HISTORY OF THE [book. vi. 
35 ° 
nestly said, to soften and conciliate. It may be 
urged that, however harsh and unkind the conduct 
of the mother-country has occasionally been thought, 
the colonies ought not to forget that they are in¬ 
debted to her for all that they possess; their birth 
and origin, laws, government, religion and liberty; 
deriving from her parental solicitude and powerful 
protection, every circumstance that renders them 
prosperous in themselves, and enviable to others. 
If, during the fatal and destructive war which ter¬ 
minated in the dismemberment of the empire, they 
had their share—perhaps more than their share—of 
the general calamity, they will not forget that all of 
them that had suffered by capture (Tobago except¬ 
ed) were restored by the peace to the blessings of a 
British constitution and government. Perhaps, 
since that time, a more liberal policy, a more gene¬ 
rous freedom, might in some points have been wish¬ 
ed and expected; but it should be remembered, 
that they enjoy, and have long enjoyed, as a com¬ 
pensation for commercial restraint, the privilege of 
the British market, and the benefit of the British 
capital. They possess too, every characteristic 
mark of a free people in their internal concerns. 
They are taxed solely by their own representatives, 
and have not only the image, but the substance also, 
of an English constitution.- This whole state of 
commercial servitude and civil liberty (as a great 
writer* hath well observed) taken together, though 
certainly not perfect freedom, yet comparing it 
* Mr. Burke. 
