deficient its spirit or understanding, though you have treated them as if they had neither sense to feel, nor spirit to resent. We have reason to thank God and our ancestors, that there never yet was a minister in this country who could stand the issue of such a conflict; and, with every prejudice in favour of your intentions, I see no such abilities in your Grace as should enable you to succeed in an enterprise, in which the ablest and basest of your predecessors have found their destruction. You may continue to deceive your gracious master with false representations of the temper and condition of his subjects. You may command a venal vote, because it is the common established appendage of your office. But never hope that the freeholders will make a tame surrender of their rights; or, that an English army will join with you in overturning the liberties of their country. They know, that their first duty, as citizens, is paramount to all subsequent engagements; nor will they prefer the discipline or even the honours of their profession, to those sacred original rights, which belonged to them before they were soldiers, and which they claim and possess as the birth-right of Englishmen.
