against any invasion that should be made or attempted against them, and I don’t think he did at all overrate his ability or influence for that purpose. Mr. Dean designed to return as soon as the Lake should be clear of ice, and the streams and roads should favour it, which will likely be in May.

If what I have hinted shall suggest the least advantage to the cause, I am well repaid for writing; and if none at all, yet you have a testimonial of the good wishes and desires of him who is, with much esteem and respect, your Honour’s most obedient and most humble servant,

ELEAZER WHEELOCK.

Governour Trumbull.

REMONSTRANCE PRESENTED BY THE SELECTMEN OF BILE. E. RICA TO HIS EXCELLENCY GENERAL GAGE, MARCH 16, 1775.

May it please your Excellency:

We, the Selectmen of the Town of Billerica, beg leave to remonstrate to your Excellency that, on the 8th of this instant, (March,) one Thomas Ditson, an inhabitant of said Town of Billerica, was tarred and feathered, and very much abused, by a party of His Majesty’s Forty-Seventh Regiment, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Nesbit. As guardians for said Town, and from a regard to the liberties and properties of its inhabitants, we cannot but resent this procedure. Your Excellency must be sensible that, this act is a high infraction on that personal security which every Englishman is entitled to, and without which his boasted Constitution is but a name.

It is sufficiently unhappy for us, that we find Troops quartered among us for the purpose of enforcing obedience to Acts of Parliament of Great Britain, in the highest sense iniquitous, cruel, and unjust. It is still more unhappy, if these Troops, instead of preserving the character which British Troops once had, should pour in additional insult, and be guilty of the most brutal outrages. We hope your Excellency will take some steps for accommodating this affair; for we assure you we cannot, consistent with our duty, pass this matter over. We have been told by your Excellency, that you never meant to disturb the intercourse between the Town and the Country; confiding in this, we have passed and repassed in our usual manner. We therefore hope your Excellency will make it evident, by your conduct, that you are determined the intercourse shall be preserved, and we be not buoyed up with promises which, in the end, we unhappily find not to be depended upon. Lieutenant Colonel Nesbit is an Officer under your Excellency’s command; of you, therefore, we demand satisfaction for the insult committed by him; we think it is in your power. We beg your Excellency that the breach, now too wide between Great Britain and this Province, may not, by such brutality of the Troops, still be increased. We assure you, Sir, it always has been, and still is, our sentiment and prayer, that harmony may be restored, and that we may not be, drove to the last distress of Nations.

But may it please your Excellency, we must tell you we are determined, If the innocent inhabitants of our Country Towns (for we must think this man innocent in this affair) must be interrupted by Soldiers in their lawful intercourse with the Town of Boston, and treated with the most brutish ferocity, we shall hereafter use a different style from that of petition and complaint.

If the grand bulwarks of our Constitution are thus violently torn away, and the powers on earth prove unfriendly to the cause of virtue, liberty, and humanity, we are still happy. We can appeal to Him who judgeth righteously, and to Him we cheerfully leave the event.

TO THE GENTLEMEN OF THE PROVINCIAL CONGRESS OF VIRGINIA.

Williamsburgh, Virginia, March 17, 1775.

The addresses presented to their Lieutenant-Governour by the Council and eleven polluted Members of the Assembly of New-York, are, to every sensible thinking American, of infinitely a more alarming nature than the threats of the Minister, the brutum fulmen of the King’s speech, (if that can properly be termed the King’s speech which the Minister has publickly avowed to be his own composition,*) or the echoing back this speech by a hireling majority of the Peers to their paymaster; for as long as a spirit of union subsists through this Continent, and as long as, the people at home have reason to think that this spirit does subsist, these threats of the Minister (although vibrated from the sounding-board of the Throne) and the echoing it back by a hired chorus of Peers, must cast more ridicule upon those by whom they are uttered, than give terrour to those at whom they are levelled. But the suspicion or report of any defection amongst ourselves, is a matter of most serious concern; it behooves you, therefore, gentlemen; it behooves every Provincial Congress of the Continent, to consider immediately of some effectual means to prevent the mischievous consequences intended by these abandoned and senseless men. Have we then formed a General Association of our Provinces? Have we pledged ourselves to each other, to our posterity, to mankind? Have we made so great (temporary at least) sacrifices in Commerce? Have we solemnly engaged to make still greater sacrifices in the glorious cause of Liberty? Have we confounded our enemies by a strain of virtue scarcely credible in these modern ages, and with a spirit of harmony that has surpassed the most sanguine expectation? Have we acted this noble part? And shall the Council and eleven contemptible Assemblymen of New-York attempt to render all we have done abortive? Contemptible in all respects—in numbers, in understanding, in knowledge, and in principles! For what other tendency can their addresses to their Lieutenant-Governour possibly have but to counteract the Resolves of the Congress, and render every thing ye have dope abortive? These compositions of pusillanimity, abject servility, and disgusting folly, amount simply to this: That the utmost exertions of this United Continent (consisting of half a million of fighting men) can have no effect; that all the resistance (civil or military) which they can make, must be in vain; but that redress alone must be sought, and can be expected from the magnanimity of the British Nation, and the known goodness and virtue of the King. Gracious Heaven! grant us patience for to be told that we are to expect any thing from the magnanimity of a people who, for twelve years successively, have suffered themselves to be insulted, disgraced, trampled upon, plundered, and butchered with impunity! Or to be told that we are to look up to the goodness and virtue of a King who, for the same number of years, has been influenced to make incessant war upon the property, rights, privileges, laws, honour, and integrity of his people, in every part of the Empire, is enough to drive moderation itself into violence.

But, continue these admirable Senators, what opens still a surer prospect of redress is, that His Excellency Governour Tryon is now near the Throne. So it seems that what the petitions, supplications, and remonstrances of the whole Colonies; of the City of London; of the great commercial Towns of the leading Counties of England; what the voice of policy, reason, justice, and humanity, could not effect, Colonel Tryon’s being in England will accomplish. I know not whether this Colonel Tryon is a man of so extraordinary talents, eloquence, and influence, as to work these mighty miracles. I never understood that he was; but I am sure, if he has common sense, and any manly feelings, he cannot help being somewhat disgusted at this ill-timed, impertinent flattery, and that he must conceive the greatest contempt for the parasites who, regardless of the most important concerns to their Country and humanity, and at the very crisis which is to determine whether themselves and their posterity are to be freemen or slaves, could step out of their way to offer up incense to an unimportant individual. It may be said, this is all declamation; it may be so, but it is a declamation which an honest zeal in the publick cause has forced me into. It is now time, gentlemen, to devise some means of putting a stop to this cancer before it spreads to any dangerous degree. You, gentlemen of Virginia, and your neighbours of Maryland have, perhaps, these means in your hands.

* The affected friends to Government often complain that His Majesty is not treated with the respect due to his character and station; but it appears to me, that a Minister’s declaring in an open Senate that the speech from the Throne is not the King’s, but is his own, is going beyond disrespect. It is a most outrageous insult; it is representing His Majesty as a mere puppet, that squeaks just as he, the prompter, breathes.