is folely of a public Nature; and therefore, without farther Preface, I beg Leave to inform you, that I propose to examine your last Performance, entituled, The Speech of EDMUND BURKE, Efq; March 22, 1775, with as much Freedom, as you do the Writings and Opinions of other Men; but, I hope, with more Decency and good Manners.

In this Speech you lay down certain Premifes respecting the Disputes between the Parent-State and her Colonies: And from them you infer most extraordinary Conclufion. My Province it fhall be to enquire, whether this Conclufion is juftly and regularly made;-and whether a quite different one ought not to have been drawn from fuch Premifes.

My only Difficulty is, to ftate your Meaning with Accuracy and Precifion :-Not that you yourself are unable to exprefs your own Thoughts with the utmost Clearness, as well as Energy; but you are unwilling. For you excel in the Art of ambiguous Expreffions, that is, in giving one Senfe to your Readers, and of referving another to yourself, if called upon to defend what you have faid;-you excel, I fay, in this Art, perhaps the most of any Man living. Sometimes you exprefs more than you mean; and at other Times lefs; but at all Times, you have one general End in View, viz. To amuse with Tropes and Figures, and great fwelling

Words,

Words, your Audience or your Readers, and not to let them fee your Drift and Intention, 'till you have drawn your Net around them.

AT Page 15 [1ft Edit.] you obferve "That "in the Character of the Americans, a Love of "Freedom is the predominating Feature, "which marks and diftinguishes the whole :

And that the Americans become fufpicious, 66 reftive, and untractable, whenever they see the

least Attempt to wreft from them by Force, "or Shuffle from them by Chicane, what they "think the only Advantage worth living for.”

SIR, I perfectly agree with you in your Defcription: And I will add farther, what you chufe to conceal, that the fame People were reftive and untractable from the Beginning. For as far back, as the 7th and 8th of King William C. 7. §. 9. it appears, that they manifefted the plaineft Intention of difowning the Authority of the English Legislature in every Inftance, which they thought incompatible with their own Interest. Nay, it is evident from the Words of the Act, that even at this early Period, they pretended to set up Laws, By-laws, Ufage, and Customs in Oppofition to English Acts of Parliament.

You add farther at Page 16 "That this "fierce Spirit of Liberty is ftronger in the "English Colonies, probably than in any other "People upon Earth." I think fo too: And I

will

will give a moft ftriking Proof of it in the Liberty they took with, and in the Contempt they fhewed to the Circular Letter even of their darling Advocate and Patron, Mr. Secretary PITT, now Lord CHATHAM. For when he wrote to them to defift from the infamous and traiterous Practices of fupplying the Enemy with Provifions and Military Stores during a War, undertaken at their Requeft, and for their immediate Protection;-what Effect had this official authoritative Letter on their Conduct and Behaviour?---None at all. For they not only continued, but increased in the Practice of fupplying the Enemy with every Means of protracting the War--greatly to their own Profit, it must be owned;---but to the lafting Detriment of this Country, whofe Lands and Revenues are mortgaged for Ages to come, towards defraying the Expence of this ruinous, confuming War. Nay, fuch was the fierce Spirit of Liberty prevailing in our English Colonies on this trying Occafion, that the Provincial Governors dared not fo much as commence a Profecution against any of the numerous Offenders. And their Friends and Agents here at Home [You know beft, whether Mr. BURKE was among the Number: Dr. FRANKLIN certainly was]-I fay, their Friends and Agents were fo far from being afhamed of fuch infamous and traiterous Practices, that they openly vindicated

them

them in our public News-Papers, pouring forth the bittereft Reproaches on Administration for attempting to reftrain these Northern Merchants (such was the gentle Phrase) in the Pur fuit of their undoubted and unalienable Rights and Liberties. After this, there is certainly no Need of any further Confirmation of your Affertion, That the fierce Spirit of Liberty is ftronger in the English Colonies probably than in any other People upon Earth.

Now, as fuch is the Fact, you give us at Page 21 a Summary of the feveral Caufes, which have produced it. "From these fix capital "Sources,-Of Defcent, of Form of Govern"ment, of Religion in the Northern Provinces, "of Manners in the Southern, of Education, "of the Remotenefs of Situation from the first "Mover of Government:-From all these "Caufes [co-operating together] a fierce Spirit "of Liberty has grown up."

I. AND first as to Defcent. "The People "of the Colonies (P. 16.) are the Defcen"dents of Englishmen. England, Sir, [addressing

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yourself to the Speaker] is a Nation which "still, I hope, respects, and formerly adored, her Freedom. The Colonists emigrated from you, when this Part of your Character was moft predominant. And they took this Biafs and Direction the Moment they parted from your Hands. They are therefore not "only

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only devoted to Liberty, but to Liberty ac "cording to English Ideas, and on English Prin-"ciples:---It happened, you know, Sir, that the

great Contests for Freedom in this Country "were from the earliest Times, chiefly upon "the Question of Taxing.---The Colonies drew: "from you, as with their Life-Blood, thefe "Ideas and Principles. Their Love of Liberty, as with you, fixed and attached on this "Specific Point of Taxing."

HERE, Sir, you tell fome Truth; you difguife fome; and you conceal more than you difguife.

OUR firft Emigrants to North America were mostly Enthusiasts of a particular Stamp. They were of that Set of Republicans, who believed, or pretended to believe, that Dominion was founded in Grace. Hence they conceived, that they had the best Right in the World both to tax, and to perfecute the Ungodly. And they did both, as foon as they got Power into their Hands, in the most open and atrocious Manner. The Annals of the Quakers will tell you, that they perfecuted Friends even to the Death. And in regard to Taxation, if you will be fo hardy as to affert, that they taxed none, but fuch as were reprefented in their Provincial Affembly, I will undertake to prove the contrary:---I will undertake to prove, that they themselves paid no Regard, in a Variety of Inftances, to that very

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Point,