The Connecticut courant and Hartford weekly intelligencer — Hartford, Conn., 1775-08-07 00:00:00, page 2

prove incoa^dibly your religious principles,& Blow
how far you have fappreffed vice and immorality.
It will now be necessary to enquire, how far you
have encouraged trade ana commerce, was it by il
legally imposing a damp duty on the Americans, &
taxing those commodities which we fupplyed them
with from this country, which has flopped for near
fix years a great tradie between this kingdom and
the colonies ? Was it by fuffering with the most
Blameful impunity, the Portuguese to infringe upon
the privileges of the English merchants at Lisbon,
by which many were not only injured, but almost
totally ruined ? Was it by blocking up the port, and
destroying the trade of the town of Boston, thereby
reducing to a state of miserable dependance more than
thirty thousand people, and giving a vital dab to
the commerce of America?
We will now examine, Sir, how far you have
preserved peace and harmony among your people,
was it by providing for all the beggarly relations,&
miserable dependants, of your Scotcli minion, in
preference to your Englifli fubjeds, especially those
who were the chief instruments of placing your fa
mily upon the throne ? Was it by ordering the late
Lord Halifax to issue an illegal warrant for appre
hending Mr. Wilkes? Was it by rewarding that
delinquent after he had been found guilty of a
breach of the English laws ? Was it by screening
your minister behind the throne, who violated
the rights of the freeholders of England ? Was it by
rejecting the petitions of your injured fubjeds, and
laughing at the remonstrance preferred to you from
rhe'firil city in the world, the great capital of the
British empire ? Was it by not granting the Appli
cations of your people, and meanly referring those
petitions and remohftrances to the consideration of
those very men, whose conduct they arraigned, and
who were only the slavish tools of your abandoned
ministers ? Was it by fending the troops to Boston,
depriving the people of their constitutional rights;
and contrary to all the laws of this free country, en
forcing the tyrannical and oppressive ads of your a
bandoned parliament with the fword,and laying A
merica under a military government ? Was it by
rewarding the profligate, the corrupt, and the plun
derers of their country, with titles and honours ?
Was it by a tame dastardly submission to the insults
of the Spaniards, and a facrifice of the honour of
the British nation? These, Sir, are the means you
have made use of for preserving peace and harmony
^mong yonr people. But, Sir, the greatest piece of
ministerial villainy, and diabolical cruelty, is still
behind,it is now going through the House of Lords,
and you Sir, will soon be called upon to fignit; it
is a bill for restraining the American fifhery, and
Carving to death,or driving to a state of defperatibn,
more than 300,000 people ; coniider Sir, the fatal
tendency of this bill: determine no longer to be the
dupe of an abandoned set of men, act for yourfelf,
and refufe to sign any aft of parliament, which must
involve one part of the empire in a civil war, and
reduce thousands of your fubjeds to poverty and
want. Let no consideration prevail with you to ex
ecute a deed,at the ideaof which humanity revolts;
colder, fir, how much this will raise the indigna
tion ofyour people here, when they find you are
destitute of the common feelings of humanity, and
that you can be so easily prevailed upon to facrifice
your fubjeds to the cruel designs of your ministers,
and favourites.Give some proof ofa determined re
solution ne longer to pursue measures which must end
i- the destruction of your kingdom, and perhaps in
the ruin of your family.
Coniider, fir, how despicable you appear in the
eyes of the world : who, initead of governing, fuf
fer yourfelf to be governed ; who, imftead of being a
leader are led ; who instead of being a king, are
nothing but a mere cypher of state, while your fa
vourite and ministers wear all the appendages to so-
vereignty.
It has long surprised the kingdom, to think how
you could bear such wretches to prey upon you, to
think how you could fuffer them to aggrandize them
selves and creatures to possess the greatest wealth,
and to hold the firft offices in the kingdom, and all
this by imposing upon you, by making you break
your coronation oath ; by making you violate every
promise you made with your people, and by filling
your ears with lies, instead of truth ; how is it pos
sible you can bear such ufage,which no sensible man
in a private capacity can bear? And be the dupe of
the vilest of the creation,is so much beneath thedig
nity of a man who pretends to govern, that it is a
ilonifhing such fiends should prevail as they do;
indeed they never could unless you, fir, like them,
was inclined to eftablifn an arbitrary system of go
vernment, and to set up your own will in opposition
to thelaws of the land.
Let me advise you, fir, as you regard your own
prosperity, and the welfare of your kingdom, let mo
conjure you, as you valu&your own fafety, to confi
dcr well the fatal and ruinous measures your mini
sters are purfiling, and you fandifying with the royal
authority ; coniider the miserable the unfortunate
situation of this country ; think on the dangers
which threaten on every fide, confider we are now
upon the eve of a civil war with our colonies ; frem
the present face of things, it is inevitable ; trade
and commerce is at a stand; and all the horrors cf
wretchedness and want flare them in the face ; con
fider, fir, the feelings of men reduced in the short
space of a few days, through the wanton ads of
power, from a state of ease and plenty to that of
misery and famine; Ia&, is it possible for them to
set bounds to their resentments ? confider, fir, the
French and Spaniards will not long remain idle
fpedators, when once they fee us deeply engaged in
a war with the colonies. Throw off then your su
pine indolence ; awake from your lethargic state ;
and if you will not be excited by the desire of doing
good, awake at least to a sense of your own danger ;
think when the general calamity comes on,who will
be the objects of public hatred. Will not the advis
ers ofthefe destructive measures be the firft facrifices
to the popular resentment. When the merchants,
traders and manufacturers are starving, when the
whole body of the people are in misery and distress,
what security, fir, can you expert to find? Where
will your ministers conceal themselves ? They will
not be fafe even within the walls of your palace !
Let these things, fir, be well weighed, and no
longer persuade yourfelf the people are made for
yon, and not you for them ; no longer believe that
you do not govern for them but for yourfelf; that
the people live only to encreafe your glory,or to fur
nifti mat'er for pleasure: For once, fir, confider
what you may do for them, and what you maydraw
from them.
The people, fir, think it to be a crime of the firft
magnitude to convert that power to their hurt, which
was intended for their good ; and to obey a king,
while he a&s in this manner, and tramples under
foot, all laws, divine and human, argues not only a
want of sense in the highest degree, but a want of
love to cur country, and a disregard ofourfelves and
posterity.
Your fubjeds,fir, are under no obligations to you,
nor do they owe you any allegiance any longer than
you continue to protest them, and make their good
the chief end of your government. When a Prince
assumes to himfelf an extravagant or an unlawful
power, then all refpedt ceases, and he ceases to be a
King ; whilst he protects and preserves his people in
their just rights,and governs them by the laws of the
land, all good men will love and elteem him, and
risk their lives and fortunes in his service; but when
he begins to invade their liberties, to set up an ar
bitrary power, to impose unlawful taxes, raise forces,
and make war upon his people, and fuffer foreign
dates to insult and injure them, then all virtuous &
good men will detest and abhor him, and endeavour
to remove him from a throne he unworthily fills.
In such cafes,refiftance is a virtue, and to fay that
some Biould passively fuffer, left by refilling they
should cause the ruin of many, is not a just reason ;
because, in all possibility, they will be the cause
that millions unborn shall live happy and free, and
what can be a more noble, glorious, and pious mo
tive for fuffering than to transmit liberty to pofleri
ty : For this our fathers bravely fought, and many
of thera gloriously fell, to preserve themselves and
their defeendants free, and to destroy the tyranny &
defpotifra of the Stuarts; and fir, let me beg you
will remember with gratitude, to place your family
upon the throne of the British. empire.
The author of this paper is far from advifingvio
lent measures upon every error, or mifcondu& of a
Prince, but resistance becomes a duty, when they
attempt therein of the state, the fubverfiom of the
liberty, or overturning the constitution of the king
dom. It is notorious to the world, fir, that your
ministers are guilty of all these black and deadly
crimes, and yet you fcieen and protect them ; the
conclusions to be drawn from thence are obvicu,
and you, like CHARLES,may live to fee your FA
VOURITES FALL. (To be continued.)
.“ Yeflerday Admiral Duff hoilted his flag on
board the Romney man of war at Spithead, to take
the command of the Newfoundland Bation."
PHILADELPHIA, July 31.
By the Jbip Chaklet, Captain Spain, arrived here
from Bristol, %ve have the following advices.
L OND O N, May 25.
PRESS warrants were on Saturday lent to all
the out ports, for impressing seamen into his
Majesty's service.
An American officer appeared at the masquerade
the other night, tarred and feathered, just as he is re
presented in the print-drops, to the no small divef
fion of the company.
The French; we are assured, have actually sent
nine Blips of war to Newfoundland this season.
They write from Berlin, that the King of Prussia
has compleated all his regiments, under pretence of
a general review, and that they consist of 150,000
choice troops.
Extras of a letter from Porfmonth, May 26.
What must the surrounding nations think ofa
Prince, who could not z£. J fir, LutLeweV plraf
ed with one .of his upper 1= v^nts for faying, in an
nugull aflembly, that the iohabiiarfs of a third part
cf his dominions were couridly „hrccns.
May 31. The regiments cf foot on duty in Ire
land will be augmented fifteen men per company, in
order to replace the troops that are lent to America,
that the Bipulated number of forces may remain in
Ireland.
June.l. Four more regiments of foot and two
of Highlanders arc ordered for America.
The Governor of the Havannah we hear has or
ders to oblige the Englifn inhabitants of the island
of Cuba, to leave it immediately.
The ministerial tools yesterday talked loudly in
the city, that it was the intention of the ministry to
proscribe and proclaim as traitors those men in this
country, who have assisted the Americans by sub
scription or otherwise, or shall presume in future to
aid them in any way whatever. An Englishman
who writes this paragraph, and heard their empty
menaces, calls upon the tools of government to put
their threats into immediate execution ; for the in
fant th?t such an attempt is made, himfelf and
thousands determined Englishmen, are rcfolved to
make the experiment.
From the King's troops having firft fired on the
Americans, and thus designedly commenced hoflili
ties, there is every apparent reason to conclude that
the private inlLruftions to the troops are to Bred
blood enough.
To men of thought there is nothing furprifiqg in
the late American massacre. It was long since fore
told by the Lords Chatham and Can den. It was
very lately intimated by Lord Effingham, who re
signed his commission because he forefaw that Ame
rican blood would be unjustly fhe< LThe Commons
also, by the mouth of their Speaker, teHil^d their
expectation, that the sword would be drawn, and
they prcinifed n:of cbearfully, to land every affißanca
in their power to give it an edge.
There is a report induftricefly propagated by the
creatures of Adminiftraticn, that the peop'e here
who have assisted and cherished the rebels in Ameri
ca, are speedily to be called to an account for their
treafon,as their money has been applied in purchas
ing ammunition forthe American traitors ; and ex
ecutions and forfeitures are the common topic cf the
Scottilh and Englilh tories; but there is no terror
in their threats '---Impeachments, axes, blocks and
halters, are juflly retorted upon these rascally mini
ons of power, by every hoaeft whig and indignant
Englishman.
Advice is received of the Sukey, by which ship
government ex pea a packet f om Boston, being fafe
arrived at Cork; in Ireland, ten days ago.
The publick are requeued to attend one moment
to the coudha of Ministry, and they will forever de
test the# duplicity. A massacre is attempted by
the King's mercenaries in America, tho peaceable
The French have this minute no less than 22 bat
talions of infantry, and 12 iquadrons cf horse, a
mounting in the whole to 17,000 men, within a
day's march of Dunkirk.
. Trfj/ay, May 30th, 1775. As a doubt of the au
therticiry of the account from Salem, touching
the engagement between the King's troops and the
provincials in the Maflachufet&Bay, may arise from
a paragraph in the Gazettee of this evening, I defirc
to inform all those who with to fee the original ahi
davits which confirm that account, that they are de
pefited at the Mansion-house, with 'the Right Hen.,
the Lord Mayor for their infpeAion.
Two men of war and three transports, with two
regiments of soldiers, are ordered to fail immediate
ly for Boston.
Extraft @f a letter from Portfniouth, May 27.
" Early this morning orders came down here for
fix Blips of the line to be fitted for sea as soon as
possible; and in order to man them, houses of ren
dezvous are opened and good encouragement given
for men to enter into his M:jelly's service."
Advice is arrived at theSecretary of State's office,
of the failing of the Spanish fleet through the
Streights of Gibraltar.
Four more regiments, we hear, will be ordered
forthwith to America, and a part cf the militia ate
to he embodied.
The Provincials, who attacked General Gage's
convoy of provisions, were headed and command by
a dissenting clergyman. A man who has hitherto
been extremely moderate ; but those who were for
merly moderate are now as much exasperated as the
most violent and inveterate.
The Spanish Blips of force now ready to proceed
to sea, or fitting out, amount to 34, 27 of which aic
of the line, betides 30 frigates.
Gibraltar is now put into that, state cf defence, as
if afiege was hourly expected ; and though govern
ment affeds to difiegard the Spanish armament, yet
500 soldiers have been smuggled out to reinforce
the garrison.
ARTHUR LEE.
Agent for the House of Representatives cf the
Maffachufetts-Eay.