hereby permitted (if they think proper) to use all their wool as manure, for the improvement of their lands.

And whereas the art and mystery of making hats hath arrived at great perfection in Prussia; and the making of hats by Our remoter subjects ought to be as much as possible restrained: And forasmuch as the islanders before mentioned, being in possession of wool, beaver, and other furs, have presumptuously conceived they had a right to make some advantage thereof, by manufacturing the same into hats, to the prejudice of Our domestic manufacture:-We do therefore hereby strictly command and ordain, that no hats or felts whatsoever, dyed or undyed, finished or unfinished, shall be loaden or put into or upon any vessel, cart, carriage or horse; to be transported or conveyed out of one county in the said island into another county, or to any other place whatsoever, by any person or persons whatsoever; on pain of forfeiting the same, with a penalty of five hundred pounds sterling for every offence. Nor shall any hat-maker, in any of the said counties, employ more than two apprentices, on penalty of five pounds sterling per month: We intending hereby that such hat-makers, being so restrained, both in the production and sale of their commodity, may find no advantage in continuing their business. But, lest the said islanders should suffer inconveniency by the want of hats, We are farther graciously pleased to permit them to send their beaver furs to Prussia; and We also permit hats made thereof to be exported from Prussia to Britain; the people thus favored to pay all costs and charges of manufacturing interest, commission to Our merchants, insurance and freight going and returning; as in the case of iron.

And lastly, being willing farther to favor our said colonies in Britain, We do hereby also ordain and command, that all the thieves, highway and street robbers, housebreakers, forgerers, murderers, ́s-d-tes, and villains of every denomination, who have forfeited their lives to the law in Prussia; but whom We, in our great clemency, do not think fit here to hang; shall be emptied out of Our gaols into the said island of Great Britain, for the better peopling of that country.

'We flatter ourselves that these Our royal regulations and commands will be thought just and reasonable by Our much-favored colonists in England; the said regulations being copied from their statutes ~ of 10 and 11 Will. III. c. 10-5 Geo, II. c. 23.-23 Ģeo. II. c. 29.—— 4 Geo. I. c. 11. and from other equitable laws made by their parlia

ments; or from instructions given by their princes, or from resolutions of both houses, entered into for the good government of their own colonies in Ireland and America.ta

" And all persons in the said island are hereby cautioned not to oppose in any wise the execution of this Our edict, or any part thereof, such opposition being high-treason; of which all who are suspected shall be transported in fetters from Britain to Prussia, there to be tried and executed according to the Prussian law,

Such is Our pleasure.

Given at Potsdam, this twenty-fifth day of the month of August, One thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, and in the thirty-third year of Our reign. By the King, in his council, RECHTMÆSSIG, Sec.'

Some take this edict to be merely one of the king's jeux d'esprit': others suppose it serious, and that be means a quarrel with England: but all here think the assertion it concludes with that these regulations are copied from acts of the English parliament respecting their colonies,' a very injurious one; it being impossible to believe, that a people distinguished for their love of liberty; a nation so wise, so liberal in its sentiments, so just and equitable towards its neighbors; should, from mean and injudicious views of petty immediate profit, treat its own children in a manner so arbitrary and tyrannical, cupt

To GOVERNOR FRANKLIN.

The right of the British parliament to make laws for America denied Lord Mansfield's opinion of the pretended › Prussian edict-The reading of it at Lord le Despencer's by Paul Whitehead.

DEAR SON,

London, Oct. 6, 1773.

I wrote to you on the 1st of last month, since which I have received yours of July 29, from New York. I know not what letters of mine governor Hutchinson could mean, as advising the people to insist on their independency. But whatever they were, I suppose he has sent copies of them

hither, having heard some whisperings about them. I shall, however, be able at any time to justify every thing I have written; the purport being uniformly this, that they should carefully avoid all tumults and every violent measure, and content themselves with verbally keeping up their claims, and holding forth their rights whenever occasion requires; secure, that from the growing importance of America, those claims will ere long be attended to and acknowledged. From a long and thorough consideration of the subject, I am indeed of opinion that the parliament has no right to make any law whatever binding on the colonies. That the king, and not the king, lords and commons collectively, is their sovereign; and that the king, with their respective parliaments, is their only legislator. I know your sentiments differ from mine on these subjects. You are a thorough government man, which I do not wonder at, nor do I aim at converting you. I only wish you to act uprightly and steadily, avoiding that duplicity which in Hutchinson adds contempt to indignation. If you can promote the prosperity of your people, and leave them happier than you found them, whatever your political princi plies are, your memory will be honored.

I have written two pieces here lately for the public advertiser, on American affairs, designed to expose the conduct of this country towards the colonies, in a short, comprehensive, and striking view, and stated therefore in out-of-the-way forms, as most likely to take the general attention. The first was called rules by which a great empire may be reduced to a small one the second, an edict of the king of Prussia. I sent you one of the first, but could not get enough of the second to spare you one, though my clerk went the next morning to the printer's and wherever they were sold. They

1 See WRITINGS, Part Ingredw the

were all gone but two. In my own mind, I preferred the first as a composition for the quantity and variety of the matter contained, and a kind of spirited ending of each paragraph. But I find that others here generally prefer the second. I am not suspected as the author except by one or two friends; and have heard the latter spoken of in the highest terms as the keenest and severest piece that has appeared here a long time. Lord Mansfield I hear said of it, that it was very ABLE and very ARTFUL indeed; and would do mischief by giving here a bad impression of the measures of government, and in the colonies by encouraging them in their contumacy. It is re printed in the Chronicle, where you will see it, but stripped of all the capitalling and italicking, that intimate the allusions and mark the emphasis of written discourses, to bring them as near as possible to those spoken: printing such a piece all in one even small character, seems to me like repeating one of Whitfield's sermons in the monotony of a school-boy. What made it the more noticed here was, that people in reading it, were, as the phrase is, taken in, till they had got half through it, and imagined it a real edict; to which mistake I suppose the king of Prussia's character must have contributed. I was down at Lord le Despencer's when the post brought that day's papers. Mr. Whitehead was there too (Paul Whitehead, the author of Manners) who runs early through all the papers, and tells the company what he finds remarkable. He had them in another room, and we were chatting in the breakfast parlor, when he came running into us, out of breath, with the paper in his hand. Here! said he, here's news for ye! Here's the king of Prussia claiming a right to this kingdom! All stared, and I as much as any body, and he went on to read it. When he had read two or three paragraphs, a gentleman present said, damn his impudence! I dare say we shall hear by next post that he is upon

his march with 100,000 men to back this. Whitehead, who is very shrewd, soon after began to smoke it, and looking in my face said, I'll be hanged if this is not some of your American jokes upon us. The reading went on and ended with abundance of laughing, and a general verdict that it was a fair hit. And the piece was cut out of the paper and preserved in my lord's collection.

I don't wonder that Hutchinson should be dejected. It must be an uncomfortable thing to live among people who he is conscious universally detest him. Yet I fancy he will not have leave to come home, both because they know not well what to do with him, and because they do not very well like his conduct. I am ever your affectionate father,

Proposed accommodation with Great Britain-Petition for removing the governors.

SIR,

London, Nov. 1, 1773.

I duly received your favor of 26th August, with the letter enclosed for Lord Dartmouth, which I immediately sent to him. As soon as he comes to town I shall wait upon his lordship and discourse with him upon the subject of it; and I shall immediately write to you what I can collect from the conversation.

In my own opinion the letter of the two houses of the 29th June, proposing as a satisfactory measure the restoring things to the state in which they were at the conclusion of the late war, is a fair and generous offer on our part, and my discourse here is, that it is more than Britain has a right to expect from us; and that if she has any wisdom left she will embrace it, and agree with us immediately; for that the longer she delays the accommodation which finally she must for her own sake