A PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS the infatuated multitudes of royal Neronian dependants, catamites, pimps, and parasites, too many to be enumerated; have long conducted them­selves as parricides and traitors in a fatal progression of crimes against the constitutional liberties of the British empire, and have at length proceeded to avowed and open rebellion against the laws of the land, and the lives of Englishmen in England and America, and the good effects which were expected to arise from the patience and lenity of the people, have been often frustrated, and remonstrance proved ineffectual and now rendered hopeless, from the obstinacy and cruelty of the sovereign, by the in­fluence of their infernal counsels, and confederacy, it only remains for the people, who have the su­preme power, as well for the punishment of those guilty parricides, as for the protection of the inno­cent, to prove they do not bear the sword in vain.

[Page 230] The infringements which have been committed upon the sacred rights of Magna Charta, and the people of Great-Britain and America, are too many to enumerate on one fide, and all too attrocious, too infamous, and too diabolical to be palliated on the other. All unprejudiced, unpensioned, and un­placed Englishmen, who have been witness, (or even heard) of the late transactions, in this kingdom and America, will find, upon a transient review, marks of premeditation and conspiracy to destroy the constitution of the British empire, that would justify the fullness of chastisement; and even those who are least acquainted with facts, cannot fail to receive a just impression of the enormity, in pro­portion as they discover the arts and assiduity, by which their bloody designs have been falsified and concealed. Those parricides, the authors of the present bloody measures and unnatural revolt from the laws, never daring to trust their cause, or their actions, to the judgment of an impartial public, or even to the dispassionate reflection of their followers and adherents, have uniformly placed their chief confidence in the suppression of truth; and while indefatigable and shameless pains have been taken to destroy the real interest of the people of England and America, the grossest forgeries, calumnies, and absurdities, that ever insulted human understanding, have been imposed upon their credulity, by the King, and those miscreants. The Press, that di­stinguished appendage of public liberty, and when fairly and impartially employed, its best support, has been invariably prostituted by those pensioned rascals, Hume, Johnson, Kelly, Shebbeare, and other ministerial hirelings, to the most contrary [Page 231]purposes. The animated language of ancient and viriuous times, calculated to vindicate and promote the just rights and interests of mankind, have been applied by the King's minions, to countenance the most abandoned violations of those sacred blessings and not only from the flagitious ministerial prints, but from the slavish harangues of prostituted Peers, and venal Senetors, men have been taught to de­pend upon activity in shedding of blood, for the security of their places, pensions, and persons, till to complete the horrid profanation of terms and of ideas, the name of God has been introduced in addresses and in the pulpit, by a groupe of rotten Popish Bishops, to excite devastation and massacre.

The minds of men, such as Gage, Percy, Bur­goyne, Clinton, and Howe, and the King's mer­cenary soldiers, having been thus gradually prepa­red for murder, a number of armed troops to the amount of eighteen hundred, and upwards, on the 19th of April last, at Concord, cowardly attacked about sixty peaceable Americans, who not expect­ing so consumate an act of savage barbarity, unpre­pared for vengeance, and willing to decline it, made use of their arms only in their own defence. Since that period, the mercenaries, deriving confi­dence from impunity, have added insult to outrage; have repeatedly fired upon, and barbarously killed many of their fellow subjects with cannon and small arms; and with a preposterous parade of military arrangement, they try to frighten, and mean if pos­sible to enslave America, while part, of their body make daily and indiscriminate invasions upon private property, and with a wantonness of cruelty, peculiar in this reign, and ever incident to lawless power, [Page 232]carry depradation and distress where ever they turn their steps. The action of the 19th of April, and the cruel, bloody, and inhuman circumstances at­tending that day's carnage, are of such notoriety, as must baffle all attempts to contradict them; and the flames of buildings, the cries of helpless infirm old men, women and children, wantonly slaughter'd in cold blood, spread, and will for ever stand a me­lancholy confirmation of the subsequent assertions.

In this exigency of Neronian cruelty and com­plicated calamities I avail myself of the last efforts within the bounds of my duty, as a peaceable sub­ject, to spare the effusion of blood; to offer, and I do hereby, in the name of the whole people of England and America, offer and promise a most gracious pardon, to all the mercenaries who shall forthwith lay down their arms, and return to the duties of peaceable subjects and faithful Englishmen, loyal to the laws and the constitution, excepting only from such pardon, John Stuart, Earl of Bute, and William Lord Mansfield, the authors and pro­moters of bloodshed and cruelty, whose crimes are of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment.

And to the end that no person within the limits of this proferred mercy may plead ignorance of the consequences of refusing it, I by these presents pro­claim not only the persons above named and ex­cepted, but also their adherents, associates, and abettors, meaning to comprehend in those terms, all and every person and persons, of what class, de­nomination, or description soever, who have ap­peared in arms against the sacred laws and consti­tution of the British empire, and shall not lay down [Page 233]the same as aforesaid; and likewise all such as shall so take up arms after the date hereof, or who shall in any wise protect or conceal such offenders, or assist them with money, provisions, cattle, arms, am­munition, carriages, or any other necessiry for sub­sistence or defence, or shall hold secret correspon­dence with the mercenary murderers, by letter, message, signal, or otherwise, to be rebels and trai­tors to the British coustitution, and as such to be treated.

And whereas, during the continuance of the pre­sent bloody and unnatural civil war in America, jus­tice cannot be obtained by the common law of the land, the course whereof has for a long time past been violently impeded, and wholly interrupted by the King and his paracidial minions and military cut throats, from whence results a necessity, in or­der to preserve the dear bought rights of English­men and hallowed constitution of the empire, for using and exercising the Lex Talionis or Law of Retaliation; I have therefore thought fit by the authority invested in me by Magna Charta as a Freeman, to publish, and I do hereby publish, pro­claim, and order the use and exercise of the Lex Talionis, or Blood for Blood, within and through­out Great-Britain and America, so long as the pre­sent unhappy occasion shall necessarily require, till the sons of freedom shall gain a decisive victory over tyranny and lawless power, till each parricide and traitor shall be brought to the block or the gal­lows, or otherwise fall a sacrifice by the hands of a much injured and enraged people, and till the li­berties of England and America are settled upon a sure and lasting foundation, not to be again shaken [Page 234]by any tyrant of the house of Brunswick; where­of all true Englishmen are hereby required to take notice, and arm themselves—with a resolution as well to maintain their rights, as to resist, encounter and subdue the mercenaries and traitors above described.

To these inevitable, but I trust salutary measures, it is of a far more pleasing part of my duty to add the assurances of protection and support to all who in so trying a Crisis shall manifest no allegiance to tyrants, but an affection for the sacred constitution of their country; So that such persons as may have been induced to join in the present royal and mini­sterial measures for destroying the laws, liberties, and lives of their fellow-subjects in America, may return to their respective callings and professions, be no longer the instruments of murder and public ruin, but stand distinct and separate from the par­ricides of the constitution, till God in his mercy shall turn the hearts of tyrants, and restore peace to this distracted land, now polluted with innocent blood.

GOD SAVE AMERICA.