EVERY Englishman must deplore the ill success, and abhor the unworthy treatment which attended the two late conciliatory plans in relation to America. Pregnant with good sense, benevolence, and sound reason, they will do eternal honor to the wisdom, justice, policy, and humanity of the heads and hearts that formed them. How different was the plan of North. Crafty, mean, in­sidious, impolitic, irrational, shallow, and (like himself and his coadjutors) beneath contempt. This was not treating with America, but insulting her, every step against her hitherto has been found­ed in the greatest inhumanity, the grossest ignorance, and the worst policy. I will proceed to prove my assertions, and defy the whole cabal of ministerial slaughtermen to confute me. I do not call upon the master-butcher, because he can only be considered [Page 106](after the part he has acted by asserting) an executive, and not as a rational master in this business.—First then, for the humanity of these proceedings, let it be granted only, as it must, that the crown stands in the same relation to America as a parent to her child, and my first assertion proves itself. Have any gentle, tender, sensible means been used to reconcile her? Have not her humble remonstrances, proposals, submissions and supplications, been treated with contempt? Not suffered to lie upon the table of a British House of Commons? Have they been deem­ed worthy of a thought by her pious Sovereign? Has she not been branded with the ignominious name of rebel by act of Parliament, for no other reason (I mean no true one) than because she has wisely and calmly diliberated upon, remonstrated against, and steadily, but not tumultuously, resented the repeated injuries she has received? As to riots by mobs, they are not to be imputed to her as treason and rebellion. America (as a nation most unconstitu­tionally oppressed) has hitherto only deliberated upon her sufferings. She has not acted. My Lords Suffolk, Pomfret, Radnor, Apsley, Sandwich, they have not acted. It is as yet no treason, my Lords, to think, to advise, to fear, and to prepare. You cannot, you dare not, move to annul (as you may wish) the statute of treasons in America. The Americans have as good a right to that as your Lordships. I mean as yet, my Lords, because I am not quite satisfied that (even in the present smuggled and corrupt Parliament) the boldest and most venal prostitute durst make so dangerous a trial upon the patience and long sufferance, of this king­dom. I will now inform your Lordships that it is contrary to the law of nations to attempt the de­struction even of the most inveterate enemy by [Page 107]famine, until he has been first solemnly summoned to submit. Have the Americans ever yet been (though if men they shortly will be) in arms? Have they yet had a prospect of any other terms than such as would make them slaves? Will they be weak enough to submit to such conditions? The prelimi­naries, hitherto proposed, have been founded in op­pression, not in reason; they are fit for brutes, not men. The lenient, the compassionate North has treated America like the assassin of an alley, with his knife at her throat he has humanely left it at her choice to strip herself for fear she should be stripped by him. Why have the ministry had recourse at first to this inhuman scheme of famine? They fear the army will relent, when they find they must wade through the Hood of their own countrymen. Their present General (Gage) has, to his honor, declined the bloody task. Even a foreigner, to whom the same command was offered, has revol­ted at the thought. Is not this stratagem of starv­ing freemen into slavery the most inhuman, as well as the most cowardly of all others, especially when it is considered that all the remonstrances of these unhappy sufferers have been rejected? I should insult the reader's understanding by wait­ing for a reply, I therefore come to the next in­gredient in the American persecution, ignorance. I must first remark that some of their wise Lord­ships were for having Maryland and Virginia (very remote inland countries) prohibited from the fishery. Thus far have some of the great and sage coun­sellors of this nation been ignorant even of the situ­ation of that part of their fellow creatures, whom they wish to involve in the most dreadful of all ca­lamities, famine. But the very scheme itself is impracticable; these wretched people cannot be to­tally [Page 108]destroyed either by butchery or famine; their numbers are great and formidable; in such a vast extent of country their resources will be endless; they are not destitute of arms already, and they will be supplied with more in spite of our vigilant fleet. They have all the materials necessary for war in the bowels of their country; they have ar­tists, handicraftsmen, manufacturers, and mecha­nics of all sorts; cattle of all kinds; fruit of the earth in vast abundance; fine streams and rivers; though no doubt administration (for the sake of consistency) will give strict orders, and pay highly for the poisoning of these; but that will not easily be effected; these people in general know the use of arms; they have perseverance, courage, reso­lution, and above all (most prophetic Lord Sand­wich!) they have virtue, which can never be over­come. Should our army strike and fail, the hatred enmity and revolt of America is fixed for ever; they never will submit to lick the tyrant hand, which has once been raised against their liberties, their properties, and their lives. Under the above considerations, the present scheme of government must seem impracticable; if so, or if from ran­cour and resentment it has been viewed but parti­ally, it is the grossest ignorance to pursue it. Should heaven interpose on the side of justice, we shall perceive our error too late; but were our at­tempts by sword or famine sure of success, go­vernment is only destroying its own vitals.—What then is the policy of this unnatural war? It is like the war between the belly and the other members; the whole state must feel its consequences. Shal­low North told the House of Commons (for it is his) that the imports from the American Continent were inconsiderable. Now, my Lord, you ought [Page 109]to know (and in honor you should have declared) that the imports of that part of America into our sugar Colonies were the very life of them; neither planters, nor Negroes, can subsist without them, particularly in the prohibited, interidicted article of fish, which, when salted, is their general food. Your Lordship, by your war, and your intended famine, has effectually starved and ruined all the passive and obedient sugar Colonies, as well as your declared enemies in America. Thus a most valua­ble fishery, a considerable sugar trade, and thou­sands (perhaps millions) of innocent and brave lives will be sacrificed by a narrow minded ministry to wicked views, and insatiable resentments, in the reign of a Monarch born a Briton! An ancient Pict, or a wild Indian (savage in their natures) would blush and shudder at such proceedings. With the Colonies and trade the revenues must sink. If royal profusion, and ministerial corrup­tion, were to sink likewise, it would be well; but they will still attempt to draw blood from the most impoverished veins. The commercial, the landed interest, the public bank, at last, must feel the shock. Then, perhaps, when famine threatens at our own doors, the British lion will be roused.—Then (for I will prophecy in my turn) comes a revolu­tion, fatal to minions, pensioners, placemen, knaves and tyrants; but happy for the nation, if from the ashes of all these pests, the rights of suffering and insulted Englishmen can be once more established. We shall find it to our cost, in vain to send English soldiers (none but Scotch will do the busi­ness) against English breasts. I am of opinion (let the wishes of the ministry be what they will) that if every officer who goes upon this assassination were a Burgoyne, he would be disappointed of the [Page 110]blood he pants for, his command will be a sinecure, and his victory a brave and virtuous desertion. All who deserved the names of soldiers, would throw down their arms, and embrace their gallant and unhappy countrymen. An English army will not, and a navy cannot, destroy the liberties of America; the ministry, who wish to deceive the nation, are (as they frequently are) deceived themselves; they cannot execute their plan without extraordinary and successive (almost perpetual) drafts of forces. Should the patient spirit of this kingdom rise at such a time in arms, and France and Spain add to the horrors of a civil war, even in the midst of these calamities it will be some consolation that the ad­visers, abettors, and detestable heads of these dia­bolical measures, cannot long escape the vengeance of an injured people. CASCA.

Notwithstanding we have given almost the usual quantity of matter already, we cannot here omit, without injury to our readers and the cause of li­berty, the spirited city remonstrance which will do immortal honor to the heads and hearts of those who framed it.