expenditure of public money, the influence of the Crown, and the corruption of Parliament, are these:

The first meeting of the delegates was march the 11th, 1780. The cities and towns which have agreed upon similar petitions, are London, Westminster, York, Bristol, Cambridge, Nottingham, Newcastle, Reading, and Bridgewater.

The counties which have not yet agreed upon petitions, are Westmoreland, Durham, Lancaster, Salop, Stafford, Lincoln, Leicester, Warwick, Oxford, Worcester, Cornwall, and Rutland. Hants agreed on a petition, but appointed no committee, and Northampton agreed to instruct their members on the points of the petition.

This account takes no notice of the twelve Welsh counties; these, however, are small.

The counties which have already petitioned, it seems, therefore, are a vast majority of the Kingdom in numbers as well as property and understanding; and the meeting of their committees may be reasonably considered as a more equitable and adequate representation of the people of England than the House of Commons.

Amidst all the addresses, instructions, petitions, associations, and resolutions, I never found one that dared to expose the true cause of their miseries, and to propose a remedy, until the association of the county of York appeared, which was agreed to by the committee of sixty-one, to be recommended to the general meeting of the county of York, held the 28th of March, 1780.

They declare their unanimous assent,

1st. To the economical reform requested by the petitions of the people.

2dly. To the proposition for obtaining a more equal representation of the people in Parliament, by the addition of at least one hundred Knights, to be chosen in a due proportion by the several counties of Great Britain.

3dly. To the proposition for the members of the House of Commons to be elected to serve in Parliament for a term not exceeding three years.

But the most important resolution of all was also unanimous, "That it is the opinion of this meeting that the prosecution of an offensive war in America is most evidently a measure, which, by employing our great and enormously expensive military operations against the inhabitants of that country, prevents this from exerting its united, vigorous, and firm efforts against the Powers of France and Spain, and has no other effect upon America than to continue, and thereby to increase, the enmity which has so long and so fatally subsisted between the arms of both, can be productive of no good whatever, but by preventing conciliation, threatens the accomplishment of the ruin of the British Empire."

This meeting, which is said to have been the largest ever known, and perfectly unanimous, gave power to the committee of association to call the county together when they should judge proper.

After all, even this committee does not appear to see the true interest of the country, the necessity of peace. Peace` alone can save them. They are for leaving America, which is a great thing; VOL. II.-46

4

but it does not appear but that they are still for continuing the war with our allies.

An article of the 4th of April says, that commotions are reported to have arisen in the county of York, many of the inhabitants of which have peremptorily refused to pay the taxes.

Congress will observe by the paragraphs in the Morning Post of April the 1st, that they seem to be in England totally ignorant of the designs of the Empress of Russia, and of the other neutral Powers.

The paper of April the 3d contains Major General Campbell's and Lieutenant Colonel Dickson's account of the surrender of the port of Baton Rouge, &c., with about five hundred regular troops prisoners of war, to Don Bernado de Galvez, the 21st of September. I have the honor to be, &c.,

JOHN ADAMS.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Paris, April 14th, 1780.

Sir,

Every thing which tends to show the probability of a general association of the maritime Powers against the violences at sea, which the English have practised, and which other nations after their example have begun, and which tends to prove the justice, the wisdom, and the humanity of such an association, is worthy of observation. For my own part, I think that the abolition of the whole doctrine of contraband would be for the peace and happiness of mankind; and I doubt not, as human reason advances, and men come to be more sensible of the benefits of peace, and less enthusiastic for the savage glories of war, all neutral nations will be allowed, by universal consent, to carry what goods they please in their own ships, provided they are not bound to places actually invested by an enemy.

Constantinople, March the 3d. "The Porte having received the disagreeable news that three xebecs from Malta had seized upon a large Turkish ship with a rich cargo of coffee, rice, hemp, and other productions, this advice has accelerated the departure of two menof-war and four galleys, which will go before the fleet of the Grand Admiral, to cruise in the Archipelago, and protect the navigation of

the European nations against the vexations of the French and English."

Copenhagen, March the 28th. "Captain Zagel, the courier of her Majesty the Empress of all the Russias, is returned to St. Petersburgh, accompanied by Captain Socolousky, Secretary of the Russian Consul in the Sound. They are very busy here in equipping the vessels-of-war the Wagrie, of sixty-four guns, the Infodstretten, of sixty-four, and the frigate Combord, of thirty-four."

London, April the 4th. "There are lately arrived here interesting despatches to Government from Sir Joseph Yorke, which contain some further explanations of the dispositions of the Republic, in consequence of the last memorial presented to their High Mightinesses by that Minister, and the resolution to protect the commerce of their subjects. However this may be, there are actually in the ports of this Kingdom fifty Dutch vessels seized by our ships-of-war, because they were found loaded with naval stores for our enemies ; and already the most of their cargoes have been adjudged good prizes, these articles being considered as contraband, and their transportation to an enemy contrary to treaties subsisting between the Republic and England."

Hague, April the 9th. "We learn that the States of the Province of Overyssell have sent to the Assembly of their High Mightinesses their instructions relative to the two memorials presented by Sir Joseph Yorke the 28th of July and the 26th of November, of the last year, the first purporting a demand of succors stipulated by the treaty of 1678, and the second demanding an immediate and categorical answer. The contents of the instructions are, That their Noble Mightinesses, after having maturely reflected upon all which concerns the matter in question, especially upon the treaties existing between the Kingdom and the Republics, as well as the obligations which the two nations had mutually laid themselves under, and also in particular upon the present situation in which this Republic now stands in several points respecting her own preservation, the maintenance of her rights and possessions, and respecting the Powers actually at war, judge that the two memorials presented by Sir Joseph Yorke may and ought to be answered in the following manner: That all the principles alleged, and the circumstances at this time existing, oblige their High Mightinesses more than ever to watch carefully their own preservation and defence,

to use every effort to ward off all further dangerous consequences, and to this end to request his Majesty not to take it in ill part if, in the critical situation of affairs, in which the least diminution of their forces might be dangerous, their High Mightinesses think themselves lawfully authorised to refuse the succors demanded by his Majesty, although these succors, considering certain engagements, the pretended application of which it would be useless at this time to search into, may be judged indispensable by his Majesty, in the firm confidence that in the circumstances in which their High Mightinesses find themselves, his Majesty, not disapproving of their conduct, will desist, not only from demanding their assistance, but on the contrary, as a proof of the affection of which his Majesty had so often given them assurances, will permit them invariably to pursue that neutrality which from the beginning of the present troubles they have adopted.'

"It is asserted that, on the memorial presented by the Prince Gallitzen, Envoy Extraordinary of the Empress of Russia, their High Mightinesses have provisionally concluded, That having taken the said memorial into consideration, the deputies of the respective Provinces have sent copies of it, as well as of the papers annexed to it, to be communicated to their Assemblies, praying them to procure, as soon as possible, the resolutions of the States their constituents.'

"In the mean time, since the said memorial has been made public, it is given out that the convention between the Courts of Petersburgh, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, will in a little time be confirmed, and that Denmark will procure, on certain conditions, five or six thousand seamen for this Republic.

"We learn that the answer of his Britannic Majesty to the representations which the Count de Walderen, Minister of the StatesGeneral at the Court of London, has been charged by their High Mightinesses to make to the British Government, relative to a prolongation of the term of three weeks, prescribed in the last memorial of Sir Joseph Yorke, for giving him a definitive answer, &c., arrived the 31st of last month, and is found to be in the negative, the King insisting on an answer by the time fixed, which will expire next Tuesday.

They give out that the cities of Dantzic, Lubec, Bremen, Hamburgh, &c., will adopt, as well as most of the northern Powers,

the party of neutrality, and that, if England persists in the practice