Point, on which they infift so much at present in their Difputes with us, the Right of Reprefentation, and of not being taxed without their Town Confent.

IN Process of Time, the Notion, that Dominion was founded in Grace, grew out of Fashion. But the Colonists continued to be Republicans ftill, only Republicans of another Complection. They are now Mr. Locke's Difciples; who has laid down fuch Maxims in his Treatife on Government, that if they were to be executed according to the Letter, and in the Manner the Americans pretend to understand them, they would neceffarily unhinge, and destroy every Government upon Earth. I fhall at present only mention the four following.

1. "THAT Men are by Nature all free, "equal, and independent; and no Man can be put out of this Eftate, without his own Confent." Book 2, Chap. 8.

2. "THAT Governments have no Power over "the Son, because of that which they have "over the Father." Chap. 8.

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3. "THAT fubmitting to the Laws of any "Country, living quietly, and enjoying Privileges and Protection under them, makes not "a Member of that Society;-because nothing "can make any Man fo, but his actually entering into it by POSITIVE ENGAGEMENT." Chap. 8. 4. "THAT

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4. "THAT the Supreme Power cannot take << from any Man any Part of his Property [that is, cannot Tax him] WITHOUT HIS OWN CON"SENT." Chap. 11.

Now, Sir, if these crude, undigested Notions are to be understood abfolutely, and without Correction or Limitation ;---and if fuch are the true, original Ideas of English constitutional Liberty,---I will frankly acknowledge, that Great-Britain hath not fo much as the Shadow of a Right to tax the Colonies :---Nay, I will go farther, and fcruple not to declare, that she has no Right to make any Regulation whatever refpecting them, without their own exprefs Confent and full Approbation first obtained. But, after having made this Conceffion, I hope you will be fo candid on your Part, as to acknowledge, that no Government upon Earth did ever yet fubfift on fuch a Plan of wild, Utopian Liberty. And I do prefume, that I do not afk too much in making this Requeft; feeing that your celebrated American Fellow Labourer, Dr. PRIESTLY, has already gone a good deal farther. For he has already informed the World, in his Effay on Civil Government, that as all Governments whatever have been in fome Measure compulsory, tyrannical, and oppreffive in their Origin, THEREFORE they ought to be changed, and new-modelled as foon as ever the People [who,

[who, N. B. according to him and Mr. Locke, have always an unalienable and indefeasible Right to change and alter, what, and whenever they please] shall feel themselves strong enough to throw off this Ufurpation, and can bring about a glorious Revolution. Nay, another great Man, and Disciple of Mr. LOCKE, no less than the patriotic JEAN JAQUES ROUSSEAU (I think in his Letters from the Mountains) fuggefts an happy Expedient for accomplishing this defirable Work of perpetual Alterations. He proposes, that once a Year, at least, the People fhould affemble together for the express Purpose of confulting and debating, whether they should permit the fame Form of Government, or the fame Officers to continue for one Year longer; or change them all, and begin another Form, or try another Set. The People, you know, according to this republican Doctrine, are, in all Inftances, the fupreme Head, and Lord Paramount: And Government, even the best of Governments, ought implicitly to fubmit to their Authority and Controul. Therefore, whether the fame Form of Government, or the fame Adminiftrators of it, fhall be, or not be,---that's the Question!

THE Americans of late have acted very agreeably to this shifting Scene of new Lords and new Laws; for not only their general Congreffes, and their Provincial Congreffes, but

their

their Town-Meetings, their select Meetings, and their Liberty-Tree Meetings, have a natural Tendency to beget a popular, republican Spirit, and to fubject every Degree of Magiftracy and Government to the perpetual Controul and Caprice of the Mob. In short, it is already an established Maxim in that Country, that the Voice of the People,--is the VOICE OF GOD. And were any one to dare to gainfay it, Tarring and Feathering would be the mildest Punishment, which fuch a Rebel against this [Mob-cratic] Conftitution could expect.

AND you, Sir, when you were enumerating them any fignal Advantages we derive from our Connections with America, ought to have mentioned this among the reft :---You ought to have exulted, that the fierce American Spirit begins to operate fo very rapidly here in England; and and to have expreffed your Hopes that it will spread more and more, the longer we are connected with that People.

But perhaps you had your Reasons against being thus explicit.---It is a tender Point; and you have a very difficult Part to act. Certain it is, that both the American, and the English Republicans expect great Things from you They expect, that you would affift them in reducing the Power of the Crown, and of the House of Peers to a mere Cypher ;---or rather to abolish them totally, Root and Branch: And

they

they expect likewise, that you would co-operate with them in fubjecting the House of Commons itself to the Instructions of Town-Meetings, felect Meetings, Liberty-Meetings, &c. &c. &c. : And in fhort, that every Thing fhould be fubjugated both within Doors, and without, arbitrio popularis auræ. On the other Hand, it is. equally certain, that you are endeavouring to make Use of these factious Republicans, as the Tools and Inftruments of your own Advancement, without gratifying them in their darling Object. This is a curious Farce, in which each Party must act at present under borrowed Characters; (for even the Republicans muft, as yet, express their Wishes more by dumb Shew, than by open Declarations) and in which one, or other must be duped at laft. But more of this hereafter.

II. THE fecond Scource you mention, from whence the fierce Spirit of the Americans is derived, is their Forms of Government ftrongly tending to become Republics. And here, as you had no Interest either to conceal, or to difguife the Fact, you have given us a juft Reprefentation of it. "Their [the American] Go"vernments (Page 17) are popular in an high

Degree. Some are merely popular; in all the popular Representative is the most weighty: "And this Share of the People in their ordinary "Government never fails to infpire them with

"lofty