dear friend, to inform me of every step in the progress of the manufacture of saltpeter and gunpowder.

Measures are taking to make cannon, both of brass and iron. Some experiments have been made in Maryland, Philadelphia and New-York, with success. I will acquaint you with particulars, as fast as I can.

Shall we be able to get seamen to man our navy when our trade shall be opened? Will they not be all better employed?

I am, your friend.

To the Honourable James Warren, Esq., Speaker of the House, Watertown.

DECLARATION OF THOMAS AUSTIN.

Philadelphia, February 14, 1776.

As the Committee of Safety for this Province have adjudged my late conduct to be inimical to the cause of American freedom, I am sincerely sorry that I have given any displeasure to my countrymen, and do solemnly declare, that I never intended, by any thing I have said or done, to obstruct the measures carried on for the maintaining the liberty of these Colonies. I do further, in the like solemn manner, declare and promise, that I will not for the future throw any reflections on the publick measures aforesaid, or the advisers or promoters of them, nor, in any manner whatever, endeavour to obstruct or discredit such measures.

I do, also, resign my seat as a member of the Committee of Inspection and Observation for this County.

THOMAS AUSTIN.

TO THE FREEMEN OF THE PROVINCE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Some men talk of peace and reconciliation in a way that does little credit to their understandings, and less to their political principles. If honest, they are cowards; if knaves, they are fools. The excellence of the English Constitution, and happiness we enjoyed in a state of dependance on Great Britain, are spoken of with such warmth, eagerness, and seeming devotion, that I am turned out of the path I had prescribed to myself, to set the matter in its true light.

My signature is Salus Populi, and my professed design is to throw out such hints to your consideration as may tend to the advantage of the great North-American community, without regard to sect or party, or to this or that man's sentiments or interest, where the welfare of the whole could be injured thereby. He, therefore, who would sacrifice the publick to private interest, and whose views extend not to the general good of his country, will find little to please him in what I advance. I give this cautionary admonition however, to every one, that as he regards his future welfare and happiness, and wishes to merit the Divine favour, let him now conduct himself. We are not brought into our present critical circumstances for nothing. And if we neglect to make the best of them we will scarcely obtain the approbation of the Almighty.

Though much might be said not very advantageous to the British Constitution, yet I will waive it for the present. She most assuredly has not yet found out any effectual method of securing the rights of the people from encroachments of the Crown; i. e. from tyranny. But be her Constitution ever so good, it is little to us. That Constitution is certainly not very extraordinary, which has not vigour sufficient to support itself against the slightest attack; and this is the Constitution of the Colonies. In all your endeavours to preserve your privileges did it ever enter into your heads to apply to the powers of your Constitution for protection? No! and if it had, what would it have done for you? Nothing. Mercantile combinations have done more in a few months for the preservation of the liberties of America, than all your constitutional powers would have effected in ten thousand years. It is for this reason that the Tories, and an Administration which is doing all in its power to enslave you, wish to see every thing pass through what they affect to call a constitutional channel. I say, mercantile combinations have done more, in a few months, than all our constitutional powers could have effected in ten thousand years, and yet every one who reflects how reluctantly that measure was lately complied with, will leave little to the hazard of such future combinations. On this precarious tenure have we held every privilege which should be dear to man for these twelve years past: And on this tenure we must yet hold them, if some people can have their way.

The happiness we enjoyed in a state of dependancy on Great Britain before the year 1763, is the cry with which they hope to lull us to rest on the lap of an abandoned Government, which knows no right but the pleasure of an obstinate and blood-thirsty Prince and his Courtly sycophants. That we occasionally enjoyed a state of much happiness, both before and since the year 1763, cannot be denied; but the portion of that happiness which arose from our dependance on Great Britain is not quite so evident as some people may imagine. Let us examine this matter with candour and honesty; and here it must strike us at first view, that we enjoyed more happiness when they lei us alone, than when they exercised any degree of that authority over us, which, as long as we are dependant we must acknowledge they possess. This, I apprehend, is not saying much for the happiness of a state of dependancy on Great Britain. Whence sprung our happiness then, will some people inquire? I will unfold to you the source of that happiness you so pant after, and which, if you pursue the path pointed out to you by Providence, will shortly return and remain with you for ages, in all probability until the curtain which divides time from eternity is withdrawn, and the scenery of this world brought to a period.

It sprung from the fertility of the soil, and the sobriety, industry, and equality of the inhabitants alone—sources from whence happiness always has, and ever will spring to the people who are so favoured of Heaven as to be possessed of them. Take away any one of these sources, and you take away a proportionable part of the happiness you enjoyed. Take them all away, and were your dependance on Great Britain ten times what it is at present, you will not be happy. Our dependance on Great Britain never did, nor never could add the ten thousandth part of a grain to that happiness which flowed so abundantly to us from the forementioned sources. It is not in the nature of dependance to confer happiness, but the reverse. Every dependancy presupposes a kind of mastery, and there is but one only can bestow happiness, viz: a dependance upon God. We enjoyed happiness in a state of dependence, but not from that state. He who is a dependant, has a master, and he who has a master is a servant, if not a slave.

The state of equality, which, as yet, subsists among us, and ought for ever to be preserved, is a principal source both in our happiness, and of the preservation of our liberties. Any one who will read the Ministerial pamphlet intituled, "A Letter from the People of Great Britain to the People of America," will there find how eagerly they wish to form distinctions amongst us, that they may create a few more tools of oppression. They wish to see us aspire to nobility, and are ready to gratify us whenever we do. They can now depend only on the Crown officers and their dependants, with a few of the heads of some sects in religion, who prefer basking in the sunshine of British royalty and Court favour, to the simple practice of the pure religion of their forefathers. Only be reconciled for a few year? longer, until they have raised a number of our Selectmen to the different ranks of nobility, and then preserve your liberties if you can.

Some think they say every thing against a state of independence by crying out, that in a state of dependance we enjoyed the protection of Great Britain. Ay, and we enjoyed something else, which sounds not so agreeable; we enjoyed a large share in her wars, with these favourable circumstances, that every war between Great Britain anFrame is principally carried on in America, and that we assist her through these wars only to give her an opportunity of quarrelling with us afterwards.

But do not we pay dearly for this protection? The restriction of our trade alone is worth ten times the protection, besides the sums we pay in customs and other duties, to the amount of more than a million annually. The customs of the port of London alone are worth two millions sterling per annum. How many Londons America may contain a century hence, if she now becomes independent, God only knows. Our present dependancy costs us as