fail to animate and encourage even the lukewarm and indifferent; more especially such honest men as wish to be assured of support before they engage in so weighty an enterprise.

The account you gave us of the spirit and magnanimity of the people of Virginia, confirms us in the opinion we have ever had of that ancient Colony, of whose disinterested virtue this Province has had ample experience. The noble sacrifice you stand ready to make, of the staple commodity of your Province, so materially affecting the revenue of Great Britain, and your generous interposition in our favour, have our warmest acknowledgments. So much honour, wisdom, publick and private virtue; so much readiness in every Colony, to afford, every species of aid and assistance that the suffering state requires, must evince to a venal herd, that notwithstanding they may be utterly unacquainted with the meaning of the word patriotism, it has, however, a substantial existence in North America. With the smiles of an all-governing Providence upon the vigorous efforts of our inestimable brethren at home and abroad, we promise ourselves a final deliverance from the calamities we are now subjected to; and which, for our own, our country, and posterity's political salvation, we resolve, by God's assistance, to sustain with fortitude and patience. We are, gentlemen, your friends and fellow-countrymen.

Signed by order,

WILLIAM COOPER, Town Clerk.

YORK COUNTY (VIRGINIA) RESOLUTIONS.

On Monday, the 18th of July, the Freeholders and other Inhabitants of York County, in Virginia, met, according to publick notice, at the Court House, in York, to consider what was to be done in the present distressed and alarming situation of affairs throughout the British Colonies in America.

THOMAS NELSON, Jun., Esq., being chosen Moderator,

Opened the business of the Meeting with the following Address to the people:

Friends and Countrymen: We are met to-day upon one of the most important matters that can engage the attention of men. You are all well acquainted with the attacks which have been lately made by the British Parliament upon what is dearer to Americans than their lives—their liberties. You have heard of the acts of oppression which have passed against a sister Colony, under which it is now actually groaning, and you must be sensible that this is only a prelude to the designs of Parliament upon every other part pf this wide extended Continent. In this light did our late truly patriotick and honourable House of Burgesses regard it, and I am not now to inform you what has been the consequence—our Assembly has been dissolved—our country left without law for its government, and without means of defending itself against an invading enemy. In this melancholy situation of things, many of our late worthy Representatives convened in Williamsburg, and there agreed, after they should collect the sentiments of the people throughout the Colony, to meet again on the first day of August next, to concert such measures as would be most likely to procure us a speedy redress of our grievances, and security against them for the time to come; your are now called together to deliberate upon these matters, to choose who shall represent you in the approaching important meeting, and to furnish them with your sentiments upon those things which are to come before them. I need not observe how much you are concerned in the event of their proceedings. You all know what it is to be freemen; you know the blessed privilege of doing what you please with your own; and you can guess at the misery of those who are deprived of this right. Which of these will be your case depends upon your present conduct. We have found already that petitions and remonstrances are ineffectual, and it is now time that we try other expedients. We must make those who are endeavouring to oppress us feel the effects of their mistaken, of their arbitrary policy; and not till then can we expect justice from them.

From the publick papers we learn the sentiments of many of the counties of Virginia; and it appears that they think it necessary for the accomplishing of their purposes to drop, till they are redressed, all commercial intercourse with Great Britain. Whether consistently with justice, as a people in debt, we can stop our exports, is a point which seems doubtful; but that imports ought to be prohibited necessity demands, and no virtue forbids. It is not supposed that we can do this without subjecting ourselves to many inconveniences; but inconveniences when opposed to a loss of freedom, are surely to be disregarded. Besides, I am told, by men acquainted with these things, that the goods already in the country, and those expected in the fall, will be sufficient to supply the wants of all Virginia for two years. In the mean time we must, if our grievances be not redressed, turn our attention to the breeding of sheep, the raising of flax, hemp, and cotton, and to manufactures. It is true we must resign the hope of making fortunes; but to what end should we make fortunes, when they may be taken from us at the pleasure of others? I hope you will take these matters into your most serious consideration—weigh them with that attention which matters of such moment merit—determine with wisdom and moderation; and, once determined, let no difficulties or dangers shake your resolutions.

It was then unanimously Resolved, That as the constitutional Assemblies of Virginia have been prevented from exercising their right of providing for the security of the liberties of the people, that right again reverts to the people, as the fountain from whence all power and legislation flow; a right coeval with human nature, and which they claim from the eternal and immutable laws of Nature's God.

Resolved, also, That Dudley Digges and Thomas Nelson, Jun., Esquires, do attend at the City of Williamsburg, on the first day of August next, in a general Convention from the other counties in Virginia, there to exert their utmost abilities to put a stop to that growing system of Ministerial despotism which has so long threatened the destruction of America.

And that you, our Delegates, may be made acquainted with the sentiments of the people of this county, it is their opinion that you proceed to choose proper persons to represent the Colony of Virginia in a general Congress of America, to meet at such time and place as may hereafter be agreed on.

That these Representatives be instructed to form a declaration of American rights, setting forth that British America, and all the inhabitants thereof, shall be and remain in due subjection to the Crown of England, and to the Illustrious family on the Throne; submitting by their own voluntary act, and enjoying all the freedom and privileges of the free people of England, That it is the first law of legislation, and of the British Constitution, that no man shall be taxed but by his own consent, expressed either by himself or his Representatives; that the Americans cannot be represented in the British Parliament; and, therefore, that every edict of the British Parliament imposing any tax or custom, duty, or imposition whatsoever, on the people of America, without their consent, is Illegal, and subversive of the first principles of the British Constitution, and of the natural rights of men; that it is the undoubted right and true interest of the Sovereign, as supreme ruler of the whole Empire, to provide for the welfare of his subjects within the Realm at the head of the British Parliament, and of those in America, at the head of his American Assemblies, by laws adapted to their local situation, and suited to the exigencies of each; and, by that negative with which he is invested by the Constitution, to restrain the different States of his Executive Dominion from enacting laws to destroy the freedom, and prejudicing the interests, of one another; that the King, in his British Parliament, shall have a supremacy for regulating the trade of America, with this reasonable reserve, that all the British Colonies enjoy a free trade with each other; and that no tax, duty, or imposition whatsoever, be laid by the British Parliament, on any article which the American Colonies are obliged to import from Great Britain only; and that this right of supremacy be deemed or expressed a resignation by our own voluntary act, flowing from a just sense of the protection we have hitherto received from Great Britain.

And farther, the people of this country are of opinion that the Act of the British Parliament laying a duty on tea, for the purpose of raising a revenue to be collected in America, without her consent, is an illegal tax.