ing into agreements of non-importation and non-exportation. We are fully convinced that such agreements would withhold very large supplies from Great Britain; and no words can describe our contempt and abhorrence of those Colonists, if any such there are, who, from a sordid and ill-judged attachment to their own immediate profit, would pursue that to the injury of their country, in this great struggle for all the blessings of liberty. It would appear to us a most wasteful frugality, that would lose every important possession, by too strict an attention to small things, and lose also even these at the last. For our part, we will cheerfully make any sacrifice, when necessary, to preserve the freedom of our country. But other considerations have weight with us. We wish every mark of respect to be paid to his Majesty's Administration. We have been taught from our youth to entertain tender and brotherly affections for our fellow-subjects at home. The interruption of our commerce must distress great numbers of them. This we earnestly desire to avoid. We therefore request, that the Deputies you shall appoint, may be instructed to exert themselves at the Congress, to induce the Members of it to consent to make a full and precise state of grievances, and a decent yet firm claim of redress, and to wait the event before any other step is taken. It is our opinion that persons should be appointed and sent home to present this state and claim at the Court of Great Britain.

If the Congress should choose to form agreements of non-importation and non-exportation immediately, we desire the Deputies from this Province will endeavour to have them so formed as to be binding upon all; and that they may be permanent, should the publick interest require it. They cannot be efficacious unless they can be permanent; and it appears to us that there will be a danger of their being infringed, if they are not formed with great caution and deliberation. We have determined, in the present situation of publick affairs, to consent to a stoppage of our commerce with Great Britain only; but in case any proceedings of the Parliament, of which notice shall be received on this Continent, before or at the Congress, shall render it necessary, in the opinion of the Congress, to take further steps, the inhabitants of this Province will adopt such steps, and do all in their power to carry them into execution.

This extensive power we commit to the Congress, for the sake of preserving that unanimity of counsel and conduct that alone can work out the salvation of these Colonies, with a strong hope and trust that they will not draw this Province into any measure judged by us, who must be better acquainted with its state than strangers, highly inexpedient. Of this kind we know any other stoppage of trade, but of that with Great Britain, will be. Even this step we should be extremely afflicted to see taken by the Congress, before the other mode above pointed out is tried. But should it be taken, we apprehend that a plan of restrictions may be so framed, agreeable to the respective circumstances of the several Colonies, as to render Great Britain sensible of the imprudence of her counsels, and yet leave them a necessary commerce. And here, it may not be improper to take notice, that if redress of our grievances cannot be wholly obtained, the extent or continuance of our restrictions may, in some sort, be proportioned to the rights we are contending for, and the degree of relief afforded us. This mode will render our opposition as perpetual as our oppression, and will be a continual claim and assertion of our rights. We cannot express the anxiety with which we wish the consideration of these points to be recommended to you. We are persuaded, that if these Colonies fail of unanimity or prudence, in forming their resolutions, or of fidelity in observing them, the opposition by non-importation and non-exportation agreements, will be ineffectual; and then we shall have only the alternative of a more dangerous contention, or of a tame submission.

Upon the whole, we shall repose the highest confidence in the wisdom and integrity of the ensuing Congress. And though we have, for the satisfaction of the good people of this Province, who have chosen us for this express purpose, offered to you such instructions as have appeared expedient to us; yet, it is not our meaning, that by these, or by any you may think proper to give them, the Deputies appointed by you should be restrained from agreeing to any measures that shall be approved by the Congress. We should be glad the Deputies chosen by you, could, by their influence, procure our opinions hereby communicated to you to be as nearly adhered to as may be possible. But to avoid difficulties, we desire that they may be instructed by you to agree to any measures that shall be approved by the Congress, the inhabitants of this Province having resolved to adopt and carry them into execution.

Lastly. We desire the Deputies from this Province may endeavour to procure an adjournment of the Congress to such a day as they shall judge proper, and the appointment of a Standing Committee.

Agreed, That John Dickinson, Joseph Read, and Charles Thomson, be a Committee to write to the neighbouring Colonies, and communicate to them the Resolves and Instructions.

Agreed, That the Committee for the City and County of Philadelphia, or any fifteen of them, be a Committee of Correspondence for the General Committee of this Province. Extract from the Minutes,

CHARLES THOMSON, Clerk Com.

ARGUMENTATIVE PART OF THE PRECEDING INSTRUCTIONS.

The authority of Parliament has within these few years been a question much agitated; and great difficulty, we understand, has occurred, in tracing the line between the rights of the mother country and those of the Colonies. The modern doctrine of the former is indeed truly remarkable; for though it points out what are not our rights, yet we can never learn from it, what are our rights. As for example—Great Britain claims a right to take away ninetenths of our estates—have we a right to the remaining tenth? No. To say we have, is a "traitorous" position, denying her Supreme Legislature. So far from having property, according to these late found novels, we are ourselves a property.

We pretend not to any considerable share of learning; but, thanks be to divine goodness, common sense, experience, and some acquaintance with the Constitution, teach us a few salutary truths on this important subject.

Whatever difficulty may occur in tracing the line, yet we contend, that by the laws of God, and by the laws of the Constitution, a line there must be, beyond which her

receipts for more than was received into the King's stores, and the money was divided among the plunderers. The King's works done by the day, whereas it would have been cheaper by the great. Money protended to be coined gratis; lists of large sums newly coined produced; but the contrivance was to make the pieces unequal, and then the too heavy pieces were carried back to the Mint, and the profits sunk in private pockets, &c.

Secret service is a huge cloak thrown over an immense scene of corruption; and under this cloak we must not peep. Our Court men tell us there must be large sums expended in this way, and those sums cannot be accounted for; because the services done by them must never be known. But we find, that the Commons, Anno Domini 1708, addressed Quean Anne for accounts of pensions paid for secret service to Members of Parliament, or to any persons in trust for them; and that "the Queen ordered said account to be laid before the House."*

Contracts are a great fund of Ministerial influence. It is well known that our Ministry do not accept the most reasonable offer; but the offer which is made by those who have the greatest Parliamentary interest; and that in war time, every man who furnishes for the Government is enriched. In France, the contrary, which shows that we manage our publick money much worse than the French Ministry do theirs, In the late war it is notorious that several of our Purveyors and Commissaries got estates sufficient to set them up for Earls and Dukes, But as Burnet † says, "the regard that is shewn to Members of Parliament among ns, causes that few abuses can be inquired into" or discovered,"—POL. DISQ. b. v. p. 974, 277.

What redress could a poor, plundered, unrepresented Colony obtain against a Verres, supported by a strong Parliamentary influence. We know what several Governours of Minorca have dared to do. A Governour of Gibraltar has ventured to oppress even the garrison of that important place. The Very drudgery of examining accounts would probably secure him. If cast, the injuries could not be recompensed. A successor might prove as bad—"Victrix Provincia plorat."

It has been said in Great Britain, that Lord Chatham, Lord Camden, and some other great men, have taught the Colonies to despise her authority. But it is as little true as the multitude of invectives vented against the Colonies. The constant practice in those publications, is to confound facts and dates, and then to rave. It should be remembared, that the opposition in America to the Stamp Act, was fully formed, and the Congress held at New-York, before it was known on this Continent that our cause was espoused by any man of note at home. We should be glad to count such venerable names in the list of our friends. They are the true friends of our mother country, as well as of this; and ages unborn will bless their memory. But if every man in Great Britain is carried by the stream of prejudices into sentiments hostile to our freedom, that freedom will not be the less esteemed, or the sooner relinquished by Americans.

* Deb. Com. iv. 119.

† Hist, Own Times, iii. 279.