repeated oaths, and imprecations, to make him listen for a moment to a report, which he treated most imprudently and unwarily with contempt and laughter. The greater part of his most faithful counsellors were unhappily under the same fatal delusion, and heard it with the same scorn and neglect. Strange as this dangerous confidence and supineness will appear to posterity, yet it was not altogether unaccountable; for as the inhabitants of the South and of the North of Great Britain had been accustomed to live together, for a great number of years before, in such perfect harmony and mutual affection, that it was no easy matter to distinguish the one from the other, either by their stature, complexion, language, dress, modes, education, manners, arts, sciences, religion, principles of morals, or of government; as the injuries and devastations of their former wars with each other, which, as well as I can remember, they equally and reciprocally suffered and offered, were mutually forgotten and forgiven, and had left little traces, but in history and on record; as they had shewn the same zeal for civil and religious liberty; had rushed foremost, and begun the first attack upon the common enemies to both; had enabled us, by engaging first as principals, and afterwards as confederates, to oppose their furious and dangerous invasions, to repel them as often as they were attempted, and finally to rout and discomfit them for ever; as they had lent us their assistance likewise, with the same alacrity, in raising that curious and wonderful fabric which we built on the ruins of the ancient structure; venerable and awful as the Capitol, and composed of more durable materials, which, in the course of many centuries, had by turns been often secretly undermined, treacherously betrayed, and openly and violently battered, and by turns, as often as we had opportunity or abilities, recovered and repaired. As it was reared with their hands, and cemented with their blood, as well as with our own, they were invited, by the advice of our counsellors, most renowned for their gravity, penetration, wisdom, and virtue, to all the advantages of its protection; but they had a Capitol of their own, which, although it was neither so splendid, nor so magnificent, nor so vast, yet they had that superstitious love and veneration for it which is common to all nations, and which nature, education, and habit, has deeply implanted in the hearts of all honest men and good citizens, and were unwilling to quit it. We knew by experience that they were powerful allies; we thought them faithful friends, and we had found on record, mortifying as it was to remember it, that as often as they had been provoked or insulted, they had been formidable and dangerous enemies. We plainly saw that it was our interest they should be united to us for ever; and all our political arts and resources were employed to convince them it was theirs too. At last, after large promises and assurances