The Declaration of the Congreſs rather levelled againſt the Britiſh ſubjects than againſt his Majeſty:— as the diſpute is not between him and his ſubjects, but between his Britiſh American ſubjects. And ſurely the Declaration of the American Congreſſ is an inſult offered to every one who bears the name of Briton. For in conſidering the preſent conteſt between Great Britain and America, it is a truth which deſerves our peculiar attention, and which therefore cannot be too often repeated, nor too ſtrongly inculcated, that the diſpute is not, nor ever has it been, between his Majeſty and the whole, or any part, of his ſubjects. The diſpute is clearly between one part of his ſubjects and another. The blow given by the Congreſs appears indeed to be levelled at his Majeſty; but the wound was intended for us.
The King had no ſeperate intereſt to ſerve. For let us ſeparate in idea, ſo far as they can be ſeparated, the intereſts of the King from thoſe of his ſubjects: And let us, for the ſake of argument, ſuppoſe—what I truſt we ſhall hereafter moſt fully diſprove,—that the preſent conteſt took its riſe from a claim ſet up by Parliament to the exerciſe of unconſtitutional, unprecedented power over the Colonies: What in this caſe had his Majeſty to gain by ſupporting the claim
eagerneſs and circulated with unremitting labour. Private confidence was violated; even theft was committed to get at letters and documents, which, obtained in ſo baſe a manner, were firſt garbled, and in that mutilate ſlate, ſent forth into the world as damning proofs of dark deſigns, which never had been formed. But not a ſyllable would they ſuffer to be made public that could tend to the exculpation of the objects of their fury. Theſe were not to be endured if they attempted to juſtify, ſcarcely even if they attempted only to deny, the charges. Two men there were and but two[n 1], who dared to exerciſe, or ſo much as to avow the intention of exerciſing their employment with any degree of impartiality. What was their fate? The one ſaw his houſe broken open, his papers ſeized, his implements deſtroyed, or carried off; both were driven out of the country by actual violence, and the dread of threatened aſſaſſination.
- ↑ Rvington and Mien.
