Britain on this occasion, and an honest attention to her present measures, I see no way to avoid it but the following, which I humbly beg leave to lay before him and their Honours.

It is to me plain, after the many opportunities put into the hands of Administration of settling matters to mutual satisfaction, all which they have rejected with contempt, that they never design any union but on the terms of our absolute submission. Any one who likes these terms, I advise him to sell his estate here, settle his affairs as soon as possible, and remove to Nova-Scotia; there he may submit without trouble. If he likes them not, he has two ways of avoiding it: the one is, to sell his estate and remove to Great Britain; or, which may be a more honourable way, to go as a volunteer in the Continental Army, and offer his service on every perilous occasion, and then he may have the honour of dying in the glorious cause of liberty, and not be obliged to live independent. I see no other means of avoiding it at present; for as every measure we have entered into has been forced on us by the conduct of Administration, and as this Administration seems resolute and determined, I think we shall have to fight it out; and as the Associator seems to be a friend to his Country, I am persuaded he believes we shall come off conquerors. For my own part, I have never entertained a doubt of it. And I do not imagine any one would give his voice for a submission to Great Britain, or a dependance on her, after we have disabled her so far as to render her incapable of carrying on a war against us. She will then be neither able to protect us nor herself; and it would be a blameable degree of generosity to submit to her in such circumstances. I am for independency, till she offers us better terms than slavery or grape-shot. We have no better as yet; nor are we likely to have, until it is out of her power to prevent us from having what we please.

However, I am glad to see such a Christian disposition in our legislators, that they will love their enemies with an unconquerable affection; and that, though Great Britain is doing us every mischief in her power, we pant after her friendship with an unceasing solicitude. She cuts off our right hand, and we attempt, with the fondness of a doating mistress, to lay hold on her with our left; and no doubt, when that is cut off, we will then try to lay hold on her with our teeth; and when she has cut off our heads, we will then die martyrs to this our Christian temper. Surely we are very good Christians, and deserve better usage.

INDEPENDENT WHIG.

Philadelphia, November 9, 1775.

TO THE MEMBERS SITTING IN THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

In my former address to you, in this paper of the 22d instant, signed A Lover of Order, I protested against your right of instructing the Delegates of this Province, as being an authority you are not invested with, and which you cannot possess but by a grant from the people.

Some short-sighted writer, under the feigned signature of A Pennsylvania Associator, has endeavoured to justify the Instructions, by showing the excellence of them. To which I reply, so much the more dangerous; because he who doth a right thing, not having a right to do so, may hereafter do a wrong one under sanction of the precedent.

In the same address I likewise modestly reminded you that your power of appointing of Delegates is at present accepted by us on the score of present convenience only, and for that reason ought to be used by you with the greatest delicacy. The patriots on the other side the water have been for years endeavouring to exclude placemen from the House of Commons. Pity but you, gentlemen, had taken the hint. Two of our present Delegates have places; and though I respect their characters as private gentlemen, yet we need not be told, in this age of sad experience, that interest steals insensibly upon man, and limits the progress of his virtue.

Having thus sufficiently protested against the legality of the Instructions, I now proceed to examine them: first, as a composition; secondly, as to their tendency.

As a composition, they are mystical, contradictory, and absurd. The preamble and the conclusion are in opposition. The head disowns the tail, the tail the head, and the body belongs to neither. A mass without order; having neither the precision of the lawyer nor the arrangement of the logician, and which sufficiently convinces me that cunning can never acquire the rectitude of wisdom.

The preamble sets forth that “the trust” is great and difficult; yet the conclusion shows that the trust is neither great nor difficult, being little more than the trust of executing a command or delivering a message.

It likewise acknowledges that, from the complexity of affairs, it is “scarcely possible to give particular instructions,” yet surmounts the difficulty at once, by giving positive ones. Perhaps some scribbling advocate will inform mankind that the phrase “particular instructions” more elegantly means the this, that, and other, as to terms of accommodation; to which I answer, that, from the present face of things, it is not only “scarcely possible,” but totally impossible, to give any this, that, or other, on that head.

The preamble likewise implies, if it implies any thing, that in the course of their (the Delegates) deliberation with their colleagues in Congress, that a variety of new and at present unseen and even unimagined matters may hereafter arise; wherefore it follows, as a natural inference from the premises laid down, that all judgment on future circumstances ought to be suspended till the circumstances happen; for if present judgment on present things is “scarcely possible,” pre-judgment is consummate folly.

The following extracts from the Instructions, notwithstanding their absolute and positive air, are nevertheless dark and equivocal, and neither mean what they express, nor express what they mean:

“We strictly enjoin you, that you, in behalf of this Colony, dissent from and utterly reject any proposition, should such be made, that may cause or lead to a separation from our Mother Country.”

Our Mother Country! This part is so happily unmeaning, that you may turn it which way you please. One man thinks that arms will “lead to a separation;” wherefore, in obedience to his instructions, he gives his negative on defensive means. Another thinks that petitioning will “lead to a separation;” because, not meeting with a decent reception, the animosity becomes increased; wherefore, he puts his negative on that measure. Another thinks that nothing will reconcile us like fighting it out; wherefore, he is for spirit and resolution. Another thinks that nothing will “lead to a separation of our animosities,” like separating the dependance; wherefore, in obedience to the same instruction, he votes point blank for independence, and makes his report to the House accordingly. Gentlemen, do be so kind as to tell us what you mean, unless we should suspect (which suspicion many of you do not deserve) that some of you are not sound at heart.

As to the tendency of the Instructions, no great deal can be said on that head, until they are rendered intelligible. As I presume the framer of them had some meaning, and perhaps more than one, I shall endeavour to supply what he has left out. If I err, I am pardonable—the field being wide and the path invisible.

Perhaps he meant to recommend himself in time to the favourable eye of “our Mother Country,” that he might, according to the English phrase, be pricked down for a Govemour; perhaps not. Beware of the Galloway rock, young soldier.

But be his private reason this or that—I suppose ’tis something—his publick meaning is, that, right or wrong, the Delegates shall vote against independency. Wherefore, that being the true meaning, and not the measure which may “lead to” or be the “cause of” independency; for, according to the opinion of many, every thing which we have already done, are now doing, with all the late Acts of the Assembly, (the Instructions excepted, ) “leads to” that very end; wherefore, I say, every wise man will join in condemning the Instructions, as being ill judged; for until any matter hath had a fair hearing, and all the circumstances thereof duly weighed and considered, no man can tell what he ought to do, or what ought to be done. I care neither for dependency nor independency, any further than they promote the good and happiness of the whole Continent; and not for a day or two, but lastingly so.

But the greatest evil which accompanies the Instructions is, that they have a tendency to promote disunion, because they admit of no relax, let the reasons to the contrary be