[201] comes with better grace from superior power;and establishes solid confidence on the foundations of affection and gratitude. Be the first to spare; throw down the weapons in your hand. 20.
Chap. XVIII.} 1775. Jan. 20.
Every motive of justice and policy, of dignity and of prudence, urges you to allay the ferment in America by a removal of your troops from Boston, by a repeal of your acts of parliament, and by demonstrating amicable dispositions towards your colonies. On the other hand, to deter you from perseverance in your present ruinous measures, every danger and every hazard impend; foreign war hanging over you by a thread; France and Spain watching your conduct, and waiting for the maturity of your errors.
If the ministers persevere in thus misadvising and misleading the king, I will not say that the king is betrayed, but I will pronounce that the kingdom is undone; I will not say, that they can alienate the affections of his subjects from his crown, but I will affirm, that, the American jewel out of it, they will make the crown not worth his wearing.
The words of Chatham, when reported to the king, recalled his last interview with George Grenville, and stung him to the heart. He raved at the wise counsels of the greatest statesman of his dominions, as the words of an abandoned politician; classed him with Temple and Grenville as ‘void of gratitude;’ and months afterwards was still looking for the time, ‘when decrepitude or age should put an end to him as the trumpet of sedition.’
With a whining delivery, of which the bad effect was heightened by its vehemence, Suffolk assured
