Venders of goods are to sell them at the usual prices, without taking any advantage of the present situation of affairs.-10. This article seems in a certain degree to soften the rigour of the first, and permits a conditional importation for two months longer, at the option of the owner; who, if he will deliver up any goods that he imports before the first of February, to the committee of the place that they arrive at, they are to be sold under their inspection, and the prime cost being returned to the importer, the profits are to be applied to the relief of the sufferers at Boston. All goods that arrive after that day, to be sent back without landing, or breaking any of the packages.The three following articles relate to the appointing of committees, to prevent any violation of the foregoing, and to publish the names of the violators in the Gazette, as foes to the rights, and enemies to the liberty of British America; they also regulate the sale of domestic manufactures, that they may be disposed of at reasonable prices, and no undue advantages taken of a future scarcity of goods.-By the 14th and last article, any colony or province, which shall not accede to, or which shall hereafter violate the association, is branded as inimical to the liberties of their country, and all dealings or intercourse whatever with such colony is interdicted.

This association was subscribed by all the members of the congress; and the foregoing resolutions were all marked, nemine contradicente. They afterwards resolved, that a congress should be held in the same place, on the 10th day of the following May, unless the redress of

grievances, which they have desired, should be obtained before that time; and they recommended to all the colonies to chuse deputies, as soon as possible, for that pur pose. They also, in their own names, and in the behalf of all those whom they represented, declared their most grateful acknowledgments, to those truly noble, honourable, and patriotic advo cates of civil and religious liberty, who had so generously and powerfully, though unsuccessfully, espoused and defended the cause of America, both in and out of parliament.

They then proceeded to frame a petition to his majesty, a memorial to the people of Great-Britain, an address to the colonies in general, and another to the inhabitants of the province of Quebec. The pe tition to his majesty contained an enumeration of their grievances; among which are the following, viz. The keeping of a standing army in the colonies in time of peace, without the consent of the assemblies; and the employing of that army, and of a naval force, to enforce the payment of taxes.

The authority of the commander in chief, and of the brigadiers general, being rendered supreme in all the civil governments in America.-The commander in chief of the forces, in time of peace, appointed governor of a colony.The charges of usual offices greatly increased, and new, expensive, and oppressive offices, multiplied."

The judges of the admiralty courts impowered to receive their salaries and fees from the effects condemned by themselves; and the officers of the customs to break open and enter houses, without the

authority

authority of the civil magistrate. The judges rendered entirely dependent on the crown for their salaries, as well as for the duration of their commissions. Counsellors, who exercise legislative authority, holding their commissions during pleasure.Humble and reasonable petitions from the representatives of the people fruitless. The agents of the people discountenanced, and instructions given to prevent the payment of their salaries, assemblies repeatedly and injuriously dissolved;" commerce burthened with useless and oppressive restrictions.

They then enumerate the several acts of parliament passed in the present reign for the purpose of raising a revenue in the colonies, and of extending the powers of admiralty and vice-admiralty courts beyond their ancient limits; whereby, their property is taken from them without their consent, the trial by jury, in many civil cases abolished, enormous forfeitures 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.

They complain of the parliamentary vote for reviving the statute of the 35th Henry VIIIth, and extending its influence to the colonists; and of the statute of the 12th of his present majesty, whereby the inhabitants of the colonies may, in sundry cases, by that statute made capital, be deprived of a trial by their peers of the vicinage. They then recite the three acts of the preceding session, relative to Boston and the province

of Massachusett's-Bay; the Quebec act, and the act for providing quarters for the troops in NorthAmerica.

The petition repeatedly contains the strongest expressions of loyalty, of affectionate attachment and duty to the sovereign, of love and veneration for the parent state; they attributed these their sentiments to the liberties they inherited from their ancestors, and the constitution under which they were bred; while the necessity which compelled, was the apology for delivering them. They at the same time promised themselves a favourable reception and hearing from a sovereign, whose illustrious family owed their empire to similar principles.

They declare, that from the destructive system of colony administration, adopted since the conclu sion of the last war, have flowed those distresses, dangers, fears and jealousies, which overwhelm the colonies with affliction; and they defy their most subtle and inveterate enemies to trace the unhappy differences between Great-Britain and them from an earlier period, or from other causes than they have assigned. That they ask but for peace, liberty, and safety; they wish not for a diminution of the prerogative, nor do they solicit the grant of any new right in their favour; the royal authority over them, and their connection with Great-Britain, they shall always carefully and zealously endeavour to support and maintain. That, "appealing to that Being who searches thoroughly the hearts of his creatures, they solemnly profess, that their councils have been influenced by no other motive than a dread of impending destruction."

They

They conclude by imploring his majesty, in the name of all America; and a solemn adjuration by all that is sacred and awful; that, "for the glory, which can be advanced only by rendering his subjects happy, and keeping them united; for the interests of his family, depending in an adherence to the principle that enthroned it; for the safety and welfare of his kingdoms and dominions, threatened with almost unavoidable dangers and distresses; that, as the loving father of his whole people, connected by the same bands of law, loyalty, faith, and blood, though dwelling in various countries, he will not suffer the transcendent relation formed by these ties, to be further violated in tncertain expectation of effects, which, if attained, never can compensate for the calamities through which they must be gained."

This petition was subscribed by all the delegates.

In the memorial to the people of this country, they pay the highest praise to the noble and ge

nerous virtues of their and our common ancestors; but they do it in a manner, that instead of reflecting any comparative honour on the present generation in this island, rather reproaches us with a shameful degeneracy. They afterwards say, that born to the same rights, liberties, and constitution, transmitted to them from the same ancestors, guarantied to them by the plighted faith of government, and the most solemn compacts with British sovereigns, it is no wonder they should refuse to surrender them to men, whose claims are not founded on any principles of reason, "aid who prosecute them

"with a design, that, by having "their lives and property in their

power, they might with the "greater facility enslave us.” They complain of being oppres sed, abused, and misrepresented; and say, that the duty they owe to themselves and to their posterity, to our interest, and to the general welfare of the British empire, leads them to address us on this very important subject.

After complaining of grievances in the style and substance of the petition, they recall the happy state of the empire on both sides of the Atlantic, previous to the conclusion of the late war; and state the advantages which we de rived, and to which they willingly submitted, from the system of colony government then pursued; they say, they looked up to us as to their parent state, to which they were bound by the strongest tics; and were happy in being instrumental to our prosperity and grandeur. They call upon ourselves to witness their loyalty and attachment to the common interests of the whole empire: their efforts in the last war: their embarking to meet disease and death in foreign and inhospitable climates, to promote the success of our arms; and our own acknowledgments of their zeal, and our even reimbursing them large sums of money, which we confessed they had advanced beyond their proportion, and far beyond their abilities.

They ask to what causes they are to attribute the sudden change of treatment, and that system of slavery, which was prepared for them at the restoration of peace; they trace the history of taxation from that time, and assert, that those

exactions,

exactions, instead of being applied to any useful purpose, either for this country or that, have been lavishly squandered upon court favourites and ministerial dependants; that they ever were, and ever shall be ready to provide for the necessary support of their own government; and, whenever the exigencies of the state may require it, they shall, as they have heretofore done, chearfully contribute their full proportion of men and money.

They then proceed to state and examine the measures and the several acts of parliament, which they consider as hostile to America, and subversive of their rights; or, in their words, the progression of the ministerial plan for enslaving them. They represent the probable consequences to this country of a perseverance in that scheme, even supposing it attended with success; addition to the national debt; increase of taxes; and a diminution of commerce, must attend it in the progress; and if we are at length victorious, in what condition shall we then be? What advantages, or what laurels shall we reap from such a conquest?

They artfully endeavour to render theirs a common cause to both countries, by shewing that such success would in the event, be as fatal to the liberties of England as to those of America. They accordingly put the question, May not a minister with the same armies that subdued them enslave us? If to this it be answered, that we will cease to pay those armies, they pretend to shew, that America reduced to such a situation, would afford abundant resources both of men and money for the purpose; nor should we have any reason to

expect, that after making slaves of them, they should refuse to assist in reducing us to the same abject state.In a word (they say) "Take care that you do not fall "into the pit that is preparing for " us."

After denying the several charges, of being seditious, impatient of government, and desirous of independency, all of which they as sert to be calumnies; they, however, declare that, if we are de termined, that our 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, nor the suggestions of humanity, can restrain our hands from the shoding of human blood in such an impious cause, they must tell us,→→ "That they never will submit to be hewers of wood, or drawers of water for any ministry or nation in the world."

They afterwards make a proposal, which it were much to be wished had been more attended to, as it affords at least no unfavourable basis for negociation.→→→→ "Place us" say they, "in the same situation that we were at the close of the last war, and our former harmony will be restored."

They conclude this memorial, by expressing the deepest regret for the resolutions they were obliged to enter into for the suspension of commerce, as a measure detrimental to numbers of their fellowsubjects in Great-Britain and Ireland; they account and apologize for this conduct, by the over-ruling principles of self-preservation; by the supineness, and inattention to our common interest, which we had shewn for several years; and

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