Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/475

 APPENDIX. 463

fronTthe fuccefs of this enterprize againft Louifbourg. Britain, which had In fome inftances behaved like a ftepmother to her own colonies, was now convinced of their importance ; and treated thofe as brethren whom Ihe had too long confidered as aliens and rivals. Circumftanced as the nation is, the tegidature cannot too tenderly cherifti the interefts of the Britim plantations inr America. They are inhabited by a brave, hardy, induftrious people, ani mated with an active fpirit of commerce, infpired with a noble zeal for li berty and independence. The trade of Great-Britain, clogged with heavy 1 taxes and impofitions-,- has for fome time languished in many valuable- branches. The French have underfold our cloths, and fpoiled our markets in the tievant. Spain is no longer fupplied as ufual with the com modities of England : the exports to Germany muft be confiderably dimi- niftied by the mifunderftanding between Great Britain and the houfeof Au- ftria ;* confequently her greateft refource muft be in her communication? \vithherown colonies, which confume her manufactures, and make im- rnenfe returns in fugar, rum, tobacco, fifty tirrrber, naval ftores, iron, furs, drugs, rice, and indigo. The fouthern plantations likewife produce filk ; and with due encouragement mfght furnifh every thing that could be expected' from the moft fertile foil and the happieft climate. The continent of North America, if properly cultivated, will prove an inexhauftible fund of wealth and ftrength to Great Britain; and perhaps it may become the laft afylum of Britifh liberty, when the nation is enflaved by domeftic defpotifm or foreign dominion; when her fubftance is wafted, her fpirit broke, and the laws and conftitution of England are no more : then thofe colonies fcnt off' by our fathers may receive and entertain their fons as' haplefs exiles and ruined refugees*." ~

Evil-minded writers depreciate thofe Americans moft, who ftand moft' in their way. Could their enemies fubjugate them, they might then put their hands in th'eir pockets with impunity, ufe fcorpion-whips on their backs at plea fu re, and eftablifh the moft delicious part of the Jewifli law, uthesj through the whole continent.

The prefent Quixote fcheme evidently feems to fetter the Britifli American^ at all events, and force them to pay for their fetters; to compel them to main tain a great body of. imperious red coats to rule over them, after the man ner of the miferable fons of Hibernia, without allowing them any militia, * even- -on- -their barriers :- otherwife our rulers think that, about twenty

years

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