dit, by writing and converfation. The confequence of this is well known. Wilkes and fome others were burnt in effigy in Scotland, and it produced fo general an attachment to the king and ministry, as has not yet spent its force. In these circumstances is it to be wondered at, that many who left Scotland within the laft fifteen years, when they heard Wilkes and thofe who adhered to him, extolled and celebrated by the fons of liberty, fhould be apt to confider it as an evidence of the fame fpirit, and that they were engaged in fupport of the fame caufe. Perhaps we may go a little higher with this remark in tra cing political appearances to their fource. It is generally faid that the King himself has discovered a violent rancorous perfonal hatred against the Americans. If this be true, and I know nothing to the contrary, it may be easily accounted for upon the very fame principles. `

I am far from fuppofing that this was a good reafon for any man's being cool to the American cause, which was as different from that of Wilkes, as light is from darkness. It was indeed doing great dishonor to the noble struggle, to fuppofe it to have any connexion with who fhould be in or out of court-favor at London; and therefore it was always my opinion, that those who railed against the king and miniftry only, did not carry the argument home, nor fully understand the nature of their own plea. In order to juftify the American oppofition, it is not necessary to fhew that the perfons in power have invaded liberty in Britain; it is fufficient to fay that they, with the concurrence of the whole nation, have refused to fuffer it to continue in the colonies.-This leads me to the fecond part of my defign, which was to lay before you the reafons which, I think, fhould induce every lover of justice and of mankind, not only to be a well-wifher, but a firm and ftedfaft friend to America, in this important contest.

It has been often faid, that the present is likely to be an important æra to America. I think we may fay much more; it is likely to be an important æra in the history of mankind. In the ancient migrations, a new country was generally fettled by a fmall unconnected, and often an ig

norant band. The people and the foil were alike uncul. tivated, and therefore they proceeded to improvement by. very flow degrees; nay, many of them fell back and de generated into a ftate vaflly more favage than the people from whence they came. In America we fee a rich and valuable foil and an extenfive country, taken poffeffion of by the power, the learning, and the wealth of Europe. For this reason it is now exhibiting to the world a scene which was never feen before. It has had a progress in improvement and population so rapid as no political calculators have been able to ascertain. I look upon every thing that has been faid upon this fubject to be mere conjecture, except in fuch places as there has been an actual numeration. When men fay that America doubles its number in fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five years, they fpeak by guess, and they say nothing. In fome places that may be under or over the truth; but there are vaft tracts of land that fill every year with inhabitants, and yet the old fettled places ftill continue to increase.

It is proper to obferve that the British fettlements have been improved in a proportion far beyond the settlements of other European nations. To what can this be afcri, bed? Not to the climate; for they are of all climates: Not to the people; for they are a mixture of all nations, It must therefore be refolved fingly into the degree of British liberty which they brought from home, and which pervaded more or lefs their feveral conflitutions. It has been repeated to us, I know not how often, by the mercenary fhort-fighted writers in favor of fubmiffion to, or reunion with, Great-Britain, that we have thriven very much in past times by our dependance on the mother country, and therefore we should be loth to part. These writers forget that the very complaint is, that fhe will not fuffer us to enjoy our ancient rights. Can any paft experience fhew that we shall thrive under new impofitions? I should be glad any fuch reafoners would attempt to prove that we have thriven by our dependance, and not by the degree of independence which we have hitherto enjoyed. If we have thriven by our dependance, I conceive it is a Receflary confequence that thofe provinces must have

thriven moft which have been moft dependant. But the contrary is felf-evident. Thofe which have hitherto enjoyed the freeft form of government, though greatly infe rior in foil and climate, have yet out-ftripped the others in number of people and value of land, merely because the laft were more under the influence of appointments and authority from home.

When this is the undeniable flate of things, can any perfon of a liberal mind wish that these great and growing countries fhould be brought back to a flate of fubjection to a diftant power? And can any, man deny, that if they had yielded to the claims of the British parliament, they would have been no better than a parcel of tributary ftates, ruled by lordly tyrants, and exhaufed by unfeeling penfioners, under the commiffion of one too diflant to hear the cry of oppreffion, and furrounded by thofe who had an intereft in deceiving him. It ought therefore, in my opinion, to meet with the cordial approbation of every impartial perfon, as I am confident it will of poflerity, that they have united for common defence, and resolved that they will be both free and independent, because they cannot be the one without the other.

As this meafure, long forefeen, has now taken place, I fhall beg leave to fay a few things upon it; in which I mean to fhow, 1. That it was neceflary. 2. That it will be honorable and profitable. And 3. That, in all probability, it will be no injury, but a real advantage, to the ifland of Great-Britain.

1. It had become abfolutely neceffary. All reconcilia tion, but upon the footing of abfolute unconditional fubmiffion, had been pofitively refufed by Great Britain; unlefs, therefore, the colonies had refolved to continue in a loofe and broken ftate, with the name of a government which they had taken arms to oppofe, the ftep which they have now taken could not have been avoided.. Befides, things had proceeded fo far, and fuch measures had been taken on both fides, that it had become impoffible to lay down a scheme by which they fhould be fure of our dependance, and we, at the fame time, fecured in our liberties. While things continued in their ancient flate, there was

perhaps a power on the part of each, of which they were hardly confcious, or were afraid and unwilling to exert. But after the encroachments had been made and refifted, to expect any thing elfe than a continual attempt to extenu authority on the one hand, and to guard against it on the other, is to difcover very little knowledge of human nature. In fuch a fituation, though every claim of Ame rica fhould be yielded, fhe would foon be either in a state of continual confufion, or abfolute fubmiffion. The king of England, living in his English dominions, would not, and indeed durft not, affent to any act of an American legiflature, that was, or was fuppofed to be, hurtful to his English fubjects. This is not founded on conjecture, but experience. There is not (at leaft dean Swift affirms it) any dependance of Ireland upon England, except an act of the Irish parliament, that the king of England shall be king of ireland. This laft has a feparate independent legiflature, and in every thing elfe but the above circumftance feems to be perfectly free; yet if any man fhould affert, that the one kingdom is not truly fubject to the other, he would in my opinion know very little of the ftate and hiftory of either.

2. A ftate of independency will be both honorable and profitable to this country. I pafs over many advantages in the way of commerce, as well as in other refpects, that must neceffarily accrue from it, that I may dwell a little on the great and leading benefit, which is the foundation of all the reft. We fhall have the opportunity of forming plans of government upon the most rational, just, and equal principles. I confefs I have always looked upon this with a kind of enthufiaftic fatisfaction. The cafe never happened before fince the world began. All the governments we have read of in former ages were settled by caprice or accident, by the influence of prevailing parties, or particular persons, or prescribed by a conqueror. Important improvements indeed have been forced upon fome conftitutions by the fpirit of daring men, fupported by fuccefsful infurrections. But to fee government in large and populous countries fettled from its foundation, by deliberate counfel, and directed immediately to the public

good of the present and future generations, while the peo ple are waiting for the decifion with full confidence in the wisdom and impartiality of thofe to whom they have committed the important truft, is certainly altogether new. We learn indeed from history, that fmall tribes and feeble new fettlements, did fometimes employ one man of eminent wisdom, to prepare a fyftem of laws for them. Even this was a wife measure, and attended with happy effects. But how vaft the difference, when we have the experi ence of all paft ages, the hiftory of human fociety, and the well known caufes of profperity and mifery in other governments, to affift us in the choice.

The profpect of this happy circumftance, and the poffibility of loling it, and suffering the feafon to pafs over, has filled me with anxiety for fome time.. So far as we have hitherto proceeded, there has been great unanimity and public fpirit. The inhabitants of every province, and perfons of all denominations, have vied with each other in zeal for the common intereft. But was it not to be feared that fome men would acquire over-bearing influence? that human weakness and human paflions would difcover themselves, and prevent the finishing of what had been fo happily begun. In the time of the civil wars in England, had they fettled a regular form of govern-› ment as foon as the parliament had obtained an evident. fuperiority, their liberties would never have been shaken, and the revolution would have been unneceffary. But by delaying the thing too long, they were broken into parties, and bewildered in their views, and at laft tamely fubmitted without refiftance to that very tyranny against which they had fought with fo much glory and fuccefs. For this reason I think that every candid and liberal mind ought to rejoice in the measures lately taken through the States of America, and particularly the late declaration of independence, as it will not only give union and force to the measures of defence while they are neceffary, but lay a foundation for the birth of millions, and the future improvement of a great part of the globe.

I have only further to obferve, 3. That I am confident the independence of America will, in the end, be to the