From CONNECTICUT—The Honourable Eliphalet Dyer, Esq., Silas Deane, Esquire, the Hon. Roger Sherman, Esquire.

From NEW-YORK—James Duane, Esq., John Jay, Esquire, Philip Livingston, Esquire, Isaac Low, Esquire, John Alsop, Esq., Colonel William Floyd, Esquire, Henry Wisner, Esquire, John Herring, Esq., Simon Boerum, Esquire.

From NEW-JERSEY.—James Kinsey, Esquire, William Livingston, Esquire, John De Hart, Esquire, Stephen Crane, Esquire, Richard Smith, Esquire.

From PENNSYLVANIA.—The Honourable Joseph Galloway, Esquire, Samuel Rhoads, Esq., Thomas Mifflin, Esquire, Charles Humphreys, Esquire, John Morton, Esquire, George Ross, Esq., Edward Biddle, Esquire, John Dickinson, Esquire.

From the Government of the Counties NEW-CASTLE, KENT, and SUSSEX, on DELAWARE.—The Honourable Caesar Rodney, Esquire, Thomas M'Kean, Esquire, George Read, Esquire.

From MARYLAND.—The Honourable Matthew Tilghman, Esquire, Thomas Johnson, Esquire, Robert Goldsborough, Esquire, William Paca, Esquire, Samuel Chase, Esquire.

From VIRGINIA.—The Honourable Peyton Randolph, Esq., Richard Henry Lee, Esq., George Washington, Esquire, Patrick Henry, Esq., Richard Bland, Esquire, Benjamin Harrison, Esq., Edmund Pendleton, Esquire.

From NORTH CAROLINA.—William Hooper, Esquire, Joseph Heues, Esquire, Richard Caswell, Esquire.

From SOUTH CAROLINA.—The Honourable Henry Middleton, Esq., John Rutledge, Esq., Thomas Lynch, Esquire, Christopher Gadsden, Esquire, Edward Rutledge, Esquire.

GOVERNOUR GAGE TO PEYTON RANDOLPH.

Boston, October 20, 1774.

SIR: Representations should be made with candour, and matters stated exactly as they stand. People would be led to believe, from your letter to me of the 10th instant, that works were raised against the Town of Boston, private property invaded, the Soldiers suffered to insult the inhabitants, and the communication between the Town and Country shut up and molested.

Nothing can be farther from the true situation of this place than the above state. There is not a single gun pointed against the Town, no man's property has been seized or hurt, except the King's by the people's destroying straw, bricks, &c., bought for his service. No Troops have given less cause for complaint, and greater care was never taken to prevent it, and such care and attention was never more necessary, from the insults and provocations daily giving to both Officers and Soldiers. The communication between the Town and Country has been always free and unmolested, and is so still.

Two works of earth have been raised at some distance from the Town, wide of the roads, and guns put in them. The remains of old works, going out of the Town, have been strengthened, and guns placed there likewise.—People will think differently, whether the hostile preparations throughout the country, and the menaces of blood and slaughter, made this necessary. But I am to do my duty.

It gives me pleasure that you are endeavouring at a cordial reconciliation with the mother country; which, from what has transpired, I have despaired of. Nobody wishes better success to such measures than myself. I have endeavoured to be a mediator, if I could establish a foundation to work upon; and have strongly urged it to people here to pay for the Tea, and send a proper Memorial to the King, which would be a good beginning on their side, and give their friends the opportunity they seek, to move in their support.

I do not believe that menaces and unfriendly proceedings will have the effect which many conceive. The spirit of the British Nation was high when I left England, and such measures will not abate it. But I should hope that decency and moderation here would create the same disposition at home; and I ardently wish that the common enemies to both countries may see, to their disappointment, that these disputes between the mother country and the Colonies have terminated like the quarrels of lovers, and increased the affection which they ought to bear to each other. I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

THOMAS GAGE.

To the Hon. Peyton Randolph, Esq.

To the Honourable PEYTON RANDOLPH, Esquire, late President of the American Continental Congress:

SIR: The character in which you have lately appeared to the world, as President of the Grand Continental Congress, has placed you in so eminent a point of view, that, like a city set on a hill, you cannot be hid. Your name, till of late, known comparatively to but few out of your own Province, now holds rank with other Chieftains in the American cause, and is, of course, in the mouth of every politician; that is, of every man, woman, and child, throughout the extended Continent of English America. We all, gentle and simple, old and young, bond and free, male and female, fancy ourselves connected with you by a political relation, which entitles us to the most perfect liberty of speech to you and of you, whensoever we think the cause requires it. You will not, then, be surprised at finding yourself addressed by a stranger, and through a newspaper, the common channel of conveyance for modern addressers to Governours, Generals, and Kings. What your private political sentiments are I know not; nor do I conceive the knowledge of them to be material to any but yourself. It is, indeed, whispered that Mr. Randolph is very far from approving of many things adopted by Peyton Randolph, Esquire, President of the Congress. If this were a truth well established and universally known, Mr. Randolph and the President would have very different sets of men for their admirers; but this may be all false conjecture, which you will lay to the account of an unavoidable tax upon the great. Talked of you must be; and it would be strange, indeed, if some errours did not creep into the judgments, and some falsehoods shoot from the lips of three millions of politicians endowed with the gift of tongues.

Leaving, therefore, your private sentiments to yourself, until I am better acquainted with them, I shall, in the correspondence which I have now the honour to open, address myself to you as President of the American Congress, begun and held at Philadelphia, September 5th, 1774. I do not intend to take the liberty of modern addressers to Sovereigns and their Representatives, in loading you with scurility and abuse, where I find reason and argument to be wanting; but, on the contrary, it is my determination to reverence your's and my own characters as gentlemen, and to say nothing whereby I may wound the one or forfeit the other. At the same time, it is my fixed purpose to deliver my own sentiments with the freedom of an Englishman, nearly interested in the important subjects upon which they are formed.

If the freedom of the press is not denied me, I propose, in a course of letters, as health and leisure shall permit, to lay before you, without reserve, my thoughts on your Bill of Rights; your list of Grievances; your adoption of the Suffolk Resolves; your Letter to his Excellency General Gage; your Association; and your three very singular Addresses; and to point out to you the fatal consequences of which they have already been productive in this Province of Massachusetts Bay, and the still more fatal effects, there is reason to fear, they will produce to the whole of English America. If, in the prosecution of this plan, I shall preserve decency and good manners, notwithstanding we may differ very widely in our notions, I presume my freedom of disquisition upon the measures submitted to the judgment of every individual, by being exposed to the publick eye, will give no just cause of offence. We are all embarked in one bottom; my life and the lives of my wife and children; my property—my all, stand most intimately connected with the loss or safety of the ship; the storm is violent; you, Mr. President, have undertaken to pilot her through to the much wished for haven of peace. You have taken the helm, and under your direction she is now going at a great rate; but the tempest increases; the Heavens lour; the clouds thicken and blacken every moment; the hoarse thunder very sensibly approaches nearer and nearer; the billows break on every side; and to complete the dismal prospect, the ship is too crazy to afford hopes of riding out the storm; and the mariners are upon the point of mutiny.

If, amidst all these circumstances of extreme danger, you, through want of skill in navigation, or from being unacquainted with the coast, or from any other cause, have run us among rocks, shoals, and quicksands, far distant from our desired port, you will most assuredly bless the man who seasonably points them out, though they may have been first discovered by a common eye; an eye in all other in-