real loss of so many brave men who have unhappily fallen, every other consideration is immaterial. You are not, however, without some advantage; time, which brings all things to an issue, seems to be working favourably for you.

I presume, with all deference, still to offer my poor opinion; it is, that the army should be sent to one of the Southern Colonies, to make one strong post. If there is to be more fighting, let the Provincials make the attack, if they please. I take it for granted that you are to have an army of twenty or twenty-five thousand men in North-America next spring; although I mean they should be intrenched and act on the defensive, yet they may act offensively as opportunity offers. Your army, posted in a secure situation, will give loyal subjects encouragement to declare themselves; they only want protection. I think there can be little doubt that the force intended is sufficient to subdue the Colonies to the southward of Delaware river, and that sloops-of-war may easily obstruct the passage of an army from the Northern Provinces, should an attempt be made to cross that extensive river to join the Insurgents on the other side.

Your success against one-half of North-America will pave the way to the conquest of the whole, and it is more than probable you may find men to recruit your army in America; money will engage them to inlist. Such of those deluded people as are determined to continue in rebellion, may be allowed to carry on their military designs and operations in the interior parts of the country as long as they can keep together; they ought not to be followed; let your army still maintain one firm post. In time, the Rebels will be tired out; they will be perplexed if you do not follow them; their guilt, folly, and expense, must breed intestine dissensions; the common men must soon be convinced of the fraud of being paid in paper currency; the foolish and wicked resolves of the Congress with regard to non-importation and non-exportation will soon recoil on themselves and prove their destruction. The Congress, by their ridiculous and presumptuous scheme of a bar to all trade with Britain and her Islands, have exposed themselves to contempt, and, by this time, must be feeling the ruinous effects of it. They vainly imagined that all the merchants and manufacturers of Britain would have taken the alarm, and, through fear of the loss of trade, have yielded to their views; but the good sense of the people of this country has shown them and the world that they are not to be deceived by such artifice. Another of the ingenious devices of the North-Americans was, to lay in a stock of goods, which they thought sufficient to clothe them for an extraordinary time; but, by authentick advices, they are already in great want of all sorts of necessaries. As one instance within my own knowledge, a letter I have received, within these few days, from a correspondent in North-America, enclosing an order for goods to be sent next spring, if possible, contains this paragraph: “My negroes will suffer much next year, if matters are not speedily accommodated. What the poorer sort of planters will do, I know not; for there is not a piece of linen of any sort to be got in any of the stores.” I hope the friends of the Colonies will not be so bold as to assert that they are such a supernatural race as to live without clothes any more than they can exist without meat, drink, and sleep.

After your army has fortified one strong place, detachments may be sent to other seaport towns to erect forts under cover of ships-of-war; it will soon appear how far settlements may be extended in the Southern Provinces. If your sloops are vigilant, (which, doubtless, they will be,) it is next to an impossibility that cargoes of goods can be smuggled into North-America to any extent, even in the three winter months, which are only severe to the northward; trading vessels can scarcely escape sloops-of-war properly stationed on the coast and within the great rivers. In this situation, the Colonists will be driven to the last extremity for want of clothes and other necessary articles, particularly those of the woollen kind. It is scarce possible they can subsist, with any degree of comfort, without British and Irish goods; if they are supplied with the manufactures of this country by any indirect means, yet the pretext of the decline of trade may be kept up by designing men, although in fact it be flourishing.

I have read the petitions and addresses from some of the manufacturing towns, giving a dreadful representation of their fears and apprehensions of a total decay of trade, should that be interrupted which we derive from a friendly intercourse with North-America, and by which alone our rank in Europe can be supported.“In these petitions they artfully insinuate, that the present flourishing state of commerce throughout the kingdom, is owing to accidental and temporary causes, such as the peace of Poland, the Spanish flota, &c. Sir, these petitions are calculated merely for the purpose of imposing on weak minds; this country furnishes many articles of commerce, from natural growth, and by the dexterity of our artists, which no other part of the globe can produce; it is impossible, therefore, that we can be deprived of our usual share of trade with every part of the world; North-America, in particular, cannot be supplied with several of her commodities, except from Great Britain. If a survey were taken of the state of the manufactures over all Europe, it will not be found that one nation with another possesses above one year’s superfluous stock of goods, any more than an extraordinary quantity of provisions; on the supposition, therefore, that the American trade should be diverted into a foreign channel, the nation which supplies them must, of course, be itself speedily exhausted, and forced to apply to Britain for a recruit.

Sir, I declare myself averse to any further concession towards the Colonies, than what was offered by the conciliatory plan, namely, “that the Colonies should furnish an adequate sum, to be raised amongst themselves towards the general expense.” The defence of North-America has cost this nation many millions; and it is but equitable now that the Colonists should contribute to an alleviation of that burden. Administration, in my opinion, betrayed the dignity of this country in making even that proposition, and, after what has since happened, the Rebels are unworthy of such mild treatment. From whom ought proposals of accommodation to come? Have they not been the aggressors? Have they not grossly insulted the constitutional authority of this empire? The North-Americans in general, indeed, are objects of compassion, rather than of resentment; they have been led on, and insensibly made the tools of factious and discontented men in this and their own country. It is more than probable the Stamp Act would have been submitted to, had not the opposition to it been countenanced here.

As affairs are now situated, some new and uncommon expedients ought to be devised, to rectify them. One of our great objects at present should be to succour our innocent and peaceable subjects, in this their time of distress. For this reason, I cannot altogether approve of all the acts passed for the punishment of the delinquents, because they involve the innocent with the guilty. The former, as well as the latter, are in great want of all sorts of clothes. It being unsafe for merchants to send out goods, it is submitted, whether it would not be good policy in Government to give orders for, and export, a quantity of such commodities as our loyal American subjects are known to want most, and particularly clothing for women and children. This would be an act of great benevolence, as well as sound policy. Such goods might be under the care of supercargoes, protected by the army; they would be ready to supply our friends, and also such of the disaffected as might be disposed to submit; this, under good management, would prove beneficial, not detrimental, to the publick: nor would it require a very large sum for this purpose; the goods might be bartered for flour, and other provisions for the army. Merchants would, after some time, be induced to send cargoes to the places where the army was securely posted, which would relieve Government of that trouble. Sugars, rum, molasses, and even tea—articles all of them much wanted—would find purchasers, and be very acceptable; they would be the means of procuring bread, flour, Indian corn, staves, shingles, &c., for the West-India Islands; the sloops-of-war would protect trading vessels to different towns and creeks on the rivers; detachments of soldiers might be sent to assist the landing of goods. Trade would thus be at least in the choice of foes as well as friends, and their necessitous situation would constrain them cheerfully to embrace it; for who can suppose that the naked would refuse to be clothed, or the miserable to be relieved? And thus the olive-branch would be held out to them in one hand, while the sword is kept in the other: let them make their option. If they are determined to remain obstinate, we have only to continue firm; and I trust the contest will be decided without

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