Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/87

Rh It was not however to financial questions only that Dr. Price devoted his attention. From the beginning of the troubles with America to their end he remained the zealous friend of the Colonists. In 1775 he published his Observations on Civil Liberty, and The Justice and Policy of the War with America, in which he insisted that a free Government was one of the natural rights of civilized man. The press was unable to supply the demands for it. Application was made to him by the supporters of the American cause, for leave to publish a cheap edition, and sixty thousand copies were immediately sold. In consequence of this publication the freedom of the City of London was presented to him by the Aldermen and Common Council, "as a testimony of their approbation of his principles, and of the high sense which they entertained of the excellence of his observations on the justice and policy of the war with America." On the other hand he became the victim of the attacks of every pamphleteer in the employment of the Government, and not of them only, but also of Dr. Markham the Archbishop of York, of Wesley, and of Burke, who all found a common ground in attacking the doctrine that mankind had or could have natural rights, and joined the Shebbeares, the Macphersons, and the Linds, in the anathemas which they poured on the author. The second edition of this work expressly recommended for adoption the views lately put forward in the House of Lords by Lord Shelburne, Shortly after when the question of the profits and Parliamentary position of contractors was attracting public attention, Price in conjunction with Horne Tooke prepared a pamphlet under the title of "Facts addressed to the subjects of Great Britain and Ireland." Shelburne however for some unexplained reason objected to the publication. Dr. Price was willing to give way, but Horne Tooke refused, and published the pamphlet. This produced a rupture between him and Shelburne, which admitted of no reconciliation.

After the Lord George Gordon riots the King believed Rh