any thing else, unsold, on our own respective plantations, and not carry, or suffer them to be carried, to any public warehouse or landing place, except of grain; where the same be so done, an oath being first made that such grain is for the use of, or consumption of, this or any other Colony in North America, and not for exportation from the Continent whilst the said agreement subsists. And this is the more necessary to prevent a few designing persons from engrossing and buying up our tobacco, grain, &c., when they are low in value, in order to avail themselves of the very high price that those articles must bear when the ports are open, and foreign markets empty.

7th. This meeting do heartily concur with the late Representative body of this country, to disuse tea, and not purchase any other commodity of the East Indies, except saltpetre, until the grievences of America are redressed.

8th. We do most heartily concur in these preceding Resolves, and will, to the utmost of our power, take care that they are carried into execution; and that we will regard every man as infamous who now agree to, and shall hereafter make a breach of, all or any of them, subject however to such future alterations as shall be judged expedient, at a general meeting of Deputies from the several parts of this Colony, or a general Congress of all the Colonies.

9th. We do appoint Richard Henry Lee, and Richard Lee, Esquires, the late Representatives of this county, to attend the general meeting of Deputies from all the counties; and we desire that they do exert their best abilities to get these our earnest desires, for the security of public liberty, assented to.

10th. And as it may happen that the Assembly now called to meet on the 11th of August, may be prorogued to a future day, and many of the Deputies appointed to meet on the 1st of August, trusting to the certainty of meeting in Assembly on the 11th, may fail to attend on the first, by which means decisive injury may arise to the common cause of liberty, by the general sense of the country not being early known at this dangerous crisis of American freedom, we do, therefore, direct that our Deputies now chosen fail not to attend at Williamsburg, on the said 1st of August; and it is our earnest wish that the Deputies from other counties be directed to do the same, for the reasons above assigned.

11th. That the Clerk do forthwith transmit the proceedings of this day to the press, and request the Printers to publish them without delay.

By order of the meeting,

JAMES DAVENPORT, Clerk.

MARYLAND CONVENTION.

At a Meeting of the Committees appointed by the several Counties of the Province of Maryland, at the City of Annapolis, the 22d day of June, 1774, and continued by adjournment from day to day, till the 25th day of the same month; were present:

For ST. MARY'S County.—Colonel Abraham Barnes, Messrs. Henry Greenfield Sothoron, Jeremiah Jordon.

For KENT County.—Messrs. William Ringgold Thomas Ringgold, Joseph Nicholson, Jun., Thomas Smyth, Joseph Earle.

For QUEEN ANNE'S County.—Messrs. Turbut Wright Richard Tilghman Earle, Solomon Wright, John Brown, Thomas Wright.