Act of the sixth of the present King” as the solemn line by which your judgment is to be bounded, and beyond which your researches must not presume to soar. Have the Parliament of England, Sir, never been mistaken? Are they infallible? No, Sir. We know there existed laws for the punishment of witchcraft, but philosophy having exploded that errour, the wisdom of succeeding times repealed those statutes.” The halcyon days of George the Second broke that supposed subjection to the powers of darkness. Forbid it, Heaven, that a more gloomy infatuation should becloud the reign of George the Third. You view “the Government” of England as “suspended,” the Parliament a phantom, the mere shadow of authority, assembled only to lament a substance lost, and to propose and subtilize questions of their own impotency. “Was this the case, I should agree” with you, that the state of Britain was wretched indeed, and that she was about “reverting to her primitive insignificancy in the map of the world.” But, Sir, can any Government be suspended, when every branch of authority the Constitution warrants her to exercise is acknowledged and obeyed—when she is only restrained from putting in effect what she has no right to attempt? Were the powers granted to James the Second by the Constitution resumed by that source from whence they sprung, because the virtue of our ancestors would not permit him to suspend acts of Parliament, violate Charters, and introduce Popery?. Had that deluded man made the line of the Constitution the path of his obedience, he would not have had cause to lament the substance he lost, or sat torpid at St. Germaine’s, subtilizing questions of his own impotency.

Wisdom and goodness flee every species of deception. Suffer not yourself to be deceived. “The Congress of Philadelphia” is not “the legislature to dispense the blessings of Empire;” it is composed of gentlemen met, by the appointment of the freemen of America, to devise the most probable schemes for cementing the Parent State and all her blooming Colonies in the firmest band of union; such an union as may make the most happy Nation of the earth, and transmit its glory and freedom to the latest time. Their intention is “ to spare the blood of their fellow-subjects;” “to spare the treasures of the State;” and, in concert with Britain, to erect an Empire on the firm basis of the Constitution, that shall survive until time shall be no more.

In addressing you, I hope, Sir, nothing has or may fall from my pen to injure the sacred cause of my Country, or to disgust yourself. The language of freedom, as a mother tongue, I must adopt, whilst the walk of abuse or offensive personality shall be entirely unoccupied by

A PENNSYLVANIAN.

ACCOUNT OF PROVINCE STORES AND PROVISIONS RECEIVED, FORWARDED, ISSUED, AND WHAT REMAINED, AT ALBANY, JUNE 14, 1775.

Received at Albany, by different vessels from New-York and Kingston, 200 barrels flour, 400 barrels pork, and 20 tierces rice; bought on publick credit at Albany, 52 barrels flour, and 14 barrels peas: In all, 252 barrels flour, 400 barrels pork, 14 barrels peas, and 20 tierces rice.

Forwarded from Albany to Fort George, 88 barrels flour, 136 barrels pork, and 12 barrels peas: Leaves 164 barrels flour, 264.barr.els pork, 2 barrels peas, and 20 tierces rice,

Issued for delivered out at different times, 25 barrels flour, 9 barrels pork, and 2 barrels peas: Remains at Albany, 14th June, 1775, 139 barrels flour, 255 barrels pork, and 20 tierces rice.

Stores remaining: Five hogsheads rum, one cask naval stores, one cask sails for scows, fourteen barrels pitch and tar, five casks oakum, three boxes spades and shovels, one. box hoes, and four coil cordage.

N. B. About twenty wagons are constantly employed on the publick credit of the Colony between Albany and Fort George to carry stores and provisions to the latter as fast as possible, and before I left Albany I received intelligence that ten or twelve more wagons in and about the Boght were preparing to come to Town for loads. The last company of Colonel Hinman’s Regiment, of Connecticut, were to leave Albany the 15th instant; the other nine (consisting of near a hundred men; each, as the Colonel informed me) were mostly arrived at Fort George on the 12th instant, and some, as we heard, had already reached Ticonderoga. Those Companies did not all draw provisions at Albany, as they brought a sufficiency with them from Connecticut to last them to Fort George, especially pork, and I think two Companies did not draw any, but the others I have supplied with flour only, and about two barrels of pork.

Provisions requisite to victual fifteen hundred men for three months, viz: 675 barrels flour, average 200 pounds nett; 367 barrels pork, average 210 pounds; 7, 232 pounds butter; 226 barrels peas, average 3½ bushels; 1, 206 gallons rice, or eighteen tierces, average 8 bushels.

Sent off to Fort George fourteen carpenters, to build batteaus.

JOHN N. BLEECKER.

New-York, June 16, 1775.

GENERAL WOOSTER TO GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL.

Greenwich, June 16, 1775.

SIR: Your Honour will receive enclosed a requisition from the Provincial Congress at New-York. Captain Sears, who arrived here last night about twelve o’clock, informs me that the people of New-York intend to quarter the Troops in the City. I should be glad to be informed how far I shall subject myself land the Troops under my command to the direction of the Continental or Provincial Congress; whether, (if I proceed to New-York,) when the Irish Troops arrive, I shall wait for directions from the Continental Congress whether to oppose them or not. It is my private opinion that they ought not to be suffered to land. I wrote you yesterday for your direction about the expediency of my marching to New-York.

I am, Sir, with due respect, your Honour’s most obedient humble servent,

DAVID WOOSTER.

To the Honourable Jonathan Trumbull, Esq.

LETTER FROM AN OFFICER IN BOSTON TO HIS FRIEND IN ENGLAND, DATED JUNE 16, 1775.

DEAR SIR: As we are just now convoying with the General’s despatches clear off the coast, I thought that a line or two to you by the same opportunity would not be unwelcome Nothing of consequence has happened at Boston since the 19th of April, except a skirmish or two between the enemy and some parties of Troops who went a foraging for hay on certain islands in the harbour. The rebels still continue the blockade. Their out-sentinels the other day called to ours to send out the Light-Horse, that they might beat them as they had beaten the Grenadiers and Light-Infantry; and single men of them have been so impudent as to fire a musket at the King’s ships. They burnt a house the other day belonging to a Tory within shot of the Admiral. They have taken Ticonderoga, in which place were eighty pieces of cannon and a large quantity of stores. It is reported they have got some of those guns now before Boston. Before our lines in camp and Roxbury the rebels amount to three or four thousand men. At other Towns in the neighbourhood it is said there are two-and-twenty thousand. All the Troops from Ireland are arrived in good health, and the horses in excellent condition. Only sixteen horses died in the passage, and they brought forty spare ones. Sixteen of the transports which were ordered from England to New-York, are, by the General, ordered to Boston. With this addition our army will amount to about ten thousand men, all in high spirits, and terribly exasperated against the Provincials. On the 12th instant General Gage published a Proclamation, offering a pardon, in the King’s name, to all rebels who shall forthwith come in and lay down their arms, excepting only Hancock and Adams. No regard is paid to Lord North’s terms of accommodation. The word with the Sons of Liberty, as the rebels style themselves, is, join or die. I expect to hear of bloody work soon, as our Troops are determined to lay all the Country waste as they go with fire and sword. The prisoners have been all exchanged. The Merlin is at Marblehead. As soon as we part from our convoy we are to proceed to New-York, and from thence to Philadelphia, to put the Restraining Act in execution. Thank God I keep health, &c.