into foreign channels, muft keep us ftill a divided people, I fhall, from every private, as well as public motive, moft heartily lament that it is not the moment wherein thofe great objects of my ambition are to be attained; and that I am to be longer deprived of an opportunity to affure you perfonally of the regard with which I am, "Your fincere and faithful Humble fervant,

HowE. "P. S. I was difappointed of the opportunity I expected for fending this letter at the time it was dated, and have been ever fince prevented by calms and contrary winds, from getting here to inform General Howe of the commiflion with which I have the fatisfaction to be charged, and of his being joined in it.

Off Sandy Hook, 12 July,
Superfcribed

To Benjamin Franklin,
Efq. Philadelphia."

"Philadelphia, July 30, 1776. "I Received fafe the letters your lordship 'fo kindly forwarded to me, and beg you to accept my thanks.

"The official difpatches to which you refer me, contain nothing more than what we had feen in the act of parliament, viz. of fers of pardon upon fubmiffion; which I was forry to find, as it mult give your lordship pain to be fent fo far on fo hopeless a bufnefs.

"Directing pardons to be offered to the colonies who are the very parties injured, expreffes in deed that opinion of our ignorance, bafeness and infenfibility, which your uninformed and proud nation

has long been pleafed to entertain of us; but it can have no other effect than that of encreafing our refentment. It is impoffible we fhould think of fubmiffion to a government that has, with the moft wanton barbarity and cruelty, burnt our defenceless towns, in the midft of winter; excited the favages to maffacre peaceful farmers, and our flaves to murder their masters; and is even now bringing foreign mercenaries to deluge our fettlements with blood, These atrocious injuries have extinguished every fpark of affection for that parent country we once held fo dear; but were it poffible for us to forget and forgive them, it is not poffible for you, I mean the British nation, to forgive the people you have fo heavily injured; you can never confide again in thofe as fellow-fubjects, and permit them to enjoy equal freedom, to whom, you know, you have given fuch juft caufes of lafting enmity; and this muft impel you, if we are again under your government, to endeavour the breaking our fpirit by the fevereft tyranny, and obftructing, by every means in your power, our growing ftrength and profperity.

"But your lordship mentions, the king's paternal folicitude for promoting the establishment of lasting peace and union with the colonies.' If by peace is here meant a peace to be entered into by diftint ftates, now at war, and his majefty has given your lordship power to treat with us; of fuch peace, I may venture to fay, though without authority, that Į think a treaty for that purpose not quite impracticable, before we enter into foreign alliances:

but

but I am perfuaded you have no fuch powers. Your nation, though (by punishing thofe American governors who have fomented the difcord, rebuilding our burnt towns, and repairing, as far as poffible, the mifchiefs done us) he might recover a great fhare of our regard, and the greateft fhare of our growing commerce, with all the advantages of that additional ftrength, to be derived from a friendship with us; yet I know too well her abounding pride, and deficient wisdom, to believe he will ever take fuch falutary meafures. Her fondnefs for conqueft, as a warlike

nation; her luft of dominion, as an ambitious one; and her thirft for a gainful monopoly, as a commercial one, (none of them legitimate caufes of war) will all join to hide from her eyes every view of her true intereft, and will continually goad her on, in thefe ruinous diftant expeditions, fo deftructive both of lives and of treasure, that they must prove as pernicious to her in the end, as the Croifades formerly were to most of the nations in Europe.

"I have not vanity, my lord, think of intimidating, by thus predicting the effects of this war; for I know it will in England have the fate of all my former predictions, not to be believed, till the event fhall verify it.

Long did I endeavour, with unfeigned and unwearied zeal, to preferve from breaking that fine and noble china vafe, the British empire; for I know, that being once broken, the feparate parts could not retain even their fhares

of the ftrength and value that exifted in the whole; and that a perfect re-union of thefe parts could fcarce ever be hoped for. Your lordship may poffibly remember the tears of joy that wet my cheek, when at your good fifter's in London, you once gave me expectations that a reconciliation might foon take place. I had the misfortune to find these expectations disappointed, and to

be treated as the cause of the

mifchief, I was labouring to prevent. My confolation under that groundlefs and malevolent treatment was, that I retained the friendship of many wife and good men in that country, and among the rett, fome fhare in the regard of Lord Howe.

"The well-founded efteem, and permit me to fay, affection which I fhall always have for your lordfhip, make it painful for me to fee you engaged in conducting a war, the great ground of which, as defcribed in your letter, is the neceffity of preventing the American trade from paffing into foreign channels: to me it feems that neither the obtaining nor retaining any trade, how valuable foever, is an object for which men may justly fpill each others blood: that the true and fure means of extending and fecuring commerce, are the goodnefs and cheapness of commodities; and that the profits of no trade can ever be equal to the expence of compelling it, and holding it by fleets and armies. I confider this war against us, therefore, as both unjust and unqvife; and I am perfuaded that cool and difpaffionate pofterity will condemn to infamy thofe who advised it; and that