ciety are natural and inevitable, that they tend to the conservation of the state, though he may be disposed to censure such opinions as illiberal, will be alike disposed to pardon such honest prejudices. Nor do we think, that we can be justly accused of refining too much, if in conjunction with all these ideas, we mention the local situation of the two countries, as one great cause of their political separation. Our complaints and remonstrances, whether well or ill founded, could not from the situation of the two countries be favoured with a prompt hearing and decision. They were to be transmitted to the distance of three thousand miles, in the first instance, and then to endure the tedious process of delay and procrastination. This delay, of itself, amongst such a diversity of conflicting interests, was prone to engender disquietude and jealousy. The evil was felt, or imagined to be felt, in all its violence, while the remedy was tardy, uncertain and precarious. When the long anticipated moment of redress eventually arrived, it was out of season-the evil had been endured so long, that the Colonies were in a measure reconciled to its existence-it had been felt and endured so long, that it seemed almost to have lost at last its character of a grievance. To these may be added many other subordinate causes of vexation; the difficulty in the transmission of proper papers and documents-of the production of suitable proofs before a tribunal disposed to be captious in a rigid adherence to legal forms the inevitable expense attendant on such investigations the thousand opportunities afforded for a delay, if not for a complete denial of justice-the security from detection which a real criminal would enjoy when furnished with all these weapons of defence the hopelessness of such a contest to the par ty who had been aggrieved or oppressed—the palpable motives which would actuate the Ministry of the day to lend their aid and countenance to all such impediments; all these (and many more might be enumerated,) are abundantly sufficient to show, how slow, how precarious, how irritating, must have been a remonstrance to Parliament for redress-that the remedy when granted finally came too late-perhaps at a season when the evil was no longer felt or acknowledged as such; that it afforded to guilt nearly all the protection and purity of innocence-that the culprit on this side of the Atlantick, by having friends at Court on the other, was able either to elude all inquiry or to paralyze the arm of justice-So cold, so comfortless, so ungracious, was the prospect afforded of a Parliamentary redress of our grievances either national, or individual. The English Ministry were sensible of all the advantages which they enjoyed from this delay or procrastination of justice-it discouraged the appeal to a tribunal whose movements were so dubious and so precarious-it taught the Colonies a lesson of obedience; that it was better to submit, than to complain of a grievance, and they were ever anxious to make an appeal to his Majesty in Council, to Parliament, or to the courts of law, the dernier resort. But, besides these incidental causes of complaint, we are disposed to consider even the peculiar situation of these contending parties, as decisive evidence that they could not cordially concur in any given point. What was fit, and expedient, and proper for the welfare of England, did in a great measure change its character when applied to the Colonies. When our countrymen began to turn their eyes towards the ocean, or in other words, when they prepared to forsake the plough and to lean upon the anchor, they felt more severely than they had before done, the narrow and confined views of the English Parliament. It was the object of the Ministry to monopolize the commerce of the Colonies. Our trade was subjected to oppressive and to various restrictions-our natural enterprise was restrained to narrow and to vexatious limits, which we felt as a grievance, while we despaired of obtaining a remedywe saw unexplored avenues to wealth and aggrandizement open before us, which we were prevented from entering by the magick of a Parliamentary Act. These statutes seemed to have marked out lines upon the ocean for our guidance, which if deviated from, amounted to a forfeiture of the vessel and of the cargo. It was plain to be discovered, that while our ships were sailing by these enchanted limits, England was enjoying the advantages of the enterprise. We were told, that whatever benefit might be the reward, it was criminal to trespass on these imaginary lines; that if we should become opulent by a safer, a shorter, and a surer route, than that which the statutes of Parliament prescribed, we should incur the vengeance of English law. Legislative provisions, when so pointedly set in opposition to personal interest, may indeed be obeyed; but they will be obeyed from motives of fear only, and not from reverence and affection. They irresistibly impel the mind to the consideration of other questions such, for instance, as these: how long is this state of vassalage to be borne ?-when will the statutes of Parliament allow us the free exercise of our own faculties ?-how long will it be regarded as criminal for us to use the common bounties of nature?— must we always act in this secondary and subordinate sphere-always exert all our native energies for the aggrandizement of others?—or will the time arrive, when we shall be masters of our own?-Nor do we think it too much to say that such political separations are, considering the natural course of human events, inevitable. Peculiar events may prolong the period of separation-a large, liberal, and enlightened policy may avert it for a season; but it would contradict not only all the analogies afforded by history, but the experience of our own times, to assert that such separation will never be brought about. With such lights of past and of present times before our eyes, does it seem an incredible event that the English Colonies in India will one day become independent States? Had it been told to an Englishman residing in India, forty years ago, that the English Colonies in North America would have renounced their allegiance to the mother country-that they would have asserted their independence by force of arms-that after a long and difficult struggle, the Monarch of England would recognize them as free, sovereign, and independent States, with what stubborn incredulity would he have listened to such a prophecy! He would have immediately entered into many plausible calculations of the relative power of the two countries, of their means of annoyance, and of their means of defence of the helpless and imbecile state of the thirteen Colonies, each acting independently, and with all their sectional jealousies to overcome-he would have reminded us of the maritime ascendancy of England, of her invincible fleets and armies, of her immense resources, and of the comparative poverty of the Colonies. With such fearful odds, he would have triumphantly demanded, whether the project was even possible? All these speculations would undoubtedly not be destitute of weight; they would show the perilous and precarious character of such a contest, and what great sacrifices must unavoidably be made by the Colonies, in the struggle. To all this, however, one fact must be offered, incredible as such an event would then have appeared, it has now happened. This prophecy has become now matter of history. And will it be said, that the English Colonies in India are not as capable now of renouncing their allegiance, as the American Colonies were when they successfully established such a precedent? Admitting for the sake of argument, (we are not at all disposed to controvert the fact,) that the English settlements in India entertain no intention, at present, to follow our example, what is the inference? Is the inference to be that the world is, to its consummation, to remain the same that it now is-that the term Revolution is a word to grow out of use, and only to be found in the pages of a dictionary-that the same disposition that now pervades the English Colonies in India, is always to remain ?-Is it too much to say, that individual ambition, glory, personal aggrandizement, fame, will find at some future day a residence in India? that Englishmen, who at home court the favour of the people, set themselves in battle array against the crown, and put at defiance all the penalties of justice, will when they land in India, and possess a larger range for the exercise of all these qualities, become mild and peaceable citizens, who look with abhorrence on Revolutions, and undergo a sudden transformation of character by a change of climate? Is it not obvious, that the longer this event is delayed, the more do these India Colonies increase in opulence, in population, in power, and the more competent will they be to resist with success when the day of trial comes. The very |