INTRODUCTION.
PERHAPS the ſentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet ſufficiently faſhionable to procure them general favour; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a ſuperficial appearance of being right, and raiſes at firſt a formidable outcry in defence of cuſtom. But the tumult ſoon ſubſides.—Time makes more converts than reaſon.
As a long and violent abuſe of power is generally the means of calling the right of it in queſtion (and in matters too which might never have been thought of, had not the ſufferers been aggravated into the enquiry) and as the King of England hath undertaken, in his own right, to ſupport the Parliament in what he calls theirs; and as the good people of this country are grievouſly oppreſſed by the Combination, they have an undoubted privilege to enquire into the pretenſions of both, and equally to reject the Uſurpation of either.
In the following ſheets, the author hath ſtudiouſly avoided every thing which is perſonal among ourſelves. Compliments as well as cenſure to individuals make no part thereof. The wiſe, and the worthy, need not the triumph of a pamphlet; and thoſe whoſe ſentiments are injudicious, or unfriendly, will ceaſe of themſelves, unleſs too much pains are beſtowed upon their converſion.
The cauſe of America is in a great meaſure the cauſe of all mankind. Many circumſtances hath, and will ariſe, which are not local, but univerſal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which their affections are intereſted. The laying a country deſolate with fire and ſword, declaring war againſt the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling; of which claſs, regardleſs of party cenſure, is the
