: Benjamin Franklin [1568 
England its plots against the present royal family; 
but America is untainted with those crimes; there is in 
it scarce a man, there is not a single native of our 
country, who is not firmly attached to his King by 
principle and by affection. 
“But a new kind of loyalty seems to be required 
of us, a loyalty to Parliament; a loyalty that is to ex- 
tend, it is said to a surrender of all our properties, 
whenever a House of Commons, in which there is not 
a single member of our choosing, shall think fit to 
grant them away without our consent; and to a pa- 
tient suffering the loss of our privileges as English- 
men, if we cannot submit to make such surrender. 
We were separated too far from Britain by the ocean, 
but we were united to it by respect and love; so that 
we could at any time freely have spent our lives and 
little fortunes in its cause; but this unhappy new sys- 
tem of politics tends to dissolve those bands of union, 
and to sever us for ever.” 
These are the wild ravings of the, at present, half- 
distracted Americans. To be sure, no reasonable 
man in England can approve of such sentiments, and, 
as I said before, I do not pretend to support or justify 
them; but I sincerely wish, for the sake of the manu- 
factures and commerce of Great Britain, and for the 
sake of the strength which a firm union with our 
growing colonies would give us, that these people had 
never been thus needlessly driven out of their senses. 
I am yours, &c., 
ES 
y 40