offenders are to be taken by force, together with all such persons as may be pointed out as witnesses, and carried to England, there to be tried in a distant land, by a jury of strangers, and subject to all the disadvantages that result from want of friends, want of witnesses, and want of money.

When the design of raising a revenue, from the duties imposed on the importation of tea into America, had in great measure been rendered abortive, by our ceasing to import that commodity, a scheme was concerted by the ministry with the East-India company, and an act passed, enabling and encouraging them to transport and vend it in the colonies. Aware of the danger of giving success to this insidious manœuvre, and of permitting a precedent of taxation, thus to be established among us, various methods were adopted to elude the stroke. The people of Boston, then ruled by a governor, whom, as well as his predecessor, sir Francis Bernard, all America considers as her enemy, were exceedingly embarrassed. The ships, which had arrived with the tea, were, by his management, prevented from returning.-The duties would have been paid; the cargoes landed and exposed to sale; a governor's influence would have procured and protected many purchasers. While the town was suspended by deliberations on this important subject, the tea was destroyed. Even supposing a trespass was thereby committed, and the proprietors of the tea entitled to damages, the courts of law were open, and judges, appointed by the crown, presided in them.-The East-India company, however, did not think proper to commence any suits, nor did they even demand satisfaction, either from individuals, or from the cominunity in general. The ministry, it seems, officiously made the case their own, and the great council of the nation descended to intermeddle with a dispute about private property. Divers papers, letters and other unauthenticated ex parte evidence were laid before them; neither the persons who destroyed the tea, nor the people of Boston, were called upon to answer the complaint. The ministry, incensed by being disappointed in a favourite scheme, were determined to recur from the little arts of finesse, to open force and unmanly violence. The port of Boston was blocked up by a fleet, and an army placed in the town.Their trade was to be suspended, and thousands reduced to the necessity of gaining subsistence from charity, till they should submit to pass under the yoke and consent to become slaves, by confessing the omnipotence of parliament, and acquiescing in whatever disposition they might think proper to make oftheir lives and property. Let justice and humanity cease to be the boast of your nation! consutl your history, examine your records of former transactions; nay, turn to the annals of the many arbitrary states and kingdoms that surround you, and shew us a single instance of men being condemned to suffer for imputed crimes, unheard, unquestioned, and without even the specious formality of a trial; and that, too, by laws made expressly for the purpose, and which had no existence at the time of the fact committed. If it be difficult to reconcile these proceedings to the genius and temper of your laws and constitution, the task will become more arduous, when we call upon our ministerial enemies to justify, not only condemning men untried, and by hearsay, but involving the innocent in one common punishment with the guilty, and for the act of thirty or forty, to bring poverty, distress, and calamity, on thirty thousand souls, and those not your enemies, but your friends, brethren, and fellow subjects. It would be some consolation to us if the catalogue of American oppressions ended here. It gives us pain to be reduced to the necessity of reminding you, that under the confidence reposed in the faith of government, pledged in a royal charter from a British sovereign, the fore-fathers of the present inhabitants of the Massachusetts-Bay, left their former habitations and established that great, flourishing and loyal colony. Without incurring or being charged with a forfeiture of their rights, without being heard, without being tried, without law, and without justice, by an act of parliament, their charter is destroyed,

their liberties violated, their constitution and form of government changed: and all this upon no better pretence, than because, in one of their towns, a trespass was committed on some merchandise, said to belong to one of the companies, and because the ministry were of opinion, that such high political regulations were necessary, to compel due subordination and obedience to

their mandates.

Nor are these the only capital grievances under which we labour. We might tell of dissolute, weak, and wicked governors having been set over us; of legislatures being suspended for asserting the rights of British subjects; of needy and ignorant dependents on great men advanced to the seats of justice, and to other places of trust and importance; of hard restrictions on commerce, and a great variety of lesser evils, the recollection of which is almost lost under the weight and pressure of greater and more poignant calamities.

Now mark the progression of the ministerial plan for enslaving us. Well aware that such hardy attempts to take our property from us, to deprive us of that valuable right of trial by jury, to seize our persons and carry us for trial to Great-Britain, to blockade our ports, to destroy our charters, and change our forms of government, would occasion, and had already occasioned, great discontent in the colonies, which might produce opposition to these measures; an act was passed to protect, indemnify, and screen from punishment, such as might be guilty even of murder, in endeavouring to carry their oppressive edicts into execution; and by another act the dominion of Canada is to be so extended, modelled and governed, as that by being disunited from us, detached from our interests, by civil as well as religious prejudices, that by their numbers daily swelling with Catholic emigrants from Europe, and by their devotion to administration, so friendly to their religion, they might become formidable to us, and on occasion, be fit instruments, in the hands of power, to reduce the ancient, free Protestant colonies to the same state of slavery with themselves:

This was evidently the object of the act: and in this view, being extremely dangerous to our liberty and quiet, we cannot forbear complaining of it, as hostile to British America. Superadded to these considerations, we cannot help deploring the unhappy condition to which it has reduced the many English settlers, who, encouraged by the royal proclamation, promising the enjoyinent of all their rights, have purchased estates in that country.-They are now the subjects of an arbitrary government, deprived of trial by jury, and when imprisoned, cannot claim the benefit of the habeas corpus act, that great bulwark and palladium of English liberty. Nor can we suppress our astonishment, that a British parliament, should ever consent to establish in that country, a religion that has deluged your island in blood, and dispersed impiety, bigotry, persecution, murder, and rebellion through every part of the world.

This being a true state of facts, let us beseech you to consider to what end they lead.

Admit that the ministry, by the powers of Britain, and the aid of our Roman Catholic neighbours, should be able to carry the point of taxation, and reduce us to a state of perfect humiliation and slavery: Such an enterprize would doubtless make some addition to your national debt, which already presses down your liberties, and fills you with pensioners and placemen. We presume, also, that your commerce will somewhat be diminished. However, suppose you should prove victorious, in what condition will you then be ? What advantages or what laurels will you reap frour such a conquest?

May not a ministry with the same armies enslave you ?—It may be said, you will cease to pay them, but remember the taxes from America, the wealth, and we may add the men, and particularly the Roman Catholics of this vast continent, will then be in the power of your enemies; nor will you have any reason to expect, that after making slaves of us, many among us should refuse to assist in reducing you to the same abject state.

Do not treat this as chimerical. Know that in less than half a century, the quit-rents reserved to the crown, from the numberless grants of this vast continent, will pour large streams of wealth into the royal coffers, and if to this be added, the power of taxing America at pleasure, the crown will be rendered independent of you for supplies, and will possess more treasure than may be necessary to purchase the remains of liberty in your island.-In a word, take care that you do not fall into the pit that is preparing for us.

We believe there is yet much virtue, much justice and much public spirit, in the English nation. To that justice we now appeal. You have been told that we are seditious, impatient of government, and desirous of indeper dency. Be assured that these are not facts, but calumnies.-Permit us to be as free as yourselves, and we shall ever esteem a union with you, to be our greatest glory and our greatest happiness; we shall ever be ready to contribute all in our power to the welfare of the empire; we shall consider your enemies as our enemies, and your interest as our own.

But, if you are determined that your ministers shall wantonly sport with the rights of mankind-if neither the voice of justice, the dictates of the law, the principles of the constitution, or the suggestions of humanity, can restrain your hands from shedding human blood, in such an impious cause, we must then tell you, that we will never submit to be hewers of wood, or drawers of water for any ministry or nation in the world.

Place us in the same situation that we were at the close of the last war, our former harmony will be restored.

and

But, lest the same supineness, and the same inattention to our common interest, which you have for several years shewn, should continue, we think it prudent to anticipate the consequences.

By the destruction of the trade of Boston, the ministry have endeavoured to induce submission to their measures. The like fate may befal us all. We will endeavour, therefore, to live without trade, and recur, for subsistence, to the fertility and bounty of our native soil, which will afford us all the necessaries, and some of the conveniencies, of life. We have suspended our importation from Great-Britain and Ireland; and, in less than a year's time, unless our grievances should be redressed, shall discontinue our exports to those kingdoms and the West-Indies.

It is with the utmost regret, however, that we find ourselves compelled, by the over ruling principles of self-preservation, to adopt measures detrimental, in their consequences, to numbers of our fellow-subjects in Great-Britain and Ireland. But, we hope, that the magnanimity and justice of the British nation will furnish a parliament of such wisdom, independence, and public spirit, as may save the violated rights of the whole empire, from the devices of wicked ministers and evil counsellors, whether in or out of office; and thereby restore that harmony, friendship, and fraternal affection, between all the inhabitants or his majesty's kingdoms and territories so ardently wished for, by every true and honest American.

The Congress then resumed the consideration of the memorial to the inhabitants of the British colonies, and the same being debated by paragraphs and amended, was approved, and is as follows:

To the inhabitants of the colonies of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, the counties of New Castle, Kent and Sussex, on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina and SouthCarolina:

FRIENDS and COUNTRYMEN,

We, the delegates appointed, by the good people of these colonies, to meet at Philadelphia, in September last, for the purposes mentioned by our respective constituents, have, in pursuance of the trust reposed in us, assembled, and taken into our most serious consideration, the important matters recommend

ed to the Congress. Our resolutions thereupon will be herewith communicated to you. But, as the situation of public affairs grows, daily, more and more alarming; and, as it may be more satisfactory, to you, to be informed, by us, in a collective body, than in any other manner, of those sentiments that have been approved, upon a full and free discussion, by the representatives of so great a part of America, we esteem ourselves obliged to add this address to these resolutions.

In every case of opposition by a people to their rulers, or of one state to another, duty to Almighty God, the creator of all, requires that a true and impartial judgment be formed of the measurers leading to such opposition; and of the causes by which it has been provoked, or can in any degree be justified, that neither affection on the one hand, nor resentment on the other, being permitted to give a wrong bias to reason, it may be enabled to take a dispassionate view of all circumstances, and to settle the public conduct on the solid foundations of wisdom and justice.

From councils, thus tempered, arise the surest hopes of the divine favour, the firmest encouragement to the parties engaged, and the strongest recommendation of their cause, to the rest of mankind.

With minds deeply impressed by a sense of these truths, we have diligently, deliberately, and calmly enquired into, and considered those exertions, both of the legislative and executive power of Great-Britain, which have excited so much uneasiness in America, and have with equal fidelity and attention, considered the conduct of the colonies. Upon the whole, we find ourselves reduced to the disagreeable alternative of being silent, and betraying the innocent, or of speaking out, and censuring those we wish to revere. In making our choice of these distressing difficulties, we prefer the course dictated by honesty, and a regard for the welfare, of our country.

Soon after the conclusion of the late war, there commenced a memorable change in the treatment of these colonies. By a statute, made in the fourth year of the present reign, a time of profound peace, alleging, "the expediency of new provisions and regulations for extending the commerce between Great"Britain and his majesty's dominions in America, and the necessity of "raising a revenue, in the said dominions, for defraying the expenses of de"fending, protecting and securing the same," the commons of Great-Britain undertook to give and grant to his majesty many rates and duties, to be paid in these colonies. To enforce the observance of this act, it prescribes a great number of severe penalties and forfeitures; and, in two sections, makes a remarkable distinction between the subjects in Great-Britain, and those in America. By the one, the penalties and forfeitures incurred there, are to be recovered in any of the king's courts of record, at Westminister, or in the court of exchequer, in Scotland; and by the other, the penalties and forfeitures incurred here, are to be recovered in any court of record, or in any court of admirality, or vice-admiralty at the election of the informer or prosecutor.

The inhabitants of these colonies, confiding in the justice of Great-Britain, were scarcely allowed sufficient time to receive and consider this act, before another, well known by the name of the Stamp-Act, and passed in the fifth year of this reign, engrossed their whole attention. By this statute, the British parliament exercised, in the most explicit manner, a power of taxing us, and extending the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty and vice-admiralty, in the colonies, to matters arising within the body of a county, and directed the numerous penalties and forfeitures, thereby inflicted, to be recovered in the

said courts.

In the same year, a tax was imposed upon us, by an act establishing several new fees in the customs. In the next year, the stamp-act was repealed; not because it was founded in an erroneous principle, but as the repealing act recites, because" the continuance thereof would be attended with many inconve

"niencies, and might be productive of consequences greatly detrimental to the "commercial interest of Great-Britain."

In the same year, and by a subsequent act, it was declared, "that his ma"jesty, in parliament, of right, had power to bind the people of these colonies, "by statutes, in all cases whatsoever."

In the same year, another act was passed, for imposing rates and duties payable in these colonies. In this statute, the commons, avoiding the terms of giving and granting, "humbly besought his majesty, that it might be enacted, &c." But, from a declaration in the preamble, that the rates and duties were "in lieu of" several others granted by the statute first before mentioned, for raising a revenue, and from some other expressions, it appears, that these duties were intended for that purpose.

In the next year, [1767] an act was made "to enable his majesty to put the "customs, and other duties in America, under the management of commissioners, &c." and the king, thereupon, erected the present expensive board of commissioners, for the express purpose of carrying into execution the several acts relating to the revenue and trade in America.

After the repeal of the stamp-act, having again resigned ourselves to our ancient unsuspicious affections for the parent state, and anxious to avoid any controversy with her, in hopes of a favorable alteration, in sentiments and measures, towards us, we did not press our objections against the above mentioned statutes, made subsequent to that repeal.

Administration, attributing to trifling causes, a conduct that really proceeded from generous motives, were encouraged in the same year [1767] to make a bolder experiment on the patience of America.

By a statute, commonly called the glass, paper, and tea act, made fifteen months after the repeal of the stamp-act, the commons of Great-Britain resumed their former language, and again undertook to "give and grant rates "and duties, to be paid in these colonies," for the express purpose of "raising a revenue, to defray the charges of the administration of justice, the support "of civil government, and defending the king's dominions," on this continent. The penalties and forfeitures, incurred under this statute, are to be recovered in the same manner, with those mentioned in the foregoing acts.

To this statute, so naturally tending to disturb the tranquillity, then universal throughout the colonies, parliament, in the same session, added another no less extraordinary.

Ever since the making the present peace, a standing army has been kept in these colonies. From respect for the mother-country, the innovation was not only tolerated, but the provincial legislatures, generally, made provision for supplying the troops.

The assembly of the province of New-York, having passed an act of this kind, but differing in some articles, from the directions of the act of parliament made in the fifth year of this reign, the house of representatives, in that colony,. .was prohibited by a statute, made in the last session mentioned, from making any bill, order, resolution, or vote, except for adjourning or chusing a speaker, until provision should be made, by the said assembly, for furnishing the troops, within that province, not only with all such necessaries as were required by the statute, which they were charged with disobeying, but also with those required by two other subsequent statutes, which were declared to be in force, until the twenty-fourth day of March, 1769.

These statutes of the year 1767, revived the apprehensions and discontents, that had entirely subsided on the repeal of the stamp-act; and, amidst the just fears and jealousies, thereby occasioned, a statute was made, in the next year, [1768] to establish courts of admiralty and vice-admiralty on a new model, expressly for the end of more effectually recovering of the penalties and for

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