Upon the fatal news (fatal, I call it, for I very much fear it will prove so in its consequences, how remote I will not take upon me to predict) upon the news of the passing of another revenue act, the colonies immediately took such measures as were dictated to them, not by passion and rude clamour, but by the voice of reason and a just regard to the safety of themselves and their posterity. The assembly of this province, being the first I suppose who had the opportunity of meeting, prepared and forwarded a humble, dutiful & loyal petition to the King1 and wrote letters to such of the British nobility2 and gentry as had before discovered themselves friends to the rights of America & of mankind, beseeching their interposition and influence on their behalf. At the same time they wrote a circular letter to each of the other colonies3, letting them know the steps they had taken and desiring their advice & joint Assistance - This letter had its different effects; on the one hand, in the deep resentment of my Lord of Hillsborough, who was pleased to call it "a measure of an inflamatory nature - Evidently tending to create unwarrantable combinations, to excite an unjustifiable opposition to the constitutional authority of parliament and to revive unhappy divisions and distractions," &c. While on the other hand, the colonies, as appears by their respective polite answers, receiv'd it with the highest marks of approbation, as a token of sincere affection to them, & a regard to the common safety; and they severally proceeded to take concurrent measures. No one step I believe, united the colonies more than this letter; excepting his lordship's endeavors by his own circular letter to the colonies, to give it a different turn - But however decent and loyal -However warrantable by or rather conformable to the spirit and the written rules of the British constitution, the petitions of right and other applications of the distressed Americans were, they shared the same fate which those of London, Westminster, Middlesex, & other great cities & counties have since met with! No redress of grievances ensued: Not even the least disposition in administration to listen to our petitions; which is not so much to be wondered at, when we consider the temper of the ministry, which was incessantly acted upon by Governor Bernard in such kind of language as this "The authority of the King, the supremacy of parliament, the superiority of government are the real objects of the attack"; while nothing is more certain, than that the house of representatives of this province in their petition to the king, and in all their letters, that in particular which was address'd to the other colonies, the sentiment of which was recogniz'd by them, expressly declare, "that his Majesty's high court of parliament is the supreme legislative power over the whole empire, in all cases which can consist with the fundamental rights of the constitution," and that