"I wish it was in my power to give you very pleasing accounts of the state of affairs in this distracted country; but, indeed, it is almost a distracting consideration for anyone who knows them, as we do by _experience_, to think of them. Ministers have been deceived, and have never known the true state of this country; if they had, they never would have entered into a war with it. I own I had very mistaken notions myself when in England of reducing America to obedience by conquest. I have totally changed my sentiments, not that I would wish them to be known but to yourself, as it might not be prudent for me to declare them; but I will confess to _you_ that, by what I have seen and heard, I am fully of opinion that all the efforts Great Britain can make will never effectually conquer this great continent, in which, notwithstanding all that has been said of _friends_ to Government here, and _friends_ to Government there, yet there is scarcely one to be met with from one end of it to the other. We have not only armies to combat with, but a whole country, where every man, woman, and even child is your enemy, and, in fact, do in one shape or another act as such. One Royal Army has been already obliged to do what is not in our History to be met with,—to lay down their arms, and surrender prisoners of war; another Army at New York in a state of alarm; and the Grand Army here penned up within the narrow limits of two or three miles, and cut off from all provisions, but what must be gained by fighting for with large foraging parties sent out from time to time for that purpose. In short, unless thirty thousand men more, added to the thirty thousand we already have, can be sent hither early in the year, the wisest thing would be to get rid of the contest in the best manner you can, and, if it was possible to persuade them to revoke their Declaration of Independence, then to make one general Act of Oblivion—give up entirely the point of taxation, and restore the whole country to the state it was in 1763. These are my politics, though I would not wish them to be known. I am much afraid the prosecution of the war must prove ruinous and destructive to Great Britain." These words have a special value, as coming from one whose official position in command of the Artillery gave him favourable opportunities for forming an opinion. Happily, among British officers, opinions never interfere with the performance of duties, however hopeless; and it will be found that no one was more energetic than General Pattison, both at Philadelphia and in his command at New York. At the same time, we learn from this letter three things—the success of the cry against England commenced in Massachusetts, and swollen by hasty and foolish treatment on the part of England; the falsehood of the Government statements at home; and the great difficulties which embarrassed the English Army in its operations, even thus early in the war.