and Laws, upon which our lives and fortunes, and the welfare of the Province now depend; and utterly protest against meetings of people against the peace thereof, or any thing which may give birth to sedition and insurrection. We cannot but express to your Excellency that we consider all such associations, at this crisis, of a very dangerous fatality against your Excellency’s good Government of this Province, and to distress the internal welfare of this Country, and to mislead the unwary from the paths of their duty. And we do assure your Excellency that we are determined, by the assistance of God, in our respective stations, to continue His Majesty’s loyal subjects, and to contribute all in our power for the preservation of the publick peace, and that we shall endeavour to cultivate such sentiments in all those under our care, and warm their breast with a true zeal for His Majesty, and affection for his illustrious family.

May the Almighty God direct his Council, his Parliament, and all those under him, that their endeavours may be for the advancement of piety, and the safety, honour, and welfare of our Sovereign and his Kingdoms, that the malice of his enemies may be assuaged, their evil designs confounded and defeated, so that the whole world may see his sacred person, our laws, and Country, are the special objects of Divine dispensation and Providence.

Signed by one hundred and ninety-five of the Inhabitants of the Counties of ROWAN and SURRY.

ADDRESS OF THE INHABITANTS OF GUILFORD COUNTY, NORTH-CAROLINA, TO THE GOVERNOUR.

To His Excellency JOSIAH MARTIN, &c.:

We, His Majesty’s most loyal subjects of the County of Guilford, and Province of North-Carolina, beg leave to lay before your Excellency, that We hold in open detestation all illegal and unwarrantable proceedings against His Majesty’s crown and dignity. That whereas there is a general dispute between His Majesty and the Colonies of America, past our knowledge to determine what the event may be, we therefore hold a firm attachment to His Majesty King George the Third, his crown and dignity; and we being a poor and unhappy people, lying under the reflection of the late and unhappy insurrection, we therefore have taken this opportunity to show forth our loyalty to His Majesty and his lawful commands; and for further confirmation hereto subscribe our names, as maintaining our rights under a legal authority.

Signed by one hundred and sixteen of the Inhabitants of the County of GUILFORD.

DECLARATION OF INHABITANTS OF BROOK-HAVEN, SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW-YORK.

Brook-Haven, March 10, 1775.

Whereas, Major Benjamin Floyd was mentioned in Mr. Hugh Gaine’s Paper of the 6th of February, as having got a number of subscribers to a certain Petition, said to be signed to the General Assembly of this Province:* Wherefore we desire to inform the publick, that whereas, he, the said Benjamin Floyd and Joseph Denton did carry about this Town a paper, calling of it a Petition to the General Assembly of this Province, and did earnestly urge and persuade all that they could to sign the same, calling of it a good thing, and telling people that it was to support the laws of the Province, which was likely soon to fail; and that it was an instrument well drawn, and the best calculated for that purpose: And as we, the subscribers, did, by their persuasions, without having a proper knowledge of the design of said instrument, sign our names to the same; but as we since have learned that the said instrument, called a Petition, was designed and is calculated, as we think, to make divisions and disagreement between the Legislative authority, viz: the Governour, the Council, and General Assembly, and the commonalty of the good people of this Provice, with respect to the observing of the Counsels and Resolves of our worthy Delegates, recommended in Continental Congress for the good people of this Province to observe, as being the most likely method to obtain a redress of our publick grievances; and we do hereby publickly declare our dislike and disapprobation of said pretended Petition, and of all such instruments as may have a like tendency to make divisions and parties among the good people of this Province. In witness whereof, we have hereunto signed our names.

N. B.—The reader will please to note that the above is a true copy of what is now carrying about in the Township of Brook-Haven, and to which a considerable number have signed, (of those that subscribed the pretended Petition above alluded to,) whose example, it is not doubted, will be followed by many more.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM LONDON, TO A GENTLEMAN IN PHILADELPHIA, DATED MARCH 11, 1775.

You have herewith enclosed some of the late English papers, and a peculiar fiery piece called the Crisis, wrote professedly in favour of Liberty and America, and which, from its freedom, has suffered martyrdom at Westminster and the Exchange, by order of a prostituted Parliament.

The plan of this accursed Ministry is, to divide and govern, in hopes of completing their principle of slavery, by the base advantages and preferences now held out to New-York, North-Carolina, and Georgia. Surely Americans must see through the flimsy texture, and nobly spurn at the offer! I cannot suffer myself to believe that these Provinces will desert the cause of liberty, by accepting the ignoble Commerce offered to them by this abhorred Parliament. But should it be the unhappy case, which God forbid, why then, let all the rest of America unite in a firm determination never to trade or have any connection with them again. With what contempt ought the base majority of the New-York Assembly to be held! Have they not been honoured with that disapprobation, to wit: Tarring and Feathering? It ought to be administered as a determent to others. For if that defection had not happened, we had the utmost reason to expect other measures would have been adopted than these villanous Acts passed and passing. But for the satisfaction of my countrymen, let me assure them, that if they will but steadily abide by the Resolutions of the Congress, this hateful Ministry must retire; and then, under the auspices of the wide-expanded soul of Chatham, his noble conciliatory plan of a union must be adopted, and that, in spite of open enemies, or the more concealed and dangerous ones lurking under the specious title of moderation, we shall be free for ever.

It gives every friend to American liberty the greatest satisfaction to find Doctor Franklin will return by the April Packet; for his long acquaintance with the machinations of this infamous. Administration will enable him to spirit up the lukewarm, and confirm the Patriot, as well in the Congress as throughout America.

Once more, let the Americans be united, and they shall obtain the glorious prize; but if they divide, they are irretrievably ruined.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER RECEIVED IN PHILADELPHIA, DATED LONDON, MARCH 11, 1775.

My zeal for the liberties of America will not let me rest; I think those valuable blessings are more in danger than ever, and I therefore warn my friends of it, and yourself in particular.

I am well assured that the Americans are not to be intimidated by force, and that they are prepared to oppose force to force, if violent measures should be openly and steadily pursued; but I am fearful that they may be lulled asleep by the insidious arts of Administration. The despicable into that govern all our publick proceedings have at length discovered their errour, and that the hostile measures they have begun with, have united the Colonies in one common bond, which they were taught to believe would produce a contrary effect; and they are now shifting their battery— conciliatory steps are continually talked off, and an abatement of their demands is echoed by every tool in office.

Beware of this snake in the grass, and give no credit to

* We hear from Brook-Haven, Suffolk County, that Major Benjamin Floyd found, on a strict inquiry, one hundred good men in the first Company of that Township, to support the King and his Government; but no officer would join him above the rank of Sergeant. All the above persons signed a Petition to the General Assembly, expressing that, they will entirely, abide by the old Constitution, viz: The Governour, Council, and General Assembly of this Province, without any regard to the proceedings and determinations of the Continental Congress.