be had, he being expert and active with a firelock, and likewise a prime sailor; and as he is at present on board, and appears to give good satisfaction on all hands, I would beg leave to nominate him for that service on board the Shark galley; and would also nominate Mr. William Wilbur for the berth of a Master, as he hath been on board, and had the principal care of the rigging, &.c, for some time past, and has behaved so as to receive the applause of people in general at Norwich, &c.

I have at this time about thirty-five men inlisted, including officers, the greater part of whom are on board. Am now loaded with Captain Bird’s rigging, and shall proceed to Saybrook as soon as possible.

I am of opinion we shall be full manned in one week after we return from Saybrook. Beg your Honour’s directions with respect to our stores, &c., whether I must procure them myself, or apply to some other person for them.

I am, with the greatest respect, your Honour’s most obedient humble servant,

THEODORE STANTON.

To Hon. Jonathan Trumbull, Esq.

COMMITTEE OF NEW-MILFORD, CONNECTICUT.

New-Milford Committee of Inspection, June 12, 1776.

Whereas Captain John Clark, of Oxford, in Haverhill County, and Province of New-Hampshire, and Lieutenant Alexander Brink, of Hartford, in Cumberland County, and Province of New-York, have this day, by means of the patriotick vigilance of Mr. William Clarke, of this town, silversmith, been found guilty, before said Committee, of the most perfidious and dangerously inimical conduct towards the United Colonies, in making their frequent and importunate applications to the said William to cut and engrave for them a plate, for the express purpose of counterfeiting the Paper currency of the Massachusetts-Bay, offering therefor to give and pay the said William, when said plate should be completed, the sum of five hundred pounds, lawful money, and intimating to him that they had several other associates confederated with them in said counterfeiting scheme, and declaring their fixed resolution to procure a plate for the aforesaid purpose, and their intention to pursue said scheme:

They, the said Captain John Clark and Lieutenant Alexander Brink, are hereby held up to publick view as enemies to their country, to the end that such implacable foes to the lights of humanity in general, and to the liberties and privileges of the United Colonies, may be universally contemned, vigilantly inspected in all their conduct, and treated with that just but insupportable neglect and contempt which is their righteous desert at the hand of their injured country.

By order of the Committee:

DANIEL EVERET, Com. Clerk,

N. B. The above advertised persons were personally had, and duly examined, before the Committee, and the testimony against them taken in their presence, and upon oath.

JAMES WARREN TO ELBRIDGE GERRY.

Watertown, June 12, 1776.

MY DEAR SIR: I received your obliging and friendly letter of the 28th May, and the papers enclosed, and should have acknowledged it before this, if it had been in my power. I have endeavoured to use to the best purposes the intelligence you gave me, and to animate your native country to follow the laudable example of the South. Their spirit is in your taste, and I can, in imagination, see you enjoy it. You have, no doubt, seen in the papers a short resolve, passed at the close of the last session, for the purpose of getting the sense of the whole country, by the instructions given to their members, on the subject of independence. The members have severally been called on by the House, and more than one-half of them are instructed fully in favour of it, and not one against it. Many more are expecting similar instructions to follow them, and near or perhaps all would have had them, if the resolve had reached them in season; thus, it appears to me, the sentiments of our Colony are more united on this great question than they ever were on any other; perhaps ninety-nine in a hundred would engage, with their lives and fortunes, to support Congress in the measure. You seem to intend to avoid too great a shock; there is little left to do but the form and ceremony, but even that is important. Your resolves for trade and captures, and your late resolve for assuming Government, the preamble of which is extremely grand, make the substance of the thing.

I am glad to find you so determined in the defence of the continent, and making such preparations for it. I expect a warm summer in many parts of it, and to have our share here. I wish we were in a better preparation for it. We want powder, we want arms, and we have great difficulties in raising men. A regiment, ordered more than two months ago to be raised under Colonel Whitney, yet wants more than a hundred more. Another, under Marshall, and one to consist of seven companies of the train, under Crafts, make but slow progress. Marshall has not near half filled his regiment, though the inlisting orders were given out six weeks ago. We have now passed in the House a resolve for encouraging the raising the two Continental Battalions here, by a bounty of twenty dollars for those who shall inlist for two, and ten for those who shall inlist for one year. Great doubts and hesitations we have had about this step, and finally took it, because we could not see any difference in the consequences, whether the bounty was given to Colonial or Continental Regiments, and the men will not come without; and they must come, or we must be lost. How to steer between Scylla and Charybdis has been our difficulty. The resentment of Congress on one hand, and destruction from our enemies on the other, have been weighed in the balance; we have risked the first to avoid the last.

When do you send a General here to succeed Ward? He is impatient, and so is the country. When do you send somebody here with money to pay your troops? I have ventured, at the earnest solicitations of General Ward, and on the advice of many gentlemen, to proceed in paying the Army as far as the money in my hands would go; and so have really acted as Paymaster to this time, as you had made no disposition of the money, and no provision for the payment of it here. The money is now gone, and the soldiers are mutinying for pay, and every department stagnated. You cannot conceive how your affairs here are injured by these means.

The prize you mention is, indeed, a great affair; the several prizes since are very important, but the loss of the Yankee-Hero is a damper. What must be done with the West-India prizes? They must be made legal; British property must not escape under the cover of West-India property, which, if real, will be converted into British as soon as it arrives. I fear the manning of your fleet will go heavily. Why may not the sailors we have taken be obliged to do duty there, as they make ours do on board theirs?

Will it be saucy to inquire, why you passed such a resolve relative to Church, or if some of your late appointments (I do not mean of Major or Brigadier-Generals) are judicious? I never expected the people would reward, or be grateful to their benefactors the patriots, but I always supposed, if there must be lucrative or honorary places, that Congress would confer them on the most distinguished and deserving. When I see you I will explain, if explanation is wanted.

I think the French will soon interrupt the system of Britain; everything appears to me like it, and the intelli gence you give confirms it. We have very little news since the last post. A number of transports with troops are arrived below, supposed to be Highlanders; the Court seem to bend all their attention to defence; we have, this session, no fee-bills, confession, or incongealable bills.

Did you receive a letter I wrote you from Plymouth? I fear some of my letters to you and Mr. Adams miscarry. We have had rumours for some time of battles in Canada, in which we have been alternately conquerors and conquered. We have had our fears from these rumours. We have this minute intelligence from Canada, by which we believe that our arms there have finally been successful, and gained a considerable advantage; but I must conclude this long scroll; and am sincerely yours, &c.

JAMES WARREN.

TO THE PEOPLE OF MASSACHUSETTS-BAY.

FRIENDS AND COUNTRYMEN: The subject of the first letter was the defence of the Colony, as what called for an immediate attention; of this second, the settling of the Constitution, as next in consideration, and what should go hand