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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mithode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 *..cju ,' Mi-.oi.'t: Further Examination O F O U R Prefent American Meafures A N D O F The Reafons and the Principles On which they are founded. BY THE AUTHOR OF Confiderations on the Meafures carrying on with RefpeB to the Britijh Colonies in North- America, An Englifti Whig can never be io unjuft to his Codiit.y and to right Reaion, as not to be of opinion ; tiikt in all civil Commotions, which Side foever is the wrongful .'^^ggrwffur, is accountable for all the evil Confequences. Lord Mole/njuorth^s Prefac. to Franco-Gallia, in one and the fame Nation, when the fundamental Princi- ples of their Union are fuppofed to be invaded the only Tribunal to which the Complainants can appeal is that of the God of Battles, the only Procefs by which the Appeal can be carried on is that of a civil and iatef- tlns War. . 4 Blackjloney b. i, c. 3. BATH: Printed^fjy R. C R U T T W E L L, For R. Baldwin, Pater-noIlat-Row ; and E, and C. DiLLY, in the Poultry, London, r.tpCC LXXVI. ADVERTISEMENT, THE writer was not aware to what a length his work would run j until it had been fome time in the prefs. He prefumes however topubli/li it; now that it is printed. The public will no doubt find the proper remedy for its bulk by being no more troubled with it- thaii'^ they pleafc. Some very niaterkl iiltaf^- tions have happened in our Am^rioah af- . fairs 5 fmce that it was firil in the prin-, ter's hands. Certain accounts are come of the Provincials having made themfelves. mafters of Fort St. John's, Chamblee and.. Montreal in Canada and of their approacL ing or befieging Quebec. Our people likewife appear td have burnt fcrfte prdces ' and to have attempted more on thefea-coaft. Thefe things affed: the fubjedl before us and efpecially with refped to the terms of peace and of accommodation . The Rea- ) iiki [ 7 ] quering them again; they arc in future all to be recovered by the dint of the fvvord and the pufh of the pikei the next rela- tion or conditions between us muft be juft, as the chance of arms fhall decide and determine ; but what ought moft nearly to concern us, we have parted with a people who have for ages paft been to us moft cordial, as countrymen; moft af- fedtionate, as friends ; moft faithful, aj allies ; moft dutiful, as defcendants and dependants; and, what fome may value above all, moft profitable and moft bene- ficial, as inhabitants of our provinces. All confiderations of intereft diicarded out of the queftion, can any man but be moved with the reflection of our ingratitude and our infenfibility towards this community, who have certainly deferved after a very different manner at our hands ? If ftatef^ men and miniflers muft be made of ftuft' fit for fuch meafures ; God grant to me and to mine an humble life, in which we mp.y preferve fome remains and fenfations of humanity 1 Let us however banifti all thefe foolifli feelings of the human breaft ; let us leave the mean fubjedt of morality to cafuifts B 3 or [ 8 ] ',] !l|- or to philofophers ; let us confider our prefent proceedings in the light only of policy and of ambition, the fuperior ob- jeds of the great and the fublime fpirits, with whom we are going to reafon and to argue. We are told by thofe the befl in- formed, that this country contains three millions of fouls. All due allowances therefore made for flaves or for any others hot to be taken into our account, there will on that number remain not fo few as four hundred thoufandfightingorfencible men. Their popular forms of government fuiFer. and enable them to arm all thefe : they are now in fadt availing themfelves of that advantage ; they are turning their whole country and continent into foldiery. We were before told what might be expe(fled on this head : it gained then no credit : we fliail now bid fair to believe our own eyes. Thefe are circumftances, which majorities cannot at the command of a m i n ifler confirm or over- rule, as they pleafe . Here is at our outfet fome fmall impedi- rizent in the way : four hundred thoufand are a great many throats to cut of men able, ready and willing to defend them- felves. Thefe fame people are likewife madvrs upon the fpot and of every thing there. M t 9 ] there. Their towns, their houfes and their other buildings provide them with barracks ; their wives and their children ferve them for futlers ; their herds and their flocks furnifli their provifion : They are affifted with all thefe things and the conteft is for them. Their defertions muft be almofl, as if trees were to defert their forefts, they having in like manner been by the hand of nature planted and rooted, where they are. They are free and they fight to be free. Their governments par- take of the principles, which magnified Greece and Rome and which made their citizens the firjft foldiers ever known in the world. They will both in council and in adion be conduced by the beft and the ableft men ; which their continent con- ^ins and will fupply for the purpofc. Their country is one general and natural fortrefs, the defence of which its natives well underftand. Should they with all thefe advantages ftand in need of help .rom abroad, they will not fail to find it; as furely, as that we have the moft potent nations upon the globe for conftant and for inveterate rivah whether with reorard to Europe, to Africa, to Alia or to'this very America; I fay, as furely, as that ^4 France [ 10 ] ?!■ I France ever pofTefled Canada or Louifiana or that Spain ever held or claimed FlO'- rida. I am forry to aik, whether there is not on their iide another afliftancc befides not yet mentioned; which is the juftice of their caufe and its influence on the affairs of men. The anceflors of thefe people led by the general protedtipn of Pro- vidence left forn^erly their native home$ to avoid tyraJiny, cruelty and pcrfecution : they placed themfelves in thejfc wilds and thefe waftes, which their defccndants now enjoy andxinhabit: their innocence, their defire of good order and of peace guarded and preferved them : their temperance^ their frugality, their induilry procured them plenty, property and various forts of poffeffions. Is not it to be exped:ed, that the fame benevolent and all-protedting Power will extend his hand and his fhield over them in this (as theythink) juflorjuft- eft of cauLs and in a contention not.of am- bition, not of oppreflion, not of rapaci - oufnefs on their part, but a due defence of thefe bieffings and thefe benefits thus defer- vedly acquired or conferred upon them ; I do not prefume to fignify by any immediate miracles or any fpecial interpofition, but by the means of thofe moft excellent, thofe mofl 4 A •m [ II ] moft wife, thofe univerfal laws, which perpetually prefcrve and maintain the hap- pinefs and the harmony of the whole world ? So much for the party to be conquered, let us next confider the conquerors. The force now voted and Ipoken of as deftined for that purpofe is twenty-five thoufand men upon papery twenty-five thoufand men for all America including the Weft- India Iflands, the two Floridas, Canada and Nova^Scotia and taking credit for the troops now at Bofton and elfewhere of that country to make a part of them after efcaping Wafhington, the winter and all other chances. Such is the prefent ap- parent projecfh and eftimate. This body is however not yet colledted : It is to be recruited from all countries and all quar- ters and much the greater part is then to fail more than three thoufand miles to the fcene of adion. Does any one imagine, that North- America will ever fee twenty thoufand of thefe men at a time ? Who- ever does is right fit to make a minifter of ftate in a country, that I know. Thefe twenty thoufand paper men however, what a prodigious power are they againft four hundred ■^ [ 12 ] hundred thoufand already and adually upon the fpot ! We were laft year in con- teft with MaiTachufets-bay only : we fent againft them between four and five thou- fand men. It need nc now be defcribed how thefe were confined, immured and half ftarved in the town of Bofton by the fuperior forces of that one fmgle colony. Twenty thoufand men are neverthelefs to do wonders againft thirteen colonies, which is lefs than fixteen hundred againft each. What a wife and a deep policy and how much to be depended upon for the fubdu- ing of America ? Will any Alexander of ours have much occafion to weep for another world or even another quarter of one to conquer ? Forty thoufand men, half Europeans and half Americans, di- rected by counfels very unlike ours of thefe days were employed at land in the late conqueft of Canada. But what was that province? The incomparable acfl oi Parliiiment lately planned and palledfor its rvjgulation informs us, that it confift- ed at its redudiion of fixty-five thoufand French inhabitants, not to attribute how- ever too much to that authority, but to take them at one hundred thoufand, (which is as niitny as they were or more) one hun- dred M [ 13 ] 4 dred thoufand inhabitants, men, women and children made up in no fmall mea- fure of priefts and weakened with monai^ teries, what comparifon or proportion do that number and flrength bear to the mil- lions occupying our thirteen colonies and affording above four hundred thoufand men for their defence ? How long did ne- verthelefs their fmall militia without the aid of France prevented by a ftrong fleet from affifting them baffle all our efforts and our endeavours ? May the fhades of Braddock and of Abercrombie and of others refl in peace for me ; who do not defire to diflurb them again on this fubjedt ! Thefe twenty thoufand men upon paper are then to be fed from England and from our fleet, to be lodged and to be covered, as they can ; to be recruited and to be re- inforced at three thoufand miles diflance; to be in conflant danger of their undoing by every little defeat or adverfity ; to con- tend with a new and a difficult climate, men fighting for a few pence a day, inlifled in fervice for life, vidtims of the lafh and of other military torments and liable on the other fide to be inflead of thefe things tempted with lands and with liberty. I may appeal to experience, for how much our ■ V [ H ] our former armies there have on thefe ac-* counts been weakened by death, difeafe and defertion. Theextenfive kingdom of France may invade the liberty of a fmall neighbouring Ifland inhabited by a barba- rous people having no government, no u- nion, no regular means of reliftance, al- though the opprefTors are there faid to be fometimes fick of their w^ork : Spain might with its guns, its horfes and its dogs make havoc among the poor and the helplefs natives of Mexico and of Peru ; but it never was and it may by the bleffing of God perhaps never be known, that a nation or an army of (laves fubdued a free people fairly and properly prepared for their defence. This is inconfiftcnt with the whole hiftory of the world : the emi-* nent conquefls and acquilitions among mankind, the rife and the ruin of empires have ever proceeded in a contrar)^ courfe* With regard to the Government or the Adminiflration by whofe counfels this at- tempt is to be guided and condudled, I fhall only obferve; that it is the fame, which has in fo fliort a fpace brought us out of our paftinto ourprefent ftate^ which has planned and has executed and whofe prudence and whofe policy we have fa ^ [ 15 ] fo amply experienced in the Ameri- can meafures of thefe times. Having taken notice of the caufe againft us, I ought t^ make with it fome comparifon of our own ; but to fpill the blood, to fpoil and to plunder, to lay wafte with fire and with fword the habitations of a people, from whom we have received al- moft unfpeakable profit and benefit, who gave to us a rich and a great country planted and improved at the cofl and the hazard of themfelves, who never entertained to- wards us a thought or a meaning of mif- chief, who, when our own fquabbles or impatience or ambition and not their de- fires hurried us into war, have fo often combated under our banners and contri- buted to our expences ; is, I fay, furely a fervice, at which the heart of every hu- mane man in our army muft turn and re- volt. All mankind will condemn us and our minifters and will compaffionate our opprefifed countrymen : the hand of God and of man is on every part to be expecfted againfi: us. With fuch difad vantages as to the means, with fuch circumilances as to the caufe, order mufi: be inverted and difi:radtion muft govern the world; rivers muft run backwards ; right muft becom^e wrong and wrong become right ; ftrength muft 1IH y C '6 ] muft be weaknefs andweaknefs beflrcngth j juftice and opprefTion, humanity and ty- ranny had need to change their natur? with each other, before that our admini^ ftration can in the prefent conteft conquer or prevail over our colonies. The all- commanding, univerfal influence has for the performance c " his purpofes no occa- ion to call fire from Heaven, monfters from the deep or famine from the earth ; every creature, every event, every caufe, every eiFedl and w^ith the reft the follies and the vices, the actions and the paffions of men are conftantly executing his will and his laws nor is there among all the means of wrecking the wrath and the vergeance of Heaven againft an unfortu- nate nation deftined to deftrudiion perhaps any one worfe or furer than a weak and a corrupt government. Our navy however rides triumphant ; we make adts of parliament at land and we execute them upon the ocean accord- ing to our pleafure. 1 fhall not content myfelf with anfwering to this, that our fleet cannot fail over the continent nor our fiiips bombard woods and fwamps ; as experience may by this time have con- vinced It ir d [ 17 1 vinced us, if reafon was before irifufficient for that end ; but I defire to touch on this fubjedl a new* firing, which has hi- therto been hardly founded. Is it fup- pofed impoffible, that we may be mo- lefled even uoon that element, where we believe ourfelves fo much mailers ? The ftates of Barbary have no commerce or pofTeflions abroad -, they are therefore in- vulnerable in thofe refpedls. They keep /hips of war and no other; by which means they make more prifoners from thofe on whom they prey, than thefe do in return from them. They are at land on their own ground the flrongefl. Thefe particulars enable that people to impofe a tribute upon every maritime power of Eu- rope, Great-Britain not excepted ; a tri- bute exad:ed of all by force and paid by all againil their inclinations. We all of us term them piratical flates, but none treat them as fuch, which we ihould un- doubtedly do, if we durft. The ports of the Americans being fhut up and their trade prohibited ; they will with refped: to us be under the fame or on their fide more advantageous circumflances : why will it then not be in their power to ad; likewifQ ' * This ',vas written fome months ago. ^1 IW I f. \ I I > [ i8 ] t likewife the fame part towards us ? They have creeks and bays which our veflcls will not be able to vifit : we may pro- nounce them pirates or rebels or what we pleafe ; they will hold themfelves for in- dependent ftates and will proceed as fuch : we may threaten them with the laws of our land and they will anfwer with thofe of reprifal. Our minifters have in a very fliort time brought us out of the moft profound peace into the worfl of civil wars ; it is to be hoped, that they will not for their next ftep make this a war without quarter; which feems one of the very few means left them for adding to its mifchief and its malignity. I don't mean, that I depend on the mercy or the companion of fome men ; but the num- ber of captives will probably be in that cafe againft us and the outcry on their blood too flrong at home to be withflood. The Spaniards and the Portuguefe went that way to work with the Dutch ; until that thefe made them to repent of their proceedings : they threw in return and in retaliation over-board into the fea fhip's companies of their enemies at once in the Eall-Indies. God forbid, that we fhould ever read or hear fuch horrid relations be- tween [ '9 ] tween Great-Britain and her colonies; th« very fuppofition of which is fufficient to make the blood of any Englifliman to run backward or his hair to iland upright. How long did private perfons unavowcd and unafTifted by any public flute carry on in the Weft-Indies a buccaneering war againft the Spaniards and howfeverely did thefe feel the effeds of it ? Have not we by forbidding the American feamen their peaceable commerce and fifheries driven them, as it were, purpofely and by force into privateers ? How many ihoufands of them are there by fuch means at this mo- ment ready, earneft, eager, watching and almoft under a neceftity to embrace any employment and opportunity of that fort, which may arife or offer themfelves ? I will not now inquire, whether they will want the afTiftance of Britifh feamen ; whether no part of thefe may join in plun- dering our merchants under American co^ lours ; what ports and in what parts of the world will probably be open to them ; whether the Eaft-India Company may not one day have reafon to repent and to rue their fliare of thefe mifchiefs. Does any one doubt but that a powerful reliftance to Great-Britain and a more than equal C contention i M it [ 2° 1 contention with her will foon give thefc ftates a confcqucnce and a countenance a*- mong nations ? W^ it long before that our Commonwealth of England, as it was called, acquired a confideration with the powx'rs and the empires of Europe ? Did not fucccfs and advantage car^y in a very ihort time the Dutch in their conteil with Spain far beyontl what they thought of or jiopcd for themfelves in the beginning ? How might fome ininillers Hart and flare were they to be told, that North-America may pofFibly become fuperior by fca to Great-Britain ; before that they fhall in the name of Great-Britain, have by land or by any other means conquered North- America; fuperior byfea to Great-Britain (if our illand fliall continue united) or to England, if the two parts of it fliall by our future misfortunes and through thefe mi- ferable mcafures be once more feparated ; I fay, North-America now not miftrefs of one fliipof war in the world and Great- Britain queen at this time of the ocean and the ffcrongell maritime nation, that has hitherto appeared among mankind. What a comparilon and how itrangc a dif- proportion ! But how many moll mate- rial events have already fallen out very difierently I I 4 :J J [ 21 ] difFerently from the opinions and the e*.-* pedations of thofe, who have condi'.wtcd our counfels ? What prodigies and mira- cles in mifchief have hy them heen per- formed within the fmall compafs of two years I* Have they not loft, revolted, thrown away all our ancient North-America in lefs than that time ? This prodigious na- val power of ours now moft juftly making fuch an impreffion on our minds, who knows, whether it may long fubfift un- der our prefent proceedings and how lit- tle do fome men feem to confider from whence it has arifen and whereon it refts ? I will not now enter into that field ; it is a very wide one : it may comprehend not only certain late ad:s of parliament rela- ting to the Newfoundland, the Labrador and to other fiftieries, but likewife many more diftant circumftances and perhaps the whole circle of the minillerial fyf- tem. Should any one be on this head in- clined to impeach the writer of prefump- tion or of extravagance ; I fliall only an- fwer. that there does not appear more caufe, more reafon to cxped: fuccefs from the prefent wild attempts and projects of fuch a conqueft; than thefe give ground and foundation to apprehend, that the C 2 other [ ^•l ] 1 m^: other probability or poflibility may by their ii:cans be brought about and take place not to-day or to-morrow, but within ibme niod'^ratd diflance of time nor can , I but obfervc that the plain and the pro- per method to prevent or to :.\"oi6, both thefe extremities mud be by an immedi- ate accommodation and peace. We will however ranfack the earth on this occalion ralher than to be frullrated of our ends and if we cannot for our purpofe furnifli fulFicient forces from home we will hire them from abroad or we will confide to foreigners our domeftic defence, while we facrilicc our own people beyond the Atlantic. Does then any one imagine, that our colonics will not find during this con- ted as many and -as coniiderahle refources in their favour, as our minifters are maf- ters of to turn and to employ againfl them ? Is the progrefs of thefc unhappy broils probable to be more on our fide, than tiAc beginning of tliem has been ; at whicii moment our attempt might have been i'xpc&d to make fome imprefiiori, if it ever fliould ? A fev/ tlioufands of men were f:;nt and went at iirft on this er- rand, as if there had been little more to da ■li [ 23 ] do than todifperfe a tumult in theflreets. They were cooped up and beiieged in Bof- ton one whole year for their pains. Thefe not humbling America to our minds, we multiplied them to their prelent comple- ment, which it was not doubte'l would do the bufinefs. We hive not however made much more way by that means : the pro- vincials poured down and encamped tliere- upon their numbers in proportion. Our troops marched one day about adozen miles into the country and were well pleafed to come home with better fpeed, than they went out. We have in two campaigns fo far proceeded towards the conqueft of Ame- rica. The Provincials now befiege our peo- ple with about eighteen thoufand men in their lines ; they keep nearly as many more cantoned in the fame colony and within call ; they are faid to have in all not lefs than one hundred and fifty thoufand armed and muilered : they can and they will have more, if they want : thefe however fesm fully fufficient to face, to confine, to controu! any power likely to be formed and to be brought againft them on our part ', they will neverthelefs not burthen unneceflarily their country, but v/ill be called forth into the field and into adion, accordin/lv r h 1 T i\i ^l; IH' :!■ " * [ 24 ] accordingly as the occafion and theftrength ' of their enemies fhall require. Is not it evident to every one that the further we Jiavc hitherto proceeded in this affair, our objedt is but the more removed and the more diftant from us -, that our provinces (I don't know, whether it is permitted me to term them the thirteen united pro- vinces, but it may not be long, before that bigger and better than the writer will ftile them by that title -, unlefs that we fhall without delay take proper methods and very different from thofe hitherto pur- fued to prevent it) but, I fay, is it not moil evident, that they have improved and have fortified themielves in their de- fence much fafler and more e^edtually, than ^^^e have gained and have advanced upon them in our attack ? Even Georgia fpurns at us and has joined our enemies, while we are become proud of thefriend- fhip and the attachment of Nova-Scotia ; whom we do ourfelves in a manner nourifh and maintain. America is now in the middle of a long and a flrong winter. This is a time and a feafon of advantage given to the natives by Providence : what events it may produce, no one yet knows; |5Ut pafl experience will explain to us, how ■ V-t ■if m I u M •>^; [ 25 ] how it Is probable, that they may employ the opportunity and whether it is to be expedted, that they will be well prepared and ftrengthened by the Spring. Are we fure, that even their ports and their coafls upon the fea wiU be always fo open and fo expofed to us, as they have hitherto been? Thefe are in them.felves certainly very ferious confiderations ; is it how- ever lawful for the adminiftration to introduce at will foreign forces into Gib- raltar and Port-Mahon ? Can the King of Great- Britain give and grant thefe im-*- portant pofl'effions to Hanover and make them part and parcel of that eled:orate ? They were purchafed at a prodigious ex- pence of the blood and the treafure of this country and were the only prizes of a vcr^'^ vidlorious war pretended at leaft to have been carried on in fupport of the proteflant fucceilion and ^re they after all not the public property of the nation, but the private patrimony of the prince ? In what light mufl the people and the fubjecft be looked upon, if tfiat could be the cafe ? A queftion of the like nature is faid to have on the occalion of a certain letter in the time of King George the Firll: been determined on the national C 4 lide. % t T 1 1' [ 26 ] fide. If therefore fuch a prepofterous power is clearly and undoubtedly beyond the jurifdidtion of the crown ; does not it of neceflity follow, that neither can his Majefty's minifters take thefe fortrelles out of the hands of our nation and deliver them into thofe of the other ? I fpeak this with refpedt to that electorate remaining under the dominion of our King; but fuppofe, that the Emperor of Germany or the King of Pruflia fhould in a fit of ill-humqur or of ambition feize upon Ha- nover ; who would then have Gibraltar and Port-Mahon, if they were garrifoned from thence ? Would not he, who com- manded the country, who was mafler of the wives and the families, of the eftates and the concerns, of thofe, who had the cullody of them ? It may be obferved, that there will iiotwithflandino: this in- trodud:ipn of flrangers remain for the pre-r fent at leait rather more Britons than Ger- mans. But whoever is without the con- fent and the conci-.rrence of our legilla- ture intitlcd to fend thither one company of fuch troops, inuft like wife be fo to do the fime by more ; no bounds or parti- cular number of men or of regiments can in that reiped be pointed out and pre- fcribed. [ 27 ] Icribed. A greater proportion may more abfolutely dellroy, but a lefler will weaken our fecurity. It is an utter abfurdity and almofl bordering upon ridicule to fay; that the King is obliged to prefei , ^ to Great-Britain the right, but that his mi- nifters may at their pleafure part with to another people the poil'eliion of thofe pla- ces. If we cannot be lawfully deprived of the pofls themfelves, fo neither can we of the means necelTary to hold and to retain them : thefe two circumftances are in the prefent cafe and of their own na- ture infeparably connected and united. There is alfo a report of twenty thoufand Ruffians defigned for America itfelf : that will be a prodigy indeed ! Are then fome of thefe to be raifed in the neighbourhood of Kamchatfka within three days fail of the eaflern coaft of America, to march over Ruffia and along-iide of Afia, to fail through Europe, to pafs by Africa and at length to land again on the oppofite and the moft diftant part of America and to wage war there, as it were, with their antipodes ; with a people againfl whom they have fo little caufe or pretence of quarrel -, that perhaps hardly ever did a native of thefe newly-planted territories fet ■ff" » i 1 •111 I ; t «8 ] ict his foot in the vaft empire of Mufcovy or a Ruffian vifit thcle weiiern regions of the world, until that now being urged and inftigated by a Britifh adminiftra- tion they fhall have gone thither on this moft unjufi: and melt inhuman errand. How are they to be there recruited, af- fifted and fupported with a good part of the globe between them and their own nation ? Muft they not melt away like fnow in the fun, whofe place is no more feen or fupplied ? Is this then the man- ner, in which our minifters make their conquefts ? Muft heaven and earth be thus moved againft a people, who were within thefe three years in perfect fubmiffion and obedience to us ? In fubmiffion and in obedience do I fay ? who were united to us by the moft cordial friendihip, affec- tion and attachment. How muft the creft iink and the pride and the honour be humbled of Great-Britain in that mo- ment, when we ftiall be feen under the neceffity to employ Ruffian troops and Ruffian armies for the fubduing to us our own provinces ; we who have for many years paft been the iirft and the foremoft tio meddle in every idle fquabble, which i:oiild arife in any part of Europe and be- tv/een J i 'i ;; • [ 29 ] tween whatfoever nations ? Muft not we from that time become obfequious flavcs I of the court and the Emprefs of Peterf- burgh ? Will our peace fubfift, but at their pleafure ? Muft not our navies and our armies be at their devotion, if any fuch fhall remain to us ? If we have an intereft there^ why is not it employed to promote our trade and our commerce or ^ will it not be very iufficiently wanted for that end ? What ftar reigns, that we muft turn to our ruin and our deftrudtion, even our few benefits and advantages ? Will Ruffia itfelf make fuch a return to our nation, as to facrifice our country to the paffions of our court ? Fortune and France are however faid to have faved us from this infatuation, when our own prudence and difcretion would not have done it ; France that fignifies herfelf to be fo friendly and fo peaceable, that would not for the world have a finger in thefe mif- chiefs, that fome men feem to think would hardly accept again of Canada, if it was offered to her. Let that report however be better or worfe founded, as it may ; let any fuch circumftances happen fooner or later, (for happen undoubtedly they will and probably at fome conjundlure chofer\ I f 30 1 chofen by our enemies, if that thefe things proceed) Should we however fend Eng- liih, Scotch, Irifh, Dutch, Canadians, In- dians, Hanoverians, Ilellians, RulTians, and as many more nations to wafle from (me end to the other with fire and with iword and with the worfl horrors and ha- voc of war that whole continent fo lately our own, of what benefit would all this be to Great-Britain ? We had lately a monopoly of the commerce of the Ame- ricans ; we have already obliged them to lay it open to all nations ; we are now fighting to force an exclufion againft our- felves; we are endeavouring to drive them into fome new patronage and protection ; this is the only pofiible end of our pains, (hould we by all thefe ftrange means make upon them much more impreflion, than there is the Icafl: appearance or probability of our being able to do. Is the poor wretch chained and confined to his cell upon clean llTaw in Bedlam pollefied with more madnefs, than are thefe our own moil extravagant fchemes and projedls, mea- fures and mifchiefs ? This is however not all, that I have to fay on the fubjed:. I'here is in the way another obfiacle, an-r other impediment, more fatal, more dif- ficult. i t. [ 3' ] ficLilt, more unfurmountablc; tlran even any thing before mentioned, if that is eafily poilible. All thefe expenfive plans, thefe violent and fo:xcd efforts will only ferve to hallen the independence of the provinces and our own undoing. It is not by the downright dint of arms and the de- cifion of many bloody battles, but by a failure of our revenue ; that the prefent conteil will probably come to its conclu- lion. Twenty thoufind mjn may make more wafle and fpoil in our provinces, than ten and tliirty, than twenty^ but no num- bers will be equal to the conqueft of that great, united continent ; which we are capable to provide and to pay. O ir mi- nifters will want Hanoverian, Hellian and Ruflian finances, as well as tlu forces of thofe nations ; for they feem already to be very nearly arrived to the extremity of thofe of Great-Britain. Let us for an inltant confider the ftate of our revenue, if that the height, the horror and the confufion of thefe affairs will allow us lei- fure and patience. The public accounts run from one Lady-day to another. There were at Lady-day lafl due from the Sink- ing Fund about nine hundred thoufand pounds, with which were difcharged eight WT' r I ! [ 32 ] tight hundred and eighty thoufand irt tliree per cent annuities. This fum fhould rather have heen ufed to reduce the debt of the navy, which was increafed lix hundred and fifty thoufand pounds or up- wards witliin tlicfe three years and which amounted at Chrillmas hiil to above eigh- teen hundred thoufiind ; but we were proud of appearing to pay off our princi- pal. Let us liowever not criticife too llridtly this circumllance. We are in no t^^reat danger of running again into the tame error. This looks like the lafl in- ilance of the kind. We have now in twelve years of peace paid off according to the utmofl: pretenfions on that head and before thefe late expences, as much as we incurred in nine months of the lafl war. And here we may in all appearance make up and clofe that whole account. No man nov/ born may probably ever fee fuch another fum difcharged of the Britifh na- tional debt : this feems to have been the feal on the fubjecl. Thus however was concluded the account of the Sinkin^: Fund ending at Lady-day 1775. We tht'u took for the fervicc of the current year upon the credit of that fund, upon its future growing produce fuppjfcd to arife between 5,^ I [ 33 ] 'as Its lie ii between Lady-day laft and Lady-day 1776 two millions wanting one hundred thoii- fand pounds. That with the taxes of the land and the malt were our ways and means for this year. But what were thefe things in the hands of miniflers bent on cam- paigns and conquefls ? They fpent lafl fummer fuch prodigious fums for the pub- lic good ; as made it in order to procure more money for the fame purpofe necef- fary to aflemble the parliament earlier this winter, than was perhaps ever before known in our annals. That body ac- cordingly met and pafled without delay the land tax at four fhillings in the pound. It is not the cuflom of adminiftration to flay for the flow and the quarterly pro- duce of this tax ; but the Bank immedi- ately advances at a certain intereft money to the whole amount and takes it again, as it comes in by degrees. The w^ants, the debts and the demands were ready before. Thus is now in the year one thoufand feven hundred and feventy-five, that high and heavy tax at its full extent of four fliillings mortgaged, fpent and gone, as far as Lady-day feventeen hun- dred and feven ty-feven inclufive. Never was fuch an anticipation hitherto known or U I [■34 1 M* iittcihptcd ; but he is a poor minillei^y who docs not improve on thole that went ]>cforc liim. We have now probably ap- )>roaciiini^ another moil ex pen live year, likely fiir to out-go even the lall in extra- \aganee. There rtniaiiis to iMilvvcr all only the malt tax affording tliree tjuarters of a miihon and tliis poor hackneyed horie tlie Sinkinirpund encumbered with ninctecji hundred thoufand pounds before l*[)okcn of and fufrlring by the defalcation to be expedl:ed from the adual condition of our alfairs and of wliich no man yet knows the extent. Thus llands in grofs the flate of the revenue at this day, all explanatory accounts and papers being de- nied. Some ferviccs may and no doubt will be run behind ; means may poilibly be found for anticipating yet further the Sinking: Fund ; tliefe thinj^s however will have an end : they cannot laft lonf.';. Our next ftep mull be to borrow; but how to make tnut pradicabie mny puzzle all tlie williom even of owv prefent miniflers. How gre-.'.t a cc'iiullon of our infinite funds now fubiiinng may be then expedt-^ t'd ? \\ h-At Vv'ill be our fio^urc, v/hen we r.ppear again before the face of all Europe aikin;^ in the old ftrain for more nullions upon .■V-'t i 35 ] Upon millions at intereft i Our moft cnor* mous incumbrance already incurred with* out the lead appearance of being ever paid off, our adtual and moft critical fituation brought on wantonly and perfifted in ob- ftinately, the evident danger of the very fountain of our revenue drying up and failing will then all operate and have their full force and effedt. The going to mar- ket again for money is the particular cir- cumftance, which our adminiftration had from the beginning efpecial caufe to fear and to avoid. What ihall I fay, that our fate forces us or that we run with our eyes open upon the rock, where we cannot but be wrecked ? There is no other ftage be- yond this of borrowing, but a ftoppage in paying the intereft of our public debt or in plain Englifb a national bankruptcy. The whole frame of our government will in that day fhake to its very foundation. I do not pretend now to go to the bottom of this fubjedt : more has in another place been faid upon it. (See Confiderations, &c. page 96.) I proteft however, that I do not write down thefe words upon my paper without being not only fhocked for the fake of the public, but likewife ut- terly amazed at the madnefs of our mini- D fters ; mm It fters 5 fully fatisfied and confident in my ewn mind, as I am i that they are ac- cording to their prefent coorfe going head-* long upon that point and in all appear- ance without the leafl queftion, fcruple, coniideration or hefitation in themfelves j when they had at the beginning no temp- tation or provocation towards it; when they might perfectly well have flopped in their progrefs and even might at this mo- ment poilibly do foyet, if they truly and fincerely defired and endeavoured it: I ■fay perhaps might yet do it; although the time and the opportunity permitted to us by Providence for that purpofe ap- pear to be now drawing to a very fliort period . Ho vvever unconcerned fome men may be about their country, have they no thought for tl\emfelves? Should our public funds burft like an immcnfc bomb, will not the fplinters ftrike thofe, who fland the neareft? What muft in fuch a conjuncture be the cafe and the flate of a firft minifter? It may perhaps be replied ; I will then refign my place and will fay, that the repeal of the ftamp- adt made the mifchief or that it proceeded from fome long-concerted fcheme of the colonics; men may perhaps be even then found '■■m m E 37 1 found to confirm and on occafion to vote, as much ; fo ithall all be well, my private breaft be appeafed and my King and my country be contented. But is fuch lan- guage, the idle prattle of a parcel of chil- dren playing about kingdoms and em- pires or the ferious difcourfe of perfons, who have undertaken to condudl the ftate and on whofe every motion, adtion, mea- fure depends the happinefs or the mifery of mary millions of mankind ? Can this great empire tumble without cruihing in its ruin tnofe whofe poft, whofe province and whofe duty it is to prop and to fup- port it ; but who do on the contrary by their mifcondudt and their mifmanage- ment bring it down ? Ruin will however not reft there. It has pleafed the Al- mighty Governor of the v'orld in his tran- fcendent wifdom to ccnne<£t the concerns of the wife and the weak, of the provi* dent and the deiperate. It behoves for his ov^n fake and his own fafety every man to concur according to his power in the prefervation of his country: he will otherwife infallibly find himfelf involved in its fate. This cannot in our cafe be compafled but by the moft prudent and the moft difcreet means : D 2 we ' i ! [ 38 ] we had not been, where we now are, if that wiidnefs and madnefs would have wrought it. This Ruffian meafure is on the contrary the meer, the hopelefs impuhe of refentment and of rage, of dif- appointment and of defpair: it can pof- fibly contribute to no end, but that of our own undoing* There is however one affiilance, of which it would be unreafonable to refufe the full force to thofe, who have provided and procured it. It is to be hoped, that the addrelTes will be preferved containing the (incere and the difinterefted proffers of many lives and fortunes on this occalion. Men now fo forward will no doubt in cafe of exigency be perfedly ready to perform their words : they will at leaft offer them- felves for the firft facrifice; if any public misfortunes fhall follow in confequence of their advice and their deiires. Have they then well tfonlidered; whether it is wife to call combuflibles on a fire, which al - ready threatens to confume the w' sole Bri- ti:h empire ? Counfels and profeffions re- fpe'^ting a point of this extreme moment can fuicly never be meant to gain only a little ('. niporary court favour and then to '■■•''£} of k '■3 [ 39 ] be without further refledtion forgotten or given to the wind ? But however that may be ; let their authors well beware, that thefe things do not bring in time to come moft ferious mifchiefs on them and on theirs; that they never haunt them in their lleep and in their beds, unlefs their hearts fhall be fteeled and be hardened againfl every poffible calamity of their country : Are they fure, that it will be long before they fhall have reafon to re- pent with tears of blood the meafures, which they are now perhaps, but idly and wantonly recommending ? . Vv^e have likewife been told ; that mi- litary difcipline is irrefiftible and that the Americans neither have nor can have on account of their equality among them- felves any fuch thing. The matter of fadl funiifhes us here with the moil pro- per reply. This point however having on the prefent occafion been much vaunt- ed and fpoken of and the writer being one, who profefles himfelf as yet to learn any fingleci^cumftance wherein fervitude is fuperior to freedom, he defires to offer fome obfervations on the fubjed. I can-» not perfwade myfelf to bejieve, that true, D 3 real TT & :1' r I t 40 1 real, proper military difcipline confifts iii blows and in ftripes, in tyrannical laws and cruel executions, in the pride of the officer and the abjedtnefs of the foldier or that it is not equally compatible with liberty, as with llavery or much more fo. The art of war has infadl ever flourifhcd moftin free ftates. When the clear and the authentic accounts of hiftorians begin on that fub- jedt, Greece excelled in it; whofe liberty v'ill no*- be difputed : that people being reduced ; fubdued by one another, it paffed to ]Vi..cedonia, a bordering or in a larger {enfc another Grecian nation, go^ verned by Kings, but not defpotically : their two celebrated leaders Philip and Alexander were captains general of Greece: the army was compofed of a mixture of Macedonian and of Grecian troops, with which the latter performed his great ex- ploits and fubjecfted i^gypt, Afia and In- dia. This ftate however foon funk into abfolutc fervitude. The military art then fet up its ilandard in Rome, equally fa- mous for its freedom and for its moft ex- tenfive empire acquired by conqueft. The Roman legions were enrolled in the city 5 their generals and their chief officers were phplen by the people : their armies were often t. ■i - [ 41 ] often formed and led in a fhort time againft the en^my. The ftory of Scipio is well known, who prepared and who difcipUne4 his troops in Sicily one.fiimmer> who car- ried then> over into Africa and gaipcd. there great victories the fame year and who overcame Hannibal and conquered Carthage the next. The Roman comr. manders had after the disbanding of their armies the firft and the npblefl boons eyer conferred among men to aik of their fol?*, diers in the capacity of citizens. When; this miftfefs and pride of the world felt, thp fate of all human inilitutions and was enflaved in her turn, her martial fame followed her freedom : conqueft and fuc- cefs in war were transferred to divers bar- barous people far inferior to the RomanS; in other refpedts, but fuperior by their liberty. In thefe latter times and fmce the fettlement of Europe by thpfe nor- thern nations the inhabitants of np parti- cular fpot appear to have had on this head any very remarkable and commanding pre- eminence above the reft of mankind. The Engliih have however been much diftin- guifhed for their civil conftitution, in which a part is preferved to the public and the community ; that thefe are in almoft D 4 ^veiy iT . il_ !i.i :, .:!i [ 42 ] every other country deprived of. The influence of this freedom has accordingly been found and felt in our military af- fairs. We have had many bloody con- tefts and battles with a neighbouring na- tion more pray mifchief, but by peace and by com-» merce; whenever they ihall become a perfectly free, felf-governed, iridependent people I I \ [ 44 ] people : which ftate feems to be fooncr c/ Uter preparing for them; later if we ro'ild continue contented with the pro- digious benefits formerly and hitherto received from them ; but fooner and per- haps immediately, if nothing fhall remove or reflrain the prefent raging madnefs of our miniflers. ,!*■' i : But it has been the fafhion to fig- nify, that the Americans are coward$ and poltroons and that therefore it mat- ters not what numbers or what difci- pline they may have : I dare fay, that their own inftant anfwer to this will be j let then better and braver men than our- fclves win our country and wear it, if that is the cafe ; they will no doubt readily fling down the gauntlet on this fubjedl. They have however given to it another yet fuller and more effectual reply, which is by their behaviour itfelf. This reflection will hardly be again repeated ; but is not it very extraordinary; that fuch a general, an injnrious and in itfelf an incredible and an improbable charge fhould have been fuggefted refpedting thefe numerous comniunities of men without one lingle iadt being in confirmation of it produced or m t 45 ] or faftcned upon them among all the V'a- fious events and occurrences of the laic war, throughout which our and their troops almoft conftantly adted together both on the continent and in the iflands of the Weft-Indies ; I fay, vl^ithout its being fupported or confirmed by any one fadt of that kind hitherto known or heard of ? As to the fuccefsful liege of Louif- bourg and their making themfelves maf*- ters of Cape- Breton in the war before, an expedition undertaken, performed and until now at leaft ever remembered highly to rheir honour and which afforded us the only acquifition, that we had to part with at the enfuing peace; they could be in no very great danger of finking or of fuffer- ing under that infamy of that affair -, but they muft on the contrary have furely been much flattered, when they found their enemies forced to produce their vic- tories and their conquefts to prove their poltroonery and their cowardice. I don't hereby mean to exprefs, that all the things were really faid in public, which may on this fubjedt have fometimes been report- ed ; but the particular reafon of my now introducing this circumftance on the fcene is, that it feems imj)offible to account for ail Ijl [ 46 1 all the extreme ftrangencfs of oiir condudk except on the ground, that fome men did feriouflyfuppofe, believe and proceed upon a principle, that the American militia would never have the valour to face our forces in the field, however they might perhaps vapour and fpeak big at a dif- tance -, as if our colours had carried with them an irrefiilible virtue and magic, like what has fometimes been attributed to the flandard of Mahomet or to banners blefled by the Pope. How muft any man capable of the leaft pity for the public be moved ; if the fate and the welfare of this great, but ill-governed country have adually been flaked on any fuch childifh and extravagant conception ? It is the part of perfons ruling or leading others firfl to found their own proceedings in prudence and afterwards rather to refpedl, than to defpife their enemies. If our minifters are however fo much bent on making comparifons between Britain and Ameri- ca ; why don't they contrail the counfels of our cabinet and the fuccefs of them with thofe of the continental congrefs -, which feems to be more peculiarly their province and where they will certainly find very fufficient matter to employ and to '[ 47 1 to exercife their refledlions ? The courage of others we cannot command ; our own mcafures we may ; let us then leave the provincial valour to itfelf and let us look to our own fteps : the prefent conj undture does but too much want all the wifdom of the wifeft. I come now to a charge againft the Americans of a very different and a much more, fcrious fort, of no Icfs than rebel- lion made upon them not only in our or- dinary prints and our daily dilcourfe, but in the proclamations of the King and in other the higheft authorities of our coun- try. This is indeed a matter of great magnitude and importance : our governors have involved in it the fate of Great-Bri- tain itfelf. Thefe conftantly deduce as a confequence from fuch a fuppofed ftate of things ; that our own nation is for that reafon under a neceifity of running upon its ruin ; that the dignity of government demands of us to purfue and to adopt mea- fures leading diredlly to our deftrudtion : that there can be no talk, no treaty with rebels ; but it muil be bas les armes, fub- miflion to mercy and to taxation or other- wife the fortune and the event of a civil war : [ 48 1 war: there appears fometimes fuch an ca- gernefs in afl'erting thcfe premifos ; as if it was only done on purpofc to come to the conchifion : the parent^country of Old-England is abfolutely doomed to be undone, there feems to be in tl.z whole wheel of fate no finglc chance left in her favour ; however it may happen with the provinces. This is much as prudent in our politicians with refpedt to the public; as it would bejufl in our judges with re- gard to a ^ fivate perfon 5 if they fhould condemn any one to be executed at Tyburn, becaufe he had the evil for- tune to be robbed upon the high-road. This is poilibly not all; who knows, whe- ther no men about the perfon of our ever gracious Prince may by reprefentations and by reafoning of the fame fort endea^ vour to raife in the royal breaft difpleafure or indignation againft a large part of lately :\t leaft Ibme of the moft loyal among his fubjedis to the extreme prejudice not only of his people; but perhaps of the con- cerns and the interefls of his crown ? One would imagine; that fuch alarming, fuch enormous confequences, fhould bring into fufpicion the truth and the foundnefs of the principle itfelf, from v/hich tiiey do or [ 49 ] or arc pretended to proceed ; that they fhould incline us well and carefully to queflion ; whether thefe prefent commo- tions of our provinces are at the bottom real rebellion or whether they may not poffibly arife from fome other reafon or ftand on fome other ground. It is in fo great a flake of our country undoubtedly not only moll lawful, but mofl fitting to debate and to difcufs a pofition, big with fo much mifchief to the public : who- ever fhall difprove it, will open a way to our peace and our prefervation ; will wrefl the means of malice out of the hands of ill-defigning men and will remove the foundation of the fc ly and [the infatua- tion of weak ones. There can be left no true liberty of fpeaking or of writing, all application by the prefs to the public for the common benefit mufl be foreclofed and forbidden ; if that this fubjedl fhall not find a perfed: fand:ion and protection. The tafk demands and deferves a far bet- ter labourer, than the prefent writer : it has found and I truft, that it will again find many fuch : I fhall however for one proceed without further fcruple to the confideration of that queftion, hoping at leafl to point out the road for fome abler perfon ;'l [ 5° I perfon to purfue and being fully confi- dent; that 1 am therein performing my poor, but my befl and my moft faithful ferviccs to my King and my country. I fay then in the fir ft place ; that it is- no wonder, if one looking without the ipediacles of learning cannot in the 25th of Edw. 3d. difcern the adtions of our countrymen beyond the Atlantic. The material words therein are ** If a man do levy war again ft our Lord the King in his realm or be adherent to the King's ene- mies in his realm giving to them aid and comfort in the realm or elfewhere" where- by it appears ; that the treasonable war muft abfolutely be levied in the realm. It is in a fubjedt being at home or abroad treafon to aid, comfort or adhere to the King's enemies in fuch a war j the ene- mies and the war itfelf muft nevertlieiei's be in the realm. Now the realm of Ame- rica, the realm of England and America, the rcahns of England and America are nonfenfe, they are all jargon, no one of them is an expreiTion of the Engliih lan- guage ^ from whence it moft certainly and moft evidently follows ; that neither America nor any war levied there is or can [ 51 ] can be included in thofe words. The King of England had at that time great poiTeffions and claims abroad and this a6t was indifputably couched in fuch terms on purpofe to confine it from affeding them, A law of Poynings pafled by the parliament of Ireland extended to that country lill the Englifh ftatutes fubfifting in the tenth year of H. 7 : our laws of treafon were the year after the union by 7 Anne c. 21. introduced into Scotland: but I vrant to know, how the words be- fore-mentioned defcribe or comprehend America. This mofl penal of all laws and higheft of all crimes cannot be ftretched one jot beyond the ftricteft fenfe with re- fpedt either to purpofe or to expreffion : where the one or the other of thefe fails, there ends like wife the extent of the fta- tute. It is not very furprifing, if Ame- rica has hitherto been mifled or overlooked on this fubjedt; for rebellion never found- ed from thofe fhores, until that fome men at home gave occaiion to tumults there and then chriilened them with a hard name. The queftion is not, what law our anceflors would under Ed. 3 have made ; if things had been then, as they are now ; bi t whether they a(!iually e;ii- ployed on that occafion terms exprefliv^ E of ':' : h fi. [ 52 ] of Aitierica or whether we have fince fup- plied the defedl • if that they did not. Men are not to be hanged, drawn and quar- tered without or againfl law, becaufe that their anceflors lofig lived totally free from all fufpicion of deferving it. What re- flexions ought this fadtto raife in us, that American treiifon is neither to be heard of in our hiftoiy nor traced in our fta* tutes ? Is it then fuddenly fallen from the clouds or has it flamed from the earth among them or is all this civil war only relifl:ance arifing from oppref- f^On, oppreflion which has before formed fo many combinations and has already ef- fed:ed fuch a number of revolutions in the world? This is however not my immedi- ate fubjed; but it may be faid, that we v/ill try thefe people by the 35th of H. 8, as if their, deeds were done in England: to which 1 iliall now only anfwer, that the fad: or the crime mufl: neverthelefs keep its American complexion; that a riot there cannot by that means be turned into a rebellion in England. We may likewife be told, that this term of rebel- lion is \n fome late adls of parliament roundh attributed to the actions of our colonills. My reply to this is; that fuch ^xprQlTions are at moil to be efleemed ^ only. i 53 1 only, as the private and the perfonal fen- timents ot tnofe fufFering them to pafs j but that the moft poiitive, legiflativey en- a^ing words are neeeflary to conftitute a new treafon and to move the land marks fixed by fo material and fo fundamen- tal a ftatute^ as this in queftion. I won- der, how an indidlment for rebellion with- out the word treafon would be treated in Weftrhinfter-hall. But cries fome bolder man, we will cut the Gordian knot, if we cannot untie it ; we will pafs a fpe- cial adt for that purpofe; I will to this fay only: that I fhall then delay the binding up my curious collection of our late American adts; until that 1 can include with them an ex poft fadta ftatute for treafon. I fpeak on this fub- jedt however no opinion of my own : I throw out thefe things t or inquiry and for information. Thcf writer is feniible, that he is according to the expreffion of a eour- ^tryman of his own on a like occalion put- ting his fickle into the harveft of a parti- cular proftiTion. It is in thefe mofl un- promifing times moreover a peculiar hap- pinefs, that our country has fome per- fohs towards whom to caft their eyes; who ave eminent not only for their con- fummate knowledge of our laws and pur E 2 confti-' W I [ 54 ] conftitution -, but likewile for what can alone beflow a true luftre upon the moft fplendid talents, their integrity; men who have evidently facrificed to their opinion of the public good the firfl pofts and pro- fits and honours of ambition. 1 quit therefore this ground and freely defcend further into the field. '-^^ m- 1) % I fay then, that rebellion is indeed a big. word, but that it is at the fame time a moil fufpicious one : it is the common term, which tyrants ever affect to attri- bute to fuch, as defend and as maintain againft them either their own rights or thoft of the reft of mankind. When our anceflors depofed with fo much reafon the fecond Edward and the feccnd Richard would not their proceedings have borne . the name of treafon or of rebellion, if thefe Kings had been the flrongeft ? How fond are Englifhmen of the very found of Magna- Charta, but how- often has force been employed to enad:, to enew and to confirm it? Might not fuch fteps have palled for rebellion ; if the fortune of the field had on thofe oceafions been againft our forefathers ? Who knows, but that Runnymede might in fuch a cafe have now * . . Deen lit I 55 I been celebrated^ as a fcene of diiiippointed iebellipn ? The defence of the conftitu- tioil'by our anceftors againft Charles the Firft has it in ourhiflories, in our fla4:utes, in our prayers, nevei been called a rebel- lion? The Revolution would not it have been branded for a rebellion, the Revolu- tion itfelf, whereon are founded the right and the throve of our mofl gracious King now reigning over us and the claims and the expectations of his family after him, if it had unfortunately failed and mifcar'- ried of fuccefs ? Does any one q'JieO:ion, whether Attornies and SoUicitors would then have bpen found to file informa- tions or judges to give fentence in that flile? Would honeft JefFeries have on fo inviting an occafion been wanting to his office ? I hope however and I truft, that I may for the honour of our anceftors add, -that Parliaments could not in thofe days have been bought, packed or procured, who would likewife have voted, addreffed and enad:ed in the fame language ? Thefe are neverthelefs the parts and the pe- riods of our hiftory, in which Englifh- men efpecially pride themfelves and to which we believe, that we owe the pre- fervation of our moft precious rights and the pofTeflion of every thing, that E ^ we fli [ 56 3 we can properly call our own. I will go no further into this trite tx)pic; it is almoft a common place tipon the liber- ties of the people ; but refiftance there- fore or levying and waging war againft the King k not always treafon or rebel- lion ', notwithflanding many plain, pofi- tive, general adts of parliament contain- ing or exprefling no particular exceptions jn the cafe. Our next queftion feems to be; what is then the circumftance, which diftinr guifhcs ad:s of reliilance from one an- other; that fard:ities or juftifies fome while others of the fame fort are fo im- moral and Co criminal ? I anfwer the caufe : the caufe |s the original fource, which communicates on fuch oceafions the qua- lity of good or of evil, of right or of wrong to the condud: flowing and pro- ceeding from it. What name is among Englilhmen held in higher honour, than that of Mr. John Hampden ? He was ne- verthelefe one of the iirft, who levied war, who took the field, who marched,- whq fought againft the banners, the troops and the perfon of his Prince: He like- wife led and induced many others to do the i [ 57 1 the fame. He merits to be reckoned a- mong the rankeft of rebels; unlefs that his caufe fu0ciently fupported him in all thefe things; I fay, if either that the King was ifititled to have taxed him with- out his confent perfonal or reprefentative or if that the right of preferving from fuch injuftice and oppreflion himfelf and thofe after him did not duly and fully warrant his refiftance. A claim of that kind is well known to have been the great queftion of their quarrel and that it was in Weftminfter-Hall decided on the fide of the King againft Mr. Hampden by a nioft folemn fentence pf all the twelve judges there, being according to the writ- ten law of the land the perfpns proper and competent for that purpofe, Truth and time have notwithftanding determined c - therwife. The name and the remembrance of that excellent Englifhman are by his country, as mqch cherifhed and refpedtr ed, as thofe of fome others may probably be condemned and reprobated; if that they Ihall not be well aware, how they walk in the vyayS or they revive the fatal principles of thofe, who counfelled that unhappy Prince, with whom Mr. Hamp- 4^n was under a neceffity to contend. I .; E 4 / will fm J^, [ 58 ] will not here multiply examples j our hiftory is almoft compofed of them. We have however proceeded one ftcp further : the caufe is then the criterion of right and of wrong in thofe extraordinary cafes j where a great part of the people believe themfelves obliged to appeal from their own government to the fupreme arbiter of the iiniverfe. • * What is on this occafion thea the cau^ of the Americans ? Every one Xvill to that anfwer 5 the gteat queftioA of taxa> tion, the claim of that country not lio ba taxed in England. On that point totally refts all this difpute; if that is falfe, the Americans are errant traitors and rebels j biit if it be on the other hand ^XtA above in truth and in juftice, it Will Well bfeaf the whole weight depending upon it. A right includes the means neceffarytortiain- tain it. A right fand:iiics the adtions done in a juft confequence of it, A right in any cafe and a duty of paffive obedience and of non-refiftance in the fame are an athfblute abfurdity and contradiction . The aci^iolis pf the Americans done in a due defence of a real right, will be perfedly and ab- ifolutely ipnocent j as much as to eat or : \9 I 59 ] to drink or to fleep. Why may they m their opinions not partake of the nature of thole Avhich have preferved and have, as it were, confecrated the memory of the firft m^n of Greece and of Rome, of Tell of Switzerland, of the Naflaus of Hol- land, of RuHel, of Sydney, of Pyrii, of Hampden before- mentioned and of other eminent patriots of our own nation ? Moft iacred fhades and names ever to be reve^ renced, fuf^ at leaft I atn ; that I do ncft mean to introduce you on the fcene' wan^ tonly or unworthily \ Some ads of par- liament lately paiied concerning ihatwef- tern continent will no doubt be the admi- ration of pofterity ; but i do not know, ^that we have as yet dircdtly and immedi- ately forbid to its natives the love of their country - and > fhould we in ourfel ves fhew them k domeftic pattern of the negled: of thaft duty J our fuccefs on the prefent oc- cafion or our profpedt in time to come is perhaps not fuch, as may tempt them to copy and to purfue the example. I fay then; that we had need to demon ftratfe at leafl, that the Americans ad: unjuflly ^ before we pretend to accufe them of ad^ ing rebellioufly : the latter charge with- out the former would be a notable and 4 ^urioua pi t'' [ 60 ] iturious paradox in law, in politics and in morality. They advance particularly three defences ; the nece/^ary and the inherent rights of humanity, the eilcfitial confti- tution of England and their provincial grants and charters : every one of thefe ynuft be fully difproved and removed out of the vv^ay before that the brand of re- bellion can be fixed upon the foreheads of that people. I do not mean at this moment to launch again into th^t large ocean. I fpeak novsr no opinion : my -American countrymeii have on thefe fubt- jedts found friends and advocates the latchet of w^hofe fhoes this writer is not worthy to unlooic ; although he may -have endeavoured not to be wanting on the opeafion with his mite. I fhall leave this warfare of words, where it is between the mercenary troops on the one fide and the militia on the other, I rear, dily reft it on that iiTue only repeating once more with refpeift to 'it ; that there is no crime of rebellion in America, if there is no right pf taxation in Great- Britain, It may perhaps be obferved ; that Mr. Hampden was fupported by two parts of the ( 6i ] the parliament and that he only denied his fhip-money to the fingle command of the King : whereas our Americans are in arms againft the ftatutes and the autho- rity of the whole legiflature. They pre- tend likewife however to be in a fituation iind to (land on aground with refpedlto that point very different from the inhabitants of Great-Britain. I don't at prefent med- dle in that matter: but the parliament here referred to (and of which Mr. Hamp^ den was a member) was fummoned by force and by means of a Scotch army, which probably marched into the king- dom for that purpofe. It fubfifted under under an extraordinary and an extorted power pf not being difTolved but by it- felf. Our ancient Barons adted on great exigencies fometimes in their collective, fometimes in their legiflative capacity and were in this latter cafe fometimes called together with the ^ood will of the King and fometimes by compulfion upon him, What regard however does at the time any man pay to the exprefs words of many adts of parliament, who once ereds ii> England his flandard againfl the crovv^n ? Did the Houfe of Lords or the Houfe of Commons addrefs the Pripce of Orange to i I- [ 62 .] lit v: _ it.' ( ' ^fl' •|to come over from Holland ? I hardly ;know, whethfcr it is lawful for me to fay, fthat the rcvoltition was brought about in the face of tl)e higliell written laws of 4he land; but the ftatutes of treafon, the fceptre of the King a«vd the cuftom of ^fuccefTion all plied and bent in- that day, like twigs of ozier. We :fhaU be told, that our anceftors were. on fuc'h highoc- cafions warranted by reafon and by felf- prefervation. Who is , more forward to \acknowledge that than the writer ? But /what is then become of thofe principles ? -Did they in the year eighty-eight aban- • d<3^. .England never to be known there a- gain ; when a few men were once fatisfied with their having got at the head of the governmjent ? Have they under the prefent . planet loft their influence and have power and fcrc* taken their place ? But it may be ./aid; that our ail wua In thofe ancient times attacked and muft have beentfurrendered by fubmiffion. Will not the Americans in anfwer to this reply the prefen^t claim of taxation to be a net; which evidently catches and covers the whole property of their continent ? We have by the means of fuch maxims and fucli motives of .ac- tion in thofe preceding us inherited and do *, fc '. C 63 ] Jo ctojoy thehighcft of human advantages*; our liberties and our properties; we mean- then beyond doubt not to deny or to dif- avow them in ony due cafe of another peo- ple our kinfmcn, our brethren, the com- mon offspring of the fame forefathers and progenitors. I make here however no prccife comparifons : my conclufion is ge- neral ; that therefore the Americans and all other communities of men are accord- ing to the practice of our anceilors, tho right of the revolution and the principles of the people of England wrarninted in a jufl felf-defence and a righteous caufc td* V7age war, if I may fo exprefs myfelf, with the whole or with any part of the world. . I had with regard to the future fadt likewife rather, that any other would an- fwer than the writer -, 1 mean, how long it would probably be, before that the real prad:ice of taking the little all of this poc and this beginning people might accom- pany the pretenfion fupported by the power. The property of America does wonders in the poiTellion and the difpo- lition of its owners, wonders that may make fome men amazed, if they ihati continue hardened ; but would the whoJe of m of it 136 many brcakfafts for a Britifh mi- nifter with two or three ways^and-meanj' men at his table ? What hands have on the head of taxation been the hcavieft of the whole v/orld ? Die quibus in terris — What ftate or kingdom is now indebted and mortgaged the highefl of any that ever was upon the earth ? If we have v/antonly fquandered the fair lot left us by our own fore-fathers or have bafely and meanly confented to its being done, is that a juft icafon for us to bereave other more pru-f dent perfbns of the inheritance of their ancefiors or the acquifitions of their in- duilry ? Mankind contend againfl tyran- ny, in order to have ibmething of their own and fome ciontroul over it; but where is the di^erei ':e to any people by whom they are deprived of their all ; if that thd> evil itfelf is to be done them ? But what are we, if the Americans are not rebels ? Is it imagined ; that their diiftionaries do not contain on that head> as monv hard words, as our own ? Thd red:itude of our adlions refers to the fame claim of taxation, v/itli theirs; but on the oppofide nde. Let us build as high, a^ Bubei ; all we raife muil reft on our firft [ 6s ] ftrft foundation : the ediiice above will • certainly be ftrong or ruinous; as the ground below is found or rotten. We may cover the fea with our fhips and the land with our troops ; we may add ingra- titude, injuftice, rapine, murder and other crimes to one another, as the giants of of old are faid to have heaped mountain upon mountain againfl heaven ; but we cannot by that means turn right into wrong, tyranny into protection or felf- defence into rebellion. Cruelty has often disfigured a fair beginning and made more black many a foul one ; but we may^ as well hope to waih with water an iEthio- pian white, as to change by power the complexion of a bad caufe. When we accufe the Americans of offending againfl our national flatutes ; let us remember our- felves, that there is a law more unalte- rable than that of the Medes and the Per- fians and higher and flronger than adls of the Britifh Parliament. But does not this fubjedl open to us obfervations of another fort ; although whether fuch as will be taken in an evil or a favourable light for the Americans, I am at a lofs to fay ? Thefe have fuddenly V , and »'■ W '^it [ 66- ]• and totally diflblved for the prefent at leaft our government througiiout thirteen colonies and over a vaft trad: of country ;; they have hitherto w^anted time or per-. haos on our account inclination to fettle' and to eftablifh another regular one in the; room of it : they are nevertheleis fo fan from falling into confuiion and into dif- tradlion among themfclves thereupon; that they have in the fame very fhort time raifed and formed a ftrong defence, have maintained an open and a declared war with a mofl potent nation direded by mi- nifters earneiUy bent upon their mifchief, have fuccefsfully and efFcd:ually made head againft our attacks, againft an army compoied of the flower of our troops, commanded by chofen generals, fupported by the fleet and backed with all the power and the means of Great-Britain. They rather threaten to gain of ours, thanfeem likely to lofe of their own. The whole conteil has hitherto not cofl: them a thou- fsnd men. Thefe circumfl:ances and many more confldered, may not any one vdnture to aflirm ; that it is an event unequalled by any of the fame nature in the annals of mankind, the vidorious contention of Hoiland with Spain not exceoted ? It is ' ' difficult [ 67 ] ditRcult to determine, whether the viorour ... ^ or the difcretion of their counfels and their a(5tions has been moil diftinguiflia- hle. The whole is an admirable, but a natural effe^ of freedom united with a knowledge and an experience of govern- ment. Some men feem fo much out of humour with tlie neceilary confequences of their own condud: ^ that they will per- haps hardly permit me to fay that it does a credit and an honour to the adual flate of humanity. Let us however hope, that it is a fmall glimpfe or promile of a much more improved and more advantageous condition, than theprefcnt; to which the general community of mankind is daily and by degrees advancing. Barbarous tribes of Savages, fuch as Indians or as Corficans, are like a loofe body of fand, of which no firm building can be framed. A people of flaves, the populace and the janifTaries of Conftantinople or any other can on their occafions a(5t only by fudden impulfes, ftarts and fallies ; without a plan, without prudence and without fore- iight. A happy combination of order with liberty makes the cafe of our North- Americans equally to differ from each of the defe [ 87 ] tion of the people confided to its care ; ta make a queflion ; whether thefe have themielves in that cafe a right to purfue and to provide for their happinefs by fuch means, as they conceive the moft condu- cive thereto, be it by reliflance or by obe- dience ', feems much what it would be to debate, whether it is lawful for the fparks to fly upwards or for ftones to fall to the ground or for the planets to gravitate to- wards the center of their fyftem : they muft all of them equally be impelled .md be drawn by their refpedive nature to their proper end. It is likewife not per- mitted for magiftrates to abrogate the e- ternal and the unalterable laws of Provi- dence. It is fo very far from being true; that there is or there can be upon the earth a body of men defpotic, abfolute and Sound only by phyjical necejjityi than which the Englifli language hardly fur- nifhes a more emphatical exprsffion ; that fliould a whole nation command with an unanimous voice one of its individuals to flay his own fon or to lift up his hand a- gainfl: his father : I will be bold to fay, that fuch a perfon would have a right ra-^ ther to refill than to perform it -, if he could on the face of the earth find help G 3 or ft' [ 88 ] or prote(Slion or if he was of himfelf able to mafVer tliofe, who fhould endeavour to enforce the impious command. The firil laws muft ever be thofe of the incompre- hcnfible power, on which the whole world depends. It may perhaps be hereupon afked ; why are not then almoft all ftatcs in continual convuhions and diflradlions, fince men armed and tempted with power are fo apt to trefpafs beyond their due bounds. I fay from the fame fimple principle of this tendency and this attachment to hap- pinefs perpetually fubfifting in all beings. A general love and delire of peace, an a- verfton to diAurbance and to confufion, the common intereil of every one in or- der and in union remain and continue not- withftanding the imprudence or the am- bition of thofe at the helm. The acqui- efcence, the forbearance, the patience of the people and the public take place, where the (Irid: right of their rulers is at its extent. How often do thefe preferve and uphold governments, after that they have themfelves by their ill condudl wea- kened or perhaps dcftroyed their lirft and their original foundations ? This is the great ,' [ 89 ] great and the effedual caufc which main- tains the internal tranquillity of nations and, if 1 may fay fo, the donuftic quiet of the world. How happy won Id it be lur man- kind if the outward peace of ftates with each other was half as well preferved, wuich commonly depends not upon the people, but upon their governments ? It muft be confidered, that a right to relift is almofl always accompanied by another circum- fiance, which is, if I may fo exprefs my- felf, a like and an equal right not to re- fifl. A traveller has a right to refill a robber on the road, but his piflols are in his holilers or he can fpare his money and he defires to fleep in a whole ddn ; he is not according to the vulgar expreiTion faid to be common on fuch occafions obliged to have his brains blown about his ears, only b aufc he has the benefit of felf- deftnc if he pleafes. It is common to have a i ^ht to i fmall fum of money, but which will cofl ten times its value to de- mand in a coun of law. A right does not deprive people of their fcnfes. A pri- vate pei Ton in England would foon be fliot upon the highway or be ni'ied in Wefl- miniler-hall or would meet with fome other mifchance and be in the mean time G 4 excluded 'iu sr ^ ^ ^^- .o. BMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) // {/ J^^y ,^^ 11.25 I. ^^ 2.5 2.2 IM 18 U 111 1.6 V] <^ /] / /^^^ /a °^I ^ ///. Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.r. 14580 ( > ! >! ' 872-4503 f\ iV ^^ \ :\ lv 7^ I"''.*. •*?•> n.^'^ ^ v^ [ 9° ] i!^^ excluded from all honeft company, as troublefome and quarrelfome; who fhould purfue and profecute one half of the rights, which fortune to make no mention of na- ture confers upon him. Jt is not to be imagined, that every man cafts about the iiril moment of rifing out of his bed in a morning only how to dillurb the ftate or to deftroy himfelf. An Englijfhman has a fhorter method than to trouble others, when he is in fo diftempered a mood or however he would foon be brought to a better mind in a country, where content and good government give a vigour to the laws. The Earl of EU'ex is faid in the reign of Queen Elizabeth to have run through the ftreets of London calling and crying to arms : the citizens kept about their bufinefs in peace : he ilept that even- ing in the Tower and from thence ftepped jfoon afterwards to the fcaffold. It is one thing raihly and wantonly to unfettle the quiet of a ftate and another very different to move with the whole; when grievances are infupportable, when events are ripe and when the hand of Providence prepares a revolution as the laft refource of an op- prefTed and a fufFering people. Govern- ments have ftrong and wide and deep roots nor ■^ [ 91 1 » . nor are to be moved or (haken but by vi- olent hurricanes, by high and public and probably not ill-grounded difcon tents. The head and the heigh th even of the lafl rebellion in Great-Britain give no con- vid:ion to the contrary. Thefe were to- tally owing to the mifmanagement of the . adminiflration at the time; as might from authentic materials be ealily demonftrated and as is well known to thofe, who are acquainted with the conduct of the re- gency and the cabinet on that occafion. How fmall a matter was the former riling for the fame caufe in the year fifteen, which had neverthelefs more hidden foun- dation and was at the bottom more abet- ted than the other ? Is it believed, that fubjedls are more apt to become rebels, than their rulers are to turn tyrants ; al- though the latter circumftance often gives occafion to a charge of the former ? How many free ilates have by gentle degrees funk into flavery for one righteous rule, that was ever overturned by violence ? The > diflurbance of the public peace is to a whole people always a mofl ferious and . mofl important objed:. It would perhaps be on a fair examination found, that men of moderate means love and poflibly that they M !::;i" [ 92 ] they enjoy too their domeftic comfort and felicity, at leafl as much as the rich and the great. What alone feems to caufe the true difficulty in this confideration is, that fome perfons are fo elevated with their privikges and their prerogatives, as ever to look down with contempt upon the community : they can brook no conde- fcenfion towards that quarter : they can- not perfwade themfelves to own ; that they hold or they enjoy by their means fuch precious boons, as riches, honours and power : they defire enough to accept and to pofiefs thofe benefits, but it is upon the proudeft and the mofl prefumptuous terms : give me leave to fay, that they are hardly willing to acknowledge the fupe- jiority of Providence itfelf on this fubjed:; I mean, that they deny the validity of his laws and, if they fometimes introduce his authority, it feems to be only for the pur- pofe of putting themfelves in his place. It is however to be feared, that there are hanging over our heads events ; which may before long bring to another fenfe of themfelves fuch men, as muft for that end learn the hard lelTon of misfortune^ ^nd of calamities, It [ 93 ] ' It is perhaps no veiy uncommon opi- nion; that the many and the multitude are conflantly endeavouring to run wrong and that their rulers and their governors are ever hard at work to fet or to keep them to rights ; but this is a fancy, which has not the leaft foundation except in the pre- judices of the perfons entertaining it and dired:ly the contrary of which will upon a fair enquiry into the fad: be certainly found the cafe. I will appeal to any one, whofe fenfes are not abfolutely bought and fold ; whether it is the people and the public or whether it is the adminiflration and (if a handful of inconfiderate men are to be dignified with that name) the government, who have in the prefent cafe and in our own country fought confufion and enfued it ? This reflediion will like- wife hold true upon a larger fcale. States almofl: always fiourifh according to their freedom and according to the greater or the leifer proportion of the community, which partakes in the government of them ; but princes without rcilraint and ading only by their miniflers feldom or never fail to turn into defarts their domi- nions. Let any one caft his eyes or his thoughts over France, over Spain, over r^ [ 94 ] • Italy, over Germany without paffing from Europe into Turkey and into Perfia, all of them countries mofl bountifully blef- fed by the beneficent hand of nature, and having fo done let him then fay, whether it is rebellion or it is defpotifm, which lays wade the world. Our own nation was formerly famous for the check and the controul which it kept upon its go- vernors and fo has it likewife 'been for its figure abroad and its felicity at home : our domeftic hifi:ory however confifts fince the Revolution of a conftant complaifance in our parliaments for our princes and their minifters, I mean in our parlia- ments, that are paft ; but is the moment very far remote, when we fhall fenfibly and perhaps fatally experience, whether the abjed:nefs and the obfequioufnefs of this latter period have more contributed to the profperity or even to the quiet and the fecurity of the public, than the for- mer firmnefs, fi:eadinefs and let me add, at times warrantable and neceflary refift- ance of our anceflors ? We are fure, that the one rendered us an inftance of a rich> a powerful, and upon the whole likewife a well-governed nation; God forbid, that the other fliould firil fling us into confu- fion [ 95 ] fion and then fink us into nothing ! But it may be faid j are there then no inftanccs of popular diforders and difturbances ? I anfwer ; what were the tumults of Tyler, of Cade or of MafTanello more than fires of ftraw kindled and extinguifhed in an inftant ? Such things are not the wounds of a needle, if I may fay fo, in the wel- fare or the hiftory of a nation. It was the defence of the conftitution, which drove our anceftors into arms againft Charles the firft nor fo far did they fuiFer by it. The condud of Cromwell was by the means of a veteran army devoted to its leader a fliort turn upon both prince and people, both royalifts and republi- cans ; but the bent and the inclinations of the whole righted again that alFair in a few years. It was from the temper of the community at the time, that General Monk took his meafures. This ambition however and this apoftacy of Cromwell fo difgraced the republican caufe and fo funk. the republican fpirit, that they have iince never held up their heads in England. Were not the perfons now prefiding over us fo far above the poor counfels of this writer, my humble advice to them would be ; that they fbould beware of reviving them. a [ 96 ] them. I do not at all mean, that there is in the nation now any tendency that way : the prefent complexion of the pub- lic appears to be of a very different caft. It mull be totally the management of our miniilers; if republicanilin does in our days ever recover and raife ao^ain its creil among us. Who knows however what may poflibly and by induftry be brought to pafs ? Some men have a moil fuccefs- ful hand at mifchief, when they fet about it. They have certainly given rife to thir- teen republics elfcwhere ; who appear a fhort time fince to have little thought of any fuch thing ; but it is to be hoped, that the experience already proved will caufe them to flop their headlong career, before that they produce any fuch defpe- rate effedts nearer home. 1 here is on the fubjedt of our compariion in the balance of the people however many millions of men, who have with refped: to political concerns no interefl but in the good of the public; there are the lights, the expe- rience and the underflanding of a whole na- tion : whereas on the other fide and in the miniflerial fcale are often only the blind- nefs, the obflinacy and the phrenzy of a feWj who are but tpo apt to make the whole [ 97 ] whole a prey to their private paflions and advantage. Where is the wonder then that both the paft hiftory and the prclent condition of mankind fliould unite to in- ftrudl us, that it is not the many and the multitude j but that it is courts and ca- binets which are the more given to go wrong and which commonly want the curb and the reftraint of the others to keep them right. Some one may perhaps on the other hand here demand ; what force and effe(ft then can this right of the collective body have, if it is of fo gentle and fo inad:ive a nature, as is here reprefented ? I an- fwer ; that it is like a fword, which may in cafe of neceflity be drawn out of its fcabbard. It is a power dormant and quiet in all tolerable tioics ; but which provo- ked by oppreffion beyond bounds has in the hiftory of mankind tumbled many a tyrant from his throne. It keeps even on common occafions lawlefs and defpotical men in fome check and fome awe. How little liberty is now to be any where found ; but what would be the condition of na- tions 5 if that this right and the fenfe and the apprehenlion of it were totally remo- ved from among mankind ? It [ 98 ] It is a circumftance, which has fomc- timesbeen much agitated on thisfubjedt; who is then to judge when and whether thefe magiftrates, thefe rulers are within or without their limits, are doing right oi* wrong ? I trufl, this point to have been already explained : the queflion how- ever anfwers itfelf. Grant to any man a grain of power and let him in the laft in- ftance but decide upon the extent of its jurifdidlion and the redtitude of its execu- tion and you give him the whole world. He will be far rnore powerful than the fa- mous mathematician and mechanic of old; for he will not move, but he will pofl'efs the earth : fuch is the boundlefs ambition of man. The very point formerly propo- fed by King Charles the firft to the twelve judges was ; whether he might not lawfully levy fhip-money in cafe of neceffity and whether he was not judge of that necef- fity. He wanted nothing more to put the whole property of his people in his power. It is therefore an utter abfurdity ^o fuppofe, that the perfons confided in are to determine this matter in their own cafe and for themfelves ; but it muft ne- celTarily be the body of their conftituents, from whom the truft and the office are derived : > I i >> I 1. I ^ ] derived : but how will a whole nation dr fiich a number of people acfl and execute their judgment and their opinion? This is going back again : I fhall only repeat, by liippcrting and by preferving the peace of the fubfifting ftate; except in cafes of the very lafland utmofl extremity; when men will no doubt again do, as many others and Englifhmen in particular have fo often done before. However we may have foregone the principles, we certainly have not forgotten the hiilory of our an- ceflors. Thus therefore docs upon the whole the great concern of human hap- pinefs iirft form civil government and then reflrain the magiftrate on the one hand and the multitude on the other : a mofl excellent inftitution, when that incom- parable principle is fuifered to continue its operation and its influence ; but if we once quit that objedl as the end and con- .fent as the means, we mufl necelTarily run into a wildernefs; where we cannot fail of falling a prey either to a qualified plun- derer of a prince or to fome bold and law- lefs leader of banditti, who carves out his fortune for himfelf with his fword. Let us fee then, whether thefe opini- ons are not confonant to the hiilory and H the [ 100 J the conftitution of our own country, as well as applicable to the events of the prcfent times. Our anceftors formerly aliemblcd and refolved upon their laws and their meafures in their colledlive capa- city : their princes and their leaders were as evidently commiflioned in the execu- tion of them, as one private perfon is by another : the power then reverted to th^ body and on occalion ifTued from it again. This was the firft origin of our form of government j where we are to feek, where we fhall lind and by which we fhall com- preliend its real, original nature and ef- fcnce. Whatever changes or variations have through neceflity and the mutability of things iince been made or happened in its outward form and circumflances, thefe have all referred and related to its primitive inherent principle : this was on fuch occafions never underftood to have been overturned Or over-ruled. Repre- fentation firft took place inftead of per- fonal prefence : the condition of the na- tion united into one rendered this necef- fary : it was a great alteration, but it ftands on the fame ground of the confent and the concurrence of the whole. Every freeman liad in the beginning his voice towards \ I ' .> I ^ ^ I 101 ] towards chafing the general repre(enta- tives. Eledions began next to be con-* fined anJ to be reflrided: voters for coun- ties were required to own a certain annual income in land: other rcftraints were like- wile contrived : a nominal, arliiicial, fic- titious freedom was introduced into ci- ties and into towns inflcad of the trile and the real one, a freedom only from ilavery and from villenage: new and nar- row rights of voting were invented : bo- roughs were empowered to fend members of Parliament, to which the number of their inhabitants did upon a jufl and a general comparifon by no means entitle them ; places once confiderable came to decay and preferved neverthelefs that pri- vilege. It is not more melancholy, than it is certain and evident, that our confli- tution has by the means of thcfe abufes multiplied and increafed through a fuc- <:e(rion of ages at length totally loft its true and its juft bias* I muft be per- fwaded, that the perfons now poflefTed or its powers would upon a proper applicar tion of the public reftore to us our riglit- ful and our ancient form of government ; I mean, a delegated body as one part^ which being fairly, equally, generally and H 2 impar- m [fy. m t 102 ] impartially chofen, may reprefent the whole by as natural and as neccilriry a connection, as a ihacow rcprefente its fub- llance or the iitia^^c in a mirror its oriiri- nal. Is it unl ivvful to lay, that we fliall be refilled our ripht, if that fuch a boon or demind Ihall be denied us ? I trull however, that tliis will not be the cafe and the times do certainly require, that we Ihouid fpeedily and earneftly make the requcft. How vain muft then be the pretence, that perfons appointed in their greater and confequently their governing part by a fmall proportion only of the whole nation can have over us an abfolutc and an arbitrary power in all cafes what- foever without any exception, without re- drefs or relource in the laws of God or of man ? This is fpoken with refpedl to G reat- Britain ; but when the fame claim is ex- tended over countries diftant from us feve-- ral thoufand miles and being without the lealt fhare even in fuch a choice and ha- ving governments and legillatures of their own and declaring with a w^onderful una- nimity againll that claim, how can it but be numbered with infallibility, divine right and fome other pretenfions of that fort, which power has at times been able i more •> s [ i<^3 ] more or lefs to impofe and to fpread amornt^ men, but againll: which reafon excr- cifed with any the leafl de2;r3c of* Iree- dom has ever moft ftrongiy "rvjivolted and remon/lrated ? Neither is this all; the prefent difpute particularly regams taxa- tion. This ruUii^ and thi'^ taxing boJy are to fwe and to ipare in tne pockets of themfelves and of their conratacnts pre- cifely as much money, as tiiey take out of thofe of the others, a pound fur a pound, a thouland for a thouiand and a million for a miliion. Does not this cir- cumllance contiin in itlelf inch a contrail and a contradiclio.i, that it would appear; impoflible to be a point of diiputCi but that at this inllant treitifes, addrelTes and I know what are writing in letters of blood, that a great continent is threaten- ed to be .^aid wafle with fire and with fword and that the mort eminent illand of the whole world is brought to the very brink of being undone upon the fubjed: of it? Were it in a common cafe and about a moderate matter, would any one hear or anfwer it with ferioufnefs ? Would to God, that I had yet done. This fame taxing body have in lefs than ninety years contraded for its own nation a debt of H 3 onQ [ I04 ] 11 t m ll , ni one hundred and forty millions fterling or thereabouts befides vaft Aims fpent and raifed in the mean time. The nation is believed not to have had fair play upon that head -, but that particulars v^ere by places, by peniions, by preferments and ad- vantages of various and endlefs forts re- paid or rewarded for the burthens kid upon theiii by the public. None w^ill deny or difpute this ; at leaft unlefs it fhould be fome, who heft know it to be true. Was then the hand of admin iftra- tion ever ftron2:er than at this inftant ? What has happened with refpedt to par- liaments not Icng paft muft not the fame be exped:ed to happen with regard to thofe foon to come ; he wcver the perfonal vir- tue of the indi aduals compofing the pre- fent may be proof flpjainft fuch objcdls ? What muft be ^he frrce of this means ap- plied to perfvvade men to grant the money of others abroid, when it has had fuch effedls upon them in the cafe of giving and lavifhing their and our own at home? The whole of thefe things being there- fore taken together; the original inequa^ lity of our eledions rhemfclves, the remote regions in queftion having nothing to do pycn with them, the intereft of the taxing party /' r ^^5 ] party to load thofe taxed for the cafe of themfelves, and a private, but iroiliirong influence holding the back hana of all, I will leave it with every one to deter- mine ', whether it is wrou iung tliis pro- poiition to reckon it among the abfurdi- ties of the firil: rank ever remembered to have been enforced by the hand or been advanced by the pride of power. How ihould any fuch proportion poflibly con- iift with juftice ? Who can fo diflblve all fenfe and reafon, all right and wrong ? Our parliaments themfelves are undoubtedly within the bounds of human beings. Are they able to feparate from exifience a de- lire of happinefs or can they abolifli among men the right of felf-prefervation ? Hav€ they depofed Providence from the govern- ment of the world or when did they wreft the fceptre out of the hands of the Al- mighty ? Is then any one fo full of him- felf as to fancy, that he can with a few ayes or noes at a table of corrupt or of un- corrupt men repeal and annul the general principles and laws of all nature, which not only compafs and pervade this com- paratively fmall ball of our earth; but whofe beginning in time paft or whofe end in time to come or whofe e;xtent in I H 4 that h [ io6 ] that prefent is every one of them infinitely beyond the very narrow bounds of his lit- tle and contemptible conception ? So much for our legiflative and I defirc now to fay fomething concerning our ju- dicial conftitution. Juries are not only a moft reafonable and moft equitable means of determination in matters of meum and . tuum between man and man ; but they are likewife a very excellent fafeguard of the general rights of the community a- gainft the attacks and the attempts of princes, of minifters or of any other pow- erful perfons. They represent in their province the public, not by elecftion, but as a fair, equal, indifferent part and pat- tern of the whole. This is the fenfe and the language of our law and in that mean-^ ing it is, that every one fubmitting to them puts himfelf upon his country. They have in the moft dangerous and moft defperate periods ftood in the breach and . made head againft our court and its ca- binet, when Parliaments were laid afide and unable to help themfelves. They have then not fcrupled to prefent and to demand juftice agviinft the fucceffor to the throne -, which ad: of theirs the whole nation [ 107 ] nation confirmed by binifhing notwith-r ilanding the moH: folemn ftatutes him and his, when he came afterwards himfelf to the crown. They flieltered at the fame time, as it were, under the fliield of Ig- noramus the friends and the defenders of the public liberty. All human inftitu- tions mull ever keep an infinite diftance from every produd:ion of nature ; but if there is among them fome one, which bears more the femblance of a divine ap- pointment than any other; I believe it to be the democratical part of the Englifh conftitution. May heaven long preferve the whole of it entire and perfect ! Being however the offspring of frailty it mud perijfh and I appeal to every one, whether the legiilative branch of it dees not alrea- dy begin to betray ftronger proofs of its mortal birth, than the judicial. I don't neverthelefs prefume from thence to fay, that it will looner come to an abfolute de- cay and corruption than the other: much lefs will i pretend to ])oint out the day and the date of fuch a milchief. I will how- ever fhew the figns, as plainly as the fun •marks the hour of tlie dxy upon the dial; by which it may be known ; if fuch an ^vent fhail ever happen. It mzy be dfi- I ,^-<_. w^ [ io8 ] pended upon, that this cafe is no longer at a diftance, but to be reckoned among the fadls already nrrived ; whenever pri* vate property fhall be well prefervcd be- tween man and man and notwithflanding any fuperiority of the rich and the great; but that our princes and their miniflers fliail be able to take the money out of the pockets of the people at their will and their pleafure. Another ftrange appear- ance in politics and arifing from one com- mon origin with the former may poffibly be at the fame period likewife feen among us i I mean, every individual free in his perfonal concerns, but a general ruin Drought upon all againft the common fenfe and confent of the whole and with- out their having the means or the power to prevent it. Let us however pray, that thefe things may either never come to pafs or at leaft very far from our time if that they are already written in the leaves of fate. Our juries then have before them the great law of nature, which makes a part of the law of our and of every other land; they have our national cuftoms and fta- tutes and give me leave to add, that they have [ 109 ] have on very high and very extraordinary occafions likewile the conduct of admini* ftrations and of government -, w^hich may in fome f^'ch cafes poflibly afford excep- tions, that it is the pradtice never to ex- prefs in our adts of parliament nor always in the books of the profeflion. Should therefore any one anfwering at the bar be ignorant; fhould his council be backward and bafliful -, fhould even his Judges (which I hardly know how to fuppofe) refufe him the full freedom of felf- defence or Ihould he be under any other hard- ship, I will be bold to fay, that as it is immediately within the province and the power ; fo is it abfolutely a part of the incumbent duty of his jury to remedy and to redrefs in the laft inftance all fuch grievances or fuch deficiencies. Next to heaven, let us thnnk and admire the Wifdom of our forcf.-thers. Tnries have at moil to pronounce, but tv/o v/ords r^ud thofe only by one of themfelves : they mufl be unanlmai's : a iinr;ular circum- ilance, but no douht introduced at i^ril in favour of life, of liberty and of property: they are for tlieir fentence accountable to no man, accountable to no man; but una- voidably fo to that Superior Power, which • * protedls IffT" til If [ "o 3 protcdVs the happinefs of mankind, which prefcribes to us juftice for that purpofe and which will by the conftant courie of his eternal laws certainly repay with a due retribution to them and to theirs, all who (hall perform or (hall negled: it. Whoever does injuflice as a judge, adls in an emi- nent manner againft himfe. ' and is at that inflant preferring fome other intereft to his own, however he may be far from in- tending it at the time. The greateft con- cerns of our country come under the deciiion of juries, in many of which thefc do in cffedt give judgement upon themfelves and upon their children after them. Such muft be thefubjedts, which are now before us. I am in what is faid fpeaking not of abufes, but of the true and the genuine confliitution. It is the worft abafement and proftitution of that almoft facred name to apply or to attribute it to practices, which are its oppolitc and which pervert and deflroy inftead of maintain- ing and of executing it. No fuch thing however is or can be law againft the con- ftitution. That is, in the ftate, as the fun is in the firmament, all mifts and vapours vanifh before it : however it may by chance and for a time be under a cloud, t III ] it neither is nor can be extinguifhed : prac-- tice, ufage, cuftom muft all give way, whenever it appears. Maxims and rules of law are on luch occafions not wanting to fet afide abufes nor may the introduc- tion of thefe be difficult to account lor j although it might for the fubjec^V be li ip- py, if that they could al.N^ays be as rca-- dily removed. 1 declare with trutli, that I have not the lead meaning to \ /aids the refpedlable perfons now preiiding and fitting upon our benches, in wh it I am ' about to fay ; I do not at all look that way ; I defire neither to flatter or to of- fend; although I think, that the truefl compliment in my power to pay them is by the writing and the exprefling my Ccn- timents with freedom under their protec- tion and I trufl, that it will be fo received; if that thefe mean words of mime fhall have the fortune to fall into fuch honours- able hands ; but juries ought iii political cafes never to be forgetful or unmindful of the general influence, which the crown muft naturally and necefl*arily have in our courts of juftice. Men are ever forward enough to conform to the will and the pleafure of their vifible, whatever they may be to thofe of their invifible Maftcr or [ 112 1 'J (I m or Maker. Juries then are here referred to free and uniniluenced, not picked or packed or partially chokn by the artifice of fome fmall otiiccr of a court or of any other perfon, but twelve men of the vici- nage fairly and indifferently taken, tw^elve near neighbours ot the fact to be quef- tioned and confid.rcd and who piay by that means be probably able to diflinguifli between a malignant deiire to dillurb the peace and a meritorious attempt to preferve the rights ?nd the privileges of the pub- lic. Such is, 1 fay, our conflitution in its purity and its perfe(fLion and whenever the pradice fhall fo ficr deviate from thence, as for this its true nature and ef- fence to be lo/t, it becomes in thofe in- flances a mifchief inflead of a benefit or it remains at beft an inliornilicant form witl'i out. either virtue or eiTc^t. What would it be more, than meer mockery, to •preferve this cultom w^ith fcrupuloulnefs concerning the ftealing of a horfe or the cutting of a purfe, where there is no ap-^ preheniion of injuftice ; but to over-rule, evade or elude it in the great qMvi lions of government, when a nation may in a manner and by the means of fome one man Hand trial for its firit rights and in- terefls 1^ iii y i I ' '^ t '"S ] terefts and when the neceffity and the ef- fcnti.il ufe of fuch an excellent inftitution • cfpcci.illy take place ? Thus then do the legiflitive and the judicial parts of our conftitution unite and concur in one uni- form, congruous, confonant fyftem of the good and the happinefs of the whole pur- fued and cnfured by confulting the gene- . ral fenfe upon the general concerns with refpedl both to the public meafures and the diftribution of juftice; a fyflem of confummate wildom and the production probably not of one age or of one people : we received it as a birthright and an in- heritance, our obligations for which to • our anceftors will be equalled only by our own bafenefs, if we do not deliver down the fame to their and to our pofterity . - /Let us on thefe grounds then judge the . perfons in queflion. Empannel a Bofton or a Maffachufets jury to try thofe, whom fome fo often affed: to term by the name of rebels. Solventur rtju tahulce — They may there be thinking of ft. tues and of pyramids to their honour, while we are pleading about fcafFolds and gibbets. I i^fay then, that this is according to the •conftitution a full and a fair determina^ tion w *i li ' [ n4 1 tion of the point in difputc : the conftf- tiition itl'clt decides the coiitrovcriy : you ' can pofTihly bring thcfc nup .o no con- viction upon the conllitiitiun. When u people ih numerous, io prol'pcrous, pof- felibd of very large provinces and other- wife fo circumllanced (as are our coun- trymen of Aiiicrica) concur on any oc- calion of irovcrnment in an almoll; unani- mous refufal and refinance, it becomes and it behoves minillors carefully and can- didly to examine their own conduct and to new-model or to reverfe meafures pro- ductive of fuch defperate and fuch fatal mifchiefs : fuch a people have an abfolute right to be ruled with their own confent, opinion and fatisfadtion. On the fmgle circumflance of that right then flands without comprehending any other the American caufe as firmly and as immova- bly, as on a rock; although fuch other may perhaps be found equally ftrong : I fay this, whether we conlider the general law of nature and the neceilaiy coiifequence of a fenlation of good and of evil or we go upon the national conflitution of England either in its legiflative or its judicial branch or in both miited. I prcfs this fubjedt for the particular purpofe of bring- ing Cv *' [ "5 J ing to fomc degree of reafon thole, on whom the fate of my country nt this in- ilant depends: I would on the firll of thefe grounds however make Hkewile the llime claim in the nnme and upon the hehalf of mankind, if that it became an infignificant individual to fj>cak fuch a language ; hut 1 lay it witli a moll con- fummate contempt of all the little, lov/ ridicule or raillery of any bale fcribblers ; who are ready to bark at the rights of that nature, from whicli they have re- ceived the very paltry talents, whereof they are proud, and who join in the cry for hunting down their country ; with whole bread and whofe bounty they are them- felves, but too unworthily fed. This, may fay fome one, is more than the Americans thcmlllves demand : they contend only concerning taxation and their internal jurifdidion; but this goes to the whole of government. I anfwer, that we had better be put in mind of theie things among ourfelves ; than to be threatened with them by others from abroad. Sucli is the natural confcqucnce of our ftirring dangerous and unneceliary difputes about the bounds of power and of obedience. I The m m m It' [ n6 ] The Americans well underfland the rights of mankind and of thcmfclves and fo in- deed do all the world and will advance them too^ when they are opprefTed and can fupport them with the fword. It will be our bufmefs, our greateft both duty and intcrefl to give our countrymen no more caufe of complaint or of difcontent ', if we ihal] ha\ z the fortune to be once again united with them. Experience has proved, that they can find arms and a very little reflection might demonftrate to us, that they will not want reafons in their defence ; if wead: otherwife. We fhall be v ell off, if we pay on this occa- fion no worfe a price for our folly -, than to be forced for the future to r-overn- as men ought to govern and to be governed. Seme other however will poilibly fay, that we have a furer way of proceeding by a jury, than what is here reprefented^ that is to enforce and to extend to Ame- rica the 35th of H. 8, which with a little flretcliing of the 25th of Edward 3, will fufiiciently anfwer our ends : but this pro- pofal is neither more or lefs, than that wq fhould ourfelves violate and break through the conllitution for the fake of calling other J) [ ^'7 ] Other people rebels. Neither however will the ftatute itfelf bea*- fliirly fuch a conilrudtion. Words are only ligns of the thoughts and the ideas exifting in the minds of men nor are they to be other- wife interpreted. They can on no occa- fion be confiftently with juftice extended beyond what was at the time the [iinfQ and the meaning of the perfbns employ- ing them. This is a conflant maxim and principle in the common proceedings of men with one another, of bodies with bo- dies and of individuals with individuals. No faith or confidence could on any other terms obtain among us in our ordinary and our daily dealings ; but difcourfe and language would inftead of the happy means of our mutual commerce and intercourfe be no better than a fnare, a trap or a pit- fall. Our anceflors did at the time of pafling the adl in queftion no more think of a people bearing a great proportion to ourfelves in their numbers and far ex- ceeding us in the extent of their territo- ries, removed at a vaft diftance from us, wonderfully unanimous among themfelves and I am notwithftanding fome late com- pliments and addrelTes perfwaded, that any one may moft truly add, concurred I z witl^ L 1^8 ] .:l. ^■S with by very much the majority of the nation at home and contending upon the general right of taxation or upon any o- ther, I fay, that they thought no more of fuch circumftances, than of a new heaven and a new earth. Thefe provin- ces of America were then undifcovered and unknown. This ad: of parliament does not execute itfclf by internal provi- fions of its own : it is entrufled with the adminiflration for the time being; not hovvxver as an inftrument of paflion, of malice, of revenge; but to be put in ufe on particular occafions according to the true intent and meaning with which it was enacted and on no other account. The very inhumanity and unreafonablenefs of bringing perC>ns three thoufand miles from the fcene of the fad:, from their friends and their witnefles and then trying them in a ilrange land for their lives dp at iirit fight fufliciently demonftrate ; that it can only be fome ftrained or fome perverted law, on which it is poffible to found fo unfit a proceeding. Laws are meant and • made for far other purpofes or they are but ill employed, who pafs them. Suppofe however an American dragged before one of our courts of i';ftice and holding n [ I '9 ] holding up his Hand at the bar. It would both for its merits and its importance be a mofl extraordinary trial. A whole people would through one perlbn bsablblved or be condemned in their condudl; all America would be determined to be in rebellion or under oppreffion. The deci Hon might much contribute to continuino- inlome de- gree the ancient union between them and u? or to divide and to dilTever the chain ; fo as never to be ar^ain joined and united. The juft and the upright judgment of a jury given in the face of the public might perhaps have an effect upon the madnefs of fonle men j which nothing: has hitherto been able to check or to reilrain. No one knows, how far the fate of our coun- try or the welfare of each individual might be involved in the event. The jury would have before them the whole merits of the caufe and the quarrel, in which the per- fon accufed was engaged and from ^hence the particular fad: charged upon him mufl take its ftamp : his kit refource and re- drefs or his laft fentence and condemma- tion would be in them. I w^ill enter no more into that matter ; but the eyes of Great-Britain, of Ireland, of America and of other parts of the world would be upon I 2 them [ 120 ] P- /I ■I H' If them and the invifible hand of the ever- ruling Power be over their heads nor might it probably be long ; before that the due confequences of their good or their evil rondudl would follow and be felt by them and by theirs. I don't hov/- ever think; that things will come to fuch extremities : thefe would produce repri- fals. That circumftancc may bid fair to prevail; where reaibn and juftice might have failed : it will probably fpare all the trouble of the judge and the jury, of the heads -man or the hangman. It is then fo far from holding good, what is fometimes faid ; that there can be no reafon or conliflency in the doc- trine of its never being lawful to difobey or to refill: in the cafe of an adl of parlia- ment on any occafion or on any fuppo- fition whatfoever ; that the flumbling blocks and the difficulties not to be fur- mounted do certainly lie on the other fide. I do not mean to affirm; whether or no it is impoffible to lay down in general a Gonfifi:ent fyflem of defpotifm, confident with itfelf ; but incompatible with everj thing befides, with liberty, with proper- ty, with fcience, with happinefs, with virtue^ t 121 1 virtue, with every thing good or great a- mong men and give me leave to fay> like- wife with the benevolence of Providence iind the whole apparent form of our world. This however muil: then be in Utopia, in fome unknown or diRant laaa: even that cannot be done with refpecl to Great-Britain, the fcene of our prefent queftion ; where are certain law^s, certain ilatutes, Magna Charta and others, certain fad:s, certain points of hiftory, the Revo- lution efpecially, which mufl be fupported and be defended: infomuch that whoever proceeds on that ground m our country, cannot but fet his foot on contradidion and abfurdity, every flep that he takes. No dodtrine can with us wreft from the people their privileges ; which will not equally pluck the fceptre out of the hands of the prince. It is not unpleafant to ob- ferve how gently and how tenderly lome even truly-learned and ingenious writers embarrafled by their own principles touch the fubjed: of the Revolution, v/hcn it lies in their way and is not to be avoided. We are ly no m^ans to inquire into the 7'ca- Jbns of it any further y than for injlruclive \mujhnent and f peculation; it may be of dangerous confequence for us to pi't ourfehes J 4 ^^ [ 122 ] p'ifll m in ihc place of our anccftors or to cojicern our rovjcienccs about itsrctlitude\ it was an in- tirely nciv caf' in politicks and in our bijlory and its true ground ivas the abdication of King Jamcs', whereas the principles of Mr'. Locke, would have levelled all diJiinSlionSy have repealed all pojitive laws and have re^ duged the Jociety almojl to a Jlate of nature. We are likewife plainly enough given to iinderfliind ; that the fentiments of him and of our two other eminent patriots and writers in politieks Milton and Sydney are at the bottom much the fame with thofe of Wat Tyler or Jack Cade; however . they may he exprelled in a more polite lan- guage or drelled in a more gentlemanlike garb.* But does then any one ferioufly mean * Blackllone b. i, c. 3. The true ground and prin- ciple upon which that memorable event proceeded, was an intirely uew cafe in politicks, which had never before hap- pened in our hiftory ; the abdication of the reigning King and the vacancy of the throne thereupon Therea- fons upon which they [our anceflors] decided may be found at large in the Parliamentary Proceedings of thofe times and may be matter of inftrudive amufement for us to contem- plate, as a fpeculative point of hillory j but care mull be taken not to carry this inquiiy further than merely for in- ftrudion and amufement. The idea, that the confciences of pofterity were concerned in the reftitude of their ancef- tors decifions gave birth to thofe dangerous political herefies, which fo long diftrafted the ftate The principles of > I '23 ] mean to fay ; that King Jinncs would have been fullered to reign again, if he had flaid at Whitehall or at Rochefter or at Fe- verfliamor the cxpulfion of tjiat prince to liave been unlawful and the ellabliniment of King William an ufurpation j if the Revolution cannot be defended on the ground of abdication ? Had not the Re- volution been perpetually ripening from the time of the Exclufion Bill ; until the period in which it took place ? The King did not quit his palace until the Prince of Orange was arrived near Henley. I won- der by what law his Highnefs marched fo far or he was afterwards preferred on the throne before his own Qiieen and Queen Anne 5 I mean, except by that of the common confent founded on the common good ? It ought for the honour of our nation ever to be remxembered, how unaniirxous an ad: of Mr. Locke, v^hich woul J have reduced the fociety almoft to a ftate of nature, would ha\c levelled r,li dilHndions of honour, rank, offices and property . . . and hive repealed all pofitive laws. Ditto, b. 4, c. 33. Our anceftors heard with deteftation and horror thefe fentiments rudely deli- vered and pufhed to moil: abfurd extremes by the vioience of a Cade and a Tyler ; which have fmce been applauded with a zeal ulmoll rifing to idolatry ; when foftened and recommended by the eloquence, the moderation and the arguments of a Sydney, a Locke and a Milton. n uj [ 'H ] m mnd^:i Es ■ ir ' adl that great event was : a drop or* blood was not Ipilt nor a head broken, if I may fay fo, on the occafion throughout our whole ifland : the .profits of fome from it Hiight be and were much more than thofe of others j but the confent and the con- currence and confequently the merit of all according to their rank was alike and equal from the children of the King down to almofl the meaneftfubjedl: the deed was in cffe^i done, I will not fay only, before that the King went away from Whitehall or that there was any fuch notable pretence for abdication ; but before that the Prince of Orange landed in England or that he fet fail from Holland. I'he whole quef- tion and introducflion of that word Abdica- tion is perfedtly well known to have been only a comedy adled between the leaders of parties at the time ; that the new con- dudl might appear to fquare with the old principles of fome of them. The fetting forth a breach of the original contraB be- tween King and people and an endeavour to overturn the fundamental laws and to make thele a part of abdication, as was then done ^ what was it but for the fame purpofe a public and a legiflative perver- iion of the Englifh languge, an improper application c 12 ] application of that term indead of For- feiture on the mofl folemn fabjed: ? How many Kings of Europe have at that rate abdicated their thrones; who never dream but of maintaining and of magnifying them ? As to grounding this circumftance on the going away of one, whofe father had loft his head on a fcaffold by ftaying, I fhall only obferve; that however the Earl of Warwick might be fomewhat of a foldier, he was but little of a lawyer not to think of the abdication of Edw. 4th; when he had driven him from his kingdom. The parliament or pretended parliament of fixteen hundred and forty did not much mind fuch ceremonies ; it is therefore lefs furprifing, that they did not trouble themfelves about the abdication of King Charles the 2d after the battle of Worcefter. We furely ought on fuch fub- jedls to write and to reafon, as becomes men; they who are maflers and capable of performing it, when they pleafe. I don't mean, that paffages of a different purport may not be produced out of the fame well-written book ; but they found in ignorant ears very like to contradiction. How can it agree tg aifedt extolling the fad of the Revolution ; but to condemn or C '2^' ] : n i"'*! -Ill lU |! >i t. i PI; tfl. p. or to decry the principles on which the nation in general undoubtedly adted and proceeded, when they brought it a- bout ? Little did this writer think twenty years ago to Tee in our nation the neceflity and much lefs to have ever the perlonal honour of faying to the public one fingle word in fupport of fuch names ; as Mil- ton, Sydney and Locke. He does no way mean; that the principles of thele per- fons or in his poor opinion of the Re- volution itfelf are not juft as open to be queflioned and to be canvafl'ed, as thofe of any other men or other fad:; for what has truth to demand or to defire, but a fair difcuflion? So however is likewife the defence of them furely full as free againiT any living authority whatfoever. We are often told of the protedion, which a people receive from their prince; but we are rarely reminded of that, which they confer upon him. It is however the public, that truly fupport the Revolution upon its real prin- ciples and who never obferve without im- patience either the one or the other to be difrefpeded or depreciated : they are fen- iible of thefe beincc the beft barrier and fecurity both of the fubjedl and the prince. I do not mean applying the following re- flections J i ■4 1 flcdlions to the rcfpedablc pcrfon, unto whofe expreffions I have before prefumcd to refer ; but vii/eo equiun cpbippiatum as has on other occafions been laid. Tlie horfe feenis to be ready laddlcd and bri- dled : it may not be diHkult to difcern, what might happen; if it was not for this temper of the people. Who knows how foon we Ihould othervvife fee a right of poileflion railed up and the poor Revo- lution left to Ihift for itfelf ; by fome who have reafpn to be its firmefl: and its moft grateful friends . How f trange would it ap- pear to any one unpradifed and unexpe- rienced in the arts of courts, if he ihould be told 'y that it may in fome future time be the way of becoming a good courtier to profefs the principles of a. doubtful fub- jed and the means of teflifying loyalty towards a King to advance dodnnes clalli- ing or inconfiilent with the title, by which he wears his crown ? There is a point refpeding fenates, le- giflatures and other alfcmbiies of that fort, which I have referved by itfelf > becaufe that it does not relate to the pre-r fent inflant, although it may much con- cern thofe to come after usj who will perhaps. [ 128 ] ! I I'l N' m I Ft perhaps be in that regard under circunn- ftances utterly unlike our own and for which reafon I lliall prcfume to fay fome- thing upon it. Did then the laws of na- ture, the conflitution of our country, the charters of the colonics all unanimoufly confpire and conc^ur after the ftrongeft and the plained manner in fubjeding Ame- rica to the taxation of a Britifli Parlia- ment ; this would and could only be meant of a true Parliament, of a Parlia- ment both in word and in deed, of a free Parliament, free from corruption and from pecuniary influence, as well as from force and from violence. Should at fome fu- ture time therefore the perfon placed in comnii/Tion for the common good at the helm of the public bend and employ to the purpofe of gaining, of leading, of in- fluencing, of corrupting the members of our national afTemblies all the prodigious power of the crown, by the civil lift, the army, the navy, the church, the law, the cufloms, the excife, by our coinpanies, by public contracts, by what are fome- timcs called honours and by innumerable other menns, in Great-Britain, in Ireland, in North-America, in the Weil- indies and the Eail and fhould he through fo many I » [ 129 ] many flrong temptations applied to the virtue of a few hundreds of frail men ob- tain unhappily his end ; I afk then, whe- ther any jurildidtion, any authority, any claim before-mentioned, however iifuing from the highefl and the moll liicred fources, would belong or appertain to this falfe, this figurative, this nominal, this venal parliament any more; than it would to the divan of Conftantinople, the con- clave of Rome, the houfhold of the King or the menial family of the Miniftcr him- felf ? How does the want of liberty in fuch an aflembly itfelf confifl with its right of command over others ? Are not powers of the nature with that here fpoken of entrufted in confidence and on condi- tion only of their being duly and faith- fully difcharged ? Docs it make any dif- ference to the conftituents, whether their reprefentativc body is turned from its duty by the more open and more avowed fi >rce of arms or by thebafer, but no Icfs efi'ec- tual influence of corruption ? What mat- ter is it to them ; whether it be the metal of gold or of iron, which is employed for that purpofc ? Either the one or the other equally cuts the chain and the connection between them. Would the relblutions of a fen. itc w ii ! .p. 1 'I [ 130 3 a fenate fo circumflanced be its own lenfc, its addrefles its own language, its ftatutc" its own adls or thofe of the minifler; by whom it was guided and governed and from whom they proceeded ? Would not in that cafe tlie miniftcr fpeak from the throne, the minifter anfwer from the houfe, the minifter enadt, the minifter execute ; the right hand and the left hand of the minifler be perpetually playing backwards and forwards the fame ball to one another ? The prudent and the pro- per part of Great-Britain mull in fuch an exigency be patience, moderation and fub- rniflion ; to expedl in peace a prince bet- ter informed, a more independent and more conflitutional reprefentative or other gentle and benignant relief from the good- nefs of Providence. Great-Britain would be under the immediate hand of power : the bridle might be in its mouth and the faddle on its back. A minifter however would perhaps find tougher work on the other fide of the Atlantic: the means, and the inflruments of his influence would be at three thoufand miles diftance from thence or very flightly fcattered through- out that vafc country. Should then fuch a one not content witn having at t 131 ] at his feet Great-Britain, Ireland, oiif prodigious pofl'ellions in the Eaft-Indics and our rich iilands in the Well and in- ilead of pitying the flate of the public throw through an ambitious defire and an inconliderate eagernefs to extend the fame abfolute fway over the continent of Ame- rica the whole into an utter diftradtion and confulion totally ungovernable by him- felf ; who could but be ftruck with ad- miration of the manner, in which the paffions, the vices and the follies of men are punifhed by the very means of their own effed:s and confequences ? But let us avert our views from this melaLcholy fcene blefling ourfelves ; that however any one may fancy himfelf to fee fome refemblance of the latter, the former part of it is very different from any thing paffing in our days or before our own eyes. But it may be aiked ; what are thefe laws of Nature, which are thus oppofed to the politive ftatutes of a prince or a ftate; where are their fandiions, their re- wards and their punifliments ? Can a French cook ferve a dinner by the fitnefs of things or will their eternal relations K furnirti B-'.1' I'" 'll i' It , Ik ' If [ 132 ] furnifh our houfes or pay our equipages ? Are we to part with our places and our peniions only to pofTefs theorems and fyf- tems ? I anfwer, that I have no fuch mean- ing; I underiland much better to whom I am talking. I am fully fenfible ; that the love of mankind and of our country, the regard and the affedlion of good men in return, an honefl ambition of a fair name together with many other confiderations of the fame fort are by fome people held, as unworthy and below the notice of a wife man. I cannot per^wade myfelf to be of the fame fentiment. 1 refer how- ever here to the moft fubflantial good and evil ; although not always obferved or attended to, before that it is too late and that it happens. Examples might eafily be produced of fiatefmen, of church- men and of gownfmen in times paft; of Strafford, of L.aud, of Jeiferies and of others ; who little thought of the mif- chiefs, which they were, bringing upon their roaiters and how foon they ihould pay their own forfeit on a fcaifuld or in a pri(bn: until that thefc events themfelves took effect. Any one might perhaps ap- proach nearer and name another Judge, whofe !i] f [ 133 ] whofe evil and fatal counfels had no fmall fhare in firfl fhaking the throne ; which the violence of Jeiferies afterwards over- threw. The defcendant of fuch an ancef- tor might be advifed well to beware, leil meafures formed upon the fame plan and founded upon the fame principles may in our days likewife be productive of lome fimilar or Ibme correfpondent cataflrophe, fo far fimilar or correfpondent as the ge- neral circumflances of each period will permit. To pafs by hov/ever fuch old /lo- ries and let the turn of any particular time be what it will; I fay, that the evils following the offences againil; this univerfal law are fo far from being only the inventions of fancy, from being doubt. ful or in the prefent cafe diftant; that they appear now to be near at hand and that no one knows ; in how fliort a time our rulers, our leaders and we ourfelves ihall all feel at lealt our own full fliare of them. The condudl of Providence com- prehends a'Cfycle far beyond the concep- tion of man. We appear infLead of being able to avoid the necelfiry confequences of our own adlions not free from danger of fuffering the evil effedts ariiiiig from mif- K 2 chiefs llil I li. m^ fii [ ^34 J chiefs firft begun in the days of our fore- fathers 'y 1 mean, unlefs that we fliall prevent them by an inftant alteration of our courfe; but of which there appears by far" too little likelihood. Our government has ever fmce the Revolution been fapping and' undermining by corruption. This once noble fabric built up by our anceflors and the work of many ages might never- thelefs have probably been upheld and re- paired, mxighr for fucceeding generations have continuea .. ;ding flicker ai>d fafety to its numerous innabitants by the m.eans of a proper prudence and forefight in^ thofe ; to whom the care and the guar- dianfhip of it are confided. But the blind Sampfons of our ftate have on the con- trary themfelves fet their fhoulders againfl its props and its fupports and are pulling down the whole pile on our heads and their own : the pillars already tremble, the walls give way, the roof divides and we bid fair to be buried under the ruins -, before that thefe frantic miniflers f^iall recover any fhare of their reafon. What prodigies do we exped: ; that beafls fhould fpeak, that men fliould be feen fighting in the air, that the heavens fhould drop blood or that graves fhould open and give up [ 135 ] up their dead ? Is it imagined, that Je- rufdlem had ever more figns of her ruin ; than Britain has at this moment of its own ? Reafon, experience, fadts, events all oppofe our proceedings and point to- wards the gulph, into which we are go- ing. But to what end ferves any admo- nition of God or of man ? Every warn- ing, every notice, every difcouragement and mifcarriage prove only the caufe of fome new and further meafure more ex- travagant, more ruinous, more wild, more mad than that, which went before. Hie whole will certainly fuffer and be over- whelmed; but do the authors of thefe things expedt to remain themfelves lafe and exempt in the midfl of univerfal mif- chief or that they fhall not be cruflied in the common confufion of their own creating ; eve]^ if the nation itfelf fliould be fo far funk and weakened, as in its own capacity to think of no vengeance nor to demand any account at their hands ? It may however be further aiked on this fubjed; if then thefe things are in truth any other than only pretended ter- rors in the air; why do not men more mind them nor the ambitious and the powerful wm>i BiW' ^V ■ at[ ■ > [ 136 ] powerful be perpetually purfuing wrong and rapine without apprehenfion ? I an- fwer, that this is exadlly the fame cafe with refpedl to human and to apparent in- flruments of punifliment. How many a man commits robbery or murder while his fellow is hanging upon a gibbet over his head ? Offenders are continually caught in the fadt before a court of juflice and the face of a judge. The tranfported fe- lon returns unlawfully to his country one day and to his former practices the next. It does not however follow from thence, that there are no civil laws or ci' " penal- ties nor that thefe perfons do n t in the end feel and fuffer by them. Fortune de- termines the firfc flation of every man. Suppofe therefore thefe fime people born in palaces and ^n*ed in purple. They would have been nurfed and, as it were, fed with flattery inftead of eating the bread of mifery and of penury. Their fitu- ation would have fecured them from their prefeiit temptations and perils. Might not they then have inherited many crowns and kingdoms in Europe and out of it ? Why could not they in a rank rather lower have become hereditary or elective legif- lators ? Many of thefe unhappy men do not want tfi:i [ ^37 ] want parts or talents. Schooled, taught and called might none of them have come to fit upon benches and, I dare be bound that it will only move the mirth of fome very refpedable perfons, if thefe queftions fhould be pudied even fo far as to alk; v^he- ther they might not in fuch a cafe and in former times have by the help of a little more tranfpofition poflibly hanged thofe, who in the adtual courfe of things have hanged them ? Education, circumftances, iituation do wonderfully vary our outward drapery and the particular objeds of our purfuit; but they do not perhaps fo much alter our inward form and fafhion or the turn and the temper of our minds. How- ever unwelcome a maxim it may fome- times be ; human nature is in all condi- tions ever underllood to be at the bottom much the fame. If we do not therefore fuffer ourfelves to be impofed upon by the reverence of robes nor to be fooled with the fancy of ribbands nor to be diz- zied with the fplendor of crowns and of coronets j it will not be an hours won" der with us, that the laws and the pu- nifhments of nature are by the high and the great often overlooked and ncgiecl- ed ; although the firfl are et.^rnal and univerfal and the latter are jnolt jull and w m i% ':\ w . '.' I I: 'V\ V) % miii [i, . I [ 138 ] and that it will be well ; if we do not by our own experience Ibon find them to be al Sfu'^y and unavoidable. I have one more word to fay upon my prefcnt fubjed:, which is; who have made the Americans rebels, if they are fuch ? How Ions: is it fince that wertern world was in peace, in fubmiflion, in obedience ; when the wild, the wanton, the unjuft and the abfurd attempt to tax them at Weftminlter put at once into diforder that whole continent ? What a medley has there been fince that time of odious and impolitic bills, of arbitrary alterations of charters, of defpotic plans of government, of cruel fchenies of refentment, of harfh and unbecondng linguage, of proud and contemptuous rtrjedlions of application ? RLipacioiilnols begun, opprefijon follow- ed, violence lupported and contumely added iniult to all the reil; infomuch that we have by thcle means und thefe mea- furcs fo haflencd and fo heaped on one another atchieved the revolt of thirteen provinces and perhaps the lofs of more in almoft as little time, as a man can tell ten. When fonie people found forth the pretended offences oi our brethren abroad; one < I* t '39 ] •ne would almoft expedl that the force of truth (liould oblige them to vdd; thi proved hctv/een us. Suppofe on the one hand a very rich rn.in to fquandcr his all and to run himfclf exceed- ingly into deht, more than he or his can poHibly expcd to difcharge. SuppoU; on the other fide one of moderate means pay- ing to all their own and faving for himfelf and his family : would you in that cafe make the richer prodigal or the poorer prudent perfon the fteward for them both? What man in Britain apprehends, that our flate would be more indebted, than it now is; if the affemblies or a con^refs of our colonies had inflead of our own par- liaments taxed us from the Revolution to this day ? But what would at the prefent inftant be the condition of the poor peo- ple with whom we are on this fubjedl at war, if the reverfe had been the cafe ? I don't know, with what to compare fuch a propofition ; except with the idle talk of fchool-boys at their dinners ; that he who has done firft fhould help his neigh- bour. We may perh ips be here put in mind of our prote(flion, our protc^lion not to be put in comparifon witli that of a contemptible colony and that people ought li II !ll: fl^' ll i [ 142 ] ought ever to remember the abundance of protedhcm received in rccurn for the de- mands made upon them. I believe how- ever; that ill-managed Antes have feldoni much to boaft of on that fubjed. The general bad condud: of u private man's affairs may commonly be dilcerned in the domcflic diforder of his houfhold. It is delivered down to us as a proof of the good government of King Alircd; that a maiden bearing a purfe of money in her hand might in his reign have gone from one end of the kingdom to the other without fear of violence either to her per- fon or her property. How is it with us ? Can a man almofl ileep in his bed within the walls of our metropolis or travel on the King's high-road with fafety and with fecurity ? Have we not among us more capital condemnations and executions, than all Europe befides ? Does neverthelefs any one believe, that our people have in them a native iniquity or an original profligacy, beyond what there is in the relt of man- kind ? Are not in truth and at the bottom the accurfed taxes and the infupportablc burthens of our country a confiderable caufe of the rapines, the robberies, 'ne frauds, the forgeries and other offences of the ,\ A [ U3 ] the (time f'>»*t now rife and reigning among us ? I would for the honour of human na- ture willingly carry this reafuning fo f.'r; as to account in fomc incafure hy the fame means even for the venality and the pro- ilitution obtaining at this time among the great and the qualified tiicmfelves. We are notwithflanding told ; that taxation is no tyranny; hut I cannot conceive, in what corner of this kingdom, that expref- fion could be picked up. It furely becomes any one ufing fuch difcourfe to explain; for what he pays taxes belides the pro- duce of a place or a penfion: left it fhould look like the licentious 1 iiguage of fome bold beggar in the ftrects pretending to wonder ; that the owner of a houfe was alarmed at its being in flames, whereas he himfelf warmed his fingers very comfor- tably at the fire. Protecftion and ex- pence however do not go hand in hand in government: experience proves, that the rule ought rath'er to be reverfed. Let any one look around the world and frugal, CEconomical ftates maintained at a fmall , charge and with a tendernefs towards the property of the fubjedl will almoft ever be found moft diftinguifhable for a peace- able difpofitiori and an obedience to the laws Ill ir iiil [ H4 ] laws hi their people at home ; as well as the leaft difturbed by the inlults and the attacks of their enemies abroad. Conii- der our plantations the objedls of ourpre- fent comparifon and into which we per- petually empty our jails, as into a Jacques : are neverthelefs to be fcGn there fuch fure marks of mif-rule and mif-government ? It may look like much too ludicrous a qucftion on fo truly and exceedingly fe- rious a fubjedl; but might not in moil countries as good a king be had for a thou- fand pounds a year and without putting up their regencies to audlion, as any now known to reign, I mean, excepting our own ? How many a people in Europe would at leafl think themfelves mofl hap- py to have the experiment tried in their own ilate ? Nolo regnare is a new lan- guage and to be as yet learned ami\ig men. There is ari expreffion of the fame fort faid fometimes to fall from a reverend profeffion and yet how very worthily and let me add not \ ery unwillingly is a cer- tain honourable bench confcantly filled ? Infomuch that were as many more wanted, their places might poiiibly be fupplied; although not equally well. Would to God therefore that high duties and taxes, heavy iff •iV M [ H5 ] heavy prefTures and burthens were in a nation; but half as lure a fign of protection and of fecurity, as they are of corruption and of venality and 1 know a kingdom (to which the wiiter wilhes moil extremely well) that might bid full defiance to all its foes without and through which Al- fred's maiden might within travel as fafely in our days, 'r»s ever (he did in his. Let hov/ever fome men inftead of de- fpifing, fufpending, overturning the af- femblies and the legiflatures of our colo- nies rather think in what refpects to copy and to imitate governments fo much bet- ter adminiftercd than their own : let them try an other time to find fome more ilri- king realbn for taking their domeftic tax- ation out of their hands into ours, than their difcretion and our ov/n extravagance. Here 1 quit then this new argument ; that we ought to tax our colonies, becaufe we do that matter fo very imprudently for ourfelves. It is likewife reported to have been flung out from the fame quar- ter ; that our wars have ever fince the Kevoiution been the wars and that our debt is therefore in confequence the debt not of our minifters, but of our people. This w i0ir' m f- &i m [ 146 ] This may appear rather to relate to the part of our nation reiident in England or in Britain, than to thofc in America : as it feems however meant to throw the oc- cafion of oar adlual neccfnties and rapaci- oufncls on the whole collective commu- nity and as I verily believe the prelent dif- pute to be the general caufe and concern of all the members of our great empire againfl a handful of over-bearing men and alfo the fadl itfelf to be totally different from what is fo reprefented; I defire to fay fomething on the fubjedt. The whole pretence is plainly and totally gro'jndlefs. There is in all the domeftic hillory of our country nothing more no- torious, than how much our adminiftra- tions have ever fmce the Revolution been conftantlymafters and unreftrained. What- ever picqueering there might in the time of King William be between the two an- cient parties or between individuals deli- rous to be at the head; that matter was al- ways ordered in the cabinet by fhuffling and cutting or balancing between whig and tory and tory and whig. For how very fmall a part did the body of the people or their incli -'tions or their interefts ever enter into government; after that the great » V I V t 147 ] grieal tfvertt of the Revolution itfelf ef- fedted through them was to the minds o( a- few leading men once fettled and regu- lated. It is weM known How in the reign of Q^en A'nnii one fet of itiiriifters made war and another fet made peace at their pk.afure arid how their refpediive parlia- rtients backed' tfhem botli. Diffcr»:int par-^ liaments did thcri contradid: one another ; but there hafe firtee been an impfovenient' mftde uj!K>n that- pi^adlice j for th^ famd parliament has en a change of minifters^ and ol^ nieaf^resi riot fcmpled readily and dirtily to d6ntradi [ 149 ] might and as we ought; the events of the laft war fufficiently teftif,. Our con- quells there were belides to have by treaty belonged to us : whereas we bargained for nothing upon the continent of Europe ex- cept to expend our men and our money. Our next war was foon after the acceffion of King George the firil; when Bremen and Verden extended their influence into the Mediterranean and involved us in hoflili- ties with Spain. That court accepted of peace through force : the Emperor pro- fited by it : the evil of the war all fell on ourfelves. The Spaniards long re- membered and refented our conduct on that occafion ; if they have at this day forgotten it. From thence proceeded their many infults, injuries and depredations ; which produced the laft war but one for- ced upon us by thofe means in defence of our commerce and called for by our mer- chants on that account and under thofe circumftances. This has been our only necelTary war fince the Revolution nor was any one of the three former entered into even upon the fubjedt of our own inte- refts. The mifchief of this meafure was firft in the miferable management and then in a French war brought on by our :^j^idiik >' L 2 ■ German "'1 it . ■■■ 'II ^s^ij [ '50 1 German campaigns and Germarl meafure* in th-e micldie of it and which was even worfe condudled and made by that means, yet a greater grievance than the other. There remains to be mentioned only the late war, I wonder, who called for that ? Not the Americans. Some men could^ at tliat time not fleep in their beds and in peace for want of a war with France to a- mufe them, when they were waking". There were then forward ; who are faid to have now been not backward in preffing and- in? recommending the prefent Aanerican mif^ chief. The French built caftles, but had no numbers of inhabitants in America ^ hardly a hundred thoufand men, women and children; when we took Canada^. Our people on the contrary multiplied m a prodigious proportion; but did not much' drouble themfelves about building caftles. I wonder y whether that the caMes wer© in the end mofl likely tor take the men or the men to take the caftles or why oikd Americans might not have been left to judge ; when was the feafon to fettle witfc the iword the bounds between themfelves ajid their neighbours on that vaft conti*- nent;; as would probably one day be done ;l but the more in all appearance to our ad^^ vantage^ III; ll! [ ^5« 3 vantage, the longer that it wrb deferred. Wc armed however, as it were, inlilcnce: the aation was fuddenly engaged in hofti- lities and in reprifals. So much for our adv'Cn'tures in the fields of Mars j but what neceflary connexion have lefs than half a dozen wars with a debt of one hundred and forty millions fterling? Do not we read and hear of wars throughout our whole hif- tory? Our anccftors have feated their King on the throne of France. I'he reign of Queen Elizabeth was almoft a conti- niaed fcene of war. She is well known to have jieverthelefs refufed in the mean time the money offered by her people. King diaries the firft was not without fo- reign war. The mock commonwealth waged war. Cromwell to be the more like a King would liave his war. Had not we ifiveral wars under Charles the fe- Gond ? But there was with all thefe things no national debt at the revolution; hardly g£ a fingle flailling. Tliis immenfe fa- bric jand fyftem of our funds has all been raifcd iince that time ; a ilrud:ure never equalled in the world of its kind; ^build- ing that may in its confequences caufc more and worfc confulion ; than ever did Ba;bel : although after a different manner; L 3 pur w. I ll! ll r '52 1 Our common income raifed on the public and without reckonmg the colledtion is by this means now mounted to between ten and eleven millions flerling annually. The whole of this immenfe edifice are our wife minifters at this moment undermi- ning and going by their trains to blow up into the air and if I may fo exprefs myfelf about the ears of themfclves, of us and of all Europe. Providence was by a long interval of peace pleafed to afford us an opportunity of fo new modelling the fy{-^ tern of our taxes, our revenue and our trade ; as that we might have flood under our prodigious burthen and perhaps have in time lefTened or difcharged it. That feafon is now pafTed in vain and we fhall in all appearance never have fuch another : a proper plan for that purpofe could ne- ver enter into breafts fufceptible of our prt^fent mofl extravagant fchemes : far o- ther counfels, very different conceptions weie required for that end. It is always fufpicious, that fomething is bad at the bottom i when miniflers endeavour to fliift upon the fhoulders of the people meafures or events ; which they are at all times exceedingly unwilling to fuffer |hem to have any real fliare in the formrr liAl ; ing h« i# [ 153 ] ing or the producing. Let howevef fomc men at lealt confi'der the extreme impor- tance and confeque.nce of our prefent in- cumbrnnccs now that they are hronght upon us and do fublifl ; by whatever means, thele things have happened : let them well reflcdt ; that whol'efoever was the debt, theirs will be the bankruptcy; if they fhall drive us into one. It will hardly fail of being here aflced, whether all adminiftrations iince the Re- volution are included in thefe obferva- tions and particularly, whether there is any exception kept for the noble Lord ; who conduced a confiderable part of the late war. I anfwer; that as long as the health of that noble perfon will permit him to pay any attention to the bufmefs of the public ; fo long will in any extra- ordinary or difficult conjundure his coun- try certainly caft their eyes towards him. His Lordfliip is faid to have on this oc- caiion been not wanting to offer his adr vice and his afTiftancC'in his ii'tiiation, as one of the legiflature and the' grdat coun- cil of the nation. A very refpedable af- fembly of America have declared, that thd proportions thrown out by his Lordfliip might ;i i. ^ «' : >jt|H. In II ' 1^: ^bh 1 l'^' i| ■ » -fK I '54 3 might united witji thoTc of t\ic co^incn^aj cpnerefs be made to ferve^fo^ the bafi^ or tb^ beginning of a treaty of accon^ioig^atioi;!,. The condud: of the noble ^prd, as a mini^ iler,has therefore not only a relation to the pad ^pd the general concerns > but like- >vife a connexion with this prefent an4 l^his efpecial exigency of o^Jr country. Every public perfon fubmits of courfe fA$ atftions to the examination and the opini- on of the whole ; who arc warranted to canvafs them with freedom; fo far a^ their own welfare, their good pr their evil is or has been affected by them. I don't know; that his Lordihip was ^n jiftive ^dyifer of the Jaft ws^r ; that di4 not at leafl appp.ar in public. It was how-^ ever begun with other CQunfels and tho& very unlike his J^ordihip's. Wha,t catn-r paigns in Germany and in America and what neglect of the Mediterranean an^ of Mi^^orca ! Let us draw, the viel over thofe difgraces. The nation feniible of its fituation crouched under the appre-r henfipns of a foreign invafipn. Our mi-r niflersf or the time being however had ha])pily fo much wit at le^, as to per- fieive their own weaknels and their wan^ pf afliiiance. When the ppi^fels of Provi- dence [ '55 1 denoe and die couric of events are fully ripe for tiic ruin of a people ; thefe fall uackr the govemmeot ot men equally blind to all outward circum^nces and to tbcir awn infurticiency j but that mo- ment wsks with us not then come, in this ilate and condition of the public Lord Chatham was called to the helm. How fuddefl and how glorious a change for this coimtry then took place ; I dial 1 leave for our hiftory to tell ; to tell perhaps, after that the government itfclf of Great-Bri- tain ihall be no more; which period how-^ ever let us hope to be very far removed ; much farther than fome figns feem at pre- fcnt to threaten and to forewarn. It would be impertinent to repeat here the long and the well-known catalogue of our vi(^riefi, our conquefts and our acquifi- tions under his Lordfhip's condud: in Europe, in Afia, in Africa and in Ame- rica ; as the language of the times then was. When a French fleet had fet fail known to be deftined for the invafion of thefe realms and that no news came of it for fome days, how indifferent an objedt of idle curiofity and imjuiry was it with us ? His Lordfhip united ail the parts of this great empire ana turned and employ- ed r *w-T ,11 li I' m If III,' I '56 1 cd againft its enemies the combined flrength of the whole. I don't know; whether I may fay ; that he was as fortu- nate at union, as fome men have fincc been effedtual at divifion : the whole world may perhaps be well challenged on that head -, but he and others have each had their different means of adminiftra- tion and the effedls have on both fides accordingly and perfedly correfponded. How is our America changed fmcc that time ! Under whofe banners did it then ferve and then fight ? But for what de- fign are its colours now flying, its fwords now drawn, its armies now marching, its artillery now mounted; who and where are its enemies and againft whom are all thefe preparations provided and intended ? — The war however went on in Germany and we contmucd *o run in debt under his Lordftiip. — Nothing will ever induce me to deny the having learnt with my alpha- bet in politics ; that our ifland ought on fuch occafions to keep clear of the con- tinent : the whole experience of my life has to the greateft degree further ftrength- cned in me the fame opinion nor do I in the leaft doubt ; but that I (hall to my laft day [ ^S7 1 day continue in it fo confirmed and corro- borated. I am yet more averfe to borrow- ing, than to tne other ftep, if poflible, and fo far as they are different. V/erc it not for our debt ; the maddtft fet of mi- nifters would be put to it totally to undo the nation withm the period of their power. Lord Chatham did not how- ever firft carry us into Germany j he found us there. 1 will not enter into the parti- cular circumftanccs of Hanover or into any difficultie- with regard to giving it up at that time, engaged as it was ; but a defenfive war in that country was cer- tainly very different from an oficnfive one in Flanders : our enemies confumed in that contefl many men and much treafui c. With refpedt to the latter point of money matters ; Lord Chatham did not during the preceding peace guide ibc reins of government. He never had the povver or the opportunity of fettling any previous ellablifliment on which to have fupportcd a war without aadin^ to our debt : tlie midfl of hoftilitics with T r^aice was not a fit moment for, iuch a purpofe. 1 He revenue withal was not within the pro- vince of his Lordfliip. He retoiiunciKicd . _ . in [ «58 ] in the firJft feafon of his miniftry a icheme for a tdx; but which his colleagues in gO'- vernment reiufed : I might perhaps have fomething to fay on that particular fub^ je(fl; were it to my purpofe. It was however withcDut doubt infinitely prcferar ble to gain every thing with an additioinal debt of twelve millions a year than to lofc all with one of eight. His Lordfhip's plan appears to have been the making by vid:ory way to a fpeedy, an honourable and an advantageous peace and he nobly performed his part towards it. Every candid man will in refledling on this iub- jedl confider ; how much our wonderful fuccefs and conquefts were evidently ow- ing to the counfels of Lord Chatham ; as likewife how far any difficulties or cm- barrallments obfervi^le in his meafures proceeded from the fituation and the cir- cumftances of the nation; at the time that the adminiflration of it came into his hands. Fortune however has proba- bly never fuffered us to fee or to experi- ence the full effeds of the views and the defigns of his Lordfliip. This able ftatef- man was not long after the conclufion of the late war again called to take upon him the care and the condud o£ our govern- ment. «t E jS9 ] ment. I am perfcdrly perfuaded, that his Lordfhip would in fuch a fituation have dlfdained to ufe his poil or his power oiily for the purpofe of heaping profits and advantages' on himfelt> his friends or his family : that he would hardly have Ibid his head on his pillow with comfort nor have feen the iuce of the fun with fa- idsfadtion; until he had cftabliffeed the na'^ tion on fomc fure and folid ground of bc*- mg able to difcharge its diebts in time of peace and to make head againil its ene- mies in time of war. HiK capacity would' have comprehended the means and the cx^ \, counfcis and the conduct of his Lordihip? We are however fom^tintes' toMj tha(^ k is not they, who cry war and havock/ but who recommend peace and r^concili-' ation : not they who pafTed or wlio enfof -^ ced the ftamp or the tea bilk ;> but who-* repealed the one and who have attempie when they condefcend to ^mplby focl« an argument. .. - : •. ■■•" ' ^ But what fhall we fay to the authority and the fupi'^macy of theLegiili^tu^ k>tn6^ times i^ # t '63 1 J times founded (o high ? I triift myfelf to have already been fufficiently full and ex- jilicit on that head. It is however a moft refpedtable expreflion : I know none more fo relative to human affairs ; fo far as it is founded on the true conftitution of our country and when it is confined within the bounds prefcribed by God and by Na- ture to human government. I bear it at all events fo much reverence -, that 1 fhall avoid to fpeak over-freely on the fubjedt of it : but fo much I muft fay; that when- ever it is proftituted to fignify direclly or indiredlly the pleafure of a prince or a minifter or is put for arbitrary power and for abfolute defpotifm, in whatever hands placed ; the fandtity of it is exceedingly lelfened. As to another language of the credit and the fteadinefs and the confift- ency of government often in fome men's mouths I mufl frankly confefs myfelf not fo much to worfhip thofe words : they perpetually appear to me to mean no more than the pofts and the places of thofe em- ploying them. A total alteration of our meafures riiight poflibly demand likewife one among our minifters. That impedi- ment removed, what further difficulty is tiiere in the cafe ? How can the honour M of ■rf [ i64 ] of government be really engaged in any meafures otherwife, than according to the redlitude of them ? Prudent, upright, be- neficial proceedings do a credit to all go- vernments : but for weak, unjuft, de- ilrudlive ones ; furely the fooner that they are got rid of fo much the better. I flat- ter myfelf, that I could on this occafion have furniihed certain perfons with a hint not unworthy of their refledlion ; if I had enjoyed the honour of being in their counfels: which would have been; to have inftead of drawing fo very deeply upon the public made rather fome demand upon their own modefly ; I mean to have changed their meafures ; but to have tried whether they could not by the help of a good friend in the cabinet have kept their pofts. One would have thought, that they fhould not have wanted advice on this head ; but nemo omnibus horis'^lLh.ty appear now to have unnecefTarily flaked both their country and their places 5 if nothing elfe beiides . Some one may however aik; why is' there fo much contention about thefe co- lonies ; cannot we well live without them ? How do many other nations and how did we lit ^ i 165 ■] i we in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ? To which I fay; p^tce be with the fpirit of that excellent princefs ; whom I cannot mention or think of without honour: al- though it may perhaps be the fafhion of the times to reflect upon her name and that there may be reafon for it; fince thefe do certainly very little refemble hers. Heaven only knows ; whether that exalted fpirits look down from above upon the affairs of mortal men ; whether they in- terefl: thernfelves in our concerns or re- ceive fatisfadtion from our refpedt and our remembrance of them : the writer how- ever finds a pleafure in profeflmg his re- verence for the memory of that hicom- parable Queen ; whom he holds for one of the firft crowned heads, that ever fat on this or on any other throne: the diltin- guifhing mark and charac^ler of whofe reign were a true care of her people and of the public; who commanded money and taxes granted to her by unbribed and by unbought parliaments to remain in the pockets of her lubjedts, as her befl and her fureft treafury. I wonder; whether thefe our invaluable provinces would have been under revolt again ll the mother coun-^ try on the fubjecl of taxation, when that M 2 Queen w [ i66 ] (Juccii wore the crown of England ; it' they had then belonged to us. I am how- ever very far from meaning to charge this unfortunate event upon the perfon of our gracious Prince : the royal breail is re- ported to have been filled and infpired with a warm afFedion to our colonies. It muft be makers of mifchief, whifperers, flatterers, evil minifters and favourites; who alone can in the prefent aera caufe our troubles and ourgrie\'ances. Perfons indeed of that fort are faid to have from the truly great Princefs before fpoken of found but little entertainment and I truft, that they will equally be difcouraged or be difchargedj if any fuch fhould have prefumed to approach the prefence of ma- jefty in our days and if the fruits of their works fhall by this time have but too fully teftified the nature of the parent ftock ; from which they muft be fprung. It iaf however true ; that in thofe times Scot- land was not united, Ireland not fubdued, our Weft-Indies not planted, our Eaft- Indies not fettled nor Africa frequented by us : we were neverthelefs a great, a glorious, a flourifhing and an improving people. Colonies and dependencies arc doubtlefs not abfolutely neceffary to a na- tion i P [ i67 ] tion; but there muft according to an an-r cJent expreflion be no brick to make, where no ftraw can be procured. There mufl in fuch a cafe not be every year to pay near five millions of pounds fterling for the interefl of a debt nor above fy^t other millions to find for current fervices ; there muft not be more than ten millions to bring annually clear and neat into an ex- chequer. I wonder how our minifiers will manage thefe matters without America. It is there, that the political fhoe pinches thofe, who feem to feel no- where elfe. Were it not for this caufe ; America might be the main and that whole continent be put upon the caft of a die. Were we out of wantonnefs or for amufement ftrfpped in a courfe of lef$ than three years of all our provinces -, the debt of honour might pofi[ibly be paid and we neverthelefs not become bank- rupt ; but it is another conjuncture now. How will fome people in the prefent fitu- ation provide for our increafed navy, our various and numerous armies, our ftand- ing troops, our militia, our foreign for- ces, Dutch, Hanoverians, Heffians, Brunf- wickers. Ruffians and the Lord knows whom; I fay, for the ordinance, the tranf- [|* m ...3 m I i68 ] port fervicc, the civil lift, for all the ex- traordinary efforts now making ; ar> well i^3 the common ftrcngth and trappii^gs of pur moft expensive government ? What w ill thc}/ anivver ; if a defpcrate and a ftarving people, a licentious and an ill* paid foidicry tired with plundering and with deftroying each other fhould unite in requiring reaibn of them, as of the au- thors of all their evils ? V. hat fatisfadtion will tliey make ; if a debt of near upon a hundred and forty millions of pounds fter- ling {hall one day be demanded at their hands ? The proudeft and the moft orna- mented among them may in fnch a time look very ihiall : they do nev thelefs not know and they feem full as little to refiedl; whether or no that hour is very far off. This is the point, which I would likewife willingly prefs upon our country gentle- men. It may feem a fpecious language- to fome : why cannot we filently and qui- etly fmk into anabfolute monarchy; like fo m.any other nations around us ? We fhall m.verthelefs enjoy our manfions, our park'", our tables, the regard of our friends and the refpedt of our neighbours : we may indeed be obliged to bend to a few fupcriors ; but the natural pride of man ' * ' * will [ '69 ] will be pleafed and be flattered with a great number of inferiors, over whom he may himfelf lord it a little in return : Who can then call this fuch lui uncom- fortable or an infuppo table life ? 1 will not in anfwer to thefe things once more point out fome of the noblefl parts of the world laid wafte by defpotifm : I will not endeavour to roufe or to raife in fupport of the public liberty and profpcrity the honourable blood received from the an- ceftors and running in the veins of thofe to whom I am now particularly prefuming to apply myfelf; but I fay; that this pleafmg dream of fuch a peaceable change cannot in our circumfhances poffibly take place. Bankruptcy and the breach of our provinces from us neceflarily mud and inevitably will produce diftradlion, con- fufion, convulfions and every evil ; which thefe perfons do w^ith very great reafon ever the moil fear and moil abhor. Should two fuch very conliderable portions of this empire, as the mother country and our colonies of North-America (cparate from each other only to meet again in a contention of arms; all Engliih ellates cannot but be broken into a thouiand Shatters by the lliock and the coniiidt. Should r^^ A^^ ,;|^i ft a fingle man in the kingdom; who will not find and feel the lofs of it. One ingenious gentleman however de- clares himfelf to have difcovered; that there can be no medium or accommoda- tion between us and the Americans ; no fuch peace and terms, as fubliiled from the firfl foundation of the colonies until within thefe very few years ; until the ftory of the flamps and after waras from the repeal of that adt to the projedt of the tea ; no fuch as does at tjiis time mo ft happily obtain between us and Ireland : I fay, that a figure has bev^n formed, by which all this is found to be utterly im- pofiible under the prefent planet and we are given to underftand inlLead; that no alternative is left for us ; but either to bring them into abfolute lubjedion, that is, in plain Englifh to cut their throats or die tc cail them off. The turn is in the mean time to revile and to abufe the Americans; that ib our wife and merciful adminiftraticn may be fupported firft in trying the bloody experiment and then in lofinp; our colonies : if that iliall not fuc- • - cced. mw fi f- m ] cccd. It is never thelefs but a very fhort timCj not above three or four years at moft; fince that rivers of gold and of fil- ver kept conflantly, quietly, gently flow- ing from that continent into the mother country and the feat of empire. Things might have io continued : the caufe of rupture did not come from their part : it proceeded from Great- Britain. Why might not vi^e then have let them gone on pouring their millions into our laps; at lead while they were willing ? What hag on a fudden brought us into this new and this defperate dilemma ^ if we are un- der fuch a one ? Undoubtedly, our own extreme folly and madnefs and nothing elfe. This is as certain ; I will not fay, as demonftration -, but as matter of fa(fl: can make it. So much for the time pafl and concierning that to come ; fmce the making of peace is certainly, as cheap and as eafy and probably as fure likewife; as cutting the throats of hundreds of thou- fands of armed men : why fhould we in the iirfl: place not employ uiat means and do thefe Americans the honour to accept from them feme further quantities of that trafh ; for which they fubftitute paper in their country, but \yhich Englifhmen .:.j. have I ^75 1i have a wonderful fondneis to handle in fpecie ? Why will it not be time enough for telling them to let up for themfelves -, when we do not want or are not willingr to meddle with any more of their mo- ney ? Will not the propoled expedient be at all times ready to our hands without trouble ? But quid non mortalia pe^ora cogis — W^hat will not the tailc of fome preferment and the defire of more in- duce men to advance ? We are however to conceive no fuch caufe in the cafe of this gentleman ; for non vult Epijcopari. I fay, and 1 acknowledge chat whoever prefumes to propofe himfelf to the pub- lic for a guide -, does certainly and of courfe intitle them to enquire into the grounds of his condudt for fo doing. No man deals about him more freely or more plentifully his hard words than this writer. That they break through every tie of honour^ honejly and confcience \ that they forge y He andfaljify* make but a mighty fmall part of the compliments ; which he bellows upon thofe, with whom he declares himfelf to be in controverfy. He is therefore on a double account the ob- Scf Addrefs and Appeal, page 86, ^1 m\ ^ ,76 ] je(ft of that maxim. It hj?.s not pteafed the Maker of men -, that they fhouid ab- folutely look into the bre-^.fts of one ano- ther ; as they do into a book : but if it was not for a feeming difclaim, the fince- rity of which I do not quefl:ion ; I fhouid fhrewdly fufpect myfelf to fee in the wri- tings of th:5 gentleman the very ftrongefl, outward figns of fecking preferment. There are various and different ways of doing thjs ; but perhaps few furer or bet- ter for the purpofe, than pamphleteering after a proper manner. I wifh however this gentleman fincerely and heartily a Bifhoprick, whatever he may do for him- felf ; if the opinion promoted by him fh.ill prove true of the little importance of North- America to Great-Brit lin. God is my Judge ; that I feek only truth and the goo'i of my country. It is neverthe- lefs to be earnelHy hoped; tlrt a pro|. ?t period and a due time may be tnkcn for the experiment and that neither he nor any man will in the face of a diitrid:ed public wear a mitre ; c.s the r^'ward of his havihg contributed to t^^cir cv nfuiion. But this gentleman is not lalisfled with one civil war m America : he beats tiie drum. [ ^n 1 • drum for another in Ireland. He pro- poles to unite likewife that ifland under the Parliament of Great-Britain -, which he fays has long been the ardent wijh of every tme patriot of both nations. '* We ihall then have all the Irifh, as we have now all the American throats to cut. I will for one however venture to advife y that we firil: finifli our prefent, before we begin upon fuch another bufmefs. Does the gentle- man mean there likewife to recommend his noftrum of calling them off; if they lliall after the fame manner prove Hub- born and backward upon the experiment? They have rich bifliopricks in that coun- try ; however Itupid the Americans may have been in putting by fuch an ellablifli- ment; when it has been prefled upon them. 1 dare fiy that no ecclefiaftical pique or fpirit on any account of that kind ever makes a part of the prefent fubjcd: ; tet furely all men of every or of no pro- icffion muil wiih us well to reflecft ; be- fore that we fling away our ineflimable polfefTK n of Ireland after North- America already gone by the very means propofed for the ether. What could induce any ' • man * See ditto, page 42. mm P# '^ " C '78 1 man in his fenfes to found at this inftant an alarm likewife for that ifland and to threaten them there with the attempt of a Britifh taxation in their turn ? Is not this doing the work of the Americans with a witnefs ? It certainly could not be intended to flatter the views of fome men in the moil remote recelfes of their minds or to make a merit of avowing an extrava- gance beyond what our minifters have hitherto publicly at leaft appeared to de- fign or to deflre upon their own princi- ples. This would indeed be bidding high for advancement ; could it be the mean- ing : but whatever may be the motive ; it becomes in fo great a crifis, a good and a faithful Englifhman not to fcruple faying ; that this writer feems in fadt moft wan- tonly to play with the fafety and the wel- fare of his country. Some grofs accounts of our exports to America, to Holland and to Germany are by the fame perfon produced out of the Cuftom-Houfe books and comparifons made upon them. I will not enter into that fubjedl : I will fay nothing about the authority of thefe books nor how confi- derable or how improving our North- American ■ C 179 ] American trade was according to thofc accounts themfclves : it would not pay the pains. We ought for the purpofe of forming by fuch a means any proper opi- nion concerning the vahie of our late con- ned:ion with that country to have before us all the true particulars of every thing really brought in and carried out between us in any way and on whatfoever account. There would then be feen, what might pcrh ips amaze fome men; but which will infalli- bly be found by the efFed:s. Our North- American trade was undoubtedly both moil important in itfelf and likewife com- plicated with a great part of our whole commerce. We fee what has by its fai- lure already happened with regard to the African; but which muft in thofe books be entered under its own head and not that of America. This fmgle inilance full}' proves the fallacy of all fuch con- fined obfervations and reafoning. Our Colonies and Great-Britain however are to be compared in a very different manner beiides; as dependencies on one hand and as the feat of empire on the other. All the treafure, all the g( Id and the filver however procured, all the fpare j^roduce of that vaft continent came on this ac- M count I #i'i' w. 'i [ 'So ] count to us and centered here. So likewifc would it in great meafure have done had it been ten times as much and whether or no one word was written about it in a book. What mines of money have by the lame means our Weft-India illands been * to us ? But go and confult the Cuftom- ' Houfe books on the fubjedl and the ba- lance of trade with them will of courfe and ■ from that very circumftance there appear againft us. I wonder what book contains an account of the prodigious profit recei- ved by us evxry year from Ireland. I can- not likewife help obferving here; that the fame reafoning holds good with regard to England and to Scotland; where however no book is kept and of which there does not always feem to be the jufteft fenfe; but men are eagle-eyed to their perfonal and abfolutcly blind to their general interefts. No fmall Ihare of the fubftance of thefe countries is by our dominion and our go- vernment drawn hither: the lefs that they receive from us in return, the clearer are our gains and the more remains with us to fend and to fell to others. When thivS gentleman comes toconfider the advantage of our imports from North- America; he admits only of two heads; Raw materials • • - . of [ i8i ] • of manufdBiires and taxable ohjccls . * This leems very flrange. Suppole Corn, a com- modity not taxed, lent from thence hither to the amount of a million of money, the produce of which is without return or ex- change to difchargc the demands of go- vernment, of abfentees 6cc. is tliis no- thing nor worth the reckoning ? He feems to objed: to rice being a taxable objedt. He fays, it ought not to be taxed. Sup- pofe then neither that nor tobocco to be fo; but remitted hither for the end and in the manner before mentioned: fuppofe them however to be purchafed at the foun- tain head of our plantations with our ma- nufadlures; inflead of being paid for at foreign markets with our money : fuppofe again neither the one or the other; but that they were only a profit to our mer- chants and an employment to our feamen by being imported and exported. Would they in all or in any of thcfe cafes be of no confideration ? 1 will not dwell on this fubjed:: but it feems to me that the gen- tleman himfelf muft on further reflection fee the deficiency of his own argument. There are indeed perlbns, who appear to think the reft and the bulk of mankind N 2 made * See Humble Addrefs pag. 54. m tI lit i [ '82 ] made only to be taxed; but that cannot here be the cafe. Thefe cuflom-houfe books however having thus come in my way, I dciire to be indulged in throwing out an tcnigma concerning them ; which I iliall not ftay to explain, but the mean- ing of which I trurt myfelf well to un- derfland. The beft meafure pofTible to purfue with refpedt to them would per- haps be; if the Legiflature was pleafed to command them all to be burnt in one common pile and never to be again begun. What a noble facrifice and offering would that be upon the altar of commerce ! It would be a flame of a very different kind from that, which is now kindled between Britain and America. Our merchants might perhaps take no great pains to ex- tinguifh it. That point however lies out of my prefent road. But we are told; that if we ranfack hif- tory, records, flatutes, books and writings, wemay mufterflrange charges againft thefe Americans. They Ibmetimes winched and flinched under government, at other times they fmuggled and contrabanded in trade. Thefe arc truly r lighty matters . Were not they upon the whole moft obedient fubjedls in peace ? It was as rare to fir d a rebel as a phoe- V"' t '^3 ] a phujnix among thcin. Were tliey not 3!ealous allies in war ? It is but between ten and twenty ycprs, fince they helped ' us to luhdue no fniall portion of the globe. Did not we to a great degree direifl: the"'* trade ? Wc have received from them mines of riches by that means. What real wrong did they ever once offer us ? They planted themfelves at their own ex- pence and are neverthelefs known and ac- knowledged among mankind for the moil noble and mofl beneficial colonies ever fubjedl fO any nation. Why H^ould we then trouble ourlelves about trifles or make mountains of mole-hills; when the whole ' • '^ent fo very well ? Do we expect, that nature fhould to content our humours have made millions of men without the paflions and the fenfations common to our fpecies or ' e wc ourfelves exempt from thefe at h^ e? Such things, it may be faid, betrayti' howc /era lurking and a la- tent fire; which might one day flame forth. But I aflt when and how, in what . manner o at what diftanc e? Any fuch pretence is us to rhe prclcnt time totally groundlefs, contradidlory both to t] e fadt and to our own condudt. If a fpirit ot reb;:l^'on or of fedition was fpread and J': *» 1. }ii >i^. 'It I tt-^iw ^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) V /. :A (A m 1.0 I.I 1^128 1^ 1^ IL25 III 1.4 M 1.6 ■7^' %\f v^ .\ ''^ 'r> ^'? y >^ Photographic Sciences Corporation ?3 ^/ESr MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (7 '6) 9'2-4r-C3 iV iV ^^ <> ^^. ^\ WriS ^x-^^ ^^. . ■^ C/j ft' i t \' in^ [ IS4 ] , rife throughout our provinces; how came our cunning men with all their lights to be ignorant of it or knowing that a num- ber of barrels of gunpowder were ready heaped up and prepared ; did they tliem- felvcs with their own hands lay the trains and put the match to them ? This would have been full as abfurd in adtion ; as their friend's paradox is in reafon. The truth is ; that inilead of owning and of amending our errors; now that they are become fo plain, as to be perceived both by ourfelves and by the whole world ; fome of us feek or encourage others to feek thefe poor, paltry, contemptible fub- terfuges ; as a colour or an excufe for our crying injuftice and ingratitude with re- gard to the Americans and our moll wret- ched and ruinous condudl with refpedl to our country at home. But Methodifm has entered the lifts againft liberty and againft property. We are from that quarter told; that it is only a few deep, fecret, covert, Englifh Re- publicans ; who have raifed up this civil war in America and who oppofe all mea- fures of reconciliation. Thefe Republi- cans therefore palled or executed the adts relating relating to the llamps, the ten, the port;- of Bofton, the charter and the govern- i ment of Malfachufets-bay^ the liflieries ; and the commerce of America : they fent an army to that country lafl year and they doubled it this together with fleets, artil- lery and all fit means of mifchief to at- tend it : they rejed:ed, refufed or neglected all applications and petitions for peace j from New-York, from the continental ;f, congrefs, from the city of London, from I various parts of America and of Britain 3 : as likewife the proportions of Lord Ch., I of Mr. B. and of other perfons for the' . fame purpofe. One part of thefe mea- fures have been the certain caufes of our « civil war and the other part the oppofition V to recoaciliation. Is it the lame Repub- licans, who have garrifoned Gibraltar and Minorca with Hanoverians and who have . publifhed a Crufado calling all men and all nations to the defliudfcion and the plunder of our colonies and who are to tranfport them thither for that pious and . that beneficial purpofe? 1 am tired with reckoning -, but how horrible a liil it is and what wicked men muH thefe Repub- licans be ! Thefe few, covert Republicans -mufl furely have been very crafty io to have % r II [ 186 ] have baffled and to have over-reached our many oflenlible minifters; who be- ing able to ad: openly and avowedly have no doubt, good men, taken ten times the pains to keep things right ; that thefe abominable Republicans have to put them wrong. How unlucky is it -, that either our minifters were not as cunning as thefe Republicans or thefe Republicans not as honeft as our minifters : in either of which cafes we and our colonies might have continued towards one another in the fame ftate, as we were three or four years ago; peaceable, contented and quiet ! I cannot however but congratulate man- kind ; that there were not more of thefe Republicans : thefe very few have, it feems, flung into confufion one of the firfl ftates in the world and, it is to be hoped, as wifely governed -, as it is high in other regards — St duo prceterea tales — If therd had been a dozen more fuch and efpeci- ally if they durft have proceeded by day- light, what part of Europe might have efcaped ? Republics do not rife or fpring up like mufhrooms; but who knows, whether they might not have been, as thick, as iflands in the Archipelago? An European could then have hardly gone to Court ■ Court for Republics. There would have ; bee.i no King's Chaplains— D/V meliora />/VV~I wonder, what theKing of Cochin- • China would have thought concernino" - fuch a condition of our quarter of the -earth; who, a Dutch traveller tells us, •- had like to have choaked himfelf v/ith •♦.laughing only on hearing; that there wa$ -a people in Holland, who lived v/ithout a JCing. This Reverend Gentleman tells us in his Calm Addrefs; that thefe Re- publicans are endeavouring to divide our colonies from us in order to brincr about by that means their favourite fcheme of a commonwealth in England: another -t charges upon them in his Humble Ad- u. drefs; that they are endeavouring to keep ^ us and our colonies together for the very '« fame evil end. This argument is then a ' two-edged fword with a witnefs; which cuts the republican fingers both ways* I don't know; whether I may not compare it to Scylla and to Charibdis : that if a poor Rejpublican happens to efcape the one; he is fure to be devoured or to be fwallowed up by the other. I don't pretend, to reconcile thefe two Reverend Gentle- «men: unlefs we may fuppofe; that it is poflibly tU t' !|. i88 ] pofTibly fome honell:, moderate, well- meaning men, whom they boch concur to abufe, but in this moll contradictory manner; men who defire nothing but the peace and who heartily abhor on any ac- count whatfoever the very idea of the dif- '' tradiion and the confufion of their coun- try, who never entertained for a moment the leaft intention towards an Englilh or ' a Britifh commonwealth in their lives " and whom thefe Gentlemen make fo bold to charge only from their love of the public and at the moft perhaps fome diflant, fpeculative, Utopian opinions, which are many and various among • mankind. The fame Apoflle in Poli- ticks, as well as in Religion, fmgles out Venice, Genoa and Holland, as three the mofl defpotic ftates under heaven. It is a pity, that he did not likewife favour us • with his patterns of the freeft : it is to be prcfumed; that they would have been Pruflia, Ruflia and Turkey. Hypocrite, Bi- got or Enthuliaft or a compolition of thefe three characters, do you in your dotage likewife long after the flefh-pots of Egypt or are you afraid ; left that the light of reafon and of liberty fhould banifh your caut and your jargon out of America ? Be fatislied ■[ iSc; ] fatisfied with puzzling or with milleading youiiclf and your followers about free- will, gr.ice, fpirit and other fuch fubjeds comprehended neither by you nor by them nor perhaps by any body elfe: you cannot at the bottom but be fenfible ; that trutli and reafon will not afford grounds whereon to pcrfwade a great people -, that they have nothing belonging to them of their own : other means mull: be employed for that purpofe; to which however you are willing to become a trumpeter. All government wliatfoever is founded in con- fent or in force : all lawful government is fo in confent; from which alone can arifc any obligation, to obedience. They who fcorn to require on their fide confent ; neceffarily leave againfl: them the right of refiflance. Where club-law is the prac- tice of the Sovereign; the fame code is of courfe open for the ufe of the fubjedis ; when they can execute it. Slavery de- pends upon the will and the pleafure of the maftcr ; but Hberty and property reil in the concurrence of iliQ governed. You tell us; that the Americans and their an- ceftors had a right to be taxed by the Par-.- liament of England; but that they never had any other. I lay; that they had a right '•fc .1 -[ 190 J right to liberty and to propcrt}^ to the fubftance and not to the fliadow, to the matter and not to the form only : they en- joyed thefe by our parliament ; when this was the proper method for that purpofe : but lince it has ceafcd to be fuch; they ftill retain their right to thofe ineftimable bleflings to be enjoyed by fuch means and in fuch manner ; as their new circum- . ftances and condition do be/l admit. But you and many more in England, you fay, have no votes for Members of Parliament and where is the difference between fuch perfons and the Americans ? Let me try to tell you; if you do not already know. You are exadtly in the fame lituation, with thofe who have votes ; law for law, tax for tax, benefit for benefit, burthen for burthen. Thefe cannot preferve or profit themfelves without doing pre- cifely the fame by you; they cannot en- flave or empoverifli you without fuff'ering^ the like fate and fortune themfelves. The Americans are under very different and in fome refpedls contrary circumftances. They are abfolutely with regard to this great point of taxation in the oppofitc fcale. Every fingle fhilling levied on an American weighs on the Britifli fide and faves faves jufl- the fame fum to the perfons im- pofing it upon him or to thofe chufing fuch, as do fo. This argument is hourly hackneyed in our ears; hut how few words afford it an anfwer in appearance beyond reply? You tell us 3 that it will be no harm for America, if it is taxed like Scotland. I anfwer, that Great-Bri- tain now raifes for the year at three fhil- lings in the pound upon the land about eleven millions flerling; the collcdlion included. Scotland is favoured in the two taxes of the land and the malt; that is in two millions and a quarter of this fum; but with refpee^ to the remaining eight millions and three quarters the North- Briton pays alike and exadtly, as the South. This is your pattern for a people ; who now plainly appear to have neither p^cld nor filver among tliem and v/hvic com- merce is confined by ourfeives. I think; that you can hardly he acquainted with the meaning and the extent of your own words on this fubjed:. You mention Ireland, as another example for America. That feems. ' as flrange as the other. Could it mifs your memory; that Ireland is adually taxed by their own reprefentatives in the very man- ner; which the Americans delire ? Every man, [ ^92 ] man, you fay, may fit under his own vine and his own fiQ: -tree. But how can that or to what purpofe will it he; when another may come and cut it down or tuke the fruit of it at his pleafure ? — But that h:is not been fo hitherto — no nor this taxation. Pall parliaments have undone our coun- try at home by taxing : what ground then can there be to imagine; that thofe to come would not do as much by America ? You may quibble and chicane, as long as you will; but you had need to pull down the pillars of nature ; before you can over- turn the great principles of liberty and of property. You are laid to have llrangely contradifed yourfelf on thisfubje^t; but I little trouble myfelf about that : you con- tradid the clearefl reafon ; after which you may for me make as free with your- felf befides as you pleafe. Your condudl however does in one refped: a credit to this people; if that the charge of fanaticifm often laid upon them by their adverfaries; was as well founded, as is fometimes pre- tended ; they would hardly have had you ' for an enemy. You remind us of the great rule to fear God and to honour the King : when all will be well ; but no o- ther way, I fay, reverence God ; fear to offend I 193 ] ■v.; offend his laws ; love him, as far as our poor and our weak faculties can lift themfclves up towards his incomprehenfible nature :' honour the King, when he is a good one ; think defcrvedlyof him when he is other- wife. Truft conflantly to the truth; never wilfully be deceived yourfelf nor deceive others. A good King is truly a great blef- fing of Heaven ; the contrary is a fcourge and a judgement. Plagues, pcftilcnce and famine are the bites of a fly in compa- rifon of a bad prince ; as the Itate of man- kind and the hiftory of the world v/ill well inftruft us. Let us not affcd: to couple together two Beings infinitely diflant from each other, infinitely more diflant than the vaulted fky fomctimes called Heaven is from our earth ; I fay, to couple them with an affcdtation of equality or pcrhnpi; with feme preference of the mrjitai to the eternal: fincc to be honoured is certainly before being feared. Methodifl:, metho- dift, do not you with all your pretences of piety about you compliment your King at the cxpenceof your God; however co- vertly or indired:ly. I hope to fee no Me- thodifl on the throne of England: it might be a fad prefage. Three of our princes have particularly given into fu- perflition l:Hi- .|lilri^ I'' [ 194 1 perflitlon and their reigns have in a fin- gular manner been marked with misfor- tunes. Let us on all occafions feek and purfue the happinefs of mankind. That is the real rule given by God to all men and all nations: it is plain to every appre- henfion : it is more or lefs within the power of every one to perform and he is the worfl of impollors; who perverts to any other purpofc our mofl benevolent religion. Why did not you endeavour to induce the governors of our country to caft the weapons out of their hands ; where peace has ever fluck from the beginning and where it yet (licks ; if that they have not themfelves mnde it too late ? Why did you not fet forth the prefent ftarving, wretched condition of the poorer people of England i* Is this no grievance or does it according to your general pretence not fubfifl or is it no confequence of national meafures or is it an improper fubjedt in this American difpute or are you unac- quainted with it? You can tell it loudly enough, when you are talking to the lower rank themfelves ^ but fo do you likewife know how to whifper it; when you fpeak for fome others to hear and for whofe ears your addrcfs v/as in all appearance in- tende4 ' [ '95 1 tended and not for thofc of the Ameri- cans to whom it is for form fake Aincr- fcribed. Your zeal is now not without knowledge; whatever it may be at fomc pther times. It is fometimes faid in defence of the minifter, that the prefent meafures are not according to his own opinion or in- clination ; but that they are impofcd upon liim from another quarter. No fuch difcourfe deferves a moment's delay or attention. If the nation is undone, what does it matter by whofe means? Whether any one hurried and blinded by his own paflions ftrikes with a bold and a defperate hand his dagger into the heart of his country or whether he confents to be made the cool and the abandoned inftru- ment of another in the doing of it j cither the one or the other crime is of fuch a magnitude; that the whole world is hard- ly capable to hold a balance wherein to weigh it. I do not doubt; but that many a man has in different ftations con- curred on this occalion with a mofi: un- willing mind : the few at the helm however have from the beginning to the prefent inflant carried on all the procefs O of m ii m [ 196 ] pf thefe mifenible meafures fo roundly, fo readily, fo earneflly, fo violently and with fo little appearance of backwardnefs or of fcrupuloufiiefs ; that their willingnefs towards the work and not the contrary appears the only wonder to be accounted for. It hurts me to take notice; that a caft and colour of cruelty feem to dye the whole of thefe proceedings. But the attempt to ftarve the inhabitants of our colonies by prohibiting the impor-i- tation of provifions; v/hich is waging war with the poor and the helplefs, with wo^ men and children, on whom only fuch a meafure mufl fall : the defign of ex- citing, of arming and of leading againft our countrymen nations of favage Indians; who do not in their hoftilities a(fl lik^ men, but who feek with a horrible bar- barity to imbrue their hands in the blood of that defencelefs fex and their harmlefs little ones: the endeavours to debauch flaves for the purpofe of deflroying and of butchering their mailers : the fend- ing armies of ftrangers and of barbarians to wafle with lire and with fword that country; v/hich was within thefe three years fubjedt to us and which we pre-^ tend i 197 ] tend to defire and to expe(fl fliould be fo again : the wanton deftrudlion of towns and of dwellings and, I'hope, that I may not join the unbecoming treatment of brave men under the pretence of their being rebels: the general hardnefs and mgratitude of doing thefe things and much more to a people ; who ever bore us the moft fmcere and the warmefl af- fed:ion and from whom we have received unfpeakable benefit; muft, I fay, furely move every one, whole nature has in it any mixture of the milk of humanity. Cruelty has hitherto been never charged upon us, as a nation : do not let that likewife be now thrown into our mea- fure ; as if it was on this occafion not fufficiently heaped up and full without any fuch addition. Our adminiftration however, we arc told, has been deceived. That matter will not be difpiited with them; but if ^ny one neither knows of himfelf how to chufe fit meafures nor to confult proper perfons upon the fubjed of them nor to adopt them; when they are pointed out and prelTed upon him by thof; . whom he O 2 does V '■> { 198 ) docs not confult -, for the love of heaveif what has he to do at the head of a ftate ? Can fuch a perfon poffibly find no other way of fpending his time ? If any thing can add to the enormity of the prefent proceedings themfelves ; it is the headlong manner in which they have againft fo much advice and admonition and from fo many quarters both at home and abroad been picfTed and purfued. It was not particularly pointed out; that Lexing- ton would be the beginning of blood or Bunker's-Kill the field of battle : the names of Putnam and of Wafhingr^ ton were not written down; but I can- not recoiled: fo much as one fingle ma- terial circumftance, which has taken place and of which our rulers were not Fairly and timely forevvarned. Every fi:ep might readily be reckoned up; if it was not too ftale and too well known a ftory to be now repeated. Have not we fought and bought and paid for deception ? Was not it publicly underftood to be the high road of preferment for our governors to flatter our power and our meafures and to make mifchief between us and our colo- nies ? When we had thus purchafed mif- in formation and evil counfel were we not onx *) i ^99 ] our own dupes and did we not greedily i-wallow and believe, what we had our-^ felves io procured with our money? Why is however not fome fmall f.itisflidb'on at leaft given on this ruhjcd? Why arc luch wretched advifers, the ill-fated inftru- ments of this moft ruinous civil war, fuf- fered to continue crawling about our councils or feeding upon the blood of ths public ? But wherefore do we talk of the counfels or the information of men ; when Providence, fate, events themfeives have in the ftrongefl manner admoniihed and . difcouraged the authors of thefe misfor- tunes; but with no more effec^l, than if fuch circumflances had only concerned the ftate of affairs and fome fquabble in China or in Japan. There is not a deafer adder upon earth than a miniller of ftate ; when you would charm his palTions, his pride, his ambition or his avarice: but Heaven have pity upon that poor people; Vvhofe adder is blind, as well as deaf; who ' will neither hear the clearefl: rc.ifon nor can fee the plaineft fadls, when they ftare him the moft fully in the face. It now rains addrelTes ; as fome people fay, that froga drop from the clouds. To addrefs is un- derftood to be the means of finding fa-^ O 3 \our ■' .( [ 200 ] i^ i f^M. vour at court and in the cabinet. Thefe addrelles fet forth the flourilliing flate of the kinirdom, of our commerce and our manufa(ftures and how little the war and the revolt of America ar^ yet felt. Men may put their confidence in this fine account 5 who have a mind and are deter- mined to be deceived: but our minifters furely cannot be fuch children, fuch chic- kens, fuch innocents as not to be fenfible, that there has hitherto been no time for a full and a fair trial of the efFed:. While our colonies kept paying their debts and fend- ing plentifully of their own produce to us and took from us little or nothing of ours : what muft be the wifdom of thofe ftatefmen or of any other perfons; who could fancy that to be the period, in which we were likely to feel their lofs ? If the importation from thence into Britain flopped on the Monday, did any one dream; that our government would be bankrupt or our people all be ftarved or our country be in diflradtion on the Tuef- day? The proverb fays, that opportunity flies apace, but fuch great events and the fate of nations demand time and matu- rity. The fad: neverthelefs does already begin as much to fhew and to develop it- felf ^ [ 201 ] felf; as could in fo fliort a fpace have been feared or expcdtcd. ManchefLcr and feme few other of our nipjuifadlurijig pla- ces may perhaps maintain their former ground; but it is too fure a truth, that the body of our poorer and our lower people, our labourers, ourhandycraftfm'en and our manufacturers themfelves are in general throughout the nation noW funk and reduced to a degree never experienced before amon^ us. What a material, what a melancholy circumftance and confidera^ tion ! This our minifters mii^ht kno\V without ftirring out of their ow n faction for information. How can then fome men read or hear without blufhing thofe pretty compofitions of their own procuring or encourao:ino: ? Come our misfortunes in^ fallibly will and but too fl\fl:, if we con- tinue our adtual courfe^ whencourt-adula-^ tion, addrefles and flattery will little avail to defend us from them. V/ould to God^ that fome men would have more patience on the fubjedt and hot fo haften them upon us j merely becaufe they are not here at this moment 1 They will not come like a flaih of lightning; but let me add, nei-^ ther will they fo pafs away/- When we produce ourfelves tlie caufes, do we il:and O 4. ftarins: •9 -▼r H;i ik ■■ P .MS' [ 202 ] llaring and enqulnng^ whether it is to he cxpeded, that the effedls will follow ? What fort of an hu(handman muflhe be; who having with his own hand fown the feed flioiild doubt -, whether he was in due time to reap the fruits and the harvefl of it/ or who made a wonder; that his corn was not in the ear and the grain at Chrift- mas ? Our minifters have immoveably fixed their eyes on one favourite pointy the abfolute fubjedtion of America; they will believe in the moll abfurd propofi- tiun, opinion or plan ; which appears to lead or to contribute to it ; but they feem neither to fee or to hear or to underfland any one objedt in the whole world lying out of that line. Deceived no doubt we have been and moft grofsly and moil grievoully. But by what means? Our own paffions have impofed upon us; our contempt of the perfons, our averfion to the liberty and our rapacioufnefs after the property of others. Thefe are the counfellors which have miflead us and what is worfe j we yet continue to be ac - vifed and to be dired:ed by them: w« have no more difcharged or difcarded thefe, than we have done B. and H. h Can E 203 ]■ Can it then be conceived, Hiys fome one, that a number of unrealonablc and of ill- judging men fliould at one time be all fo oddly jumbled together at the head of any ilate or government ? The chance would have been much againll fuch an unlucky combination; if that its inhabitants had in common drawn lots or caft the die on the occalion. The prc- fent tunes muft fpeak for thcmfelvcs: I fhall anfwei' notliing as to them. I may however endeavour to explain ; how things have heretofore come to pafs and poflerity will be more fortunate than their fore-fulhers ; if they iliall never happen again after the fame manner. A Prince often empowers fome par- ticular perfon to chufe or to controul all the other counfellors and officers of his kingdom. Such a one will pro- bably pick them out according to his own pattern or expedt them to con- form to it; when the difficult and the difobedient will of courfe be difcard- ed the company. It is an old fiying; that all life is a ftage play : but where a firfl minifter rules every thing, the com- parifon may perhaps rife no higher than to the humble reprefentation of a pup- ^ i ^ pet-ihow [ 204 ]' pet-fliow: in which however the figures may flrut, ftare or look hig upon the outward Aage and whether they adt tragedy, comedy or farce; they dance and they fpeak and they Iqueak, only as their mafter behind the fcenes moves the fprings and the firings and the wires, ' I defire however to fay fomething upon the fubjedt of fuch a firfl or prime mi- nifler. I have ufed the exprefHon after others: but it is not the language of the conflitution. We are not a race of Turk- ifh flaves to be governed by a Grand Vizir nor is our nation a province of France, where the practice and the abufe of many iges have accuflomed the Mo- narch to delegate his power and his au- thority to a fubflitute. T do not know how to perfwade myfelf^ that a Prince reigning in a land of liberty can be in- titled or warranted to deliver over his people into the hands of any fingle fub- jed:. A Parliament, I fay, a free Parlia- ment, a Parliament elected and adting without corruption is by our conflitution appointed for the chief council of the King of England and not fome one mi- nifler, flatterer or favourite. Our com- mon people are apt to complain; that their [ 205 ] their betters ibinctimcr, ape tl)e modes of a neighbouring nation : but if this of a firft minifler is a French falhion, any one may be bold to fdy; that it is tlic worfl: cuftom ever copied by us from that people. The political habits of that country are of late however much chan- ged. The writer is not a very old man and he remembers when the Parliaments •of Paris were a bye-word for their mean- nefs and their abjcdlnefs towards their Prince. That matter however is now totally altered. I wonder what Parlia- ments will in time to come be the proverb for complaifance and dudl:ility. The French have learnt a firmnefs and a fleadi- nefs and to look in cafe of exigency their King and his minifter in the face. This is affirmed to have been formerly a good old Englifli falhion. When will our travelled gentry bring it with them back again to their own country ? I truff -, that I may anfwer, as foon as reafon and oc- cafionfhall require: although the happi- nefs of the times may not now demand any fuch prefent practice. How would it other wife appear in the eyes of poilc- rity; ihould the abjed Haves of a prime minifter be thedefpotic mafters of North- America. ? • ft i! i. - S ,- [ 206 j America ? Non bene convcniunt Jtec in unit Jede morantur — I am pcrfcdly perfwaded, that two Tuch dircdtly contradictory cir- cumllances will never happen or be 11- nited in one and the fame body of men. There is a circumftance, (which how- ever contemptible in itfelf,) I do not know how to pafs over in filence ; as it lies in my way and as it explains the tem- per of fome men. The miniflerial wri- ters have on this occafion already begun to cry out for forfeitures and againft nox- ious and erroneous clemency.* Can therl the imagination and the ambition of our philofophers carry them acrofs the At- lantic in hopes of farms and of planta- tions there for themfelves or do thefe things tempt their patrons and their pay-* mailers ; in whofe praifes and for whofe pleafure they tune their lyres ? Some Eng- lifh hiftorians tell us, I will not warrant how truly ; that the French played be- fore the battle of Agincourt at dice for their * Taxation no Tyranny, p. 87.— Nothing can be more noxious to fociety, than that erroneous clemency ; which when a rebellion is fuppreffed exafts no forfeitures and cfta- blifhes no fecurities, but leaves the rebels in their form^er ftatc. I 207 1 their prifoners ; but who were neither then taken nor ever afterwardvS. We read of armies ; that have brought along with them chains to bind their enemies : by whom they have themfelves been Ibundly beaten for their pains. The learning of thefe authors might at leaft have furnifh- ed them with the fable ; whofe moral ad- monidies us not to be over-forward to di- vide the bear-ikin, until we have firft maftered the bear. What is this but warning the Colonies to hold out to the utmoll: and in cafe of neceffity to feck fo- reign aififtance; rather than to forfeit their eflatcs to perfons at home : whofe fancy feems fo forward to give them li- very and feifm on the occalion. It may perhaps be a problem not unworthy the folution of thefe ingenious gentlemen themfelves^ whether the policy cr the humanity of this proceeding the moil: de- ferves to be approved of and to be com- mended. I have formerly touched upon Ire- land. They have not there our debt : they have adiiferent government and they are by the fea feparated from us. They may poflibly fvvim, when we fmk ; but that a m I ^08 ] that muft depend upon the utmofl: uncer- tainty of chance. They arc a people molt lingularly and peculiarly circ :n(tanced a- mong them 111 ves and with refpcdl to one smother ; more fo, than I will endeavour to explain nor which is ncccllary, it being well known and underllood. llillcry can hardly trace ; when they were com- bined under one head or had any form of civil fociety of their own. Their prefent government originated many centuries ago from England ; where its connedtion and its dependance have ever fince continued. If the guiding reins fliould through weak- nefs or through diforder drop out of our hands; they cannot but run the moll dan- gerous rifque of falling under the com- mand of fome foreign nation or of their (tate being totally turned un-lide-dowh or of both mifchances. Thofe perfons then mufl: furely be doubly pofleiTed ; who having a flake in each of thefe illands have neverthclefs prcfl'ed and urged the prefent proceedings. I think, that fuch men mud by this time begin to grow lick of their own work : in which cafe it is undoubtedly their highell duty to retracfl or to foften, what they have faid and to the beft of their power to repair and to amend [ 209 ] amend what they have done. There i& however another part of our country ^ which if I have before approached on this fide, it was yet in a more diftant manner and whofe condition is in ahnofl: every refped diredUy contrary to that of Ire- land ; I mean, Scotland. They are of one illand with us; hut they Jiad for many ages within thcmfelves their Kings, their Lords, their Commons, their Parliaments, their Courts and their Officers of Juftice, their Laws and every other circumftancc of a perfedt, complcat, feparate govern- ment. They have made with us many a war and many a peace ; they had an ally, who did not ufe to fail them in time of their need and to whom they were thcm- felves accoi-ding to theconjuncfture of that period faithful in return. It has not been two centuries ; fnice that we i'wil had the fame prince nor one fince we have had the fime legiflaturc , This lalt union was the adt of the Scottiih not people, but par- liament : were it to-morrow to be voted there by every man of twenty-one years of age; he is ill-informed; who believes, that it would not be diflblved by a very great majority. They are a people per- Jiaps, as much and as remarkably united among [ 210 ] among themfelves as they of Ireland arc divided. What (hould then hinder ; but that they may in the cafe of an utter dif- folution or diftradtion of our government cut all the ties, the links, the chains, which now hold and fallen us together ; I lay, that they may leave England to fmk alone into a bottomlefs abyfs with a debt of a hundred and forty millions of pounds fterling, hanging like a mill-ftone about its neck ? I jfhall not here be mif- imderftood, as if I was meaning any re- flection upon a people ; to whom I have from my youth up ever borne refped:. I am moft fenfible of many and great ad- vantages received by England from the union with Scotland. If they have no more gold and filver in Nortn-Britain it is, be'caufe that their nobility and their gentry prodigal them away after their plcafures and their ambition in the South. They people us in the mean time with men, as good as ourfelves ; as even our maidens and our widows feem fometimes to bear vvitnefs. I verily believe them to have no more idea of a prefent divilioit f[om us ; than of a feparation from the lull or the moon. I am in my own mind fihlv fatisficd ; that the Americans enter- tained [ 211 1 talncd five years paft no fuch intentions; whatever pretences the authors of thelc mifchiefs may in defence of themfelves and of their miferable meafures now in- vent or propagate. It is my particular perfv^afion ; that no people reafonably hap- py will for the fake of diflant and of un- certain fancies ever break or difturb their real and their adlual felicity. I fpeak on a fuppofition therefore of a fmcere and an abfolute neceflity ; to which the proudefl mufl: bend and which the moft powerful mufl obey. They may perhaps be then more willing to allow of its law in their own cafe -, than they feem to be now in that of forne others. When their only alternative left fhall be to perifh with their neighbours or to preferve themfelves with- out them ; they may conceive, that there is but little either of cafuiftry or of policy required to refolve the queftion. Why is fuch a pollibility much more diftant or different from the flate; in which we now are : than our prefent fituation is from that ; in which we were at this time five years ? I refer to five years ago, as to a for- mer period -, before that thefe troubles broke out : our ad:ive governors however have in fadt employed but about two revolving P funs W [ 212 3 iuns in performing the firfl half of theii- work. They truly have in a fhort fpace of time dellroyed the temple of peace ; but their wonders feem to be of a very different fort frorn building up again with the fame hafte. I prefs the rather thefe points in hopes of bringing certain per- fons to fome fenfe of the circumftances about them, of inducing them to conii- der on what ground they ftand, of ma- king them refled:; that it is not every man, whom they meet in the flreets or whom they convei'fe or they confult with ; whofe fortunes and whofe affairs are on this fubjeclin the fame bottom with their own. There are who may get and may gain; who may lofe one half and may hold the other ; who may fuifer much and may heverthelcfs fave a remnant : but they, to whom I would at this moment particu- larly apply myfelf, have no flake but in one fpot, have their all in one veffel or, to fpeak a plain language, in England. I am fully perfuaded; that there are fome perfons, whom it mofl behoves and moft concerns; but who are even yet not aware upon what an adventure they have em- barked themfelves, their families, their country and their King. * ^ -[ 213 ] What then are we in this difficult ftate of our affairs moft to wifh and to defire ; the vidlory of adminiftration and the de- vaftation of America or the fuperiority and the liberty and confequently to us the Jofs of our colonies ? This may not be the eafieflofqueilions ti anfwer. He was a wife man ; who prayed his God to fend him, what he knew in his wifdom to be good for him ; although he did himfelf not defire it: but to keep from him, what was evil; although he did defire it. Should Providence for our penalty and our pu- nifliment fuffer us to deftroy our colonies ; we fhall bite the duft together and France and Spain and perhaps leffer people befides take the fpoils of both. Many men and fome nations would commiferate Ameri- ca : they would recolle(5t her former af- fection, attachment and fervices to us; although we forget them. Great-Britain would perifh unpitied and unlarf nted : our fall would be attributed to ingrati- tude and to injuftice united with folly and with phrenzy. This however does not appear to be the probable train of future events : we feem on the contrary to be by /orce driving our Colonies into indepen- dance and into greatnefs. The common P 2 courfe [ 214 1 courfe of hiftory has hitherto been ; that little fcattered fparks of liberty have fal- len, as it were, from Heaven on particular fpots^ by virtue of which fome ftates fmall at the beginning have wonderfully fpread abroad their name and their power among mankind. It was never before known in the civilized world ; that this holy flame blazed brightly and infpired with an equal ardour every part through- out a great and a mofl extenfive continent. The eifedts of this phcenomenon in poli- ticks are yet to be experienced. Athens is well underflood to hive been a demo- cracy managed in great meafure by its ci- tizens in their colledtive capacity and it fhone ; as a light among nations. Rome was likewife a republic ; but chiefly con- ducted by an eleAed fenate nor need it to be faid; how it over fhadowed the world. Thefe were however Angle cities -, within whofe walls were confined their govern- ments and their eledlions. There have hitherto been among men no inftances of large, numerous and civilized nations; >vhere the whole people ruled themfelves without a monarch by the means of re- prefentative bodies appointed fairly, e- gually and frequently for that purpofe, This [ ^'5 ] 'rhis will probably be one day a new form of government and an improvement in democratical conftitutions. It feems pe- culiarly well adapted to promote the in- terefts and the happinefs ; as well r -o unite the inclinations and the opinions of all its members : it admits by an equal elcdion and a real reprefentation every man toajufl: Ihare in the management and the adminillration of the whole. Per- fection is not to be expeded in the affairs of men nor will I now enquire ; how far this may or may not within its province approach to it or partake of it. lioUnnd copies in fome meafure this pattern by ex- tenfive ariflocracies and is in comparifon of its territory the firfl country on the globe for trade, for opulence and for num- bers of inhabitants : the Swifs come yet more nearly to it ; although neverthelefs ftill at a confiderable diilance: thefe want the fea, the fcene of commerce and the fource of riches ; they are however a hap- py people* It is perhaps referved for our American Colonies to erecfb the firfl re- publics on this plan and who knows ^ but that they may in confequence thereof toge- ther with the other improvements to be expeded among mankind arrive one day to P 3 a degree »'!*■ • [ 2i6 ] a degree of happinefs and of profperity and may enjoy a ftability hitherto un- known and unexperienced in civil govern- ments ? Can any one pretend to explain ; whether Providence is not in his unfa- thomable wifdom and by the means of our condudt, however flrange and unac- countable upon any plan of human pru- dence or realbn, at this inftant raifmg in America the Handard of liberty and pre- paring a refuge and an afylum for the en- flaved and the oppreffed of different parts of the earth ? The governments there forced and broken off from us will at their command have vaff tradls and regi- ons fufficient to receive and to accommo- date a good part of Europe ; whofe do- hieftic opprelfions and miferies will not fail to drive them into countries fo much freer and fo much happier than their own . It is not neceffary ; that there fhould be a leader efpecially commiflioned from Hea- ven or that the waves of the Atlantic ocean fhould be divided and fhould ftand on an heap for that purpofe : the deiire of good and the averfion to evil perpetually prefent in every human breaft will be a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night to condiidl them thither. Are the Ger- m.ans [ 2^7 ] mans at this time if^norant of the chart of that country or do the Irifh, the Eng- Jifli and the Scotch leavirio; their taxes and their burthens behind them not crowd al- ready the fame road ? Were it cuflomary to magnify thofe j who ferve or who ag- grandize us with an evil will and againfl their intentions : fomC men might per- haps be then celebrated, painted and fta- , tued for the fathers and the founders of American Commonwealths ; who now bid fair to be only heard of in hiiiory, as haying ruined and overturned their ov/ri monarchy. 1 fpeak with the moil pro- found reverence j but I do not believe it to be the ultimate end and purpofe of an all-benevolent Providence : that fo great a part of the human fpecies fliould per- petually Remain under their prefent bon- dage and that civility and flavery fhall for ever be almoft conflant companions of each other. Clouds will arife in the po- litical, as well as in the natural world ; but fo will they likewife pafs away or the funfhine of liberty will break forth in o- ther parts* 1 truil; that the civilized portion of our fpecies is upon the whole notwithflandinsffome crofs and untoward occurrences happening at times and at P 4 places [ 2i8 ] it P }:' 1 i places conftantly advancing and improving in their freedom. The condition of our earth is undoubtedly new, new in coin- parifon not only of eternity ; but of time. It is but little more than twenty centu- ries, not more than the fucceflive lives of fifteen fuch perlbns as our countryman Parr -, fmce that the firll human hiftory was written. What a fpan ! Men are but beginning to emerge out of their natural barbarity into national communities and focieties : we are as yet perfect novices in the art of framing or of modelling infti- tutions of that fort. Our inward nature muil ever remain the fame : the feeds of ambition, of avarice and of the other felfifh paflions having been fown in our breafts from the firfl will in all appearance never be rooted out ; but the outward cir- cumftances of things will very much vary. Mankind will in time grow more upon their guard againft one another : nations will by degrees learn how to provide more efitsdlual defences and fecurities againft the defigns and the attempts, the force and the artifice of thofe; to whom they confide their governments and by whom it is, that they are moil commonly undone. Letters may do much : they enlighten the world ; / [ 219 ] world: the prclent, frequent, increafino-, public and private ufe of them muft not only inform and inflrud the multitude and the many ; but muH likewife enable them better to move and to ad toc^ether for their common interefls and concerns ; than they formerly did or could without any or with but little of fuch communica- tion. America is now arming and mufter- ing, almoft to a man ; we alike catch good and evil of each other. Who knows ; but that this may become the pradice of nations ? On that rock will then be founded the freedom of mankind : This feems to be the means by which defpo- tifm mufl one day receive its mortal blow. A few bearing the fword do ever opprefs the helplefs public ; but how can one man tyrannife over millions of his equals, all of them armed and ready for their own defence ? Whatever country defires to maintain its indepen- dance againfl foreign foes and its free- dom againft domeftic ones 3 let it copy the prefent conduct of the Americans and keep the whole body of its people armed and muftered: in which cafe, if I may make bold to ufe fo high an expref- fion, the gates of hell will not be able to p 1' ■ [ ^20 ] to prevail againfl its liberty. But whnt will then become of Great- Britain in thefe halcyon times of Americp. or of mankind? Who knows whtther iht may not wifh to take (belter under the flia- dow of flates, fo lately her own pr<;\ inccsf and her own dependencies? Whether our only poflible means of efc pin jl*; the laft diftreffes and calamities inen .'.nt to a nation may not be; if that tlr y Ihall protedtus from the creditors of o;u* go- vernment, from our neigiibours, from our rivals and from all others; who may be willing to infuit a fallen, an nhjcdl and a helplefs people: I fay; if that their own reafon or, I am very forry to add, the unhappy precedent of Great- Britain fhall teach them of what extreme, mu- tual utility, advantage and afiilKince two great branches of the fame nation may be to one another: when united and con- ned:ed by confentin their interelh; how- ever diftant and divided by the ocean in their dwellings. This will indeed be a very different fituation from having America at our feet; but we may well be content to turn our backs on that fentence and leave it to be engraven on the monument of him, from • [ 221 ] t from whom it came. It is furely a mofl unfit and mod unbecoming cxprefTion and which all parties fliould wim to be buried in oblivion; but how different a temper feems to prevail in Tome men, from that: when fchemes are at this moment laid and means arc now pre- paring to wade with fire and with fword and to deluge with blood that continent ] for the very end of carrying it into c>tc- cution ? Great- Britain however had need both then and at this time to fee to her own concerns. Foreign reliance is but a flender reed in the hands of thofe; who have ruined thcmfelves. That the {yf- tem of benevolence is a right and a real , policy in the condudt of nations and in their government of others; may perhaps be believed by a few philofophers in their clofets ; be reprefented by a fmall num- ber of moralifts in their writings ; be preached from the pulpit by fome one truly worthy to attend at the altars of the Divinity, one happily blending the pub- lic fpirit of patfiotifm with the charity of our holy religion : but it is to be feared ; that the hidories, the examples, the experience of many ages to cotne are yet required; before that great dates and k ' im [ 22* ] and empires fliiill adlunlly and cffecftually adopt it into their practice. Should thelc dreams and thcfc vifions ever be fooner or later in any degree realized; we fliall find and our former provinces will ilnd ; that profperity and fuperiority readily for- get the rules and the refolutioiis n.ade or approved in adverfity and in humi- lity. Our condition however demands in- ftant afTiilance : the clouds are colleded : the ftorm is about to burft upon our heads: the thunders begin to roll and the lightnings to fly : our niinifters are not- withflanding leading us further into the wildernefs : it is high time for the col- lective wifdom of the nation to exert it- felf and the conflitution : peace, peace, peace is tiic only protedlion held forth to us by Providence in this great and this dangerous conjuncture. What methods can we then take to- wards that defirable end ? To which I muft anfwer ; that fome men fiffedt to talk fo harfh a language and feem fo fond of every means to diffever us from our colonies ; that I hardly know, whether it is lawful for me to lignify my wifh : that there was preferved a conjunction, a connection, a corre- L 223 ] correfpondence between honefl: «ind wcll- intcntioncd men of England and of Ame* rica the better to counteract the enemies ol' !)oth countries and for watching every opening and opportunity to reftore the an- cient harmony and tranquility between us. It is certainly our true intereft in- stead of prohibiting to encourage in con- tinuing an intercourfe with their friends and their families over the Atlantic fuch perfons ; as having property and polTef- iions there neverthelefs remain with us at this moment out of a fort of affedtion and of attachment to Great-Britain. Thefe arc fo many links and chains holding toge- ther us and that weflern continent : they may poffibly be one day by prudent and by proper means made of efTential fervice be- tween us; but "'■he fame infatuation feems to affcd: all our mealures from tlie firfl and the higheft to the fmallcil and the loweft. As to what we are to do more immediately within ourfelves; the advi- fers of war and the hounds of blood lead us the way. Let us follow their foot- fteps, purhie their paths, but for the con- trary purpofe; for the preferving this gre^t empire, which their endeavours tend to confound and to deftroy. One body of men have fmce the Revolution chiefly had ' •' polleflion ILiJ.^. w.: 1^^: [ 2Z4. ] pplfeffion of our govprnment : they flipped "by corruption all the outworks of the conftitutioii : liberty was perpetually in their mouths and their difcourfe; but proflitution was in their hearts and thoir actions. The wind has lately veered i I. another fet have fince fucceeded to tiv: helm. Thefe are now endeavour! u<; b^ make up for the time part by outdoing -their predecefTors : they are flinging do\^n the fences, which the others had under- mined to their hands : they have revived the principles of flavery and have added them to an increafe of the fame detefcible pecuniary influence. Both thefe were however only two venal factions ; who perverted in their turns the facred name of government to their own corruption : the public continued in the mean time an helplefs prey without power between them. But endeavours are now uling to involve the nation itfelf and to make them confenting and concurring to their own, ruin. What will then remain; except that we fhall be totally ripe and ready lor deftrudlion with none left among us to lift up their hands towards heaven and to aik even, how they nave deferved it? ouch are thy ways, O Providence, while men are difputing f f "5 ] dlfputing; whether it is thy moft wife and moll j lift laws or their own folly, phrenfy uiid tyranny, which do and which ought to govern the world ! Let ur, however hope for fome happier jiTue. The vaft powers of the crown and the very free ufe of them coniidered, where is the wonder; if a few thoufands of men are fablcribing of papers to pleafe and to fiatwer an adminiilration ? What proportion or what con-parifon do thefe bear to the \7h0le body of the kingdom; who moft undoubtedly and moll ardently d iire an end of this worft of all wars and . th sfe moft ruinous of all meafures ? It is our lilence and our acquiefcence, which iiiaKe us acceflaries to the guilt of thofe ; who are going to give th'* laft ftroke to our country. God and men require of every people to reftrain within due bounds their own rulers. Governments dired: under the appointment and the authority of the people j but the people adl and execute with their own hands : the peo- ple man the navies and compofe the ar- mies; which carry fire andfword, devafta- tion and defolation over the earth : the people are the immediate inftruments in mifchief $■■- [ 226 ] jnirchicf and fo are they likewife the main vi(fVims of it : the calamities confequent to a public mifconciudt ever fall chiefly and moft heavily upon their body. What are the misfortunes of a few men or a few families fufFcring their portion of the evils caufed by their own counfels in com- parifon of the general diftrefs and mifcxy of a whole people ; although I do not at all mean ', that even the others commonly do or that they will on this occafion in particular efcapc a Ihare of fuch mifchiefs fully fufficient to make likewife them ear- neftly to repent of their par' in the produc- tion of them ? Why are then fo few found who fet their hands to the faving of their '"ountry; when fo many are figninj to their ruin ? If we approach with peti- tions the Ro3"al prefence ; the cry of the public could not but flart and drive away any one, who lurks behind the throne and who poifona v/ith evil counfels the ear of our Prince and if that ther ? is fuch a perfon. If we prefume to apply to our Parliament ; that powerful body is able to bind certain madmen in the chains of the conftitution and to make them con- ducft themfelves at leaft with lefs danger ^nd lefs damage to the public : whether or I 227 ] * ' ■ * no they will ever be turned into very deep politicians or very difintere/led patriots. What witholds then, the cool and the confiderate and (I am perfed:ly perAvaded) by much the major part of the nation, the friends and the favourers of peace from offering in their turn to our King and to the other branches of our legiflature hum- ble 3 but general and earneft petitions for the purpofe of faving the whole, of faving even thofe who are endeavouring to de- ftroy both the reft and themfelves? Thefe ire the proper prayers for drawing dowii once again the dove of Heaven among us ; but which due means if we ncgledt, we fhall no more deferve her happy prcr fence ^ than we did, when fhe was of late fo rafhly and fo fatally and no one knows why driven away from this empire. On what conditions then can peace be made ? In anfwer to which I muft in my furn i{k ; how vain is it for individuals n bei propoling plans on that fubjed: in oppofition to the obftinacy of thofe ; who poffefs all the power of the nation and? who appear plamly to have no fuch inten- tions ? The door of that blelled Temple would readily have been thrown open to ^" [ 228 ] US ; if v/e had ever fignified any fincerc defire of entering into it : but nothing of that fort has from the beginning of thefc broils to the prefent moment come from our miniflers, nothing but a conftant de- mand of an abfolute fubjed:ion on the part of the Colonies -, however fome men at a diftance from our counfels may at times have deceived themfelves on this head. As to that crude, indigefled, per- plexed, obfcure parcel of vv^ords compli- mented by fon " w^ith the title of a con- ciliatory plan; i\ pears proper only to expofe the poor conceptions of its authors and how very far thefe were from having any ideas fit for the compoiing our pre- fent moft high and moft unhappy trou-r bles. It met accordingly with nothing, but contempt in the country; which it concerned. It feems to have faflened and to have riveted to the general union the co- lony of New- York ; which it was in all appearance particularly intended to divide and to feparate from the reft and which was fuppofed to be at that time wa- vering and doubtful. It could not but operate in the like manner with our other Colonies; as it plainly betrayed how lit-? (levv^as to be exped:ed towards peace from the [ 229 ] the quarter of adminiflration. The fame cafe ftill continues. The Continental Congrefs fent by Mr. Penn their lafl ad- drefs and application. It is publicly un- derlliood, that they will on the news of Its being negledted take fome very vigorous iteps towards independence. We are in the mean time purpofely fuffering the pre- fent moft precious feafon to elapfe and to pafs by without moving hand or foot to- wards an accommodation. We declare ; that we will have nothing to do with the bodies particularly delegated by the Ame- ricans and in whom they efpecially con- fide. We talk of treating only at the point of the fword. We affed to make a myftery of our terms. No hints are flung out of confenting to recall on any condi- tions whatfoever the ad: altering the char- ter of Maflachufets-Bay or of givini^ fe- curity and fatisfadtion to our Colonies in general concerning the boundaries or other grievances of the Quebec-bill ; without which points it is not to be expeded, . that a fmglc man in America will lay down his arms. What does all this mean and much more that might be mentioned ; ' but a full determination to march with- out turning to the right or to the left di- Q..2 redly IPW [ 230 J re6lly forwards in our firft road ; to try the whole chance and to rifque the worft con- fcquences of a civil war ^ to flake the all of England on the caft in hopes of bring- ing America to bend under our abfolute power : although there is at the fame time no more probability of fucceeding in that projedt, than of obtaining the command oi the moon ? Good God in Heaven ; how do fome men trifle with the fate of this nation ! fr m But a numerous commiffion is to be named j which will do wonders. I will not now inquire after what manr fuch perfons are likely to be receivea in A- merica ; if they ftiall refufe to treat with the reprefentatives of the country, when they come there. But my anfwer is; that our Colon ifls muft have liberty and pro- perty in its fubftance and its efTence nor will tliey on any other terms be conten- ted : we muft confent to pafs that point; if we mean ever to have peace with them more. A child may be the tale-bearer, if fuch is our real purpofe and refolution; but no commJffioners in the world will be equal to the work ; if 'rt is only in- tended to out- wit them by treaty into what hfii E [ 231 ] what we have in vain endeavoured to force them with the fword ; if our defign is at the bottom no deeper or no better than under the colour and the cover of negotia- ting and by the means of certain Englifh arts of bribing, of corrupting, of hold- ing forth perfonal or provincial advanta- ges to make fome weak attempts for the disjoining and the dividing thofe ; whom our own adts and our ov/n meafures have moft ftrongly united and cemented. What a poor, pitiful, cobweb policy and ha- ving in it, full as little ftrength, as ho- nefty ; are all fuch methods ? The Ame- ricans will in that cafe baffle or avoid our artifices even with more facility ; than they have reftrained and refifted our arms. Our commiffioners had i^iuch better be content at home than to expofe us and themfelves beyond the Atlantic ; if fuch only are to be their errand and their in- ftrudtions. It may here be repeated ; let us never- thelefs draw nearer to the very terms of re- conciliation : but Imuflagain aik; why do not the proper perfons inquire after them at Philadelphia; where men are met qua- lified and commifiioncJ to anfwer any due 0^3 queftion m t 232 ] queftion on that fubjedt ? The writer cah only pretend to point towards the ground ^ which v."^/ many before him have already marked ut in vain. We are however ta.^ht; that the Imallefl: mite offered with a fit intention will not be refufed even of the higheil. It becomes no man to be backward at doing his duty towards his country in its lafl moments. Where will be the great damage of giving a few words to the wind, after numberlefs o- thers far more worthy than mine gone the fame way and on the fame occalion ? I will therefore not fcruple to exprefs at lead the wifh of one individual and what he believes would in the prefent cafe be mod for the benefit of Great-Britain and perhaps not very far from the acceptance of the colonies.* We mufl in the firft pUcc recall our fleets, our armies, our martial governors and put an end to all the apparel and appearance of war there. This needs no explanation. We mufl more- over fully, effectually, perfedlly convince all that continent ; that we retain not the leaf! intention of ruling them for the fu- ture ft * This was ^^'ritten before it was known ; that the Ame- ricans had made themfclveii makers of any part of Canada. y rr d d n s e \r i ^33 1 ture by military means. No peace cart be expefted for us with America cither' now or in time to come ; except on that ground. We can after certain events with but an evil grace force our troops upon them under the pretence of protection nor can they with a much better demand them of us, as neceflary for their defence. We fhall by this means five both our men and our ^oney; neither of which can' we well fpare. Let us likewife fling upon them the expences of their own civil go- vernments : let them pay their officers on that eftablifliment more or lefs and in fuch manner -, as they pleafe themfelves. They cannot then pretend difcontent on that head and what is it to us ? Here will be another oeconomy. I will give the au- thority of a miniflerial writer ; that thefe favings will according to a common and current calculation amount to no lefs than 300,000 pounds a year :* but who would know, at what rate to reckon them ; if the prefent job was to be taken into the account ? We firil run ourfelves into 0^4 j enormous * Dr. Tucker's Humble Addrefs, p. 83. America drains us for tliofe purpofes [to maintain its civil and mi- litary elhblifhments] of upwards of 300,000!. annually,. ^M ^1 FU m [ 234 ] enormous cxpcnces for very bad purpofeb and xve then make the matter much worfc by unjufl and by opprefTive means of fup- plying them. This is one article. The next is ; a compleat, intire, unreferved, uncxcepted repeal of all the oifenfive and obnoxious adls of parliament paiTcd fmcc the preient peace, the declaratory bill in- cluded. How happy muft every Englifh- man be to fee them expunged out of our ftatutc book ! It will be like flinging out of a houfe the brands, which are fetting it on fire. The language to us laft year of the Continental Congrcfs was " place us in the fame fituation, that we were at the clofe of the lafl v^ar and our former harmony will be reflored."* What could we have expedlcd more ; if an angel had defcended from heaven r»nd had delivered an olive branch to America ; who had held it forth to Great-Britain ? Are not thefe the very terms ; which every pru- dent man would have defired : had we been ourfelves to have didlated them ? What planet has been uppermofl or hov/ has the moon erred for thefe three years ? I have here offered my two firfl articles : unlefs ■I. , S- : • Sec their Letter to the People of Great-Britain. ' 1 [ 235 ] unlcfs we confcnt to which; we had need to fpill ahnoft every drop of blood in A- jnerica. There remains then one more point. The wounds of that country are now open and bleeding nor will be healed without leaving ftrong marks and Icars. Our defire of a revenue is yet unfatisfied. Suffer the writer here to repeat a former proportion of his own. To open and to enlarge the commerce of our colonies is the true means of our mutual content- ment. It is a fure refource to enrich us and the fit falve for their fores : it will be the befl adt of oblivion to induce a for- getfulnefs of all paft injuries and offences. I mean nothing which ihall fow a jealoufy or difTention between our dependencies ; but a general meafure, that they fhould all be aflifled according to the efpecial occafion rnd exigencies of each. I will not now dwell on this fubjed:. I have formerly done it more fully.* How very far greater profit and benefit mufl to our treasury arile from the favings and the means here mentioned i than from all what we could hope to have levied by odi- ous and by vexatious taxes laid upon a country ; * See Confiderations, [ ^5' 3 SSS5SSESSES55S ssae POSTSCRIPT. •> t* v^ <*- ''.^• ACCOUNTS come from America during the printing of the prece- ding papers are fo material and fo impor- tant and have in fome refpecls fo changed the ftate of rny fubje thf;n V?Qn. tjjpcaufe of o,uf n^^y mifchkfs ?— I will rg^e bold to repjjf ; cprrup(»ton,,— Wb^it i§ the remedy f()r them?^-He muft: perhaps lie more than pi.an whp fhall anfwer that. f'l^hp writer however will for one in thiS; jerlaaps the laft crifis of our couixtry pre- ume to fpeak his humble opinion : he, means his fentinaef^ts on a fuppofition; that the ilate pf things is aftd will o^ 4 fair experience pr examination be fpuna much luch, as ha.s been, here reprefented. Let us then rnakp ii> the ii^fl: place inilant peace with our Colonies on the tertns ol" our giving or pu^ leaving to them a fult and a free traffic throughout the world> but of their returning again under t\\^ forrnei' {yA^m of our government re|lf^in~ ^d however from excefs; if that tljey \yitl accept of fuch conditions. Let us allow the iam.e liberty of commerce to oui; Iflands of th^ Weft-Indies an4 to Ireland. Let us ma$e Great-Britain from, one en4 to the other an if>ti|-e free pprt ipr unex- cepted importation and e^Cportatijpn ; lef us for that purpoie j^bplifl) all our cuf- toms and raife our whpfp revpnu^ ):|y in- .4. ternal ij J '■ K i L [ 2i5 1 'feffiat ineail's. Let lis by a real milhia arm all our people atid not a fniallpart of tliem only by a flanding army linger ^Ke name of ohe : let us in this refpedt imi- tate the Americans and defend durfelvcs againft others by the fame means, as they have defended themfelves againft us , Laftly let us eftablifh general and equal elections of the members of our Houfe of Commons. Let us do thefe things with- out the Americans and on condition only of their afliftance againft other nations ; if that they ftiall decline coming once more to any nearer connexion with us : their aid and their help we may one day enough want; whatever we now think on that head. We may by thefe means hope to preferve under heaven and at all probable events our King, our government and our country : but whether we are likely fo to do without taking all and th,e whole of thefe fteps, it may become me to pull the veil over my opinion; efpecially as the truth urges and preffes me moft unwil- lingly to lay; that there is at prefent hardly tlie leaft appearance of our purfu- ing any or at beft more than one of them. Here then I tjike my final leave, trufti ng that i i 256 ] that no ofFence will arife from the ofFer of fit advice : but may the counfels given by every man among us for his country be upon himfelf ; whether they fhall be good or fhall be il. Jan. 1776. usi n y