Send back, we pray you, these insidious engines of persecution and cruelty from whence they came; for you have no reason, no right, no power to use them. How similar your ends and designs are to his, your next edition may with horrour inform us. Fie, fie, Americans, fie! Are these proofs of your love and gratitude to your good King and happy country? Are these the effects of your feigned patriotism and liberty? You see who went before you with all your specious pretexts of patriotism and every thing else; and you know how they all ended. Review the tyranny, the horrours, and havock of those days, and how long they lasted, even until all things returned into the old channel again.

But it is time to think of terms of accommodation with our King and his Parliament; and who are proper persons to undertake this? The Congress have adopted such irritating measures as disqualify them for this pacifick office; and we pray that love and duty to their King and country, may induce them forever to decline that very great undertaking.

After the hostile combinations entered into by the Colonies, we can expect nothing of this nature from the Throne; for our King cannot dispense with the rebellion of the Bostonians, without submission and proper acknowledgments; he cannot repeal the Acts of Parliament in a lump; nor yet declare that they have not a lawful authority over us. If, then, we go on as we have begun, he must either attack us sword in hand; or, as he is averse to shed human blood, he may lawfully sell his Colonies to such as can and will govern them. We cannot exist without Government, and we are not in a capacity to unite among ourselves, nor to govern one another; and then, like the miserable Corsicans, we shall pay very dear for our past rebellion and ingratitude.

It is then our duty and interest to offer terms of reconciliation to our parent state; and they ought to be reasonable ones, such as; may be made with safety on our side, and accepted with dignity on theirs. I can think of no example so worthy of our imitation as the prodigal son's. Let us then arise, and jointly, by and with the influence of our worthy Representatives, go and address our most gracious King and Parliament, saying, fathers, we have sinned against Heaven and before you, and we are not worthy to be called your loyal subjects. Such filial love, duty, and obedience, will assuredly meet with a kind and welcome reception, and be indulged with all that we can reasonably want here, or justly hope for hereafter.

Suffolk County, New-York, February 4, 1775.

LANCASTER COUNTY (VIRGINIA) COMMITTEE.

The Freeholders of Lancaster County being convened on the 6th of February, 1775, to re-elect a Committee to act as guardians of the said County, in carrying into execution the Americun Association, agreeable to the recommendation of the Continental Congress; and having made choice of the following persons: James Selden, Charles Carter, James Gordon, Thomas B. Griffin, Thaddeus M' Carty, Richard Mitchell, Burgess Ball, Nicholas Currell, Henry Tapscot, John Taylor, John Chinn, John Ball, James Kirk, Hugh Brent, Edwin Conway, Rawleigh Downman, William Sydnor, Henry Lawson, John Fleet, William Montague, James Ball, Dale Carter, Peter Conway, Henry Towles, and Thomas Lawson, gentlemen, conveniently situated to superintend the notice paid to the said Association through the whole County, and having chosen James Ball, Esquire, Chairman, and requested the favour of Thomas B. Griffin to officiate as Secretary, it was then unanimously resolved to appoint Deputies to repair to the Colony Congress, in order to choose Delegates for the ensuing Continental Congress, to be held at Philadelphia, on the 10th day of May, and to join their hearty concurrence to the proceedings of the former, and to do whatever further may be judged necessary, in instructing the Delegates, &c, if before that time American Grievances are not redressed, and their rights and liberties amply restored. James Selden and Charles Carter, Esquires, Representatives, being unanimously appointed Deputies, were desired to be informed from their constituents, that from an assurance that the Assembly of this Colony will not meet before the time appointed for the Continental Congress; and that in order duly to comply with the requisitions of the last, they are requested to attend at Richmond Town, on the 20th day of March, to promote the purposes intended by such meeting, with their utmost abilities and attention; and should it so happen that our Assembly should be dissolved before such Convention, we do, in such vacation, nominate and constitute you to meet in such Colony Convention, at the time and place, and for the purposes above mentioned. The present critical situation of American Liberty, becoming every day more dangerous and alarming, induces us to make this appointment and give this instruction, that, as the united wisdom of British America is so eminently requisite to be fully known, we could wish this Colony would by no means be prevented from a representation in such intended Congress, on whose consultations the rights of this vast Continent depend; and we entreat you to return our best wishes to the worthy Delegates who attended the former Grand Congress, for their wise deliberations, and spirited, though pacifick conduct, in support of the freedom of millions they represented: and hope and expect that the blessings of this and generations yet unborn, will forever accompany their services and memory. By order of the Committee,

THOMAS B. GRIFFIN, Secretary.

New-York, February 6, 1775.

The following is an extract of a Letter from a gentleman in London, not less remarkable for the greatness of his abilities, and the extent of his political knowledge, than a most zealous attachment to the welfare of his country. His principles of Government, indeed, are not in the style of modern Sons of Liberty, who can see the interest of the Colonies placed in a state of separation from, and independence on, the mother country. His objects are more enlarged, and his patriotism derived from a purer fountain; for it is aimed at an union between both countries, upon the basis of freedom and mutual benefit.

"The inflammatory performances from this country, calculated to excite jealousies and animosity, have, I find, been but too successful among you. Nothing can be more false than the representations of hostile intentions against America, formed by the present Administration.

"They exercise even severities, which they consider necessary, with reluctance, and are too prudent Statesmen to be ignorant that if America suffers, Great Britain must suffer with it. They ardently wish to adopt a liberal and firm Constitution, which may preserve as well your rights as the just supremacy of Parliament—a supremacy which you once universally acknowledged. Nothing is wanting to this end but advances on the part of the Colonies, to a reconciliation and thorough settlement of the dispute. Both sides may have run into excesses; but it is certainly more becoming in America to pay a deference to its august mother, and by the first advances give her an opportunity of relieving her children with safety to her own dignity. A petition from the Assemblies will be attended with success, if their claims are accurately limited and defined, and represented with temper as well as firmness. Should it be rejected, you will have a fairer plea to the favour of moderate men in this country. Should it be received, you may probably preserve both countries from misery. Your indefinite claims have much injured your cause of late. It has been heretofore argued, that the doctrine of exemption from Parliamentary Taxation, rested on principles which reached to a denial of Parliamentary Legislation. The author of the Summary has avowed these consequences, and opened a wide field for future contention, as if resolved to convince Great Britain of the impossibility of satisfying America with any thing short of Independence. Great use has been made of his extravagant claims, by the Ministerial writers, and the arguments from them seem to be unanswerable. The Instructions also drawn up by the Committee of Philadelphia, in which a claim of exemption from the Acts of Regulation, &c., is held up, have been adduced as evidences of the danger of admitting the foundation of Parliamentary jurisdiction to be in the least impaired. The author, Mr. Dickinson, seems to have forgotten his own concession: 'that a power of regulating trade is undeniably in the British Parliament, and essential to the union between a mother country and her Colonies.'"