wicked purpose of distressing you. As for instance, the King is your enemy, as you are obstacles to a settled design of despotism; the Ministry second his views, that they may share in his power; the Parliament wants to establish their illegal authority over you, and are enemies in course; the Bishops want to rule you in matters of faith; the country gentlemen are mostly against you from their ignorance and avarice, childishly supposing that every penny that is laid on you will ease them in the same proportion; the Officers of the Army and Navy are wishing for plunder; but for what reasons a considerable part of the Merchants, Traders, and Manufacturers, would wish you ill, is beyond my comprehension. I can only suggest two suppositions, and those very vague ones; it may be to curry favour with the Ministry for the sake of jobs, contracts, & c., or it may be from downright stupidity, in supposing the English Commoners should have a superiority over their brethren in America; of this last class, it is difficult for me to paint the ingratitude; but I hope, ere long, the friends of freedom will be able to send over a list of their names by way of memento

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM PHILADELPHIA TO JAMES RIVINGTON, NEW YORK, DATED FEBRUARY 4, 1775.

Merely to give the enemies of our happy Constitution an opportunity of contradicting what was asserted in your paper, "that the Farmer had deserted the Committee," they thought nothing more was necessary to invalidate your testimony than to get him once amongst them in Provincial Congress; for this purpose, they exerted themselves and prevailed on him to attend, and insert his name; but how different was his conduct from heretofore; he formerly took the lead in every matter, and now he did not speak at all. You may assure your readers, that he has declared, "he was really alarmed at the Proceedings of our Committee." And though you was scandalously insulted in Bradford's Paper on that occasion, the publick will, before long, be convinced, that there was a solid foundation for the article you inserted, as far as related to his prudent resolution of withdrawing himself from their society. Your pamphlets continue daily to change the minds of people, and in spite of the arts of our fiery Republicans, associations are concerting to counteract the authority of unconstitutional Congresses and unwarrantable Committees of all sorts.

TO THE AMERICANS.

FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN: Much time and treasure have been spent to accommodate the contests between Britain and her Colonies; though the affair has been very serious, yet no one just or proper step has been taken to accomplish it. Every one who can see the length of his nose, must see the folly of all irritating measures: such ludicrous attempts have, and forever will, widen the breaches between Great Britain and her Colonies. The temperate, discreet Colonists, have been too indolent, whilst restless spirits, by ignis fatuus, led the inconsiderate into the deep gulfs of sedition, where they lost virtue, loyalty, and good manners.

The mode of accommodation, or opposition, call it which you please, adopted by the Congress, was borrowed from the seditious Bostonians, who formed the plan before the Congress had a being, and was vigorously opposed by the virtuous among themselves, by the name of a Solemn League and Covenant, which the seditious entered into in the manner, and enforced by the penalties, the Association is established by.

Had the Congress checked the seditious then; had they supported the loyalists, who had long bitterly complained; had they opposed the anarchy and tumultuous tyranny then prevalent; had they laid the Bostonians under firm obligations to do justice to the India Company, and to make decent acknowledgments to their Sovereign for their violence and insults; had this been the preamble to the Association, the Port might have been opened, the three-penny duties and petty complaints removed, their loyalty and our liberty secured.

Something like this would have laid a foundation to have built upon; the Congress might then have merited the praise of the Bostonians forever, and of the Colonies during good behaviour. This was the way to have entered into an accommodation; and it was so plain and obvious, that nothing but a peculiar enchantment could have led them from it. However, they joined the factious, and by that junction, the virtuous were, and are persecuted; all Government trampled upon; the King's Officers, Civil and Military, insulted, and his property invaded. They also wantonly adopted, "approved, recommended," the seditious Resolves of Suffolk County. This imprudent, ill-timed conduct, threw the Province into an irregular fit, out of which it is not likely to recover, confirmed the seditious, and gave too much countenance to sedition in the Colonies.

Now, seeing we can entertain no hopes of peace with our parent state, from the mediation of the Congress, let us consider the provision made for the peace of the Colonies. The Association, which with some is every thing, is calculated for the meridian of a Spanish Inquisition; it is subversive of, inconsistent with, the wholesome laws of our happy Constitution; it abrogates or suspends many of them essential to the peace and order of Government; it takes the Government out of the hands of the Governour, Council, and General Assembly; and the execution of the laws out of the hands of the Civil Magistrates and Juries. The Congress exercises the Legislative, the Committees the Executive Powers: the injustice and oppression of the one and the other are self-evident. But as it is of the Bostonian manufactory, a new edition, fitted to the necessities of his Majesty's most loyal subjects at home and abroad, will soon appear in both worlds with a pacifick, patriotick Address, agreeable to the old Catholick, generous principles of the Colony.

In the meantime, we must learn the humiliating doctrine of a blind implicit faith, and of passive obedience, and non-resistance; for a Committorial Court of Inquisition is introduced throughout the deluded Colonies; with all its horrid appendixes, our lives, liberties, and properties, are submitted to it. These Inquisitors and Spies are to inspect and watch the motions of the Colonists, and to enforce a due obedience to the rules of the Congress.

Their power is arbitrary and unlimited; they may judge by appearances, and condemn unseen and unheard; they are under no check, there is no appeal to another Court, they are not accountable to any power. Willing, or unwilling, we must be willing to obey the mandates of the Congress; we, though unwilling, must will all the profits of our late importations to the seditious Saints at Boston. The charitable Congress have given a title to them; the Committees, by and with the authority of lawless mobs, claim them; the very least these pious Saints can do for such unheard of favours, is, to stir up sedition, and pray for the continuance of such charitable donations.

But, as the power is tyrannous, so the punishment is horrible: they are authorized to proclaim his Majesty's best subjects foes to America; to pass an act of outlawry against them; to cast them out of all civil society; deprive them of the benefit of law and civil commerce! For the same reason, they might have proclaimed them traitors! foes to America! Why are the best subjects so wantonly abused? Are they foes to the King? No; but you want they should be. Are they foes to the laws of the Empire or Province? No; but the Association is. Are they foes to the interest of America? No; but their persecutors are. Why are the best men outlawed, who obey the laws of God, of nature, of the Province, and of the Empire. Where there is no law, there can be no transgression. How will the loyal Canadians relish your insidious, ensnaring addresses, when they hear of a tyranny that exceeds all they had ever heard of?

The Canadian Act, which occasioned so much canting on the one hand, and disloyal invectives on the other, has no such hostile appearance as this. This, however, reminds me of a remark, that the late Usurper's finger was heavier than the King, Lords, and Commons He used these engines to cover and forward his rebellious pranks; and as he gained ground he built upon them, until at length he and his tools passed an edict that it was high treason against the Commonwealth for any person, in any case, to aid and assist the King, the Queen even not excepted! By these, wicked, arbitrary engines, the Rebels were increased there as they have been here, and a pretext given to murder the best people in the Nation, and to seize their estates, the King not excepted!