than the Americans what is called their defeat; one or two more such defeats of the Americans would forever put it out of the power of the present Regular Army to gain a victory.

The rejecting of the New-York Petition has effectually silenced all those who pleaded for, or hoped any good from petitioning. The cannonading of that Town in the dead of the night, and without the least previous warning, as it has shown what the inhabitants are indiscriminately to expect, will in history stand as a lasting monument of such wantonness of cruelty as Nations not remarkable for humanity would be ashamed of.

The destroying of the New-England Fishery laid all those who were deprived of their bread and occupation at sea, under an absolute necessity of seeking it in the American Army, and the sense of the injury done them will doubtless exert itself in the day of battle.

The endeavour to stir up Popish Canadians and savage Indians against the Colonists has been productive of the taking of the important pass of Ticonderoga, which has been effected without the loss of a single life on either side.

Detaining the inhabitants of Boston, after they had, in dependance on the General’s word of honour, given up their arms, to be starved and ruined, is an action worthy of the cause, and can only be equalled by the distresses of Protestants driven under the walls of Londonderry, at which even a James relented.

Proposals publickly made by ministerial writers, relative to American domesticks, laid the Southern Provinces under a necessity of arming themselves; a proposal to put it in the power of domesticks to cut the throats of their masters can only serve to cover the proposers and abetters with everlasting infamy.

The Americans have been called “a rope of sand:” but blood and sand will make a firm cementation; and enough American blood has been already shed to cement them together into a thirteenfold cord, not easily to be broken.

My Lord, the violence of the present measures has almost instantaneously created a Continental Union, a Continental Currency, a Continental Army, and before this can reach your Lordship, they will be as equal in discipline as they are superiour in cause and spirit to any Regulars. The most zealous Americans could not have effected in an age what the cruelty and violence of Administration has effectually brought to pass in a day.

The Regular Army employed on this errand, with four able Generals, now lies no better than besieged within the ruins of Charlestown and Boston, unable to procure the necessaries of life, obliged to import their bread from Europe and fuel from Canada, pining away with disease, and affording daily martyrs to cruelty and arbitrary power, while every day adds to the improbability of their ever obtaining those unhappy ends. A strange situation for a British Army!

Restraining the trade of the Colonies will effectually annihilate all their trade with Great Britain. The numbers that crossed the Atlantick, or re-exported American commodities from Great Britain, the manufacturers that wrought for America, or worked up their raw materials, will now be at full leisure to know and feel whether the American trade be an object of any importance, and how much the Nation is obliged to a Ministry that has so effectually laboured its destruction.

The present dispute has made every American acquainted with and attentive to the principles of the British Constitution; in this respect, as well as in a strong sense of liberty, and the use of fire-arms almost from the cradle, the Americans have vastly the advantage over men of their rank almost everywhere else. From the constant topick of present conversation, every child unborn will be impressed with the notion: it is slavery to be bound at the will of another in all cases whatsoever; every mother’s milk will convey a detestation of this maxim. Were your Lordship in America, yon might see little ones acquainted with the word of command before they can distinctly speak, and shouldering the resemblance of a gun before they are well able to walk.

When millions of free people at once turn their thoughts from trade, and the means of acquiring wealth, to agriculture and frugality, it must cause a most sensible alteration in the State. My Lord, this is the case at present in America; every new act of violence will strengthen and confirm the spirit that taught them the necessity of being frugal and virtuous, that they might remain free, and become invincible.

Admit, my Lord, (for suppositions now become probable in proportion of their being astonishing and violent,) that a British fleet may effectually guard every harbour, river, creek, or inlet, on the American coast; admit, also, that her Troops destroy every town, village, or hut, along the sea-shore, what then will be the consequence? Why, my Lord, it will be the destroying the property of thousands in Great Britain, and of a few on this side of the water, whom your Lordship calls your friends. Perhaps the attempt may not succeed; but supposing it should, the Americans, injured beyond a possibility of reparation, and irritated to the highest degree, will retire where they are inaccessible to troops and ships; instead of trade and navigation, you will have a desolate sea-coast; the trade of America will be lost, and with it the sinews of war; and, my Lord, in the natural course of things, America, in less than half a century, will contain more inhabitants than Great Britain and Ireland; and that period, my Lord, is not so far distant to put the present treatment entirely out of remembrance. America and Great Britain, joined in arms together, may grow confident against the world besides; but if Britain continue her arms against America; if her Troops can be persuaded to go on against their brethren and friends; if they will destroy the last asylum of liberty, and a Country which has saved so many thousands from starving at home; the Americans will fight like men who have every thing at stake; the mercenaries with bayonets at their backs, and at the rate of six pence a day, if they are once defeated, whence will they be re-supplied? If they return to Britain victorious, they will be fit instruments to promote that slavery at home which they have been successful in fastening (probably for a very little while) on their fellow-subjects abroad.

In times of publick confusion, men of all parties are sometimes carried further than they intended at first setting out. History and the knowledge of human nature should inform your Lordship how much it is against all sound policy to secure or strive for punctilios at an infinite risk.

The Americans have always shown an affectionate regard to the King, and they are truly sensible of the necessity and advantage of a perpetual union with the Parent State; but undeserved severities cannot be productive of any pleasing returns. The Americans firmly believe that the claim at present endeavouring to be enforced would render them mere slaves, and it is their general motto, “Death or Freedom.” The parliamentary, or, as they say, ministerial claim, is now written in letters of blood, and that will be far from making it more acceptable to American readers.

On the whole, my Lord, should this address be deemed impertinent and intrusive, I hope it may still be excusable, from the importance of the cause and the sincerity of its motive. In the event of the present dispute I look upon all mankind as interested, and though not natural born, His Majesty has not another subject that more ardently wisheth that his own repose and happiness, and that of all his subjects, may never meet with any interruption. Whether British Troops shall now drive liberty from out of the greater part of the British Empire, and bury her remains in the American wilderness, or whether that wilderness shall flourish and cheerfully contribute to make Great Britain the greatest Empire of the universe, is the question now to be decided; and it is not so unimportant but it may be expected He that is higher than the highest, and taketh up the isles like a very little thing, will interpose in the decision. The whole American process, my Lord, is liable to a revision, and when righteousness and judgment to come once make an impression, many a Felix will tremble.

To restore peace and harmony, nothing is necessary than to secure to America the known blessings of the British Constitution. This may be done in a moment, and without any disgrace or risk. Let the Americans enjoy, as hitherto, the privilege to give and grant by their own representatives, and they will give and grant liberally; but their liberty they will never part with but with the lives.