You will think the enemy are now in a situation for us to attack their scattered parties, and cut them off. This we think too, and are preparing to do it, but it will be a work of extreme difficulty to get at them; they have excellent intelligence of all our motions; we can hardly come at any certainty about theirs, for Lord Howe and General Howe issued a proclamation on the 30th of November, offering pardon to all, who should submit within sixty days, and subscribe a declaration, that they will not hereafter bear arms against the king's troops, nor encourage others to do it. This has had a wonderful effect, and all Jersey, or far the greater part of it, is supposed to have made their submission, and subscribed the declaration required; those who do so, of course become our most inveterate enemies; they have the means of conveying intelligence, and they avail themselves of it. In this perplexing situation of things, the Congress were informed, this day week, that an advanced party of Hessians and Highlanders had taken possession of Burlington, that they were pushing for Cooper's Ferry, opposite the city, and it was thought had the means of crossing the river. There were no troops to oppose them; our whole force, both by land and water, was above; it was therefore deemed unsafe for Congress to remain here, and absolutely necessary that they should be in a place of safety, where they could deliberate coolly and freely without interruption, and last Saturday they adjourned to Baltimore, where they are now sitting. This city was for ten days, the greatest scene of distress that you can conceive; every body but Quakers were removing their families and effects, and now it looks dismal and melancholy. The Quakers and their families pretty generally remain; the other inhabitants are principally sick soldiers, some few effective ones under General Putnam, who is come here to throw up lines, and prepare for the defence of the place, if General Washington should be forced to retreat hither. You may be sure I have my full share of trouble on this occasion, but having got my family and books removed to a place of safety, my mind is more at ease, and my time is now given up to the public, although I have many thousand pounds' worth of effects here, without any prospect of saving them. We are told the British troops are kept from plunder, but the Hessians and other foreigners, looking upon that as the right of war, plunder wherever they go, from both whigs and tories, without distinction, and horrid devastations they have made on Long Island, New York Island, White Plains, and New Jersey, being the only parts they have yet set foot on. Should they get this fine city, they will be satiated, if the ruin of thousands of worthy citizens can satisfy their avarice.