If it were possible that you could carry on the war for
twenty years you must still come to this point at last, or worse,
and the sooner you think of it the better it will be for you.
My official situation enables me to know the repeated insults
which Britain is obliged to put up with from foreign powers, and the
wretched shifts that she is driven to, to gloss them over. Her reduced
strength and exhausted coffers in a three years' war with America, has
given a powerful superiority to France and Spain. She is not now a
match for them. But if neither councils can prevail on her to think,
nor sufferings awaken her to reason, she must e'en go on, till the
honor of England becomes a proverb of contempt, and Europe dub her the
Land of Fools.
I am, Sir, with every wish for an honorable peace,
Your friend, enemy, and countryman,
COMMON SENSE.
TO THE INHABITANTS OF AMERICA.
WITH all the pleasure with which a man exchanges bad company for
good, I take my leave of Sir William and return to you. It is now
nearly three years since the tyranny of Britain received its first
repulse by the arms of America. A period which has given birth to a
new world, and erected a monument to the folly of the old.
I cannot help being sometimes surprised at the complimentary
references which I have seen and heard made to ancient histories and
transactions. The wisdom, civil governments, and sense of honor of the
states of Greece and Rome, are frequently held up as objects of
excellence and imitation.
Pages:
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120