the Chief Justice,) has been, and still is, refused by the Governor, only because he mentioned the name of Hutchinson freedom, and that not in court, but in a Boston town meeting, some years before. And to show you from whence this influence springs, I must inform you, that not long ago the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, and three of the Judges, which make a majority of the bench, were nearly related; and even now the Governor has a brother there and is brother-in-law to the Chief Justice. Such combinations are justly formidable, and the people view them with a jealous eye. They clearly see through a System formed for their destruction. That the Parliament of Great Britain is to make laws, binding them in all cases whatsoever; that the Colonies are to be taxed by that Parliament without their own consent; and the Crown enabled to appropriate money for the support of Executive and arbitrary powers; that this leaves their own Assembly a body of very little significance; while the officers of Government, and Judges, are to be totally independent of the Legislature, and altogether under the controul of the King's Ministers and Counsellors; and there an union will lie effected, as dangerous as it will be powerful; the whole power of Government will be lifted from the hands into which the Constitution has placed it, into the hands of the King's Ministers and their dependants here. This is, in a great measure, the case already; and the consequences will be, angry debates in our Senate, and perpetual tumults and confusions abroad; until these maxims are entirely altered, or else, which God forbid, the spirits of the people arc depressed, and they become inured to disgrace and servitude. This has long been the prospect in the minds of speculative men. The body of the people are now in council. Their opposition grows into a system. They are united and resolute; and if the British Administration and Government do not return to the principles of moderation and equity, the evil which they profess to aim at preventing by their rigorous measures, will the sooner be brought to pass, viz.—the entire separation and independence of the Colonies.

Mr. Cushing obliged me with a sight of your letter to him of the 22d of December last. I think I am not so clearly of opinion as you seem to be, that "the Declaratory Act is a mere nullity," and that therefore, "if we can "obtain a repeal of the Revenue Acts from 1764, without their pernicious appendages, it will be enough." Should they retract the exercise of their assumed power, you ask, when will they be able to renew it? I know not when, but I fear they will soon do it, unless, as your worthy brother in Virginia, in a letter I yesterday received from him, expresses himself, "we make one uniform, steady effort, to secure an explicit bill of rights for British America." Let the Executive power and right on each side be therein stipulated, that Britain may no longer have a power or right to make laws to bind us, in all cases whatsoever. While the claim is kept up, she may exercise the power as often as she pleases; and the Colonies have experienced her deposition to do it too plainly, since she in anger made the claim. Even imaginary power beyond right begets indolence. The people here, I am apt to think, will be satisfied on no other terms but those of redress; and they will hardly think they are upon equitable terms with the mother country, while, by a solemn act, she continues to claim a right to enslave them, whenever she shall think fit to exercise it. I wish for a permanent union with the mother country, but only on the principles of liberty and truth. No advantage that can accrue to America from such an union, can compensate for the loss of liberty. The time may come sootier than they are aware of it, when the being of the British nation, I mean the being of its importance, however strange it may appear to some, will depend on her union with America. It requires but a small portion of the gift of discernment, for any one to foresee that Providence will erect a mighty empire in America; and our posterity will have it recorded in history, that their fathers migrated from an island in a distant part of the world, the inhabitants of which had long been revered for wisdom and valour. They grew rich and powerful; these emigrants increased in numbers and strength. But they were at last absorbed in luxury and dissipation; and to support themselves in their vanity and extravagance, they coveted and seized the honest earnings of those industrious emigrants. This laid a foundation of distrust, animosity and hatred, till the emigrants, feeling their own vigor and independence, dissolved every former band of connexion between them, and the islanders sunk into obscurity and contempt.

May I whisper in your ear that you paid a compliment to the Speaker when you told him you "always spoke under the correction of his better judgment." I admire what you say to him, and I hope it will have a good impression on his mind; that we shall be respected in England exactly in proportion to the firmness and strength of our opposition. I am sincerely your friend,

SAMUEL ADAMS

Arthur Lee, Esq.

As Captain Wood is now about to sail there is not time to have copies of the papers; I will send them by the next opportunity. In the mean time I refer you to Dr. Franklin, to whom they are sent by this vessel.

S. A.

London, April, 5, 1774.

SIR: Such is my regard for the Americans, that though a native of this country, I do not know how I would wish our rulers to act at this time. The great folly which the Americans are running into is luxury. I hope we shall teach them to be wise, and attend to their real interest.

Though the present resentment seems levelled at Boston, yet as the principle is common to all, viz., the Parliamentary tax, I fear the rest of the Northern Colonies will so far take it as aimed at all, as in some degree to interrupt our commerce with them. This will in every shape be a loss to us; for though it may lessen the profit of their provision vessels, bound to the Spanish and French islands, yet the loss of the sale of the British commodities they carried is ours. This will likewise show them, that their lasting and certain expectation of profit in commerce, must arise from their own productions; which will naturally send them out of their maritime towns, to attend to the cultivation of their land; and thus they will become every day more independent of us: whereas their profit on the sale of our manufactures to the Spaniards and French, at present diverts many from that true domestic policy.

The French make cloth which pleases the inhabitants of Turkey and Italy better than our iniquitous fabric does. It may perhaps equally please the Americans, and when once commerce has taken a channel, who shall stem the tide! Our cruisers? Can they guard a coast of at least 1500 miles, abounding in creeks and inlets? Wise policy! What is the loss we may thereby sustain? Only of a clear profit of about a million and a half sterling from the Provinces of New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, with our loss from the other Colonies, A trifle to so rich a nation as we are!

I would, as a Politician, divide our American settlements into two classes. The first, and favourite one, the West India islands import hither a million sterling more than they export from us, the whole being almost articles of luxury and consumption. Cotton is, I think, the only rough material they send us. True! but the proprietors spend their fortunes here. If strict inquiry was made, I fancy it would be found that large remittances are made from hence to Madeira and France for wines, and several articles of luxury. I cannot suppose, from what I have seen in these islands, that less than half a million goes that way. What is pretty singular is, that New England exports from hence more than Jamaica does, and that Jamaica exports from hence nearly as much as all the other islands; so that New England and New York export a greater quantity of British manufactures, then all the favourite islands.

New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, send us, in articles of luxury, a few furs, but in cash and bilk, at an average of several years, about a million and a half sterling, and about two hundred thousand pounds in rough materials, to be worked up by our people. While the flags of truce were permitted during the List war, their remittances were much greater. In the year 1760, the balance in our favour, from these three Colonies was one million nine hundred thousand and odd pounds. Shall we, then, on the whole, call our present conduct wise? What can we do? What would a parent do to reclaim a wayward child, on whose reformation the parent's subsistence greatly depends? Set them down as they were at the close of the last war,