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of Frenchmen, examine the specious device, and you will find it, to use an expression of holy writ, "a white sepulchre," for burying your lives, liberty and property.

Your judges, and your legislative council, as it is called, are dependent on your governor, and he is dependent on the servant of the crown, in Great-Britain. The legislative, executive and judging powers are all moved by the nods of a minister. Privileges and immunities last no longer than his smiles. When he frowns, their feeble forms dissolve. Such a treacherous ingenuity has been exerted in drawing up the code lately offered you, that every sentence, beginning with a benevolent pretension, concludes with a destructive power; and the substance of the whole, divested of its smooth words, is-that the crown and its ministers shall be as absolute throughout your extended province, as the despots of Asia or Africa. What can protect your property from taxing edicts, and the rapacity of necessitous and cruel masters ? Your persons from lettres de cachet, goals, dungeons, and oppressive services? your lives and general liberty from arbitrary and unfeeling rulers? We defy you, casting your view upon every side, to discover a single circumstance, promising from any quarter the faintest hope of liberty to you, or your posterity, but from an entire adoption into the union of these colonies.

What advice would the truly great man before-mentioned, that advocate of freedom and humanity, give you, was he now living, and knew that we, your numerous and powerful neighbours, animated by a just love of our invaded rights, and united by the indissoluble bands of affection and interest, called upon you, by every obligation of regard for yourselves and your children, as we now do, to join us in our righteous contest, to make common cause with us therein, and take a noble chance for emerging from a humiliating subjection under governors, intendants and military tyrants, into the firm rank and condition of English freemen, whose custom it is, derived from their ancestors, to make those tremble, who dare to think of making them iniserable ?

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Would not this be the purport of his address? "Seize the opportunity presented to you by Providence itself. You have been conquered into liberty, if you act as you ought. This work is not of man. You are a small people, compared to those who, with open arms, invite you into a fellowship. ment's reflection should convince you which will be most for your interest and happiness, to have all the rest of North-America your unalterable friends, or your inveterate enemies. The injuries of Boston have roused and associated every colony, from Nova-Scotia to Georgia. Your province is the only link wanting, to complete the bright and strong chain of union. Nature has joined your country to theirs. Do you join your political interests. For their own sakes they never will desert or betray you. Be assured, that the happiness of a people inevitably depends on their liberty, and their spirit to assert it. value and extent of the advantages tendered to you are immense. Heaven grant you may not discover them to be blessings after they have bid you an eternal adieu."

We are too well acquainted with the liberality of sentiment distinguishing your nation, to imagine, that difference of religion will prejudice you against a hearty amity with us. You know that the transcendant nature of freedom elevates those who unite in her cause, above all such low-minded infirmities. The Swiss cantons furnish a memorable proof of this truth. Their union is composed of Roman Catholic and Protestant states, living in the utmost concord and peace with one another, and thereby enabled, ever since they bravely vindicated their freedom, to defy and defeat every tyrant that has invaded them.

Should there be any among you, as there generally are in all societies, who prefer the favours of ministers, and their own private interests, to the welfare of their country, the temper of such selfish persons will render them incredi

bly active in opposing all public-spirited measures, from an expectation of being well rewarded for their sordid industry, by their superiors; but we doubt not you will be upon your guard against such men, and not sacrifice the liberty and happiness of the whole Canadian people and their posterity, to gratify the avarice and ambition of individuals.

We do not ask you, by this address, to commence acts of hostility against the government of our common sovereign. We only invite you to consult your own glory and welfare, and not to suffer yourselves to be inveigled or intimidated by infamous ministers, so far as to become the instruments of their cruelty and despotism; but to unite with us in one social compact, formed on the generous principles of equal liberty, and cemented by such an exchange of beneficial and endearing offices as to render it perpetual. In order to complete this highly desirable union, we submit it to your consideration, whether it may not be expedient for you to meet together, in your several towns and districts, and elect deputies, who afterwards meeting in a provincial Congress, may chuse delegates, to represent your province in the Continental Congress, to be held at Philadelphia, on the tenth day of May, 1775.

In this present Congress, beginning on the fifth of the last month, and continued to this day, it has been with universal pleasure, and an unanimous vote, resolved, that we should consider the violation of your rights, by the act for altering the government of your province, as a violation of our own, and ♥ that you should be invited to accede to our confederation, which has no other objects than the perfect security of the natural and civil rights of all the constituent members, according to their respective circumstances, and the preservation of a happy and lasting connexion with Great-Britain, on the salutary and constitutional principles herein before-mentioned. For effecting these purposes, we have addressed an humble and loyal petition to his majesty, praying relief of our and your grievances; and have associated to stop all importations from Great-Britain and Ireland, after the first day of December, and all exportations to those kingdoms and the West-Indies, after the tenth day of next September; unless the said grievances are redressed.

That Almighty God may incline your minds to approve our equitable and necessary measures, to add yourselves to us, to put your fate, whenever you suffer injuries which you are determined to oppose, not on the small influence of your single province, but on the consolidated powers of North-America; and may grant to our joint exertions, an event as happy as our cause is just, is the fervent prayer of us, your sincere and affectionate friends and fellowsubjects.

By order of the Congress.

HENRY MIDDLETON, President. Resolved, That the address of the Congress to the people of Quebec, be signed by the President, and that the delegates of the province of Pennsylvania superintend the translating, printing, publishing, and dispersing it: And it is recommended by the Congress to the delegates of New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, and New-York, to assist in, and forward the dispersion of, the said address.

Two copies of the address to the king, being engrossed and compared, were signed at the table by all the members.

Resolved, That the thanks of this Congress be given to the honorable House of Representatives of the colony of Pennsylvania, for their politeness to this Congress; and that the delegates for this colony be a committee to communicate this resolution to the said honorable House.

A true copy,
The Congress then dissolved itself.

CHARLES THOMSON, Secretary.

SIR,

A letter from general Gage to Peyton Randolph, esquire.

BOSTON, October 20th, 1774.

Representations should be made with candour, and matters stated exactly as they stand. People would be led to believe, from your letter to me of the 10th instant, that works were raised against the town of Boston, private property invaded, the soldiers suffered to insult the inhabitants, and the communication between the town and country, shut up and molested.

Nothing can be farther from the true situation of this place than the above state. There is not a single gun pointed against the town, no man's property has been seized or hurt, except the king's, by the people's destroying straw, bricks, &c. bought for his service. No troops have given less cause for com plaint, and greater care was never taken to prevent it; and such care and attention was never more necessary from the insults and provocations daily given to both officers and soldiers. The communication between the town and country has been always free and unmolested, and is so still.

Two works of earth have been raised at some distance from the town, wide off the road, and guns put in them. The remainder of old works, going out of the town, have been strengthened, and guns placed there likewise. People will think differently, whether the hostile preparation throughout the country, and the menaces of blood and slaughter, made this necessary; but I am to do my duty.

It gives me pleasure that you are endeavouring at a cordial reconciliation with the mother country, which, from what has transpired, I have despaired of. Nobody wishes better success to such measures than myself. Í have endeavoured to be a mediator, if I could establish a foundation to work upon, and have strongly urged it to people here to pay for the tea, and send a proper memorial to the king, which would be a good beginning on their side, and give their friends the opportunity they seek to move in their support.

I do not believe that menaces, and unfriendly proceedings, will have the effect which too many conceive. The spirit of the British nation was high when I left England, and such measures will not abate it. But I should hope that decency and moderation here, would create the same disposition at home; and I ardently wish that the common enemies to both countries may see, to their disappointment, that these disputes, between the mother-country and the colonies, have terminated like the quarrels of lovers, and increased the affection which they ought to bear to each other.

I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant,
THOMAS GAGE.

THE PETITION OF CONGRESS.

To the king's Most Excellent Majesty.

MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,

We, your majesty's faithful subjects, 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 South-Carolina, in behalf of ourselves and the inhabitants of these colonies, who have deputed us to represent them in general Congress, by this our humble petition, beg leave to lay our grievances before the throne.

A standing army has been kept in these colonies, ever since the conclusion of the late war, without the consent of our assemblies; and this army, with a considerable naval armament, has been employed to enforce the collection of taxes.

The authority of the commander in chief, and under him the brigadiergeneral has, in time of peace, been rendered supreme in all the civil governments in America.

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The commander in chief of all your majesty's forces in North-America, has, in time of peace, been appointed governor of a colony.

The charges of usual offices have been greatly increased; and, new, expensive, and oppressive offices have been multiplied.

The judges of admiralty and vice-admiralty courts, are empowered to receive their salaries and fees from the effects condemned by themselves.

The officers of the customs are empowered to break open and enter houses, without the authority of any civil magistrate, founded on legal information. The judges of courts of common law have been made entirely dependent on one part of the legislature for their salaries, as well as for the duration of their commissions.

Counsellors, holding their commissions during pleasure, exercise legislative authority.

Humble and reasonable petitions, from the representatives of the people, have been fruitless.

The agents of the people have been discountenanced, and governors have been instructed to prevent the payment of the salaries.

Assemblies have been repeatedly and injuriously dissolved.

Commerce has been burthened with many useless and oppressive restrictions. By several acts of parliament made in the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth years of your majesty's reign, duties are imposed on us, for the purpose of raising a revenue; and the powers of admiralty and vice-admiralty courts are' extended beyond their ancient limits, whereby our property is taken from us without our consent, the trial by jury, in many civil cases, is abolished, enormous forfeitures are incurred for slight offences, vexatious informers are exempted from paying damages, to which they are justly liable, and oppressive security is required from owners before they are allowed to defend their right. Both houses of parliament have resolved, that colonists may be tried in England for offences alleged to have been committed in America, by virtue of a statute passed in the thirty-fifth year of Henry the eighth; and, in consequence thereof, attempts have been made to enforce that statute.

A statute was passed in the twelfth year of your majesty's reign, directing, that persons charged with committing any offence therein described, in any place out of the realm, may be indicted and tried for the same, in any shire or county within the realm, whereby inhabitants of these colonies may, in sundry cases, by that statute made capital, be deprived of a trial by their peers of the vicinage.

In the last session of parliament, an act was passed for blocking up the harbour of Boston; another empowering the governor of the MassachusettsBay, to send persons indicted for murder in that province, to another colony, or, even to Great-Britain for trial, whereby such offenders may escape legal punishment; a third for altering the chartered constitution of government in that province; and a fourth for extending the limits of Quebec, abolishing the English and restoring the French laws, whereby great numbers of British Frenchmen are subjected to the latter, and establishing an absolute government and the Roman Catholic religion throughout those vast regions, that border on the westerly and northerly boundaries of the free, Protestant, English settlements; and a fifth, for the better providing suitable quarters for officers and soldiers, in his majesty's service, in North-America.

To a sovereign, who glories in the name of Britain, the bare recital of these acts must, we presume, justify the loyal subjects, who fly to the foot of his throne, and implore his clemency for protection against them.

From this destructive system of colony administration, adopted since the conclusion of the last war, have flowed those distresses, dangers, fears, and jealousies, that overwhelm your majesty's dutiful colonists with affliction: and we defy our most subtle and inveterate enemies to trace the unhappy

differences between Great-Britain and these colonies, from an earlier period, or from other causes than we have assigned. Had they proceeded on our part from a restless levity of temper, unjust impulses of ambition, or artful suggestions of seditious persons, we should merit the opprobrious terms frequently bestowed upon us by those we revere. But so far from promoting innovations, we have only opposed them; and can be charged with no offence, unless it be one to receive injuries, and be sensible of them.

Had our Creator been pleased to give us existence in a land of slavery, the sense of our condition might have been mitigated by ignorance and habit. But, thanks be to his adorable goodness, we were born the heirs of freedom, and ever enjoyed our right under the auspices of your royal ancestors, whose family was seated on the British throne, to rescue and secure a pious and gallant nation from the popery and despotism of a superstitious and inexorable tyrant. Your majesty, we are confident, justly rejoices, that your title to the crown is thus founded on the title of your people to liberty; and, therefore, we doubt not but your royal wisdom must approve the sensibility, that teaches your subjects anxiously to guard the blessing, they received from divine Providence, and thereby to prove the performance of that compact, which elevated the illustrious house of Brunswick to the imperial dignity it now possesses.

The apprehension of being degraded into a state of servitude, from the pre-eminent rank of English freemen, while our minds retain the strongest love of liberty, and clearly foresee the miseries preparing for us and our posterity, excites emotions in our breasts, which though we cannot describe, we should not wish to conceal. Feeling as men and thinking as subjects in the manner we do, silence would be disloyalty. By giving this faithful information, we do all in our power to promote the great object of your royal cares, the tranquillity of your government, and the welfare of your people.

Duty to your majesty, and regard for the preservation of ourselves and our posterity, the primary obligations of nature and society, command us to entreat your royal attention; and as your majesty enjoys the signal distinction of reigning over freemen, we apprehend the language of freemen cannot be displeasing. Your royal indignation, we hope, will rather fall on those designing and dangerous men, who daringly interposing themselves between your royal person and your faithful subjects, and for several years past incessantly employed to dissolve the bonds of society, by abusing your majesty's authority, misrepresenting your American subjects, and prosecuting the most desperate and irritating projects of oppression, have at length compelled us, by the force of accumulated injuries, too severe to be any longer tolerable, to disturb your majesty's repose by our complaints.

These sentiments are extorted from hearts, that much more willingly would bleed in your majesty's service. Yet so greatly have we been misrepresented, that a necessity has been alleged of taking our property from us, without our consent, "to.defray the charge of the administration of justice, the support of civil government, and the defence, protection and security of the colonies." But we beg leave to assure your majesty, that such provision has been, and will be made for defraying the two first articles, as has been and shall be judged, by the legislatures of the several colonies, just and suitable to their respective circumstances: and, for the defence, protection, and security of the colonies, their militias, if properly regulated, as they earnestly desire may immediately be done, would be fully sufficient, at least in times of peace; and, in case of war, your faithful colonists will be ready and willing, as they ever have been, when constitutionally required, to demonstrate their loyalty to your majesty, by exerting their most strenuous efforts in granting supplies and raising forces. Yielding to no British subjects in affectionate attachment to your majesty's person, family, and government; we too dearly prize the privilege of expressing that attachment by those proofs, that are honorable to the prince who

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