sons you are there, but implicitly suppose that every motion of body or mind made by congress is prudent and right. I hope however that you are not so far removed from the seat of war and din of arms, that the timid and the wishers for a reconciliation with Britain can forget the late progress and wanton and cruel devastation of the British troops. If it should rouse them and put an end to their fears and wishes, it will be happy for us. The troops at Rhode-Island have remained till this week very quiet, and nothing of consequence had taken place there, till last night we heard they had burnt Newport and were supposed to be going off. I hope next spring we shall be able to open and support a campaign with advantage. I have favourable prospects of the raising our quota of men; very considerable numbers enlist. I believe they will fill up our battalions in that way, but if it is like to fail we shall levy them on the towns. Great quantities of clothing have been procured here, not less I presume than a sufficiency for eight or ten battalions, which is chiefly sent forward; more will yet be collected, though the principal channel of our supplies is in some measure stopped. An embargo now here has stopped many privateers. The price of every thing is extravagant, and the extortion of sellers unbounded; to check it we are now forming a bill to fix the prices of provisions, merchandise, labour, &c. Whether it be practicable to carry such

an act into execution or not, time must discover. If it can be done it may serve us; if we attempt and fail it will certainly do more hurt than good, by increasing the evil, and at the same time bringing our authority into contempt. No new form of government is yet adopted. Every body seems to wish for it, and a number of us are incessantly moving and pressing for it; what hinders I don't know, except downright laziness. A few prizes are dropping in, but not in such numbers as heretofore. The general apprehensions are that the enemy intended to make an attack here next spring, and when powerfully reinforced would enter by the way of Rhode-Island. Whether this sentiment be right or wrong, it is certainly good policy to encourage and cherish it, that we may be the better provided. I hope we shall be ready for them, and though I should be sorry to see our country the seat of war, I should submit, supposing it for the good of the whole. I think they would not be able to traverse this country as they have York and the Jerseys. However, a French war will put an end to all their traverses here. We are frequently told that you have the offer of French troops. I hope that will be the last resource. Why do we not hear of French men-ofwar, when ten sail only might answer all our purposes and all our wishes? I believe you wonder I have never yet forwarded such a state of facts as you mentioned. I have not been fortu

nate enough to get Winthrop and Lathrop together. Lathrop has been in an hospital with the smallpox. The matter is completed by myself and Winthrop, and I expect to have it done next week by Lathrop, when I will send it forward by first safe hand. Please to make my regards to my friend Mr. Adams. I will write him as soon and as often as I can.

I am sincerely your friend, &c.

JAMES WARRen.

MR. S. PHILLIPS, JUN.* TO MR. GERRY.

SIR,

BOSTON, FEB. 22, 1777.

Although I may incur an imputation which I would wish to avoid, in offering to take up one moment of a gentleman's time, whose present station must necessarily crowd him with the most important concerns, I will overcome the reluctance arising from this apprehension, if it is only to ask, whether it is not of the utmost consequence to banish from the army every sutler who is trad-. ing on his own account? I have been long pained

* Mr. Phillips was distinguished by his fellow-citizens in the honourable stations of speaker of the senate and lieutenant governour of Massachusetts.

by the accounts received of their management, but the experience of the last week impressed me more deeply than ever with the importance of a thorough alteration of matters in that department. The court had a recess this day fortnight to give an opportunity for the members to be at home using their influence in the respective towns to get the several proportions in each, which it was supposed would complete the fifteen battalions allotted to this state. But the difficulty in obtaining them is beyond what I can give any idea of, arising principally from the treatment of the soldiers the last campaign. They do not complain of the fatigues to which they have been exposed, (which we know were very great) but the want of things necessary to make them comfortable in clothing and sustenance. As to the latter, except flour and beef, they could receive little of any thing, not even in sickness more than in health, save what they purchased at the most extravagant prices of the sutler, who would strip the poor soldier of his whole month's wages of forty shillings for what he could have bought at home for 3s. 4d. This is literally fact, and I can prove it! At the same time, says the soldier, I must have suffered, and many more of us when in sickness would have died, had it not have been for the sutler. And 'tis in this way that the scoundrel, who is too lazy to do the duty of a soldier himself, and never was worth 20s. in all his life before,

made 3,000 dollars at Ticonderoga in one summer! This also I can prove. Nor is the misery introduced into the army all that is chargeable upon this class of people; for being able to get whatever they please for their goods in camp, they will outbid every body else at home, and in their zeal go far beyond what they have necessity for. One great cause this of the extravagant price, to which every necessary has been advanced among Whereas if these were hung (for many of them deserve nothing else, being inveterate tories in principle, who would delight in nothing more after the advancement of their own interest, than in the ruin of the American army and destruction of their country) these same goods, some of them at least, might be purchased here for one-half the price they have given, and delivered to the soldiers for one-eighth of the sum that has been extorted from them.

us.

The soldier then asks me, when the state makes the addition of a bounty of twenty pounds to the encouragement of congress, and individuals in the several towns add one hundred dollars to all this, (for I don't know of more than two men out of the twelve companies in and about Andover that have been procured under) what security he has, that he shall come home a whit better at the end of the three years than he did at the close of the last year, without a garment to his back or a farthing in his pocket? I tell him of the provision this state