As the conflict approached, the Dean became more earnest and incessant. In 1774 he published a book entitled “Four Tracts on Political and Commercial Subjects,” of which the third was a reprint of the “Letter from a Merchant in London,” and the fourth was a new appeal, entitled “The True Interest of Great Britain set forth in regard to the Colonies, and the only Means of Living in Peace and Harmony with them,”--“including Five different Plans for effecting this Desirable Event.”[446] Here he openly proposed separation, and predicted its advantage to England. On general grounds he was persuaded that extensive colonies were an evil rather than an advantage, especially to a commercial nation, while he was satisfied of a present alienation on the part of America, which it would be unprofitable, if not perilous, to combat. England was in no mood for such truth, and the author was set down as madman or quack. Evidently he was a prophet. A few passages will show the character of this remarkable production. “It is the nature of them all [colonies] to aspire after independence, and to set up for themselves as soon as ever they find that they are able to subsist without being beholden to the mother country.”[447] True enough, and often said by others. In dealing with the different plans the Dean shows originality. To the idea of compulsion by arms he exclaimed: “But, alas! victory alone is but a poor compensation for all the blood and treasure which must be spilt.”[448] The scheme numbered Fourth was nothing less than “to consent that America should become the general seat of empire, and that Great Britain and Ireland should be governed by viceroys sent over from the court residences either at Philadelphia or New York, or at some other American imperial city,”--to which the indefatigable Dean replies:-- “Now, wild as such a scheme may appear, there are certainly some Americans who seriously embrace it; and the late prodigious swarms of emigrants encourage them to suppose that a time is approaching when the seat of empire must be changed. But, whatever events may be in the womb of Time, or whatever revolutions may happen in the rise and fall of empires, there is not the least probability that this country should ever become a province to North America: … unless, indeed, we should add one extravagance to another, by supposing that these American heroes are to conquer all the world; and in that case I do allow that England must become a province to America.”[449]