voidable difficulties, which your own inabilities, and thofe of your affociates, have already plunged you into; and tơ caufe fuch intemperance, which you flatter yourself may precipitate wifer men into the moft unpopular and moft dangerous courfes your may be mistaken in this; for there are yet men, whose wisdom, abilities, and experience, and whofe firmnefs have been tried, who, if applied to in time, and if well affured of fupport, will yet difperfe the clouds which you have raised; men, who have never waver ed an inftant in their opinion of that duty and obedience, which was due from the colonies to the mother-country; and the propriety, and indeed neceffity, there was, in America's contributing, in fome degree, towards the relief of England, that was involved in fuch a debt for their fecurity and profperity; men, who would have carried those wife and falutary measures, originally planned, into execution, had not thofe former friends and affociates of your - (whom you have fince deserted) used every art to flir up the colonies to a refiflance: and even thofe arts would have failed, had there not been means found out here, unfortunately to withdraw the favor and fupport of the cl-t from that able minifier who then prefided.

I know, my l, there are thofe now among you, who are friends to fevere counfels, and who will alledge, that it is an eafy matter to harangue upon lenity; but the practice is not fo lafe, where the fubordination of our colonies is at stake; and that to forgive, is to encourage; that the fecurity of the government depends upon a refolute and vigorous conduct; not to be awed by fear, nor to be moved by compaffion; and that not to punish and make examples of the leaders, would argue timidity, o, at beft, too much remifsness. But however plaufible thefe arguments may be; how ever fuited to the temper and difpofition of thofe violent, unthinking heads, yet I doubt the effects would not prove what thofe gentlemen might flatter themfelves with; for the spirit of this refiftance has been fo encouraged by fome, whom I have no occafion to mention here; and lefs fo, to name to your; and fuch pains taken by the underlings,

to

to spread it thro' all the provinces of America, where it has fo mixed with the mass of the people, that I should apprehend all violent and bloody measures will but exasperate, and not extinguifh, as things now are; and those very men were the principal feducers to draw the colonies into their error and disobedience; and who have not only infected them with a degree of contempt for that very authority which you now would avail yourself of, but also with a particular hatred to one fett of gentlemen, whofe fteady conduct and principles, have not only proved them the true friends of this country, but manifeftly made it apparent, they are the only men that can at last be looked up to, and fought out, for their affiftance. I will acknowledge, and, in fome degree, allow, that there might be too great a ftoicism or contempt for American popularity in that very able minifter, who (like a true Englishman, and an honest one too) would have made them contribute at least towards their own expences, when he proposed that very Stamp-Act which the k- and pt approved and at the fame time, I believe his reason for not more industriously courting the vulgar applaufe of the colonifts, at the expence of this country, was the consciousness of his being right in not doing fo: it were to be wifhed he had stood as well in the opinion of that crowd, as in that of all impartial people, and all real well-wifhers to this country; nay, I wish with all my foul, He and his friends had stooped a little, ad captum vulgi, to take in thofe fluttering hearts which are to be caught by any thing baited with the name of Liberty. But perhaps the times would not admit of it, nor the fituation of things; and perhaps too, there was no way to avert the impending fate of that despicable, humbling fi-gure, we have made, ever fince that minifter was displaced; it has been as a fcourge from heaven for our pride and luxury, and the terrible fituation of our affairs at present shews it, the confufion we are in at home, the contempt we are in every where abroad, proves it. But, alas! nothing can make it more evident, than your 1 being placed in lthat chair where a Walpole and a Grenville has been feated. VOL. III.

U u

Before

Before I take my leave of you, my, I muft drop one word or two, to remind your

of another ca

pital misfortune that has happened to this country during your ad―n; which I really believe could not have fallen upon us, under any other, and which I have some doubts if you are not still ignorant of; though if you are, you are the only one in all Europe that is fo: I mean your fuffering the French to undertake the conqueft of Corfica in a time of profound peace, and robbing those brave brother iflanders of their darling liberty, which they have been so many years struggling for; and that we should admit of fo poor a pretext as a treaty of ceffion from a republic that has ever fhewn itself an enemy to the interest of these kingdoms, and who could not have more effentially proved it, than by thus pretending to give fome fanction to the allgrafping views of the aspiring house of Bourbon, who, by this conqueft, make themselves mafters of all the Mediterranean commerce, befides many other advantages. The Gencefe would never have had this opportunity to fo effentially ftab our trade and navigation, or at leaft would not have dared to have waked our vengeance, had this country, during the two laft wars, ever employed any naval commander in chief in those feas, who had the leaft knowledge of the different ftates in the Mediterranean; fuch an one could ever put an end to the daring projects of that Frenchified republic, and convince them they are more at the mercy of England at any time than of France, especially while we preferve that good and faithful ally the king of Sardinia. But, my lord, I am afraid the Genoefe find our present y as ignorant of the value and confequence of the kingdom of Corfica, as our naval commanders were of the weakness of Genoa; and I am induced to believe, that neither your, nor your very confined low Cotterie (under whofe influence you act) know any thing relative to Corfica; for I observe, in all the just attacks that have been made on your ad-n, with regard to that ifland, none of your hireling-writers have ever defended your conduct upon principles that have the leaft fhadow of reafon: I flatter myself,

m

myself, and indeed I find this important business will come before as 'tis thought, there are powerful reafons why it fhould;-French money once bought Dunkirk, why Should it not Corfica? 'Tis to be hoped this of will prove themselves the true r

of

Your

s of the people,

and not as a former one, a set of interested, bribed mercenaries, that followed every hand of power that held out the purfe, and which made them change their v accordingly, and fucceffively, to the difgrace of a British and to the scandal of the whole world. we hear, intends to make the E-I—C—y pay the civil-lift debt, inftead of making them throw in their aid to the public ;-but what will that avail, but for a fhort time to feed you and your avaricious mistress, with her dirty fett of fycophants? or, perhaps, to gratify the exorbitant demands, and filence thofe tools of the favourite, who had been turned out from time to time, as well as to fatisfy those who 'tis thought neceffary to retain in office, and make good what your has expended in their in which you have far exceeded all your predeceffors? In this, I do not really accufe your, for I do you the justice to believe you know little more of the matter, than lending and signing your name where you are bid: this fort of knowledge requires fomething more deep and solid, than that little capacity I take your to be endowed with; there are those who have managed all this for you, and have by thofe means already accumulated very confiderable fortunes at the expence of the public:-My lord, there is fcarce a clerk in the that does not cry out fhame on the profufion in one part of that office, and the neglect of all kinds in another part; and this is known to every gentleman in the city, who has unfortunately any bufinefs with that b-d.

2

In short, my, 'tis impoffible to enumerate the many diftreffes you have brought upon this diftracted country; but 'tis evident, they will overwhelm us, and plunge us into all kinds of fatal anarchy and confufion. Therefore, for your Sn's fake, for your country's fake, nav, U u 2

for

fer your own fake-quickly refign, my 1, and let us have fome able perfon to lead and direct, from whom we may have fome hopes of falvation: it is in vain to talk to the wind, or argue against men's reafon founded on facts; your is really become the most unpopular man that is now in the kingdom, and it will be impoffible for your writers to convert any man who cares what becomes of his kor his country: Your conduct in public and private, has made fuch an impreffion on the fober part of mankind, as to make them confider our present fituation and future profpect, equally melancholy and deftructive. Confider, my 1---, with whom you are affociated in the adgentlemen whose principles, whofe language, whofe conduct have been fo diametrically oppofite to yours, on every political system; you know there are not any three of you who think alike on the fame point. You know you are each of you equally folicitous to overturn the other, and glad to throw all the blame of any mifcarriage on each other. You dare not truft each other in the cl-t; that is plain, by your having now fent up for that virtuous, føber, and temperate moderator, the pious of, to be

-n;

again the go-between of this negotiation, as he has been of almost every other; to what therefore can this confufion tend only towards the total ruin of the country, the annihilating all legal authority, and the breaking up the very foundation of the ftate; and when that is compleated, new ones must be fuper-induced; for when the fundamental principles of a free state are totally changed, no matter by whom it is fo, either anarchy muft come in, and then God only knows what will follow; or else abfolute power must enfue, and then we all know what will come next. My ---, your pride, your weakness, and your avarice, prevent your feeing the precipice on which you ftand, for your — will be the immediate facrifice of all this; and happy for us, if fuch an infignificant one alone could atone and fave us.But alas! it will not; and the confequences must be to be dreaded, and not to be prevented.

I take