titled to parental indulgence from you? My lord the king is an angel of God, to discern good and bad: he knows, and ye, his legislative asses sors, know that political, as well as religious enthusiasm, is a fever of the mind, which throws those who are attacked with it, into a temporary delirium and that, in the paroxysm, heated religionists and patriots, like delirious people, say and do a thousand things of which they are ashamed when they come. to themselves again. If your own children were dangerously ill and light headed, would ye not treat them with an indulgence suitable to their deplorable case? And would not natural affection concur with reason, to make you overlook the petulance and wildness of their behaviour? Ye will extend your mercy to your American subjects with double readiness, if ye consider that they are not all guilty. A few warm men among them open the flood gates of patriotic licentiousness; and while the fierce and roaring torrent frightened myriads into a temporary compliance to revolt, it carried away myriads more before they knew what they were about. Nor have they perhaps had it yet in their power to recollect themselves. Vouchsafe, then, to show yourselves their tender physicians, as well as their indulgent parents; nor heal their moral fever by burning corrosives, so long as there is the least prospect of doing it by cooling applications. If Christianity commands us to "restore, in the spirit of meekness, those that are fallen, to become weak to the weak, yea, to become all things to all men, that by all means we may gain and save some;" be abundantly condescending to your American people, that you may save thousands of precious lives, prevent the devastation of your own dominions, and disappoint your enemies, who flatter themselves that, when Great Britain and her colonies shall have exhausted their strength in a destructive war, the British empire, or some part of it, will become an easy prey to their greedy and watchful ambition.

But I peculiarly address thee, thou majestic head, and executive hand of the legislative power. By thy steadiness thou hast shown thyself a king worthy of commanding a people who display lions in their standards. And now, like "Messiah, the Prince," like the generous "Lion of the tribe of Judah," vouchsafe to show thyself "the prince of peace." Let all the earth know that thou art a representative of the God "of all grace, and of the Lamb that taketh away the sin of the world." Is not the right of showing mercy to the condemned, the noblest of all thy royal prerogatives, and the brightest jewel of thy imperial crown? O! let that jewel shine in this cloudy day, and it will reflect the light of the "Sun of righteousness" across the Atlantic, and cheer the western world. The proclamation of a general pardon, accompanied by the grant of a direct representation, and of a security for the equitable proportion, which their taxes shall always bear to ours; such a procla mation, I say, enforced by the sound of thy trumpets, the roar of thy cannons, the sight of thy fleets, and the terror of thy armies, will show that thou art eminently qualified to reign over a brave and free people. Thou mayest thus be merciful without weakness. A Lee and a Washington are resolute enough to stand for a time the shock of thy forces: An Adams and a Hancock are obstinate enough to bury themselves in the ruins of their country. But resolute and obstinate as they are, thy mercy confounds-thy indulgence disarms them. The paroxysin is

over. Candour and loyaly return together. The fiery heroes come back to sober heroism; and the rash patriots to true patriotism. Thy royal mercy has melted them into tears. With shame they fix their weeping eyes on the ground; with admiration they lift them up to hea ven. They claim the honour of bringing in person the restitution money thou insistest upon for thy injured subjects. They haste to throw them. selves at the feet of a sovereign who knows how to protect, conquer, and pardon. My imagination sees them cross the Atlantic: they enter your gates: they throw American swords at your feet: they ask par. don for themselves, and the guilty people they represent: they kiss the royal hand which has averted their impending ruin, and pour out their grateful souls in such words as these:

"Merciful and great king, and ye his legislative assessors, permit us to distinguish ourselves by our penitential return, as we once did by our rash revolt. With feelings proportionable to the sense we have of our guilt, of the king's mercy, and the parliament's condescension, we lament our misapprehensions; and deploring the bloodshed which they have caused, we acknowledge that we owe you the reasonable taxes due to the supreme, protecting power, by the consent of all civilized nations, and by the express command of God; and since you condescend to grant us the privilege of a share in your legislature, we will not only religiously, but cheerfully pay them for the time to come. In the meanwhile we refund at your feet sums equivalent to the goods which our rash citizens buried in the sea; and we own it is just that we should, in due propor tion, help to discharge the national debt, which has been in part contracted for our protection, and which our unhappy revolt has of late so greatly increased. Made wiser by our misfortunes, and taught both to revere and love our mother country, we shall, at every proper opportunity, express our grateful sense of her parental regard. We are indeed separated by the Atlantic ocean, which we lately looked upon as a boundary to your dominions, a vast moat to keep us asunder, and a rampart to defend our continent against your incursions: but now our views are changed, and we consider that wide sea as a magnificent channel, which Divine Providence seems to have prepared to facilitate our friendly and commercial intercourse; to enrich our respective countries with the treasures of the old and new world; to make us live in a constant exercise of the art of navigation, and enable us, by these means, powerfully to support the British claims to the empire of the sea. Such are the pleasing thoughts we have of our happy re-union. May they appear delightful to all who wish well to the British empire! And may the poisonous breath of discord, more dangerous than all the storms of the Atlantic, never break the sweet calm which royal mercy and parliamentary condescension have restored to our distracted provinces !"

"Take up your swords, ye brave, though rash patriots," replies the speaker. "Your courage and love of liberty entitle you to this honour of receiving them again, on condition that you beat them into plough shares, or use them only against our common enemies. It is the first, see that it be the last time they are stained with British blood, and lifted up against the breast that gave you suck. And as the world sees the political and military leaders of the colonies at the foot of the throne, and

of a British senate; the world shall see that the king and parliament can not only

Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos,

but that they know how to conquer the generous friends of liberty by generous acts of condescending love. Rise, ye mistaken sons of liberty, rise to demonstrate, that, as we can fight like Britons, so we can forgive as Christians, and indulge as brethren. Take your seats among British senators, and particularly represent the American provinces. But beware of considering this privilege as a bribe bestowed by a timorous administration, much less as a reward for your rash revolt. Though we make allowance for your mistakes, and put a favourable construction upon your intentions, we abhor and bear our solemn testimony against your proceed. ings. But the mantle of royal mercy, and of your repentance, having covered all, we shall not upbraid you with antichristian principles, and bloody scenes, which we wish to be buried in eternal oblivion. If we grant you some seats in the house of commons, it is only to remove your jealousies by a condescension which becomes a mother country and a mild government; and to regain the filial confidence of our American colonies, by permitting the men, who have been most prejudiced against us, to be eye witnesses of our firm attachment to the constitution, of our impartial zeal for the dignity of the crown, of our guardian care for the constitutional liberty of the people, and of our prudent endeavours to secure the due obedience of the British subjects.

"The wound which the demon of discord has given to our union, cannot be perfectly healed but by an amputation, or a consolidation. The former expedient is inconsistent with our mutual affection, and our common interest; but the latter is perfectly agreeable to both; and our consanguinity loudly demands that it should be preferred. Help us, then, to consolidate the lacerated parts of the British empire. Let your filial gratitude meet our paternal condescension half way; so shall reconciling love cast the bridge of union across the Atlantic, and firmly join our happy island with your fortunate continent. And may genuine, sober, Scriptural patriotism, like an adamantine key, for ever bind the solid arch! May one blood, one language, one constitution, one religion, one king, one supreme legislature, one temporal and eternal interest, combine to make us one flourishing empire, till the kingdom of God swallow up all other kingdoms! Nor let it be said any more,

Audiet cives acuisse ferrum,

Quo graves Turcas melius perirent;

Audiet pugnas, vitio parentum

Rara juventus."*

While the speaker concludes this patriotic speech, my imagination returns from her pleasing excursion. The awful parliamentary scene vanishes "like the baseless fabric of a vision." But "a wreck is left behind." Hints of a Scriptural method of reconciliation are humbly suggested; and you have some expressions of my cordial concern for the glory of our sovereign, and the satisfaction of our American fellow subjects, to whom, as well as to Dr. Price and yourself, I sincerely wish

Our posterity, thinned by our civil wars, will hear of our culpable contentions, and will lament our having turned against each other those swords which should never have been drawn but against our common enemies.

all the sweets of Christian and British liberty, without any of the bitters of religious and civil licentiousness. "Of making many books, (says Solomon,) there is no end. Let us then hear the conclusion of the whole matter:-Fear GoD, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Or, if you prefer St. Peter's words, "Fear God, and honour the king," for this is the sum of the two tables of Christ's law. That, instead of breaking one of these tables under pretence of keeping the other, we may always agree to pay a cheerful obedience to both, is the final and highest wish of, reverend sir, your obedient servant in a Gospel, which neither makes void the law through faith, nor supersedes loyalty through liberty,

J. FLETCHER.

We subjoin here, by way of postscript to the above letters, an extract* from a small pamphlet published soon after them, and entitled, "THE BIBLE AND THE SWORD, &c."

THE BIBLE AND THE SWORD:

OR,

THE APPOINTMENT OF THE GENERAL FAST VINDICATED;

IN AN

ADDRESS TO THE COMMON PEOPLE.

THE royal proclamation, which has been lately issued out, shows that the hopes expressed in a late publication† were well grounded. The heart of every good, unprejudiced man, must rejoice at reading this truly Christian decree :-" We, &c, command that a public fast and humiliation be observed throughout England, upon Friday, December 13, so that both we and our people may humble ourselves before almighty God, in order to obtain pardon of our sins; and may in the most devout and solemn manner send up our prayers and supplications to the Divine ma. jesty, for averting those heavy jugdments, which our manifold sins and provocations have justly deserved; and for imploring his intervention and blessing speedily to deliver our loyal subjects," &c. The sovereign acts herein the part of a Christian prince, and of a wise politician. As a Christian prince he enforces the capital duty of national repentance;

* We term the following an extract, because we have judged it proper to omit the introductory part, it being merely a quotation from the fourth of the preceding letters, beginning with "Dr. Price has advanced an argument," &c, p. 536; and concluding with the end of the letter, p. 545.

† American Patriotism Confronted, &c.

and as a wise politician he averts the most formidable stroke which Dr. Price has aimed at his government. May we second his laudable designs by acting the part of penitent sinners and loyal subjects; though mistaken patriots should pour floods of contempt upon us on the occasion.

It would be strange if an appointment, which has a direct tendency to promote piety, to increase loyalty, and to baffle the endeavours of a disappointed party, met with no opposition. If we solemnly keep the fast, we must expect to be ridiculed by the men who imagine that liberty consists in the neglect of God's law, and the contempt of the king's authority. The warm men who have publicly asserted that his last speech from the throne is full of insincerity, daily insinuate that his proclamation is full of hypocrisy, and that it will be as wrong in you to ask a blessing upon his arms, as to desire the Almighty to bless the arms of robbers and murderers. Nor are there few good men among us, who think that it is absolutely inconsistent with Christianity to draw the sword and proclaim a fast.

Lest the insinuations of such patriots and professors should cast a damp upon your devotion, and make you leave the field of national prayer to our revolted colonies, I beg leave to remind you of a similar case, in which God testified his approbation of a fast connected with a fight; yea, with a bloody civil war.

We read in the book of Judges, that "certain sons of Belial," belonging to the city of "Gibeah," in the land of Benjamin, "beset a house;" obliged a Levite who lodged there "to bring forth a concubine to them, and they knew her, and abused her all night" in such a manner, that "she died" in the morning. The Levite complained of this cruel usage to the eleven tribes. "All the men of Israel were gathered," on this occasion, "against the inhospitable city of Gibeah, and sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you? Now, therefore, deliver us the sons of Belial, who are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin [instead of condescending to this just request] gathered themselves together unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel," Judges xix, 20.

Let us apply this first part of the story to the immediate cause of the bloodshed which stains the fields of British America, and we shall have the following state of the case. Certain sons of Belial, belonging to the city of Boston, beset a ship in the night, overpowered the crew, and feloniously destroyed her rich cargo. The government was informed that this felonious deed had been concerted by some of the principal inhabitants of Boston, and executed by their emissaries; and being justly incensed against the numerous rioters, it requested the unjust city to make up the loss sustained by the owners of the plundered ship, or to deliver up the sons of Belial who had so audaciously broken the laws of the land; and a military force was sent to block up the port of Boston, till the sovereign's just request should be granted. The other colonists, instead of using their interest with the obstinate inhabitants of Boston to induce them to do this act of loyalty and justice, gathered themselves together unto Boston, to go out to battle against the sons of Great Britain, and by taking up arms against the king to protect felons, made themselves guilty both of felony and high treason.