of the worst of hearts to the blunders of the worst of heads; that having once gone wrong, you think it your duty to persist in the road of errour; that as you have done so,* recrimination you think is your best asylum; and that to avoid the importunity of a free expostulation, (too severe a trial to the self-condemned,) your last retreat is the Fowey. Tracing you, my Lord, through all the mazes of your iniquity, I will drop the ridicule, and seriously ask you if you can wonder that the people of this Colony have withdrawn their confidence from you? Can any confidence be reposed in a murderer? I know not how your Lordship could reconcile to your feelings the idea of the secret assassin, the dark murderer. But I believe there are very few who do not rank you in that class. I care not whether the incautious but brave young fellows who have fallen victims to your dark plans, have expired of their wounds or not; it is the intention of the agent that should regulate our judgment of any action, and here you should stand self-convicted. Will you, then, confess that evil counsellors and pernicious advisers betrayed you into that diabolical project? Or that it was the machination of your own corrupt heart? Deviate, I conjure you, for once, into candour, and make atonement for the many injuries you have done, this distressed Country; drive from your presence the reptiles that have involved you in your present difficulties and embarrassment with a brave and free people, who, I believe, once esteemed you, and would doubtless continue to do so, had you continued to merit their approbation; candidly acknowledge your faults, and you may yet mitigate the resentment of the Virginians, but you can never recover their esteem.

To what fatality, my Lord, can it be imputed that you, who have been hitherto considered as an inoffensive, easy, good natured man, should suddenly become black as the Ethiop, and prostitute abilities never, indeed, designed to shine in the superiour spheres of life, but which, in the calm retreats of social converse, if properly managed, might exempt you from censure? Is the paltry emolument of the government of Virginia so intrinsically considerable that you must sacrifice your honour, your virtue, your reputation, (if you ever had any,) to the preservation of it? Does it necessarily follow as an indispensable conclusion, because you have accepted an office from our most pious and gracious Sovereign, that you must, chameleon-like, alter your colour, your complexion, your sentiments, and, in short, that you must become the very reverse of what you were at the time of your investiture? Are not the strongest marks of an overbearing influence discernible in your whole conduct? Or must we impute the complexion of your political manœuvres, to a parity of sentiments in your royal master? These are questions, my Lord, that the late tenour of your conduct would require a solution of. It rests with you to determine whether it needs any justification. I shall urge you no further at present, but leave you to brood in solitude, disappointed and baffled, as I wish you and all the enemies of America ever may be, over half-formed schemes of imaginary promotion, despicable as a Bernard or a Hutchinson, and with Woolsey’s last consolation: “Had I as industriously served my God as I have my king, he would not now have forsaken me!”

Wonderful and unaccountable are, my dear fellow-citizens, the works and dispensation of Providence! By a strange but noble species of alchymy, we perceive the greatest possible good resulting from the greatest evil. The Boston Port Bill, intended by a most abandoned Ministry to intimidate and divide, has joined together in an indissoluble union the whole American Continent from the Bay of Fundy to the Gulf of Florida. The famine bills to the Northward were designed for the same purpose, as well as the restraining bills, to operate in these Southern Colonies; but instead of answering the ends of their devisers, I trust they will cover their guilty heads with ruin and confusion. Tyrants I from my soul abhor, and whether individuals or aggregate bodies, they are equally the objects of my detestation. Oh! if there is a God, and that there is all nature cries aloud throughout her works, he must delight in virtue, and that which he delights in must be happy. Your exertions for liberty, my countrymen, must be pleasing to the great Creator of the Universe. Tour cause, O Virginians, is the cause of virtue, of justice, and of truth. Never, then, relinquish it but with your latest breath, and let it be the last glorious boast of your lives that you have transmitted the precious inheritance inviolate to your sons.

VIRGINIUS.

Chester Country, Pennsylvania, June 29, 1775.

At a meeting of several officers of several companies of the Militia in the County of Chester, it was unanimously agreed, for the better regulation of the military order of said County, to have a general meeting of all the officers of the several companies, to be held at the house of Richard Cheney, Inn-keeper, in the Township of East Cain, on the 21st of July, at ten o’clock, A M., which will be the day immediately after the Continental Fast, then and there to divide this County into the most proper and convenient districts, in order to form our several Battalions and choose our Field-Officers. The gentlemen officers are therefore hereby earnestly requested to attend for the abovesaid purposes.

PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE.

Committee Chamber, June 29, 1775.

Whereas several persons, through a misapprehension of the Resolves which have been entered into by the Provincial Convention, relative to the killing of Sheep, have purchased Ram Lamb in the market of this City, contrary to the intent and meaning of said Resolve; the Committee, in order to prevent such mistake in future request the publick will take notice that, agreeable to the purport of the Resolve aforesaid, no Sheep of what denomination soever may be killed or purchased under four years of age; and that the names of all persons who shall, after this, be discovered to act in opposition to said Resolve, will be published forthwith to the world.

Ordered, That notice be given in the publick papers to all masters of vessels which may arrive in this port, that the Committee of Inspection will meet every day at twelve o’clock, at the Coffee-House, to receive a report of their respective cargoes. And It is expected that no Captain will fail to attend the Committee the first noon after his arrival; and that owners of vessels and consignees will direct their Captains accordingly.

Ordered, That the following Report of the District Committee, No. 2, concerning the Ship Christopher, Captain Edwards, from Gibraltar, be made publick, viz:

“We, the District Committee, No. 2, appointed to attend the discharging a cargo of Salt from on board the Ship Christopher, do report to the General committee that we have attended said duty with care, and that we are fully satisfied that no British Goods were imported in said ship, nor the Association of the Congress any wise, violated.”

Extract from the Minutes:

J. B. SMITH, Secretary.

NEW-YORK CONGRESS TO CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

[Read in Congress, July 3, 1775.]

In Provincial Congress, New-York, June 29, 1775.

GENTLEMEN: In compliance with the Resolve of Congress of the 10th of June, instant, we have wrote to the proprietors of the Powder Mills in this Colony, requesting them immediately to put their Mills in a condition to manufacture Powder for the use of the continent.

Upon inquiry we find that there can be purchased in this City sixteen or twenty tons of Sulphur, which we conceive will be more than sufficient for the Saltpetre that may be collected in the different Colonies.

If the Congress should be of this opinion, it will necessary to give directions to the other Colonies not to send to this City any Sulphur, but to direct their attention to the article of Saltpetre only; of this article there are but two hundred and fifty pounds to be purchased here at present.

We submit this matter to the consideration, of the Congress, and are, gentlemen, your very humble servants.

By order of the Congress:

P. V. B. LIVINGSTON, Presidents.

To the Honourable the Continental Congress.

* See the Governour’s reasons for leaving Williamsburgh, to reside on board the Fowey.