him the said Baxter, until the advice of three adjacent Towns by their Committees, be known, which shall be immediately called in.

NATHANIEL PRENTICE, OLIVER SHEPARD, SIMON BROOKS,

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Committee of Inspection

Alstead, August 18, 1775.

N. B. Notwithstanding the aforegoing determination, the said Simon Baxter is deserved and gone off from the Town of Alstead; and it is suspected that he, the said Simon Baxter, is gone off with contempt, and upon some bad design against his Country, therefore all persons, friends to the Country, are desired to take notice and beware of the said offender, that he may be brought to a sense of his duty.

NATHANIEL PRENTICE, OLIVER SHEPARD, SIMON BROOKS,

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Committee of Inspection

INTERCEPTED LETTERS.

Extracts of several Letters brought by Captain Robbins, in the Schooner Two Sisters, lately seized by an armed vessel in the service of the United Colonies.

Published by order of the Congress:

CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.

Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman in CORK to an Officer in BOSTON, dated AUGUST 19, 1775.

My Imagination cannot point out the extreme uneasiness of your friends and relations here, at the very disagreeable situation you are in. Your letter of the 7th of July last been some consolation, as by it find you and family were well. God protect you is all I can say, and to assure you of our hearty wishes that a speedy and happy reconciliation may take place. I promise you we are not a little alarmed here; for when all our Troops are gone, the rabble here, ’tis dreaded, will take advantage, and commit disorders of every kind. I see, from the War-Office, thirty-one are to go to you in the spring, each to consist of twelve companies of sixty privates, making twenty-two thousand men. Shocking work it is!

As to your private affairs, these bad times, I will venture to give you my opinion: First, take great care to what officers you give your money, as these gentlemen’s bills oftener prove bad than otherwise; and as they are more liable to death than others at this time, you could never recover should any of their bills go back protested. In the next place, as you must be in a money-making way, and as affairs are in, at best, a very precarious situation, you should make lodgments of what you can spare, and as fast as you can in London. This is what I would do was I in your situation.

A list of the Battalions: enclosed in the above Letter.

Thirty-one Battalions to compose the American Army in the spring of 1776, each to consist of twelve Companies of sixty rank and file, making twenty-two thousand three hundred and twenty men, viz: Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Tenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third, Twenty-Sixth, Twenty-Seventh, Twenty-Eighth, Thirty-Fifth, Thirty-Seventh, Thirty-Eighth, Fortieth, Forty-Second, Forty-Third, Forty-Fourth, Forty-Fifth, Forty-Sixth, Forty-Seventh, Forty-Ninth, Fifty-Second, Fifty-Fifth, Sixty-Third, Sixty-Fourth, Sixty-Fifth. The Eighteenth and Fifty-Ninth are to return home.

Six Battalions of Hanoverians, three to Gibraltar, and three to Minorca; three Regiments to return home from Gibraltar, and two from Minorca.

Extract of a Letter to an Officer at BOSTON, dated YOUGHALL, AUGUST 20, 1775.

I take the opportunity of a sloop going to Boston to ask you how you go on. If I had known in time of her going I would have sent you something acceptable, as I suppose your present situation requires many things to make it tolerable. I was very happy to find you were not of the detachment to Bunker’s Hill: never was such a slaughter; I shudder at the recollection! so many of our friends, but the other day parted, so butchered! We are preparing to send you more help; five Regiments to embark the beginning of September. I will send you something or other by them. We wait with much impatience for the meeting of the English Parliament. I cannot write to you as fully as I would wish, as I imagine this will undergo inspection. If you can find time, if you will write me one line now and then, be assured you will give very great pleasure to a person who sincerely regards you. According as I hear in your next, if you think I may venture politicks, I will give them to you very fully.

Extract of a Letter to an Officer at BOSTON, dated FORT HENRY, AUGUST 25, 1775.

Never was I so much surprised as to hear of the stand the Americans have made against His Majesty’s Troops. I must own my opinion was, that if they ever came to an action, it would be of no longer a duration than they could take to their heels and run away; but by the accounts, how much I have been mistaken in them; and I believe most people that had served in America were of my opinion, I am sincerely sorry your Army is blocked up in the manner we hear you are; the disagreeableness of such a situation I have experienced, but hope it will not be of longer duration than till the arrival of the next re-enforcement of Troops, which are now near Cork. Our papers mention an Army of twenty-two thousand men, commanded by General Sir Jeffery Amherst, joining you in the spring, but I hope the command will not be taken from General Howe, for whom I have a very sincere regard, and wish him success and happiness. Many noblemen and others have offered to raise Regiments at their own expense in this Country, but none of them I believe have been accepted of as yet. Lord Bellamont was one of them, and he has now advertised that the Lord-Lieutenant has given him the inspection of the recruiting parties of the Ninth, Thirty-Third, and Thirty-Fourth, which he shall regularly attend to; what his scheme by this is I cannot conceive.

Extract of a Letter to an Officer in BOSTON, dated CORK, SEPTEMBER 8, 1775.

People are much divided in their sentiments about the Americans. Placemen, Pensioners, Tories, and Jacobites, with some stupid, ignorant, mercenary Whigs, are violent against them, but the bulk of the people of England and Ireland are strongly in their interest. My brother so far retains the prejudices of his late profession as to be a great enemy to them; but I own I am of the number of those who think they are hardly used, and wish they may retain their liberties. I entirely coincide with General Lee; and cant help thinking that the declaration of the Continental Congress and their address to the people of England, must convince every one who has the least particle of judgment or attention, of the justice of their cause. It is the general opinion, (and General Burgoyne’s letter to General Lee seems to countenance it,) that had the Ministry certainly foreseen the unanimity and firmness of the Americans, they would hardly have ventured on the steps they have taken. How this unnatural combustion will end, the Lord only knows; but one thing I know, that I wish you and my other friends were removed from a service at once so disgraceful and so dangerous. Never did the recruiting parties meet with such ill success in every part of this Kingdom as at present, so invincible is the dislike of all ranks of people to the American service. The inhabitants of Bandon, Youghall, Birr, and other Towns, have entered into a resolution not to suffer any among them to enlist for the purpose of enslaving their American brethren. There have been no less than five parties at once in Charleville, and after stunning the Town, God knows how long, with their fifes and drums, they were able to pick up only one recruit, who was under Mr. Robert’s influence. Though the principal Romanists in Cork and Limerick have formed associations and offered bounties to such recruits as shall list on this occasion, yet have they very little success; for though the heads of that communion are in the interest of Government, the lower class, who have not sagacity enough to make proper distinctions, are, to a man, attached to the Americans, and say plainly the Irish ought to follow their example. Even Lord Kenmare, who on this occasion took the lead, had his recruiting party severely beat in Tralee, and their drum broke to pieces. The