" lofty Sentiments, and with a strong Aversion " from whatever tends to deprive them of their " chief Importance."

But you infinuate, that you will not decide, whether this Indulgence to the Colonies at first, in granting them fuch popular [alias republican] Forms of Government, arose from Lenity or Indolence, from Wisdom, or Mistake. Alas! Sir, one can easily perceive by your very Infinuation and your Caution, that you had already decided this Point in your own Mind, tho' you did not chuse to speak out. And indeed it is now evident to all, that if the Parent-State really intended to retain an actual and effectual Supremacy over her Colonies, (which was certainly her Intention) such Forms of Government were of all others the most unfit for that Purpose; and the most likely to beget a Spirit of Independence and Revolt. In fact, what was so likely to have happened, has actually come to pass, and would have come to pass in the natural and necessary Course of Things, thơ' the Stamp, or the Tea acts had never been thought of. And I agree with you, that it is now by much too late to think of correcting an Error, so strengthened by Time, and grown inveterate by Habit, that it may be faid to be interwoven into the very Constitution of the present AmeriHere therefore, as we are agreed in the Fact, let every one draw his own Inference. III. YOUR

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III. YOUR third grand Caufe is Religion: On which Subject you deliver yourself in the following Strain, at Pages 17 and 18.

"If any Thing were wanting to this neceffary "Operation of the Form of Government [to be" get or infuse a fierce Spirit of Liberty] Religion " would have given it a complete Effect. Reli"gion, always a Principle of Energy, in this new "People, is no Ways worn out or impaired. And " their Mode of profeffing it, is also one main " Cause of this free Spirit. The People are Pro" teftants; and of that Kind, which is the most " adverse to all implicit Submiffion of Mind and "Opinion. This is a Persuasion not only fa"vourable to Liberty, but built upon it.---The "Diffenting Interests have sprung up in direct "Opposition to all the ordinary Powers of the "World; and could justify that Opposition "only on a strong Claim to natural Liberty. " Their very Existence depended on the power"ful and unremitted Affertion of that Claim. "All Proteftantifm, even the most cold and " paffive, is a Sort of Diffent. But the Religion " most prevalent in the Northern Colonies is a ." Refinement on the Principle of Resistance; "it is the Diffidence of Diffent: And the Pro"teftantism of the Proteftant Religion. This "Religion, under a Variety of Denominations, "agreeing in nothing, but in the Communica"tion of the Spirit of Liberty, is predominant " in

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" in most of the Northern Colonies. The Co " lonists left England when this Spirit was high, " and in the Emigrants the highest of all."

SIR, this Account is not exact, and stands in Need of fome Correction. When the Emigrants fled from England, they were universally Calvinists of the most inflexible Sort... But they were very far from being of that Species of Protestants, whom you describe; and, of which fpreading Sect, there are but too many Profelites both in Great-Britain, Ireland, and America; I mean, the modern new-light Men, who protest against every Thing, and who would diffent even from themselves, and from their own Opinions, if no other Means of Dissention could be found out. Such Proteftants as these are very literally PROTESTERS; but it is hard to say, what they are besides. And Fact it is, that they have no Manner of Affinity with the Calvinists of old respecting Church Government. For tho' the Calvinistical Emigrants were profeffed Enemies to the Popery of the Church of Rome, and to the Arminianism of the Church of England, yet were they no Enemies to religious Establishments. Nay, their great Aim was, to establish the folemn League and Covenant, as the only System which ought to be admitted into a Christian State. Nor would they have fuffered any other religious Persuasion to have existed, if they could have prevented it. Moreover, tho' they they were for pulling down proud and lordly Prelacy; yet were they most indefatigable in erecting Classes, and Synods, and Elderships, in the genuine Spirit of High-Church, Presbyterian Hierarchy, and armed with the Terrors: and Powers of an Inquifition. In short, their Aim was to establish a republican Form of Government built on republican Principles both in Church and State. But, like all other Republicans ancient and modern, they were extremely averse from granting any Portion of that Liberty to others, which they claimed to themselves as their unalienable Birth-Right.

THE present Diffenters in North-America-retain very little of the peculiar Tenets of their Fore-fathers, excepting their Antipathy to our established Religion, and their Zeal to pull down all Orders in Church and State, if found to be fuperior to their own. And if it be this you mean, by saying, that the diffenting Interests [in America] have sprung up in direct Oppofition to all the ordinary Powers of the World; -and that the Religion most prevalent in the Northern Colonies is a Refinement on the Principles of Resistance; the Diffidence of Diffent, and the Protestantism of the Proteftant Religion:- In short, if you ascribe the fierce SpiFit now raging in the Northern Colonies to these Caules, I make no Objection to your Account of the Matter; provided you will allow that the

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the Religion, of the Gospel is a very different Thing from theirs. But nevertheless I must beg the impartial World to judge between us, as to the Conclusion to be drawn from fuch Premifes; and whether it be, or be not, a defireable Thing to continue a Connection with a People who are actuated by Principles so very repugnant to our own Constitution both in Church and State, and so diametrically opposite to the Spirit of the Gospel.

IV. To the before-mentioned Sources, from whence this ungovernable Spirit is derived, you add another, viz. The Domination of the Masters over their Slaves in the Southern Colonies. For it seems, he that is a Tyrant over his Inferiors is, of Course, a Patriot, and a Leveller in respect to his Superiors. And I am afraid, there is but too much Truth in this Observation. However, let us consider the Drift and Tendency of your own Expressions." In Virginia, and the " Carolinas, they have vast Multitudes of Slaves. "Where that is the Cafe, in any Part of the " World, those who are free, are by far the most " proud and jealous of their Freedom. Free" dom is to them not only an Enjoyment, but a " Kind of Rank and Privilege.---I do not mean "to commend the fuperior Morality of this "Sentiment, which has at least as much Pride, "as Virtue in it: The Fact is fo; and these "People of the Southern Colonies, are much

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