Page:An address to the people of England, Ireland, and Scotland.djvu/32

 of human selfishness; but should you be contented to bid defiance to the warnings of common policy,—should you be contented to be slaves on the hope that the Americans will bear the greater part of the burden of your enormous taxes,—be assured, that such an alternative will never be in your power:—No;—if a civil war commences between Great-Britain and her Colonies, either the Mother Country, by one great exertion, may ruin both herself and America, or the Americans, by a lingering contest, will gain an independency; and in this case, all those advantages which you for some time have enjoyed by your Colonies, and advantages which have hitherto preserved you from a national bankruptcy, must for ever have an end; and whilst a new, a flourishing, and an extensive empire of freemen is established on the other side the Atlantic, you, with the loss of all those blessings you have received by the unrivalled state of your commerce, will be left to the bare possession of your