witchcraft is renouncing the authority of God Almighty, and applying to the Devil, so rebellion is withdrawing allegiance from a lawful Sovereign, overturning his laws and government, and joining with a power inimical to him.

You are also told that, as the Southern Provinces have ever placed the greatest confidence in your zeal and valour, they did not think it necessary to raise any bodies in the other Provinces for this particular service. Do you believe, my countrymen, that any of the Massachusetts officers were concerned in drawing this Address to you? If so, beware of them, before it is too late. I will not believe it. It surely must be drawn by some of your foreign officers, whom you have disgraced yourselves by suffering them to command you, when you had men of your own Province who were, at least, equal to them, and who would have more naturally cared for you. But you may have felt, the ill consequence of it even now, and it may be too late for redress. The true English of it runs thus: The Massachusetts have a different interest from the rest of the Continent; they are a set of brave, hardy dogs, and are always encroaching upon their neighbours, and ought to be humbled; and, when we have established our independency, we shall have much to fear from them. Let us, therefore, make them the mercenaries; they will sacrifice every thing for money; we can pay them in paper, which they are so fond of; by engaging them for soldiers, they will get knocked in the head; their wives and children will be ruined; and, when we have established our empire, we shall have nothing to fear from them; they will become an easy prey to the rest of the Provinces, and we can parcel them out among us as we may think proper.

The remainder of your officers' Address to you, I leave to your own remarks. It is so full of compliment and flattery, in order to catch your passions, that I cannot help blushing for you; and if you are caught by it, I shall then pity you, and you will blush for yourselves.

That you may not plead ignorance, in justification of yourselves, in case the fate of war should be against you, I will now let you into the origin and progress of the publick disorders which, for many years past, have sickened the state of this Province, and, at last, hath terminated in a most unnatural and ungrateful rebellion. I am persuaded, my countrymen, that you are ignorant of the true rise of your disorders; the aim of your leaders hath been to keep you in ignorance; they knew that your ignorance was their protection. Had you known their views, you would not only have spurned at the thought of overturning the Constitution, but I venture to say, that some of you would have dragged them to the bar of justice, there to have received that punishment which now awaits them, and I wish that you, yourselves, may not be involved in, as partakers in their crimes. The history runs thus, and every page of it is capable of ample proof.

Know, then, for many years past, this Province hath been deeply immersed in the smuggling business. Perhaps some of you are ignorant, though I am sure all of you are not, of the meaning of smuggling business. I will tell you what it means; it is an importation of goods contrary to the laws of the society to which we belong; it is a defrauding the King of those dues which the law hath granted to him, which fraud is equal, in criminality, to the injuring of a private person; it is a violation of the laws of Christianity; it is injuring, and, perhaps, ruining, our neighbour; in short, when it is thoroughly engaged in, it naturally tends, by degrees, to the effacing every sentiment of virtue. This is a description of the smuggling business; and it is here where I fix the sudden rise of the present rebellion.

In order to evade those laws against unlawful trade, those who were concerned in it, exerted themselves to defeat them. Unluckily for the Government, at that juncture, a person, who had a long while been hunting after preferment, was disappointed of his game; on which, a friend of his, who was versed in the law, vowed revenge; he swore that he would set the Province in a flame, if he died in the attempt. He fulfilled his oath, and burnt his fingers, to such a degree, that he hath irrecoverably lost the use of them. Remember, my countrymen, that there is one sort of flame, that consumes not only a man's property, but also a man's understanding, and ruins, very often, his posterity, also. This man's adroitness in law was thought necessary to be engaged in the cause of defeating acts of Parliament. He was engaged, and he had shrewdness enough to start a thought which, artfully pursued, hath, generally, its expected effect in all popular commotions. He said, that it was necessary to inlist a Black regiment in their service; the bait was snapped at, and many ministers of the Gospel, too, (too many for the honour of the Christian religion,) joined in the cry. The press then routed out its libels; the sacred desk, which ought to have been devoted to the doctrines and precepts of the Prince of Peace, rang its changes on Government, and sounded the trumpet of sedition and rebellion. Boys, who had just thrown away their satchels, and who could scarcely read English, mounted the pulpit, and ventured to decide on matters which had puzzled the sages of the law. Nay, they could not be contented to decide controversies of law, in their harangues to their audiences, but must show their parts in their solemn addresses to the Supreme Being, telling Him who had been guilty of murder, where the law had pronounced the supposed crime to be only self-defence; and some of them even debased the sacred character, by setting on the rabble, in the publick street, to insult a person who was obnoxious to the leaders of the mob. At the same time, a notorious defaulter, who had pocketed a large sum of the publick moneys, in order to screen himself, took it into his head to mouth it for patriotism; and, by artful wiles and smooth demeanour, he talked the people out of their understandings, and persuaded them to give him a discharge from the debt, on account of his patriotism. This man, whom, but a day before, hardly any one would have trusted with a shilling, and whose honesty they were jealous of, now became the confidant of the people. With his oily tongue, he duped a man whose brains were shallow and pockets deep, and ushered him to the publick as a patriot, too. He filled his head with importance, and emptied his pockets, and, as a reward, hath kicked him up the ladder, where he now presides over the Twelve United Provinces, and where they both are at present plunging you, my countrymen, into the depths of distress. Libertinism, riot, and robbery, soon became the effects of this sort of publick spirit; houses were plundered and demolished; persons were beat, abused, tarred and feathered; courts of justice were insulted; the pillars of Government were destroyed; and no way to escape the torrent of savage barbarity but by paying obeisance to the sovereign mandates of a mob. Garrets were crowded with patriots; mechanicks and lawyers, porters and clergymen, huddled promiscuously into them; their decisions were oracular, and from thence they poured out their midnight reveries. They soon determined to form an independent empire. Yes, my countrymen, I assure you that this independent empire, which you are now assisting those pretended patriots to erect, was formed above seven years ago, though I dare say that most of you are ignorant of the black design. And one of the patriots, (peace be to his manes!) openly avowed it, and declared that a valuation had been taken of the estates in the town of Boston, which, he supposed, would be destroyed by the naval power of Great Britain; and that all the friends of licentiousness were to be reimbursed out of the estates of the friends to Government.

The patriots were determined to humble Great Britain; and, as a first step, they promoted a Non-Importation Agreement, at the same time that the wealthy and artful among them had large quantities of goods by them, by the advanced sale of which they made fortunes, and ruined the small traders. They promised to send their new-imported goods back to England; and, instead thereof, their trunks were crowded with billets of wood, shavings, and brickbats, (to the eternal disgrace of this Province,) when they were opened in England. Some of the patriots carried about papers of subscription against importing goods from England; and washing-women and porters, in order to swell the list, made their marks, (for write they could not,) that they would not import coaches or chariots from home. When they were told of the impropriety of such a conduct, and that the scheme would have no effect, they replied, that they were sensible of it, but Great Britain would be scared by it. They hired mercenaries in England to cabal and write for them, and raise an insurrection. When they were told that Great Britain would be roused, they said