After all that has been written on the dispute with America, no reader can expect to be informed, in this publication, of much that he has not before known. Perhaps, however, he may find in it some new matter; and if he should, it will be chiefly in the Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty, and the Policy of the War with America.

February 8th, 1776.

PREFACE
TO
The FIFTH EDITION.

The favourable reception which the following Tract has met with, makes me abundant amends for the abuse it has brought upon me. I should be ill employed were I to take much notice of this abuse: But there is one circumstance attending it, which I cannot help just mentioning.—The principles on which I have argued form the foundation of every state as far as it is free; and are the same with those taught by Mr. Locke, and all the writers on Civil Liberty who have been hitherto most admired in this country. But I find with concern, that our Governors chuse to decline trying by them their present measures: For, in a Pamphlet which has been circulated by government with great industry, these principles are pronounced to be “unnatural and wild, incompatible with practice, and the offspring of the distempered imagination of a man who is biassed by party, and who writes to deceive.”

I must take this opportunity to add, that I love quiet too well to think of entering into a controversy with any writers; particularly, NAMELESS ones. Conscious of good intentions, and unconnected with any party, I have endeavoured to plead the cause of general liberty and justice: And happy in knowing this, I shall, in silence, commit myself to that candour of the public of which I have had so much experience.

March 12th, 1776.

CONTENTS.

Page
[PART I.]
SECT. I. Of the Nature of Liberty in general.[2]
SECT. II. Of Civil Liberty and the Principles of Government.[6]
SECT. III. Of the Authority of one Country over another.[19]
[PART II.]
SECT. I. Of the Justice of the War with America.[34]
SECT. II. Whether the War with America is justified by the Principles of the Constitution.[48]
SECT. III. Of the Policy of the War with America.[50]
SECT. IV. Of the Honour of the Nation as affected by the War with America.[87]
SECT. V. Of the Probability of succeeding in the War with America.[94]