Whereas it is highly expedient, that the intercourse between Great Britain and the United States of America should be immediately opened; be it therefore enacted and declared by the King's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons, in the present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that an Act passed in the sixteenth year of his Majesty's reign, entitled, "An Act to prohibit all trade and intercourse with the Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, the three lower counties on Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, during the continuance of the present rebellion within the said Colonies respectively, for repealing an Act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, to discontinue the lading and discharging, lading or shipping, of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town and within the harbor of Boston in the province of Massachusetts Bay; and also two Acts, made in the last session of Parliament, for restraining the trade and commerce of the Colonies in the said Acts respectively mentioned; and to enable any person or persons, appointed and authorised by his Majesty to grant pardons, to issue proclamations, in the cases and for the purposes therein mentioned;" and also an Act, passed in the seventeenth year of his Majesty's reign, entitled, "An Act for enabling the Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain, to grant commissions to the commanders of private ships, and vessels employed in trade, or retained in his Majesty's service, to take and make prize of all such ships and vessels, and their cargoes, as are therein mentioned, for a limited time;" so far as the said Acts, or either of them, may extend, or be construed to extend, to prohibit trade and intercourse with the territories now composing the said United States of America, or to authorise any hostilities against the persons or properties of the subjects and citizens of the said United States, after the respective periods set forth in his Majesty's proclamation for the cessation of hostilities between Great Britain and the United States of America, bearing date the fourteenth day of February, one thousand seven hundred and eightythree, shall be, and the same are henceforth repealed. Anno vicesimo tertio Georgii III, Regis; cap. 26. * * * * * DAVID HARTLEY TO THE COMMISSIONERS. Paris, August, 29th, 1783. Gentlemen,