The New Hampshire Gazette And Historical Chronicle

Extract of a Letter from a Gentleman in Virginia, to his Friend in Boston, dated 16 July 1768.

"The Accounts we have receiv'd from Boston, of the Behaviour of your new appointed Officers cannot fail to excite our Detestation against the late Measures pursued by the parent State, in Sending us as a Blessing, one of the Plagues of Egypt; Swarms of hungry Locusts through all our Coasts, to feed on the fat of the Land, and annoy, impoverish and perplex us; for such we may term this Inundation of new officers and Placemen; but I hope these, nor any other Impositions, will ever discourage us from asserting and defending the Rights of Freemen with Firmness; this Seems to be the View of all the Colonies, and their Conduit I doubt not will correspond."

"The word pension has of late much puzzled our Politicians. I do not recollect that any one of them has ventured at a definition of it. Mr. Johnson, as he is now a pensioner, one should naturally have recourse to, for the truest literary information on this subject. His definition then of a pension is, an allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In England it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country. And under the word pensioner we read, I. one who is supported by an allowance paid at the will of another; a dependant. 2. a slave of state, hired by a stipend to obey his master."