have profited but very little, by what has been so well written in the Annals of this very Country, for your Instruction and Admonition. For depend upon it, the Use of Committee-Men, and the Business of Sequestrators are not yet forgot; depend upon it, I say, that Ways and Means are still to be found out, for the lowest of the People to get at the Possession of the greatest of your Estates, as well in these, as in former Times. Their Appetites are equally keen:—And if these hungry Patriots should succeed, after such an Example is set before your Eyes, who are you to blame but yourselves?—In one Word, you know, or ought to know, that even the tender Mercies of a Republic are cruel. Or, if you are not yet convinced of the Truth of this Assertion, look abroad into the World; nay, look into what is now doing by the Republican Congresses in America; and then see how you would approve such Men as these for your Masters.

HERE therefore I willingly close the whole Dispute between Mr. Burke and me: And I most chearfully submit the Decision of this important Question to those (but to those only) who are the best qualified, the most able, and the most concerned to decide impartially. What therefore is to follow in this Treatise, is to be considered rather ex abundanti, than as strictly necessary for the Support of my Argument, and the Confutation of my Opponent. Yet, seeing that the following Points may serve to elucidate some of the former, and seeing that so much has been said, and such confident Boastings have been uttered, concerning the Advantages, and even the Immensity of the Colony-Trade; I will enter the more particularly into these Matters.

And first of all, and previous to any Enquiry into the Fact, I enter a solemn Protest against the disingenuous Artifice, so often practiced by the Partizans of America, viz. That of begging the Question. They beg the Question, when they take for granted, that if America were separated from Great-Britain, all commercial Intercourse would cease between the two Countries. For this is the very Point, which they ought to have proved, instead of taking it for granted. And prove it they never can, ’till they shall have first demonstrated, that the Americans will no longer adhere to their own Interest, when they shall be disunited from us. A difficult Task this! In regard to which, they will find all the World to be Unbelievers. Indeed I have already so effectually silenced this Plea in my Fourth Tract from Page 203 to Page 220, [2d Edit. printed for Rivington, &c.] that I hope I may be excused from repeating the same Things. And as the Arguments there urged have never been attempted to be answered, notwithstanding so much Good-Will to do it, and that my Opponents most certainly would do it, if they could, the natural Conclusion is, that they are UNANSWERABLE.

Therefore I now enter upon the Subject itself; and as the Trade to Holland and Germany (and more particularly to Hanover) hath been frequently represented as being very inconsiderable, and of small Importance; I have for this very Reason, selected this Trade from others, to make it the Subject of our Comparison with the Trade to all the revolted Provinces of North-America.

An Account of the Value of the Exports from England to Germany and Holland; and also to those North-American Provinces, which are now under the Dominion of the Congress, for nine Years successively, viz. from Christmas 1763 to Christmas 1772, distinguishing each Country, and each Year.