to his superiours in office; and to live happily among the inhabitants of this City.

ANDREW ELLIOT.

At the Coffee House the letter was by all disavowed, and great disapproved of; the Collector's manner of treating it, met with the highest approbation; notwithstanding which, that very night, the following printed Handbill was secretely conveyed into almost every house in Town:

TO THE INHABITANTS OF NEW-YORK.

My dear Friends and Fellow-Citizens:

At a time when Slavery is clanking her infernal chains, and Tyranny stands ready with goads and whips to enforce obedience to her despotick and cruel mandates; when Oppression, with gigantick strides is approaching your once happy retreats, and her tools and minions are eagerly grasping to seize the cup from the lip of Industry, will you supinely fold your arms, and calmly see your weapons of defence torn from you, by a band of ruffians? Ye, whose glorious and renowned ancestors, freely lavished their blood and treasure, to secure to you the full enjoyment of liberty, that greatest of temporal blessings; forbid it Heaven! Forbid it gratitude and honour! How long will we patiently bear insult and wrong? Are ye so callous and dead to every sense of honour, as to disregard your reputation/and the taunts and scoffs of your fellow-subjects in the neighbouring Colonies? What is become of your former magnanimity and spirit, ye who dared to degrade the Governour of the Province, and exhibit his effigy, under the very muzzles of his Cannon? Are ye dwindled into such dastards and poltrons, as to suffer yourselves to be insulted, and robbed of your Arms, by a few petty Custom House Officers, with impunity? Me-thinks I hear you say it cannot, it must not be.

Rouse, then, my friends and countrymen! rouse, and play the men upon this occasion; convince the world that ye are still possessed of the same noble spirit, by which ye were actuated in former times, and that whoever injures ye, shall not fail to feel the weight of your resentment; your country has been basely robbed by the Officers of the Customs, of a considerable number of Arms, which were., legally exported from Great Britain, and imported here, in the Ship Lady Gage, and therefore not liable to a seizure, upon any pretence whatsoever, as they are actually the manufacture of England. Those Arms I am credibly informed, are now on board the Man-of-War, and are in a few days to be sent to General Gage, and of consequence are to be used for your destruction. Can ye bear such a thought? especially when ye have it in your power to prevent it; does not the bare idea of it harrow up your souls? In the name of Heaven, throw off your supineness; assemble together immediately, and go in a body to the Collector, insist upon the Arms being relanded, and that he must see them forthcoming, or abide the consequences; delays are dangerous; there is no time to be lost. It is not a season to be mealy-mouthed, or to mince matters; the times are precarious and perilous, and we do not know but that the Arms may be wanted to-morrow.

Some people may endeavour to persuade you that it would be improper to call upon the Collector in such a way, on account of his former polite behaviour to the mercantile body, but this objection has not the least weight in it, as he has shown himself inimical to the liberties of America, and has therefore cancelled every obligation.

PLAIN ENGLISH.

Early next morning a number of the principal Merchants assembled, waited on the Collector of the Custom House, and assured him of their intention to support him in the legal execution of his duty.

They then accompanied him to the Coffee House, where he was met by numbers of the inhabitants of all ranks (among whom was a number of masters of Ships, with their men) who appeared, with readiness, to show how much, they esteemed the Collector as a just and good officer.

Some gentlemen then called for the author of the letter or handbill to appear, or any other person, and accuse the Collector of having, in any instance, acted either arbitrarily or illegally; that the writing such letters, or disturbing officers in their duty, must be abhorred by all men that wish the support of Civil Government and good order; that in the present case it appeared the Collector had done nothing but his duty, and that it was therefore incumbent on the inhabitants to support him.

The justness of this proposal, and the inclination of the people present to adopt it, was instantly testified by three cheers. The Collector then stepped forward, politely thanked the audience for their kind attention on this occasion; assuring them that nothing could be more pleasing to him than this publick testimony of their approbation, both as a fellow-citizen and as an officer of Government; at the same time declaring his intention of steadily adhering to his former conduct.

To the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council: The humble Petition and Memorial of the Assembly of JAMAICA; Voted in Assembly the 28th of DECEMBER, 1774:

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Assembly of Jamaica, having taken into consideration the present critical state of the Colonies, humbly approach the Throne, to assure your Majesty of our most dutiful regard to your royal person and family, and our attachment to, and reliance on, our fellow-subjects in Great Britain, founded on the most solid and durable basis, the continued enjoyment of our personal rights, and the security of our properties.

That weak and feeble as this Colony is, from its very small number of white inhabitants, and its peculiar situation from the incumbrance of more than two hundred thousand slaves, it cannot be supposed that we now intend, or ever could have intended, resistance to Great Britain.

That this Colony has never, by riots, or other violent measures, opposed or permitted an act of resistance against any law imposed on us by Great Britain, though always truly sensible of our just rights, and of the pernicious consequences, both to the parent and infant state, with which some of them must be attended; always relying, with the most implicit confidence, on the justice and paternal tenderness of your Majesty, even to the most feeble and distant of your subjects, and depending that when your Majesty and your Parliament should have naturally considered and deliberated on the claims of Great Britain and her Colonies, every cause of dissatisfaction would be removed.

That justly alarmed with the approaching horrours of an unnatural contest between Great Britain and her Colonies, in which the most dreadful calamities to this Island, and the inevitable destruction of the small Sugar Colonies are involved; and excited by these apprehensions, as well as by our affection for our fellow-subjects, both in Great Britain and the Colonies, we implore your Majesty's favourable reception of this our humble Petition and Memorial, as well on behalf of ourselves and our constituents, the good people of this Island, as on behalf of all other your Majesty's subjects, the Colonists of America; but especially those who labour at present under the heavy weight of your Majesty's displeasure, for whom we entreat to be admitted as bumble suitors; that we may not, at so important a crisis, be wanting to contribute our sincere and well meant, however small, endeavours, to heal those disorders which may otherwise terminate in the destruction of the Empire.

That as we conceive it necessary for this purpose to enter into the different claims of Great Britain and her Colonies, we beg leave to place it in the royal mind as the first established principle of the Constitution, that the people of England have a right to partake, and do partake, of the legislation of their country, and that no laws can affect them but such as receive their assent, given by themselves or their Representatives; and it follows, therefore, that no one part of your Majesty's English subjects, either can or ever could legislate for any other part.

That the settlers of the first Colonies, but especially those of the elder Colonies of North America, as well as the conquerors of this Island, were a part of the English people, in every respect equal to them, and possessed of every right and privilege at the time of their emigration, which the people of England were possessed of, and irrefragably to that great right of consenting to the laws