who manage the affairs of England; and to tell you the truth, it is like man like master with respect to the latter. Don’t you remember what Mr. T. . . . once told you concerning his invincible obstinacy, as mentioned by a gentleman who was much about his person when he was a youth? Has not all his conduct confirmed it ever since he mounted the Throne? For I am persuaded he (as tutored by the assuming favourite) and the junto, is at the bottom of all these wild measures; nor will they relinquish them till they smart severely for their folly. Don Quixote like, they are obstinately bent on fighting wind-mills; and no wonder if they get broken heads in the encounter. Were they alone to smart, it were no great matter; but the mischief is, that I fear they will draw down irreparable evils upon both Englands. Lord North is only a tool to do the dirty work of his more dirty superiours; and the precious Parliament are, in their place, the tools to do his dirty work in return, for the pay he gives them. They have lately employed that old mungy jacobite Doctor, alias Dictionary Johnson, alias the Rambler, to answer the Congress, in a pamphlet entitled “Taxation no Tyranny”—a piece full of sophistical quibbles, dressed out in pedantick bombast language. I hope to see some good answer to it; and am pleased to see how effectually the authors of the Monthly Review, in their last Review, (March,) have cut him down in a few words. If you ever see that periodical work on your side the water, it will give you pleasure to read what they have said on the subject. If we may believe the papers, all things with you threaten war. In the last it is affirmed the standard of liberty had been lately erected at Salem, and that it was repaired to by numbers in arms, determined to fight or die. Should the King’s Troops be worsted in any general action, of which I think there is the greatest probability, what an uproar will it make in England. And then let the Ministry stand clear. If the Troops beat you, you can soon recruit. If they gain five battles, and lose but one, it is over with them, so great is the disadvantage under which they engage, besides what arises from the circumstances of climate, and fighting against those who fight, or are at least persuaded they fight pro aris et focis, and this upon their own ground.

The English Ambassador at the Hague applied to the States to forbid their subjects supplying the Americans with arms and ammunition. The States published a prohibition under the penalty of a Thousand Guilders, that is, about Ninety Pounds Sterling. I leave you to comment on this at your leisure, and judge if, where the profits of a voyage are so great as a voyage of that kind must be, it is not worth the merchant’s while to risk that sum. And to assist you in your determination on that point, it is owned by our Ambassador at this place, that a Dutch ship has lately got into Virginia, where it has landed four hundred barrels of powder and fourteen hundred stand of arms. France was applied to to forbid its subjects furnishing you with any military stores. France, it is well known, could easily have crushed all such assistance by an express prohibition; but France knows better than to do it, and therefore only tells its subjects, if they do it, it is entirely at their own risk, which is plainly saying, if you will venture, you may. Spain, when applied to, roundly refused to give any hindrance to her subjects supplying you; and I dare say, from present appearances, will soon act openly against England.

An article lately appeared in the English papers, that a Prussian ship sailed from Stetten to some part of America, with thirty field-pieces, a good store of powder, ball, and small arms, and six or seven Prussian Generals, whose names were mentioned at length. This begins to gain great credit in this part of the world, and is now affirmed to be true. It is said they were engaged for by an American agent at the Court of Berlin. That politick Prince, too, is on the watch; he bears no good will to the Court of London; and in case England should be engaged in a war with her Colonies, will carve himself a handsome slice out of a certain Electorate, or the world will be greatly mistaken.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM AN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN AT PARIS, DATED MAY 2, 1775, TO HIS FRIEND IN PHILADELPHIA.

I find the French are extremely attentive to our American politicks, and to a man strongly in favour of us; whether mostly from ill-will to Britain, or friendship to the Colonies, may be matter of doubt; but they profess it to be upon a principle of humanity, and a regard to the natural rights of mankind. They say that the Americans will be either revered or detested by all Europe, according to their conduct at the approaching crisis; they will have no middle character; for in proportion as their virtue and perseverance will render them a glorious, their tame submission will make them a despicable people.

GLOUCESTER COUNTY (VIRGINIA) COMMITTEE.

At a meeting of the Committee of Gloucester, at the Court-House, on Tuesday, the 2d of May, 1775:

Resolved, That we will not ship a single Hogshead of Tobacco to Great Britain, until the determination of the Continental Congress respecting Exportation be known.

Resolved, That we deem the Resolution of our Committee last November, not to ship any Tobacco to Mr. Norton’s House, as still obligatory, the Ship Virginia having arrived without the concessions then required.

JASPER CLAYTON, Clerk.

COUNCIL OF VIRGINIA.

At a Council held at the Palace, May 2, 1775. Present: His Excellency the Governour, Thos. Nelson, Richard Corbin, William Byrd, Ralph Wormeley, Jr., Esquires, John Camm, Clerk, and John Page, Esquire.

The Governour was pleased to address himself to the Board in the following manner:

GENTLEMEN: Commotions and insurrections have suddenly been excited among the people, which threatens the very existence of His Majesty’s government in this Colony; and no other cause is assigned for such dangerous measures, than that the gunpowder, which had some time past been brought from on board one of the King’s ships to which it belonged, and was deposited in the Magazine of this City, has been removed, which, it is known, was done by my order, to whom, under the constitutional right of the Crown which I represent, the custody and disposal of all publick stores of arms and ammunition alone belong. And whether I acted in this matter (as my indispensable duty required) to anticipate the malevolent designs of the enemies of order and government, or to prevent the attempts of any enterprising negroes, the powder being still as ready and convenient for being distributed for the defence of the Country, upon any emergency, as it was before, which I have publickly engaged to do, the expediency of the step I have taken is equally manifest, and therefore it must be evident that the same headstrong and designing people, who have already but too successfully employed their artifices in deluding His Majesty’s faithful subjects, and in seducing them from their duty and allegiance, have seized this entirely groundless subject of complaint, only to enslave afresh, and to precipitate as many as possible of the unwary into acts which, involving them in the same guilt, their corruptors think may bind them to the same plans and schemes which are unquestionably meditated in this Colony for subverting the present, and erecting a new form of Government.

Induced by an unaffected regard for the general welfare of the people whom I have had the honour of governing, as well as actuated by duty and zeal in the service of His Majesty, I call upon you, his Council, in this Colony, for your advice upon this pressing occasion; and I submit to you whether a Proclamation should not issue conformable to what I have now suggested; and before our fellow-subjects abandon themselves totally to extremities, which must inevitably draw down an accumulation of every human misery upon their unhappy Country, to warn them of their danger, to remind them of the sacred oaths of allegiance which they have taken, and to call up in their breasts that loyalty and affection which upon so many occasions have been professed by them to their King, their lawful sovereign; and farther, to urge and exhort, in particular, those whose criminal proceedings on this occasion have been, and are still, so alarming, to return to their duty, and a due obedience to the laws; and, in general, all persons whatsoever to rely upon the goodness and tenderness of our most gracious Sovereign to all his subjects, equally, and upon the wisdom of his Councils, for a redress of all their real