The Virginia Gazette

LONDON, Nov. 5, 1776.

Our king, it seems, grows serious upon American affairs. He has published a proclamation for a FAST, through all England. We here give our readers the celebrated mr. Burke's strictures upon it.

Mr Burke, in the House of Commons, speaking on the American contest (in which he was very severe against the ministry) said, that, after having been massacred, first by the Hessians, and then by the lawyers, they now talked of a revifal of the acts that had been complained of seven years ago. After burning their towns, and ruining their commerce, the minister cries out, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." But what sort of rest? You shall have magistrates not of your own choosing, taxes without your assent, and laws made for you in England. He complained bitterly of some expressions in the proclamation for the general fast; he said the purposes of religion were to be inverted, for we were to go to church in a most impious manner to accuse our American brethren of being deluded into acts of treason, by specious falsehoods. This he condemned as blasphemous, and converting the house of God into the tabernacle of Satan. [Here he was called to order but afterwards proceeded, and justified the resistance of the Americans] He also made administration accountable for all the blood that had been shed, and all the horrors of war; those were the sins we were to atone for, and to deprecate the wrath of Heaven by a general fast, and surely no people ever had more reason to humble themselves before God. He spoke, with great vehemence, above an hour.