ledged! View the plundering government exercised by our merchants in the Indies; the confifcating war made upon the American colonies; and, to fay nothing of thofe upon France and Spain, view the late war upon Holland, which was feen by impartial Europe in no other light than that of a war of rapine and pillage; the hopes of an immense and eafy prey being its only apparent, and probably its true and real motive and encouragement. Juftice is as ftrictly due between neighbour nations as between neighbour citizens. A highwayman is as much a robber when he plunders in a gang, as when fingle; and a nation that makes an unjuft war is only a great gang. After employing your people in robbing the Dutch, it is strange that, being put out of that employ by peace, they still continue robbing, and rob one another? Piraterie, as the French call it, or privateering, is the uni

verfal

verfal bent of the English nation, at home and abroad, wherever settled. No less than seven hundred privateers were, it is faid, commiffioned in the last war! These were fitted out by merchants, to prey upon other merchants, who had' never done them any injury. Is there probably any one of those privateering merchants of London, who were fo ready to rob the merchants of Amfterdam, that would not as readily plunder another London merchant of the next ftreet, if he could do it with the fame impunity! The avidity, the alieni appetens is the fame; it is the fear alone of the gallows that makes the difference. How then can a nation, which, among the honestest of its people, has fo many thieves by inclination, and whofe government encouraged and commiffioned no lefs than seven hundred gangs of robbers; how can fuch a nation have the face to condemn the crime in individuals, and

hang

hang up twenty of them in a morning! It naturally puts one in mind of a New gate anecdote. One of the prisoners complained, that in the night fomebody had taken his buckles out of his fhoes. "What the devil!" fays another, "have "we then thieves amongst us? It must "not be fuffered. Let us fearch out the (6 rogue, and pump him to death."

There is, however, one late instance of an English merchant who will not profit by fuch ill-gotten gain. He was, it feems, part-owner of a ship, which the other owners thought fit to employ as a letter of marque, and which took a number of French prizes. The booty being shared, he has now an agent here enquiring, by an advertisement in 'the Gazette, for those who fuffered the lofs, in order to make them, as far as in him lies, reftitution. This confcientious man is a quaker. The Scotch prefbyterians were formerly as tender; for

there

there is ftill extant an ordinance of the town-council of Edinburgh, made foon after the Reformation, "forbidding the "purchase of prize goods, under pain "of lofing the freedom of the burgh for ever, with other punishment at the "will of the magiftrate; the practice of making prizes being contrary to good confcience, and the rule of treating "Chriftian brethren as we would wish to "be treated; and fuch goods are not to "be fold by any godly men within this

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burgh." The race of thefe godly men in Scotland is probably extinct, or their principles abandoned, fince, as far as that nation had a hand in promoting the war against the colonies, prizes and confifcations are believed to have been a confiderable motive.

It has been for fome time a generallyreceived opinion, that a military man is not to enquire whether a war be just or unjuft; he is to execute his orders. All

princes

1

princes who are difpofed to become ty rants, must probably approve of this opinion, and be willing to establish it; but is it not a dangerous one? fince, on that principle, if the tyrant commands his army to attack and destroy, not only an unoffending neighbour nation, but even his own fubjects, the army is bound to obey. A negro flave, in our colonies, being commanded by his master to robor murder a neighbour, or do any other immoral act, may refuse; and the magistrate will protect him in his refusal. The slavery then of a foldier is worse than that of a negrò! A confcientious officer, if not restrained by the apprehenfion of its being imputed to another caufe, may indeed refign, rather than be employed in an unjust war; but the private men are flaves for life; and they are perhaps incapable of judging for themfelves. We can only lament their fate, and still more that of a failor, who is often dragged by force

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