“I do not enter upon the question, whether the Americans are in the right or in the wrong. Here all my prejudices are against the Americans; for I am a high churchman,[231] the son of a high churchman, bred up, from my childhood, in the highest notions of passive obedience and non-resistance; and yet, in spite of all my long rooted prejudices, I cannot avoid thinking, if I think at all, that an oppressed people asked for nothing more than their legal rights, and that in the most modest and inoffensive manner that the nature of the thing would allow.[232] But waiving all considerations of right and wrong, I ask, is it common sense to use force towards the Americans? These men will not be frightened; and it seems, they will not be conquered so easily as was at first imagined. They will probably dispute every inch of ground; and, if they die, die sword in hand. Indeed, some of our valiant officers say, ‘Two thousand men will clear America of these rebels.’ No, nor twenty thousand, be they rebels or not, nor perhaps treble that number. They are as strong men as you; they are as valiant as you, if not abundantly more valiant, for they are one and all enthusiasts,--enthusiasts for liberty. They are calm, deliberate enthusiasts; and we know how this principle ‘breathes into softer souls stern love of war, and thirst of vengeance, and contempt of death.’ We know men, animated with this spirit, will leap into a fire, or rush into a cannon’s mouth. “‘But they have no experience in war.’ And how much more have our troops? Very few of them ever saw a battle. ‘But they have no discipline.’ That is an entire mistake. Already they have near as much as our army, and they will learn more of it every day; so that, in a short time, if the fatal occasion continue, they will understand it as well as their assailants.[233] ‘But they are divided amongst themselves.’ No, my lord, they are terribly united; not in the province of New England only, but down as low as the Jerseys and Pennsylvania. The bulk of the people are so united, that to speak a word in favour of the present English measures would almost endanger a man’s life. Those who informed me of this are no sycophants; they say nothing to curry favour; they have nothing to gain or lose by me. But they speak with sorrow of heart what they have seen with their own eyes, and heard with their own ears.