than probable, that it will followed by a revolt somewhere or other,
the consequences of which may be far more fatal than all the malice
of Britain.

Thousands are already ruined by British barbarity; (thousands more
will probably suffer the same fate.) Those men have other feelings
than us who have nothing suffered. All they NOW possess is liberty,
what they before enjoyed is sacrificed to its service, and having
nothing more to lose, they disdain submission. Besides, the general
temper of the colonies, towards a British government, will be like
that of a youth, who is nearly out of his time; they will care very
little about her. And a government which cannot preserve the peace,
is no government at all, and in that case we pay our money for
nothing; and pray what is it that Britain can do, whose power will be
wholly on paper, should a civil tumult break out the very day after
reconciliation? I have heard some men say, many of whom I believe
spoke without thinking, that they dreaded an independance, fearing
that it would produce civil wars. It is but seldom that our first
thoughts are truly correct, and that is the case here; for there are
ten times more to dread from a patched up connexion than from
independance. I make the sufferers case my own, and I protest, that
were I driven from house and home, my property destroyed, and my
circumstances ruined, that as a man, sensible of injuries, I could
never relish the doctrine of reconciliation, or consider myself bound
thereby.

The colonies have manifested such a spirit of good order and
obedience to continental government, as is sufficient to make every
reasonable person easy and happy on that head. No man can assign the
least pretence for his fears, on any other grounds, that such as are
truly childish and ridiculous, viz. that one colony will be striving
for superiority over another.

Where there are no distinctions there can be no superiority,
perfect equality affords no temptation. The republics of Europe are
all (and we may say always) in peace. Holland and Swisserland are
without wars, foreign or domestic: Monarchical governments, it is
true, are never long at rest; the crown itself is a temptation to
enterprizing ruffians at HOME; and that degree of pride and
insolence ever attendant on regal authority, swells into a rupture
with foreign powers, in instances, where a republican government, by
being formed on more natural principles, would negotiate the mistake.