The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1774-06-21 00:00:00, page 3

the House of Representatives.
Your Excellency has therein fignified to us, that
his Majesty has been pleased “ to appoint you Go
vernor and Captain-General of his Province of Mai
fachufetts-Bay, and that your Commiflion has been
read and published We congratulate your Excel
lency ou your fafe Arrival, and honor you in the
moll exalted Station in this Province ; and confid
ing in your Excellency that you will make the known
Constitution and Charter of the Province the Rme
of your Administration ; we beg Leave to afiure
you, that nothing, on our Part, fhail be w'antiug that
may contribute to render the fame easy and happy to
yourfelf, and to aid your Excellency in promoting
the Prosperity of his Majesty’s Government and the
Welfare of our Constituents ; and we thank your
Excellency for the Assurances you are pleased to give
of your Concurrence with us therein.
It gives us Pain to be informed by your Excelle
ncy that “ you have theKing’s particular commands
for holding the General Court at Salem, from the
firft Day of this InftantJune, until his Majelly ihall
have fignified his royal Will andPleafurefor holding
it again in Bolton.” Weare entirely at a Lois for
the Cause of this Command, as we cannot conceive
any public Utility arising from it, and both we and
our Constituents are now buffering the great Incon
veniences of it.
The Removal of the Aflembly from the Court-
House in Boston, its ancient and only convenient
Seat, has very lately given great Discontent to the
good People of this Province ; and we cannot but
think that Misrepresentations from Persons residing
in this Province have induced his Majesty s Mmif
ters to advise his Majesty to lay your Excellency un
der an Injunftion w'hereby the People are in this In
stance deprived of the Benefit of that diferetionary
Power, which is veiled in the Governor by theChar
ter, and has been exercised by former Governors,
of determining in such Case for the Good of the
Province ? Weconfide however in your Excellency’s
Impartiality and Justice,. that the true State of this
Province, and Charafter of his Majesty’s Subjeds in
it, their Loyalty to their Sovereign, their Affedion
for the parent Country, as well as their invincible
Attachment to their just Rights and Liberties, will
be laid before his Majesty. and we hope that by this
Means your Excellency will be the happy Instrument
of removing the Displeasure of his- Majesty and re
storing Harmony which has too long been interrup
ted by the Artifices of interested and defigningMen.
Your Excellency has laid no particular Business
before us, excepting the Supply of the Treasury for
the Support of Government for the ensuing Year,
to which we fhail give our immediate Attention ;
as also to any other Matters your Excellency may
plcafe to lay before us, and give that Dispatch to
the public Bufmefs which the manifold and great
Inconveniences of our present Situation will admit.
7 'he Honourable House of Representatives, before they pro
ceeded to Business in Salem, on Wednesday last came into
the following RESOLUTIONS, and ordered the fame
to beentered on their Journal, vi%.
RESOLVED, That by the Royal Charter of
this province, the Power of convening, pro
roguing and adjourning- the Great and General
Court or Aflembly, from time to time, is veiled in
the Governor, to be exercised as he fhail judge ne
cefiary,and for the Good of thePeople.— 1 herefore,
Resolved, That it is dearly the Opinion of this
B O S T 0 X, JuME 13
Monday afternoon two young gentlemen came
into Boston from the county of W'orcefter, relating
that they had been alarmed with the report that a
regiment of soldiers had been polled at the entrance
of this city, to cut off its communication with the
country—Many refpedable persons, they said, had
aflembled upon the occasion and sent off these per
sons on Sabbath evening, to ride all night, and re
turn with intelligence as soon as poflible, determin
ing that in case they were confirmed in the truth of
the report they would forthwith march in, ten thou
sand strong, and difreft the troops at all events.
Their express informed us that whatever might be
the minds of the citizens relative to a surrender of
their liberties they would not find the country.at all
disposed to eftecm themselves concluded in their ad.
They freely exprelfed their sense, that by the acts of
the British parliament lately palfed and the bills now
pending therein, our charter is utterly vacated, and
the compaft between this province and the crown of
Great-Britain being diflolved, they are at full liber
ty to combine together in what manner and .erm
they think bed for mutual security.
One Merchant in this town, who had two vends
arrived this week with molasses, has 101 l by their not
being fuffered to come up to town, xoool. lawful
money.
Last Thursday a Committee of the House of Representatives
waited on the Governor with the following Answer to
his Speech at the Opening of the Sefion.
May it please your Excellency,
YOUR Speech to both Houses of the Genera.-
Aflembly, at the opening of this Seflion, has
been read and considered with all due Attention in
house, That when soever the Governor of the Pro
vince doth convene or hold the General Aflembly at
any Time or Place unnecessarily, or merely in Obe
dience to an Inftruftion, and without excrcifing
that Judgment and Discretion of his own, with
which by Charter he is specially veiled for theGood
of the Province, it is manifeftly inconsistent with
the Letter, as well as the Spirit and intention of the
Charter.
Resolved, That the Town of ^/cwhath from the
earliest Times of this Province been judged, and
fiiH is on various Accounts the molt convenient Place
for holding the General Alfembly, and according
ly ample Provision is there made for the Accommo
dation of the said General Aflembly, at a very great
Expence to the People of this Province.
Resolved, As the clear Opinion of this House, that
the General Aflembly cannot be removed from its
ancient feat the Court-house in Boston, and held in
any other place, without great and manifold Incon
vmience to the Members thereof, and Injury and
Damage to those who have neceflary Business to
tranfad with the said General-Aflembly ; many of
which Inconveniences have been clearly Hated, and
exprefled by former Houses of Representatives as
appears by their Journal.
Resolved, That this House can fee no Neceflity for
the Removal of the General Aflembly from its an
cient and only convenient Place the Court-House
in Boston, to the Town of Salem ; and the Removal
of laid Aflembly from the Court-House in Boston,
without Neceflity, is at all times to be considered as
a very great grievance.
Last Wednesday Governor Wentworth deffolv'd
the General Aflembly of New-Hampshire.
It is incredible to believe to what a pitch of bra
very and Heroism the English nation has arrived
They have the Courage, and uparrallelled Forti
tude to cross the Atlantic,and fight their own unarmed
English Subjects, who are no ways disposed to hosti
lities, nor inclined to surrender their liberties to
the mercies of an abandoned Minister. But France
and Spain are fuffered to insult the nominal ho
nors of the Britilh nation with impunity..
An honell Friend,- lately arrived in a Ihort
paflage from England difeovering much acquaint
ance with the Hate of the kingdom w r as asked his
opinion of the present troubles between Great-
Britain and America ; arrd answered, if you stand
firmly together, you will gain your point, other
wise you will altogether be ruined and enslaved.-
Three quarters of England are in your favour, and
if you exert yourselves as you ought, they will as
suredly take your part.
One was inveighing bitterly against Lord North,-
in presence of a gentleman whose means of informa
tion was better than common, and was told by him
that from any change of oltenfible ministers little
was to be hoped in favour of the rights of the peo
ple.
BOSTON, June 16.
We hear that the patriotic Inhabitants of Phila
delphia have generously voted to give the poor of
this town 1500 barrels of flower, 500 of which, it
is said, may be loon expeded.
We have heard of several neighbouring congre
gational churches who have set apart days of fall
ing and Prayer, on account of the present melan
choly afpeft of public affairs.
It seems now to be the general sense of the con
tinent that a CONGRESS of Deputies from all
the American Governments, beheld as soon as pos
sible, in Order to concert efleftual measures for
defeating the despotic designs of our enemies.
Most of the stores on she Long Wharf are now
shut up ; hundreds of the poor are out of employ,
and many who lived genteelly will soon be redu
ced to the last Shilling. Yet under these unhappy
circumflances, people in general have that fortitude
which did honor to the ancient Romans. “ Un
daunted by Tyrants, we'U die or be free ”
Tuesday last the 41st, or King’s own regiment
landed from on board the transports, lying at the
long Wharf, and marched to the Common, where
they are encamped.
Yesterday the 43d regiment landed on the long
wharf, and are now encamped on the common.
We are informed that the 5 th and 38th regiments
are hourly expended to arrive here.
Instead of our brethren, at the Southward, ad
vising to pay for the tea,, letters received last night
from Philadelphia, contain the most cogent argu
ments to the contrary, that have yet appeared.—
A POLITICO-MERCANTILE CONGRESS,
seems now to be the Voice of all the Colonies from
Nova-Scotia to Georgia ; and New-York the Place
of meeting proposed by private Letters : However
our generous brethren of that metropolis are pleas
ed to compliment Boston with the appointment
both of time and place ; which invitation will
undoubtedly be accepted with grateful alacrity.
Certainly the besieged inhabitants of this town
can have no temptation to lose a moment on this
occasion !
i-Yom these adviees it is plain the Americans are,
under GOD, to seek redress in their own virtue,
courage and unanimity; of which, through the
smiles ®f heaven, there is now a fair profpeft thro’-
oust the colonies.
On the 17th of last month a very awful Ihockof
an Earthquake was felt at Cape-Nichola-Mole.
We have just received the following from Salem.
In C O U N C I L, June tj, 1774.-
ORDERED, that feremiahPovsell,William Sever,
and Jedediah Pieble, Efq’rs, be a Committee
to wait on his Excellency the Governor with the
following Address in Answer to his Speech at the
Opening of the present General Court.
Tho’s Flucker, Secr’y.
To his Excellency Thomas Gage, Esq; Captain-
General and Governor in Chief of the Province
Your Excellency has arrived at a Juncture when
the Harmony between Great-Britain and the Colo
nies is greatly interrupted, whereby your Start
though elevated, must needs be rendered less a. ree
able to you than otherwise it would have-been : lat
if you ftiould be the happy Instrument of reilormg
in any Measure that Harmony, and of extr. utit g
the Province from their present Ambafaflrnents, y ; . 1
will doubtless confider these happy Efiecis as n cie
than a Com penfation for any incon venwiH .• arising
to you from the peculiar Circuftances oi the 'll.. es.
His Majesty’s faithful Council will on all C icafions
chearfully co-operate with your Excellency in ev ry
Attempt for accomplifliing those deli; w .<ids.
We wilh your Excellency every Felicity; Ihe
greatest of a Political Nature, both to yourfelf and
the Province is, that your Admjmft.ation in the
Priciple-a and generalCondud of r, may be a hippy
Contrail to that of your two immediate Preuecei
fors.—lt is irksome to us to Censure any one, but
we are constrained to fay there is the greatest keafon
to apprehend that from their Machinations (both
in concert and apart) are derived the Origin and
Progress of the Disunion between Britain and the
Colonies, and the present diftrefled State of this
Province—a Province, to which the latter of them,
in an eipecial Manner, owed his best Services, and
whose Liberties and Rights he was under every
Obligation of Duty and Gratitude to Support.
The Inhabitants of Ais Province chim no
than the Rights of Englilhmen, without Diminuti
on, or “ Abridgement.” These as it is our indif
penfible Duty, so it Ihall be our ebnftant En
deavour to maintain to the utmost of our Power, in
perfect consistence with the truest Loyalty to the
Crown ; the just Prerogative of which your Excel
lency will ever find this Board zealous to Support.
Permit us Sir, on this Occasion, to express the
firmeft Confidence that, under their present Grie
vances, the People of this Province will not in vain
look to your Excellency Tor your paternal Aid and
Afliftance ; and, as the great End of Government
is the good of the People, that your Experience and
Abilities will be applied to attain that End ; the
steady Pursuit of which, at the fame Time it insures
their Confidence and Eftecm will be a source of the
truest Enjoyment, felf Approbation.-
We thank your Excellency for the Afiurance you
have given “that you fhail with Pleasure concur with
the two Houses to the utmost of your Power in all
Matters that tend to the Welfare and Prosperity of
the Province ;” and yoiir Excellency may be aflur
ed that we fhail contribute every Thing on our Part
to promote Measures of so salutary a Tendency.
June 14.
The Committee appointed to present the forego
ing Address, waited on his Excellency therewith
Yesterday, and read as far as that Part which re
fiebts on the Administration of his Excellency’s two
immediate Predeceflors, when he desired the Chair
man not to proceedany further, and that he would
aflign his Reasons for refufing to receive it, in a
mefiage to the Council, and on the fame Day sent
by the Secretary the following Meflage ;
Gentlemen of the Council,
TCANNOTreceive an Address which contains indecent
Reflexions on my Predecejfors who have been tried and
honourably acquitted by the Lords of the Privy Council,
and their Conduct approved by the King.
I confider this Address as an Insult upon hisMajefty and
the Lords of his Privy-Council, and an Affront to myfelf.
T. GAGE.
of Maflachufetts-Bay, &c. &c.
The Address of the Council of the said Province.
May itpleafeyour Excellency,
YOUR Speech to the two Houses at the Opening
of this Sefiion has been duly considered by this
Board. His Majesty having been pleased to appoint
you to the Government of this Province, We take
this Opportunity to wait on you with our Congratu
lations on that Occasion.
GOOD Wages will be given, and pundual
Payments made to a Journeyman PRINTER,
who will immediately enter into the Service of
Ebenezer Watson.
ARIGHT of LAND in the Susquehan
nah Purchase, to be fold cheap by
June zr, 1774. Elijah Clap.