in the measure, The first was, to differ from such friends as might think that higher measures ought to be pursued; and the next was, to be exposed to the charge of having varied his. measures; a charge to which every man who accommodates his conduct to circumstances, instead of pretending to infallibility, must be exposed to, yet still an humiliating one, even to the best man, adopting even the best measure. But in the cause of his country, he regarded nothing but his country. Some part of the line of accommodation proposed in the Resolution, was first traced by yourselves, and often repeated. It had been adopted, and often pressed for by those who call themselves your friends in Parliament. The Minister who moved for it had, therefore, reason to hope that when he met them on their own ground, and granted their own desires, they would, in your and their country's cause, have forgot their animosity to him, and all those little objects of party, the pursuit of which is falsely called ambition. Did they, upon this occasion, meet that Minister half way in the generous struggle who should do you most good, or avert from you most evil? No! They threw behind them all your interests. They attended to those of their own party alone, which they think are more concerned in defeating a Minister than saving a Nation. They refused for you that favour which yourselves had solicited, opposed that measure which themselves had adopted, and did what they could to perpetuate dissensions in which themselves might he gainers. They were so blinded by the habit of opposition, and the triumph of spying even imaginary inconsistency in the Minister whom they opposed, that they did not perceive how miserably they must sink in your esteem for sacrificing your advantages to their own weaknesses. Are these your friends? Were those your enemies? If the contrast between the conduct of the one and of the other does not open your eyes, yon must be blind as moles, or with your own wills shut them against the sun.

But there are men among yourselves against whom you ought to be equally on your guard. It is hard that the charge of our intending to enslave you, should come oftenest from the mouths of those lawyers who in your Southern Provinces at least, have long made you slaves to themselves. There is scarce one of us acquainted with an American, who has not been told by him, that there is no region on earth, in which the people are so much oppressed by the extortions of Lawyers, as in many parts of America; a circumstance as unfortunate for us as for you, in the present disputes, because we are to expect, that men who gain by uncertainty and disorder, will forever oppose every attempt to a regular administration of Law, Police, and Government, which must diminish their own importance; and it is not to be hoped that they should spare either the mother country or her Colonies as communities, who never shewed mercy to the individuals of either.

Having shown you in this Address, that the projects of your Congress for war, or suspension of trade, would recoil on yourselves; that all the subjects of difference between you and us are easily reconcileable; that his Majesty's reign has been falsely accused of a system to enslave you; and that many of your pretended friends may prove your worst enemies; we pray that you may trust to your own reason on the topics of this Address; and if you do, we shall hope, before a very few months run round, to hear that peace is restored to your minds, and order to your Provinces.

TAXATION NO TYRANNY.

An Answer to the Resolutions and Address of the AMERICAN Congress.*

In all the parts of human knowledge, whether terminating in science merely speculative, or operating upon life, private or civil, are admitted some fundamental principles, or common axioms, which being generally received, are little doubted, and being little doubted, have been rarely proved.

Of these gratuitous and acknowledged truths, it is often the fate to become less evident by endeavours to explain them, however necessary such endeavours may be made by the misapprehensions of absurdity, or the sophistries of interest. It is difficult to prove the principles of science, because notions cannot always be found more intelligible than those which are questioned. It is difficult to prove the principles of practice, because they have, for the most part, not been discovered by investigation, but obtruded by experience; and the demonstrator will find, after an operose deduction, that he has been trying to make that seen which can be only felt.

Of this kind is the position, that the supreme power of every community has the right of requiring from all its subjects, such contributions as are necessary to the publick safety or publick prosperity, which was considered by all mankind as comprising the primary and essential condition of all political society, till it became disputed by those zealots of anarchy, who have denied to the Parliament of Britain the right of taxing the American Colonies.

In favour of this exemption of the Americans from the authority of their lawful Sovereign, and the dominion of their mother country, very loud clamours have been raised, and many wild assertions advanced, which, by such as borrow their opinions from the reigning fashion, have been admitted as arguments; and what is strange, though their tendency is to lessen English honour and English power, have been heard by Englishmen with a wish to find them true. Passion has, in its first violence, controlled interest, as the eddy for a while runs against the stream.

To be prejudiced, is always to be weak; yet, there are prejudices so near to laudable, that they have been often praised, and are always pardoned. To love their country, has been considered as virtue in men, whose love could not be otherwise than blind, because their preference was made without a comparison; but it has never been my fortune to find, either in ancient or modern writers, any honourable mention of those who have, with equal blindness, hated their country.

These anti-patriotick prejudices are the abortions of folly, impregnated by faction, which, being produced against the standing order of nature, have not strength sufficient for long life. They are born only to scream and perish, and leave those to contempt or detestation whose kindness was employed to nurse them into mischief.

To perplex the opinion of the publick, many artifices have been used, which, as usually happens when falsehood is to be maintained by fraud, lose their force by counteracting one another.

The Nation is sometimes to be mollified by a tender tale of men who fled from tyranny to rocks and deserts, and is persuaded to lose all claims of justice, and all sense of dignity, in compassion for a harmless people, who, having worked hard for bread in a wild country, and obtained, by the slow progression of manual industry, the accommodations of life, are now invaded by unprecedented oppression, and plundered of their properties by the harpies of taxation.

We are told how their industry is obstructed by unnatural restraints, and their trade confined by rigorous prohibitions; how they are forbidden to enjoy the products of their own soil, to manufacture the materials which nature spreads before them, or to carry their own goods to the nearest market; and surely the generosity of English virtue will never heap new weight upon those that are already overladen; will never delight in that dominion which cannot be exercised but by cruelty and outrage.

But while we are melting in silent sorrow, and in the transports of delicious pity, dropping both the sword and balance from our hands, another friend of the Americans thinks it better to awaken another passion, and tries to alarm our interest, or excite our veneration, by accounts of their greatness and their opulence, of the fertility of their land, and the splendour of their Towns. We then begin to consider the question with more evenness of mind, are ready to conclude that those restrictions are not very oppressive which have been found consistent with this speedy growth of prosperity, and begin to think it reasonable, that they who thus flourish under the protection of our Government, should contribute something towards its expense.

But we are then told that the Americans, however wealthy, cannot be taxed; that they are the descendants of men who left all for liberty, and that they have con-

*Common fame attributes the merit of this performance to the celebrated Doctor Johnson, and every page of it confirms the truth of the report. That gentleman has been charged in his former political productions, with writing by compulsion; in this it is plain he has written from the heart.—Gent, Mag.