Page:An Oration Delivered April 2d, 1771.djvu/12

Rh her legal right over this province", yet we must assert it. Those I have named are mighty characters, but they wanted one advantage providence has given us. The beam is carried off from our eyes by the flowing blood of our fellow citizens, and now we may be allowed to attempt to remove the mote from the eyes of our exalted patrons. That mote, we think, is nothing but our obligation to England first, and afterwards Great-Britain, for constant kind protection of our lives and birthrights against foreign danger. We all acknowledge that protection.

Let us once more look into the early history of this province. We find that our English Ancestors disgusted in their native country at a Legislation, which they saw was sacrificing all their rights, left its Jurisdiction, and sought, like wandering birds of passage, some happier climate. Here at length they settled down. The King of England was said to be the royal landlord of this territory; with