172 Benjamin Franklin 1775 
commission to our merchants, insurance and freight 
going and returning, as in the case of iron. 
“And, lastly, being willing further to favor our 
said colonies in Britain, we do hereby also ordain 
and command, that all the thieves, highway and 
street robbers, housebreakers, forgerers, murderers, 
s—d—tes, and villains of every denomination, who 
have forfeited their lives to the law of Prussia, but 
whom we, in our great clemency, do not think fit 
here to hang, shall be emptied out of our gaols into 
the said island of Great Britain, for the better 
peopling of that country. 
“We flatter ourselves that these our royal regula- 
tions and commands will be thought just and reason- 
able by our much favored colonists in England; the 
said regulations being copied from their statutes of 
roth and 1th William 111. ¢c. 10, 5th George 11. ¢c. 22, 
23d ‘George 11. ¢. 26, 4th George 1. ¢. 11, and from 
other equitable laws made by their Parliaments; or 
from instructions given by their princes; or from 
resolutions of both houses, entered into for the good 
government of their own colonies in Ireland and 
America. 
“ And all persons in the said island are hereby cau- 
tioned not to oppose in any wise the execution of 
this our Edict, or any part thereof, such opposition 
being high treason; of which all who are suspected 
shall be transported in fetters from Britain to 
Prussia, there to be tried and executed according to 
the Prussian law. 
“Such is our pleasure. 
“Given at Potsdam, this twenty-fifth day of the 
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