constitutional Government; which, notwithstanding its economy, is considerable, and, upon emergencies, so great as to be burthensome; and if the American Governments were to lavish on the administrators of Government large salaries, and pay a long list of pensioners, according to the present mode in Great Britain, they must be very soon ruined. What reason then for their contributing towards the extravagance of the parent state? He says, he is "not so ungrateful as to forget the vast obligations we are under to Great Britain for her fostering parental protection and aid on every occasion, when necessary." He would have been better understood, had he pointed them out; for it is well known that Great Britain, while the Colonies were really in an infant state, left them to themselves; her attention to them began with their importance; when the Parliament of Great Britain found they could be benefitted by them, and Administration have places for the support of Court dependents; and latterly their fears, lest some other power might obtain footing on this Continent, to their damage, is a sufficient reason for their occasionally guarding against such an event. Where, then, the vast obligations?

An exclusive trade to these Colonies, is much more than an equivalent for the protection afforded. Great Britain has lent the same, or greater, occasional assistance to Portugal, for only a partial trade, and perhaps on the score of keeping a balance of power; and without doubt they find their account in so doing. Why then should the protection afforded this country be rated so highly? And yet highly as this protection is rated, it is certain that in the war before the last, it afforded the Colonies no security from an invasion by a very formidable armament; for, notwithstanding the naval power of Great Britain, or any thing done by the British Government to prevent it, Boston, which was the designed victim to that French armament, might have been laid in ruins. It was the Divine Providence only that protected that town. The exertions of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in favour of Great Britain, rendered her the subject of French resentment at that time; at present, the same Province is the object of resentment of British Administration for her exertions in favour of British, as well as American freedom. As her protection from a French invasion was not the arm of flesh, so, may the same Divine protection shield her and all these Colonies from the dominion of tyranny; and may virtue, liberty, and peace, have their abode, and flourish in this land for ages yet to come.

STAMFORD (CONNECTICUT) TOWN MEETING.

At a Meeting of the Inhabitants of the Town of Stamford, legally warned and convened on the 7th day of October, 1774.

The inhabitants of this town, sensibly affected with the distresses to which the town of Boston and Province of Massachusetts Bay are subjected by several late unconstitutional Acts of the British Parliament, and also viewing the Quebec Bill, whereby the Roman Catholick religion is established over a great part of his Majesty's extensive Continent of America, as an attempt not barely to destroy our civil liberties, but as an open declaration that our religious privileges, which our fathers fled their native country to enjoy, are very soon to be abolished, (hoping to convince the people of this extensive Continent, that, notwithstanding our long silence, we are by no means unwilling to join with our sister towns to assert our just rights, and oppose every design of a corrupt Ministry to enslave America,) do declare, that we acknowledge our subjection to the. Crown of Great Britain, and all the constitutional powers thereto belonging, as established in the illustrious House of Hanover, and that it is our earnest desire that the same peaceable connection should subsist between us and the mother country that has subsisted for a long time before the late unconstitutional measures adopted by the Parliament of Great Britain; and we hope that some plan will be found out by the general Congress to effect the reconciliation we wish for. Yet we are determined, in every lawful way, to join with our sister Colonies, resolutely to defend our just rights, and oppose all illegal and unconstitutional Acts of the British Parliament that respect America.

That we are pleased that a Congress of Deputies from the Colonies is now met at Philadelphia, and, relying upon the wisdom of that body, we declare that we are ready to adopt such reasonable measures as shall by them be judged for the general good of the inhabitants of America.

Voted, That Messrs. John Lloyd and Samuel Hulton, Captain Samuel Youngs, Captain David Hait, and Charles Weed, be a Committee to receive subscriptions for the supply of the poor in the town of Boston, who suffer in consequence of an Act of Parliament, called the Port Act; and that the said Committee cause any thing that shall be collected to be transported to the care of the Committee of Ways and Means in the town of Boston, to be employed by them as they shall think fit.

The above is a true copy of record, it being a very full meeting—almost an unanimous vote.

S. JARVIS, Town Clerk.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER, DATED LONDON, OCTOBER 8, 1774.

Never did I feel myself so anxious about publick affairs as at this moment. Our own interest is intimately connected with the perseverance of our American brethren in their opposition to the tyranny of our Government. Should they continue firm, it will be scarcely possible that they should not succeed in preserving their liberties: and the preservation of their liberty ought to be an object of the last concern to all in this country; for it is only among them we can hope to find it, after luxury, dissipation, a servile Parliament, and an overwhelming load of debts and taxes have completed its ruin here. I cannot help believing that this will be the last struggle which America will have with us; if they are now steady, and succeed, they will have no reason to fear any future attempts to enslave them. But if they now submit, they will be subdued for ever, and the only nursery of freemen now in the world will be lost. May Heaven avert such a calamity! I cannot indeed imagine a state of worse slavery than that in which the Colonies would be were they, on this occasion, to submit,—to be not only subject to many hard restraints in acquiring their property, but to hold it, after being acquired, at the discretion of our rulers; to have no constitution of Government of their own, but to have their laws made and their Governments modelled by a Legislature on the other side of the Atlantic, which cannot judge of their circumstances, in which they have no voice, and all whose acts are but little more than the echoes to the will of the fool of the tyrant who happens to be Minister in this country. What an abject condition would this be! The present state of our Parliament is such that it is our own greatest calamity to be govered by it. How base would it be to wish the Americans involved in the same calamity? The mode of opposition which the Americans are likely to adopt must do them the greatest service, by checking luxury among them, and obliging them to save the money they now spend among us in purchasing superfluities, at the same time it must eventually injure us; for such are our present circumstances, that we hang upon the American trade, and the loss of it would sink the revenue, and soon bring on riots and insurrections, and a publick bankruptcy. But I am not frightened by these consequences; the preservation of American liberty I think of unspeakably more importance than any temporary sufferings which can come upon us. I also consider our present state as so corrupt, and our excellent Constitution of Government as so entirely subverted by the unbounded influence of the Crown, that my only hope arises from the prospect of a convulsion (dreadful while it lasts) which shall destroy artificial wealth and all the means of corruption; reduce us to poverty and simplicity, overturn the whole present system of policy, and be followed by the re-establishment of publick liberty and virtue.

I have been concerned to see in the Pennsylvania Instructions to their Deputies, a proposal that, previous to any other measures, a memorial or remonstrance should be presented to our Government. The Colonies have, I think, already sufficiently tried such methods as these. Our Government, if consistent, would not receive any memorial from an Assembly which they consider as illegal; it is now too late for negotiation; nor can it issue in any