own laws, all their territories and possessions, as private persons, or as a Republick, on condition that, in thirty days, they should send three hundred hostages to Lilybæum, and do what the Consuls should order them. This cruel order was submitted to. The hostages were immediately sent. They were the flower and hopes of the most noble families of Carthage. Upon their departure nothing was heard but the most dismal cries and groans; the whole city was in tears; and the mothers of these devoted youth tore their hair and beat their breasts in all the agonies of grief and despair. They fastened their arms around their lovely off spring, and could not be separated from them but by force. This cruel sacrifice, I should think, would have melted the Romans into compassion; but it had no such effect. Ambition and tyranny are incapable of any humane or tender feeling. The Deputies, therefore, attended the Roman camp, and told the Consuls they were come in the name of the Senate of Carthage, to receive their orders, which they were ready to obey in all things. The Consul praised their good disposition and ready obedience, and ordered them to deliver up all their arms. This fatal order was complied with, and an infinite number of weapons of all kinds, and a fine fleet of ships, accordingly delivered up. Would any tiling less than the entire destruction of Carthage have satisfied the Romans, they would now have been perfectly content. They had wholly disarmed the Carthagenians, and got all the noble youth hostages, as a security for their quiet submission; but all this did not satisfy them. The Consul sternly told them that the Senate of Rome had determined to destroy Carthage; that they must quit their city and remove to some other part of their territory, four leagues from the sea. This they refused to do. The Romans therefore attacked their city, which, notwithstanding its defenceless state, bravely sustained a most terrible siege three whole years. Had the Carthaginians preserved their youth, the navy, and their arms; had they united their neighbouring nations against the common oppressor, and immediately prepared for their defence, they might, perhaps, have defeated the Romans, and preserved their city entirely, or at least for many years longer. But they, by imprudent submissions, put themselves wholly in the power of the enemy; and the consequences were, the miserable death of several hundred thousand people, and the utter destruction of their city! Take warning, my dear countrymen, by this terrible example.

What would the Minister have, if not the good of the Nation ? You have invariably promoted it from the first foundation of the Colony. In war you have bravely de fended yourselves and the neighbouring Colonies. You have taken a glorious part in several foreign expeditions. You have even, by your conquests, given peace to Europe. Besides these important advantages, the Nation has received millions of the profits of your commerce; every thing more than a bare subsistence, which you could gather from all quarters of the globe, being by you remitted to Great Britain for her manufactures. What would he have more ? He tells you plainly that your liberty, your lives, and property, must be laid at his feet. But, my brethren, suffer every thing, even the horrours of civil war, sooner than make the vile submission. Should you agree to pay for the tea, something more would be demanded. Should that be complied with, something further would still be demanded. In short, nothing will satisfy him but destroying the town, or reducing it to a poor fishing village. A plan hath been formed and steadily pursued, for changing the free Constitution of Britain into an absolute Monarchy. Luxury, bribery, and corruption, have given the Minister the absolute command of England and Ireland. The only remaining obstacle to his unlimited power, is the brave resistance made by the Americans. You are among the first of those Sons of Freedom, who have bravely stemmed the torrent of tyranny. You have penetrated and exposed the mischievous designs of the Ministry. You have pointed out proper measures to defeat those execrable designs, and entered into those measures with spirit. This, and not the destruction of the tea, hath brought down the vengeance of the Ministry upon you. They have left you no alternative, but to give up your liberties, and hold your lives and property as slaves, by their mere arbitrary will and pleasure; or nobly determine to maintain those just rights and privileges, which, by the laws of God and your country, you are entitled to You will never hesitate one moment. I am sure, my generous countrymen, you were born and nurtured in the arms of Freedom. You were never yet conquered by any power on earth. You have vast and sure resources. The Colonies, now heartily united, consider your cause as their own. They will soon enter into spirited and effectual measures for your relief. A great part of the people of Eng land and Ireland will support you; and the distress in which the Nation will soon be involved, by the ill conduct of the Minister, will soon compel him to change his measures, or sink under the resentment of an injured people. Spurn, therefore, from your presence and councils forever, those who dare to propose the giving up our liberties; continue bravely to bear up under your present distress; persevere in the glorious cause in which we are engaged: it is the cause of our King, our country, and of God himself. He conduct ed your fathers to America; planted and preserved them in the wilderness, that they might worship him in a manner acceptable to him. You have always maintained the publick (and I hope private) worship of God. You and almost all America have lately addressed him in a most solemn manner. He hath often delivered us when all human help failed. Witness the destruction of the French fleet at Chebucta. He is the same gracious and all-powerful Being. Let us, my brethren, put our trust in him; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Let the priests and ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar; and let them and all of us, most devoutly, say, "Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach;" and we may rely upon it that he will, in due time, deliver us from all our enemies, and continue us a great, a free, and a happy people.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM LONDON TO A GENTLEMAN IN PHILADELPHIA, DATED JULY 23, 1774.

I have been with Doctor Franklin. I find the storm against him has much abated; though I believe he has not in the least remitted his attention to the interests of his much injured country. However quiet in appearance, I am very anxious to hear what reception the latter wanton strokes of Government here have met with in America, particularly that detestable Quebec Bill, which is so evidently intended as a bridle on the Northern Colonies. That Act is looked upon in the most unfavourable light here of any of them; as, for want of making proper distinctions, the violent proceedings of the Boston mob are too generally deemed a sufficient justification of the others, and have afforded the Ministry a pretence, which, I am persuaded, they much wished for, of introducing an armed force into America, and such other measures as are undoubtedly aimed at establishing the right of taxation in the legislation here; and if not firmly opposed, will certainly do it through America. Of what importance, then, is the present conduct of America? If the people here are not made to feel the importance, all is over in that way. The late measures will be looked on as justified by their success; and the venal crew, at present termed the Representatives of Britain, will probably be again generally returned at the general election next spring, to finish the remains of American liberty. Here, indeed, there is but little more than the form of it; where, by exorbitant taxes, the very means are afforded their rulers of riveting their chains, by giving the constitutional sanction. I never felt a stronger attachment to our own cause, than since my arrival here, and ardently wish that such counsels may prevail, as, without introducing anarchy, may preserve our just rights.

I find here many who warmly interest themselves in our favour; and entertain a hope, that when luxury and corruption shall gain an entire conquest over virtue and liberty, in this once happy Kingdom, they or their descendants may find an asylum in America, where the genius of Liberty shall reign triumphant.

A few days ago I spent an hour or two very agreeably with Granville Sharp, Esquire, to whom I had been introduced. He appears to me to be a very uncommon character, and exceedingly assiduous in the application of uncommon talents for the benefit of his fellow creatures. He tells me he has now in the press, an Examination into the Rights of the Colonies, which are so flagrantly infringed by the late Acts of Parliament. He is warmly on our