welfare. Hence their frequent errors in policy; and hence the wearinefs at public councils, and backwardness in going to them; the conftant unwillingness to engage in any measure that requires thought and confideration; and the readiness for poftponing every new propofition; Which postponing is therefore the only part of business that they come to be expert in, an expertness produced neceffarily by fo much daily practice. Whereas in America, men bred to close employment in their private affairs, attend with eafe to thofe of the public, when engaged in them, and nothing fails through negligence. 3. Refpecting frugality; the manner of living in America is more fimple and less expensive than that in England: plain tables, plain clothing, and plain furniture in houfes prevail, with few carriages of pleasure; there, an expenfive appearance hurts credit, and is avoided: in England, it is often aflumed to gain credit, and continued to ruin.Refpecting public affairs, the difference is ftill greater. In England, the falaries of officers, and emoluments of office, are enormous. The king has a million sterling per annum, and yet cannot maintain his family free of debt: Secretaries of State, Lords of Treasury, Admiralty, &c. have vaft appointments: An Auditor of the Exchequer has fixpence in the pound, or a fortieth part of all the public money expended by the nation; fo that, when a war cofts forty millions, one million is paid to him: An Infpector of the Mint, in the laft new coinage, received as his fee 65,000L fterling fterling per annum: To all which rewards, no fervice thefe Gentlemen can render the public is by any means equivalent. All this is paid by the people; who are oppreffed by taxes fo occafioned; and thereby rendered lefs able to contribute to the. payment of neceffary, national debts. In America, falaries, where indifpenfible, are extremely low; But much of the public bufinefs is done gratis. The honour of ferving the public ably and faithfully, is deemed fufficient. Public Spirit really exifts there, and has great effects. in England, it is univerfally deemed a non-entity, and whoever pretends to it, is laughed at as a fool, or fufpected as a knave. The committees of congrefs, which form the board of war, the board of treafury, the board of foreign affairs, the naval board, that for accounts, &c. all attend the bufinefs of their refpective functions, without any falary or emolument whatever; though they fpend in it much more of their time than any Lord of Treafury or Admiralty in England can fpare, from his amusements. -A British minifter lately computed, that the whole expence of the Americans, in their civil government, over three millions of people, amounted to but 70,000 1. fterling; and drew from thence a conclufion, that they ought to be taxed, until their expence was equal in proportion to that which it cofts Britain to govern eight millions. He had no idea of a contrary conclufion; that if three millions may be well governed for 70,000l. eight millions may be as well governed for three times that fum; and that therefore the expence of his Ccc 2 own own government should be diminished.-In that corrupted nation, no man is ashamed of being concerned in lucrative Government jobs, in which the public money is egregioufly mifapplied and fquandered, the treasury pillaged, and more numerous and heavy taxes accumulated; to the great oppreffion of the people. But the prospect of a greater number of fuch jobs by a war is an inducement with many to cry out for war upon all occafions, and to oppofe every propofition of peace. Hence the conftant increase of the national debt, and the absolute improbability of its ever being discharged. 4. Refpecting the amount and certainty of income, and folidity of fecurity; the whole Thirteen States of America are engaged for the payment of every debt contracted by the congrefs; and the debt to be contracted by the prefent war, is the only debt they will have to pay; all, or nearly all the former debts of particular colonies being already discharged. Whereas England will have to pay, not only the enormous debt this war muft occafion, but all their vaft preceding debt, or the intereft of it;-and while America is enriching itself by prizes made upon the British commerce, more than it ever did by any commerce of its own, under the restraints of a British monopoly; Britain is growing poorer by the lofs of that monopoly, and the diminution of its revenues; and of course lefs able to discharge the prefent indiscreet increase of its expences. 5. Refpecting profpects of greater future ability, Britain has none fuch. Her iflands are circumscribed by the ocean; and excepting a few parks or forests, she has no new land to cultivate, and cannot therefore extend her improvements. Her numbers too, instead of increasing from increased fubfiftence; are continually diminishing from growing luxury, and the increafing difficulties of maintaining families, which of course difcourages early marriages. Thus fhe will have fewer people to affift in paying her debts, and that diminished number will be poorer.-America, on the contrary, has befides her lands already cultivated, a vast territory yet to be cultivated; which being cultivated, continually increase in value with the increase of people; And the people, who double themselves by a natural propagation every twenty five years, will double yet fafter, by the acceffion of firangers, as long as lands are to be had for new families; So that every twenty years, there will be a double number of inhabitants obliged to discharge the public debts; and thofe inhabitants being more opulent, may pay their shares with greater ease. 6. Respecting prudence in general affairs, and the advantages to be expected from the loan defired; the Americans are cultivators of land; those engaged in fishery and commerce are few, compared with the others. They have ever conducted their feveral governments with wisdom, avoiding wars, and vain expenfive projects'; delighting only in their peaceable occupations, which muft, con fidering fidering the extent of their uncultivated territory, find them employment ftill for ages. Whereas England, ever unquiet, ambitious, avaricious, imprudent, and quarrelfome, is half of the time engaged in war; always at an expence infinitely greater than the advantage to be obtained by it, if fuccessful. Thus they made war against Spain in 1739, for a claim of about 95,000l. (fcarce a groat for each individual of the nation) and spent forty millions fterling in the war, and the lives of fifty thousand men; and finally made peace without obtaining fatisfaction for the fum claimed. Indeed, there is fcarce a nation in Europe, against which the has not made war on fome frivolous pretext or other; and thereby imprudently accumulated a debt that has brought her on the verge of bankruptcy. But the moft indifcreet of all her wars, is the prefent against America; with which fhe might, for ages, have preferved her profitable connection, only by a juft and equitable conduct. She is now acting like a mad fhopkeeper, who, by beating those that pafs his doors, attempts to make them come in, and be his customers. America cannot fubmit to fuch treatment, without being first ruined; and being ruined, her custom will be worth nothing. England, to effect, this, is increafing her debt, and irretrievably ruining herfelf.-America, on the other hand, aims only to establish her liberty, and that freedom of commerce which will be advantageous to all Europe; And by abolishing that monopoly which the laboured under, fhe will profit infinitely more than enough, |