ment to the crown, the deep conviction of the house of burgesses of Virginia, that the complaints of the colonists were well founded.

To the King's most excellent Majesty ·

Intelligence

The humble address of his dutiful and loyal subjects of the house of burgesses of his Majesty's ancient colony of Virginia, met in general assembly.

May it please your Majesty,

We your Majesty's most loyal, dutiful, and affectionate subjects, the house of burgesses of this your Majesty's ancient colony of Virginia, now met in general assembly, beg leave in the humblest manner to assure your Majesty, that your faithful subjects of this colony, ever distinguished by their loyalty and firm attachment to your Majesty, and your royal ancestors, far from countenancing traitors, treasons, or misprisions of treasons, are ready at any time to sacrifice our lives and fortunes in defence of your Majesty's sacred person and government.

It is with the deepest concern and most heartfelt grief that your Majesty's dutiful subjects of this colony find that their loyalty has been traduced, and that those measures, which a just regard for the British constitution (dearer to them than life) made necessary duties, have been represented as rebellious attacks upon your Majesty's government.

When we consider that by the established laws and constitution of this colony, the most ample provision is made for apprehending and punishing all those who shall dare to engage in any treasonable practices against your Majesty, or disturb the tranquillity of government, we cannot without horror think of the new, unusual, and, permit us with all humility to add, unconstitutional and illegal mode recommended to your Majesty, of seizing and carrying beyond sea the inhabitants of America suspected of any crime, and trying such persons in any other manner than by the ancient and long-established course of proceeding. For how truly deplo

rable

the

Intelligence of these proceedings having reached governor, he suddenly dissolved the assembly,

the

rable must be the case of a wretched American, who, having incurred the displeasure of any one in power, is dragged from his native home, and his dearest domestic connections, thrown into a prison, not to await his trial before a court, jury, or judges, from a knowledge of whom he is encouraged to hope for speedy justice, but to exchange his imprisonment in his own country for fetters among strangers! conveyed to a distant land, where no friend, no relation, will alleviate his distresses, or minister to his necessities, and where no witness can be found to testify his innocence; shunned by the reputable and honest, and consigned to the society and converse of the wretched and the abandoned, he can only pray that he may soon end his misery with his life.

"Truly alarmed at the fatal tendency of those pernicious counsels, and with hearts filled with anguish by such dangerous invasions of our dearest privileges, we presume to prostrate ourselves at the foot of your royal throne, beseeching your Majesty, as our king and father, to avert from your faithful and loyal subjects of America, those miseries which must necessarily be the consequence of such

measures.

"After expressing our firm confidence of your royal wisdom and goodness, permit us to assure your Majesty, that the most fervent prayers of your people of this colony are daily addressed to the Almighty, that your Majesty's reign may be long and prosperous over Great Britain, and all your dominions; and that after death your Majesty may taste the fullest fruition of eternal bliss, and that a descendant of your illustrious house may reign over the extended British empire until time shall be no more."-Vide Virginia Gazette, May 18, 1769.

* The manner of dissolving this assembly was long recollected in Virginia. The governor, suddenly appearing, addressed them

VOL. II.

M

in

the members of which then convened at a private house; and, having chosen their speaker moderator, proceeded to form a non-importing agreement, which was signed by every person present, and which, being recommended by them to the people, was subscribed almost universally throughout the province.

From the commencement of the controversy, the opinion seems to have prevailed extensively throughout the colonies, that the most effectual means of succeeding in the struggle in which they were engaged, were those which would interest the mer◄ chants and manufacturers of Great Britain in their favour. Associations had therefore been set on foot in Massachussetts, as early as the beginning of May, 1768, for the non-importation of goods from that country. The merchants of some of the trading towns in the other colonies, especially those of Philadelphia, although perfectly according with their countrymen in opposing the claims of the mother 'country, refused at that time to concur in a measure which they deemed too strong for the existing state of things, and it was for the moment laid aside. But in the beginning of August it was resumed in Boston; and the merchants of that place, generally

in these words: "Mr. Speaker and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have heard of your resolves, and augur ill of their effects. You have made it my duty to dissolve you, and you are dissolved accordingly."

entered into an agreement not to import from Great Britain any articles whatever, except a few of the first necessity, between the 1st of January, 1769, and the 1st of January, 1770; and not to import tea, glass, paper, or painters' colours, until the duties imposed on those articles should be taken off.

This agreement was soon afterwards adopted in the town of Salem, the city of New York, and the province of Connecticut; but was not, however, generally entered into through the colonies, until the resolutions and address of the two houses of parliament, which have already been mentioned, seemed to cut off the hope that petitions and memorials would alone effect the object for which they contended. The proceedings of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, which took place very soon after the intelligence of those resolutions and that address had reached America, were, by order of the house, transmitted by their speaker to the speakers of the seve ral assemblies throughout the continent. The occasion seemed, in the opinion of the neighbouring colonies, to require measures of greater energy than had heretofore been adopted; and an association, similar to that which had been formed by their elder sister, was entered into by Maryland, and north and south Carolina. The inhabitants of Charleston went so far as to break off all connection with Rhode Island and Georgia, the inhabitants of which colonies they charged with having acted a part most singularly infamous, from the commencement of

the present glorious struggle for the preservation of American rights. This vigorous measure was probably not without its influence, as those provinces soon afterwards entered into the agreements which had now become common throughout America.

In Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, where Mr. Wentworth, a very popular governor, possessed great influence, there was also discovered a considerable degree of reluctance in adopting this measure; but being threatened with a suspension of their whole intercourse with the other colonies, the merchants of that place likewise, following the example so generally set them, joined in an association similar to that which had been elsewhere very generally adopted.

All ranks and conditions of persons united in giving effect to this agreement. The utmost exertions were used to improve the manufactures of the country; and the fair sex, laying aside the late fashionable ornaments of England, exulted with patriotic pride in appearing dressed with the produce of their own looms. Committees chosen by the people superintended every where the importations which were made, and the force of public opinion secured, in a great degree, from violation, the associations which had been formed.

The situation of Massachussetts rendering a legislative grant of money necessary for the purposes of government, the general court of that province was again convened. The members of the former House

of