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THE

CRISIS

NUMBER XIII	To be continued Weekly.
SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1775	[Price Two-pence Half-penny.

With Rage from Hell the Tyrant’s Heart may glow, But He’s no Briton who can strike the Blow.

Every Englishman must deplore the ill Success, and abhor the unworthy Treatment which attended the two late Conciliatory Plans in relation to America. Pregnant with good Sense, Benevolence, and sound Reason; they will do eternal Honour to the Wisdom, Justice, Policy, and Humanity, of the Heads and Hearts that formed them. How different was the Plan of North? Crafty, Mean, Insidious, Impolitic, Irrational, Shallow, and (like himself and his Coadjutors) beneath Contempt.¹ This was not treating with America, but insulting her: every Step against her, hitherto, has been founded in the greatest Inhumanity, the grossest Ignorance, and the worst Policy. I will proceed to prove my Assertions, and defy the whole Cabal of Ministerial Slaughtermen to confute me. I do not call upon the Master-Butcher, because He can only be considered (after the Part he has acted by asserting) as an executive, and not as a rational Monster in this Business.—First then, for the Humanity of these Proceedings. Let it be granted only (as it

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must) that the Crown stands in the same Relation to America, as a Parent to her Child, and my first Assertion proves itself. Have any gentle, tender, sensible Means, been used to reconcile her? Have not her humble Remonstrances, Proposals, Submissions, and Supplications, been treated with Contempt?—not suffered to lie upon the Table of a British House of Commons? Have they been deemed Worthy of a Thought by her pious Sovereign? Has she not been branded with the ignominious Name of Rebel, by Act of Parliament, for no other Reason (I mean no true one) than because she has wisely and calmly deliberated upon, remonstrated against, and steadily, but not tumultuously, resented the repeated Injuries she has received?—as to Riots by Mobs, they are not to be imputed to her as Treason and Rebellion. America (as a Nation most unconstitutionally oppressed) has hitherto only deliberated upon her Sufferings:—She has not acted.—My Lords Suffolk, Pomfret, Radnor, Apsley, Sandwich, they have not acted.—It is, as yet, no Treason, my Lords, to think, to advise, to fear, and to prepare. You cannot, you dare not, move to annull (as you may wish) the Statute of Treasons in America. The Americans have as good a Right to that as your Lordships. I mean as yet, my Lords, because I am not quite satisfied that (even in the Present smuggled and corrupt Parliament) the Boldest and most venal Prostitute, durst make so dangerous a Trial upon the Patience and long Suffrance of this Kingdom.—I will now inform your Lordships that it is contrary to the Law of Nations to attempt the Destruction even of the most inveterate Enemy by Famine, until he has been first solemnly summoned to submit. Have the Americans ever yet been (though, if Men, they shortly will be) in Arms? Have they yet had a Prospect of any other Terms than such as would make them Slaves? Will they be Weak enough to submit to such Conditions? the Preliminaries hitherto proposed, have been founded in Oppression, not in Reason: they are fit for Brutes, not Men. The lenient, the compassionate North, has treated America like the Assassin of an Alley—with his Knife at her Throat, he has humanely left it at her Choice to strip herself, for Fear she should be stripped by him.—Why have the Ministry had recourse at first to this inhuman Scheme of Famine? They fear the Army will relent, when they find they must Wade through the Blood of

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their own Country-men. Their present General (Gage) has, to his Honour, declined the Bloody Task. Even a foreigner, to whom the same Command was offered, has revolted at the Thought.² Is not this Stratagem of starving Freemen into Slavery, the most Inhuman, as well as the most Cowardly, of all others, especially when it is considered that all the Remonstrances of these unhappy Sufferers, have been rejected? I should insult the Reader’s understanding by waiting for a Reply,—I therefore come to the next Ingredient in the American Persecution, Ignorance.—I must first Remark that some of their wise Lordships were for having Maryland and Virginia (very remote inland Countrys) prohibited from the FISHERY.—Thus far have some of the great and sage Counsellors of this Nation been Ignorant even of the Situation of that Part of their Fellow-Creatures, whom they wish to involve in the most dreadful of all Calamities,—Famine. But the very Scheme itself is Impracticable; these wretched People cannot be totally destroyed either by Butchery or Famine: their Numbers are great and formidable; in such a vast extent of Country their resourses will be endless: they are not destitute of Arms already, and they will be supplied with more in spite of our vigilant Fleet. They have all the Materials necessary for War in the Bowels of their Country: they have Artists, Handicraftsmen, Manufacturers, and Mechanics of all Sorts; Cattle of all kinds; Fruit of the Earth in vast aboundance; fine streams and Rivers: though, no doubt, Administration (for the sake of Consistency) will give strict Orders, and pay highly for the poisoning of these; but that will not easily be effected: these People in General, know the use of Arms; they have Perseverance, Courage, Resolution,—and above all, (most prophetic Lord Sandwich) they have Virtue, which can never be overcome. Should our Army strike, and fail, the hatred, enmity, and revolt of America, is

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fixed for ever: they never will submit to lick the Tyrant-hand, which has once been raised against their Liberties, their Properties, and their Lives. Under the above Considerations, the Present scheme of Government must seem Impracticable; if so, or if from Rancour and Resentment, it has been viewed but Partially, it is the grossest Ignorance to pursue it. Should Heaven interpose on the Side of Justice, we shall perceive our Error too late; but were our Attempts by Sword or Famine, sure of Success, Government is only destroying its own Vitals.—What then is the Policy of this unnatural War? It is like the War between the Belly and the other Members; the whole State must feel is Consequences. Shallow North told his House of Commons (for it is his) that the Imports from the American Continent were inconsiderable. Now my Lord? You ought to know (and in Honour you should have declared) that the Imports of that Part of America into our Sugar Colonies were the very Life of them: neither Planters, nor Negroes, can Subsist without them; particularly in the prohibited, interdicted Article of Fish, which, when salted, is their general Food. Your Lordship by your War, and your intended Famine, has effectually starved and ruined all the Passive and obedient Sugar-Colonies, as well as your declared Enemies in America. Thus a most valuable Fishery, a considerable Sugar Trade, and Thousands (perhaps Millions) of Innocent and brave Lives will be sacrificed by a narrow-minded Ministry to wicked Views, and insatiable Resentments, in the Reign of a Monarch born a Briton! An ancient Pict, or a wild Indian, (Savage in their Natures) would Blush and Shudder at such Proceedings.—With the Colonies and Trade the Revenues must sink. If royal Profusion, and Ministerial Corruption, were to sink likewise, it would be well; but they will still attempt to draw Blood from the most impoverished Veins. The Commerical, the landed Interest, the Public Bank, at last, must feel the Shock. Then, perhaps, when Famine threatens at our own Doors, the British Lion will be roused.—Then, (for I will Prophecy in my turn) comes a Revolution, fatal to Minions, Pensioners, Placemen, Knaves, and Tyrants; but happy for the Nation, if from the Ashes of all these Pests, the Rights of suffering and insulted Englishmen, can be once more established.—We shall find it to our Cost, in vain to send English Soldiers (none but Scotch will do

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the Business) against English Breasts. I am of Opinion (let the Wishes of the Ministry be what they will) that if every Officer who goes upon this Assassination were a Burgoyne,³ he would be Disappointed of the Blood he pants for, his Command will be a Sinecure, and his Victory a brave and virtuous Desertion. All who deserved the Names of Soldiers, would throw down their Arms, and Embrace their gallant and unhappy Countrymen. An English Army will not, and a Navy cannot destroy the Liberties of America: the Ministry, who wish to deceive the Nation, are (as they frequently are) deceived themselves: they cannot execute their Plan without extraordinary and successive (almost perpetual) Drafts of Forces. Should the Patient Sprit of this Kingdom, rise at such a Time in Arms, and France and Spain add to the Horrors of a CIVIL WAR, even in the midst of these Calamities, it will be some Consolation that the Advisers, Abettors, and detestable Heads of these diabolical Measures, cannot long escape the Vengeance of an injured People.

CASCA.⁴

Notwithstanding we have given almost the usual Quantity of Matter already, we cannot here omit without injury to our Readers and the Cause of Liberty, the spirited City Remonstrance which will do immortal Honour to the Heads and Hearts of those who framed it.

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The ADDRESS, REMONSTRANCE, and PETITION of the CITY of LONDON.⁵

“WE your Majesty’s dutiful and loyal Subjects, the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Livery of the City of London, beg leave to approach the Throne, and declare our Abhorrence of the Measures which have been pursued, and are now pursuing, to the Oppression of our fellow Subjects in America. These Measures are big with all the Consequences which can alarm a free and commercial People. A deep and perhaps a Fatal wound to Commerce; the ruin of Manufactures; the Diminution of the Revenue, and consequent increase of Taxes; the Alienation of the Colonies; and the Blood of your Majesty’s Subjects.

“But your Petitioners look with less Horror at the Conscquences, than at the purpose of those Measures. Not deceived by the specious Artifice of calling Despotism—Dignity, they plainly perceive that the real Purpose is—To establish Arbitrary Power over all America.

“Your Petitioners conceive the Liberties of the whole to be inevitably connected with those of every part of an Empire founded on the common Rights of Mankind. They cannot therefore observe, without the greatest Concern and Alarm, the Constitution fundamentally violated in any Part of your Majesty’s Dominions. They esteem it an essential, unalterable principle of Liberty, the Source, and Security of all constitutional Rights—that no Part of the Dominion can be Taxed without being represented. Upon this great leading Principle, they most ardently wish to see their fellow Subjects in America secured in what their humble Petition to your Majesty prays for—Peace, Liberty, and Safety.—Subordination in Commerce, under which the Colonies have always chearfully acquiesced, is, they conceive, all that this Country ought in Justice to require. From this subordination such advantages flow, by all the Profits of their Commerce centering here, as fully compensate this Nation for the Expence incurred, to which they also contribute in Men and Money for

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their Defence and Protection during a general War; and in their Provincial Wars they have manifested their Readiness and Resolution to defend themselves. To require more of them would, for this Reason, derogate from the Justice and Magnanimity which have been hitherto the Pride and Character of this Country.

“It is therefore with the deepest Concern, that we have seen the sacred security of Representation in their Assemblies wrested from them—the Trial by Jury abolished—and the odious powers of Excise extended to all cases of Revenue—the sanctuary of their Houses laid open to violation at the will and Pleasure of every Officer and Servant in the Customs—the dispensation of Justice corrupted, by rendering their Judges dependent for their Seats and Salaries on the will of the Crown—Liberty and Life rendered Precarious by subjecting them to be dragged over the Ocean, and tried for Treason or Felony here; where the Distance, making it impossible for the most Guiltless to maintain his Innocence, must deliver him up a victim to ministerial Vengeance—Soldiers and others in America have been instigated to shed the Blood of the People, by establishing a mode of Trial which holds out Impunity for such Murder—the Capital of New-England has been punished with unexampled Rigour—untried and unheard—involving the Innocent and the suspected in one common and inhuman calamity—Chartered Rights have been taken away, without any forfeiture proved, in order to deprive the People of every legal exertion against the Tyranny of their Rulers—the Habeas Corpus Act, and Trial by Jury, have been suppressed; and French despotic Government, with the Roman Catholic Religion, have been Established by Law, over an extensive Part of your Majesty’s Dominions in America; dutiful Petitions for redress of those Grievances, from all your Majesty’s American Subjects have been fruitless.⁶

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“To fill up the Measure of these oppressions, an Army has been sent to enforce them.

“Superadded to this, Measures are now planned upon the most merciless Policy of starving our fellow Subjects into a total surrender of their Liberties, and an unlimited Submission to Arbitrary Government.

“These Grievances have driven your Majesty’s faithful Subjects to despair, and compelled them to have recourse to that resistance which is justified by the great principles of the Constitution, actuated by which, at the glorious period of the Revolution, our Ancestors transferred the Imperial Crown of these Realms from the Popish and Tyrannic race of the Stuarts, to the Illustrious and Protestant House of Brunswick.

“Your Petitioners are persuaded, that these Measures originate in the secret advice of Men who are Enemies equally, to your Majesty’s Title and to the Liberties of your People. That your Majesty’s Ministers carry them into Execution by the same Fatal Corruption which has enabled them to wound the Peace and violate the Constitution of this Country—thus they poison the Fountain of Public Security, and render that Body which should be the guardian of Liberty, a formidable instrument of Arbitrary Power.

“Your Petitioners do therefore most earnestly beseech your Majesty to dismiss immediately, and forever, from your Councils, those Ministers and Advisers, as the first Step towards a full redress of those Grievances which alarm and afflict your whole People. So shall Peace and Commerce be restored, and the Confidence and Affection of all your Majesty’s Subjects, be the solid supporters of your Throne.”

The KING’s ANSWER,

Which would do Honour to any BUTCHER, MONSTER, or TYRANT on Earth.

“It is with the utmost Astonishment that I find any of My Subjects capable of encouraging the Rebellious Disposition which unhappily, exists in some of My Colonies in North America.

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“Having entire Confidence in the Wisdom of My Parliament, the great Council of the Nation; I will steadily pursue those Measures which they have recommended for the support of the constitutional Rights of Great Britain, and the Protection of the Commercial interests of My Kingdoms.”⁷

N. B. The Letter signed J. B. (Secretary) come safe to Hand. It is far from the Design of the Authors of the CRISIS to impose upon the Public, and they will allways think themselves obliged to those who promote the Sale of their Paper; but they beg Leave to inform J. B. that they cannot find UNDERSTANDING for him together with Matter, Paper, and Printing at the Same Price; however they faithfully Promise to stand corrected by him when he has learned to SPELL.⁸

Printed and published for the Authors, by T. W. SHAW, in Fleet-Street, opposite Anderton’s Coffee House, where Letters to the Publisher will be thankfully received.