The Crisis. Группа авторов
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War by YOUR ORDER, to the Officer on Duty the 10th of May, 1768, (the Day of Carnage); and likewise your PENSIONING, and screening the Murderers from the Punishment of the Law. Then Sir, they will remember the horrid Plan laid at Brentford, for destroying the Right of Election; or in the most savage Manner, to take away the Lives of the Freeholders of Middlesex; which was (to make use of a word from your merciful royal Dictionary) EFFECTUALLY carried into Execution, and several People killed; to this Plan Sir, formed by Procter and your Minions, YOU must have been PRIVY, as the event afterwards sufficiently proved; Then Sir, they will remember, the mean, low, and criminal Subterfuge, you had Recourse to, to DISPENSE with the Laws, (and set aside the just Verdict of an HONEST JURY) to pardon those HIRED RUFFIANS, Balf and Mack Quirk,2 convicted upon the clearest Evidence of PREMEDITATED MURDER. Then, Sir, they will remember the insults they received, and the ignoble Answers you gave, to the Remonstrances and Petitions, delivered by them to the Throne, praying a Dissolution of Parliament; Nor will they forget, Sir, the infernal Plan for smuggling the present House of Commons, and destroying all the Rights of this free Country. In a Word, Sir, these and every other despotic and bloody Transaction of your Reign, will rise fresh in their Minds; if they should be drove by your Encouragement of Popery, your Persecutions, your Oppressions,
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your Violations of Justice, your Treachery, and your Weakness, into a fatal and unnatural CIVIL WAR in America; I say they will rise fresh in their Minds, and stimulate them to Deeds of Glory; nay, they may pursue with implacable Revenge the Author of all their Miseries.
The People, Sir, with a Candour and Indulgence peculiar to Englishmen, passed over the Injuries and Insults in the first Part of your Reign, or, kindly laid the blame at the Door of your Ministers; but it is now evident to the whole World, that there was a Plan formed by Lord Bute and yourself, either before, or, immediately after you came to the Crown, for subverting the British Constitution in Church and State; which to our Grief, with indefatigable pains and too much Success, Lord Bute’s Tools, and your infernal Minions, have carried into Execution; therefore, it no longer remains to determine who is now the greatest CRIMINAL in England.
Consider, Sir, if through the late and present iniquitous Measures, and an obstinate Resolution in your Majesty to pursue them, the SWORD is forced to be drawn in America, it cannot remain long unsheathed in England: we hope there is some Virtue HERE; and we entertain a better Opinion of our Countrymen, then to believe they are so far degenerated, as to TAMELY see a mercinary Army of Soldiers (who are at all Times a Terror to the peaceable Inhabitants of every free State) BUTCHER their BRETHREN and FELLOW SUBJECTS in America, because they are determined to defend their own Rights and the British Constitution; I say they never will TAMELY see that, without putting out a helping Hand, and sharing with them the GLORY of a decisive Victory over TYRANNY, and all the AGENTS of the infernal Monarch of the dark Regions of HELL, who would enslave the WORLD.
Should you, Sir, still pursue the same tyrannical Measures only to gratify a mean vindictive Spirit, and be the Author of such dreadful Mischiefs; O! we shudder at the Thought: the People will then perhaps, treat you, Sir, with as little Ceremony, as little Respect, and as little Mercy, as you and your Minions have treated them; for Sir, whenever the State is convulsed by civil Commotions, and the Constitution totters to its Centre, the Throne of England must shake with it; a Crown will then be no SECURITY, and
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at one Stroke all the gaudy Trappings of Royalty may be laid in the Dust; in such a Time of dreadful Confusion and Slaughter; when the Son’s Weapon drinks the Father’s Blood, and we see a Ruffian’s Blade reeking from a Brother’s Heart: When Rage is burning in the Breasts of Englishmen, provoked by Wrongs not to be borne by Men; all Distinctions must cease, the common Safety and the Rights of Mankind, will be the only Objects in View; while the King and the Peasant, must share one and the same Fate, and perhaps fall undistinguished together.
Let these Things, Sir, be well weighed; tremble for the Event; drive those Traitors from your Breast who now surround you; let the Just and Honest have your Confidence, and once more make your People HAPPY, GREAT, and FREE; be not the Instrument of their Destruction; consider the solemn and sacred Oath you made at your Coronation, to PROTECT your Subjects in ALL their Rights and Liberties, and the PROTESTANT Religion, as by Law established: Consider, Sir, what a Perversion of all Right and Justice that must be (besides the heinous Crime of PERJURY), when instead of being their PROTECTOR, you become their DESTROYER.
Your Plan, Sir, for bringing the Colonies by FORCE of ARMS into a State of Subjection to your WILL, is Cruel, Bloody, and (I hope) Impracticable; it is repugnant to every Principle of Humanity, Justice, sound Policy, and the natural Rights of Mankind; it is the foulest Disgrace to you, and will reflect eternal Infamy on your Reign and Memory, as the Sovereign and Father of a FREE PEOPLE; it is such a Plan of encroaching Violence and lawless Power, as the Americans, never can, never ought, nor never will Submit to; it is such a Scheme for enslaving, or destroying the human Race, as EVERY Man ought to execrate and condemn, and to oppose even till he Perish.
Men, Sir, at three thousand Miles Distance, must think it extremely hard to work, toil, and run Hazards; only to support the infamous Luxury of high pampered Lords, a rotten Court, and your Tribe of venal Senators, Minions, Pimps, and Parasites the Pests of Society; and to be taxed and mulct by them at their Pleasure: All Nature, Sir, revolts even at the Idea of such a State of human Misery.
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Force, Sir, can never be used effectually to answer the End, without destroying the Colonies themselves. Liberty and Encouragement are necessary to keep them together; and Violence will hinder both. Any Body of Troops considerable enough to awe them, keep them in Subjection, and under the Direction of a needy Scotch Governor, sent only to be an Instrument of Slaughter, and to make his Fortune; would soon put an End to planting, and leave the Country to you, Sir, and your merciless Plunderers only; and if it did not, they would starve the Inhabitants and eat up all the Profit of the Colonies.3 On the Contrary, a few prudent Laws, Sir, (but you seem to be a Stranger to Prudence, as well as to Justice and Humanity); and a little prudent Conduct, (that too, has been long despaired of by the Kingdom) would soon give us far the greatest Share of the Riches of ALL America; perhaps drive other Nations out of it, or, into our Colonies for Shelter.
If violent Methods be not used (at this Time) to prevent it, your Northern Colonies, Sir, must constantly increase in People, Wealth, and Power; their Inhabitants are considerably more than doubled since the Revolution; and in less than a Century, must become powerful States; and the more Powerful, the more People will flock thither: And, there are so many Exigencies in all States, so many foreign Wars, and domestic Disturbances, that these Colonies can seldom want Opportunities, if they watch for them, to do, what you, Sir, might be extremely Sorry for; throw off their Dependance on the Mother-Country: Therefore, Sir, it
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should be your first and greatest Care, that it shall never be their Interest to act AGAINST an Evil that can no otherwise be averted, than by keeping them fully employed in such Trades as will increase their own, as well as our Wealth; for, Sir, there is too much Reason to fear, if you don’t find Employment for them, they may find some for YOU: Withdraw then, Sir, from America, your armed Ruffians, and make a full RESTORATION of the People’s Rights; let them Tax themselves, and enjoy their Property unviolated by the Hand of Tyranny; thus, Sir, The subsequent part of your Reign, may yet be Happy and Glorious. May the Compact between you and the People be no more VIOLATED; may you be SPEEDILY reconciled to the just Demands of the Colonies: May Lord Bute, Lord Mansfield, Lord North, and all your Majesty’s infamous Minions, who would precipitate you and the Kingdom into Ruin, answer with their HEADS (and soon) for their horrid CRIMES; and may the SUCCESSION IN YOUR MAJESTY’s ROYAL HOUSE, AND THE RELIGION, LAWS, RIGHTS, AND LIBERTIES OF THE SUBJECT, go Hand in Hand down to all Posterity, until this Globe shall be reduced to its original Chaos, and Time be swallowed up in Eternity.
The Author of the PROPHECY of RUIN is extremely sorry, he is again under the necessity of putting off the Publication of his POEM to a future Day; but the Public may rest assured, it will be Published some time in the Middle