might arise from it, procured an Act of Parliament in the ninth year of the reign of Queen Anne, to enable them to take into their own hands, and succeeding Administrations have ever since, taken upon them to regulate it—have committed the management of it to whom they pleased, and avail themselves of its income, now said to be at least £3,000 sterling per annum clear.

By this means a set of officers, Ministerial indeed, in their creation, direction, and dependence, are maintained in the Colonies, into whose hands all the social, commercial, and political intelligence of the Continent is necessarily committed; which at this time, every one must consider as dangerous in the extreme. It is not only our letters that are liable to be stopped and opened by a Ministerial mandate, and their contents construed into treasonable conspiracies, but our newspapers, those necessary and important alarms in time of publick danger, may be rendered of little consequence for want of circulation. Whenever it shall be thought proper to restrain the liberty of the press, or injure an individual, how easily may it be effected? A Postmaster General may dismiss a rider and substitute his hostler in his place, who may tax the newspapers to a prohibition; and when the master is remonstrated to upon the head, he may deny he has any concern in the matter, and tell the Printer he must make his terms with the Post.

As, therefore, the maintenance of this dangerous and unconstitutional precedent of taxation without our consent—as the parting with very considerable sums of our money to support officers of whom it seems to be expected that they should be inimical to our rights—as the great danger of the increase of such interest and its connections, added to the considerations above mentioned, must be alarming to a people thoroughly convinced of the fatal tendency of this Parliamentary establishment, it is therefore proposed:

1st. That subscriptions be opened for the establishment and maintenance of a Post Office, and for the necessary defence of Post Officers and Riders employed in the same.

2d. That the subscribers in each Colony shall annually appoint a Committee from among themselves, consisting of seven persons, whose business it shall be to appoint Postmasters in all places within their respective Provinces, where such offices have hitherto been kept, or may hereafter be judged necessary, and to regulate the postage of letters and packets, with the terms on which newspapers are to be carried; which regulations shall be printed and set up in each respective office.

3d. That the Postmasters shall contract with and take

obtain the shadow of a redress, Nearly the whole town of Baltimore, the first merchants and gentlemen in Philadelphia, assisted Mr. Goddard in establishing a rider between those two capitals, and have recommended the plan to all the Colonies. Mr. Goddard has received the greatest encouragement from every Colony through which he has passed, and all declare their readiness to come into the measure, provided it is adopted here. To be satisfied in this point a very respectable meeting of the principal gentlemen of the town was called, at which an unanimous resolution was come into to second our worthy brethren in the Southern Colonies, to the utmost of our power. Subscriptions will be immediately opened, and every measure taken to demonstrate that, in so glorious a motion for the recovery of American liberty, Boston will by no means fall short of the most sanguine expectations of her honest countrymen.

Mr. Hutchinson's declaration, that his Majesty (he should have said Ministry) highly disapproves of Provincial Committees of Correspondence, with the steps above mentioned, and many others, to be related in due season, are sufficient indications of the mind of Administration respecting a free communication of sentiment throughout these much injured communities; a junction of the whole is dreaded; and thanks to Heaven, the measures taken to prevent serve only to hasten it, beyond conception.

How unworthy of the wisdom and spirit of Americans would it be to bear any longer with the insolence of a tool who should impudently tell an assertor of the rights of his country that he could not expect the favours of Government in carrying his papers, while he was so free in defaming its measures? How naturally must such hauteur exasperate a people who consider the Post Office, in its present condition as a dangerous ursurpation—as the boasted precedent of all the innovations with which an abandoned Administration have presumed to vex the Colonies—as the stated course of intelligence and information on which our very existence as a free people depends, and on which the enemy depends, and on which the enemy of our rights can lay his hand whenever he pleases? And in consequence, how cheerfully will every well-wisher to his country lay hold on the present opportunity to recover a right of importance conceivable by few, simply considered by hardly any one in its consequences. One of these tremendous consequences is, "the creation of new offices, with new fees, without consent of our Parliaments," and open violation of Magna Charta.

SALEM, March 29, 1774.—Yesterday evening came to town, Mr. William Goddard, Printer at Philadelphia and Baltimore. He has brought letters from the Committee of Correspondence at Boston to the Committee here, on the subject of establishing Post Offices and Post Riders on a new plan, independent of the unconstitutional laws of a British Parliament. We hear that a meeting on the affair will be held some time to-morrow, when there is no doubt that every well-wisher to his country will cheerfully lay hold of an opportunity to arrest the channel of public and private intelligence out of the hands of a power openly inimical to its rights and liberties.

NEW-LONDON, April 4, 1774,—The following are the heads of a Subscription which was laid before the Committee of Correspondence at Boston:

Whereas, in our present struggles with the British Administration, it is of the last importance to have a free and safe communication throughout the whole extent of English America, a channel established by an Act of the British Parliament for the express purpose of raising a revenue, here, and under the absolute controul of the British Minister, being both in principle and operation highly dangerous; and whereas, we are certified from several of the Southern Colonies that a Post Office has been erected in Maryland and Pennsylvania, on the principles of a voluntary subscription, and we have good reason to believe the salutary Institution will be generally adopted by all the intermediate Colonies, as well as those on both extremes; and whereas, the said Institution, if generally adopted, will defeat one Revenue Act, and obviate all its pernicious consequences, will unite all the friends of America in one common bond of alliance, and reduce the postage of letters one-third, as well as insure the transmission of interesting advice to the place of destination: We, the subscribers, do severally promise to pay to the Postmaster, who shall be hereafter appointed by a major vote of our body, the several sums annexed to our names, or to the successor in said office, to be by him, or them, employed in furnishing post riders to the several stages, we may agree upon and securing himself, or deputies, from any losses and damages that may accrue unto him, or them, by means of their offices; meaning and understanding this present instrument to be a deposite and security to the said Postmaster, to be recoverable by him, in whole or in proportion to the sums subscribed, and to make up the deficiencies, if any there appear, to a Committee of our body chosen to inspect accounts, after the whole amount of the moneys received for postage shall have been placed to our credit. In testimony, &c. &c.

PORTSMOUTH, April 15, 1774.—The establishment of a constitutional conveyance of intelligence, public and private, proposed by Mr. William Goddard, of Philadelphia, and so warmly seconded by our Southern brethren, appears, to the friends of freedom in this capital, as necessary and useful, as it is honourable, safe, and practicable. The letters brought by the above mentioned gentleman from the Southward, we find, have been received at Boston, &c., with that cordial satisfaction which brethren, united by common interest, and common danger, experience in finding each part of such combined interest generously sharing its full proportion of the common service; and the letter from the Boston Committee to that of this town, hath met with every possible mark of respectful attention.

At the last meeting of our Committee with the merchants, traders, and other inhabitants of this town, a subscription was unanimously agreed upon, similar to one already opened at Boston; and we doubt not, from the glorious beginning, but it will be soon filled up with the names of the principal inhabitants of all ranks, or their proxies. Mr. Goddard having been furnished with letters from the respective Committees of all the Southern Colonies, set out from hence on Wednesday last, via Newburyport, Salem, and Marblehead, after expressing the respectful and grateful sentiments he entertained of the patriotick spirit and urbanity of those to;whom he had the pleasure of being introduced in this; and it is generally thought he will have such report to make of his doings, and their success, as will gratify every friend to the rights of America. Previous to Mr. Goddard's departure he transmitted his plan, with a number of letters, to the friends of liberty at Casco Bay.

We hear that the spirited inhabitants of Newburyport have warmly patronised the plan for establishing a Constitutional Post Office in America. At their last meeting on the business, they agreed to raise a fund sufficient to bring the mails from Boston to that place at least.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMANIN PHILADELPHIA TOHIS CORRESPONDENT IN WILLIAMSBURG—APRIL 21, 1774.

The vast noise and bustle which has lately appeared in almost all the papers relative to the Post Office in America, without doubt, has alarmed many people on this Continent, who would willingly adopt every prudent measure to redress themselves in so important a matter; and, indeed, I cannot conceive how the mother country can pretend to the profits arising from that Department, nor is it obvious to me, that the money produced therefrom can tend to the emolument of the Crown, as I have been credibly informed the chief part of it goes to the support of a set of harpies at home, who have, in a most unprecedented manner, pretended to claim thereto, and are upheld therein by every ministerial influence. Doubtless the Post Office, thus established, is an infringement upon the liberties of America, and no man can wish more fervently than myself for a total abolition of it upon so unjustifiable a footing. But when I reflect upon the consequences that will natually ensue in bringing this about, from a pretty thorough knowledge of the principles and character of the gentleman who seems most to interest himself in the affair, I cannot say I have very flattering ideas of its success. I believe, sir, you are entirely unacquainted with Mr. Goddard, who has been lately so much complimented, indeed you need no intimacy with him; hard is the lot of that man who haa1 not one well-wisher. Mr. Goddard may have received his encomiums from two or three intimates, but, confident I am, he is not regarded even by those who once caressed and supported him. A private post is set up from this city to Baltimore, but the merchants here would not suffer Mr. Goddard to have the direction of it, notwithstanding his early application and profusion of patriotism; they have more prudently preferred Mr. Bradford.

BOSTON, April 21, 1774.—Yesterday arrived in this town from the Eastward, Mr. William Goddard, by whom letters are received from the Committees of Correspondence of Portsmouth, Newbury, Newburyport, Salem, &c., expressive of the hearty concurrence of the gentlemen of those towns with the proposal of erecting a Post Office, upon constitutional principles, throughout the Continent. Subscrip-