all over the colonies, the chief members of the present ministry were the declared advocates of America. Every art of palliation, of concealment, and even of justification, was made use of in favour of that country against Great Britain. Some there were who did not even scruple to pledge themselves for the future submission and loyalty of the colonies. Every principle of government was subverted, and such absurdities maintained as common sense should blush for. When all the arguments failed, and when the proceedings of the colonies gave the lie to every declaration made for them by their patrons here, still the ministry thought it not too late for further temporizing and delay. Even after the combination at Boston they would not suffer parliament to be informed of the real state of things in that province. They endeavoured to conceal the most atrocious circumstances, and what they could not conceal they justified. Mr. Conway* since last December has, in the face of the House of Commons, defended the resistance of the colonies upon what he called revolution principles; and when a paper, printed at Boston, was offered to the House, as containing matter of the highest importance for the information of parliament, the ministry would not suffer it to be read because they knew it would be found too bad to be passed over.

If we look for their motives we shall find them such as weak and interested men usually act upon. They were weak enough to hope that the crisis of Great Britain and America would be reserved for their successors in office, and they were determined to hazard even the ruin of their country, rather than furnish the man† whom they feared and hated with the melancholy triumph of having truly foretold the consequences of their own misconduct. But this, such as it is, the triumph of a heart that bleeds at every vein, they cannot deprive him of. They dreaded the acknowledgment of his superiority over them, and the loss of their own authority and credit, more than the rebellion of near half the empire against the supreme legislature. On this patriotic principle they exerted their utmost efforts to defer the decision of this great national cause till the last possible moment. The timidity, weakness, and distraction of government at home, gave spirits, strength, and union to the

* Mr. Conway moved the repeal of Mr. Grenville's Stamp Act and introduced the Declaratory Act. EDIT.

† George Grenville. EDIT.

colonies, and the ministry seemed determined to wait for a declaration of war with our natural enemy, before they attempted to suppress the rebellion of our natural subjects. At last, however, they are compelled to take a resolution which ought to have been taken many months ago, and might then have been pursued with honour to themselves, and safety to this country. How they will support it is uncertain. A resolution, adopted by a small majority in a divided council, can be but little depended on. It must want the first strength of union, and what effect can we hope for even from a vigorous measure, when the execution of it is committed, most probably, to one of the persons who have professed themselves the patrons of lenient moderate measures, until the very name of lenity and moderation became ridiculous? They will execute by halves; they will temporize and look out for expedients; they will increase the mischief; they will defer the stroke until we are actually involved in a war with France; and when they have made the game desperate, they will resign their places, to save themselves, if possible, from the resentment of their country.

h

In this situation I am rather afflicted than surprised at the shock which public credit has just received. The weight. of the funds is of itself sufficient to press them down. How then should it be possible for them to stand against evils which separately might overturn the most flourishing state, and which are fatally at this moment united against Great Britain: The rebellion of her subjects; the too probable ap prehension of a foreign war; and a weak distracted adminis tration at home. Yet, Sir, I hope there is still blood enough in our veins to make a noble stand even against these complicated mischiefs. Far from despairing of the republic, I know we have great resources left, if they are not lost or betrayed. A firm united administration with the uniform direction of one man of wisdom and spirit, may yet preserve the state. It is impossible to conceal from ourselves, that we are at this moment on the brink of a dreadful precipice; the question is, whether we shall still submit to be guided by the hand which hath driven us to it, or whether we shall follow the patriot voice which has not ceased to warn us of our dangers, and which would still declare the way to safety and to honour.*

* Mr. G. Grenville's. laneous Letter, No. 31.

See this subject further continued in Miscel-
EDIT.

LETTER XXX.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER.

SIR, 5 August, 1768. An unmerited outrage offered to a great or good man naturally excites some emotions of resentment even in hearts that have the least esteem for virtue. At particular moments the worst of men forget their principles, and pay to superior worth an involuntary tribute of sympathy or applause. We ought to think well of human nature when we see how frequently the most profligate minds are generous without reflection. But if a case should happen, wherein a character not merely of private virtue but of public merit receives an insult equally indecent and ungrateful, this common concern is increased by that share of interest which every man claims to himself in the public welfare. A government shameless or ill-advised enough to treat with disregard the obligation due to public services, not only sets a most pernicious example to its subjects, but does a flagrant injury to society, which every member of it ought to resent. Reflections such as these crowded upon my mind the moment that I heard that the late commander in chief in America had been dismissed without ceremony from his government of Virginia. I was grieved to see such a man so treated, but when I considered this step as an omen of the real resolution of the ministry with respect to America, I forgot, as he himself will do, the private injury, and lamented nothing but the public misfortune. At a time when the most backward of the king's servants have been compelled to acknowledge the necessity of vigourous measures, when these measures are held out to the nation with a declaratory assurance that now at last we are determined, the resolution to deprive Sir Jeffery Amherst of his post in America cannot but be received as a direct contradiction to all those professions. If they had sincerely meant to do their duty to their country; if they had really adopted measures of vigour, and wished to carry them into execution, instead of depriving him of his post, they would have solicited him to return to America, and take upon him the conduct of those measures. His prudence and moderation are as well known as his spirit and firmness, and who will dare to say that he would have refused an employment which the service of his king and

country called upon him to accept? He went to America in circumstances as little favourable as the present; he met an enemy at all times formidable, and at that juncture strengthened by success. He conquered that enemy, and united the dominion of the whole continent to Great Britain. In every light he was the man to have been chosen, if the ministry had really meant to execute their own resolution with vigour. But if it be their design to surrender every point to America, they could not have acted more consistently with such a plan, than by dismissing Sir Jeffery Amherst from his post, and appointing Lord Boutetort to succeed him. No collusive bargain could have been made with the former, nor any base unworthy compliances expected from him. He had honour, as much as any man to lose, nor even felt the necessity of repairing a broken fortune. Had he been entrusted with a command upon this important occasion, he would have executed the declared, not the secret purpose of the administration. With such a character it is easy to see how unfit he was to be trusted with the conduct of measures destined to perish at their birth. But although he might not be entitled to the confidence of the king's servants, in what instance has he deserved such ungrateful treatment? Could they find no other man to mark out to the public as an object of slight and disrespect? Could the wantonness of their power find no. other way of providing for a needy dependant? Surely, Sir, the choice was at least injudicious. Lord Hillsborough might have found some more honourable method of distinguishing his entrance into administration; nor do I think it a very favourable omen to Lord Boutetort, that his patrons have fixed upon Virginia as a retreat for his distresses. Seven years are too many to spare out of a life of sixty, to say nothing of the rarity of a man's returning from that country and surviving the next sessions.

L. L.

LETTER XXXI.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER.

SIR, 6 August, 1768. WHETHER it be matter of honour or reproach, it is at least a singular circumstance, that whoever is hardy enough

to maintain the cause of Great Britain against subjects who disown her authority, or to raise his voice in defence of the laws and constitution, is immediately pointed out to the public for Mr. Grenville's friend. From such language one would think that the order of things was inverted, and that conspiracy had changed its nature. Mr. Grenville and his friends it seems are suspected of some dangerous designs, not to destroy but to preserve the laws and constitution of their country. This is certainly a reproach of the latest invention. I know there are men whose characters are safe against suspicions of this sort, and who form their friendships upon other more useful maxims. But whether it be owing to the weakness of his understanding or to the simplicity of his heart, that he pursues a conduct so useless to himself and so suspicious to the administration, it is surely a pardonable error, and what an Englishman may yet forgive. It is true he professes doctrines which would be treason in America, but, in England at least, he has the laws of his side, and if it be a crime to support the supremacy of the British legislature, the sovereign, the lords and commons are as guilty as he is. The ministry indeed have no share in the charge, and it would be uncandid not to confess that their regard for the honour and interest of this country is upon the same level with their friendship for Mr. Grenville.

For my own part, whatever your correspondents Moderator and Tandem may think of me, I shall content myself with some interior feelings which I fancy they are not much acquainted with; nor will I perplex them with a language they are incapable of understanding. Whether I am determined by motives which an honest man might profess, or by such as those gentlemen usually act upon, is a point that will not admit of demonstration. I shall therefore leave their principles out of the question, and try what their arguments amount to.

Moderator and I are, for the most part, agreed. He allows "that government is sunk into a contemptible state; that their measures have failed of success, and is convinced that if the reverse had been practised, the mischief had been avoided." What conclusion his understanding will draw from these premises, I do not know; but I think the most violent enemy of the present administration could not have argued more strongly for a change of hands and a change of measures.