-'*' - 
 
POLITICAL 
 
 TRACTS. 
 
 CONTAINING, 
 
 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 THE PATRIOT; and, 
 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 Fallitur, egregio quifquis fub principe credit 
 
 Servitium, nunquam Libertas gratior extat 
 
 Quam Tub Rege pio. CLAUDIA:* us. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 Printed for W. STRAHAN ; and T. CAD ELL in die Strand. 
 MDCCLXXVI. 
 
THE 
 
 FALSE ALARM. 
 
 [1770.] 
 
THE 
 
 FALSE -ALARM, 
 
 ON E of the chief advantages derived 
 by the prefent generation from the 
 improvement and diffufion of Philofophy, 
 is deliverance from unneceflary terrours, 
 and exemption from falfe alarms. The 
 unufual appearances, whether regular or 
 accidental, which once fpread confternation 
 over ages of ignorance, are now the re- 
 creations of inquifitive fecurity. The fun 
 is no more lamented when it is eclipfed, 
 than when it fets ; and meteors play their 
 corufcations without prognoftick or pre- 
 didion. 
 
 B THE 
 
 M176 % B16 
 
2 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 THE advancement of political know- 
 ledge may be expected to produce in time 
 the like effe&s. Caufelefs difcontent and 
 feditious violence will grow lefs frequent, 
 and lefs formidable, as the fcience of Go- 
 vernment is better afcertained by a dili- 
 gent ftudy of the thedry of Man. 
 
 IT is not indeed to be expected, that 
 phyfical and political truth fhould meet 
 with equal acceptance, or gain ground up- 
 on the world with equal facility. The no- 
 tions of the naturalift find mankind in a 
 ftate of neutrality, or at worft have no- 
 thing to encounter but prejudice and va- 
 nity ; prejudice without malignity, and 
 vanity without intereft. But the politi- 
 cian's improvements are oppofed by every 
 paflion that can exclude convidtion or fup^ 
 prefs it; by ambition, by avarice, by hope, 
 and by terrour, by public faction, and 
 private animofity. 
 
 6 IT 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 3 
 
 IT is evident, whatever be the caufe, 
 that this nation, with all its renown for 
 fpeculation and for learning, has yet 
 made little proficiency in civil wifdom. 
 We are ftill fo much unacquainted with 
 our own ftate, and fo unfkilful in the 
 purfuit of happinefs, that we fhudder 
 without danger, complain without griev- 
 ances, and fuffer our quiet to be difturb- 
 ed, and our commerce to be interrupted, 
 by an oppofition to the government, raif- 
 ed only by intereft, and fupported only 
 by clamour, which yet has fo far prevailed 
 upon ignorance and timidity, that many 
 favour it as reafonable, and many dread 
 it as powerful. 
 
 WHAT is urged by thofe who have 
 been fo induftrious to fpread fufpicion, and 
 incite fury from one end of the kingdom 
 to the other, may be known by perilling 
 the papers which have been at once pre- 
 B 2 fented 
 
4 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 fented as petitions to the King, and exhi- 
 bited in print as remonftrances to the 
 people. It may therefore not be improper 
 to lay before the Public the reflections of 
 a man who cannot favour the oppofition, 
 for he thinks it wicked, and cannot fear it, 
 for he thinks it weak. 
 
 THE grievance which has produced all 
 this tempeft of outrage, the oppreffion in 
 which all other oppreffions are included, 
 the invafion which has left us no proper- 
 ty, the alarm that fufFers no patriot to deep 
 in quiet, is comprifed in a vote of the 
 Houfe of Commons, by which the free- 
 holders of Middlefex are deprived of a 
 Briton's birth-right, reprefentation in par- 
 liament. 
 
 THEY have indeed received the ufual 
 writ of eledion, but that writ, alas ! was 
 malicious mockery ; they were infulted 
 
 with 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 5 
 
 with the form, but denied the reality, for 
 there was one man excepted from their 
 choice. 
 
 Non de vi, neque c<zde, nee veneno, 
 Sed lis eft mihi dc tribus capellis. 
 
 THE character of the man thus fatally 
 excepted, I have no purpofe to delineate. 
 Lampoon itfelf would difdain to fpeak ill 
 of him of whom no man fpeaks well. It 
 is fufficient that he is expelled the Houfe 
 of Commons, and confined in jail as being 
 legally convicted of fedition and impiety. 
 
 THAT this man cannot be appointed 
 one of the guardians and counfellors of the 
 church and ftate, is a grievance not to be 
 endured. Every lover of liberty ftands 
 doubtful of the fate of pofterity, becaufe 
 the chief county in England cannot take 
 its reprefentative from a jail. 
 
 B 3 WHENCE 
 
6 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 WHENCE Middlefex fhould obtain the 
 right of being denominated the chief 
 county, cannot eafily be difcovered ; it is 
 indeed the county where the chief city 
 ^happens to fland, but how that city treat- 
 ed the favourite of Middlefex, is not yet 
 forgotten. The county, as diftinguifhed 
 from the city, has no claim to particular 
 confideration. 
 
 THAT a man was in jail for fedition 
 and impiety, would, I believe, have been 
 within memory a fufficient reafon why he 
 fhould not come out of jail a legiflaior. 
 This reafon, notwithftanding the muta- 
 bility of fafhion, happens ftill to operate 
 on the Houfe of Commons. Their no- 
 tions, however ftrange, may be juftified by 
 a common obfervation, that few are mend- 
 ed by imprifonment, and that he whofe 
 crimes have made confinement neceffary, 
 feldom makes any other ufe of his enlarge- 
 
 ment ? 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 7 
 
 ment, than to do with greater cunning 
 what he did before with lefs. 
 
 BUT the people have been told with 
 great confidence, that the Houfe cannot 
 control the right of conftituting reprefent- 
 atives ; that he who can perfuade lawful 
 electors to chufe him, whatever be his cha- 
 rader, is lawfully chofen, and has a claim 
 to a feat in Parliament, from which no 
 human authority can depofe him. 
 
 HERE, however, the patrons of oppofi- 
 tion are in fome perplexity. They are 
 forced to confefs, that by a train of prece- 
 dents fufficient to eftablifh a cuftom of 
 Parliament, the Houfe of Commons has 
 jurifdidtion over its own members ; that 
 the whole has power over individuals ; 
 and that this power has been exercifed 
 fometimes in iniprifonment, and often in 
 expulfion. 
 
 B 4 THAT 
 
S THE FALSE ALARiM. 
 
 THAT fuch power fhould refide in the 
 Houfe of Commons in fome cafes, is ine- 
 vitably neceffary, fince it is required by 
 every polity, that where there is a poffibi- 
 lity of offence, there fhould be a poifibility 
 of punifhment. A member of the Houfe 
 cannot be cited for his conduct in Parlia- 
 ment before any other court ; and there- 
 fore, if the Houfe cannot punifh him, he 
 may attack with impunity the rights of the 
 people, and the title of the King. 
 
 THIS exemption from the authority of 
 other courts was, I think, firft eftabliihed 
 in favour of the five members in the long 
 parliament. It is not to be confidered as 
 an ufurpation, for it is implied in the 
 principles of government. If legiflative 
 powers are not co-ordinate, they ceafe in 
 part to be legiflative ; and if they be co- 
 ordinate, they are unaccountable; for to 
 whom rnuft that power account, which h^s 
 no fuperiour ? 
 
 * THE 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 9 
 
 THE Houfe of Commons is indeed dif- 
 foluble by the King, as the nation has of 
 late been very clamoroufly told ; but while 
 it fubfifts it is co-ordinate with the other 
 powers, and this co-ordination ceafes only 
 when the Houfe by diffblution ceafes to 
 fubfift. 
 
 As the particular reprefentatives of the 
 people are in their public chara&er above 
 the control of the courts of law, they muft 
 be fubjedt to the jurifdidtion of the Houfe, 
 and as the Houfe, in the exercife of its 
 authority, can be neither direded nor rer- 
 iirained, its own refolutions muft be its 
 laws, at leaft, if there is no antecedent de- 
 qifion of the whole legiflature. 
 
 THIS privilege, not confirmed by any 
 written law or pofitive compadt, but by 
 the refiftlefs power of political neceffity, 
 they have exercifed, probably from their 
 firft inftitution, but certainly, as their rer 
 
 cords 
 
io THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 cords inform us, from the 23d of Eliza- 
 beth, when they expelled a member for de- 
 rogating from their privileges* 
 
 IT may perhaps be doubted, whether 
 it was originally neceflfary, that this right 
 of control and punifhment, fhould extend 
 beyond offences in the exercife of parlia- 
 mentary duty, fmce all other crimes are 
 cognizable by other courts. But they, who 
 are the only judges of their own rights, 
 have exerted the power of expulfion on 
 other occafions, and when wickednefs ar- 
 rived at a certain magnitude, have con- 
 fidered an offence againft fociety as an, 
 offence againft the Houfe. 
 
 THEY have therefore diverted noto* 
 rious delinquents of their legiflative cha- 
 rader, and delivered them up to fhame or 
 punifhment, naked and unprotected, that 
 they might not contaminate the dignity 
 of Parliament, 
 
 IT 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. n 
 
 IT is allowed that a man attainted of 
 felony cannot fit in Parliament, and the 
 Commons probably judged, that not being 
 bound to the forms of law, they might 
 treat thefe as felons, whofe crimes were in 
 their opinion equivalent to felony ; and 
 that as a known felon could not be chofen, 
 a man fo like a felon, that he could not 
 eafily be diftinguifhed, ought to be ex- 
 pelled. 
 
 THE firft laws had no law to enforce 
 them, the firft authority was conftituted by 
 itfelf. The power exercifed by the Houfe 
 of Commons is of this kind, a power root- 
 ed in the principles of government, and 
 branched out by occafional practice; a 
 power which neceffity made juft, and pre- 
 cedents have made legal. 
 
 IT will occur that authority thus uncon-* 
 trolable may, in times of heat and con- 
 teft, be oppreflively and injurioufly exerted, 
 
 and 
 
12 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 and that he who fufFers injuftice, is with- 
 out redrefs, however innocent, however 
 miferable. 
 
 THE pofition is true but the argument 
 is ufelefs. The Commons muft be con- 
 trolled, or be exempt from control. If 
 they are exempt they may do injury which 
 cannot be redreflfed, if they are controlled 
 they are no longer legiflative. 
 
 IF the pofiibility of abufe be an argu- 
 ment againft authority, no authority ever 
 can be eftablifhed ; if the actual abufe de- 
 ftroys its legality, there is no legal govern- 
 ment now in the world. 
 
 THIS power, which the Commons have 
 fo long exercifed, they ventured to ufe once 
 more againft Mr. Wilkes, and on the 3d of 
 February, 1769, expelled him the Houfe, 
 for having printed and publijhed afeditious 
 ) and three obfccne and impious libels. 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 13 
 
 IF thefe imputatiens were juft, the ex- 
 pulfion was furely feafonable, and that 
 they were juft, the Houfe had reafon to 
 determine, as he had confefled himfelf, at 
 the bar, the author of the libel which they 
 term feditious, and was convicted in the 
 King's Bench of both the publications. 
 
 BUT the Freeholders of Middlefex were 
 of another opinion. They either thought 
 him innocent, or were not offended by his 
 guilt. When a writ was iffued for the 
 election of a knight for Middlefex, in the 
 room of John Wilkes, Efq; expelled the 
 Houfe, his friends on the fixteenth of 
 February chofe him again. 
 
 ON the i yth, it was refclved, that John 
 Wilkes, Efq; having been in this Seffton of 
 Parliament expelled the Houfe^ <was, and 
 is y incapable of being ele&ed a member to 
 ferve in this prefent Parliament. 
 
 As 
 
14 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 As there was no other candidate, it was 
 refolved, at the fame time, that the elec- 
 tion of the fixteenth was a void election. 
 
 THE Freeholders ftill continued to think 
 that no other man was fit to reprefent 
 them, and on the fixteenth of March 
 elected him once more. Their refolution 
 was now fo well known, that no opponent 
 ventured to appear. 
 
 THE Commons began to find, that 
 power without materials for operation can 
 produce no effect. They might make the 
 election void for ever, but if no other 
 candidate could be found, their determina- 
 tion could only be negative. They, how- 
 ever, made void the laft election, and 
 ordered a new writ. 
 
 ON the thirteenth of April was a new 
 eledtion, at which Mr. Lutterel, and others, 
 offered themfelves candidates. Every me- 
 thod 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 15 
 
 thod of intimidation was ufed, and fomc 
 acls of violence were done to hinder Mr, 
 Lutterel from appearing. He was not de- 
 terred, and the poll was taken, which exhi- 
 bited for Mr. Wilkes, 1 143 
 Mr. Lutterd, 296 
 The flieriff returned Mr. Wilkes, but the 
 Houfe, on April the fifteenth, determined 
 that Mr. Lutterel was lawfully elected. 
 
 FROM this day begun the clamour, 
 which has continued till now. Thofe 
 who had undertaken to oppofe the mini- 
 ftry, having no grievance of greater mag- 
 nitude, endeavoured to fwell this decifion 
 into bulk, and diftort it into deformity, and 
 then held it out to terrify the nation, 
 
 EVER y artifice of fedition has been fince 
 pracYifed to awaken difcontent and inflame 
 indignation. The papers of every day 
 have been filled with the exhortations and 
 menaces of fa&ion, The madnefs has fpread 
 
 through 
 
t6 THE FALSE ALARM, 
 
 through all ranks and through both fexes ; 
 women and children have clamoured for 
 Mr. Wilkes, honeft fimplicity has been 
 cheated into fury, and only the wife have 
 efcaped infection. 
 
 THE greater part may juftly be fufpecled 
 of not believing their own pofition, and 
 with them it is not neceffary to difpute. 
 They cannot be convinced, who are con- 
 vinced already, and it is well known that 
 they will not be amamed. 
 
 THE decifion, however, by which the 
 fmaller number of votes was preferred to 
 the greater, has perplexed the minds of 
 fome, whofe opinions it were indecent to 
 defpife, and who by their integrity well 
 deferve to have their doubts appeafed. 
 
 EVERY diffufe and complicated queftion 
 may be examined by different methods, 
 upon different principles ; and that truth, 
 
 which 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 17 
 
 -which is eafily found by one inveftigator, 
 may be miffed by another, equally honeft 
 and equally diligent. 
 
 THOSE who inquire, whether a fmaller 
 number of legal votes can elet a repre- 
 fentative in oppofition to a greater, muft 
 receive from every tongue the fame an- 
 fwer. 
 
 THE queftion, therefore, muft be, whe- 
 ther a fmaller number of legal votes, fliall 
 not prevail againft a greater number of 
 votes not legal. 
 
 IT muft be confidered, that thofe votes 
 only are legal which are legally given, and 
 that thofe only are legally given, which 
 are given for a legal candidate. 
 
 IT remains then to be difcufled, whether 
 
 a man expelled, can be fo difqualified by 
 
 C a vote 
 
,8 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 a vote of the Houfe, as that he fhall be no 
 longer eligible by lawful electors. 
 
 HERE we muft again recur, not to pofi- 
 tive inftitutions, but to the unwritten law 
 of focial nature, to the great and pregnant 
 principle of political neceffity. All govern- 
 ment fuppoies fubjeds, all authority implies 
 obedience* To fuppofe in one the right to 
 command what another has the right to re- 
 fufe is abfurd and contradictory. A ftate fa 
 conftituted muft reft for ever in motionlefs 
 equipoife, with equal attractions of contrary 
 tendency, with equal weights of power ba- 
 lancing each other, 
 
 LAWS which cannot be enforced, can 
 neither prevent nor reftify diforders. A 
 fentence which cannot be executed can have 
 no power to warn or to reform. If the 
 Commons have only the power of difmifling 
 for a few days the man whom his confti- 
 
 tuents 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 19 
 
 tuents can immediately fend back, if they 
 can expel but cannot exclude, they have 
 nothing more than nominal authority, to 
 which perhaps obedience never may be 
 paid. 
 
 THE feprefentatives of our anceftors had 
 an opinion very different: they fined and 
 imprifoned their members ; on great provo- 
 cation they difabled them for ever, and this 
 power of pronouncing perpetual difability 
 is maintained by Selden himfelf. 
 
 THESE claims feem to have been made 
 and allowed, when the constitution of our 
 government had not yet been fufficiently 
 ftudied, Such powers are not legal, be- 
 caufe they are not rieceflary ; and of that 
 power which only neceffity juftifies, no 
 more is to be admitted than neceffity ob- 
 trudes. 
 
 C 3 THE 
 
20 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 THE Commons cannot make laws, they 
 can only pafs refolutions, which, like all 
 refolutions, are of force only to thofe that 
 make them, and to thofe only while they 
 are willing to obferve them. 
 
 THE vote of the Houfe of Commons has 
 therefore only fo far the force of a law, as 
 that force is neceflary to preferve the vote 
 from lofing its efficacy, it muft begin by 
 operating upon themfelves, and extends its 
 influence to others, only by conferences 
 arifing from the firft intention. He that 
 ftarts game on his own manor, may pur- 
 fue it into another. 
 
 THEY can properly make laws only for 
 themfelves : a member, while he keeps his 
 feat, is fubjedt to thefe laws ; but when he 
 is expelled, the jurifdi&ion ceafes, for he 
 
 is now no longer within their dominion. 
 
 THE 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 21 
 
 THE difability, which a vote can fuper- 
 induce to expulfion, is no more than was 
 included in expulfion itfelf; it is only 
 a declaration of the Commons, that they 
 will permit n longer him whom they thus 
 cenfure to fit with them in Parliament ; a 
 declaration made by that right which they 
 neceflarily poflefs, of regulating their own 
 Houfe, and of inflicting puniQiment on 
 their own delinquents. 
 
 THEY have therefore no other way to 
 enforce the fentence of incapacity, than 
 that of adhering to it. They cannot other- 
 wife punifh the candidate fo difqualified 
 for offering himfelf, nor the electors for 
 accepting him. But if he has any compe- 
 titor, that competitor muft prevail, and if 
 he has none, his election will be void ; for 
 the right of the Houfe to reject, anni- 
 hilates with regard to the man fo rejected 
 the right of electing. 
 
 IT 
 
22 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 IT has been urged, that the power of 
 the Houfe terminates with their feffion ; 
 fince a prifoner committed by the Speak- 
 er's warrant cannot be detained during the 
 recefs. That power indeed ceafes with 
 the feffion, which muft operate by the 
 agency of others, becaufe, when they do 
 not fit, they can employ no agent, having 
 no longer any legal exifterjce; but that 
 which is exercifed on themfelves revives 
 at their meeting, when the fubjefl: of that 
 power ftill fubfifts. They can in the next 
 feffion refufe to re-admit him, whom in the 
 former feffion they expelled. 
 
 THAT expulfion inferred exclufion, in 
 the prefent cafe } muft be, I think, eafily 
 admitted. The expulfion and the w r rit 
 iffued for a new election were in the 
 fame feffion, and fince the Houfe is 
 by the rule of Parliament bound for the 
 feffion by a vote once pafled, the expelled 
 member cannot be admitted. He that can- 
 not 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 23 
 
 not be admitted, cannot be ele&ed, and the 
 votes given to a man ineligible being given 
 in vain, the Hgheft number for an eligible 
 candidate becomes a majority. 
 
 \ 
 To thefe condufions, as to moft moral, 
 
 and to all political petitions, many objec- 
 tions may be made. The perpetual fub- 
 jedt of political difquifition is not ab- 
 folute, but comparative good. Of two fy- 
 ftems of government, or two laws relating 
 to the fame fubjeft, neither will ever be 
 fuch as theoretical nicety would defire, and 
 therefore neither can eafily force its way 
 againft prejudice and obftinacy; each will 
 have its excellencies and defeds, and every 
 man, with a little help from pride, may 
 think his own the beft. 
 
 IT feems to be the opinion of many, 
 
 that expulfion is only a difmiffion of the 
 
 reprefentative to his conftituents, with fuch 
 
 a teftimony againft him as his fentence may 
 
 G 4 comprife 
 
24 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 comprife ; and that if his conftituents, not- 
 withftanding the cenfure of the Houfe, 
 thinking his cafe hard, his fault trifling, 
 or his excellencies fuch as overbalance 
 it, fhould again chufe him as Hill worthy 
 of their truft, the Houfe cannot refufe him, 
 for his punifhment has purged his fault, 
 and the right of electors muft not be vio- 
 lated. 
 
 THIS is plaufible but not cogent. It is a 
 fcheme of reprefentation, which would 
 make a fpecious appearance in a political 
 romance, but cannot be brought into prac- 
 tice among us, who fee every day the tow-* 
 ering head of fpeculation bow down unwil- 
 lingly to groveling experience. 
 
 GOVERNMENTS formed by chance, and 
 gradually improved by fuch expedients, as 
 the fucceffive difcovery of their defects 
 happened to fuggeft, are never to be tried 
 by a regular theory. They are fabricks of 
 
 diflimilar 
 
.THE FALSE ALARM. 25 
 
 diffimilar materials, raifed by different ar- 
 chitects, upon different plans. We muft 
 be content with them as they are ; fhould 
 we attempt to mend their difproportions, 
 we might eafily demolifh, and difficultly 
 rebuild them. 
 
 LAWS are now made, and cuftoms arc 
 eftablifhed ; thefe are our rules, and by 
 them we muft be guided. 
 
 IT is uncontrovertibly certain, that the 
 Commons never intended to leave electors 
 the liberty of returning them an expelled 
 member, for they always require one to 
 be chofen in the room of him that is expel- 
 led, and I fee not with what propriety a 
 man can be rechofen in his own room. 
 
 EXPULSION, if this were its whole effect, 
 might very often be defirable. Sedition, 
 or obfcenity, might be no greater crimes 
 in the opinion of other electors, than in 
 
 that 
 
z6 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 that of the freeholders of Middlefex ; and 
 many a wretch, whom his colleagues fhould 
 expel, might come back perfecuted into 
 fame, and provoke with harder front a 
 fecond expulfion. 
 
 MANY of the reprefentadves of the 
 people can hardly be faid to have been 
 chofen at all. Some by inheriting a borough 
 inherit a feat ; and fome fit by the favour 
 of others, whom perhaps they may gratify 
 by the acT: which provoked the expulfion. 
 Some are fafe by their popularity, and 
 fome by their alliances. None would dread 
 expulfion, if this doftrine were received, 
 but thofe who bought their elections, and 
 who would be obliged to buy them again 
 at a higher price. 
 
 BUT as uncertainties are to be deter- 
 mined by things certain, and cufloms to 
 be explained, where it is poffible, by writ- 
 ten law, the patriots have triumphed with a 
 3 quotation 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 27 
 
 quotation from an act of the ^th and $tb 
 of Anne, which permits thofe to be rechofen, 
 whofe feats are vacated by the acceptance 
 of a place of profit. This they wifely 
 confider as an expulfion, and from the per- 
 miffion, in this cafe, of a re-election, infer 
 that every other expulfion leaves the de- 
 linquent entitled to the fame indulgence. 
 This is the paragraph. 
 
 iC IF any perfon, being chofen a member 
 <c of the Houfe of Commons, fhall accept 
 " of any office from the crown, during 
 c< fuch time as he fhall continue a member, 
 " his election fhall be, and is hereby de- 
 c< clared to be void, and a new writ fhall 
 <c iffue for a new election, as if fuch per- 
 u fon fo accepting was naturally dead. 
 " Nevertheless fuch f erf on fhall be capable 
 11 of being again elected^ as if his place 
 u had not become void as aforefaid." 
 
 How 
 
28 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 How this favours the doctrine of re- 
 admiffion by a fecond choice, I am not 
 able to difcover. The ftatuteof 30 Ch. II. 
 had enacted, That he who Jhould fit in the 
 Houfe of Commons ) without taking the oaths 
 and fubfcribing the t eft, Jhould be difabled to 
 fit in the Houfe during that Parliament^ 
 and a 'writ Jhould iffiie for the election of a 
 ne<w member^ in place of the member fo 
 difabled) as if fuch member had naturally 
 died. 
 
 THIS laft claufe is apparently copied 
 i'n the at of Anne, but with the common 
 fate of imitators. In the acl: of Charles, 
 the political death continued during the 
 Parliament, in that of Anne it was hardly 
 worth the while to kill the man whom the 
 next breath was to revive. It is, however, 
 apparent, that in the opinion of the Par- 
 liament, the dead-doing lines would have 
 kept him motionlefs, if he had not been 
 recovered by a kind exception. A feat va- 
 cated, 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 29 
 
 cated, could not be regained without ex- 
 prefs permiffion of the fame ftatute. 
 
 THE right of being chofen again to a 
 feat thus vacated, is not enjoyed by any 
 general right, but required a fpecial clauie, 
 and folicitous provifion, 
 
 BUT what refemblanee can imagination 
 conceive between one man vacating his 
 feat, by a mark of favour from the crown, 
 and another driven from it for fedition and 
 obfcenity. The acceptance of a place con- 
 taminates no character; the crown that 
 gives it, intends to give with it always dig- 
 nity, fometimes authority. The commons, 
 it is well known, think not worfe of them- 
 felves or others for their offices of profit ; 
 yet profit implies temptation, and may 
 expofe a reprefentative to the fufpicion of 
 his conftituents ; though if they ftill think 
 him worthy of their confidence, they may 
 again ele& him. 
 
 SUCH 
 
30 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 SUCH is the confequence. When a man 
 is difmifled by law to his conftituents, 
 with new truft and new dignity, they may, 
 if they think him incorruptible, reftore 
 him to his feat; what can follow, therefore, 
 but that when the Houfe drives out a var- 
 let with public infamy, he goes away with 
 the like permiffion to return. 
 
 IF infatuation be, as the proverb tells us, 
 the forerunner of definition, how near 
 muft be the ruin of a nation that can be 
 incited againft it's governors, by fophiftry 
 like this. I may be excufed if I catch the 
 panick, and join my groans at this alarm- 
 ing crifis, with the general lamentation of 
 weeping patriots. 
 
 ANOTHER objedion is, that the Com- 
 mons, by pronouncing the fentence of dif- 
 qualification, make a law, and take upon 
 themfelves the power of the whole le- 
 giflature. Many quotations are then pro- 
 duced 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 31 
 
 cluced to prove that the Houfe of Commons 
 can make no laws. 
 
 THREE ads have been cited, difabling 
 members for different terms on different 
 occafions, and it is profoundly remarked, 
 that if the Commons could by their own 
 privilege have made a difqualification, their 
 jealoufy of their privileges would never 
 have admitted the concurrent fandion of 
 the other powers. 
 
 I MUST for ever remind thefe puny con- 
 trovertifts, that thofe acts are laws of per- 
 manent obligation : that two of them are now 
 in force, and that the other expired only 
 when it had fulfilled its end. Such laws the 
 Commons cannot make ; they could, per- 
 haps, have determined for themfelves, that 
 they would expel all who Ihould not take 
 the teft, but they could leave no authority 
 behind them, that fhould oblige the next 
 Parliament to expel them. They could 
 
 refufe 
 
32 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 refufe the South Sea directors, but they 
 could not entail the refufal. They can dif- 
 qualify by vote, but not by law; they 
 cannot know that the fentence of difqualifi- 
 cation pronounced to-day may not become 
 void to-morrow, by the diflblution of their 
 own Houfe. Yet while the fame Parlia- 
 ment fits, the difqualification continues 
 unlefs the vote be refcinded, and while it 
 fo continues, makes the votes, which free- 
 holders may give to the interdicted candi- 
 date, ufelefs and dead, fince there cannot 
 exift, with refped to the fame fubjecT: at 
 the fame time, an abfolute power to chufe 
 and an abfolute power to reject. 
 
 IN 1614, the attorney-general was voted 
 incapable of a feat in the Houfe of Com- 
 mons, and the nation is triumphantly told, 
 that though the vote never was revoked, 
 the attorney-general is now a member. 
 He certainly may now be a member with- 
 out revocation of the vote. A law is of 
 
 perpetual 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 33 
 
 perpetual obligation, but a vote is nothing 
 when the voters are gone. A law is a com- 
 pact reciprocally made by the legiflative 
 powers, and therefore not to be abrogated 
 but by all the parties. A vote is fimply a 
 refolution, which binds only him that is 
 willing to be bound. 
 
 I HAVE thus pun&ilioufly and minutely 
 perfued this difquifition, becaufe I fufpect 
 that thefe reafoners, whofe bufmefs is to 
 deceive others, have fometimes deceived 
 themfelves, and I am willing to free them 
 from their embarraffment, though I do 
 not expect much gratitude for my kind- 
 nefs. 
 
 OTHER objections are yet remaining, 
 for of political objections there cannot eafi- 
 ly be an end. It has been obferved, that 
 vice is no proper caufe of expulfion, for if 
 the worft man in the Houfe were always 
 to be expelled, in time none would be left, 
 D But 
 
34 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 But no man is expelled for being worft, he 
 is expelled for being enormoufly bad ; his 
 conduct is compared, not with that of 
 others, but with the rule of a&ion. 
 
 THE punifhment of expulfion being in 
 its own nature uncertain, may be too great 
 or too little for the fault. 
 
 THIS muft be the cafe of many punifh- 
 ments. Forfeiture of chattels is nothing to 
 him that has no poffeflions. Exile itfelf 
 may be accidentally a good ; and indeed 
 any punifhment lefs than death is very dif- 
 ferent to different men. 
 
 , 
 BUT if this precedent be admitted and 
 
 eftabliflied, no man can hereafter be fure 
 that he (hall be reprefented by him whom 
 he would choofe. One half of the Houfe 
 may meet early in the morning, and match 
 an opportunity to expel the other, and the 
 greater part of the nation may by this 
 
 ftratagem 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 35 
 
 ftratagem be without its lawful reprefenta- 
 
 tives, 
 
 HE that fees all this, fees very far. But 
 I can tell him of greater evils yet behind. 
 There is one poflibility of wickednefs, which, 
 at this alarming crifis, has not yet been 
 mentioned. Every one knows the malice, 
 the fubtilty, the induftry, the vigilance, 
 and the greedinefs of the Scots. The 
 Scotch members are about the number fuf- 
 ficient to make a houfe. I propofe it to 
 the confideration of the SuppDrters of the 
 Bill of Rights, whether there is not reafon 
 to fufped, that thefe hungry intruders from 
 the North, are now contriving to expel 
 all the Englifli. We may then curfe the 
 hour in which it was determined, that ex- 
 pulilon and exclufion are the fame. For 
 who can guefs what may be done when the 
 Scots have the whole Houfe to them- 
 felvcs ? 
 
 D 2 THUS 
 
36 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 THUS agreeable to cuftom and reafon^ 
 notwithftanding all objections, real or ima- 
 ginary ; thus confiftent with the practice 
 of former times, and thus confequential to 
 the original principles of government, is 
 that decifion by which fo much violence of 
 difcontent has been excited, which has 
 been fo doloroufly bewailed, and fo out- 
 
 rageoufly refented. 
 
 
 
 LET us however not be feduced to put 
 too much confidence in juftice or in truth, 
 they have often been found inactive in 
 their own defence, and give more confi- 
 dence than help to their friends and their 
 advocates. It may perhaps be prudent to 
 make one momentary conceffion to falfe- 
 hood, by fuppofmg the vote in Mr. Lut- 
 terel's favour to be wrong. 
 
 ALL wrong ought to be rectified. If 
 Mr. Wilkes is deprived of a lawful feat, 
 both he and his electors have reafon ta 
 
 complain j. 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 37 
 
 complain ; but it will not be eafily found, 
 why, among the innumerable wrongs of 
 which a great part of mankind are hour- 
 ly complaining, the whole care of the Public 
 fhould be transferred to Mr. Wilkes and 
 the freeholders of Middlefex, who might 
 all fink into non-exiftence, without any 
 other effect, than that there would be 
 room made for a new rabble, and a new 
 retailer of fedition and obfctnity. The 
 caufe of our country would fuffer little ; 
 the rabble, whencefoever they come, will 
 be always patriots, and always Supporters* 
 of the Bill of Rights. 
 
 THE Houfe of Commons decides the dif- 
 putes arifing from elections. Was it ever 
 (uppofed, that in all cafes their deciiions 
 were right? Every man whofe lawful 
 election is defeated, is equally wronged 
 with Mr. Wilkes, and his condiments feel 
 their difappointment with no lefs anguifh 
 than the freeholders of Middlefex. Thefe 
 D 3 decifions 
 
38 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 decifions have often been apparently par- 
 tial, and fometimes tyrannically oppreffive. 
 A majority has been given to a favourite 
 candidate, by expunging votes which had 
 always been allowed, and which therefore 
 had the authority by which all votes are 
 given, that of cuftom uninterrupted. 
 When the Commons determine who fhall 
 be conftituents, they may, w r ith fome pro- 
 priety, be faid to make law, becaufe thofe 
 determinations have hitherto, for the fake 
 of quiet, been adopted by fucceeding Par- 
 liaments. A vote therefore of the Houfe, 
 when it operates as a law, is to individuals 
 a law only temporary, but to communities 
 perpetual. 
 
 YET though all this has been done, and 
 though at every new Parliament much of 
 this is expected to be done again, it has 
 never produced in any former time fuch 
 an alarming crifis. We have found by ex- 
 perience, tha,t though a fquire has given 
 
 ale 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 39 
 
 ale and venifon in vain, and a borough has 
 been compelled to fee its deareft intereft in 
 the hands of him whom it did not truft, 
 yet the general ftate of the nation has con- 
 tinued the fame. The fun has rifen, and 
 the corn has grown, and whatever talk 
 has been of the danger of property, yet he 
 that ploughed the field commonly reaped 
 it, and he that built a houfe was mailer of 
 the door : the vexation excited by injuftice 
 fuffered, or fuppofed to be fuffered, by any 
 private man, or fmgle community, was 
 local and temporary, it neither fpread far, 
 nor lafted long. 
 
 THE nation looked on with little care, 
 becaufe there did not feem to be much dan- 
 ger. The confequence of fmall irregula- 
 rities was not felt, and we had not yet learn- 
 ed to be terrified by very diftant enemies. 
 
 BUT quiet and fecurity are now at an 
 
 end. Our vigilance is quickened, and our 
 
 D 4 compre- 
 
40 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 comprehenfion is enlarged. We not only 
 fee events in their caufes, but before their 
 caufes ; we hear the thunder while the fky 
 ia clear, and fee the mine fprung before it 
 is dug. Political wifdom has, by the force 
 of Englifh genius, been improved at laft 
 not only to political intuition, but to politi- 
 cal prefcience. 
 
 - 
 
 BUT it cannot, I am afraid, be faid, 
 that as we are grown wife, we are made 
 happy. It is faid of thofe who have the 
 wonderful power called fecond fight, that 
 they feldom fee any thing but evil : politi- 
 cal fecond fight has the fame effeft ; we 
 hear of nothing but of an alarming crifis, of 
 violated rights, and expiring liberties. The 
 morning rifes upon new wrongs, and the 
 dreamer pafles the night in imaginary 
 {hackles. 
 
 
 
 THE. fphere of anxiety is now enlarged ; 
 he that hitherto cared, only for himfelf, 
 
 now 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 41 
 
 now cares for the Public ; for he has learn- 
 ed that the happinefs of individuals is com- 
 prifed in. the profperity of the whole, and 
 that his country never fuffers but he fuffers 
 with it, however it happens that he feel* 
 no pain. 
 
 FIRED with this fever of epidemic pa- 
 triotifm ; the taylor flips his thimble, the 
 drapier drops his yard, and the blackfmith 
 lays down his hammer; they^meet at an 
 honeft alehoufe, confider the ftate of the 
 nation, read or hear the laft petition, la- 
 ment the miferies of the time, are alarmed 
 at the dreadful crifis, and fubfcribe to the 
 fupport of the Bill of Rights. 
 
 IT fometimes indeed happens, that an in- : 
 truder of more benevolence than prudence 
 attempts to difperfe their cloud of dejedion, 
 and eafe their hearts by feafonable confola- 
 tion. He tells them, that though the go- 
 vernment cannot be too diligently watched, 
 it may be too haftily accufed ; and that, 
 5 though 
 
42 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 though private judgment is every man's 
 right, yet we cannot judge of what we do 
 not know ; that we feel at prefent no evils 
 which government can alleviate, and that 
 the public bufinefs is committed to men 
 who have as much right to confidence as 
 their adverfaries ; that the freeholders 
 of Middlefex, if they could not choofe Mr. 
 Wilkes, might have chofen any other man, 
 and that he trujls ive have within the realm 
 five hundred as good as he: that even if 
 this which has happened to Middlefex had 
 happened to every other county, that one 
 man fhould be made incapable of being 
 eleded, it could produce no great change 
 in the Parliament, nor much contract the 
 power of eledion; that what has been 
 done is probably right, and that if it be 
 wrong it is of little confequence, fince a 
 like cafe cannot eafily occur ; that expul- 
 fions are very rare, and if they fhould, by 
 unbounded infolence of fadtion, become 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 43 
 
 more frequent, the eledors may eafily 
 provide a fecond choice. 
 
 ALL this he may fay, but not half of 
 this will be heard ; his opponents will flua 
 him and themfelves with a confufed found 
 of penfion and places, venality and cor- 
 ruption, oppreffion and invafion, flavery 
 and ruin. 
 
 OUTCRTES like thefe, uttered by malig- 
 nity, and ecchoed by folly ; general accufa- 
 tions of indeterminate wickednefs; and ob- 
 fcure hints of impoffible defigns, difperfed 
 among thofe that do not know their mean- 
 ing, by thofe that know them to be falfe, 
 have difpofed part of the nation, though 
 but a fmall part, to pefter the court with 
 ridiculous petitions. 
 
 THE progrefs of a petition is well 
 known. An ejected placeman goes down 
 to his county or his borough, tells his 
 
 friends 
 
44 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 friends of his inability to ferve them, and 
 his conftituents of the corruption of the 
 government. His friends readily underftand 
 that he who can get nothing, will have 
 nothing to give. They agree to proclaim 
 a meeting ; meat and drink are plentifully 
 provided ; a crowd is eafily brought toge- 
 ther, and thofe who think that they know 
 the reafon of their meeting, undertake to 
 tell thofe who know it not. Ale and cla- 
 mour unite their powers, the crowd* con- 
 denfed and heated, begins to ferment with 
 the leven of fedition. All fee a thoufand 
 evils though they cannot mow them, and 
 grow impatient for a remedy, though they 
 know not what. 
 
 A SPEECH is then made by the Cicero 
 
 J 
 
 of the day, he fays much, and fupprefles 
 more, and credit is equally given to what 
 he tells* and what he conceals. The peti- 
 tion is read and univerfally approved. 
 Thofe who are fober enough to write, add 
 
 their 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 45 
 
 their names, and the reft would fign it if 
 they could. 
 
 EVERY man goes home and tells his 
 neighbour of the glories of the day ; how 
 he was confulted and what he advifed ; how 
 he was invited into the great room, where 
 his lordfliip called him by his name; haw 
 he was carefled by Sir Francis, Sir Jofeph, 
 or Sir George ; how he eat turtle and veni- 
 fon, and drank unanimity to the three bro- 
 thers. 
 
 THE poor loiterer, whofe fhophad con- 
 fined him, or whofe wife had locked him 
 up, hears the tale of luxury with envy, and 
 at laft inquires what was their petition. 
 Of the petition nothing is remembered by 
 the narrator, but that it fpoke much of 
 fears and apprehenfions, and fomething 
 very alarming, and that he is fure it is 
 againft the government \ the other is con- 
 vinced that U muft be right, and wifhes he 
 
 had 
 
46 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 had been there, for he loves wine and 
 venifon, and is refolved as long as he lives 
 to be againft the government. 
 
 THE petition is then handed from town 
 to town> and from houfe to houfe, and 
 wherever it comes the inhabitants flock to- 
 gether, that they may fee that which muft 
 be fent to the King. Names are eafily 
 collected. One man figns becaufe he hates 
 the papifts ; another becaufe he has vowed 
 definition to the turnpikes; one becaufe 
 it will vex the parfon ; another becaufe he 
 owes his landlord nothing; one becaufe he 
 is rich ; another becaufe he is poor ; one to 
 fhew that he is not afraid, and another to 
 {hew that he can write. 
 
 THE paffage, however, is not always 
 fmooth. Thofe who colled contributions 
 to fedition* fometimes apply to a man of 
 higher rank and more enlightened mind, 
 who inftead of lending them his name, 
 
 calmly 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 4.7 
 
 calmly reproves them for being feducers 
 of the people. 
 
 You who are here, fays he, complaining 
 of venality, are yourfelves the agents of 
 thole, who having eftimated themfelves at 
 too high a price, are only angry that they 
 are not bought. You are appealing from 
 the parliament to the rabble, and inviting 
 thofe, who fcarcely, in the moft common 
 affairs, diftinguifh right from wrong, to 
 judge of a queftion complicated with law 
 written and unwritten, with the general 
 principles of government, and the particu- 
 lar cuftoms of the Houfe of Commons ; you 
 are fhewing them a grievance, fo diftant 
 that they cannot fee it, and fo light that 
 they cannot feel it; for how, but by 
 unneceffary intelligence and artificial pro- 
 vocation, mould the farmers and mop- 
 keepers of Yorkihire and Cumberland 
 know or care how Middlefex is reprefent- 
 ed. Inftead of wandering thus round the 
 6 county 
 
4 8 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 county to exafperate the rage of party, 
 and darken the fufpicions of ignorance, it 
 is the duty of men like you, who have 
 leifure for inquiry, to lead back the people 
 to their honeft labour; to tell them, that 
 fubmiflion is the duty of the ignorant, and 
 content the virtue of the poor ; that they 
 have no fkill in the art of government, nor 
 any intereft in the diflenfions of the great ; 
 and when you meet with any, as fome there 
 are, whofe underftandings are capable of 
 convidion, it will become you to allay this 
 foaming ebullition, by fhewing them that 
 they have as much happincfs as the condi- 
 tion of life will eafily receive, and that a 
 government, of which an erroneous or 
 unjuft reprefentation of Middlefex is the 
 greateft crime that intereft can difcover, or 
 malice can upbraid, is a government ap- 
 proaching nearer to perfection, than any 
 that experience has known, or hiftory re- 
 lated. 
 
 THE 
 
tHE FALSE ALARM. 49 
 
 THE drudges of fedition wi(h to change 
 their ground, they hear him with fullen 
 filence, feel convidion without repentance, 
 and are confounded but not abafhed ; they 
 go forward to another door, and find a 
 kinder reception from a man enraged 
 againft the government, becaufe ne has 
 juft been paying the tax upon his win- 
 dows. 
 
 THAT a petition for a diffolution of the 
 Parliament will at all times have its fa- 
 vourers, may be eafily imagined. The 
 people indeed do not expedt that one Houfe 
 of Commons will be much honefter of 
 much wifer than another ; they do not 
 fuppofe that the taxes will be lightened ; ot 
 though they have been fo often taught to 
 hope it, that foap and candies will be 
 cheaper; they exped: no redrefs of grie- 
 vances, for of no grievances but taxes do 
 they complain; they wifh not the exten- 
 fion of liberty, for they do not feel any 
 reftraint ; 
 
50 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 reftraint ; about the fecurity of privilege or 
 property they are totally carelefs, for they 
 fee no property invaded, nor know, till 
 they are told, that any privilege has fuf- 
 fered violation. 
 
 . 
 
 i 
 
 LEAST of all do they expet, that any 
 future Parliament will leflen its own 
 
 powers, or communicate to the people 
 
 > 
 
 that authority which it has once obtain- 
 ed. 
 
 YET a new Parliament is fufficiently 
 defirable. The year of eledion is a year 
 of jollity ; and what is ftill more delightful, 
 a year of equality. The glutton now eats 
 the delicacies for which he longed when he 
 could not purchafe them, and the drunkard 
 has the pleafure of wine without the coft. 
 The drone lives a-while without work, and 
 the fhopkeeper, in the flow of money, raifes 
 his price* The mechanic that trembled at 
 the prefence of Sir Jofeph, now bids him 
 2 come 
 
TH FALSE ALARM. 5! 
 
 come again for an anfwer ; and the poacher 
 1??hofe gun has been feized, no*w finds an 
 opportunity to reclaim it. Even the honeft 
 man is not difpleafed to fee himfelf 
 important, and willingly refumes in two 
 years that power which he had refigned 
 for feven. Few love their friends fo well 
 as not to defire fuperiority by unexpenfive 
 benefaction* 
 
 YET, notwithftanding all thefe motives 
 to compliance, the promoters of petitions 
 have not been fuccefsful. Few could be 
 perfuaded to lament evils which they did 
 not fufferj or to folicit for redrefs which 
 they do not want. The petition has been, 
 in fome places, rejected ; and perhaps in all 
 but one, figned only by the meaneft and 
 grofleft of the people* 
 
 Since this expedient "now invented or 
 
 revived to diftrefs the government, and 
 
 equally practicable at all times by all who 
 
 E 3 frail 
 
52 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 {hall be excluded from power and from 
 profit, has produced fo little effect, let us 
 confider the oppofition as no longer for- 
 midable. The great engine has recoiled 
 upon them. They thought that the terms 
 they fent were terms of 'weighty which 
 would have amazed all and jlumbkd many ; 
 hut the confirmation is now over, and 
 their foes ftand upright^ as before. 
 
 WITH great propriety and dignity the 
 king has, in his fpeech, negleded or 
 forgotten them. He might eafily know, 
 that what was prefented as the fenfe of 
 the people, is the ienfe only of the profli- 
 gate and diffolute ; and that whatever Par- 
 liament fhould be convened, the Tame peti- 
 tioners would be ready, for the fame reafon, 
 to requeft its diffolution. 
 
 As we once had a rebellion of the 
 clowns, we have now an oppofition of the 
 pedlars. The quiet of the nation has been 
 
 for 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 53 
 
 for years difturbed by a faction, againft 
 which all fashions ought to confpire ; for 
 its original principle is the defire of level- 
 ling ; it is only animated under the name 
 of zeal, by the natural malignity of the 
 mean againft the great. 
 
 WHEN in the confufion which the Englifh 
 invafions produced in France, the villains, 
 imagining that they had found the golden 
 hour of emancipation, took arms in their 
 hands, the knights of both nations conli- 
 dered the caufe as common, and, fuipend- 
 ing the general hoflility, united to chaftife 
 them. 
 
 THE whole- conduct of this defpicable 
 faction is diftinguimed by plebeian grofs- 
 nefs, and favage indecency. To mifre- 
 prefent the actions and the principles of 
 their enemies is common to all parties ; but 
 the infolence of invective, and brutality of 
 E 3 re- 
 
54 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 reproach, which have lately prevailed, are 
 peculiar to this. 
 
 AN infallible chara&eriftic of meannefs 
 is cruelty. This is the only fadtion that 
 has fliouted at the condemnation of a 
 criminal, and that, when his innocence 
 procured his pardon, has clamoured for 
 his blood. 
 
 ALL other parties, however enraged at 
 each other, have agreed to treat the throne 
 with decency; but thefe low-born railers 
 have attacked not only the authority, but 
 the character of their Sovereign, and have 
 endeavoured, furely without effeft, to alirr 
 cnate the affedions of the people from the 
 only king, who, for almoft a century, has 
 much appeared to defire, or much endea- 
 voured to deferve them. They have in- 
 fulted him with rudenefsand with menaces, 
 which were never excited by the gloomy 
 fullennefs of William* even when half the 
 
 nation 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 55 
 
 nation denied him their allegiance ; nor by 
 the dangerous bigotry of James, unlefs 
 when he was finally driven from his palace; 
 and with which fcarcely the open hoftilities 
 of rebellion ventured to vilify the unhappy 
 Charles, even in the remarks on the cabi- 
 net of Nafeby. 
 
 IT is furely not unreafonable to hope, 
 that the nation will confult its dignity, if 
 not its fafety, and difdain to be protected 
 or enflaved by the declaimers or the plot- 
 ters of a city-tavern. Had Rome fallen 
 by the Catilinarian confpiracy, ihe might 
 have confoled her fate by the greatnefs 
 of her deftroyers; but what would have 
 alleviated the difgrace of England, had 
 her government been changed by Tiler or 
 by Ket ? 
 
 ONE part of the nation has never before 
 
 contended with the other, but for fome 
 
 weighty and apparent intereft. If the 
 
 means were violent, the end was great. 
 
 E 4 The 
 
56 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 The civil war was fought for what each 
 army called and believed the beft religion, 
 and the beft government. The ftruggle in 
 the reign of Anne, was to exclude or reftore 
 an exiled king. We are now difputing, 
 with almoft equal animofity, whether Mid^- 
 dlefex (hall be reprefented or not by a cri- 
 minal from a jail. 
 
 THE only comfort left in fuch degene- 
 racy is, that a lower ftate can be no longer 
 poffibl^. 
 
 IN this contemptuous cenfure, I mean 
 not to include every fingle man. In all 
 lead, fays the chemift, there is filver ; and 
 in all copper there is gold. But mingled 
 inafles are juftly denominated by the great- 
 er quantity, and when the precious par- 
 ticles are not worth extra&ion, a faction 
 and a pig muft be melted down together 
 to the forms and offices that chance allots 
 them. 
 fiunt urceolij pelves, fartago, fatelfa. 
 
 A 
 
THE FALSE ALARM. 57 
 
 A FEW weeks will now fliew whether 
 the Government can be fhaken by empty 
 jioife, and whether the fa&ion which de- 
 pends upon its influence, has not deceived 
 alike the Public and itfelf. That it fhould 
 have continued till now, is fufficiently 
 fhameful. None can indeed wonder that 
 it has been fupported by the fectaries, the 
 natural fomenters of fedition, and confe- 
 derates of the rabble, of whofe religion 
 little now remains but hatred of eftablifh- 
 ments, and who are angry to find fepara- 
 tion now only tolerated, which was once 
 rewarded ; but every honefl man muft 
 lament, that it has been regarded with 
 frigid neutrality by the Tories, who, being 
 long accuftomed to fignalize their prin- 
 ciples by oppofition to the court, do not 
 yet confider that they have at laft a king 
 who knows not the name of party, and who 
 wifhes to be the common father of all his 
 people. 
 
 As 
 
5 8 THE FALSE ALARM. 
 
 As a man inebriated only by vapours, 
 foon recovers in the open air; a natien 
 difcontented to madnefs, without any ade- 
 quate caufe, will return to its wits and its 
 allegiance when a little paufe has cooled it 
 to reflection. Nothing, therefore, is ne- 
 ceflary, at this alarming crifis, but to 
 confider the alarm as falfe. To make con- 
 ceffions is to encourage encroachment. Let 
 the court defpife the fadion, and the difap-* 
 pointed people will foon deride it. 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 O N T H E 
 
 LATE TRANSACTIONS 
 
 RESPECTING 
 
 Falkland's Iflands. 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 TO proportion the eagernefs of con- 
 teft to its importance feems too 
 hard a talk for human wifdom. The pride 
 of wit has kept ages bufy in the difcuflion 
 of ufelefs queftions, and the pride of power 
 has deftroyed armies to gain or to keep un- 
 profitable pofleffions. 
 
 NOT many years have paffed fince the 
 cruelties of war were filling the world with 
 terror and with forrow ; rage was at laft 
 appeafed, or ftrength exhaufted, and to the 
 harafled nations peace was reftored, with its 
 pleafures and its benefits. Of this ftate all 
 felt the happinefs, and all implored the 
 
 con- 
 
<?2 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 - 
 
 continuance -, but what continuance of hap 
 pinefs can be expected, when the whole 
 fyftem of European empire can be in 
 danger of a new concuffion, by a conten- 
 tion for a few fpots of earth, which, in the 
 deferts of the ocean, had almoft efcaped 
 human notice, and which, if they had not 
 happened to make a fea-mark, had perhaps 
 never had a name. 
 
 FORTUNE often delights to dignify what 
 nature has negle&ed, and that renown 
 which cannot be claimed by intrinfick ex- 
 cellence or greatnefs, is fometimes derived 
 from unexpected accidents. The Rubicon 
 was ennobled by the paflage of Csefar, and 
 the time is now come when Falkland's 
 Iflands demand their hiftorian. 
 
 BUT the writer to whom this employ- 
 ment fhall be affigned, will have few op- 
 portunities of defcriptive fplendor, or nar- 
 raftve elegance. Of other countries it is 
 
 told 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 63 
 
 told how often they have changed their 
 government; thefe iflands have hitherto 
 changed only their name. Of heroes to 
 conquer, or legiflators to civilize, here has 
 been no appearance ; nothing has happened 
 to them but that they have been fometimes 
 feen by wandering navigators, who pafled 
 by them in fearch of better habitations. 
 
 WHEN the Spaniards, who, under the 
 conduct of Columbus, difcovered America, 
 had taken poffeffion of its moft wealthy re- 
 gions ; they furprifed and terrified Europe 
 by a fudden and unexampled influx of riches. 
 They were made at once infupportably in- 
 folent, and might perhaps have become 
 irrefiftibly powerful, had not their moun- 
 tainous treafures been fcattered in the air 
 with the ignorant profufion of unaccuftom- 
 ed opulence. 
 
 THE greater part of the European poten- 
 tates faw this ftreara of riches flowing into 
 
 Spain 
 
64 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS, 
 
 Spain without attempting to dip their own 
 hands in the golden fountain. France had no 
 naval {kill or power ; Portugal was extend- 
 ing her dominions in the Eaft over regions 
 formed in the gaiety of Nature ; the Hanfe- 
 atic league, being planned only for the fe- 
 curity of traffick, had no tendency to dif- 
 covery or invafion; and the commercial 
 ftates of Italy growing rich by trading be- 
 tween Afia and Europe, and not lying upon 
 the ocean, did not defire to feek by great 
 hazards, at a diftance, what was ahnoft at 
 home to be found with fafety. 
 
 THE Engliih alone were animated by the 
 fuccefs of the Spanifli navigators, to try if 
 any thing was left that might reward ad- 
 venture, or incite appropriation. Theyfent 
 Cabot into the North, but in the North 
 there was no gold or filver to be found. 
 The bed regions were pre-occupied, yet 
 they ftill continued their hopes and their 
 labours. They were the fecond nation that 
 
 dared 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 65 
 
 dared the extent of the Pacifick Ocean, and 
 the fecond circumnavigators of the globe. 
 
 BY the war between Elizabeth and 
 Philip, the wealth of America became law- 
 ful prize, and thofe who were lefs afraid 
 of danger than of poverty, fuppofed that 
 riches might eafily be obtained by plun* 
 dering the Spaniards. Nothing is dif- 
 ficult when gain and honour unite their 
 influence ; the fpirit and vigour of thefe 
 expeditions enlarged our views of the new 
 world, and made us firft acquainted with 
 its remoter coafts. 
 
 IN the fatal voyage of Cavendifh (1592) 
 Captain Davis, who, being fent out as his 
 aflbciate, was afterwards parted from him 
 or deferted him, as he was driven by violence 
 of weather about the Straits of Magellan, 
 is fuppofed to have been the firft who faw 
 the lands now called Falkland's Iflands, but 
 his diftrefs permitted him not to make 
 F any 
 
66 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 any obfervation, and he left them, as he 
 foufid them, without a name. 
 
 NOT long afterwards (1594) Sir Richard 
 Hawkins, being in the fame feas with 
 the fame defigns, law thefe iflands again, 
 if they are indeed the fame iflands, and in 
 honour of his miftrefs, called them Haw- 
 kins's Maiden Land. 
 
 THIS voyage was not of renown fufficient 
 to procure a general reception to the new 
 name* for when the Dutch, who had now 
 become ftrong enough not only to defend 
 themfelves, but to attack their mafters, 
 fent (1598) Verhagen and Sebald de 
 Wert, into the South Sea, thefe Iflands, 
 which were not fuppofed to have been 
 known before, obtained the denomination 
 of Sebald's Iflands, and were from that 
 time placed in the charts; though Frezier 
 tells us, that they were yet confidered as 
 of doubtful exiftence. 
 
 THEIR 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 67 
 
 THEIR prefent Englifh name was proba- 
 bly given them (1689) by Strong, whofe 
 journal, yet imprinted, may be found in 
 the Mufeum. This name was adopted by 
 Halley, and has from that time, I believe, 
 been received into our maps. 
 
 THE privateers which were put into mo- 
 tion by the wars of William and Anne, 
 faw thofe iflands and mention them ; but 
 they were yet not confidered as territories 
 worth a conteft. Strong affirmed that there 
 was no wood, and Dampier fufpedcd that 
 they had no water. 
 
 FREZIER defcribes their appearance with 
 more diftin&nefs, and mentions fome mips 
 of St. Maloes, by which they had been 
 vifited, and to which he feems willing 
 enough to afcribe the honour of difcovering 
 iflands which yet he admits to have been feen 
 by Hawkins, and named by Sebald de 
 Wert. He, I fuppofe, in honour of his 
 F z coun- 
 
68 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 countrymen, called them the Malouines, 
 the denomination now ufed by the Spa- 
 niards, who feem not, till very lately, to 
 have thought them important enough to 
 deferve a name. 
 
 SINCE the publication of Anfon's voyage, 
 they have very much changed their opinion, 
 finding a fettlement in Pepys's or Falkland's 
 Ifland recommended by the author as ne- 
 ceflary to the fuccefs of our future expedi- 
 tions againft the coaft of Chili, and as of 
 fuch ufe and importance, that it would 
 produce many advantages in peace, and in 
 war would make us matters of the South 
 Sea. 
 
 SCARCELY any degree of judgment is 
 fufficient to reftrain the imagination from 
 magnifying that on which it is long de- 
 tained. The relator of Anfon's voyage had 
 heated his mind with its various events, had 
 partaken the hope with which it was be- 
 gun, 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 69 
 
 gun, and the vexation differed by its various 
 mifcarriages, and then thought nothing 
 could be of greater benefit to the nation 
 than that which might promote the fuccefs 
 of fuch another enterprife. 
 
 HAD the heroes of that hiftory even 
 performed and attained all that when they 
 firft fpread their fails they ventured to hope, 
 the confequence would yet have produced 
 very little hurt to the Spaniards, and very 
 little benefit to the Englifli. They would 
 have taken a few towns ; Anfon and his 
 companions would have mared the plunder 
 or the ranfom ; and the Spaniards, find- 
 ing their fouthern territories acceffible, 
 would for the future have guarded them 
 better. 
 
 THAT fuch a fettlement may be of ufe in 
 war, no man that confiders its fituation will 
 deny. But war is not the whole bufmefs of 
 life; it happens but feldom, and every 
 1? 3 man, 
 
70 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 man, either good or wife, wifhes that its 
 frequency were ftill lefs. That conduct 
 which betrays defigns of future hoftility, if 
 it does not excite violence, will always ge- 
 nerate malignity ; it muft for ever exclude 
 confidence and friendfhip, and continue a 
 cold and fluggifli rivalry, by a fly recipro- 
 cation of indirect injuries, without the 
 bravery of war, or the fecurity of peace. 
 
 THE advantage of fuch a fettlement in 
 time of peace is, I think, not eafily to be 
 proved. For what ufe can it have but of 
 a ftation for contraband traders, a nur- 
 fery of fraud, and a receptacle of theft ? 
 Narborough, about a century ago, was of 
 opinion, that no advantage could be ob- 
 tained in voyages to the South Sea, except 
 by fuch an armament as, with a failor's 
 morality, might trade by force. It is well 
 known that the prohibitions of foreign 
 commerce are, in thefe countries, to the 
 laft degree rigorous, and that no man not 
 
 authp- 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 71 
 
 authorized by the King of Spain can trade 
 there but by force or ftealth. Whatever 
 profit is obtained muft be gained by the 
 violence of rapine, or dexterity of fraud. 
 
 GOVERNMENT will not perhaps foon 
 arrive at fuch purity and excellence, but that 
 fome connivance at leaft will be indulged to 
 the triumphant robber and fuccefsful cheat. 
 He that brings wealth home is feldom in- 
 terrogated by what means it was obtained. 
 This, however, is one of thofe modes of 
 corruption with which mankind ought al- 
 ways to ftruggle, and which they may in 
 time hope to overcome. There is reafon to 
 expect, that as the world is more enlight- 
 ened, policy and morality will at laft be re- 
 conciled, and that nations will learn not 
 to do what they would not fuffer. 
 
 BUT the filent toleration of fufpeded 
 
 guilt is a degree of depravity far below that 
 
 which openly incites and manifeftly pro- 
 
 F 4 t;6t s 
 
?2 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 tefls it. To pardon a pirate may be inju-* 
 rious to mankind ; but how much greater 
 is the crime of opening a port in which all 
 pirates fhall be fafe ? The contraband trader 
 is not more worthy of protection : if with 
 Narborough he trades by force, he is a pi- 
 rate; if he trades fecretly, he is only a thief. 
 Thofe who honeftly refufe his traffick he 
 hates as obftrudtors of his profit ; and thofe 
 with whom he deals he cheats, becaufe he 
 knows that they dare not complain. He 
 lives with a heart full of that malignity 
 which fear of detection always generates in 
 thofe who are to defend unjuft acquifitions 
 againft lawful authority ; and when he 
 comes home with riches thus acquired, he 
 brings a mind hardened in evil, too proud 
 for reproof, and too ftupid for reflection ; 
 he offends the high by his infolence, and 
 corrupts the low by his example. 
 
 WHETHER thefe truths were forgotten 
 pr defpifed, or whether fpme better purpofe 
 
 was 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 73 
 
 was then in agitation, the reprefentation 
 made in Anfon's voyage had fuch effeft 
 upon the flatefmen of that time, that 
 (in 1748) fome Hoops were fitted out for 
 the fuller knowledge of Pepys and Falk- 
 land's Iflands, and for further difcoveries in 
 the South Sea. This expedition, though 
 perhaps defigned to be fecret, was not 
 long concealed from JVall 9 the Spanifli 
 ambafiador, who Ib vehemently oppofed 
 it, and Ib ftrongly maintained the right 
 of the Spaniards to the exclufive domi- 
 nion of the South Sea, that the Englifli 
 miniftry relinquiftied part of their original 
 defign, and declared that the examination 
 of thofe two Iflands was the utmoft that 
 their orders Ihould comprife. 
 
 THIS conceflion was fufficiently liberal 
 or fufficiently fubmiffive ; yet the Spanifh 
 court was neither gratified by our kindnefs, 
 nor foftened by our humility. Sir Benja- 
 jnin Keene, who then refided at Madrid, 
 
 was 
 
74 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 was interrogated by Carvajal concerning the 
 vifit intended to Pepys' and Falkland's Iflands 
 in terms of great jealoufy and difcontent ; 
 and the intended expedition was reprefented, 
 if not as a direct violation of the late peace, 
 yet as an act inconfiftent with amicable in- 
 tentions, and contrary to the profeffions of 
 mutual kindnefs which then pafled between 
 Spain and England. Keene was directed 
 to protefl that nothing more than mere dif- 
 covery was intended, and that no fettle- 
 ment was to be eftablifhed. The Spaniard 
 readily replied, that if this was a voyage of 
 wanton curiofity, it might be gratified with 
 lefs trouble, for he was willing to commu- 
 nicate whatever was known : That to go fo 
 far only to come back, was no reafonable 
 aft ; and it would be a {lender facrifice to 
 peace and friendfhip to omit a voyage in 
 which nothing was to be gained : 1 hat if 
 we left the places as we found them, the 
 voyage was ufelefs ; and if we took poflef- 
 fion, it was a hoftile armament, nor 
 * could 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 75 
 
 could we expert that the Spaniards would 
 fuppofe us to vifit the fouthern parts of 
 America only from curiofity, after the 
 fcheme propofed by the author of Anfon's 
 Voyage. 
 
 WHEN once we had difowned all purpofe 
 of fettling, it is apparent that we could not 
 defend the propriety of our expedition by 
 arguments equivalent to Carvajal's objec- 
 tions. The miniftry therefore difmiffed 
 the whole defign, but no declaration was 
 required by which our right to perfue it 
 hereafter might be annulled. 
 
 FROM this time Falkland's Ifland was 
 forgotten or negleded, till the conduit of 
 naval affairs was intrufted to the Earl of 
 Egmont, a man whofe mind was vigorous 
 and ardent, whofe knowledge was exten- 
 five, and whofe defigns were magnificent ; 
 but who had fomewhat vitiated his judge- 
 ment by too much indulgence of romantick 
 projects and airy fpeculations. 
 
 LORD 
 
7 6 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 LORD Egmont's eagernefs after fome- 
 thing new determined him to make inquiry 
 after Falkland's Ifland, and he fent out 
 Captain Byron, who, in the beginning of the 
 year 1765, took, he fays, a formal pof- 
 feffion in the name of his Britannick Ma- 
 jefty. 
 
 THE pofleffion of this place is, according 
 to Mr. Byron's reprefentation, no defpicable 
 acquifition. He conceived the ifland to 
 be fix or feven hundred miles round, and 
 reprefented it as a region naked indeed of 
 wood, but which, if that defel were fup- 
 plied, would have all that nature, almoft all 
 that luxury could want. The harbour he 
 found capacious and fecure, and therefore 
 thought it worthy of the name of Egmont. 
 Of water there was no want, and the 
 ground, he defcribed as having all the excel- 
 lencies of foil, and as covered with antifcor- 
 butick herbs, the reftoratives of the failor. 
 Provifion was eafily to be had, for they kill- 
 ed 
 
F A L K L A N D's ISLANDS. 77 
 
 ed almoft every day an hundred geefe to each 
 {hip, by pelting them with ftones. Not 
 content with phyfick and with food, he 
 fearched yet deeper for the value of ihe new 
 dominion. He dug inqueftof ore, found 
 iron in abundance, and did not defpair of 
 nobler metals. 
 
 A COUNTRY thus fertile and delightful, 
 fortunately found where none would have 
 expe&ed it, about the fiftieth degree of 
 fouthern latitude, could not without great 
 fupinenefs be neglected. Early in the next 
 year (January 8, 1 766) Captain Macbride 
 arrived at Port Egmont, where he ere&ed 
 a (mall blockhoufe, and ftationed a garrifon. 
 His defcription was lefs flattering. He 
 found, what he calls, a mafs of iflartds and 
 broken lands, of which the foil was no- 
 thing but a bog, with no better profped: 
 than that of barren mountains, beaten by 
 ftorms almoft perpetual. Yet this, fays he, 
 is fummer, and if the winds of winter hold 
 their natural proportion, thofe who lie but 
 2, two 
 
7 8 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS, 
 
 two cables length from the ihore, muft paf$ 
 weeks without any communication with it. 
 The plenty which regaled Mr. Byron, and 
 which might have fupported not only ar- 
 mies, but armies of Patagons, was no 
 longer to be found. The geefe were too 
 wife to ftay when men violated their haunts, 
 and Mr. Macbride's crew could only now 
 and then kill a goofe when the weather 
 would permit. All the quadrupeds which 
 he met there were foxes, fuppofed by him 
 to have been brought upon the ice; but of 
 ufelefs animals, fuch as fea lions and pen- 
 guins, which he calls vermin, the number 
 was incredible. He allows, however, that 
 thofe who touch at thefe iflands may find 
 geefe and fnipes, and in the fummer 
 months, wild cellery and forrel. 
 
 No token was feen by either, of any 
 fettlement ever made upon this ifland, and 
 Mr. Macbride thought himfelf fo fecure 
 from hoftile difturbance, that when he 
 
F A L K L A N D's ISLANDS. 79 
 
 erected his wooden blockhoufe he omitted 
 to open the ports and loopholes. 
 
 WHEN a garrifon was ftationed at Port 
 Egrnont, it was necefiary to try what fuf- 
 tenance the ground could be by culture ex- 
 cited to produce. A garden was prepared, 
 but the plants that fprung up, withered 
 away in immaturity. Some fir-feeds were 
 fown ; but though this be the native tree 
 of rugged climates, the young firs that 
 rofe above the ground died like weaker herb- 
 age. The cold continued long, and the 
 ocean feldom was at reft. 
 
 CATTLE fucceeded better than vege- 
 tables. Goats, fheep, and hogs, that were 
 carried thither, were found to thrive and 
 increafe as in other places. 
 
 Nil mortalibus arduum eft. There is no- 
 thing which human courage will not under- 
 take, and little that human patience will 
 not endure. The garrifon lived upon Falk- 
 land's 
 
go FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 land's Ifland, fhrinking from the blaft, and 
 fhuddering at the billows. 
 
 THIS was a colony which could never 
 become independent, for it never could be 
 able to maintain itfelf. The neceflary fup- 
 plies were annually fent from England, at 
 an expence which the Admiralty began to 
 think would not quickly be repaid. But 
 fhame of deferting a project, and unwil- 
 lingnefs to contend with a projector that 
 meant well, continued the garrifon, and 
 fupplied it with regular remittances of ftores 
 and provifion. 
 
 THAT of which we were almofl weary 
 ourfelves, we did not expecT: any one to 
 envy ; and therefore fuppofed that we mould 
 be permitted to refide in Falkland's Ifland, 
 the undifputed lords of tempeft-beaten 
 barrennefs. 
 
 BUT, on the 2 8th of November 1769, 
 Captain Hunt, obferving a Spanifh fchooner 
 
 hovering 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 81 
 
 hovering about the ifland and furveying it, 
 fent the commander a meflfage, by which 
 he required him to depart. The Spaniard 
 made an appearance of obeying, but in two 
 days came back with letters written by the 
 governor of Port Solidad, and brought by 
 the chief officer of a fettlement on the eaft 
 part of Falkland's Ifland. 
 
 IN this letter, dated Malouina, Novem- 
 ber 30, the governor complains, that Cap- 
 tain Hunt, when he ordered the fchooner 
 to depart, affumed a power to which he 
 could have no pretenfions, by fending an 
 imperious meffage to the Spaniards in the 
 King of Spain's own dominions. 
 
 IN another letter fent at the fame time, 
 he fuppofes the Englifh to be in that part 
 only by accident, and to be ready to de- 
 part at the firfl warning. This letter was 
 accompanied by a prefent, of which, fays 
 he, if it be neither equal to my defire nor 
 G to 
 
$2 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 to your merit, you mujl impute the deficiency 
 to the foliation of us both. 
 
 IN return to this hoftile civility, Captain 
 Hunt warned them from the ifland, which 
 he claimed in the name of the King, as 
 belonging to the Englifh by right of the 
 firft difcovery and the firft fettlement. 
 
 THIS was an aflertion of more confi- 
 dence than certainty. The right of difcovery 
 indeed has already appeared to be probable, 
 but the right which priority of fettlement 
 confers I know not whether we yet can 
 eftablifh. 
 
 ON December ic, the officer fent by the 
 governor of Port Solidad made three pro- 
 tefts againft Captain Hunt ; for threatening 
 to fire upon him ; for oppofing his entrance 
 into Port Egmont ; and for entering himfelf 
 into Port Solidad. On the iqth the 
 governor of Port Solidad formally warned 
 
 Captain 
 
FALKLAND** ISLANDS. 83 
 
 Captain Hunt to leave Port Egtnont, and 
 to forbear the navigation of thefe feas> 
 without permiffion from the King of Spain. 
 
 To this Captain Hunt replied by repeat- 
 ing his former claim ; by declaring that his 
 orders were to keep pofleffion ; and by once 
 more warning the Spaniards to depart. 
 
 THE next month produced more pro- 
 tefts and more replies, of which the tenour 
 was nearly the fame. The operations of 
 fuch harmlefs enmity having produced no 
 efFed, were then reciprocally difcontinued, 
 and the Englifh were left for a time to en- 
 joy the pleafures of Falkland's Ifland with- 
 out moleftation. 
 
 THIS tranquillity, however* did not laft 
 long. A few months afterwards (June 4, 
 1770) the Induftry, a Spanifh frigate, com- 
 manded by an officer whofe name was Ma- 
 dariaga, anchored in Port Egmont, bound, 
 G 3 as 
 
'84 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 as was faid, for Port Solidad, and reduced, 
 by a paflage from Buenos Ayres of fifty- 
 three days, to want of water. 
 
 
 
 THREE days afterwards four other fri- 
 gates entered the port, and a broad pen- 
 dant, fuch as is born by the commander of 
 a naval armament, was difplayed from the 
 Induftry. Captain Farmer of the Swift 
 frigate, who commanded the garrifon, or- 
 dered the crew of the Swift to come on 
 fhore, and affift in its defence ; and diredt- 
 ed Captain Maltby to bring the Favour- 
 ite frigate, which he commanded, nearer 
 to the land. The Spaniards eafily difcover- 
 ing the purpofe of his motion, let him 
 know, that if he weighed his anchor, they 
 would fire upon his fhip ; but paying no re- 
 gard to thefe menaces, he advanced towards 
 the fhore. The Spanifli fleet followed, 
 and two fhots were fired, which fell at a 
 diftance from him. He then fent to in* 
 quire the reafon of fuch hoftility, and was 
 
 told 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 85 
 
 told that the fhots were intended only as 
 fignals. 
 
 BOTH the Englifli captains wrote the 
 next day to Madariaga the Spanifh commo- 
 dore, warning him from the ifland, as from 
 a place which the Englifli held by right of 
 difcovery. 
 
 MADARIAGA, who feems to have had 
 no 'defire of unneceffary mifchief, invited 
 them (June 9.) to fend an officer who 
 fhould take a view of his forces, that they 
 might be convinced of the vanity of re- 
 fiftance, and do that without compulfion 
 which he was upon refufal prepared to en- 
 force. 
 
 AN officer was fent, who found fixteen 
 hundred men, with a train of twenty-feven 
 cannon, four mortars, and two hundred 
 bombs. The fleet confifted of five frigates 
 from twenty to thirty guns, which were 
 now flationecl oppofite to the Block-houfe. 
 
 Qs HE 
 
U FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 HE then fent them a formal memorial, 
 in which he maintained his matter's right 
 to the whole Mageljanick region, and ex- 
 horted the Englifh to retire quietly from 
 the fettlement, which they could neither 
 juftify by right, nor maintain by power. 
 
 HE offered them the liberty of carrying 
 away whatever they were defirous to re- 
 move, and promifed his receipt for what 
 ^hould be left, that no lofs might be fufr 
 fered by them. 
 
 His propofitions were expreffed in terms 
 of great civility; but he concludes with 
 demanding an anfwer in fifteen minutes. 
 
 HAVING while he was writing received 
 the letters of warning written the day be- 
 fore by the Englifh captains, he told them, 
 that he thought himfelf able to prove the 
 King of Spain's title to all thofe countries, 
 that this was no time for verbal alter- 
 3 Cations. 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 87 
 
 cations. He perfifted in his determination, 
 and allowed only fifteen minutes for an an- 
 fwer. 
 
 To this it was replied by Captain Far- 
 mer, that though there had been prefcrib- 
 ed yet a fhorter time, he fhould ftill refo- 
 lutely defend his charge; that this, whether 
 menace or force, would be confidered as an 
 infult on the Britiih flag, and that fatisfac- 
 tion would certainly be required. 
 
 ON the next day (June 10.) Madariaga 
 landed his forces, and it may be eafily ima- 
 gined that he had no bloody conqueft. 
 The Engliih had only a wooden blockhoufc 
 built at Woolwich, and carried in pieces to 
 the ifland, with a fmall battery of cannon. 
 To contend with obftinacy had been only 
 to lavifh life without ufe or hope. After 
 the exchange of a very few {hots, a capitu- 
 lation was propofed. 
 
 THE Spanifh commander ated with 
 
 moderation; he exerted little of the con- 
 
 G 4 queror; 
 
88 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS, 
 
 queror ; what he had offered before the at- 
 tack, he granted after the victory ; the Eng- 
 lifh were allowed to leave the place with 
 every honour, only their departure was 
 delayed by the terms of the capitulation 
 twenty days ; and to fecure their ftay, the 
 rudder of the Favourite was taken off. What 
 they defired to carry away they removed 
 without moleftation ; and of what they left 
 an inventory was drawn, for which the 
 Spaniih officer by his receipt promifed to 
 be accountable. 
 
 OF this petty revolution, fo fudden and 
 fo diftant, the Englifh miniftry could not 
 poffibly have fuch notice as might enable 
 them to prevent it. The conqueft, if fuch it 
 may be called, coft but three days; for the 
 Spaniards, either fuppofmg the garrifon 
 ftronger than it was, or refolving to truft 
 nothing to chance, or confidering that as 
 their force was greater, there was lefs 
 danger of bloodflied, came with a power 
 
 that 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 89 
 
 that made refiftance ridiculous, and at once 
 demanded and obtained poflfeffion. 
 
 THE firft account of any difcontent ex-* 
 prefled by the Spaniards was brought by 
 Captain Hunt, who arriving at Plymouth 
 June 3, 1770, informed the Admiralty that 
 the ifland had been claimed in December by 
 the governor of Port Solidad. 
 
 THIS claim, made by an officer of fq 
 little dignity, without any known direction 
 from his fuperiors, could be confidered only 
 as the zeal or officioufnefs of an individual, 
 unworthy of public notice or the forma- 
 lity of remonftrance, 
 
 IN Auguft Mr. Harris, the refident at 
 Madrid, gave notice to Lord Weymouth of 
 an account newly brought to Cadiz, that 
 the Englifh were in poflfeffion of Port 
 Cuizada, the fame which we call Port 
 Egmont, in the Magellanick fea ; that in 
 
 January 
 
5 o FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 January they had warned away two Spa- 
 nifh jfhips ; and that an armament was fent 
 out in May from Buenos Ayres to diflodge 
 them* 
 
 IT was perhaps not yet certain that this 
 account was true ; but the information, 
 however faithful, was too late for preven- 
 tion. It was eafily known, that a fleet 
 difpatched in May had before Auguft fuc~ 
 ceeded or mifcarried. 
 
 IN Odober, Captain Maltby came to 
 England, and gave the account which I 
 have now epitomifed, of his expulfion from 
 Falkland's Iflands. 
 
 FROM this moment the whole nation can 
 witnefs that no time was loft. The navy was 
 furveyed, the {hips refitted, and command- 
 ers appointed ; and a powerful fleet was af- 
 fembled, well manned and well ftored, 
 with expedition after fo long a peace per- 
 
 hasp 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS, gf 
 
 haps never known before, and with vigour 
 which after the wafte of fo long a war 
 fcarcely any other nation had been capable 
 pf exerting, 
 
 THIS preparation, fo illuftrious in the 
 eyes of Europe, and fo efficacious in its 
 event, was obftructed by the utmeft power 
 of that noify faction which has too long 
 filled the kingdom, fometimes with the 
 roar of empty menace, and fometimes with 
 the yell of hypocritical lamentation. Every 
 man faw, and every honeft man faw with 
 deteftation, that they who defired to force 
 their fovereign into war, endeavoured at the 
 fame time to difable him from action. 
 
 THE vigour and fpirit of the miniftry 
 eafily broke through all the machinations 
 of thefe pygmy rebels, and our armament 
 was quickly fuch as was likely to make our 
 negotiations effectual. 
 
 THE Prince of Mafferan, in his firft 
 conference with the Englifh minifters on 
 
 this 
 
gz FALKLAND'S ISLANDS.. 
 
 this occafion, owned that he had from Ma- 
 drid received intelligence that the Engliih 
 had been forcibly expelled from Falkland's 
 Jfland by Buccarelli, the governor of Buenos 
 Ayres, without any particular orders from 
 the King of Spain. But being afked, whe- 
 ther in his matter's name he difa vowed Buc- 
 carelli's violence, he refufed to anfwer with- 
 out direction, 
 
 THE fcene of negociation was now re- 
 moved to Madrid, and in September Mr. 
 Harris was directed to demand from Gri- 
 maldi the Spanifh minifter the reftitution 
 of Falkland's Ifland, and a difavowal of 
 Buccarelli's hoftilities. 
 
 IT was to be expeded that Grimaldi 
 would objedt to us our own behaviour, who 
 had ordered the Spaniards to depart from 
 the fame ifland. To this it was replied, 
 That the Englifh forces were indeed di- 
 refted to warn other nations away ; but if 
 
 com-* 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 93 
 
 compliance were refufed, to proceed quietly 
 in making their fettlement, and fuffer the 
 fubjects of whatever power to remain there 
 without moleftation. By pofleffion thus 
 taken, there was only a difputable claim 
 advanced, which might be peaceably and 
 regularly decided, without infult and with* 
 out force j and if the Spaniards had com- 
 plained at the Britifh court, their reafons 
 would have been heard, and all injuries re- 
 dreffed; but that, by prefuppofing the jtif- 
 tice of their own title, and having recourfc 
 to arms, without any previous notice or 
 remonftrance, they had violated the peace, 
 and infulted the Britifh government ; and 
 therefore it was expected that fatisfac- 
 tion fhould be made by publick difavowal 
 and immediate reftitution. 
 
 THE anfwer of Grimaldi was ambiguous 
 and cold. He did not allow that any par- 
 ticular orders had been given for driving the 
 Englifh from their fettlcment 5 but made no 
 
 fcruple 
 
94 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 fcruple of declaring, that fuch an ejection 
 was nothing more than the fettlers might 
 have expeded ; and that Buccarelli had not, 
 in his opinion, incurred any blame, as the 
 general injunctions to the American go- 
 vernors were, to fuffer no incroachments 
 on the Spanifli dominions. 
 
 IN October the Prince of Mafleran pro- 
 pofed a convention for the accommodation 
 of differences by mutual conceffions, in 
 which the warning given to the Spaniards 
 by Hunt fhould be difavowed on one fide, 
 and the violence ufed by Buccarelli on the 
 other. This offer was confidered as little 
 lefs than a new infult, and Grimaldi was 
 told, that injury required reparation ; that 
 when either party had fuffered evident 
 wrong, there was not the parity fubfifting 
 which is implied in conventions and con* 
 tracts ; that we confidered ourfelves as 
 openly infulted, and demanded fatisfa&ion 
 plenary and unconditional* 
 
 GRIMAIDI 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 95 
 
 GRIMALDI affe&ed to wonder that we 
 were not yet appeafed by their conceffions. 
 They had, he faid, granted all that was 
 required ; they had offered to reftore the 
 ifland in the ftate in which they found it ; 
 but he thought that they likewife might 
 hope for fome regard, and that the warning 
 fent by Hunt would be difavowed. 
 
 MR. HARRIS, our minifter at Madrid, 
 infifted that the injured party had a right 
 to unconditional reparation, and Grimaldi 
 delayed his anfwer that a council might be 
 called. In a few days orders were dif- 
 patched to Prince Mafleran, by which he 
 was commiffioned to declare the King of 
 Spain's readinefs to fatisfy the demands of 
 the King of England, in expectation of re- 
 ceiving from him reciprocal fatisfaclion, 
 by the difavowal, fo often required, of 
 Hunt's warning. 
 
 FINDING the Spaniards difpofed to make 
 no other acknowledgments, the Englift* 
 
 xniniftry 
 
9 FALKLAND^ ISLANDS. 
 
 miniftry confidered a war as not likely to 
 be long avoided. In the latter end of No- 
 vember private notice was given of their 
 danger to the merchants at Cadiz, and the 
 officers abfent from Gibraltar were re- 
 manded to their pofts. Our naval force was 
 every day increafed, and we made no 
 abatement of our original demand. 
 
 THE obftinacy of the Spanifli coutt ftill 
 continued, and about the end of the year 
 all hope of reconciliation was fo nearly ex- 
 tinguifhed, that Mr. Harris was directed to 
 withdraw, with the ufual forms, from his 
 refidence at Madrid. 
 
 MODERATION is commonly firm, and 
 firmnefs is commonly fuccefsful ; having 
 not fwelled our fir ft requifition with any 
 fuperfluous appendages, we had nothing to 
 yield, we therefore only repeated our firft 
 propofition, prepared for war, though de- 
 firous of peace. 
 
 7 ABOUT 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 97 
 
 ABOUT this time, as is well known, the 
 king of France difmified Choifeul from his 
 employments. What effect this revolution 
 of the French court had upon the Spanifh 
 counfels, I pretend not to be informed. 
 Choifeul had always profefled pacific difpo- 
 fitions, nor is it certain, however it maybe 
 fufpeded, that he talked in different ftrdins 
 to different parties. 
 
 IT feems to be almoft the univerfal error 
 of hiftorians to fuppofe it politically, as it 
 is phyfically true, that every effedt has a 
 proportionate caufe. In the inanimate 
 action of matter upon matter, the motion 
 produced can be but equal to the force of 
 the moving power; but the operations of 
 life, whether private or publick, admit no 
 fuch laws. The caprices of voluntary 
 agents laugh at calculation. It is not al- 
 ways that there is a ftrong reafon for a 
 great event. Obftinacy and flexibility, 
 malignity and kindnefs, give place alter- 
 nately to each other, and the reafon of thefe 
 H vicif- 
 
9 8 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 viciffitudes, however important may be the 
 confequences, often efcapes the mind in 
 which the change is made. 
 
 WHETHER the alteration which began 
 in January to appear in the Spaniih coun- 
 fels had any other caufe than convidion of 
 the impropriety of their paft conduft, and of 
 the danger of a new war, it is not eafy to 
 decide ; but they began, whatever was the 
 reafon, to relax their haughtinefs, and Mr. 
 Harris's departure was countermanded. 
 
 THE demands firft made by England 
 were ftill continued, and on January 22d, 
 the prince of Mafleran delivered a decla- 
 ration, in which the king of Spain dif- 
 avows the violent ent erf rife of Buccarelli, 
 andpromifes tore/lore tht port and fort called 
 Egmont) 'with all the artillery and floret* 
 according to the inventory. 
 
 To this promife of reftitution is fubjoined 
 that this engagement to reflorc Port Egmont, 
 
 cannot^ 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 99 
 
 cannot 9 nor ought in any <wife to affett the 
 queftion of the prior right of fovereignty of 
 the Malouine other-wife calkd Falkland's. 
 I/lands. 
 
 THIS conceffion was accepted by the 
 Earl of Rochford, who declared on the 
 part of his mafter, that the Prince of Maf- 
 feran being authorized by his Catholick 
 Majefty, to offer in his Majefty s name, to 
 the King of Great Britain, afatisfaffionfor 
 the injury done him by difpojjeffing him of 
 Port Egmont, and having figned a decla- 
 ration expreffing that his Catholick Majefty 
 difavoivs the expedition againji Port Egmont, 
 and engages toreflore it in theftate in which 
 it flood before the loth of June 1770, his 
 Britannick majejiy 'will look upon the f aid 
 declaration, together with the full perform- 
 ance of the engagement en the part of bis 
 Catholick Majejly, as a fatisfattion for the 
 injury done to the cro-wn of Great Britain. 
 
 H 2 THIS 
 
ioo FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 THIS is all that was originally de- 
 manded. The expedition is difa vowed, 
 and the ifland is reftored. An injury is 
 acknowledged by the reception of Lord 
 Rochford's paper, who twice mentions the 
 word injury and twice the word fatisfac* 
 tfau. 
 
 THE Spaniards have ftipulated that the 
 grant of pofleffion mail not preclude the 
 queftion of prior right, a queftion which 
 we (hall probably make no hafte to dif- 
 cufs, and a right of which no formal refig- 
 nation was ever required. This referve has 
 fupplied matter for much clamour, and 
 perhaps the Englim miniftry would have 
 been better pleafed had the declaration 
 been without it. But when we have ob- 
 tained all that was alked, why mould we 
 complain that we have not more ? When 
 the pofleffion is conceded, where is the evil 
 that the right, which that conceffion fuppo- 
 fes to be merely hypothetical, is referred to 
 
 the 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 101 
 
 the Greek Calends for a future difquifition ? 
 Were the Switzers lefs free or lefs fecure, 
 becaufe after their defection from the houfe 
 of Auftria they had never been declared 
 independent before the treaty of Weft- 
 phalia ? Is the King of France lefs a fove- 
 reign becaufe the King of England partakes 
 his title ? 
 
 IF fovereignty implies undifputed right, 
 fcarce any prince is a fovereign through his 
 whole dominions ; if fovereignty confifts in 
 this, that no fuperiour is acknowledged, our 
 King reigns at Port Egmont with fovereign 
 authority. Almoft every new acquired ter- 
 ritory is in fome degree controvertible, and 
 till the controverfy is decided, a term very 
 difficult to be fixed, all that can be had is 
 real pofTeffion and adtual dominion. 
 
 THIS furely is a fufficient anfwer to the 
 
 feudal gabble of a man who is every day 
 
 H 3 leffen- 
 
102 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 leflening that fplendour of character which 
 once illuminated the kingdom, then dazzled, 
 and afterwards inflamed it ; and for whom 
 it will be happy if the nation {hall at laft 
 difmifs him to namelefs obfcurity with 
 that equipoife of blame and praife which 
 Corneille allows to Kichlieu, a man who, 
 I think, had much of his merit, and many 
 of his faults. 
 
 Ckacun park a fongre de ce grand Cardinal^ 
 Mais pour moije tfen dirai rien - 9 
 
 II m* a fait trop de lien pour en dire du mat, 
 II irf a fait trop de mal pcur en dire du lien. 
 
 To pufh advantages too far is neither 
 generous nor juft. Had we infifted on a 
 conceffion of antecedent right, it may not 
 mifbecome us either as moralifts or politi- 
 cians, to confider what Qrimaldi could have 
 anfwered. We have already, he might fay, 
 granted you the whole effect of right, and 
 have not denied you the name. We have 
 not faid that the right was ours before this 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 103 
 
 conceffion, but only that what right we 
 had, is not by this conceffion vacated. We 
 have now for more than two centuries 
 ruled large trafts of the American conti- 
 nent, by a claim which perhaps is valid 
 only upon this consideration, that no power 
 can produce a better ; by the right of difco- 
 very and prior fettlement. And by fuch 
 titles almoft all the dominions of the 
 earth are holden, except that their original is 
 beyond memory, and greater obfcurity gives 
 them greater veneration. Should we allow 
 this plea to be annulled, the whole fabrick 
 of our empire fhakes at the foundation. 
 When you fuppofe yourfelves to have firft 
 defcried the difputed ifland, you fuppofe 
 what you can hardly prove. We were at 
 leaft the general difcoverers of the Magel- 
 lanick region, and have hitherto held it 
 with all its adjacencies. The juftice of this 
 tenure the world has hitherto admitted, and 
 yourfelves at leaft tacitly allowed it, when 
 about twenty years ago you defilted from 
 H 4 your 
 
104 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 your purpofed expedition, and exprefsly 
 difowned any defign of fettling, where you 
 are now not content to fettle and to reign, 
 without extorting fuch a confeffion of ori- 
 ginal right, as may invite every other na- 
 tion to follow you. 
 
 To confiderationsfuch as thefe, it is rea- 
 fonable to impute that anxiety of the Spa- 
 niards, from which the importance of this 
 iiland is inferred by Junius, one of the few 
 writers of his defpicable faction whofe name 
 does not difgrace the page of an opponent. 
 The value of the thing difputed may be very 
 different to him that gains and him that 
 lofes it. The Spaniards, by yielding Falk- 
 land's ifland, have admitted a precedent 
 of what they think encroachment ; have 
 fuffered a breach to be made in the out- 
 works of their empire ; and notwithfiand- 
 ing the refervc of prior right, have fuffered 
 a dangerous exception to the prefcriptive 
 tenure of their American territories. 
 
 SUCH 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 105 
 
 SUCH is the lofs of Spain; let us now 
 compute the profit of Britain. We have, 
 by obtaining a difavowal of Buccarelli's ex- 
 pedition; and a reftitution of our fettle- 
 ment, maintained the honour of the crown, 
 and the fuperiority of our influence. Be- 
 yond this what have we acquired ? What, 
 but a bleak and gloomy folitude, an ifland 
 thrown afide from human ufe, ftormy in 
 winter, and barren in fummer; an ifland 
 which not the fouthern favages have digni- 
 fied with habitation ; where a garrifon muft 
 be kept in a ftate that contemplates with 
 envy the exiles of Siberia ; of which the ex- 
 pence will be perpetual, and the ufe only 
 occafional ; and which, if fortune fmile 
 upon our labours, may become a neft of 
 fmugglers in peace, and in war the refuge 
 of future fjuccaniers. To all this the 
 Government has now given ample attefta- 
 tion, for the ifland has been fince abandon- 
 ed, and perhaps was kept only to quiet cla- 
 mours, with an intention, not then wholly 
 concealed, of quitting it in a fhort time. 
 
 3 THIS 
 
io6 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 THIS is the country of which we have 
 now poflfeffion, and of which a numerous 
 party pretends to wifh that we had murdered 
 thoufands for the titular fovereignty. To 
 charge any men with fuch madnefs, ap- 
 proaches to an accufation defeated by its 
 own incredibility. As they have been 
 long accumulating falfehoods, it is poflible 
 that they are now only adding another 
 to the heap, and that they do not mean 
 all that they profefs. But of this fadion 
 what evil may not be credited ? They have 
 hitherto {hewn no virtue, and very little 
 wit, beyond that mifchievous cunning for 
 which it is held by Hale that children may 
 be hanged. 
 
 As war is the laft of remedies, cunfta 
 prius tentanda, all lawful expedients muft 
 be ufed to avoid it. As war is the extre^ 
 mity of evil, it is furely the duty of thofe 
 whofe ftation intrufts them with the care 
 of nations, to avert it from their charge. 
 
 There 
 
F A L K L A N D's I S L A N D S. 107 
 
 There are difeafes of animal nature which 
 nothing but amputation can remove; fo 
 there may, by the depravation of human 
 paffions, be fometimes a gangrene in col- 
 lective life for which fire and the fword 
 are the neceffary remedies ; but in what 
 can Ikill or caution be better fhewn than 
 preventing fuch dreadful operations, while 
 there is yet room for gentler methods ? 
 
 IT is wonderful with what coolnefs and 
 indifference the greater part of mankind fee 
 war commenced. Thofe that hear of it 
 at a diftance, or read of it in books, but 
 have never prefented its evils to their minds, 
 confider it as little more than a fplendid 
 game, a proclamation, an army, a battle, 
 and a triumph. Some indeed muft perifh 
 in the moft fuccefsful field, but they die 
 upon the bed of honour, rcfign their lives 
 the joys of conquejl, and^ filed with 
 
 THE 
 
 England's glory, fmile in death. 
 6 
 
loS FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 THE life of a modern foldier is ill repre- 
 fented by heroick fidion. War has means 
 of deftrudion more formidable than the 
 cannon and the fword. Of the thoufands 
 and ten thoufands that perifhed in our late 
 contefts with France and Spain, a very 
 fmall part ever felt the ftroke of an enemy ; 
 the reft languifhed in tents and mips, amidft 
 damps and putrefaction ; pale, torpid, fpi- 
 ritlefs, and helplefs; gafping and groan- 
 ing, unpitied among men, made obdurate 
 by long continuance of hopelefs mifery ; 
 and were at laft whelmed in pits, or heaved 
 into the ocean, without notice and without 
 remembrance. By incommodious encamp- 
 ments and unwholefome ftations, where 
 courage is ufelefs, and enterprife imprac- 
 ticable, fleets are filently difpeopled, and 
 armies fluggifhly melted away. 
 
 THUS is a people gradually exhaufted, for 
 the moft part with little effed. The wars 
 of civilized nations make very flow changes 
 
 in 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 109 
 
 in the fyftem of empire. The public per- 
 ceives fcarcely any alteration but an increafe 
 of debt ; and the few individuals who are 
 benefited, are not fuppofed to have the clear- 
 eft right to their advantages. If he that 
 lhared the danger enjoyed the profit, and 
 after bleeding in the battle grew rich by the 
 victory, he might (hew his gains without 
 envy. But at the conclufion of a ten years 
 war, how are we recompenfed for the death 
 of multitudes and the expence of millions, 
 but by contemplating the fudden glories of 
 paymafters and agents, contractors and com- 
 miflaries, whofe equipages fhine like meteors, 
 and whofe palaces rife like exhalations. 
 
 THESE are the men who, without vir- 
 tue, labour, or hazard, are* growing rich 
 as their country is impoverimed ; they re- 
 joice when obftinacy or ambition adds an- 
 other year to {laughter and devaluation ; and 
 laugh from their defks at bravery and fci- 
 ence, while they are adding figure to figure, 
 
 and 
 
no FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 and cipher to cipher, hoping for a new 
 contract from a new armament, and com- 
 puting the profits of a fiege or tempeft. 
 
 THOSE who fuffer their minds to dwell 
 on thefe confiderations will think it no 
 great crime in the miniftry that they have 
 not fnatched with eagernefs the firft oppor- 
 tunity of rufhing into the field, when they 
 were able to obtain by quiet negociation all 
 the real good that victory could have 
 brought us. 
 
 OF victory indeed every nation is confi- 
 dent before the fword is drawn ; and this 
 mutual confidence produces that wanton- 
 nefs of bloodfhed that has fo often defo- 
 lated the world. But it is evident, that of 
 contradictory opinions one muft be wrong, 
 and the hiftory of mankind does not want 
 examples that may teach caution to the 
 daring, arid moderation to the proud. 
 
 LET 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS, in 
 
 LET us not think our laurels blafted by 
 condefcending to inquire, whether we might 
 not poffibly grow rather lefs than greater 
 by attacking Spain. Whether we fhould 
 have to contend with Spain alone, what- 
 ever has been promifed by our patriots, may 
 very reafonably be doubted, A war de- 
 clared for the empty found of an ancient 
 title to a Magellanick rock would raife the 
 indignation of the earth agamft us. Thefe 
 encroachers on the wafte of nature, fays 
 our ally the Ruffian, if they fucceed in their 
 firft effort of ufurpation, will make war 
 upon us for a title to Kamfchatfcha. Thefe 
 univerfal fettlers, fays our aliy the Dane, 
 will in a fhort time fettle upon Greenland, 
 and a fleet will batter Copenhagen, till we 
 are willing to confefs that it always was 
 their own. 
 
 IN a quarrel like this, it is not poflible 
 that any power fhould favour us, and it is 
 very likely that fome would oppofe us. The 
 
 French, 
 
in FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 French, we are told, are otherwife em- 
 ployed ; the contefts between the King of 
 France and his own fubjeds are fufficient 
 to witholdhim from fupporting Spain. But 
 who does not know that a foreign war has 
 often put a flop to civil difcords ? It 
 withdraws the attention of the publick 
 from domeflick grievances, and affbids op- 
 portunities of difmiffing the turbulent and 
 refllefs to diftant employments. The Spa- 
 niards have always an argument of irrefift- 
 ible perfuafion. If France will not fupport 
 them againft England, they will ftrengthen 
 England againft France. 
 
 BUT let us indulge a dream of idle fpe- 
 culation, and fuppofe that we are to en- 
 gage with Spain, and with Spain alone ; 
 it is not even yet very certain that much 
 advantage will be gained. Spain is not 
 eafily vulnerable; her kingdom, by the 
 lofs or ceffion of many fragments of do- 
 minion, is become folid and compact. The 
 
 Spaniards 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 113 
 
 Spaniards have indeed no fleet able to op- 
 pofe us, but they will not endeavour actual 
 oppofition; they will fhut themfelves up 
 in their own territories, and let us exhauft 
 our feamen in a hopelefs fiege. They will 
 give commiflions to privateers of every na- 
 tion, who will prey upon our merchants 
 without pofiibility of reprifal. If they 
 think their plate fleet in danger, they will 
 forbid it to fet fail, and live a while upon 
 the credit of treafure which all Europe 
 knows to be fafe; and which, if ourobfti- 
 nacy fhould continue till they can no longer 
 be without it, will be conveyed to them 
 with fecrecy and fecurity by our natural 
 enemies the French, or by the Dutch our 
 natural allies. 
 
 BUT the whole continent of Spanifh 
 America will lie open to invafion ; we (hall 
 have nothing to do but march into thefe 
 wealthy regions, and make their prefent 
 matters confefs that they were always ours 
 
 I by 
 
ii4 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 by ancient right. We fliall throw brafs 
 and iron out of our houfes, and nothing but 
 filver will befeen among us. 
 
 ALL this is very defirable, but it is not 
 certain that it can be eafily attained. Large 
 trads of America were added by the laft 
 War to the Britiih dominions ; but, if the 
 faftion credit their own Apollo, they were 
 conquered in Germany. They at bed are 
 only the barren parts of the continent, the 
 refufe of the earlier adventurers, which 
 the French, who came laft, had taken only 
 as better than nothing. 
 
 AGAINST the Spanifh dominions we 
 
 have never hitherto been able to do much, 
 i 
 
 A few privateers have grown rich at their 
 expence, but no fcheme of conqueft has yet 
 been fuccefsful. They are defended not by 
 walls mounted with cannons which bv can- 
 
 4 
 
 nons may be battered, but by the llorms of 
 the deep and the vapours of the land, by the 
 flames of calenture and blafts of peftilence. 
 
 IN 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 115 
 
 IN the reign of Elizabeth, the favourite 
 period of Englifh g-reatnefs, no enterprifes 
 againft America had any other confequence 
 than that of extending Englifh naviga- 
 tion. Here Cavendifh perifhed after all 
 his hazards ; and here Drake and Hawkins, 
 great as they were in knowledge and in 
 fame, having promifed honour to them- 
 felves and dominion to the country, funk 
 by delperation and mifery in difhonourable 
 graves. 
 
 DURING the protedorfhip of Cromwell, 
 a time of which the patriotick tribes ftill 
 more ardently defire the return, the Spa* 
 nifh dominions were again attempted ; but 
 here, and only here, the fortune of Crom- 
 well made a paufe. His forces were driven 
 from Hifpaniola, his hopes of pofleffing the 
 Weft Indies vanifhed, and Jamaica was 
 taken, only that the whole expedition might 
 not grow ridiculous. 
 
 THE attack of Carthagena is yet remem- 
 bered, where the Spaniards from the ram- 
 I 2 parts 
 
us FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 parts faw their invaders deftroyed by the 
 hoflility of the elements ; poifoned by the 
 air, and crippled by the dews ; where every 
 hour fwept away battalions; and in the 
 three days that pafled between the defcent 
 and re-embarkation, half an army pe- 
 rifhed. 
 
 IN the laft war the Havanna was taken, 
 at what expence is too well remembered. 
 May my country be never curfed with fuch 
 another conqueil ! 
 
 THESE inftancesof mifcarriage, and thefe 
 arguments of difficulty, may perhaps abate 
 the military ardour of the Publick. Upon 
 the opponents of the government their ope- 
 ration will be different ; they wifh for 
 war, but not for cOnqueft ; vidory would 
 defeat their purpofes equally with peace, 
 becaufe profperity would naturally continue 
 truft in thofe hands which had ufed it for- 
 tunately. The patriots gratified them- 
 
 felves 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 117 
 
 felves with expetations that fome fmif- 
 trous accident, or erroneous conduct, might 
 diffufe difcontent and inflame malignity. 
 Their hope is malevolence, and their good 
 is evil. 
 
 OF their zeal for their country we have 
 already had a fpecimen. While they were 
 terrifying the nation with doubts whether 
 it was any longer to exift ; while they re- 
 prefented invafive armies as hovering in the 
 clouds, and hoftile fleets as emerging from 
 tjie deeps ; they obftructed our levies of 
 feamen, and embarrafled our endeavours 
 of defence. Of fuch men he thinks with 
 unneceflary candour who does not believe 
 them likely to have promoted the mifcar- 
 riage which they defired, by intimidating 
 our troops or betraying our counfels. 
 
 IT is confidered as an injury to the Pub- 
 lick by thofe fanguinary ftatefmen, that 
 though the fleet has been refitted and man- 
 I 3 ned, 
 
US FALKLAND'S ISLANDS, 
 
 ned, yet no hoftilities have followed ; and 
 they who fat wifhing for mifery and flaugh- 
 ter are difappointed of their pleafure. But 
 as peace is the end of war, it is the end 
 likewife of preparations for war ; arid he 
 may be juftly hunted down as the enemy 
 of mankind, that can chufe to fnatch by 
 violence and bloodfhed* what gentler means 
 can equally obtain. 
 
 THE miniftry are reproached as not da-r 
 ring to provoke an enemy, left ill fuccefs 
 fhould difcredit and difplace them. I hope 
 that they had better reafons j that they paid 
 fome regard to equity and humanity; and 
 confidered themfelves as entrufted with the 
 fafety of their fellow-fubjeds, and as the 
 deftroyers of all that fliould be fupcrfluoufly 
 flaughtered. But let us fuppofe that their 
 own fafety had fome influence on their 
 conduct, they will not, however, fink to a 
 level with their enemies. Though the mo- 
 tive might be feliifli, the ad was Innocent, 
 They who grow rich by adminiftering 
 
 phyfick* 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 119 
 
 phyfick, are not to be numbered with them 
 that get money by difpenfing poifon. If 
 they maintain power by harmlefihefs and 
 peace, they muft for ever be at a great dif- 
 tance from ruffians who would gain it by 
 mifchief and confufion. The watch of a 
 city may guard it for hire ; but are well 
 employed in protecting it from thofe who 
 lie in wait to fire the ftreets and rob the 
 houfes amidft the conflagration. 
 
 AN unfuccefsful war would undoubtedly 
 have had the effect which the enemies of 
 the Miniftry fo earneftly defire ; for who 
 could have fuftained the difgrace of folly 
 ending in misfortune ? But had wanton in- 
 vafion undelervedly profpered, had Falk- 
 land's Ifland been yielded unconditionally 
 with every right prior and pofterior ; though 
 the rabble might have {houted, and the 
 windows have blazed, yet thofe who 
 know the value of life, and the uncer- 
 tainty of publick credit, would have mur- 
 I 4 mured, 
 
no FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 mured, perhaps unheard, at the increafe of 
 our debt and the lofs of our people. 
 
 THIS third of blood, however the vifiblc 
 promoters of fedition may think it conveni- 
 ent to fhrink from the accufation, is loudly 
 avowed by Junius, the writer to whom his 
 party owes much of its pride, and fome of 
 its popularity. Of Junius it cannot be faid, 
 as of Ulyfles, that he fcatters ambiguous ex * 
 preffions among the vulgar ; for he cries 
 havoc k without referve, and endeavours 
 to let flip the dogs of foreign or pf civil 
 war, ignorant whither they are going, and 
 carelefs what may be their prey. 
 
 JUNIUS has fometimes made his fatirc 
 felt, but let not injudicious admiration mif- 
 take the venom of the fiiaft for the vigour 
 of the bow. He has fometimes fported with 
 lucky malice ; but to him that knows his 
 company, it is not hard to be farcaftick 
 in a mafk. While he walks like Jack the 
 
 Giant- 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 121 
 
 Giant-killer in a coat of darknefs, he may 
 do much mifchief with little ftrength. 
 Novelty captivates the fuperficial and 
 thoughtlefs ; vehemence delights the dif- 
 Contented and turbulent. He that con- 
 tradicts acknowledged truth will always 
 have an audience ; he that vilifies eftabliflied 
 authority will always find abettors, 
 
 JUNIUS burft into notice with a blaze of 
 impudence which has rarely glared upon the 
 world before, and drew the rabble after 
 frim as a monfter makes a fhow. When 
 he had once provided for his fafety by im- 
 penetrable fecrecy, Jie had nothing to com- 
 bat but truth and juftice, ^nemies whom 
 he knows to be feeble in the dark. Being 
 then at liberty to indulge himfelf in all 
 the immunities of invifibility ; out of the 
 reach of danger, he has been bold ; out of 
 the reach of fhame, he has been confident. 
 As a rhetorician, he has had the art of per-* 
 fuading when he feconded defire ; as a rea- 
 Jbner, he has convinced thofe who had no 
 
 doubt 
 
122 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 doubt before ; as a moralift, he has taught 
 that virtue may difgrace ; and as a patriot, 
 he has gratified the mean by infults on 
 the high. Finding fedition attendant, he 
 has been able to advance it; finding the 
 nation combuftible, he has been able to 
 inflame it. Let us abftrad from his wit 
 the vivacity of infolence, and withdraw 
 from his efficacy the fympathetick favour 
 of Plebeian malignity; I do not fay that 
 we fliall leave him nothing ; the caufe that 
 I defend fcorns the help of falfehood ; but 
 if we leave him only his merit, what will 
 be his praife ? 
 
 IT is not by his livelinefs of imagery, his 
 pungency of periods, or his fertility of 
 allufion, that he detains the cits of London, 
 and the boors of Middlefex. Of ftyle and 
 fentiment they take no cognizance. They 
 admire him for virtues like their own, for 
 contempt of order and violence of outrage, 
 for rage of defamation and audacity of falfe- 
 hood. The Supporters of the Bill of 
 
 Eighty 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 123 
 
 Hights feel no niceties of competition, nor 
 dexterities of fophiftry ; their faculties are 
 better proportioned to the bawl of Bellas^ 
 or barbarity of Beckford ; but they are told 
 that Junius is on their fide, and they are 
 therefore fure that Junius is infallible, Thofe 
 who know not whither he would lead them, 
 refolve to follow him ; and thofe who can- 
 not iind his meaning, hope he means rebel- 
 lion* 
 
 JUNIUS is an unufual phenomenon, on 
 which fome have gazed with wonder and 
 fome with terrour, but wonder and terrour 
 are tranfitory paffions. He will foon be 
 more clofely viewed or more attentively ex- 
 amined, and what folly has taken for a co- 
 jnet that from its flaming hair {hook pefti- 
 lence and war, inquiry will find to be only 
 a meteor formed by the vapours of putre- 
 fying democracy, and kindled into flame 
 by the effervefcence of intereft ftruggling 
 With convi&ion ; which after having plun- 
 ged 
 
124 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 ,ged its followers in a bog, will leave us 
 inquiring why we regarded it. 
 
 YET though I cannot think the ftyle 
 of Junius fecure from criticifm, though 
 his expreffions are often trite, and his 
 periods feeble, I fliould never have ftation- 
 ed him where he has placed himfelf, had 
 I not rated him by his morals rather than 
 his faculties. What, fays Pope, muft be 
 the prieft, where a monkey is the God ? 
 What muft be the drudge of a party of 
 which the heads are Wilkes and Crofby, 
 Sawbridge and Townfend ? 
 
 JUNIUS knows his own meaning and can 
 therefore tell it. He is an enemy to the 
 miniftry, he fees them growing hourly 
 ftronger. He knows that a war at once 
 unjuft and unfuccefsful would have certain- 
 ly difplaced them, and is therefore, in his 
 zeal for his country, angry that war was 
 not unjuftly made, and unfuccefsfully con- 
 dufted. But there are others whofe thoughts 
 
 are 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 125 
 
 are lefs clearly exprefled, and whofe fchemes 
 perhaps are lefs confequentially digefted ; 
 who declare that they do not wifh for a rup- 
 ture, yet condemn the miniftry for not 
 doing that, by which a rupture would na- 
 turally have been made. 
 
 IF one party refolves to demand what 
 the other refolves to refufe, the difpute can 
 be determined only by arbitration ; and be- 
 tween powers who have no common fupe- 
 riour, there is no other arbitrator than the 
 fword. 
 
 WHETHER the miniftry might not equi- 
 tably have demanded more, is not worth a 
 queftion. The utmoft exertion of right is 
 always invidious, and where claims are not 
 eafily determinable is always dangerous. 
 We afked all that was neceflary, and per- 
 fifted in our firft claim without mean recef- 
 fion, or wanton aggravation. The Spaniards 
 found us refolute, and complied after a 
 fliort ftruggle. 
 
 THE 
 
i 2 6 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS, 
 
 THE real crime of the ministry is, that 
 they have found the means of avoiding 
 their own ruin; but the charge again/I 
 them is multifarious and confufed, as will 
 happen, when malice and difcontent are 
 afhamed of their complaint. The paft and 
 the future are complicated in the cenfure. 
 We have heard a tumultuous clamour 4 
 about honour and rights, injuries and 
 infults, the Britifli flag, and the Favourite's 
 rudder, Buccarelli's conduct, and Grimaldi's 
 declarations, the Manilla ranforn, delays 
 and reparation. 
 
 THROUGH the whole argument of the 
 fadion runs the general errour, that our 
 fettlement on Falkland's Ifland was not only 
 lawful but unqueftionable ; that our right 
 was not only certain but acknowledged ; 
 and that the equity of our condud was 
 fuch, that the Spaniards could not blame 
 or obftrud it without combating their own 
 conviction, and oppofmg the general opi- 
 nion of mankind, 
 
 6 IF 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 127 
 
 IF once it be difcovered that, in the opi- 
 nion of the Spaniards, our fettlement was 
 ufurped, our claim arbitrary, and our 
 conduct infolent, all that has happened will 
 appear to follow by a natural concatenation-. 
 Doubts will produce difputes and difqui- 
 fition, difquifition requires delay, and de- 
 lay caufes inconvenience. 
 
 HAD the Spanifh government i 
 diately yielded unconditionally all that was 
 required, we might have been fatisfied ; 
 but what would Europe have judged of 
 their fubmiffion ? That they fhrunk be- 
 fore us as a conquered people, who having 
 lately yielded to our arms, were now com- 
 pelled to facrifice to our pride. The honour 
 of the Publick is indeed of high import- 
 ance ; but we muft remember that we have 
 had to tranfacT: with a mighty King and a 
 powerful nation, who have unluckily been 
 taught to think that they have honour to 
 keep or lofe as well as ourfelves. 
 
 WHEN 
 
128 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 WHEN the Admiralty were told in June 
 of the warning given to Hunt, they were, 
 I fuppofe, informed that Hunt had firft pro- 
 voked it by warning away the Spaniards, 
 and naturally confidered one atof infolence 
 as balanced by another, without expeding 
 that more would be done on either fide. 
 Of reprefentations and remonftrances there 
 would be no end, if they were to be made 
 whenever fmall commanders are uncivil to 
 each other ; nor could peace ever be enjoyed* 
 if upon fuch tranfient provocations it be 
 imagined neceflary to prepare for war. We 
 might then, it is faid, have increafed our 
 force with more leifure and lefs inconveni- 
 ence; but this is to judge only by the event. 
 We omitted to difturb the Publick, becaufe 
 we did not fuppofe that an armament would 
 be neceflary. 
 
 SOME months afterwards, as has been 
 told, Buccarelli, the governor of Buenos 
 Ayres, fent againft the fettlement of Port 
 
 Egmont 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 129 
 
 Egmont a force which enfured the con- 
 queft. The Spanifh commander required 
 the Englifh captains to depart, but they 
 thinking that refiftance neceffary which they 
 knew to be ufelefs, gave the Spaniards 
 the right of prefcribing terms of capitula- 
 tion. The Spaniards impofed no new condi- 
 tion except that the floop fhould not fail un- 
 der twenty days ; and of this they fecured 
 the performance by taking off the rudder. 
 
 To an inhabitant of the land there ap- 
 pears nothing in all this unreasonable or of- 
 fenfive. If the Englifli intended to keep 
 their ftipulation, how were they injured by 
 the detention of the rudder ? If the rudder 
 be to a (hip what his tail is in fables to a 
 fox, the part in which honour is placed* 
 and of which the violation is never to be 
 endured, I am forry that the Favourite fuf- 
 fered an indignity, but cannot yet think it 
 a caufe for which nations fnould flaughter 
 one another. 
 
 K WHEN 
 
130 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 WHEN Biltcarelli's invafion was known, 
 and the dignity of the crown infringed, we 
 demanded reparation and prepared for war, 
 and we gained equal refpect by the mo- 
 deration of our terms, and the fpirit of 
 our exertion. The Spanifli minifter im- 
 mediately denied that Buccarelli had re- 
 ceived any particular orders to feize Port 
 Egmont, nor pretended that he was juftified 
 otherwife than by the general inftruftions 
 by which the American governors are re- 
 quired to exclude the fubjects of other 
 powers. 
 
 To have inquired whether our fettle- 
 ment at Port Egmont was any violation of 
 the Spanifh rights, had been to enter upon 
 a difcuffion which the pertinacity of poli- 
 tical difputants might have continued with- 
 out end. We therefore called for reftitu- 
 tion, not as a confeffion of right, but as a 
 reparation of honour, which required that 
 we fhould be reftored to our former ftate 
 
 upon 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 131 
 
 Upon the ifland, and that the King of Spain 
 ihould difavow the adion of his governor. 
 
 IN return to this demand, the Spaniards 
 expeded from us a difavowal of the me- 
 naces with which they had been firft in- 
 fulted by Hunt; and if the claim to the 
 ifland be fuppofed doubtful, they certainly 
 expected it with equal reafon. This, how- 
 ever, was refufed, and our fuperiority of 
 ftrength gave validity to our arguments* 
 
 BUT we are told that the difavowal of 
 the King of Spain is temporary and falla- 
 cious ; that Buccarelli's armament had all 
 the appearance of regular forces and a con-* 
 certed expedition ; and that he is not treat- 
 ed at home as a man guilty of piracy, or 
 as difobedient to the orders of his mafter. 
 
 THAT the expedition was well planned, 
 
 and the forces properly fupplied, affords no 
 
 proof of communication between the gover- 
 
 K 2 nor 
 
132 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 nor and his court. Thofe who are in- 
 trufted with the care of kingdoms in an- 
 other hemifphere, muft always be trufted 
 with power to defend them. 
 
 As little can be inferred from his recep- 
 tion at the Spanifh court. He is not pu- 
 nifhed indeed, for what has he done that 
 deferves punifliment ? He was fent into 
 America to govern and defend the domi- 
 nions of Spain. He thought the Englifh 
 were encroaching, and drove them away. 
 No Spaniard thinks that he has exceeded 
 his duty, nor does the King of Spain charge 
 him with excefs. The boundaries of do- 
 minion in that part of the world have not 
 yet been fettled ; and he miftook, if a mif- 
 take there was, like a zealous fubjedl, in his 
 matter's favour. 
 
 BUT all this inquiry is iuperfluous. 
 Confidered as a reparation of honour, the 
 difavowal of the King of Spain, made in 
 
 the 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 133 
 
 the fight of all Europe, is of equal value, 
 whether true or falfe. There is indeed no 
 reafon to queftion its veracity ; they, how- 
 ever, who do not believe it, mufl allow the 
 weight of that influence by which a great 
 prince is reduced to difown his own com- 
 miffion. 
 
 BUT the general orders upon which the 
 governor is acknowledged to have ated, are 
 neither difavowed nor explained. Why the 
 Spaniards fhould difavow the defence of 
 their own territories, the warmeft difpu- 
 tant will find it difficult to tell ; and if by 
 an explanation is meant an accurate deline- 
 ation of the fouthern empire, and the li- 
 mitation of their claims beyond the line, 
 it cannot be imputed to any very cul- 
 pable remiffnefs, that what has been denied 
 for two centuries to the European powers, 
 was not obtained in a hafty wrangle about 
 a petty fettlement. 
 
 K 3 THE 
 
134 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 THE miniftry were too well acquainted 
 with negociation to fill their heads with 
 fuch idle expectations. The queftion of 
 right was inexplicable and endlefs. They 
 left it as it flood. To be reftored to adual 
 pofleffion was eafily practicable. This re- 
 iteration they required and obtained. 
 
 BUT they fhould, fay their opponents, 
 have infilled upon more ; they fhould have 
 exadted not only reparation of our honour 
 but repayment of our expence. Nor are they 
 all fatisfied with the recovery of the cofts 
 and damages of the prefent conteft ; they 
 are for taking this opportunity of calling 
 in old debts, and reviving our right to the 
 ranforn of Manilla. 
 
 THE Manilla ranfom has, I think, been 
 moft mentioned by the inferior bellowers 
 of fedition. Thofe who lead the fadtion 
 know that it cannot be remembered much 
 to their advantage. The followers of Lord 
 
 Rock- 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 135 
 
 Rockingham remember that his miniftry 
 begun and ended without obtaining it; the 
 adherents to Grenville would be told, that 
 he could never be taught to underftand our 
 claim. The law of nations made little of 
 his knowledge. Let him not, however, 
 be depreciated in his grave. If he was 
 fometimes wrong, he was often right. 
 
 OF reimburfement the talk has been 
 more confident, though not more reafon- 
 able. The expences of war have been often 
 defired, have been fometimes required, but 
 were never paid; or never, but when 
 refiftance was hopelefs, and there remain- 
 ed no choice between fubmiffion and de- 
 ftruction. 
 
 OF our late equipments I know not from 
 whom the charge can be very properly ex- 
 pected. The king of Spain difavows the 
 violence which provoked us to arm, and 
 for the mifchiefs which he did not do, why 
 K 4 mould 
 
136 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 fliould he pay ? Buccarelli, though he had 
 learned all the arts of an Eaft-Indian go- 
 vernor, could hardly have collected at Buenos 
 Ayres a fum fufficient to fatisfy our de* 
 mands. If he be honeft, he is hardly rich ; 
 and if he be difpofed to rob, he has the 
 misfortune of being placed where robbers 
 have been before him. 
 
 THE king of Spain indeed delayed tq 
 comply with our propofals, and our arma- 
 ment was made neceflary by unfatisfadtory 
 anfwers and dilatory debates. The delay 
 certainly increafed our expences, 3nd it is 
 not unlikely that the increafe of pur ex^ 
 pences put an end to the delay. 
 
 BUT this is the inevitable procefs of 
 human affairs. Negociation requires time. 
 What is not apparent to intuition muft be 
 found by inquiry. Claims that have re- 
 mained doubtful for ages cannot be fettled 
 in a day. Reciprocal complaints are not 
 
 eafily 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 137 
 
 eafily adjufted but by reciprocal compliance. 
 The Spaniards thinking themfelves entitled 
 to the ifland, and injured by Captain 
 Hunt, in their turn demanded fatisfaition, 
 which was refufed ; and where is the won- 
 der if their conceffions were delayed ! They 
 may tell us, that an independent nation is 
 to be influenced not by command, but by 
 perfuafion; that if we expeft our propofals 
 to be received without deliberation, we af- 
 fume that fovereignty which they do not 
 grant us; and that if we arm while they 
 are deliberating, we muft indulge our mar- 
 tial ardour at our own charge. 
 
 THE Englifh miniftry afked all that 
 was reafonable, and enforced all that they 
 afked. Our national honour is advanced, 
 and our intereft, if any intereft we have, 
 is fufficiently fecured. There can be none 
 amongft us to whom this tranfa&ion does 
 not feem happily concluded, but thofe who 
 having fixed their hopes on public cala- 
 mities, 
 
i 3 S FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 xnities, fat like vultures waiting for a day 
 of carnage. Having worn out all the arts 
 of domeftick fedition, having wearied vio- 
 lence, and exhaufted falfehood, they yet 
 flattered themfelves with fome affiftance 
 from the pride or malice of Spain ; and 
 when they could no longer make the peo- 
 ple complain of grievances which they did 
 not feel, they had the comfort yet of 
 knowing that real evils were poflible, and 
 their refolution is well known of charging 
 all evil on their governours. 
 
 THE reconciliation was 'therefore con- 
 fidered as the lofs of their laft anchor; 
 and received not only with the fretful- 
 neis of difappointment but the rage of 
 defperation. When they found that all 
 were happy in fpite of their machinations, 
 and the foft effulgence of peace Ihone out 
 upon the nation, they felt no motion but 
 that of fullen envy ; they could not, like 
 Milton's prince of hell, abftrad themfelves 
 a moment from their evil ; as they have not 
 
 the 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 139 
 
 the wit of Satan, they have not his virtue ; 
 they tried once again what could be done 
 by fophiftry without art, and confidence 
 without credit. They reprefented their 
 Sovereign as dimonoured and their country 
 as betrayed, or, in their fiercer paroxyfms 
 of fury, reviled their Sovereign as betray- 
 ing it. 
 
 THEIR pretences I have here endea- 
 voured to expofe, by fhowing that more 
 than has been yielded was not to be ex- 
 pected, that more perhaps was not to be 
 defired, and that if all had been refufed, 
 there had fcarcely been an adequate reafon 
 for a war, 
 
 THERE was perhaps never much danger 
 of war or of refufal, but what danger there 
 was, proceeded from the faclion. Foreign 
 nations, unacquainted with the infolence of 
 Common Councils, and unaccuftomed to 
 the howl of Plebeian patriotifm, when they 
 heard of rabbles and riots, of petitions and 
 
 remon- 
 
140 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 remonftrances, of difcontent in Surrey, Der- 
 byfhire, and Yorkfhire, when they faw the 
 chain of fubordination broken, and the le- 
 giflature threatened and defied, naturally 
 imagined that fuch a government had little 
 leifure for Falkland's Ifland ; they fuppofed 
 that the Englifh when they returned ejed> 
 ed from Port Egmont, would find Wilkes 
 invefted with the protectorate; or fee the 
 mayor of London, what the French have 
 formerly feen their mayors of the palace, 
 the commander of the army and tutor of 
 the King ; that they would be called to tell 
 their tale before the Common Council; 
 and that the world was to expeft war or 
 peace from a vote of the fubfcribers to the 
 Bill of Rights. 
 
 BUT our enemies have now loft their 
 hopes, and our friends I hope are recovered 
 from their fears. To fancy that our go- 
 vernment can be fubverted by. the rabble, 
 whom its lenity has pampered into impu- 
 dence, 
 
FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 141 
 
 dence, is to fear that a city may be drowned 
 by the overflowing of its kennels. The dif- 
 temper which cowardice or malice thought 
 either decay of the vitals, or refolution of 
 the nerves, appears at laft to have been no- 
 thing more than a political phthiriafis, a dif- 
 eafe too loathfome for a plainer name ; but 
 the effeft of negligence rather than of 
 weaknefs, and of which the fhame is great- 
 er than the danger. 
 
 AMONG the difturbers of our quiet are 
 fome animals of greater bulk, whom their 
 power of roaring perfuaded us to think 
 formidable, but we now perceive that found 
 and force do not always go together. The 
 noife of a favage proves nothing but his 
 hunger. 
 
 AFTER all our broils, foreign and do- 
 
 meflick, we may at laft hope to remain 
 
 awhile in quiet, amufed with the view of 
 
 our own fuccefs. We have gained politi- 
 
 5 cal 
 
i 4 2 FALKLAND'S ISLANDS. 
 
 cal ftrength by the increafe of our reputa- 
 tion ; we have gained real ftrength by the 
 reparation of our navy; we have fhewn 
 Europe that ten years of war have not yet 
 exhaufted us ; and we have enforced our fet- 
 tlement on an ifland on which twenty years 
 ago we durft not venture to look. 
 
 THESE are the gratifications only of ho- 
 neft minds ; but there is a time in which 
 hope comes to all. From the prefent hap- 
 pinefs of the publick the patriots them- 
 felves may derive advantage. To be harm- 
 lefs though by impotence obtains fome 
 degree of kindnefs ; no man hates a worm 
 as he hates a viper ; they were once dreaded 
 enough to be detefted, as ierpents that 
 could bite ; they have now fhewn that they 
 can only hifs, and may therefore quietly 
 flink into holes, and change their flotigh 
 unmolefted and forgotten, 
 
 March, 1771. 
 
THE 
 
 PATRIOT. 
 
 
 
 Addrefled to the 
 
 ELECTORS of GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 THEY bawl for Freedom in their fenfelefs mood, 
 Yet dill revolt when Truth would fet them free, 
 Licence they mean, when they cry Liberty, 
 For who loves that muft firft be wife and good. 
 
 MILTON. 
 
 [ 1774- 1 
 
THE 
 
 PATRIOT. 
 
 TO improve the golden moment of 
 opportunity, and catch the good 
 that is within our reach, is the great art 
 of life. Many wants are fuffered, which 
 might once have been fupplied ; and much 
 time is loft in regretting the time which had 
 been loft before. 
 
 AT the end of every feven years comes 
 the Saturnalian feafon, when the freemen 
 of Great Britain may pleafe themfelves 
 with the choice of their reprefentatives. 
 This happy day has now arrived, fome- 
 what fooner than it could be claimed. 
 
146 T H E P A T R I O T. 
 
 To felet and depute thofe, by whom 
 laws are to be made, and taxes to be grant- 
 ed, is a high dignity and an important 
 truft: and it is the bufinefs of every elec- 
 tor to confider, how this dignity may be 
 well fuftained, and this truft faithfully dif- 
 charged. 
 
 IT ought to be deeply imprefled on the 
 minds of all who have voices in this na- 
 tional deliberation, that no man can de- 
 ferve a feat in parliament who is not a PA- 
 TRIOT. No other man will protect our 
 rights, no other man can merit our con- 
 fidence. 
 
 A PATRIOT is he whofe public conduct 
 is regulated by one fingle motive, the love 
 of his country ; who, as an agent in par- 
 liament, has for himfelf neither hope nor 
 fear, neither kindnefs nor refentment, but 
 refers every thing to the common intereft. 
 
 THAT 
 
THE PATRIOT. J47 
 
 THAT of five hundred men, fuch as this 
 degenerate age affords, a majority can be 
 found thus virtuoufly abftracled, who will 
 affirm ? Yet there is no good in defpond- 
 ence: vigilance .and activity often effect 
 more than was expected. Let us take 4 
 Patriot where we can meet him ; and 
 that we may not flatter ourfelves by falfc 
 appearances, diftinguifh thofe marks which 
 are certain, from thofe which may deceive : 
 for a man may have the external appear- 
 ance of a Patriot, without the conftituent 
 qualities ; as falfe coins have often luftre, 
 tho' they want weight. 
 
 SOME claim a place in the lift of Pa- 
 triots by an acrimonious and unremitting 
 oppofition to the Court. 
 
 THIS mark is by no means infallible. 
 
 Patriotifm is not neceflarily included in 
 
 rebellion. A man may hate his King, yet 
 
 not love his Country. He that has been 
 
 L 2 refufed 
 
i^8 THE PA T RIOT; 
 
 refufed a reafonable or unreafonable re- 
 queft, who thinks his merit under-rated', 
 and fees his influence declining, begins 
 foon to talk of natural equality, the abfur- 
 dity of many made for one, the original 
 compact, the foundation of authority, and 
 the majefty of the people. As his politi- 
 cal melancholy increafes, he tells, and per- 
 haps dreams of the advances of the pre- 
 rogative, and the dangers of arbitrary 
 power; yet his defign in all his declama- 
 tion is not to benefit his country, but to 
 gratify his malice. 
 
 THESE, however, are the mod honeft 
 of the opponents of government; their 
 patriotifmis a fpecies of difeafe; arid they 
 feel fome part of what they exprefs. But 
 the greater, far the greater number of 
 thofe who rave and rail, and inquire and 
 accufe, neither fufpedt nor fear, nor care 
 for the Public; but hope to force their 
 way to riches by virulence and invective, 
 
 and 
 
THE PATRIOT. 149 
 
 and are vehement and clamorous, only 
 that they may be fooner hired to be filent. 
 
 A MAN fometimes ftarts up a Patriot, 
 only by difleminating difcontent and pro- 
 pagating reports of fecret influence, of, 
 dangerous counfels, of violated rights and 
 encroaching ufurpation. 
 
 THIS pradice is no certain note of Pa- 
 triotifm. To inftigate the populace with 
 rage beyond the provocation, is to fufpend 
 public happinefs, if not to deftroy it. He 
 is no lover of his country, that unnecef- 
 farily difturbs its peace. Few errors, and 
 few faults of government can juftify an 
 appeal to the rabble ; who ought not to 
 judge of what they cannot underftand, 
 and whofe opinions are not propagated 
 by reafon, but caught by contagion. 
 
 THE fallacioufnefs of this note of pa- 
 
 triotifm is particularly apparent, when the 
 
 L 3 clamour 
 
THE PATRIOT. 
 
 clamour continues after the evil is part. 
 They who are ftill rilling our ears with' 
 Mr. Wilkes, and the Freeholders of Mid- 
 dlefex, lament a grievance, that is now at 
 an end. Mr. Wilkes may be chofen, if 
 any will choofe him, and the precedent of 
 his exclufion makes not any honeft, or 
 ^ny decent man, think himfelf in dan- 
 ger- \ 
 
 IT may be doubted whether the name 
 of a Patriot can be fairly given as the re- 
 ward of fecret fatire, or open outrage, 
 To fill the news-papers with fly hints of 
 corruption and intrigue, to circulate the 
 Middlefex Journal and London Pac^uet, 
 may indeed be zeal ; but it may likewife 
 be interefl and malice. To offer a pe- 
 tition, not expected to be granted ; to in* 
 fult a King with a rude remonftrance, 
 only becaufe there is no punifhment for 
 legal infolence, is not courage, for there 
 is no danger; nor patriotifm, for it tends 
 3 * 
 
T HE P A TRIOT. 151 
 
 the fubverfion of order, and lets wieked- 
 nefs loofe upon the land, by deftroying 
 the reverence due to fovereign authority. 
 
 IT is the quality of Patriotifin to be jea- 
 lous and watchful, to obferve all fecret 
 machinations, and to fee public dangers at 
 a diftance. The true Lover of his country 
 is ready to communicate his fears and to 
 found the alarm, whenever he perceives 
 the approach of mifchief. But he founds 
 no alarm, when there is no enemy : he 
 never terrifies his countrymen till he is 
 terrified himfelf. The patriotifm there- 
 fore may be juftly doubted of him, who 
 profefies to be difturbed by incredibilities; 
 who tells, that the laft peace was obtained 
 by bribing the Princefs of Wales ; that the 
 King is grafping at arbitrary power ; and 
 that becaufe the French in the new con- 
 quefts enjoy their own laws, there is a 
 defign at court 'of abolifhing in England 
 the trial by juries. 
 
 L 4 STILL 
 
152 T H E P A T R I O T, 
 
 STILL lefs does the true Patriot circulate 
 opinions which he knows to be falfe. No 
 man, who loves his country, fills the na- 
 tion with clamorous complaints, that the 
 Proteftant religion is in danger, becaufe 
 Popery is eJiaUifhed in the extenfwe pro- 
 vince of ^uebecy a falfehood fo open and 
 fhamelefs, that it can need no confutation 
 among thole who know that of which it 
 is almofl impoffible for the moft unenlight- 
 ened zealot to be ignorant, 
 
 THAT Quebec is on the other fide of the 
 Atlantic, at too great a diftance to do 
 much good or harm to the European world : 
 
 I 
 
 THAT the inhabitants, being French, 
 were always Papifts, who are certainly 
 more dangerous as enemies, than as fub~ 
 jects: 
 
 THAT though the province be wide, 
 the people are few, probably not fo many 
 
 as 
 
T H E P A T R I O T. 153 
 
 as may be found in one of the larger 
 Englifli counties : 
 
 THAT perfecution is not more virtuous 
 in a Proteftant than a Papift; and that 
 while we blame Lewis the Fourteenth, 
 for his dragoons and his gallies, we ought, 
 when power comes into our hands, to ufe. 
 it with greater equity : 
 
 THAT when Canada with its inhabit- 
 ants was yielded, the free enjoyment of 
 their religion was ftipulated; a condition, 
 of which King William, who was no pro- 
 pagator of Popery, gave an example nearer 
 home, at the furrender of Limerick : 
 
 THAT in an age, where every mouth 
 is open for liberty of confcience^ it is equi- 
 table to fhew fome regard to the confcience 
 of a Papift, who may be fuppofed, like 
 other men, to think himfelf fafefl in his 
 own religion ; and that thofe at leaft, who 
 
 enjoy 
 
154- THE PATRIOT. 
 
 enjoy a toleration, ought not to deny it to 
 our new fubje&s. 
 
 IF liberty of confcience be a natural 
 right, we have no power to with-hold it ; 
 if it be an indulgence, it may be allowed 
 to Papifts, while it is not denied to other 
 feds. 
 
 A PATRIOT is neceflarily and inva- 
 riably a lover of the people. But even 
 this mark may fometimes deceive us. 
 
 THE people is a very heterogeneous 
 and confufed mafs of the wealthy and 
 the poor, the wife and the foolifh, the 
 good and the bad. Before we confer 
 on a man, who carefles the people, the 
 title of Patriot, we muft examine to 
 what part of the people he directs his no* 
 tice. It is proverbially faid, that he who 
 diflembles his own charader, may be 
 known by that of his companions. If 
 
 the 
 
THE PATRIOT. j 55 
 
 the candidate of Patriotifm endeavours to 
 infufe right opinions into the higher ranks, 
 and by their influence to regplate the low- 
 er ; if he conforts chiefly with the wife, 
 the temperate, the regular, and the virtu- 
 ous, his love of the people may be rational 
 and honeft. But if his firft or principal 
 application be to the indigent, who are al- 
 ways inflammable; to the weak, who are 
 naturally fufpicious ; to the ignorant, who 
 are eafily mifled; and to the profligate, 
 who have no hope but from mifchief and 
 confufion ; let his love of the people be 
 no longer boafted. No man can reafon- 
 ably be thought a lover of his country, 
 for roafting an ox, or burning a boot, or 
 attending the meeting at Mile-End, or 
 regiftering his name in the Lumber-Troop, 
 He may, among the drunkards be a hearty 
 fellow, and among fober handicraftfmen, 
 zfree-fpoken gentleman; but he muft have 
 better diftinftion before he i**Patriot. 
 
 A PA- 
 
i 5 6 THE PATRIOT. 
 
 A PATRIOT is always ready to counte- 
 nance the juft claims, and animate the rea- 
 fonable hopes of the people; he reminds 
 them frequently of their rights, and ftimu- 
 lates them to refent encroachments, and 
 to multiply fecurities. 
 
 BUT all this may be done in appearance, 
 without real patriotifm. He that raifes 
 falfe hopes to ferve a prefent purpofe, only 
 makes a way for difappointment and dif- 
 content. He who promifes to endeavour, 
 what he knows his endeavours unable to 
 effect, means only to delude his followers 
 by an empty clamour of ineffectual zeal. 
 
 A TRUE Patriot is no lavifh promifer : he 
 undertakes not to fhorten parliaments ; to 
 repeal laws ; or to change the mode of re- 
 prefentation, tranfmitted by our anceftors : 
 he knows that futurity is not in his power, 
 and that all times are not alike favourable 
 
 to change. 
 
 MUCH 
 
THE PATRIOT. , 57 
 
 MUCH lefs does he make a vague and in- 
 definite promife of obeying the mandate* 
 of his conftituents. He knows the preju- 
 dices of faction, and the inconffoihcy of the 
 multitude. He would firft inquire, how 
 the opinion of his conftituents fhall be 
 taken. Popukr inftrudtions are commonly 
 the work, not of the wife and fteady, but 
 the violent and ram ; meetings held for 
 directing reprefentatives are feldom attend- 
 ed but by the idle and the diffolute; and he 
 is not without fufpicion, that of his con- 
 ftituents, as of othernumbers of men, the 
 fmaller part may often be the wifer. 
 
 HE confiders himfelf as deputed to pro- 
 mote the publick good, and to preferve his 
 conftituents, with the reft of his country- 
 men, not only from being hurt by others, 
 but from hurting themfelves. 
 
 THE common marks of patriotifm hav- 
 ing been examined, and fhewn to be fuch 
 
 as 
 
155 THE PATRIOT. 
 
 as artifice may counterfeit, or foliy mifap- 
 ply, it cannot be improper to confide r, 
 whether there are not fome characteriftical 
 modes of fpeaking or acting, which may 
 prove a man to be NOT A PATRIOT. 
 
 IN this inquiry, perhaps clearer evidence 
 may be difcovered, and firmer perfuafion 
 attained ; for it is commonly eafier to know 
 what is wrong than what is right ; to find 
 what we fliould avoid, than what wefhould 
 purfue. 
 
 As war is one of the heavieft of national 
 evils, a calamity, in which every fpecies 
 of mifery is involved ; as it fets the gene- 
 ral fafety to hazard, fufpends commerce, 
 and defolates the country; as it expofes 
 great numbers to hardfhips, dangers, cap- 
 tivity, and death; no man, who defires 
 the publick profperity, will inflame general 
 refentment by aggravating minute injuries, 
 
 or 
 
THE PATRIOT. 
 
 or enforcing difputable rights of little im- 
 portance. 
 
 IT may therefore be fafely pronounced, 
 that thofe men are no Patriots, who when 
 the national honour was vindicated in the 
 fight of Europe, and the Spaniards having 
 invaded what they call their own, had 
 fhrunk to a difavowal of their attempt and 
 a relaxation of their claim, would ftill have 
 have inftigated us to a war for a bleak 
 and barren fpot in the Magellanic ocean, 
 of which no ufe could be made unlefs 
 it were a place of exile for the hypocrites 
 of patriotifm. 
 
 YET let it not be forgotten, that by the 
 howling violence of patriotic rage, the 
 nation was for a time exafperated to fuch 
 madnefs, that for a barren rock, under 
 a ftormy fky, we might have now been 
 fighting and dying, had not our competi- 
 tor* 
 
i6o THE PATRIOT. 
 
 tors been wifer than ourfelves ; and thofe 
 who are now courting the favour of the 
 people by noify profeffions of public fpirit, 
 would, while they were counting the profits 
 of their artifice, have enjoyed the patriotic 
 pleafure of hearing fometimes, that thou- 
 fatids had been flaughtered in a battle, and 
 fometimes that a navy had been difpeopled 
 by poifoned air and corrupted food. 
 
 HE that wiffies to fee his country robbed 
 of its rights, cannot be a Patriot. 
 
 THAT man therefore is no Patriot, who 
 juftifies the ridiculous claims of American 
 ufurpation ; w r ho endeavours to deprive the 
 nation of its natural and lawful authority 
 over its own colonies ; thofe colonies, which 
 were fettled under Englifh protection ; 
 were conftituted by an Englifh charter ; and 
 have been defended by Engliih arms. 
 
 To fuppofe, that by fending out a colony, 
 the nation eftablifhed an independent power; 
 
 that 
 
THE PATRIOT. 
 
 that when, by indulgence and favour, emi- 
 grants are become rich, they fhall not con- 
 tribute to their own defence, but at their 
 Own pleafure ; and that they fhall not be 
 included, like millions of their fellow-fub- 
 jeds, in the general fyftem of reprefenta- 
 tion; involves fuch an accumulation of 
 abfurdity, as nothing but the fhew of pa- 
 triotifm could palliate. 
 
 HE that accepts prote&ion, ftipulates 
 obedience. We have always protected the 
 Americans ; we may therefore fubjeft them 
 to government. 
 
 THE lefs is included iri the greater. That 
 power which can take away life, may feize 
 upon property. The parliament rhay etiat 
 for America a law of capital punifhment $ 
 it may therefore eftablilh a mode and pro- 
 portion of taxation. 
 
 BUT there are fomc who lament the 
 
 ftate of the poor Boftonians, becaufe they 
 
 M cannot 
 
1 62 THE PATRIOT. 
 
 cannot all be fuppofed to have committed 
 ads of rebellion, yet all are involved in 
 the penalty impofed. This, they fay, is 
 to violate the firft rule of juftice, by con- 
 demning the innocent to fuffer with the 
 guilty. 
 
 THIS deferves fome notice, as it feems 
 didated by equity and humanity, however it 
 may raife contempt, by the ignorance which 
 it betrays of the ftate of man, and the 
 fyftem of things. That the innocent fhould 
 be confounded with the guilty, is undoubt- 
 edly an evil ; but it is an evil which no 
 care or caution can prevent. National 
 crimes require national- punifliments, of 
 which many muft neceflarily have their 
 part, who have not incurred them by per- 
 fonal guilt. If rebels fhould fortify a town, 
 the cannon of lawful authority will en- 
 danger equally the harmlefs burghers and 
 the criminal garrifon. 
 
 IN 
 
THE PATRIOT. 163 
 
 IN fame cafes, thofe fuffer moft who are 
 leaft intended to be hurt. If the French 
 in the late war had taken an Englifti city, 
 and permitted the natives to keep their 
 dwellings, how could it have been recovered, 
 but by the flaughter of our friends ? A 
 bomb might as well deftroy an Englishman 
 as a Frenchman ; and by famine we know 
 that the inhabitants would be the firft that 
 fhould perifh. 
 
 THIS infliction of promifcuous evil may 
 therefore be lamented, but cannot be blamed. 
 The power of lawful government muft be 
 maintained ; and the miferies which rebel- 
 lion produces, can be charged only on the 
 rebels. 
 
 THAT man likewife is net a Patriot^ 
 who denies his governors their due praife, 
 and who conceals from the people the be- 
 nefits which they receive. Thofe therefore 
 can lay no claim to this illuftrious appella- 
 M 2 tion, 
 
164 THE PATRIOT. 
 
 tion, who impute want of public fpirit to 
 the late parliament ; an aflembly of men, 
 whom, notwithstanding fome fluctuation 
 of counfel, and fome weaknefs of agency, 
 the nation muft always remember with 
 gratitude, fmce it is indebted to them for a 
 very ample conceflion in the refignation of 
 protections, and a wife and honeft attempt 
 to improve the conftitution, in the new ju- 
 dicature inftituted for the trial of elections. 
 
 THE right of protection, which might 
 be neceffary when it was firft claimed, and 
 was very confiftent with that liberality of 
 immunities in which the feudal conftitution 
 delighted, was by its nature liable to abufe, 
 and had in reality been fometimes mifap- 
 plied, to the evafion of the law and the 
 defeat of juftice. The evil was perhaps 
 not adequate to the clamour ; nor is it very 
 certain, that the poflible good of this pri- 
 vilege was not more than equal to the pof- 
 fible evil. It is however plain, that whe- 
 ther 
 
THE PATRIOT. 165 
 
 ther they gave any thing or not to the 
 Public, they at leaft loft fomething from 
 themfelves. They diverted their dignity 
 of a very fplendid diftin&ion, and fhewed 
 that they were more willing than their pre- 
 deceffors to ftand on a level with their fel- 
 low fubjefts. 
 
 THE new mode of trying ele&ions, if it 
 be found effectual, will difFufe its confe- 
 quences further than feems yet to be fore- 
 feen. It is, I believe, generally confidered 
 as advantageous only to thofe who claim 
 feats in parliament ; but, if to chufe re- 
 prefentatives be one of the moft valuable 
 rights of Englifhmen, every voter muft 
 confider that law as adding to his happi- 
 nefs, which makes his fuffrage efficacious ; 
 iince it was vain to chufe, while the elec- 
 tion could be controlled by any other power. 
 
 WITH what imperious contempt of an- 
 cient rights, and what audacioufnefs of 
 
 M 3 arbitrary 
 
1 66 TH E PATRIOT. 
 
 arbitrary authority, former parliaments 
 have judged the difputes about eledions, 
 it is not neceflary to relate. The claim 
 of a candidate, and the right of electors 
 are faid fcarcely to have been, even in ap- 
 pearance, referred to confcience ; but to 
 have been decided by party, by paffion, by 
 prejudice, or by frolic. To have friends 
 in the borough was of little ufe to him, 
 who wanted friends in the houfe; a pre- 
 tence was eafiiy found to evade a majority, 
 and the feat was at laft his, that was cho- 
 fen not by his electors, but his fellow- fe? 
 nators. 
 
 THUS the nation was infulted with a 
 mock election, and the parliament was 
 filled with fpurious reprefentatives ; one 
 of the moft important claims, that of a 
 right to fit in the fupreme council of the 
 kingdom, was debated in jeft, and no man 
 could be confident of fuccefs from the juf- 
 tice of his caufe. 
 
 A DISPUTED 
 
T H E P A T R I O T. 167 
 
 A DISPUTED ele&ion is now tried with 
 the fame fcrupuloufnefs and folemnity, as 
 any other title. The candidate that has 
 deferved well of his neighbours, may now 
 be certain of enjoying the effect of their 
 approbation; and the eledor, who has 
 voted honeftly for known merit, may be 
 certain that he has not voted in vain. 
 
 SUCH was the parliament, which fome 
 of thofe, who are now afpiring to fit in 
 another, have taught the rabble to confider 
 as an unlawful convention of men, worth- 
 lefs, venal, and proftitute, flaves of the 
 court, and tyrants of the people. 
 
 THAT the next Houfe of Commons 
 may acl: upon the principles of the lad, 
 with more conftancy and higher fpirit, 
 muft be the wifh of all who wifh well to 
 the Publick ; and it is furely not too much 
 to expect, that the nation will recover from 
 its delufion, and unite in a general abhor- 
 rence of thofe who, by deceiving the ere- 
 M 4 dulous 
 
i6S THE PATRIOT, 
 
 dulous with fi&itious mifchiefs, overbear- 
 ing the weak by audacity of falfehood, 
 by appealing to the judgment of ignorance, 
 and flattering the vanity of meannefs, by 
 flandering honefty and infulting dignity, 
 have gathered round them whatever the 
 kingdom can fupply of bafe, and grofs, 
 and profligate , and raifed by merit to this 
 bad eminence, arrogate to themfelves the 
 name of PATRIOTS, 
 
Taxation no Tyranny; 
 
 AN 
 
 ANSWER 
 
 TO THE 
 
 RESOLUTIONS AND ADDRESS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN CONGRESS. 
 
 [ '775- 1 
 I . ... 
 
 &<Wv "' , 
 
TAXATION 
 
 NO TYRANNY. 
 
 TN all the parts of human knowledge, 
 \vhether terminating in fcience merely 
 fpeculative, or operating upon life private 
 or civil, are admitted fome fundamental 
 principles, or common axioms, which being 
 generally received are little doubted, and 
 being little doubted have been rarely proved. 
 
 OF thefe gratuitous and acknowledged 
 truths it is often the fate to become lefs 
 evident by endeavours to explain them, 
 however neceffary fuch endeavours may 
 be made by the mifapprehenfions of ab- 
 furdity, or the fophiftries of intereft. It 
 is difficult to prove the principles of fcience, 
 
 becaufe 
 
I 7 2 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 becaufe notions cannot always be found 
 more intelligible than thofe which are 
 queftioned. It is difficult to prove the 
 principles of pradice, becaufe they have 
 for the moil part not been difcovered by 
 inveftigation, but obtruded by experience* 
 and the demonftrator will find, after an 
 operofe dedudion, that he has been trying 
 to make that feen which can be only felt. 
 
 OF this kind is the pofition, that the 
 fupreme power of every community has the 
 right of requiring from all its fubjefls fuch 
 contributions as are wceffary to the pub- 
 lic fafety or public profperity> which was 
 confidered by all mankind as comprifing 
 the primary and eflential condition of all 
 political fociety, till it became difputed 
 by thofe zealots of anarchy, who have 
 denied to the Parliament of Britain the 
 right of taxing the American Colonies, 
 
 IN favour of this exemption of the 
 Americans from the authority of their 
 
 lawful 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 173 
 
 lawful fovereign, and the dominion of 
 their mother-country, very loud clamours 
 have been raifed, and many wild aflertions 
 advanced, which by fuch as borrow their 
 opinions from the reigning fafhion have 
 been admitted as arguments; and what 
 is ftrange, though their tendency is to lef- 
 fen Englifh honour, and Englifh power, 
 have been heard by Englim-men with a 
 wim to find them true. Paffion has in 
 its firft violence controlled intereft, as the 
 eddy for a while runs againft the ftream. 
 
 To be prejudiced is always to be weak; 
 yet there are prejudices fo near to laudable, 
 that they have been often praifed, and are 
 always pardoned. To love their country 
 has been confidered as virtue in men, whofe 
 love could not be otherwife than blind, 
 becaufe their preference was made without 
 a comparifon; but it has never been my 
 fortune to find, either in ancient or mo- 
 dern writers, any honourable mention of 
 
 thofe, 
 
i 7 4 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 thofe, who have with equal blindnefs hated 
 their country. 
 
 THESE antipatriotic prejudices are the 
 abortions of Folly impregnated by Faction, 
 which being produced againft the ftanding 
 order of Nature, have not ftrength fuf- 
 ficient for long life. They are born only 
 to fcream and perifh, and leave thofe to 
 contempt or deteftation, whofe kindnefs 
 was employed to nurfe them into mifchief. 
 
 To perplex the opinion of the Publick 
 many artifices have been ufed, which, as 
 ufually happens when falfehood is to be 
 maintained by fraud, lofe their force by 
 counteracting one another. 
 
 THE nation is fometimes to be mollified 
 by a tender tale of men, who fled from 
 tyranny to rocks and deferts, and is per- 
 fuaded to lofe all claims of juftice, and all 
 fenfe of dignity, in compaffion for a harm- 
 
 i lefs 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 175 
 
 lefs people, who having worked hard for 
 bread in a wild country, and obtained by 
 the flow progreffion of manual induftry 
 the accommodations of life, are now inva- 
 ded by unprecedented oppreffion, and plun- 
 dered of their properties by the harpies of 
 taxation. 
 
 WE are told how their induftry is ob- 
 ftruded by unnatural reftraints, and theic 
 trade confined by rigorous prohibitions; 
 how they are forbidden to enjoy the pro- 
 duds of their own foil, to manufacture 
 the materials which Nature fpreads be- 
 fore them, or to carry their own goods 
 to the neareft market: and furely the gene- 
 rofity of Englifh virtue will never heap 
 new weight upon thofe that are already 
 overladen, will never delight in that do- 
 minion, which cannot be exercifed but by 
 cruelty and outrage. 
 
 BUT while we are melting in filent far- 
 row, and ia the tranfports of delirious 
 
 pity 
 
i 7 6 TAXATION NO TYRANNt. 
 
 pity dropping both the fword and balance 
 from our hands, another friend of the 
 Americans thinks it better to awaken ano- 
 ther paffion, and tries to alarm our intereft, 
 or excite our veneration, by accounts of 
 their greatnefs and their opulence, of the 
 fertility of their land, and the fplendour 
 of their towns. We then begin to confi- 
 der the queflion with more evennefs of 
 mind, are ready to conclude that thofe 
 reftridions are not very oppreffive which 
 have been found confiftent with this fpeedy 
 growth of profperity, and begin to think it 
 reafonable that they, who thus flourifh 
 under the prote&ion of our government, 
 (hould contribute fomething towards its 
 expence. 
 
 BUT we are foon told that the Ameri- 
 cans, however wealthy, cannot be taxed ; 
 that they are the defcendants of men who 
 left all for liberty, and that they have con- 
 ftantly preferved the principles and ftub- 
 
 bornnefs 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 177 
 
 bornnefs of their progenitors ; that they 
 are too obftinate for perfuafion, and too 
 powerful for conftraint; that they will 
 laugh at argument, and defeat violence; 
 that the continent of North America con- 
 tains three millions, not of men merely, 
 but of Whigs, of Whigs fierce for liberty, 
 and difdainful of dominion ; that they 
 multiply with the fecundity of their own 
 rattle-fnakes, fo that every quarter of a 
 century doubles their numbers. 
 
 MEN accuftomed to think themfelves 
 matters do not love to be threatened. This 
 talk is, I hope, commonly thrown away, 
 or raifes paffions different from thofe which 
 it was intended to excite. Inftead of terri- 
 fying the Englifh hearer to tame acqui- 
 efcence, it difpofes him to haften the ex- 
 periment of bending obftinacy before it is 
 become yet more obdurate, and convinces 
 him that it is neceffary to attack a nation 
 thus prolific while we may yet hope to pre- 
 N vail. 
 
i;8 TAXATION NO TYRANNY- 
 
 vail. When he is told through what ex-- 
 tent of territory we muft travel to fubdue 
 them, he recolle&s how far, a few years 
 ago, we travelled in their defence. When 
 it is urged that they will {hoot up like the 
 Hydra, he naturally eonfiders how the 
 Hydra was deftroyed. 
 
 NOTHING dejeCts a trader like the in- 
 terruption of his profits. A commercial 
 people, however magnanimous, (brinks at 
 the thought of declining traffick, and an 
 unfavourable balance. The effect of this 
 terrour has been tried. We have been ftun- 
 ned with the importance of our American 
 commerce, and heard of merchants with 
 warehoufes that are never to be emptied, 
 and of manufacturers flarving for want of 
 work. 
 
 THAT our commerce with America is 
 profitable, however lefs than oftentatious or 
 deceitful eftimates have made it, and that 
 
 it 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 179 
 
 it is our intereft to preferve it, has never 
 been denied ; but furely it will moft effec- 
 tually be preferred, by being kept always 
 in our own power. Conceffidns may pro- 
 mote it for a moment, but fuperiority only 
 can enfure its continuance. There will 
 always be a part, and always a very large 
 part of every community that have no care 
 but for themfelves, and whofe care for 
 themfelves reaches little farther than im- 
 patience of immediate pain, and eager- 
 iiefs for the neareft good. The blind are 
 faid to feel with peculiar nicety. They 
 who look but little into futurity, have per- 
 haps the quickeft fenfation of the prefent. 
 A merchant's delire is not of glory, but 
 of gain ; not of publick wealth, but of 
 private emolument ; he is therefore rarely 
 to be confulted about war and peace, or 
 any defignsof wide extent and diftant con- 
 fequence. 
 
 N 2 YET 
 
i8o TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 YET this, like other general characters* 
 will fometimes fail. The traders of Bir- 
 mingham have refeued themfelves from all 
 imputation of narrow felfifhnefs by a man- 
 ly recommendation to Parliament of the 
 rights and dignity of their native country. 
 
 To thefe men I do not intend to afcribe 
 an abfurd and enthufiaftick contempt of 
 intereft, but to give them the rational and 
 juft praife of diftinguifliing real from feem- 
 ing good, of being able to fee through the 
 cloud of interpofing difficulties, to the 
 lafling and folid happinefs of victory and 
 fettlement. 
 
 LEST all thefe topicks of perfuafion 
 fhould fail, the great actor of patriotifm 
 has tried another, in which terrour and 
 pity are happily combined, not without 
 a proper fuperaddition of that admiration 
 which latter ages have brought into the 
 
 drama. 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 181 
 
 drama. The heroes of Bofton he tells us, 
 if the ftamp aft had not been repealed, 
 would have left their town, their port, and 
 their trade, have refigned the fplendour 
 of opulence, and quitted the delights of 
 neighbourhood, to difperfe themfelves over 
 the country, where they would till the 
 ground, and fiih in the rivers, and range 
 the mountains, AND BE FREE. 
 
 THESE furely are brave words. If the 
 mere found of freedom can operate thus 
 powerfully, let no man hereafter doubt 
 the ftory of the Pied Piper. The removal 
 of the feopk of Bojlon into the country^ 
 feems even to the congrefs not only dif- 
 ficult in its execution, but important in its 
 confequences. The difficulty of execution 
 is belt known to the Boftonians them- 
 felves ; the confequence, alas ! will only 
 be, that they will leave good houfes to 
 wifer men. 
 
 N 3 YET 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 YET before they quit the comforts of 
 a warm home for the founding fomething 
 which they think better, he cannot be 
 thought their enemy who advifes them to 
 confider well whether they fhall find it. 
 By turning fifhermen or hunters, wood- 
 men or fhepherds they may become wild, 
 but it is not fo eafy to conceive them free ; 
 for who can be more a flave than he that 
 is driven by force from the comforts of 
 life, is compelled to leave his houfe to a 
 cafual comer, and whatever he does, or 
 wherever he wanders, finds every moment 
 fome new teftimony of his own fubjedKon ? 
 If choice of evil be freedom, the felon in 
 the gallies has his option of labour or of 
 ftripes. The Boftonian may quit his houfe 
 to ftarve in the fields ; his dog may refufe 
 to fet, and fmart under the lafli, and they 
 may then congratulate each other upon 
 the fmiles of liberty, profufe of blifs, and 
 pregnant with delight. 
 
 TQ 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 183 
 
 To treat fuch defigns as ferious, would 
 be to think too contemptuoufly of Bof- 
 tonian under Handings. The artifice in- 
 deed is not new; the blufterer who 
 threatened in vain to deftroy his oppo- 
 nent, has fometimes obtained his end, by 
 making it believe that he would hang 
 himfelf. 
 
 BUT terrours and pity are not the only 
 means by which the taxation of the 
 Americans is oppofed. There are thofe 
 who profefs to ufe them only as auxiliaries 
 to reafon and juftice, who tell us, that to 
 tax the Colonies is ufurpatipn and oppref- 
 fion, an invafion of natural and legal 
 rights, and a violation of thofe principles 
 which fupport the conftitution of Englifh 
 government. 
 
 THIS queftion is of great importance. 
 
 That the Americans are able to bear tax- 
 
 iition is indubitable ; that their refufal may 
 
 N 4 be 
 
184 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 be over-ruled is highly probable : but 
 power is no fufficient evidence of truth. 
 Let us examine our own claim, and the 
 objections of the recufants, with caution 
 proportioned to the event of the decifion, 
 which muft convict one part of robbery, 
 or the other of rebellion. 
 
 A TAX is a payment exacted by autho-* 
 rity from part of the community for the 
 benefit of the whole. From whom, and 
 in what proportion fuch payment fhall be 
 required, and to what ufes it fhall be ap- 
 plied, thofe only are to judge to whom 
 government is intruded. In the Britifh 
 dominion taxes are apportioned, levied, 
 and appropriated by the ftates affembled in 
 parliament. 
 
 OF every empire all the fubordinate 
 communities are liable to taxation, becaufe 
 they all fliare the benefits of government, 
 and therefore ought all to furnifh their 
 proportion of the expence. 
 
 THIS 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 185 
 
 THIS the Americans have never openly 
 denied. That it is their duty to pay the coft 
 of their own fafety they feem to admit ; 
 nor do they refufe their contribution to the 
 exigencies, whatever they may be, of the 
 Britifli empire ; but they make this parti- 
 cipation of the public burden a duty of very 
 uncertain extent, and imperfed obligation, 
 a duty temporary, occafional, and elective, 
 of which they referve to themfelves the 
 right of fettling the degree, the time, and 
 the duration, of judging when it may be 
 required, and when it has been performed. 
 
 THEY allow to the fupreme power no- 
 thing more than the liberty of notifying 
 to them its demands or its neceffities. Of 
 this notification they profefs to think for 
 themfelves, how far it mail influence their 
 counfels, and of the neceffities alleged, 
 how far they ihall endeavour to relieve 
 them. They affume the exclufive power 
 of fettling not only the mode, but the 
 
 quantity 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 
 
 quantity of this payment. They are ready 
 to co-operate with all the other dominions 
 of the king ; but they will co-operate by 
 no means which they do not like, and at 
 no greater charge than they are willing to 
 bear. 
 
 THIS claim, wild as it may feem, this 
 claim, which fuppofes dominion without 
 authority, and fubjefts without fubordi- 
 nation, has found among the libertines of. 
 policy many clamorous ^nd hardy vindi- 
 cators. The laws of Nature, the rights 
 of humanity, the faith of charters, the 
 danger of liberty, the encroachments of 
 ufurpation, have been thundered in our 
 ears, fometimes by interefted faction, and 
 fometimes by honeft fhipidity. 
 
 IT is faid by Fontenelle, that if twenty 
 philofophers fhall refolutely deny that the 
 prefence of the fun makes the day, he will 
 not defpair but whole nations may adopt 
 
 the 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 187 
 
 the opinion. So many political dogmatifts 
 have denied to the Mother-country the 
 power of taxing the Colonies, and have 
 enforced their denial with fo much vio- 
 lence of outcry, that their feet is already 
 very numerous, and the publick voice fuf- 
 pends its decifion. 
 
 IN' moral and political queftions the con- 
 teft between intereft and juftice has been 
 often tedious and often fierce, but perhaps 
 it never happened before, that juftice 
 found much oppofition with intereft on her 
 
 FOR the fatisfacTion of this inquiry, it 
 is neceflary to confider how a Colony is 
 conftituted, what are the terms of migra- 
 tion as dictated by Nature, or fettled by 
 compat, and what focial or political rights 
 the man lofes, or acquires, that leaves 
 his country to eftablifh himfelf in a diftant 
 plantation. 
 
 OF 
 
i88 TAXATION NO TYRANNY, 
 
 OF two modes of migration the hiftory 
 of mankind informs us, and fo far as I can 
 yet difcover, of two only. 
 
 IN countries where life was yet unad- 
 jufted, and policy unformed, it fometimes 
 happened that by the diflenfions of heads 
 of families, by the ambition of daring 
 adventurers, by fome accidental preffure 
 of diftrefs, or by the mere difcontent of 
 idlenefs, one part of the community broke 
 off from the reft, and numbers, greater 
 or fmaller, forfook their habitations, put 
 themfelves under the command of fome fa- 
 vourite of fortune, and with or without 
 the content of their countrymen or gover- 
 nours, went out to fee what better regions 
 they could occupy, and in what place, by 
 conqueft or by treaty, they could gain a 
 habitation. 
 
 SONS of enterprife like thefe, who com- 
 mitted to their own fwords their hopes and 
 7 their 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 their lives, when they left their country, 
 became another nation, with defigns and 
 profpe&s, and interefts, of their own. 
 They looked back no more to their former 
 home ; they expected no help from thofe 
 whom they had left behind; if* they con- 
 quered, they conquered for themfelves; 
 if they were deftroyed, they were not by 
 any other power either lamented or re- 
 venged. 
 
 OF this kind feem to have been all the 
 migrations of the early world, whether hif- 
 torical or fabulous, and of this kind were 
 the eruptions of thofe nations which 
 from the North invaded the Roman em- 
 pire, and filled Europe with new fove- 
 reignties. 
 
 BUT when, by the gradual admiiTion of 
 wifer laws and gentler manners, fociety 
 became more compaded and better regu- 
 lated, it was found that the power of 
 
 every 
 
i s o TAXATION NO TYRANNf. 
 
 every people confifted in union, produced 
 by one common intereft, and operating in 
 joint efforts and confiftent councils. 
 
 FROM this time Independence percepti- 
 bly wafted away. No part of the nation 
 was permitted to act for itfelf. All now- 
 had the fame enemies and the fame friends ; 
 the Government protected individuals, and 
 individuals were required to refer their de- 
 figns to the profperity of the Government. 
 
 BY this principle it is, that ftates are 
 formed and confolidated. Every man is 
 taught to confider his own happinefs as 
 combined with the public profperity, and 
 to think himfelf great and powerful, in pro- 
 portion to the greatnefs and power of his 
 Governors. ' 
 
 HAD the Weftern continent been difco- 
 vered between the fourth and tenth century, 
 when all the Northern world was in mo- 
 tion; 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY, 
 
 tion ; and had navigation been at that time 
 diffidently advanced to make fo long a paf-* 
 fage eafily practicable, there is little rea- 
 fon for doubting but the intumefcence of 
 nations would have found its vent, like all 
 other expanfive violence, where there was 
 leaft refiftance ; and that Huns and Van- 
 dals, inftead of fighting their way to the 
 South of Europe, would have gone by 
 thoufands and by myriads under their feve- 
 ral chiefs to take pofleffion of regions 
 fmiling with pleafure and waving with fer- 
 tility, from which the naked inhabitants 
 were unable to repel them. 
 
 EVERY expedition would in thofe days 
 of laxity have produced a diftincl: and in- 
 dependent ftate. The Scandinavian heroes 
 might have divided the country among 
 them, and have fpread the feudal fubdi- 
 vifion of regality from Hudfon's Bay to 
 the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 BUT 
 
192 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 BUT Columbus came five or fix hun- 
 dred years too late for the candidates of 
 fovereignty. When he formed his pro- 
 ject of difcovery, the fluctuations of mili- 
 tary turbulence had fubfided, and Europe 
 began to regain a fettled form, by efta- 
 blifhed government and regular fubordina- 
 tion. No man could any longer erecT: 
 himfelf into a chieftain, and lead out his 
 fellow-fubje&s by his own authority to 
 plunder or to war. He that committed any 
 acT: of hoftility by land or fea, without the 
 commiffion of fome acknowledged fovereign, 
 was confidered by all mankind as a robber 
 or a pirate, names which were now of 
 little credit, and of which therefore no 
 man was ambitious. 
 
 COLUMBUS in a remoter time would 
 have found his way to fome difcontented 
 Lord, or fome younger brother of a petty 
 Sovereign, who would have taken fire at 
 his propofal, and have quickly kindled 
 
 with 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 193 
 
 with equal heat a troop of followers ; they 
 would have built fhips, or have feized 
 them, and have wandered with him at all 
 adventures as far as they could keep hope 
 in their company. But the age being now 
 paft of vagrant excurfion and fortuitous 
 hoftility, he was under the neceffity o 
 travelling from court to court, fcorned and 
 repulfed as a wild projector, an idle pro- 
 miferof kingdoms in the clouds: nor has 
 any part of the world yet had reafon to 
 rejoice that he found at laft reception and 
 employment. 
 
 IN the fame year, in a year hitherto dif- 
 aftrous to mankind, by the Portuguefe was 
 difcovered the paflage of the Indies, and 
 by the Spaniards the coaft of America. The 
 nations of Europe were fired with bound- 
 lefs expectation, and the difcoverers pur- 
 fuing their enterprife, made conquefts in 
 both hemifpheres of wide extent. But the 
 adventurers were contented with plunder; 
 O though 
 
i 9 4 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 though they took gold and filver to them~ 
 felves, they feized iflands and kingdoms' 
 in the name of their Sovereigns. When 
 a new region was gained, a governour was 
 appointed by that power which had given 
 the commiflion to the conqueror; nor have 
 I met with any European but Stukeley of 
 London, that formed a defign of exalting 
 himfelf in the newly found countries to 
 independent dominion. 
 
 To fecure a conqueft, it was always ne- 
 eeflary to plant a colony, and territories 
 thus occupied and fettled were rightly con- 
 fidered as mere extenfions or proceffes of 
 empire; as ramifications which by the cir- 
 culation of one publick intereft communi- 
 cated with the original fource of dominion, 
 and which were kept flourifhing and fpread- 
 rng by the radical vigour of the Mother- 
 country. 
 
 THE Colonies of England differ no other- 
 wile from thofe of other nations, than as 
 
 the 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 195 
 
 the Englifli conftitution differs from theirs. 
 All Government is ultimately and eflen- 
 tially abfolute, but fubordinate focieties 
 may have more immunities, or individuals 
 greater liberty, as the operations of Go- 
 vernment are differently conducted. An 
 Englimman in the common courfe of life 
 and action feels no reftraint. An Engiifh 
 Colony has very liberal powers of regu- 
 lating its own manners and adj lifting its 
 own affairs. But an Englifli individual 
 may by the fupreme authority be deprived 
 of liberty, and a Colony divefted of its 
 powers, for reafons of which that autho- 
 rity is the only judge. 
 
 IN fovereignty there are no gradations. 
 There may be limited royalty, there may 
 be limited confullhip; but there can be no 
 limited government. There muft in every 
 fociety be fome power or other from which 
 there is no appeal, which admits no reftric- 
 tions, which pervades the whole mafs of 
 the community, regulates and adjufts all 
 O 2 fybordination, 
 
196 TAXATION NO TYRANN?, 
 
 fubordination, enads laws or repeals them, 
 ereds or annuls judicatures, extends or corr- 
 trads privileges, exempt itfelf from quef- 
 tion or control, and bounded only by phy- 
 fical neceflity. 
 
 BY this power, wherever it fubfifts, all 
 Tegiflation and jurifdidion is animated and 
 maintained. From this all Jegal rights 
 are emanations, which, whether equitably 
 or not, may be legally recalled. It is not 
 infallible, for it may do wrong ; but it is 
 irrefiftible, for it can be refifted only by 
 rebellion, by an ad which makes it quef- 
 tionable what fhali be thenceforward the 
 fupreme power. 
 
 Ax Englifh Colony is a number of 
 perfons, to whom the King grants a Charter 
 permitting them to fettle in fome diftant 
 country, and enabling them to conftitute a 
 Corporation, enjoying fuch powers as the 
 Charter grants, to be adminiftered in fuch 
 forms as the Charter prefcribes. As a: 
 
 Corporatioa 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 197 
 
 Corporation they make laws for them- 
 felves, but as a Corporation fubfifting by 
 a grant from higher authority, to the con- 
 trol of that authority they continue Cub- 
 jeft. 
 
 As men are placed at a greater diftancs 
 from the Supreme Council of the king- 
 dom, they muft be intruded with ampler 
 liberty of regulating their conduct by their 
 own wifdom. As they are more fecluded 
 from eafy recourfe to national judicature, 
 they muft be more extenfively commifiion- 
 ed to pafs judgment on each other. 
 
 FOR this reafon our more important and 
 opulent Colonies fee the appearance and 
 feel the effecT: of a regular Legiflature, 
 which in fome places has afted fo long with 
 unqueftioned authority, that it has for- 
 gotten whence that authority was originally 
 4-rived. 
 
 O 3 T 9 
 
198 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 To their Charters the Colonies 
 like other corporations, their political ex- 
 iftence. The folemnities of legiflation, the 
 adminiftration of juftice, the fecurity of 
 property, are all beftowed upon them by 
 the royal grant. Without their Charter 
 there would be no power among them, by 
 which any law could be made, or duties 
 enjoined, any debt recovered, or criminal 
 punifhed. 
 
 A CHARTER is a grant of certain pow- 
 ers or privileges given to a part of the 
 community for the advantage of the whole, 
 and is therefore liable by its nature to 
 change or to revocation. Every adt of 
 Government aims at publick good. A 
 Charter, which experience has fhewn to 
 be detrimental to the nation, is to be re- 
 pealed; becaufe general profperity muft 
 always be preferred to particular intereft. 
 If a Charter be ufed to evil purpofes, it 
 is forfeited, as the weapon is taken away 
 
 which is injurioufly employed. 
 
 THE 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 199 
 
 THE Charter therefore by which pro- 
 vincial governments are conftituted, may 
 be always legally, and where it is either 
 inconvenient in its nature, or mifapplied 
 in its ufe, roay be equitably repealed; by 
 fuch repeal the whole fabrick of fubordi- 
 nation is immediately destroyed, and the 
 conftitution funk at once into a chaos : the 
 fociety is diflblved into a tumult of indi- 
 viduals, without authority to command, 
 or obligation to obey; without any pu- 
 nimment of wrongs but by perfonal re- 
 fentment, or any protection of right but 
 by the hand of the poflefTor. 
 
 A COLONY is to the Mother-country as 
 a member to the body, deriving its adtion 
 and its ftrength from the general principle 
 of vitality ; receiving from the body, and 
 communicating to it, all the benefits and 
 evils of health and difeafe ; liable in dan- 
 gerous maladies to fharp applications, of 
 which the body however muft partake the 
 O 4 pain; 
 
200 TAXATION NO TYRANNY, 
 
 pain ; and expofed, if incurably tainted* 
 to amputation, by which the body like*- 
 wife will be mutilated. 
 
 THE Mother-country always confiders 
 the Colonies thus connected, as parts of 
 itfelf; the profperity or unhappinefs of 
 either is the profperity or unhappinefs of 
 both ; not perhaps of both in the fame 
 degree, for the body may fubfift, though 
 lefs commodioufly, without a limb, but 
 the limb muft perifli if it be parted from 
 the body, 
 
 OUR Colonies therefore, however di- 
 ftant, have been hitherto treated as con- 
 ftituent parts of the Britifh. Empire. The 
 inhabitants incorporated by Englifh Char- 
 ters, are entitled to all the rights of Englim- 
 men. They are governed by Englifh laws, 
 entitled to Englifh dignities, regulated by 
 Englifh counfels, and prote&ed by En- 
 glim arms ; and it feems to follow by con- 
 
 fequence 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. J>QI 
 
 fequence not eafily avoided, that they are 
 fubjecT: to Engliih government, and charge- 
 able by Englifh taxation. 
 
 . . 
 
 To him that confiders the nature, the 
 original, the progrefs, and the conftitu- 
 tion of the Colonies, who remembers that 
 the firft difcoverers had commiffions from 
 the Crown, that the firft fettlers owe to a 
 Charter their civil forms and regular ma- 
 giftracy, and that all perfonal immunities 
 and legal fecurities, by which the condi- 
 tion of the fubjecT: has been from time to 
 time improved, have been exended to the 
 Colonifts, it will not be doubted but the 
 Parliament of England has a right to 
 bind them by ftatutes, and to bind them 
 in all cafes ivhatfoever, and has therefore 
 a natural and conftitutional power of lay- 
 ing upon them any tax or impoft, whe- 
 ther external or internal, upon the product 
 of land, or the manufactures of induftry, 
 in the exigencies of war, or in the time 
 
 ot 
 
202 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 of profound peace, for the defence of 
 America, for the purpofe of raifmg a re- 
 *venue> or for any other end beneficial to 
 the Empire. 
 
 THERE are fome, and thofe not incon- 
 fiderable for number, nor contemptible for 
 knowledge, who except the power of tax- 
 ation from the general dominion of Par- 
 liament, and hold, that whatever degrees 
 of obedience may be exacted, or whatever 
 authority may be exercifed in other ads of 
 Government, there is flill reverence to be 
 paid to money, and that legiflation pafles 
 its limits when it violates the purfe. 
 
 OF this exception, which by a head not 
 fully impregnated with politicks is not 
 eafily comprehended, it is alleged as an 
 unanfwerable reafon, that the Colonies 
 fend no reprefentatives to the Houfe of 
 Commons, 
 
 IT 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 203 
 
 IT is, fay the American advocates, the 
 natural diftindion of a freeman, and the 
 legal privilege of an Englimman, that he 
 is able to call his pofleffions his own, that 
 he can fit fecure in the enjoyment of inhe- 
 ritance or acquifrtion, that his houfe is for- 
 tified by the law, and that nothing can 
 be taken from him but by his own confent. 
 This confent is given for every man by his 
 reprefentative in parliament. The Ameri- 
 cans unreprefented cannot confent to En- 
 glifli taxations, as a corporation, and they 
 notcqnfent as individuals. 
 
 OF this argument, it has been obferved 
 by more than one, that its force extends 
 equally to all other laws, for a freeman 
 is not to be expofed to punifhment, or be 
 called to any onerous fervice but by his 
 own confent. The Congrefs has extracted 
 a pofition from the fanciful Montefquieu> 
 that in a free jl ate every man being a free 
 agent ought to be concerned in hit own go- 
 7 uernment. 
 
204 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 uernment. Whatever is true of taxation is 
 true of every other law, that he who is 
 bound by it, without his confent, is not 
 free, for he is not concerned in his own 
 government. 
 
 HE that denies the Englifh Parliament 
 the right of taxation, denies it likewife 
 the right of making any other laws civil 
 or criminal, yet this power over the Co- 
 lonies was never yet difputed by themfelves. 
 They have always admitted ftatutes for 
 the punifhment of offences, and for the 
 redrefs or prevention of inconveniencies, 
 and the reception of any law draws after 
 it by a chain which cannot be broken, the 
 unwelcome neceflity of fubmitting to tax- 
 ation. 
 
 THAT a free man is governed by him-? 
 felf, or by laws to which he has confented, 
 is a pofition of mighty found : but every 
 man that utters it, with whatever confi- 
 dence, and every man that hears it, with 
 
 whatever^ 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 205 
 
 whatever acquiefcence, if confent be fup- 
 pofed. to imply the power of refufal, feels 
 it to be falfe. We virtually and impli- 
 citly allow the inftitutions of any Govern- 
 ment of which we enjoy the benefit, and 
 folicit the protection. In wide extended 
 dominions, though power has been dif- 
 fufed with the moft even hand, yet a very 
 fmall part of the people are either prima- 
 rily or fecondarily confulted in Legiflation. 
 The bufmefs of the Publick muft be done 
 by delegation. The choice of delegates is 
 made by a felect number, and thofe who 
 are not electors (land idle and helplefs 
 fpedators of the commonweal, 'wholly un- 
 concerned in the government of themfelves. 
 
 OF Eledors the hap is but little better. 
 They are often far from unanimity in 
 their choice, and where the numbers ap- 
 proach to equality, almoft half muft be 
 governed not only without, but againft 
 their choice. 
 
 How 
 
206 TAXATION NO TYRANNY 
 
 How any man can have confented td 
 inftitutions eftablifhed in diftant ages, it 
 will be difficult to explain. In the moft 
 favourite refidence of liberty, the confent 
 of individuals is merely paffive, a tacit ad- 
 miflion in every community of the terms 
 which that community grants and requires. 
 As all are born the fubjedts of fome ftate of 
 other, we may be faid to have been all born 
 confenting to fome fyftem of Government. 
 Other confent than this, the condition of 
 civil life does not allow. It is the unmean- 
 ing clamour of the pedants of policy, 
 the delirious dream of republican fana- 
 ticifm. 
 
 '_' 
 
 BUT hear, ye fons and daughters of liber- 
 ty, the founds which the winds are wafting 
 from the Weftern Continent. The Ame- 
 ricans are telling one another, what, if 
 we may judge from their noify triumph, 
 they have but lately difcovered, and what 
 yet i* a very important truth : That tfyey 
 
 arc 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 207 
 
 are entitled to Life, Liberty > and Property, 
 and that they have never ceded to anyfove- 
 reign power 'whatever a right to difpofe of 
 either without their confent. 
 
 WHILE this retaliation ftands alone, the 
 Americans are free from fmgularity of 
 opinion; their wit has not yet betrayed 
 them to herefy. While they fpeak as the 
 naked fons of Nature, they claim but 
 what is claimed by other men, and have 
 withheld nothing but what all with-hokL 
 They are here upon firm ground, behind 
 entrenchments which never can be forced. 
 
 HUMANITY is T*ry uniform. The 
 Americans have this refemblance to Eu- 
 ropeans, that they do not always know- 
 when they are well. They foon quit the 
 fortrefs that could neither have been 
 mined by fcphiftry, nor battered by de- 
 clamation. Their next refolution declares, 
 that 'their anceftan^who frjl fettled 'the 
 
 Colt- 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY" 
 
 Colonies, were, at the time of their emigra- 
 tion from the Mother-country ', entitled to all 
 the rights, liberties^ and immunities of free 
 and natural-born fubjefls 'within the realm 
 $f England. 
 
 THIS likewife is true; but when this 
 is granted, their boaft of original rights is 
 at an end ; they are no longer in a State of 
 Nature* Thefe lords of themfelves, thefe 
 kings of Me, thefe demigods of indepen- 
 dence, fink down to Colonifts, governed 
 by a Charter, If their anceftors were fub- 
 jeds, they acknowledged a Sovereign ; if 
 they had a right to Englifh privileges, 
 they were accountable to Englifh laws, and 
 what muft grieve tfie Lover of Liberty to 
 difcover, had ceded to the King and Parlia- 
 ment, whether the right or not, at lead the 
 power of difpofmg, 'without their confent, 
 of their lives, liberties, and properties. It 
 therefore is required of them to prove, that 
 the Parliament ever ceded to them a difpen- 
 fation from that obedience, which they 
 
 owe 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 209 
 
 owe as natural-born fubjects, or any de- 
 gree of independence or immunity not en- 
 joyed by other Englifhmen. 
 
 THEY fay, That by fuch emigration 
 they by no means forfeited, furrendered, 
 or loft any of thofe rights; but that they 
 were, and their defcendants noiv are, entitled 
 to the exercife and enjoyment of all fuch of 
 them as their local and other circumjlances 
 enable them to exercife and enjoy. 
 
 THAT they who form a fettlementby 
 a lawful Charter having committed no 
 crime forfeit no privileges, will be readily 
 confeffed ; but what they do not forfeit by 
 any judicial fentence, they may lofe by 
 natural effects. As man can be but in one 
 place at once, he cannot have the advantages 
 of multiplied refidence. He that will en- 
 joy the brightnefs of funfhine, muft quit 
 the coolnefs of the (hade. He who goes 
 voluntarily to America, cannot complain 
 of lofing what he leaves in Europe. He 
 
 P per- 
 
210 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 perhaps had a right to vote for a knight or 
 burgefs ; by croffing the Atlantick he has 
 not nullified his right ; but he has made 
 its exertion no longer poffible*. By his own 
 choice he has left a country where he had a 
 vote and little property, for another, where 
 he has great property, but no- vote. But 
 as this preference was deliberate and uncon- 
 ftrained, he is flill concerned in the govern- 
 ment of himfelf - y he has reduced himfelf 
 from a voter to one of the innumerable 
 multitude that have no vote. He has truly 
 ceded his right > but he ftill is governed by 
 his own confent ; becaufe he has confented 
 to throw his atom of intereft into the ge- 
 neral mafs of the community. Of the 
 confequences of his own ad: he has no caufe 
 to complain ; he has chofen, or intended 
 to chufe, the greater good ; he is reprefent- 
 ed, as himfelf defired, in the general re- 
 prefentation. 
 
 * Of this reafoning, I owe part to a convention with 
 Sir John Hawkins. 
 
 I BUT 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY, an 
 
 BUT the privileges of an American fcorn 
 the limits of place; they are part of him- 
 felf, and cannot be loft by departure from 
 his country ; they float in the air, or glide 
 under the ocean. 
 
 DORIS amara fuam non intermifceat undam. 
 
 A PLANTER, wherever he fettles, is 
 not only a freeman, but a legiflator, ubi 
 imperator, ibi Roma. As the Englifh Co~ 
 lonifls are not reprefented in the Britifh 
 Parliament^ they are entitled to a free and 
 cxclufive power of legiflation in their feve~ 
 ral legiflatureS) in all cafes of Taxation and 
 internal polity, fubjeft only to the negative 
 of the Sovereign, infuch manner as has been 
 heretofore ufed and accuftomed. We cheer- 
 fully confent to the operation of fuch acls of 
 the Britifh Parliament as are bona fide re- 
 jlrained to the regulation of our external 
 commerce excluding every idea of Taxation^ 
 internal or external^for raifing a revenue on 
 t he fubje ft sef America without their confent. 
 P a THEIR 
 
212 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 THEIR reafon for this claim is, that 
 the foundation of Englifh Liberty r , and of 
 all Government, is a right in the Peo- 
 ple to participate in their Legiflative Coun- 
 cil. 
 
 THEY inherit, they fay, from their an- 
 cejlors, the right t which their ancejiors pof- 
 fej/edy of enjoying all the privileges of En- 
 gli/hmen. That they inherit the right of 
 their anceftors is allowed ; but they can in- 
 herit no more. Their anceftors left a coun- 
 try where the reprefentatives of the peo- 
 ple were eledled by men particularly quali- 
 fied, and where thofe who wanted qualifi- 
 cations, or who did not ufe them, were 
 bound by the decifions of men, whom 
 they had not deputed. 
 
 THE colonifts are the defcendants of men, 
 who either had no vote in elections, or 
 who voluntarily refigned them for fome- 
 
 thing. 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 213 
 
 thing, in their opinion, of more eftima- 
 tion : they have therefore exactly what 
 their anceftors left them, not a vote in 
 making laws, or in conflituting legiflators, 
 but the happinefs of being protected by 
 law, and the duty of obeying it. 
 
 WHAT their anceftors did not carry 
 with ttam, neither they nor their defcend- 
 ants have fince acquired. They have 
 not, by abandoning their part in one legif- 
 lature, obtained the power of conftituting 
 another, exclufive and independent, any 
 more than the multitudes, who are now 
 debarred from voting, have a right to ered 
 a feparate Parliament for themfelves. 
 
 MEN are wrong for want of fenfe, but 
 they are wrong by halves for want of 
 fpirit. Since the Americans have difco- 
 vered that they can make a Parliament, 
 whence comes it that they do not think 
 P 3 themfelves 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 themfelves equally empowered to make a 
 King ? If they are fubjeds, whofe govern- 
 ment is conftituted by a Charter, they 
 can form no body of independent legif- 
 lature. If their rights are inherent and 
 underived, they may by their own fuf- 
 frages encircle with a diadem the brows 
 of Mr. Cufhing. 
 
 IT is farther declared by the Congrefs 
 of Philadelphia, that his Majeftys Colonies 
 are entitled to all the privileges and immu- 
 nities granted and confirmed to them by 
 "Royal Chart ersy or fe cured to them by their 
 federal codes of provincial laws. 
 
 THEfirftclaufeof this refolution tseafily 
 underftood, and will be readily admitted. 
 To all the privileges which a Charter can 
 convey, they are by a Royal Charter evi- 
 dently entitled. The fecond claufe is of 
 greater difficulty; for how can a provin- 
 cial law feCttre privileges or immunities to a 
 
 province f 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 215 
 
 province ? Provincial laws may grant to 
 certain individuals of the province the 
 enjoyment of gainful, or an immunity 
 from onerous offices; they may operate 
 upon the people to whom they relate ; but 
 no province can confer provincial privi- 
 leges on itfelf. They may have a right to 
 all which the King has given them ; but 
 it is a conceit of the other hemifphere, 
 that men have a right to all which they 
 have given to themfelves. 
 
 A CORPORATION is coiifidered in law 
 as an individual, and can no more extend 
 its own immunities, than a man can by 
 his own choice aflume dignities or titles. 
 
 THE Legiflature of a Colony, let not 
 the comparifon be too much difdained, is 
 only the veftry of a larger parifti, which 
 may lay a cefs on the inhabitants, and en- 
 force the payment; but can extend no in- 
 fluence beyond its own diftrid, muft mo- 
 P 4 dify 
 
2i6 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 dify its particular regulations by the ge- 
 neral law, and whatever may be its internal 
 expences, is ftill liable to Taxes laid by fu- 
 perior authority. 
 
 THE Charters given to different pro- 
 vinces are different, and no general right 
 can be extracted from them. The Charter 
 of Pennfylvania, where this Congrefs of 
 anarchy has been impudently held, con- 
 tains a claufe admitting in exprefs terms 
 Taxation by the Parliament. If in the other 
 Charters no fuch referve is made, it muft 
 have been omitted as not neceflary, becaufe 
 it is implied in the nature of fubordinate 
 government. They who are fubjecT: to 
 laws, are liable to Taxes. If any fuch 
 immunity had been granted, it is ftill re- 
 vocable by the Legiflature, and ought to 
 be revoked, as contrary to the publick 
 good, which is in every Charter ultimate-* 
 ly intended. 
 
 N SUPPOSE 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 217 
 
 SUPPOSE it true, that any fuch exemp- 
 tion is contained in the Charter of Mary- 
 land, it can be pleaded only by the Mary- 
 landers. It is of no ufe for any other pro- 
 vince, and with regard even to them, muft 
 have been confidered as one of the grants 
 in which the King has been deceived, 
 and annulled as mifchievous to the Publick, 
 by facrificing to one little fettlement the 
 general intereft of the Empire ; as infring- 
 ing the fyftem of dominion, and violating 
 the compact of Government. But Dr. 
 Tucker has {hewn that even this Charter 
 promifes no exemption from Parliamentary 
 Taxes. 
 
 IN the controverfy agitated about the 
 beginning of this century, whether the 
 Englifh laws could bind Ireland, Dave- 
 nant, who defended againft Molyneux the 
 claims of England, confidered it as necef- 
 fary to prove nothing more, than that the 
 prefent Irilh muft be deemed a Colony. 
 
 THE 
 
2i8 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 THE neceflfary connexion of reprefent- 
 atives with Taxes, feems to have funk 
 deep into many of thofe minds> that ad- 
 mit founds without their meaning. 
 
 OUR nation is reprefented in Parliament 
 by an affembly as numerous as can well 
 confift with order and difpatch, chofen by 
 perfons fo differently qualified in different 
 places, that the mode of choice feems to 
 be, for the moft part, formed by chance, 
 and fettled by cuftom. Of individuals 
 far the greater part have no vote, and of 
 the voters few have any perfonal know- 
 ledge of him to whom they intruft their 
 liberty and fortune. 
 
 YET this reprefentation has the whole 
 effed expe&ed or defired ; that of fpread- 
 ing fo wide the care of general intereft, 
 and the participation of publick counfels, 
 that the advantage or corruption of par- 
 ticular men can feldom operate with much 
 injury to the Publick, 
 
 FOR 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 219 
 
 FOR this reafon many populous and 
 opulent towns neither enjoy nor defire 
 particular reprefentatives : they are in- 
 cluded in the general fcheme of publick 
 adminiftration, and cannot fuffer but with 
 the reft of the Empire. 
 
 IT is urged that the Americans have 
 not the fame fecurity, and that a Britifti 
 Legislator may wanton with their pro- 
 perty ; yet if it be true, that their wealth 
 is our wealth, and that their ruin will 
 be our ruin, the Parliament has the fame 
 intereft in attending to them, as to any 
 other part of the nation. The Yeafon why 
 we place any confidence in our reprefenta- 
 tives is, that they muft (hare in the good 
 or evil which their counfels fhall produce. 
 Their fhare is indeed commonly confe- 
 quential and remote ; but it is not often 
 poflible that any immediate advantage can 
 be extended to fuch numbers as may pre- 
 vail againft it. We are therefore as fecure 
 
 againft 
 
220 TAXATION NO TYRANNY, 
 
 againft intentional depravations of Go- 
 vernment as human wifdom can make 
 us, and upon this fecurity the Americans 
 tnay venture to repofe. 
 
 IT is faid by the Old Member who has 
 
 written an Appeal againft the Tax, that 
 
 as the produce of American labour is fpent 
 
 in Britifh manufactures^ the balance of 
 
 trade is greatly againft them; whatever 
 
 you take direclly in Taxes^ is in effect taken 
 
 from your own commerce. If the minijler 
 
 feizes the money with which the American 
 
 Jhould pay his debts and come to market^ 
 
 the merchant cannot expert him as a cuf- 
 
 tomer, nor can the debts already contracted 
 
 be paid. Suppofe r we obtain from America 
 
 a million in/lead of one hundred thoufand 
 
 pounds, it r would be fupplying one perfonal 
 
 exigence by the future ruin of our commerce. 
 
 PART of this is true; but the Old Mem- 
 ber feems not to perceive, that if his bre- 
 thren of the Legiflature know this as well 
 
 as 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 221 
 
 as himfelf, the Americans are in no danger 
 of oppreffion, fmce by men commonly 
 provident they muft be fo taxed, as that 
 we may not lofe one way what we gain 
 another. 
 
 THE fame Old Member has difcovered, 
 that the judges formerly thought it illegal 
 to tax Ireland, and declares that no cafes 
 can be more alike than thofe of Ireland 
 and America; yet the judges whom he 
 quotes have mentioned a difference. Ire- 
 land, they fay, hath a Parliament of its 
 own. When any Colony has an inde- 
 pendent Parliament acknowledged by the 
 Parliament of Britain, the cafes will differ 
 lefs. Yet by the 6 Geo. I. chap. 5. the 
 Ads of theBritifh Parliament bind Ireland. 
 
 IT is urged that when Wales, Durham, 
 and Chefter were diverted of their particu- 
 lar privileges or ancient government, and 
 
 reduced 
 
222 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 reduced to the ftate of Englifh counties, 
 they had reprefentatives affigned them. 
 
 To thofe from whom fomething had 
 been taken, fomething in return might 
 properly be given. To the Americans 
 their Charters are left as they were, nor 
 have they loft any thing except that of 
 which their fedition has deprived them. 
 If they were to be reprefented in Parlia- 
 ment, fomething would be granted, though 
 nothing is withdrawn. 
 
 ' 
 
 THE inhabitants of Chefter, Durham, 
 and Wales, were invited to exchange their 
 peculiar inftitutions for the power of 
 voting, which they wanted before. The 
 Americans have voluntarily refigned the 
 power of voting, to live in diftant and 
 feparate governments, and what they 
 have voluntarily quitted, they have no 
 
 right to claim. 
 
 
 
 IT 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 223 
 
 IT muft always be remembered that they 
 are reprefented by the fame virtual repre- 
 fentation as the greater part of Englifh- 
 men ; and that if by change of place 
 they have lefs (hare in the Legiflature 
 than is proportionate to their opulence, 
 they by their removal gained that opulence, 
 and had originally and have now their 
 choice of a vote at home, or riches at a 
 diftance. 
 
 WE are told, what appears to the Old 
 Member and to others a pofition that muft 
 drive us into inextricable abfurdity, that 
 we have either no right, or the fole right 
 of taxing the Colonies. The meaning 
 is, that if we can tax them, they cannot 
 tax themfelves; and that if they can tax 
 themfelves, we cannot tax them. We 
 anfwer with very little hefitation, that for 
 the general ufe of the Empire we have 
 the fole right of taxing them. If they 
 have contributed any thing in their own 
 affemblies, what they contributed was not 
 
 paid, 
 
224 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 paid, but given ; it was not a tax or tri- 
 bute, but a prefent. Yet they have the 
 natural and legal power of levying money 
 on themfelves for provincial purpofes, of 
 providing for their own expence, at their 
 own difcretion. Let not this be thought 
 new or ftrange ; it is the ftate of every 
 parifh in the kingdom. 
 
 THE friends of the Americans are of 
 different opinions. Some think that be- 
 ing unreprefented they ought to tax them- 
 felves, and others that they ought to have 
 reprefentatives in the Britifh Parliament. 
 
 IF they are to tax themfelves, what 
 power is to remain in the fupreme Le- 
 giflature ? That they muft fettle their own 
 mode of levying their money is fuppofed. 
 May the Britifli Parliament tell them how 
 much they (hall contribute ? If the fum may 
 be prefcribed, they will return few thanks 
 for the power of raifing it; if they are 
 
 at 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 225 
 
 at liberty to grant or to deny, they are no 
 longer fubjeds. 
 
 IF they are to be reprefented, what 
 number of thefe weftern orators are to be 
 admitted? This I fuppofe the parliament 
 muft fettle; yet if men have a natural 
 and unalienable right to be reprefented, 
 who fhall determine the number of their 
 delegates ? Let us however fuppofe them 
 to fend twenty-three, half as many as 
 the kingdom of Scotland, what will this 
 reprefentation avail them ? To pay taxes 
 will be ftill a grievance. The love of 
 money will not be leflened, nor the 
 power of getting it increafed. 
 
 WHITHER will this neceffity of repre- 
 fentation drive us ? Is every petty fettle- 
 ment to be out of the reach of govern- 
 ment, till it has fent a fenator to Parlia- 
 ment ; or may two of them or a greater 
 number be forced to unite in a fingle 
 deputation? What at laft is the differ- 
 
 ence, 
 
226 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 ence between him that is taxed by 
 compulfion without reprefentation, and 
 him that is reprefented by compulfion 
 in order to be taxed ? 
 
 FOR many reigns the Houfe of Com- 
 mons was in a ftate of fluctuation : new 
 burgefles were added from time to time, 
 without any reafon now to be difcovered ; 
 but the number has been fixed for more 
 than a century and a half, and the king's 
 power of increafing it has been queftioned. 
 It will hardly be thought fit to new-mo- 
 del the conftitution in favour of the plant- 
 ers, who, as they grow rich, may buy 
 eftates in England, and without any inno- 
 vation, effectually reprefent their native 
 colonies. 
 
 THE friends of the Americans indeed 
 afk for them what they do not afk for 
 themfelves. This ineftimable right of re- 
 prefentation they have never folicitecl. 
 
 They 
 
tAXATION NO TYRANNY. 227 
 
 They mean not to exchange folid money 
 for fuch airy honour. They fay, and 
 fay willingly, that they cannot convenient- 
 ly be reprefented ; becaufe their inference 
 is, that they cannot be taxed. They are 
 too remote to fhare the general govern- 
 ment, and therefore claim the privilege of 
 governing themfelves. 
 
 OF the principles contained in the re- 
 folutions of the Congrefs, however wild, 
 indefinite, and obfcure, fuch has been the 
 influence upon American underftanding, 
 that from New-England to South-Carolina 
 there is formed a general combination of 
 all the Provinces againft their Mother- 
 country. The madnefs of independence 
 has fpread from Colony to Colony, till 
 order is loft and government defpifed, and 
 all is filled with mifrule, uproar, violence, 
 and confufion. To be quiet is difait'ec- 
 tion, to be loyal is treafon. 
 
 THE 
 
2;8 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 THE Congrefs of Philadelphia, an af- 
 fembly convened by its own authorky, has 
 promulgated a declaration, in compliance 
 with which the communication between 
 Britain and the greateft part of North 
 America is now fufpended. They ceafed 
 to admit the importation of Englifh goods 
 in December 1774, and determine to per- 
 mit the exportation of their own no long- 
 er than to November 1775. 
 
 THIS might feeai enough, but they 
 have done more. They have declared, 
 that they {hall treat all as enemies who do 
 not concur with them in difaffe&ion and 
 perverfenefs, and that they will trade with 
 none that fhall trade with Britain. 
 
 THEY threaten to ftigmatize in their 
 Gazette thofe who fhall confume the pro- 
 duels or merchandife of their Mother- 
 country, and are now fearching fufpeded; 
 houfes for prohibited goods* 
 
 THESE 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 229 
 
 THESE hoftile declarations they profefs 
 themfel ves ready to maintain by force. They 
 have armed the militia of their provinces, 
 and feized the publick flores of ammu- 
 nition. They are therefore no longer fub- 
 jects, fince they refufe the laws of their 
 Sovereign, and in defence of that refufal 
 are making open preparations for war. 
 
 BEING now in their own opinion free 
 dates, they are not only raifing armies, 
 but forming alliances, not only haftening 
 to rebel themfelves, but feducing their 
 neighbours to rebellion. They have pub- 
 limed an addrefs to the inhabitants of 
 Quebec, in which difcontent and refiftance 
 are openly incited, and with very refpect- 
 ful mention of the fagacity of Frenchmen^ 
 invite them to fend deputies to the Congrels 
 of Philadelphia, to that feat of Virtue 
 and Veracity, whence the people of En- 
 gland are told, that to eftablifh popery, 
 a religion fraught ivifh fanguinary and 
 impious tenets^ even in Quebec, a country 
 
 of 
 
230 TAXATION NO TYRANNY, 
 
 of which the inhabitants are papifts, is 
 fo contrary to the coriftitution that it can- 
 not be lawfully done by the legiflature it- 
 felf ; where it is made one of the articles 
 of their aflbciation, to deprive the con- 
 quered French of their religious eftablifhr 
 ment ; and whence the French of Quebec 
 are, at the fame time, flattered into fedi- 
 tion, by profeffions of expecting from the 
 liberality of fentimcnt, dijlinguijhing their 
 nation, that difference of religion 'will not 
 prejudice them againjl a hearty amity ^ be- 
 caufe the tranfcendent nature of freedom 
 elevates all <who unite in the caufe above 
 fuch low-minded infirmities. 
 
 QUEBEC, however, is at a great dif- 
 tance. They have aimed a ftroke from 
 which they may hope for greater and more 
 fpeedy mifchief. They have tried to in- 
 feel: the people of England with the con- 
 tagion of difloyalty. Their credit is hap- 
 [ pily not fuch as gives them influence 
 
 proportionate 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 231 
 
 proportionate to their malice. When they 
 talk of their pretended immunities guar- 
 rantied by the plighted faith of Government? 
 and the mojl folemn compafts 'with Engli/Jj 
 Sovereigns, we think ourfelves at liberty 
 to inquire when the faith was plighted 
 and the compact made ; and when we can 
 only find that King James and King 
 Charles the Firft promifed the fettlers in 
 Maflachufet's Bay, now famous by the 
 appellation of Boftonians, exemption from 
 taxes for feven years, we infer with 
 Mr. Mauduit, that by ihisjbkmn compact : , 
 they were, after expiration of the ftipula- 
 ted term, liable to taxation. 
 
 WHEN they apply to our compaffion, 
 by telling us, that they are to be carried 
 from their own country to be tried for 
 certain offences, we are not fo ready to 
 pity them, as to advife them not to of- 
 fend. While they are innocent they are fafe. 
 
 Q 4 WHEN 
 
232 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 WHEN they tell of laws made exprefsly 
 for their punifliment, we anfwer, that 
 tumults and fedition were always punifh- 
 able, and that the new law prefcribes only 
 the mode of execution. 
 
 WHEN it is faid that the whole town of 
 Bofton is diftrefled for a mifdemeanour of 
 a few, we wonder at their fhamefulnefs ; 
 for we know that the town of Bofton, 
 and all the aflbciated provinces, are now 
 in rebellion to defend or juftify the cri- 
 minals. 
 
 IF frauds in the impofts of Bofton are 
 tried by commiffion without a jury, they are 
 tried here in the fame mode; and why 
 fhould the Boftonians expert from us 
 more tendernefs for them than for our- 
 felves ? 
 
 IF they are condemned unheard, it is 
 becaufe there is no need of a trial. The 
 crime is manifeft and notorious. All trial 
 
 is 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 233 
 
 is the inveftigation of fomething doubtful. 
 An Italian philofopher obferves, that no 
 man defires to hear what he has already 
 feen. 
 
 IF their afiemblies have been fuddenly 
 diflblved, what was the reafon ? Their 
 deliberations were indecent, and their in- 
 tentions feditious. The power of diffo- 
 lution is granted and referved for fuch 
 times of turbulence. Their beft friends 
 have been lately foliciting the King to dif- 
 folve his Parliament, to do what they fo 
 loudly complain of fuffering. 
 
 THAT the fame vengeance involves 
 the innocent and guilty is an evil to be la- 
 mented, but human caution cannot pre- 
 vent it, nor human power always redrefs 
 it. To bring mifery on thofe who have 
 not deferved it, is part of the aggregated 
 guilt of rebellion. 
 
 THAT 
 
234 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 THAT governours have been fometimes 
 given them only that a great man might 
 get eafe from importunity, and that they 
 have had judges not always of the deepeft 
 learning, or the pureft integrity, we have 
 no great reafon to doubt, becaufe fuch 
 misfortunes happen to ourfelves. Who- 
 ever is governed will fometimes be go- 
 verned ill, even when he is moft concerned 
 in his own government. 
 
 improper officers or magiftrates 
 are fent, is the crime or folly of thofe 
 that fent them, When incapacity is dif- 
 covered, it ought to be removed; if cor- 
 ruption is detected, it ought to be pu- 
 nifhed. No government could fubfift for a 
 day, if fingle errors could juftify defection. 
 
 ONE of their complaints is not fuch as 
 can claim much commiferation from the 
 fofteft bofom. They tell us, that we have 
 changed our conduft, and that a tax is 
 
 now 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 235 
 
 now laid by Parliament on thofe which 
 were never taxed by Parliament before. 
 To this we think it may be eafily anfwered, 
 that the longer they have been fpared, the 
 better they can pay, 
 
 IT is certainly not much their intereft 
 to reprefent innovation as criminal or in- 
 vidious ; for they have introduced into 
 the hiftory of mankind a new mode of 
 difaffedion, and have given, I believe, 
 the firft example of a profcription pub- 
 lifhed by a Colony againft the Mother- 
 country. 
 
 To what is urged of new powers 
 granted to the Courts of Admiralty, or 
 the extenfion of authority conferred on 
 the judges, it may be anfwered in a few 
 words, that they have themfelves made 
 fuch regulations neceflary ; that they are 
 eftablifhed for the prevention of greater 
 evils ; at the fame time, it muft be ob>- 
 
 ferved, 
 
236 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 ferved, that thefe powers have not been ex- 
 tended fmce the rebellion in America. 
 
 ONE mode of perfuafion their inge- 
 nuity has fuggefted, which it may per- 
 haps be lefs eafy to refift. That we may 
 not look with indifference on the Ame- 
 rican conteft, or imagine that the ftrug- 
 gle is for a claim, which, however decided, 
 is of fmall importance and remote con- 
 fequence, the Philadelphian Congrefs has 
 taken care to inform us, that they are re- 
 fifting the demands of Parliament, as 
 well for our fakes as their own. 
 
 THEIR keennefsof perfpicacity has ena- 
 bled them to purfue confequences to a 
 great diftance; to fee through clouds im- 
 pervious to the dimnefs of European fight; 
 and to find, I know not how, that when 
 they are taxed, we fhall be enflaved. 
 
 THAT flavery is a miferable ftate we 
 have been often told, and doubtlefs many a 
 
 Briton 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 237 
 
 Briton will tremble to find it fo near as 
 in America; but how it will be brought 
 hither, the Congrefs muft inform us. The 
 queftion might diftrefs a common under- 
 ftanding; but the ftatefmen of the other 
 hemifphere can eafily refolve it. Our minif- 
 ters, they fay, are our enemies, and if they 
 Jhould carry the point of taxation, may with 
 the fame army en/lave us. It may be faid^ 
 we will not pay them ; but remember, fay the 
 weftern fages, the taxes from America, and 
 *we may add the men, and particularly the 
 Roman Catholics of this vaft continent 'will 
 then be in the power of your enemies. Nor 
 have you any reafon to expeffi^ that after making 
 Jlaves of us, many of us will refufe to ajjijl 
 in reducing you to the fame abj eft fate. 
 
 THESE are dreadful menaces; butfufpecl- 
 ing that they have not much the found of 
 probability, the Congrefs proceeds: Do 
 not treat this as chimerical. Know that 
 in left than. half a century the quit-rents 
 
 referred 
 
238 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 referred to the crown from the numberlefs 
 grants of this vqft continent 'will pout* 
 large Jlreams of wealth into the royal 
 coffers. If to this be added the power of 
 taxing America at pleafure^ the crown 'will 
 pojjefs more treafure than may be necejjary 
 to purchafe the remains of liberty in your 
 ijland. 
 
 ALL this is very dreadful; but amidft 
 the terror that {hakes my frame, I can- 
 not forbear to wifh that fome fluice were 
 opened for thefe ftreams of treafure. I 
 fhould gladly fee America return half of 
 what England has expended in her de- 
 fence; and of the ftream that wi\\jlowjb 
 largely in lefs than half a century. I hope 
 a fmall rill at leaft may be found to quench 
 the thirft of the prefent generation, which 
 feems to think itfelf in more danger of 
 wanting money than of lofing liberty. 
 
 IT is difficult to judge with what in-* 
 tendon fuch airy burfts of malevolence 
 
 are 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 239 
 
 are vented : if fuch writers hope to de- 
 ceive, let us rather repel them with fcorn, 
 than refute them by difputation. 
 
 IN this laft terrifick paragraph are two 
 pofitions that, if our fears do not over- 
 power our reflection, may enable us to fup- 
 port life a little longer. We are told by 
 thefe croakers of calamity, not only that 
 our prefent minifters defign to enflave us, 
 but that the fame malignity of purpofe is 
 to defcend through all their fucceflbrs, 
 and that the wealth to be poured into Eng- 
 land by the Paftolus of America will, 
 whenever it comes, be employed to pur- 
 chafe the remains of liberty. 
 
 OF thofe who now conduct the national 
 affairs we may, without much arrogance, 
 prefume to know more than themfelves, 
 and of thofe who fhall fucceed them, 
 whether minifter or king, not to know 
 lefs, 
 
 8 THE 
 
240 TAXATION NO TYRANNY, 
 
 THE other petition is, that the Crown, 
 if this laudable oppofuion fhould not be 
 fuccefsful, will have the power of taxing 
 America at pkafure. Surely they think 
 rather too meanly of our apprehenfions, 
 when they fuppofe us not to know what 
 they well know themfelves, that they are 
 taxed, like all other Britifh fubjedts, by 
 Parliament ; and that the Crown has not 
 by the new impofts, whether right or 
 wrong, obtained any additional power 
 over their poflefiions. 
 i 
 
 IT were a curious, but an idle fpecu- 
 lation to inquire, what effet thefe dic- 
 tators of fedition expect from the difper*- 
 fion of their letter among us. If they 
 believe their own complaints of hardmip, 
 and really dread the danger which they 
 defcribe, they will naturally hope to commu- 
 nicate the fame perceptions to their fellow- 
 fubjeds. But probably in America, as in 
 other places, the chiefs are incendiaries, that 
 3 hope 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY, 241 
 
 hope to rob in the tumults of a confla- 
 gration, and tofs brands among a rabble 
 paffively combuftible. Thofe who wrote 
 the Addrefs, though they have fhown no 
 great extent or profundity of mind, are 
 yet probably wifer than to believe it : but 
 they have been taught by fome mafter of 
 mifchief, how to put in motion the engine 
 of political electricity ; to attract by the 
 founds of Liberty and Property, to repel 
 by thofe of Popery and Slavery; and to 
 give the great ftroke by the name of Bof- 
 ton. 
 
 WHEN fubordinate communities op- 
 pofe the decrees of the general legiflature 
 with defiance thus audacious, and malig- 
 nity thus acrimonious, nothing remains 
 but to conquer or to yield 5 to allow their 
 claim of independence, or to reduce them 
 by force to fubmiflion and allegiance. 
 
 IT might be hoped, that no Englifri- 
 
 ftian could be found, whom the menaces 
 
 R of 
 
242 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 of our own Colonifts, juft refcued from 
 the French, would not move to indigna- 
 tion, like that of the Scythians, who, re- 
 turning from war, found themfelves ex- 
 cluded from their own houfes by their 
 flaves, 
 
 THAT corporations conftituted by fa- 
 vour, and exifting by fufferance, fhould 
 dare to prohibit commerce with their na- 
 tive country, and threaten individuals by 
 infamy, and focieties with at leaft fufpen* 
 fion of amity, for daring to be more obe- 
 dient to government than themfelves, is a 
 degree of infolence, which not only de- 
 ferves to be punifhed, but of which the 
 punimment is loudly demanded by the 
 order of life, and the peace of nations. 
 
 YET there have rifen up, in the face of 
 the publick, men who, by whatever cor- 
 ruptions or whatever infatuation, have 
 undertaken to defend the Americans, en- 
 deavour 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 243 
 
 deavour to fhelter them from refentment, 
 and propofe reconciliation without fub- 
 miffion. 
 
 As political difeafes are naturally con- 
 tagious, let it be fuppofed for a moment 
 that Cornwall, feized with the Philadelphi- 
 an frenzy, may refolve to feparate itfelf 
 from the general fyftem of the Englifh 
 conftitution, and judge of its own rights 
 in its own parliament. A Congrefs might 
 then meet at Truro, and addrefs the other 
 counties in a ftyle not unlike the language 
 of the American patriots. 
 
 " Friends and Fellow-fubjeds, 
 
 cc WE the delegates of the feveral towns 
 and parifhes of Cornwall, aflembled to de- 
 liberate upon our own ftate and that of 
 our conftituents, having, after ferious de- 
 bate and calm confideration, fettled the 
 fcheme of our future conduft, hold it ne- 
 R 2 ceflary 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 ceflary to declare the refolutions which we 
 think ourfelves entitled to form by the 
 unalienable rights of reafonable Beings, 
 and into which we have been compelled 
 by grievances and oppreffions, long en- 
 dured by us in patient filence, not becaufe 
 we did not feel, or could not remove them, 
 but becaufe we were unwilling to give 
 difturbance to a fettled government, and 
 hoped that others would in time find like 
 ourfelves their true intereft and their ori- 
 ginal powers, and all co-operate to univer- 
 lal happinefs. 
 
 ti 
 
 " BUT fince having long indulged the 
 pleafing expectation, we find general dif- 
 content not likely to increafe, or not 
 likely to end in general defection, we re- 
 folve to erect alone the ftandard of liberty. 
 
 " Know then> that you are no longer 
 to confider Cornwall as an Englifh coun- 
 ty, vifited by Englifh judges, receiving law 
 
 from 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 245 
 
 from an Englim Parliament, or included in 
 any general taxation of the kingdom ; 
 but as a ftate diftind:, and independent, 
 governed by itsowninftitutions, admmifter- 
 ed by its own magiftrates, and exempt 
 from any tax or tribute but fuch as we 
 fhall impofe upon ourfelves. 
 
 " WE are the acknowledged deicend- 
 ants of the earlieft inhabitants of Britain, 
 of men, who before the time of hiftory 
 took pofleffion of the ifland defolate and 
 wafte, and therefore open to the firft oc- 
 cupants. Of this defcent, our language 
 is a fufficient proof, which, not quite a 
 century ago, was different from yours. 
 
 " SUCH are the Cornifhmen; but who 
 are you? who but the unauthorifed and 
 lawlefs children of intruders, invaders, 
 and oppreffors? who but the tranfmitters 
 of wrong, the inheritors of robbery ? In 
 claiming independence we claim but little. 
 We might require you to depart from a 
 R 3 land 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 land which you poflefs by ufurpation, and 
 to reftore all that you have taken from us. 
 
 "INDEPENDENCE is the gift of Nature. 
 No man is born the mafter of another. 
 Every Cornifhman is a freeman, for we 
 have never refigned the rights of huma- 
 nity; and he only can be thought free, 
 who is not governed but by his own con- 
 fent. 
 
 " You may urge that the prefent fyftem 
 of government has defcended through 
 many ages, and that we have a larger part 
 in the reprefentation of the kingdom, 
 than any other county. 
 
 " ALL this is true, but it is neither co- 
 gent nor perfuafive. We look to the ori- 
 ginal of things. Our union with the 
 Englifh counties was either compelled by- 
 force, or fettled by compact. 
 
 "THAT 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 247 
 
 "THAT which was made by violence, 
 may by violence be broken. If we were 
 treated as a conquered people, our rights 
 might be obfcured, but could never be ex- 
 tinguifhed. The fword can give nothing 
 but power, which a (harper fword can take 
 away. 
 
 4< IF our union was by compaft, whom 
 could the compad bind but thofe that 
 concurred in the ftipulations ? We gave 
 our anceftors no commiffion to fettle the 
 terms of future exiftence. They might 
 be cowards that were frighted, or block- 
 heads that were cheated; but whatever 
 they were, they could contract only for 
 themfelves. What they could eftablifh, 
 we can annul. 
 
 u AGAINST our prefent form of govern- 
 ment it mall ftand in the place of all ar- 
 gument, that we do not like it. While 
 we are governed as we do not like, where 
 R 4 is 
 
248 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 is our liberty ? We do not like taxes, we 
 will therefore not be taxed, we do not 
 like your laws, and will not; obey 
 them. 
 
 <C THE taxes laid by our reprefentatives 
 are laid, you tell us, by our own confent: 
 but we will no longer confent to be repre- 
 fented. Our number of legiQators was 
 originally a burden, and ought to have 
 been refufed : it is now confidered as a 
 difproportionate advantage ; who then will 
 complain we refign it? 
 
 c WE fhall form a Senate of our own s 
 tinder a Prefident whom the King (hall 
 nominate, but whofe authority we will 
 limit, by adjuftii^g his falary to his merit. 
 We will not with-hold a proper fhare of 
 contribution to the neceflary expence of 
 lawful government, but we will decide 
 for ourfelves what fhare is proper, what 
 
 expence 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 249 
 
 expence is neceffary, and what government 
 is lawful* 
 
 "TiLL our. counfel is proclaimed in- 
 dependent and unaccountable 3 we will, 
 after the tenth day of September, keep 
 our Tin in our own hands: you can be 
 fupplied from no other place, and muft 
 therefore comply or be poifoned with the 
 copper of your own kitchens. 
 
 "!F any Cornifhman fhall refufe his 
 name to this juft and laudable aflbciation, 
 he fhall be tumbled from St. Michael's 
 Mount, or buried alive in a tin-mine ; and 
 if any emifTary fhall be found feducing 
 Corniflimen to their former ftate, he fhall 
 be fmeared with tar, and rolled in fea- 
 thers, and chafed with dogs out of our 
 dominions. 
 
 cc From the Cornifh Congrefs at Truro." 
 
 OF this memorial what -could be faid 
 but that it was written in jeft, or written 
 
 by 
 
250 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 by a madman ? Yet I know not whether 
 the warmeft admirers of Pennfylvanian 
 eloquence can find any argument in the 
 Addrefles of the Congrefs, that is not with 
 greater ftrength urged by the Cornifhman, 
 
 THE argument of the irregular troops 
 of controverfy, ftripped of its colours, 
 and turned out naked to the view, is no 
 more than this. Liberty is the birthright 
 of man, and where obedience is compelled, 
 there is no Liberty. The anfwer is equally 
 fimple. Government is neceflary to man, 
 and where obedience is not compelled, 
 there is no government. 
 
 IF the fubjecT: refufes to obey, it is the 
 duty of authority to ufe compulfion. So- 
 ciety cannot fubfift but by the power, firft 
 of making laws, and then of enforcing 
 them. 
 
 To one of the threats hifled out by the 
 Congrefs, I have put nothing fimilar into 
 
 the 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 251 
 
 the Cornifti proclamation; becaufe it is 
 too wild for folly and too foolifli for mad- 
 nefs. If we do not withhold our King 
 and his Parliament from taxing them, 
 they will crofs the Atlantick and enflave 
 us. 
 
 How they will come they have not told 
 us; perhaps they will take wing, and 
 light upon our coafts. When the cranes 
 thus begin to flutter, it is time for pygmies 
 to keep their eyes about them. The Great 
 Orator obferves, that they will be very fit, 
 after they have been taxed, to impofe 
 chains upon us. If they are fo fit as their 
 friend defcribes them, and fo willing as 
 they defcribe themfelves, let us increafe our 
 army, and double our militia. 
 / 
 
 IT has been of late a very general prac- 
 tice to talk of flavery among thofe who 
 are fetting at defiance every power that 
 keeps the world in order. If the learned 
 
 author 
 
252 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 author of the Reflections on Learning has 
 rightly obferved, that no man ever could 
 give law to language, it will be vain to 
 prohibit the ufe of the wordjlavery; but 
 I could wifh it more difcreetly uttered ; it is 
 driven at one time too hard into our ears 
 by the loud hurricane of Pennfylvaniaa 
 eloquence, and at another glides too cold 
 into our hearts by the foft conveyance of a 
 female patriot bewailing the miferies of 
 "her friends and fellow -citizens. 
 
 SUCH has been the progrefs of fedition, 
 that thofe who a few years ago dSfputed 
 only our right of laying taxes, now quef- 
 tionthe validity of every acT: of legiflation. 
 They confider themfelves as emancipated 
 from obedience, and as being no longer the 
 fubje&s of the Britifh Crown. They leave 
 us no choice but of yielding or conquering, 
 of refigning our dominion, or maintaining 
 it by force. 
 
 FROM 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 253 
 
 FROM force many endeavours have been 
 ufed, either to diffuade, or to deter us. 
 Sometimes the merit of the Americans is 
 exalted, and fometimes their fufferings are 
 aggravated. We are told of their contri- 
 butions to the laft war, a war incited by 
 their outcries, and continued for their pro- 
 tedtlon, a war by which none but them- 
 felves were gainers. All that they can 
 boaft is, that they did fomething for them- 
 felves, and did not wholly fland inactive, 
 while the fons of Britain were fighting 
 in their caufe. 
 
 IF we cannot admire, we are called to 
 pity them ; to pity thofe that {hew no re- 
 gard to their mother-country ; have obey- 
 ed no law which they could violate ; have 
 imparted no good which they could with-* 
 hold; have entered into aflbciations of 
 fraud to rob their creditors; and into com- 
 binations to diftrefs all who depended on 
 their commerce. We are reproached with 
 the cruelty of {hutting one port, where 
 
 every 
 
254 TAXATION NO TYRANNY, 
 
 every port is fliut againft us. We are cen- 
 fured as tyrannical for hindering thofe 
 from fifhing, who have condemned our 
 merchants to bankruptcy and our manufac- 
 turers to hunger. 
 
 OTHERS perfuade us to give them more 
 liberty, to take off reftraints, and relax 
 authority ; and tell us what happy confe- 
 quences will arife from forbearance : How 
 their affedions will be conciliated, and into 
 what diffufions of beneficence their grati- 
 tude will luxuriate. They will love their 
 friends. They will reverence their protestors. 
 They will throw themfelves into our arms, 
 and lay their property at our feet. They 
 will buy from no other what we can fell 
 them ; they will fell to no other what we 
 wifli to buy. 
 
 THAT any obligations fliould overpower 
 their attention to profit, we have known 
 them long enough not to expect. It is not to 
 be expected from a more liberal people. 
 
 With 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 255 
 
 With what kindnefs they repay benefits, 
 they are now {hewing us, who, as foon 
 as we have delivered them from France, 
 are defying and profcribing us. 
 
 BUT if we will permit them to tax 
 themfelves, they will give us more than 
 we require. If we proclaim them inde- 
 pendent, they will during pleafure pay us 
 a fubfidy. The conteft is not now for 
 money, but for power. The queftion is 
 not how much we ihall collecl:, but by 
 what authority the collection fhall be made. 
 
 THOSE who find that the Americans 
 cannot be fhewn in any form that may 
 raife love or pity, drefs them in habili- 
 ments of terrour, and try to make us think 
 them formidable. The Boftonians can call 
 into the field ninety thoufand men. While 
 we conquer all before us, new enemies 
 will rife up behind, and our work will be 
 always to begin. If we take pofTeffion 
 i of 
 
256 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 of the towns, the Colonifts will retire into 
 the inland regions, and the gain of vidory 
 will be only empty houfes and a wide ex- 
 tent of wafte and defolation. If we fub- 
 due them for the prefent, they will uni- 
 verfally revolt in the next war, and refign 
 us without pity to fubjedtion and deftruo 
 tion. 
 
 To all this it may be anfwered, that 
 between lofing America and refigning it, 
 there is no great difference; that it is not 
 very reafonable to jump into the fea, be- 
 caufe the {hip is leaky. All thofe evils 
 may befal us, but we need not haften 
 them. 
 
 THE Dean of Gloucefter has propofecl, 
 and feems to propofe it ferioufly, that we 
 fhould at once releafe our claims, declare 
 them mafters of themfelves, and whittle 
 them down the wind. His opinion is, 
 that our gain from them will be the fame, 
 and our expence lefs. What they can have 
 2 moft 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 257 
 
 mod cheaply from Britain, they will ftilt 
 buy, what they can fell to us at the higheft 
 price they will ftill fell. 
 
 
 IT is, however, a little hard, that having 
 fo lately fought and conquered for their 
 fafety, we fhould govern them no longer. 
 By letting them loofe before the war, 
 how many millions might have been faved. 
 One wild propofal is beft anfwered by ano- 
 ther. Let us reftore to the French what we 
 have taken from them. We fhall fee our 
 Colonifts at our feet, when they have an 
 enemy fo near them. Let us give the 
 Indians arms, and teach them difcipline, 
 and encourage them now and then to plun- 
 der a Plantation. Security and leifure are 
 the parents of fedition. 
 
 WHILE thefe different opinions are agi- 
 tated, it feems to be determined by the Le- 
 giflature, that force fhall be tried. Men 
 S gf 
 
25* TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 of the pen have feldom any great {kill in 
 conquering kingdoms, but they have ftrong 
 inclination to give advice. I cannot for- 
 bear to wi(h, that this commotion may end 
 without bloodflied, and that the rebels may 
 be fubdued by terrour rattier than by vio- 
 lence; and therefore recommend fuch a 
 force as may take away, not only the power t 
 but the hope of refiftance, and by con- 
 quering without a battle, fave many from 
 the fvvord. 
 
 IF their obftinacy continues without 
 actual hoftilities, it may perhaps be mol- 
 lified by turning out the foldiers to free 
 quarters, forbidding any perfonal cruelty 
 or hurt. It has been propofed, that the 
 flaves fhould be fet free, an acT: which 
 furely the lovers of liberty cannot but com- 
 mend. If they are furnifhed with fire- 
 arms for defence, and utenfils for hufband- 
 ry, and fettled in fome fimple form of go- 
 vernment within the country, they may 
 5 be 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 259 
 
 be more grateful and- .honeft than their 
 mafters. 
 
 FAR be it from any Englifliman to third 
 for the blood of his fellow- fubjects. Thofe 
 who moft deferve our refentment are un- 
 happily at lefs diftance. The Americans, 
 when the Stamp Act was firft propofed, 
 undoubtedly difliked it, as every nation 
 diflikes an impoft ; but they had no thought 
 of refitting it, till they were encou- 
 raged and incited by European intelligence 
 from men whom they thought their friends, 
 but who were friends only to themfelves, 
 
 ON the original contrivers of mifchief 
 let an infulted nation pour out its ven- 
 geance. With whatever defign they have 
 inflamed this pernicious conteft, they are 
 themfelves equally deteftable ; If they wifh 
 fuccefs to the Colonies, they are traitors to 
 this country, if they wifh their de- 
 feat, they are traitors at once to America 
 and England. To them and them only 
 S 2 muft 
 
260 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 muft be imputed the interruption of com- 
 merce, and the miferies of war, the for* 
 row of thofe that fhall be ruined, and the 
 blood of thofe that fhall fall. vl 
 
 SINCE the Americans have made it ne- 
 ceffary to fubdue them, may they be fub- 
 clued with the leaft injury poffible to their 
 perfons and their pofleffions. When they 
 are reduced to obedience, may that obedi- 
 ence be fecured by ftriter laws and ftronger 
 obligations. 
 
 NOTHING can be more noxious to fo- 
 ciety, than that erroneous clemency, which, 
 when a rebellion is fuppreffed, exads no 
 forfeiture and eftablifhes no fecurities, but 
 leaves the rebels in their former ftate. Who 
 would not try the experiment which pro- 
 mifes advantage without expence ? If re- 
 bels once obtain a victory, their wilhes are 
 accomplifhed ; if they are defeated, they 
 fufFer Uttle, perhaps lefs than their con- 
 querors; however often they play the 
 
 game, 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 261 
 
 game, the chance is always in their favour. 
 In the mean time, they are growing rich 
 by victualing the troops that we have fent 
 againft them, and perhaps gain more by 
 the refidence of the army than they lofe 
 by the obftrudion of their port. 
 
 THEIR charters being now, I fuppofe, 
 legally forfeited, may be modelled as fliall 
 appear mod commodious to the Mother- 
 country. Thus the privileges, which are 
 found by experience liable to mifufe, will 
 be taken away, and thofe who now bel- 
 low as patriots, blufter as foldiers, and 
 domineer as legiflators, will fink into fober 
 merchants and filent planters, peaceably 
 diligent, and fecurely rich. 
 
 BUT there is one writer, and perhaps 
 many who do not write, to whom the con- 
 tra&ion of thefe pernicious privileges ap-* 
 pears very dangerous, and who ftartle at 
 the thoughts of England free and America 
 
 in 
 
262 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 a/I chains. Children fly from their own 
 fhadow, and rhetoricians are frighted by 
 their own voices. Chains is undoubtedly 
 a dreadful word ; but perhaps the mafters 
 of civil wifdom may difcover fome gra- 
 dations between chains and anarchy. 
 Chains need not be put upon thofe who 
 will be reftrained without them. This con- 
 teft may end in the fofter phrafe of Eng- 
 lilh Superiority and American Obedience, 
 
 WE are told, that the fubjection of 
 Americans may tend to the diminution of 
 our own liberties: an event, which none 
 but very perfpicacious politicians are able 
 to forcfee. If flavery be thus fatally con- 
 tagious, how is it that we hear the loudeft 
 yelps for liberty among the drivers of ney 
 groes ? 
 
 BUT let us interrupt a while this dream 
 of conqueft, fettlement, and fupremacy. 
 J_et us remember that being to contend, 
 
 according 
 
TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 263 
 
 according to one orator, with three mil- 
 lions of Whigs, and according to another, 
 with ninety thoufand patriots of Maffa- 
 chufet's Bay, we may poflibly be checked 
 in our career of reduction. We may be 
 reduced to peace upon equal terms, or 
 driven from the weftern continent, and 
 forbidden to violate a fecond time the hap- 
 py borders of the land of liberty. The 
 time is now perhaps at hand, which Sir 
 Thomas Brown predicted between jeft and 
 earned, 
 
 When America jkall no more fend out her triafure> 
 Butfpend it at home In American pleafure. 
 
 IF we are allowed upon our defeat to 
 ftipulate conditions, I hope the treaty of 
 Bofton will permit us to import into the 
 confederated Cantons ftich products as they 
 do not raife, and fuch manufactures as 
 they do not make, and cannot buy cheaper 
 from other nations, paying like others the 
 appointed cuftoms; that if an Englifh fhip 
 
 falutes 
 
264 TAXATION NO TYRANNY. 
 
 falutes a fort with four guns, it (hall be 
 anfwered at lead with two; and that if 
 an Engliihman be inclined to hold a plant- 
 ation, he fhall only take an oath of alle- 
 giance to the reigning powers, and be fuf- 
 fered, while he lives inoffenfively, to re- 
 tain his own opinion of Englifh rights, 
 unmolefted in his confcience by an oath of 
 abjuration. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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