warrantable Proceedings, to resolve that it will be necessary that another Congress should be held, at the same Place, on the 10th of May next, unless Redress for certain pretended Grievances be obtained before that time, and to recommend that all the Colonies in North America should chuse Deputies to attend such Congress, I am commanded of the King to signify to your Lordship His Majesty's Pleasure, that you do use your utmost Endeavours to prevent any such appointment of Deputies within the Colony under your Government; and that Your Lordship do exhort all Persons to desist from such an unjustifiable Proceeding, which cannot but be highly displeasing to the King.

I am, My Lord,

Your Lordship's

Most obedient

My separate Dispatch of this Day's Date, inclosing a Resolution of the House of Commons, may be ostensibly of use, in case the General Assembly should think fit to take up the Consideration of that Resolution; but it is fit I should observe to you, that it is not His Majesty's Intention, for very obvious Reasons, that you should officially communicate it to them. At the same time, as I think it cannot fail to be an object of Discussion in the Assembly, I must add, that the King considers that the good Effect of it will, in great Measure, depend upon your Ability & Address in a proper Explanation of it, to those whose Situation & Connections may enable them to give Facility to the Measures it points to; and His Majesty has no doubt,

that you will exert every Endeavour to induce such a Compliance, on the part of the Assembly, as may correspond with His Majesty's Ideas of their Justice, and His earnest Wishes to see a happy Restoration of the public Tranquillity.

I am, My Lord,

Your Lordship's

08

I have received your Lordship's Dispatch of the 24th Dec! N° 23; and it is with the greatest satisfaction that I have it in command from The King to acquaint your Lordship, that what you say in justification of your conduct in respect to those Transactions in the Indian Country to which my Letters Nos 12 & 13 refer, [date 8 September 1774] leaves no room in the Royal Breast to doubt of the Uprightness of your Lordship's Intentions. At the same time it will be very proper that your Lordship should signify The King's Disallowance of the Indian Purchase upon the Ohio, lest the Adventurers in that purchase should, from your having consented to transmit their pretensions, entertain a hope that such purchase will, on any account, be approved of here.

The steps which have been pursued in the different Counties of Virginia to carry into execution the Resolutions of the General Congress, are of so extraordinary a nature that I am at a loss for words to express the criminality of them, and my surprise that the People should be so infatuated as tamely to submit to acts of such tyranny &

oppression; it is however an evil which, from the situation & circumstances of Virginia, where the People must ultimately depend for subsistence upon an export of the produce of their lands will, I should conceive, work out its own cure; & that the promoters of those violent measures will soon be convinced of the folly of their conduct, tho' not perhaps till some of them fall victims to that resentment of the People which will be the inevitable consequence of the distress they must in the end be exposed to. But I will forbear at present to say more on this subject, as I shall probably have occasion to speak more fully upon it in a Separate Dispatch as soon as I have received His Majesty's Commands upon the inclosed Resolution passed in the House of Commons the 27th of last month. I shall therefore only add that the communication to Parliament of that part of your Letter which relates to the proceedings of the People in the different Counties of Virginia will probably occasion the restrictions proposed to be laid upon the Trade of the New England Governments being extended to Virginia.

It would have been very agreeable to me if I could have obtained an Appointment for Mr Carter to be of the Council in the room of Mr Page, but as M Gawin Corbin had long stood upon the List of the Board of Trade & was upon this occasion, supported by the most respectable recommendations, I could not under your Lordship's favorable representation of his character & qualifications resist his Nomination in preference to another person who had no other advantage but that of standing first on your List. I am, My Lord,

Your Lordship's

Most Obedient

Humble servant

Earl of DUNMORE.

DARTMOUTH.

LETTER TO COLONEL LEE.

You are now in a situation as perilous, as any in which a People can possibly be placed. But dangerous as the Navigation is, history has placed Beacons upon the fatal Rocks, by which an attentive Navigator may shun the destruction that has overwhelmed others. To withstand the Powers of this Country, which are set in array against you, is one danger; to prevent the sword that has defended you, from becoming the instrument of your oppression, is another, and perhaps little less formidable than the first.

The present Generals, and perhaps almost every man who has taken up arms, are at this time perfectly free from any intention, or even idea, of ever employing them against the liberties of their Country. It was probably the same at first with the Parliament Army in the time of Charles the first. But what Chance and Change may bring the bad forward, or what views may open, what temptations rise, from untried situations and unexpected power, to corrupt and pervert even the good, is a subject well worthy of the constant consideration and vigilance of you and others, who like Hampden, Pym and St John, have engaged in this business from the purest and most unalterable motives of publick good. A frequent and minute contemplation of the various steps which lead to the usurpation of Cromwell, and the total disappointment of that plan which the Wisdom and Virtue of others had formed, will enable you to discern at a distance the tendency of similar steps with you, should they be taken; and to frustrate them easily, by an early Counteraction. These are times in which few should be trusted, and many suspected. Human nature is ever the same, and in given situations, men will almost invariably act the same part.

It is I think therefore by all means advisable for you to form a secret and select Committee of Safety and observation over the conduct of those, who are entrusted with powers great and dangerous, tho' now necessary. If you approve of this plan, and Communicate it to the Adams's and Hancock, I imagine you may effectually provide — ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat, in this eventful contest.

I am sure you, and I trust the rest of our Countrymen will never forget the dignity of the Cause in which you are engaged. So far from tarnishing, you will endeavour to heighten its lustre by signal Acts of Magnanimity. The treating Prisoners with humanity- the shielding age and womanhood from the horrors of war- the not being too hasty in making Reprisals, should the conduct of the adversary render them justifiable, but manifesting a generous reluctance in the exercise even of necessary severities, will give a solid reputation and dignity of Character to your Arms and Actions, that will well become the Cause in which you are contending, and make you respectable in the eyes of Europe.

In the agitation of so great a question, and by means of such magnitude, you are to expect and prepare for instances of every vice and passion, that can actuate the Actions of Men. He who expects that, in such Circumstances, all will go uniformly on, that, because it is a question in which an heroic love of one's Country apparently rides paramount to every other passion and pursuit, therefore, neither treachery will sometimes betray, Cowardice confound, nor self-interest sap the public good—is liberty to fall a sacrifice to his Credulity? A wise and good man will wear a jealous eye over the various events and Characters that the turbulence of the times will bring forth, and be prepared to shield the public from the designs that may be formed against it, as well from within as from without.

Since the late events in America, I entertain less hope from this Country than I did. I hear no man speak upon