10
INTRODUCTION.
in that arrangement, it was thought right to ſubjoin a ſhort, but general, Review of the whole; in which the maxims and the theory are examined; and the grievances alleged are claſſed under their reſpective heads. And under certain heads the Congreſs would no doubt have claſſed them; if conſcious of the futility of the charges, they had not fled to the mean reſource of endeavouring to ſupply by numbers, what they wanted in weight; to confuſe where they could not hope to convince.
The Congreſs has appealed to the paſſions of the Britiſh nation.Much merit ſeems to have been aſſumed by the Authors of the Declaration on account of the "attention," which they profeſs to have ſhewn to us, whom for this laſt time, as they inform us, they ſtyle—"their Britiſh brethren:"—of the "warnings," they have given us:— of "their appeals to our native juſtice and magnanimity." And to do them juſtice, ſome art there was in the ſteps by which they endeavoured to make us their dupes; the blind inſtruments of procuring them that independence, at which they ſo long have aimed.—Their firſt attacks were cautious; the Miniſtry only were to blame: To rail at Miniſters, is always popular. The King was deceived; the Parliament miſled; the nation deluded.—In a little time they ſaw that Parliament was neither to be frightened, nor argued into a reſignation of its juſt authority; and then Parliament came in for its ſhare of culpability. It encroached on the rights of the American Aſſemblies. For they too, all at once, were become Parliaments: Still the King was their common Father; the nation, their brethren.—Yet a little while and they ſaw, that the King was not to be perſuaded to liſten to the deceitful voice of faction, in preference to the ſober
advice
