Committee-man, the more effectually to secure his press, the engine of rebellion and abuse; and there is nothing so dirty, nothing so base, but he will give it a conveyance. This was a grand stroke of policy, worthy of the Jesuitical Cassius. Your Committee have Since made a most flagrant attack upon the liberty of the press, to the eternal disgrace of your cause and your City, and but for their noble stand, and the virtuous intrepidity of one of your citizens, nothing in future could have appeared amongst you without a license from traitors and insurgents. But, fortunately for America, and to the lasting honour of a single man, you are stopped in your career, and stand as objects for the world to gaze and laugh at.

But though things have been carried to this elevated pitch, the sons of sedition have, with unabated ardour and unceasing zeal, circulated the most palpable falsehoods to mislead the unwary and unsuspicious; witness that bastard Act of Parliament, framed pro tempore by one of your Secretaries, so full of falsehoods that one would scarce have believed a fool could have been found that would credit it; yet sorry I am to say, it was greedily swallowed by the ignorant, for the factious, who are scattered, like the Jews, over every part of the earth, did not hesitate to declare it was authentick; and on a late excursion into the interiour parts of your Province, I found a difficulty to persuade many deluded Germans that it was totally false; they told me of a gentleman in an exalted station (whose name for the present I shall conceal, though one of your Committee) who had repeatedly assured them, that if they did not unite with the Congress, that very act would take place the ensuing summer. But notwithstanding these artful devices; notwithstanding the almost infinite pains taken by your party to stop the circulation of moderate publications, (appointing two patriotick shoemakers to wait on Mr. Airey to deter him from selling pamphlets of a free complexion;) notwithstanding the pains taken by one of your Committee to prevent the circulation of Rivington’s Gazetteer; I can with great truth declare, that the eyes of the Pennsylvanians are opening very fast; they begin to see the independent designs of their demagogues; they see a Republick growing fast into form, and they begin to abhor your destructive manoeuvres. I can speak with great confidence, because I do not speak from the partial information of a few individuals, nor from the improbable accounts of interested Committees. My accounts are the result of various and mature information, confirmed by what I myself have seen in your City and Province. I have, with the most pleasing satisfaction, beheld an astonishing alteration in the opinions and in the conduct of the good people with you.

I know that the number of loyal subjects are increasing with a rapid progress; the Friends have nobly took the lead; they will, I hope, be followed by almost every class of people. Yet your gentlemen assert that a cheerful acquiescence has been manifested by all orders and ranks of people. It would have been more manly to have joined Edes. and Gill of Boston, in declaring their protest was published ten years ago; and as you have the presses under your own influence, it would be easy to forbid them to publish a contradiction,; there would be no difficulty in this, though there will in making people believe a dissention does not exist with you.

Let the same patriot who threatened to pull down the doors of one of your Churches if the wardens would not suffer the bells to be rung on Colonel Putnam’s alarm; let this gentleman tell the printer, if he dare to contradict what you put in, his house shall be demolished; this would be showing the weight of an argument he deduced in his laboured harangue at a certain patriotick meeting, that it was “absolutely necessary a very large Committee should be appointed; for who knows but we may have property to destroy.” He omitted pointing out another advantage of having a large Committee, viz: extending the number of our worthy fellowcitizen John Holt’s subscriptions; for, I hear, with expanded hearts you have exerted your influence in his favour, (in consequence of his decline here,) and have procured him not less than fifty subscribers; so that we shall now have him like a new phoenix, arising on this fresh pile, with new life, strength, and vigour.

Suffer me now, gentlemen, to take my leave of you for the present. It was with reluctance I took up the pen; and I shall lay it down with pleasure, after hoping that you will not take what I have said amiss. I only want these facts to wound in the sore places. I had the good of this Province too much at heart to let them be deluded by your publication. If I have inserted one thing which will not bear the strictest scrutiny, I will cheerfully recant it, and ask pardon for my offence; but I have, to the best of my knowledge, without aggravation, laid down the above for your perusal, and intend, when leisure permits, to inform you of as true a state of affairs in this Province as the above is of yours.

AN ENGLISHMAN.

WORCESTER COUNTY (MASSACHUSETTS) COMMITTEE.

March 28, 1775.

The Convention met according to adjournment.

Voted, That the Reverend Mr. Chaplain be requested to open this Convention with prayer.

Voted, That the Convention do now proceed to the Meeting-House, to attend the Sermon by the Rev. Elisha Fish, and the other exercises.

The Convention being again met in the afternoon:

Voted, That the thanks of the Convention be presented to the Reverend Mr. Fish, for the Discourse preached before them, and that the Standing Committee wait upon him and request a copy thereof for the Press.

Voted, That the Standing Committee print as many copies of said Discourse as they judge fit for circulation.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN IN LONDON, TO HIS FRIEND IN NORTH-CAROLINA, DATED MARCH 29, 1775.

The gloomy aspect of your Country, and America in general, mentioned in your last, is truly alarming. I feel for Mr. ****, and wish he would make this his retreat. Let me advise you to leave your uncertain situation, and bring your family over. If you object to this, pray sell your slave-estate at any rate. This early hint will give you an opportunity of doing this to advantage. Last week a friend wished me joy on having the good fortune to sell my slaves and American estate; for, says he, “I was lately whispered by the Minister, that all slaves on the Continent would be seized as forfeited by the Provinces, and sold in the French and Spanish Islands, the profits arising to reimburse the great expense of Ships, Troops, &c, sent to America. ” This will tend to the great disappointment of our West-India Planters, who will expect to stock the sugar-works from the Continent. Your lands must be cultivated by the poor, as in these Kingdoms.

NEW-YORK COMMITTEE.

At a meeting of the Committee, for the City of New-York, in the Committee Chamber, on the 29th of March, 1775, present—

The following advertisement, which was drawn in consequence of an application to this Committee at their last meeting, was read, viz:

To the respectable Inhabitants of the City and County of NEW-YORK:

FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS: In times so critical as the present, it becomes the duty of every citizen to pay particular attention to the welfare of the community, and to counteract every measure that may tend to injure its interest.

Influenced by these considerations, we view with concern the uneasiness occasioned in this City, by the late unusual exportation of Nails; and perceive with anxiety the distress to which a monopoly of this or any other article may expose many among us.