[41] A quarter of the inhabitants of every country are fighting men.—If, therefore, the Colonies consist only of two millions of inhabitants, the number of fighting men in them will be half a million.
[42] See the Appendix to Dr. Zubly’s Sermon, preached at the opening of the Provincial Congress of Georgia.
[43] The apprehensions here expressed have been verified by the events which have happened since this was written. American privateers have spread themselves over the Atlantick. They have frightened us even on our own coasts, and seized millions of British property.
[44] “I have no other notion of slavery, but being bound by a law to which I do not consent.” See the case of Ireland’s being bound by acts of Parliament in England, stated by William Molyneux, Esq; Dublin.—In arguing against the authority of Communities, and all people not incorporated, over one another; I have confined my views to taxation and internal legislation. Mr. Molyneux carried his views much farther; and denied the right of England to make any laws even to regulate the trade of Ireland. He was the intimate friend of Mr. Locke; and writ his book in 1698, soon after the publication of Mr. Locke’s Treatise on Government.
[45] See on this subject the second Section of the second Part of the next Tract, [Page 77].
[46] Some persons, convinced of the folly as well as barbarity of attempting to keep the Colonies by slaughtering them, have very humanely proposed giving them up. But the highest authority has informed us, with great reason, “That they are too important to be given up.”—Dr. Tucker has insisted on the depopulation, produced by migrations from this country to the Colonies, as a reason for this measure. But, unless the kingdom is made a prison to its inhabitants, these migrations cannot be prevented; nor do I think that they have any great tendency to produce depopulation. When a number of people quit a country, there is more employment and greater plenty of the means of subsistence left for those who remain; and the vacancy is soon filled up. The grand causes of depopulation are, not migrations, or even famines and plagues, or any other temporary evils; but the permanent and slowly working evils of debauchery, luxury, high taxes, and oppression.
[47] See the Resolutions on the Nova-Scotia petition reported to the House of Commons, November 29, 1775, by Lord North, Lord George Germaine, &c. and a bill ordered to be brought in upon the said Resolutions.—There is indeed, as Lord Shelburne has hinted, something very astonishing in these Resolutions. They offer a relaxation of the authority of this country, in points to which the Colonies have always consented, and by which we are great gainers; at the same time, that, with a rigour which hazards the Empire, we are maintaining its authority in points to which they will never consent; and by which nothing can be gained.
ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS
On the Nature and Value of
CIVIL LIBERTY,
AND THE
WAR with AMERICA:
ALSO
Observations on Schemes for raising Money
by Public Loans;
An Historical Deduction and Analysis of the
National Debt;
And a brief Account of the Debts and Resources
of France.