been started, that of giving up the Colonies; but it met fo flight a reception, that I do not think myself obliged to dwell a great while upon it. It is nothing but a little fally of anger; like the froward nefs of peevith children; who, when they cannot get all they would have, are refolved to take nothing. The first of these plans, to change the Spirit as inconvenient, by removing the causes, I think is the most like a fyftematick proceeding. It is radical in its principle; but it is attended with great difficulties, fome of them little fhort, as I conceive, of impoffibilities. This will appear by examining into the Plans which have been proposed. the first feeling, if not the very project of anarchy, would inftantly enforce a complete fubmiffion. The experiment was tried. A new, firange, unexpected face of things appeared. Anarchy is found tolerable. A valt province has now fubfifted, and fubfifted in a confiderable degree of health and vigour, for near a twelvemonth, without Governor, without public Council, without Judges, without executive Magiftrates. How long it will continue in this state, or what may arise out of this unheard of fituation, how can the wifeft of us conjecture? Our late experience has taught us, that many of thofe fundamental principles, formerly believed infallible, are either not of the importance they were As the growing population in the Co-L imagined to be; or that we have not at lonies is evidently one caufe of their reall adverted to fome other far more im- fiftance, it was laft feffion mentioned in portant, and far more powerful princi- both Houfes, by men of weight, and reples, which entirely over-rule those we ceived not without applause, that, in orhad confidered as omnipotent. I am much der to check this evil, it would be proper against any further experiments, which for the crown to make no further grants tend to put to the proof any more of of land. But to this fcheme there are thefe allowed opinions, which contribute two objections. The firit, that there is fo much to the public tranquility. In already fo much unsettled land in private effect, we fuffer as much at home, by this hands, as to afford room for an immenfe loofening of all ties, and this concuffion future population, although the crown of all established opinions, as we do a- not only with-held its grants, but annibroad. For, in order to prove that the hilated its foil. If this be the cafe, then Americans have no right to their Liber- the only effect of this avarice of defolaties, we are every day endeavouring to tion, this hoarding of royal wilderness, fubvert the maxims, which preferve the would be to raise the value of the pofwhole fpirit of our own. To prove that feffions in the hands of the great private the Americans ought not to be free, we monopolifts, without any adequate check are obliged to depreciate the value of to the growing and alarming mifchief of Freedom itself; and we never feem to population. gain a paltry advantage over them in debate, without attacking fome of thofe principles, or deriding fome of thofe feelings, for which our ancestors have fhed their blood. But, Sir, in wifhing to put an end to pernicious experiments, I do not mean to preclude the fullent inquiry. Far from it. Far from deciding on a fudden or partial view, I would patiently go round and round the fubject, and furvey it minutely in every poflible afpect. Sir, if I were capable of engaging you to an equal attention, I would flate, that, as far as I am capable of difcerning, there are but three ways of proceeding relative to this ftubborn Spirit, which prevails in your Colonies, and difturbs your government Thefe areTo change that Spirit, as inconvenient, by removing the causes. To profecute it as criminal. Or, to comply with it as neceffary. I would not be guilty of an imperfect enumeration; I can think of but these three. Another has indeed But, if you flopped your grants, what would be the confequence? The people would occupy without grants. They have already fo occupied in many places. You cannot itation garrifons in every part of thefe defarts. If you drive the people from one place, they will carry on their annual Tillage, and remove with their flocks and herds to another. Many of the people in the back fettlements are alread. little attached to particular fituations. Already they have topped the Apalachian mountains. From thence they behold before them an immense plain, one vaft, rich, level meadow; a fquare of five hundred miles. Over this they would wander, without a poffibility of reftraint: they would change their manners with the habits of their life would foon forget a government, by which they were difowned; would become Hordes of English Tartars: and, pouring down upon your unfortified frontiers a fierce and irrefiftible cavalry, become matters of your Governors and your Counfell Y y a Counsellors, your collectors and comptrollers, and of all the Slaves that adhered to them. Such would, and, in no long time, muft be, the effect of attempting to forbid as a crime, and to fupprefs as an evil, the Command and Bleffing of Providence," Increase and Multiply." Such would be the happy refult of an endeavour to keep as a lair of wild beafts, that earth, which God, by an exprefs Charter, has given to the children of men. Far different, and furely much wifer, has been our policy hitherto. Hitherto we have invited our people, by every kind of bounty, to fixed establishments. We have invited the husbandman to look to authority for his title. We have taught him piously to believe in the mysterious virtue of wax and parchment. We have thrown each tract of land, as it was peopled, into diftricts; that the ruling power should never be wholly out of light. We have settled all we could; and we have carefully attended every fettlement with government. Adhering, Sir, as I do, to this policy, as well as for the reafons I have juft given, I think this new project of hedging in population to be neither prudent nor practicable. To impoverish the Colonies in general, and in particular to arreft the noble courfe of their marine enterprizes, would be a more ealy talk. I freely confefs it. We have fhown a difpofition to a fyftem of this kind; a difpofition even to continue the restraint after the offence; looking on ourselves as rivals to our Colonies, and perfuaded that of course we must gain all that they hall lose. Much mischief we may certainly do. The power inadequate to all other things is often more than fufficient for this. I do not look on the direct and immediate power of the Colonies to refift our violence as very formidable. In this, however, I may be miliaken. But when I confider, that we have Colonies for no purpote but to be ferviceable to us, it seems to my poor understanding a little prepofterous, to make them unferviceable, in order to keep them obedient. It is, in truth, nothing more than the old, and, as I thought, exploded problem of tyranny, which propoles to beggar its fubjects into fubmiffion. But, remember, when you have completed your fyltem of impoverishment, that Nature till proceeds in her ordinary courfe; that difcontent will increase with mifery; and that there are critical moments in the fortune of all ftates, when they, who are too weak to contribute to your profperity, may be ftrong enough to complete your ruin. Spoliatis arma fuperfunt. The temper and character which prevail in our colonies are, 'I am afraid, unalterable by any human art. We cannot, I fear, falfify the pedigree of this fierce people, and perfuade them that they are not fprung from a nation, in whofe eins the blood of freedom circulates. The language, in which they would hear you tell them this tale, would detect the impofition; your speech would betray you. An Englishman is the unfitteft perfon on earth to argue another Englifhman into flavery. I think it is nearly as little in our power to change their republican Religion, as their free descent; or to fubftitute the Roman Catholick, as a penalty; or the Church of England, as an improvement. The mode of inquifition and dragooning is going out of fashion in the old world; and I fhould not confide much to their efficacy in the new. The education of the Americans is alfo on the fame unalterable bottom with their religion. You cannot perfuade them to burn their books of curious science; to banish their lawyers from their courts of law; or to quench the light of their affemblies, by refufing to choose those perfons who are best read in their privileges. It would be no less impracticable to think of wholly annihilating the pc ar affemblies, in which thefe lawyers fit. The army by which we must govern in their place, would be far more chargeable to us; not quite fo effectual; and perhaps, in the end, full as difficult to be kept in obedience. With regard to the high ariftocratick fpirit of Virginia and the fouthern Colonies, it has been propofed, I know, to reduce it, by declaring a general enfranchisement of their flaves. This projest has had its advocates and panegyrifts; yet I never could argue myself into any opinion of it. Slaves are often much aitached to their matters. A general wild offer of liberty would not always be accepted. Hiftory furnishes few iritances of it. It is fometimes as hard to perfuade flaves to be free, as it is to compel freemen to be flaves; and in this aufpicious fcheme, we fhould have both thefe pleafing talks on our hands at once. But when we talk of enfranchisement, do we not perceive that the American nafter may enfranchife too; and arm fervile hands in defence of freedom? A measure to which other people have had recourse more than once, and not without fuccefs, in a defperate fituation of their affairs. Slaves as thefe unfortunate black people are, and dull as all men are from flavery, muft they not a little fufpect the offer of freedom from that very pation which has fold them to their prefent mafters? From that nation, one of whofe caufes of quarrel with thofe mafters, is their refufal to deal any more in that inhuman traffick? An offer of freedom from England would come rather oddly, fhipped to them in an African veffel, which is refused an entry into the ports of Virginia or Carolina, with a cargo of three hundred Angola negroes. It would be curious to fee the Guinea captain attempting at the fame inftant to publish his proclamation of liberty, and to advertise his fale of flaves. But let us fuppofe all these moral difficulties got over. The Ocean remains. You cannot pump that dry; and as long as it continues in its prefent bed, fo long all the causes which weaken authority by diftance will continue. "Ye Gods, annihilate but space and time, and make two lovers happy!"- -was a pious and paffionate prayer-but just as reafona ble, as many of the ferious wishes of very grave and folemn politicians. If then, Sir, it seems almost desperate to think of any alterative courfe, for changing the moral caufes (and not quite eafy to remove the natural), which produce prejudices irreconcileable to the late exercife of our authority; but that the fpirit infallibly will continue; and, continuing, will produce fuch effects, as now embarrass us; the fecond mode under confideration is, to profecute that fpirit in its overt acts, as criminal. At this propofition, I muft paufe a moment. The thing feems a great deal too big for my ideas of jurifprudence. It fhould feem, to my way of conceiving fuch matters, that there is a very wide difference in reafon and policy, between the mode of proceeding on the irregular conduct of scattered individuals, or even of bands of men, who difturb order within the state, and the civil diffenfions which may, from time to time, on great queftions, agitate the feveral communities which compofe a great Empire. It looks to me to be narrow and pedantick, to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal juftice to this great public conteft. I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against an whole people. I cannot infult and ridicule the feelings of Millions of my fellow-creatures, as Sir Edward Coke infulted one excellent individual (Sir Walter Raleigh) at the bar. I am not rips to pafs fentence on the graveft public bodies, intrusted with magiftracies of great authority and dignity, and charged with the fafety of their fellow citizens, upon the very fame title that I am. I really think, that for wife men, this is not judicious; for fober men, not decent; for minds tinctu'red with humanity, not mild and merciful. Perhaps, Sir, I am mistaken in my idea of an Empire, as diftinguished from a fingle State or Kingdom. But my idea of it is this; that an Empire is the aggregate of many States, under one commonhead; whether this head be a monarch, or a prefiding republic. It does, in fuch conftitutions, frequently happen (and nothing but the difmal, cold, dead uniformity of fervitude can prevent its happening) that the fubordinate parts have many local privileges and immunities. Between these privileges, and the fupreme common authority, the line may be extremely nice. Of course difputes, often too very bitter difputes and much ill blood, will arife. But though every privilege is an exemption (in the cafe) from the ordinary exercife of the fu preme authority, it is no denial of it. The claim of a privilege feems rather, ex vi termini, to imply a fuperior power. For to talk of the privileges of a State or of a perfon, who has no fuperior, is hardly any better than fpeaking nonfenfe. Now, in fuch unfortunate quarrels, among the component parts of a great political union of communities, I can scarcely conceive any thing more completely imprudent, than for the Head of an Empire to infiit, that, if any privilege is pleaded against his will, or his acts, his whole authority is denied, inflantly to proclaim rebellion, to beat to arms, and to put the offending provinces under the ban. Will not this, Sir, very foon teach the provinces to make no diftinctions on their part? Will it not teach them that the Government, againft which a claim of Liberty is tantamount to high treafon, is a Government to which fubmiffion is equivalent to flavery? It may not always be quite convenient to impress dependant communities with fuch an idea. We are, indeed, in all difputes with the Colonies, by the neceffity of things, the judge. It is true, Sir. But, I confefs that the character of judge in my own caufe, is a thing that frightens me. Inftead of filling me with pride, I am exceedingly humbled by it. I cannot proceed with a ftern, affured, judicial confidence, until I find myfelf in fome thing If then the removal of the causes of this Spirit of American Liberty be, for the greater part, or rather entirely, impracticable; if the ideas of Criminal Procefs be inapplicable, or, if applicable, are in the highest depree inexpedi ent, what way yet remains? No way is open, but the third and laft-to comply with the American Spirit as necessary ; or, if you please, to fubmit to it, as a neceffary Evil. thing more like a judicial character. I-When I fee things in this fituation af must have these hesitations as long as I ter fuch confident hopes, bold promifes, am compelled to recollect, that in my and active exertions, I cannot, for my little reading upon fuch contefts as thefe, life, avoid a fufpicion, that the plan itthe fenfe of mankind has, at leaft, as of- felf is not correctly right. ten decided against the fuperior as the fubordinate power. Sir, let me add too, that the opinion of my having fome abfirat right in my favour would not put me much at my eafe in paffing fentence; unless I could be fure, that there were no rights, which, in their exercise under certain circumstances, were not the moft odious of all wrongs, and the most vexatious of all injuftice. Sir, thefe confiderations have great weight with me, when I find things fo circumftanced, that I fee the fame party, at once a civil litigant against me in a point of right, and a culprit before me, while I fat as a criminal judge on acts of his, whose moral quality is to be decided upon the merits of that very litigation. Men are every now and then put, by the complexity of human affairs, into ftrange fituations; but Juftice, is the fame, let the Judge be in what fituation he will. There is, Sir, also a circumftance which convinces me, that this mode of criminal proceeding is not, (at least in the prefent ftage of our conteft) altogether expedient; which is nothing lefs than the conduct of thofe very perfons who have feemed to adopt that mode, by lately declaring a rebellion in Massachufet's-Bay, as they had formerly addreffed to have Traitors brought hither under an act of Henry the Eighth, for Trial. For though rebellion is declared, it is not proceeded against as fuch; nor have any steps been taken towards the apprehenfion or conviction of any individual offender, either on our late or former addrefs; but modes of public coercion have been adopted, and fuch as have much more resemblance to a fort of quaHired hoftility towards an independant power than the punishment of rebellious fubjects. All this feems rather inconfiftent; but it fhows how difficult it is to apply thefe juridical ideas to our prefent cafe. In this fituation, let us seriously and Coolly ponder. What is it we have got by all our menaces, which have been many and ferocious? What advantage have we derived from the penal laws we have paffed, and which, for the time, have been fevere and numerous? What advances have we made towards our object, by the fending of a force, which, by land and fea, is no contemptible ftrength? Has the disorder abated? Nothing lefs. (To be continued.) Account of the Proceedings of the American follows: To the Hon. the Knights, Citizens, and Burgefes of Great Britain, in Parliament affembled. The Reprefentation and Remonftrance of the General Assembly of the Colony of New-York. Impreffed with the warmeft fentiments of loyalty and affection to our most gracious fovereign, and zealously attached to his perfon, family, and government; we, h Majefty's faithful fubjects, the reprefentatives of his ancient and loyal colony of New-York, behold with the deepest concern the unhappy disputes fubfitting between the mother-country and her colonies, convinced that the grandeur and ftrength of the British empire, the protection and opulence of his Majefty's American dominions, and the hap pinefs and welfare of both, depend effentially on a restoration of harmony and affection between them ;-we feel the moft ardent defire to promote a cordial reconciliation with the parent flate, which can be rendered permanent and folid only by afcertaining the line of parliamentary authority, and American freedom, on juft, equitable, and conftitutional grounds. To effect the falutary purposes, and to reprefent the grievances under which we labour, by the innovations which have been made in the conftitu tional mode of government fince the clofe of the laft war, we fhall proceed, with that firmnefs which becomes the defcendants of Englifhmen, and a people accuttoned to the bleffings of liberty, and at the fame time with the deference and refpect which is due to this auguft affembly, to fhew, "That, from the year 1683 till the above-mentioned period, this colony has enjoyed a legislature, confifting of three diftinct branches, a governor, council, and general affembly, under which political frame the reprefentatives of the people have uniformly exercised the right of their on civil government, and the adminiftration of justice in the colony. "It is therefore with inexpreflible grief that we have of late years feen meafures adopted by the British parliament, fubverfive of that conftitution under which the good people of this colony have always enjoyed the fame rights and privileges fo highly and defervedly prized by their fellow fubjects in Great-Britain; a conftitution in its infancy modelled after that of the parent flate, in its growth more nearly affimilated to it, and tacitly implied and undeniably recognized in the requifitions made by the crown, with the consent and approbation of parlia ment. An exemption from internal taxation and the exclufive right of providing for the support of our own civil government, and the administration of justice in this colony, we esteem our undoubted and unalienable right as Englifhmen; but, while we claim thefe effential rights, it is with equal pleasure and truth we can declare, that we ever have been, and ever will be, ready to bear our full proportion of aids to the crown for the public fervice, and to make provifion for these neceffary purposes, in as ample and adequate a manner as the circumftances of the colony will admit. Actuated by thefe fentiments, while we addrefs ourselves to a Britifli House of Commons, which has ever been fo fenfible of the rights of the people, and fo tenacious of preferving them from violation, can it be a matter of surprise, that we should feel the most diftreffing apprehenfions from the act of the British Parliament, declaring their right to bind the colonies in all cafes whatever?-a principle which has been actually exercised by the statutes made for the Jole and exprefs purpofe of railing a revenue in America, especially for the fupport of Government, and the other ufual and ordinary fervices of the colonies. "The trial by a jury of the vicinage, in caufes civil and criminal arifing within the colony, we confider as effential to the fecurity of our lives and liberties, and one of the main pillars of the conflitution, and therefore view with horror the construction of the ftatute of the 35th of Henry the VIIIth, as held up by the joint addrefs of both Houfes of Parliament in 1769, advifing his majesty, to fend for perfons guilty of treafons, and mifprifion of treafons, in the county of Maffachusett's-Bay, in order to be tried in England; and we are equally alarmed at the late acts impowering his Majefty to fend perfons guilty of offences in one colony to be tried in another, or within the realm of England. "When we confider that the cognizance of caufes arifing on the land, has, by the wisdom of the English conflitution, been appropriated to the courts of common law, and the jurifdiction of the Admiralty confined to caufes purely marine, we regard the great alterations that have been made in that wholefome fyftem of laws. by extending the powers of the courts of Admiralty, authorizing the Judge's certificates to indemnify the profecutor from damages he might otherwife be liable to, giving them a concurrent jurifdiction with the courts of common law, and by that means depriving the American fubject of his trial by a jury, as deftructive to freedom, and injurious to our property. "We muft alfo complain of the act of the 7th of George the Third, Chap. the 59th, requiring the legislature of this colony to make provifion for the expence of fupplying troops quartered amongit us with the neceffaries prefcribed by that law, and holding up by any other act a fufpenfion of our legislative power till we fhould have complied; as it would have included all the effects of a tax, and implies a distrust of our steadiness to contribute to the public fervice. "Nor in claiming thefe effential rights do we entertain the most diftant defire of independence on the parent kingdom: we acknowledge the parliament of Great Britain neceffarily entitled to a fupreme direction and government, over the whole empire, for a wife, powerful, and lasting prefervation of the great bond of union and safety among all the branches. Their authority to regulate the trade of the colonies fo as to make it subservient to the intereft of the mother country, and to prevent its being injurious to the other parts of his Majefty's dominions, has ever been fully recognized; but an exemption from duties on all articles of commerce |