An Humble Address and Earnest Appeal to Those Respectable Personages in Great-Britain and Ireland, Who, by Their Great and Permanent Interest in Landed Property, Their Liberal Education, Elevated Rank, and Enlarged Views, Are the Ablest to...

Excerpt

My Lords and Gentlemen,

hough the Author of the ensuing Tract may be below your Notice, as an Individual, yet the Subject he treats upon, highly deserves your most serious Attention. In the present unhappy Disputes between the Parent-State and the Colonies, he undertakes to point out, what Measures the Landed-Interest of Great-Britain and Ireland ought to pursue in future, for the Sake of themselves and their Posterity. And if what he has to offer, should, after a due Examination, be found to be reasonable, solid, and satisfactory, he relies so much on your own good Sense and Judgment, as to believe, that you will not reject his Plan, merely because it originated from an inferior Hand. This is all the Favour he asks, or expects from you.

Upon this Subject, he waves the Consideration of every Thing, which might have a Tendency to keep the present Question out of Sight. Great-Britain and her Colonies are now at open War. This is the Fact. But if it should be asked, How these Things came to pass? From what Causes did they spring? Which are the real, and which are the apparent Motives in this Controversy? Moreover, who were originally and principally to blame? And what Methods ought to have been taken at first, in order to have prevented Matters from coming to their present Height?—The Author having already given his Sentiments on each of these Heads in his 3d, 4th, and 5th preceding Tracts, and also in his Letter to Mr. Burke, will not here repeat the same Things.—The grand Object now before him is simply this; Great Britain and her Colonies are at open War: And the proper and important Question arising from such a Fact is the following, What is to be done at the present Crisis?

Three Schemes have been proposed;—the Parliamentary,—Mr. Burke’s,—and my own.

The Parliamentary Scheme is,—To maintain vi et armis the Supremacy of the Mother-Country over her Colonies, in as full and ample a Manner, as over any Part of the British Dominions.

Mr. Burke’s is, [tho’ not in express Words] To resign or relinquish the Power of the British Parliament over the Colonies, and to erect each Provincial Assembly into an independent American Parliament;—subject nevertheless to the King of Great-Britain, with his usual Prerogatives:—For which Favour of acknowledging the same Sovereign, the Colonists are to be complimented with the most precious Rights, Privileges, and Advantages of British Subjects:—I say, complimented, and complimented even gratuitously:—For as to their contributing any Proportion, either of Men or Money, towards the public Expence, and in Return for those Favours—All this is to be entirely left to their own innate Goodness and Generosity, to do just as they please.

My Scheme [which Mr. Burke, in his last Speech of March 22, 1775, is pleased to term a childish one] is,—To separate totally from the Colonies, and to reject them from being Fellow-Members, and joint Partakers with us in the Privileges and Advantages of the British Empire; because they refuse to submit to the Authority and Jurisdiction of the British Legislature:—Offering at the same Time to enter into Alliances of Friendship, and Treaties of Commerce with them, as with any other sovereign, independent States....