[First part of passage missing; defence, and for raising among themselves by common Taxes such Sums as would be necessary for defraying the Expence. This Plan of Union, was sent to Government here, that if approv’d it might be carried into Execution. It was not approv’d; whether from a Jealousy that such an Union might make the Colonies in some degree formidable to the Mother Country as well as to the Enemy, or from what other good Reasons, I will not pretend to conjecture. It was however thought better to send Troops from hence, and they were sent accordingly, at first a few only, but many more afterwards than were either originally intended here or desired there, at an immense Expence to this Nation, which in my Opinion, and that of many Americans, might well have been spared; a Fleet only, to favour the Operations of an American Land Force under such Union, and prevent Troops and Succours from France to Canada, being perhaps what alone was truly necessary. And yet, however great this Expence, as the War ended in the Reduction of Canada, and Cession to Britain of all the vast Country northward, southward, and westward to the Missisipi, wherein she may from time to time plant more Colonies out of the vast Increase of the present, thereby extending her Empire in the most natural Ma[nner] and with it her Strength by Sea and Land, [torn] by Commerce and an ever-craving Demand [remainder of passage missing.]

It is not my Purpose here to censure the Conduct of Ministers, whose Motives, whose Lights, Informations and Misinformations I am unacquainted with. They might intend all for the best, and yet be mistaken in the Means, as wise Men sometimes are, and wiser Men are always ready to acknowledge. They might be prejudic’d against the Colonies by the artful Misrepresentations of the Enemies of the Colonies: For Enemies the Colonies have, and bitter ones, as one may see by the rancorous Libels with which the Papers are daily fill’d against them, exciting this Country to imbrue its Hands in their Blood; and yet perhaps no People ever deserv’d Enemies less. What I shall put down therefore, as the Causes of this Change, I desire may be consider’d simply as a Relation of Facts; and I leave Censure to those who are better qualify’d to judge, and to whom it more properly belongs.

In the first Place, by posting Frigates all along the Coast, with armed Tenders and Cutters to run into every River and Creek, the Officers of which were all vested with Custom-house Powers, and who, especially those of the lower Rank, executed their Commissions with great Rudeness and Insolence, all Trade and Commerce, even the most legal, between Colony and Colony, was harass’d, vex’d and interrupted, by perpetual Stoppings of Boats, Rummagings and Searchings, Unladings and Detainings, on trifling Occasions, and Seizures of Vessels on the slightest Omission or Irregularity of Papers, &c. extorting Compositions by terryfying the Owners with carrying the Vessels seized on Suspicion to Halifax, in which remote Place the great Court of Admiralty was es-tablish’d.2º. The Exacting rigorously at the same time a too heavy Duty on foreign Mellasses, an Article which our own Islands could not furnish in sufficient Quantities, and which was not only of great Consequence in the Distilleries, Fisheries and Guinea Trade, but in North America was become one of the Necessaries of Life, being the common Sweetning used in the Food of the poorer Sort, and universally a principal Ingredient in their common Beer, gave also a general Dissatisfaction. 3º The Trade too, which had been carried on with the foreign Plantations, (whence Money, and Commodities that being carried to Europe might be turned into Money, were usually procured, to discharge the Ballances continually growing due in England) was at the same time greatly embarrass’d, discourag’d and prevented, so that a Scarcity of Cash, and the Distresses such Scarcity always occasions in Trade, came on very fast. 4º. And what render’d that Scarcity of Gold and Silver less tolerable, was a new Act of Parliament, prohibiting the making any more Paper Money in the Colonies that should be a legal Tender. 5º. And then, when both Silver and Paper Money were daily diminishing, and in a Way of being totally annihilated, comes the fatal Stamp-Act, demanding a new and heavy Tax; and this laid on by the very Power that had in a great degree taken away the means of paying any Tax at all; while every Province was groaning under the Weight of Taxes laid by its own Assemblies to discharge the Debts left by the last War.6º. This Act too was render’d the more galling, by its taking away Trials by Juries for all Offences against it, and [One page of the manuscript missing] it might take when it pleas’d the other nineteen so that in fact they had then nothing they could call their own. It was now that they recollected all the former Hardships imposed on them, which their Respect for the Mother Country had induc’d them to bear in Silence. The numerous and perplex’d Restraints on their Trade, many of them requiring Labour in vain, and Expence to no purpose. The Restraints on their Manufactures, those very few that their Situation and particular Circumstances gave them some Opportunity of carrying on to Advantage: The Emptying by Law all the Goals of this Country into their Settlements; an Instance of sovereign cruel Insolence unexampled, with which no Nation before had ever treated even a Country they had conquer’d, made if possible still more grievous by that barbarous Sarcasm in a solemn Report of the Bo—d of T—e, on a Plantation Act intended to prevent the Importation of Convicts, “that the Act for transporting them was necessary for the Better Peopling of his Majesty’s Colonies!” And now while their Minds were in this disturbed State, came among them numberless ministerial Pamphlets and Papers printed here, arguing away all their Rights by the most sophistical Reasoning representing them in the most odious Lights, and treating them and their Pretensions to English Liberty with the utmost Contempt; one of those Pieces, too, said to be written by a Person in high Office, with much Wit indeed, but which a little more Wit would have induc’d him rather to suppress. Let any sensible considerate Englishman put himself but for a Moment in this Situation of these People, and attend to his own Feelings, I am persuaded he will find himself dispos’d to pity (even while he blames) the Distractions and Extravagancies this Situation and these Apprehensions drove them into.

But why should it be thought strange that the Governing People here are usually prejudic’d against the Colonies? Much has been said of a virtual Representation, which the Colonies are suppos’d to have here. Of that I understand nothing. But I know what kind of actual Representation is continually made of them, by those from whom Ministers chiefly have their Information. Governors and other Officers of the Crown, even the little Officers of the Revenue sent from hence, have all at times some Account to give of their own loyal and faithful Conduct, with which they mix some contrary Character of the People that tends to place that Conduct in a more advantageous Light. Every good thing done there in the Assemblies, for promoting his Majesty’s Service, was obtained by the Governor’s Influence; he propos’d; he urg’d strongly; he manag’d Parties; there was great Opposition; the Assembly were refractory, and disaffected; but his Zeal and Dexterity overcame all Difficulties. And if thro’ his own Imprudence, or real Want of Capacity, any thing goes wrong: he is never in fault; the Assembly and the People are to bear all the Blame; they are factious, they are turbulent, disloyal, impatient of Government, or what is the same thing, disrespectful to his Majesty’s Representative. The Custom House Officer represents the People as all inclin’d to Smuggling, Dutch and French Goods (by his Account) swarm in the Country, nothing else would be us’d if it were not for his extream Vigilance; which, indeed, as it takes up all his Time, he hopes will be considered in the Allowance of a larger Salary. Even the Missionary Clergy, to whom all Credit is due, cannot forbear acquainting the Bishops, and their other Superiors, here from whom they receive their Stipends, that they are very [dili]gent in their respective Missions, but that they meet with great difficulties from the adverse disposition of the people: Quakers oppose them in one place, Presbyterians in another: this country swarms with thwarting hereticks; t’other with malevolent secretaries: Infidelity gains ground here, Popery is countenanced there. Their unwearied endeavours, which are never wanting, scarce suffice to prevent the colonists being overwhelmed with vice, irreligion, ignorance, and error! Then the Military Officer, who has served in the colonies, represents them as abounding in wealth; the profuse tables they used to spread for him in their hospitable entertainments convinced him of it; for these he saw daily when he din’d from house to house, and therefor he had reason to imagine it was their common way of living; (though in truth that was extreamly different and much more suitable to their circumstances.) But opulent as he supposes them, they must, in his opinion, be the meanest of mortals to grudge the payment of a trifling tax, especially as it is to maintain soldiers. Thus represented, how can it be otherwise, but that the governing people in Britain should conceive the most unfavourable idea of Americans, as unworthy the name of Englishmen, and fit only to be snubb’d, curb’d, shackled and plundered.