proof of a determined resolution no longer to pursue measures which must end in the destruction of your Kingdom, and perhaps in the ruin of your family.

Consider, Sir, how despicable you appear in the eyes of the world; who, instead of governing, suffer yourself to be governed; who, instead of being a leader, are led; who, instead of being a King, are nothing but a mere cypher of State, while your favourite and Ministers wear all the appendages to sovereignty.

It has long surprised the Kingdom to think how you could bear such wretches to prey upon you; to think how you could suffer them to aggrandize themselves and creatures; to possess the greatest wealth, and to hold the first offices in the Kingdom; and all this by imposing upon you, by making you break your coronation-oath, by making you violate every promise you made with your people, and by filling your ears with lies, instead of truth. How is it possible you can bear such usage, which no sensible man in a private capacity can bear? and to be the dupe of the vilest of the creation, is so much beneath the dignity of a man who pretends to govern, that it is astonishing such fiends should prevail as they do. Indeed they never could, unless you, Sir, like them, was inclined to establish an arbitrary system of Government, and to set up your own will in opposition to the laws of the land.

Let me advise you, Sir, as you regard your own prosperity and the welfare of your Kingdom; let me conjure you, as you value your own safety, to consider well the fatal and ruinous measures your Ministers are pursuing, and you sanctifying with the Royal authority; consider the miserable, the unfortunate situation of this Country; think on the dangers which threaten on every side; consider we are now upon the eve of a Civil War with our Colonies; from the present face of things, it is inevitable; Trade and Commerce is at a stand, and all the horrours of wretchedness and want stare them in the face. Consider, Sir, the feelings of men, reduced in the short space of a few days, through wanton acts of power, from a state of ease and plenty to that of misery and famine. I ask, is it possible for them to set bounds to their resentment? Consider, Sir, the French and Spaniards will not long remain idle spectators, when once they see us deeply engaged in a war with the Colonies. Throw off then your supine indolence; awake from your lethargick state; and if you will not be excited by the desire of doing good, awake at least to a sense of your own danger; think when the general calamity comes on, who will be the objects of publick hatred. Will not the advisers of these destructive measures be the first sacrifices to the popular resentment? When the Merchants, Traders, and Manufacturers are starving, when the whole body of the people are in misery and distress, what security, Sir, can you expect to find? Where will your Ministers conceal themselves? They will not be safe even within the walls of your Palace!

Let these things, Sir, be well weighed, and no longer persuade yourself the people were made for you, and not you for them; no longer believe that you do not govern for them but for yourself; that the people live only to increase your glory, or to furnish matter for pleasure. For once, Sir, consider what you may do for them, and not what you may draw from them.

The people, Sir, think it to be a crime of the first magnitude to convert that power to their hurt which was intended for their good; and to obey a King while he acts in this manner, and tramples under foot all laws, divine and human, argues not only a want of sense in the highest degree, but a want of love for our Country, and a disregard for ourselves and posterity.

Your subjects, Sir, are under no obligations to you, nor do they owe you any allegiance any longer than you continue to protect them, and make their good the chief end of your Government. When a Prince assumes to himself an extravagant or an unlawful power, then all respect ceases, and he ceases to be a King; whilst he protects and preserves his people in their just rights, and governs them by the laws of the land, all good men will love and esteem him, and risk their lives and fortunes in his service; but when he begins to invade their liberties, to set up an arbitrary power, to impose unlawful taxes, raise forces, and make war upon his people, and suffer foreign States to insult and injure them, then all virtuous and good men will detest and abhor him, and endeavour to remove him from a throne he unworthily fills.

In such cases resistance is a virtue; and to say that some should passively suffer, lest, by resisting, they should cause the ruin of many, is not a just reason; because, in all probability, they will be the cause that millions unborn shall live happy and free; and what can be a more noble, glorious, and pious motive for suffering, than to transmit liberty to posterity? For this our fathers bravely fought—and many of them gloriously fell—to preserve themselves and their descendants free, and to destroy the tyranny and despotism of the Stuarts, and, Sir, (let me beg you will remember with gratitude,) to place your family upon the throne of the British Empire.

The author of this paper is far from advising violent measures upon every errour or misconduct of a Prince; but resistance becomes a duty when they attempt the ruin of the State, the subversion of liberty, or overturning the Constitution of the Kingdom. It is notorious to the world, Sir, that your Ministers are guilty of all these black and deadly crimes, and yet you screen and protect them. The conclusions to be drawn from thence are obvious, and you, like Charles, may live to see your favourites fall.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM CHARLESTOWN, IN SOUTH-CAROLINA, TO A GENTLEMAN IN LONDON, DATED MARCH 7, 1775.

I do assure you I am not now near so strenuous for America as when I left London. I am far, however, from being able to judge of the state of the Continent, in general; but sure I am this Province cannot long subsist without a free Trade, and a mutual dependance on the Mother Country. Many articles which Great Britain furnishes are now become very scarce; Rice and Indigo, the grand staple of our Commerce, are a drug.

Before the Non-Exportation scheme took effect, you would have been surprised to see the number of Ships in our harbour, and the Trade carried on in the Town; in short, on my arrival I observed as much hurry and bustle as in the streets of London; and I could not but admire the liveliness of the people. But the contrast is now visible; their tempers are soured; their fortunes, for want of Trade, consuming fast. A train of consequences must inevitably ensue which, in my opinion, they will not be able to retrieve in the space of a dozen years. It is the wish, therefore, of the wise and sober, that a speedy reconciliation with the Mother Country may be effected; but as this Province has bore so high a part in their opposition to Government, they are unwilling to give out till the terms offered become general.

PRINCESS ANNE COUNTY (VIRGINIA) COMMITTEE.

Committee Chamber, Kempe’s Landing, March 7, 1775.

The conduct of Mr. John Saunders being taken into consideration, relative to the Provincial and Continental Associations, at this important crisis, when the liberties of America are in danger of being subverted, it was thought expedient that he be held up to publick censure, and the rather because he hath had the advantage of a liberal education, and for some time past hath studied the law.

The facts upon which our censure is grounded are as follows: The said John Sounders was present at the meeting of a respectable body of Freeholders of the County, at the Court-House, in July, 1774, for the purpose of choosing Deputies to attend the Convention in Williamsburg, the first day of August last, and of entering into resolutions expressive of the sentiments of the County, in support of their just rights and privileges; which not one refused signing but said Saunders, who obstinately refused, though particularly solicited by some of the principal gentlemen then present.

When the Provincial Association, entered into in August, 1774, was read, and offered to the people that they might express their approbation by signing it, at a meeting of the Freeholders, on Tuesday, the 16th day of the said month, and afterwards at almost every publick meeting within this County, at many of which the said Saunders appeared, yet he constantly persisted in his refusal to accede thereto.

When the Continental Association was also offered him