differences relating to America
determined by a solid and equitable accommodation; but if, contrary to
all hopes, these demands should be rejected, he would consider such a
denial of justice as the most authentic declaration of war, and as a
formed design in the court of London to disturb the peace of Europe.
To this peremptory remonstrance the British secretary was directed to
answer, that though the king of England would readily consent to an
equitable and solid accommodation, he would not comply with the demand
of immediate and full restitution as a preliminary condition; for
his majesty had taken no steps but such as were rendered just and
indispensable by the hostilities which the French began in time of
profound peace, and a proper regard for his own honour, the rights and
possessions of his crown, and the security of his kingdoms.

Without all doubt the late transactions had afforded specious arguments
for both nations to impeach the conduct of each other. The French court,
conscious of their encroachments in Nova Scotia, affected to draw a
shade over these, as particulars belonging to a disputed territory, and
to divert the attention to the banks of the Ohio, where Jamonville and
his detachment had been attacked and massacred by the English, without
the least provocation. They likewise inveighed against the capture of
their ships, before any declaration of war, as flagrant acts of piracy;
and some neutral powers of Europe seemed to consider them in the same
point of view. It was certainly high time to check the insolence of the
French by force of arms, and surely this might have been as effectually
and expeditiously exerted under the usual sanction of a formal
declaration; the omission of which exposed the administration to
the censure of our neighbours, and fixed the imputation of fraud and
free-booting on the beginning of the war. The ministry was said to have
delayed the ceremony of denouncing war from political considerations,
supposing that, should the French be provoked into the first declaration
of this kind, the powers of Europe would consider his most christian
majesty as the aggressor, and Great Britain would reap all the fruits of
the defensive alliances in which she had engaged. But nothing could be
more weak and frivolous than such a conjecture. The aggressor is he who
first violates the peace; and every ally will interpret the aggression
according to his own interest and convenience. The administrat