Whatever might be urged, government was under no necessity of adopting the mode of taxing the colonies for their defence, and the securing of the new ceded countries. Though after the general peace an Indian war might be continued or renewed, that was no reason for continuing British forces in America. The colonists were better able to deal with them than the regulars. The new ceded countries required no great number of troops to secure them. The colonies were at hand to support the British garrisons in case assistance was wanted: and they had repeatedly shewed their readiness upon former occasions. The idea of a dangerous enemy upon the American continent, was at an end; and the British administration must have been inexcusable, had they not guarded against the transferring of one from Europe. It was become futile to exclaim—“Shall it depend upon the resolutions of a Philadelphia assembly, whether our fellow subjects shall arm in defence of liberty and property? Does the fate of a whole continent bear any proportion to an almost imperceptible encroachment upon the important privilege of an American, deliberating for a year or two, whether he will pay six-pence in the pound to save himself and family from perdition?” The danger of perdition was a mere bugbear, which might frighten the ignorant into an apprehension that it was absolutely necessary to maintain an army in America, for the expence of which the colonies should be made to answer; but the Americans knew better than to startle at the spectre. Had no more troops been stationed upon the American continent than circumstances called for, the ministry might have obtained all the aids it was reasonable for the colonies to have given, by the old mode of requisition. From the time that they were first considered as capable of granting aids, the constant mode of obtaining them, was by _requisition from the crown_, through the governors to the several assemblies; and the ministers, from _Charles_ II. to the present king, most effectually recognised the distinction between parliamentary superintendance and taxation, in their requisitions to the colonies to raise men and money by acts of assembly. Had this happy method been continued, all the money that could have been justly expected from them in any manner, might have been procured without the least breach of that harmony which so long subsisted between the colonies and the mother country; and it was not acting wisely to thwart unnecessarily the prejudices of the Americans. But the imposition of taxes upon them might be introductory to, or a part of the plan for overturning their civil and religious liberties, alluded to by the Rev. Mr. _Whitefield_, before even the sugar act had passed.