will break off all trade, commerce, and dealing, and will have no trade, commerce, or dealing of any kind, with any Colony on this Continent, or with any city or town in such Colony, or with any individual in any such Colony, city, or town, which shall refuse, decline, or neglect to adopt, and carry into execution, such general plan as shall be agreed to in Congress.

Unanimously, 15. That it is the duty of every member of this Committee to promote, as much as he can, the subscription set on foot, in the several counties of this Province, for the relief of the distressed inhabitants of Boston.

Unanimously, 16. That this Committee give instructions on the present situation of publick affairs to their Representatives, who are to meet next week in Assembly, and request them to appoint a proper number of persons to attend a Congress of Deputies from the several Colonies, at such time and place as may be agreed on, to effect one general plan of conduct for attaining the great and important ends mentioned in the ninth Resolve.

Saturday, July 16, 1774.

The Committee for the Province of Pennsylvania met according to adjournment.

John Dickinson, Doctor William Smith, Joseph Read, John Kidd, Elisha Price, William Atlee, James Smith, James Wilson, Daniel Broadhead, John Okeley and William Scull, are appointed to prepare and bring in a draught of Instructions.

Monday, July 18.*—The Committee appointed to bring in Instructions, reported, that they had made a draught, which they laid upon the table.

Moved, That they be read, which was done.

Tuesday, July 19.—Upon a motion made and seconded, agreed, that the draught of Instructions brought in by the Committee, and which were read, be re-committed to the same Committee.

Wednesday, July 20.—The Committee having brought in a draught of Instructions, the same were debated, amended, and agreed to.

Thursday, July 21.—The Instructions were signed by the Chairman. The Committee, in a body, waited on the Assembly then sitting, and presented the same.

It having been moved, that the Essay of the Instructions first proposed to be given to the Honourable Assembly of Pennsylvania, by the Provincial Committee assembled at Philadelphia, the 18th instant, might be abridged, leaving out the Argumentative part, so as to be more proper for instructions, the same was agreed to; but resolved, at the same time, that the whole work ought to be published, as highly deserving the perusal and serious consideration of every friend of liberty within these Colonies.

Agreed, unanimously, That the thanks† of this Committee be given from the Chair to John Dickinson, Esquire, for the great assistance they have derived from the laudable application of his eminent abilities to the service of his country in the above performance.

Extract from the Minutes,

CHARLES THOMSON, Clerk of the Committee.

INSTRUCTIONS

From the Committee to the Representatives in Assembly met.

GENTLEMAN: The dissensions between Great Britain and her Colonies on this Continent, commencing about ten years ago, since continually increasing, and at length grown to such an excess as to involve the latter in deep distress and danger, have excited the good people of this Province to take into their serious consideration the present situation of publick affairs.

The inhabitants of the several counties qualified to vote at elections, being assembled on due notice, have appointed us their Deputies; and in consequence thereof, we being in Provincial Committee met, esteem it our indispensable duty, in pursuance of the trust reposed in us, to give you such Instructions, as, at this important period, appear to us to be proper.

We, speaking in their names and our own, acknowledge ourselves liege subjects of his Majesty King George the Third, to whom "we will be faithful and bear true allegiance."

Our judgments and affections attach us, with inviolable loyalty, to his Majesty's person, family, and Government.

We acknowledge the prerogatives of the Sovereign, among which are included the great powers of making peace and war, treaties, leagues and alliances, binding us—of appointing all officers, except in cases where other provision is made, by grants from the Crown, or laws approved by the Crown—of confirming or annulling every Act of our Assembly within the allowed time—and of hearing and determining finally, in Council, appeals from our Courts of Justice. "The prerogatives are limited," as a learned judge observes, "by bounds so certain and notorious, that it is impossible to exceed them, without the consent of the people on the one hand, or without, on the other, a violation of that original contract,† which, in all states

* The Committees of the counties having been invited, by the Committee for the City and County of Philadelphia, to meet them at Philadelphia on the 15th of July, this Committee thought it their duty to make some preparation in the business, that was to be laid before the Provincial Committee by them. On the 4th of July they appointed a Committee for this purpose; and this measure enabled those appointed by the Provincial Committee to bring in a draught so soon.

† Mr. Dickinson being absent this day, on account of the funeral of a relation, the next day the Chairman, in a very obliging manner, delivered to him from the Chair the thanks of the Committee; to which he replied:

"Mr. CHAIRMAN: I heartily thank this respectable Assembly for the honour they have conferred upon me, but want words to express the sense I feel of their kindness. The mere accidents of meeting with particular books, and conversing with particular men, led me into the train of sentiments which the Committee are pleased to think just; and others, with the like opportunities of information, would much better have deserved to receive the thanks they now generously give. I consider the approbation of this company as an evidence that they entertain a favourable opinion of my good intentions, and as an encouragement for all to apply themselves, in these unhappy times, to the service of the publick, since even small endeavours to promote that service, can find a very valuable reward. I will try, during the remainder of my life, to remember my duty to our common country, and, if it be possible, to render myself worthy of the honour for which I now stand so deeply indebted.

I thank you, sir, for the polite and affectionate manner in which you have communicated the sense of the Committee to me."

* 1. Blackstone, 237.

† And though we are strangers to the original of most states, yet we must not imagine that what has been here said, concerning the manner in which civil societies are formed, is an arbitrary fiction. For since it is certain, that all civil societies had a beginning, it is impossible to conceive, how the members, of which they are composed, could unite to live together dependent on a supreme authority, without supposing the covenants above mentioned.—BURLAMAQUI'S Princ. of Pol. Law, vol. 2. p. 29.

And in fact, upon considering the primitive state of man, it appears most certain, that the appellations of sovereigns and subjects, masters and slaves, are unknown to nature. Nature has made us all of the same species, all equal, all free and independent of each other; and was willing that those, on whom she has bestowed the same faculties, should have all the same rights. It is therefore beyond all doubt that in this primitive state of nature, no man has of himself an original right of commanding others, or any title to sovereignty.

There is none but God alone that has of himself, and in consequence of his nature and perfections, a natural, essential, and inherent right of giving laws to mankind, and of exercising an absolute sovereignty over them. The case is otherwise between, man and man; they are of their own nature as independent of one another, as they are dependent on God. This liberty and independence is therefore a right naturally belonging to man, of which it would be unjust to deprive him against his will.—Id. p. 38.

There is a beautiful passage of Cicero's to this purpose:*—"Nothing is more agreeable to the Supreme Deity, that governs this universe, than civil societies lawfully established."

* Nibil est illi principi Deo, qui omnem hunc mundum regit, quod quidem in terris fiat acceptius, quam consilia coetusque hominum jure socinti, quae civitates appellantur.—Somn. Scip. c. 3.

When therefore we give to Sovereigns the title of God's vicegerents upon earth, this docs not imply that they derive their authority immediately from God, but it signifies only, that by means of the power lodged in their hands, and with which the people have invested them, they maintain, agreeable to the views of the Deity, both order and peace, and thus procure the happiness of mankind.—Id. p. 40.

But it will be here objected, that the scripture itself says, that every man ought to be subject to the supreme powers, because they are established by God. † I answer, with Grotius, that men have established civil societies, not in consequence of a divine ordinance, but of their voluntary motion, induced to it by the experience they had had of the incapacity which separate families wore under, of defending themselves against the insults and attacks of human violence. From thence (he adds) arises the civil power, which St. Peter, for this reason, calls a human power,† though in other parts of scripture it bears the name of a divine institution,|| because God has approved of it as an establishment useful to mankind.§

All the other arguments, in favour of the opinion we have been here refuting, do not even deserve our notice. In general, it may be observed, that never were more wretched reasons produced than upon this subject, as the reader may be easily convinced by reading Puffendorf on the law of Nature and Nations, who, in the chapter corresponding to this, gives these arguments at length, and completely refutes them,¶ Id. p. 42, 43.

† Rom.xiii.

† 1 Ep. c. 2. v. 13.

|| Rom.xiii.I

§ Grotius of the right of War and Peace, book I.c. 4. sec. 7, No. 3.

¶ See the law of Nature and Nations, book VII. c. 3.