croakers of calamity, not only that our present Ministers design to enslave us, but that the same malignity of purpose is to descend through all their successors, and that the wealth to be poured into England by the pactolus of America will, whenever it comes, be employed to purchase the remains of liberty.

Of those who now conduct the national affairs, we may, without much arrogance, presume to know more than themselves, and of those who shall succeed them, whether Minister or King, not to know less.

The other position is that the Crown, if this laudable opposition should not be successful, will have the power of taxing America at pleasure. Surely they think rather too meanly of our apprehensions, when they suppose us not to know what they well know themselves, that they are taxed, like all other British subjects, by Parliament, and that the Crown has not, by the new imposts, whether right or wrong, obtained any additional power over their possessions.

It were a curious, but an idle speculation to inquire what effect these dictators of sedition expect from the dispersion of their letter among us. If they believe their own complaints of hardship, and really dread the danger which they describe, they will naturally hope to communicate their own perceptions to their fellow-subjects. But probably in America, as in other places, the chiefs are incendiaries that hope to rob in the tumults of a conflagration, and toss brands among the rabble, passively combustible. Those who wrote the Address, though they have shown no great extent or profundity of mind, are yet probably wiser than to believe it; but they have been taught by some master of mischief how to put in motion the engine of political electricity; to attract by the sounds of Liberty and Properly, to repel by those of Popery and Slavery; and to give the great stroke by the name of Boston.

When subordinate communities oppose the decrees of the General Legislature with defiance thus audacious, and malignity thus accrimonious, nothing remains but to conquer of to yield; to allow their claim of independence, or to reduce them, by force, to submission and allegiance.

It might be hoped that no Englishman could be found whom the menaces of our own Colonists, just rescued from the French, would not move to indignation like that of the Scythians, who, returning from war, found themselves excluded from their own houses by their slaves.

That corporations constituted by favour, and existing by sufferance, should dare to prohibit commerce with their native country, and threaten individuals by infamy, and societies with at least suspension of amity, for daring to be more obedient to Government than themselves, is a degree of insolence which not only deserves to be punished, but of which the punishment is loudly demanded by the order of life, and the peace of Nations.

Yet there have risen up, in the face of the publick, men who, by whatever corruptions or whatever infatuation, have undertaken to defend the Americans, endeavour to shelter them from resentment, and propose reconciliation without submission.

As political diseases are naturally contagious, let it be supposed for a moment that Cornwall, seized with the Philadelphian phrenzy, may resolve to separate itself from the general system of the English Constitution, and judge of its own rights in its own Parliament. A Congress might then meet at Truro, and address the other Counties in a style not unlike the language of the American patriots.

"FRIENDS AND FELLOW-SUBJECTS: We, the Delegates of the several Towns and Parishes of Cornwall, assembled to deliberate on our own state and that of our constituents, having, after serious debate and calm consideration, settled the scheme of our future conduct, hold it necessary to declare, in this publick manner, the Resolutions which we think ourselves entitled to form by the immutable laws of nature, and the unalienable rights of reasonable beings, and into which we have been at last compelled by grievances and oppressions, long endured by us in patient silence, not because we did not feel, or could not remove them, but because we were unwilling to give disturbance to a settled Government, and hoped that others would in time find, like ourselves, their true interest and their original powers, and all co-operate to universal happiness.

But, since having long indulged the pleasing expectation, we find general discontent, not likely to increase, or not likely to end in general defection, we resolve to erect alone the standard, of Liberty.

Know then, that you are no longer to consider Cornwall as an English County, visited by English Judges, receiving law from an English Parliament, or included in any general taxation of the Kingdom; but as a state distinct and independent, governed by its own institutions, administered by its own Magistrates, and exempt from any tax or tribute but such as we shall impose upon ourselves.

We are the acknowledged descendants of the earliest inhabitants of Britain—of men who, before the time of history, took possession of the Island, desolate and waste, and therefore open to the first occupants. Of this descent, our language is a sufficient proof, which, not quite a century ago, was different from yours.

Such are the Cornishmen, but who are you? Who but the unauthorized and lawless children of intruders, invaders, and oppressors? Who but the transmitters of wrong, the inheritors of robbery? In claiming independence we claim but little. We might require you to depart from a land which you possess by usurpation, and to restore all that you have taken from us.

INDEPENDENCE is the gift of nature, bestowed impartially on all her sons. No man is born the master of another. Every Cornishman is a freeman, for we have never resigned the rights of humanity, and he only can be thought free who is not governed but by his own consent.

You may urge that the present system of Government has descended through many ages, and that we have a larger part in the representation of the Kingdom than any other County.

All this is true, but it is neither cogent nor persuasive. We look to the original of things. Our union with the English Counties was either compelled by force, or settled by compact.

That which was made by violence, may by violence be broken. If we were treated as a conquered people our rights might be obscured, but could never be extinguished. The sword can give nothing but power, which a sharper sword can take away.

If our union was by compact, whom could the compact bind but those that concurred in the stipulations? We gave our ancestors no commission to settle the terms of future existence. They might be cowards that were frighted, or blockheads that were cheated; but whatever they were they could contract only for themselves. What they could establish, we can annul.

Against our present form of Government, it shall stand in the place of all argument, that we do not like it. While we are governed as we do not like, where is our liberty? We do not like taxes, we will therefore not be taxed; we do not like your laws, and will not obey them.

The taxes laid by our Representatives are laid, you tell us, by oar own consent; but we will no longer consent to be represented. Our number of Legislators was originally a burden imposed upon us by English tyranny, and ought then to have been refused; if it be now considered as a disproportionate advantage, there can be no reason for complaining that we resign it.

We shall therefore form a Senate of our own, under a President whom the King shall nominate, but whose authority we will limit, by adjusting his salary to his merit. We will not withhold, a proper share of contribution to the necessary expense of lawful Government, but we will decide for ourselves what share is proper, what expense is necessary, and what Government is lawful.

Till the authority of our counsel is acknowledged, and we are proclaimed independent and unaccountable, we we will, after the tenth day of September, keep our tin in our own hands. You can be supplied from no other place, and must therefore comply at last, or be poisoned with the copper of your own kitchens.

If any Cornishman shall refuse his name to this just and laudable Association, he shall be tumbled from St. Michael's Mount, or buried alive in a Tin Mine; and if any emissary shall be found seducing Cornishmen to their former state, he shall be smeared with Tar and rolled in Feathers, and chased with dogs out of our Dominions."

["From the CORNISH Congress at TRURO."]