Appeal from the judgements of Great Britain respecting the United States of America. Part first containing a historical outline of their merits and wrongs as colonies, and strictures upon the calumnies of the British writers

Part First, Containing

AN HISTORICAL OUTLINE

OF THEIR ••

MERITS AND WRONGS AS COLONIES; ''

AND ''

STRICTURES UPON THE CALUMNIES OF THE BRITISH WRITER

BY ROBERT WALSH, Jr. 1

SENEC,

SECOND EDITION.

PHILADELPHIA :

?UBLISHED BY MITCHELL, AMES, AND WHITE. 'William Brown, Printer.

'Mem Distnct of Pennsylvania, to wit :

BE IT REMEMBERED, That, on the twenty-third day of September, in ; forty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, D. 1819, Mtchell, Ames, and White, of the said District, have deposited in s office the title of a book, the right whereof they claim as proprietors, in e words following, to wit :

\n Appeal from the Judgments of Great Bi'Itain respecting the United States " of America. Part First, containing An Historical Outline of tlieir Merits and " Wrongs as Colonies ; and Strictures upon the Calumnies of the British " Writers. By Robert Walsh, Jr. Quod quisque fecit, patitur : autorem " scelus repetit, suoque premitur exemplo nocens. S nec."

In conforraity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled *' An t for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, d books, to the auvhors and proprietors of such copies, during the times erein mentioned." — And also to the act, entitled, " An act supplementaiy to act, entitled ' An act for the encouragement of learning by securing the coes of maps, charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, tring the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to this ts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvanfei^

/HH

To ROBERT OLIVER, Esq,

OF BALTIMORE.

-ti

Dear Sir, l

This is a hasty volume, and its tenor may notn exactly in maison with your opinions and predilectioK I could, therefore, have wished to attach your name ratbi to its intended adjunct, which may have higher claims?! regard; but I am anxious to improve the first opporturr of bearing public testimony to a character, which an a quaintance of many years, has taught me to view as of fe] common worth and elevation. It is only a few mon j ago that your merits were commemorated in your nati land, in a strain which those inhabitants of your adope country, who know you well, cannot deem too lofty, \y hesitate to re-eclio. In proclaiming you public-spirits, open-hearted, and munificently hospitable, the distinguic ed assemblage in Dublin spoke as our experience wop have led us to speak. A remarkable strength of nat^i; abilities, maintained in full exertion by an active, vea; ment spirit, and the favour of fortune seconding a soid| judgment and steadfast faith in commercial dealings, hic put you in possession of an ample estate, to which you d; vindicate your title by a noble use of it in the oflScesu beneficence and friendship. u

Dedication

[ have another object in addressing you thus in my )acity of author. It is, to witness — in opposition to

false relations of British travellers — that the native lerican is not backward in recognizing and honouring

estimable qualities and just pretensions of a fellow citi- 1 of foreign birth. We make no distinctions and have reserved feelings, where respect and confidence are tractly due: if, blended and compoimded as we are, the e could be otherwise, it would not certainly be so in srence to Irishmen. With them, the process of aslilation in all respects, is more easy and natural than h any other people. America owes them much. She mot but sympathize deeply in the wrongs they have fered at home. In the same nation in which tJiey have ays found a tyrannical mistress, she, throughout her 3nial existence, found a jealous step-dame, and now Is a malevolent scold.

Preface

)reasts by sentiments of hostility. We lament that peril- )us crisis at which England has arrived; when, with a^ crushing apparatus of government, a most distorted and listempered state of society, no reform can be admitted, est it should run, by its own momentum, to extremes, and )roduce general confusion; when her statesmen, over- )Owered by the very aspect of so much morbidness and obliquity, are compelled to exclaim, JS'ec vitia, nee remelia pati possumus. We cherish and esteem the English ndividuals whom we possess, and, without coveting the )resence of more, we are ready to entertain the same eelings, to practise all the charities, towards those who nay come among us at any time, provided it be not for he purpose of holding us up to the scorn and derision of he world.

Section I

PoiiTicAt and Mercantile Jealousy of Great Britain. Peculiar fate of the North American Colonies in being constantly defamed by the mother country. Her early jealousy and selfish alarms. Testimony of Evelyn, Hume, Postlethwayt. Child, Gee, &c. Measures to prevent the growth of American manufactures. Illiberal colonial policy. Testimony of Adam Smith, of Dummer, &.c. Scheme of confining the North American settlernents to the sea-coast. Early panic about emigration ; attempts to repress it, &c.

Section II

General Character and Merits of the Colonists. English testimony in their favour. Quarterly Review; Burke; Chalmers, &c. Character of the first settlers in New England ; in Virginia ; and the other provinces. Their respectable rank in life ; their love of liberty and independence ; the excellence of their institutions ; no obligations to the mother country on this score. Charters how obtained. Uniform endeavours of the mother country to destroy the Charters. System of religious freedom and equality established by the Colonists ; disturbed, and, in some instances, subverted, by the mother country. Religious intolerance of Massachusetts extenuated. Political intrepidity of the Colonists; leading traits of it in their history., Their domestic morals and habits ; religious spirit. Their attention to the object of general education. Their moderation and beneficence towards the aborigines. Their physical economy and prosperity.

Section III

Oifficulties surmounted by the Colonists. The conquest of the wilderness. Oppressive administration of the mother country. Absence of all external aid. Struggle with the Indians; with tlie French of Canada. Accusations of the mother country, as to the treatment of the Indians, retorted. Case of the Acadiansin 1755; barbarous conduct of Great Britain tovvards them. Wars which she made in America, exclusively her own, and not induced by the interest of the colonies.

Section IV

Great exertions and sacrifices of the colonies in the wars of Great Britain, between the years 1680 -md 1763. Expeditions of New England and New^ York against Canada. Hostilities with the Indians in New England aofi the Caiohnas. Provincial expeditions against the Spaniards in Flo-ida. Injus-

' lii CONTENTS.

I mana.o^omenUind imbecility of tlie British generals. Aclilevements of the

Provincials. Aspersions cast upon them. Insensibility of the mother country to their merits. Confirmation of the contents of this Section by British

; testimony.

SKCTION V.

Commercial obligations of Great Britain to the Colonies. Acknowledgments of [ her political writers Amount of the colonial trade at different epochs.

Details of its nature and productiveness. Lord Shefiield; Mr. Glover; • Anderson; Chatham; Mr. Burke; Champion. Consumption of British

manufactures by the colonies. Good faith of the American merchants.

Rigour of the British monopoly. Disadvantages suffered by the Colonies.

Benefits reaped by Great Britain from her commercial intercourse with the

United States of America.

Section VI

.Vftectionate hn'alty of the Colonists at the peace of 1763. No designs of independence. Refutation of Chalmers and Robertson on this liead. Distrust and despotic aims of the mother countrj'. Her ingratitude and harshness. Stamj) Act, and its train of outrages and contumelies. Applause bestowed upon the resistance of the colonies by Chatham and Camden. Character of trie British councils. Their ignorance concerning America. Enlightened discourse of Glover False ideas entertained of America. Overweening confidence of the British ministry and nation. Abuse of the colonies. Colonel Grant, Earl of Sandwich, &c. Ferocity of tl)e hostilities waged by the mother country. Her acrimony of feeling and expression. Her temper of mind at and after the conclusion of peace. Illusions in which she indulged. Oracles of Lord Sheffield. Contrast between her dispositions and those of the United States. Her unremitted enmity and jealousy. Evidences. Disappointment of her hopes.

SECTION vir.

Tilles of the United States to the respect and good will of Great Britain. Animosity and arrogance of the British periodical writers. Edinburgh Re view — its .system of derision and obloquy. How distinguished from the Quarterly Review in this respect. Instances of its malevolence and inconsistency. Article on Davis's Travels ; Transactions of the American Pliilosopliical Society; Letters on Silesia of John Quincy Adams; Life of Washington, by Chief Justice Marshall ; Ashe's Travels ; Columbiad of Barlow, &c. Sneers and Calumnies, Exposition of some of the contradictions abounding in the Edinburgh Review. Reprisals upon Great Britain.

Section VIII

The Quarterly Review. Its implacable enmity ; false logic ; unworthy proceeding ; invectives and misrepresentations. Articles on American works : — Inchiqnin's View of the United States — Lewis and Clarke's Expedition — Life of Fulton, by Cadwallader Colden, Esq. This work defended against the Quarterly Review. Question of Steam Navigation. Fulton's merits asserted. Controversy respecting the invention of the Quadrant, called Hadley's. The claims of Godfrey maintained. Original evidence. James Logan. Contradictions, as to England, detected,in the Quarterly Review ; British Critic : London Critical Joiu'nal ; their ribaldry. E.\aininatior, and Refatition of the charge against America, of having declared herself, in Congress, " the freest and most enlightened nation of the earth." Speech of Fisher Ames. Defence of the American Congress from other charges. Retort upon the British Parliament.

CONTENTS. liii

Section IX

Accusations of the Edinburgh Review respecting the existence of negro slaveryj in the United States. Early upbraidings of England on the same head] Her share in the establishment of that evil. Early denunciations of it by! the colonists. Tlieir repeated attempts to arrest the introduction of negroes. Inflexibility of the mother country. American abolition of the slave trade. Measures of the State Legislatures and of Congress on this subject. United Slates have the merit of priority. Historical deductioa of the British slave trade. Its extent and criminality. Developments. History of the British abolition of the slave trade. Its interested and imperfect character. Selfish aims of the British government. Supine ness of the ministry until the approach of the peace of 1814. Concession of the slave trade to Spain, Portugal, and France. Fatal consequences. British capital largely engaged in the illicit trade. Negotiations at the Congress of Vienna. Insidious propositions of Lord Castlereagh. Miscarriage. British West Indies adequately supplied with negroes since the British abolition. West India slavery ; its character; in no degree mitigated. Renewed negotiations with foreign powers. Their well founded distrust of the views of Great Britain in relation to the general abolition of the slave trade. Development of those views. Frustration of her scheme of establishiiig a. right of search in time of peace. Hypocrisy and imposture. Present state of the slave trade. Vindication of the United States, as regards the existence of slavery within their bosom. What they have separately effected in the way of abolition. Colonization. Character and condition of the American negrots, free and enslaved. Character and deportment of the American masters. Denial of the allegations of the British travellers. .State of the British Poor.

SUBJECTS OF THE NOTES.

Indian Warfare. Locke's Constitutions for Carolina. Religious toleration of Rhode Island. Maroon War in Jamaica. Petition of the Acadians to the King of Great Britain. Reduction of Louisbouvg. Br iddock's papers. Loiiilon's campaigns. Franklin's refutation of tiie Britisli calumnies of 1759. Character of tlie Rovui Governors of the Colonies Credulity of the British Cabinet of 1776 — 8 — 9. Derjates in Parliament on American cowardice. Utility of the North American colonies as an asylum for British subjects. The American Philosophical Society. Marshall's Lift of ■Washington. State of society in Great Britain as to the vices of intoxication and gambling ; cruelty to animals; brutal sports and conflicis, &c. Dr. Colden. Steam Boat navigation. James Logan. Position of the English and Irish Roman Catholics. Kidnapping in Great Britain and the United States. British Poor, and Poor Laws. Established Ciiurch in England. British prisons; criminal calendar; administration of penal justice, financial affairs, &c.

MEMENTOS.

" Let us read, and recollect, and impress upon our souls, the views and ends of our own more immediate forefathers, in exchanging their native country for a dreary, inliospitable wilderness. Let us examine into the nature of that power, and the cruelty of that oppression, which drove them from their homes. Recollect their amazing fortitude, their bitter sufferings! the hunger, the nakedness, the cold, which they patiently endured! the severe labours of clearing their grounds, building their houses, raising their provisions, amidst dangers from wild beasts and savage men, before they had time, or money, or materials for commerce ! Recollect the civil and religious principles, and hopes, and expectations, which constantly supported and carried them through all hardships, with patience and resignation !"

Essay on the Canon and Faidal Law, by John Adams, Esq. 1765.

" If we do not, my lords, get the better of America, America will get the better of us. We do not fear, at present, that they will attack us at home ; but consider, on the other hand, what will be the fate of the sugar islands, what will be the fate of our trade to that country. That, my lords, is a most valuable, important consideration ; it is the best feather in our wing. The people of America are preparing to raise a navy; they have begun in part; trade will beget opulence, and by that means they will be enabled to hire ships from foreign powers."

Lord Mansfield, House of Lords, 1775.

" It hurts me to hear a proposition urged in this house, so destructive to the welfare of Britain, as American independence. Would not the independency of America be the eve of their advancement into a Jlovrishing naval potver? Their situation commanding a species of superiority over all the earth, they woidd soon rival Europe in arts, as well as grandeur, and their power in particular would rear itself on the decay of ours. Are we, then, so lost to all the feelings of patriotism, that, with a wanton hand, we should lay the foundation stone of a blockade against our own existence ?"

J\Ir. PuUeney, House of Commons, 1777.

"We have heard, indeed, the prosperity of America declared, by Lord Sidmouth, when he was minister of state, to be an awful warning to Great Britain, never hereafter to colonize a new country. Merciful Heaven! that the brethren of our ancestors should have founded a mighty empire, indefinite in its increase — an empire, which retains, and is spreading, all that constitutes "country" in a wise man's feelings, viz. the same laws, the same customs, the same religion, and, above all, the same language; tliat, in short, to have been the mother of a prosperous empire, is to be a ivamingto Great Britain ! And whence this dread ? Because, forsooth, our eldest born, when of age, liad set up for himself; jyid not only preserving, but, in an almost incalculable

Ivi MEMENTOS.

proportion, Increasing the advantages of former reciprocal intercourse, had saved us the expense and anxiety of defending, and the embarrassment of governing a country three thousand miles distant ! That this separation was at length effected by violence, and the horrors of a civil war, is to be attributed solely to the ignorance and corruption of the many, and the perilous bigotry of a few." — JVb. 24, Edinburgh Review.

"Let our jealousy burn as it may; let our intolerance of America be as unreasonably violent as we please ; still, it is plain that she is a j)ower, in spite of us, rapidly rising to supremacy ; or, at least, tliat each year so mightily augments her strength, as to overtake, by a most sensible distance, even the most formidable of her competitors."

JVu. 49, Edinbiirgh Sevieiv.

"In one of my late rambles, I accidentally fell into the company of half a dozen gentlemen, who were engaged in a warm dispute about some political affair ; which naturally drew me in for a share of the conversation.

"Amongst a multiplicity of other topics, we took occasion to talk of the different characters of the several nations of Europe; when one of the gentlemen, cocking his hat, and assuming such an air of impoi-tance as if he had possessed all the merit of tiie English nation ;in his own person, declared that the Dutch were a parcel of avaricious wretches; the French a set of flattering sycophants; that the Germans were drunken sots, and beastly gluttons ; and the Spaniards proud, haughty, and surly tyrants ; but that, in bravery, generositj^, clemency, and in every other virtue, the English excelled all the rest of the world.

" This very learned and judicious remark was received with a genera! smile of approbation by all the company — all, I mean, but your humble servant." Goldsmith's Essays — Essay XL

Section I. Of The Political And Mercantile Jealousy Of Great

BUITAIN.

" AMERICA is destined at all events, to be a great and SEC powerful nation. In less than a century, she must have a population of at least seventy or eighty millions. War cannot prevent, and it appears from experience, can scarcely retard, this natural multiplication. All these people will speak English ; and, according to the most probable conjecture, will live under free governments, whether republican or monarchical, and will be industrious, well educated, and civilized. Within no very great distance of time, therefore, — within a period to which those who are now entering life may easily survive, — America will be one of the most powerful and important nations of the earth ; and her friendship and commerce will be more valued, in all probability, than that of any European state.'* Such were the speculations of the Edinburgh Review, in the year 1814. In looking forward to what this journal predicts, — to the supremacy in power and character which the North Americans are destined to reach, — there is something not only curious, but instructive, in the fact, that they have been and are more contemned and defamed than any other people of whom history has kept a record. Compared with our fate in this respect, that of Boeotia among the ancients, severe as it was and sufficiently unjust, may be described as condign and lenient. It was not alone in their exemption from political and commercial dependence, that the colonies

VOL. I. A of Greece may be said to have been more fortunate than those of modern Europe. Neither enlightened Greece, — nor evei^ imperious Rome, or rapacious Carthage whose colonial policy bore a nearer resemblance to the modern, — made perpetual war upon the reputation of its emigrant offspring. The parent state was sometimes exorbitant in its demands, and tyrannical in the exercise of its superior force ; but the colony had not to contend with a system of universal detraction ; — to serve as a n\ark for the arrogance, spleen, or jocularity of orators, poets, and reviewers.

The wise man of Europe — homo sapiens Eiiropce — not satisfied with sneering and railing at these distant settlements, conspired, at one time, to decry nature herself in her operations on die new continent: and the theories of Buffon, Raynal, and De Paw, so fashionable and authoritative during a certain period, though now so entirely exploded, are to be cited in illustration of the state of the European mind towards the Western Woi-ld. The feature not the least remarkable, belonging to this case is, that the particular mothercountry which might have been expected to be most tender of the feelings and character of her colonies, out of a due regard to justice, gratitude, and her own interests, was, at times, the most scornful in her tone, and the loudest in the chorus of obloquy. Great Britain continued to throw out sarcasms and reproaches against her North American kinsmen, after the continent of Europe had adopted the opposite style, and had even passed into an enthusiastic admiration. We may pardon vapouring, and invective,, and affected derision, at the juncture when her authority was directly questioned, and her colossal power braved by the thii'teen pigmy communities oi provincials ; and some allowance is to be made for the play of passions strongly excited, during and immediately after the struggle, by which she lost so valuable a portion of her empire : But the same course has been pursued without any abatement of virulence or exception of topics, towards these Independent United States ; it has not been abandoned after a becond war, and after a developement of character, resources, and destinies, which would seem sufficiepit to silence malice and subdue the most sturdy prejudice. When the "plantations" had grown into colonies, England still thought and spoke of them as the plantations: — since the colonies have transformed themselves into an independent and powerful nation, it is the colonies^ with an imagery to which increased jealousy and despite have added new and more hideou's dhimeras, that are yet seen in tUe English speculum.

MERCANTILE JEALOUSY.

We know that some of the states of antiquity harboured a ^^ mischievous jealousy of the prosperity, spirit, and aims ot ^"^ their colonies ; but it was only when the latter had become truly formidable ; had attained to an equality of strength, and given unequivocal evidence of indifference, estrangement, or hostility. But among the modern colonies, the Anglo-North American, were precisely those which stood the farthest from this relation, — which, in all stages of their existence, whether we consider their dispositions, or the general circumstances of their condition, pi-esented the least cause of distrust or alarm to the powerful parent. One of a truly magnanimous and judicious character would have seen, as I hope to prove, abundant reason for treating them with the utmost latitude of indulgence and " ceremonious kindness." England, however^ is the mother countrv, who, although perpetually proclaiming the weakness, as well as insulting the origin, and vilifying the pursuits of her plantations^ conceived the earliest fears for her supremacy ; who displayed, throughout, the keenest palitical and mercantile jealousy. It is true, that the other European powers established and maintained in their settlements on this continent, a stricter commercial monopoly, and ^ more arbitrary systems of internal administration. It is equally true, however, that England always sought to secure to herself the carriage of the produce of her North American colonies ; to engross their raw materials, and to furnish them with the articles of every kind which they required from abroad : That if, from the cupidit}^ or indifference of her monarchs, charters of a liberal genius were granted to the first settlers — if, from a like cause, or national embarrassments, commonwealths thus cast in the mould of freedom were suffered to acquire consistency, and to become identified as it - v/ere with their first institutions — she made incessant attempts to destroy those charters, and substitute a despotic rule. Her writers on the trade and general politics of the empire, her colonial servants, civil and military, continually called for a more rigorous monopoly and subjection. It was owing to extraneous events, and to the firmness, vigilance, and dexterity of the provinces, that they remained in possession of their liberties. I scarcely need remark in addition, that it was a scheme of administration tending to place them on the level of the Spanish and Portuguese colonies, which impelled them to attempt and achieve their independence.

The main purpose of this work imposes upon me the task, of adducing some portion of the abundant evidence which books afford, in support of the general assertions made above:

^ '• And it appears to me not unadvisable on other grounds, to ^^ retiesh the memory of the public, with respect to the early dispositions and proceedings of Great Britain, towards these North American communities. I will begin Avith the point to which I have first adverted — her political and mercantile jealoiisif.

1. This feeling was coeval with the fovmdation of the colonies. Nothing similar is to be traced so high in the colonial histoiy even of Spain or Portugal. We have the following testimony in Hume's Appendix to his account of the reign of James I. " What chiefly renders the reign of James memorable, is the commencement of the English colonies in America ; colonies established on the noblest footing that has been known in any age or nation."

" Speculative reasoners, during that age, raised many objections to the planting those remote colonies ; and foretold, that, after draining their mother country of inhabitants, they would soon shake oiF her yoke, and erect an independent government in America."

In the excellent article on the British colonies, of Postlethwayt's Universal Dictionary of Trade, there is a more particular statement to the same effect.

*• It is cei'tain that from the very time Sir Walter Raleigh, the father of our English colonies, and his associates, first projected these establishments, the7"e have been persons wlio have found an interest in misrepresenting or lessening the value of them. When the intention of improving tliese distant countries, and the advantages that were hoped for tiicreby, were first set forth, there were some who treated them not only as chimerical, but as dangerous : They not only insinuated the uncertainty of tlie success, but the depopulating the nation. Tliese, and other objections, flowing cither from a narrowness of understanding or of heart, have been disproved by experience,'* &c. 8ic. I

"'!"he difficulties which will always attend such kind of settlements at the beginning, proved a new cause of clamour; many malignant suggestions were made about sacrificing so many Englisjimen to the obstinate desire of settling colonies in countries, which produced very little advantage. But, as these difficulties were gradually surmounted, those complaints vanished. No sooner were those lamentations over than othei-s arose in their stead ; when it could no longer be said that the colonies were useless, it was alleged tliat they were not useful enough to their mother coiuitry ; that while we M^ere loaded with taxes they were absolutely free; that the planters lived like princes, while the inhabitants of England laboured hard for a tolerable subsistence This produced customs and impositions on plantation commodities," &c. &c.

Within little more than a generation after the commencement of the plantations, the royal government anxiously began

MERCANTn^E JEALOUSY.

those formal inquiries into theirpopulation and manufactures, SK( which were so often renewed until the period of our revolt, ^^' and of which the results, as to manufactures, served to place the jealousy that provoked them in a ludicrous and pitiable light. In the reign of Charles I. commissioners were deputed to ascertain the growth and dispositions of New England : And we find her agent in London, in the time of Cromwell, informing one of his constituents, that, even then, there were not wanting many in England, to whom her privileges were matter of envy, and who eagerly watched every opportunity of abridging her political liberties and faculties of trade. Besides emissaries of the description just mentioned, the ministry of Charles II. despatched spies to watch over the conduct and views of the royal governors in America*. From the same motive, printing presses were denied to the plantations. We are told by Chalmers, that " no printing press was allowed in Virginia ;" that " in New England and New York there were assuredly none permitted ^^"^ and that " the other provinces probably Avere not more fortunate."* When Andros was appointed by James II. captain-general of all the northern colonies, he was instructed '' to allow of no printing press." In an official report of Sir William Berkelev, governor of Virginia, dated 20th June, 1671, there is the follov/ing characteristic passage : — '' I thank God we have no free schools, nor any printing ; and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years. For learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them and libels against the best government : God keep us from both." Accordingly, every effort was made to shut out the pestilent tree of knowledge. On the appointment of Lord Effingham to the government of Virginia, in 1683, he was ordered, agreeably to the prayer of Sir William Berkeley, " to allow no person to use a printing press on any occasion whatever."

The erect port, and firm tone, of the legislature of the infant Massachusetts, not only filled the cabinet of Charles II. with alarm for the metropolitan sovereignty, but actually overawed them, so as to prevent the measvires of repression which would otherwise have been pursued ; and to maintain the province in the license of action necessary for its prosperity. Curious and remarkable evidence on these heads is extant in the Me-

Political Annals of the United Colonies, chap. 15.

POLITICAL kXD

moirs of Evelyn,* who was one of the council of Charles II. His language deserves to- be quoted.

"The 6th of May, 1670, I went to council, where was produced a most exact and ample information of the state of Jamaica, and of the best expe^ dients as to JVInu England, on which There was a long debate ; but at length 'twas concluded that if an)', it should be only a conciliating' paper at first, or civil letter, till we had better information of ye present face of thinsfs, since ■we understood tlietf -were a people almost upon the very brink of renouncing any dependence on ij^ croivn.'" — Vol. i. p. 415.

"The first thing we did at our next meeting, was to settle the form of a circular letter to the governors of all his Majesty's plantations and territo- ?'ies in the West Indies and Islands thereof, to give tliem notice to whom they should apply themselves on all occasions, and to render us an account of their present state and government, but what -re most insisted upon luas, to know the condition of JVeiv England, which appearing to be nery independent a& to their rei^ard to Old England, or his ^Majesty, rich and strong as they now were, there were great debates in what style to wi-ite to them ; for the condition of that colony was such, that they were able to contest with all other plantations about tlicm, and there was fear of their breaking from all dependence on this nation.''^ — Ibid.