it to be used as a County Hospital. There are other reasons; but the bearer is wailing with impatience. You are requested to urge this point also in Council. In haste.

I am, yours,

TIM PICKERING, Jun.

To the Honourable Richard Derby, Esq.

SELECTMEN OF NORTHFIELD TO MASSACHUSETTS COUNCIL.

Northfield, July 18, 1776.

HONOURED GENTLEMEN: These are to inform you, that five of the prisoners from Northampton came to us on the ninth day of July last, and are in want of some supply of money for their present subsistence. Some of them are in want of some clothes. Having an opportunity now to send to your Honours of their need, we beg the favour that you would be pleased to send some here by the bearer, Captain Hopkins King, or give order on the Town Treasurer of Northfield, as there is some money ordered there, to be paid to the Treasurer of the Massachusetts-Bay, which we hope will be sent in soon. Doctor Samuel Mattson is now Town Treasurer.

We would also inform your Honours that many people are very uneasy. The prisoners are sent so near our frontiers, that they may easily make their escape, and inform our enemy of our poor situation to defend ourselves. They can also, with the liberty the Congress gives, have an opportunity of converse with Tories every day, which has been observed from time to time. If your Honours, in your wisdom, shall think proper to remove them to some more interior part of the country, it would be greatly pleasing to your very humble servant,

ELIJAH HUNT,

EBENEZER JANES,

EDWARD WEIGHT,

Selectmen of Northfield.

To the Hon. Council of Massachusetts-Bay.

NEW-HAMPSHIRE COMMITTEE OF SAFETY TO COLONEL JACOB BAYLEY.

In Committee of Safety, July 18, 1776.

The Committee are in expectation that you will accomplish your desire of keeping in Continental pay, per order of General Washington, the sixty men employed by you to clear a road to Canada; and as you have thought fit to desist working on said road, that you now employ them as scouting parties to guard the country. But if you should be directed to disband them, you are hereby empowered to inlist fifty men, to be under the pay of this Colony, until the first of December next, unless sooner discharged, and see that the men fairly choose a Captain-Lieutenant and Ensign to command them. Said company, if raised, to take orders, from time to time, from yourself, Colonel John Hard, and Colonel Charles Johnson, to direct their conduct. Said men to receive 30s. bounty, and 40s. per month wages.

By order of the Committee.

I am, sir, your most humble servant,

M. WEARE, Chairman.

To Colonel Jacob Bayley.

ORDER ON SAMUEL DYER.

In Committee of Safety, July 18, 1776.

Samuel Dyer, an inhabitant of Berwick, in the County of York, and Colony of the Massachusetts-Bay, being brought before the Committee, charged with being unfriendly to the liberties of this country; and, after hearing his defence, and considering the matters objected against him, the Committee do determine that the said Samuel Dyer ought to confine himself to the aforesaid town of Berwick, and in no case to come within the limits of this Colony, under pain of imprisonment, unless Captain John Langdon should see fit to receive him aboard the Continental frigate under his care at Portsmouth; in which case, he may inlist and continue in that service.

By order of the Committee.

Portsmouth, New-Hampshire, July 20, 1776.

The day before yesterday, pursuant to an order from the Great and General Court of this State, the Independent Company under Colonel Sherburne, and the Light-Infantry Company under Colonel Langdon, were drawn up on the parade, in their uniforms, when the Declaration of Independence from the Grand Continental Congress was read, in the hearing of a numerous and respectable audience. The pleasing countenances of the many patriots present spoke a hearty concurrence in the interesting measure, which was confirmed by three huzzas, and all was conducted in peace and good order.

An express passed through this town last Thursday, who brought an account that Captain Mowat, in the Canceaux, had taken all the fishing-boats that lay within his reach, to the number of twenty sail, at the eastward of Casco-Buy, and is supposed to have carried them into Halifax.

Last Wednesday set out on their march for our Northern Army, the first company of the first battalion of New-Hampshire forces, commanded by Captain James Arnold, late of Boston, consisting of about one hundred stout, active, enterprising volunteers, who have all engaged in the service, and marched off with great spirit and good order, within the short space of ten days. Such is the ardour, such the resolution of freemen to support a cause in which their all is interested.

GENERAL LEE TO A MEMBER OF CONGRESS.

Charlestown, South-Carolina, July 19, 1776.

MY DEAR FRIEND: I have received yours of the 28th of May, and did not think it possible that anything could come from your hand to give me so disagreeable sensations. You tell me a dark, mysterious story of a certain great General, of whom Prince Ferdinand has declared, si l'on vent un officier, &c. This great General in the clouds will, it seems, graciously condescend to serve America, on condition that Congress will give him assurances of stepping over the heads of every officer but one, and this he submits to, only on consideration of the confidence due to an American. You ask my opinion on this subject; but the palpable meaning of your letter is, to prepare me for a cession of my rank in favour of some impudent adventurer. Buckwith is the man, as you conjecture, from his known political principles and military abilities, which are so transcendent that I ought, for the publick interest, to make a second sacrifice. I am not, I believe, naturally proud; I do not think myself conceited of my talents; but to be put in competition, much more to be spurned aside, to make room for so despicable a character as Buckwith, a generally reputed coward, and a b——d sycophant,—I say, to be kicked out of my station for such a creature as this, would swell a man more humble than myself into a trumpeter of his own merits. Great God! is it come to this? I am not, it seems, an American; but am I not (if I may so express myself) Americanior ipsis Americanis? Have I not, such has been my zeal for your cause, once already waived my military claims in deference to the whim and partiality of some of your members? Did I not consent to serve under an old Churchwarden, of whom you had conceived a most extravagant and ridiculous opinion? Your eyes were at length opened, and Deacon Ward returned to his proper occupation; and would you now, a second time, (do you think it consistent with decency, I may say gratitude or common honesty,) load me with a similar disgrace? Have I betrayed any ignorance in my profession? Have I shown a deficiency in courage? Am I slackened in my zeal or industry? What have I done to merit such an indignity? What part of my conduct can justify your harbouring such an idea? Have not I staked my fortune, life, and reputation, in your cause? Is there a service in Europe, to speak proudly, (your injurious proposal forces me to it,) is there a service in Europe, where, with some small reputation and my powerful friends, I might not expect the same rank I now hold? Have I not made myself a voluntary slave for the insurances of American freedom? Have I, sleeping or waking, employed a single thought but for her welfare, glory, or advantage?

But enough of this. You ask my opinion, and I will freely, explicitly, and concisely give it to you. If the Congress supersede me, I will, I must obey; but I hope, in common justice, and for their own honour, that they will reestablish me, at least in part, in the easy fortune which I have forfeited, so as to enable me to retire from a service to which I am no longer thought adequate.