requested permission to speak to the Commonalty on the subject; but their proposition was not well received and a very long postil was annexed to their written petition r to the effect that they must act conjointly J . with, and follow the Tba B.ioct m™ niusl not coufcr order of, the Director with many other things which scarcely accorded with our "i"" ">« peopi«- design, and were, in our opinion, impracticable. For various reasons, which we have set forth in writing, we considered it inexpedient to act conjointly, but we offered his Honor, if he would permit us to proceed, we should not send any thing to Fatherland without furnishing him a copy of it we should be very glad if ;

he could, then, vindicate himself, but to follow his directions in this matter seemed to us not to be founded in reason, but was in direct opposition to the welfare of the country. Besides, we had never promised nor agreed to do so, and were bound by oath to seek the prosperity of the country, as we have always been disposed to do, according to the best of our knowledge. (46) It is stated in the postil above mentioned, if we read it aright, that we p»stiiof the Direoshall inquire how far the people would cooperate with us in this business, and how the expense should be defrayed, but the Director explained it differently from what we understood it. Now, as the Director would not convene the Commonalty, as we proposed, nor allow us to do so, we went around from house to house, and spoke to the people. From this time forward the General burned with rage, and in our opinion has never been effectually appeased since, although we were not aware but that we had obeyed his order in the premises.