"lofty Sentiments, and with a strong Averfion "from whatever tends to deprive them of their "chief Importance."

BUT you infinuate, that you will not decide, whether this Indulgence to the Colonies at firft, in granting them fuch popular [alias republican] Forms of Government, arofe from Lenity or Indolence, from Wisdom, or Mistake. Alas! Sir, one can easily perceive by your very Infinuation and your Caution, that you had already decided this Point in your own Mind, tho' you did not chufe to speak out. And indeed it is now evident to all, that if the Parent-State really intended to retain an actual and effectual Supremacy over her Colonies, (which was certainly her Intention) fuch Forms of Government were of all others the most unfit for that Purpose; and the most likely to beget a Spirit of Independence and Revolt. In fact, what was fo likely to have happened, has actually come to pafs, and would have come to pass in the natural and neceffary Course of Things, tho' the Stamp, or the Tea acts had never been thought of. And I agree with you, that it is now by much too late to think of correcting an Error, so strengthened by Time, and grown inveterate by Habit, that it may be faid to be interwoven into the very Conftitution of the present Ameri

cans.

Here therefore, as we are agreed in the Fact, let every one draw his own Inference.

IH. YOUR

III. YOUR third grand Caufe is Religion: On which Subject you deliver yourself in the following Strain, at Pages 17 and 18.

"IF any Thing were wanting to this neceffary

Operation of the Form of Government [to beget or infuse a fierce Spirit of Liberty] Religion "would have given it a complete Effect. Religion, always a Principle of Energy, in this new People, is no Ways worn out or impaired. And "their Mode of profeffing it, is alfo one main "Cause of this free Spirit. The People are Pro"teftants; and of that Kind, which is the most "adverfe to all implicit Submiffion of Mind and

Opinion. This is a Perfuafion not only fa"vourable to Liberty, but built upon it.---The Diffenting Interests have fprung up in direct Oppofition to all the ordinary Powers of the "World; and could juftify that Oppofition

only on a strong Claim to natural Liberty. "Their very Existence depended on the power

ful and unremitted Affertion of that Claim. "All Proteftantifm, even the moft cold and paffive, is a Sort of Diffent. But the Religion "moft prevalent in the Northern Colonies is a

Refinement on the Principle of Refiftance; "it is the Diffidence of Diffent: And the Pro"teftantism of the Proteftant Religion. This

Religion, under a Variety of Denominations, agreeing in nothing, but in the Communica"tion of the Spirit of Liberty, is predominant

"in moft of the Northern Colonies. The Colonists left England when this Spirit was high,. and in the Emigrants the highest of all."

SIR, this Account is not exact, and ftands in Need of fome Correction. When the Emigrants fled from England, they were univerfally Calvinifts of the most inflexible Sort. But they were very far from being of that Species of Protestants, whom you defcribe; and. of which Profelites fpreading Sect, there are but too many both in Great Britain, Ireland, and America; I mean, the modern new-light Men, who protest against every Thing, and who would diffent even from themselves, and from their own Opinions, if no other Means of Diffention could be found out. Such Proteftants as thefe are very literally PROTESTERS; but it is hard to fay,. what they are befides. And Fact it is, that they have no Manner of Affinity with the Calvinifts of old refpecting Church Government. For tho' the Calviniftical Emigrants were profeffed Enemies to the Popery of the Church of Rome, and to the Arminianism of the Church of England, yet were they no Enemies to religious Establishments. Nay, their great Aim was, to establish the folemn League and Covenant, as the only Syftem which ought to be admitted into a Christian State. Nor would they have suffered any other religious Perfuafion to have exifted, if they could have prevented it. Moreover, tho'

they

they were for pulling down proud and lordly
Prelacy; yet were they moft indefatigable in
erecting Claffes, and Synods, and Elderships,
in the genuine Spirit of High-Church, Prefby-;
terian Hierarchy, and armed with the Terrors:
and Powers of an Inquifition. In short, their
Aim was to establish a republican Form of Go-
vernment built on republican Principles both
in Church and State. But, like all other Re-
publicans ancient and modern, they were ex-
tremely averfe from granting any Portion of
that Liberty to others, which they claimed to
themselves as their unalienable Birth-Right.
THE prefent Diffenters in North-America re-
tain

very little of the peculiar Tenets of their Fore-fathers, excepting their Antipathy to our eftablished Religion, and their Zeal to pull down all Orders in Church and State, if found to be fuperior to their own. And if it be this you mean, by saying, that the diffenting Inter-. efts [in America] have fprung up in direct Oppofition to all the ordinary Powers of the World; -and that the Religion moft prevalent in the Northern Colonies is à Refinement on the Principles of Refiftance; the Diffidence of Diffent, and the Proteftantifm of the Proteftant Religion: In fhort, if you afcribe the fierce Spirit now raging in the Northern Colonies to these Caules, I make no Objection to your Account of the Matter; provided you will allow that the

C 2

the Religion of the Gospel is a very different Thing from theirs. But nevertheless I must beg the impartial World to judge between us, as to the Conclufion to be drawn from fuch Premifes; and whether it be, or be not, a defireable Thing to continue a Connection with a People who are actuated by Principles fo very repugnant to our own Constitution both in Church and State, and fo diametrically oppofite to the Spirit of the Gospel.

IV. To the before-mentioned Sources, from whence this ungovernable Spirit is derived, you: add another, viz. The Domination of the Mafters over their Slaves in the Southern Colonies. For it seems, he that is a Tyrant over his Inferiors is, of Course, a Patriot, and a Leveller in refpect to his Superiors. And I am afraid, there is but too much Truth in this Obfervation. How ever, let us confider the Drift and Tendency of your own Expreffions." In Virginia, and the

Carolinas, they have vaft Multitudes of Slaves. "Where that is the Cafe, in any Part of the « World, those who are free, are by far the most "proud and jealous of their Freedom. Free"dom is to them not only an Enjoyment, but a "Kind of Rank and Privilege.---I do not mean "to commend the fuperior Morality of this "Sentiment, which has at least as much Pride, "as Virtue in it: The Fact is fo; and these "People of the Southern Colonies,

.

are much

"more