resort of his subjects to arms, this resolution, which despair alone could dictate, has failed to flash conviction upon minds blunted by prejudice, impenetrable to truth. When a man is resolved to believe, the very absurdity of the doctrine confirms him in the faith. Contracted understandings can draw proofs of victory from a defeat, and find an earnest of future prosperity in the absolute ruin of their affairs. The King’s friends, as his favourites emphatically style themselves, to convert the stain of former rebellions, resolve to pursue that system which has reduced them to a situation so miserable that they cannot do wrong without ruin, nor right without affliction. They still resolve to see the liberties of America at their feet. That Constitution which their ancestors failed of subverting at Culloden, they attack more securely at St. James’s, under the patronage of the best of Princes. In these circumstances, it is important to inquire in what manner a brave and a free people should improve their advantages; in what manner they ought to resent the insults they have already received, and guard against future indignities.

The condition of this Country, whatever light it is viewed in, merits attention. It is not to my purpose, nor is it my province, to consider it minutely. As the circumstances are difficult and dangerous, we feel them; as they are favourable, I wish they may be improved. On this subject I mean to communicate my sentiments more fully than I have hitherto attempted. I have been charged with representing the best of Princes in a contemptible light, with encouraging principles of independence, and endeavouring to cut off the possibility of an honourable compromise. I have a claim to the candid interpretation of my Country. I speak to the collective body of the people; upon the most obvious principles of policy and prudence, we ought to adopt and pursue decisive, vigorous measures: we ought to do it instantly. The members of the community should be directly employed as their various inclinations dispose them, for the advantage of the common cause. By serving their interests, they essentially serve us.

No man condemns more sincerely than I do, that wretched plan of policy which has exasperated the people, and alienated their affections from the Sovereign. His Majesty is undoubtedly possessed of many private good qualities; but his private virtues have been the source of his misfortunes. With the greatest benevolence, and the best intentions, his throne, through the folly and treachery of his servants, has been constantly surrounded with the reproaches and complaints of his subjects. I am far from suspecting His Majesty of any design upon the liberties of the people. If he has been persuaded to take an unworthy, personal part against his Colonies, I attribute it to that inoffensive simplicity which guards the King against a thousand daggers. I impute his own disgrace, and the wretched situation of his affairs, to the pernicious principles he imbibed in his youth, and the fatal influence of designing favourites. These worthy men have given him many singular proofs of their abilities; I am not, therefore, surprised at his peculiar attachment to the avowed enemies of the House of Hanover. But by advancing them to the first posts in Government, he has unfortunately elevated the mark at which his people direct all their contempt and detestation. Though His Majesty has made a publick surrender, a solemn sacrifice, in the face of the whole world, not only of the interests of his subjects, but of his own personal reputation, by abandoning the duties of a Monarch to a set of men whom the people have long since discarded as unworthy their confidence; though he is satisfied with the wretched formalities of a King, and has sullied the dignity of that Crown which his predecessors have worn with honour; though his life has been a uniform course of shameless obedience to his servants, and a gross neglect of the complaints of the people, still I wish to consider him as the first Magistrate, and separate the virtues of the man from, the vices of his Government. I would make a due allowance for the prejudices of education. There has been something most singularly unfortunate in the life of our most gracious Sovereign. Accustomed, from his earliest infancy, to despise his own understanding, and rely on that of his friends, he seldom presumes to comprehend the depths of their policy, and implicitly confirms what they, in their profound wisdom, dictate. Does the cunning Lord Mansfield pronounce the Colonies in rebellion the King gracefully echoes the same language. Does the amiable Lord North blusteringly declare in the House of Commons, “that he will not treat with America till he sees her at his feet?” the best of Princes steps forward and delivers the same important doctrine from the throne. Does the faithful and trusty Wedderburne cry havock? I am sorry, says the best of Princes, that the times require it, but the refractory Colonies must be subdued. Thus, whatever be the language and views of his servants, however absurd and impracticable, His Majesty adopts them with all their blunders. They have now reduced him to the most deplorable of all situations, that of choosing out of a variety of difficulties; but whatever way he turns himself, he is sure to meet with perplexity and distress. Let them go on as they have begun, and I think simplicity itself cannot much longer be misled. At present I regard the King as the creature of the Constitution; I would pay him the personal tribute of allegiance. But if he persists to shelter himself under the forms of his Parliament, and sets his people at defiance: if he is determined to support the Ministry who have almost ruined his affairs, the time may not be far distant when he will cease to be considered even as the nominal Sovereign of America. His Majesty seems to have forgot that period of our history, (if he ever knew it,) when the New-England Colonies refused to issue legal process in the name of one of his predecessors. Should that period return in the reign of the best of Princes, it would endanger his establishment, and ruin his peace of mind forever. His security is that of his people in every part of his Dominions; they are all equally entitled to the liberties of Englishmen and the protection of the Sovereign. When he withdraws the one, and his friends attack the other, they should be informed that three thousand miles of ocean lie between them and us; that they cannot govern as they please; that it is the eternal condition annexed to great empires, that to govern at all, the extremities should be held with a loose rein; strain the cord, and the band of empire is broken. Nature has said it, and experience confirms it. And though they can send their thunder to remotest worlds, we despise the plan which must be widely separated from the execution, which the furious elements conspire to defeat.

The country we are in possession of, for the dominion of which we are now contending, was purchased, cultivated, and subdued by our ancestors. I know of no one that possesses more internal resources, is more happily situated for trade, or blest with a serener sky, a kinder soil, more striking prospects, or larger or more fertile plains. We have crowded the desert with inhabitants; men and flocks now cover the sea-coasts like leaves in autumn. We have stretched back upon the hills out of the reach of the eastern breeze. We have ascended the highest mountains; from thence we behold immense plains before us, vast, rich, level meadows extending beyond the reach of human eye. Over these we wander without restraint. Under mild and equal Governments, these boundless tracts must soon become the happy residence of thousands and tens of thousands of families yet unborn, who, by sober industry, shall feed the hungry and clothe the naked; turn the channels of wealth to their Country, and support her fame, her peace, and prosperity. We see our coasts formed into the noblest harbours, at convenient distances; vast navigable streams pervading immeasurable tracts, through impassable forests and luxuriant plains, by which the various produce of nations may be transported to the remotest inland quarters with ease and despatch; pines and firs that reach to heaven, naval stores and iron mines in such abundance, that we may build a navy for our defence, independent of every country upon earth. Our seas swarm with fish, and the soil almost spontaneously produces all those capital articles which are the sources of opulence, of independence, and of safety. We have improved the natural advantages of our situation; we have prosecuted our agriculture with spirit and success. Besides plentifully supplying the wants of our growing multitude, our annual export of grain has long since exceeded a million in value of the last harvest. The new world bids fair to be the granary of the old. The scarcity felt by the Parent State would have often been a desolating famine, if the exuberance of the Colonies had not been applied to satisfy the cries of her