It is wonderful to reflect upon the means with which individuals in possession of power have contrived, in all ages and in all countries, to controul mankind. From thoughtlessness and the absence of knowledge, the masses of people have been made to contend, with vehemence and courageous enterprise, against their own interests, and for the benefit of those mercenary wretches by whom they have been enslaved! How monstrous it is, that, to gratify the sanguinary feelings of _one_ tyrant, thousands of human beings should go forth to the field of battle as willing sacrifices! Ignorance alone has produced such lamentable results; for a thirst after blood is never so effectually quenched as when it is repressed by the influence of _knowledge_, which teaches humility, moderation, benevolence, and the practice of every other virtue. In civilized society, there cannot be an equality of property; and, from the dissimilarity in human organization, there cannot be equality in the power and vigour of the mind. All men, however, are entitled to, and ought to enjoy, a perfect equality in civil and political rights. In the absence of this just condition, a nation can only be partially free. The people of such a nation exist under unequal laws, and those persons upon whom injuries are inflicted by the partial operation of those laws are, it must be conceded, the victims of an authority which they cannot controul. Such was, unhappily, the condition of the English people at this period. To prevent truth from having an impartial hearing and explanation, the plans of government were obliged to be of an insincere and unjust character. The consequences were, the debasement of morals, and the prostitution of the happiness and rights of the people. But Power was in the grasp of Tyranny, attended on each side by Pride and Cruelty; while Fear presented an excuse for Silence and Apathy, and left Artifice and Avarice to extend their baneful influence over society. British courage was stifled by arbitrary persecutions, fines, and imprisonment, which threatened to overwhelm all who dared to resist the tide of German despotism. Had _unity_ and _resolution_ been the watch-words of the sons of Britain, what millions of debt might have been prevented! what oceans of blood might have been saved! The iniquitous ministers who dictated war with America should have suffered as traitors to their country, which would have been their fate had not blind ignorance and servility, engendered by priests and tyrants, through the impious frauds of church and state, overwhelmed the better reason of the great mass of mankind! It was, we say, priestcraft and statecraft that kindled this unjustifiable war, in order to lower human nature, and induce men to butcher each other under the most absurd, frivolous, and wicked pretences. Englishmen, at the commencement of the American war, appear to have been no better than wretched captives, without either courage, reason, or virtue, from whom the