POSTSCRIPT.
In a Note at the Bottom of Page 52, (2d. Edition) of my Letter to Mr. Burke, I expressed myself in the following Manner: “The Instances which Mr. Burke has brought, [at Pages 74 and 75 of his Speech, 2d. Edit. 8vo.] to prove that the Colonies, or rather that a few out of the many Colonies, have been liberal in their Grants to Great-Britain, during the Continuance of a privateering, smuggling, trucking, and huckstering American Sea-War, in which they were sure to be the greatest Gainers, shall be particularly considered in an ensuing Treatise, An Address to the Landed Interest of Great-Britain and Ireland.”
The Minutes which I took at that Time relative to this Affair, and which I intended to have inserted in the Body of this Treatise, were the following, that the leading Men in the Government of the Province of Massachusets, had, some Time before their famous Expedition against Cape Breton, been guilty of certain Mal-Practices in the Administration of public Affairs, for which they were in Danger of being called to an Account. That in order to divert the Storm, and to throw a Barrel to the Whale, they projected the Plan of an Expedition, knowing the Temper of the English, and their Rage for Conquests. Therefore, hearing that the Fortifications of Cape Breton were very ruinous, and the Garrison both weak and mutinous for Want of Pay, Cloathing, and Provisions, they bent their Forces against this Place. The Scheme succeeded, and Cape Breton was yielded up; but the Joy of the English Nation knew no Bounds: For the People, from the highest to the lowest, were so intoxicated with Notions of the Importance of this Port, [tho’ now it is evident, that it is a very useless one if compared with others] that they forgot every other Idea in the general Transport; so that the Planners and Conductors of the Expedition, instead of their being called to an Account for their former Misdemeanors, found themselves caressed and applauded by the whole Nation; and to crown all, the Parliament itself voted a prodigious Sum of Money to reimburse the New-Englanders for their Expences, and their Services in this glorious Work.
This, I say, or to this Effect, was the Account which I received;—and which I believe in my own Mind, will be found to be for the most Part very true, when it can be very thoroughly examined into. But as I have been hurried, by the early Meeting of Parliament, to publish the present Treatise at least three Months sooner than intended, I cannot at present authenticate Facts and Dates in the Manner I wish to do, in an Affair of such Importance. Therefore I give this public Notice, that I build nothing on the present Narration; and I only offer it (because not corroborated by sufficient Evidence) as a probable Case, and as my own Opinion.
Indeed I have a particular Reason for acting in this cautious Manner; seeing that I have suffered already by making a Slip in an Affair of this Nature, which in any other Cause or Controversy, would have been reckoned to be a very venial one. The Case was this: In the First Edition of my Fourth Tract, I had accused Dr. Franklin with having acted a very disingenuous Part, in opposing and denying the Authority of the British Parliament, to lay a Tax [the Stamp-Duty] on America, when he himself had solicited to be employed as an Agent in the Collection of that very Tax. In Letters which passed between us, he denied the Charge, asserting first, that he did not make Interest for a Place in the Stamp-Office, ’till the Bill was passed into a Law;—And 2dly. that the Place, for which he asked, was not for himself, but for a Friend, one Mr. Hughes, who was accordingly appointed by Mr. Grenville. Now in Consequence of this Information, I omitted in the next Edition, the whole Paragraph, and said nothing, either pro, or con, particularly relative to Dr. Franklin. And surely, every Thing considered, and the faux pas of Dr. Franklin concerning the stolen Papers of Mr. Wheatley duly weighed, one would have thought, that I had made Satisfaction fully sufficient to almost any Man in such a Case, whose Pretensions to nice Honour might have been much better founded than those of Dr. Franklin. But it seems, I was mistaken: For before he left England, I was called on in Print, to make Reparation to his much injured Character: And in his Absence, his Agents and Confederates, the Monthly Reviewers, have done the same.
Here therefore, I appeal to the Public, whether I have not advanced as far already in this Affair, as there was need for me to have done, supposing even (which is supposing a great deal) that every Thing which Dr. Franklin said was strictly true: For granting that he did not solicit for that Place in particular, yet it is a most undeniable Fact, that at the very Instant when he was declaiming at the Bar of the House of Commons, against the Authority of Parliament, he himself was an American Revenue Officer, in a very lucrative Post, created by parliamentary Authority: He was a Post-Master General in North-America; and the Tax, which he collected, and for which he was accountable, was an internal, as well as external Tax. So that in short, in every, or in any Light, his Conduct was not of the spotless Kind; nor was my Accusation of Disingenuity against him the less true, whether he had solicited a Place in the Stamp-Office, or not.
While I am writing this,—a Paragraph, cut out of a News-Paper, and dated from Salisbury, October 15, is laid before me, which I am positively told, is reckoned to be UNANSWERABLE. Now I have known so many of these Unanswerables to shrink to nothing, when examined with any due Care and Attention, that I own I am not much frightened at the Appearance of this new American Goliah. However, let us approach this formidable Champion a little nearer.
“The Americans, says the News-Writer, in their Addresses to the Public, urge as a Reason against Parliamentary Taxation, the great Disadvantages they incur by submitting to such numerous Restrictions in Trade, which they deem a Burden equal to, if not greater than Taxation: And they also estimate, that that Mode of contributing to the Support of the English Nation, is, upon the whole, more beneficial than if they were to pay their Share by being equally taxed with the Subjects of the Mother Country: But to be obliged to submit to those numerous Restraints in Trade, and at the same Time to be subject to a parliamentary Taxation, they think is the highest Degree of Oppression.
“The Irish submit to parliamentary Restraints in Trade; but then, in return, they are exempted from Taxation. Why then should the Americans be burdened with both, in similar Circumstances?”
Here the whole Matter of Complaint is reduced to two Heads; First, That the Americans by being restrained in their Trade, are thereby in Effect taxed, and therefore ought not be taxed a second Time: