tyle not unlike the language of the American patriots:

"FRIENDS AND FELLOW-SUBJECTS,--We, the delegates of the several towns
and parishes of Cornwall, assembled to deliberate upon our own state,
and that of our constituents, having, after serious debate and calm
consideration, settled the scheme of our future conduct, hold it
necessary to declare the resolutions which we think ourselves entitled
to form, by the unalienable rights of reasonable beings, and into which
we have been compelled by grievances and oppressions, long endured by us
in patient silence, not because we did not feel, or could not remove
them, but because we were unwilling to give disturbance to a settled
government, and hoped that others would, in time, find, like ourselves,
their true interest and their original powers, and all cooperate to
universal happiness.

"But since, having long indulged the pleasing expectation, we find
general discontent not likely to increase, or not likely to end in
general defection, we resolve to erect alone the standard of liberty.

"Know then, that you are no longer to consider Cornwall as an English
county, visited by English judges, receiving law from an English
parliament, or included in any general taxation of the kingdom; but as a
state, distinct and independent, governed by its own institutions,
administered by its own magistrates, and exempt from any tax or tribute,
but such as we shall impose upon ourselves.

"We are the acknowledged descendants of the earliest inhabitants of
Britain, of men, who, before the time of history, took possession of the
island desolate and waste, and, therefore, open to the first occupants.
Of this descent, our language is a sufficient proof, which, not quite a
century ago, was different from yours.

"Such are the Cornishmen; but who are you? who, but the unauthorised and
lawless children of intruders, invaders, and oppressors? who, but the
transmitters of wrong, the inheritors of robbery? In claiming
independence, we claim but little. We might require you to depart from a
land which you possess by usurpation, and to restore all that you have
taken from us.

"Independence is the gift of nature. No man is born the master of
another. Every Cornishman is a freeman; for we have never resigned the
rights of humanity: and he only can be thought free, who is 'not
governed but by his own consent.

"You may urge, that the present system of government has descended
through many ages,