The Crisis. Группа авторов

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      THE

      CRISIS

      The worst of all Tyranny is that established by Law.

      To the KING.

      SIR,

      YOU, Sir, ascended the Throne of these Realms with Advantages, which if properly improved, would have rendered your Reign, not only Glorious and Happy, but have made you the most powerful Monarch upon Earth; you might have kept the World in awe. Yet, O! shame to tell, though the Times demand it, you soon sacrificed your own Peace, the Tranquility, Honour, and Interest, of this Great and mighty Kingdom, to the Ambitious views, and Pernicious designs, of your infernal Minion Lord Bute, and his profligate, abandoned Adherents. Your Accession to the Throne, filled with Joy, the Breast of every Englishman; but alas, it was of short Duration, you soon convinced them of their Mistake, and the Compliments paid to your Understanding, the calm Hour of Reason soon convinced us, were ill founded.

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      No sooner seated upon the Throne of this vast Empire, than you, like all other Kings, as well as Tyrants, made the People many and fair Promises: you told your Parliament, that the suppression of VICE and IMMORALITY, the Encouragement of TRADE and COMMERCE, and the preservation of PEACE and HARMONY amongst your People, should be the RULE of your Conduct, and your principal STUDY. How far you have kept your Word, the sacred Pen of Truth shall now declare.

      Scarce seated in regal Dignity, before you drove from your Presence and Councils, by the Advice of your Scotch Favourite Lord Bute, every Man of HONOUR and INTEGRITY, who was valued for Love to his Country, and affection for your Family. You implicitly followed the Advice of your Northern Minion, and in their Room, took those only, who were the most Conspicuous for their Vices, and the most abandoned in Principle, these are FACTS, which Sandwich, Bute, Grafton,¹ North, &c. will confirm.

      These Men, you still continue to countenance, every scene of Iniquity, they have been concerned in, and every Act of Violence, Oppression, and Murder, they have committed, has been by you, tacitly approved, nay, Applauded. Adultery, Debauchery, and Divorces, are more frequent now, than in the corrupt and profligate Days of Charles the Second, these, Sir, prove incontestably, your religious Principles, and show how far you have suppressed VICE and IMMORALITY.

      It will now be necessary to enquire how far you have encouraged TRADE and COMMERCE, was it by illegally imposing a STAMP Duty on the Americans, and taxing those Commodities which we supplied them with from this Country, which has stopped for near Six Years, a great Traffic between this Kingdom and the Colonies? Was it by suffering with the most shameful Impunity; the Portuguese to infringe upon the Privileges of the English Merchants at Lisbon, by

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      which many were not only Injured, but almost totally Ruined? Was it by blocking up the Port, and destroying the Trade of the Town of Boston; thereby reducing to a state of Miserable dependence, more than 30,000 People, and giving a vital Stab to the whole Commerce of America?

      We will now examine, Sir, how far you have preserved Peace and Harmony among your people; was it by providing for all the Beggarly Relations, and miserable Dependents, of your Scotch Minion, in preference to your English Subjects, especially those who were the chief Instruments of placing your Family upon the Throne? was it by ordering the late Lord Hallifax to issue an ILLEGAL Warrant for apprehending Mr. WILKES? was it by rewarding that Delinquent after he had been found Guilty of a Breach of the English Laws? was it by screening your Minister behind the Throne, who violated the Rights of the Freeholders of England? Was it by rejecting the Petitions of your injured Subjects, and laughing at the Remonstrance presented to you from the first City in the World, the great Capital of the British Empire? Was it by NOT granting the Supplications of your People, and meanly referring those Petitions and Remonstrances to the Consideration of those very Men, whose Conduct they arraigned, and who were only the slavish Tools of your abandoned Ministers? Was it by sending Troops to Boston, depriving the People of their constitutional Rights, and contrary to all the Laws of this Free Country, enforcing the Tyrannical and oppressive Acts of your abandoned Parliament, with the SWORD, and laying America under a MILITARY GOVERNMENT?² Was it by rewarding the Profligate, the Corrupt, and the Plunderers of their Country, with TITLES and HONOURS? Was it by a tame, dastardly Submission, to the Insults of the Spaniards, and a

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      sacrifice of the Honour of the British Nation? These, Sir, are the Means you have made use of, for preserving Peace and Harmony among your People. But, Sir, the greatest Piece of Ministerial Villainy, and diabolical Cruelty, is still behind, it is now going through the House of Lords, and you, Sir, will soon be called upon to sign it; it is a Bill for restraining the American Fishery, and starving to Death, or driving to a state of Desperation, more than 300,000 People; consider, Sir, the fatal tendency of this Bill, determine no longer to be the Dupe of an abandoned set of Men, act from yourself, and refuse to sign an Act of Parliament, which must involve one Part of the Empire in a CIVIL WAR, and reduce Thousands of your Subjects to Poverty and Want. Let no Consideration prevail with you to execute a Deed, at the Idea of which, Humanity revolts; consider, Sir, how much this will raise the Indignation of your People HERE, when they find you are Destitute of the common Feelings of Humanity, and that you can be so easily prevailed upon to sacrifice your Subjects to the Cruel designs of your Ministers and Favourites. Give some Proof of a determined Resolution, no longer to persue Measures, which must end in the destruction of your Kingdoms, and perhaps, in the Ruin of your Family.³

      Consider, Sir, how despisable you appear in the Eyes of the World, who, instead of Governing, suffer yourself to be Governed; who, instead of being a Leader, are Lead; who, instead of being a King, are nothing but a mere Cypher of State, while your Favourite and Ministers, were all the Appendages to Sovereignty.

      It has long surprized the Kingdom, to think how you could bear such Wretches to prey upon you, to think how you could Suffer them to aggrandize

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      themselves and Creatures, to possess the greatest Wealth, and to hold the first Offices in the Kingdom; and all this by imposing upon you, by making you break your Coronation-Oath; by making you violate every Promise you made with your People, and by filling your Ears with Lies, instead of Truth; how is it possible YOU can bear such Usage, which no sensible Man in a private Capacity can bear? and be the Dupe of the Vilest of the Creation, is so much beneath the Dignity of the Man who pretends to Govern, that it is astonishing such Fiends should prevail as they do; indeed they never could, unless you, Sir, like them, was inclined to establish an Arbitrary System of Government, and to set up your own WILL in opposition to the Laws of the Land.

      Let