་ ous, must feem hard measure to Englishmen, who cannot conceive, that by hazarding their lives and fortunes, in fubduing and fettling new countries, extending the dominion and increafing the commerce of their mother-nation, they have forfeited the native rights of Britons, which they think ought rather to be gi ven them as due to fuch merit, if they had been before in a state of flavery. "Thefe, and fuch kind of things as thefe, I apprehend, will be thought and faid by the people, if the propofed alteration of the Albany plan fhould take place. Then the administration of the board of governors and councils fo apppointed, not having any reprefentative body of the people to approve and unite in its measures, and conciliate the minds of the people to them, will probably become fufpected and odious; dangerous animofities and feuds will arife between the governors and the governed, and every thing go into confufion. "Perhaps I am too apprehenfive in this matter: but having freely given my opinions and reasons, your excellency can judge better than I whether there be any weight in them, and the fhortness of the time allowed me, will, I hope, in fome degree excufe the imperfections of this fcrawl. "With the greatest refpect and fidelity, I have the honour to be, Your excellency's most obedient And moft humble fervant." Bofton, December 22, 1754: SIR, "Since the converfation your excellency was pleafed to honour me with, on the fubject of uniting the colonies more intimately with Great Britain, by allowing them reprefentatives in parliament, I have fome fomething further confidered the matter, and am of opinion, that such an union would be very accepta ble to the colonies, provided they had a reasonable number of reprefentatives allowed them; that all the old acts of parliament reftraining the trade, or cramping the manufactures of the colonies, be at the fame time repealed, and the British fubjects on this fide the water put, in thofe refpects, on the fame footing with thofe in Great Britain, till the new parliament reprefenting the whole, fhall think it for the intereft of the whole to re-enact fome or all of them: It is not that I imagine fo many reprefentatives will be allowed the colonies, as to have any great weight by their numbers; but I think there might be fufficient to occafion thofe laws to be better and more impartially confidered, and perhaps to overcome the private in tereft of a petty corporation, or of any particular fet of artificers or traders in England, who heretofore seem, in some instances, to have been more regarded than all the colonies, or than was confiftent with the general intereft, or best national good. I think too, that the government of the colonies by a parliament, in which they are fairly reprefented, would be vaftly more agreeable to the people, than the method lately attempted to be introduced by royal inftructions, as well as more agreeable to the nature of an English conftitution, and to English liberty; and that fuch Jaws as now feem to bear hard on the colonies, would (when judged by fuch a parliament for the best intereft of the whole) be more chearfully fubmitted to, and more easily executed. "I fhould hope too, that by fuch an union, the people of Great Britain, and the people of the colonies would learn to confider themfelves not as belonging to a different community with different in terests, terefts, but to one community with one intereft, which I imagine would contribute to ftrengthen the whole, and greatly leffen the danger of future feparations. "It is, I fuppofe, agreed to be the general intereft of any state, that its people be numerous and rich; men enough to fight in its defence, and enough to pay fufficient taxes to defray the charge; for thefe circumstances tend to the fecurity of the flate, and its protection from foreign power: But it feems not of fo much importance whether the fighting be done by John or Thomas, or the tax paid by William or Charles. The iron manufacture employs and enriches British subjects; but is it of any importance to the state, whether the manufacturers live at Birming ham or Sheffield, or both, fince they are ftill within its bounds, and their wealth and perfons at its command? Could the Goodwin Sands be laid dry by banks, and land equal to a large country thereby gained to England, and prefently filled with English inhabitants, would it be right to deprive fuch inhabitants of the common privileges enjoyed by other Englifhmen, the right of vending their produce m the fame ports, and of making their own fhoes, becaufe a merchant, or a fhoemaker, living on the old land, might fancy it more for his advantage to trade or make fhoes for them? Would this be right, even if the land were gained at the expence of the state? And would it not feem lefs right, if the charge and labour of gaining the additional territory to Britain had been borne by the fettlers themfelves? And would not the hardship appear yet greater, if the people of the new country should be allowed no reprefentatives in the parliament enacting fuch impofitions? Now I look on the colonies as fo many counties gained to Great Britain, and more advantageous to it than if they means; they had been gained out of the fea around its coafts, and joined to its land: For being in different climates, they afforded greater variety of produce, and materials for more manufactures; and being feparated by the ocean, they increase much more its hipping and feamen; and fince they are included in the British empire, which has only extended itself by their and the ftrength and wealth of the parts is the ftrength and wealth of the whole; what imports it to the general ftate, whether a merchant, a fmith, or a hatter, grow rich in Old or New England; And if, through increase of people, two fmiths are wanted For one employed before, why may not the nez Thith be allowed to live and thrive in the new country, as well as the old one in the old? In fine, why fhould the countenance of a state be partially afforded to its people, unless it be moft in favour of thofe, who have most merit? And if there by any difference, those who have molt contributed to enlarge Britain's empire and commerce, encreafe her ftrength, her wealth, and the numbers of her people, at the risk of their own lives and private fortunes, in new and ftrange countries, methinks ought rather to expect fome preference. * With the greatest refpect and efteem, I have the honour to be ร Your excellency's mofl obedient, It is plain from the above account, which Governor Shirley was intimately acquainted with, that the reason why the English colonists received affistance from Britain, was because the English parliament would not fuffer them to defend themfeves, but wanted to form plans of operation in a country they did not know, to drain a perpetual tax from the colonies from an occafional affiftance. They were fo far from fupplicating government for affiftance, that they would willingly have done without it, provided they had been permitted to have purfued their own meafures. Arguments in favour of a war between the members of the fame empire, ought to be,exceedingly plain and felf-evident, and the reafons of engaging in it fo convincing to indifferent perfons, and bye-standers, on the fide of the party which pretends a right to profecute the other, that there fhould be nothing doubtful or fufpicious in the premifes or the, conclufion. Partiality and self-interest may blind the eyes of the parties concerned; but the public at large, or such as are not engaged in the controverfy, will judge according to truth. We fhall find in the fequel of this hiftory, how differently men have reafoned upon the fprings, and caufe of his unhappy and ruinous war, and how different parties have coloured that fide of the queftion they have efpoufed. Arguments, when they are brought to fupport fanguinary meafures, had much need to be strong and well founded: Every one of them ought to be as felf-evidently true, and as confiftent with the dictates of the divine mind, as the precepts of the decalogue, otherwise they ought never to be put in practice. ? CH |