The _Virginia_ house of burgesses, in their address to his majesty, expressed themselves with propriety upon this subject—“When we consider, that by the established laws and constitution of this colony the most ample provision is made for apprehending and punishing all those who shall dare to engage in any treasonable practices against your majesty, or disturb the tranquility of government; we cannot, without horror, think of the unusual, and permit us, with all humility, to add unconstitutional and illegal mode recommended to your majesty, of seizing and carrying beyond the sea, the inhabitants of America suspected of any crime, and of trying such persons in any other manner than by the ancient and long established course of proceedings; for how truly deplorable must be the case of a wretched American, who having incurred the displeasure of any one in power, is dragged from his native home and his dearest domestic connections, thrown into a prison, not to wait his trial before a court, jury or judges, from a knowledge of whom he is encouraged to hope for a speedy justice, but to exchange his imprisonment in his own country for fetters among strangers. Conveyed to a distant land, where no friend, no relation will alleviate his distresses, or minister to his necessities, and where no witness can be found to testify his innocence; shunned by the reputable and honest, and consigned to the society and converse of the wretched and abandoned, he can only pray, that he may soon end his misery with his life.” We have been reviewing the noble and animated proceedings of the _Virgians_ and others in behalf of liberty; and cannot but regret that the existence of slavery and its effects among them, should administer the least occasion for any one’s writing concerning them. “The last resolves of the Virginia burgesses deserve a very hard name. It is indeed laughable, to see a few dissipated bashaws, tyrants over a parcel of wretched negro slaves, meet together and give themselves airs against Great-Britain upon the subject of liberty—this applies to all the southern colonies. The spirit of independence in _New-England_, is more consistent and characteristic of the people; but _Virginia_, and the _Carolinas_ are but _petit maitres_ in the business.”[100]