discretionary power in the Governour, ultimately to judge of the sufficiency of the atonement to be made, and to grant or withhold a dispensation, as he should think best.

This, however, was not enough to gratify their vindictive rage. At the heels of it came the act for annulling the charter and altering the Government of the Massachusetts—a stretch of power that could not be submitted to without abandoning every idea of liberty and equity. To change the fundamental constitution of any civil society is the highest possible act of sovereignty; nor can it ever be done, consistent with any principles of freedom, unless by the general will of the community itself. The same pretended right by which the Parliament has ventured to make the alteration in question would extend to the abolition of all our Governments, and to the erection of the most insupportable tyrannies in their stead. This would overthrow at once all the ramparts of our security, and leave us a defenceless prey to a set of men who, there is a moral certainty, would think it their interest to oppress us by every device ingenious rapine could invent.

The strange partiality of Administration, in these respects, discloses their designs in a manner that must carry conviction to every person who is not wilfully blind. Why level all their fury and correction at Boston alone? Did not all the other Provinces partake in their guilt, by forcing back the tea, and tacitly approving of their conduct in its destruction? Did not New-York act a part, perhaps less justifiable, in the treatment of Captain Chambers’s tea, and on that account deserve an equal portion of punishment ? In spite of every subterfuge to the contrary, the most natural answer to these questions is this: the Ministry, sensible that the principal impediment to their schemes lay in the great populousness and unconquerable spirit of liberty manifested by the New-England Colonies, and knowing, also, that the Massachusetts generally took the lead among them, concluded that the only method to bring the Americans into a state of thraldom, was to undermine and evert their liberties where their greatest strength lay; that, in order to this, it was good policy to make a particular attack, under the notion of punishing a particular transgression—hoping by that means to prevent a sympathy in sufferings, from a sense of common danger, and to discourage a cordial union and mutual support, in which the safety of our rights must always consist. The penetration of the Colonists, in general, was too great not to perceive the latent mischief through so thin a veil; but the bait was swallowed by numbers, who are of less jealous and vigilant disposition than is absolutely necessary in a free Government. A few artful men behind the curtain, strengthening themselves with the symbols and prepossessions of party, took occasion, by degrees, to distemper the minds of their friends and associates. Concealing their real aims, they successfully played upon the passions and prejudices of men who were predisposed to consider them as the oracles of wisdom, and to acquiesce in whatever they recommended. They first persuaded them to differ from the rest of their countrymen about the mode of obtaining the redress of grievances by themselves allowed to exist. They next taught them to doubt the reality of those grievances; from doubt they led them to disbelief; and at length they have convinced the silly, ductile creatures, that they have no rights or privileges whatsoever, but which are derived from the gratuitous indulgence and mere bounty of their beneficent masters on the other side of the Atlantick. Hence those boisterous clamours which have been fulminated, from first to last, against the restrictions laid on our trade, and against every other measure the least tinctured with vigour or spirit.

For the sake of present brevity, I shall defer the conclusion of the general subject in hand to a future paper.

THE MONITOR, NO. V.

The frequent efforts of Administration to enslave the Colonies by general attacks, and their violent proceedings against Massachusetts in particular, instigated by the most insidious and barbarous policy, convinced all honest and discerning men that it was indispensably necessary to concert some regular, universal plan of opposition for the defence and security of our invaded rights. The expedient of a Congress naturally presented itself, from its being employed with success on a recent occasion, and from the obvious necessity of some Continental body to direct the councils and measures of the whole. So agreeable was this to the real or apparent sentiments of all men, that it was no sooner proposed than it received the concurrence of every Colony, from Nova-Scotia to Georgia. All parties, without hesitation or scruple, agreed in acknowledging the propriety of it, though many since that, improved in wisdom and discernment, have had the good fortune to discover that the step was totally impolitick, illegal, treasonable, rebellious, and every thing else that is pernicious and terrible.

Delegates being every where elected for the purpose, the Congress assembled at Philadelphia, and adopted a set of measures which reflect the highest lustre upon their characters, as men of abilities, integrity, and resolution, and will ensure them the applause and veneration of impartial posterity, whose decisions will be unbiased by the narrow views and interested prejudices which at present darken and warp the minds of men. Notwithstanding the most convincing experience of the inexorable disposition of his counsellors, they presented His Majesty with a petition, couched in the most dutiful, cordial, and pathetick terms. Redress from that source could not be confided in; it could scarcely even be hoped. Other methods were absolutely requisite to obtain relief; and what others, of a pacifick nature, could there be, but restraint on our commercial intercourse with Britain ?

This mode of opposition had the recommendation of two successful experiments, and is supported by the most substantial reasons, drawn from the great importance of our trade in the general scale of British commerce; an importance which is not imaginary or fictitious, but founded on the most notorious facts, and on the testimony of the ablest writers who have treated the subject, either before or since the commencement of the dispute. This mode, if faithfully adhered to, must, in the end, prevail, whatever may be said to the contrary by a few ministerial addressers and letter-writers, whose bare affirmations can never countervail the respectable authorities above intimated; and are, besides, refuted by other representations, more to be relied on, which inform us there are many and increasing appearances of distress arising from the operation of our measures. The Ministry have applied all the lenitives in their power to heal the wounds given by us to the national resources; but these are not only incompetent for the present; they must, from their nature, be short-lived and evanescent. A gangrene will speedily ensue, and disorder the whole political frame, unless some wiser physicians be found, and timely remedies, of a more effectual kind, made use of.

We have some grounds to believe that Administration would, ere this, have abdicated their schemes, had they not fondly imagined that our virtue would be too frail to persevere long in our self-denying plan of resistance. In this they were encouraged by many misinformations from a band of perfidious miscreants among ourselves, and more especially by the promised dereliction of the common cause, in which these expected to betray the Assembly of this Province.* From this circumstance, it was thought the Ame-

* Mr. Brook Watson, a principal merchant in England, when in this Province, declared to many respectable gentlemen, that the Ministry, soon after the publication of the Congressional proceedings, were disposed to retract their violent measures, and to redress our grievances. To this end, application was made, under the auspices of Lord North, to the body of American merchants, (of whom this gentleman was one,) desiring them to frame petitions for the redress of American grievances, and the restoration of American rights, and promising compliance with them, as it was most agreeable to the Ministry to repeal the obnoxious acts, seemingly in consequence of petitions at home. While this was in agitation, letters were received from New-York, assuring that the Assembly would reject the proceedings of the Congress, and that there would be a separation of this Colony from the rest. Fresh hopes were conceived from the prospect of a division, and the merchants were desired to alter the plan of their petition, and frame it solely upon commercial principles. The conduct of our Assembly confirmed that information, and the Ministry, now encouraged by the certain prospect, as they deemed it, of a disunion, were led to push matters to extremity. Here we find the more immediate source of those evils under which we at present labour. If it should be asked how any persons could foretell what was in the womb of futurity, and therefore uncertain, I answer, this might easily be done, without possessing any supernatural gift of prophecy, by taking a little pains to sound the private sentiments of the members of our Assembly, and particularly of the leaders, whence their publick conduct would be plainly deducible. Dr. Franklin, I am told, makes no scruple to impute the obstinacy of Administration to the same cause; and the reason of the thing will convince us that it has at least had a powerful tendency to encourage it, agreeable to Lord North’s maxim—divide et impera—divide and tyrannize.