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BOOK that we know no other mode of governing than by force. But our rulers should have considered that freemen will always revolt at the sight of a naked sword, and that the complicated affairs of a great kingdom holding in subordination to it a multitude of distant communities, all jealous of their rights, and warmed with spirits as high as our own, require not only the most skilful but the most cautious and tender management. The consequence of a different management we are now feeling. We see ourselves driven among rocks, and in danger of being lost: pride and the love of dominion are principles hateful enough, but blind resentment and the desire of revenge are infernal principles. One cannot help indeed being astonished at the virulence with which some speak, on the present occasion, of the colonies-For, what have they done? Have they crossed the ocean and invaded us? Have they attempted to take from us the fruits of our labor, and to overturn that form of government which we hold so sacred? On the contrary, this is what we have done to them. We have transported ourselves to their peaceful retreats, and employed our fleets and armies to stop up their ports, to destroy their commerce, and to burn their towns;-and yet it is WE who imagine ourselves ill-used. Had we never deserted our old ground; had we nourished and

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favoured America with a view to commerce, in- Book stead of considering it as a country to be go verned; had we, like a liberal and wise people, rejoiced to see a multitude of free states branching forth from ourselves, all enjoying independent legislatures similar to our own; had we aimed at binding them to us only by the ties of affection and interest, and contented ourselves with a moderate power rendered durable by being lenient and friendly, an umpire in their differences, an aid to them in improving their own free governments, and their common bul wark against the assaults of foreign enemies had this been our policy and temper, there is nothing so great or happy that we night not have expected. Instead of this, how have we acted? It is in truth too evident, that our whole conduct has been nothing, to say the best of it, but a series of the blindest rigour followed by retraction of violence followed by concessionof mistake, weakness, and inconsisteney. Did ever Heaven punish the vices of a people more severely by darkening their councils? In the Netherlands, a few states, similarly circumstanced with those of America, withstood for 30 years the whole force of the Spanish monarchy when at its zenith, and at last humbled its pride, and emancipated itself from its tyranny. The citizens of Syracuse, also thus circumstanced,

BOOK withstood the whole power of the Athenians. XVIL The same happened in the contest between the

1776. house of Austria and the cantons of Switzerland.

There is an infinite difference between fighting to destroy and fighting to preserve liberty. Were we therefore capable of employing a force against America equal to its own, there would be little probability of success; but to think of conquering that whole continent with thirty or forty thousand men, to be transported across the Atlantic, and fed from hence, and incapable of being recruited after any defeat, this is indeed a folly so great, that language does not afford a name for it. Perhaps I am not in the present instance free from the weakness of superstition, but I fancy I see in these measures something that cannot be accounted for merely by human ignorance. I am inclined to think that the hand of Providence is in them, working to bring about some great ends. But suppose the attempt to subjugate America successful, would it not be a fatal preparative for subduing yourselves? Would not the disposal of American places, and the distribution of an American revenue, render that influence of the crown irresistible which has already stabbed your liberties? Turn your eyes to INDIA: there, more has been done than is now attempted in America: there, Englishmen, actuated by the love of plunder and the spirit of

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conquest, have depopulated whole kingdoms, and BOOK ruined millions of innocent people by the most infamous oppression and rapacity. The justice of the nation has slept over these enormities. Will the JUSTICE OF HEAVEN sleep? ARE WE NOT

NOW EXECRATED ON BOTH SIDES OF THE

GLOBE?"-For this publication the writer was deservedly honored with the thanks of the city of London, and the freedom of that metropolis was presented to him in a gold box, by an unanimous vote of the corporate body.

During the pause of anxious suspense preceding the commencement of the memorable campaign of 1776 in America, it will not be improper to take a general review of the state of Europe for some years past, and of its actual situation; his majesty having in his late speech asserted, that the disposition of the several powers. of the continent promised a continuance of the general tranquillity.

FRANCE, in an historic sketch of this kind, must necessarily occupy the fore-ground of the picture. The death of Louis XV. who, for the long term of nine-and-fifty years, reigned with absolute and arbitrary sway over that vast monarchy, had taken place nearly at the commencement of the present troubles (May 10th, 1774). He was succeeded by his grandson Louis the Dauphin, who had scarcely as yet attained the

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BOOK twentieth year of his age. This young prince had in the year 1770 married the arch-duchess Marie Antoinette, daughter of the empressqueen-a princess endowed with all the fascinating graces of her sex; by which apparently auspicious alliance, according to the short-sighted views of human policy, the peace of Europe, so often disturbed by the contentions of the rival houses of Bourbon and Austria, seemed to be firmly cemented and secured. A great acquisition of revenue and territory had recently accrued to France by the death of Stanislaus, king of Poland (February 1766), in a far advanced age; in consequence of which event, the duchies of Lorraine and Bar, possessed by that monarch in full property during his life, reverted to France, agreeable to the treaty concluded A. D. 1736, with the court of Vienna, under the fortunate auspices of cardinal Fleury.

The latter years of the life of the late king of France were passed in a series of political conflicts with the several parliaments of that kingdom, particularly the parliament of Paris; which high and august tribunal still retained (by means of its constitutional privilege of enregistering the royal edicts, without which they had no legal validity,) some degree of control over the actions of the monarch. And this relic of their antient independency, by which alone the sacred fire of li