Y 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 O N T H E 
 MEASURES CARRYING ON 
 
 WITH RESPECT TO THE 
 
 I N 
 
 NORTH AMERICA. 
 The SECOND EDITION. 
 
 WITH 
 
 ADDITIONS and an APPENDIX 
 
 Relative to the pi dent STATE of AFFAIRS 
 
 on that CONTINENT. 
 
 There is neither King or Sovereign Lord en 
 earthy 'who has beyond his own domain 
 power to lay one farthing en his Subjects 
 'without the grant and confent of tbofe, 
 'who pay it , unlefs he does it by_ tyranny 
 and 'violence. 
 
 Philippe de Commines, Ch. 108. 
 
 LONDON, 
 
 Printed for R. BALDWIN, Pater-nofter Row ; E. and C. 
 DILLY, in the Poultry; J. JOHNSON, St. Paul's 
 Church-Yard; RICHARDSON and Co. at the Royal 
 Exchange; and J. ALMON, Piccadiilv,
 
 '*-)-* *Fbefr$ Edition of this Book having 
 been haftily printed in the country on account 
 of fome bills relative to the fubjeft then de- 
 fending in Parliament^ there were in it 
 bejides many errors of the prefs fome omiffions -> 
 tkefe latter are fupplied in the prefent edition 
 by the Author together with the addition of 
 an APPENDIX. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 P.-'ge i, line 11, for the read their 
 
 i jo, 4, for did honour read did an I'snour 
 
 ,_. nj, i, for Jft&s read IfeU 
 * An error in the paging from 56 to 65
 
 R(* 
 
 i! f 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS, 
 
 one knows > how far evei 7 
 
 perfoii in Britain may be in- 
 r * 
 
 terefled in the event of the 
 
 r 
 
 meafures now carrying on 
 with refpeft to our colonies in North 
 America. This feems to entitle any man 
 on account of his own ftake therein to 
 fpeak his fentiments on the fubje6l. The 
 concern of the community gives to them 
 likewife for the better fecurity a claim, 
 that every opinion may be offered for 
 confideration. Thefe things refult from 
 the nature of a free fociety and particu- 
 B larlv
 
 larly from the conftitution of Great Bri- 
 tain, where the people chufe one part of 
 the legiflature and where every man is 
 fuppofed to have ultimately a fharc in the 
 government of his country. 
 
 One point in difpute between us and 
 the Americans is the right of taxing them 
 here at home. This may be faid to con- 
 cern the power of our parliament. But 
 fo does every general proportion of right 
 and wrong. When any thing is affirmed 
 to be unjuft, does not it include and is 
 not it almoft fynonimous to the faying, 
 that a law made to enforce it would be fo 
 too and beyond the proper power of a 
 legiflature ? Vengeance and punifhment 
 do in the courfc of things afmredly pur- 
 fue dates and nations for their oppreffion 
 and injuftice ; againft the commifllon of 
 which it is beyond queftion the right of 
 every member of the community to warn 
 the reft. 
 
 I fay
 
 t 3 1 
 
 I fay it with fubmifiion, but the power 
 of the parliament is the right of the pub- 
 lic. The particular members of that moft 
 refpeclable body are in the ftatutes enac- 
 ted by them no more perfonally inter- 
 cfted, than the reft of their country men. 
 Thefe pafs through their hands, but be- 
 ing fo pafled, they are themfelves bound to 
 obey them in common with others. They 
 are indeed our truftees and guardians in 
 that high office, but they will on that 
 account be the more inclined, that every 
 ilep taken or to be taken by them fhould 
 be fully and carefully examined, like all 
 other honeft men earnefl for the interefl 
 of thofe, whofe concerns are committed 
 to their care. 
 
 A confideration of the meafures rrcw 
 propofed may like wife pcflibly lead to- 
 wards fome nice and delicate conjunctures 
 or circumftances, whether of the prefent 
 time or of that to come. But it need-not 
 B 2 1C
 
 f 4 ] 
 
 be faid, that the writer only finds the 
 one and gueffes at the other j they depend 
 on an author much higher than Princes 
 or their minifters, but who is pleafed to 
 fuffer the actions of thefe to have mofb 
 ciTential effects in the producing them. 
 What can then be a more fit means to 
 induce a due reflection on our proceed- 
 ings and to infure from them a dcfirable 
 fuccefs, than to lay before the public or 
 the governors of it fome poffible confe- 
 quences of their conduct ? 
 
 We have not far to feek for the caufe 
 of the prefent fituation of things between 
 the mother-country and our colonies of 
 North America; of the oppofition and 
 diflurbances on the one hand and of the 
 violent laws, motions and preparations 
 on the other. Thefe all undoubtedly pro- 
 ceed from our having taxed thofe colonies 
 without their confent. A perfect affec- 
 tion and union obtained between us, un- 
 til
 
 f 5 ] 
 
 til this was done j that attempt immedi- 
 ately (Hired up animofity and oppofition. 
 However thefe fubfided and peace and 
 fatisfaftion were again reflored on our 
 Haying our hands. We are now once more 
 come back to the charge and the fpirit of 
 difcord feems likewife returned feven times 
 ftronger, than it was before. Other broils 
 and contefts may and many no doubt will 
 arife from this caufe, fhould it proceed ; 
 but this is the origin, the fpring and the 
 fource. 
 
 The right itfelf of this meafure is in 
 queftion, as well as the expediency of it ; 
 I will therefore prefume to fay fomething 
 to that proportion. The inhabitants of 
 our colonies in North America are fup- 
 pofcd to confift of about two millions of 
 perfons. They occupy and pofiefs a very 
 extenfive territory, much larger than 
 Great Britain. They are not themfelves 
 the original people of the country, -but 
 B 3 they
 
 [ 6 ] 
 
 they now ftand in their place. They have 
 in general been born and bred there, how- 
 ever they receive likewife yearly from other 
 places many, who mix themfelves with 
 them. They have divided themfelves into 
 feveral different governments. They have 
 according to certain rules or laws agreed 
 /upon among them allotted every man his 
 own. They have felled the forefts . They 
 have cleared and tilled the land, they have 
 planted it, they have fown it, they have 
 flocked it with cattle. They have built 
 themfelves houfes. They have entered 
 into exchange and commerce. They have 
 fpared and faved for a future day or for 
 their families. They have by many and 
 various means acquired many and various 
 forts of property. They are by nature in- 
 titled to welfare and happinefs and to feek 
 and purfue thofe bleffings, by all the 
 methods not attended with fraud or vio- 
 lence towards others, which they fhall 
 believe the moft probable to procure or 
 
 enfure
 
 [ 7 1 
 
 enfurc them. They have for that end a 
 right to freedom in their governments 
 and to fecurity in their perfbns and pro- 
 perties. None are warranted to deprive 
 or difpoffefs them of thefe things. Should 
 on the contrary one man or a body of 
 men advance any claim, which tended to 
 enilave all the perfons or to unfettle all 
 the property of this great community, to 
 divert them of every thing, which they 
 pofTefs and to leave them nothing, which 
 they could call their own of all, that they 
 have thus inherited earned or acquired ; 
 the very enormity, the evil and unna- 
 tural confequences of fuch a proportion 
 would of themielves fufficiently fhew 
 its abfurdity, weaknefs and unreafona-1 
 blenefs. 
 
 Thefe are all either primary, efTential, 
 
 inherent rights of human nature or fuch 
 
 as do with refpeft to perfons in the fitu- 
 
 atien before defcribed neceffarily flow 
 
 B 4 and
 
 and follow from them. Thofe were con- 
 ferred upon them by the great Author of 
 their being j when he was pleafed to en- 
 dow them with the faculties of men, with 
 the perception of good and evil, with the 
 means of felf- prefervation and felf- de- 
 fence, with the organs of rcafon and of 
 fpeech and with a capacity to affociate 
 themfelves for their mutual protection 
 and fupport. They are common to all 
 mankind j they fubfift at all times, in all 
 regions and all climates ; in Turkey, in 
 Spain, in France, in Old England and 
 in New, in Europe and in America ; 
 whenever and wherever a number of men 
 are found to be the objects of them, I 
 don't mean that they are in all thefe 
 places always or at this time pofTefled 
 and enjoyed as they ought to be. But 
 they are to anfwer for that, who do fo 
 commonly employ to the enflaving and 
 oppreffmg of mankind the powers, which 
 thefe intrufl only for their protection and 
 
 defence.
 
 [ 9 1 
 
 defence. However this is only atmfe, 
 violence and injuftice ; the right never- 
 thelefs fubfiils and remains. 
 
 It is not on this fubject necefTary to en- 
 ter into any minute detail of reafoning or 
 long and learned difcourfe on the law of 
 nature. Thefe principles are with us com- 
 mon and publick ; they are founded on 
 the good, the welfare and the happinefs 
 of mankind. They were the principles of 
 our anceftors, of our grandfathers and of 
 our fathers. They may not perhaps be 
 at prefent in their full vigour; how- 
 ever, I truft, that they are not yet fo 
 worn out or loft from among us, but 
 that they ftill remain the principles of 
 the nation. They are to defcribe them by 
 a word well known in our language the 
 principles of .Whigs. Whereby I don't 
 however mean of certain modern Whigs, 
 who feem more fond of the word, than, 
 of any thing belonging to the character 5 
 
 who
 
 who have perhaps at one time or otter 
 of their lives counteracted all the meafures 
 and contradicted all the principles that 
 ever did honour to the name ; but I mean 
 of Whigs before the Revolution and at 
 the time of it ; I mean the principles which 
 fuch men as Mr. Locke, Lord Molefworth 
 and Mr. Trenchard maintained with their 
 pens, Mr. Hampden and Lord John 
 Ruflel with their blood and Mr. Algernon 
 Sydney with both -, names, which muft 
 furely by all Engliflimen be ever revered, 
 as thofe of fome of the firft among men. 
 But let me add, that they are not only 
 the principles of fpeculative (Indents in 
 their clofets or of great but unfortunate 
 men, whom their zeal and virtue have lead 
 to martyrdom for the liberties of their 
 country and the welfare of mankind j but 
 that they are like wife the real principles 
 of our prefent actual Government, the 
 principles of the Revolution and thofe on 
 which are eftabliihed the throne of the 
 
 King
 
 [ II ] 
 
 King and the fettlement of the Illuflrious 
 Family now reigning over us. 
 
 On the fame principles reft both in ge- 
 neral many rights of the Americans and 
 in particular the. right now before us. 
 Thefe are hereby involved and interwoven 
 with our higheft and moft facred con- 
 cerns . We cannot lift up our hands to 
 take them away without forfeiting our 
 national character, without renouncing 
 the tenets and maxims whereon we have 
 on our moft important and critical occa- 
 fions ever acled, as a People, without 
 declaring that we claim a right to refift 
 and oppofe all th.ofe, who opprefs us our- 
 felves and at the fame time to trample 
 upon and tyrannize over all others, where 
 we hope, that we have the power to do 
 it with impunity. 
 
 But it may be faid, that thefe are in- 
 deed in themfelves very true and com- 
 mendable
 
 t ] 
 
 mendable opinions j but that they are 
 here introduced on fubjecls not worthy 
 of them, a duty of a few (hillings upon 
 fome forts of paper or parchment and of 
 a few pence upon a pound 'of Tea, Let us 
 therefore more particularly confider the 
 nature of the claim and p retention in 
 queftion. Suppofe then one perfon to 
 have in his pecket an hundred pounds, 
 but another to have the right to take it 
 from him and to put it into his own 
 pocket or to do with it what he pleafes ; 
 to whom does that money belong ? This 
 needs no anfwer. Suppofe the fum to be 
 a thoufand or ten thoufand pounds ? That 
 makes no difference. Suppofe one perfon 
 to have a right to demand of another not 
 only one certain fum or what he has about 
 him, but as much as he pleafes and as 
 often ? This goes to the all of that other. 
 But fuppofe not one tingle perfon only to 
 be fiibjecl to fuch demands from one 
 other, but a number of men, a colony, 
 
 or
 
 [ 13 ] 
 
 or any other community to be fo fubjec~l 
 to the demands of fome other fociety. 
 What then ? Why then that will go in 
 like manner to their all. This feems to 
 be fo evident, that whoever fhall multiply 
 words on the fubjec~l, will hardly do it 
 for the fake of being convinced. 
 
 But is this cafe, that of the Americans ; 
 for if it is faid that the money raifed on 
 them is to be employed for their own 
 benefit, in their civil fervice or military 
 defence ? Let me afk then, Who are in 
 their cafe to determine, whether any mo- 
 ney is at all wanted for fuch purpofes ; 
 they who pay it or they who take it ? They 
 who take it. Who are to determine the 
 quantity wanted ? They who take it. 
 Who are to determine, how often it is 
 wanted ? They who take it. Who are 
 to determine, whether it is really laid out 
 in the purpofes pretended ? They who 
 take it. Supuofe the Americans ihould 
 
 be
 
 t 14 ] 
 
 be of opinion or declare, that the money 
 fo raifed is ufed not for their advantage 
 but the contrary ; is that a bar to the 
 raifing ? No. Suppofe them to complain, 
 that the money pretended to be laid out 
 in their civil fervice is given to corrupt 
 their Governors or Judges ; is that a bar 
 to the raifing? No. Suppofe them to 
 fignify, that the money alledged to be 
 ufed in their military defence is employed 
 in paying troops to enflave them and 
 which they had rather be without , is 
 that a bar to the raifing ? No. Wherein 
 then does this differ from will and plea- 
 fure in the moft abfoute fenfe ? 
 
 This claim affects therefore moft clearly 
 the all of the Americans. Two millions 
 of people fubject to twelve different 
 Governments or more and inhabiting, 
 poffefling and being mailers of a country 
 exceedingly larger than that of thofc, who 
 make the claim or in whofe name it is 
 
 made
 
 [ '5 ] 
 
 made, have on this ground no property 
 at all, nothing which they can truly call 
 their own, nothing but what may at any 
 time be demanded of them, but what they 
 may be deprived of without and againfl 
 their will and confent. It cannot there- 
 fore furely be made a queftion whether 
 or no, this is a matter of fuch P magni- 
 tude as to deferve the moll ferious difcuf- 
 0ion ; but it might here be without fur- 
 ther words left to the immediate determi- 
 nation of every man, whether it is on the 
 one hand a reafonable ground, whereon to 
 put into confufion all the parts of the 
 Britiih empire, to throw the mother coun- 
 try and her North American colonies into 
 the moil deadly feuds and perhaps a 
 direct war with one another or whether 
 it is not on the other hand a propofi- 
 tion inconfiflent with the eflential laws 
 of nature, fubverfive of the firfl and 
 inherent rights of humanity, contrary to 
 the principles whereon our forefathers 
 
 defended
 
 t 16 ] 
 
 i 
 
 defended and under the fanclion of 
 which they have through many civil wars 
 and with the depofition, banifhmcnt and 
 change of many Princes delivered down 
 to us the rights and properties, which 
 Englifhmen now enjoy. 
 
 But it is in this difpute very often re- 
 prefented ; that a total and abfolute de- 
 pendence on the Britim Parliament with- 
 out any exception whatfoever either with 
 regard to taxes or any other is liberty it- 
 felf; it is Britim liberty, which is the 
 beft of liberty. I anfwer, who fays other- 
 wife in the cafe of us, who chufe that 
 Parliament ; but that in fome other cafes, 
 this pofition may perhaps be more liable 
 to quefKon. Our North- American colo- 
 nies are as to their internal conflitution 
 
 V 
 
 a very free people, as free as the Vene- 
 -ti ans > tne Dutch or the Swifs or perhaps 
 more fo than any of them. This proceeds 
 from their AfTemblies being not only the 
 
 nominal
 
 nominal but the real Reprefentatives, of 
 thofe whom they govern. Thefe are 
 elected fairly, fully and often. In thefe 
 AfTemblies their liberty confifts and it is 
 certainly true and genuine. But change \_0 *\ 
 the fcene a little ; let any one Colony be ~:x- 
 taxed and governed not by their own but 
 by the Aflembly of another j what is then 
 become of this their genuine liberty ? It 
 is loft and gone with their own Aflembly. 
 Let all the Colonies be fo fub jeered to the 
 Aflembly of fome one among them. That 
 won't mend the matter. Let us take a 
 larger fcale. Suppofe this power over 
 them to be lodged in the Parliament of 
 Ireland. We are never the nearer. Let 
 us come towards home. Were the king- & / 
 
 o /4-* ^*-*-*- 
 
 dom of Ireland under the taxation and 
 
 <? . 
 
 direction of the Britifh Parliament would ' 
 they then think themfelves to" be very 
 free ? For an anfwer to this queflion en- 
 quire of one of that country. Place then 
 the Irifh under one of the Aflemblies be- 
 C fore
 
 fore mentioned. They would be yet fur- 
 ther from home and it might not be better 
 with them. Let us take our own turn. 
 Suppofe Great-Britain on the like condi- 
 tions under the Parliament of Ireland. 
 God forbid. I think that I have but one 
 more point, before that I am at an end of 
 my combination. Place over our heads 
 with all thefe powers in their full force 
 the AfTembly of MafTachufets-Bay, what 
 then ? I fancy that we fhould foon change 
 a certain language and fing another fong, 
 than what we do at prefent. Let me then 
 moft ferioufly queflion any man, from 
 whofe breafl all camlour and juftice are 
 not totally banifhed ; where is as to li- 
 berty or property the difference between 
 any of the cafes now fuppofed and that 
 original one which has given occafion to 
 them. I fpeak this no otherwife than 
 with the utmolt reverence and refpecl: to- 
 wards our own legiflature - y but are we to 
 conceive or would it be a compliment to 
 
 them
 
 f '9 1 
 
 them or does any one mean to fay, that 
 they are not men or that they are to be 
 excepted and exempted from the reafons 
 and the rules, which obtain and take place 
 in the cafe of all the reft of mankind ? 
 
 One of the long robe may perhaps de- 
 mand the exact time when thefe rights 
 begin in rifing and growing ftates to take 
 place and how many years, months and 
 days a colony muft be firft fettled. I may 
 venture to promife to refolve fuch an one ; 
 when he fhall tell me in how many years, 
 months and days an oaken plant grows to 
 be an oaken tree or a boy becomes a 
 man j which feem to be two much eafier 
 questions. The boundaries are feldom 
 nicely diftinguifhable, where nature prp- 
 ceeds with an even and cenftant hand. 
 But it is not difficult to anfwer that the 
 event has already taken place, when near 
 two millions of people are in full and 
 peaceable poileilion of fuch a country as 
 C 2 is
 
 [ 20 ] 
 
 is occupied by our North-American co- 
 lonies. 
 
 It may likewife be aHced, whether thefe 
 laws are applicable to all cafes of private 
 property between man and man. But 
 the full reiolution of this queilion might 
 demand a Spanim cafuift or a book as 
 big as a volume of our flatutes at large. 
 Any man may for me amufe himfelf with 
 trying the titles of nations to the territo- 
 ries and pofTeflions, which they fill, enjoy 
 and inhabit, as he would do thofe between 
 man and man about a houfe and garden 
 and fhould the procefs in the mil cafe laft 
 as long in proportion, as one does in the 
 latter before fome Courts of Juftice in 
 Europe, the defendants need not perhaps 
 defire a longer or furer pofTeflion. 
 
 But may not thefe principles go far, if 
 carried to the extent ? That is indeed a 
 very ferious queftion and perhaps well 
 
 worthy
 
 [ 21 ] 
 
 worthy of confideration. Our colonies 
 are content that we fliould at our plea- 
 fure regulate their trade provided that 
 what we do is bona fide, really, truly and 
 fmcerely for that purpofe and that only - 
 but they deny that we fhall tax them. 
 They aflent and agree to the firfl 5 but 
 they abfolutely refufe the laft. Thefe two 
 different points do likewife not fland on 
 the fame foundation; they have to the 
 one fubmitted ever fince their origin ; it 
 
 has been corroborated by their perpetual 
 
 . 
 and conftant confent and acquiefcence j 
 
 the other is a novelty, againft which they 
 have from its firfl: attempt moil ftrongly 
 protefted and acled. Why cannot we 
 therefore content us with the line drawn 
 by theirii r elves and with the prefent eita- 
 blifliment, from which we receive fuch 
 prodigious benefit and advantage now 
 arifmg and yearly encreafing ? But may 
 not they in time extend their objections 
 to this alfo ? The courfe of things and 
 3 the
 
 [ 22 ] 
 
 the flux of years will certainly produce 
 very many things more extraordinary than 
 that. All the whole of our colonies muft 
 no doubt one day without force or vio- 
 lence fall off from the parent Hate, like 
 ripe fruit in the maturity of time. The 
 earth itfelf having had a beginning, can- 
 not but decay likewife, pafs away and 
 have an end. But why fhould we be over- 
 curious about objects perhaps very far 
 remote and difturb ourfelves about a fu- 
 turity which does not affect us and the 
 diflance of which, we don't know nor 
 can divine. Why fhould we fhake the 
 fruit unripe from the tree, becaufe it will 
 of courfe drop off, when it fhall in due 
 feafon have become fit and ripe for that 
 purpofe ? Every time has its own circum- 
 ftances, according to which the events of 
 it muft be provided for, when they hap- 
 pen. That cannot now be done. New 
 and unreafonable demands, injuftlce, op- 
 pieflion, violence on our parts will for- 
 ward
 
 ward and haften thefe events even before 
 their time ; let us withold our hands 
 from thefe things ; we have never yet on 
 this fubject had reafon to boaft ourfelves 
 of fuch expedients nor, let me add, ever 
 to repent us of the contrary conducl. 
 There are no doubt in all governments 
 many moft important points unfettled and 
 undetermined ; fuch in particular as re- 
 late to the limits between the power of the 
 Sovereign' and the obedience of the Sub- 
 je6t. This muft always be the cafe be- 
 tween Kings and their People, principal 
 States and their Dependencies, Mother 
 Countries and their Colonies. It is very 
 much the part of every prudent ruler, 
 whether the firfl Minifter of a Prince or 
 any other to avoid with the utmoft care 
 and folicitude all meafures, which may 
 poflibly bring any fuch critical circuiri- 
 ftances into public debate and difpute. It 
 is always a bad fign when fuch conteils 
 ariie ; they cannot do fo without the dif- 
 C 4 order
 
 [ 24 ] 
 
 order of the whole, but they are to the 
 Sovereign in particular ever dangerous 
 and often fatal. They may perhaps be 
 compared to gunpowder, than whofe grain 
 nothing is more harmlefs, while it is at 
 reft j but let it by the application of fire 
 be put into action and it will make the 
 wildeil ravages all around or overthrow 
 the ftrongen: bulwarks and fortifications. 
 To how many of thefe queftions did our 
 Charles the Firft give in his time rife or 
 occafion and how dearly did he abide it ! 
 How many points of this fort are unde- 
 termined between Great-Britain and Ire- 
 land, which are now to our mutual com- 
 fort entirely dormant, but which fcarted 
 and purfued with obftinacy and eagernefs 
 might make one or both of the iflands to 
 run with blood. They need perhaps be 
 no further looked for, than certain doc- 
 trines formerly advanced by Mr. Moly- 
 neux on the one hand and the law of 
 Poinings on the other. But it has pleafed 
 
 Provi-
 
 Providence to flicker us hitherto from this 
 mifchief. Many months are not perhap s 
 parled, fincc we did not want an opportu- 
 nity to have engaged in one fuch. The alte- 
 rations of a late bill from that country were 
 only accidental. However does any one 
 doubt, whether fome forward man might 
 not have been found, who would have 
 furnimed reafons better or worfe to main- 
 tain the claim of making them, if fuch an 
 one had been fought for. But how much 
 more prudent was our conduct on the 
 occafion ? If peace and harmony are then 
 fo beneficial and defirable between Great- 
 Britain and Ireland and the meafures pro- 
 ducing or infuring them good, upright 
 and wife ; why do thefe things alter their 
 nature, when they are applied to America ? 
 The prefent accurfed queftion between us 
 and our colonies how long was it un- 
 known or unthought of! Who heard of 
 it from the firft rife of thofe fettlements, 
 until a Yery few years ago ; that a fatal 
 
 attempt
 
 [ 26 ] 
 
 attempt forced it into notice and import- 
 ance. But it is now already fetting at 
 work fleets and armies ; it threatens the 
 eonfufion and perhaps the deftmclion of 
 both countries and but too probably of 
 one of them ; although God only knows 
 whether the calamity will fall on that of 
 the two, which many men may now ima- 
 gine and believe to be the mofl in danger. 
 This point is not alone ; there are other 
 queftions of the fame fort, concerning 
 which no man now difturbs himfelf ; but 
 which flirred and ftarted by new demands 
 or any other means might in like manner 
 band againft one another Great- Britain 
 and its Colonies. Princes and States ne- 
 ver do better, than when their claims are 
 not fathomed nor if I may ufe the expref- 
 fion, the bottom of them over-curioufly 
 founded and examined. The terms of 
 .municipal laws ufually favour the Sove- 
 reign ; they are often framed or drawn 
 by his creatures and dependants. The 
 
 4 aw
 
 [ '7 ] 
 
 law_of .nature is more commonly in fup- 
 port of the people and the public ; it is 
 the production of him who fees with an 
 equal eye, Prince and Subject, High and 
 Low, European and American. God 
 forbid, that two fuch parts of the Britifh 
 empire, as the mother-country and her 
 colonies mould in our times divide and 
 contend againft one another on the fanc- 
 tion of thefe two different laws, which 
 ought in every ftate to be conftantly 
 blended and united and which can never 
 without the utter diforder and confufion 
 thereof be made to ftrike and to clam 
 againft each other. Whenever that mail 
 happen, let us be allured, that we are 
 turning towards our ruin and deilrulion, 
 thofe very means which ought moil to 
 ferve us for our peace, fafety and pro- 
 tection. 
 
 I have hitherto on the law of nature 
 and the common rights of humanity con- 
 
 fidered
 
 fidered the claim of the Americans not to 
 be taxed by us here in England. It refts 
 firmly on that foundation ; but I don't 
 mean to fay that it refts on that only. 
 Could this be removed, there would yet 
 remain another on which it would never- 
 thelefs Hand fure and unfhaken ; I mean 
 that of the Special Constitution of Great- 
 Britain, which does herein moft juftly 
 and wifely coincide with the general con- 
 ftitution of humanity and require that 
 the property of no man living under its 
 protection fhould without his confent by 
 himfelf or reprefentative be taken from 
 him or according to the language of the 
 times, that reprefentation ihould go along 
 with taxation. 
 
 But this argument has particularly been 
 in the hands of the firfl men of our times. 
 They have fet it in its full light and their 
 authority has recommended it to the at- 
 tention of their country. It is well known 
 
 and
 
 and well underflood and I am perfuaded 
 that it is unanfwerable. But I bear more 
 refpecl both to thole perfons and to the 
 public, than to go over it again fo much 
 to its difadvantage. I will therefore beg 
 leave only to aflame this reafon and to 
 join it to my former; when the right of 
 the Americans will ftand on this double 
 foundation of the general law of nature 
 and of the particular conilitution of 
 Great-Britain. 
 
 However it has been faid, that the 
 Americans arc in our Parliament virtu- 
 ally reprefented. How that mould be 
 when they are not really fo, I mall leave t 
 to be explained by thofe who advance it. ^ 
 But God forbid, that the condition of 
 Britifh fubjecls mould ever be fuch, as 
 for a whole people of them to be in danger 
 of being ftripped of all their properties 
 only by the logick of fuch an unmeaning 
 word or diftinction, as that is. 
 
 But
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
 But what are then the precife bounds 
 and limits of real reprefentation ? I will 
 cxcufe myfelf from entering into that 
 queflion. But will an American fcruple 
 to fay j that if in any future time things 
 fhould here at home be from their prefent 
 ftate fo far changed and the conftitution 
 of Great Britain fo loft, that a great ma- 
 jority of its Reprcfentatives fhall be named 
 only by a handful of needy men ; that 
 they fhall moft evidently and moil notori- 
 oufly be both chofen by a corrupt and 
 undue influence and be afterwards guided 
 and governed by the fame ; will he not 
 fay, that it may at that diftant day better 
 become fuch a mock Reprefentative to 
 prove their right of taxing Britain, than 
 to pretend to tax America ? I will withal 
 add as an Englishman, that arguments 
 tending to demonflrate, that the Houfe 
 of Commons does not in its prefent ftate 
 reprefent us inhabiting here, murr. be 
 moil flrange ones to produce for the 
 
 proving,
 
 [ 3' J 
 
 proving, that it does reprefent our colo- 
 nies lying beyond the Atlantic Ocean; 
 that fuch points feem much more proper 
 to raife fcruples among ourfelves at home> 
 than to fatisfy and appeafe thofe of peo- 
 ple abroad. (See Tucker's Four Traces, 
 page 103.) I could on this fubjecl: fpeak 
 more plainly and explicitly, if I would, 
 but I avoid it. 
 
 So much for conient and reprefentation. 
 But there is another ground, whereon the 
 Americans likewife rely, which is that of 
 their own provincial charters. I fhall 
 leave the particulars ot this fubjecl: to 
 themfelves, who are belt acquainted with 
 them. However I will in general fay, 
 that thefe charters are no doubt in aid 
 and afliflance of the two fanctions before 
 mentioned very properly brought for the 
 fhortening and filencing of difputes and 
 debates by the producing the fpecial au- 
 thority of government. But they mull 
 
 be
 
 be interpreted by thofe before-mentioned 
 and confiftently with them. They can- 
 not be conftrued fo as to overturn the 
 others. It would be the moft downright 
 abfurdity and the moft direct contradic- 
 tion in itfelf, to talk of a Grant or Patent 
 or Charter of rights given to any one to 
 take away all the rights he had in the 
 world, to confer on him the privilege of 
 having nothing of his own now nor of 
 being able to acquire any fuch thing in 
 time to come, neither he himfelf or his 
 pofterity after him. Every thing of this 
 kind muft be underftood fo as to coincide 
 with the original, inherent rights of any 
 fmgle perfon or community, whether as 
 men or as Britons. 
 
 Charters would without doubt be for 
 fome purpofes very effectual, if every 
 thing would take place as it is written on 
 a paper or parchment. Suppofe a parcel 
 of miferable people ftarved out of their 
 
 native
 
 [ 33 ] 
 
 native country or perfecutcd and profe- * 
 cuted there, becaufe they don't believe juft ( *~ 
 what fome other men do or pretend to & 
 do ; that they cannot leave their homes 
 without the confent of their periecutors ; 
 that they muft take with them a piece of 
 parchment ; did their tyrants write there- 
 on, that their defcendants mail go upon 
 all fours, mail be born with hoofs inftead 
 of hands and with inftincl inftead of rea- 
 fon and the faculty of fpeech and that 
 thefe things would ib happen ; this might 
 to be fure give very notable powers over 
 them. They might then be yoked as 
 horned cattle, faddled and bridled as 
 horfes or fleeced and fheared as fheep. 
 The difference in the fpecies would na- 
 turally and necefiarily effect this. But 
 nothing of it all will come to pafs j this 
 future offspring will notwithftanding be 
 born with the nature, the qualities and 
 the talents and confequently with the 
 claims, the rights and the privileges of 
 D ' men.
 
 t 34 ] ' 
 
 men. However fuppofe thefe ftrange 
 terms to be on account of the abfurdity 
 of them dropped, but that there are in- 
 ftead really entered on the parchment 
 or charter fuch an arbitrary fuperiority, 
 fuch defpotic and uncontroulable powers 
 and prerogatives over thefe poor people and 
 their poflerity, as are only fitting, fuit- 
 able and analogous to the former cir- 
 cumftances ; will this in right or in Tea- 
 Ton be a whit more valid than the other 
 or where is the fenfe or juftice in de- 
 manding fucli enormous confequences, 
 when we are forbidden the unnatural 
 premifesj from which alone they can fol- 
 low ? Suppofe that it was on a paper or 
 parchment written in fair characters; 
 that the horfes and other cattle of the 
 New Foreft in Hampshire mould have to 
 them and their heirs for ever the faid 
 Foreft and it might be added to hold in 
 free foccage of the manor of Eaft Green^ 
 
 wich 3 fuppofe that dents were made in 
 
 the
 
 ' [ 35 1 
 
 the paper or parchment and a ftamp put 
 upon it and that it was figned, fealed and 
 delivered as an ac~l and deed ; what would 
 be the effecl ? It will be anfwered that 
 it would be a thing to laugh at j for how 
 Ihould brute beafts take property, who 
 have neither underftanding or capacity 
 or any means for that purpofe j that it 
 would be contrary to nature for them fo 
 to do. But let me demand in my turn, 
 where is the difference as to the effect, 
 whether it is written that beafts mail 
 become men or that men mail become 
 beafts ; that a herd of beafts mail be able 
 to take and hold property or that a com- 
 munity of men (hall not ? The one is juft 
 as contrary to nature as the other. It 
 might indeed be a happy day for defpo- 
 tifm, could fuch things be done ; but 
 they are beyond its ftrength. The great 
 Author of the world has for the tranfcen- 
 dent purpofes of his unfathomable wif- 
 dom placed in the hearts of men pride, 
 D 2 ambition.
 
 [ 36 ] 
 
 ambition, avarice and felf-intereft j but 
 he has at the fame time been pleafed with 
 his moft benevolent hand and by the laws 
 of nature and the courfe of things to 
 appoint bounds to the power of thefe 
 paflions, which they can no more furpafs, 
 than the fea can exceed its Ihores. 
 
 So much for charters in general. How- 
 ever I will likewife fay fomething con- 
 cerning one particular charter before I 
 leave the fubjecl. When the havock hap- 
 pened among charters in England a fhort 
 time before the revolution and which 
 contributed not a little to produce that 
 event, America was not fpared. About 
 the year fixteen hundred eighty-four a 
 quo warranto was on that head ifTued 
 againft MafTachufet's-Bay. Some of the 
 colonies did on the like occafion give way 
 and throw themfelves on the pleafure of 
 the King. Maflachufet's-Bay refufed to 
 do this. They were ex parte and for 
 
 non-
 
 [ 37 ] 
 
 non - appearance condemned and their 
 charter ihared the fame fate as that of 
 the city of London and fo many others. 
 Four years afterwards the Revolution 
 happened. As foon as ever the news of 
 it arrived at Boflon, the colony declared 
 in favour of it. They took porTeffion of 
 King James's Governor and of the reft of 
 his creatures and fent them all home to 
 England. But then it will perhaps be 
 faid, they recovered in return their char- 
 ter. Is there almoft faith in man to 
 believe othervvife ? The other colonies 
 fared well enough, who did not with/rand 
 the will of the King and whofe charters 
 had not been vacated in a court of julHce. 
 They put them again in execution them- 
 f elves and no words were made. Our 
 own charters here at home were likewife 
 returned. But the colony of MafTachu- 
 fet's-Bay did not find the fame good 
 fortune. They went on that account firft 
 into the Convention Parliament, where 
 D 3 how-
 
 t 38 ] 
 
 however they could not get through. It 
 is well known that our Parliaments are 
 not ufually difiblved or prorogued, while 
 any bufmefs is depending, which there is 
 an inclination to pafs. They had then 
 nothing left but to beg and pray of the 
 King's Minifters. But is it credible, that 
 they could not procure the refloration of 
 their charter of thefe Revolution-Mini- 
 fters, of thefe Makers and Unmakers of 
 Kings, who had fo lately been on the 
 fame bottom with them and in whofe 
 caufe the colony had fo readily declared 
 itfelf, but who had now obtained their 
 own ends ? Tired out therefore with de- 
 lays and not being fare of the worfl that 
 might happen, they were in the end 
 obliged to accept of a new charter muti- 
 lated and caftrated of many of the moll 
 important and efTential privileges of the 
 old. I mail take notice of no other par- 
 ticulars, than that before they chofe 
 annually their own Governor, Deputy- 
 Governor
 
 t 39 ] 
 
 Governor and Secretary. Thefe were from 
 this time to be appointed during pleafure 
 by the King. Of what extreme confe- 
 quence the change in the nomination of 
 thefe their three Chief Officers has proved 
 to them, no man at all acquainted with 
 the name of MafTachufet's-Bay can be fo 
 ignorant of their hiftory, as not to be 
 informed and fenfible. Hence their dif- 
 ferences with their own Governors there 
 and with our Miniilers at home. Hence 
 their prefent military Governor and the 
 armies and fleets now gone or going 
 againft them. Hence the flrange proyi- 
 fion faid to be in agitation, that their 
 blood may not be liable to be anfwered 
 for there. They would otherwife in all 
 appearance be at this moment in the fame 
 fituation on thefe fabjedls as their neigh- 
 bours of Connecticut and Rhode-Ulanc}, 
 with whofe charters thejr own agreed, 
 until they loft it by their refinance and 
 oppofition to the will of the two laft 
 P4 Stuarts-,
 
 [ 40 ] 
 
 Stuarts ; when the others faved theirs by- 
 giving way. I fhall leave my readers to 
 judge, whether it was the good or the evil 
 contained in this poor piece of parchment 
 which thus united againft-it Stuart-Kings 
 and Revolution- Mm ifters. But this char- 
 ter muft certainly have been granted un- 
 der an unfortunate planet, if what fome 
 people lay be true ; that it is now again 
 under difpleafure at home and on the 
 t>iink of being once more reverfed and al- 
 tered. But that event has not on the 
 writing of this happened. I am therefore 
 perfectly perfwaded, that fhouid any thing 
 upon that fubjeft take place, it will on 
 the contrary be the reftoration of thofe 
 its former privileges and powers, which 
 was io unreaionably and fo unjuftly re- 
 fufed at the Revolution. But let any one 
 confider this hiilory of a charter and then 
 reile6l, whether mankind have not rea- 
 fon to blefs themfelves, that they have 
 fome rights of a higher nature than char- 
 ters,
 
 ters, fuperior to them and independent 
 of them. 
 
 But are not we the parent country? 
 That is a very refpectable word, but fo 
 likewife is the relation of it mutual. It 
 has always hitherto had its full weight 
 with our colonies of North- America and 
 will probably continue fo to have, if we 
 can content ourfelves with any tolerably 
 reafonable fenfe and ufe of it. But was 
 every matter and miftrefs of a family re- 
 fident there the immediate fon and daugh- 
 ter of a father and mother living now at 
 this time in England ; yet they being gone 
 from us and having eftablifhed themfelves 
 and got families of their own and having 
 acquired a large territory, we could by no 
 means even as true and real parents make 
 out any claim having fuch confequences, 
 as that which we advance. However the 
 facl: is very different ; they left us in for- 
 mer times a part of the public, as well
 
 [ 4? ] 
 
 as others ; they are fince become hardly 
 our coufm's coufins and no man knows 
 how far we might mount towards Adam 
 or Noah to fettle the real relation between 
 us. But was their hiftory told, as it de- 
 ferves : How they have made thefe their 
 great eflablifhments at their own charge 
 md with almofl no expence of ours : How 
 we have ever had the total command of 
 the produce of that immenfe country, fo 
 as to regulate the commerce and export- 
 ation of it merely according to our own 
 advantage and convenience j that this is 
 grown to be an object of perhaps no lefs 
 than four millions flerling a year, all 
 turned towards our profit : Could the ex- 
 treme benefit be all fet forth, which we 
 have by this means received from the firll 
 foundation of thefe colonies to this time 
 and the chearfulnefs, fidelity and loyalty 
 wherewith they have fubmitted to this;; 
 the fmcere and warm friendfhip and af- 
 fection, which they have ever born us, 
 
 while
 
 I 43 ] 
 
 while we kept ourfelves within thefe 
 bounds ; the afliftance which we have re- 
 ceived from them in war, as well as the 
 profits in peace : Could all thefe circum- 
 flances be with very many others favour- 
 able to them told and reprefented together 
 and in their full light, the ftory itfelf 
 
 would bid fair to make thefe harfh and 
 unmerited Acts of Parliament drop out of 
 our hands, if we held them at the time. 
 But however thefe points may be forgot- 
 ten or overlooked by us, they are not fo 
 by the Americans themfelves. They are 
 fenfible and mindful of them, from whom 
 they have proceeded, whatever we may 
 be, who have received them. Our neglect 
 and indifference on the fubject have with 
 them the effect of poifon upon our wea- 
 pons. They make every wound given by 
 us to rankle and to feiler. Every flroke 
 carries with it on that account a tenfold 
 fharpnefs and acrimony. However at 
 leaft don't let us extend a figurative and 
 
 meta*
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
 metaphorical faying to the diverting of all 
 their properties near upon two millions 
 of people and make it at the fame time a 
 warrant for ourfelves to hold towards 
 them an unjuft, rapacious and unnatural 
 conduct, directly contrary to that of real 
 parents towards their children and totally 
 inconfiftent with the expreflion, where- 
 on we would ground our pretenfions. 
 
 But how do thefe projectors and pro- 
 moters of taxes and taxing hold concern- 
 ing Ireland ? Do they reckon that to be 
 likewife within the jurifdiclion of their 
 ways and means and in the fame predica- 
 ment with America? Adventurers went 
 formerly from hence, others fucceeded, 
 more followed, until they were mailers of 
 the ifland. It might be added, that this 
 was done with a much greater expence of 
 the blood and treafure of this country than 
 our fettlements in America ever coil us. 
 The Reprefentative body of Ireland is 
 
 called
 
 [ 45 ] 
 
 called a Parliament, that of America an 
 Aliembly j the term of kingdom obtains 
 in one country and that of colony in the 
 other. Is there any charm in the found 
 of thefe words which makes a difference 
 or would the author of the Stamp Act \ 
 have gone thither alfo ; had the people of 
 America fhewn a facility to his firft at- 
 tempts with them and if the parliament 
 of Ireland had ever made difficulties to 
 his future demands there ? Does any one 
 imagine that learned or other arguments 
 would have been wanting to maintain the 
 rectitude of the one meafure, any more 
 than of the other ? 
 
 But is there any medium ? Muft not 
 we either rigoroufly enforce obedience 
 from our colonies or at once generouily 
 declare them free and independent of all 
 allegiance to the crown of Great Britain? 
 To which I anfwer, if there is a medium 
 between Great Britain and Ireland, why 
 
 may
 
 [ 46 ] 
 
 may there not be alfo between Great 
 Britain and North America. The claims 
 of the colonies are not higher than thofe 
 of Ireland. Certain rules of mutual re- 
 fpecl preferved between us and that neigh- 
 bouring part of the King's dominions 
 keep us on the bell and happiefl terms 
 together, terms of perpetual and almofl 
 unfpeakable profit and advantage to En- 
 gland. Does this overturn the confti- 
 tution of Great Britain or weaken the de- 
 pendency on its crown, as fome language 
 has been ? Why fhould not then forbear- 
 ance, moderation and regard towards that 
 a little more diftant portion of our country 
 produce in the one cafe effects confonant 
 and anfwerable to what the like caufes do 
 in the other ? It is moil evident and may 
 in general be depended on, that no evil 
 confequences can happen from any con- 
 dition or fituation between Great Britain 
 and her colonies, which does actually and 
 advantageoufly obtain between Great Bri- 
 tain
 
 [ 47 ] 
 
 tain and Ireland. How was it there 
 twenty years ago, before the firft or the 
 laft of thefe taxes were either of them 
 thought of? All was then peaces calm 
 and content. The repealing the firft of 
 them, the Stamp Act, did that do any 
 mifchief? Not unlefs .the reconciling, 
 uniting and connecting again together all 
 the parts of our government be fuch. 
 There was hardly any where to be found 
 a man, but who was pleafed and happy 
 in the meafure j except a minifter or two 
 at home, who loft their power and their 
 places on the occafion and except a few 
 fycophants abroad, who hoped to recom- 
 mend themfelves by traducing and diftur- 
 bing thofe, to whom they owed afliftance 
 and protection and who defired to fifti in 
 troubles, which they themfelves contri- 
 buted greatly to create. What evil ftar 
 reigns then at this period, that thefe 
 bleffmgs cannot now take place, as they 
 formerly did ? 
 
 I have
 
 [ 48 ] 
 
 I have on this fubject no mind to play 
 with the name of Ireland. I prclume to 
 introduce on the fcene and to couple, as 
 it were, with America that country only 
 in order to expofe the more plainly by 
 the inftance of the one fome notions ad- 
 vanced concerning the other and at the 
 fame time to the utmofl of my fmall 
 power to recommend, inculcate and en- 
 force that cautious, confiderate, brotherly 
 and affectionate conduct towards both, 
 which 1 am fure that they each of them 
 moft exceedingly well deferve, whether 
 of the government or of the people of 
 England. 
 
 It is fometimes made a claim on the 
 Americans, that we incurred on their ac- 
 count a great expence in the late war. 
 On whofe account have we not fmce the 
 Revolution incurred a great expence ? Our 
 whole hiftory from that time to this is 
 little elfe, but a fcene of prodigality in the 
 
 fervice
 
 [ 49 ] 
 
 fcrvice of different people or princes, no 
 way to our own advantage and for which 
 no man can give any good reafon. How^ 
 ever I anfvver on this occafion with the 
 facl. We did not engage in the late war 
 at the requefl of the Americans nor upon 
 any defire or inclination of theirs. The 
 language at the time was on the contrary, 
 that the lefs concerned the inhabitants of 
 oar colonies appeared to be about the in T 
 croachments of the French, the more 
 reafon we had to be jealous on the fub^ 
 jec~l. I believe, that I may in fupport of 
 what I am faying venture to appeal to 
 thofe, who are the beft acquainted with 
 that period. Had it been otherwife, we 
 fhould no doubt have heard enough of 
 it. Subftantial reafons might be given, 
 that the Americans judged better in the, 
 cafe, than we. There may be ground for 
 us to condemn ourfejves for not having 
 confulted them more on the fubjecl, than 
 we did, before that we were fo hafty to 
 E take
 
 [ 5 ] 
 
 take up the hatchet. However there is 
 not the lea ft pretence for charging to 
 their account the confequences of a war, 
 which we undertook without any inflance 
 and application from them and entirely 
 of our own motion. 
 
 But the honour of Government is con- 
 cerned. That is certainly an unaccount- 
 able reafoning, though not perhaps very 
 uncommon ; that if Government or in 
 plain Englifh the Minifier and thofe about 
 him do a thing, which had better been 
 undone, they are therefore to proceed in 
 the fame road and do many more fuch, 
 until at length the cafe may perhaps be 
 beyond redrefs. Surely the more difcre- 
 dit is incurred, the deeper that people are 
 plunged into mifchief. The welfare and 
 happinefs of five or fix millions of man- 
 kind or more is a prodigious object. 
 Whoever puts himfelf at the helm of our 
 State undertakes in a manner for that. 
 
 We
 
 [ 5' ] 
 
 We are all mortal and fallible. One in fuch 
 a fituation had need to march with the ut- 
 moft caution, circumfpeclion and fore- 
 fight j fliould he make an unlucky flep, it 
 is his higher! duty to endeavour inftantly 
 to retreat and to retrieve it. In the pre- 
 fent cafe a gulph is before us, which will 
 not admit of many fteps forwards, but 
 that the Government and the Public will 
 both go headlong. 
 
 But their outrages about the Tea. I 
 prefume thefe to be an object of difcourfe, 
 as well as any other fubjecl: ; how can 
 theyotherwife be difcufled andconfidered? 
 However I fhall without declaring any 
 opinion of my own take them up only in 
 the light, as they may appear to an Ame- 
 rican. He will certainly fay, that thefe 
 receive their complexion from the claim 
 of the colonies not to be taxed by us and 
 accordingly as that fhall be grounded or 
 not. If that is not well founded, that 
 
 E 2 then 
 

 
 [ 52 ] 
 
 then their whole oppofition is unlawful; 
 whether force and violence or only concert 
 and combination. That the former may 
 indeed be productive of more mifchief 
 than the latter, but that they are on fuch 
 a fuppofition both of them entirely un- 
 warrantable. . I would willingly in this 
 cafe write freely but without offence ; he 
 would therefore certainly add, that fhould 
 the Americans on the other hand have a 
 real right not to be fo taxed, they are 
 undoubtedly intitled likew r ife to the neeef- 
 fary means of ufmg and enjoying that 
 right. That this is a rule of the law of 
 nature as well as of the law of the land 
 or rather that the latter has only borrowed 
 it from the former. I fpeak with fub- 
 miflion j but he would without doubt 
 proceed, that the means ufed on this oc- 
 cafion were abfolutely thofe necefTary ones 
 and no other ; that an objecl was artfully 
 or judicially chofen for this tax, which 
 is fo conflant a part, of diet or luxury, 
 
 that
 
 t S3 ] 
 
 tli at it was totally impoflible to prevent 
 the tax from taking place without hinder- 
 ing the commodity itfelf from being in- 
 troduced , that therefore the Americans 
 mull abiblutelydo that or lofe their right; 
 that the endeavouring fo to do only by a 
 general concert and agreement would have 
 been no better than building a city out 
 of the fands of the fea ; that thereupon 
 the town of Bofton did at a fort of pub- 
 lic meeting ufe every inftance and appli- 
 cation poffible both with the Captains of 
 the tea fhips and with the Governor, 
 that the tea might be returned, un- 
 touched and damaged as it came ; that 
 this would have fecured their right and 
 they defired no more ; that this was ab- 
 folutely refufed ; that there was there- 
 upon no expedient left for the preferving 
 their right but deftroying the tea ; that 
 this was without any exprefs authority of 
 the town done by private people, but in 
 all appearance with the general inclina- 
 tion
 
 tion and with the leart mifchief and da- 
 mage poffible ; that there was fome tea 
 fpilt, but no blood ; that this refers the 
 whole to the mil and original queftion of 
 the right ; that the Americans make there- 
 on the fame claim, as the people of Scot- 
 land would have in an eflential circum- 
 ftance of the Union or thofe of Ireland, 
 mould the line obferved between them 
 and Great Britain be pafTed in any point, 
 which would affect their whole intereft 
 and welfare, as a nation ; that a right in 
 any cafe whatfoever and an abfolute duty 
 of paffive obedience and non-refiflance in 
 the fame are inconfiftent terms, a direct 
 contradiction and totally unintelligible ; 
 that in the other colonies the Governors 
 and Captains confentedto the fending back 
 the tea or to the fhutting it up in fuch a 
 manner as never to be fold or difperfed ; 
 that thefe did not therefore in their cafes 
 .make immediate force neceffary, but that 
 their act was in effect the fame and flands 
 
 on
 
 [ 55 ] 
 
 on the fame ground. That there is no- 
 thing malignant in the whole matter, no- 
 thing but a determined deiire to fupport 
 this their great and neceflary right. This 
 is no doubt the American idea, as appeal's 
 by many proofs and papers from that 
 fide of the water. I fhall myfelf prefume 
 to fpeak no opinion in the cafe, much 
 lefs will I again call on the manes of our 
 anceftors in fupport of this pretenfion* 
 But mould it be obferved, that it ends in 
 a quefUon, which concerns the bounds 
 and the limits of government ; I cannot 
 on the occafion but repeat and enforce by 
 this example the remark before made, of 
 how dangerous and deadly a nature the dif- 
 putes and contefts are, which lead thither. 
 
 So much for the rectitude of taxing the 
 Americans. But I may be told, that I have 
 not yet touched the true point, that I 
 have been doing little more, than a man, 
 who rides pofl out of his road. That 
 
 Statef-
 
 Statefmen and Politicians do indeed fome- 
 times talk of the right and wrong, of the 
 juftice and injuftice of meafures ; but 
 that this is all only oftenfible reafoning, 
 while there may at the bottom be nothing, 
 which they really care lefs about. That 
 the Great do every where bear hard on 
 the Little, the Strong on the Weak. That 
 the hawk hunts the partridge, the lion 
 the wolf and the wolf the lamb > that 
 powerful Princes and States opprefs the 
 
 Helplefs and the High and the Rich thofe 
 
 > 
 
 beneath them \ that this is the chapter of 
 the law of nature and nations, which we 
 intend to confult and to follow j that we 
 want money at home ; that our debts are 
 veiy heavy and our refources but too 
 nearly at an end j that we have yet fleets 
 and armies and are determined to bend to 
 our will our colonies of America and to 
 make them fubfervient to our wants and 
 occafiohs ; that this is at the bottom and 
 that all my cafuiftry may in the mean time 
 
 ferve
 
 [ 65 ] 
 
 ferve the purpofes of grocers and paftry- 
 cooksj that when people write about 
 matters of flate, they ought to do it like 
 men. It is very well j I join iflue hereon, 
 only don't let us go too fail ; one thing at 
 a time. 
 
 I anfwer that you cannot force them 
 nor is there any appearance that you can. 
 The number of free people in thofe colo- 
 nies is reckoned at towards two millions. 
 The common calculation is of one fen- 
 cible or fighting man in five perfons and 
 this is fuppofed to be rather under than 
 over the truth. This will give us at leaft 
 between three and four hundred thoufand 
 fighting men on the number before men- 
 tioned. Mr. Rome goes fo far as to tell 
 us in fome letters 6cc. lately publifhed in 
 oppofition to the colonies ; " that there 
 " is hardly any thing more common, than 
 " to hear them boafl of particular colo- 
 il nies that can raife on a fnort notice a 
 F " hun-
 
 t 66 } 
 
 " hundred thoufand fighting men." The 
 country is itfelf in fome refpefts a very 
 ftrong one, more Co than any in Europe 
 or the better cultivated parts of the world. 
 It is not on the fide of the fea guarded 
 with forts and caftles built by men, but 
 it is within fecured and protected by the 
 natural fortifications of immenfe forefts 
 and of large rivers. What expectation or 
 probability then can there be of fending 
 from hence armies capable to conquer 
 and fubdue fo great a force of men de- 
 fending and defended by fuch a continent. 
 
 But can they arm (b many ? In any 
 country very greatly taxed and much 
 more fo than its inhabitants would wil- 
 lingly bear with, it is impoffible confid- 
 ently with fuch a irate of things to arm 
 the whole body of the people. Thefe 
 might be apt to count nofes and to con- 
 fider, who were the flronger, they them- 
 felves or the Tax-gatherers and the Red- 
 coats
 
 t 67 ] 
 
 coats or White-coats or Black-coats or 
 any other, who fuppoit them. The dif- 
 ficulty would be yet greater, were there 
 any further dhTatisfaclion. But thefe are 
 all democratical governments, where the 
 power is in the hands of the people and 
 where there is not the leaft difficulty or 
 jealoufy about putting arms into the 
 hands of every man in the country. 
 
 But are they united among themfelves ? 
 In the caufeof not being taxed by us it is 
 well underftood, how much they are fo. 
 All accounts and reports from thence of 
 all men and of all parties run in that ftile 
 and concur in that circumftance. It was 
 fo experienced to a very great degree con- 
 cerning the Stamps and has now been 
 found the fame on the occafion of the Tea, 
 Their conduct has in the cafe been every 
 where alike and correfpondent. The Tea 
 is either returned without being landed or 
 received without being fuffered to be fold* 
 F2 at
 
 [ 68 ] 
 
 at New York, at Penfylvania, at Carolina, 
 at all the places to which it was fent. 
 We reckon entirely without our hoft, if 
 we don't expect to have to do with a 
 union of that continent or depend on 
 any meafures infufricient to mafter and 
 overpower the whole. 
 
 But let me afk* how can we expect 
 otherwife ? They are not unacquainted 
 with the hiilory of the mother-country. 
 They know the weight of the taxing hand 
 here. They have heard of our debt of 
 one hundred and foity millions of pounds 
 fterling incurred fmce the Revolution be- 
 fides other hundreds of millions fpent cur- 
 rently within the fame period. The time 
 to come is to be judged of by the "time 
 pail. Will our brethren of America ex- 
 pect, that this hand fhould be lighter on 
 them at a diilance or that our breafts will 
 feel more for them than for ourfelves ? 
 Let an Englifhman make the cafe his 
 
 own
 
 own and queftion himfelf ; what he fhould 
 think, were he of that country and his 
 whole fortune and concerns there. Would 
 not he believe his all to be at flake upon 
 the caft ? Does any one in America or in 
 jEngland imagine, that all thefe difputes 
 and feuds are at the bottom only about a 
 duty of threepence upon a pound of Tea ? 
 How can then any candid man doubt, 
 whether there will be a general union and 
 concurrence on the fubjccl: or wonder if 
 there is fo ? 
 
 They are faid to have already Commit- 
 tees of Correfpondence and no doubt ne- 
 ceftity will teach them other means of 
 moving and ac"ling together. Every thing 
 is there by choice and election ; they will 
 probably have at their head, as capable 
 and as wife men, as are to be found 
 among them. The power and influence 
 of Governors and other civil officers apr 
 pointed from hence, muft on an open 
 F 3 rupture
 
 r 7 1 
 
 rupture have an end. Our authority 
 would perhaps then extend little further, 
 than where it was enforced by our own 
 troops. We fhall bid fair to begin with 
 the lofs of the whole continent. 
 
 But what are an untrained and undif- 
 ciplined multitude ? Could not an ex- 
 perienced officer with a few regular re- 
 giments do what he would in America ? 
 I anfwer, that a different flory may be 
 told. In the war before laft our meafures 
 directed at home were every where un- 
 fuccefsful. The plains of Flanders were 
 fatten'd with fome of the befl blood of 
 Britain and of Ireland. Our government 
 was fhaken almoft to the foundation by a 
 rebellion contemptible in its beginning. 
 Were we more fortunate in our attempts 
 by fea, whether nrft in that againft Pon- 
 dicherry or afterwards in that againft Port 
 I'Orient ? But the people of New Eng- 
 land maintained at that time the honour 
 
 of
 
 [ 7' ] 
 
 of our arms. It is well known, that they 
 carried on with their own counfels and 
 with their own foldiery and under the 
 command of one of their own planters 
 againft Cape Breton and Louifbourg an 
 expedition, the event of which need not 
 now be told. We did not begin in a 
 much better manner the laft war. I am 
 unwilling to call to mind our firft cam- 
 paigns in Germany, our fituation and 
 treaty of Clofter-Seven, the fate of Mi- 
 norca or the hiftories of Bradock and 
 Abercrombie. But who were at that time 
 the firft toftem the tide of our ill-fortune "? 
 Was not it an American militia, who 
 commanded by Sir William Johnfon a 
 gentleman at that time of the country 
 met, fought and beat the French and 
 Indians under Monfieur Diefkau and 
 madeprifoner their commander ? But what 
 wonders were afterwards done by our 
 people properly conducted and directed ? 
 It is very true, and I am fure, that I have 
 F4 no
 
 no inclination to depreciate them. But 
 neither did thofe of America want their 
 fhare therein. However the courage of 
 our countrymen was never yet queftioned; 
 but may they always unite and employ it 
 againft our common enemies and never 
 be encamped or embattled againft one an- 
 other either in America or any where elfe. 
 But fhould through the extreme rafhnefs 
 and weaknefs of our counfels fuch a very 
 great misfortune fall out; is it to be 
 doubted whether the Americans will be 
 wanting to themfelves or whether they 
 will not endeavour to ftand in their own 
 defence againft thofe, who have fometimes 
 in the fame country come by the worft 
 with inferior enemies, but over whom 
 they have themfelves alone and without 
 aiTiftance often triumphed ? 
 
 But we are mafters at fea and where- 
 cver our fhips can come. We may do, 
 whatever a fleet can. Very true ; but* it 
 
 cannot
 
 [ 73 ] 
 
 cannot fail all over North America. It 
 is faid, that Marfhal Saxe had before the 
 declaration of the laft war but one and at 
 the time of our army being in Germany 
 conceived a defign to have landed on our 
 coaft with ten thoufand men and to have 
 tried the fortune of a brifk march to 
 London. He did not find this fo eafy to 
 execute, as he thought for. He was moft 
 happily difappointed. But there was an 
 obje6l. No one can tell the confequence, 
 had he fucceeded. The prefent is a very 
 different matter. No immediate impref- 
 fion upon the town of Bofton nor pof- 
 feffion taken of it by means of a fleet nor 
 the fame circurnftance with regard to any 
 other towns of America liable thereto by 
 their fituation will carry the command of 
 that whole continent or force it to fub- 
 mit to meafures fo univerfally againft 
 their bent and inclination.
 
 [ 74 ] ,: .| 
 
 It may however be faid, that this is not 
 theplan. The charter of the town of Bofton 
 is to be changed and their trade fufpended 
 and other meafures of the very ftrongefl 
 fort are to be enforced againft them. 
 The moving mountain is according to 
 the imagination of Dr. Swift to hang over 
 them and the fun not to fhine or the rain 
 or the dew to fall on them, until they 
 are brought to fubmifTion and made to 
 the reft of America an example of the 
 danger of refraftorinefs and difobedience 
 to the mother-country ; all which we think 
 may and will with time be compafied and 
 accomplished. 
 
 This is indeed as to the qucftion of 
 force the true point of the matter, I mean, 
 which will at laft and at the end of a long 
 trial get the better j but I add, that this 
 will probably not be Great-Britain. Here 
 I muft again crave leave to write with 
 freedom. If it is the firft wifdom of a 
 
 private
 
 [ 75 ] 
 
 private man to know himfelf ; fo muft it 
 likewife be that of a State to confider in 
 all its meafures its own condition and 
 fituation. The fearching into our cir- 
 cumftances neither makes or mars them. 
 But what muft be our cafe, fhould we 
 have any wound or mifchief and that it 
 might not be probed or examined ? We 
 muft ever fuppofe our adverfaries to be 
 informed and not by {hutting our own 
 eyes pretend to blind other people. I lhall 
 therefore without fcruple enquire into 
 the ftate of the public, as far as it con- 
 cerns my fubjecl:. 
 
 The condition of the great ftaple ma- 
 nufactures of our country is well known. 
 Thofe of the linen and the filk are in the 
 greateft diftrefs and the woollen and the 
 linen are now publicly banded and con- 
 tending againft one another. One part 
 of our people is ftarving at home on the 
 alms of their parifhes and another run- 
 ning
 
 t 76 ] 
 
 ning abroad to this very country, that we 
 are contending with. The produce of 
 North-America ufed to be fent yearly to 
 Britain is reckoned at about four millions 
 fterling ; the manufactures of Britain and 
 other commodities returned from hence at 
 nearly the fame fum ; the debts due from 
 people in America to the Britifh mer- 
 chants here at about fix millions or a year 
 and a half of that commerce. I fay, the ; 
 time paft muft be our guide with refpecl 
 to that to come. Suppofing therefore 
 the Americans to act in this cafe, as they 
 did in that of the Stamp Aft $ we mail 
 then have yearly until the final fettlement 
 of this affair manufactures to the value 
 of four millions fterling left and heaped 
 on the hands of our merchants and mafler- 
 manufacturers or we fhall have workmen 
 and poor people put out of employ and 
 turned adrift in that proportion. There 
 will likewife be withdrawn from our home 
 jponfumption and out of our general trade 
 
 and
 
 [ 77 ] 
 
 inttf 
 
 and traffick North American commodities 
 to the fame value and debts will to the 
 immenfe fum above mentioned be with- 
 held from private people here. This was- 
 the train of things begun before and we 
 muft look for the like again. What ef- 
 fects thefe things will produce confidering 
 the prefent flate of our trade, manufac- 
 tures and manufacturers, the condition of 
 our poor at home and the numbers of our 
 people running abroad, it don't want 
 many words to explain and fet forth. 
 They were before very feverely felt for 
 the time, that they lafted and it is appre- 
 hended, that the prefent fituation of the 
 Public is yet more liable to the impreffion. 
 Thefe are fome of the difficulties and dif- 
 treiles, which we are for the fake of a trial 
 of fkill with our colonies going to bring 
 on ourfelves and which muft be perpetu- 
 ally magnifying and increafmg, as long as 
 the unnatural conteft fhall continue. 
 
 To
 
 [ 78 ] 
 
 To thefe a former adminiftration gave 
 way ; but it is to be fuppofed, that the 
 prefent has by returning to the fhock re- 
 folved to be more callous on the occafion 
 and to leave the Americans, the merchants 
 and the manufacturers to fettle among 
 themfelves their matters, as they may. 
 Our people will indeed be lefs clamorous 
 about the ears of their betters if they fhali 
 all run and emigrate out of the kingdom. 
 But there is a circumftance not yet men- 
 tioned, which will bid fair to go further 
 and which may but too probably involve 
 in one common confufion the nation, the 
 government and the adminiflration itfelf. 
 I mean the danger of a diforder or failure 
 of the public revenue, the difficulty or 
 impoflibility to pay the interefl of the 
 debt, the navy, the army, the civil lift 
 and our other expences ; if the prefent 
 contention fhall proceed and continue. 
 
 I defirc
 
 [ 79 ] 
 
 I delire in explanation of this to con- 
 lider our prefent income, our out-goings 
 and our refources. I will not enter into 
 any detail thereon j the particulars in 
 grofs will be fufncient for the purpofe 
 before us. I will however in order to be 
 the better underftood premife fomething 
 about the revenue in general. It may be 
 divided into two parts, the one of taxes 
 laid in perpetuity, the other of fuch as 
 are granted by the year and for the year. 
 The firft part confifts of all our taxes in 
 general whatfoever, except the Land-tax 
 and the annual Malt-tax ; the latter con- 
 lifts of thefe two only. Perpetual taxes 
 are now in the language of Europe often 
 exprefTed by the name of funds, as afford- 
 ing a fixed, and fettled foundation for any 
 fpecial ufe and particularly for that of 
 borrowing money. It was to anfwer this 
 intereft of our debts, that our own funds 
 were eftablifhed and they are now pledged 
 for that purpofe. Thefe of ours have 
 
 been
 
 been chiefly thrown into three great com- 
 mon ones called the General, the Aggre- 
 gate and the South Sea Funds. Thefe 
 are fometimes with all other funds or 
 perpetual taxes whatfoever deftined and 
 fettled for the difcharge of the intereft of 
 our debt comprehended and united toge- 
 ther in difcourfe and called the Sinking 
 Fund j although there is in reality no 
 one particular Fund of that name, any 
 more than there is fuch a piece of money 
 as a pound flerling or a French livre. 
 The Civil Lift is placed on the fame 
 Funds, as the interefl of the Public Debt. 
 What remains annually of the whole col- 
 lection of thofe Funds after the fatisfying 
 thefe two incumbrances is, what is meant 
 by the furplus of the Sinking Fund. I 
 have thought proper to preface thefe few 
 things, that my own language may at leaft 
 be underftood, in what little I mall fay 
 on the fubject. 
 
 The
 
 The intereft of our debt amounts to 
 near upon five millions a year ; all an- 
 nuities for lives or years, every thing re- 
 deemable or irredeemable included. The 
 Civil Lift is eight hundred tho.ufand 
 pounds a year. Thefurplus of the Sink- 
 ing Fund is changing and uncertain, that 
 being compofed of very many variable 
 parts. It is impoflible to fix it, but I 
 will at an average for the fake of round 
 numbers fuppofe it to be two millions 
 and more, about as much more as will 
 anfwer to what the intereft of the debt 
 may want of five millions. We mail then 
 have about feven millions three quarters 
 for the produce of our perpetual Taxes 
 and Funds. Our armual taxes remain 
 then only to be coniidered, which are 
 eafiiy reckoned ; the Land-tax granted for 
 a million and a half at three millings in 
 the pound, as it now is ; the Malt-tax 
 always granted at three quarters of a mil- 
 lion. Thefe fums put together give us 
 G about
 
 about ten millions of pounds fterling, 
 being our prefent annual national income 
 and likewife our prefent annual national 
 expence ; including what may at times be 
 paid towards the difcharge of the Public 
 Debt and befides the collection, which is 
 not to my prefent purpofe. Should any 
 one be of opinion, that the furplus of the 
 Sinking Fund is either overcharged or 
 undercharged, he has my confent to make 
 fuch addition to it or fubtraction from it, 
 as he mail pleafe. Neither the one or 
 the other will affect the argument which 
 I am upon. Our receipts and difourfe- 
 ments will in either cafe go hand in hand. 
 I mall therefore without any more nice 
 difquifition take thefe at the medium of 
 about ten millions flerling each. 
 
 So much for our income and our ex- 
 pences. Let us next confider our re- 
 fources ; I mean what refources we may 
 be fuppofed to have in our power without 
 
 creating
 
 [ 83 ] 
 
 creating any new debt* The firft to occur 
 will be the furplus of the Sinking Fund. 
 We apply of courfe to this on almoft all 
 occafions. We are bylaw obliged to dif- 
 charge regularly the intereft of our debt; 
 but whatever prudence and a proper care 
 of ourfelves and of thofe after us may 
 confefledly require, we are commonly 
 underftood to be by no contract or en- 
 gagement bound to do more or to pay off 
 any part of the principal of it. This 
 furplus we will therefore fuppofe to be 
 one refource ; but it is fuch no otherwife 
 or further, than it can be fpared from 
 our current expences, towards which it is 
 commonly in whole or in part taken. We 
 can for our prefent purpofe reckon only 
 on fo much of it, as might otherwife be 
 employed towards leffening the capital of 
 our debt. We have now had between 
 eleven and twelve years of peace, in which 
 time I reckon, that we have difcharged 
 about eight millions of that capital. This 
 G 2 will
 
 will therefore fuppofing no part of it to 
 be balanced by any debt or arrears in- 
 curred and unprovided for give us by 
 the ' year about feven hundred thoufand 
 pounds. This is what we may look to 
 for one of our refources. But we have 
 likewife another, which is the Land-tax. 
 That is now at three (hillings in the 
 pound, but it is fometimes at four. We 
 may therefore count in cafe of exigency 
 on one (hilling more, that is on half a 
 million. Thefe two fums amount to- 
 gether to about one million two hun- 
 dred thoufand pounds. Thefe are our 
 refources and without borrowing thefe 
 are all. 
 
 Let us next turn in our thoughts, 
 whether thefe twelve hundred thoufand 
 pounds a year, being fomewhat more than 
 a ninth part of our prefent income, are 
 likely to be fufficient for this American 
 occafion. Fleets and armies, (hips of war 
 
 and
 
 f 85 ] 
 
 and regiments arc the means and the in- 
 ftitiments of executing the meafures in 
 queftion. A million goes but a very little 
 way with us in fuch articles. This bufi- 
 nefs muft in it include a fuppofition, that 
 all our colonies, all our ancient colonies 
 on that continent may in the progrefs of 
 it be combined and united in one com- 
 mon afibciation, intereft and defence. 
 There can be no reafonable hopes of fuc- 
 cefs, nothing but mortification and difap- 
 pointment dire<5lly in view by proceed- 
 ing on any plan, which does not compre- 
 hend the probability of that circumftance. 
 What a field is then here opened ? Are. 
 our twelve hundred thoufand pounds to 
 furnifh us there likewife ? However thefe 
 things concern only our expences. Let 
 us confider the other fide of our fituation j 
 how much our income is at the fame time 
 likely to be lefTened. Four millions iler- 
 ling yearly of the produce of America - f 
 as many of the merchandize of Great- 
 G 3 Britain ;
 
 [ 86 ] 
 
 Britain; more of debts here at home 
 with-held and kept back from our duties, 
 our cuftoms and our excife. What an 
 operation on the revenue ! Is our million 
 two hundred thoufand pounds to fupply 
 all this befides ? How is it poffible either 
 on the one hand, that a perfon with thefe 
 circumftances before his eyes fhould fet 
 on foot the prefent meafures againfl our 
 colonies or on the other, that any one 
 having capacity and understanding to be 
 at the head of the government and ad- 
 miniftration of a great kingdom fliould 
 overfee and overlook them ? This feems 
 to be like not difcerning the fun at noon- 
 day or the moon and the flars by night. 
 
 There is from the general condition of 
 our country and perhaps from the public 
 accounts themfelves but too much reafon 
 to apprehend, that the national revenue 
 is at this time without thefe additional 
 caufes finking and decreafmg. This could 
 
 not
 
 not but add greatly to our difficulties in 
 the fituation before defcribed. But a 
 particular inveitigation of this might lead 
 into too long a labyrinth. I {hall there- 
 fore not take it into the prefent account j 
 but rnoft ailuredly any one at the head of 
 our affairs ought not to forget it in his, 
 if it is true. 
 
 But it may be faid, that we will in the 
 fuppofed exigency borrow, as our prede- 
 ceflbrs have done before us. I anfwer, 
 that this may very probably be then out 
 of our power. I will not go upon a ge- 
 neral difcuffion, whether we fhould enter 
 into another war with the fame credit, we 
 have hitherto had; although this mayinit- 
 felf be a fubje6l of the utmoft importance, 
 and whereon we have but too much reafon 
 to reflect. But the confideration properly 
 before us is, what would be the ftate of 
 our credit under a revolt and feparation 
 of our fettlements in America, that great 
 G 4 and
 
 [ 88 ] 
 
 and effential fource of our riches and re- 
 venue ? Loans and money advanced to us 
 have as yet been reckoned equally fecure, 
 there has been no doubt made of the re- 
 gular payment of the intereft nor in con- 
 fequence of a public market for the prin- 
 cipal, whether we fhould ourfelves hap- 
 pen to be more or lefs fuccefsful on any 
 occafion, wherein we were at the time 
 concerned and for which they were bor- 
 rowed. They were as fafe under the defeats 
 and difappointments of the war before, 
 as upon the victories and conquefls of the 
 laft. However things could not in this 
 cafe but be much changed. The fecurity 
 of millions lent muft depend upon the fu- 
 ture chance and fortune of war. It might 
 be made a doubt, what fruits would for 
 fome years to come be received from pro- 
 vinces mangled and mutilated in a fcvere 
 conteft decided to their difadvantage, mould 
 thefe at laft return to us again j but no 
 one could overlook, what muft be the cafe, 
 
 if
 
 t 89 ] 
 
 if the event ftiould terminate againft us 
 and end after an expence of much treafure 
 and blood in fo fatal and ineftimable a lofs 
 on our fide, as that of thefe colonies would 
 be. However no man knows, whether this 
 difpute might run into a very long trial. 
 There are ways of anticipating fome parts 
 of the public revenue and likewife of run- 
 ning behind-hand fome of the public fer- 
 vices. Things may perhaps be for a fnort 
 fpace carried on in that manner without 
 much notice. But mould we once come 
 publickly and profefTedly to borrowing and 
 to funding in what fome may arFecl to call a 
 yanky war, it will be well, if the whole fa- 
 bric of our credit does not at that moment 
 make and tremble to it's very foundation. 
 A general breach and defection of thefe 
 colonies would withal cut the fmews of 
 our power. We could not moft probably 
 in fuch a fituation long continue to pro- 
 vide and pay the intereft of our moft 
 enormous debt already incurred and fub- 
 
 fifting.
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
 fifting. It need not be repeated, that it 
 is the affiflance received from their com- 
 merce and produce, which enables us now 
 to do it. Deprived of that it will be but 
 to little purpofe for us to be inventing 
 new Funds at home, We have enow of 
 them already. More would only run foul 
 of one another. We may then without the 
 operations of a war in America, without 
 the fending or fupplying fleets or armies 
 at a diitance, without creating new debts, 
 new Funds and new taxes have at our 
 own homes from our actual fituation bu- 
 fmefs enough on our hands to engage and 
 employ us. We need not perhaps be at 
 this time nice in comparing and mcafur- 
 ing our force with that of the Americans, 
 the evil of fuch a day will be but too fuffi- 
 cient to decide the conteft. 
 
 But it may be afked, what will then be 
 the confequence, iliould we from thefe 
 caufes become unable to pay the intereft 
 
 of
 
 of our prefent debt. I will be bold to fay, 
 that there is no man living wife enough 
 to anfwer that queftion in its extent. Ex- 
 perience teaches men ; but there is no 
 preceding hiftory or tradition of any ftate 
 or nation whatfoever, which can throw 
 fufficient light on that proportion. There 
 never was before in the world fuch a 
 debt contracted or fubfifting, as the Bri- 
 tifh. Letters and books are older than 
 money, I mean than gold and filver com- 
 monly current and having their weight 
 known by a ftamp. But there is no oc- 
 cafion to ranfack ancient times on this 
 fubjecl:. The difcovery of Mexico and 
 Pern and the pofleflion of them by the 
 Spaniards is the aera from whence we 
 are to date the beginning of the prefent 
 plenty in Europe of thefe two precious 
 metals, which command often individuals 
 and fometimes commonwealths and king- 
 doms. The art of Funding was formerly 
 very confined. It is a fucceffion of Eng- 
 lifh adminiftrations, which has carried it 
 
 to
 
 [ 92 ] 
 
 to an extent never before known among 
 men. It is a new experiment in a ftate. 
 There is no example of it in the annals of 
 mankind. We are at a lofs where to look 
 for the confluences of fuch an unpre- 
 cedented and unheard of deficiency or 
 bankruptcy, as this would prove. How- 
 ever we cannot but have before our eyes 
 diforder, anarchy and confufion ; the 
 monied intereft of the nation banded 
 againft the landed and the landed againfl 
 the monied; rich monied men brought 
 to beggary and the land drained of the 
 utmoft farthing which can be forced from 
 it ; every one catching, rending and pro- 
 viding for the prefent moment ; our ma- 
 nufactures and commerce at a ftand ; the 
 middling people emigrating out of our 
 country and the poor in famine or in 
 fedition - y foreigners preffing for their de- 
 mands and the Dutch particularly in rage 
 and almoU in madnefs for their countlefs 
 millions tmfted and hazarded in our 
 
 4 . 
 
 covintry j
 
 [ 93 ] 
 
 country ; perhaps at the lame time our 
 navy unmanned and our army in mutiny 
 for want of pay. Who can withal tell 
 the end; for the debt, the burthen and 
 the demand will ever remain ? There was 
 a time, when the Romans had formerly 
 withdrawn themfelves from this ifiand, 
 that the pofTeilions became here through 
 the w r eaknefs and helplefmefs of thofe re- 
 maining the prize and the prey of all plun- 
 derers, pirates, robbers and conquerors, 
 who came and feized upon them ; until 
 that thefe people themfelves, the Danes, 
 the Saxons and the Normans replenifh- 
 ed and rlrengthened again, the country. 
 Whether the like fcenes will on the fame 
 fpot be once more a<5led or what ifTue 
 awaits us, he only knows in whofe hands 
 thefe events are. But we muft neceiTarily 
 expec~l that the diflant or detached parts 
 of our empire, will fall from us ; ths 
 ilronger and the larger will probably pro- 
 vide for and govern themfelves, the weaker 
 
 and
 
 [ 94 ] 
 
 and the lefTer fink away or feek another 
 matter. I don't at all mean that they have 
 any inclination fo to do, where we give 
 no caufe or provocation ; but the reins 
 of government will in fuch a conjuncture 
 of courfe and of themfelves drop out of 
 our hands. No man can tell, whether 
 Great-Britain itfelf might at that time 
 continue in one or whether it may again 
 be fplit and divided into two. There 
 have not been wanting endeavours to- 
 wards that end. I don't now pretend to 
 decide at whofe door this principally lies. 
 It is not perhaps one man or one party 
 only, that is in fault. There have been 
 on one hand moft unjuft and cruel perfe- 
 cutions and a feries of the greater! injuries 
 and provocations. High and flrong re- 
 fentments of thefe are no otherwife than 
 natural and warrantable nor do I in ge- 
 neral mean to arraign thofe conceived or 
 exprefled on this occafion. But the per- 
 fon wronged mufl furely in his cooler 
 
 and
 
 [ 95 ] 
 
 and calmer moments be himfelf fenfible, 
 that they have in one refpect been carried 
 to an unreafonable extent. Reflections 
 have been made and continued, where 
 they are totally ungrounded and unme- 
 rited. They have hitherto been borne 
 with a national good fenfe, that brings 
 more honour to the parties, than all the 
 ribaldry in the world can ever do them 
 difcredit. But who knows, how their 
 effects may be felt in fuch a time, as is be- 
 fore defcribed ? What a fituation ! Britain 
 or England left alone with a debt of a 
 hundred and forty millions flerling on its 
 head ! How can any one have before his 
 eyes fuch an event and yet run on the 
 road, which leads directly towards it ! 
 
 But all is not yet faid which this fubjccT: 
 demands. I have hitherto only confidered 
 us and our colonies as engaged between 
 ourfelves, not a word has been faid of 
 any foreign ftate medling in the matter. 
 
 That
 
 [ 96 ] 
 
 That is yet behind. We muft look upon 
 our colonies in the light of the provinces 
 of Holland, when they contended with 
 Spain. The wifh, the hand of every man 
 will be againft us. I will not enter into 
 a general difcourfe of politics, how far it 
 may be for the common good of mankind 
 to fplit great ftates into fmall ones, to 
 divide them into a fize fit to profit and 
 benefit others, but not to overbear or 
 diftrefs them. Let us confider the fubjecl: 
 by examples familiar to us. Mexico and 
 Peru are more diflant from Great Britain, 
 than our colonies of North America, from 
 Spain or France; but were thofe in a 
 flate of defection and feparation from the 
 Spaniards, I wonder, whether we mould 
 find a way to approach them or to avail 
 ourfelves in any manner of that circum- 
 ftance. France was pretty well plumed 
 in the laft war ; but neverthelefs were the 
 reviving or beginning fettlements of Pon- 
 dicherry, of Mauritius and Madagafcar 
 
 disjoined
 
 [ 97 ] 
 
 disjoined from it or its own continent 
 broken once more into feveral different 
 parts and feparate governments, would 
 our endeavours contribute to unite them ? 
 Should Batavia, the Spice Iflands and 
 the Cape of Good Hope revolt from the 
 United Provinces, would not Englifhmen 
 try to profit by the conjuncture ? I will 
 not touch on the Brazils, that may be a 
 tender point. But would none of all 
 mankind, neither French or Spaniards 
 or Dutch or Portuguefe or Danes or 
 Swedes, to fay nothing of the Ruffians 
 or of the new maritime State of Pruflia ; 
 would none of them all give directly 
 or indirectly aid, affiftance, encourage- 
 ment, countenance or protection to our 
 colonies ? Would they not trade or traf- 
 fick with them, would they fupply them 
 with nothing wherewith to defend them- 
 felves or to offend us ? Is it very practica- 
 ble to watch and guard fuch immenfe 
 coafts or do we at home with all the 
 H navy
 
 [ 98 ] 
 
 navy of England in our ports find this fo 
 eafy, with refpect to thofe only of the 
 two Englifh counties of Kent and SufTex ? 
 Did neither England or France fupport 
 formerly the feven United Provinces in 
 their breach with Spain ? Have the French 
 at this time afforded no effential affiftance 
 to the Turks nor another nation to the 
 Ruffians, while each continues at peace 
 with the enemies of their refpective 
 friends ? Are the independence of the 
 Britifh colonies in North America and 
 their disjunction from Great Britain no 
 objeft to other nations j are not they in 
 particular as much fo to France as this 
 Turkifh and Ruffian fquabble ? Was for- 
 merly that nation ever wanting to Scotland 
 . or infenfible of its interefl in affifting that 
 divifion ? I don't at all mean hereby to 
 fignify any attempts or endeavours of 
 other Governments to take pofleffion of 
 thefe colonies or any inability in them to 
 defend themfelves from thatcircumftancej 
 
 but
 
 [ 99 ] 
 
 but I mean the general defire and incli- 
 nation, which there would afluredly be in 
 all Europe to fee them disjoined from our 
 nation and to become abfolute, diftincl:, 
 unconnected, independent ftates and go- 
 vernments in larger or in fmaller portions 
 and more or lefs like the prefent ftates of 
 Holland, as it mould happen. Were 
 there in fight fuch a condition with re- 
 fpect to Mexico and Peru or the Dutch 
 fettlements in the Eaft-Indies, would not 
 the Englifh without infifting on becoming 
 matters themfelves thereof be moft abun- 
 dantly contented with their general ad- 
 vantage arifing from the commerce and 
 traffic with them and from the other cir- 
 cumftances of their independency? It 
 cannot be doubted, but that there will be 
 found a conduct and actions confequent 
 and corrcfpondent to fuch univerfal and 
 almoft unanimous views and wifhes of 
 mankind. 
 
 II 2 This
 
 r 
 
 This is all faid on a fuppofition of 
 peace. But what if one or more of the 
 greatcft powers in Europe fhould in a 
 mofl critical and difficult moment declare 
 war againfl us ? Have France and Spain 
 forgot the lofs of Canada and Georgia 
 and the many defeats anddifgraces received 
 in the laft conteft with us ? Have they for 
 their honour or intereft no defire of re- 
 venge nor that thofe provinces fhould 
 again return to their own crowns ? On 
 whom does it depend whether it fhall in 
 the cafe fuppofed be peace or war ? Is this 
 to be determined at London, or at Madrid 
 and Verfailles ? Is it in the power and in 
 the breafls of ourfelves or of thofe, who 
 are moft our rivals and whofe enmity may 
 be faid to be hardly yet cooled ? Are four 
 years paft fince we had two alarms ? Is 
 one year gone fince we had one ? Should 
 there now be happily at the head of one 
 or other government a Perfonage inclined 
 to peace j yet how uncertain are the days 
 of every mortal and how are Princes, 
 
 Miniflers
 
 [ "I } 
 
 Minifters or States tempted into a&ion by 
 circumftances, opportunities and advan- 
 tages ? Let us well weigh what it is for a 
 private man, but much more for a. great 
 nation to part with the means of their 
 profperity out of their own hands and to 
 place it in the power and determination 
 of thofe, of whom they have on account 
 of a long and ancient rivalfhip and the 
 continuance of many bloody wars the ut- 
 mofl reafon to be lufpicious and jealous. 
 
 We cannot too much conficier or reflecl 
 upon what happened between Spain and 
 the Dutch Provinces at their breach and 
 feparation. The Spanifh Government 
 confifted at that time, of Spain, of Por- 
 tugal, of Mexico and Peru and other pro- 
 vinces of America, of the Spanifh and 
 Portuguefe being all the European fettle- 
 ments at that time in the Eaft- Indies and 
 of Flanders making feventeen provinces, 
 whereof thofe now united and then re- 
 volted were only feven. How unequal a 
 H 3 match !
 
 I02 
 
 match ! But yet the battle was not to the 
 Jlrong. The ftory and event of their war 
 are well known. I am not about to repeat 
 them. How little did in the beginning 
 the Spaniards or Portuguefe or even the 
 Dutch themfelves dream, that the latter 
 would before long ftrip and diveft the 
 former of the chief of thefe their fettkr- 
 ments in the Eaft-Indies and make them 
 their own. They were neverthelefs dif- 
 ferent nations, fpoke different languages, 
 had different cuftoms and religions incon- 
 fiftent together and were themfelves be- 
 fore the end extremely odious to one an- 
 other. The Dutch obtained nothing ex- 
 cept by force, victory and conqu eft. But 
 furely we are well aware, how different 
 things may in thefe refpecls be between 
 us and the Americans and how much to 
 the advantage of the latter. We are one 
 nation, with the fame language, the fame 
 manners and the fame religion. Their 
 Seamen, their Soldiers, their People are 
 
 ours
 
 [ I0 3 ] 
 
 ours and oars theirs. How eafy will be 
 the tranfition or the change of depen- 
 dence, protection or government between 
 one and the other? Our people do already 
 and at this moment feek with them fhe}- 
 ter and refuge from their domeftic poverty 
 and mifery. Should ever thefe our pro- 
 vinces in the events of chance 'and time 
 come to look us in the face with any near 
 equality or be much allifted by any other 
 nation, would it then be a very ftrange 
 thing, if they fhould caufe a general revolt 
 of all or of almoft all the feamen of the 
 Bntifh Empire ? Thefe might not look 
 upon themfelves as engaging or acting 
 againft their country, but as chufmg be- 
 tween two parts of it. They will at their 
 pleafure diilribute the titles of unreafon- 
 able and unjuft, of injured and oppreffed. 
 The beft terms and the bed treatment will 
 not fail to carry the greater numbers. 
 There is perhaps on the one fide towards 
 this brave and deferving body of men a 
 H4
 
 mofl cruel, unjuft and impolitic practice, 
 which has long cried for vengeance and 
 which cannot fail to be one day heard and 
 at that moment perhaps as likely, as at any 
 other. It is in every one's difcourfe, that 
 fomething of the fame kind may happen 
 with refpect to our common foldiery j I 
 will not therefore dwell on that point. But 
 what part might our iflands in the Weft- 
 Indies take at fuch a conjuncture ? To 
 whom are they the nearer! or on whom 
 do they moft depend for their provifions, 
 lumber and other neceilary circumftances 
 of their trade ? Would there be in the Eaft- 
 Indies the fame neceffity of conqueft, as 
 the Dutch found ? Might more equal con- 
 ditions or independence itfelf be no temp- 
 tation to one or the other or might it in 
 that day be thought a great fin to change 
 the words Old England for New ? There 
 is one point fo important, fo critical, 
 that I hardly know either how to mention 
 or how to be filent in it. Suppofe that 
 
 Ireland,
 
 - , : ( 105 ] -;;:; 
 
 " Ireland itfelf, I mean the proteflant, opu- 
 lent and ruling part of Ireland fliould 
 grow jealous ; fhould begin to make com- 
 parifons between the ftate, fituation and 
 relation of the Americans towards us and 
 their own ; but I will pafs by this fub- 
 je<5l. However I know fo well the open- 
 nefs and franknefs of that nation, as to 
 be fully affured, that there are at lean: 
 none of that country, who advife or urge 
 at this time the prefent proceedings with 
 any diftant or double view to forward 
 and haften the independence of Ireland 
 and that not at its own, but at the coft 
 and hazard of America. The human 
 heart can hardly be conceived to conceal 
 fuch myfleries. But were it otherwife, 
 our adminiftration would no doubt be 
 fenfible of it and inftead of being duped 
 or impofed upon thereby, be only the 
 more circumfpecl on the occafion and the 
 more upon their guard.- 
 
 - - . r. > t 
 
 Unhappy
 
 Unhappy are the people, which purfue 
 thofe fteps, that their friends moft fear 
 and their enemies moil wifh. Were the 
 cabinets of Verfailles and Madrid or any 
 other the moft j ealous of the power and 
 profperity of Great - Britain united in 
 Council and that they had it in their 
 option to drive and pufh us for their 
 own advantage upon fome ruinous and 
 deftruftive meafure, what would they 
 chufe before this very one, which we are 
 now of ourfelves fo fatally and fo madly 
 running upon ? 
 
 It is a common proverb in politics, 
 that any ftate may at it's own pleafure 
 commence war, but that they muft after- 
 wards afk their enemies, when it mall 
 be ended. Let us ftay our hand and 
 reflect once more, while we may and 
 "before that the die is caft not to % be re- 
 called. No man knows otherwife, wne^ 
 ther the next time that we and the Ameri- 
 cans
 
 cans fhall treat upon terms, it may be on 
 the ground of acts of parliament and 
 acts of afTembly or upon that of a treaty 
 of peace. 
 
 It is fometimes faid, that Providence 
 blinds the undemanding of thofe, whom 
 it deilines to deflruclion. When things 
 are ripe for that end, men often provoke 
 and haften their own fate. But God for- 
 bid, that any one being at the helm of 
 this frate fhould ever not fully and re- 
 peatedly confider or that he fhould from 
 any unhappy impulfe fcruple or hefitate 
 to ftay and to flop fuch meafures, as may 
 in their confeqmen^ces make his mafter to 
 fit uneafy on his throne nor fuffer him 
 himfelf to jay down his head upon his 
 pillow without bearing on it the curfes of 
 his country, but which may throw all 
 the parts of the Britifh empire into fuch 
 diforder and confufion, that neither he 
 nor any man fhall be able to guide or 
 
 hold the reins of its government. 
 
 I can-
 
 [ io8 ] 
 
 I cannot guefs into whofe hands thefe 
 fheets may fall or how they may be re- 
 ceived. It is not a Prince alone who may 
 in thefe abjecl: times be furrounded with 
 flattery; a Minifter may not want his 
 fhare of it. It is withal but a poor fatif- 
 faction for a private perfon to wifh in 
 the wafle and havock of his country, that 
 it may be remembered ; that there was 
 not wanting One who laid freely and 
 plainly before the Public and thofe go- 
 verning it the rifque and the likelihood of 
 thefe fatal events and circumfcances. But 
 it is to be hoped, that better and more 
 fubllantial effects and confequences will 
 follow, fliould the things here advanced 
 be on confideration found no other than 
 truth and reafon. May not otkerwife thefe 
 advices and admonitions rife up one day 
 in witnefs againfl thofe, who iliall now 
 defpife them ? It is at the fame time the 
 fuitheft from my meaning, that futurity 
 can be forefeen or that it is permitted to 
 
 look
 
 [ I0 9 ] 
 
 look into the book of the time to come. 
 There is nothing certain in human affairs. 
 But in incidents of this prodigious im- 
 portance, in the fate of ftates and of 
 kingdoms, in dangers of this tranfcen- 
 dent magnitude, probability takes the 
 place of certainty and every prudent ruler 
 ought to fhun and avoid the one with 
 almofl as much caution, as he would the 
 other nor can I finifh this fubjecr, without 
 once more repeating, that our prefent 
 debt puts us into a fituation, in which 
 no nation ever was before. 
 
 I know that fome people afFe<5t to mag- 
 nify the debts of France, but they are 
 hardly worth fpeaking of in comparifon 
 of ours. I don't believe, that they ex- 
 ceeded at the utmofh fifteen millions 
 flerling when the Regent Duke of Or- 
 leans took the method of the Mifiifippi 
 to cancel and annihilate therm The 
 wants of Lewis the Fourteenth had been 
 
 great, ( .
 
 great, but his credit was as fmall. What 
 can the prefent King have contracted 
 fmce to be compared to the debt of Great 
 Britain ? Where is the credit ? Does any 
 one believe the Dutch concerns of that 
 kind to be equal in France to what they 
 arc in England or has France itfelf fup- 
 plied the reft ? However I will only ob- 
 ferve more that the French debt confifts 
 in great meafure of arrears of penfions, 
 places, pofts and other grants which the 
 fame hand with-holds, as conferred j but 
 that our debt was all received in millions 
 fterling. 
 
 As to what has been faid, that great 
 men moving in a public fphere are above 
 the rules of right arid wrong ; he muft 
 be unworthy to hold the helm of any 
 government, who is fo ignorant of the 
 facts and incidents before his time or fo 
 blind to thofe about him, as not to ob- 
 ferve and perceive that good and virtuous 
 
 actions,
 
 [ I" ] 
 
 actions, I mean, fuch as are really fo 
 without the falfe colours of flattery and 
 obfequioufnefs, produce in general and 
 national matters their proper and cor- 
 refpondent effects. We have not indeed 
 before our eyes in that cafe the formalities 
 of a trial and a fentence, the Judge in his 
 robes or the apparatus of an execution j 
 but due confequences do from the ori- 
 ginal and univerfal law given to the world 
 follow a good or evil conduct in public 
 concerns with much more certainty, ju- 
 ftice and impartiality, than they do by 
 the means of municipal laws in private. 
 But I defire to explain, that it is not the 
 piety of a bigot on his knees or the 
 prayers even of a devout Prince, which 
 will flay or turn the courfe and order of 
 the world. Had that been the cafe, our 
 Henry the Sixth would not have fallen in 
 a prifon by the hand of an aflalTm nor 
 Charles the Firft have fuffered on a fcaf- 
 fold by the axe of the executioner nor 
 
 James
 
 James the Second have led the latter part 
 of his life in banifhment. Thefe were all 
 uncommonly both devout and unfortu- 
 nate Princes. I don't at prefent enter 
 into the confideration of what reward 
 perfonal piety will meet with in another 
 place ; but it is the public good, a love 
 and regard for that and attention to it, a 
 conftant refolution never to take directly 
 or indirectly by the means either of force 
 or of corruption the property of the fub- 
 jec"l at will and at pleafure, but to employ 
 only for the welfare and happinefs of the 
 people the powers and the prerogatives en- 
 trufted by them for that purpofe ; which 
 are the true trial and touchftone of the 
 conduct of Princes and Minifters, as fuch. 
 Thefe naturally produce affection, loyal- 
 ty, fidelity, attachment and fupport. But 
 fhould any man or number of men be re- 
 gardlefs of the good or condition of others, 
 trample on their rights, lay unjufl hands 
 on their properties, treat them rather like 
 
 the
 
 [ 3 ] 
 
 the beafts of the fields than as their fel- 
 lows and equals, fhouldtheyfupport them- 
 felves herein with the fword and a fupe- 
 riority of power ; the great Author of 
 mankind and of their welfare and hap- 
 pinefs has fo linked and chained together 
 caufes and effects, that thefe things will 
 certainly turn to the detriment and dif- 
 advantage of them and theirs, who do 
 them j fometimes by a filent and hardly 
 obfervable courfe of things and fome- 
 times with long delay and at a great di- 
 ftance , but fometimes likewife at the mo- 
 ment and upon the occafion with direct 
 and immediate refiftance and a common 
 confufion, wherein the authors of the 
 mifchief are themfelves involved and 
 wherein they often fall a prey and a fa- 
 crifice. The ways of Providence and the 
 courfe of futurity are unfearcheable ; but 
 were any man to prefume to divine, how 
 juftice and injuftice and the general mo- 
 rality of the univerfe may poilibly in the 
 I prefent
 
 "4 ] 
 
 jrfefent cafe operate, it would perhaps be j 
 that Right will ftrongly unite, cement 
 and combine by a mutual aflfociation and 
 afliftance thofe acting under its banners, 
 while Wrong will on the contrary con- 
 found and weaken with difunion, diffen- 
 tion and disturbances among themfelves 
 that people, by whom it fhall unhappily 
 have been adopted, Thefc are on each 
 fide the natural and, as it were, the ne- 
 cefTary confequences of their own choice. 
 But there appear at the fame time fome 
 untoward and threatening figns, that the 
 Hand of Heaven will on the ocCafion be 
 heavy and fevere j when woe to the party, 
 which fhall abide it. 
 
 If any thing can iri this Cafe enhance the 
 importance of the great flake, which we 
 are about to venture, it muft be a com- 
 parifbn of the very little profit, that we are 
 going to contend for. The Americans 
 are willing and confenting to give us all 
 
 they
 
 [ "5 ] 
 
 they have, provided that we will accept 
 it with our right hand; but we are ob- 
 ftinate to rilk every thing both of theirs 
 and of our own rather than not to take 
 it with our left. Our whole object is on 
 this occafion no more, than the difference 
 between thofe two propofltions. Our 
 Americans have now no gold or filver* 
 It comes all to the mother-country. It 
 would equally do fo, did they receive as 
 much again. They keep none for their 
 own currency; they ufe themfelves paper 
 for that and fend us all the other. One 
 would be amazed to think, what men or 
 adminiftrations can defire. Cannot we be 
 contented with all and do we infift on. 
 having more than all ? 
 
 But it will be faid we want to tax them, 
 I afk why. It muft be anfwered, becaufe 
 we are bent upon getting their money. I 
 repeat again, we have it already. But 
 fays a ways-and-means man.; we muft 
 1 2 have
 
 116 } 
 
 have it in the fhape of taxes. No other 
 wiil i|rve our purpofe. I reply once more, 
 that we have it really in that fhape ; for 
 cannot we and don't we tax it, when it 
 comes hither and is not that the fame 
 thing ? Are there not taxes enow to take 
 it, as foon as it gets to Britain or why 
 don't you afk for more, if there are not ? 
 Who fays you nay here ? I will be bold 
 to fay, that there is at this time raifed on 
 Great-Britain nothing lefs than ten mil- 
 lions fterling a year, befides the collection ; 
 that is the leaft, it may with the latter be 
 fairly taken at eleven. Our fpecie has 
 never been ufed to be reckoned at above 
 twenty millions. It is faid, that about 
 three millions and a quarter of guineas 
 have at the time of the writing this been 
 on occafion of the light gold brought into 
 the Bank. Let our currency be calculated 
 on that ground and we fliall according to 
 any juft reafoning thereon appear to raifc 
 within the year by taxes, including the 
 
 col-
 
 [ "7 1 
 
 collection, a fum at leaft equal to half of 
 the whole fpecie and current coin of the 
 kingdom; a prodigious proportion and 
 perhaps incredible, were we not to ex- 
 amine into particulars. 
 
 Should it be faid, that a circulating 
 guinea cannot but pay twenty different 
 taxes in a year, fome might poffibly be at 
 firft light furprized at it. But how far 
 ihort will that on a more minute exami- 
 nation be found of the truth? Let us 
 confider only the courfe of a fhilling for 
 a very fhort time. A chairman pays out 
 of it for his pot of porter. How many 
 taxes does that include ; the new and old 
 taxes on beer and malt and the tax on 
 hops ? They are more than I have time 
 to reckon. His wife fends next morning 
 to the fhop for her tea and fugar. How 
 many more are there ? I will leave them 
 to be counted by thofe better acquainted 
 with the book of rates, than I am. But 
 1 3 here
 
 [ "8 ] 
 
 here are a confiderable number gone thro' 
 out of one fmgle fhilling by the time, 
 that a porter has got his beer over-night 
 and his wife her breakfaft the next morn- 
 ing. There remains then a third part of 
 the money to run the gauntlet again in 
 the fervice of the man at dinner-time. 
 However they do not perhaps amount 
 quite to twenty j but fo is likewife the 
 time a good deal fhort of a year and the 
 money much lefs than a guinea. But this 
 is not taking the matter in the ftrongefl 
 light. There is a chain and union of 
 taxes, which operate infenfibly and al- 
 moft beyond imagination. Go into a 
 Shoemaker's (hop. Buy a pair of (hoes 
 there. How many taxes does any one in 
 effect pay then ? The Journeyman Shoe- 
 maker muft put into his day's labour and 
 confequently there muft be laid upon the 
 {hoes made by him all the taxes, which 
 he and his family pay in the mean time 
 for his fait, for his foap, for his coals, 
 
 for'
 
 [ "9 1 
 
 for his candles, for the linen and for the 
 very (hoes worn by him, his wife and his 
 children and for very many other things. 
 Thefe are all juft fo much money out of 
 his pocket and he muft be repaid them 
 by his daily labour, which is his only 
 means. He cannot otherwife live ; there 
 would be no {hoes and men muft go with- 
 out them. But it is not the immediate 
 taxes of the Shoemaker only which go 
 upon his manufacture, but thofe like- 
 wife of his tradefmen. The price of his 
 cloaths is enhanced by the taxes, which 
 the Taylor and the Weaver paid while 
 they were making and weaving them; 
 however not by theirs only, but by thofe 
 likewife of the perfons working for them 
 
 in their turn and fo on. Thefe muft all 
 
 * 
 
 be put on the (hoes. Jnfornuch that the 
 whole fully purfued and obferved makes 
 a feries and combination fit to put Newton 
 or Demoivre at a ftand. A poor guinea or 
 {filling cannot in England put its head, 
 14 if I
 
 if I may fo exprefs myfelf, out of any 
 man's pocket, but that an army of thefe 
 catchpoles are ready to feize upon it, 
 wherever it ilirs. The matter being then 
 viewed in thefe lights, it feems no longer 
 ftrange, if we raife a revenue equal to the 
 half of our currency or more. Increafe 
 that currency and you increafe in all ap- 
 pearance your revenue nearly in that 
 proportion. This is a prodigious ope- 
 ration and furely fufficient to fatisfy 
 any adminiftration whatfoever. Let us 
 therefore content ourfelves with getting 
 hither the American money. That is 
 our bufmefs. We know what to do with 
 it here. This is the very land of taxes. 
 Jt is now coming as fart, as it can. Don't 
 let us move Heaven and Earth only to 
 difcurb it in its pafTage. Let us have the 
 leaft patience and fall to work upon it at 
 home. We are certain, that it will be 
 here and that it will then be taxed and, 
 
 as
 
 as it were, taxed upon taxed. The reft is 
 with all fubmifiion to my fuperiors no 
 better at the bottom, than a childifh fancy 
 and impatience and owing only to the 
 want of a full reflection and confidera- 
 tion on the fubje6L 
 
 I have yet fomething to add on this 
 head ; which is, that were the Irifh and 
 the Americans both of them unanimously 
 to cry out to us to fpare their lives and 
 to take all they have ; to beg of us to fend 
 them fuch another army of tax-gatherers, 
 as our own, and with them a copy of 
 our code of revenue-laws ; I will be bold 
 to fay, that it would neverthelefs be in 
 us the worft policy in the world and to- 
 tally contrary to our own mtereft to take 
 them at their words and to do in the 
 leaft degree any fuch thing. We fee the 
 Thames flowing conftantly into the ocean 
 and yet always full. It need not be faid, 
 that the rain and the dew are the caufes 
 
 of
 
 [ 122 ] 
 
 of this, which firft fall and fertilize the 
 earth and then replenifh that noble river. 
 Were thofe two flopped or dried up, it 
 would not be long, before we fhould pafs 
 over dry-fhod at London Bridge. Were 
 they fo only in part, the ftream would 
 then likewife lower in proportion. What 
 pur whole defct to foreigners amounts to, 
 no one may probably know with exaftnefs - t 
 but the more it has been enquired into, 
 the higher it has always appeared. How- 
 ever the intereft of it is a current, which 
 runs perpetually into the Continent. We 
 do not indeed fee it with our eyes, as we 
 do the Thames ; otherwife we love money 
 fo much better than we do water, that 
 we might perhaps be lefs indifferent about 
 it, than we are. It pafTes imperceptibly, 
 but neverthelefs furely and without ceaf~ 
 ing. What are then the caufes which fup- 
 ply it ? I anfwer, thofe two great fources 
 of Ireland and America. Thefe firft water 
 and fruclify with their moft benignant 
 
 current
 
 [ I2 3 1 
 
 current the whole ifland of Great-Britain 
 and then finifti their courie in the dif- 
 charge of our debt abroad. Their way is 
 no more vifible, than that of the intereft 
 itfelf of our debt, but it is alike certain 
 and conftant. Stop or dry up thefe and 
 you will as furely ftop or dry up the funds 
 of our debts, as withholding the rain or 
 the dew of Heaven would lefTen and lower 
 the ftream of the River Thames. Taxes 
 will do this. They are the bane of com- 
 merce and of agriculture. They affeft 
 the Merchant, the Manufacturer, the 
 Planter, the Farmer and the Labourer. 
 Our America is not of an age to fupport 
 their operation. The things from above 
 keep their courfe in fpite of man for his 
 benefit and advantage. It is God's very 
 great mercy that the dew and the rain 
 do not depend on Adminiftrations, they 
 would otherwife have undoubtedly been 
 taxed and dried long ago. But it is not 
 fo with what is of our own fabrick or 
 
 pro-
 
 [ 124 ] 
 
 production. We have a great power over 
 riches and treafure. Governments can ef- 
 fectually cut off the wells and the fprings 
 of thefe. We have only to look abroad 
 in the world to be abundantly convinced 
 of that truth. The example of Great- 
 Britain will not prove the contrary. It 
 was when and while we were not taxed, 
 as we now are, that we profpered, grew 
 great and rich. Thofe times gave us 
 ftrength to bear for a while the burthen 
 iince impofed upon us. It is from the 
 Revolution, that our prodigious taxes 
 have begun. They were laid by degrees 
 and fo muft their effects be perceived. 
 They don't operate like a ftonn or a 
 whirlwind. Let us give them a fair and 
 fu 1 ! trial before we declare, that we are 
 not undone by them. It will then be ' 
 time enough to make ourfelves a model 
 for others. I afk, whether it is not our 
 own actual difficulties brought on by 
 thefe very taxes, which do now at this 
 
 inftant
 
 inftant urge us upon our colonies and 
 which are the caufe of all the prefent 
 conteft and diforder. It is one of the firil 
 principles in commerce not to burthen 
 the means and materials of manufactures. 
 It would be nipping the fruit in the bud. 
 The fame reafoning holds here. Let us 
 keep our hands from thefe two great 
 caufes and fources of our treafure and 
 wealth. They have hitherto wonder- 
 fully fupplied and fupported us. They 
 may continue fo to do, if we will fufter 
 them. 
 
 But it may be faid, that we have at 
 home great and profitable manufactures 
 and our woollen one in particular -, where- 
 by we Hand lefs in need of diftant afliil- 
 ance. That is very true j but fo is it 
 likewife, that we have on the continent 
 very many expences and demands for mo- 
 ney befides the intereft of our debt. We 
 {hall be very fortunate, if we can with 
 
 the
 
 [ 126 ] 
 
 the means of all our richeft refources make 
 at the year's end an even accompt. 
 
 But it may be alked, what are we then 
 to do. We are prefled with our domef- 
 tic burthens and incumbrances. Thefe 
 put us firft on the meafure of Stamps in 
 America, wherein we did not fucceed. 
 Thefe induced us afterwards to make de- 
 mands on the India-Company, wherein 
 we had rather better fortune. It is thefe, 
 which have again brought us back to our 
 attack on America. How are we either 
 to Hand under them or to march for- 
 ward ? Is it fafe to reft as we are ? What 
 courfe are we to take if it is not ? This 
 is perhaps as ferious a proportion, as one 
 Englifhman can put to another. No man 
 laments more than the writer of thefe 
 fheets, that nearly twelve years of peace 
 are now elapfed without any thing being 
 done or eftabliihment made which may 
 enable us to maintain another war or 
 
 per-
 
 [ 1*7 ] 
 
 perhaps even in peace fupport long the 
 prefent very heavy preflure, under which 
 we labour. We have in that time paid 
 off eight millions. We borrowed during 
 the late war twelve millions in a year ; fo 
 that our difcharge is in between eleven 
 and twelve years of peace equal to a debt 
 of eight months of war. We ihall at that 
 rate in about feventeen years of the firft, 
 if it fhould continue fo long, free our-, 
 felves from the incumbrance of one year 
 of the latter. Whereas fhould the whole, 
 time be taken from the Revolution to the 
 prefent, we have had as much of the one as 
 of the other, except the difference of about 
 ten years in the whole. Should therefore 
 any one at the helm of Government plume 
 himfelf on this, what would he do but 
 teflify, how very far fhort his own views 
 and conceptions are of the real neceflities 
 and exigencies of the ftate ? We are in 
 the mean time daily liable to be again 
 engaged in war. We have now had an 
 
 uncom-
 
 [ '28 ] 
 
 uncommon interval of reft from it. It 
 was but a very few years ago, that we 
 were on the- brink of a rupture with 
 Spain, which would undoubtedly have 
 been attended by one with France. How 
 can any Minifter ileep in peace, who has 
 on his hands the care of a kingdom and 
 the welfare of many millions of people ; 
 while public affairs are in a condition fo 
 very unprepared for an event, which may 
 at any moment happen and which may in 
 our prefent fituation bring with it confe- 
 quences of an importance hardly to be 
 conceived ? Surely they think on thefe 
 things, whofe duty moll demands it of 
 them. It is impoffible, that fuch con- 
 cerns of ours can be left only to chance 
 and hazard or, as it were, to the fortui- 
 tous concourfe of atoms. One would 
 think there could hardly be a man in 
 Britain, Minifter or any other not per- 
 petually employed at the plough, but who 
 muft daily revolve in his mind the prefent 
 
 circum-
 
 t 129 ] 
 
 circumflances of his country, our bur- 
 thens, our debts and our expences and at 
 the fame time carl in his own breaft, what 
 mufl be the befl means of our fupporting 
 ourfelves under them, whether in war or 
 in peace. There is an iffue, which fome 
 men have in view and which I will not 
 exprefs j we may however be allured that 
 they do but very fupcrficially confider the 
 matter, who imagine, that this will in 
 our cafe take place without the utter ruin 
 and confufion of every thing. All is 
 notwithstanding as yet tranquillity and 
 funfhine with us. We poffefs a great and 
 fine country; we have moil noble and 
 beneficial dependencies ; we have a fleet ; 
 we have an army ; we have feveral hun- 
 dred thoufands and perhaps near a mil- 
 lion of men capable of bearing arms in 
 their own defence - t we have a revenue with 
 a furplus above the intereft of our debts 
 and expences. Surely there is yet an op- 
 portunity to find fome plan; to fettle 
 K fome
 
 [ 130 ] 
 
 Ibme eftablifhment, whereon things may 
 reft fafely and fecurely and the Public and 
 all reafonable perfons be fatisfied, that 
 they do fo. There is however no time 
 to be loft. It may be too late to prepare, 
 as it were, in the day of battle and at 
 the moment when our difficulties prefs 
 ftrongly upon us. But this is of itfelf a 
 very wide field and one of the greateft 
 of confiderations nor is it my immediate 
 fubjecl. But the meafures now carrying on 
 will not effect it or any thing towards it. 
 No furrounding dangers or difficulties 
 are a good reafon for running down a 
 precipice j our fate can but lead us thither 
 at laft. However no other end can hap- 
 pen to us from the way, which we 
 are now in, if we perfevere and proceed 
 in it. 
 
 This feemsto be afufficient anfwer tothe 
 point before us. However I will not to- 
 tally turn my back on this queftion, with- 
 out
 
 [ '3' 3 
 
 out frankly and freely propofing what, I 
 truft, will at lead be more for our purpofe, 
 than that which we are nowpurfuing; what 
 may be carried into execution, which the 
 other cannot, what would increafe our re- 
 venue, which the other will not. I mean to 
 do almoft directly the contrary of what we 
 are about, that is, to give a greater liberty 
 and latitude of trade both to Ireland and 
 to America, to America including our 
 Weft- India Iflands. That is my propo- 
 fition. We are the feat and center of 
 Government. This is our ftrength. This 
 is our advantage. This is what we are 
 to preferve. While we retain this, all the 
 money, riches and treafure of the more 
 diftant and dependent parts of our Em- 
 pire cannot fail to flow in upon us. We 
 have nothing to do with little jealoufies 
 about this trade or that manufacture ; it 
 is the proper bufmefs of the rich to fpend 
 their money and of the poor to earn it ; 
 the State may well without meddling in 
 K2 it
 
 C *32 J 
 
 it leave them to fettle the means of thai 
 matter with one another. The end of all 
 trades and of all manufactures muft reft 
 with us, while we continue the feat of 
 dominion. It is the neeeffary eonfequence 
 of giving the tone and the law. Ambi- 
 tion, pleafurc, fafhion, buflnefs, curioftty, 
 education, trade and commerce, pofts 
 and places poflMed abroad by Englifh- 
 men and; numberlefs other eaufes will 
 contribute to and effect it. The ifland 
 of Jamaica and our other iflands in the 
 Weft-Indies what money and commodi- 
 ties equivalent to money have they not 
 fent to- England, could the whole be 
 added together ? Jamaica in particular 
 draws by its fituation gold and lllver from 
 the Spanifh main, that great modern 
 Ophir, much more abundant in thofe 
 metals than ever was the ancient. It is 
 here almoft impoilible not to obferve - 3 . that 
 the fame ftatefman forbid and flopped alfo 
 tliis commerce, who contrived and paffed 
 
 the.
 
 the Stamp Aft. I will not dwell on this 
 circumilance. However it is very remark- 
 able I lhall therefore proceed to take 
 notice, that had thefe Iflands and Iflanders 
 acquired ten times as much as they did, it 
 would undoubtedly have run the fame 
 road as the reft. The climate would 
 have driven the polTefTors from thence, 
 while the feat of empire would have in- 
 vited them hither. Do not we fee the very 
 Proprietaries of our northern colonies 
 living in England as private gentlemen 
 and have not we fometimes known them 
 voting in Minorities of our Lower Houfe 
 of Legislature, while they might have 
 been almofl as Princes and Kings in their 
 own governments ? Were it in the next 
 month to rain over the different parts of 
 Ireland a million of moneys how long 
 does any one imagine it would be, before 
 at leaft nine hundred thoufand pounds of 
 it would find its way into England ? Have 
 we lately wanted very fufiicient proofs, 
 
 t 7 tha*.
 
 [ '34 ] 
 
 that there remains no abundance of cafh. 
 in that kingdom ? I will not repeat, what 
 has been faid of North America ; but 
 they have by their paper-money invented 
 the very contrivance of the world for 
 fending to us every ounce of their gold 
 and filver, did we but know when to be 
 content. Look at the city of London ; 
 they neither plant nor do they fow nor do 
 they reap, yet Solomon or his Jerufalem 
 were not in all their glory rich and great 
 like that capital of our dominions. But 
 by what means does this happen ? The 
 money of our whole empire is remitted 
 thither, as the blood runs to the heart. 
 Our great body politic is preferved and 
 nourilhed by the difperfion and circula- 
 tion of it again from thence. This is 
 the conftant and never-failing courfe of 
 things. But the cafe is much more ftrong, 
 if we take Great-Britain itfelf, whereof 
 London is only a part. That would re- 
 a confiderable fhare of what it re-
 
 [ '35 ] 
 
 ceives, did not the interefl of our debt 
 carry it out, as faft as it comes in. This 
 is the iflue and the drain, which prevents 
 us from perceiving ourfelves more en- 
 riched and replenimed from the vaft quan- 
 tity of treafure perpetually arriving to 
 us from many parts. This may be the 
 reafon, why we are lefs fenfible, lefs 
 attentive and perhaps fometimes lefs grate-*, 
 ful on the occafion. But that is all our 
 own fault, our own doing. We have 
 none to thank for it but ourfelves. We 
 ought not on that account to efleem thefe 
 fupplies the lefs, for had we not them, 
 it would be much worfe with us. No- 
 thing could follow but our lafr deceafe 
 and difTolution, as a State. Thefe muft 
 and will take place, whenever the others 
 mail flop. However thefe things don't 
 require much reafoning, We have the 
 world before us for an example. Such 
 are every where the eftecls between the 
 center and other parts of a Government, 
 K 4 although,
 
 [ '36 ] 
 
 although perhaps in no cafe more fo than 
 in that of Great-Britain on account of 
 certain circumftances and caufes attend- 
 ing that empire, which are particularly 
 fuited to produce them. This is our point, 
 if we are but fenfible of our true intereft j 
 let us but preferve this our great and 
 facred prerogative and the other benefits 
 and advantages will of courfe follow, the 
 reft of thefe thines will perform them- 
 
 . ' * 
 
 felves, even while we are alleep. 
 
 I fhall ufe no words to prove that this 
 arrangement will bring a greater influx 
 of treafure to thofe, to whofe liberty of! 
 trade it fliall extend. The perfon the 
 moft prejudiced or the mofl fhort-fightcd 
 in the cafe will not difpute that with me. 
 I will venture to prefijme on that point. 
 This will therefore attach to us our de- 
 pendencies at the fame time, that it en- 
 riches us ourfelves. It will ftrengthen and 
 fiiten the bond and union between us. 
 
 It
 
 [ '37 ] 
 
 It will confirm our fuperiority, while it 
 encreafes the fruits of it. It will bring 
 us more fpoils and profits than conqueft, 
 although it will operate by love and af- 
 fection. It will require neither fleets or 
 armies to enforce it ; we need fear no re- 
 volts, no defections or confederacies on 
 the account of it. How happy would it be 4 
 if all the circumftances of the other plan 
 would in the fame manner anfwer and 
 play into the hands of each other ! When 
 will men be contented to do to others no 
 more mifchief, than what will turn to 
 their own benefit ? States and Miniflers 
 will have advanced no mean way in policy, 
 as well as in morality, when they fhall 
 once have learned to confine all their evil 
 towards others within that circle. It is 
 fhe very perverfenefs of folly to fuppofe, 
 that men can ferve themfelves only by 
 oppreffing others. But here on the con- 
 trary the hand of nature itfelf works with 
 us. Freedom of trade is our foundation ; 
 
 no
 
 [ '38 ] 
 
 no wonder then that fo many bleflings 
 coincide together. There is open before 
 us a rich and wide field ; we have only to 
 enter and to reap the harvefl, which is ripe 
 and plentiful. This propofal refls there- 
 fore on three points ; to wit, that it will 
 bring a greater influx of treafure into our 
 outward dominions 5 that this mull en- 
 rich the center of empire; which cannot 
 therefore likewife but encreafe its revenue. 
 Thefe are fhort proportions and no way 
 perplexed. Let them be well examined. 
 All fails to the ground, which has been 
 faid on the fubjecl, if any one of them 
 be falfe or miftaken ; but fhould they on 
 the contrary be all of them moil evident, 
 moil certain and indifputable, let any 
 man and the greateil in trufl the mod 
 confider j how he can anfwer to Ireland, 
 to the Colonies, to his Country at home, 
 to his King himfeif in the concern of his 
 Revenue and his Exchequer, the refilling 
 his attention and afliilance to a meafure., 
 
 fo
 
 Ib very practicable and at the fame time 
 fo univerfa'lly beneficial and falutary. 
 
 This is the more and much more ne- 
 cefTary on account of the prefent con- 
 dition of Ireland. The late enquiry con- 
 cerning their linen manufacture, the 
 public hiftory of their emigrations and 
 the ftate of their credit at the beginning 
 of their prefent Seffion of Parliament 
 have made that fufficiently known. I 
 fhall not pretend to defcribe it. England 
 has perhaps from that Ifland reaped more 
 real benefit, than Spain ever did from 
 Mexico or Peru. Spain gains indeed from 
 thofe porTeffions great riches of filver and 
 gold ; but fhe has dearly purchafed them 
 at the price of her inhabitants and peo- 
 ple at home. Whereas Ireland affords 
 us in many ways a very advantageous 
 affiftance and fupport of men, while we 
 receive from her at the fame time a con- 
 ftant mofl rich influx and fupply of mo- 
 ney.
 
 t 
 
 ney. We now fo depend on thefe things 
 and can fo ill do without them and are by 
 thefe means fo united with our Sifter- 
 liland, that mould fhe on any account 
 xmhappily link, fhe cannot but like a 
 mill-ftone fattened about our necks carry 
 us down along with her. Should her 
 condition grow worfe, who knows but 
 it may turn to rage and defpair and 
 cither have an effect on her Legiflature 
 or that the majority thereof may be 
 hardly able to manage and govern their 
 own State. I am unwilling 'to point out 
 fuch poflibiliries ; but it will not be long 
 health and wealth in England, fhould 
 any irretrievable mifchief happen in Ire- 
 land. A moderate remedy might how^ 
 ever now be timely, for what may in 
 futurity be beyond redrefc. A greater 
 liberty and latitude of trade is the proper 
 affiftance in the cafe. It is what Ireland 
 jtfelf wifhes and defires. It will at the 
 feme time be of more benefit to us than 
 
 to
 
 + [ 141 
 
 to them. France is beating us out of the 
 trades of Turkey, of Spain and even of 
 Portugal. Let loofe the Irifh and they 
 will do as much for them and likewife for 
 fome others. It is Great-Britain, which 
 with-holds the hand of Ireland and not 
 the nature of things, that confines it, 
 Let us but conlent and they will foon 
 ftretch out their right hand into many a 
 market in the world, where it now never 
 appears and having done fo they will im- 
 mediately deliver to us with their left the 
 money gained there as furely, as that we 
 are born Englifrimen. I don't point out 
 particulars j lights will not be wanting in 
 that refpecl, whenever there fhall be an 
 Inclination to demand them. I don't 
 moreover mean to fignify, that any open- 
 ing of the commerce of Ireland and Ame- 
 rica recommended within the compafs of 
 thefe fricets will of itfelf be adequate to 
 all the demands of our prefent fituation. 
 That will in all appearance require a new 
 
 and
 
 [ 142 ] 
 
 and univerfal arrangement of our taxes 
 and commerce, wherein Great Britain 
 herfelf muft bear a mofl material part. 
 No man can fay, that all the money in 
 Europe is equal to our National Debt nor 
 can therefore any provifion be fufficient, 
 but what may produce effefts anfwerable 
 to fuch a very great neceflity. Some plan 
 feems to be demanded, which may bring 
 into Great- Britain a good part of all the 
 gold and filver now current in the world. 
 Nothing lefs will perhaps do our bufmefs. 
 The practicability of this cannot but ap- 
 pear a doubtful problem. Were all ftates 
 whatfoever formed on a conilltution the 
 moft advantageous for commerce, where- 
 of each is capable - t it is evident, that they 
 would then fhare among them thofe two 
 precious metals in fo near a proportion, 
 that no one could therein have over the 
 reft any very great fuperiority. But this 
 is exceedingly wide of the cafe. No one 
 ftate is fo conftituted ; but on the con- 
 
 trarv
 
 [ H3 I 
 
 trary almoft all governments whatever 
 arc framed and a<5l on principles diretly 
 oppofite thereto. This gives a very great 
 opportunity for an extreme difference and 
 difproportion in that refpect. It is per- 
 haps on the availing ourfelves thereof, 
 that depends the future welfare of our 
 country and the fafety, the ftability and 
 the very fubfiflence of our ftate. The 
 Dutch are a fmall people or at learr. have 
 but a veiy confined territory and that de- 
 fended with difficulty from the fea. They 
 have neverthelefs done a great deal in the 
 way, which we are fpeaking of. They 
 are certainly therein at the head of all 
 mankind. However it is evident and 
 might eaiily be pointed out, that they 
 are yet far fliort of perfection. There is 
 good room for others to go beyond and 
 efpecially for a ftate, which has fuch ad- 
 vantages as Great - Britain. However 
 what degree of advantage the nature of 
 things will admit of on this head or how 
 
 to
 
 t '44 1 
 
 to attain thereto are not queftions of this 
 prefent mftant. I have faid thus much 
 led to it by my fubjecl together with the 
 intereft of the Public therein and the ne- 
 ceflity, which I am perfuaded that my 
 countiy is at this time under of finding 
 and carrying into execution fome fuch 
 great, general and falutary meafure. Hap- 
 py will be the hand, that fhall in the firft 
 place prevent the ruin, whereon we are 
 now running. We muft begin there. 
 That is the object direclly before us. Let 
 us next enlarge the trade of Ireland and 
 America. This will do a great deal. It 
 may likewife lead us towards a more uni- 
 verfal plan, with which it cannot at th# 
 fame time but coincide. It will withal 
 be well, that this double benefit of thefe 
 two parts of our country went hand in 
 hand together. The prefent flate of Ire- 
 land makes it abfolutely and immediately 
 necefTary for the one and the intereft of 
 Great-Britain requires it for both. 
 
 I don't
 
 t 145 ] 
 
 I don't enter into particulars concern- 
 ing the flopping up the Port of Bofton or 
 the new laws given to MafTachufett's-Bay, 
 However I muft obferve, that the altera- 
 tion of their Charter and of their Civil Go- 
 vernment is not temporary like the other 
 provifions, but perpetual. The breaking 
 of Charters is making the worft war upon 
 mankind. It involves the innocent and 
 thofe yet unborn. Every thing depends 
 with men on their conflitution of Go- 
 vernment. Such a meafure is therefore 
 wantonly laying wafle the territories of 
 the earth and I fpeak it with reverence, 
 but it is even forbidding Providence it- 
 felf to make mankind happy thereon* 
 unlefs he fhall for the undoing the works 
 of unreafonable and ill-judging men per- 
 form immediate miracles and fufpend or 
 counteract his own laws of nature, which 
 is furely not to be fuppofed or expected. 
 As for thofe, who refufe or impede law 
 and juftice for blood, let them be well 
 L aware,
 
 [ i 4 6 ] 
 
 aware, that they don't thereby bring it 
 on their own heads or warrant private 
 men to be themfelves their own avengers. 
 However the whole will no doubt be re- 
 ceived in America as a declaration of war 
 and depend upon the fame iflue. It muft 
 be by force and conqueft, if they fubmit. 
 It is probably not a month or a year, 
 that will finally determine this affair. 
 The flame may break out immediately 
 or the fire may fmother until fome fatal 
 opportunity of our being engaged in a 
 foreign war or fome other fuch occafion. 
 The authors of thefe meafures no doubt 
 expecl, that the removal of the Cuftom- 
 houfe and the fufpenfion of the trade of 
 JBofton will bring thefe people on their 
 knees and force them to fubmit to the 
 reft of our meafures. It is evident, that 
 this is their idea. They might have been 
 well informed and inftructed and ought 
 to have been fo, before they proceeded fo 
 far. They may ncverthelefs find them- 
 felves
 
 I. '47 ] 
 
 felves much miftaken in the event, how- 
 ever forward they are to hazard on their 
 opinion the Welfare and profperity of their 
 country. It feems, that fome men can- 
 not even at the diftance of America bear 
 a Conftitution in any degree Democra- 
 tical. But they ought to know the Hiftory 
 of the World better than to be ignorant of 
 the ftrength and the force of fuch a form 
 of government and how ftrenuoufly and 
 almoft wonderfully people living under 
 one have fometimes exerted themfelves in 
 defence of their rights and liberties and 
 how fatally it has ended with many a 
 man and many a ftate who have entered 
 into quarrels, wars and contefts with 
 them, , 
 
 Some fay, that all the contradiction 
 and oppofition of America originates from 
 home and that it is only the faction of 
 England, which catches there. Nothing 
 perhaps teftifies a greater ignorance of 
 L 2 the
 
 t 148 ] 
 
 the true ftate of .that country, than fuch 
 a notion. What is all the fpirit of Pa- 
 triotifm or of Liberty now left in Eng- 
 land, more than the laft fnuff of an ex- 
 piring lamp ? It is not longer than four 
 and thirty years ago, that it was other- 
 wife with us. But who can fay, whether 
 the fame flame, the fame facred flame 
 may not at this time burn brightly and 
 ftrongly in America, which once fhow'd 
 forth fuch wonders in Greece and in Rome 
 and from whofe afhes it ftill enlightens a 
 great part of mankind, I mean, all who 
 are not funk in ignorance or barbarity ? 
 They have certainly there excellent and 
 free forms of government and which par- 
 take perhaps in fome degree of the prin- 
 ciples, whereon were framed the ancient 
 ones of thofe eminent cities. They are 
 themfelves as yet a new and uncorrupted 
 people. They carried with them formerly 
 the fpirit of Liberty from England, at 
 the time that it was in its greateil purity 
 
 and
 
 [ *49 1 
 
 mid perfection there nor has it fince de- 
 generated by the climate. Whoever fhall 
 j udge of their temper by ours at ihome 
 and proceed accordingly, will perhaps in 
 the end be fcorched by that flame, which 
 he may find to buri} too powerfully for 
 him and of the nature and of the proper 
 means for extinguishing of which, he was 
 totally ignorant, 
 
 I have now confidered the rectitude, 
 the practicability and the profit to be ex* 
 peeled from our prefent meafures and 
 have, gone fo far as to offer another mea- 
 fure infteac}. I hope, that I have proved 
 my propofitions to a great degree of clear- 
 nefs and certainty, I don't know what 
 to do more on this fubjecl:, unlefs I fhould 
 propofe fomething, which might convince 
 and fatisfy without the trouble of reafon 
 and argument. This feems difficult. How- 
 ever I will not defpair. My caufe is a good 
 and a ftrong one ; that will help me and I 
 
 L 3 be S
 
 beg to be permitted to try my hand in 
 the cafe. I will recommend and, fo far 
 as becomes me, defire and requefl ; that 
 every one, when he confiders of this fub- 
 jec"l and cfpecially before he ufes any hard 
 words or pafles any harfh laws, will place 
 himfelf in America ; will imagine himfelf 
 born, bred, refident and having all his 
 concerns and fortune there. I don't mean 
 Jn the light of a Governor or of one, who 
 feeks to recommend and to advance him- 
 felf here at the expence of his countrymen 
 in that part of the world j but as one, 
 who has no other views or interefl except 
 in the common good of his colony or 
 continent. Let then any fuch man can- 
 didly and fairly alk himfelf in his own 
 breaft, what he fhould in that fituation 
 think of being taxed at Weftminfler and 
 let no one on this occafion throw a ftone, 
 whofe heart does not plainly and roundly 
 anfwer him with its aflent. I may make 
 too free with Miniflers of State $ but I 
 
 would
 
 t '5' ] 
 
 would particularly prefs this on thofe, 
 whofe deiires, paflions and inclinations 
 are followed by effects and who hold per- 
 haps at this moment in their hands the 
 fate of Great-Pritain and of North- Ame- 
 rica. This I fay, is an argument with- 
 out a fyHqgifm; but which if properly 
 brought home and enforced by, every man 
 upon himfelf, may perhaps penetrate, 
 move and foften more than all the rea- 
 foning and earneftnefs, which I have hi- 
 therto ufed. 
 
 I would willingly try this experiment 
 of tranfpofition upon a late tranfaftion, 
 wherein fome peoples opinions feem to 
 be affected by locality. Certain letters 
 (fee letters of Governor Hutchinfon, &c.) 
 have been publifhed of an American 
 Governor and Lieutenant- Governor and 
 a third perfon together with remarks and 
 the fpeech of a learned and and ingenious 
 Gentleman. Thefe are offered as an ap- 
 L 4 peal
 
 [ '52 ] 
 
 peal to the public againil the colony of 
 Maffachufett's-Bay. They cannot there- 
 fore, but be themfelves likewife the ob- 
 jects of a public confideration. I have 
 by the touchftone of locality a mind to 
 examine and queftion fome of this learned 
 Gentleman's reafoning. It is now but 
 between eighty and ninety years, fince we 
 of this country banifhed our King. On 
 what ground did we do it? It will be 
 anfwered j that we did not like his ac- 
 tions j for that they tended to deprive us 
 of our beft rights and properties. That 
 we did it as Englifhmen on the Conftitu- 
 tion of England Who was the common 
 Judge between us and him ? There was 
 no iuch common Judge. We judged for 
 ourfelves. He was our King, our Ma- 
 giftrate, our Truftee. When we found 
 him to fail in the efTential points of thefe 
 offices, we took another. This was. our 
 right, as Englifhmen But we fet afide 
 one of his daughters from her turn in the 
 
 fucceiTion
 
 [ '53 ] 
 
 fuccefllon and appointed inftead a perfon, 
 who had no title by birth. The King's 
 horfe threw him and the Lady fucceeded. 
 But that was chance. It might in a courfe 
 of nature very well have happened, that 
 me had never been Queen. What had 
 fhe done ? She had taken a remarkable 
 part in the Revolution and was totally 
 unexceptionable. But there were in one 
 fcale the welfare and happinefs of many 
 millions of people and in the other the 
 advancement of only one Lady, although 
 a deferring one. There was therefore 
 no equality, the latter could not but kick 
 the beam I anfwer, that I fubfcribe to 
 all this with my hand and my heart. But 
 it is only one fide of the medal. Let us 
 turn the reverfe. An American Governor 
 is not fo big as a King ; he don't wear a 
 Crown nor bear a Scepter nor fit on a 
 Throne nor is worfhipped on the knee 
 nor has a Navy nor an Army nor makes 
 Bifhops nor Judges nor is his Civil Lift 
 perhaps above a thoufand pounds a year. 
 
 He
 
 J 
 
 He feems to be much more refponfible 
 and more removeable, than a King. Sup- 
 pofe then that one of our Colonies fhould 
 take the ftrongeft exceptions to their 
 Governor and defire to change him 5 
 would they in that cafe be permitted to 
 judge for themfelves ? No. Why not ? 
 -Becaufe they are Americans. Who are 
 to judge for them? We. Why fo? 
 Becaufe we are Englifhmcn, But would 
 their application be to us a fufRcient caufe 
 for a removal ? Perhaps not - } but on 
 the contrary a reafon to continue him at 
 prcfent and to promote and advance him 
 afterwards, That has been the cafe be- 
 fore and may probably be fo again But 
 why is the meafure which we mete to 
 them fo different from that, which we 
 meafure to ourfelves ? That has been 
 already anfwered. Becaufe we are Eng- 
 liihmen and they are Americans. This 
 jnuft be owned to be perfectly jufr. and 
 futisfacrory and the Americans are the 
 
 mail
 
 moft unreafonable men in the world, 
 if they don't fee it exactly in the fame 
 
 light. 
 
 But fuppofe that the Reprefentative 
 Body of the Province fliould make the 
 complaint ? The anfwer would then be, 
 that there was no accufer or if any one 
 chofe to fpeak Latin no delator. ^-Suppo& 
 that they complain of falfehood and 
 treachery towards the Province ? That 
 would be no charge, no crimeri.SuppofQ 
 that they gave in evidence the party's own 
 letters ?~That would complete the thing; 
 for there would then be no evidence, no 
 teftis. Nil borum. But will this hold wa- 
 ter ? Admirably ; with relpeft to Ame^ 
 rica and in Latin. 
 
 It is ftrongly difputed, whether thefe 
 American letters are of a public or a 
 private nature^ This may not in itfelf 
 be a very important point. However let 
 
 Its
 
 [ '56 ] 
 
 us endeavour to fettle it, fmce it lies in 
 our way, Whatever concerns and affects 
 the interefts, the welfare and happinefs of 
 a whole people is and muft be of a public 
 nature, whether papers, letters or any 
 other thing whatfoever. Good and evil 
 are not matters of Law or of Logic. They 
 are the moft, if not the only efTential cir- 
 cumflances of the world. They are what 
 every thing elfe refers tq. They ftamp 
 an eternal mark and difference on all 
 things, which even imagination cannot 
 cancel or erafe. The enjoyment of the 
 one and the avoiding of the other is the 
 very end of our being and likewife of all 
 the beings which 4o or which even can be 
 fuppofed to exift and which have a fenfe 
 and perception of them, Whatever there- 
 fore relates to the general good and evil 
 of a People is of a public nature, It is 
 that circumftance which makes it fo. 
 The terms are as good as fynonomous, 
 Whatever concerns on the contrary only 
 
 this
 
 t ttf ] 
 
 this or that individual, is of a private n* 
 ture. It is confined to his or their happi* 
 nefs or welfare j to his or their good and 
 eviL There is again the true and uner- 
 ring criterion. Thefe things feem clear 
 to the greateft degree of intuitive cer- 
 tainty. It is ftrange to be forced to reafort 
 about them. However we" are told other - 
 wife. If foriie compliments happen in a 
 letter to be made to an old Lady, it changes 
 the eflence of every thing ; me contracts 
 and confines the whole matter and all be* 
 comes of a private nature ; although the 
 chief fubjec"l of that very letter fhould be 
 to advife and point out the means of al- 
 tering the Charter and of new modelling 
 the Conftitution of a Colony and that 
 there fhould be recommended therein the 
 finding fome way according to its 'owrf 
 language cc to TAKE OFF the original 
 " incendiaries," left they fhould " conti- 
 " nue to inftil their poifon into the minds 
 * c of the people j" but the mention of the 
 
 old
 
 t 
 
 old Lady makes it all private. (Sec Mr. 
 Wedderburn's fpeech page 94 and letter 
 of Mr. A. Oliver Feb. 13, 1769.) But 
 fuppofe that thefe letters were really meant 
 and intended to produce public effects j 
 what will that do ? Nothing at all. If 
 the perfon had not at that moment a 
 place, to whom they were written, it 
 fignifies nothing ; although he might have 
 had a poft before and might look for one 
 again and although he might have com- 
 municated thefe letters to others for the 
 very purpofe of affecting the Public. All 
 this will be of no importance, if the per- 
 fon did not happen to have a place at the 
 time. Would not one be tempted to 
 think, that as fome endeavour to leave 
 no property in America, others have a 
 mind to banifh all human reafon out of 
 American affairs ? 
 
 But let us take this matter in another 
 light. Suppofe a Prince to have been the 
 
 fubjeft
 
 V [ ] 
 
 fubjeft of thefe letters inftead of a People 
 and his conduct and character to have 
 therein been fo freely treated and cenfured 
 inftead of theirs and the diverting him of 
 his power and dignity fo plainly menti- 
 oned and recommended inftead of the de- 
 priving them of their rights and privileges 
 and the taking him off propofed inftead 
 of the taking off fome of them, what 
 would have been the confequence ? High 
 Treafon But might not thefe have been 
 private letters of friendfhip and the re- 
 eeiver have fecreted and concealed them ? 
 There is no fuch thing as private let- 
 ters in the cafe. No civilities fent to the 
 faireft Lady in the land can make them 
 fo. The perfon receiving muft at his own 
 peril carry them to a Secretary of State 
 or to a Juftice of the Peace or to fomc 
 other Magiftrate ; we don't otherwife 
 want a word for him, which is mifprifion 
 of trcafon. But who would take notice 
 of fuch a thing ? Let Mr. Attorney or 
 
 Mr,
 
 Mr. Solicitor anfwer that But on what 
 ground is all this ? Becaufe the Prince is 
 fuppofed to be the public perfon and to 
 reprefent the whole people and that what 
 relates to him may affect them But there 
 are bad Princes and writing againft them 
 is fometimes writing in fupport and in 
 the interefts of the Public and of the Peo- 
 ple No fuch plea or proportion is ever 
 fuffered. It would on the contrary be an 
 additional crime even to make or to offer 
 it. But does any one by reprefenting a 
 body acquire more prerogatives, than be- 
 long to that body itfelf or are the Public 
 more affected through a third perfon than 
 immediately in themfelves ? Yes, juft fo. 
 Say a word againft a Prince and beware 
 of informations, indictments, fines, pri- 
 fons, fcaffolds and gibbets. Thefe are 
 the ftongeft arguments in the world and 
 I never knew any man to get the better 
 in difputing with them. But abufe a 
 People from morning till night and every 
 
 one
 
 one knows, that the rule and the law is ; 
 let them mend their manners, if it is true j 
 let them defpife it and leave it to fall on 
 the author, if it is falfe I am at the feet 
 of Gamaliel and defire only to learn. I 
 mall not contradict the doftrine concern- 
 ing a Prince and I fubfcribe heartily to 
 that about a People. Should thefe com- 
 monwealths of America ever become as 
 flrong and independent, as they are now 
 weak and dependent and mould they in 
 their greatnefs and glory remember a word 
 of the humbleft and the meaneft, but not 
 of the leaft fincere or the leaft difmterefted 
 of their friends and advocates, it will be, 
 never to employ force and power againft 
 reafon and argument j to leave thofe in- 
 ftruments to cabinets and to fuch as may 
 want them, but to believe Truth to be 
 ever the real intereft of the People and 
 the Public and that no other incenfe or 
 facrince mould ever be offered at the altars 
 of that Goddefs, but the pure oblation of 
 M a free-
 
 a freedom of thinking, fpeaking and wri- 
 ting. But here it cannot well fail to be 
 obfervedj that fhould thefe people, whofe 
 diftrefies are now pleaded, ever come to 
 be mailers both of tfiemfelves and of 
 others and to be glutted with power and 
 riches, that they will certainly run the 
 race of the reft of mankind and learn in 
 their turn tyranny and injuftice, as their 
 betters and their predecefTors have done 
 before them I anfwer, no man perhaps 
 believes this, more than myfelf 5 however 
 that is not now the cafe. They are at 
 prefent the injured and the opprefTed party 
 and have as fuch a claim to the wifhes or 
 to the afliftance of every generous and 
 unprejudiced perfon. But whenever the 
 other fuppofition fhall obtain, it is to be 
 hoped, that neither may there in that day 
 be wanting fome ' honeft man among 
 them, who will endeavour to make them 
 blufti at fuch a conduct, if he fhall not 
 be able to duTuade and divert them from 
 
 it.
 
 it. However I would willingly in my turn 
 ,now afk, whether this laft obfervation is 
 alfo local and confined to America or 
 whether it extends itfelf likewife to the 
 meridian of Great-Britain ? 
 
 It is not reafon and argument -, it is 
 this locality which operates on the prefent 
 occafion. It is this only, that makes many 
 men eafy and indifferent in the cafe about 
 right and wrong, jufHce and injuftice. 
 Were my countrymen now in England 
 dipped once in the River Delaware, I dare 
 fay, that it would make an almoil mira- 
 culous change in their opinions. If fome, 
 who might be named, were tranfpofed 
 into AfTembly Men j they would perhaps 
 be as ready to repeal certain late laws, as 
 ever they were to pafs them. However 
 I will not go back again to topics, which 
 feem fufficient to awaken the moft lethar- 
 gic Englimman out of his foundefl fleep > 
 but I defire to put a cafe relating to 
 M 2 this
 
 t 164 ] 
 
 this locality itfelf and its power and ef- 
 fects, when it is to be hoped, that we 
 (hall not find in the mirror any fimilitude 
 or reprefentation of ourfelves . 
 
 At the beginning of the laft century, 
 there lived a gentleman of the name of 
 Fawkes. He hired a houfe and fome cel- 
 lars and other apartments in Weftminfter. 
 We will fuppofe that he had a leafe of 
 them. A leafe is for the time as good 
 as a purchafe. It might not indeed be 
 ftamped ; but {lamps were not then in 
 faihion, it was good without. He bought 
 fome gunpowder. It is to be believed, 
 that he paid honeflly for it. He could 
 perhaps have produced for it a receipt. 
 He placed it in the cellars or other 
 apartments hired by him. He had indeed 
 a mind to amufe himfelf with blowing 
 up the Legislature of England, no doubt 
 with the good intention of introducing a 
 better. However he and his trains were 
 
 difcovered
 
 difcovered and the nation not relifhing 
 his projects he met with another reward 
 than he defired. But fuppofe, that he and 
 Garnet and the reft of their aflbciates, 
 inflead of falling into the hands of an 
 Englifh Jury, had been tried at Rome 
 before the Confiftory Court or any other 
 Court there, they would no doubt have 
 found an advocate. That is no other 
 than the duty of the profeflion. I won't 
 take upon me to fay, whether he would 
 in this cafe have flourifhed about private 
 property, trefpafs or forcible entry -, but 
 whatever turn the Italian council had 
 thought proper to give the caufe of his 
 clients, has any one ferioufly the leaft 
 doubt, but that they would have been 
 cleared and acquitted and probably by the 
 Court of Rome itfelf in good time pre- 
 ferred and promoted. So much can a 
 difference of climate do. But Fawkes 
 and Garnet and their friends were fools, 
 Jefuits as fome of them were. They did 
 M 3 not
 
 [ 1*6 ] 
 
 not underftand their trade. They might 
 have been told better ways of blowing 
 up Legiflatures than with gunpowder; 
 that don't make a quarter of the crack 
 and combuition, but which are ten times 
 more effectual. 
 
 But our colonies might be well enough, 
 were it not for Dr. Franklin, who has 
 with a brand lighted from the clouds fet 
 fire to all America -No Governments care 
 ever to acknowledge the people to be 
 fairly againft them. For whatever may 
 be the cafe with the opinions of the muU 
 titude in abftrufe and refined matters, 
 which but little concern them nor do 
 they much trouble themfelves about ; yet 
 the end and therefore the touchftone and 
 trial of all Government being their wel- 
 fare and happinefs, there is not common 
 modefty in affecting to defpife and refufe 
 their fenfe concerning their own good and 
 evil, their own feelings, benefits or fuf- 
 
 ferings.
 
 [ 167 i -;- 
 
 rerings. It is in thefe things that the 
 voice of the People is faid to approach, 
 that of their Maker. The fycophants of 
 Minifters endeavour therefore to throw 
 on the artifice and influence of individuals 
 all difcontent or dhTatisfaclion of the 
 Public. Mr. Wilkes moves England and 
 Dr. Franklin America; as if we had 
 here no feeling, but through the firft 
 and they had there neither eyes or ears, 
 but by the latter. It were happy for 
 mankind, if Adminiftrations procured 
 their own votes and majorities with as 
 much fairnefs, as the voice of the People 
 is commonly obtained. I wonder, whe- 
 ther we fhould then have ever heard of 
 any Government in Europe indebted in 
 the fum of a hundred and forty millions 
 flerling or be at this moment under the 
 alarm of a parent ftate attacking its own 
 colonies or of a great empire fetting at 
 work its fleets and armies only to throw 
 the parts of itfelf into mifchief and con- 
 M 4 fufion.
 
 [ '68 ] 
 
 fufion. It is idle and childifh to be cry- 
 ing out againfl this or that private per- 
 fon. The truth is, that whenever Go- 
 vernments heap up combuftibles, there 
 will always be found a hand to put the 
 match to them or thefe would heat and 
 take fire of themfelves, if there were not. 
 
 But it feems, that Dr. Franklin recom- 
 mended to his conftituents for the rule of 
 their conduct to refrain from all force and 
 violence, but to preferve and keep alive 
 in the mean time their claims by votes 
 and refolves. (Wedderburn's fpeech page 
 no and in.) I have nothing to do with 
 the defence of any individual. However 
 what more prudent or honefl advice could 
 on the occafion have been conceived or of- 
 fFered ? Is the hour very far off, when every 
 man in Britain and among the reft the 
 Minifter himfelf and perhaps even his royal 
 and ilhiftrious Mafter may moft earneftly 
 wifhj that the fame fpirit of peace had 
 
 infpired
 
 mfpired, the fame caution and confidera- 
 tion guided the public counfels here at 
 home on the fubject, as appear to have 
 dictated this advice attributed to Dr. 
 Franklin for the direction of our coun- 
 trymen beyond the Atlantick. This may, 
 I fay, indeed happen foon, but with this 
 moft wide and infinite difference) that 
 the time may then be too late, that the 
 circumftances of things can no more be 
 recalled, but that the lot of our good or 
 our evil, of our peace or our confufion 
 and poflibly even of our cxiftence or our 
 diifolution as a ftate (hall before have 
 fatally and irrecoverably been carl. 
 
 However is not Mr. W.'s Philippick 
 againft the Doctor a capital performance? 
 I am fure that I have not the leail in- 
 clination to depreciate the ingenuity of 
 that learned Gentleman, whofe argument 
 I have been making fo free with. But the 
 J)eing charmed with fpruce expreffions or 
 
 a fhiart-
 
 [ 1 7.0 ] 
 
 a fmartnefs of inveclive, where the fub- 
 jecl: makes againft the privileges or the 
 liberties of a People ; what is it better, 
 than if a parcel of prifoners or of galley- 
 flaves were fo abject as to take a pleafure 
 In the noife and the rattling, or as it were, 
 jn th$ mufic of their own chains ? 
 
 I am drawing towards an end of my 
 career. However I will firfl fay fome- 
 thing to the Americans themfelves. I 
 obferve them to charge fometimes on the 
 Britifh fubjec~ls in general the meafures, 
 with which they are aggrieved. Herein 
 they do us wrong. I may venture to af- 
 firm j that there would not be hurt the 
 hair of the head of ail American, were 
 jt to be voted by all our country. Every 
 one muft remember, the univerfal fatif- 
 faclion produced by the repeal of the 
 Stamp Act and it would no doubt be the 
 fame again, were the prefent meafures dif- 
 f harged and remitted. But it often hap- 
 pens;
 
 [ '7' ] 
 
 pens $ that Reprefentatives and their Con-? 
 flituents are in the moft eflential and the 
 moil important points directly and dia- 
 metrically oppoiite to one another. I don't 
 pretend to account for this. It is a fa- 
 tality or perhaps it is a new kind of Re,- 
 prefentation. But the Americans fliould 
 conlider, that two different parts of a 
 country may be opprefled by one and the 
 fame hand. Adminiftrations have been 
 fquandering and running us in debt at 
 home, until our whole fubftancc is wafted 
 and confumed. It may now be coming 
 to their turn. But procul a Jove, procul a 
 fulmine. Great-Britain is firft brought to 
 its extremity. Let any of our dependen- 
 cies compare their burthens with ours 
 and then complain of the nation, if they 
 mail find that ours are the lighter. I 
 don't mean to make a merit of this j but 
 let them fuppofe the fame ftrong hand to 
 be upon us both, when they fhall have 
 been convinced, how little we are in this 
 refpefl to be envied. I
 
 [ I 7 2 ] 
 
 I am unwilling to take my leave with- 
 out faying likewife one word to my Coun- 
 trymen of England. It is not only riches 
 and power, men and money, which the 
 center of Government receives from the 
 detached parts of its dominions, but like- 
 wife credit and honour in the world. 
 The Scotch and the Irifh are as good men, 
 as any in Europe. This is well known, 
 wherever they feek fervice and eftablifh- 
 nients and the which they are left to do 
 in more parts, than is for the benefit of 
 Great-Britain. Our Countrymen of Ame- 
 rica have not yet fo figured in our quarter 
 of the globe ; but it is hardly a compli- 
 ment to place them clearly at the head of 
 their own, the offspring of all other peo- 
 ple there included. If there are any fpoil'd 
 children of our national family, it muft 
 be the Englifh themfelves ; unlefs that 
 riches and luxury mend the manners of 
 men. But neverthelefs being fo the feat 
 
 of
 
 [ '73 ] 
 
 of Empire and all commands ifTuing from 
 our capital and our name being forward, 
 the actions, the merits, the figure, the 
 reputation and the glory of all our Coun- 
 trymen whatfoever and wherefoever do 
 exceedingly redound to us and to the 
 honour of England and of Engliflimen. 
 There is another circumftance, which 
 none of us can obferve but with pleafure. 
 I mean that we feem to be as individuals, 
 on as fair terms with the other parts of 
 our nation, as they with one another; 
 that the name of Englifhman is as accept- 
 able and will go with them as far, as that 
 of any other of the appellations, into which 
 we are feparated. Whether this is our 
 defert or a confequence of the fame caufe, 
 I won't fay -, however it is what cannot 
 but afford us fatisfaftion. In return for 
 thefe things they defire no more than a 
 juft fenfe and acknowledgement of them. 
 Whether we do make this return, whe- 
 ther thefe circumftances have always the 
 
 weight
 
 [ '74 .] 
 
 weight with us, which they merit; Eng* 
 liihmen will beft determine by examining 
 into their own breafts. But this we may 
 be allured of; that the good will, affection 
 and attachment of our Countrymen fpread 
 throughout our common Empire will be 
 our firmcft ftrength. and fecurity, if it 
 fhall be our lot to continue in our prefent 
 fplendor and profperity ; as likewife that 
 the fame cannot but be our befl fupport 
 and aftiftance, wherewith to weather the 
 ftorms of fate and fortune, if Heaven 
 fliall on the contrary have any reverfe or 
 times of difficulty and diftrefs in ftore 
 for us. 
 
 I have now finimed, unlefs it may be 
 a few words with refpecl to the Author 
 himfelf. He hopes, that fhould in the 
 warmth of writing any inadvertencies or 
 inaccuracies have efcaped him, that they 
 will be readily overlooked; he is per- 
 fuaded, that there are none fuch, as affect 
 
 his
 
 [ '75 1 
 
 his argument. He has wrote with free- 
 dom, but he trulls without offence ; he 
 has no perfonal views whatfoever in any 
 thing, that he has advanced or offered 5 
 he has no intereft in any diftant part of 
 the Britifh Dominions, neither in Scot- 
 land Ireland or America j he has neither 
 trade or traffick with them nor a foot of 
 land in any of them. His concerns, his 
 property, his family, his fricndfhips, his 
 affections, every thing moft dear to him 
 center in South-Britain. He has ncr m- 
 tercourfe or connexion with any man, 
 that either is or that ever was or who to 
 the beft of his knowledge defires to be a 
 Minifter. He is totally indifferent, who 
 {hall be at the head of our affairs, any 
 otherwife than as the Public may be con- 
 cerned in it. He would not perhaps in 
 his humble fituation accept of any place 
 or pofl, high or low, which the King has 
 to confer, great and powerful as he is. 
 
 He
 
 [ 176 ] 
 
 He wifhes only that thefe flieets may be 
 read, as they are written, with the pureft 
 and the moft difmtereiled intentions for 
 the good, the greatnefs and the ftability 
 of the whole Britifh Empire, for the 
 union, harmony and prefervation of all 
 its parts and for the particular intereft, 
 fafety, peace, profperity and happincfs 
 of England. 
 
 April 1774.
 
 [ I ] 
 
 THE foregoing fheets were firft pub- 
 liflied in April and we are now in 
 the next November : time and events have 
 in the fhort intervening fpace of feven 
 months but too plainly and too ftrongly 
 confirmed the opinions refpecling our 
 American meafures and their confequen- 
 ces, which were then prefumed by the 
 Author to be laid before the Public. It 
 is in the preceding pages explained ; that 
 the plan propofed and confided in by the 
 Adminiftration on that occafion appeared 
 to be, that the removal of the Cuilom- 
 houfe and the fufpenfion of the com- 
 merce of Bofton would foon bring on 
 * A their
 
 their knees and fubject to our commands 
 the inhabitants of that town and of its 
 colony j who were by that means to be- 
 come befides their own obedience an ex- 
 ample likewife and a terror to the reft of 
 their brethren on that continent : but 
 the policy and the probability of this 
 fine-fpun fcheme are there doubted of, 
 queflioned and difcuffcd. It is reprefented 
 that the harfli and violent meafures then 
 carrying on would in America be received 
 no otherwife, than as a declaration of 
 war and depend upon the fame ifliie ^ 
 that it could only be by force and by con- 
 queft, if they were fubmitted to; that we 
 muft expeft to have to do with an union 
 of that continent j that it would among 
 them be made a common caufe not to be 
 taxed by us and that they would certainly 
 join, combine and aflbciate together for 
 their general and mutual afliftance and 
 defence. Is there any occafion to fay 
 
 whe-
 
 t 3 ] ggV; ; 
 
 whether or no thefe things have proved 
 true ? 
 
 We were at the feme time warned ; 
 that if it was intended to ufe force and 
 violence, the decifion might not be fo 
 very foon or fo very fure ; that thefe 
 being a truly free people and their go- 
 vernments democratical, they would be 
 able to arm every man in their country $ 
 that neceffity would befides their Com- 
 mittees of Correfpondence then fubfifling 
 teach them other means of moving and 
 of acting together , that they would pro- 
 bably have at their head fome of the 
 wifeft and of the ablefl men of their 
 country j that the influence of our Go- 
 vernors and of our other civil officers 
 would mrink to nothing nor our own 
 authority probably extend further, than 
 where it was enforced by our own troops j 
 that our very foldiery would defire and 
 endeavour to leave us and to go over to 
 * A 2 the
 
 [ 4 ] 
 
 the Americans. Has one word of all this 
 fallen to the ground or is there almoft 
 a fmgle fentence of it, which is not now 
 become a matter of fact ? 
 
 It was further fet forth} that no imme- 
 diate imprefTion upon the town of Bofton 
 or poffeflion taken of it by a fleet or an 
 army would carry the command of all that 
 continent or force them to fubmit to 
 meafures fo univerfally againft their bent 
 and inclinations, but that on the contra- 
 ry the moft flrenuous and moft vigorous 
 exertions were from that whole people to 
 be expected in fupport of their common 
 liberties and properties. May I call on 
 our Minifters and demand whether they 
 are not themfelves fenfible by this time 
 
 of all theie things ? 
 
 i 
 
 I will pafs by other particulars of the 
 fame fort, that I may not tire my reader 
 with the repetition of them. However 
 
 I hope,
 
 I hope, that the prefumption will be par- 
 doned, fhould it be alked ; Whether 
 there is any one event as yet come on in 
 the order of time and the courfe of things, 
 which has contradicled or happened other- 
 wife j than what was before pointed out ? 
 This gives a great prejudice and fufpicion 
 with refpecl to the further train remain- 
 ing yet to follow. However there is be- 
 hind and among the things in fufpence 
 one particular circumflance of fuch a 
 magnitude, that all thefe other incidents 
 are in comparifon of it, but as the duft 
 upon the balance. I mean ; that fliould 
 by thefe meafures either the public ex- 
 pences increafe or income decreafe or both 
 together, fo that the national revenue 
 fhall fail and we be rendered unable to/ 
 proceed in paying the whole intereft of 
 our debt ; then will in all appearance be 
 no longer delayed the day and the hour 
 of our definition, but that conjuncture 
 prove the lateft and the uttermoil term of 
 * A 3
 
 ;:|; ;- : E ] 
 our peace, our profperity and our ftabi- 
 lity, as a ftate and a nation. This point 
 is much prefied in the former fheets ; how- 
 ever heaven avert, that fate fhould in the 
 due order of things and at fome perhaps 
 not very diftant moment of time demon- 
 flrate it to be, as well grounded ; as have 
 already been found fo many other cautions 
 and warnings before given ! But if we 
 fow the feeds, it may be depended on, 
 that the fruits will follow: caufes and 
 effects keep their courfe, like day and 
 night : events appear to be preparing and 
 bringing on that period : men and things, 
 counfels and actions, figns and appear- 
 ances feem to tend to that catailrophe. 
 However the Writer prefumes to offer 
 once more to the Public the mite of his 
 fentiments upon the ftate of our affairs 
 in America, as it ftands now altered fmce 
 the date of the preceding pages ; while 
 we have yet allotted a time to do it, while 
 there is room for reflection and that any 
 
 thine:
 
 t 7 ] i| 
 
 tiling remains more for Britons, than 
 only to relate the ftory of their ruin. 
 
 This attack upon that continent ap- 
 peared to many people mod unreafonable 
 and mofl unpromifmg from the very be- 
 ginning ; futurity has neverthelefs before 
 it a conflant cloud and obfcurity, which 
 no human eye can perfectly penetrate: 
 rafhnefs and inconfideratenefs do fome- 
 times make this more of a pretence, than 
 the cafe will well warrant -, but however 
 doubtful the matter might then be or not, 
 time has now opened events and fact and 
 certainty have in manyrefpects taken place 
 on the fubject. It is clear andfure; that 
 the propofed plan and project have failed, 
 and mifcarried. We fent out at firft forces 
 fit for our intended defign. The common 
 language ufed in commendation of the 
 meafure was, that a few regiments and a 
 few fmall fhips of war would do the bufi- 
 nefs. But we are now calling and gather- 
 * A 4 ing
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
 ing together an army from all quarters, 
 from England, from Ireland, from feve- 
 ral different parts of America and even our 
 newly conquer'd province of Quebec is to 
 be unguarded and unfurnifhed ; that we 
 may be enabled to carry on a war againft 
 our ancient Colonies and our own Coun- 
 trymen. We have inflead of commanding 
 and of bringing to taxation and to fub- 
 jeclion all America by the means of the 
 town of Bofton lofl the reft of that conti- 
 nent and not gained the town. We have 
 
 with our own hands and by our own 
 / ." 
 
 counfels got things into fuch a ftate ; that 
 our Colonies obey their Governors no 
 further, than they pleafe, aiid that they 
 are unanimoufly and publicly preparing 
 to oppofe meafure to meafure or force to 
 force, as they fhall upon the event judge 
 moil neceflary; while that bicoque of 
 New-England looks us in the face upon 
 an equality and holds up its head as highly, 
 as we do ourfelves. Matters are ten times 
 
 more
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
 more embroiled, than they were, wear ten 
 times a worfe and a more threatning afpect, 
 than they did feven months ago and before 
 that we entered on thefe meafures : every 
 ftep taken forwards in our prefent track 
 feems only to lead us into further mifchief 
 and difficulties. Our Adminiftration is in 
 the mean time become the wonder and the 
 contempt of all Europe. When we find 
 therefore, that we are going on in a road 
 direclly wrong, why don't we take a 
 contrary courfe ? This appears to be a 
 moft obvious ftep -, there is no uncom- 
 mon reach of reafon or extraordinary 
 depth of human wifdom demanded to 
 make that conclufion. It is an old pro^ 
 verb ; that wife men do often, but fools 
 never change their opinion. No one 
 little or great need fcruple to alter for the 
 better his actions or his meafures ; it is 
 furely his fiift praife and firft prudence fo 
 to do : but what muft be thought of thofe, 
 fafts and events themfelves will 
 
 not
 
 f 10 ] 
 
 not convince or who being convinced are 
 neverthelefs determined to ftrive and to 
 contend againft the irrefiftible force of 
 them? Our political pilots have a fair 
 and a direct wind for the port, to which 
 the Commonwealth is bound ; but they 
 are obftinately bent to run counter to it, 
 to buffet ftorms and tempefls, to rifque 
 rocks and quickfands and to endanger 
 in the greateft degree the common ad- 
 venture and fortunes of us all. We 
 read a fabulous ftory of an ancient Ro- 
 man faid to have leaped into a gulph to 
 fave Rome : but what will pofterity be- 
 lieve ; when they fhall be told of the men 
 f thefe times, who run headlong down 
 a. precipice for no apparent end, but to 
 carry along with them their country into 
 the fame ruin ? 
 
 The original defign and expectation 
 were at leaft fufficiently plain and intel- 
 ligible j but the Adminiftration having 
 
 been
 
 been deceived in them, there is now no 
 longer left the leaft appearance of pru- 
 dence or of policy in our proceedings : it 
 is become difficult to comprehend, what 
 the authors or the friends of thefe meafures 
 purfue even in their own breafts. Let 
 any one within the bounds of probabi- 
 lity or almoft of poffibility fancy in his 
 mind events at pleafure and let him re- 
 flecl: by what iteps, what means, what 
 chain of incidents and accidents, what 
 train within the wit of man to trace, it 
 can be expected, that we fhall in this 
 violent and military method of going on 
 come to a good and advantageous conclu- 
 fion and I believe, that he will evidently 
 find himfelf at a default on the fub- 
 je6l. I [am perfuaded, that our rulers 
 would themfelves be put to it to lay 
 down fairly and clearly their own plan 
 nor is any fuch commonly known and 
 underflood : the fafls are public ; the 
 other would no- doubt not be difficult to 
 
 find,
 
 [ '2 ] 
 
 find, if reafon, appearances and proba- 
 bility fuggefted or admitted of any fuch. 
 The Chaplains of our regiments are not 
 to chop logick with the Americans and 
 to reafon them into the being taxed at 
 Weftminfter : that is not the intention 
 nor will hard words bring this about 
 from whencefoever trumpeted No: we 
 will force them to it Be it fo. Let us 
 without confidering the chance of war 
 or refinance fuppofe Bofton in afhes, no 
 one ftone of it (banding on another, the 
 inhabitant?, men, women and children 
 buried under its ruins and all this havock 
 and deltruc-'iion the efFel of our cannon, 
 bombs and mortars. This would no 
 doubt be a. noble event ^ Europe would 
 fcare and it would exceedingly redound 
 to the honour and the glory of the Go- 
 vernment, that fhpuld atchieve it. How- 
 ever let us come to the confequences ; 
 the mifchief and the evil are eafily 
 found, rage and defpair reigning every- 
 
 where,
 
 [ '3 ] 
 
 where, all our Colonies crying out for 
 vengeance, America in arms and in open 
 and avowed revolt againfl Great-Britain : 
 thefe things need not to be pointed out : 
 but how are butchery and mafTacre to 
 conduct us to peace, to a fettlement, to 
 a reftoration of union and of harmony 
 or to any defireable end whatsoever ? All 
 regard for the Americans being bammed 
 out of the queftion, either as brethren or 
 as men } it can neverthelefs not be pre- 
 tended, that we ought likewife to lofe 
 iight of the true interefl and the benefit 
 of our more immediate country of Great- 
 Britain nor are we furely to feek for any 
 other views or motives of our public coun- 
 fels on the occafion, than thofe. God 
 forbid, that there fhould inftead prevail 
 paffion, refentment, an impatience of op^ 
 pofition and of difappointment, a thirft 
 for revenge and for the blood of the peo- 
 ple of Bofton and of New - England : 
 heaven avert, that there fhould directly or 
 
 indi-
 
 [ 14 ] 
 
 indireftly, more nearly or more remotely 
 be at this moment preparing or meditat- 
 ing any defperate ftroke, which may dis- 
 join America and Great - Britain in a 
 manner to be never united more ! I will 
 not deny, but that the queftion refpecling 
 the plan of our conduct may with lefs 
 difficulty be explained, if fome fuch unfit 
 principles and confiderations are to be 
 taken into the account. 
 
 But fome one may fay , What a ftrange 
 tragedy and image have here been intro- 
 duced ? Who thinks of any fuch thing ? 
 We would not for the world be the ag- 
 grcffors -, but if the people of Bofton or 
 of New -England {hall begin firft and 
 fhall attack or unlawfully refift us ; you 
 know, that the wrong will then be with 
 them and that all, which we fliall do, will 
 be nothing but felf-defence and the execu- 
 tion of the law nor do we wage war but 
 \vithmen. I anfwer; that this is too 
 
 high,
 
 high, too home and too ferious a fubjeft, 
 on which for any one to refufe himfelf or 
 to be readily refufed by others freedom of 
 fpeech. I prefume -, that it is within the 
 lawful liberty of an Englifhman to de- 
 mand in return ; to what end are then 
 intended a military Governor, a fleet, an 
 army, artillery, warlike provifion, and 
 ammunition and fupplies and reinforce- 
 ments of thefe things together with acls 
 of Parliament, which it was known, would 
 not be obeyed ? Are all thefe red-coats 
 and regiments muttered there only to 
 aflift the people of America in the clear- 
 ing of their plantations, the reaping of 
 their harvefts or the watching of their 
 flocks and their herds ? Should any one 
 flart at the idea of Bofton being over- 
 thrown : what would he fay, were he in 
 plain Englifh told ; that there is no ap- 
 pearance or probability of carrying into 
 execution fome certain meafures without 
 cutting the throats of almoft all our Ame- 
 rica,
 
 [ '6 ] 
 
 rica, without dying its forefts, its fwamps 
 and its favannahs with the blood of thofe, 
 whofe anceftors fled from their country 
 and went thither in hopes of finding re- 
 fuge from the tyranny and the oppreflion 
 of the Governors of Great-Britain ? What 
 does it matter, who dies a victim the firfl 
 or the laft and whether by the fword, the 
 muiket and the bayonet or by famine, di- 
 flrefs and mifery, when a whole region 
 (hall be laid wafte and depopulated ? Is it 
 difficult to pick a quarrel on any fubjecl: 
 or to drive a people into defpair and then 
 to deftroy them for being defperate or are 
 there wanting writers or fpeakers to de- 
 fend any action or any meafure ? But will 
 the gloffing, the quibbling, the flattery of 
 penfioners or of fycophants heal the 
 wounds, calm the minds, appeafe the 
 paffions, reconcile the affections or blind 
 and confound the understandings of an 
 injured and exafperated continent confifl- 
 ing of many numerous and flourifliing 
 
 pro-
 
 provinces and inhabited by a people pof- 
 ieiFed and infpiied with a love of liberty 
 almoft loft to the fhame of the human 
 fpecies out of Europe, but moil powerful 
 and irrefiftible wherever it prevails and is 
 united with the means of defence ? I don't 
 mean to talk to Minifters and to Statef- 
 men about right and wrong, humanity, '; 
 compaffion and the cardinal virtues : but 
 I repeat j that there is in thefe meafures 
 full as little of the policy of Machiavel, 
 as of the morality of Grotius or the reli- 
 gion of the Whole Duty of Man -, not a 
 whit more of the wifdom of the ferpent, 
 than of the innocence of the dove. 
 
 The fenfe of the nation is in the mean 
 time moft ftrong againft thefe tran fac- 
 tions : people were not at the beginning 
 fo much moved j they appear not to have 
 believed, that any men at the head of a 
 ilate would really be fo wild and fo 
 headlong, as to bring about in efFecl, 
 * B what
 
 [ I? ] 
 
 what now flares them moil flrongly and 
 
 moil fully in the face : it is well underflood 
 
 that the All of the Public and of every 
 
 private perfon is upon a defperate cafl at 
 
 flake againfl nothing : men raife their eyes 
 
 and their hands with horror, when they 
 
 fpeak on the occafion : they fympathife 
 
 in common with the Americans and ex- 
 
 prefs plainly and roundly their own fen- 
 
 timents on their account : fuch are on 
 
 the contrary filent and referved on the 
 
 fubject, who are tiled to direct their dif- 
 
 courfe by mean motives : the change or 
 
 difcharge of thefe meafures would be a 
 
 moil fmcere and univerfal fatis faction. 
 
 Shall then a great nation with its eyes 
 
 open and fenfible of its fituation and its 
 
 danger be drawn or driven upon its ruin 
 
 by a few men among them and thofe 
 
 perhaps intrufled for its fafety and its 
 
 protection? Where is in that cafe the 
 
 Conflitution or what is our pretended 
 
 and our boafled reprefentation ? Is there 
 
 nothing,
 
 t 19 ] 
 
 nothing, nothing even to the utmorr. ex- 
 tremity of our deilruction, but what cor- 
 ruption can conipafs and proftitution will 
 perform ? Thefe proceedings are of that 
 dangerous and deftruclive tendency, that 
 whoever promotes or unites in them, does 
 as a private man light a brand to fire his 
 own houfe and to lay wafte his own eftate j 
 but as one of the public, he concurs with 
 his own hand to thruft a dagger into the 
 heart of his already wounded, helplefs and 
 almofi expiring country. It may be won- 
 dered j how any fuch perfon can hold up 
 his hands, towards heaven to pray for pro- 
 fperity on him or his, which he does him- 
 felf fo directly counteracl:. Can then any 
 nation famous for its freedom want in 
 fuch an extremity fome proper remedy and 
 refource againft the rage, the madnefs or 
 the incapacity of an Adnliniftration ? 
 
 I alnfwer 5 that our anceflors were far 
 
 from being fp carelefs of thpfe to come 
 
 * B 2, after
 
 after them, as to have left us in concerns 
 depending on our own domeftic govern- 
 ment without means very fufficient for 
 our fafety and our welfare. The people 
 of Great- Britain have a lawful, confti- 
 tutional, acknowledged, undifputed, un- 
 doubted power of application and peti- 
 tion. This is an inherent right of every 
 county, every city, every borough, every 
 body of men in it and which any one may 
 be confident j that no King, no Minifter 
 and, let me add, no Parliament will refill 
 or with/land j if the exertion of it {hall be 
 general, univerfal and unanimous, fuchas 
 fhafl evidently fpeak with the full and the 
 clear voice of the whole nation : it may in 
 fuch a cafe be depended upon for fufficient 
 and effectual. Never did perhaps any period 
 of our hiftory more require fuch an exertion , 
 than the prefent moment. I will not re- 
 peat, what has been faid with refpect to the 
 ftake either of the public or of private per- 
 fons j but even the Minifter muft in all ap- 
 pearance
 
 [ 21 ] 
 
 pearance be in his own breaft pleafed with 
 it. It might afford him a fair opportunity 
 or almoft force him to withdraw his foot 
 out of difficulties ; in which, he cannot but 
 by this time be fenfible, how rafhly and in- 
 confiderately he has involved both him- 
 felf and his country. What unaccount- 
 able fatality is it, which can prevent any 
 one at the helm of a nation from taking 
 of his own accord fo prudent and fo fa- 
 lutary a ftep. But this matter mounts 
 higher. The King is blefTed with a fair 
 and a large family from whom even a 
 private parent might promife himfelf the 
 greateft comfort and felicity ; but much 
 more may his Majefty, if they near him 
 fhall by their fatal and unfortunate coun- 
 fels mingle no bitter in his cup. How- 
 ever let all loyal fubjecls well reflect and 
 efpecially they firft in favour ; whether 
 thefe meafures are not of fuch a magni- 
 tude and a malignity, that they may 
 either immediately or in their confe- 
 *B 3 quences
 
 t 22 ] 
 
 quences throw the whole flate into the 
 laft confufion, endanger our becoming a 
 prey to foreign powers, fhake the Throne 
 itfclf and difturb one day the peace and 
 the happinefs of our gracious Prince even 
 within his own palace and in the midft 
 of his numerous royal progeny. To 
 whomfoever we may therefore prefumc 
 on this fubject to offer up our humble 
 petitions, we (hall befeech thofe refpecl- 
 able perfons to blefs and to fecure equally 
 both the public and themfelves, 
 
 It feems the more necelTary to ufe this 
 laft fate refource of the Conftitution, as 
 it is difficult to find any other help, that 
 is left for us under heaven. Our political 
 parties and their leaders bear a iufpicion 
 of covering and concealing under pre- 
 tences of the general Good defigns of 
 perfonal ambition and advancement. The 
 people of England have had but too much 
 'experience in that refpect. What divifion, 
 
 what
 
 f *3 ] 
 
 what connection, what denomination of 
 men among us have not in their turn 
 ipoiled and plundered this poor country ? 
 Our liberties and our properties were be- 
 fore the Revolution attacked under the 
 pretence of Prerogative by a fet of men, 
 who bore the name and who invented or 
 advanced the doctrines of Tories ; but 
 the virtue of our anceftors faved us then. 
 Through how long a feries of fucceflive 
 Adminiflrations has fmce that time this 
 nation been fold, bartered and betrayed 
 by a race of falfe, pretended, unworthy 
 and venal Whigs ; whofe endeavours to- 
 wards our deftruclion have unfortunately 
 been more fuccefsful, than thofe of their 
 predeceflbrs ? God forbid, that we fhould 
 now be ready to receive our fatal and our 
 final ftroke from the joint force of both 
 thefe caufes, from the ace ur fed practice 
 of corruption united with the fenfelefs 
 principles of a boundlefs obedience of the 
 People and of an extravagant power of 
 * B 4 the
 
 t 24 ] 
 
 the Grown ! Thefe evils do not perhaps 
 leaft prevail in the very places, which 
 ought moll to be a fancluary and a fecu- 
 rity againil them. What is become of 
 the ancient public fpirit of England, 
 when the firft in rank and in fortune were 
 ever the foremofl to protect the rights of 
 the whole j 1 It is for the honour of our 
 name and our nation to be hoped, that 
 this noble paflion of the human breaft is 
 retired and is fetting up its ftandard 
 among our Countrymen on the Conti- 
 nent, if it has totally fled from this once 
 free and fortunate iiland. It mufl grieve 
 any one to alk ; Whether there are none 
 even in the refpected band of our pro- 
 fefTed Patriots, who .had it once in their 
 power to have utterly extinguiihed, but 
 who left unhappily and purpofely to 
 lurk and to fmother in their proceed- 
 ings and in their own Acts of Parlia- 
 ment this very pretenfion, and, as it were, 
 the fame fire, which has fince broken 
 
 cut
 
 out fo fiercely and which threatens now 
 to confume in one common flame both 
 Britain and America ? However it is to 
 be hoped, that thefe perfons will from 
 fuch violent and fuch evident mifchiefs 
 be at length convinced nor continue back- 
 ward to concur and to contribute towards 
 fome fufficient meafures for the lafling 
 peace and relief of our country and our 
 colonies. But we are now upon the 
 brink of the precipice : our fituation ad- 
 mits no longer of our being led blind- 
 fold : it is too late for us to truft either 
 to thorough-paced Ministers or to half- 
 paced Patriots : the time requires this 
 nation to declare its own genuine fenfe, 
 perhaps its laft fenfe of its condition and 
 its circumftances. How can we other- 
 wife expect in this cafe the affiftance of 
 Providence itfelf than in employing the 
 powers, which his goodnefs has by the 
 means of the Conftitution and the pro- 
 vifion of our anceftcrs been pleafed to 
 
 lodge
 
 [ 26 ] 
 
 lodge with us for that apparent pur- 
 pofc ? 
 
 But it may be faid, have not we a legal 
 Reprefentative and is not that fufficient ? 
 I fhall leave the matter of fact to anfwer 
 with refpect to the fufficiency, but I 
 defire to fay fomething in explanation of 
 of the point itfelf . I hope to be perfectly 
 imderftood, that I don't at all mean to 
 deny our having fuch a legal reprefenta- 
 tive ; but it is furely juft and becoming 
 for us to difcourfe on fubjecls of this con- 
 fequenee with one another, like men. I 
 prefume, that it is permitted for any one 
 to afk; whether there is not fome dif- 
 tinclion between a legal reprefentative and 
 a real one. All bodies of men fpeak and 
 act by their majority. It is a handful of 
 people in comparifon of the whole nation, 
 which chufe the major part of our Houfe 
 of Commons. I may in faying this ex- 
 prefs myfelf freely ; but I offend no wor- 
 thy
 
 thy or honeft man. No fuch will ever 
 take offence at a notorious truth and none 
 can well be more fo, than the faft, which 
 is now mentioned. How can then in the 
 common ufe and fenfe of the Englifh 
 language any body of men really repre- 
 fent any others, than thofe by whom the 
 greater part of them are named and ap- 
 pointed for that purpofe ? This may not 
 interfere with a legal reprefentation nor 
 do I declare myfelf any opinion about a 
 real one. I am on the fuhjecl; ready to 
 receive with refpec~l the dictates of my 
 betters. It may perhaps be a myftery in 
 politics or fomething not at this moment 
 comprehended by the writer. .However 
 this legal, this real reprefentative or in 
 what manner foever that honourable body 
 js to be defcribed, they do ever fiiffer 
 their fellow- fubjects to apply to them by 
 petition through the hands of any one of 
 their own members. This circumftance 
 is there necefTary^ but it feems to make 
 
 no
 
 t 28 ] 
 
 no effectual difference.' The right or 
 practice itfelf has never been denied or 
 difputed nor therefore has it flood in 
 need of the fanction of an Act of Parlia- 
 ment. The road is yet more direct to the 
 Throne : the fubject prefents of himfelf 
 and without intervention his petition 
 there. This right was at the Revolution 
 confirmed in as fit terms, as the trueft 
 friend of the freedom of his country could 
 have found. There are therefore required 
 no firings or belts to clear either of thefe 
 ways : they remain ever plain and open 
 and lead immediately to thofe who can 
 afford us effectual redrefs and afliflance. 
 Thus ftands then this point : Our throne 
 is "hereditary, our peerage is hereditary, 
 the major part of our Houfe of Com- 
 mpns is appointed by an inconfiderable 
 proportion of the nation : can then many 
 words be wanted to recommend or to en- 
 force the practice of petition by the peo- 
 ple
 
 [ 29 ] 
 
 pie and the Public or is the community to 
 have no (hare in its own conftitution, in 
 its legiflature, its government and the de- 
 termination of its moft important arid 
 moft efTential concerns ? 
 
 However as we have in our hands pro- 
 per, prudent and peaceable means of flop- 
 ping or of diverting thefe meafures, fo let 
 us on the other fide confiderj whether 
 we fhall not by a neglect of them become 
 partakers in the guilt of the wrongs done 
 to the Americans and of the ruin brought 
 on ourfelves and our pofterity. All peo- 
 ple are refponfible for the public conduct 
 of thofe, whom they appoint or confent to 
 be over them : this is the law of men and 
 of nations, but it is likewife that of a 
 higher power j it is the law of nature. 
 I obferve with reverence, that Providence 
 feems to unite together the mterefts and 
 concerns, the fate and fortunes of each 
 ilate and of each kingdom and to demand 
 
 at
 
 t I* 
 
 at their hands an account of the actions 
 of their refpeclive rulers* whether Princes, 
 Minifters or any other : their proiperity 
 and their adverfity appear to be in a great 
 degree dealt out to them according to 
 that circumftance. It is ftrange, on what 
 ground fome people found their prefump- 
 tion ; for the Public does not only ap- 
 point Government in its firft original 5 
 but it is moft evident, that it does after- 
 wards continue at all times to anfwer for 
 the conduct and the meafures of its Go- 
 vernors both to God and to man. But 
 with refpecl to our own cafe in the pre- 
 fent inftance, can there be in the affairs 
 of humanity a fairer or a more equitable 
 condition, than for people to have in 
 their own power the means of removing 
 their danger and of fecuring their liabi- 
 lity ? However it behoves us to remember 
 on what terms we enjoy it. The Ame- 
 ricans may one day require at our hands 
 
 and retaliate upon us their own fufferings 
 
 and
 
 I 31 ] 
 
 and in oft certainly will do fo; if we fhali 
 not exert to effect thefe means inherent 
 in us, but that the things and the events 
 already begun and in motion fhall come 
 to extremity. The ftory of the war car- 
 ried on by the Dutch in fupport of their 
 liberty againft the Portuguefe and the 
 Spaniards will fufficiently teach us this ; 
 if we need to go beyond our own reafon. 
 for fuch a piece of mftru6rion. We have 
 in ourfelves and placed in our hands the 
 power on this occafion of infuring our 
 own fafety and of reftoring to our Colo- 
 nies and our Countrymen of America 
 their rights, their peace, their properties , 
 and their liberties, a moft noble and in- 
 eftimable privilege, but in all appearance 
 not entrufted to us without account. 
 
 It may however be afkedj What way 
 is then to be taken, what clue can be 
 found, that may lead us out of our pre- 
 fent perplexity and difficulties ? I anfwer, 
 
 that
 
 [ 32 ] 
 
 that it is much more eafy to embroil a 
 ftate, which is in peace and in tranquil- 
 lity ; than it is to reduce it again to the 
 fame defirable fituation, when it fhall 
 once be fo embroiled. However I will in 
 fo important a matter venture to hazard 
 an opinion, although with fbme uncer- 
 tainty of the future fact whereon it is 
 grounded. There is faid to be fitting at 
 Philadelphia a Congrefs of fome of the 
 moft refpeclable perfons of that Conti- 
 nent. It appears probable, that there 
 may from them come in fome fliape or 
 another proportions to the Public or to 
 the Government. Should that be fo let 
 not thefe be out of an ill-judged pride or 
 idea of fuperiority defpifed and refufed, 
 but on the contrary adopted and made 
 the ground and the foundation of a future 
 fettlement and eftabliflunent between us 
 and America : I won't prevaricate or 
 deny that, I mean in fome meafure a new 
 one j for of returning again exactly and 
 
 pre-
 
 [ 33 ] 
 
 precifely to the former and ancient one, 
 there is not the leafb appearance of proba- 
 bility ; although there mall in the way be 
 nothing more, than what is known to have 
 already happened. They have once trufted 
 to our experience and our prudence j how- 
 ever they have found thefe but a weak and 
 a (lender fecurity. They will undoubtedly 
 expect fome ftronger and better barrier, 
 fome line to be drawn or fome land-mark 
 to he fixed in futurity between us. I fpeak 
 it with the utmoft iincerity 3 that I verily 
 believe them to underftand the joint in* 
 terefts of Great Britain and of America, 
 better than we do and that they will in 
 the firil inftance propqfe nothing unfit or 
 unbecoming with refpect tq this country j 
 but mould we neglect or reject proper 
 terms, when they are offered, we may per- 
 haps afterwards not come readily to the 
 fame again. Our Charles the firft granted 
 ten times more at laft, than would have 
 contented and have fatisfied at firft j but he 
 * C ever
 
 [ 34 ] 
 
 ever fuffered himfelf to be forced : that 
 was his evil policy and evil fortune. None 
 thanked him, for what he did. He loft 
 at length all; his head not excepted. Do 
 not letjour flate or our government imitate 
 in their conduct that unfortunate prince. 
 There may directly be for a kingdom no 
 block or fcafFold; but there are juftand 
 equal laws and a fevere and irrefiftible fa- 
 tality attending upon the tranfgreffion of 
 them. What is in the general courfe of 
 an infinite univerfe perpetually proceeding 
 in obedience to thofe laws the exiftence, 
 the rife or the fall of a ftate any more upon 
 the comparifon, than that of a fingle per- 
 fon? Thefe are not light and trifling 
 matters, which are now in operation, 
 a Mid-fummer night's dream or the ftory 
 of a day ; with which we may divert our- 
 felyes at our will. It may be depended 
 upon ; that it is for ever, if thefe pro- 
 vinces, fhall once be fevered from us. 
 The command and the government of 
 
 great
 
 ; t 35 i 
 
 great countries are not to be taken up 
 again at pleafure, when they fhall have 
 fallen from the hand, that holds them, 
 like the play- things of children. 
 
 But it may be obferved to have been 
 thrown out, that France and Spain would 
 interfere j whereas nothing of that kind 
 has happened nor are we difturbed by 
 either of them. I anfvver, that their Mi- 
 nifters of State muft otherwife have been, 
 much as thoughtlefs and as inconfiderate, 
 as our own. It is fit, that the fifh fliould 
 fatten on the hook or be entangled in the 
 net beyond the power of getting free, be- 
 fore the hand appears, which is to ftrike 
 or to make a prey of it. He is furely but 
 a poor politician, who can be laid afleep 
 by thofe two Cabinets being more cun- 
 ning than to flay or to turn Us in the be- 
 ginning of a career, which muft be fo much 
 to their fatisfaclion and their inclination. 
 It is an old proverb, that any one fhoiild 
 make a bridge of gold for his enemy, 
 * C 2 when.
 
 t 36 ] 
 
 when he is flying from him. Is it t6 be 
 doubted, but that thefe Powers would 
 willingly pave almoft with any materials 
 and at any expence a way for us by which 
 to march and to attack our own provin- 
 ces, thofe provinces which have fo long 
 been the fupport of ourfelves and the envy 
 of other nations. It has been faid ; that 
 they have before now found the means of 
 paving the way to their own peace with 
 us j but heaven forbid, that they fhould 
 ever find that of putting us at daggers- 
 draw among ourfelves, of engaging in 
 a war with one another the mother-coun- 
 try and our Colonies of North- America ! 
 Whenever that ill-ftar'd hour fhall arrive 
 and by whofe folly or artifice foever 
 brought about, the arms of our rivals 
 will hardly be wanted to lay the glory and 
 the greatnefs of Britain in the dull. France 
 and Spain laugh and fing in the mean 
 time to fee what we are doing and it may 
 be depended upon, that they know better 
 than to meddle at this moment in our 
 broils. There
 
 ;.'. [ 37 ] 
 
 There is another point, to which I 
 would fpeak a word, before I have done. 
 Some fycophants and makers of mifchief 
 on the other fide of the Atlantic feem to 
 have had no fmall part in caufing the 
 prefent difturbances. Why fhould other- 
 wife all thefe have rather arifen in MafTa- 
 chufets-Bay, than in Connecticut or in 
 Rhode - liland ; except that we appoint 
 the Governors in the former and that the 
 people themfelves do fo in the latter. 
 The counfels of thefe men mult upon ex- 
 perience have been found wrong and mif- 
 taken. They magnified the mighty power 
 of Parliaments and appear to have flat- 
 tered fome people here, as if their finger 
 was irrefiftible. Had they pointed out 
 events, as they have really happened ; it 
 is impoflible, that we fhould have con- 
 ducted ourfelves, as we have actually 
 done. All this may clearly be accounted 
 for, if we fuppofe one principle, which- 
 is ; that they meant to advance them- 
 felves in Great-Britain, however their en- 
 deavours
 
 [ 38 ] 
 
 deavours might turn out either for us or 
 for America. It would be a moft ftrange 
 thing, fhould thefe fame perfons be frill 
 confulted, countenanced and encouraged. 
 We ought to be fenfible, how dearly we 
 have already paid on that article. The 
 Writer does not know the face of one of 
 them j I fpeak fmgly for the fake of the 
 Public : but there can in all appearance no 
 common good come to the two countries 
 of Great-Britain and of North- America, 
 until that thefe fatal authors of our mu- 
 tual evils fhall be banifhed fromall coun- 
 fels and confidence. 
 
 So much for my prefent obje<5l. I have 
 on this occafion not entered into the dif- 
 ficulty or rather the apparent impofTi- 
 bility of fubduing with a few thoufands 
 of foldiers from England a very great 
 Continent, moft ftrong in itfelf and de- 
 fended by fome hundreds of thoufands of 
 its inhabitants naturally placed over the 
 different parts and commanding all the 
 
 pro-
 
 t 39 1 
 
 produce and the advantages of the coun- 
 try and who are armed, trained and ready 
 to take the field in defence of what they 
 believe to be their all ; men of tried bra- 
 very and that have upon experience per- 
 formed many actions of remark i I have 
 not infilled on the abfolute certainty of 
 their finding in cafe of a direcl: rupture 
 and revolt from Great - Britain foreign 
 afliftance : I have not mentioned our Mi- 
 nifters having wantonly and in all ap- 
 pearance out of perfonal ambition taken 
 upon themfelves the affairs of our Eaft- 
 India Company and having by that means 
 fubjefted on any contention with the na- 
 tive Powers of thofe regions the nation to 
 the danger of being one day found be- 
 tween the two fires of the Weft-Indies 
 and of the Eaft and perhaps at the fame 
 time a fire in Europe hotter than either 
 of the others : I have not examined the 
 burthen of our national debt preffing in 
 the midil of thefe circumftances moft 
 heavily upon us : I have not touched on 
 * C 3 very
 
 t 40 ] 
 
 very many other topicks refpefting ou 
 prefent ill-judg'd and ill-omen'd attempt : 
 thefe were of a preceding fubjett. This 
 matter has now been only taken up on 
 the ground, where it was left upon a 
 former argument and upon our meafures 
 and the change and the ftate of affairs in 
 America fmce that time : here will I 
 likewife leave it once more. 
 
 It is hot owing to a want of informa- 
 tion, to a want of understanding, to a 
 want of a fenfe and a knowledge of the 
 importance or the imprudence of our 
 American meafures ; if fome people of 
 property, of capacity, of independence 
 feem to fleep fupinely, while a rock is 
 ready to fall and to crufh their country. 
 There is in public concerns an abje&nefs, 
 which obtains and daily increafes among 
 us and that in a rank of men, where it 
 ought leaft to prevail and to whom others 
 are intitled to look up in a time of danger 
 or of difficulty. The rife and the begin- 
 ning
 
 ning of this might readily be pointed 
 out : it was not firft of this reign : but 
 thefe men may truly be told ; that there 
 is no fupport for themfelves, but in the 
 {lability of all; that their private for- 
 tunes and pofTeflions will in the com- 
 mon definition moft inevitably go to 
 wreck and to ruin with the reft : the cloud 
 from the Atlantic threatens them, as well 
 as the merchant and the manufacturer, 
 the farmer and the labourer. But wefeem 
 not to remember, that we are born Bri- 
 tons ; that Governments are inftituted 
 for the good of the govern'd and for that 
 only; that we have in our immediate, 
 perfonal and collective capacity an inhe- 
 rent right to fignify our fentiments of the 
 national meafures to thofe who contrive, 
 govern and direct them ; that the concern 
 therein of many is upon the comparifon 
 much as confiderable one for one as their 
 own, but that of all united and taken 
 together almoft as the ocean to a drop of 
 I water ;
 
 water ; that we are men and not a flock 
 of fheep forced to follow our fellow, be- 
 cauie he happens to bear a bell about his 
 neck. The Writer has thrown out thefe 
 things from a fmcere and earneft defire of 
 the general fafety and welfare ; he heartily 
 hopes that the feed is fown in good ground 
 and that it will bear fruit for the benefit of 
 the whole : but if after all the hand of fate 
 is upon this nation; if the period ap- 
 proaches, in which we are doomed to pe- 
 rifh j if there is at once an incurable mad- 
 nefs in our councils and a-boundlefs ob- 
 fequioufnefs in our proper guardians and 
 protectors ; if the conilitution is forgotten 
 and men of weight and of refpect abandon 
 their country; I mult fay, that his will be 
 done, who governs both individuals and 
 communities: I truft neverthelefs, that 
 thefe words will not be fo loft, but that 
 they fhall at leaft preferve one private per- 
 fon from the charge and the confcioumcfs 
 pf having fcruplecl tofpeak plainly his opi- 
 nion
 
 [43 1 
 
 nion and his expectation of the dan- 
 gers and the evils impending over th 
 public. 
 
 Nov. 1774. 
 
 End of the APPENDIX*. 
 
 P. S. During the printing of thefe 
 fheets authentic accounts are come of 
 refolutions refpe6ling a fufpenfion of 
 commerce between America and Great- 
 Britain being entered into and recom- 
 mended by the Congrefs held at Phila- 
 delphia. This is another material cir- 
 cumftance and confideration pointed out 
 and prefied in the foregoing book: I 
 mean now to make no reflections on the 
 fubjeft : time will tell, whether the con- 
 fequences fhall alfo be fuch, as are there 
 
 fup-
 
 [ 44 ] 
 
 or conceived. There is another 
 vote of the fame meeting, which is both 
 fo very plain and fo very important, that 
 I cannot omit to repeat it in its own 
 words, which are " That the Congrefs 
 " approve 6f the oppofition by the in- 
 cc habitants of the MafTachufets-Bay to 
 <c the execution of the late Acls of Par- 
 " liament and if the fame fhould be at- 
 " tempted to be carried into execution 
 " by force, all America ought in fuch 
 k - a cafe to fupport them in their oppo- 
 <c fition." This neither needs nor ad- 
 mits of any comment j but how amply 
 does it fulfill what we were on that head 
 forewarn'd ! However let us at leaft not 
 neglect the caution, which it contains 
 for the time to come. It is likewife 
 almoft impolTible for an Englifhman not 
 to obferve with the mofl fmcere regret j 
 that the firft proceedings of a new and an 
 effcntial afTembly among ourfelves have 
 been fuch, as muft by all men in our 
 
 Amer ica
 
 [ 45 ] 
 
 America be underftood to approve and 
 to maintain in the higheft and the harm- 
 eft of language the meafures carrying on. 
 again ft them. It becomes the Writer to 
 receive with refpecl: thefe refolves of our 
 Legiflature j however I {hall in regard 
 thereto defire once more every perfon 
 having for his country any concern mofl 
 feriouily to confider, whether humble, 
 conftitutional, general and univerfal pe- 
 titions are not our laft and our only 
 remaining, although at the fame time 
 our fure and our certain refource, if they 
 {hall duly and properly be employed and 
 applied. 
 
 END.
 
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