and Council of Safety—for which they deserve to be properly rewarded. How far such proceedings tend to promote union and harmony amongst the Colonies, you will judge as well or better than we can. We intend returning them a short answer, and leave to the Convention, when they meet again, to give them the payment they deserve.

Should the Congress think proper to request us to march our Militia in the manner T. Stone hath intimated, we must be under the disagreeable necessity of calling the Convention. It is not with us to say they shall march out of the Province, and we doubt the Militia themselves will be backward in so doing, until all danger of invasion here be at an end for the season. Three thousand four hundred Militia would take all the arms we have that are serviceable; and then what condition would our own Province be in? We should become an easy prey to the men-of-war and tenders, that will swarm in the bay during the summer; and perhaps the Ministerial troops may be tempted by our weakness to do what they would not otherwise have attempted. This, we say upon supposition that we must furnish them with arms, &c. We shall hear more fully, however, hereafter.

The intelligence with regard to seven thousand men rising and declaring for independence, is without foundation. We take it to be news from some incendiary. Mr. Pur-viance got off with a severe reprimand, as you will see by the proceedings of the Convention, a copy of which we shall hereafter enclose to you when they are printed. We all join in compliments and best wishes; and are, &c.

To the Deputies for Maryland in Congress.

INSTRUCTIONS OF THE ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA TO THEIR DELEGATES IN CONGRESS.

In Assembly, June 8, 1776.

GENTLEMEN: When, by our instructions of last November, we strictly enjoined you, in behalf of this Colony, to dissent from, and utterly reject any proposition, should such be made, that might cause or lead to a separation from Great Britain, or a change of the form of this Government, our restrictions did not arise from any diffidence of your ability, prudence, or integrity, but from an earnest desire to serve the good people of Pennsylvania with fidelity, in times so full of alarming dangers and perplexing difficulties.

The situation of publick affairs is since so greatly altered, that we now think ourselves justifiable in removing the restrictions laid upon you by those instructions.

The contempt with which the last petition of the honourable Congress has been treated; the late act of Parliament declaring the just resistance of the Colonists against violences actually offered, to be rebellion, excluding them from the protection of the Crown, and even compelling some of them to bear arms against their countrymen; the treaties of the King of Great Britain with other Princes for engaging foreign mercenaries to aid the forces of that kingdom in their hostile enterprises against America, and his answer to the petition of the Lord-Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons, of the City of London, manifest such a determined and implacable resolution to effect the utter destruction of these Colonies, that all hopes of a reconciliation, on reasonable terms, are extinguished. Nevertheless, it is our ardent desire that a civil war, with all its attending miseries, could be ended by a secure and honourable peace.

We therefore hereby authorize you to concur with the other Delegates in Congress in forming such further compacts between the United Colonies, concluding such treaties with foreign Kingdoms and States, and in adopting such other measures as shall be judged necessary for promoting the liberty, safety, and interests of America; reserving to the people of this Colony the sole and exclusive right of regulating the internal government and police of the same.

The happiness of these Colonies has, during the whole course of this fatal controversy, been our first wish; their reconciliation with Great Britain our next. Ardently have we prayed for the accomplishment of both. But if we must renounce the one or the other, we humbly trust in the mercies of the Supreme Governour of the Universe, that we shall not stand condemned before His throne if our choice is determined by that overruling law of self-preservation, which His divine wisdom has thought fit to implant in the hearts of His creatures.

BERKS COUNTY (PENNSYLVANIA) COMMITTEE.

At a meeting of the Standing Committee of the County of Berks, June 8, 1776, Mark Bird, Esquire, in the Chair.

Resolved, That as some people have declared that:no obedience ought to be paid to the civil authority, because a Government will shortly be founded on the authority of the people in the room of the present Government; and as such a conduct will only serve to introduce, confusion and disorder, and endanger the lives and properties of every individual in society, it is the opinion of this Committee, and they are determined to support the same to the utmost of their abilities, that the same obedience should be paid to the civil authority as used to be paid to it, till a new Constitution shall be formed by a Provincial Convention, and commissions shall be issued by virtue of the new legislative authority for the appointment of Courts and Magistrates, to preserve the peace and administer justice to the people; and then the authority of the present Courts and Magistrates will cease of course.

By order of the Committee:

COLLINSON READ, Secretary.

JAMES McLENE TO PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

[Read June 13, 1776.]

Shippensburgh, June 8, 1776.

SIR: I am ordered by the Committee of Cumberland County to send you the enclosed Resolve,

And am, sir, your most obedient, humble servant,

JAMES McLENE, Chairman.

To the Hon. John Hancock, Esq.

The Committee of West-Pennsborough Township, in this County, on the 4th instant seized sixteen kegs of Gunpowder, which, by letters produced to this Committee—one signed Lewis Morris, bearing date at Philadelphia, 14th of May last, addressed to Major Ephraim Blair, bearing date the 4th instant, and addressed to Captain George Morgan, at Fort Pitt—appear to be part of a ton of Gunpowder ordered by the said Lewis Morris to the said Ephraim Blair, and by him forwarded to Fort Pitt. We have not been able to discover, neither by the letters nor by the testimony of Ephraim Blair, to what use the same gunpowder is to be applied; therefore suspect it must be private property, and not designed for publick use, which, we apprehend, may be very injurious to the common cause.

Resolved, unanimously, That the aforesaid sixteen kegs of Gunpowder, now under the care of the Committee of West-Pennsborough Township, together with nine kegs more in the custody of Ephraim Blair, at his plantation, near Carlisle, be immediately delivered to Stephen Duncan, Samuel Laird, and James Pollock, of Carlisle, by them to be kept in the publick Magazine at Carlisle until our proceedings therein shall be communicated to the honourable the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, and until an order for the further disposal thereof, signed by the President of the Congress, shall be produced to them, which order they are hereby ordered to obey.

Signed by order of the Committee:

JAMES McLENE, Chairman.

To the Hon. John Hancock, Esq.

LIEUTENANT HALLOCK TO MARINE COMMITTEE.

Cape May, June 8, 1776.

GENTLEMEN: I just received your order for a cruise, and should comply with it, but the sloop makes so much water I think she is not safe; her stern is in a shattered condition, and judge she will not be fit for service till that is taken out. She makes nine or ten inches every hour, and daily increases. I wrote you this morning by Captain Sion, in a sloop from ’Statia.

I am, gentlemen, your most obedient, humble servant,

WILLIAM HALLOCK.

To the Honourable Marine Committee.