Benjamin Franklin r 
uncertain. The victorious of this year may be the 
vanquished of the next. It may therefore be too 
early to say, what advantages we ought absolutely 
to insist on, and make the sine quibus non of a peace. 
If the necessity of our affairs should oblige us to 
accept of terms less advantageous than our present 
successes seem to promise us, an intelligent people, 
as ours is, must see that necessity, and will acquiesce 
But as a peace, when it is made, may be made has- 
tily; and as the unhappy continuance of the war 
affords us time to consider, among several advan- 
tages gained or to be gained, which of them may be 
most for our interest to retain, if some and not all 
may possibly be retained, I do not blame the public 
disquisition of these points as premature or useless. 
Light often arises from a collision of opinions, as fire 
from flint and steel; and if we can obtain the benefit of 
the light, without danger from the heat sometimes pro- 
duced by controversy, why should we discourage it? 
Supposing then that Heaven may still continue to 
bless his Majesty's arms, and that the event of this 
just war may put it in our power to retain some of our 
conquests at the making of a peace; let us consider: 
1. The Security of a Dominion, a justifiable and pru- 
dent Ground upon which to demand Cessions 
from an Enemy. 
Whether we are to confine ourselves to those pos- 
sessions only that were ‘‘the objects for which we 
began the war.”* This the Remarker seems to 
think right, when the question relates to “Canada, 
* Remarks, p. 19. 
16 11760