1 Essays 7 
their rights; and if they resisted when those were 
attacked, it was a resistance in favor of a British con- 
stitution, which every Englishman might share in en- 
joying, who should come to live among them; it was 
resisting arbitrary impositions, that were contrary to 
common right and to their fundamental constitutions, 
and to constant ancient usage. It was indeed a re- 
sistance in favor of the liberties of England, which 
might have been endangered by success in the at- 
tempt against ours; and therefore a great man in 
your Parliament * did not scruple to declare, he 7e- 
joiced that America had resisted. I, for the same 
reason, may add this very resistance to the other 
instances of their loyalty. I have already said that 
I think it just you should reward those Americans 
who joined your troops in the war against their own 
country; but if ever honesty could be inconsistent 
with policy, it is so in this instance. I am, etc., 
B. FRANKLIN. 
1 The first Lord Chatham. 
»85] 26"