Essays 173 
month of August, one thousand seven hundred 
and seventy-three, and in the thirty-third year of 
our reign. 
“By the King in his Council. 
“ RECHTMAESSIG, Sec.” 
Some take this edict to be merely one of the king's 
jeux d’esprit; others suppose it serious, and that 
he means a quarrel with England; but all here think 
the assertion it concludes with, “that these regula- 
tions are copied from acts of the English Parliament 
respecting their colonies,” a very injurious one; it 
being impossible to believe that a people distin- 
guished for their love of liberty, a nation so wise, 
so liberal in its sentiments, so just and equitable 
towards its neighbors, should, from mean and injudi- 
cious views of petty immediate profit, treat its own 
children in a manner so arbitrary and tyrannical! 
1773] -