Mrs. Withy, in the borough of Chester, on the 1st and 2d of March; at the house of Mr. Hood, in Oxford, on the 4th and 5th; at the house of Mr. Miller, in Birmingham, on the 6th and 7th; at the house of Mr. Powell, in New-town, on the 8th and 9th; at the house of Mr. Bell, in Kennet, on the 12th and 13th; and at the house of Walter Finney, in New-London, on the 14th and 15th of said month, in order to teach and instruct all persons who may please to apply at the times and places above-mentioned.

BENJAMIN BRANNAN,

WALTER FINNET.

PRESIDENT HANCOCK TO NEW-JERSEY CONGRESS.

Philadelphia, February 12, 1776.

GENTLEMEN: The arrival of troops at New-York, the importance of that place to the welfare of America, and the necessity of throwing up a number of works to prevent our enemies from landing and taking post there, render it necessary that a number of troops should immediately join General Lee. I am, therefore, desired to apply to you, and request you Would, with all possible expedition, send detachments of your Minute-Men, equal to a battalion, (under proper officers, and well armed and accoutred,) to New-York, there to be under the command of General Lee.

Your approved zeal in the cause of your country gives me the strongest assurance that you will with alacrity embrace this opportunity of giving aid to your neighbours, and that your people will cheerfully engage in a service by which they will not only render a very essential service to their country, but also have an opportunity of acquiring military skill and knowledge in the construction of field-works, and the method of fortifying and intrenching camps, by which they will be the better able, when occasion calls, to defend their rights and liberties.

I am, gentlemen, your obedient humble servant,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

To the Honourable Convention of New-Jersey.

PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS TO GENERAL LEE.

Philadelphia, February 12, 1776.

SIR: Your letter of the 9th instant I this morning received, and immediately laid before Congress, who, without delay, paying that attention to it which the intelligence therein contained required, despatched an order lo the Convention of New-Jersey, and made application to the Committee of Safety of Pennsylvania, requesting them to send immediately to your assistance, from each of their respective Colonies, detachments from the Minute-Men and Associators equal to a battalion, from each Colony. The battalion from New-Jersey, which lies contiguous, will, I hope, be with you in two or three days. A ton of powder is, also, ordered to be sent forward to you, with all possible expedition. The four battalions ordered to be raised in Pennsylvania, are, I understand, in great forwardness. The Congress have given orders to have a return made of those inlisted.

That God may restore you to health, and crown your endeavours in defence of liberty with success, is the sincere and ardent prayer of, sir, your most humble servant,

JOHN HANCOCK, President.

To Major-General Lee, at New-York.

P. S. The Congress will determine, as soon as possible, respecting an Hospital, and you shall know the result.

AN EARNEST APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE.

Philadelphia, February 12, 1776.

I cannot recall an idea to my mind more amazingly absurd and stupid, than the idea of Lord North's second attempt to gull the Colonists into a belief of his inclination to hold out to them terms of a safe and amicable reconciliation with Great Britain. No one is ignorant that the Americans hare offered every "thing that can possibly be devised, to bury the injurious and enslaving claim of Administration in perpetual oblivion, and leave matters on the same footing they were before the pretence was held up. Those generous proposals, however often repeated, have as often been rejected with an insolent contempt; and yet, the profound politician tells his opponents in the British House of Commons, that he is heartily inclined to a reconciliation with the Colonies, and willing to put them in the situation they so passionately desire; that is, (says he to a Courtier demanding explanation,) in a slate of absolute dependance on the British Parliament in all cases whatsoever; for, says his Lordship, they were unquestionably thus dependant in 1763.

Had his Lordship entirely forgot the success of his former experiments, perhaps a trial of the same wretched trick over again, might have appeared less ridiculous; I may, indeed, say, less insulting to the lowest understanding. I would ask the most credulous votary for making up the dispute, what possible grounds they perceive to found their expectation of a permanent reconciliation upon? Has any thing lately turned up which has indicated a change of disposition in the Prince or his favourites? Can a majority which have been secured from one seven years to another, by pure force of corruption, be depended on to remain firm to a slaughtering, plundering, and desolating Court, and share the detestation of present and future ages for mere nothing ? Has the Court resolved to cast Bernard, Hutchinson and daughter, Richardson, the murderer, crazy John Malcolm, and Richardson, the recent volunteer, out on the community? I tell you nay.

You have a fresh instance of the firmness of the Cabinet, in adding another three thousand pound pensioner to the list, in a conjuncture when all mankind will confess there is need of saving. These burdensome pensions must come from some part of the dominions. If Great Britain and Ireland have conceived such a mortal hatred to America that they can hug her most inveterate enemies in their bosom, and vote them such munificent rewards for drawing her into so destructive a civil war, we cannot be safe in the power of such enemies. If they abound in resources as largely as Mr. Wedderburne and others boast they do, let them cease complaining of their poverty, and contentedly discharge their own national debt, rather than go on augmenting it by their efforts to saddle it, with an unlimited pension list, on America.

Does the nation bear the weight of the present unnatural quarrel with America, on other terms than a firm assurance of the Court that millions of leading men's dependants shall be provided for in America, for whom places can by no means be found at home. Is not the very genius of the people of Great Britain and Ireland corrupted, insomuch that the views of young fellows of education, or any connexion with men of note, are altogether set on publick money? Can our peaceable men indulge a gleam of hope that this humour will alter, or that youths, bred in idleness and dissipation, will become industrious and disinterested patriots? If not, they must then be so weak as to conceit that Ministers will become less fond of fingering the publick money, and securing themselves in places of power and profit by means of it—indeed, that they will become more honest and saving of the national money than those the Constitution has appointed as a check upon them.

It is no wonder they tell of sending a formidable fleet and army to bring over their terms of reconciliation, when they are in no one article different from the terms they first aimed to impose. Had the Minister, or more properly the obstinate author of all our troubles, had the remotest idea of favouring us with a Government of laws, which hail any respect to the security of our live? and properties, he had long since granted, with a good grace, petitions, made and repeated with the most dutiful and persevering affection, which asked for nothing more? Sed aut Casar aut nullus, seems the unalterable determination of the man, who soothed our already elated expectations, by an inaugural declaration that he gloried in the name of Briton, then a distinctive characteristick of the patrons of universal liberty. If, therefore, the whole body of the governing and influential part of the governed, in Great Britain, be unalterably set upon extorting tribute from the Colonies; and the better to secure the collection of it, claims right to impose laws, and executors of those laws, dependant only on themselves for appointment, continuance, and support,, and all these to be extended at their sole pleasure, it may readily be determined in what condition the absolutely passive subjects of such an unnatural usurpation would quickly be. It is evident they have concluded on two things, viz