To have stated these reasonings is enough, I presume, to do their business.  But they are accompanied with facts and records, which may seem of a little more weight.  I trust, however, that the facts of this author will be as far from bearing the touchstone, as his arguments.  On a little inquiry, they will be found as great an imposition as the successes they are meant to depreciate; for they are all either false or fallaciously applied; or not in the least to the purpose for which they are produced.

First the author, in order to support his favorite paradox, that our possession of the French colonies was of no detriment to France, has thought proper to inform us, that[42] “they put themselves into the hands of the English.”  He uses the same assertion, in nearly the same words, in another place;[43] “her colonies had put themselves into our hands.”  Now, in justice, not only to fact and common sense, but to the incomparable valor and perseverance of our military and naval forces thus unhandsomely traduced, I must tell this author, that the French colonies did not “put themselves into the hands of the English.”  They were compelled to submit; they were subdued by dint of English valor.  Will the five years’ war carried on in Canada, in which fell one of the principal hopes of this nation, and all the battles lost and gained during that anxious period, convince this author of his mistake?  Let him inquire of Sir Jeffery Amherst, under whose conduct that war was carried on; of Sir Charles Saunders, whose steadiness and presence of mind saved our fleet, and were so eminently serviceable in the whole course of the siege of Quebec; of General Monckton, who was shot through the body there, whether France “put her colonies into the hands of the English.”

Though he has made no exception, yet I would be liberal to him; perhaps he means to confine himself to her colonies in the West Indies.  But surely it will fare as ill with him there as in North America, whilst we remember that in our first attempt at Martinico we were actually defeated; that it was three months before we reduced Guadaloupe; and that the conquest of the Havannah was achieved by the highest conduct, aided by circumstances of the greatest good fortune.  He knows the expense both of men and treasure at which we bought that place.  However, if it had so pleased the peacemakers, it was no dear purchase; for it was decisive of the fortune of the war and the terms of the treaty:  the Duke of Nivernois thought so; France, England, Europe, considered it in that light; all the world, except the then friends of the then ministry, who wept for our victories, and were in haste to get rid of the burden of our conquests.  This author knows that France did not put those colonies into the hands of England; but he well knows who did put the most valuable of them into the hands of France.