[Extract]

This is so critical a juncture that tho' I am no Politician, yet I can not help sending you my opinion of the present state of affairs in this Country; we have remitted home such extravagant accounts of very trifling advantages and have gloss'd over with such art our errors, that I hope our Leaders wrote more for the Eye of the Publick than for the information of the Minister. Unless these accounts have been corrected by their private Letters, you doubtless must have expected ere this that our Arms had brought America to obedience, I am sorry to inform you that as yet we have effected nothing; the greater part of our Army are encamp'd where they were cantoon'd in the Jersies, forming a Cordon along the Raritan River; our Piquets and outposts are sometimes attack'd by the Enemy, and tho' they seldom fail to suffer in these skirmishes, yet in the end they will learn to be enterprising and acquire bravery.

Some ships are cruizing in different Latitudes, and the remainder are station'd at N. York, Rhode Island, the Delaware, and one in Chespeak Bay; some censure these stations, and if we judge by the consequences there is certainly some error in the arrangement, for independent of the Cruizers, the number of Ships unemploy'd in the above mention'd Ports have furnish'd the Rebels with an opportunity of carrying on an extensive and almost uninterrupted trade with the West Indies and many parts of Europe by which they have imported every kind of military store, besides every necessary article to supply the wants of the people; and I am credibly informed that they have employed themselves with such success to the Southward that they have collected the means of prosecuting this diabolical war for three years.

General Howe confines himself to the Military Department, while His Lordship the Admiral presides over, or rather takes entirely to himself all civil arrangements.

Every proposal he has hitherto made to negotiate with the Rebels they have entirely disregarded; he therefore has published different Proclamations, in order, I suppose, to undeceive the minds of the people and to set clearly before them the advances Great Britain wou'd make towards a reconciliation. But this intention by no means succeeded, for whether from being unaccustomed to write, or from those about him being unacquainted with business, these performances were so clouded with mystery that they seemed more calculated to impress the minds of the People than to give them information.

It is strange that Commissioners invested with such amazing powers shou'd employ themselves in writing Papers which are only ridiculed and laughed at by those they are endeavouring to negotiate with; instead of plainly proclaiming to them that Great Britain wishes to prevent the miseries that are likely to overwhelm her Colonies, and in order to effect that laudable intention requests that Delegates shou'd be chosen from each Colony to lay before the Commissioners their several causes of complaint. If the complaints are unreasonable, or the terms they request improper, offer them those that Great Britain can grant with honour!

If they receive them the point is gained, and a permanent accord settled between the two countries; if not, the minds of everybody will be opened, they will see the aspiring and ambitious views of the factious Leaders, and many wou'd, I am convinced, leave these scenes of Anarchy, and return to the protection of that free and wholesome Government under which they lived so happily. After such a conduct no-one can complain, and the sword must fall upon the guilty. . . .

I have not the honour of being acquainted with Lord Howe, but I have been studious to observe his public Character, and I am concerned to find that instead of searching into the minds of the people and consulting with those Europeans who have borne respectable offices under the Crown, and whose abilities have gained them weight and interest in this country, he disregards them, and seems rather to wish to remain uninformed than 'be obliged to request information.