andings on this Head.--Ask yourselves this plain
Question, Is such a Plan of Reconciliation as Mr. BURKE proposes, a likely
Method of terminating the present Disputes between the Mother-Country and
her Colonies? Nay ask farther;--Hath it so much as a Tendency to cool and
moderate them? Or rather doth it not seem much better contrived to
enflame, than to extinguish; to kindle new Fires, than to quench old ones?

Besides, when each of these _American_ Assemblies shall be erected into a
distinct Parliament, supreme within itself, and independent of the
rest,--Is it possible to suppose, that no _new_ Disputes, or _new_
Differences will arise between such co-ordinate States and rival
Powers;--_neighbouring_, _jealous_, and _contending_ Powers, I say, whose
respective Limits are in many Instances as yet undefined, if really
definable! And is it at all consistent with any Degree of common Sense, or
daily Experience, to suppose that such Combustibles as these will not
speedily catch Fire?--Especially, if we take into the Account, the
discordant Tempers of the Inhabitants of these respective Provinces, their
inbred Hatreds and Antipathies against each other, their different Modes
of Life, the Differences of Climate, Religion, Manners, Habits of
Thinking, &c. &c.

Now, when Tumults and Disorders shall arise from any of these various
Causes,--What is to be done? And to whom, or to what common Head, or
general Umpire is the appellant Province to carry her Complaint?--The
Parliament of _Great-Britain_, it seems, must no longer interfere; for
that is no longer the supreme Head of the Empire, to which all the Parts
used to be subordinate, and professed to be obedient; therefore, being
destitute of any authoritative or constitutional Right to _compel_
Submission, all it can do, is to offer its good Services by Way of
Mediation; and that is, generally speaking, just nothing at all.

Is then the KING (abstracted from the Parliament) to be appealed to in
this arduous Affair? And is he alone (in his mere _personal Capacity_) to
command the Peace to be preserved between State and State, or Province and
Province.----[6]Is he, I say (abstracted from being a King of
_Great-Britain_) to summon all the Parties before himself and his Privy
Council, in order to hear their respective Allegations, and finally to
determine, and settle the Differences between them? Be it so: Then if he
only is to decide, _as in an Affair relating to his own private P