to be entered into at such time, and regulated in such manner, as to the Congress shall appear most advisable.

6th. Resolved, That it appears to us, to be a duty incumbent on the good people of this Province, to afford some immediate relief to the many suffering inhabitants of the town of Boston. Therefore, the several County Committees do now engage to set on foot, and promote collections, without delay, either by subscriptions or otherwise, throughout their respective counties: and that they will remit the moneys arising from the said subscriptions, or any other benefactions, that may be voluntarily made by the inhabitants, either to Boston, or into the hands of James Neilson, John Dennis, William Ouke, Abraham Hunt, Samuel Tucker, Dr. Isaac Smith, Grant Gibbon, Thomas Sinnicks, and John Carey, whom we do hereby appoint a Committee for forwarding the same to Boston, in such way and manner as they shall be advised will best answer the benevolent purpose designed.

7th. Resolved, That the grateful acknowledgments of this body are due to the noble and worthy patrons of constitutional liberty, in the British Senate, for their laudable efforts to avert the storm they beheld impending over a much injured Colony, and in support of the just rights of the King's subjects in America.

8th. Resolved, That James Kinsey, William Livingston, John Dehart, Stephen Crane, and Richard Smith, Esquires, or such of them as shall attend, be the Delegates to represent this Province in the General Continental Congress, to be held at the City of Philadelphia, on or about the first of September next, to meet, consult, and advise with the Deputies from the other Colonies; and to determine upon all such prudent and lawful measures as may be judged most expedient for the Colonies immediately and unitedly to adopt, in order to obtain relief for an oppressed people, and the redress of our general grievances.

Signed by order,

JONATHAN D. SERGEANT, Clerk.

MASSACHUSETTS BAY.

By the GOVERNOUR.—A Proclamation

For the encouragement of Piety and Virtue, and for preventing and punishing of Vice, Profanity, and Immorality.

In humble imitation of the laudable example of our most gracious Sovereign, George the Third, who, in the first year of his reign, was pleased to issue his Royal Proclamation for the encouragement of Piety and Virtue, and for preventing of Vice and Immorality, in which he declares his Royal purpose to punish all persons guilty thereof, and upon all occasions to bestow marks of his Royal favour on persons distinguished for their Piety and Virtue, I therefore, by and with the advice of his Majesty's Council, publish this Proclamation, exhorting all his Majesty's subjects to avoid all Hypocrisy, Sedition, Licentiousness, and all other immoralities, and to have a grateful sense of all God's mercies, making the divine laws the rule of their conduct.

I therefore command all Judges, Justices, Sheriffs, and other officers, to use their utmost endeavours to enforce the laws for promoting Religion and Virtue, and restraining all Vice and Sedition; and I earnestly recommend to all Ministers of the Gospel, that they be vigilant and active in inculcating a due submission to the laws of God and man; and I exhort all the people of this Province, by every means in their power, to contribute what they can towards a general reformation of manners, restitution of peace and good order, and a proper subjection to the laws, as they expect the blessing of Heaven.

And I do therefore declare that in the disposal of the offices of honour and trust, within this Province, the supporters of true Religion and good Government, shall be considered as the fittest objects of such appointments.

And I hereby require the Justices of Assize and Justices of the Peace in this Province, to give strict charge to the Grand Jurors for the prosecution of offenders against the laws; and that, in their several Courts, they cause this Proclamation to be publickly read, immediately before the charge is given.

Given at the Council Chamber in Salem, the 21st day of July, 1774, in the fourteenth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, & c.

THOMAS GAGE.

By his Excellency's command,

THOMAS FLUCKER, Secretary.

GOD save the King.

TO THE WORTHY INHABITANTS OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON.

Rhode Island, July 21, 1774.

MY DEAR BRETHREN: The manly firmness with which you sustain every kind of Ministerial abuse, injury, and oppression, and support the glorious cause of liberty, reflects the highest honour upon the town. The few, very few amongst you, who have adopted the principles of slavery, serve, like the shade in a picture, to exhibit your virtues in a more striking point of light. Unhappy men, I sincerely pity them, that they should have so little sense of the dignity of human nature; so little sense of their duty to God, as to wish to reduce rational beings, formed after his divine image, to a state of brutish or worse than brutish servitude; that they should be so dead to all the feelings of humanity, publick spirit, and universal benevolence, as to prefer the sordid pleasure of being upper slaves to foreign tyrants, and under them tyrannizing over their country, to the God-like satisfaction of saving that country. How wretchedly these men mistake happiness! All the riches and honour in the world cannot give any pleasure in the least degree equal to the sincere heart-felt joy which the patriot feels in the consciousness of having supported the dignity, the freedom, and happiness of his country.

The attempt made by these men to annihilate your Committee of Correspondence was very natural. The robber does not wish to see our property entirely secured. An enemy, about to invade a foreign country, does not wish to see the coast well guarded and the country universally alarmed. Upon the same principles these men wish the dissolution of the Committee. They know that a design was formed to rob the Americans of their property; they hoped to share largely in the general plunder; but they now see that by the vigilance, wisdom, and fidelity, of the several Committees of Correspondence, the people are universally apprized of their danger, and will soon enter into such measures for the common security as will infallibly blast all their unjust expectations; and this is the true source of all the abuse thrown upon your Committee. But Oh, ye worthy few! continue to treat all their attempts with the neglect which they deserve. Thus the generous mastiff looks down with pity and contempt upon the little noisy, impertinent curs, which bark at him as he walks the streets. Your faithful services have endeared you to the wise and good in every Colony. Continue your indefatigable labours in the common cause, and you will soon see the happy success of them in the salvation of your country.

The tools of power, and their connections, I imagine, are daily persuading you, my brethren, to submit to the Ministry. They pretend to pity your distresses, and assure you that the only way for you to get relief, is the making compensation for the tea, and submitting to the Revenue Acts. But did ever a man preserve his money by delivering up his purse to the highwayman who dared to demand it ? Is it the way to preserve life, to throw away our arms and present our naked bosoms to the murderer's sword ?

The town of Boston has been resembled to Carthage, and threatened with the same fate by a Member of Parliament. The execution of the sentence is already begun. It may not be amiss, then, to turn to the history of that people. There had been two long and very bloody wars between Rome and that city. The Romans were victorious. But the Carthagenians having, in a few years, almost recovered their former state of wealth and power, the Romans looked upon them with a jealous eye, and took every opportunity, (unless by an open war,) to depress them. The Carthagenians, dreading a war, and hoping, by a proper submission, to conciliate the Roman affection sent Ambassadors to Rome, with orders to declare that they entirely abandoned themselves, and all they possessed, to the discretion of the Romans. The Senate of Rome, in return, granted them their liberty; the exercise of their