[Nov. 3.] A month after the arrival of the troops at _Boston_ Mr. _Hancock_ was served with a precept for £.9000 sterling, by the marshal of the court of admiralty. The marshal having arrested him, demanded bail for £.3000. Five other gentlemen were arrested for the like sum. He and the five others gave bail.—The commissioners prosecuted the supposed owner, and each person they imagined concerned in unloading the wines, for the value of the whole cargo and treble damages. The vessel seized was restored after a long detention; and the suits in the courts of admiralty dropped, March the twenty-sixth, 1769, by a declaration from the king’s advocate, that his majesty would prosecute no further. It was idle to think of supporting the prosecution by sufficient evidence. Want of inclination or fear would prevent witnesses appearing, and corruption would procure counterevidence from men of no principle, who would justify themselves from the prosecution’s being built upon acts of parliament, to which they supposed the colonies owed no obedience; and would plead, as in too many instances is done at home, that it is not he who takes, but he who imposes the oath, who is chargeable with the crime of swearing falsely. The law would not allow the prosecuted any costs or damages. In this case the allowance would have been unreasonable; the innocence of the parties could not have been urged in its behalf. The colonists could not overlook the good effects produced by the former non-importation agreement; and were earnest for playing off the same engine against the new attempts of ministry, to saddle them with the payment of taxes. About the beginning of April, several gentlemen of _Boston_ and _New-York_, wrote to others at _Philadelphia_, in order to learn, whether they would unite with them in stopping the importation of goods from _Great-Britain_, until certain acts of parliament should be repealed, which were thought to be injurious to their rights, as freemen and British subjects. A numerous meeting of merchants followed, when an address was read to them. It set forth the claims of the colonies, and then went into an enumeration of grievances, which the colonists had long borne, and seemed willing to forget, had they not been alarmed afresh by the late proceedings of the ministry. The address remarked, that, in the act obliging the several assemblies to provide quarters for the soldiers, &c. a power is granted to every officer, upon obtaining a warrant from any justice (which warrant the justice is empowered and ordered to grant, without any previous oath) to break into any house by day or by night, under pretence (these are the words of the act) of searching for deserters. It pointed out to them the danger they were in, of having erected over them a despotic government, to rule them as slaves. It called upon them to deliberate, by what means they might defend their rights and liberties, and obtain a repeal of the obnoxious acts.