ABSTRACT
The Congress of Philadelphia, an assembly convened by its own authority, has promulgated a declaration, in compliance with which the communication between Britain and the greatest part of North America is suspended. On December 22nd, when Lord Dartmouth received his copy of Congress’s Petition to the King, the worst American news had not yet reached his Department so that next day’s adjournment of Parliament to January 19, 1775, must not be accounted strange. America was to be offered freedom from Parliamentary taxation, and if Congress’s contentions on the illegality of stationing British troops in America were denied, the Colonies were yet promised full constitutional guarantees against the political misuse of such troops. In place of Lord Rochford, Lord Weymouth came to the Southern Secretaryship, whose principal task would be to guard against the attempts of France and Spain to profit from American War.
