EARL OF DARTMOUTH TO GOVERNOUR TRYON.

Whitehall, May 23, 1775.

SIR: In a very short time after you embarked upon your return to your Government, the Petition to the King, the Memorial to the House of Lords, and the Representation to the House of Commons of the Assembly of New-York, upon the subject matter of the grievances they complain of, in various instances, of the exercise of the constitutional authority of Parliament, were received; and Mr. Burke having delivered to me the Petition to the King, I had the honour to present it to His Majesty, who was pleased to receive it with the most gracious expressions of regard, and attention to the humble request of his faithful subjects in New-York, who have on this occasion manifested a duty to His Majesty, and a regard for the authority of the Parent State, which, had they not in the Memorial to the House of Lords, and in the Representation to the House of Commons, been unfortunately blended with expressions containing claims which made it impossible for Parliament, consistent with its justice and dignity, to receive them, might have laid the foundation of that conciliation we have so long and so ardently wished for.

I will, however, still hope (and I am strengthened in that hope by private advices received to day from Pennsylvania ) that the Resolution of the House of Commons of the 27th of February will remove all obstacles to the restoration of the publick tranquillity; and I am commanded by the King to say that nothing can give greater satisfaction to the Royal breast than to see us again a happy and united people.

Should such an event take place it will be, and ought in justice to be, attributed in great measure to the moderation and good disposition which has appeared in the Assembly of New-York; and whilst they continue firm, the body of people must soon be convinced how equally vain and improper it is to insist upon claims inconsistent with their dependance on the authority of Parliament, and that the only constitutional method of obtaining redress for any grievances they may have to complain of, is through the channel of their legal Representatives in Assembly. I am, Sir your most obedient humble servant,

DARTMOUTH.

Governour Tryon.

THE CRISIS, NO. XIII.

London, May, 1775.

Every Englishman must deplore the ill success, and abhor the unworthy treatment, which attended the two late conciliatory plans in relation to America. Pregnant with good sense, benevolence, and sound reason, they will do eternal honour to the wisdom, justice, policy, and humanity of the heads and hearts that formed them. How different was the plan of North! Crafty, mean, insidious, impolitick, irrational, shallow, and (like himself and coadjutors) beneath contempt. This was not treating with America, but insulting her; every step against her hitherto has been founded in the greatest inhumanity, the grossest ignorance, and the worst policy. I will proceed to prove my assertion, and defy the whole cabal of ministerial slaughtermen to confute me. I do not call upon the master butcher, because he can only be considered (after the part he has acted by asserting) an executive, and not as a rational master in this business.

First, then, for the humanity of these proceedings: let it be granted only, as it must, that the Crown stands in the same relation to America as a parent to her child, and my first assertion proves itself. Have any gentle, tender, sensible means been used to reconcile her? Have not her humble remonstrances, proposals, submissions, and supplications, been treated with contempt? Not suffered to lie on the table of a British House of Commons? Have they been deemed worthy of a thought by her pious Sovereign? Has she not been branded with the ignominious name of rebel by Act of Parliament, for no other reason, (I mean no true one,) than because she has wisely and calmly deliberated upon, remonstrated against, and steadily, but not tumultuously, resented the repeated injuries she has received?

As to riots by mobs, they are not to be imputed to her as treason and rebellion. America, as a Nation most un-constitutionally oppressed, has hitherto only deliberated upon her sufferings. She has not acted. My Lords Suffolk, Pomfret, Radnor, Apsley, and Sandwich, they have not acted. It is as yet no treason, my Lords, to think, to advise, to fear, and to prepare. You cannot, you dare not move to annul, as you may wish, the statute of treasons in America. The Americans have as good a right to that as your Lordships. I mean, as yet, my Lords, because I am not quite satisfied that, even in the present smuggled and corrupt Parliament, the boldest and most venal prostitute durst make so dangerous a trial upon the patience and long sufferance of this Kingdom.

I will now inform your Lordships, that it is contrary to the Law of Nations to attempt the destruction even of the most inveterate enemy by famine, until he has been first solemnly summoned to submit. Have the Americans ever yet been (though, if men, they shortly will be) in arms? Have they yet had a prospect of any other terms than such as would make them slaves? Will they be weak enough to submit to such conditions? The preliminaries hitherto proposed have been founded in oppression, not in reason; they are fit for brutes, not men. The lenient, the compassionate North, has treated America like the assassin of an alley; with his knife at her throat, he has humanely left it at her choice to strip herself, for fear she should be stripped by him. Why have the Ministry had recourse at first to this inhuman scheme of famine? They fear the Army will relent, when they find they must wade through the blood of their own countrymen. Their present General (Gage) has, to his honour, declined the bloody task. Even a foreigner, to whom the same command was offered, has revolted at the thought. Is not this stratagem of starving freemen into slavery, the most inhuman, as well as the most cowardly of all others, especially when it is considered that all the remonstrances of these unhappy sufferers have been rejected? I should insult the reader’s understanding by waiting for a reply. I therefore come to the next ingredient in the American persecution—ignorance.

I must first remark, that some of their wise Lordships were for having Maryland and Virginia, very remote inland countries, prohibited from the Fishery. Thus far have some of the great and sage counsellors of this Nation been ignorant even of the situation of that part of their fellow-creatures whom they wish to involve in the most dreadful of all calamities—famine. But the very scheme itself is impracticable; these wretched people cannot be totally destroyed, either by butchery or famine; their numbers are great and formidable; in such a vast extent of country their resources will be endless; they are not destitute of arms already, and they will be supplied with more in spite of our vigilant fleet. They, have all the materials necessary for war in the bowels of their Country; they have artists, handicraftsmen, manufacturers, and mechanicks of all sorts; cattle of all kinds; fruit of the earth in vast abundance; fine streams and rivers, though no doubt Administration, for the sake of consistency, will give strict orders, and pay highly for the poisoning of these; but that will not easily be effected; these people in general know the use of arms; they have perseverance, courage, resolution, and, above all, most prophetick Lord Sandwich! they have virtue, which can never be overcome. Should our Army strike and fall, the hatred, enmity, and revolt of America, is fixed forever; they never will submit to lick the tyrant hand which has once been raised against their liberties, their properties, and their lives. Under the above considerations, the present scheme of Government must seem impracticable; if so, or if, from rancour and resentment it has been viewed but partially, it is the grossest ignorance to pursue it. Should Heaven interpose on the side of justice, we shall perceive our error too late. But were our attempts by sword or famine sure of success, Government is only destroying its own vitals.

What, then, is the policy of this unnatural war? It is like the war between the belly and the other members; the whole State must feel its consequence. Shallow North told his House of Commons (for it is his) that the imports from the American Continent were inconsiderable. Now, my Lord, you ought to know (and in honour you should have declared) that the imports of that part of America into our Sugar Colonies, were the very life of them; neither planters nor negroes can subsist without them, particularly

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