your management, hath extended far and wide in America; battles have been fought, numbers have been slain, and prisoners taken on both sides; the Americans have in their possession ten for one, and among them many men of rank, Prescott, Preston, Stopford, and others; they are all treated with tenderness and regard, while the prisoners you have taken, are treated with severity, carried to England in irons, there, as it is said, to be tried, and, of course, condemned and executed, or, in other words, under form of law, murdered!

My Lord, if there be any thing on earth, or in Heaven, that you respect, avoid that rock. You have Colonel Allen, Captain Martindale, and some other prisoners; the hour that it is known here that any of those prisoners are executed, the prisoners here will be sacrificed—nay, more, every English and Scotch adherent; dread, shun, and forever abandon such murderous intentions. The cries and vengeance of all the relations of those whose blood shall be shed in this manner, will surround you; death and horror will be your constant companions, and the torments of the damned, even on earth, will await you.

My Lord, this is but the beginning of sorrows. Take in good part what I write. It is truth, and intended for the benefit of Britain and America

AN ENGLISH AMERICAN.

PETITION OF DOCTOR BENJAMIN CHURCH TO CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

To the Honourable the Members of Congress in PHILADELPHIA, Greeting:

The Petition of BENJAMIN CHURCH, Jun.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR HONOURS:

Whereas, your petitioner was put under arrest, in Cambridge, on the 27th of September last, by his Excellency General Washington, where he was confined, a close prisoner, till the 16th day of November; and your petitioner having inherited from Nature a feeble constitution, with a particular tendency to consumption, from which, with great difficulty, he escaped with life, a few years past, and has been compelled to observe the greatest caution ever since, respecting his diet, air, and exercise; your petitioner being precluded, by his severe confinement, from that attention necessary to his preservation, was there attacked with his constitutional complaints: a straightness of the chest, incessant cough, and spitting of blood.

On the 16th of November last, may it please your Honours, your petitioner was removed, by order of your Honours, into the Colony of Connecticut, to be further confined, and was committed, by command of his Honour the Governour, and the honourable Committee, to Norwich Jail, in a close, narrow, dark, and noisome cell; previous to his being lodged therein, a small grate (to the total exclusion of light and air) was nailed up.

Deplorable, indeed, may it please your Honours, has been the event, to your petitioner. He had not been immured in this receptacle of misery but a few hours, when, from the weak state of his lungs, and the corrupt and stagnant air of his cell, he began to labour for breath. In his insupportable distress, which was so great as repeatedly to force blood from his mouth and nostrils, he earnestly entreated his jailer to open the grate, which he declined doing, as it would be a breach of his orders. The most violent convulsive asthma, with all the unspeakable agonies of instant strangulation, then took place.

The keeper of the prison, being justly alarmed with apprehensions of the immediate death of your petitioner, hastened to his Honour the Governour, giving him an account of the distressed and dangerous situation of your petitioner. His Honour compassionately directed the grate to be opened.

This, though a partial, proved but an ineffectual relief, as your unhappy petitioner, at frequent intervals, by day and by night, still struggles with the apprehensions of immediate death from suffocation. He has applied to Messrs. Tracey, Rogers, and Turner, Physicians, in the town, who concur in sentiment, that nothing but exercise, in a clear, elastic air, will contribute to his recovery.

Your petitioner, to obtain the most speedy relief, which the urgency of his circumstances required, presented a petition to the General Assembly of this Colony, for that purpose; but the honourable Assembly judged it improper to act upon the matter, as the order of Congress for his confinement was absolute.

This, may it please your Honours, is but an imperfect representation of the accumulated distresses of your miserable petitioner. He most humbly beseeches your Honours to have compassion upon him. He considers, with mingled grief and indignation, the precipitate step he has taken; but appeals to the Searcher of all Hearts, that the letter, which has proved the unhappy occasion of his sufferings, is the only letter he ever wrote, to go into Boston. That offensive letter was designed as a political decoy for his brother Fleming; and, however equivocal or absurd it may appear to your Honours, was, indeed, dictated by an anxious concern for the distresses of his country.

Your petitioner most earnestly entreats your Honours to permit him to retire to his distressed and necessitous family, in Taunton, and he will never cease to be grateful for your humanity and clemency; and, should he be so happy as to recover his health, your Honours may be assured, it shall be his constant exertions, as it has ever been the first wish of his heart, to promote the welfare of his country.

Your petitioner, may it please your Honours, would deprecate that any jealousy, respecting the integrity of his designs should possess the minds of your Honours; but, if he should be so greatly unhappy, he would request your Honours' permission, by the first opportunity, to leave the Continent; but begs leave to plead with your Honours, to indulge him with an opportunity, by his future endeavours here, to redeem his injured reputation—to approve himself the same inflexible friend to the common rights, and to conciliate the esteem of his worthy countrymen.

And your petitioner, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c.

BENJAMIN CHURCH, Jun.

Norwich Jail, January 1, 1776.

GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL TO GENERAL SCHUYLER

Lebanon, January 1, 1776.

SIR: I have to acknowledge your two favours of the 12th of last month. Captain McKay is, at present, at Hartford. He behaves politely. I believe he is more cautious and guarded. The younger Skene is fled. Governour Skene is still at Hartford. I am sorry for Lieutenant Halsey's imprudence and misbehaviour.

The Continental Congress desire me to transmit to you the rolls of the companies, in the three Connecticut Regiments, that went in the Northern department. I have given the Paymaster-General some few rolls that I had by me. Colonels Hinman and Waterbury have promised to send me their rolls soon. When received, I will transmit them to you.

President Hancock informed me, that the prisoners from St. John's were to be sent to this town and Windham. I am not desirous of their company, and have heard of but few of them this way.

I am, with proper salutations of this day, your obedient humble servant,

JONATHAN TRUMBULL.

To the Honourable Major-General Schuyler.

GOVERNOUR TRUMBULL TO GENERALWASHINGTON.

Lebanon, January 1, 1776.

SIR: I received, the 20th of last month, your Excellency's favour of the 15th, enclosing a list of the officers and companies, under the new arrangement, with the number of men inlisted; and, at the same time, another of the 17th, with the information, from several persons, who then had lately come out of Boston. I return my thanks for both.

By accounts received from the various parts of the Colony, the Recruiting Officers, for the Continental service, have good success in inlisting men.

The Assembly have granted Chaplains the same pay given last campaign, with the addition of forty shillings per month, each, to enable them to supply their pulpits.

Brigadier-General Prescott is not arrived. Shall give particular directions to prevent his escape, if he comes into this Colony.