So many great questions of commerce, of finance, of Constitution, and of policy, are involved in this American deliberation, that I dare engage for nothing, but that I shall give it, without any predilection to former opinions, or any sinister bias whatsoever, the honest and impartial consideration of which I am capable. The publick has a full right to it, and this great city, a main pillar in the commercial interest of Great Britain, must totter on its base by the slightest mistake with regard to our American measures. Thus much, however, I think it not amiss to lay before you, that I am not, I hope, apt to take up or lay down my opinions lightly. I have held, and ever shall maintain, to the best of my power, unimpaired and undiminished, the just, wise, and necessary constitutional superiority of Great Britain. This is necessary for America as well as for us. I never mean to depart from it. Whatever may be lost by it, I avow it. The forfeiture even of your favour, if by such a declaration I could forfeit it, though the first object of my ambition, never will make me disguise my sentiments on this subject.

But I have ever had a clear opinion, and have ever held a constant correspondent conduct, that this superiority is consistent with all the liberties a sober and spirited American ought to desire. I never meant to put any Colonist, or any human creature, in a situation not becoming a free man. To reconcile British superiority with American liberty, shall be my great object, as far as my little faculties extend. I am far from thinking that both, even yet, may not be preserved.

When I first devoted myself to the publick service, I considered how I should render myself fit for it; and this I did by endeavouring to discover what it was that gave this country the rank it holds in the world; I found that our power and dignity rose principally, if not solely, from two sources, our Constitution and commerce. Both these I have spared no study to understand, and no endeavour to support.

The distinguishing part of our Constitution is its liberty. To preserve that liberty inviolate seems the particular duty and proper trust of a Member of the House of Commons. But the liberty, the only liberty I mean, is a liberty connected with order, and that not only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them. It inheres in good and steady Government, as in its substance and vital principle.

The other source of our power is commerce, of which you are so large a part, and which cannot exist, no more than your liberty, without a connection with many virtues. It has ever teen a very particular and a very favourite object of my study, in its principles and its details. I think many here are acquainted with the truth of what I say. This I know, that I have ever had my house open, and my poor services ready for traders and manufacturers of every denomination. My favourite ambition is to have those services acknowledged. I now appear before you to make trial, whether my earnest endeavours have been so wholly oppressed by the weakness of my abilities, as to be rendered insignificant in the eyes of a great trading city, or whether you choose to give weight to humble abilities for the sake of the honest exertions with which they are accompanied. This is my trial today. My industry is not on trial: of my industry I am sure, as far as my constitution of mind and body admitted.

When I was invited by many respectable merchants, freeholders, and freemen of this city, to offer them my services, I had just received the honour of an election at another place, at a very great distance from this. I immediately opened the matter to those of my worthy constituents who were with me, and they unanimously advised me not to decline it; that they had elected me with a view to the publick service; and that as great questions relative to our commerce and Colonies were imminent, that in such matters I might derive authority and support from the representation of this great commercial city; they desired me therefore to set off without delay, very well persuaded that I never could forget my obligations to them or to my friends, for the choice they have made of me. From that time to this instant I have not slept, and if I should have the honour of being freely chosen by you, I hope I shall be as far from slumbering or sleeping when your service requires me to be awake, as I have been in coming to offer myself a candidate for your favour.

DOCTOR SAMUEL COOPER TO MR. JOHN ADAMS, DATED OCTOBER 16, 1774.

Having just been informed that Mr. Tudor is going to Philadelphia, I take this opportunity to thank you for the obliging favour of your letter of the 29th September. The struggle, as you justly observe, between fleets and armies and commercial regulations, must be very unequal. We hope, however, that Congress will carry this mode of defence as far as it will go, and endeavour to render it as early effectual as it can be, since the operation of it must necessarily be slow—were we at ease we would wait—but being first seized and griped by the merciless hand of power, we are "tortured even to madness," and yet, perhaps, no people would give a greater example of patience and firmness could the people be sure of the approbation and countenance of the Continent, in consolidating themselves in the best manner they are able, they should have, they say, fresh spirits to sustain the conflict. The report of an uncommon large quantity of British goods sent to New-York and Philadelphia naturally carries our thoughts to a Non-consumption. Nothing could more thoroughly embarrass these selfish Importers, and none ever deserved more such a punishment.

Our Provincial Congress is assembled; they adjourned from Concord to Cambridge. Among them, and through the Province, the spirit is ardent. And I think the inhabitants of this Town are distracted to remain in it with such formidable fortifications at its entrance. Besides the Regiments expected from the Southward and Canada, we have several Companies from Newfoundland, of which we had no apprehension until they arrived. The Tories depend that the Administration will push their point with all the force that they can spare, and this I think we ought to expect and take into our account.

PENNSYLVANIA COUNCIL.

At a Council held at Philadelphia, on Monday, October 17, 1774:

Present: The Honourable John Penn, Esquire, Governour, William Logan, James Tilghman, Richard Peters, Edward Shippen, Jun., Benjamin Chew, Esquires.

Upon the application of John Patterson, Esquire, Deputy Collector of his Majesty's Customs for this Port, the Governour, with the advice of the Council, issued the following Proclamation, viz:

By the Honourable JOHN PENN, Esquire, Governour and Commander-in-chief of the Province of PENNSYLVANIA, and the Counties of NEW-CASTLE, KENT, and SUSSEX, on DELAWARE.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas an information has been made to me by John Patterson, Esquire, Collector of his Majesty Customs for the Port of Philadelphia, supported by depositions taken before one of the Justices of the Peace for the County of Philadelphia, that in the night of the twenty-second day of last month, a considerable number of Hogsheads of foreign Sugar were taken from on board the schooner Felicity, Allen Moore, Master, lately arrived from Hispaniola, and put into a store in the Northern Liberties of this City, the said Sugars not having been first entered in the Custom House, nor the Duties thereof paid before they were landed, and that on the next day a great number of people, armed with clubs and staves, appeared at the said store and prevented the Officers of the Customs from breaking open the doors of the same in order to make seizure of the said Sugars; and that afterwards, in the evening of the same day, the said Sugars were violently and forcibly taken from the said store and carried away. I have, therefore, thought fit, with the advice of the Council, to issue this Proclamation; and do hereby strictly charge, enjoin, and require all Judges, Justices, Sheriffs, and all Civil Officers, as well as all others, his Majesty's subjects within this Province, to use their utmost endeavours, by all lawful ways and means, not only to bring to justice all offenders in the premises, but to discountenance and discourage all such violent, outrageous, and illegal proceedings for the future, and also upon all occasions to afford the most speedy and