The ministerialists at New-York will undoubtedly amuse the nation with accounts of the thousands, who have formed themselves into military corps under the auspices of gen. Sir William Howe, as he is now to be stiled from the honor conferred upon him, for his success on Long-Island. But when the campaign comes to be opened by Sir William, you will find that they are reduced to hundreds; and that the acquisition of strength derived from the country, whatever flattering appearance it may have upon paper, is no wise answerable to the report. Governor Tryon made a parade in black and white before lord George Germain, with his two thuosand [typo: thousand] nine hundred and seventy inhabitants of New-York, who have qualified by taking an oath of allegience and fidelity to his majesty. By the aid of the mayor, he may increase them to three thousand and twenty. He may add those attested on Staten-Island and elsewhere, and make the whole amount to five thousand six hundred men. He may also tell of the loyal inhabitants of Queen’s county, who have received eight hundred stand of arms, with demonstrations of joy, and with a professed resolution to use them in defence of the island[45]. But the service they will be of to government, in the great American contest, will be next to nought. The _Georgia_ representatives, met in convention, unanimously agreed in a constitution for that state, on the 5th of Februray. LETTER VII. _London, June 7, 1777._ FRIEND G. Mr. Sayre sued lord Rochford, in the court of Common Pleas, about this time twelvemonth, for illegal imprisonment; the jury granted him a thousand pounds damages, subject to the opinion of the court upon a point of law. Thus ended an affair, which in the commencement occasioned a great bustle among the people. An unaccountable indifference possessed the nation, through the last summer. When at length the American cruisers, not only scoured the Atlantic, but spreading over the European seas, brought alarm and hostility to our doors—when the destruction which befel the homeward bound richly laden West-India fleets, poured equal ruin upon the planters in the islands, and the merchants at home—even in that state of public loss and private distress, an unusual phlegm prevailed, and the same tranquil countenance was preserved, by those who had not yet partaken of the calamity.