ocent and deserving ushered
to an untimely grave. The cruel and unmerited usage given to the Duke of
Argyle, in that reign, cannot be justified or excused. No language can
paint the horrors of this transaction; description falters on her way,
and, lost in the labyrinth of sympathy and wo, is unable to perform the
duties of her function. This unhappy nobleman had always professed
himself an advocate for the Government under which he lived, and a
friend to the reigning monarch. Whenever he deviated from these
principles, it must have been owing to the strong impulses of honor, and
the regard he bore to the rights of his fellow-creatures. 'It were
endless, as well as shocking, (says an elegant writer,) to enumerate all
the instances of persecution, or, in other words, of absurd tyranny,
which at this time prevailed in Scotland. Even women were thought proper
objects on whom they might exercise their ferocious and wanton
dispositions; and three of that sex, for refusing to sign some test
drawn up by tools of Administration, were devoted, without the solemnity
of a trial, to a lingering and painful death.'

I wish, for the sake of humanity in general and the royal family in
particular, that I could throw a veil over the conduct of the Duke of
Cumberland after the last rebellion. The indiscriminate punishments
which he held out equally to the innocent and the guilty, are facts of
notoriety much to be lamented. The intention may possibly, in some
measure, excuse, though nothing can justify the barbarity of the
measure.

Let us, then, my countrymen, place our chief dependence on our virtue,
and, by opposing the standard of despotism on its first appearance,
secure ourselves against those acts in which a contrary conduct will
undoubtedly plunge us. I will venture to say, that there is no American
so unreasonable as even to wish you to take the field against your
friends from the other side of the Atlantick. All they expect or desire
from you is, to remain neutral, and to contribute your proportion of the
expenses of the war. This will be sufficient testimony of your
attachment to the cause they espouse. As you participate of the
blessings of the soil, it is but reasonable that you should bear a
proportionate part of the disadvantages attending it.

To the virtuous and deserving among the Americans, nothing can be more
disagreeable than national reflections; they are, and must be, in the
eyes of every judicious man, odious and