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Show (*1) S E C T. 1V. 0f 1/13 Honour of 1/96 Nation, as aflec'Zm ix} z/ye flirt with America. NE of the pleas for continuing the contel‘t with /lmgrz'm is, " That our honour is engaged; and that we cannot " recede without the molt l'turniliating conceflions." \Vith relpeé‘t to this, it is proper to oblérvc, that a diliinc~ tion lhould be made between the nation and its rulersi It is melancholy that there lhould be ever any reafon for making on a kingdom already too much dither.oure.l.~_~Let the reader think here what we are doing.---A nation, once the prOtCG tor of Liberty in cliflant countries, and the {courge oltyranny, changed into an enemy to Liberty, and engaged in endeavour. ing to reduce to fervitude its own brethren.---A great art", enlightened nation, tot content with a controuling power over millions of people which gave it every reafonable advantage, infifiing upon luch a fupremacy over them as would leave them nothing they could call their own, and carrying defolation and death among them for difputing inn-What can be more ignominious ?-- How have we felt for the brave Cr)"- l‘uch a diliinction. A government is, or ought to be, nothing fmm, in their ltruggle with the Gator/2*, and afterwards with but an inltitution For collecting and for carrying into execua tion the will of the people. But {O far is this from being in. knife of the people, are fometimes in direct oppolition to one. the From/y government? Did GENOA or FRANCE want more than an abfolute command over their property and legil'latioz.~ or the power of binding them in all cafes whatfoever Eu" another; nor does it gflm happen that any certain conclufion (an be drawn from the one to the othcr,--~I will not pretend. to determine, whether, in the prelirnt inltance, the dilhonour The Corflmm had been fubjeé‘t to the Caner/é; but finding it difficult to keep them in fubjeétion, they CEDED them to the Frmrlnu-All lllCh celfions of one people to another are dil~ general the no, that the meafures of government, and the attending a retreat would belong to the nation at large, or only graceful to human nature. But if our claims are jull, may not we alfo, it‘we pleafe, CEDE the Colonies to Frame E----Therc to the perlons in power who guide its affairs. Let it be granted, though, probably far from true, that the majority of the kingdom avour the prefent meafures. No good argument could be drawn from hence againl't receding. The dilgrace to which a kingdom mul‘c fubmit by making conce‘llions, is nothing to that of being the aggrefl‘ors in an uhrighteous guarrel ; and dignity, in fuch circumflances, confilis in retracting freely, fpeedily, and magnanimoufly.---lt‘or, (to adopt, on this) occalion, words which I have heard applied to this very putt pole, in a great afl'embly, by a peer to whom this kingdom has often looked as its deliverer, and whole ill {late of health at this awful moment of public danger every friend to Britain mull deplore) to adopt, I fay, the words of this great man---" RECTITUDE IS DIGNITY. OPPRESSION ONLY [:5 " MEANNESS ; AND jUSTICE, HONOUR." I will add, that PRUDENCE, no let's than HONOUR, requires us to retract. For the time may come when , ifit is not done voluntarily, we may be oélz'ged to do it ; and find ourfelves under 3. neceflity of granting that to our dil'trelfes. which we now deny to equity and humanity, and the prayers offlmerz'ca. The poflibility of this appears plainly from the precedino paces; and {hould it happen, it will bring upon 1117 difgraee lno‘beedfdifl grace greater than the wortt rancour can wilht'i) the acc'tvnu'uitegi is, in truth, no other difference between thcfe two cafes than that the Uniform were not defcended from the people who governed them, but that the zi'mcriiam are. There are eme who feem to be (edible, that the authority of one country over another, cannot be diilinguilhed Fromrtlw: ferritude of one country to another; and that unlels different communities, as well as different parts of the fame community, are united by an equal reprefentation, all lush authority is inconhllent with the principles of Civil Liberty. But they except the cafe of the Colonies and Great-Britain; becaufe the Colonies are communities which ranched forth from. and which therefore, as they think, belong to Britain. Had the Colonies been communities of foreigners, over whomwe wanted to acquire dominion, or even to extend a dorniinou. before aetiuired, they are ready to admit that their refillance would have been jufl'.----In my opinion, this i the fame with iiiying, that the Colonies ought to be worfc ofr than the relt oi mar. kind, becaule they are our own Brrtl‘rflz. . / Again. The United l'r0vinces of Ila/Ami were once halite-cl to the Spmzyzv monarchy; but, provoked by the 710th?th of their charters; by levies of money, without their content ‘ in" the introduction of Spanilh troops among them; ly l!l!!0'.‘?.v ‘ 0ft ‘ 2 tLC‘L |