his own now, nor of being able to acquire any such thing in time to come, neither he, himself, or his posterity after him. Every thing of this kind must be understood so as to coincide with the original inherent rights of any single person or community, whether as men or as Britons.

Charters would, without doubt, be for some purposes very effectual, if every thing would take place as it is written on a paper or parchment. Suppose a parcel of miserable people, starved out of their native country, or persecuted and prosecuted there, because they don't believe just what some other men do or pretend to do; that they cannot leave their homes without the consent of their persecutors; that they must take with them a piece of parchment; did their tyrants write thereon, that their descendants shall go upon all-fours, shall be born with hoofs instead of hands, and with instinct instead of reason, and the faculty of speech, and that these things would so happen? This might, to be sure, give very notable powers over them. They might then be yoked as horned cattle, saddled and bridled as horses, or fleeced and sheared as sheep. The difference in the species would naturally and necessarily effect this; but nothing of it all will come to pass. This future offspring will, notwithstanding, be born with the nature, the qualities, and the talents, and consequently with the claims, the rights, and the privileges of men. However, suppose these strange terms to be on account of the aburdity of them dropped, but that there are instead really entered on the parchment, or charter, such an arbitrary superiority, such despotick and uncontrollable powers and prerogatives over these poor people and their posterity, as are only fitting, suitable, and analogous to the former circumstances: Will this, in right or in reason, be a whit more valid than the other? or where is the sense or justice in demanding such enormous consequences, when we are forbidden the unnatural premises, from which alone they can follow? Suppose that it was on a paper or parchment written in fair characters, that the horses and other cattle of the New-Forest, in Hampshire, should have to them and their heirs forever, the said Forest, and it might be added to hold in free soccage of the Manor of East Greenwich? Suppose that dents were made in the paper or parchment, and a stamp put upon it, and that, it was signed, sealed, and delivered as an act and deed, what would be the effect? It will be answered that it would be a thing to laugh at; for how should brute beasts take property, who have neither understanding or capacity, or any means for that purpose; that it would be contrary to nature for them so to do. But let me demand in my turn, where is the difference as to the effect, whether it is written that beasts shall become men, or that men shall become beasts; that a herd of beasts shall be able to take and hold property, or that a community of men shall not? The one is just as contrary to nature as the other. It might, indeed, be a happy day for despotism could such things be done; but they are beyond its strength. The great Author of the World has, for the transcendent purposes of his. unfathomable wisdom, placed in the hearts of men pride, ambition, avarice, and self-interest; but he has, at the same time, been pleased, with his most benevolent hand, and by the laws of nature and the course of things, to appoint bounds to the power of these passions, which they can no more surpass than the sea can exceed its shores.

So much for Charters in general. However I will likewise say something concerning one particular Charter before I leave the subject. When the havock happened among Charters in England, a short time before the Revolution, and which contributed not a little to produce that event, America was not spared. About the year sixteen hundred and eighty-four, a quo warranto was on that head issued against Massachusetts Bay; some of the Colonies did, on the like occasion, give way, and throw themselves on the pleasure of the King. Massachusetts Bay refused to do this; they were ex-parte, and for non-appearance condemned, and their Charter shared the same fate as that of the City of London and so many others. Four years afterwards the Revolution happened. As soon as ever the news of it arrived at Boston, the Colony declared in favour of it. They took possession of King James's Governour, and of the rest of his creatures, and sent them all home to England. But then it will, perhaps, be said, they recovered in return their Charter. Is there almost faith in man to believe otherwise? The other Colonies fared well enough, who did not withstand the will of the King, and whose Charters had not been vacated in a Court of Justice. They put them again in execution themselves, and no words were made. Our own Charters here at home were likewise returned. But the Colony of Massachusetts Bay did not find the same good fortune. They went on that account first into the Convention Parliament, where however, they could not get through. It is well known that our Parliaments are not usually dissolved or prorogued while any business is depending, which there is an inclination to pass. They had then nothing left but to beg and pray of the King's Ministers. But is it credible, that they could not procure the restoration of their Charter of these Revolution-Ministers, of these makers and unmakers of Kings, who had so lately been on the same bottom with them, and in whose cause the Colony had so readily declared itself, but who had now obtained their own ends? Tired out, therefore, with delays, and not being sure of the worst that might happen, they were, in the end, obliged to accept of a new Charter, mutilated and castrated of many of the most important and essential privileges of the old. I shall take notice of no other particulars, than that before they chose annually their own Governour, Deputy-Govern-our, and Secretary. These were from this time to be appointed during pleasure by the King. Of what extreme consequence the change in the nomination of these their three Chief Officers has proved to them, no man at all acquainted with the name of Massachusetts Bay can be so ignorant of their history as not to be informed and sensible. Hence their differences with their own Governours there, and with our Ministers at home; hence the present Military Governour, and the Armies and Fleets now gone or going against them; hence the strange provision said to be in agitation, that their blood may not be liable to be answered for there. They would otherwise, in all appearance, be at this moment in the same situation on these subjects as their neighbours of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, with whose Charters, their own agreed, until they lost it by their resistance and opposition to the will of the two last Stuarts, when the others saved theirs by giving way. I shall leave my readers to judge, whether it was the good or the evil contained in this poor piece of parchment, which thus united against it Stuart Kings and Revolution-Ministers. But this Charter must certainly have been granted under an unfortunate planet, if what some people say be true; that it is now again under displeasure at home, and on the brink of being once more reversed and altered. But that event has not on the writing of this happened. I am therefore perfectly persuaded, that should any thing upon that subject take place it will, on -the contrary, be the restoration of those its former privileges and powers, which was so unreasonably and so unjustly refused at the Revolution. But let any one consider this history of a Charter, and then reflect whether mankind have not reason to bless themselves that they have some rights of a higher nature than Charters, superiour to them, and independent of them.

But are we not the parent country? That is a very respectable word, but so likewise is the relation of it mutual. It has always hitherto had its full weight with our Colonies of North America, and will probably continue so to have, if we can content ourselves with any tolerably reasonable sense and use of it. But was every master and mistress of a family resident there the immediate son and daughter of a father and mother living now at this time in England, yet they being gone from us, and having established themselves, and got families of their own, and haying acquired a large territory, we could by no means, even as true and real parents, make out any claim haying such consequences as that which we advance. However, the fact is very different; they left us in former times a part of the publick as well as others; they are since become hardly our cousin's cousins, and no man knows how far we might mount toward Adam or Noah, to settle the real relation between us. But was their history told as it deserves: How they have made these their great establishments at their own charge, and with almost no expense of ours: How we have ever had the total command of the produce of that immense country, so as to regulate the commerce and exportation of it merely according to our own advantage and