do would give them great offence: he appears to have been very fenfible of this, and apprehenfive that it might occafion fome diforders; to prevent or fupprefs which, he projected another bill, that was brought in the fame feffion with the ftamp-act, whereby it was to be made lawful for military officers in the colonies to quarter their foldiers in private houfes. This feemed intended to awe the people into a compliance with the other act. Great oppofition, however, being raised here against the bill, by the agents from the colonies, and the merchants trading thither; the colonists declaring, that under fuch a power in the ariny, no one could look on his house as his own, or think he had a home, when foldiers might be thrust into it, and mixed with his family, at the pleasure of an officer; that part of the bill was dropt. But there ftill remained a clause, when it passed into a law, to oblige the feveral affemblies to provide quarters for the foldiers, furnithing them with firing, bedding, candles, fmall beer, or rum, and fundry other articles, at the expence of the feveral provinces. And this act continued in force when the stamp-act was repealed; tho', if obligatory on the aflemblies, it equally mi litated against the American principle above mentioned, That money is not to be raifed on English fubjects without their confent.

The colonies nevertheless being put into high good humour by the repeal of the ftamp-act, chofe to avoid a freth difpute upon the other, it being temporary, and foon to expire, never, as they hoped, to revive again; and, in the mean time, they, by various ways in different colo. nies, provided for the quartering of the troops, either by acts of their own affem blies, without taking notice of the aof f―t, or by fome variety or small diminution, as of falt and vinegar, in the fupplies required by the act, that what they did might appear a voluntary act of their own, and not done in obedience to an a- of pt, which, according to their ideas of their rights, they thought hard to obey.

It might have been well if the matter had thus paffed without notice; but a Gr having written home an angry and aggravating letter upon this conduct in the affembly of his province, the outed pr of the ftamp-act, and his adherents, then in the oppofition, railed fuch a clamour against America, as be

ing in rebellion, and against those who had been for the repeal of the stampact, as having thereby been encouragers of this fuppofed rebellion, that it was thought neceffary to inforce the quartering-act by another act of parliament, taking away from the province of New York, which had been the most explicit in its refufal, all the powers of legislation, till it should have complied with that act [xxix. 323.]. The news of which greatly alarmed the people every where in America, as (it has been faid) the language of fuch an act seemed to them to be, Obey implicitly laws made by the parliament of Great Britain to raise money on you without your confent, or you fhall enjoy no rights or privileges at all.

At the fame time a perfon lately in high office, projected the levying more money from America, by new duties on various articles of our own manufacture, as glafs, paper, painters colours, &c. appointing a new board of customs, and fending over a set of commissioners with large falaries to be established at Boston, who were to have the care of collecting thofe duties; which were by the act exprefsly mentioned to be intended for the payment of the falaries of governors, judges, and other officers of the crown in America; it being a pretty general opinion here, that thofe officers ought not to depend on the people there for any part of their fupport.

It is not my intention to combat this opinion; but perhaps it may be fome fatisfaction to your readers to know what ideas the Americans have on the subject. They say then, as to governors, That they are not like princes, whofe pofterity have an inheritance in the government of a nation, and therefore an intereft in its profperity; they are generally strangers to the provinces they are sent to govern, have no eftate, natural connection, or relation there, to give them an affection for the country; that they come only to make money as fast as they can; are fometimes men of vicious characters and broken fortunes, fent by a minifter merely to get them cut of the way; that as they intend staying in the country no longer than their government continues, and purpose to leave no family behind them, they are apt to be regardless of the good-will of the people, and care not what is thought or faid of them after they are gone: Their fituation at the fame time gives them many opportunities of

being vexatious; and they are often fo, notwithstanding their dependence on the affemblies for all that part of their fupport that does not arife from fees eftablished by law; but would probably be much more fo, if they were to be fupported by money drawn from the people without their confent or good-will, which is the profeffed defign of this new act : That if, by means of thefe forced duties, government is to be fupported in America, without the intervention of the affemblies, their affemblies will foon be looked upon as useless, and a governor will not call them, as having nothing to hope from their meeting, and perhaps fomething to fear from their inquiries in to and remonstrances against his maleadminiftration: That thus the people will be deprived of their most effential rights: That its being, as at prefent, a governor's intereft to cultivate the goodwill, by promoting the welfare, of the people he governs, can be attended with no prejudice to the mother-country; fince all the laws he may be prevailed on to give his affent to, are fubject to revifion here, and if reported against by the board of trade, are immediately repealed by the crown; nor dare he pafs any law contrary to his inftructions, as he holds his office during the pleasure of the crown, and his fecurities are liable for the penalties of their bonds if he contravenes thofe inftructions. This is what they fay as to Governors. As to Judges, they alledge, That being appointed from hence, and holding their commiffions, not during good behaviour, as in Britain, but during pleafure, all the weight of interest or influence would be thrown into one of the fcales, (which ought to be held even), if the falaries are allo to be paid out of duties raised upon the people without their confent, and independent of their affem blies approbation or disapprobation of the judges behaviour: That it is true, judges thould be free from all influence; and therefore, whenever government here will grant commiflions to able and honeft judges during good behaviour, the affemthies will fettle permanent and ample fa laries on them during their commiffions: but at prefent they have no other means of getting rid of an ignorant or an unjust judge, (and some of fcandalous characters bave, they fay, been sometimes fent them), but by starving him out.

I do not fuppofe these reasonings of theirs will appear here to have much

weight. I do not produce them with an expectation of convincing your readers. I relate them merely in pursuance of the task I have impofed on myself, to be an impartial hiftorian of American facts and opinions.

The colonists being thus greatly alarmed, as I faid before, by the news of the act for abolishing the legislature of New York, and the impofition of these new duties profeffedly for fuch difagreeable purposes, (accompanied by a new set of revenue-officers with large appointinents, which gave strong suspicions that more bufinefs of the fame kind was foon to be provided for them, that they might earn thefe falaries), began seriously to confider their fituation, and to revolve afresh in their minds grievances, which from their refpect and love for this country, they had long borne, and feemed almost willing to forget. They reflected, how lightly the interest of all America had been estimated here, when the interest of a few inhabitants of G. Britain happened to have the smallest competition with it: That thus the whole American people were forbidden the advantage of a direct importation of wine, oil, and fruit, from Portugal, but must take them loaded with all the expences of a voyage a thousand leagues round about, being to be landed first in England to be refhipped for America; expences amounting, in war-time, at least to 30 per cent. more than otherwife they would have been charged with ; and all this merely that a few Portugal merchants in London may gain a commiffion on those goods paffing through their hands; Portugal merchants, by the by, that can complain loudly of the fmallest hardships laid on their trade by foreigners, and yet even the last year could oppose with all their influence the giving eafe to their fellow-fubjects labouring under fo heavy an oppreflion! That on a flight complaint of a few Virginia merchants, nine colonies had been restrained from making paper-money, become abfolutely neceflary to their internal commerce from the conftant remittance of their gold and filver to Britain.-But not only the interest of a particular body of merchants, the intereft of any finall body of British tradefmen or artificers, has been found, they fav, to outweigh that of all the King's fubjects in the colonies. There cannot be a ftronger natural right than that of a man's making the best profit he can of the natural produce of his D 2

lands,

lands, provided he does not thereby hurt the state in general. Iron is to be found every where in America, and beaver-furs are the natural produce of that country: hats, and nails, and fteel, are wanted there as well as here. It is of no import ance to the common welfare of the empie, whether a fubject of the King's gets his living by making hats on this or that fide of the water. Yet the batters of England have prevailed to obtain an act in their own favour, reftraining that manufacture in America, in order to oblige the Americans to fend their beaver to England to be manufactured, and purchafe back the hats, loaded with the charges of a double transportation. In the fame manner have a few nailmakers, and still a smaller body of steelmakers, (perhaps there are not half a dozen of thefe in England), prevailed totally to forbid, by an act of parliament, the ereding of flitting-mills or fteel-furnaces in America, that the Americans may be obliged to take all the nails for their buildings, and steel for their tools, from thefe artificers, under the fame difadvantages.

nufactures, to the impoverifling our country, carrying off all our cafh, and loading us with debt; they will not suffer us to restrain the luxury of our inhabitants, as they do that of their own, by laws: They can make laws to difcourage or prohibit the importation of French fuperfluities; but though thofe of England. are as ruinous to us as the French ones are to them, if we make a law of that kind, they immediately repeal it. Thus they get all our money from us by trade; and every profit we can any where make by our fisheries, our produce, or our commerce, centers finally with them: but this does not fignify. It is time then to take care of ourselves by the best means in our power. Let us unite in folemn refolutions and engagements with and to each other, that we will give thefe new officers as little trouble as poffible, by not confuming the British manufac tures on which they are to levy the duties. Let us agree to confume no more of their expenfive gewgaws. Let us live frugally, and let us industriously manufacture what we can for ourselves. Thus we thall be able honourably to discharge the debts we already owe them, and after that we may be able to keep fome money in our country, not only for the uses of our internal commerce, but for the fervice of cur gracious fovereign, whenever he fhall have occafion for it, and think proper to require it of us in the old conftiiutional manner. For notwithstanding the reproaches thrown out against us in their public papers and pamphlets, notwithflanding we have been reviled in their fenate as rebels and traitors, we are truly a loyal people. Scotland has had its rebellions, and England its plots again the present Royal Family; but America is untainted with thofe crimes; there is in it scarce a man, there is not a fingle native of our country, who is not firmly attached to his King by principle, and by affection. But a new kind of loyalty feems to be required of us, a loyalty to pt; a loyalty, that is to extend, it is faid, to a furrender of all our properties, whenever a H— of C——, in which there is not a single member of our chufing, fhall think fit to grant them away without our confent; and to a patient fuffering the lofs of our privileges as Englifhmen, if we cannot fubmit to make such furrender. We were feparated too far from Britain by the ocean, but we were united to it by refpect and love, fo that we

Added to thefe, the Americans remembered the act authorising the most cruel infult that perhaps was ever offered by one people to another, that of emptying our gaols into their fettlements; Scotland too having within these two years obtained the privilege it had not before, of lending its rogues and villains [xxviii. 402.] alfo to the plantations. I fay, reflecting on these things, they faid to one another, (their news-papers are full of fuch difcourtes), Thefe people are not content with making a monopoly of us, forbidding us to trade with any other country of Europe, and compelling us to buy every thing of them, though in many articles we could furnish ourselves 10, 20, and even to 50 per cent. cheaper elsewhere; but now they have as good as declared they have a right to tax us ad libitum, internally and externally, and that our constitutions and liberties fhall all be taken away, if we do not fubmit to that claim. They are not content with the high prices at which they fell us their goods, but have now be gun to enhance those prices by new duties; and by the expenfive apparatus of a new set of officers, appear to intend an augmentation and multiplication of thofe burdens that fhall ftill be more grievous Our people have been foolishly fond of their fuperfluous modes and ma

to us.

could

could at any time freely have spent our lives and little fortunes in its caufe: but this unhappy new fyftem of politics tends to diffolve those bands of union, and to fever us for ever.

Thefe are the wild ravings of the at prefent half-distracted Americans. To be fure, no reasonable man in England can approve of such fentiments; and, as I faid before, I do not pretend to support or juftify them: but I fincerely with, for the fake of the manufactures and commerce of G. Britain, and for the fake of the ftrength which a firm union with our growing colonies would give us, that thefe people had never been thus needlefs ly driven out of their senses. I am, &c. Lond. Chron. F+ 3.

An account of the great eruption of Mount Vefarius, the 10th of October 1767. In a letter from the Hon. William Hamilton, envoy-extraordinary of his Britannic Majefty to the King of the Two Sicilies. AS I have nothing material to trouble you with at prefent, I will endeavour to give you a fhort and exact account of the eruption, which is allowed to have been the most violent, though of Abort duration, in the memory of man.

I had foretold this eruption fome time, having had opportunities from my villa to watch its motions more minutely than a ny one here; and those threats which you read in the papers, were extracts from my letters to Lord Shelburne. The 19th at feven in the morning, I faw an unufual fmoke iffue with great violence from the mouth of the volcano, and form the shape of a pine tree, as Pliny defcribed before the eruption in which his uncle perifhed; by which I knew the eruption to be at hand; and in fact before eight I faw the mountain open, and the lava run from the crack, near the top of the volcano. But as it took its courfe on the fide oppofite our villa, I had the curiofity to go round, and take a nearer view of it. As it requires time and fatigue to go up, I did not come in fight of the lava, which was running in two streams down the fide of the mountain, till eleven o'clock. I had only a peafant of the mountain with me, and was making my remarks, when on a fadden about mid-day the great eruption happened about quarter of a mile from me. At first it was only like a fountain of liquid fire, which fprung up mamy feet in the air; then a torrent burst cut with a most horrid noife, and came

towards us. I took off my coat to lighten myself, and gave it to the peasant, and we thought proper to run three miles without ftopping. By this time the noife had greatly increased, and the athes caufed almost a total darkness, and as the earth hook, I thought proper to retire ftill further; and upon returning home, I perceived another lava towards the Torre del Annonciata, which in lefs than two hours flowed four miles. Our villa fhook fo much, and the fmell of fulphur was fo ftrong, that I thought proper to return to Naples; and indeed the fright of the family was fo great, that it was impoffible to remain at the villa.

The King's palace, though not so near the mountain as our villa, is still within reach of lavas, there being no less than feven, one upon another, under the pas court of the impending danger, and adlace. I thought it right to acquaint the vifed the Marquis Tanucci to perfuade his Sicilian Majeity to remove to Naples directly. But, for what reafon I know not, my advice was not followed: and the confequence was, the lava coming within a mile and a half of the palace, and the thunder of the mountain increasing, the whole court was obliged to remove in the middle of the fame night in the utmoft confufion. The explosions of the volcano occafioned fo violent a concuffion of the air, that the door of the King's room at Portici was burst open, and one door in the palace, though locked, was forced open; and what is more wonder ful, the like happened in many parts of Naples itself. The mountain for three days made this noife by fits, which lafted five or fix hours each time, and then was perfectly quiet. We did not fee the fun clear almoft the whole week, and the afhes fell in quantities at Naples fo as to cover the houfes and streets an inch deep or more. 'Tis really wonderful to think of the quantity of matter that came out of the mountain in fo fhort a time: for on Thursday the lavas ceafed rnnning, and if I had not examined them myself fince, I could not have believed it: from the place where I saw the mountain burst, to the point where the lava flopped near Portici, is to be fure feven miles, and five miles of this it travelled in two hours, the very road I came down; notwith ftanding which in fome places the torrent is two miles broad, and the lava forty feet high. It took its courfe through an inmenfe water-channel that is about four

hundred