cause with my adversaries on the present general defence, which (although I am sorry it was necessary) I have reason to think will be more acceptable to the publick than the misspending time in private altercation. Those who oppose me may enjoy, for a while, (perhaps unnoticed,) all the triumph of the answers they may give; and if it is found at last, as has been already hinted, that I have said nothing to the purpose, their side of the question will only be strengthened.

In my remarks upon the pamphlet before me, I shall first consider those arguments on which the author appears to lay his chief stress; and these are collected under four heads, in his conclusion:

“It is the custom of nations, when any two are at war, for some other Powers, not engaged in the quarrel, to step in as mediators, and bring about the preliminaries of peace. But while America calls herself a subject of Great Britain, no Power, however well disposed she may be, can offer her mediation.”

Is this common sense or common nonsense? Surely peace with Great Britain cannot be the object of this writer, after the horrible character he has given us of the people of that country, and telling us that reconciliation with them would be ruin. The latter part of the paragraph seems to cast some light upon the former, although it contradicts it; for these mediators are not to interfere for making up the quarrel, but to widen it, by supporting us in a declaration that we are not subjects of Great Britain. A new sort of business, truly, for mediators!

But this leads us directly to the main inquiry, What foreign Powers are able to give us this support? Whether they can be persuaded to engage with us? What will be their terms? Is an alliance with them safe; or is it to be preferred to an honourable and firm renewal of that ancient connection under which we have so long flourished?

These questions cannot but employ the most serious thoughts of men whose all is at stake in the resolution of them; and they ought to be answered to the general satisfaction, before we are launched out into a tempestuous ocean, of which we know not the other shore. That a continuance of mutual violence and hate may at last force us upon such an ocean is not altogether improbable; and it is possible we may gain some port of safety, although in a shattered condition. Not a word shall be drawn from me to discredit our own strength or resources: although the accounts given of them by the author of Common Sense appear incredible to some, I will even go beyond him in expressing my good opinion of our situation. He thinks foreign assistance necessary to us. I think we should but be injured by it. We are able to defend our own rights, and to frustrate the attempt of any nation upon earth to govern us by force. For my part, I would risk my all in resisting every attempt of this kind at every hazard.

But let us see what assistance he offers us: and we find France and Spain held out for that purpose, although not as mediators to “strengthen the connection between Great Britain and America,” but wholly to dissolve it.

As to Spain, it is well known that the Government of her own unwieldy Colonies is already a weight which she can hardly bear; and some profound politicians have thought that, from the first, she has rather been weakened than strengthened by them; and that all her returns of gold and silver from America are but a poor compensation for the lives and cost with which they are purchased. It may well be questioned, then, (supposing Spain were able to assist us in erecting an independent empire in America,) whether her jealousy would permit her to risk the possibility of our seducing her own American subjects into an alliance with us, for the purpose of a future revolt from herself. But our author mentions France, as well as Spain, and thus proposes that both branches of the Bourbon family, so long the terrour of Protestants and freemen, should now join as their protectors. By what means, or at what price, is this marvellous revolution in the system of politicks, religion, and liberty, to be accomplished? How are these two Powers to divide these Colonies between them? Is their guardianship to be joint or separate? Under whose wing is Pennsylvania to fall—that of the most Catholick, or most Christian King?

I confess that those questions stagger me; and, till answered to satisfaction, cannot but give every good man the most painful apprehensions concerning the future fate of his country. To be told by the author of Common Sense that all this is mere prejudice; that we must divest ourselves of every opinion in which we have been educated, in order to digest his pure doctrine, and throw down what our fathers and we have been building up for ages, to make room for his visionary fabrick; I say, to be told this, is only insult instead of argument, and can be tolerated by none but those who are so far inflamed or interested, that separation from Great Britain, at any risk, is their choice, rather than reconciliation, upon whatever terms.

This, I much fear, is the temper of those who are constantly dinning in our ears the necessity of an immediate Declaration of Independence, for the sake of procuring foreign assistance, especially that of France. Their real desire is, to shut the door against all further reconciliation, by this precipitate step. The matter of foreign assistance is a mere decoy. Can we imagine that, if France thought it her interest to quarrel with Great Britain for any benefits to be derived from us, her delicacy would stand in her way? Was she ever restricted by such delicacy in any of the former civil wars of her neighbours, especially those of Great Britain ? But the truth is, that, in the present ruinous state of her finances, and feeble condition of her fleets, she will scarce think it prudent (for any prospects we can yield her) to rush into a new and expensive war, when so ill recruited, after the blood and treasure which she lavished so ineffectually in the last.

Would it be wise, then, to risk a refusal from her, or to mix our affairs with those of any foreign Power whatever in this contest with Great Britain ? No; I conceive this would only protract our wars, increase our dangers, weaken our force, and probably end in our ruin. And of all nations in the world, France is the last from which we should seek assistance, even if it were necessary. What kind of assistance do we expect from her? Gold and silver she can but ill afford to give us; her men we have no occasion for; and, in a word, until she has a fleet able to contend with that of England, she can do us no essential service. The want of such a fleet has been the great bar to her numerous projects for universal empire. Can any Protestant—can you, my countrymen, ever wish to see her possessed of such a fleet, assist her in attaining it, or willingly give her footing in America ? Would she then be contented to be the humble ally of these Colonies; or would she not, in her own right, resume Canada, which, according to the limits she formerly claimed, is larger than all our Provinces together? Could we hinder her from introducing what multitudes of her people she might think proper into that country, where they have already a great body of their friends to receive them? In that case, we should soon be left without room for the increasing number of our posterity; hemmed in upon the sea-shore; and, with armies behind us, and fleets before us, be either crushed to pieces, obliged to submit to the absolute dominion of France, or to throw ourselves back upon the protection of Great Britain.

This consideration is truly alarming; and France has never shown herself so worthy of confidence among the nations of Europe, as to induce us to run such risks, by throwing ourselves precipitately into her arms. She is so notorious to the whole world for her disregard of the most sacred treaties, that Gallica fides, or French faith, is become as proverbial now as Punica fides, or Carthagenian faith, of old. It could scarce have been imagined that the author of Common Sense, after telling us that “the blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature, cries, ‘tis time to part”—eternally to part—from the limited monarchy of Great Britain, (whatever future terms might be offered us,) would so soon have recommended to us a new alliance with the arbitraiy monarchs of France and Spain. Bloody massacres, the revocation of sacred edicts, and the most unrelenting persecutions, have certainly taught American Protestants (and especially our German brethren) what sort of faith we are to expect from Popish Princes, and from nations who are strangers to liberty themselves, and envy the enjoyment of it to others.

In short, I am not able, with all the pains I have taken, to understand what is meant by a Declaration of Independence; unless it is to be drawn up in the form of a solemn abjuration of Great Britain, as a nation with which we can never more be connected. And this seems the doctrine of the author of Common Sense. But I believe he has made but a few converts to this part of his scheme; for who