in her progress to slavery. The power of the Crown was formerly limited and restrained by the States. At length, the commonalty, finding themselves greviously oppressed by the nobility and gentry, agreed to an absolute sovereignty. The King, having assembled their nobility in a garrisoned Town, received their liberties into his hands. The consequence is a burdensome revenue extorted from the subject, and a numerous army quartered upon the farmer, without their consent.

The subjects of France are generally devoted to their Prince, though he rules them with an iron rod, and treats them as slaves. This Kingdom once had Parliaments, whose concurrence was necessary for the making of laws and for the raising of money. They suffered the Cardinals to deprive them of a share in the Government, and their Parliament, at this day, are assembled to pass such laws as the King is pleased to present, which none dare to refuse. Many of the offices of state are purchased of the Crown, to increase his revenue. The nobility, clergy, gentry, the burgesses of Paris and other cities, are exempted from a tax on their land, while others are bowing beneath the weight. Their religion is papistical. The Protestants sought long for their liberties and religion, and at length obtained a toleration. But this was abolished, and a cruel persecution ensued, which cost the King several hundred thousand of the most industrious part of his subjects.

It was the boast of a Spanish King, that the sun never set upon all his extensive dominions. This Kingdom had formerly great and important privileges. Its inhabitants acted like freemen—behaved in a manner that made monarchs tremble. Upon an infraction of their rights, their allegiance ceased. They despised even the pageantry of a King. No laws could be made or repealed but by the consent of the subject; nor could any taxes be raised but by the concurrence of the people. They have now lost these privileges. Ferdinand, after Spain became one monarchy, by many artful, insidious, and curious practices, sapped the foundation of its freedom, and the great men bartered away their liberties; they sold themselves and their posterity to the Crown. Slow and silent were their first attacks. The States, consisting of the nobility, clergy, and representatives of the Commons, meet now only to record and confirm the decrees of the Court, which will compel a submission, should they refuse it. Thus the Crown of Spain has become absolutely despotick, and the inquisition rages in all its horrours.

I have been, my dear friends, wounding your feelings by the blackest scenes in all historick existence. Scenes of great, happy, and flourishing Empires reduced to wretchedness, by the remissness and pusillanimity of their subjects. I will now reverse the picture, and show it on its brightest side—bright although set in crimson shades.

When the wheels of the political machine get out of repair, Government drags on heavily, and, although brought to a low ebb, may be recovered by prudent management. But when the stamina is poisoned, and a canker or gangrene is forming on every part, amputations and incisions are the only expedients. Instances in English story of the people’s asserting their rights by the point of the sword are not wanting; and those of an early date. When the Stuart family possessed the throne, the nation were in a situation truly melancholy. For a long course of years the liberty of the subject seemed to be fluctuating. Its motion was sometimes direct, and sometimes retrograde. Its eccentricities were very great, when the English spirit roused, and Cromwell, with his sword, paved the way for its restoration. However, the gloom increased in a tenfold degree at the restoration of the gay and dissolute Charles the Second. His successor, the Duke of York, a determined and bigoted Prince, attacked the liberties of the people in a more fatal manner; gradually proceeding until he broke down all the fences and barriers of a free Constitution. The tragedy of English freedom would now have received its finishing stroke, had not the lion once more roused. The patriots of the day hunted up from the darkness of antiquity the principles of their free Government. These were hammered on the popular anvil, until they became familiar to every breast. This drove James from the Kingdom, and ushered in the glorious Revolution.

I will conclude with an instance that comes home to our own case. The Netherlands contained seventeen Provinces. They were free, and enjoyed great privileges. But free States are always viewed with jealousy Charles V invaded and fiercely attacked many of their rights. His successor, Philip II, King of Spain, followed the same plan, and materially altered their Constitution. The people perceived the innovations, and were determined to oppose the encroachments of power, and lop off the excrescences from their Constitution, by hazarding the event of a civil war. This they attempted under the most discouraging circumstances. Awed by a soldiery quartered in their bowels, with Alva, an accomplished officer of great experience, at their head; terrified by the tortures of the inquisition, which had drove most of their enterprising leaders out of the nation—all these hazards, difficulties, and dangers, they dared to encounter, for the preservation of their rights and their old Constitution. Watered in blood, the plant grew, spread, and gloriously flourished. The event of the struggle was a rich compensation. Seven of the seventeen Provinces threw off the yoke. The other ten were reduced to Spanish servility—to something worse than death.

It is not the beauties of nature, says one, that can captivate alone. Freedom polishes their lustre, and gives a relish to every other pleasure. Without it they look gloomy and uninviting. Hence in the countries of Burgundy, &c., in France, though naturally luxuriant, the people are miserable and unhappy. Whereas in Swisserland, the native smiles and is contented. Liberty produces comfort—nay, plenty—even among rocks. She smileth in the sternest regions. She blesses in spite of nature; and in spite of nature tyranny brings curses.

Leaving you to your own reflection and natural penetration until my next, let me remind you that inattention and pusillanimity are equally dangerous. Let me conjure you by the groans and cries of an enslaved Turk; by the racking tortures of a Spanish inquisition; by every motive, by every principle that can reach your hearts; by that affection towards your Country that should animate you as its guardians; by those sentiments that should influence you as men and as Christians; by that tenderness and sympathy which results from a reflection on those endearments that brighten the chain of existence and make beings happy; by life, by death, by every duty and obligation that respects time or eternity—be determined, at every risk, at every hazard, to struggle to the last to save yourselves and the community, your immediate and remote posterity, from the fate of Greece and Rome, of France and Spain. On this critical period depends the destiny of Kingdoms and Empires for ages yet to come.

ADDRESS OF THE PRINCIPAL INHABITANTS OF THE ANCIENT BOROUGH OF PERTH.

Address of the principal Inhabitants of the ancient Borough of Perth, presented to His Majesty by the Honourable Colonel James Murray,, Representative in Parliament for the County of Perth.

To the King’s Most Excellent Majesty.

Most Gracious Sovereign:

We, your Majesty’s dutiful subjects, the principal inhabitants of your ancient Borough of Perth, beg leave, at this important crisis, to testify our grateful sense of the many blessings we enjoy under your Majesty’s Government, and our abhorrence of the unnatural and unprovoked rebellion which has been excited among our deluded fellow-subjects of America, by the artifices of ambitious and designing men.

The lenient measures which your Majesty, induced by your paternal tenderness, had employed for reclaiming that infatuated people, having proved ineffectual, your Majesty has at last been compelled, by their obstinate disobedience, to have recourse to more vigorous exertions. We think ourselves bound, by every consideration of duty and interest, to declare our resolution to support your Majesty on this occasion, so far as we are able, in our several stations and professions, being convinced that the supremacy of the British Legislature over the Colonies is essential to the harmony, strength, and happiness of the whole Empire

November 4, 1775.