The Pennsylvania evening post — Philadelphia, Pa., 1776-01-09 00:00:00, page 1

LONDO N, September 26.
INSTRUCTIONS from the county of Middlesex, to the
Right Honorable JOHN WILKES and JOHN GLYNN,
Esq; Knights of the (hire for the county of Middlesex.
WE the Freeholders of the county of Middlesex, sum
moned here by public advertisement of the Sheriffs
of this county, acknowledge our approbation and
grateful sense of your conduct as our representa
tives, during the last session of Parliament, and though we have
no reason to doubt your perseverance in the true interests of
your country, yet we think it our indifpenfabte duty to ac
quaint you with our sentiments at the present awful crisis,
big with the fate of this great empire, and the happiness, glory,
and prosperity of the whole people.
“ We behold, with all the horror and grief natural to a
free people, the fatal flab given to our excellent constitution,
by a majority of the last VENAL Parliament, whereby the
most sacred and unalienable right of the freeholders of this
county, the right of election, was in the most impious man
ner wiefted from the electors, and assumed by the elected, who
placed a person as our representative in Parliament contrary
to the sense and will of the county, expressed by a very great
majority of legal voters, thereby eftablifhihg a PRECEDENT
of the most dangerous tendency to the rights of all the electors
of Great-Britain ; which injury has been again confirmed by
the malice of our inveterate enemies, in the present Parliament
(chosen by surprise under a national delusion) fuffering that
vote to appear in their journals a handing record of the IN
juoTICE, VENALITY, and CORRUPTION of their
predeceflors.
" We are called upon to redouble our attention and zeal
for the defence and preservation of ALL our constitutional
rights, from feeing the iron hand of oppreffidn extended to
our fellow fubjeds on the other fide of the Atlantic ; PO
PERY, the bane of civil and religious liberty, established in
an extent of country infinitely larger than all our possessions
in Europe, thereby arming, as it were, many of our fellow
fubjtds with the CRUCIFIX in one hand, and a DAGGER
in the other, against our Protestant brethren; a POPISH
BISHOP appointed, and the greatest comfort and encourage
ment given to the clergy of that church, while the past >rs of
our own pure and excellent faith are fuffered to remain with
out support and provision, but what ROMISH priests and
ROMISH councils shall deign to afford them ; other cruel
and oppressive a&s passed against our fellow fubjeds in Ame
rica, wholly repugnant to the ancient, just, and generous
proceedings of British councils and British assemblies, de
ftruaive of that glory of the ENGLISH law, the trial by
jury, and many other undoubted rights and privileges of
English fubjeds; in violation of charters and royal covenants
of the most solemn nature, which ads and oppreflions, under
the influence of the present Ministers, 'have been productive
of a most impolitic, unnatural, cruel, and deftruftive civil
war, against our fuffering and much injured fellow fubjeds in
America.
“ We lament, as a commercial people, the inevitable in
juries that muff be sustained by the loss of a most valuable
The PENNSYLVANIA EVENING POST.
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“ And we inftru& you to exert yOurfelves in procuring that
vote of the late House of Commons to be rescinded, which, in
the most injurious and unconstitutional manner, deprived the
freeholders of this county of their undoubted right of election.
" We also inftruA you, to forward an inquiry into the ex
penditure of the public treasure, so peculiarly necessary at this
time, and in a nation burdened with taxes, and oppressed with
debts; that you will not fuffer the people to be imposed on by
the flimfy artifices of a minister, pretending to lessen, while
he is, in reality, encreafing the public burthens.
“ Should any additional land tax or new imposts be propo
sed, in the ensuing session, we expert that you will not assent
to them without a previous redress of grievances ; and that you
will strenuously oppose all votes of credit, or taking any fo
reign troops into the pay of Great-Britain unless another at
tempt should be made by TORIES and JACOBITES against
his Majesty's person, family or government.
" The state of the navy, that great bulwark, fafety, and
protection of the commerce of this nation demands, and we
hope will engage, your serious. attention ; and that you will en
quire by what fatal mismanagement and corrupt influence,
after such immense sums have been voted during a peace esta
blishment, that it is in its present deplorable condition.
“ We particularly inftru& you to exert yourselves in pre
venting the farther effufion of the blood of our innocent fel
low fubjeds in America, and to put a speedy end to the pre
sent unnatural and ruinous civil war.
“ We also desire you to use your unwearied endeavors to
assist and support the representatives of the city of London for
obtaining a repeal of every obnoxious and unconstitutional aft,
and in bringing to the justice of their country the advisers of
such nefarious measures, as have been adopted during the last
fourteen years, tending to SUBVERT the constitution of
this country, and which, we are convinced, will very loon effe&
the ruin and deftrudion of the British empire."
No sooner were they read, than Mr. Justice Pell with great
dignity arose, and declaring, “ that as he could not feperate
the STRAW from the WHEAT, he should objed to every
one of the inftruEtions."
The motion for instructing the members was carried, like
every other motion, in behalf of public liberty, by a prodi
gious majority. It was then moved, " that a letter should be
addressed from the freeholders of Middlesex to those cf Great-
Britain." Objected to by Mr. Justice Pell on the principle,
" that it was founding the trump of sedition throughout the
camp of Israel." Mri Staples, the lighterman, objected to the
branch of the commerce, the decay of trade and manufac
tures, and con sequent diftrefles of the induftri us poor.
" To remedy all these evils, the melancholy experience
of past times evincing how infufficient is the removal of a Mi
nistry, while their maxims and views are intailed upon the
government, we desire that you will not only continue stre
nuously to oppose them, but endeavour to procure us such
constitutional security, by shortening the duration of Parlia
ments, and enabling such other laws as may prevent the na
tion from fuffering by the like errors and iniquities for the
future.
[Num. 141.