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Show rxii P R E F A C E. the Franc/z and Spaniard; during the Heat of the War, even to the fupplying them with Ships, and naval and military Stores, for deftroying the Trade and Shipping of the Mother Country, and even in De- fiance of Mr. Secretary PITT's circular Letter to the Governors of the Provinces, forbidding fuch an infamous Trafic, and traiterous Correfpondence. But ifI was obliged to the old Gentleman in thefe Re- fpeéts, my Argument was a Sufirerer by him in another: For tho' he admitted, that the Colonies were grown ungovernable; tho' he himfelf declared, from his own Experience, that we gave a better Price for their Iron, Hemp, Flax-Seed, Skins, Furs, Lumber, and mof't other Articles, than they could find in any other Part of Europe; and that thefe Colonif'rs tool: nothing fcarcely from us in Return, but what it was their lntereft to buy, even fuppofing them as independent of GreatBrz‘taz‘zz, as the States of Hal/(272d, or any other People; and tho' he evidently faW, that the longer the Conneétion fubfifted between the Colonies and the Mother- 1-" R E F A C E. xiii; Country, the more heavy would the Bur-v dens grow upon the latter, and the greater would be the Opportunities for the artful and defigning Men of both Countries to irritate and inflame the giddy, unthinking Populace; tho' he admitted, I fay, and allowed all thefe Premifes, he could not come at the Conclufion: For he flartled as much at the Idea of a Separation, as if he had [em a Speétre ! And the Notion of parting with the Colonies entirely, and then making Leagues of Friendlhip with. them as with to many independent State s, was too enlarged an Idea for a Mind whol ly occupied within the narrow Circle of Trade, and a Stranger to the Revolutions of States and Empires, thoroughly to comprehend, much lefs to digeft. In Confequence of this, I was obliged, as the Reader will fee towards the Conclufion, to give the Argument fuch a Turn , as exprelfed rather a cafual Threat to feparate, than a fettled Projeét of doing it. Now, to fupply this Defeét, or ra- ther to make the Conclufion to cor« Country; refpond |