said several Acts of Parliament, will be, that a General Association between all the American Colonies, ought immediately be entered into, not to import from Great Britain any commodity whatsoever, except such articles as the general Congress shall judge necessary, until the just rights of the Colonies are restored to them; and the cruel Acts of the British Parliament against the Colony of Massachusetts Bay and town of Boston are repealed.

A love of justice, and the tender regard we have for our friends the merchants and manufacturers of Great Britain, to whom we are indebted, and who must, of course, suffer in the common cause, prevents our recommending the stopping our exports at this time; but at a future day we will heartily concur with the other counties of this Colony to stop all exports as well as imports, to and from Great Britain, unless what we have already recommended to you shall be found effectual.

We most cordially recommend that no time be lost in administering every comfort and aid to our distressed brethren of Boston, that their unhappy state may require, and may comport with our situation to afford.

We further recommend to you, that you will, in conjunction with the Deputies from the different counties of this Colony, chuse fit and proper persons on the part of this Colony, to meet the Deputies from the other Colonies in a general Congress, at such convenient time and place as shall be agreed on, then and there to advise and consult upon such measures, as, under circumstances of things at that time, they shall deem expedient.

We strictly charge and enjoin, that at all times, and on all occasions, which may present, you testify our zeal for his Majesty's person and Government, and that we are ready and willing, with our lives and fortunes, to support his rights to the Crown of Great Britain and all its dependencies.

MIDDLESEX COUNTY (VIRGINIA) RESOLUTIONS.

After the Freeholders of the County of Middlesex had proceeded in the most decent and orderly manner to the election of Representatives for the county, on the 15th of July, they were summoned to meet at the Court House, to take into their consideration the present state of the Colony, and America in general; and upon mature deliberation, many of the most respectable of the Freeholders and Inhabitants of the county being present, they entered into the following Resolutions:

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this meeting that all allegiance is due to the person and character of the King of Great Britain; and that we acknowledge a constitutional dependence on the Parliament, conceiving it not incompatible with the condition of Colonists to submit to commercial regulations in consequence of the protection that is given to our trade by the superintendence of the mother country; but we apprehend there is a clear distinction between regulations of trade and taxation, and in no degree admit the latter under the colourable denomination of the former, well knowing that the nature of things is not alterable by the changes of terms.

Resolved, That representation and taxation are inseparably connected by the essential principles of the British Constitution; and that every attempt of superiour power to levy money on the British Americans, otherwise than by the consent of their Representatives, delivered in Assembly, is an infraction of that Constitution, a violation of the rights of freemen, and a subversion of property.

Resolved, That the Act imposing a duty on tea, for the avowed purpose of revenue, is a tax; and that every opposition should be expressed that may move to the repeal of the said Act, or that may render its operation inefficacious.

Resolved, That the late Act of Parliament suspending the trade and shutting up the port of the town of Boston, is an alarming circumstance to the Colonies in general, in as much as it marks out a settled plan in the British Parliament to enforce submission to their power of taxation.

Resolved, That we do not approve of the conduct of the people of Boston in destroying the tea belonging to the East India Company; and notwithstanding the tax on tea must be esteemed a violent infringement of one of the fundamental privileges of loyal and free subjects; yet we apprehend violence cannot justify violence: reason and policy reclaim against it. A desistance from the consumption of tea, and a confidence in the virtue of our countrymen, whose sense of the spirit of the law will no doubt induce a total disuse of it, are much more eligible means, and more probably will work a repeal of the Act, than disorders, outrages, and tumults.

Resolved, As the Records and reiterated Resolutions of the House of Burgesses will testify to posterity, our idea on this long agitated and contested question of the supremacy of the Parliament to tax the Colonies, that it be the opinion of this meeting that our Representatives should oppose, and they are hereby instructed to oppose, all measures that will bring on an abrupt dissolution, whereby the business of the country will be impeded; a savage enemy ravaging our frontiers; the publick creditors unpaid; a stagnation of justice, by reason of the lapse of the Fee Bill; the Courts of Law occluded; every thing that is held sacred in civil society confounded; the just creditor deprived of property; and the dishonest debtor triumphant; these are the bitter fruits of the late dissolution.

Resolved, That an unlimited non-exportation and non-importation scheme is impracticable; and were it not so, would be irreconcilable with every principle of justice and honesty, injurious to the commerce, and fatal to the credit of this Colony.

Resolved, That an Association be forwarded, to prohibit the importation of all unnecessary and luxurious articles of British manufacture, and (except saltpetre and spices,) all kinds of East India commodities.

DINWIDDIE COUNTY (VIRGINIA) DECLARATION.

At a General Meeting of the Inhabitants of the County of Dinwiddie, at the Court House, on Friday, the 15th of July, in consequence of previous notice from their late Representatives, and an intimation of their desire to be advised and instructed relative to the differences now unhappily subsisting between Great Britain and her Colonies, after mature deliberation on this most interesting subject, they unanimously came to the following declaration of their sentiments, which are intended to manifest to the world the principles by which they are actuated in a dispute so important, as that they conceive on its decision, depends the political existence of all America:

We, the inhabitants of the County of Dinwiddie, do entertain the most cordial and unfeigned affection and loyalty for his Majesty's person and Government, which, together with his right to the Crown of Great Britain and its dependencies, we will at all times defend and support, at the risk of our lives and fortunes; and under so true a conviction of the firmest allegiance, we think ourselves entitled, as a constitutional right, to protection from the Sovereign to whom we have been ever attached by the strongest ties of duty and inclination. But however happy we may consider ourselves under the auspices of the Supreme Magistrate, we cannot help being apprehensive of the ill effects which may flow from some recent and dangerous innovations, imagined and contrived in the House of Commons, against those rights to which the Americans have a just and constitutional claim in common with his Majesty's subjects of Great Britain. Amongst these instances of oppression, we cannot omit the Parliament's retention of a duty on tea, accompanied by an Act declaratory of their right in the fullest manner to tax America, thereby asserting in other terms, their claim to whatever property the Americans may by their labour acquire, which, if submitted to, would reduce us to a degree of servility unexampled but in a state of despotism; and yet, inconsistent as this plan of substituting power for right may appear with the noble and liberal spirit of the British Government, it has been adopted for some time by Administration, and pursued with a perseverance that becomes truly alarming. A late and striking proof of which we have to lament in the unprecedented Acts of Parliament for cutting off the people of Boston from every privilege valued by freemen, and subjecting them to hardships unknown but in arbitrary Governments. In pursuance of which Acts their town and harbour are blocked up; all commerce interdicted; and articles merely essential to life imported, and as a matter of favour, and an inducement to