Page:An address to the people of England, Ireland, and Scotland.djvu/18

 inadequately represented in the case of taxation, stand on the same predicament with yourselves, and that there is no more injustice in inflicting a severe punishment on the whole town of Boston, for the supposed offence of a few of its inhabitants, than in the bombarding a town in the possession of an enemy, when, by such an act of hostility, a few of our own people dwelling in the town might accidentally be destroyed.

This, my friends and fellow citizens, is treating you, indeed, according to to the appellations of ignorant and profligate, so freely given you; but as there are many of you, who, I trust, deserve not these severe terms of reproach, I shall appeal to that measure of understanding which the Almighty has given in common to man, and endeavour to convince you of the falsehood of these assertions.

Men who are rid of the numerous ills which narrow circumstances occasion, and