even within these sacred walls? Or rather, may you not fear being pursued, not only there, but even into your most secret lurking holes? Strafford and Laud were condemned, and justly executed for being the advisers of arbitrary measures. The King, had he been able, would have protected them; they only echoed back to him his own sentiments, strengthened by their flattery and obsequiousness. But weak is the power of rulers when opposed to the wants and distresses, the rage and resentment of the multitude.

When the artificers and handicraftsmen come by thousands to your House, demanding bread, it will be too late to argue;—the mischief will be done. You then will have only to conceal your obnoxious heads, and save yourselves if you can, from popular resentment and publick justice. There may be a time, and I believe that time will soon come, when the nod and smiles of the Minister will be shunned with as much care as they are now sought for with eagerness

Once more I admonish you to awake before it is too late. Stop the further progress of the evil ye cannot now totally cure; and though ye will not be roused by a love of your Country, nor a sense of the impending ruin which threatens us, yet consider your own danger, as most assuredly such of ye as have been the advisers of these measures will be the first sacrifices. Repeal then these accursed Acts; acknowledge yourselves to have been in the wrong, and thus atone, as much as now lies in your power, for the mischiefs you have already occasioned.

MONITOR.

COUNCIL OF NORTH-CAROLINA.

At a Council held at Newbern, in North-Carolina, the 1st of March, 1775,

Present: His Excellency the Governour, the Hon. Jas. Hasell, Hon. John Rutherford, Hon. Samuel Strudwicke, Martin Howard, and Samuel Cornell, Esquires.

His Excellency informed the Board that he had observed an Advertisement published in the Newspapers, and circulated through this Colony by Handbills, dated Perquimons County, 11th February, 1775, requesting the Counties and Towns thereof, to elect Delegates to represent them in Convention, at the Town of Newbern, on Monday, the third of April next, and signed John Harvey, Moderator. And considering such proceedings to be highly derogatory to the dignity of the Legislature appointed to meet at the same time, and in every light illegal and inconsistent with good order and Government, recommended the matter to the consideration of the Board, and desired their advice of the measures to be taken to contravene the design of said Advertisement.

The Board conceiving the highest detestation of such proceedings, were unanimous in advising His Excellency to issue a Proclamation to inhibit and forbid such illegal meeting; in the following words:

By His Excellency JOSIAH MARTIN, Esquire, Captain General, Governour, and Commander-in-chief in and over the said Province:

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas, an Advertisement is printed in the publick Newspapers, and also industriously circulated about this Colony in handbills, dated from Perquimons County, the 11th day of February, 1775, requesting the Counties and Towns thereof to elect Delegates to represent them in Convention, at the Town of Newbern, on Monday, the 3d day of April next, and signed John Harvey, Moderator. And whereas, the name and authority of such an officer, and such meeting, is unknown to the Laws and Constitution of this Country; and such an invitation to the people may tend to ensnare the unwary and ignorant among His Majesty’s loyal and faithful subjects in this Province, to partake in the guilt of such unlawful proceedings:

And whereas, the Assembly of this Province, duly elected, is the only true and lawful representation of the people, and is competent to every legal act that Representatives of the people can do; and as an attempt to excite the people to choose another body of Representatives to meet at the time and place appointed for the meeting of the Assembly, is to betray them into a violation of the Constitution, in a point wherein they are most materially concerned to support it: a contempt of that branch of the Legislature which represents the people, and highly derogatory to its power, rights, and privileges; I have thought proper, by and with the advice and consent of His Majesty’s Council of this Province, to issue this Proclamation: and I do hereby earnestly exhort the many good people of this Province, who have to their honour, hitherto prudently withstood the insidious attempts of evil-minded and designing men, that they do, on this occasion, steadfastly persevere in such loyal and dutiful conduct, and continue to resist and treat with just indignation all measures so subversive of order and Government, and so inconsistent with the allegiance they owe to His Majesty; and that they do not subject themselves to the restraints of tyrannical and arbitrary Committees, which have already, in many instances, proceeded to the extravagance of forcing His Majesty’s subjects, contrary to their consciences, to submit to their unreasonable, seditious, and chimerical Resolves, doing thereby the most cruel and unparalleled violence to their liberties, under the pretence of releasing them from imaginary grievances; and I do further exhort all His Majesty’s subjects in this Province, as they value their dearest rights under the present happy Constitution, and as they would testify their duty and allegiance to the best of Kings, that they forbear to meet to choose persons to represent them in Convention, pursuant to the advertisement herein before recited; and I also do most earnestly recommend to them to renounce, disclaim, and discourage all such meetings, cabals, and illegal proceedings, which artful and designing men shall attempt to engage them in, and which can only tend to introduce disorder and anarchy, to the destruction of the real interests and happiness of the people, and to involve this Province in confusion, disgrace and ruin.

Given under my hand and the great seal of the said Province, at Newbern, the first day of March, Anno Domini, 1775, and in the 15th year of His Majesty’s reign.

GOD save the King.

JOSIAH MARTIN.

By His Excellency’s command,

SAMUEL STRUDWICKE, Secretary.

TO THE PRINTERS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE.

Philadelphia, February 22, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: I rejoice to find that, in a Province distinguished for its progress in science and literature as Pennsylvania, the few sons of despotism are reduced to the pensioned pen of some ministerial hireling at Boston. Believe me, gentlemen, your Paper did not gain an extensive circulation from the gleanings of others; its value has been owing to the originality, as well as the elegance of its essays. Every Newspaper, from New-Hampshire to Georgia, (two at Boston, and one at New-York, excepted,) would furnish refutations of the re-publication in your last Paper, signed Phileirene. But I will not ask you to serve up to your readers, at second-hand, what will be more acceptable as an original, though of a coarser and humbler composition. I therefore beg leave to present to my fellow-subjects and citizens

The other side of the Question.

It is a just remark of the celebrated Chesterfield to his son, that grant him but two or three positions, and he would undertake, by fair inference, to prove that robbing on the highway is an honest, and ought to be a reputable calling. Happy would it be if the sacred rights of mankind were as safe in this respect, as the persons of individuals. But the superiour temptations to justify the invasion of the former, are too alluring not to afford melancholy proofs, in every age and Country, of a prostitution of the most shining talents, to gild the pill of arbitrary power and lawless domination. When we see a Bacon, a Milton, a Strafford, and Bolingbroke, sacrificing at their shrine, can we be surprised if men of such principles, but far inferiour abilities, should appear among us, with the Treasury of England in full view, and hearts panting to lord it over their fellow-men? Divine Providence has endowed the inhabitants of America with rational powers not inferiour to those of any other Country; it is but justice to say, they have generally improved them better than any other. By their good sense and judgment shall this author be tried, whose facts, modesty, style, accuracy, and precision, have been thought