would not dare, at this juncture, to betray their iniquitous partiality. Nay, the most profligate member of our Assembly, though he could depend on the concurrence of a majority of the same corrupt principles, would not dare now to abuse representation so far as to move for a bill tending to screen, directly or indirectly, under the illusory declaration of your assent, manifested by them only, any of the obnoxious acts which the late Congress reprobated, as demonstratory of “a system formed to enslave America.”

Timid well-wishers to their Country may object, that our zeal will be frustrated by an unprincipled Governour; that, not daring with a high hand to impede the prosecution of criminals, protected by himself, he will stretch prerogative even to the pardon of irremissible crimes, none of which are more so than those by which our sacred Constitution is endangered. But, may not the well known fate of a Porteus check traitors, by convincing them that they cannot always shelter themselves under the wings of prerogative? And should this prove ineffectual, our holy religion teaches us, that no worldly consideration ought to deter the just from doing his duty. Our Committees, and, what is much safer, Colonial Conventions, vested with discretionary powers, will, at last, baffle the arts of ministerial tools, and work our political salvation.

If there be amongst us a conscientious lawyer, he certainly will point out to the officers of the unlawful Standing Army, stationed in the British Colonies, the imminent danger they run by detaining soldiers in North America, under the illegal extension edict. As to pettifoggers, we know they are seduced by the prospect of a plentiful harvest, and that self-interest, not justice, determines them to act, whatever side they undertake to defend. If the Minister do not value these enough to retain them in his service for supporting the unlawful acts, they will of course rejoice at the almost innumerable actions of a civil nature which may be grounded on the local nullity of Parliamentary edicts, and commenced by soldiers for unjust detention, loss of time, and unpaid labour; or for various trespasses, unjustifiable before tribunals which follow the British system of law.

All injuries sustained by any person in this Colony, in consequence of the same unlawful sanction, may be redressed, and the same offences will be prevented for the future, if we have but sense and firmness enough to apply as we should, and where we should. It is never too late to do our duty. Let us trust the event to the omnipotent Ruler of the universe, and He will reward our perseverance.

If, through ignorance or inattention, any of you ever gave a verdict in contradiction to the fundamentals of justice; if he admitted the force of any act of Parliament to which your own Colonial laws have given no such force, that man must be very unhappy whenever he reflects on the injustice he has occasioned; but he is guiltless—he deserves compassion. It is far different with jurymen, who knew the local nullity of acts of Parliament, and by their verdicts authorized their illegal operation. Those jurymen, and the judges who designedly suffered it—who have suppressed the warnings and instructions which they ought to have given, and strengthened with their eloquence—have been bribed. Whether hope, fear, avarice, or any other worldly motive influences such judges and jurymen—they have been bribed. They stand guilty before God and man, of wilful and corrupt perjury.

Do not believe, my dear countrymen, that, infatuated as the junto may be, they hope that the Continental Association can be dissolved by the external, the seeming defection of any Colony, were it even ours, which is nearly central, and the most liable to such suspicions. A Governour may bribe the majority of an Assembly, who fancy that they represent a people not virtuous enough to exercise their rights of choosing their representatives and elective officers by ballot. Illegal warrants may be issued, and remain unquashed for a considerable time, to bewilder the bulk of the people with the innumerable doubts which, it is evident, will arise from the untried illegality of those proceedings; to intimidate and oppress, till the bench determine the question; and, in the mean while, to deter the injured from prosecuting such daring conspirators.

He may bribe a few trading justices, and seduce other sons of corruption and power, who hold, or expect to hold magistracy or other offices during pleasure, and are as much afraid of Colonial Conventions as the Minister is of Continental Congresses. But he cannot bribe the body of the people, in whom, originally and finally, lies the sovereign power, represented for their benefit only by one single person.

All the Colonies, nay, the internal force of any single Colony, can punish a few venal officers for abusing the authority with which they are entrusted by their superiours, who are themselves subordinate to another superiour, likewise entrusted by, and (as glorious experience shows) accountable, as well as every one of his dependants, to the people at large, whether they meet in one single spot, or in their respective Districts. The patriotick spirit of the American Britons cannot be subdued. They will exercise their constitutional right to hold Conventions for their safely; a right which cannot be questioned, without openly denying the legal title of the Hanoverian line of our Kings to the British Crown. Therefore, my dear countrymen, do not basely relinquish that sacred right, when you ought to exercise it. You know that, should you be oppressed by a wicked knot of traitors, you will be delivered by your happier neighbours as soon as their assistance is required.

The arch fiend to our Constitution knows all this. The Colonies which delegated members to the late Congress, have already appalled him, that insolent, cruel, and cowardly wretch, who, a year ago, declared by his wicked trumpet, that he would not relent “till he saw you prostrate at his feet!” Your Congress made him stoop to proposals, which he well knows you will reject with disdain. He means but to divide and betray you, whom he despairs to subjugate by force. However, he will send more Troops, more indeed than he thinks it is prudent now to divulge. But it is not solely in that re-enforcement he confides. Will you believe it, my dear devoted countrymen, it is in his opinion of your folly. I shall reveal to you his grand secret—the only resource left him to extort your compliance.

Now that the vices of the Nation have reduced to a state of impotence the small portion of virtue which still remains in the British Parliament, he hopes that a superstitious reverence for that body, degenerate as it is, will continue to betray you into absurdities, and an inconsistent passiveness. He still hopes that your inattention to the extension edict will enable him at last to defeat your united forces. Your supineness justifies him in believing, and persuading his associates, that you will always tolerate the operation of that destructive edict, which is sufficient in itself to put all the others in force.

Can we, without feeling the severest stings of self-reproach, reflect on the many crimes which, since the extension act was quietly enforced, our inattention has emboldened Custom-House Officers and other sons of tyranny to commit? Oh! had criminal prosecutions been instituted in that Country where the first felony or the first degradation of human nature was committed, in defiance of our laws, and under the usurped authority of Courts-Martial, or rather, immediately after their first unwarrantable sentence was known! had soldiers been duly protected against their tyrannical masters, robberies and murders might have been prevented; our brethren at Boston could not be dragooned; we might long ago have defied the combinations of the parricidal junto, whose aim is to destroy our Constitution! We should no longer fear their dethroning our King, and fixing his crown on the head of a race of tyrants whom a patriotick Parliament justly proscribed about ninety years ago, as irreconcilable foes to the natural rights of the British Nation! With truth and security we might tell the arch fiend, “What do you think of venal Parliaments now?”

Since no sophistry can delude an incorrupted American jury; since the joint efforts of the ministerial hirelings cannot, without our connivance, hold up before the eyes of the soldiers the veil which hides from them the knowledge of their civil rights, let us instruct those deluded victims; let us openly protect them against their oppressors. If we adopt this pacifick mode of resistance, which no political casuist who has subscribed to the Revolution creed can disapprove, the Minister may send over as many Regiments as he pleases; the intended instruments of our ruin will

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