truck with a guard of twenty Soldiers with fixed bayonets, accompanied with all the drums and fifes of the Regiment, (Forty-Seventh) and a number of Officers, Negroes, Sailors, &c., exhibited him as a spectacle through the principal streets of the Town. They fixed a label on the man’s back, on which was wrote, “AMERICAN Liberty, or a specimen of Democracy;” and, to add to the insult, they played Yankee doodle.

O Britain! How art thou fallen! Is it not enough that British Troops, who were once the terrour of France and Spain, should be made the instruments of butchering thy children; but must they descend also to exploits too infamously dirty for any but the meanest of the mobility to practise? What a wretched figure will the Boston expedition hereafter make in the historick page!

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM LONDON TO A GENTLEMAN IN VIRGINIA, DATED MARCH 13, 1775.

I did myself the pleasure of writing you the first of this month, and then sent you a copy of such part of the Earl of Dunmore’s Letter to Lord Dartmouth as had been laid before both Houses of Parliament; since which time I have had an opportunity of knowing the secret part of his Lordship’s Letter which was not laid before Parliament; and as it particularly marks his character as Governour of Virginia, in reference to the good people of that brave Colony, and will, I trust, be so instructive to the Members of their House of Burgesses as never hereafter to confide in him, but to consider and treat him as their confirmed enemy, I beg that you will use the best and speediest means to communicate it to them, as I pledge myself to you for the truth of the information.

After Lord Dunmore had given his uncandid representation of Virginia, as transmitted to you on the first of this month, he proceeded warmly to recommend to Lord Dartmouth that some Men-of-War should be stationed in Chesapeake Bay, to prevent the Virginians from carrying on any external trade except with this Country; and that all communication might be cut off between them and the Northern Colonies, he advised that some Sloops or Tenders should be placed in Chester and Sassafras Rivers; and as he observed that the Council as well as the House of Burgesses, and almost every person of fortune and consideration in the Colony, except the Attorney General, were as deeply engaged as the inferiour planters in factious associations and plans of resistance, great outrages and disorders would soon take place among them, from a want of a regular distribution of law; and therefore he strongly urged the King’s Ministers, as a sure method to increase these disorders, and which, in the end, he asserted, could not fail to produce Petitions from the rich praying the protection of this Legislature, that His Majesty would, without delay, order himself and all the other Executive Officers of Virginia, to withdraw from thence.

This, I faithfully assure you, is the secret counsel of Lord Dunmore. Can you, therefore, my dear sir, wonder that Administration persevere in their ruinous and despotick system of American politicks? Be you firm, however, in your wise Resolutions of Non-Importation, Non-Exportation, and Non-Consumption, and to these add an immediate accomplishment in the art of war, and in the end you will establish the rights of America upon an immovable basis. But you must first make the luxurious proud people of this Kingdom feel the want of your Commerce and affection, before they will do you any degree of justice.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM LONDON TO A GENTLEMAN IN MARYLAND, DATED MARCH 13, 1775.

I wrote you by Captain Falconer, since which some very material changes have happened in the state of political affairs. The Minister, finding a general discontent take place on account of the measures pursuing with regard to America, and in order to save the Stocks, which began to give way, gave out that he intended to extend the olive branch to the people on your side the water. The very sound exhilarated the minds of the people here; the Funds immediately recovered, and the people began to conclude that every thing would soon be settled in an amicable way. And what was this olive branch? Nothing but the motion, which will have reached you before this comes to hand. A motion which, at first, nobody could comprehend; a motion couched in such cabalistical terms, on purpose to confound the understandings of mankind, but which, when understood, was found to contain nothing of the least healing tendency, only calculated to separate and divide the Colonies from each other. Divide et impera is an old adage, and now they are in hopes of practising it with success amongst you. The Ministry, indeed, begin to plume themselves already on their success in this way. The proceedings at New-York, and the last advices from General Gage, flatter them exceedingly that the seeds of dissension are growing very fast even in the New-England Provinces. How far this is true, a little time will discover; in the meantime military operations are carrying on with the same zeal as before. The Troops are to be sent, and a Bill is ordered into Parliament for restraining not only the New-England Fishery, but another to stop the Trade of all the Colonies except New-York, North-Carolina, and Georgia, which they hope will declare on the side of Government, in consideration of which particular indulgences will be granted them. Whatever these indulgences may be, I have no doubt they will only be of a temporary nature till Government has got a firm footing.

I have told you before that your salvation is in your own hands, if you will be but firm and unanimous. You have but to adhere closely to your Non-Importation and Non-Exportation Agreement. If there was danger before of your disunion, I cannot help hoping that this last restraining Bill will come in aid, in order to link you closer to each other. It comes now to be tried what materials you are made of. If you have not virtue enough to withstand this attack, you will become a scorn and a laughing stock to all the world, a reproach to human nature; and depend upon it the burdens that will be laid upon you will be in proportion to the temper you have shown to resist them. I shall not attempt to point out any particular modes of proceeding; these, I trust, will be concerted with wisdom, firmness, and resolution. Be assured the good of the community at large is not the object certain persons in power have in view; they mean to make you beasts of burden, or, as the Congress have very properly expressed it, “hewers of wood and drawers of water;” but I hope you are all of their mind in this respect. You perhaps imagine that Government is nothing more than a power delegated in a few for the good of the whole. If you think that this is the opinion of the people in power, you are very much mistaken; they think that the community at large are to labour, toil, and sweat in order to maintain a few great people wallowing in luxury, idleness, extravagance, and all manner of debauchery. If the present measures succeed, depend upon it you will have tax-gatherers in various shapes swarming in upon you in abundance. If you patiently submit, there will be none to pity you.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM LONDON TO A GENTLEMAN IN PHILADELPHIA, DATED MARCH 13, 1775.

The people in general are much alarmed at the measures now pursuing; and I have no doubt that when they come to feel the effects of your Non-Import and Non-Export Resolutions, their resentment will break forth with great violence. The City of London and all the great trading and manufacturing Cities and Towns, are exceedingly averse to the present proceedings, and apprehensive of the worst consequences.

The Ministry are sensible of and declare the dangers and difficulties of their undertaking. But they are encouraged to the attempt by a firm persuasion of success in corrupting New-York and intimidating New-England. Did they believe the Americans would be united and firm, I am sure they would not venture upon coercive measures. Even as it is, should the seduction of the one and the intimidation of the other not produce a general relaxation of your Resolutions, they will be disposed to accommodate rather than risk a serious and determined opposition. For you must remember that the resolute face they put on is merely on supposition that if pushed you will submit. But should the whole Continent appear firm and determined, should their seducing and intimidating schemes prove abortive, depend upon it that they must submit to