tion, too, that prevails in this kingdom, they are so far from having virtue enough to attempt to remedy, that they make use of it as an argument why we should have no representation at all. "To the equity of this measure [an American representation in Parliament] the Americans themselves, I presume, could have nothing fairly to object." Then leave it as it is. It was very well, till you attempted alterations and novelties. should be deemed only a matter of grace, to be "In respect to the article of levying taxes, it resumed at pleasure.” Your humble servant! We thank you for nothing. Keep up your claim, and make the most of it. Provided they had an equitable number the subjects of the British crown, is the utmost "To be placed upon a level with the rest of of representatives allowed them. the colonies can challenge!" "As to those, indeed, which attend only the choosing a new Parliament, they may, perhaps, by proper means, be considerably lessened, though not wholly removed." Let the old members continue till superseded by new ones from America. "But should the king at any time be disposed to dissolve his Parliament, and convene a new one, as hath been often done, only at a few weeks' notice, this, upon the same footing, could not be effected." By the above it might. "The method, however, of examining and deciding contested elections, when necessary, must undoubtedly with respect to America be set, in a great measure, upon a different footing from that at present practised in this kingdom." Let the members be chosen by the American Assemblies, and disputed elections settled there, if any; but there would be none. "It is not in the least, at this time, probable, that an American representation will ever be convened in England." I think so too; where neither side approve a match, it is not likely to be made. promised them by charters to encourage No. They may challenge all that was them to settle there. They have performed have a right to expect a performance of the their part of the contract, and therefore other part. They have, by the risks and expenses they have incurred, additional merit, and are therefore to be considered as above the level of other subjects. "We cannot otherwise maintain our sovereignty over it, unless our safety were actually at stake and absolutely required it." I am quite sick of our sovereignty. Your safety is only endangered by quarrelling with the colonies; not by leaving them to the free enjoyment of their own liberties. settle in America, well knew, I presume, they "They, who first migrated from England to were still to continue the subjects of the same government." They They well knew the contrary. would never have gone, if that had been the case. They fled from your government, which oppressed them. If they carried your government with them, and of course your laws, they had better have stayed and have added to it all the hardships of making endured the oppression at home, and not a new settlement. They carried not your laws; but, had they carried your governThey may make them at home. The ex-ment and laws, they would now have been pense of private acts in England is shamefully great. "They will be almost wholly excluded the benefit of private acts, by reason of the immoderate expense." "The repairing of highways, making rivers navigable, and cutting canals, with a variety of other things of the like kind, wherein recourse must be had to Parliament, and yet the expense be supplied chiefly, if not wholly, by private persons.' All this may be done by their own laws at home. "This mode of compromise may as well be waived, as it cannot be effected, it is evident, without immense trouble." Very little. subject to spiritual courts, tythes, church acts of parliament, game acts, &c. &c., which they are not, and never were since their being out of the realm. 66 They knew they were not to be independ ent." "For no one, I imagine, would doubt, if their charters granted them an inconsistent power, but vernment can be supposed to alienate prerogathat they might be justly cancelled; as no gotives necessary to its safe existence.” Every government is supposed to be compos mentis when it grants charters, and shall not be allowed to plead insanity. If you break the charters, or violate them, you dissolve all ties between us. "However, a right of sovereignty in this case "Preserving our sovereignty over them, although at the expense of some portion of their natural prerogatives. They partly consist of our own plantations, and partly of the conquests we have made from a nation in whose hands it would have been dangerous for us to have continued." the number [of American representatives in Parliament] might be properly limited, as those of Scotland were at the union." A proper limitation can only be this, that they shall from time to time have such a number of additional members, as are proportioned to their increasing share of the taxes and numbers of people. "An exact estimate can scarcely be made of what expense their protection stands in to Great Britain." The protection is mutual. They are always in time of war at as much expense as would be necessary to protect themselves; first, by the troops and armed ships they Our sovereignty! Our sovereignty for raise and equip; secondly, by the higher Of their, not our plantations. The price they pay for all commodities, wher conquests may be yours partly; but they drawn into war by English European quarare partly conquests belonging to the colo-rels; thirdly, by obstructions to the vent nies, who joined their forces with yours in equal proportion. ever. "Our very being, therefore, at least as a free people, depends upon our retention of them." Take care, then, how you use thein. "They are now treated as children. Their complaints are heard, and grievances redressed. But then they would be treated rather as slaves, having the swords of their masters perpetually held at their throats, if they should presume to offer half the indignities to the officers of the French crown, which they have often with impunity done to those of the British." The direct contrary is true; they are not redressed; they are refused to be heard. Fresh oppressions and insults are continually added. English swords are now held at our throats. Every step is taking to convince us, that there is no difference in go vernment. "Nay, they have Assemblies of their own to redress their grievances." It is well they have. “And if that should be done, what marks of sovereignty will they allow us to enjoy? What sort of claim will they indulge us with? Only, I suppose, a mere titular one. And if so, would they then expect, that we should still protect them with our forces by sea and land? Or will they themselves maintain an army and navy sufficient for that purpose? This they certainly at present are not able to do, if they were not sheltered by the wings of Great Britain." What would you have? Would you, the people of England, be subjects and kings at the same time? Don't be under any apprehensions for them. They will find allies and friends somewhere; and it will be worth no one's while to make them enemies, or to attack so poor a people, so numerous, and so well armed. "Nor is there any reason to apprehend, that they should be at all formidable to England; as VOL. II. 3 T of their produce by general embargo. "They are justly chargeable with a certain portion of the civil list; for this most indubitably constitutes a part of government. How this article at present is managed in England, is not now my business to inquire." I will tell you how it is managed. The colonies maintain their governors, who are the king's representatives; and the king receives a quitrent from the lands in most of the colonies. "In many parts they are little, perhaps, or nothing at all inferior in respect of their conveniences to the mother country." As these differences cannot be known in Parliament here, how can you proportion and vary your taxes of America so as to make them equal and fair? It would be undertaking what you are not qualified for, as well as doing what you have no right to do. "Yet it must be granted, that they know best the state of their own funds, and what taxes they can afford to pay." And yet you would be meddling. "It is very certain, that England is entitled to a great deal of gratitude from her colonies." The English are eternally harping on this string, the great obligation the colonies are under for protection from the French. I have shown, already, that the defence was mutual. Every man in England, and every man's estate, have been defended from the French; but is it sense to tell any particular man, "The nation has incurred a debt of one hundred and forty-eight millions to protect you and your estate; and therefore you owe a great deal of gratitude to the nation?" He will say, and justly, "I paid my proportion, and I am under no obligation." The colonies, as I have shown in preceding notes, have always paid more in various ways, and besides extending your trade sometimes (from which you exclude the "And if she had not thought proper to centre colonies), and for whims about the balance almost all her care, as she has done, upon mak of power, and for the sake of continental ing the late peace, in procuring them a safe esconnexions in which they were separately tablishment, and to sacrifice to it, in a manner, unconcerned. On the other hand, they every other object, she might, at least, expect have, from their first settlement, had wars from them a more decent and dutiful demeanin America, in which they never engaged our." you. The French have never been their enemies, but on your account. "That the late war was chiefly kindled and carried on, on your account, can scarcely be denied." It is denied. By the steps they seem to take to shake off our sovereignty." Our sovereignty again! This writer, like the Genoese queens of Corsica, deems himself a sprig of royalty! In the last war America kept up twentyfive thousand men at her own cost for five years, and spent many millions. Her troops were in all battles, all service. Thousands of her youth fell a sacrifice. The crown gained an immense extent of territory, and a great number of new subjects. Britain gained a new market for her manufactures, and recovered and secured the old one among the Indians, which the French had interrupted and annihilated. But what did the Americans gain, except that safe establish "For as soon as they are no longer dependentment, which they are now so taunted with? upon England, they may be assured they will immediately become dependent upon France." We are assured of the contrary. Weak states, that are poor, are as safe as great ones that are rich. They are not objects of envy. The trade, that may be carried on with them, makes them objects of friendship. The smallest states may have great allies; and the mutual jealousies of great nations contribute to their security. "And whatever reasons there might exist to dispose them in our favour in preference to the French; yet, how far these would operate, no one can pretend to say." Then be careful not to use them ill. It is a better reason for using them kindly. That alone can retain their friendship. Your sovereignty will be of no use if the people hate you. Keeping them in obedience will cost you more than your profits from them amount to. "It is not, indeed, for their jealousy of their rights and liberties, but for their riotous and seditious manner of asserting them." Do you Englishmen then pretend to censure the colonies for riots? Look at home! I have seen, within a year, riots in the country about corn; riots about elections; riots about work-houses; riots of colliers; riots of weavers; riots of coal-heavers; riots of sawyers; riots of sailors; riots of Wilkesites; riots of government chairmen; riots of smugglers, in which custom-house officers and excisemen have been murdered, the king's armed vessels and troops fired at, &c. In America, if one mob rises, and breaks a few windows, or tars and feathers a single rascally informer, it is called rebellion; troops and fleets must be sent, and military execution talked of, as the decentest thing in the world. Here, indeed, one would think riots part of the mode of government. Lands were divided among none of them. the better for his insolence." Then don't be insolent with your power. "For should matters on all sides, as I hope they never will, be carried to extremities, I cannot take upon me to say but England may yet produce both a Ministry and Parliament, that French, than totally relinquish her present prewould rather share them once more with the tensions." power, We have been often threatened with this Do it when you please. Had the French wise measure of returning Canada to France. which you were five years subduing with twenty-five thousand regulars, and twenty-five thousand of us to help you, continued at our backs ready to support and assist us, whenever we might think proper to resist your oppressions, you would never have thought of a Stamp Act for us; you would not have dared to use us as you have done. If it be so politic a measure to have enemies at hand (as the notion is) to keep your subjects in obedience, then give part of Ireland to the French to plant. Plant ano ther French colony in the Highlands, to keep rebellious Scotland in order. Plant another on Tower Hill, to restrain your own mobs. There never was a notion more ridiculous. Don't you see the advantage you may have, if you preserve our connexion? The fifty thousand men and the fleet employed in America, during the last war are now so much strength at liberty to be employed elsewhere. The charters are sacred. Violate them, and then the present bond of union (the kingly power over us) will be broken. "The Americans may insist upon the same rights, privileges, and exemptions, as are allowed the Irish, because of the similarity, if not identity, of their connexions with us." "The legislative power of every kingdom or empire should centre in one supreme assembly." Distinguish here what may be convenient from what is fact. Before the union it was thought convenient, and long wished for, that the two kingdoms should join in one parliament. But, till that union was formed, the fact was that their parliaments were distinct, and the British Parliament would not make laws for Scotland. The same fact now subsists in America. The parliaments and states are distinct; but the British Parliament has taken advantage of our mino-quering that country. rity, and usurped powers not belonging to it. "It would be amiss, perhaps, to ask them what bounds they would be content to fix to their claims and demands upon us, as hitherto they seem to be at a loss where to stop." They only desire, that you would leave them where you found them; repeal all your taxing laws, and return to requisitions where you would have aids from them. "I must freely own, that whatever opinion I may have of their right, I certainly have not quite as favourable one of their conduct, which often is neither consistent nor prudent." They think the same of yours. "If they are really willing we should exercise any acts of sovereignty among them at all, the imposition they have so riotously resisted might not improperly, perhaps, have been allowed better quarter." Surely the Americans deserve a little more. They never put you to the trouble and expense of conquering them, as Ireland has done three times over. They never were in rebellion.—I speak now of the native Irish. The English families settled there lost no rights by their merit in con "But if any distinction were to be made, most certainly, of the two nations, the Americans are least entitled to any lenity on that score." I wonder much at this "most certainly." "The terms she may not think safe and proper to grant the Irish, she may judge full as dangerous and imprudent to grant the Americans." It is very imprudent to deprive America of any of her privileges. If her commerce and friendship are of any importance to you, they are to be had on no other terms, than leaving her in the full enjoyment of her rights. "Long before we could send among them any considerable number of forces, they might do a great deal of mischief, if not actually over Leave the king, who alone is the sove-turn all order and government.” reign, to exercise his acts of sovereignty in appointing their governors, and in approving or disapproving their laws. But do you leave it to their choice to trade elsewhere for commodities; to go to another shop? No! you say they shall buy of you, or nobody. They will take care to preserve order and government for their own sakes. "Nor should mere custom, nor any charter or law in being, be allowed any great weight in the decision of this point." "Several other reasons might be offered, why the same measures, in regard to both nations, might not be altogether alike convenient and advisable." Where you cannot so conveniently use force, there you should endeavour to secure affection. "THE TRUE CONSTITUTIONAL MEANS FOR PUTTING AN END TO THE DISPUTES BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND THE AMERICAN COLONIES.-LONDON, 1769." "EVERY British subject must acknowledge, that the directive influence of the British state remains with the British legislature, who are the only proper judges of what concerns the general welfare of the whole empire." The British state is only the island of Great Britain; the British legislature are undoubtedly the only proper judges of what concerns the welfare of that state; but the Irish legislature are the proper judges of what concerns the Irish state, and the American legislatures of what concerns the American states respectively. By "the whole empire" does this writer mean all the king's dominions? If so, the British Parliaments should also govern the isles of Jersey and Guernsey, and Hanover; but this is not so. "But the land tax, which I have proposed, is in its very nature unoppressive, and is equally well suited to the poorest as to the richest province of the British empire." This writer seems ignorant, that every colony has its own civil and military establishment to provide for; new roads and bridges to make; churches and all public edifices to erect; and would he separately tax them, moreover, with a tax on lands equal to what is paid in Britain? "The colonists must possess a luxuriant abundance to be able to double their inhabitants in so short a space." How does this appear? Is not a mere competence sufficient for this purpose? If America will consent to pay thus its proportion of British taxes, will Britain pay out of the whole all the American taxes? Or is America to pay both? "The produce of the planters purchases for them what others buy with gold and silver; but even several of the colonists of the rank of good livers have often been seen to pay the price of a negro with gold. As instances of Virginian luxury, I have been assured, that there are few families there without some plate; and that at some entertainments the attendants have appeared almost as numerous as the guests." Was not the gold first purchased by the produce of his land, obtained by hard labour? Does gold drop from the clouds in Virginia into the laps of the indolent? Their very purchasing plate and other superfluities from England is one means of disabling them from paying taxes to England. Would you have it both in meal and malt? It has been a great folly in the Americans to entertain English gentlemen with a splendid hospitality ill suited to their circumstances; by which they excited no other grateful sentiments in their guests, than that of a desire to tax the landlord. "It cannot be deemed exorbitant considering their traffic with the French sugar-islands, as well as with our own; and this will make the whole of their importations four millions per annum." This is arguing the riches of a people from their extravagance; the very thing that keeps them poor. "The inhabitants of Great Britain pay above thirteen millions sterling every year, including turnpikes and the poor's rates, two articles which the colonies are exempt from." A turnpike tax is no burthen, as the turnpike gives more benefit than it takes. And ought the rich in Britain, who have made such numbers of poor by engrossing all the small divisions of land, and who keep the labourers and working people poor by limiting their wages,-ought those gentry to complain of the burden of maintaining the poor that have worked for them at unreasonably low rates all their lives? As well might the planter complain of his being obliged to maintain his poor negroes, when they grow old, are sick, or lame, and unable to provide for themselves. "For though all pay by the same law, yet none can be required to pay beyond his ability; |