Full text: Essays of Benjamin Franklin

1760 Essays ; 
to exercise your military virtue, and make you a 
warlike people, that you may have more confidence 
to embark in schemes of disobedience, and greater 
ability to support them. You have tasted, too, the 
sweets of TWO OR THREE MILLIONS sterling per 
annum spent among you by our fleets and forces, 
and you are unwilling to be without a pretence for 
kindling up another war, and thereby occasioning a 
repetition of the same delightful doses. But, Gen- 
tlemen, allow us to understand our interest a little 
likewise; we shall remove the French from Canada, 
that you may live in peace, and we be no more 
drained by your quarrels. You shall have land 
enough to cultivate, that you may have neither 
necessity nor inclination to go into manufactures, 
and we will manufacture for you, and govern you.” 
A reader of the Remarks may be apt to say: “If 
this writer would have us restore Canada on princi- 
ples of moderation, how can we, consistent with 
those principles, retain Guadaloupe, which he repre- 
sents of so much greater value?’’ I will endeavour 
to explain this; because, by doing it, I shall have an 
opportunity of showing the truth and good sense of 
the answer to the interested application I have just 
supposed. The author, then, is only apparently and 
not really inconsistent with himself. If we can ob- 
tain the credit of moderation by restoring Canada, 
it is well; but we should, however, restore it at all 
events, because it would not only be of no use to us, 
but “the possession of it (in his opinion) may in 
its consequences be dangerous.” * As how? Why, 
* Remarks, pp. 50, 51. 
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