however, we had the pleasure, from the best accounts, to find it otherwise, and that we had little reason to fear the late Resolutions of your Assembly would produce any change in your proceedings. I have now to inform you that, notwithstanding all we could do, the Fishery Bill was yesterday read the third time, and passed the House of Commons, whereby a stop is to be put to all the Fisheries on the first of July, except the Whale Fishery, which is to be continued to the first of November. Every impartial man must, in his heart, condemn a Bill so replete with inhumanity and cruelty; and it will be an everlasting stain on the annals of our pious Sovereign, who, from the best accounts, is the grand promoter of these proceedings. We hope the firmness of your countrymen will evince to all the world your just sense of measures so unjust; and will, in due season, retort them with vengeance, on the guilty heads of the enemies of the British Empire.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM LONDON TO A GENTLEMAN IN PHILADELPHIA, DATED MARCH 3, 1775.

Lest you should not have a true idea of Lord North’s design in his motion, I send you the enclosed paper,* which gives a pretty just account of what he said on the occasion, and shows plainly it was planned to divide the Colonies, as well as the friends of Liberty here; in both of which I hope he will be deceived. The Bill against the four New-England Governments, of which you have had a copy, will finally pass the House of Commons this day, and is to take place the first day of July next. You may rely upon it, that in a few days another Bill will be brought into the House of Commons, to prohibit the other Colonies from any commercial intercourse with each other, and to confine their Trade in every individual article to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies only. My best information tells me, that General Gage is still to continue in Massachusetts-Bay; some of the Troops going from hence and Ireland are for Boston, the others for New-York, where they have, it is said, been requested to be sent, by Delancy and his band of traitors—Cooper, White, Colden, and Watts—to aid them in securing New-York for the Ministry. This, it seems, they have undertaken to do, with Military assistance.

New-York is to be a place of Arms, and Provisions are to be provided there for support of the Army in New-England; at the same time they hope, by having possession of New-York, to prevent any assistance from Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the other Southern Colonies, going to New-England, of which they are very apprehensive. I hope there is virtue enough in the people of New-York to defeat this scheme, and that they will banish from their society the heads, at least, of the traitors, before the Troops get there to back them, which cannot be sooner than the last of May.

I do not see occasion to advise what is best to be done in the present situation of things, because if you mean to continue Freemen, resistance, even to the last extremity, must be made, and, if with united efforts, it will, in my opinion, assuredly be successful. If you are willing to be Slaves, you are only to submit at once, and wear your chains quietly.

I do not entertain the least doubt of your persevering in so noble a contest, and with proper application the Colony of New-York will, I think, join you heartily.

EARL OF DARTMOUTH TO THE GOVERNOUR OF GEORGIA.

Whitehall, March 3, 1775.

SIR: I have received your letters of the 19th and 20th of December, the latter numbered thirty-five, and have laid them before the King. But having nothing in command from His Majesty thereupon, I have only to lament, that His Majesty’s subjects in Georgia, who have hitherto, in general, shown so great respect for the Mother Country, and loyalty to the King, should have, at length, manifested a disposition to adopt the sentiments, and follow the ill example, of their neighbours. But I trust that the measures I have taken for your support, and the zeal and alacrity of the King’s Officers, and of those gentlemen who you say stand forth in the maintenance of the publick peace, will have the effect to prevent the Sons of Liberty, as they are called, from committing themselves in any act of violence.

I find, by a letter from Mr. Cooper to Mr. Pownall, that the Lords of the Treasury have had under their consideration, the proposition which you transmitted some years ago, in the shape of a Bill for better collecting His Majesty’s Quit Rents. They seem, however, to be of opinion, that the provisions of an Act of the Province of North-Carolina for the same purpose, which they have had before them, are better calculated to answer the object in view than the Bill you recommended; and principally, because it enacts, that no Patent, Deed, or Conveyance of Land shall be held valid, unless enrolled in the manner the Act directs; whereas, in your Bill, the enrollment is enforced merely by penalty. I therefore think fit to send you a copy of the North-Carolina Act; that, by comparing the two together, you may be enabled to frame and pass such a law, as shall correspond with the sentiments of that Board.

I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

DARTMOUTH.

Sir James Wright, Baronet, Georgia.

FROM THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH TO THE GOVERNOURS OF THE SEVERAL COLONIES.

SIR: It is fit that I should acquaint you that the Resolutions of the House of Commons, which accompanies my separate despatch, passed in the Committee by a majority of two hundred and seventy-four to eighty-eight; and was received and agreed to by the House without a division. And, indeed, the great majorities which have appeared in both Houses, upon every question that has been proposed for maintaining the supremacy of Parliament, is such an evidence of the general sense of the Nation upon that subject, as must show how little ground there has been for those assurances which have been artfully held out to the Americans of support here, in the dangerous conduct they have adopted; and convince them that there neither can, nor will be any the least relaxation from those measures which that conduct has made indispensably necessary for reducing the Colonies to the constitutional authority of Parliament. I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

DARTMOUTH.

His Honour the Lieutenant Governour of South-Carolina.

FROM THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH TO THE GOVERNOUR OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Whitehall, March 3, 1775.

SIR: By the mail of the last New-York Packet, I received your despatch of the 30th January, and have laid it before the King; but as my Circular Letter to you of this date, enclosing the Resolution of the House of Commons on the 20th of February, contains such instructions as have been thought fit to be given to His Majesty’s Governours in the Colonies, in the present situation of affairs, I have not any particular commands from the King to signify to you thereupon.

I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant,

DARTMOUTH.

Deputy Governour Penn.

FROM THE EARL OF DARTMOUTH TO THE GOVERNOURS OF THE COLONIES.

Whitehall, February 22, 1775.

SIR: Enclosed I send you, by the King’s command, a Joint Address of both Houses of Parliament to His Majesty, upon a consideration of the Papers which had been communicated to them relative to the state of the American Colonies, together with His Majesty’s most gracious answer to the said Address.

I likewise send you a printed copy of a Bill brought into the House of Commons, for Restraining the Trade and Fisheries of the four New-England Governments for a limited time; together with a copy of a Resolution declaratory of the sense of Parliament upon the subject of Taxation, which Resolution was moved in the Committee on

* See Vol. I, Folio 1600, Note.