By His Excellency the Honourable George Clinton, Esq; captain general and governor in chief of the province of New-York ... a proclamation : Whereas "by letters from Mr. Thompson, His Majesty's minister at Paris, to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, dated the twenty-eighth March, N.S. there is an account that the French secretary of state, M. Amelot ... notified to him in form, that things were now come to such a pass between the two nations, that France could no longer avoid declaring war against Great Britain ... Given under my hand and seal at arms in New-York, the sixteenth day of May ... in the year of our Lord, 1744.