ment was shaken almost to the foundation, by a rebellion contemptible in its beginning. Were we more fortunate in our attempts by sea, whether, first, in that against Pondicherry, or afterwards, in that against Port l'orient? But the people of New England maintained at that time, the honour of our arms. It is well known, that they carried on with their own Councils, and with their own Soldiery, and under the command of one of their own Planters, against Cape Breton and Louisbourg, an expedition, the event of which need not now be told. We did not begin in a much better manner the last war. I am unwilling to call to mind our first campaigns in Germany, our situation and Treaty of Closter-Seven, the fate of Minorca, or the histories of Braddock and Abercrombie. But who were at that time the first to stem the tide of our ill-fortune? Was it not an American Militia, who, commanded by Sir William Johnson, a gentleman at that time of the country, met, fought, and beat the French and Indians, under Monsieur Dieskau, and made prisoner their commander? But what wonders were afterwards done by our people, properly conducted and directed? It is very true, and 1 am sure that I have no inclination to depreciate them. But neither did those of America want their share therein. However, the courage of our countrymen was never yet questioned; but may they always unite and employ it against our common enemies, and never be encamped or embattled against one another, either in America, or anywhere else. But should, through the extreme rashness and weakness of our Councils, such a very great misfortune fall out, is it to be doubted whether the Americans will be wanting to themselves, or whether they will not endeavour to stand in their own defence, against those, who have sometimes in the same country, come by the worst, with inferiour enemies, but over whom they have themselves alone, and without assistance, often triumphed?

But we are masters at Sea, and wherever our Ships can come. We may do whatever a Fleet can. Very true; but it cannot sail all over North America. It is said, that Marshal Saxe had, before the declaration of the last war but one, and at the time of our Army being in Germany, conceived a design to have landed on our Coast with ten thousand men, and to have tried the fortune of a brisk march to London. He did not find this so easy to execute as he thought for. He was most happily disappointed. But there was an object. No one can tell the consequence, had he succeeded. The present is a very different matter. No immediate impression upon the Town of Boston, nor possession taken of it by means of a Fleet, nor the same circumstance with regard to any other Towns of America, liable thereto by their situation, will carry the command of that whole Continent, or force it to submit to measures so universally against their bent and inclination.

It may however be said, that this is not the plan. The Charter of the Town of Boston is to be changed, and their Trade suspended, and other measures of the very strongest sort, are to be enforced against them. The moving mountain is, according to the imagination of Doctor Swift, to hang over them, and the sun not to shine, or the rain or the dew to fall on them, until they are brought to submission, and made to the rest of America, an example of the danger of refractoriness and disobedience to the mother country; all which we think may, and will, with time, be compassed and accomplished.

This is indeed, as to the question of force, the true point of the matter, I mean, which will at last, and at the end of a long trial, get the better; but I add, that this will probably not be Great Britain. Here I must again crave leave to write with freedom. If it is the first wisdom of a private man to know himself, so must it likewise be that of a state to consider in all its measures its own condition and situation. The searching into our circumstances neither makes or mars them. But what must be our case, should we have any wound or mischief, and that it might not be probed or examined? We must ever suppose our adversaries to be informed, and not by shutting our own eyes, pretend to blind other people. I shall, therefore, without scruple, inquire into the state of the publick, as far as it concerns my subject.

The condition of the great staple manufactures of our country is well known. Those of the Linen and the Silk are in the greatest distress, and the Woollen and the Linen are now publickly banded and contending against one another. One part of our people is starving at home, on the alms of their Parishes, and another running abroad to this very country that we are contending with. The produce of North America used to be sent yearly to Britain, is reckoned at about four millions sterling; the Manufactures of Britain, and other commodities returned from hence, at nearly the same sum; the debts due from people in America to the British Merchants here, at about six millions, or a year and a half of that commerce. I say, the time past must be our guide with respect to that to come. Supposing, therefore, the Americans to act in this case, as they did in that of the Stamp Act; we shall then have yearly, until the final settlement of this affair, Manufactures to the value of four millions sterling, left and heaped on the hands of our Merchants and Master Manufacturers, or we shall have workmen and poor people put out of employ and turned adrift in that proportion. There will likewise be withdrawn from our home consumption, and out of our general trade and traffick, North American commodities to the same value, and debts will, to the immense sum above mentioned, be withheld from private people here. This was the train of things begun before, and we must look for the like again. What effects these things will produce, considering the present state of our Trade, Manufactures, and Manufacturers, the condition of our poor at home, and the numbers of our people running abroad, it don't want many words to explain and set forth. They were before very severely felt for the time that they lasted, and it is apprehended, that the present situation of the publick is yet more liable to the impression. These are some of the difficulties and distresses, which we are, for the sake of a trial of skill with our Colonies, going to bring on ourselves, and which must be perpetually magnifying and increasing, as long as the unnatural contest shall continue.

To these a former Administration gave way; but it is to be supposed, that the present has, by returning to the shock, resolved to be more callous on the occasion, and to leave the Americans, the Merchants, and the Manufacturers, to settle among themselves their matters as they may. Our people will indeed be less clamorous about the ears of their betters, if they shall all run and emigrate out of the Kingdom. But there is a circumstance not yet mentioned, which will bid fair to go further, and which may but too probably involve in one common confusion the Nation, the Government, and the Administration itself; I mean the danger of a disorder or failure of the Publick Revenue; the difficulty or impossibility to pay the interest of the Debt, the Navy, the Army, the Civil List, and our other expenses, if the present contention shall proceed and continue.

I desire in explanation of this, to consider our present income, our out-goings, and our resources. I will not enter into any detail thereon: the particulars in gross will be sufficient for the purpose before us. I will, however, in order to be the better understood, premise something about the Revenue in general. It may be divided into two parts, the one, of Taxes laid in perpetuity, the other, of such as are granted by the year and for the year. The first part consists of all our taxes in general whatsoever, except the Land Tax, and the annual Malt Tax; the latter consists of these two only. Perpetual Taxes are now, in the language of Europe, often expressed by the name of Funds, as affording a fixed and settled foundation for any special use, and particularly for that of borrowing money. It was to answer the interest of our debts, that our own Funds were established, and they are now pledged for that purpose. These of ours have been chiefly thrown into three great common ones, called the General, the Aggregate, and the South Sea Funds. These are sometimes, with all other funds or perpetual taxes whatsoever, destined and settled for the discharge of the interest of our debt, comprehended and united together in discourse, and called the Sinking Fund; although there is in reality no one particular fund of that name, any more than there is such a piece of money as a Pound sterling, or a French Livre. The civil list is placed on the same funds as the interest of the publick debt. What remains annually of the whole collection of those funds, after the satisfying these two encumbrances, is what is meant by the surplus of the Sinking Fund, I have thought proper to preface these few