of flores or of cattle; and I am well informed, that Green was lately fo diftreffed for the laft, that he made a demand on North-Carolina for a large fupply, to raise which each county was taxed in proportion to its capacity. A great confumption of provifion took place whilft the French remained in the Chefapeak, to the great diftrefs of the inhabitants.

THOUGHTS ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF AMERICA, AND THE BEST MANNER OF ACKNOWLEDGING IT.

To the Printer of the PUBLIC ADVERTiser.

Nov. 22, 1782.

SIR, AS the conceffion of Independence to the revolted provinces of North America seems to be the great object on which the restoration of peace depends-and there are difficulties attending this conceffion which still make fome people averfe to it, notwithstanding the urgent neceffity of procuring peace upon any terms that are not abfolutely ruinous to the nation, I beg leave to ftate to your readers a few reflections that have occurred to me upon the fubject, and which may tend to remove or leffen thofe difficulties, and to difpofe the nation to come into this moft falutary measure heartily and speedily, and, if poffible, with one accord.

I think it seems now to be pretty generally agreed, that there is no longer any reason to hope that we shall be able to reduce the Americans to obedience by force. What was not done in the years 1776 and 1777 with the great armies under General Howe and General Burgoyne against the Americans alone, while they were yet unused to war, can hardly be effected against them now, after they have been converted into a nation of foldiers by feven years' uninterrupted war, and when they are fupported by the arms of three powerful European nations, the French, the Dutch, and the Spaniards, of whom the first are actually put in poffeffion of the harbours of Bofton and Rhode Island, and other important pofts in thofe provinces. I fhall not there

fore

fore infit upon another obfervation, of the truth of which I am neverthelefs moft thoroughly perfuaded; which is, "That if we could reduce them to obedience by main force, "and that in the fpace of a fingle campaign, it would not "be worth our while to do fo; but that the expenfe and "other inconveniences that would attend the keeping them "in fubjection after they had fubmitted, (which certainly "could not be done without erecting and maintaining many "fortified places throughout that extenfive country, with a "large standing army of forty, or at least thirty thoufand "men) would more than counterbalance all the advantages "that would arife to us from their becoming again, in this

manner, our fellow-fubjects." If indeed it be true (as fome gentlemen confidently affure us) that a great majority of the people in thefe provinces (as, for example, threequarters, or four-fifths, or more) are really friends to Great Britain, and defirous of returning to their obedience to the Crown, and of renewing their old connection with us, I must confefs that fuch a difpofition would be a fortunate change in our favour, and would deferve to be cultivated. But let us not haftily believe that they are in such a dispofition, while their publick actions and declarations all testify the contrary. Let their General Continental Congrefs and their Provincial Affemblies, (the members of which, we muft remember, are not poffeffed of their power during their whole lives, like our Houfe of Lords, nor even for seven years, like our Houfe of Commons, but are chofen every year by the people, and who therefore ought not to be confidered as factious or partial bodies of men, that pursue a feparate intereft from that of the people, and govern them in a manner contrary to their inclinations,) I fay, let their Congrefs and Affemblies declare their willingness, (if they really are fo inclined,) to return to their old connection with us, and I will agree that we ought to receive them with

open

open arms. But this is an event of which there feems not to be the smallest glimpse of hope. What then remains to be done but to acquiefce in the lofs of thefe provinces, which in truth we have loft beyond all poffibility of recovering them by a continuance of the war? And, to teftify this acquiefcence, it will be neceffary to declare, in the most authentick manner, our readiness (in order to the restoration of peace) to acknowledge them as independent ftates, and to cultivate a friendly intercourfe with them, in that new character, for our mutual advantage, and more especially in matters of commerce, in which we are capable of becoming of moft benefit to each other.

But here a difficulty arifes as to the manner of granting them Independence. It is faid, I obferve, by many people, (and, I believe, with truth,) that the king alone, without the concurrence of the parliament, cannot legally grant them Independence; for that he would thereby difmember the British empire, and alienate the hereditary dominions of the Crown, which they conceive to be beyond his power: "For, though," fay they," the king may, by virtue of his "prerogative of making peace or war, reftore, at a peace, a

country newly conquered in the preceding war, of which "fuch peace is a termination, (as he did, in fact, reflore the "islands of Martinique and Guadaloupe to the French king "at the peace of Paris in February, 1763,) yet it does not

follow that he may grant away the fovereignty of a "country that has been anciently and permanently a part of "the poffeffions of the crown of Great Britain,"-I grant all this to be fo. But what then? Shall the thing, there fore, remain undone, notwithstanding the urgent importance of it to the welfare, or, rather, to the fafety and prefervation, of the nation? Surely this cannot be a juft conclufion. But, fince the authority of parliament is neceffary in this bufinefs, let that authority be employed; yet, with

as great regard as poffible to his Majefty's true and acknowledged prerogative of making war and peace, which is generally thought to be wifely lodged by the law, or conftitution, in the executive branch of our Government. And let this be done openly and clearly, and not by using loose and general words in an A&t of Parliament that makes no express mention of the Independence of the colonies, and by leaving the power of granting the faid Independence, conferred by the ftatute on the Crown, to be collected from those words by uncertain implications, as is the cafe with the Act of the last seffion of Parliament, brought-in by Mr. Wallace, his Majefty's late Attorney-General. This indirect way of proceeding is not calculated to gain the confidence of the Americans, and to bring-about the defired reconciliation. The business should therefore be done in the fulleft and plainest manner, to the end that the Americans may no longer doubt of the entire concurrence of Parliament to the A&t whereon their future Independence is to be founded, and may no longer complain, or have the smallest pretence to complain, that our proceedings in this important transaction are in any degree obfcure or infidious. And with this view I conceive it would be proper to pafs an Act of Parliament to the following effect, namely, "To enable the King's Majesty, if "in his royal wisdom he fhall fo think fit, to abfolve from "their allegiance to himfelf, his heirs and fucceffors, all the "prefent inhabitants of the thirteen revolted provinces, to wit, "the province of Maffachufett's Bay, that of Connecticut, "that of Rhode Island, &c. (fpecifying them all with their refpective boundaries, accurately fet-forth,) and to cede "unto the governing powers eftablished in each of the faid

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provinces, all his Majesty's right of fovereignty over the "whole of fuch province, together with his right of property "in the foil of all fuch parts of the faid provinces as have "not been legally granted-away under the authority of the

"Crown,