Page:History of Barrington, Rhode Island (Bicknell).djvu/410

 328 THE HISTORY OF BARRINGTON. only newspaper in this part of the state, The Providence Gazette. Two of the Committee of Safety, Mr. Nathaniel Martin and Mr. Thomas Allin, had been and were members of the General Assembly and were helping to shape such legisla- tion as should enable all the towns of the Colony to act with the same promptness and energy as Harrington, in defence of their rights. Under date of June 4, 1775, it was voted " that. The late Resolutions of the Town of Newport be adopted in the Town Relative to Non-Consumption of British Manufactures and Dutied Teas." On the 30th of June, the people of Barrington, in common with those of the sister towns, met on the day "set apart for public fasting, prayer and supplication, to beseech Almighty God to grant us sincere repentance, to avert every threat- ened judgment from us, and restore us to the full enjoyment of our rights and privileges, and particularly that He would appear for the relief and recovery of the town of Boston from their distressed situation." Rev. Mr. Townsend, with char- acteristic calmness, moderation and firmness, preached upon the manifold sins of the people and the manifest injustice of the King and Court of England. Had Lord North sat in the old Barrington meeting-house on that June day, he would have heard some unwelcome truths, but much salutary advice. The sympathy of the town with the distress of Boston is illustrated in the following instructions to Messrs. Nathaniel Martin and Thomas Allin, the deputies of the town in the General Assembly, adopted at a town meeting, held August 5, 1774. "Whereas, The Deputies Represent to the Town that there is in the General Treasury a Considerable Sum of money which is not at this time especially needed for the Use of the Colony, and as it appears to the Town that the Inhabitants of Boston are much distressed by the late Port Bill which has Stagnated their Trade and Business So that