Full text: Essays of Benjamin Franklin

17601 Essays 
this dominion was unshakable, till the loss of liberty 
and corruption of manners in the sovereign State 
overturned it. 
But what is the prudent policy inculcated by the 
Remarker to obtain this end—security of dominion 
over our colonies? It is, to leave the French in 
Canada to “check” their growth; for otherwise, our 
people may “increase infinitely from all causes.” * 
We have already seen in what manner the French 
and their Indians check the growth of our colonies. 
It is a modest word, this check, for massacring 
men, women, and children! The writer would, if 
he could, hide from himself, as well as from the 
public, the horror arising from such a proposal, by 
couching it in general terms. It is no wonder he 
thought it a “subject not fit for discussion’’ in his 
letter, though he recommends it as “a point that 
should be the constant object of the minister's 
attention!”’ 
But if Canada is restored on this principle, will 
not Britain be guilty of all the blood to be shed, all 
the murders to be committed, in order to check this 
dreaded growth of our own people? Will not this 
be telling the French in plain terms, that the horrid 
et in libertate gentes qua essent, tutam eam sibi perpetuamque sub 
tutelda populi Romani esse; et, qua sub regibus viverent, et in presens 
ternpus mitiores eos justioresque respectu populi Romani habere se, et, 
si quando bellum cum populo Romano regibus fuisset suis, exitum ejus 
victoriam Romanis, sibi libertatem, allaturum crederent. . . . . In 
quatuor regiones describi Macedoniam, ut suum queeque concilium 
haberet, placuit; et dimidium tributi, qudm quod regibus ferre soliti 
erant, populo Romano pendere. Similia his et in Illyricum mandata.” 
—Liv., lib. xlv., cap. 18. 
* Remarks, pp. 50, SI. 
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