The Virginia gazette (Williamsburg, Va.), 1774-09-29 00:00:00

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A SPEECH INTENDED TO HAVE BEEN SPOKEN ON THE BILL FOR ALTERING THE CHARTERS OF THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY. BY THE CELEBRATED JONATHAN SHIPLEY, BISHOP OF SAINT ASAPH.
ADVERTISEMENT.
THE author of the following SPEECH might justify his manner of publishing it by very great authorities. Some of the noblest pieces of eloquence the world is in possession of were not spoken on the great occasions they were intended to serve, and seem to have been preserved merely from the high sense that was entertained of their merit.
The present performance appears in public from humbler but juster motives; from the great national importance of the subject, from a very warm desire and some faint hope of serving our country, by suggesting a few of the useful truths which great men are apt to overlook.
The author has abstained most religiously from personal reflections; he has censured no man, and therefore hopes he has offended no man. He feels most sensibly the misfortune of differing from many of those whom he wishes to love and act with, and from some of as much virtue and ability as this kingdom affords; but there are also great authorities on the other side, and the greatest authority can never persuade him that it is better to exert by force what he thinks may be gained more surely by gentle means.
He looks upon power as a coarse and mechanical instrument of government, and holds the use of it to be particularly dangerous to the relation that subsists between a mother country and her colonies. In such a case, he doubts whether any point ought to be pursued which cannot be carried by persuasion, by the sense of a common interest, and the exercise of a moderate authority. He thinks it unnecessary to lay down the limits of sovereignty and obedience, and more unnecessary to fight for them. If we can but restore that mutual regard and confidence which formerly governed our whole intercourse with our colonies, particular cases will easily provide for themselves. He acts the part of the true patriot in this dangerous crisis, whether he lives at London or at Boston, who pursues sincerely the most lenient and conciliating measures, and wishes to restore the public peace by some better method than the slaughter of our fellow citizens.
IT is of such great importance to compose or even to moderate the dissensions, which subsist at present between our unhappy country and her colonies, that I cannot help endeavouring, from the faint prospect I have of contributing something to so good an end, to overcome the inexpressible reluctance I feel at uttering my thoughts before the most respectable of all audiences. The true object of all our deliberations on this occasion, which I hope we shall all never lose sight of, is a full and cordial reconciliation with North America. Now I own, my lords, I have many doubts whether the terrors and punishments we hang out to them at present are the surest means of producing this reconciliation. Let us at least do this justice to the people of North America, to own that we can all remember a time when they were much better friends than at present to their mother country. They are neither our natural nor our determined enemies. Before the stamp act we considered them in the light of as good subjects as the natives of any county in England.
It is worth while to enquire by what steps we first gained their affection, and preserved it so long, and by what conduct we have lately lost it. Such an enquiry may point out the means of restoring peace, and make the use of force unnecessary against a people whom I cannot yet forbear to consider as our brethren.
It has always been a most arduous task to govern distant provinces with even a tolerable appearance of justice. The viceroys and governors of other nations are usually temporary tyrants, who think themselves obliged to make the most of their time, who not only plunder the people, but carry away their spoils, and dry up all the sources of commerce and industry. Taxation in their hands is an unlimited power of oppression; but in whatever hands the power of taxation is lodged, it implies and includes all other powers. Arbitrary taxation is plunder authorised by law; it is the support and the essence of tyranny, and has done more mischief to mankind than those other three scourges from Heaven, famine, pestilence, and the sword. I need not carry your lordships out of your own knowledge, or out of your own dominions, to make you conceive what misery this right of taxation is capable of producing in a provincial government. We need only recollect that our countrymen in India have, in the space of five or six years, in virtue of this right, destroyed, starved, and driven away, more inhabitants from Bengal than are to be found at present in all our American colonies, more than all those formidable numbers which we have been nurling up for the space of 200 years with so much care and success, to the astonishment of all Europe. This is no exaggeration, my lords, but plain matter of fact, collected from the accounts sent over by Mr. Hastings, whose name I mention with honour and veneration; and I must own such accounts have very much lessened the pleasure I used to feel in thinking myself an Englishman. We ought surely not to hold our colonies totally inexcusable for wishing to exempt themselves from a grievance which has caused such unexampled devastation, and, my lords, it would be too disgraceful to ourselves to try so cruel an experiment more than once. Let us reflect, that before these innovations were thought of, by following the line of good conduct which had been marked out by our ancestors, we governed North America with mutual benefit to them and ourselves. It was a happy idea that made us first consider them rather as instruments of commerce than as objects of government. It was wise and generous to give them the form and the spirit of our own constitution, an assembly, in which a greater equality of representation has been preferred than at home, and councils and governors, such as were adapted to their situation, though they must be acknowledged to be very inferior copies of the dignity of this house, and the majesty of the crown.
But what is far more valuable than all the rest, we gave them liberty; we allowed them to use their own judgment in the management of their own interest; the idea of taxing them never entered our heads. On the contrary, they have experienced our liberality on many public occasions; we have given them bounties to encourage their industry, and have demanded no return but what every state exacts from its colonies, the advantages of an exclusive commerce, and the regulations that are necessary to secure it. We made requisitions to them on great occasions in the same manner as our princes formerly asked benevolences of their subjects, and as nothing was asked but what was visible for the public good, it was always granted, and they sometimes did more than we expected; the matter of right was neither disputed nor even considered; and let us not forget that the people of New England were themselves, during the last war, the most forward of all in the national cause; that every year we voted them a considerable sum in acknowledgment of their zeal and their services; that in the preceding war they alone enabled us to make the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, by furnishing us with the only equivalent for the towns that were taken from our allies in Flanders; and that in times of peace they alone have taken from us six times as much of our own woollen manufactures as the whole kingdom of Ireland. Such a colony, my lords, not only from the justice, but from the gratitude we owe them, have a right to be heard in their defence, and if their crimes are not of the most inexcusable kind, I could almost say they have a right to be forgiven.
But in the times we speak of our public discourse was carried on with ease and satisfaction; we regarded them as our friends and fellow citizens, and relied as much upon their fidelity as on the inhabitants of our own country. They saw our power with pleasure, for they considered it only as their protection; they inherited our laws, our language, and our customs; they preferred our manufactures, and followed our fashions with a partiality that secured our exclusive trade with them more effectually than all the regulations and vigilance of the customhouse. Had we themselves, their men of fortune, like the West Indians, would undoubtedly have made this country their place of education and resort; for they looked up to England with reverence and affection, as to the country of their friends and ancestors; they esteemed and they called it their home, and thought of it as the Jews once thought of the land of Canaan.
Now, my lords, consider with yourselves what were the chains and ties that united this people to their mother country, with so much warmth and affection, at so amazing a distance. The colonies of other nations have been discontented with their treatment, and not without sufficient cause, always murmuring at their grievances, and sometimes breaking out into acts of rebellion. Our subjects at home, with all their reasons for satisfaction, have never been entirely satisfied. Since the beginning of this century we have had two rebellions, several plots and conspiracies, and we ourselves have been witnesses to the most dangerous excesses of sedition; but the provinces in North America have engaged in no party, have excited no opposition; they have been utter strangers even to the name of Whig and Tory. In all changes, in all revolutions, they have quietly followed the fortunes and submitted to the government of England.
Now let me appeal to your lordships as to men of enlarged and liberal minds, who have been led by your office and rank to the study of history: Can you find in the long succession of ages, in the whole extent of human affairs, a single instance where distant provinces have been preserved in so flourishing a state, and kept at the same time in such due subjection to their mother country? My lords, there is no instance; the case never existed before; it is perhaps the most singular phenomenon in all civil history, and the cause of it well deserves your serious consideration. The true cause is, that a mother country never existed before who placed her natives and her colonies on the same equal footing, and joined with them in fairly carrying on one common interest.
You ought to consider this, my lords, not as a mere historical fact, but as a most important and invaluable discovery; it enlarges our ideas of the power and energy of good government beyond all former examples, and shows that it can act like gravitation at the greatest distances; it proves to a demonstration that you may have good subjects in the remotest corners of the earth if you will but treat them with kindness and equity. If you have any doubts of the truth of this kind of reasoning, the experience we have had of a different kind will entirely remove them.
The good genius of our country had led us to the simple and happy method of governing freemen, which I have endeavoured to describe. Our ministers received it from their predecessors, and for some time continued to observe it, but without knowing its value. At length, presuming on their own wisdom, and the quiet disposition of the Americans, they flattered themselves that we might reap great advantages from their prosperity by destroying the cause of it; they chose in an unlucky hour to treat them as other nations have thought fit to treat their colonies; they threatened and they taxed them.
I do not now enquire whether taxation is matter of right; I only consider it as matter of experiment: For surely the art of government itself is founded on experience. I need not suggest what were the consequences of this change of measures. The evils produced by it were such as we still remember, and still feel. We suffered more by our loss of trade with them than the wealth flowing in from India was able to recompence. The bankruptcy of the East India company may be sufficiently accounted for by the rapine abroad, and the knavery at home; but it certainly would have been delayed some years, had we continued our commerce with them in the single article of tea. But that, and many other branches of trade, have been diverted into other channels, and may probably never return entire to their old course. But what is worst of all, we have lost their confidence and friendship; we have ignorantly undermined the most solid foundation of our own power.
In order to observe the strictest impartiality, it is but just for us to enquire what we have gained by these taxes, as well as what we have lost. I am assured, that out of all the sums raised in America, the last year but one, if the expenses are deducted, which the natives would else have discharged themselves, the nett revenue paid into the treasury to go in aid of the sinking fund, or to be employed in whatever public services parliament shall think fit, is eighty five pounds. Eighty five pounds, my lords, is the whole equivalent we have received for all the hatred and mischief, and all the infinite losses this kingdom has suffered during that year, in her disputes with North America. Money that is earned so dearly as this ought to be expended with great wisdom and economy. My lords, were you to take up but one thousand pounds more from North America, upon the same terms, the nation itself would be a bankrupt. But the most amazing, and the most alarming circumstance, is still behind. It is that our case is so incurable, that all this experience has made no impression upon us; and yet, my lords, if you could but keep these facts, which I have ventured to lay before you, for a few moments in your minds (supposing your right of taxation to be never so clear) yet I think you must necessarily perceive that it cannot be exercised in any manner that can be advantageous to ourselves or them. We have not always the wisdom to tax ourselves with propriety; and I am confident we could never tax a people, at that distance, without infinite blunders, and infinite oppression; and to own the truth, my lords, we are not honest enough to trust ourselves with the power of shifting our own burthens upon them. Allow me, therefore, to conclude, I think, unanswerably, that the inconvenience and distress we have felt in this change of our conduct, no less than the ease and tranquillity we formerly found in the pursuit of it, will force us, if we have any sense left, to return to the good old path we trod in so long, and found it the way of pleasantness.
I desire to have it understood that I am opposing no rights that our legislature may think proper to claim: I am only comparing two different methods of government. By your old rational and generous administration, by treating the Americans as your friends and fellow citizens, you made them the happiest of human kind, and at the same time drew from them, by commerce, more clear profit than Spain has drawn from all its mines; and their growing numbers were a daily-increasing addition to your strength. There was no room for improvement or alteration in so noble a system of policy as this. It was sanctified by time, by experience, by public utility. I will venture to use a bold language, my lords; I will assert, that if we had uniformly adopted this equitable administration in all our distant provinces, as far as circumstances would admit, it would have placed this country, for ages, at the head of human affairs, in every quarter of the world. My lords, this is no visionary or chimerical doctrine. The idea of governing provinces and colonies by force is visionary and chimerical. The experiment has often been tried, and it has never succeeded. It ends infallibly in the ruin of the one country or the other, or in the last degree of wretchedness.
If there is any truth, my lords, in what I have said, and I most firmly believe it all to be true, let me recommend it to you to resume that generous and benevolent spirit, in the discussion of our differences, which used to be the source of our union. We certainly did wrong in taxing other taxes, which tended only to keep alive a claim that was mischievous, impracticable, and useless. We acted contrary to our own principles of liberty, and to the generous sentiments of our sovereign, when we desired to have their judges dependent on the crown for their stipends as well as their continuance. It was equally unwise to wish to make the governors independent of the people for their salaries. We ought to consider the governors, not as spies entrusted with the management of our interest, but as the servants of the people, recommended to them by us. Our ears ought to be open to every complaint against the governors; but we ought not to suffer the governors to complain of the people. We have taken a different method, to which no small part of our difficulties are owing. Our ears have been open to the governors, and shut to the people. This must necessarily lead us to countenance the jobs of interested men, under the pretence of defending the rights of the crown. But the people are certainly the best judges whether they are well governed; and the crown can have no rights inconsistent with the happiness of the people.
Now, my lords, we ought to do what I have suggested, and many things more, out of prudence and justice, to win their affection, and to do them public service. If we have a right to govern them, let us exert it for the true ends of government. But, my lords, what we ought to do, from motives of reason and justice, is much more than is sufficient to bring them to a reasonable accommodation. For thus, as I apprehend, stands the case. They petition for the repeal of an act of parliament, which they complain of as unjust and oppressive; and there is not a man amongst us, not the warmest friend of administration, who does not sincerely wish that act had never been made. In fact, they only ask for what we should wish to be rid of. Under such a disposition of mind, one would imagine there could be no occasion for fleets and armies to bring men to a good understanding. But, my lords, our difficulty lies in the point of honour. We must not let down the dignity of the mother empire. This language has something in it that sounds pleasant to the ears of Englishmen, but is otherwise of little weight. For sure, my lords, there are methods of making reasonable concessions, and yet without injuring our dignity. Ministers are generally fruitful in expedients to reconcile difficulties of this kind, to escape the embarrassments of forms, the competitions of dignity and precedence, and to let clashing rights sleep, while they transact their business. Now, my lords, on this occasion can they find no excuse, no pretence, no invention, no happy turn of language, not one colourable argument, for doing the greatest service they can ever render to their country? It must be something more than incapacity that makes men barren of expedients at such a season as this. Do but for once remove this impracticable stateliness and dignity, and treat the matter with a little common sense, and a little good humour, and our reconciliation would not be the work of an hour. But after all, my lords, if there is any thing mortifying in undoing the errors of our ministers, it is a mortification we ought to submit to. If it was unjust to tax them, we ought to repeal it for their sakes; if it was unwise to tax them, we ought to repeal it for our own. A matter so trivial in itself as the threepenny duty upon tea, but which has given cause to so much national hatred and reproach, ought not to be suffered to subsist an unnecessary day. Must the interest, the commerce, and the union, of this country and her colonies, be all of them sacrificed to save the credit of one imprudent measure of administration? I own I cannot comprehend that there is any dignity either in being in the wrong, or in persisting in it. I have known friendship preserved and affection gained, but I never knew dignity lost, by the candid acknowledgment of an error; and, my lords, let me appeal to your own experience of a few years backward (I will not mention particulars, because I would pass no censures, and revive no unpleasant reflections) but I think every candid minister must own that administration has suffered in more instances than one, both in interest and credit, by not chusing to give up points, that could not be defended.
With regard to the people of Boston, I am free to own that I neither approve of their riots nor their punishment; and yet if we inflict it as we ought, with a consciousness that we were ourselves the aggressors, that we gave the provocation, and that their disobedience is the fruit of our own imprudent and imperious conduct, I think the punishment cannot rise to any great degree of severity.
I own, my lords, I have read the reports of the lords committees of this house with very different sentiments from those with which it was drawn up. It seems to be designed that we should consider their violent measures and speeches as so many determined acts of opposition to the sovereignty of England, arising from the malignity of their own hearts. One would think the mother country had been totally silent and passive in the progress of the whole affair. I, on the contrary, consider these violences as the natural effects of such measures as ours on the minds of freemen; and this is the most useful point of view in which government can consider them. In their situation, a wise man would expect to meet with the strongest marks of passion and imprudence, and be prepared to forgive them. The first and easiest thing to be done is to correct our own errors; and I am confident we should find it the most effectual method to correct theirs. At any rate, let us put ourselves in the right; and then, if we must contend with North America, we shall be unanimous at home, and the wise and the moderate there will be our friends. At present, we force every North American to be our enemy; and the wise and moderate at home, and those immense multitudes, which must soon begin to suffer by the madness of our rulers, will unite to oppose them. It is a strange idea we have taken up, to cure their resentments by encreasing their provocations; to remove the effects of our own ill conduct, by multiplying the instances of it. But the spirit of blindness and infatuation is gone forth. We are hurrying wildly on without any fixed design, without any important object. We pursue a vain phantom of unlimited sovereignty, which was not made for man; and reject the solid advantages of a moderate, useful, and intelligible authority. That just God, whom we have so deeply offended, can hardly inflict a severer national punishment, than by committing us to the natural consequences of our own conduct. Indeed, in my opinion, a blacker cloud never hung over this island.
To reason consistently with the principles of justice and national friendship, which I have endeavoured to establish, or rather to revive what was established by our ancestors, as our wisest rule of conduct for the government of America, I must necessarily disapprove of the bill before us; for it contradicts every one of them. In our present situation every act of the legislature, even our acts of severity, ought to be so many steps towards the reconciliation we wish for. But to change the government of a people, without their consent, is the highest and most arbitrary act of sovereignty, that one nation can exercise over another. The Romans hardly ever proceeded to this extremity, even over a conquered nation, till its frequent revolts and insurrections had made them deem it incorrigible. The very idea of it implies a most total, abject, and slavish dependency, in the inferior state. Recollect that the Americans are men of like passions with ourselves, and think how deeply this treatment must

affect them. They have the same veneration for their charters that we have for our magna charta, and they ought, in reason, to have greater. They are the title deeds to all their rights, both public and private. What, my lords, must these rights never acquire any legal assurance and stability? Can they derive no force from the peaceable possession of near two hundred years? And must the fundamental constitution of a powerful state be forever subject to as captious alterations as you may think fit to make, in the charters of a little mercantile company, or the corporation of a borough? This will undoubtedly furnish matter for a more pernicious debate than has yet been moved. Every other colony will make the case its own. They will complain that their rights can never be ascertained; and that every thing belonging to them depends upon our arbitrary will; and may think it better to run any hazard, than to submit to the violence of their mother country, in a matter in which they can see neither moderation nor end.
But let us coolly enquire, what is the reason of this unheard of innovation. Is it to make them peaceable? My lords, it will make them mad. Will they be better governed if we introduce this change? Will they be more our friends? The least that such a measure can do is, to make them hate us. And would to God, my lords, we had governed ourselves with as much economy, integrity, and prudence, as they have done. Let them continue to enjoy the liberty our fathers gave them. Gave them, did I say? They are coheirs of liberty with ourselves; and their portion of the inheritance has been much better looked after than ours. Suffer them to enjoy, a little longer, that short period of public integrity and domestic happiness, which seems to be the portion allotted by Providence to young rising states. Instead of hoping that their constitution may receive improvement from our skill in government, the most useful will I can form in their favour is, that Heaven may long preserve them from our vices and our politics.
Let me add farther, that to make any changes in their government, without their consent, would be to transgress the wisest rules of policy, and to wound our most important interests. As they encrease in numbers and in riches, our comparative strength must lessen. In another age, when our power has begun to lose something of its superiority, we should be happy if we could support our authority by mutual goodwill and the habit of commanding; but chiefly by those original establishments, which time and public honour might have rendered inviolable. Our posterity will then have reason to lament that they cannot avail themselves of those treasures of public friendship and confidence which our fathers had wisely hoarded up, and we are throwing away. It is hard, it is cruel, besides all our debates and taxes, and those enormous expences which are multiplying upon us every year, to load our unhappy sons with the hatred and curies of North America. Indeed, my lords, we are treating posterity very scurvily. We have mortgaged all the lands, we have cut down all the oaks; we are now trampling down the fences, rooting up the seedlings and saplings, and ruining all the resources of another age. We shall send the next generation into the world, like the wretched heir of a worthless estate, without money, credit, or friends; with a stripped, incumbered, and perhaps untenanted estate.
Having stated largely against the principle of the bill, it is hardly necessary to enter into the merits of it. I shall only observe, that even if we had the consent of the people to alter their government, it would be unwise to make such alterations as these. To give the appointment of the governor and council to the crown, and the disposal of all places, even of the judges, and with a power of removing them, to the governor, is evidently calculated with a view to form a strong party in our favour. This I know has been done in other colonies; but still this is opening a source of perpetual discord, where it is our interest always to agree. If we mean any thing by this establishment, it is to support the governor and the council against the people; that is, to quarrel with our friends, that we may please their servants. This scheme of governing them by a party is not wisely imagined, it is much too premature, and, at all events, must turn to our disadvantages; if it fails, it will only make us contemptible; if it succeeds, it will make us odious. It is our interest to take very little part in their domestic administration of government, but purely to watch over them for their good. We never gained so much by North America as when we let them govern themselves, and were content to trade with them, and to protect them. One would think, my lords, there was some statute law, prohibiting us, under the severest penalties, to profit by experience.
My lords, I have ventured to lay my thoughts before you, on the greatest national concern that ever came under your deliberation, with as much honesty as you will meet with from abler men, and with a melancholy assurance, that not a word of it will be regarded. And yet, my lords, with your permission, I will waste one short argument more on the same cause; one that I am fond of, and which concerns it, what, I think, most nearly concerns us. My lords, I look upon North America as the nursery of freemen. Look upon the face of the earth. The three free states in Europe are like so many dying states, that go out one after another, and which must all be soon extinct, under the destructive greatness of their neighbours. Holland is little more than a great trading company, with luxurious manners, and an exhausted revenue; with little strength, and with less spirit. Switzerland alone is free and happy within the narrow enclosure of its rocks and vallies. As for the state of this country, my lords, I can only refer myself to your own secret thoughts. I am disposed to think and hope the best of public liberty. Were I to describe her according to my own ideas at present, I should say that she has a sickly countenance, but I trust she has a strong constitution.
But whatever may be our future fate, the greatest glory that attends this country, a greater than any other nation ever acquired, is, to have formed and nursed up to such a state of happiness, those colonies whom we are now so eager to butcher. We ought to cherish them as the immortal monuments of our public justice and wisdom; as the heirs of our better days, of our old arts and manners, and of our expiring national virtues. What work of art or power, or public utility, has ever equalled the glory of having peopled a continent without guilt or bloodshed, with a multitude of free and happy commonwealths, to have given them the best arts of life and government, and to have suffered them, under the shelter of our authority, to acquire in peace the skill to use them. In comparison of this, the policy of governing by influence, and even the pride of war and victory, are dishonest tricks, and poor contemptible pageantry.
We seem not to be sensible of the high and important trust which Providence has committed to our charge. The most precious remains of civil liberty, that the world can now boast of, are lodged in our hands; and God forbid that we should violate so sacred a deposit. By enslaving your colonies, you not only ruin the peace, the commerce, and the fortunes, of both countries, but you extinguish the fairest hopes, and shut up the last asylum of mankind. I think, my lords, without being weakly superstitious, that a good man may hope that Heaven will take part against the execution of a plan which seems big, not only with mischief, but impiety.
Let us be content with the spoils and the destruction of the east. If your lordships can see no impropriety in it, let the plunderer and the oppressor still go free. But let not the love of liberty be the only crime you think worthy of punishment. I fear we shall soon make it a part of our natural character to rain every thing that has the misfortune to depend upon us.
No nation has ever before contrived, in so short a space of time, without any war or public calamity (unless unwise measures may be so called) to destroy such ample resources of commerce, wealth, and power, as of late were ours, and which, if they had been rightly improved, might have raised us to a state of more honourable and more permanent greatness than the world has yet seen.
Let me remind the noble lords in administration, that before the stamp act, they had power sufficient to answer all the just ends of government, and they were all completely answered. If that is the power they want, though we have lost much of it at present, a few kind words would recover it all.
But if the tendency of this bill is, as I own it appears to me, to acquire a power of governing them by influence and corruption; in the first place, my lords, this is not true government, but a sophisticated kind, which counterfeits the appearance, but without the spirit or virtue of the true; and then, as it tends to debase their spirits, and corrupt their manners, to destroy all that is great and respectable in so considerable a part of the human species, and by degrees to gather them together with the rest of the world, under the yoke of universal slavery; I think, for these reasons, it is the duty of every wise man, of every honest man, and of every Englishman, by all lawful means, to oppose it.
THE foregoing SPEECH will be printed next week in a neat PAMPHLET, on fine post paper, and an elegant type: Those gentlemen, therefore, who would wish to preserve so valuable a production, will much oblige the printer of this paper by giving in their commands as early as possible, as he at present intends to strike off but a small impression. The price of it will be one shilling.
L O N D O N, July 16. THIS day arrived the mail from Flanders, but brought nothing new.
Though the quakers do not chuse to demonstrate their dissatisfaction in the noisy manner the less orderly though not less feeling colonists have adopted, it is said they profess themselves ready to concur in every measure which promises to preserve the natural rights of the Americans.
However economy may be the idol of our court, there is a little passion still more predominant; it is therefore believed that the French king's conduct, with respect to reducing the number of ambassadors, in order to lessen the national expence, will not be judged exemplary by a set of men, who, from fearing much, suspect every thing, and send out scouts to give early notice of hostile preparations.
A report gains ground, that a British fleet, consisting of six men of war of the line, will be sent in the course of the present summer, to cruise in the Baltic, in order to observe the motions of the Swedes.
The fate of Dantzick is at length thought to be determined, the British court having given its ultimate answer on that head; thus the old politics of sacrificing the commercial interests of this country to petty and paltry considerations begin to prevail.
A misunderstanding, said, is likely to break out between the courts of St. Petersburg and Berlin, respecting the reigning queen of Sweden.
Some plans, of a deep and serious nature, and which, if carried into execution, may in their consequences materially affect the interests of the Germanic body, are now said to be in contemplation.
Lord George Germaine, it is generally believed, will occupy a very important post in administration immediately after his return from the Spa.
Extract of a letter from Plymouth, dated July 12. "Perhaps you will be surprised at a rumour which has been spread here for two or three days, and now begins to be in credit, that the late supposed catastrophe has turned out to be a water bubble, and has proved equally successful with the celebrated land bubble of the bottle conjurer. It is whispered that a facetious nobleman laid this trap for the members of the jockey club, with whom nothing is impossible, nothing absurd, nothing not fit for a wager. The wag was fortunate in the choice of his agent; the simplicity of the projector, whatever doubt it might have occasioned about his philosophical knowledge, prevented suspicion of any intended imposition. The received notion of Mr. Blake's talents in the art of betting, which consists in taking either side of the question, readily induced our men of spirit to think seriously on the subject; that is, to engage deeply some on the one side, and some on the other, which those few of these days, who consider the use of money at all, will allow to be thinking seriously on the subject. However, the fact is, the members of the sporting calendar took the bait, a vessel was built at the expence of fifteen hundred pounds, thousands betted upon the event, the supposed conjurer put into the wooden bottle, corked down, and seen sinking to a considerable depth, but now it is said, the vessel was so contrived that the man with ease released himself by a trap door before she got to any dangerous depth, and being a skilful swimmer, and a very duck in the water, contrived to rise unperceived at a considerable distance from the place where the vessel went down, which was the less difficult, as the intention of every person present, except two, who are said to have been in a small boat at a proper distance, and in the secret, was fixed upon the spot where the vessel sunk. There is, indeed, some reason to believe the vessel was open soon after it went down, from the agitation of the water, which was very great, occasioned probably by the water expelling the air which was in the vessel, and driving it to the surface. The story goes, that the man was taken in unperceived by the attentive spectators to a boat prepared to receive him, and that he was afterwards among the wondering crowd at the end of twelve hours, when, according to the project, the vessel was to rise, and heard doubtless with great pleasure every person around him pronounce him a dead man. I heartily hope, for the sake of the poor man, that the whole is a jest, and that our late noble visitor has made fools of the knowing ones."
A correspondent says, that the alarm and concern at the fate of the unhappy man who was in the vessel lately sunk at Plymouth reminds him of a matter much more alarming, touching a vessel lately lost on the coast of Africa, which had upwards of 300 negroes on board, dragged, poor creatures, from the place of their nativity, to be carried into slavery! These poor people were, as they usually are, not only confined in the ship's hold, but chained together by the legs and arms. Notwithstanding this, as soon as the vessel struck, and it was perceived that she must inevitably sink, the crew of the ship made fast all the hatches to confine these unhappy beings still more, and then betook themselves to the boat, leaving the negroes so confined to sink with the vessel. This was the fact with the last vessel lost there that has been heard of, and I am told has often been so before. But this is in trade.
It is said that the king of England has acknowledged the territorial right of the king of Prussia to the port of Dantzick, and that he has promised his Prussian majesty not to interfere in that affair.
Notwithstanding the reports of a non-importation association being entered into by the several provinces on the continent of America, 17 ships have been cleared at the customhouse in the space of a fortnight; and though Boston is not one among the list, there are several for New England, and about a dozen more are now up at the coffeehouse for other ports of America.
It is reported that Mr. Wellbore Ellis will be created an English peer. Though born in Ireland, it is pretty remarkable he has always continued to decline an Irish peerage.
A correspondent recommends the making a settlement on one of the newly discovered islands in the South Seas, and the sending our convicted felons there; a circumstance they would dread as the greatest punishment, as they would not have it in their power to return to England.
July 19. Just arrived, the Prime, from China, an account of the united company of merchants of England, trading to the East Indies, with 209,000 pounds of bohea tea, 16,930 pounds of congou, 223,700 pounds of singlo, and 6200 of souchong.
On the 22d of June, when his majesty went to the house of lords to give his assent to the Canada bill, the park, Whitehall, and other parts of Parliament Street, were thronged with multitudes of people, in dress and appearance much above the common level. As the king passed, they gave him a most cordial salute of groans and hifes ; the universal cry was, "No popery! No French laws! No protestant popish king! The duke of Gloucester forever!" His majesty was observed several times to change colour; but whether from a consciousness that he was suffering in a religious cause, or whether from the supreme delight he felt at passing an act so universally odious to the seditious citizens, he bronzed it out with a tolerable share of firmness . When he had executed the Romish business , by passing the Quebec bill, the people, on his return, grew exceedingly clamorous; they groaned most hideously until the state coach arrived opposite Mr. Churchill's house, in Parliament Street, when (Mr. Wilkes being at the window) a loud buzz ensued; the king bowed, but the people, too honest to deceive his majesty, instantly shouted, " Wilkes forever! " The state coach had no sooner entered the park than the multitude, who had accompanied it to the parliament house, being joined by a prodigious concourse of people, the high pitched cry of "No popery! No French laws! The protestant duke of Gloucester!" became incessant. The king once leaning his head towards the coach window, was beset with numbers, a fellow, with great jocularly, called out, "God bless your majesty's head, but damn Lord Bute's! " His majesty reddened, but soon collected his firmness , shewed as much contempt for the rabble as James the second when he took water to escape their fury, and being safely embarked, let a jest to shew how much he despised them. A fellow returning through the park, with the sword of state on his shoulder, the case which contained it being shaped exactly like a crucifix , some of the mob insisted upon seeing the contents: The fellow stopped and opened the case; but when they perceived it contained only a very harmless sword, they went away, saying "they really thought it was a present from the court of Rome, of a popish crucifix , for the use of the protestant king of England! "
The IMPORTANCE of the AMERICAN COLONIES to GREAT BRITAIN.
   AMOUNT of COMMODITIES exported from GREAT BRITAIN.     To Hudson's Bay, - - - - - £. 16,000   To Newfoundland from Britain and Ireland, - - - - - 273,400   To Canada, - - - - - 105,000   To Nova Scotia, - - - - - 20,500   To New England, - - - - - 395,000   To Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, - - - - - 12,000   To New York, - - - - - 53,000   To Philadelphia, the only sea port in Pennsylvania, - - - - - 61,000   To Virginia and Maryland, - - - - - 86,000   To North Carolina, - - - - - 13,000   To South Carolina, - - - - - 365,000   To Georgia, - - - - - 49,000   To Pensacola, the capital of West Florida, - - - - - 97,000   To St. Augustine, - - - - - 7,000   Exported from Britain amounting to - - - - - £. 3,370,900  
AMOUNT of COMMODITIES imported into GREAT BRITAIN.
   £. s. d.     From Hudson's Bay, - - - - - 29,340 0 0   From Labrador to Britain, and other kingdoms, - - - - - 49,050 0 0   From Newfoundland, - - - - - 34,500 0 0   From Canada, - - - - - 105,000 0 0   From Nova Scotia, - - - - - 3880 0 0   From New England, - - - - - 370,500 0 0   From Connecticut, &c. - - - - - 114,500 0 0   From New York, - - - - - 526,000 0 0   From Philadelphia to Britain, and other markets, - - - - - 705,500 0 0   From Virginia and Maryland to Britain, and other markets, - - - - - 1,040,000 0 0   From North Carolina to Britain, and other markets, - - - - - 63,350 0 0   From South Carolina to Britain, and other markets, - - - - - 395,666 13 4   From Georgia to Britain, and other markets, - - - - - 74,200 0 0   From Pensacola, - - - - - 63,000 0 0   Exported from the colonies amounting to - - - - - £. 3,924,606 13 4    The above account is stated on an average of three years.
From the PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL. Messieurs BRADFORDS,
If you think the following piece draws the proper line between prerogative and liberty, between loyalty and patriotism, and deem it worthy of a publication in your paper, no time can be more proper than the present. The genuine SPEECH of STIGAND, at the head of the men of Kent, to WILLIAM the CONQUEROR.
"YOU are accosted, illustrious general, by the men of Kent, who are ready to submit to your government, provided you shall make proper concession to their most equitable demands, being such sort of men as are determined to retain that liberty they have received from their ancestors, together with the laws and customs of their country, neither will they be reduced to a state of servitude, which they never experienced, or endure a new legislature; for they can bear with a regal, but not a tyrannical authority. With their liberty, therefore, unassailed, and their antient laws and customs reserved to them, receive the men of Kent, not as a parcel of slaves, but subjects attached to you in loyalty and love. But if you should attempt to deprive them of their freedom, and the immunity of their laws, you shall deprive them of their lives also; for they had rather engage with you in a determined battle, and fall under certain enemies, than in a court of justice under certain laws; for though the rest of the English can suffer slavery, to be free is the property of the men of Kent."
This manly ADDRESS, worthy to be preserved in letters of gold, delivered in the face of majesty, by the undaunted champion of our sturdy Kentish ancestors, with a drawn sword in one hand, and the olive branch extended in the other, convinced the conqueror that those renowned heroes, to whose noble minds it appeared beneath the dignity of freemen to brook the galling yoke of slavery, though fixed by the hand of royalty, would, when attached to him in loyalty and love, be bulwarks of defence too impregnable to be stormed by his enemies; ramparts of safety raised around the throne not to be

fealed by the most aspiring foe. He therefore, with more wisdom than modern ministers, stopped the career of his tyranny, and confirmed to the men of Kent those antient privileges which their descendants enjoy to this day, peculiar to themselves, as the only remnant of Saxon liberty, which was capable to stand the torrent of Norman innovation, in that general deluge which spread itself over England; swept away even the badges of British freedom, and transplanted into the very soil, the laws and customs of Normandy.
If the united powers of France and Spain should cause the present rulers to stand in need of such brave and warlike subjects, it is probable (nay more than probable) America will then be relieved from the miseries the now groans under, and that stretch of tyranny over us be restrained, which the ties of justice and religion, in the mouldering hands of power, are too feeble to controul, and the solemn coronation oath, that sacred band, which impiety herself scarce dare to rend asunder, too debilitated to set bounds to; or to cause the crowned head, under the influence of a northern pettigog, to govern secundum legem et consuetudines Anglice .
B O S T O N, September 5.
ON Wednesday last the new divan (consisting of the wretched fugitives with whom the just indignation of their respective townsmen by a well deserved expulsion, have filled this capital) usurped the seats round the council board in Boston. Their deliberations have not hitherto transpired. And with equal secrecy, on Thursday morning, half after four, about 260 troops embarked on board thirteen boats at the Long Wharf, and proceeded up Millic river to Temple's farm, where they landed and went to the powderhouse on Quarry Hill, in Charlestown bounds, whence they have taken 250 half barrels of powder, the whole store there, and carried it to the castle.
A detachment from the corps went to Cambridge and brought off two field pieces, which had lately been sent there for colonel Brattle's regiment. The preparation for this scandalous expedition caused much speculation, as some who were near the governor gave out that he had sworn the committee of Salem should recognize or be imprisoned; nay, some said, put on board the Scarborough and sent to England forthwith. The committee of Boston sent off an express after ten on Wednesday evening to advise their brethren of Salem of what they apprehended was coming against them, who received their message with great politeness, and returned an answer purporting their readiness to receive any attack they might be exposed to for acting in pursuance to the laws and interest of their country as became men and christians.
From these several hostile appearances the county of Middlesex took the alarm, and on Thursday evening began to collect in large bodies, with their arms, provisions, and ammunition, determining, by some means, to give a check to a power which so openly threatens our destruction, and in such a clandestine manner robbed them of the means of their defence; and on Friday morning some thousands of them had advanced to Cambridge, armed only with sticks, as they had left their fire arms &c. at some distance behind them. Some indeed had collected on Thursday evening, and surrounded the attorney general's, who is also judge of the admiralty on the new plan for Nova Scotia; and being provoked by the firing a gun from a window, they broke some glass, but did no more mischief. The company, however, concerned in this were mostly boys and negroes, who soon dispersed.
On perceiving the concourse on Friday morning, the committee of Cambridge sent express to Charlestown, who communicated the intelligence to Boston, and their respective committees proceeded to Cambridge without delay. When the first of the Boston committee came up they found some thousands of people assembled round the courthouse steps, and judge Danforth standing upon them, speaking to the body, declaring in substance, "that having now arrived at a very advanced age, and spent the greater part in the service of the public, it was a great mortification to him to find a step lately taken by him so disagreeable to his country, in which he conscientiously had meant to serve them, but finding their general sense against his holding a seat at the council board, on the new establishment, he assured them that he had resigned said office, and would never henceforth accept or act in any office inconsistent with the charter rights of his country;" and in confirmation of said declaration, he delivered a certificate drawn up by himself, and signed with his own hand.
Judge Lee was also on the courthouse steps, and delivered his mind to the body in terms similar to those used by judge Danforth, and delivered the following declaration also, drawn up and signed by him, viz.
Cambridge, September 2, 1774.
"AS great numbers of the inhabitants of the county are come into this town since my satisfying those who were met, not only by declaration, but by reading to them what I wrote to the governor at my resignation, and being desirous to give the whole county and province full satisfaction in this matter, I hereby declare my resignation of a seat in the new constituted council, and my determination to give no further attendance.
A true copy.
Jos. LEE."
Upon this a vote was called for to see if the body was satisfied with the declarations and resignations above said, and passed in the affirmative, nem. con.
It was then moved to know whether that body would signify their abhorrence of mobs, riots, and the destruction of private property, and passed in the affirmative, nem. con.
Colonel Phipps, the high sheriff, then came before the committee of the body and complained that he had been ardently spoken of for the part he did in delivering the powder in Charlestown magazine to the soldiery; which the committee candidly considered, and reported to the body that it was their opinion the high sheriff was excusable, as he had acted in conformity to his order from the commander in chief. Colonel Phipps also delivered the following declaration by him subscribed, viz.
"THAT I will not execute any precept that shall be sent me under the new acts of parliament for the altering the constitution of the province of the Massachusetts Bay,
and that I will recal all the venires that I have sent out under the new establishment.
DAVID PHIPPS."
A true copy, test.
Cambridge Sept. 2, 1774.
NATH. CUDWORTH, Clerk.
Which was accepted as satisfactory.
About 8 o'clock his honour lieutenant governor Oliver set off from Cambridge to Boston, and informed governor Gage of the true state of matters and the business of the people, which, as his honour told the admiral, were not a mad mob, but the freeholders of the county, promising to return in two hours and confer further with them on his own circumstance as president of the council. On Mr. Oliver's return he came to the committee and signified what he had delivered to the body in the morning, viz. that as the commissions of lieutenant governor and president of the council seemed tacked together, he should undoubtedly incur his majesty's displeasure if he resigned the latter and pretended to hold the former, and as nobody appeared to have any objection to his enjoying the place he held constitutionally, he begged he might not be pressed to incur that displeasure at the instance of a single county, while any other counsellor held on the new establishment. Assuring them, however, that in case the mind of the whole province, collected in congress, or otherwise, appeared for his resignation, he would by no means act in opposition to it. This seemed satisfactory to the committee, and they were preparing to deliver it to the body, when commissioner Hallowell came through the town, on his way to Boston. The sight of that obnoxious person to whom the people that in a few minutes above 160 horsemen were drawn up and proceeding in pursuit of him, on the full gallop. Captain Gardener, of Cambridge, first began a parley with one of the foremost, which caused them to halt till he delivered his mind very fully in disuasion of the pursuit, and was seconded by Mr. Deavans of Charlestown, and Dr. Young of Boston. They generally observed that the body's intention that day seemed to be the resignation of unconstitutional counsellors, and that it might introduce confusion into the proceedings of the day if any thing else was brought upon the carpet till that important business was finished; and in a little time the gentlemen dismounted their horses and returned to the body. But Mr. Hallowell did not entirely escape, as one gentleman, of a small stature, pushed on before the general body, and followed Hallowell, who made the best of his way till he got into Roxbury, where Mr. — overtook and stopped him in his chaise. Hallowell snapped his pistols at him, but could not disengage himself from him till he quitted the chaise and mounted his servant's horse, on which he drove into Boston with all the speed he could make, till the horse falling within the gate, he ran on foot to the camp, through which he spread consternation, telling them he was pursued by some thousands, who would be in town at his heels and destroy all friends of government before them.
A gentleman in Boston, observing the motion of the camp, and concluding they were on the point of marching to Cambridge, from both ends of the town communicated the alarm to Dr. Roberts then at Charlestown ferry, who, having a very fleet horse, brought the news in a few minutes to the committee then at dinner. The intelligence was instantly diffused, and the people whose arms were nearest sent persons to bring them, while horsemen were dispatched both ways to gain more certain advice of the true state of the soldiery. A greater fervor and resolution probably never appeared among any troops. The dispatches soon returning, and assuring the body that the soldiers still remained, and were likely to remain in their camp, they resumed their business with spirit, and resolved to leave no unconstitutional officer within their reach in possession of his place. On this the committee assembled again, drew up a paper, and at the head of the body delivered it to lieutenant governor Oliver to sign, with which he complied, after obtaining their consent to add a clause, implying the force by which he was compelled to do it. Mr. Mason, clerk of the county of Middlesex, also engaged in his office to do no one thing in obedience to the new acts of parliament impairing our charter.
It is said that an article deliberated upon by the divan last Wednesday was the disarming of the town of Boston, and as much of the province as might be, to which sundry new counsellors advised. Was this also for the good of your country, gentlemen?
Extract of a letter from London, dated July 18.
"A gentleman is here from Quebec, who came over in order to complain of some impositions, which have been laid on the people of Canada, under colour of law. As neither the king's promise, nor the articles of the treaty of peace, have been fulfilled, they say the parliament, instead of removing the grievance, seized this opportunity to violate the treaty, &c. and, in order to delude the people, have established popery; but this will not satisfy them. They only want the same toleration as the king's other subjects, and the enjoyment of the same civil liberties which they always expected; but are now to be treated in a more arbitrary manner than before the conquest. It seems very clear that the Stuart family have a hand in the whole of the scheme. May the Almighty preserve us, and turn the hearts of the wicked men, who are seeking the destruction of America, as well as this country.
"The discontent which the Canada bill will give both here and there, added to the situation of this country, when you all unite and stop trade with us, will immediately procure a repeal of the obnoxious edicts.
"All this mischief has arisen from the pride of a few fools and knaves, who, out of opposition to lord Chatham, were determined to try another experiment on the colonies.
"Assure the Boston people that their politeness to general Gage will not save them from the awful plot. Little do they think what mighty evils are soon to follow if they submit."
On Saturday afternoon 4 large field pieces were dragged by the soldiery, and placed at the only avenue by land to this city.
Same evening the military watch, consisting of 16 or 17 men, who patrol between Winisimit and Charlestown ferries, laid hold on two women to abuse them; but on their crying out, let them go again.
PHILADELPHIA, September 14.
THE late alarm of the rupture at Boston put the whole province of Connecticut in motion; so that the express, who was sent to contradict the report, found the roads lined with troops, marching for the relief of Boston, to the amount of many thousands, well equipped with arms, ammunition, and provisions.
A correspondent remarks, that the readiness which people of all ranks shewed to take up arms in support of the Bostonians, is a plain demonstration that the Americans are determined to maintain their liberty, at the expence of their blood.
The farmers in and about Allen Town, and freehold, New Jersey, having opened a subscription for the relief of Boston, in a very short time collected as much grain as loaded a sloop, which failed from Elizabeth Town Point last week for Salem.
WILLIAMSBURG.
ON Sunday last died, Mrs. CLEMENTINA RIND. It ill becomes the printer, he apprehends, as being a relation, to pretend to characterize her. The public, who must in general have been acquainted with her, knew her qualifications. It shall, however, be his most ardent study to protect her children, for which purpose, he hopes those who have hitherto favoured this office, will not now discontinue their kindness. The public will, ere long, be made acquainted with the manner in which this paper will be conducted, and likewise with the plan which the printer intends to pursue should he meet with sufficient encouragement. It was his original intention to address the public at large in this week's paper; but for want of time, and many difficulties intervening, he found it extremely arduous, and therefore declined it till next week, or to some other future period.
Lately died at Norfolk, captain ROBERT NECKS. He was a gentleman whose public and private character was much admired.
Saturday, October 1. THIS morning, just as we were going to publish our paper, we received Philadelphia intelligence, by a private hand, as late as September 22. Were there a possibility of communicating to our readers a full account of the proceedings of our brethren to the northward, we would most readily do it, but it is utterly out of our power. Next week's paper shall contain them. At a meeting of the committees from every town and district in the county of Middlesex, and province of Massachusetts Bay, held at Concord, in the said county, on the 30th and 31st of August, they came into the most spirited resolutions; as also have several other towns in the said province. These resolutions have been laid before the GENERAL CONGRESS now sitting at Philadelphia, and were unanimously agreed to. The following extracts from them, in order to give the public an idea of the firmness and spirit of the people over whom General Gage presides, will not, we imagine, be disagreeable to our readers.
Resolved , That the late acts of the British parliament for blocking up the harbour of Boston, for altering the established form of government in this colony, and for screening the most flagitious violators of the laws of the province from a legal trial, are gross infractions of those rights to which we are justly entitled by the laws of nature, the British constitution, and the charter of the province.
Resolved , That no obedience is due from this province to either or any part of the acts above mentioned, but that they be rejected as the attempts of a wicked administration to enslave America.
Resolved , That every people have an absolute right of meeting together to consult upon common grievances, and to petition, remonstrate, and use every legal method for their removal.
Resolved , That the act which prohibits these constitutional meetings cuts away the scaffolding of English freedom, and reduces us to a most abject state of vassalage and slavery.
Resolved , That it is our opinion these late acts, if quietly submitted to, will annihilate the last vestiges of liberty in this province, and therefore we must be justified by God and the world, in never submitting to them.
PHILADELPHIA. In congress, Thursday, September 22, 1774. RESOLVED , that the congress request the merchants and others, in the several colonies, not to send to Great Britain any orders for goods, and to direct the execution of all orders already sent to be delayed or suspended, until the sense of the congress, on the means to be taken for the preservation of the liberties of America, is made public.
An extract from the minutes. CHARLES THOMPSON, Secretary. From the PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL, of September 21. Friday last arrived here Mr. Paul Revere, express from Boston to the congress, and on Monday last returned with an answer containing glad tidings to our distressed brethren.
To the credit of the merchants of the city of New York be it spoken, that on an application for transports to carry troops, &c. to Boston, they refused, so that the contractors could not procure a ship; and to the tradesmen who virtuously refused going to build fortifications, &c. to destroy the liberties of their fellow countrymen.
An order to purchase 800 pieces of blankets is received from general Gage, by a gentleman in this city. It is hoped every merchant will follow the example of the worthy gentleman who was first applied to, who refused to sell any blankets for the use of an army sent against his country.
Extract of a letter from London.
"It is conjectured here, that if the talked of non-importation agreement takes place, and is general among the colonies, it will effectually knock up this ministry, who must go out, and another be brought in, to reverse all their measures, and reconcile this kingdom with America. On the contrary, if those measures are submitted to, these men will be established, and go on to tax all America in various ways, among which the revival of the stamp act is much talked of."
WILLIAMSBURG, September 6, 1774.
I BEG leave to inform the public, and particularly those gentlemen who were pleased to take my subscription papers to their respective counties, to raise a small sum of money for the encouragement of making SALT, that after viewing many places on this and the other side of the bay, and on the sea coast of the Eastern Shore, I have now fixed on a convenient spot, on the coast, for erecting proper works; and as nothing more can be done on my part without money, I must beg the favour of them to forward such sums, as they may be able to collect, to Robert Carter Nicholas, esquire, who is so kind as to take the trouble of receiving and paying the money out to me. Proper security shall be lodged in his hands for any sum that I may draw. The certainty of being able to make salt as good as any whatever is hardly to be doubted, from the several experiments which I have made, and which are pretty fully certified by gentlemen of veracity, whose certificates will be lodged in the hands of Mr. Nicholas. The gentlemen will readily see the necessity I am under of requesting speedy assistance, when I inform them that I have for some time past devoted my whole attention to this business, and given over every pursuit from whence any family might have derived any advantage, and that, in order to put the works in as great a forwardness as it was in my power, I have incurred a considerable expence, and been obliged to contract for some of the necessary materials.
JAMES TAIT.
MR. TAIT having produced to me a sample of salt made on the Eastern Shore, together with a certificate of a gentleman of unquestionable credit, I have no doubt, with proper encouragement, of his succeeding in his proposed scheme, from which it seems highly probable that this country will reap the greatest advantage: I shall, therefore, most cheerfully comply with his request, and take great pleasure in contributing every thing in my power towards carrying it into execution.
RO. C. NICHOLAS.
F O R L O N D O N.
THE ship GALE, Henry Jefferson, master, has good accommodations for four cabin passengers, and will sail on or before the 20th of October. Any person inclined to take a passage in the above vessel may apply to the said captain, at Mr. Musselburgh's, about 3 miles above Newport News, near Norfolk, opposite where the ship loads. To be SOLD, on Monday the 10th of October, at Louisa courthouse, being court day, to the highest bidder.
TRACT OF LAND in said county, whereon is a very good dwellinghouse, all other necessary out houses, barns, &c. and a good crop of corn growing on the plantation; being the tract of land which Mr. George Barclay lately lived upon, and purchased of Mr. Clifton Rhodes. The terms of payment will be made known on the day of sale. WILLIAM FRASER.
Just imported from LONDON, in the Bland, captain Danby, and to be sold at my shop in Williamsburg.
A FRESH assortment of DRUGS and MEDICINES; also PICKLES, SPICES, CANDIES, SALLAD OIL, Durham MUSTARD, JAR RAISINS, CURRANTS, SALT PETRE, &c. WILL. PASTEUR.

P URSUANT to a decree of the honourable the general court, and by letter of attorney from colonel George Mercer, of Virginia, now in London, will be sold, at public auction, about 3500 acres of LAND in the county of Loudoun, near Wolf's ordinary, about 12 miles from Leesburg, 40 from Alexandria, and 35 from Dumfries, on Potomack. This land is well known by the description of the Bull Run Mountains, and is very fertile. Also 6500 acres on Shenandoah river, in the county of Frederick, opposite to Snicker's ordinary, and binding on the river about 7 miles. As this tract is part of a survey, one of the first in that part of the colony, its quality cannot be questioned; it is well watered, will admit of 2 mills on land streams, and others on the river. There are now in it 6 plantations, well improved for cropping, 110 slaves, and very large and choice flocks of horses (some of the dray breed) black cattle, hogs, and sheep, which, together with the crops of corn and wheat now growing (expected to be upwards of 2000 barrels, and 5000 bushels) will be sold, on the premises, on the 24th of November next, or next fair day. The Loudoun lands will be sold at Wolf's ordinary on the 24th day of the same month, and both tracts laid off in lots to suit every purchaser, who may see them by applying to Mr. Francis Peyton, living near the Loudoun lands, and Mr. William Dawson, who resides on the Shenandoah tract. Among the slaves are 2 good blacksmiths, 2 carpenters, and an exceeding trusty and skilful waggoner. The aged black cattle and grown hogs will be fattened for slaughter. Purchasers above 25l. will be allowed credit for 12 months, on giving bond and security to the subscribers, who will be prepared to make conveyances.
JOHN TAYLOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON.
Pursuant to an act of assembly, will be SOLD, at Smithfield, on Thursday the third of November next,
E IGHTEEN hundred and sixty eight acres (the remaining part of a tract) of well timbered, level LAND, in Isle of Wight county, belonging to Mr. James Burwell. This land is laid off into 7 lots, and is within 12 miles of Smithfield, and 5 of a very fine merchant mill. Any person who has thoughts of purchasing, may know the terms by applying to Mr. James Burwell, in York county.
LEWIS BURWELL, DUDLEY DIGGES, THOMAS NELSON, junior. NATHANIEL BURWELL.
To be SOLD, to the highest bidder, for ready money, on Wednesday the 5th of October, at John Wilkinson's plantation, in New Kent county,
TWENTY ONE LIKELY NEGROES,
Consisting of men, women, boys, and girls; also the stock of cattle and horses, some household furniture, and one riding chair, by virtue of executions obtained in New Kent court by Messrs. John Eilbeck, David Ross, and company, against the estate of the said Wilkinson.
JOSIAH HOLT, D. S.
P URSUANT to the last will and testament of Samuel Hening, deceased, will be sold, on the 11th day of November next, at his late dwellinghouse in Culpeper county, several SLAVES, flocks of HORSES, CATTLE, SHEEP, and HOGS; among the cattle are many BEEVES. Also will be sold, some HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE. All persons indebted to the said estate are desired to come and settle; and those that have any demands against it are requested to make them known before the day of sale. There is likewise a quantity of INDIAN CORN to be sold.
(2) DAVID HENING, Executor.
F OR SALE; A TRACT of exceeding good LAND, containing about 430 acres, on which is a large, commodious dwellinghouse, with all convenient out houses, in good repair, situated on the south branch of Pamunkey river, adjoining the lands of colonel Thomas Nelson and colonel Syme. The terms may be known by applying to the last named gentleman, Mr. Clough at Rocky Mills, or to
(3) DAVID HOOPS.
R UN away from the subscriber, in York county, in August last, a negro man slave, upwards of 6 feet high, of a tawny complexion, and has lost some of his fore teeth, has a black spot in his forehead, and calls himself STEPNEY BLUE. He has been since in Gloucester county, was the property of Sarah Mingram, who I have been married, and as I have been informed, has a forged pass, with his mistress's name to it, giving him leave to hire himself. He went away with a free negro woman named Esther Roberts, which I am told is his wife, and I make no doubt but he will, or has got a pass, in order to go as a free man. Any person who will take up the said slave, and secure him so that I get him again, shall receive 20s. if taken up within 20 miles of this place, 40s. if at a greater distance, and 5l. if out of the colony, besides what the law allows.
(2) NATHAN YANCEY.
F OR CHARTER, THE ship LONSDALE, James Grayson, master, burthen about 430 hogheads, British built, 2 years old, a very good vessel, well fitted and found. For terms apply to Richard Squire Taylor, in King William county.
WILLIAMSBURG, September 27, 1774.
I NTEND shortly to leave the colony. AGATHA CURTIS.
T AKEN up, in Loudoun, within 3 miles of Leesburg, a light roan horse, about 12 years old, 13 hands 3 inches high, branded on the near buttock W, his mane and tail almost black, and has a black spot, about the size of a musket bullet, near the pitch of each of his shoulders. Posted, and appraised to 8l.
(1) JOHN M'BRIDE.
T AKEN up, in Fauquier, a small bay horse, about 13 hands high, has a short tail, with a hanging mane, a star in his forehead, his right hind foot white, about 4 years old, branded on the near buttock J, trots naturally, and is shod before. Posted, and appraised to 10l.
(1) FRANCIS ATWELL.
To be SOLD, at the seat of the late Mrs. Tate, in Jockey's Neck, on Thursday the 29th of September, ALL the HOUSEHOLD and KITCHEN FURNITURE, with the stock of CATTLE, HORSES, HOGS, and SHEEP. The household furniture consists of valuable beds well furnished, neat chairs, tables, and desks, with many other articles too tedious to mention. There are among the cattle, several yoke of work steers, and many extraordinary milch cows. Also will be sold, at the same time, a CHARIOT. Credit will be allowed till the 25th of April, 1775, for all sums above twenty shillings, on giving bond, with approved security; all debts that are not discharged at the above mentioned time, to carry interest from the date of the bonds. The sale will begin at 10 o'clock in the morning.
NORFOLK, September 13, 1774. I DO hereby give notice that the partnership of Hargraves and Orange is dissolved by mutual agreement, Mr. Hargraves having purchased my part of the stock, and has taken the whole on himself. Those who have any demands against the said concern are desired to apply to Mr. Hargraves.
(3) WILLIAM ORANGE.
R UN away from the subscriber, lying on Byrd Creek, in Goochland county, on Saturday the 9th of July, SAMUEL GREGORY, alias NAILING, an apprentice, about 15 years of age, swarthy complexion, thin visage, grey eyes, a downy, inoffensive look, shews his teeth much when he laughs, has short sandy coloured hair, round shouldered, and stoops in his walk; had on an osnabrig shirt and trowsers. I have been credibly informed he went to Loudoun county, or some of the counties adjacent. I expect he will employ himself in the carpenter's business, as he has been in that branch for 3 years past. Whoever brings him to me shall have FIVE POUNDS.
(1) TURNER ANDERSON.
R UN away from the subscriber, living in Nansemond county, near Suffolk town, a negro woman named MILLA, who has been absent ever since the year 1768; she has a scar upon the back part of each of her hands, near her little fingers, and another on the top of one of her feet, is about 4 feet 6 inches high, and about 20 years old. I am told she has been in Norfolk, and I am also informed that at the house of Mr. Thomas Hall, between Rappahannock and Potomack rivers, there is a wench that calls herself free Millia, who may probably be the same. TEN POUNDS will be given to the person who will bring her to
(1) JOHN HARRISON, junior.
T HERE is remaining in Byrd's warehouse, Henrico county, a hoghead of TOBACCO, marked M W G, No. 1, weighing 912 gross, 107 tare, 805 neat. The owner's name is not known. It was inspected July 1, in the year 1771, and will be sold according to law, if no owner claims it within the limited time.
(4) SAMUEL and ROBERT PRICE.
A LL persons are hereby forewarned from HAWKING or FOWLING upon Martin's Swamp, in Chesterfield county; as also from FISHING therein.
(5) RICHARD RANDOLPH.
T AKEN up, in Spotsylvania, a black steer, with two crops and an underkel in the right ear, and a hole in the left. Posted, and appraised to 2l. 15s.
(1) MARY PENN.
R UN away from the subscriber, about the 20th of April last, a mulatto fellow named PETER BROWN, a painter by trade, but can do carpenter's work; he is 35 or 40 years of age, of a dark complexion, 5 feet 8 or 9 inches high, slim made, has a thin visage, several of his upper foreteeth are out, is fond of singing, which he can do very well, and is a remarkable fine whistler. The said fellow has several suits of cloaths, therefore I cannot describe his dress. He was some years past tried for a robbery, but obtained the governor's pardon, on suffering one year's imprisonment; after that he was sold to Mr. John Fox, of Gloucester, with whom he lived one or two years; he then ran away, and passed for a free man in the counties of King William, Caroline, and Hanover, where he was taken up and brought home. As he has a wife at Mr. Benjamin Hubbard's, it is likely he may be lurking in that neighbourhood; and as he was raised in Peterburg, it is probable he may be about there. Whoever will take up the said runaway, and deliver him to me, at Osborne's, shall receive FORTY SHILLINGS reward. All persons are forbid harbouring or carrying him out of the colony.
PETERFIELD TRENT.
S TRAYED from the subscriber, the 10th of May last, a dark bay mare, about 4 feet 6 inches high, not branded, has a mealy nose, thick mane, and long swift tail, strong made, has good courage, paces, trots, and gallops. THIRTY SHILLINGS will be given to any person that will deliver her to the subscriber, in King & Queen, or to Mr. David Anderson, junior, merchant in Louisa, where she was bred.
(3) MATTHEW ANDERSON, junior.
T AKEN up, in Chesterfield, a bay mare, about 10 years old, 4 feet 5 inches high, a large star in her forehead, and has a white streak leading towards her nose, two of her feet white, has some saddle spots, and branded on the near buttock I C. Posted, and appraised to 8l.
WILLIAM AKIN.
T AKEN up, in Southampton, a black horse, about 4 feet 4 inches high, near 12 years old, branded on the near buttock in the form of a heart, and has the scar of a fistula. Posted, and appraised to SIX POUNDS.
(3) LUCY TAYLOR.
WILLIAMSBURG, September 2, 1774. T HE subscriber, who is immediately going for England, desires all persons indebted to him, by bond or otherwise, to pay what they owe to Mr. Robert Prentis, of this city, who is properly empowered as attorney for
(3) GEORGE PITTS.
F OR SALE, A TRACT of LAND, containing upwards of 3000 acres, in the county of Richmond, upon Rappahannock river, opposite to the seat of Robert Beverley, esquire, extending more than 2 miles upon the river; the land is extremely well timbered, a great part of it lies well, and is equal to any in that part of the country. There are also, beside the quantity of dry land above mentioned, between 4 and 500 acres of valuable marsh, which may easily be reclaimed; a large water course running through the greatest part of the tract affords a considerable quantity of rich, valuable meadow land, and a good mill seat. There are also several delightful situations for a gentleman's seat, commanding extensive prospects up and down the river, where the greatest plenty of fish and fowl are to be had. A part of the tract is in possession of several tenants at will, some of whom pay from 20l to 25l. annual rent for 100 acres. It will be sold (and may be entered upon next Christmas) either together, or in parcels, by private bargain, at any time before the 10th of October, and if not disposed of before that time (of which notice shall be published in this gazette) it will then be offered for public sale, upon the premises, on the 3d Monday in November. Twelve or 13 months credit will be allowed, upon giving bond, with good security; to bear interest from the 25th of December, if the purchase money is not paid agreeable to the contract. The terms will be made known to those who incline to purchase privately, and the lands shewn, if required, and an undoubted title made, by the subscriber, living in Westmoreland county.
10l c to oct. WILLIAM BERNARD.
NEW YORK, July 27, 1774. F IFTY POUNDS REWARD.
W HEREAS on the 19th of June last paid a certain JOSEPH THORP was entrusted with a considerable sum in half johannes, of nine penny weight, to be delivered by him at Quebec, and as he has not yet made his appearance there, with other suspicious circumstances, it is apprehended he is gone off with the money. He is a native of England, about 6 feet high, swarthy complexion, very dark, keen eyes, and pitted with the smallpox, of a slender make, stoops as he walks, talks rather slow, and has some small impediment in his speech. He lived some time in Boston, from whence he removed to Quebec, assuming the character of a merchant in both places; he was also once in trade in Newcastle, Virginia, and has a brother settled there. It is believed he went on board captain John F. Pruyn, for Albany, and took with him a blue cashmir, and a dark brown cloth suit of clothes. Whoever secures the said Joseph Thorp in any of his majesty's gaols on this continent shall be entitled to ten per cent. on the sum recovered, and the above reward of 50l. when convicted. Apply to Cusson and Seton of New York, Joseph Wharton, junior, of Philadelphia, Robert Christie of Baltimore, James Gibson and company of Virginia, John Bondfield of Quebec, Matlatiah Bourne, or John Rowe, of Boston. It is requested of those who may have seen the said Joseph Thorp since the 19th of June last past, or know any thing of the route he has taken, that they convey the most early intelligence thereof to any of the above persons, or to Greenwood, Ritsen, and Marsh, in Norfolk, or to Mr. Robert Pleasants and company, at Pear Mile creek, Henrico county; the favour will be gratefully acknowledged. All masters of vessels are forewarned from taking him off the continent.
(1 m tf) ROBERT BURWELL.
F OR SALE, TWO thousand ACRES of exceeding fine LAND for tobacco, wheat, or Indian corn, lying on both sides of Bull Run, in Loudoun and Prince William, about 300 acres of which are rich low ground and meadow land. It lies within four miles of two merchant mills, and about ten miles of two other merchant mills in Loudoun; thirty miles from Culpeper, Alexandria, and Dumfries. If any person or persons incline to purchase the whole, or any part of the said lands, they may be shewn them, and know the terms, by applying to captain Francis Peyton, in Loudoun county, who has full power to treat for the same, or to the subscriber. It is laid off in lots of two, three, and four hundred acres, with an equal quantity of low ground and meadow land to each lot.
(1 m tf) ROBERT BURWELL.
NORFOLK, April 21, 1774. N OTICE is hereby given, that a number of vessels will be wanted this summer to bring about 6000 tons of stone from Mr. Brooke's quarry, on Rappahannock, and land the same on Cape Henry, for the lighthouse. Any person inclineable to engage in such work are desired to treat with Matthew Phipp, Paul Loyall, and Thomas Newton, junior, esquires. The directors of the lighthouse will also be glad to purchase one or two flat bottomed vessels from 80 to 120 tons burthen.
(tf) BASSETT MOSELEY.
F OR SALE, ABOUT twelve thousand acres of exceeding rich TOBACCO LAND, in Amherst county, whereon are several plantations and improvements sufficient to work forty or fifty hands. There is on this land for sale a very valuable GRIST MILL, lately built, with a stone dam and a pair of good COLOGNE MILLSTONES, which mill has for two years past got upwards of 100 barrels of toll corn, and is situated on a never failing stream. The land will be shewn by William Womack, who lives at one of the plantations, and the prices of the land made known by him. One or two years credit will be allowed, interest being paid for the second year, and also for the first, if the money is not paid agreeable to contract. The land is to be laid off and surveyed by Colonel William Cabell, at the expence of the purchaser. Deeds will be made, upon bond and approved security being given, either to Call, William Cabell, or the subscriber. Six per cent. discount will be allowed for ready money, or good merchants notes. If any person would chuse to exchange lands in the lower part of the country, on or near some navigable river, that are good, it is more than probable we should agree.
CARTER BRAXTON.
F OR SALE, NINE hundred and forty acres of valuable land, lying on both sides of Contrary River, in Louisa, with three plantations thereon, two of which has sufficient houses for overseers and negroes; the other is improved with all necessary buildings, and orchards of all kinds, fit for the reception of a gentleman, the houses being finished in the best manner. This tract is well timbered and watered, lies within 32 miles of Fredericksburg, and 43 of Page's warehouse; there are at least 400 acres of low grounds, of the best soil, 300 of which are now to cut. The three plantations are under good fences, and in good order to work 12 or 15 hands. Robert Fleming, John Massey, and John Linn, are now in possession of the plantations, who will show the land to any person inclineable to purchase, and Major Thomas Johnson will agree with them for the price. The above tract is esteemed the most valuable in Louisa for growing corn, wheat, or tobacco, and situated in the best range for stock of any below the great mountains. (tf 1*)
F OR SALE, FIVE hundred acres of land, lying on Deep Creek, in Louisa, about 45 miles of Richmond town, and is exceeding good land, well watered by Deep Creek, and a large branch thereof, which runs through the middle of the land, and affords a large quantity of rich meadow ground. Any person inclineable to purchase may see the land, and know the terms, by applying to the subscriber, living near it. tf 1* GEORGE MERIWETHER.
T O BE RENTED, FROM YEAR TO YEAR, OR FOR A TERM OF YEARS, B E L V O I R,
T HE beautiful seat of the honourable George William Fairfax, esquire, lying upon Potomack river, in Fairfax county, about 14 miles below Alexandria. The mansion house is of brick, two story high, with four convenient rooms and a large passage upon the lower floor, five rooms and a passage on the second, and a servants hall and cellars below; convenient offices, stables, and coach house, adjoining, as also a large and well furnished garden, stored with great variety of valuable fruits, in good order. Appertaining to the tract on which these improvements are, and which contains near 2000 acres (surrounded, in a manner, by navigable water) are several valuable fisheries, and a good deal of cleared land in different parts, which may be let altogether, or separately, as shall be found most convenient. The terms may be known of Colonel Washington, who lives near the premises, or of me, in Berkeley county, tf FRANCIS WILLIS, junior.
tf FRANCIS WILLIS, junior.
F OR SALE, AND VERY CHEAP, A PLANTATION in good order for cropping, none of the land having been cleared above six years, with all necessary houses, quite new, together with 1500 acres of exceeding rich land, the soil of which is so good that it will bring large tobacco for five or six years without dung. I have made on this plantation above three thousand pounds of tobacco per share. The place is very healthy, and has a fine range for stock. This land lies in the lower end of Buckingham county, near to Appomattox river, on each side of Great Ducker's and Mayo creeks. Tobacco has been carried above this land near to Petersburg by water, and last month, in the dry weather, two canoe loads of wheat were carried near to Petersburg, and the canoes brought back; they were loaded but a little below this land. I make no doubt but Appomattox river will be soon cleared, and then the expence of sending wheat, tobacco, &c. will be trifling. Any person inclineable to purchase will see, by the produce of the land, that it is exceeding rich. I really do not know any better high land in the colony. This tract of land is well timbered, and has excellent water on it. I do not know a better place for a merchant mill than is on Ducker's creek. People are going much on raising wheat in these parts, and a good mill would be very advantageous to the owner. Also another tract of land of 826 acres, in Albemarle county, I believe about ten miles from the courthouse, joining Mr. James Harris and the quarters of Mr. John Winston. On this land is a small plantation, a good apple orchard, &c. The land is good, and my price so low, that I am convinced any person who viewed either of the above tracts of land would not hesitate to give the price I shall ask. Neither of these tracts are under any incumbrance whatsoever. A reasonable time of payment will be allowed. tf ANTHONY WINSTON.
tf ANTHONY WINSTON.
F OR SALE, A TRACT of land, on Charles river, York county, containing about 600 acres, part of which is marsh, that may be drained with very little expence. The situation of this place is very convenient for a family, as it lies upon a river that abounds with oysters and fine fish, particularly sheepsheads; it is within 200 yards of a mill, and 2 miles of the church. My reason for selling it is, my having bought a tract of land more convenient to me. Whoever inclines to purchase may know the terms by applying to the subscriber, in York town.
THOMAS NELSON, junior.
W ANTED for the lighthouse directors eight second-hand ANCHORS, nearly a thousand weight each. Any person having such for sale are desired to make their terms known to the subscriber in Norfolk. t. f. BASSETT MOSELEY.
YORK town, June 9, 1773.
T HE subscribers being very solicitous to comply with the will of their testator, the late Honourable William Nelson, desire that all persons who were indebted to him will endeavour to make as speedy payments as possible. Those who have accounts open on his books, and who cannot immediately discharge the balances, are desired to give their bonds. This request is the more necessary, as most of the legacies bequeathed by the testator are to be paid in sterling money, and he has directed that his younger sons fortunes shall be placed out at interest upon undoubted securities, so soon as it can be done. Those who have any demands are desired to make them immediately known.
THOMAS NELSON, HUGH NELSON, THOMAS NELSON, jun. Ro. C. NICHOLAS.