INSTRUCTIONS TO PENNSYLVANIA DELEGATES.

In Convention, Friday, July 26, 1776, P. M.

The draught of Instructions for the Delegates in Congress was read and unanimously approved, and is as follows, viz:

"GENTLEMEN: This Convention, confiding in your wisdom and virtue, has, by the authority of the people, chosen and appointed you to represent the free State of Pennsylvania in the Congress of the United States of America, and authorized you, or a majority of such of you as shall at any time be present, to vote for and in the name of this State, in all and every question there to be decided. And this Convention apprehend it to be a duty which they owe the publick to give you the following general directions for your conduct, confident that you will at all times pay the utmost attention to the instructions of your constituents.

"The immense and irreparable injury which a free country may sustain by, and the very great inconveniences which always arise from a delay of its Councils, induce us, in the first place, strictly to enjoin and require you to give not only a constant, but a punctual attendance in Congress.

"The present necessity of a vigorous exertion of the united force of the free States of America against our British enemies, is the most important object of your immediate regard, and points out the necessity of cultivating and strengthening, by every means in your power, the present happy union of these States, until such a just, equal, and perpetual consideration can be agreed upon, and finally effected, as will be the most likely to secure to each the perfect direction of its own internal police; in the forming of which Confederation, you are to give your utmost assistance.

"We recommend to you to use your utmost power and influence in Congress to have a due attention paid to the establishing and maintaining a respectable naval force, as such a force is absolutely necessary to every trading nation, and is the least expensive or dangerous to the liberties of mankind.

"With respect to the forming of treaties with foreign powers, it is necessary only to say, that we strictly charge and enjoin you not to agree to, or enter into any treaty of commerce or alliance with Great Britain, or any other foreign power, but (on the part of America) as free and independent States; and that whenever Great Britain shall acknowledge these States free and independent, you are hereby authorized, in conjunction with the Delegates of the United States, to treat with her concerning peace, amity, and commerce, on just and equal terms."

LANCASTER COMMITTEE.

At a meeting of the Committee of Inspection, Observation, and Correspondence, at the house of Adam Reigart, the 26th of July, 1776:

Present: Edward Shipper, Wm. Atlee, Lodwick Lowman, Henry Dehuff, Christopher Crawford, Jacob Krug, John Miller.

William Atlee in the Chair.

There being a number of young lads in town, to wit: Henry Wilson, William Furguson, William Porter, Robert Jockley, Michael McGachakin, George McGighagin, James Ellet, Robert Jones, and Christian Newcomer, who have been, at the request of Colonel Hand, under the tuition of the Drum-Major of Colonel Slough's Battalion, and the Fife-Major of Colonel Ross's Battalion, and those teachers being now employed in the service in such manner that they cannot instruct the said lads, and Captain Ross now being about to march to the Camp, and agreeing that the said lads shall march under the care of his Sergeant:

It is Resolved, That the said lads be sent, under the care of Captain Ross's Sergeant, with his direction, to the Camp at New-York; and that the Chairman write to Colonel Hand by the Sergeant, informing him of this proceeding, and that the Committee have advanced £4 10s. to the Sergeant for their subsistence by the way.

Colonel Greene representing that near fifty of his Flying-Camp Company are now in this town, armed, accoutred, and ready to march, and that a number of the draughts of some of the Companies of his Battalion have not yet joined them, requests the sentiments of this Committee whether those who are shall march for the Camp under his command, and what method shall be taken to oblige the other draughts to follow:

Upon consideration, it is the sentiments of this Committee, that those who are in this place, armed and accoutred, be immediately marched for the Camp, where there may be immediate occasion for them; and that this Committee immediately write to Captain Ambrose Crean, Thomas Roppeheffer, and John Rough, requiring them immediately to send down to this place the draughts from their respective Companies appointed or allotted to form the said Flying-Camp Company, that they may follow their commanders to the Camp as expeditiously as possible; and if they refuse to proceed upon being required, to march them under Guard.

Ordered, That 7s. 6d. be paid to Edward Smith, one of Colonel Greene's Company, for riding express the other day with Circular Letters to the Colonels.

William Sergeant, of the Seventh Regiment, is permitted to work with Jacob Heffer, at the Blacksmith's business, he here in Committee engaging to be answerable for him agreeable to the Resolves of this Committee.

The Examination of WILLIAM POOR, in respect to the BRITISH Officers (prisoners of war) who broke their Parole, and escaped from LEBANON, PENNSYLVANIA, in JUNE, 1776.

In Committee, Lancaster, July 26, 1776.

Says, some time last spring or summer, (he thinks about three weeks before the officers went away,) he was at his own house by Swatara Creek, at the place belonging to Mr. Maddox, of Philadelphia, about sixteen or seventeen miles from Lebanon; was getting ready to set off to buy a cow; one White called at his house, and told him he was looking for a brother of his who had come into the country, and he heard worked with one Poor. He told White he knew of no such person. He left the house to go after the cow, and White accompanied him till they came to Jones's Town, and there they parted after drinking some cider together at Parker's, in Jones's Town, for which White paid. That he did not see White afterwards till White came to him in company with the officers. Says, that on the way between his house and Jones's Town, he and White were met by one Thomas Edmonds, who lives over Swatara near John Smiley's; that Edmonds's shirt was bloody, and he asked him if he had been fighting; that Edmonds answered no, he had been in Sliter's Town, where the soldiers wanted to inlist him, and struck him. That Edmonds then said to Poor that he wanted to speak with him. Poor told him to speak out; that he hesitated. Poor asked him if it was a secret. Edmonds said it was. That upon this, he went a little aside with him, and then told him he had been at Mc-Hugh's with the officers, and that the officers wanted him (Poor) to go away with them. That ho told Edmonds it was a dangerous thing, and he would have nothing to do with it. That White could not hear the conversation between him and Edmonds. That Edmonds then told him to say nothing about it, or else the officers would be confined. That Edmonds left them then, and White and he (Poor) proceeded to Jones's Town, where they drank together as above. That White and he left Jones's Town together, kept together about half a mile, when White said he would go to Lebanon, and parted with Poor, who went to look for his cow. That White and Edmonds had no conversation together. That White and he (Poor) had no conversation about the officers or taking them off. That he never Lad any conversation with the officers, or any of them, before they came to him at his house after they left Lebanon, except that once when at McHugh's one of them named Cuppaidge asked him if he was from a particular part of Ireland, to which he answered in the negative. That about a week after this conversation between him and Edmonds, as he was riding out of town, one Bullman, a blue-dyer in Lebanon, called to him and stopped him, told him that the officer at Mc-Hugh's wanted to speak with him; that he then told Bull-man he had nothing to say to the officers. That some time after this, (he thinks some weeks.) as he was fishing in Swatara, about half a mile from his house, in the afternoon a little before sunset, on a Saturday, several men came up to him, four of whom were officers, one named Richardson, one named Cubbage, one named Hume, the other name he don't know, with three servants, and the said White, and a man who sometimes called himself Billy Caldwell, and sometimes Paddy McGown's man. That some of them,