business has been made by trampling on some maxim of justice or some capital principle of wise government.  What precedents were established, and what principles overturned, (I will not say of English privilege, but of general justice,) in the Boston Port, the Massachusetts Charter, the Military Bill, and all that long array of hostile acts of Parliament by which the war with America has been begun and supported!  Had the principles of any of these acts been first exerted on English ground, they would probably have expired as soon as they touched it.  But by being removed from our persons, they have rooted in our laws, and the latest posterity will taste the fruits of them.

Nor is it the worst effect of this unnatural contention, that our laws are corrupted.  Whilst manners remain entire, they will correct the vices of law, and soften it at length to their own temper.  But we have to lament that in most of the late proceedings we see very few traces of that generosity, humanity, and dignity of mind, which formerly characterized this nation.  War suspends the rules of moral obligation, and what is long suspended is in danger of being totally abrogated.  Civil wars strike deepest of all into the manners of the people.  They vitiate their politics; they corrupt their morals; they pervert even the natural taste and relish of equity and justice.  By teaching us to consider our fellow-citizens in an hostile light, the whole body of our nation becomes gradually less dear to us.  The very names of affection and kindred, which were the bond of charity whilst we agreed, become new incentives to hatred and rage when the communion of our country is dissolved.  We may flatter ourselves that we shall not fall into this misfortune.  But we have no charter of exemption, that I know of, from the ordinary frailties of our nature.

What but that blindness of heart which arises from the frenzy of civil contention could have made any persons conceive the present situation of the British affairs as an object of triumph to themselves or of congratulation to their sovereign?  Nothing surely could be more lamentable to those who remember the flourishing days of this kingdom than to see the insane joy of several unhappy people, amidst the sad spectacle which our affairs and conduct exhibit to the scorn of Europe.  We behold (and it seems some people rejoice in beholding) our native land, which used to sit the envied arbiter of all her neighbors, reduced to a servile dependence on their mercy,—­acquiescing in assurances of friendship which she does not trust,—­complaining of hostilities which she dares not resent,—­deficient to her allies, lofty to her subjects, and submissive to her enemies,—­whilst the liberal government of this free nation is supported by the hireling sword of German boors and vassals, and three millions of the subjects of Great Britain are seeking for protection to English privileges in the arms of France!