The Virginia Gazette

From the Boston Evening Post.

MASSACHUSETTENSIS. and his coadjutors, the high-flying Doctor of New York, and his subtler brother of the Jerseys, and the whole fry of Tory writers, have for some time past exerted their combined abilities, and put their invention to the utmost stretch, to intimidate the inhabitants of the colonies in their present glorious struggle, and prevent their perseverance in defence of their rights, at the very time when their union has rendered them formidable to their enemies, and gives them the fairest prospect of success. The Tories have long denounced terror against all but their own little party, who are in truth the only rebels against the constitution of their country, the only traitors that have betrayed its essential rights. How often, and how loudly, have they told us, that when the Scarborough should arrive in England, with an account of our proceedings in this province, and when the Suffolk resolves, with the acts of the Continental Congress thereupon, should be received at the British Court, this province, and all America, would immediately be declared and treated as in a state of rebellion! What scarecrows and bugbears have they held up! What punishments did their gentle bosoms dispense to the poor Whigs! What fines, confiscations, halters, and gibbets, to men who only asked for their rights, and such as, till of late, had ever been enjoyed by them and their ancestors, to the great advantage of Britain, as well as the happiness of America!

Sir George Saville, Colonel Barre, Mr. Burke, and all who had opposed Administration, we were told, would be the foremost in calling for vengeance upon us. A large army from Britain would immediately be sent to act in conjunction with the troops now in Boston; they would be accompanied, or soon followed, with 15 or 20,000 Hessians and Hanoverians; all the coasts of America were to be covered with British men of war; all our ports shut up; 10,000 Canadians, in British pay, to fall upon our rear; the flaming sword was to brandish every way; no resistance; no escape; while the meek-hearted Tories were to glut themselves with the blood of their innocent countrymen. To accomplish all this, new funds were to be laid, and particularly the land tax raised from three to four shillings in the pound; and as to the loss of the American trade, it would be no more to Britain than a drop taken from the ocean. Such were the mild and humane expectations of the Tories. But the late accounts from England do by no means answer these expectations; their bloody visions have not yet been realized, nor their parricidical plans executed.

The Ministry, with all their cruelty and folly, have not been quite so cruel and foolish as some among ourselves have wished them to be. The King's speech, though it chiefly respects American affairs, says not a word of treason or rebellion; the addresses of the Lords and Commons make no mention of them. No new funds are laid, the land tax remains where it was; for the army this year is upon the common peace establishment, and the navy, instead of being augmented, is lessened by 4000 men. Neither Burke nor Barre, nor even any of the ministerial advocates, have declared war against America. Lord North evidently appears on the defensive, and is hard put to it to sustain himself. His measures are severely attacked by the best speakers in the House of Commons; he is half-ashamed of them himself. He implores candour, and would willingly retract his never to be forgotten words, that he would lay America at his feet. The rash self-confident Minister, who could drive matters in America to so alarming a crisis, and hurry through a thin House the four detestable acts, now seems to have no plan to allay the confusion he has raised, and desires a committee of the House of Commons to pilot him and the nation between Scylla and Charybdis.

But oh! say the Tories, Lord North is a cunning man; he knows how to disguise himself; his present intention he means to keep secret, and to cover his designs against America under a fair and plausible appearance; you will soon see. They need not, however, be at the pains to warn their countrymen against the craft and inimical intentions of Lord North: they are fully aware of them, and will, I doubt not, continue every prudent and rational preparation for their own safety and defence. Their enemy is evidently staggered; this may encourage them: But he is not defeated, and therefore they ought as much as ever to be upon their guard. And if the present happy union and spirit of the colonies continue, as I am persuaded they will, I venture to pronounce we have no reason to be dismayed either by the cunning or courage of Lord North. I am happy to know, that the attempts of our enemies, by their writings, and industriously propagated chimeras and falsehoods, to cajole, to frighten, and to divide us, have had very little effect. The hired and illiberal abuse with which they have for so long a time treated the illustrious characters, and particularly the President of the Continental Congress, have only served to raise them in the estimation of America, and to increase a veneration for their truly wise and salutary decisions, and our brethren in the western colonies may be assured that the Congress of this province, now sitting at Cambridge, was never more firm and united, and that they all agree in their accounts of the same union and firmness through all parts of the Massachusetts.

CURTIUS.