ipping and
mariners; extend navigation; cut off all communication between France
and Canada by the river St. Lawrence; so that Quebec would fall of.
course into the hands of the English, who might expel the French
entirely from America, open a correspondence with the remote Indians,
and render themselves masters of the profitable fur-trade, which was now
engrossed by the enemy. The natives of New England acquired great
glory from the success of this enterprise. Britain, which had in some
instances behaved like a step-mother to her own colonies, was now
convinced of their importance; and treated those as brethren whom she
had too long considered as aliens and rivals. Circumstanced as the
nation is, the legislature cannot too tenderly cherish the interests
of the British plantations in America. They are inhabited by a brave,
hardy, industrious people, animated with an active spirit of commerce;
inspired with a noble zeal for liberty and independence. The trade of
Great Britain, clogged with heavy taxes and impositions, has for some
time languished in many valuable branches. The French have undersold
our cloths, and spoiled our markets in the Levant. Spain is no longer
supplied as usual with the commodities of England; the exports to
Germany must be considerably diminished by the misunderstanding between
Great Britain and the house of Austria; consequently, her greatest
resource must be in her communication with her own colonies, which
consume her manufactures, and make immense returns in sugar, rum,
tobacco, fish, timber, naval stores, iron, furs, drugs, rice, and
indigo. The southern plantations likewise produce silk; and with due
encouragement, might furnish every thing that could be expected from
the most fertile soil and the happiest climate. The continent of North
America, if properly cultivated, will prove an inexhaustible fund of
wealth and strength to Great Britain; and perhaps it may become the
last asylum of British liberty. When the nation is enslaved by domestic
despotism or foreign dominion; when her substance is wasted, her spirit
broke, and the laws and constitution of England are no more; then those
colonies, sent off by our fathers, may receive and entertain their sons
as hapless exiles and ruined refugees.

PROJECT OF AN INSURRECTION IN GREAT BRITAIN.

While the continent of Europe and the isles of America were thus exposed
to the ravages of war, and subjected to such vicissitudes of fortune,
Gre