Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/390

 382 populous, that on the most modest calculation, His Majesty has four hundred thousand men on this continent capable of bearing arms, hardy and robust, and ready, whenever called upon, to sacrifice life and fortune in his service and their country's cause. This strength wisely directed, would be justly formidable to France. But, it is our common misfortune, that there is no mutual dependence, no close connection between these several colonies; they are quite disunited by separate views and distinct interests; and like a bold and rapid river, which, though resistless when included in one channel, is yet easily resistible when subdivided into several inferior streams and currents. The Indians, though not very polite, are politic enough to observe this defect in our polity, and honest enough to tell us that we resemble a chain of sand. A remedy for this evil, though obvious and practicable, and recommended seriously by several of His Majesty's governors here, the great men on your side of the water have not thought proper to apply, from a principle in politics, which we on this side of it think more obvious than wise or just.

The colonies, sensible of the manifest disadvantages of their present unconnected state, have long wished for a coalition by means of a General Council formed by a certain number of deputies from each colony, to be presided over by a person commissioned by His Majesty to act as his representative. By this means, the whole strength of his subjects here (who, except a small intermixture of papists, and some natives of the northern part of your island, are behind none of their fellow-subjects in loyalty) might be easily and successfully exerted against any of the enemies of Great Britain in this quarter of the world. Though we are numerous, we are poor, and unable to raise