His Humble Address and Earneft Appeal, &c.

Not of the CAUSES affigned by Him and Others,

BUT OF A FIXED

PLAN of ADMINISTRATION,

FOUNDED in SYSTEM:

The LANDED oppofed to the COMMERCIAL
INTEREST of the STATE,

Being as the MEANS in order to the END.

By SAMUEL ESTWICK, LL.D. Affistant Agent
for the Ifland of Barbadoes.

Vi aut Fraude fit Injuria. Cic. Off. lib. i. § 13.

LONDON:

Printed for J. ALMON, oppofite Burlington House, Piccadilly.

M.DCC.LXXVI.

A

LETTER, &c.

HA

Reverend Sir,

AVING had at three different times, three different opinions, concerning you and your project, for "a feparation of the colo"nies in North America from Great Britain," I shall in this letter, with your leave (or without it) take the liberty to tell you what these opinions are; and having fo done, refting on my last opinion, your "humble addrefs, and "earneft appeal, &c. &c." will become the object of my answer.

My firft opinion, in language more expreffive than my own, was;

That, "Actio non mala, cum intentio fit ❝ bona.

My fecond,

That, Your politics were bad, but your policy was good.

A 2

My

My third,

That, Your end is wicked, and your

means are worse.

Now, however great my aftonishment was, at this ferious avowal of fuch a barefaced folecism in politics, if I might ufe the expreffion; yet having not then read what you had published on the fubject, I was willing, not only to allow you what other projectors are commonly entitled to, "the merit of a good "intention," but I became, in fome degree, your advocate alfo. I confidered, that as folecifms in language were fometimes pardonable, for "Impetratum eft & ratione, ut peccare "fuavitatis caufa liceret ;" fo folecifms in politics, for fimilar reasons, might claim the fame indulgence. With this confideration then, and becaufe I well knew that nothing could at that time, I will not fay at this, be fo big with horror to the children colonies in America, as a difinherifon from their parentftate, I inferred, that you, aware of these feelings in them, had thus rung the alarm-bell of feparation, but to refolve its difcordant founds, through the medium of their fears, into meafures of more perfect harmony. This, I perfuaded myself to think, might have been the object of your intention; and if fo, like the fuavitatis caufa," it had justified the "pec

66

"care liceret."

Upon this ground then was this my firft opinion formed; and upon this ground it was my defign to have left it: but being called

.

upon, in a letter from a friend of mine, for the communication of my fentiments to him. on the subject of your "modeft propofal," as he termed it, I returned him the following anfwer; which I here give you the exact copy of, as being explanatory both of the reasons for, and the occafion of, my fecond opinion.

Dear Sir,

When I received the favour of your letter, requiring my thoughts on the dean of Glocefter's modest propofal, as you modeftly called it, I had not then read his political tracts; which will be now an apology to you for the delay of my answer. I have fince read them, and find that I might have faved myself the trouble of doing fo for when long ftrings of arguments are produced, and, after being twifted together, are made to end conclufively in a fingle propofition felf-evidently abfurd, what arguments more are neceffary for decifion than the propofition itself contains? To appeal, in fuch a cafe, to arguments, is like calling for evidence in court after the prifoner has pleaded guilty at the bar. Even fo it is here for after being

66

"About it, and about it,

"And about this fame fong;
"And, good gods! and about it,
"For I know not how long,"

The whole burthen of the fong is; that, " a feparation from the colonies in North Ame"rica is for the intereft and advantage of "Great Britain."

Now