ways and means to make us "bear a part of their burdens!" But what did they mean by this? Did they mean to acknowledge us as sons of Britons; equally free and independent with our brethren in England? and, like them, allowed a representation in Parliament, who should freely vote our money for the common cause?

Oh no! an idea so truly British and honourable, was not at all in their thoughts. We were not to be treated as brothers, but as slaves! over whom an unconditional right was claimed, to tax and take our property at pleasure!!!

Reader, if you be a Briton, be a Briton still-preserve the characteristic calm and candour of a Briton. I am not about to say one word against your nation. No! I know them too well: and thank God, I can say, after several years residence among them, I believe them to be as honest, charitable, and magnanimous a people as any under the canopy of Heaven. I am about to speak of the Ministry only, who certainly, at that time, were a most ambitious and intriguing junto, who by bad means had attained power; and by worse were endeavouring to extend it, even to the destruction of both American and British Liberty, as the excellent Mr. Pitt charged them.-No Englishman can desire fuller evidence than this one tyrannical claim made against us by Lord North"taxation without representation!!" As a plea for such despotic doing, North and his creatures began with boldly trumpeting the wonderful kindness they had conferred on America. "They, it seems, "first discovered the country!-they settled it-they always had defended it. It was their blood-their treasure their ships and sailors, and soldiers, that created the British colonies!!

O dear!-and what then!-why, to be sure, after having done such mighty things for the Americans, they had as clear a right to their gold and silver, as a butcher has to the hair and hides of his cattle!

This language was actually carried into Parliament! where a Mr. Charles Townsend, to enforce the stamp. act, cried out, "Who are these Americans? Are they not our children, planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and protected by our arms?

At this the brave Colonel Barre, with cheeks inflamed with virtuous indignation, thus thundered forth against the insolent speechifier. "They planted by your care! No, sir: your oppressions planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country, where they exposed themselves to all the evils which a wilderness, filled with blood-thirsty savages, could threaten. And yet, actuated by true English love of liberty, they thought all these evils light in comparison with what they had suffered in their own country, and from you, who ought to have been their friends.

"They nourished by your indulgence! No, sir! they grew by your neglect. As soon as you began to indulge them, that boasted indulgence was to send them hungry packs of your own creatures, to spy out their liberties!-to misrepresent their actions-and to prey upon their substance !-Yes, sir, you sent them men, whose behaviour has often caused the blood of those sons of Liberty to recoil within themmen promoted by you to the highest seats of justice, in that country, who, to my knowledge, had good cause to dread a court of justice in their own!-They protected by your arms!-No, sir! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence; have exerted a most heroic valour, amidst their daily labours, for the defence of a country whose frontier was drenched in blood, while its interior parts gave up all their savings for our emolument !"

All this was very true. For the Americans had not only planted, but in a great measure protected themselves. In the French and Indian war, from '55 to '63, they lost nearly 30,000 of their stoutest young men! And by regular returns it appears that Mas

sachusetts alone expended about 50,000l. sterling in that time!!! And moreover, they had never hesitated for a moment to furnish to the last man and the last shilling whatever Britain had required.

But, alas! what signifies right against might! When a king wants money for his own pride, or for his hungry relations, and when his ministers want stakes for their gaming tables, or diamond necklaces for their mistresses, they will have it, though plundered colonies should lack bread and spelling books for their children. For in the year '63, when the lamp of God was burning with peculiar brightness in our land, and both Britain and her colonies enjoyed a measure of blessings seldom indulged to the most favoured nations-when, at the very mention of Old England, our hearts leaped for joy, as at the name of a great and venerable mother, and that mother felt equal transport at thoughts of us, her flourishing colonies-when all the produce of these vast and fertile regions was poured into her beloved lap, and she in return, not allowing us the trouble to make even a hob-nail, heaped our families with all the necessaries and elegancies of her ingenious artistswhen, though far separated by an ocean's roar, we were yet so united by love and mutual helpfulness, that the souls of Columbus, Raleigh, and Smith, looking down from Heaven, with joy beheld the consummation of all their labours and wishes! At that happy period, lord North brought in a bill to tax the colonies, without allowing us a voice in their councils!! The colonies were thunderstruck: and Britain herself groaning through all her islands, "gave signs of woe, that all was lost!"

Doctor Franklin, who was then in England as a colony agent, on hearing that this most iniquitous bill had actually passed both houses, and was ratified by the king, wrote to a friend in America in these words "The sun of our liberty is set. You must all now light up the double candles of Industry and

Economy. But, above all things, encourage the young people to marry and raise up children as fast as they can."

Meaning, that America, yet too weak to resist the chains which a wicked ministry were forging for her, should instantly fly to heaven-ordered marriage, for her heroic youth, to rend the ignominious bonds from their own and their father's arms.

But the sons of Columbia, though few in number, had too long enjoyed the sweets of Liberty and property to part with them so tamely, because a king and his minions had ordered it. No! blessed be God, their conduct was such as to strike the world with this glorious truth, that a brave people, who know their rights, are not to be enslaved.

For, soon as it was told in America, that the stampact had passed, the people rose up against it as one man-the old grudges between churchmen and dissenters were instantly forgotten-every man looked to his fellow as to a brother for aid against the coming slavery-their looks on each other were as lightnings in a parched forest-the sacred fire kindled, and ran from end to end of the continent. In every colony the people rushed into patriotic societies.... reminded each other of their rights.... denounced the stamp-act as a most audacious infringementburnt in effigy the promoters of it-destroyed the houses of those degenerated Americans who had received the stamps to sell-and menaced loudly a non-intercourse with Britian, if the act was not immediately repealed!

This spirited behaviour filled all England with amazement. Every man there, no matter what his principles or politics, felt it to the very quick. The manufacturers and merchants trembled; the tories raved; the whigs rejoiced, and, with the great Pitt and Burke at their head, publicly applauded the Americans, and denounced the stamp-act as entirely contrary to the spirit of British freedom. In short,

the cry against it was so loud, both in England and America, that the ministry, covered with shame, were obliged to give way, and abandon the project.

The cloud, which had hung so dark over the two countries, being thus happily scattered, many began to cherish the hope, that we should have a clear sky again, and that the former golden days would soon return. But alas! those golden days were gone, to return no more! Government had shown the cloven foot-and America had taken a fright which nothing but whole years of kindliest treatment could ever sooth. But, unfortunately, the ministry were in no humour to show that kindness. Long accustomed to speak of the Americans as a pack of "convicts, whom by transportation, they had kindly saved from the gallows," instead of giving them credit for their late spirited behaviour, they considered it as the height of audacity: and though from necessity they had yielded to their demands, they were determined to have revenge on the first opportunity. That opportunity was too soon af

forded.

It should have been stated, that with the duty on stamp paper, similar duties had been laid on glass, tea, &c. &c., all of which had been repealed with the stamp act, except that on tea. This the ministry had artfully retained: partly to cover the shame of their defeat, but chiefly in hopes of familiarizing the Americans with taxation. For though Lord North was never, that I know of, charged with being a wizard, yet did he not lack sense to know that if he could but prevail on the young Mammoth to submit to a tax, though as small as a Gnat, he soon should bring him to swallow a Camel! But glory to God! the Americans had too much of British blood, to allow an unconstitutional tax in any shape or size. Independent and coy as the birds of their forests, they would not suffer a stranger's hand even to touch the sacred nest of their rights. As soon there