into the same trap; and it is the apprehension that you may be inconsiderately hurried, by the vigour and activity you possess, into measures which may be fatal to many innocent individuals; may hereafter wound your own feelings; and which cannot possibly serve the cause of those who sent you, that has prompted me to address these lines to you. I most devoutly wish that your industry, valour, and military talents, may be reserved for a more honourable, and virtuous service against the natural enemies of our Country, (to whom our Court are so basely complacent,) and not in ineffectual attempts to reduce to the wretchedest state of servitude the most meritorious part of your fellow-subjects. I say, Sir, that any attempts to accomplish this purpose must be ineffectual. You cannot possibly succeed. No man is better acquainted with the state of this Continent than myself. I have ran through almost the whole Colonies, from the north to the south, and from the south to the north. I have conversed with all orders of men, from the first estated gentlemen to the lowest planters and farmers, and can assure you that the same spirit animates the whole. Not less than one hundred and fifty thousand gentlemen, yeomen, and farmers, are now in arms, determine to preserve their liberties or perish.

As to the idea that the Americans are deficient in courage, it is too ridiculous and glaringly false to deserve a serious refutation. I never, could conceive upon what this notion was founded. I served several campaigns in America last war, and cannot recollect a single instance of illbehaviour in the Provincials, where the Regulars acquitted themselves well. Indeed, we well remember some instances of the reverse, particularly where the late Colonel Grant (he who lately pledged himself for the general cowardice of America) ran away with a large body of his own Regiment, and was saved from destruction by the valour of a few Virginians. Such preposterous arguments are only proper for the Rigbys and Sandwiches, from whose mouths never issued, and to whose breasts truth and decency are utter strangers.

You will much oblige me in communicating this letter to General Howe, to whom I could wish it should be considered in some measure addressed, as well as to yourself. Mr. Howe is a man for whom I have ever had the highest love and reverence. I have honoured him for his own connexions, but above all for his admirable talents and good qualities. I have courted his acquaintance and friendship, not only as a pleasure, but as an ornament; I flattered myself that I had obtained it. Gracious God! is it possible that Mr. Howe should be, prevailed upon to accept of such an office! That the brother of him, to whose memory the much injured people of Boston erected a monument, should be employed as one of the instruments of their destruction. But the fashion of the times, it seems, is such as renders it impossible he should avoid it. The commands of our most gracious Sovereign are to cancel all moral obligations, to sanctify every action, even those that the satrap of an Eastern despot would start at.

I shall now beg leave to say a few words with respect to myself, and the part I act. I was bred up from my infancy in the highest veneration for the liberties of mankind in general. What I have seen of Courts and Princes convinces me, that the power cannot be lodged in worse hands than in theirs; and of all Courts, I am persuaded that ours is the most corrupt and hostile to the rights of humanity. I am convinced that a regular plan has been laid (indeed every act since the present accession evinces it) to abolish even the shadow of liberty from amongst us. It was not the demolition of the tea, it was not any other particular act of the Bostonians, or of the other Province which constituted their crimes; but it is the noble spirit of liberty pervading the whole Continent which has rendered them the objects of ministerial and royal vengeance. Had they been notoriously of another disposition; had they been homines ad servitudinem parates, they might have made as free with the property of the East-India Company as the felonious North himself, with impunity. But the Lords of St. James’s and their mercenaries of St. Stephen’s, well know, that as long as the free spirit of this great Continent remains unsubdued, the progress they can make in their scheme of universal despotism will be but trifling. Hence it is that they wage inexpiable war against America. In short, this is the last asylum of persecuted Liberty. Here, should the machinations and fury of her enemies prevail, that bright goddess must fly off from the face of the earth, and leave not a trace behind. These, Sir, are my principles; this is my persuasion; and, consequently, I am determined to act. I have now, Sir, only to entreat, that whatever measures you pursue, whether those which your real friends (myself amongst them) would wish, or unfortunately those which our accursed misrulers shall dictate, you will still believe me to be personally, with the greatest sincerity and affection,

Yours, &c.

C. LEE.

PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE.

Philadelphia, June 7, 1775.

The Committee last evening having requested as many members as conveniently could to meet this day at the Coffee-House, to inquire concerning an information given, that Captain Robert Torrans had imported and sold Irish Linens some time about the first of May last, in direct violation of the Association of the Congress:

Mr. Blair McClenaghan, in whose vessel Captain Torrans sailed, gave the following affidavit, made by the Captain:

“On the fifth day of June, 1775, before the subscribing Justice, cometh Robert Torrans, Master of the Ship Duke of York, lately arrived at the City of Philadelphia, and maketh oath on the Holy Gospels, and saith, that Mr. Blair McClenaghan, of said City, merchant, was not privy to, nor interested in any goods or merchandise lately imported in said vessel from Ireland; and that Blair McClenaghan aforesaid was not privy to, nor aiding or assisting, nor consenting to the sale, landing, or putting on shore at Philadelphia, or elsewhere in America, said goods or mercnandise so imported.

ROBERT TOBRANS.

1. Resolved, That Mr. McClenaghan appears to this Committee to be liable to no censure or suspicion with regard to the importation, landing, or sale of goods in said vessel, and that he has done his duty in discharging Captain Torrans from his employ.

2. Resolved, That Messrs. Harbison and Dean call at Cagtain Torrans’s lodgings, and inquire if he is in Town, and request his attendance immediately.

3. Messrs. Harbison and Dean report, that Captain Torrans has not been at his lodgings since yesterday morning.

4. Resolved, That as Captain Torrans cannot now be found, the consideration of his conduct, and further proceeding of the Committee thereon, be deferred to next meeting of the Committee.

June 9 —The Committee resumed the consideration of Captain Robert Torrans, late of the Ship Duke of York:

Resolved, unanimously, That Captain Torrans has wilfully and knowingly violated the Association of the Congress, and that it is the duty of this Committee to advertise his conduct, agreeable to the eleventh Resolution of the Continental Congress.

NEW-YORK CONGRESS TO MASSACHUSETTS COMMITTEE OF SAFETY.

In Provincial Congress, New-York, June 7, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: The multiplicity of business brought before us by the Continental Congress, and a short adjournment of our body from Saturday till Tuesday morning, have rendered it impossible for us to give a more early attention to your favour of the 26th ultimo.

We have little to say upon the principal subject of your letter, as we conceive that the Provincial Congress of both Colonies are concluded from any discretionary provision relative to the ordnance and other stores taken at Crown Point and Ticonderoga, of which you must be fully convinced by the acts of the Continental Congress on that subject, copies of which are enclosed.

We are fully apprised of the dangerous consequences that would await this capital of our Colony, either from supineness or a confidence in the honour of those who, being the avowed instruments of ministerial vengeance, we cannot expect will hold any faith with us. Whatever articles we are now possessed of that may be used to the