but such as are excepted in the Philadelphia agreement, and fall upon some effectual measures to support this conduct."

The agreement recommended by Mr. Read was soon very generally adopted. It was dated the seventeenth of August, 1769, and framed with much vigour and ability. After stating, in energetic language, the grievances which compelled them to co-operate with their fellow colonists in the measures best calculated to invite or enforce redress, they "mutually promise, declare, and agree, upon our word of honour, and the faith of Christians," "First, That from and after this date we will not import into any part of America any goods, wares, or merchandize, whatsoever, from any part of Great Britain, contrary to the spirit and intention of the agreement of the merchants of the city of Philadelphia.

"Second, That we never will have any dealing,

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commerce, or intercourse whatever, with any man residing in any part of the British dominions, who shall, for lucre or any other purpose, import into any part of America any article contrary to the said agreement.

Thirdly, That any one of us who shall wilfully break this agreement, shall have his name published in the public newspapers, as a betrayer of

the civil rights of Americans, and be forever after deemed infamous, and a betrayer of his country."

It is a curious fact, that no measure was devised for detecting violaters of this agreement until a year after it had been formed: such was the confidence in the virtue of the community, that an infraction of the compact was little apprehended. But when the enthusiasm which gave animation and efficacy to this patriotic act, had in some measure subsided, owing to the privations to which it subjected those who had signed it, some individuals basely forfeited their word, their honour, and their christian faith, by violating the solemn pledge. Those who led the van of the covenant-breakers, were store-keepers; they had not, perhaps, less patriotism than other classes of their fellow-citizens, but their virtue was assailed by stronger temptations. Nor were they the only apostates; for if there were sellers of interdicted merchandise, there must also have been purchasers. To arrest this evil, which threatened the virtual dissolution of the compact, a system was devised as simple as it proved efficacious. On the fourth of June, 1770, Mr. Read expressed himself upon the subject in the following manner, in a letter addressed to one of his friends: "Several towns in this county have chosen

VOL. IV.-F

two committee-men each, to adopt such resolutions respecting trade as the present exigency seems to require. They met lately at Christiana, and were unanimously of opinion that the Philadelphia agreement should be supported; and for this purpose, two persons were appointed, in each town, a committee of inspection to watch the trade. The duty of these persons is to examine what goods are brought into this government, and in case they discover any sales by shop-keepers of articles not excepted, to report the same to the general committee, who shall determine what shall be done thereupon."

Mr. Read was elected chairman of this general committee. The subordinate committees performed their duty with so much diligence and activity, that they equalled the agents of the best organized police, in the discovery of delinquents. Every section of the county was subjected to a system of espionage, so inconsistent with American notions of liberty, that nothing but the urgency of the case, and the benefits which it produced, could have induced the citizens to tolerate it. The adherents of Great Britain were too small in number to shield the violaters of the compact from its penalties. When information was given against them, they generally appeared before the general committee, who inflicted no other punishment than requiring

from the offender a public declaration of sorrow for the offence, a promise not to repeat it, and payment to the committee of the proceeds of sales of nonexcepted articles, for the use of the poor of the county. The delinquents, however, were few in number.

At a meeting of the inhabitants of Newcastle county, on the twenty-ninth of June, 1774, Mr. Read was appointed, with twelve other persons, to conduct a subscription for the relief of the poor inhabitants of Boston, who were deprived of the usual means of subsistence by the act of parliament commonly called the Boston port bill. The people eagerly adopted this mode of manifesting their abhorrence of a cruel and ineffectual act of despotism, and their sympathy with those whom it reduced to want. By pecuniary sacrifices for their relief, they, in some measure, made themselves partakers of their sufferings, and their patriotism. In February, 1775, Mr. Read, who had been appointed, in conjunction with Nicholas Van Dyke, Esq., to receive the donations, remitted nine hundred dollars to the Boston committee, being the amount of subscriptions in Newcastle county. The notification to the committee at Boston occasioned the following letter from Samuel Adams to Mr. Read:

SIR,

Boston, February 24th, 1775.

By your letter of the sixth instant, directed to Mr. David Jeffries, the committee of this town, appointed to receive and distribute the donations made for the relief and employment of the sufferers under the Boston port bill, are informed that a very generous collection has been made by the inhabitants of the county of Newcastle, on Delaware, and that there is in your hands upwards of nine hundred dollars for that charitable purpose. The care you have taken, with our worthy friend Nicholas Van Dyke, Esq., in receiving these contributions, and your joint endeavours to have them remitted in the safest and most easy manner, are gratefully acknowledged by our committee; and they have directed me to request that you would return their sincere thanks to the people of Newcastle, for their great liberality towards their fellow-subjects in this place, who are still suffering under the hand of oppression and tyranny.

say,

afford you

It will, I dare abundant satisfaction to be informed that the inhabitants of this place with the exception of a contemptible few, appear to be animated with an inextinguishable love of liberty. Having the approbation of all the sister colonies, and being thus supported by their generous