to; and is there any man ſo unwiſe, as not to ſee, that (conſidering what has happened) he will ſuffer no laws to be made here, but ſuch as ſuit his purpoſe? We may be as effectually enſlaved by the want of laws in America, as by ſubmitting to laws made for us in England. After matters are made up (as it is called) can there be any doubt, but the whole power of the crown will be exerted to keep this Continent as low and humble as poſſible? Inſtead of going forward, we ſhall go backward, or be perpetually quarrelling, or ridiculouſly petitioning.—We are already greater than the King wiſhes us to be, and will he not hereafter endeavour to make us leſs? To bring the matter to one point, is the power who is jealous of our proſperity, a proper power to govern us? Whoever ſays No to this queſtion is an Independent, for independency means no more than whether we ſhall make our own laws, or whether the King, the greateſt enemy this Continent hath, or can have, ſhall tell us "there ſhall be no laws but ſuch as I like."
But the King you will ſay hath a negative in England; the people there can make no laws without his conſent. In point of right and good order, there is ſomething very ridiculous, that a youth of twenty-one (which hath often happened) ſhall ſay to ſix millions of people, older and wiſer than himſelf, "I forbid this or that act of yours to be law." But in this place I decline this ſort of reply, though I will never ceaſe to expoſe the abſurdity of it, and only anſwer, that England being the King's reſidence, and America not ſo, makes quite another caſe. The King's negative here is ten times more dangerous and fatal than it can be in England, for there he will ſcarcely refuſe his conſent to a bill for putting England into as ſtrong a ſtate of defence as poſſible, and here he would never ſuffer ſuch a bill to be paſſed.
America is only a ſecondary object in the ſyſtem of Britiſh politics, England conſults the good of this country no farther than it anſwers her own purpoſe. Wherefore her own intereſt leads her to ſuppreſs the growth of ours, in every caſe which doth not promote her advantage, or in the leaſt interferes with it. A pretty ſtate we ſhould ſoon be in, under ſuch a ſecond-hand government, conſidering what has happened! Men do not change from enemies to friends by the alteration of a name: And in order to ſhew that reconciliation now is a dangerous doctrine. I affirm, that it would be policy in the King at this time to repeal the acts, for the ſake of reinſtating himſelf in the government of the Provinces; in order that he may accomplish by craft and subtilty, in the long run, what he cannot do by force and violence in the short one. Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related.
Secondly.—That as even the beſt terms which we can expect to obtain, can amount to no more than a temporary expedient, or a kind of government by guardianſhip, which can laſt no longer than till the Colonies come of age, ſo the general face and ſtate of things in the interim will be unſettled and unpro-miſing
