Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/479

No. 158] have authority over a single regiment in America, or a single ship of war in our ports ; for if he holds our forts, he may turn them against us, as he did Boston against her proprietors. If he acquires our cannon, he will effectually disarm the colony ; if he has a command of troops among us, even if we raise and pay them, shackles are fixed upon — us witness Ireland and her national army. The most express act of parliament cannot give us security ; for acts of parliament are as easily repealed as made. Royal proclamations are not to be depended — upon witness the disappointments of the inhabitants of Quebec and St. Augustine. Even a change of ministry will not avail us ; because, notwithstanding the rapid succession of ministers, for which the British court has been famous during the present reign, yet the same ruinous policy ever continued to prevail against America. In short, I think it my duty to declare, in the awful seat of justice, and before Almighty God, that in my opinion, the Americans can have no safety but by the divine favour, their own virtue, and their being so prudent, as not to leave it in the power of the British rulers to injure them. Indeed, the ruinous and deadly injuries received on our side ; and the jealousies entertained, and which, in the nature of things, must daily encrease against us on the other ; demonstrate to a mind in the least given to reflection, upon the rise and fall of empires, that true reconcilement never can exist between Great Britain and America, the latter being in subjection to the former. The Almighty created America to be independent of Britain — Let us beware of the impiety of being backward to act as instruments in the Almighty hand, now extended to accomplish his purpose ; and by the completion of which alone, America, in the nature of human affairs, can be secure against the craft and insidious designs of her enemies, who think her prosperity and power already by far too great. In a word, our piety and political safety are so blended, that to refuse our labours in this divine work, is to refuse to be a great, a free, a pious, and a happy people !



158. An Obstinate Guelph (1777-1778) BY KING GEORGE THIRD