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Sir  You will perceive from the Public Prints that the Assembly of this Province refuses to adopt the measures of the Congress, & takes the lead towards a recon ciliation between Great Britain & her Colonies, Tho this be a true sense of a great Majority of the people, & of men of the best Fortunes, Yet we have among Us a set of violent Spirits of the lowest Rank, and desperate fortunes, countenanced by a few of superior condition, who lay hold of every occasion to rouse Mob & excite Sedition; On the side of Government are the moderate men, who by all means avoid disorder & Confusion which gives an advantage to the hot heads on the other side. It seems reasonable that the friends of Government should be as much protected, as His Majts more urgent Service will permit; Ever since the last War we have had a Regiment quartered in this place: We have now only 100 men.

The Colonies to the Southward threaten this Colony, & declare they will join the Massachusetts, Tho I cannot believe that there is any other design than to bully. Yet as no man can tell which men in a Phrenzy may do (which seems to prevail over the Continent) it will be no excuse not to be prepared against every Event, especially after it is threatned; Hudsons River must be passed before any body of men can join Massachusetts from the Southward of Ohio. For upwards of one hundred miles above this place there is not less than twenty four feet water in the Channel of that River, as I am informed by a Gentleman who carried a Mastship of Six hundred Tons up that distance last Summer. Now Sir I must leave to your Judgment whether it may be for His Majts Service to send a large Man of War ー to this port, which can on occasion put two or three hundred men on shore; and to send small Vessels to obstruct the Passage of the River, if it afterwards should be thought expedient.

I am &c.