view the establishment of the English Colonies on
principles of liberty, as that which is to render this
kingdom venerable to future ages. In comparison of
this, we regard all the victories and conquests of our
warlike ancestors, or of our own times, as barbarous,
vulgar distinctions, in which many nations, whom we
look upon with little respect or value, have equalled, if
not far exceeded us. Those who have and who hold to
that foundation of common liberty, whether on this or
on your side of the ocean, we consider as the true and
the only true Englishmen. Those who depart from it,
whether there or here, are attainted, corrupted in blood,
and wholly fallen from their original rank and value.
They are the real rebels to the fair constitution and just
supremacy of England. A long course of war with the
administration of this country may be but a prelude to a
series of wars and contentions among yourselves, to end
at length (as such scenes have too often ended) in a
species of humiliating repose, which nothing but the
preceding calamities would reconcile to the dispirited few
who survived them. We allow that even this evil is
worth the risk to men of honour when rational liberty is
at stake, as in the present case we confess and lament
that it is."
At other times he spoke as follows: "Nothing less than a convulsion that will shake the globe to its centre can ever restore the European nations to that liberty by which they were once so much distinguished. The Western world was the seat of freedom until another, more Western, was discovered; and that other will probably be its asylum when it is hunted down in every other part. Happy it is that the worst of times may have one refuge still left for humanity. If the Irish resisted King William, they resisted him on the very same principle that the English and Scotch resisted King James. The Irish Catholics must have been the very worst and the most truly unnatural of rebels, if they had not supported a prince whom they had seen attacked, not for any designs against their religion or their liberties, but
