OCR Text |
Show [68] [69] they have arms in their hands. Notwithltanding which, " 7thly. BECAUSE the impraélicability of fubjugating this country being every day more and more mamlell, it is their intereft to extricate thcmfelves from the war upon an offer is now about to be made for treaty. any terms. " THE VVICKEDNEss and INSINCERJTY oftheenerny appear from the following conhderations : " THE Committee beg leave further to obferve, That, upon a fuppofrtion the matters contained in the {aid paper will really go into the Britifh Statute Book, they ferve to " Il't. EITHER the Bill: now to be palllrd contain a di- reé't or indirect Ceffion of a part of their former Claims, or fhcw, in a Clear point of view, the weaknefs and wickednefs of the enemy. have facrificed many brave men in an unjuft quarrel. they do not. If they do, then it is acknowledged that they If they no not, then they are calculated to deceive America into terms, to which neither argument before the war, nor force fince, could procure her allent. " THEIR WEAKNESS, l H 'Oluu.., " 1ft. BECAUSE they formerly declared, not only that they had a right to bind the inhabitants of thefe States in all cafes whatfoever, but alfo that the faid inhabitants {hould aofoluto/y and unconditionally fubmit to the exercife of that right. And this fubmiihon they have endeavoured . to exact by the fword. Receding from this claim, there- fore, under the prefent eircumitances, {hews their inability to enforce it. " 2dIy. BECAUSE their Prince hath heretofore rejected the humbleft petitions of the Reprefentarives of America, praying to be conlidered as fubjec‘ts, and protected in the enjoyment of peace, liberty and fafety; and hath waged a molt cruel war againfi them, and employed the favages to butcher innocent women and children. But now the fame. Prince pretends to treat with thofe very Reprefentatives, and grant to the arms of America what he refufed to her " 2dIy. THE firlt of thefe Bill: appears, from the title, to be a declaration of the intozzziorzs of the Britilh Parliament concerning the exercife of the rig/2t of imfofllzg toys: within thefe States. Wherefore, lhould thefe States treat under the faid Bill, they would indirectly actuator/#439 that right, to obtain which acknowledgment the prefent war hath been avowedly undertaken and profccutcd on the part of Great-Britain. " 3dly. SHOULD fuch pretended right he fo vauiefced in, then, of confequence, the fame might be exercifed whenever the Britilh Parliament {hould find themfelves in a different temper and diflhoflti/m ; finee it muf't depend upon thofe, and fuch like contingencies, how far menwill act according to their former intentions. prayerr. " 4thly. THE faid firfl Bill, in the body thereof, containeth no new matter, but is precifely the fame With the " 3dly. BECAUSE they have uniformly labored to conquer this continent, rejecting every idea of accommodation propofed to them, from a confidence in their own firength. Wherefore it is evident, from the change in their mode of attack, that they have loft this confidence. And motion before-mentioned, and liable to all the objeétions which lay againlt the faid motion,‘ excepting the follow- " 4thly. BECAUSE the conflant language, fpoken not ing partieular, viz. that by tlye motion actual taxation was to be fufpended, to long as America fhould glve as much as the {aid Parliament might think proper : \Vhereas, by tlye propofrd Bill, it is to be fufpended, as long as future Parliaments continue of the fame mind With the prelent. only by their Miniflers, but by the molt public and au- thentic acts of the nation, hath been, that it is incompatible with their dignity to treat with the Americans while ‘ they " 5thly. FROM the feeond Bill it appears, that the Bri- to ‘ifll King may, if he pleafes, appoint Connmuioners treat ‘ I |