To the PRINTERS of the Massachusetts-Gazette.

Your inserting the following in your Paper will much
oblige a great number of Philadelphians.

To the Inhabitants on the Town of BOSTON, and
Province of MASSACHUSETTS-BAY.

My Dear BRETHREN,

IN Messi'rs Mills and Hick's Gazette of the 20th
of June, I observed with great concern a para-
graph with the signature of "Consideration," cal-
culated to deter you from paying for the tea, a mea-
sure at this alarming juncture highly necessary and
what every REAL friend to the cause of America
must think your indispensible duty. While we con-
tend for liberty, let us not destroy the idea of justice.
A trespass has been committed on private property
in consequence of the Resolves of your town. Re-
store to the sufferers the most ample compensation
for the injury they have received -- convince your e-
nemies that their property is secure in every Port on
the British Continent -- Convince them that you do
not regard the value of the article destroyed -- that
you only deny the right of taxation. Let not the
annals of your history be sullied by a refusal -- pay
for the tea -- it will rejoice your friends -- it will con-
vince your adversaries that the cause you are attach'd
to is a righteous and just cause. Convince them that
you regard honesty as much as liberty, and that you
detest libertinism and licentiousness. Convince them
that your principles are grounded on virtue and TRUE
patriotism -- then will they be persuaded that you
merit their countenance -- their interest. Then can
you with a degree of confidence call on your friends
to stand by and protect you -- your enemies, if any
there be, you may defy to prejudice you. I beseech
you, by every thing you hold dear -- I conjure you,
as you value a union of the colonies, pay for the tea;
it is but justice, pay for it, let nothing retard it; it
is an expedient, which ought to have been effected
e'er this; we lament that it yet remains undone; it
was expected that the hint given you by our com-
mittee would have induced you to comply; the rea-
sons that have been given for not doing it are in-
deed futile and puerile.

The tea sent to Charlestown was landed, remains
in store, and is entirely unmolested; if it receives
damage by laying there, there is nothing illegal in
the act. It is true New-York and this city have sent
their tea back; this however unjustifiable, and tho'
at a superficial review appears equally, nay more in
defiance of the laws of Great-Britain than the de-


struction of your tea by a mob, yet it meets a palli-
ative by every considerative person, who will recol-
lect that till an account of your tea being destroyed
reach'd us, we had ONLY resolved not to purchase
it; and most people were then for having it stored
till the act might be repealed.

On our hearing of its destruction, apprehensive
that as the minds of the people wer much inflamed,
perhaps a mob might be collected to set fire to our's,
we therefore thought it most prudent and MORE
SAFE for the proprietors to urge its going back; if
this action was wrong the motives were founded on
justice; and experience has confirmed it to be a well
directed policy. Had you been thus cautious we be-
lieve Boston would never have felt its present dread-
ful doom, and though your conduct was approved in
that instance at a town meeting here, it was done by
a minority of at most but one to a hundred; but as
a division was thought impolitic, the approbation
was not rejected; but it is now disavowed by al-
most every man, and the person who made the motion
is not a little disgraced. But notwithstanding this,
as our assembly meets the 18th inst. it is thought a
petition will be sent into the house to pay the insu-
rance, damages and freight hence to England. If
a petition is not sent in, a subscription will be en-
tered on immediately, and nothing delays this mat-
ter but a difference in sentiment, whether it will be
more expedient for the assembly to do it, or their
constituents: But this cannot be your plea; your as-
sembly is dissolved, you were the first who damaged,
it will be no disgrace to be the first to restore. When
you have done this, you may look to your sister colo-
nies with a firm assurance of their hearty approbati-
on, and rely on them for any assistance you may rea-
sonably expect. These are the sentiments of the
Pennsylvanians, and the anxious prayer of a
A PHILADELPHIAN.