of our rights, and the supporters of those measures; and particularly hath disgorged from his infamous Press, the most virulent, foul abuse, on the Members of the late Continental Congress—characters which, for wisdom, integrity, fortitude, and publick virtue, deserve, and have received, the applause of every inhabitant of this wide extended Continent, excepting a very few venal tools of a corrupt Administration.

And all this profusion of scurrility, abuse, and falsehood, this insidious, profligate Printer hath cast out, in order, if it were possible, to subvert the Association which all the American Colonies have approved, and for carrying of which into execution the General Assembly of this Colony have recommended Committees to be chosen:—Wherefore, we think it our bounden duty to hold up that infamous paracide, James Rivington, to the Continent in this odious light.

Resolved, therefore, That it is the opinion of this Committee, that no further dealings or correspondence ought to be had with the said James Rivington; and we recommend it to every person who takes his Paper, called Rivington’s Gazetteer, immediately to drop the same; and also take the liberty to recommend a similar conduct towards him to the other Towns in the Colony.

Resolved, That this Resolution be printed in the next Newport Mercury.       By order of the Committee,

HENRY WARD, Clerk.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN IN LONDON TO HIS FRIEND IN BOSTON, DATED MARCH 2, 1775.

The Ministry, it is now generally thought, are inflexible. Lord North was asked again and again this week, in the House of Commons, whether he had any thing more of a lenient or conciliatory nature to propose. He said there was nothing farther of that kind intended; and acknowledged that the remainder of the scheme was entirely coercive. When he was asked, whether the three Bills of the last year were to be repealed, he replied, that when the Colonies had come to an unconditioned submission, Parliament would consider what was fit to be done.

The Ministry are now in pretty good spirits, on account of what they conceive to be a division among yourselves in favour of Government, both in New-York and New-England. We think that, like drowning men, they are catching at every straw. Such, however, we hope their present expectations will prove.

A friend of mine saw a Letter just received from Lord Percy, in which he expresses his apprehensions of an attack being made upon the Troops at Boston, before any reinforcement can arrive, as the people in the Province are provided with a competent train of Artillery; so that all their servants have not the same assurance of success with themselves. But, indeed, it is impossible that the Ministry should really think themselves so secure as they pretend to be; and it is even thought by many that Lord North, when he moved for the late Resolution, really meant to have advanced some steps towards a solid reconciliation, had it not been for what is called the Bedford party in the Cabinet. Instead of this, the terms that are now proposed amount to nothing but an insult upon your common sense and spirit, and, I doubt not, will be resented accordingly.

ESSEX COUNTY (VIRGINIA) COMMITTEE.

At a Committee held for the County of Essex, in the Town of Tappahannock, in Virginia, on Thursday, the 2d of March, 1775, by special summons from the Chairman.

The Committee having been informed that Captain Joseph Richardson, master of the Brigantine Muir, since the first day of February last, had imported from the Island of Antigua, in the said Brigantine Muir, four pieces of British Osnaburghs, and three pieces of Irish Linen, some of which he had sold since his arrival; and the said Richardson having appeared before the Committee, agreeably to a previous summons for that purpose, on examination, confessed that upwards of two years ago he had imported into this Colony a quantity of British Osnaburghs from London, which he found himself unable to dispose of here, and therefore that he had carried some of it to Antigua, and left it there to be sold; and having found, upon his last voyage to that Island, that the same had not been sold, he brought it back again to this Colony, where he arrived since the first of February last, and sold one piece of it to one Thomas Wood, and that he has the residue by him. And having also acknowledged that he had imported at the same time three pieces of Irish Linen for the use of his family, and the same having been confirmed by the oath of William Moore, mate of the said Brigantine, the Committee having taken the matter under consideration, and having found that the said Richardson was unacquainted with the Continental Association, and that he had no intention of violating the same, or any part thereof, but that he was willing to accede thereto, and actually did sign the same, upon the first opportunity of doing so, are of opinion that the said Richardson deserves no censure for his conduct; but that the said Osnaburghs and Irish Linen, being prohibited by the Association, be re-exported to the said Island of Antigua, which the said Richardson declared himself willing to do. And it is ordered that Archibald Ritchie and John Brockenbrough do procure from the said Thomas Wood the piece of Osnaburghs by him purchased, and see that the said Richardson carry the same, as well as the other before-mentioned Linen, with him to Antigua, upon his next voyage.

The Committee having determined to encourage Arts and Manufactures within this Colony, as far as it is in their power, do agree and oblige themselves to pay Fifty Pounds, current money, to any person or persons who shall first produce to the Committee five hundred pair of Stockings, men’s and women’s, manufactured in this County; a third of which to be reasonably worth One Shilling Sterling a pair; a third to be reasonably worth Two Shillings Sterling a pair; and the other third to be reasonably worth Three Shillings Sterling a pair; of all which, he or they must give this County the refusal, and that the County will give for the same seventy-five per cent on the above prices. And that the Committee will give the best encouragement to worsted combers.         By order of the Committee,

J. POWER, Clerk.

Remarks on the late manœuvres in AMERICA, by a real friend to his King and Country, and an AMERICAN.

New-York, March 2, 1775.

Nothing has surprised people more than the Virginians and Marylanders joining with so much warmth with the New-England Republicans in their opposition to the ancient Constitution, which has been the glory of an Englishman in every part of the world; as there are certainly no Nations under the Heavens more opposite to each other, than the inhabitants of these Colonies: it would be very difficult to account for it on the principles of religion or sound policy, had not the Virginians plainly discovered their indifference to both—so highly revered by their illustrious ancestors—by an act as tyrannical as it is unjust, calculated to serve private views, to distress thousands, and to sap all the foundations of honesty and morality, by destroying that confidence which is the support of our trade, without which every industrious man is deprived of his just demands. Can any thing more plainly discover the motives of their opposition than their having shut up all the Courts of Justice, by which they fraudulently deprive the honest merchant of his due, who generously administered to their wants and supplied their luxury; and return, with the blackest ingratitude, evil for good. Yet this is a notorious truth. Sallust, in enumerating the reasons that induced so many of the first families in Rome to join in Cataline’s conspiracy to overturn the ancient Constitution of their Country, very naturally accounts for this conduct when he ascribes it to their desperate circumstances; involved in debt, slaves to luxury, and ruined by dissipation of every kind, they had no resource, no prospect for redemption, but what depended on the success of an impious civil war; through the horrours and calamities of which they were willing to wade, that they might avail themselves of their Country’s distress, and find means to gratify their pride and unbounded lust; for this end every means was attempted, every virtue ridiculed, every friend to Government, and every lover of his country, branded with the most ignominious names, and held up as traitors, whom it would be glorious in their opinions to extirpate.