smallest circumstance.

This country pretends to be collectively our sovereign. It is now deeply in debt. Its funds are far short of recovering their par since the last. war: another would distress it still more. Its people diminish, as well as its credit. Men will be wanted as well as money. The colonies are rapidly increasing in wealth and numbers. In the last war they maintained an army of 25,000. A country able to do that, is no contemptible ally. In another war they may perhaps do twice as much with equal ease. Whenever a war happens our aid will be wished for, our friendship desired and cultivated, our good will courted: then is the time to say, redress our grievances. You take money from us by force, and now you ask it of voluntary grant. You cannot have it both ways. If you chuse to have it without our consent, you must go on taking it that way, and be content with what little you can so obtain. If you would have our free gifts, desist from your compulsive methods, and acknowledge our rights, and secure our future enjoyment of them. Our claims will then be attended to, and our complaints regarded. By what I perceived not long since, when a war was apprehended with Spain, the different countenance put on by some great men here towards those who were thought to have a little influence in America, and the language, that began to be held with regard to the then minister for the colonies, I am confident. that if that war had taken place he would have been, immediately dismissed, all his measures reversed, and every step taken to recover our affection and procure our assistance. Thence I think it fair to conclude that similar effects will probably be produced by similar circum

stances.

VOL. I.

2 A

But as the strength of an empire depends not only on the union of its parts, but on their readiness for united exertion of their common force; and as the discussion of rights may seem unseasonable in the commencement of actual war, and the delay it might occasion be prejudicial to the common welfare: as likewise the refusal of one or a few colonies, would not be so much regarded if the others granted liberally, which perhaps by various artifices and motives they might be prevailed on to do; and as this want of concert would defeat the expectation of general redress that otherwise might be justly formed; perhaps it would be best and fairest, for the colonies in a general congress now in peace to be assembled, or by means of the correspondence lately proposed after a full and solemn assertion and declaration of their rights to engage firmly with each other, that they will never grant aids to the crown in any general war till those rights are recognized by the King and both houses of parliament; communicating at the same time to the crown this their resolution. Such a step I imagine will bring the dispute to a crisis: and whether our demands are immediately complied with, or compulsory measures thought of to make us rescind them, our ends will finally be obtained, for even the odium accompanying such compulsory attempts will contribute to unite and strengthen us, andin the mean time all the world will allow that our proceeding has been honourable.

No one doubts the advantage of a strict union between the mother-country and the colonies, if it may be obtained and preserved on equitable terms. In every fair connection each party should find its own interest. Britain will find her's in our joining with her in every war she makes

to the greater annoyance and terror of her enemies; in our employment of her manufacturers and enriching her merchants by our commerce; and her government will feel some additional strengthening of its hands, by the disposition of our profitable posts and places. On our side, we have to expect the protection she can afford us, and the advantage of a common umpire in our disputes, thereby preventing wars we might otherwise have with each other, so that we can without interruption go on with our improvements, and increase our numbers. We ask no more of her, and she should not think of forcing more from us. By the exercise of prudent moderation on her part, mixed with a little kindness; and by a decent behaviour on ours, excusing where we can excuse from a consideration of circumstances, and bearing a little with the infirmities of her government as we would with those of an aged parent, though firmly asserting our privileges, and declaring that we mean at a proper time to vindicate them, this advantageous union may still be long continued. We wish it, and we may endeavour it, but God will order it as to his wisdom shall seem most suitable. The friends of liberty here wish we may long preserve it on our side the water, that they may find it there, if adverse events should destroy it here. They are therefore anxious and afraid lest we should hazard it by premature attempts in its favour. They think we may risque much by violent measures, and that the risque is unnecessary, since a little time must infallibly bring us all we demand or desire, and bring it us in peace and safety. I do not presume to advise. There are many wiser men among you, and Þ hope you will be directed by a still superior wisdom.

- With regard to the sentiments of people in general.

here concerning America, I must say that we have among them many friends, and well wishers. The dissenters are all for us, and many of the merchants and manufacturers. There seems to be even among the country gentlemen a general sense of our growing importance, a disapprobation of the harsh measures with which we have been treated, and a wish that some means may be found of perfect reconciliation. A few members of parliament in both houses, and perhaps some in high office have in a degree the same ideas, but none of these seem willing as yet to be active in our favour, lest adversaries should take advantage and charge it upon them as a betraying the interests of this nation. In this state of things no endeavour of mine or our other friends here "to obtain a repeal of the acts so oppressive to the colonists, or the orders of the crown so destructive of the charter rights of our province in particular," can expect a sudden success. By degrees and a judicious improvement of events we may work a change in minds and measures, but otherwise such great alterations are hardly to be looked for.

I am thankful to the House for their kind attention in repeating their grant to me of six hundred pounds. Whether the instruction restraining the Governor's assent is withdrawn or not, or is likely to be, I cannot tell, having never solicited, or even once mentioned it to Lord Dartmouth, being resolved to owe no obligation to the favour of any minister. If from a sense of right, that instruction should be recalled, and the general principle on which it was founded is given up, all will be very well: but you can never think it worth while to employ an agent here if his being paid or not is to depend on the breath of a minister, and I should think it a situation too suspicious

and therefore too dishonourable for me to remain in a single hour. Living frugally I am under no immediate necessity, and if I serve my constituents faithfully, though it should be unsuccessfully, I am confident they will always have it in their inclination, and some time or other in their power to make their grants effectual.

A gentleman of our province Captain Calef is come hither as an agent for some of the eastern townships, to obtain a confirmation of their lands. Sir Francis Bernard seems inclined to make use of this person's application for promoting a separation of that country from your province and making it a distinct government, to which purpose he prepared a draft of a memorial for Calef to present, setting forth not only the hardship of being without security in the property of their improvements, but also of the distress of the people there for want of government; that they were at too great a distance from the seat of government in the Massachusetts to be capable of receiving the benefits of government thence, and expressing their willingness to be separated and formed into a new province, &c. With this draft Sir Francis and Mr. Calef came to me to have my opinion. I read it, and observed to them that though I wished the people quieted in their possessions, and would do any thing I could to assist in obtaining the assurance of their property, yet as I knew the province of Massachusetts had a right to that country, of which they were justly tenacious, I must oppose that part of the memorial, if it should be presented. Sir Francis allowed the right, but proposed that a great tract of land between Merrimack and Connecticut rivers, which had been allotted to New Hampshire, might be restored to our province by order of the crown,