THE foregoing sheets were first published in April, 1774, and we are now in the next November; time and events have, in the short intervening space of seven months, but too plainly and too strongly confirmed the opinions respecting our American measures, and their con­sequences, which were then presumed by the author to be laid before the public. It is in the preceding pages explain­ed, that the plan proposed, and confided in by the Admini­stration on that occasion, appeared to be, that the removal of the custom-house, and the suspension of the commerce of Boston, would soon bring on their knees, and subject to our commands, the inhabitants of that town and of its colony; who were by that means to become, besides their own obe­dience, an example likewise and a terror to the rest of their brethren on that continent; but the policy and the probability of this fine spun scheme are there doubted of, questioned and discussed. It is represented, that the harsh and violent measures then carrying on, would in America be received no otherwise than as a declaration of war, and depend upon the same issue; that it could only be by force and by conquest, if they were submitted to; that we must expect to have to do with an union of that continent; that it would among them be made a common cause not to be taxed by us, and that they would certainly join, combine and associate together for their general and mutual assist­ance and defence. Is there any occasion to say whether or no these things have proved true?

We were at the same time warned, that if it was in­tended to use force and violence, the decision might not be so very soon or so very sure; that these being a truly free people, and their government democratical, they would be [Page 04] able to arm every man in their country; that necessity would, besides their Committees of Correspondence then subsisting, teach them other means of moving and of acting together; that they would probably have at their head some of the wisest and of the ablest men of their country; that the in­fluence of our Governors, and of our other civil officers would shrink to nothing, nor our own authority probably extend farther than where it was enforced by our own troops; that our very soldiery would desire and endeavour to leave us, and to go over to the Americans. Has one word of all this fallen to the ground, or is there almost a single sentence of it which is not now become a matter of fact?

It was farther set forth, that no immediate impressions upon the town of Boston, or possession taken of it by a fleet or an army would carry the command of all that con­tinent, or force them to submit to measures so universally against their bent and inclinations, but that on the contra­ry, the most strenuous and most vigorous exertions were from that whole people to be expected in support of their common liberties and properties. May I call on our Mi­nisters, and demand whether they are not themselves sen­sible by this time of all these things?

I will pass by other particulars of the same sort, that I may not tire my reader with the repetition of them How­ever I hope, that the presumption will be pardoned, should it be asked, Whether there is any one event as yet come on, in the order of time and the course of things, which has contradicted or happened otherwise than what was before pointed out? This gives a great prejudice and suspicion with respect to the farther train remaining yet to follow. However there is behind, and among the things in suspence, one particular circumstance of such a magnitude, that all these other incidents are, in comparison of it, but as the dust upon the balance. I mean, that should, by these mea­sures, either the public expences increase, or income de­crease, or both together, so that the national revenue shall fail, and we be rendered unable to proceed in paying the whole interest of our debt, then will, in all appearance, be no longer delayed the day and the hour of our destruction, but that conjuncture prove the latest and the uttermost term of our peace, our prosperity and our stability, as a state and a nation. This point is much pressed in the former sheets; however Heaven avert, that fate should in the due [Page 05] order of things, and at some perhaps not very distant mo­ment of time, demonstrate it to be as well grounded, as have already been found so many other cautions and warn­ings before given! But if we sow the seeds, it may be de­pended on that the fruits will follow; causes and effects keep their course like day and night; events appear to be preparing and bringing on that period; men and things, counsels and actions, signs and appearances seem to tend to that catastrophe. However the writer presumes to offer once more to the public the mite of his sentiments upon the state of our affairs in America, as it stands now altered since 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 thing remains more for Britons than only to relate the story of their ruin.

This attack upon the continent appeared to many peo­ple most unreasonable and most unpromising from the very beginning; futurity has nevertheless before it a constant cloud and obscurity, which no human eye can perfectly pe­netrate; rashness and inconsiderateness do sometimes make this more of a pretence than the case will well warrant; but however doubtful the matter might then be or not, time has now opened events, and fact and certainty have in many respects taken place on the subject. It is clear and sure, that the proposed plan and project have failed and miscarried. We sent out, at first, forces fit for our in­tended design. The common language used in commendation of the measure was, that a few regiments and a few small ships of war would do the business. But we are now call­ing and gathering together an army from all quarters, from England, from Ireland, from several different parts of America, and even our newly conquered province of Que­bec is to be unguarded and unfurnished, that we may be enabled to carry on a war against our ancient colonies, and our own countrymen. We have instead of command­ing and of bringing to taxation and to subjection all America, by the means of the town of Boston, lost the rest of that continent, and not gained the town. We have with our own hands, and by our own counsels, got things into such a state; that our colonies obey their Governors no farther than they please; and that they are unanimously and publicly preparing to oppose measure to measure, or force to force, as they shall upon the event judge most ne­cessary; while that b [...]oque of New-England looks us in [Page 06] the face upon an equality, and holds up its head as highly as we do ourselves. Matters are ten times more embroiled than they were; wear ten times a worse and a more threat­ning aspect than they did seven months ago, and before that we entered on these measures, every step taken for­wards, in our present track, seems only to lead us into far­ther mischief and difficulties. Our administration 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 directly wrong, why don't we take a contrary course? This appears to be a most obvious step; there is no uncom­mon reach of reason, or extraordinary depth of human wis­dom demanded, to make that conclusion. It is an old pro­verb; that wise men do often, but fools never change their opinion. No one little or great need scruple to alter for the better his actions or his measures; it is surely his first praise and first prudence so to do. But what must be thought of those, whom facts and events themselves will not convince; or, who being convinced, are nevertheless determined to strive and to contend against the irresistible 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 obstinately bent to run counter to it, to buffet storms and tempests, to risque rocks and quicksands, and to endanger in the greatest degree the common adventure and fortunes of us all. We read a fabulous story of an ancient Roman said to have leaped into a gulph to save Rome; but what will posterity believe, when they shall be told of the men of these times, who run headlong down a precipice for no apparent end, but to carry along with them their coun­try into the same ruin?

The original design and expectation were at least suffi­ciently plain and intelligible; but the administration having been deceived in them, there is now no longer left the least appearance of prudence or of policy in our proceedings. It is become difficult to comprehend, what the authors or the friends of these measures pursue even in their own breasts. Let any one within the bounds of probability or almost of possibility fancy in his mind, events at pleasure, and let him reflect by what steps, what means, what chain of incidents and accidents, what train within the wit of man to trace, it can be expected, that we shall in this violent and military method of going on come to a good and advantageous con­clusion, and I believe, that he will evidently find himself [Page 07] at a default on the subject. I am persuaded, that our rulers would themselves be put to it, to lay down fairly and clearly their own plan, nor is any such commonly known and un­derstood. The facts are public, the other would, no doubt not be difficult to find, if reason, appearances, and proba­bility suggested or admitted of any such. The chaplains of our regiments are not to chop logick with the Americans, and to reason them into the being taxed at Westminster: That is not the intention, nor will hard words bring this about, from whencesoever trumpeted—No: We will force them to it—Be it so. Let us, without considering the chance of war or resistance, suppose Boston in ashes, no one stone of it standing on another, the inhabitants, men, women and children buried under its ruins, and all this havock and destruction the effect of our cannon, bombs and mortars. This would no doubt be a noble event; Europe would stare, and it would exceedingly redound to the honor and the glory of the government that should atchieve it. However, let us come to the consequences; the mischief and the evil are easily found, rage and despair reigning every where, all our colonies crying out for vengeance, America in arms, and in open and avowed revolt against Great Bri­tain; these things need not to be pointed out. But how are butchery and massacre to conduct us to peace, to a settle­ment, to a restoration of union and of harmony, or to any desireable end whatsoever? All regard for the Americans being banished out of the question, either as brethren or as men, it can nevertheless not be pretended, that we ought likewise to lose sight of the true interest and the benefit of our more immediate country of Great Britain, nor are we surely to seek for any other views or motives of our public counsels on the occasion, than those. God forbid, that there should instead prevail passion, resentment, an impa­tience of opposition and of disappointment, a thirst for re­venge and for the blood of the people of Boston and of New-England: Heaven avert, that there should directly or indirectly, more nearly or more remotely, be at this moment preparing or meditating any desperate stroke, which may disjoin America and Great Britain in a manner to be never united more! I will not deny, but that the question respect­ing the plan of our conduct may with less difficulty be ex­plained, if some such unfit principles and considerations are to be taken into the account.

[Page 08] But some one may say, What a strange tragedy and image have here been introduced? Who thinks of any such thing? We would not for the world be the aggressors; but if the people of Boston or of New-England shall begin first, and shall attack or unlawfully resist us, you know, that the wrong will then be with them, and that all, which we shall do, will be nothing but self-defence and the execution of the law, nor do we wage war but with men. I answer; that this is too high, too home and too serious a subject, on which for any one to refuse himself or to be readily refused by others freedom of speech. I presume, that it is within the lawful liberty of an Englishman to demand, in return, to what end are then intended a military Governor, a fleet, an army, artillery, warlike provision and ammunition and supplies and reinforcements of these things, together with acts of Parliament, which, it was known, would not be obeyed? Are all these red coats and regiments mustered there only to assist the people of America in the clearing of their plantations, the reaping of their harvests, or the watch­ing of their flocks and their herds? Should any one start at the idea of Boston being overthrown, what would he say, were he in plain English told, that there is no appearance or probability of carrying into execution some certain mea­sures, without cutting the throats of almost all our Ame­rica, without dying its forests, its swamps and its savan­nahs, with the blood of those, whose ancestors fled from their country, and went thither in hopes of finding refuge from the tyranny and the oppression of the Governors of Great Britain? What does it matter, who dies a victim; the first or the last, and whether by the sword, the musket and the bayonet, or by famine, distress and misery, when a whole region shall be laid waste and depopulated? Is it difficult to pick a quarrel on any subject, or to drive a people into despair and then to destroy them for being des­perate, or are there wanting writers or speakers to defend any action or any measure? But will the glossing, the quib­bling, the flattery of pensioners or of sycop ants heal the wounds, calm the minds, appease the passions, reconcile the affections, or blind and confound the understandings of an injured and exasperated continent, consisting of many numerous and flourishing provinces, and inhabited by a people possessed and inspired with a love of liberty almost lost to the shame of the human species, out of Europe, but most pwerful and irresistible wherever it prevails and is [Page 09] united with the means of defence? I do not mean to talk to Ministers and to Statesmen about right and wrong, hu­manity, compassion and the cardinal virtues; but I repeat, that there is in these measures full as little of the policy of Machiavel as of the morality of Grotius, or the religion of the Whole Duty of Man; not a whit more of the wisdom of the serpent than of the innocence of the dove.

The sense of the nation is in the mean time most strong against these transactions; people were not at the beginning so much moved; they appear not to have believed, that any men at the head of a state would really be so wild and so headlong, as to bring about in effect what now stares them most strongly and most fully in the face; it is well understood that the all of the public and of every private person is upon a desperate cast, at stake against nothing; men raise their eyes and their hands with horror, when they speak on the occasion; they sympathise in common with the Americans, and express plainly and roundly their own sentiments on their account; such are on the contrary silent and reserved on the subject, who are used to direct their discourse by mean motives; the change or discharge of these measures would be a most sincere and universal sa­tisfaction. Shall then a great nation, with its eyes open and sensible of its situation and its danger, be drawn or driven upon its ruin, by a few men among them, and those perhaps intrusted for its safety and its protection? Where is in that case the constitution, or what is our pretended and our boasted representation? Is there nothing, nothing even to the utmost extremity of our destruction, but what corruption can compass, and prostitution will perform? These proceedings are of that dangerous and destructive tendency, that whoever promotes or unites in them, does, as a private man, light a brand to fire his own house, and to lay waste his own estate; but as one of the public he concurs with his own hand to thrust a dagger into the heart of his already wounded, helpless and almost expiring country. It may be wondered how any such person can hold up his hands towards heaven, to pray for prosperity on him or his, which he does himself so directly counter­act. Can then any nation, famous for its freedom, want in such an extremity some proper remedy and resource against the rage, the madness, or the incapacity of an admini­stration?

[Page 10] I answer, that our ancestors were far from being so care­less of those to come after them, as to have left us in con­cerns depending on our own domestic government without means very sufficient for our safety and our welfare. The people of Great-Britain have a lawful, constitutional, ac­knowledged, undisputed, undoubted power of application and petition. 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, that no King, no Mini­ster, and, let me add, no Parliament will resist or with­stand; if the exertion of it shall be general, universal and unanimous, such as shall evidently speak with the full and the clear voice of the whole nation, it may in such a case be depended upon for sufficient and effectual. Never did perhaps any period of our history more require such an ex­ertion than the present moment. I will not repeat what has been said with respect to the stake, either of the public or of private persons; but even the Minister must, in all appearance, be in his own breast pleased with it. It might afford him a fair opportunity, or almost force him, to with­draw his foot out of difficulties; in which he cannot but by this time be sensible how rashly and inconsiderately he has involved both himself and his country. What unac­countable fatality is it, which can prevent any one at the helm of a nation from taking of his own accord so prudent and so salutary a step. But this matter mounts higher. The King is blessed with a fair and a large family, from whom even a private parent might promise himself the greatest comfort and felicity, but much more may his Ma­jesty, if they near him shall by their fatal and unfortunate counsels mingle no bitter in his cup. However let all loyal subjects well reflect, and especially they first in favour, whether these measures are not of such a magnitude and a malignity, that they may either immediately or in their consequences throw the whole state into the last confusion, endanger our becoming a prey to foreign powers, shake the throne itself, and disturb one day the peace and the happiness of our gracious Prince, even within his own pa­lace, and in the midst of his numerous royal progeny. To whomsoever we may therefore presume on this subject to offer up our humble petitions, we shall beseech those re­spectable perssons to bless and to secure equally both the public and themselves.

[Page 11] It seems the more necessary to use this last safe resource of the constitution, as it is difficult to find any other help, that is left for us under heaven. Our political parties and their leaders bear a suspicion of covering and concealing, under pretences of the general good designs of personal ambition and advancement. The people of England have had but too much experience in that respect. What divi­sion, what connection, what denomination of men among us have not in their turn spoiled and plundered this poor country? Our liberties and our properties were before the Revolution attacked, under the pretence of prerogative, by a set of men who bore the name, and who invented or ad­vanced the doctrine of Tories; but the virtue of our an­cestors saved us then. Through how long a series of suc­cessive administrations has since that time this nation been sold, bartered and betrayed by a race of false, pretended, unworthy and venal Whigs; whose endeavours towards our destruction have unfortunately been more successful than those of their predecessors? God forbid, that we should now be ready to receive our fatal and our final stroke from the joint force of both these causes, from the accursed prac­tice of corruption, united with the senseless principles of a boundless obedience of the people, and of an extravagant power of the crown! These evils do not perhaps least pre­vail in the very places, which ought most to be a sanctuary and a security against them. What is become of the an­cient public spirit of England, when the first in rank and in fortune were ever the foremost to protect the rights of the whole? It is for the honor of our name and our nation to be hoped, that this noble passion of the human breast is retired, and is setting up its standard among our country­men on the continent, if it has totally fled from this once free and fortunate island. It must grieve any one to ask, Whether there are none, even in the respected band of our professed patriots, who had it once in their power to have utterly extinguished, but who left unhappily and purposely to lurk and to smother in their proceedings and in their own acts of parliament this very pretension, and, as it were, the same fire, which has since broken out so fiercely, and which threatens now to consume in one common flame both Britain and America? However, it is to be hoped that these persons will, from such violent and such evident mischiefs, be at length convinced, nor continue backward to concur and to contribute towards some sufficient measures for the [Page 12] lasting peace and relief of our country and our colonies. But we are now upon the brink of the precipice; our situ­ation admits no longer of our being led blindfold; it is too late for us to trust either to thorough-paced ministers or to half-paced patriots; the time requires this nation to de­clare its own genuine sense, perhaps its last sense of its condition and its circumstances. How can we otherwise expect in this case the assistance of providence itself than in employing the powers, which his goodness has, by the means of the constitution and the provision of our ancestors, been pleased to lodge with us for that apparent purpose?

But it may be said, have not we a legal representative, and is not that sufficient? I shall leave the matter of fact to answer with respect to the sufficiency, but I desire to say something in explanation of the point itself. I hope to be perfectly understood, that I do not at all mean to deny our having such a legal representative; but it is surely just and becoming for us to discourse on subjects of this consequence with one another, like men. I presume, that it is per­mitted for any one to ask, whether there is not some dis­tinction between a legal representative and a real one. All bodies of men speak and act by their majority. It is a handful of people in comparison of the whole nation, which choose the major part of our House of Commons. I may in saying this express myself freely, but I offend no worthy or honest man. No such will ever take offence at a noto­rious truth, and none can well be more so than the fact, which is now mentioned. How can then, in the common use and sense of the English language, any body of men really represent any others, than those by whom the greater part of them are named and appointed for that purpose? This may not interfere with a legal representation, nor do I declare myself any opinion about a real one. I am on the subject ready to receive with respect the dictates of my bet­ters. It may perhaps be a mystery in politics, or something not at this moment comprehended by the writer. How­ever this legal, this real representative, or in what manner soever that honorable body is to be described, they do ever suffer their fellow-subjects to apply to them by petition, through the hands of any one of their own members. This circumstance is there necessary, but it seems to make no effectual difference. The right or practice itself has never been denied or disputed, nor therefore has it stood in need of the sanction of an act of parliament. The road is yet [Page 13] more direct to the throne; the subject presents of himself, and without intervention, his petition there. This right was at the Revolution confirmed in as fit terms as the truest frind of the freedom of his country could have found. There are therefore required no strings or belts to clear either of these ways; they remain ever plain and open, and lead immediately to those who can afford us effectual redress and assistance. Thus stands then this point: Our throne is he­reditary, our peerage is hereditary, the major part of our House of Commons is appointed by an inconsiderable pro­portion of the nation; can then many words be wanted to recommend or to enforce the practice of petition by the people and the public, or is the community to have no share in its own costitution, in its legislature, its government, and the determination of its most important and most es­sential concerns?

However, as we have in our hands proper, prudent, and peaceable means of stopping or of diverting these mea­sures, so let us on the other side consider; whether we shall not by a neglect of them become partakers in the guilt of the wrongs done to the Americans, and of the ruin brought on ourselves and our posterity. All people are responsible for the public conduct of those, whom they appoint or con­sent to be over them; this is the law of men and of na­tions, but it is likewise that of a higher power; it is the law of nature. I observe with reverence, that providence seems to unite together the interests and concerns, the fate and fortunes of each state and of each kingdom, and to de­mand at their hands an account of the actions of their re­spective rulers, whether princes, ministers, or any other; their prosperity and their adversity appear to be in a great degree dealt out to them according to that circumstance. It is strange, on what ground some people found their pre­sumption; for the public does not only appoint govern­ment in its first original; but it is most evident, that it does afterwards continue at all times to answer for the con­duct and the measures of its governors both to God and to man. But with respect to our own case in the present instance, 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 se­curing their stability? However it behoves us to remember on what terms we enjoy it. The Americans may one day require at our hands, and retaliate upon us their own suf­ferings, [Page 14] and most certainly will do so, if we shall not exert to effect these means inherent in us, but that the things and the events already begun and in motion shall come to extremity. The story of the war carried on by the Dutch in support of their liberty, against the Portuguese and the Spaniards, will sufficiently teach us this; if we need to go beyond our own reason for such a piece of instruction. We have in ourselves, and placed in our hands, the power on this occasion of insuring our own safety, and of restoring to our colonies and our countrymen of America their rights, their peace, their properties, and their liberties, a most noble and inestimable privilege, but in all appearance not en­trusted to us without account.

It may however be asked, what way is then to be taken, what clue can be found, that may lead us out of our pre­sent perplexity and difficulties? I answer, that it is much more easy to embroil a state, which is in peace and in tran­quillity, than it is to reduce it again to the same desirable situation, when it shall once be so embroiled. However I will in so important a matter venture to hazard an opinion, although with some uncertainty of the future fact whereon it is grounded. There is said to be sitting, at Philadelphia, a Congress of some of the most respectable persons of that continent. It appears probable, that there may from them come in some shape or another propositions to the public or to the government. Should that be so, let not these be out of an ill-judged pride or idea of superiority despised and refused, but on the contrary adopted and made the ground and the foundation of a future settlement and esta­blishment between us and America: I won't prevaricate or deny that, I mean in some measure a new one; for of re­turning again exactly and precisely to the former and an­cient one, there is not the least appearance of probability; although there shall in the way be nothing more than what is known to have already happened. They have once trusted to our experience and our prudence; however they have found these but a weak and a slender security. They will undoubtedly expect some stronger and better barrier, some line to be drawn, or some land-mark to be fixed, in fu­turity between us. I speak it with the utmost sincerity; that I verily believe them to understand the joint interests of Great-Britain and of America better than we do, and that they will in the first instance propose nothing unfit or un­becoming with respect to this country; but should we ne­glect [Page 15] or reject proper terms, when they are offered, we may perhaps afterwards not come readily to the same again. On Charles the first granted ten times more at last, than would have contented and have satisfied at first; but he ever suffered himself to be forced; that was his evil policy and evil fortune. None thanked him for what he did. He lost at length all, his head not excepted. Do not let our state or our government imitate in their conduct that unfortunate prince. There may directly be for a kingdom no block or scaffold; but there are just and equal laws, and a severe and irresistible fatality attending upon the trans­gression of them. What is in the general course of an in­finite universe, perpetually proceeding in obedience to those laws, the existence, the rise, or the fall of a state, any more upon the comparison than that of a single person? These are not light and trifling matters, which are now in ope­ration, a midsummer night's dream, or the story of a day; with which we may divert ourselves at our will. It may be depended upon; that it is for ever, if these provinces shall once be severed from us. The command and the go­vernment of great countries are not to be taken up again at pleasure, when they shall have fallen from the hand that holds them, like the playthings of children.

But it may be observed to have been thrown out, that France and Spain would interfere; whereas nothing of that kind has happened, nor are we disturbed by either of them. I answer, that their ministers of state must other­wise have been much as thoughtless and as inconsiderate as our own. It is fit, that the fish should fasten on the hook or be entangled in the net, beyond the power of get­ting free, before the hand appears which is to strike or to make a prey of it. He is surely but a poor politician, who can be laid asleep by those two cabinets, being more cunning than to stay or to turn us in the beginning of a career, which must be so much to their satisfaction and their incli­nation. It is an old proverb, that any one should make a bridge of gold for his enemy when he is flying from him. Is it to be doubted, but that these powers would willingly pave, almost with any materials and at any expence, a way for us to march and to attack our own provinces; those provinces which have so long been the support of ourselves, and the envy of other nations. It has been said, that they have before now found the means of paving the way to their own peace with us; but heaven forbid that they should ever [Page 16] find that of putting us at daggers-draw among ourselves, of engaging in a war with one another the mother country and our colonies of North-America! Whenever that ill­starred hour shall arrive, and by whose folly or artifice so­ever brought about, the arms of our rivals will hardly he wanted to lay the glory and the greatness of Britain in the dust. France and Spain laugh and sing in the mean time to see what we are doing, and it may be depended upon, that they know better than to meddle at this moment in our broils.

There is another point, to which I would speak a word, before I have done. Some sycophants and makers of mis­chief on the other side of the Atlantic seem to have had no small part in causing the present disturbances. Why should otherwise all these have rather arisen in Massachusetts-Bay than in Connecticut or in Rhode-Island; except that we appoint the Governors in the former, and that the people themselves do so in the latter. The counsels of these men must, upon experience, have been found wrong and mis­taken. They magnified the mighty power of parliaments, and appear to have flattered some people here, as if their singer was irresistible. Had they pointed out events, as they have really happened; it is impossible that we should have conducted ourselves as we have actually done. All this may clearly be accounted for, if we suppose one prin­ciple, which is that they meant to advance themselves in Great-Britain, however their endeavours might turn out either for us or for America. It would be a most strange thing, should these same persons be still consulted, coun­tenanced and encouraged. We ought to be sensible how clearly we have already paid on that article. The writer does not know the face of one of them; I speak singly for the sake 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 these fatal authors of our mutual evils shall be banished from all counsels and confidence.

So much for my present object. I have on this occasion not entered into the difficulty, or rather the apparent im­possibility, of subduing with a few thousands of soldiers from England a very great continent, most strong in itself, and defended by some hundreds of thousands of its inhabi­tants naturally placed over the different parts, and com­manding all the produce and the advantages of the country, [Page 17] and who are armed, trained and ready to take the field in defence of what they believe to be their all; men of tried bravery, and that have upon experience performed many actions of remark. I have not insisted on the absolute cer­tainty of their finding, in case of a direct rupture and revolt from Great-Britain, foreign assistance. I have not men­tioned our ministers having wantonly, and in all appear­ance out of personal ambition, taken upon themselves the affairs of our East-India Company, and having by that means subjected on any contention with the native powers of those regions, the nation to the danger of being one day found between the two fires of the West-Indies and the East, and perhaps at the same time a fire in Europe hotter than either of the others. I have not examined the burthen of our national debt pressing in the midst of these circumstances most heavily upon us. I have not touched on very many other topicks respecting our present ill-judged and ill-omened attempt; these were of a preceding subject. This matter has now been only taken up on the ground where it was left upon a former argument, and upon our measures and the change and the state of affairs in America since that time; here will I likewise leave it once more.

It is not owing to a want of information, to a want of un­derstanding, to a want of a sense and a knowledge of the importance or the imprudence of our American measures, if some people of property, of capacity, of independence seem to sleep supinely, while a rock is ready to fall and to crush their country. There is in public concerns an ab­jectness, which obtains and daily increases among us, and that in a rank of men where it ought least to prevail, and to whom others are intitled to look up in a time of danger or of difficulty. The rise and the beginning of this might readily be pointed out, it was not first in this reign; but these men may truly be told, that there is no support for themselves, but in the stability of all; that their private fortune and possessions will in the common destruc­tion most inevitably go to wreck and to ruin with the rest; the cloud from the Atlantic threatens them, as well as the merchant and the manufacturer, the farmer and the labourer. But we seem not to remember, that we are born Britons; that governments are instituted for the good of the governed, and for that only; that we have in our immediate, perso­nal and collective capacity an inherent right to signify our sentiments of the national measures to those who contrive, govern and direct them; that the concern therein of many [Page 18] is upon the comparison much as considerable one for one as their own, but that of all united and taken together almost at the ocean to a drop of water; that we are men and not a stock of sheep forced to follow our fellow, because be hap­pens to bear a bell about his neck. The writer has thrown out these things from a sincere and earnest desire of the ge­neral safety and welfare; he heartily hopes that the seed is sown 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 approaches in which we are doomed to perish; if there is at once an incurable madness in our councils, and a boundless obsequiousness in our proper guardians and protectors; if the constitution is for­gotten, and men of weight and of respect abandon their country; I must say, that his will be done, who governs both individuals and communities. I trust nevertheless, that these words will not be so lost, but that they shall at least preserve one private person from the charge and the consciousness of having scrupled to speak plainly his opi­nion, and his expectation of the dangers and the evils im­pending over the public.

Nov. 1775.

P. S. During the printing of these sheets, authentic ac­counts are come of resolutions, respecting a suspension of commerce between America and Great-Britain being en­tered into, and recommended by the Congress held at Phi­ladelphia. This is another material circumstance and con­sideration, pointed out and pressed in the foregoing book. I mean now to make no reflections on the subject; time will tell, whether the consequences shall also be such as are there supposed or conceived. There is another vote of the same meeting, which is both so very plain and so very important, that I cannot omit to repeat it in its own words, which are ‘That the Congress approve of the opposition by the inhabitants of the Massachusetts-Bay, to the execu­tion [Page 19] of the late acts of parliament, and if the same should be attempted to be carried into execution by force, all America ought in such a case to support them in their opposition.’ This neither needs nor admits of any comment; but how amply does it fulfil what we were on that head forewarned! However, let us at least not neglect the caution which it contains, for the time to come. It is likewise almost impossible for an Englishman not to ob­serve, with the most sincere regret, that the first proceed­ings of a new and an essential assembly among ourselves have been such, as must by all men in our America be un­derstood to approve and to maintain, in the highest and the harshest of language, the measures carrying on against them. It becomes the writer to receive with respect these resolves of our legislature; however I shall, in regard thereto, desire once more every person having for his country any concern, most seriously to consider, whether humble, constitutional, general and universal petitions, are not our last and our only remaining, although at the same time our sure and our certain resource, if they shall duly and properly be employed and applied.