Quartermaster-General do the same, to enable the Congress to fix the proportion of pay to be allowed them. That these Memorials be first shown to the General, and by him transmitted to the Congress.

21st. Six Vessels, armed, are now fitted out and fitting, upon the best terms, to intercept the enemy’s supplies. Will this be agreeable to the Congress?

Agreed, That the Committee approve of the scheme, and will recommend it to the Congress.

October 24, 1775.

The Committee proceeded in their Conference on the General’s queries, viz:

1st. When the Army receives such supplies of Powder as to be enabled to spare some to the country, how and upon what terms is it to be done?

Agreed, That it be sold to them at a reasonable price.

2d. Tents, if the Army should have occasion to take the field, will be indispensably necessary for the Officers and men. How are they to be provided, and are the Officers to be allowed any?

Agreed, That it be recommended to the honourable Congress to pay an early attention to this article, and, if the pay of the Officers is not considerably increased, that Tents be allowed them.

The General informed the Committee that he had given particular orders that all the Tents, now in use, should be carefully packed up in proper places during the winter.

The Council of War lately held, having, in consequence of an intimation from the Congress, deliberated on the expediency of an attack upon Boston, and determined that at present it was not practicable, the General wishes to know how far it may be deemed proper and advisable to avail himself of the season to destroy the Troops, who pro pose to winter at Boston, by a bombardment, when the harbour is blocked up; or, in other words, whether the loss of the Town, and the property therein, are to be so considered as that an attack upon the Troops there should be avoided, when it evidently appears that the Town must of consequence be destroyed.

The Committee were of opinion this is a matter of too much importance to be determined by them, therefore refer it to the Congress.

The General now requested that the Committee would represent to the Congress the necessity of having Money constantly and regularly sent, and that some regulation, upon this head, should be made as soon as possible. Also, that the Congress would be pleased to establish or recommend it to the Legislature of this Province to establish some court for the trial and condemnation of Vessels taken from the enemy, so that they may be distinguished from those of a different character, and all abuses prevented as much as possible.

A true copy of the Minutes of the Conference held by the Delegates from the Continental Congress with General Washington.

JOSEPH REED, Secretary.

Head-Quarters, Cambridge, October 24, 1775.

MEMORIAL OF THE JUDGE ADVOCATE AT CAMBRIDGE.

Remarks on the Rules and Articles for the government of the Continental Troops.

It has been objected to this Military Code, that most of the offences described in it are punishable by a General Court-Martial only. Experience has shown the inconveniences of this, and given weight to the objection. The time it takes to assemble a General Court-Martial, which, by the Thirty-Third Article, must consist of thirteen members at least, joined to the injury of taking officers from other duty, are sufficient reasons, without adducing others, to enlarge the jurisdiction of the Regimental Courts-Martial, by lessening the number of crimes triable by General ones. It has been said that the men who compose our Army are American citizens, and have been always possessed of the privileges of the common law, one grand right of which is trial by jury; and, to reconcile them to the summary mode of proceedings in Courts-Martial, they are tried by thirteen, which is one more than a petty jury consists of; and thus, while the idea of a jury is kept up, the delinquent will more patiently submit to the adjudications of the Court.

To this it is answered, when a man assumes the soldier he lays aside the citizen, and must be content to submit to a temporary relinquishment of some of his civil rights; the brave and virtuous admit the reasonableness of this, and men of opposite characters are not to be talked with. The service is greatly hurt by a General Court-Martial sitting constantly; but it must be so till fewer offences are made cognizable by such a Court alone, or until the Army is reduced. To obviate these difficulties, it is proposed—

That the offences mentioned in the Eighth, Ninth, Twenty-First, and Twenty-Second Articles, and ordered to be brought before a General Court-Martial, be in future tried by a Regimental Court-Martial.

By Articles Nineteenth, Twenty-Fourth, and some others, the Commissioned Officers, for failure of duty, &c., are punishable by a Regimental Court-Martial. This, it is presumed, was not the intention of the framers of the Articles. An amendment of each of these Articles should be made, or a general one added, subjecting all offences of the Commissioned Officers to the judgment of a Gen eral Court-Martial only.

It is a complaint that, in several instances, the offences are not sufficiently defined, and that the punishments are left too much at discretion. It is hoped, if the Articles are revised, this observation will have attention paid to it.

The Fifty-First Article ordains that capital punishment shall be inflicted in no instance except in cases expressly mentioned, which are in Articles Twenty-Fifth, Twenty-Sixth, Thirty-First; to which should have been added the offence “of corresponding and giving intelligence to the enemy,” punishable by Twenty-Eighth Article. If any crime can deserve death in a camp, surely this must; as by such villany the best concerted enterprise may be defeated, and an army destroyed.

Death ought to be the punishment of mutiny, (vide Article Fifth, ) according to the aggravation of the offence, as this crime may be productive of fatal effects; and, for the same reason, desertion to the enemy should be made capital.

The punishment of flagellation (limited by Fifty-First Article to thirty-nine lashes) is thought badly calculated to maintain that discipline, without which an army is but an armed rabble. There have been instances, where offences have been aggravated, that the Court-Martial have, when they could fairly do it, adjudged the offence to be a breach of different Articles, and ordered thirty-nine lashes for the breach of each Article, and thereby proportioned the punishment to the crime. But there are many reasons against this management. New-England people are not so bigoted to Mosaick institutions as is imagined. Was whipping con fined to one hundred lashes, instead of thirty-nine, it would not be objected to by any man who knows the nature of a camp. Nine-tenths of the officers who compose the pre sent Army think this addition absolutely necessary.

The first paragraph of the Third Article is nugatory, because the Article it refers to has no penalty annexed to it.

If the form of the oath is added to the Thirty-Third in stead of the Fifty-Third Article, this last Article will be found superfluous.

In Article Twenty-First, the punishment should be ex pressed. Too much severity can hardly be shown to this offence, which may be attended with the most destructive consequences.

In addition to the provision made against false musters, false returns, &c., a general Article should be inserted, prohibiting and punishing every species of fraud. The infamous arts which peculation and avarice have practised, to cheat the publick, render an Article of this kind extremely necessary.

MEMORIAL FROM JOHN PARKE AND JOHN G. FRAZER TO THE COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS.

October 25, 1775.

To the Honourable the Committee of Congress:

GENTLEMEN: We do not intend to claim any extraordinary merit from our services, or to take an ungenerous advantage from the calamity of the times. We do not wish