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the Committee on the method of subsisting the Troops in New-York, &c.,

Resolved, That the sum of thirty-five thousand Dollars be advanced to the Convention or Committee of Safety of New-York, for the support of the Troops employed in the defence of that Colony: the said Convention or Committee of Safety to be accountable for the expenditure thereof; and that an Order be drawn on the Treasurers for the above sum, in favour of the Delegates of that Colony, who are directed to forward the same.

That it be recommended to the Convention or Committee of Safety of New- York, to contract with proper persons for supplying the said Troops with the Rations allowed by Congress, and with Fuel, and other necessaries, on the most reasonable, terms, in their, power.

The Committee of Claims reported, that there is due: On an Account exhibited by the Committee of Frederick County, Maryland, to be paid to S. Chase and W. Paca, Esquires, the sum of 860 9 Dollars, of which 268.4 Dollars, being for Rifles, &c., furnished Captain Cresap's Company of Riflemen, ought to be charged to the said Company, and the remainder to the Continent.

To Nicholas flower, for Wagonage, the sum of 74.4 Dollars, and that the same ought to be paid to Daniel Hower.

Ordered, That the above Accounts be paid.

Adjourned to ten o'clock, on Monday.

Monday, February 19, 1776.

Met according to adjournment, and having attended the Oration delivered in honour of General Montgomery, and of those Officers and Soldiers who magnanimously fought and fell with him in maintaining the principles of liberty:

Adjourned to ten o'clock, to-morrow.

Tuesday, February 20, 1776.

The Convention of New-Jersey, having made a new shoice of Delegates to represent that Colony in Congress, three of said Delegates attending, produced their Credentials, which were read as follows:

"In Provincial Convention, New.Jersey, Brunswick,

February 14, 1776

"On motion, Resolved, unanimously, That William Livingston, John De Hart, Richard Smith, John Cooper, and Jonathan Dickinson Sergeant, Esqs., be Delegates to represent this Province in the Continental Congress, for the space of one year, or until others shall be legally appointed in their stead; and that they, or any three or more of them, have full and ample power to consent and agree to all measures which such Congress shall deem necessary; and this Province bind themselves to execute, to the utmost of their power, all resolutions which the said Congress may adopt. And further, if the said Congress shall think necessary to adjourn, we do authorize our said Delegates to represent and act for this Province, in any one Congress to be held by virtue of such adjournments, during their delegation.

"A true copy from the Minutes:

"WILLIAM PATTERSON, Secretary."

A Letter from General Lee, dated 17th February, 1776, was read.

A Memorial from a number of the Inhabitants of Northumberland, in the Colony of Pennsylvania, dated 17th January, 1776, with six enclosures, was presented to Congress, and read: also,

A Petition from sundry Inhabitants near Pittsburgh, was presented and read.

Resolved, That the above Memorial and Petition be referred to a Committee of Five.

FATHERS, BRETHREN and COUNTRYMEN! An occasion truly solemn has assembled us this day; and, that; your attention may be alike solemn and serious, hoar, in the first place, the voice of Eternal Truth: "It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of feasting;" for, "None of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself." But there are some men, illuminated with a purer lay of divinity, patriots of the first magnitude, who, in a peculiar sense, may be said to live and die, not to themselves, but to others; and consequently to film who is the author of all goodness. Endowed with that superior excellence, which does honour to our whole species, the virtuous of every nation claim kindred with them; and the general interests of humanity are concerned in their character.

In veneration of such men, to exchange the accustomed walks of pleasure for the house of mourning; to bedew its sacred recesses with tears of gratitude to their memory; to strive, if possible, to catch some portion of their ethereal spirit, as it mounts from this earthly sphere, into perfect union with congenial spirits above—is a laudable custom, coeval with society, and sanctified to us by the example of the wisest nations,

It was the manner of the Egyptians, the fathers of arts and science, not only to celebrate the names, but to embalm the bodies of their deceased heroes, that they might he long preserved in publick view, as examples of virtue; and, although "dead, yet speaking."

But this honour was not easily to be obtained; nor was it bestowed indiscrimnately upon the vulgar great. It was decreed only by the publick voice—a venerable assembly of judges, before whom the body of the deceased was brought for trial, and solemnly acquitted or condemned upon the evidence of the people.

Even Kings themselves, however much spared when alive, for the sake of publick tranquillity, had still this more than fiery ordeal before their eyes; and, by the example of some of their number, who had been refused sepulture in those very tombs which their pride had prepared to their own "memory, were taught both to venerate and to dread a law, which extended its punishments beyond the usual times of oblivion.

The moral of this institution was truly sublime—constantly inculcating a most important lesson, "That whatever distinctions our wants and vices may render necessary, in this short and imperfect period of our being, they are all cancelled by the hand of death; and, through the endless untried periods which succeed, virtue and beneficence will make the true distinctions, and be the only foundations of happiness and renown!

If from the Egyptians, we pass to the Greeks, particularly the enlightened Athenians, we shall find that they had an express law, appointing orations and publick funerals, in honour of those who gloriously sacrificed their lives to their country. And this solemn office was performed before the great assemblies of the people; sometimes for one, and sometimes for bands of heroes together.

Thucydides has recorded a celebrated Oration of this last kind, delivered by Pericles. The. illustrious speaker, after a most animating description of the Amor Patric—the love of our country—which he exalts above all human virtues, turns to the deceased:

"Having bestowed their lives to the publick, every one of them, (says he) hath received a praise that will never decay; a sepulchre that will always be most illustrious; not that in which their bones lie mouldering, but that in which their fame is preserved. This whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious citizens;" and their inscription is written upon the hearts of all good men.

"As for you, the survivors, from this very moment, emulating their virtues, place your sole happiness in liberty; and be prepared to follow its call through every danger." Then, addressing himself, with exquisite tenderness, to the relicts and children of the deceased, he suggests to them that the Commonwealth was their husband, their father and brother.

"From this day forward to the ago of maturity, shall the orphans be educated at the publick expense of the state. For this benevolent meed have the laws appointed to all future relicts of those who may fall in the publick contests."

Nor were the Romans less careful in this matter. Considering men in general as brave, more by art than nature; and that honour is a more powerful incentive than fear; they made frugality, temperance, patience of labour, manly exercise, and love of their country, the main principles of education. Cowardice and neglect of duty in the field, were seldom punished with death or corporal inflictions; but, by what was accounted worse, a life decreed to ignominous expulsion and degradation from Roman privileges. On the contrary, deeds of publick virtue were rewarded, according to their magnitude, with statues, triumphs of various kinds, peculiar badges of dress at publick solemnities, and songs of praise* to the living as well as the dead.

Next to the hymns composed in honour of the gods, poetry derived its origin from the songs of triumph to heroes, † who tamed the rude manners of mankind, ‡ founded cities, repelled the incursions of enemies, and gave peace to their country. And this custom began when Rome contained only a few shepherds, gathering strength by an alluvies of the outcasts of neighbouring nations,

Those first efforts of poetick eulogy, whether in prose or verse like those of a similar origin, which nature, always the same, teaches our Savage neighbours, although often sublime in substance, were yet so rude in structure, that Livy|| forbears quoting them, as having become intolerable to the more refined taste of his age, however suitable they might have been to the era of their production.