: Benjamin Franklin [1568
England its plots against the present royal family;
but America is untainted with those crimes; there is in
it scarce a man, there is not a single native of our
country, who is not firmly attached to his King by
principle and by affection.
“But a new kind of loyalty seems to be required
of us, a loyalty to Parliament; a loyalty that is to extend,
 it is said to a surrender of all our properties,
whenever a House of Commons, in which there is not
a single member of our choosing, shall think fit to
grant them away without our consent; and to a patient
 suffering the loss of our privileges as Englishmen,
 if we cannot submit to make such surrender.
We were separated too far from Britain by the ocean,
but we were united to it by respect and love; so that
we could at any time freely have spent our lives and
little fortunes in its cause; but this unhappy new system
 of politics tends to dissolve those bands of union,
and to sever us for ever.”
These are the wild ravings of the, at present, halfdistracted
 Americans. To be sure, no reasonable
man in England can approve of such sentiments, and,
as I said before, I do not pretend to support or justify
them; but I sincerely wish, for the sake of the manufactures
 and commerce of Great Britain, and for the
sake of the strength which a firm union with our
growing colonies would give us, that these people had
never been thus needlessly driven out of their senses.
I am yours, &c.,
ES

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