union should be established on the attractive principle
by which all are drawn to a common centre. He fears difficulty, in
making the line of frontier between us and the British Provinces "a line
of peace," as it ought to be; he is anxious lest something may break out
between us and Spain; and he suggests that possibly, "in the cool hours
of unimpassioned reflection," we may learn the danger of our
"alliances,"--referring plainly to that original alliance with France
which, at a later day, was the occasion of such trouble. Two other
warnings occur. One is against Slavery, which is more noteworthy,
because in an earlier memorial he enumerates among articles of commerce
"African slaves carried by a circuitous, trade in American shipping to
the West India market."[64] The other warning is thus strongly
expressed:--"Every inhabitant of America is, _de facto_ as well as _de
jure_, equal, in his essential, inseparable rights of the individual, to
any other individual, and is, in these rights, independent of any power
that any other can assume over him, over his labor, or his property.
This is principle in act and deed, and not a mere speculative
theorem."[65]

I close this strange and striking testimony, all from one man, with his
farewell words to Franklin. As Pownall heard that the great philosopher
and negotiator was about to embark for the United States, he wrote to
him from Lausanne, _under date of 3d July, 1785_, as follows:--

"Adieu, my dear friend. You are going to a New World, formed to exhibit
a scene which the Old World never yet saw. You leave me here in the Old
World, which, like myself, begins to feel, as Asia hath felt, that it is
wearing out apace. We shall never meet again on this earth; but there is
another world where we shall, and _where we shall be understood_."

Clearly Pownall was not understood in his time; but it is evident that
he understood our country as few Englishmen since have been able to
understand it.

DAVID HARTLEY.--1775, 1785.

Another friend of our country in England was David Hartley. He was
constant and even pertinacious on our side, although less prophetic than
Pownall, with whom he co-operated in purpose and activity. His father
was Hartley the metaphysician, and author of the ingenious theory of
sensation. The son was born 1729, and died at Bath, 1813, During our
revolution he sat in Parliament for Kingston-upon-Hull. He was also the
British plenipotentiary in negotiating th