The demand,
though not refused, has not been complied with; and the melancholy lot
(not by selection, but by casting lots) has fallen upon Captain
Asgill, of the Guards, who, as I have already mentioned, is on his way
from Lancaster to camp, a martyr to the general wickedness of the
cause he engaged in, and the ingratitude of those whom he served.
The first reflection which arises on this black business is, what
sort of men must Englishmen be, and what sort of order and
discipline do they preserve in their army, when in the immediate place
of their headquarters, and under the eye and nose of their
commander-in-chief, a prisoner can be taken at pleasure from his
confinement, and his death made a matter of sport.
The history of the most savage Indians does not produce instances
exactly of this kind. They, at least, have a formality in their
punishments. With them it is the horridness of revenge, but with
your army it is a still greater crime, the horridness of diversion.
The British generals who have succeeded each other, from the time of
General Gage to yourself, have all affected to speak in language
that they have no right to. In their proclamations, their addresses,
their letters to General Washington, and their supplications to
Congress (for they deserve no other name) they talk of British
honor, British generosity, and British clemency, as if those things
were matters of fact; whereas, we whose eyes are open, who speak the
same language with yourselves, many of whom were born on the same spot
with you, and who can no more be mistaken in your words than in your
actions, can declare to all the world, that so far as our knowledge
goes, there is not a more detestable character, nor a meaner or more
barbarous enemy, than the present British one.
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