most faithful subjects;" let that honor, then, be all their fortune,
and let his majesty take them to himself.

  I am now thoroughly disgusted with them; they live in ungrateful
ease, and bend their whole minds to mischief. It seems as if God had
given them over to a spirit of infidelity, and that they are open to
conviction in no other line but that of punishment. It is time to have
done with tarring, feathering, carting, and taking securities for
their future good behavior; every sensible man must feel a conscious
shame at seeing a poor fellow hawked for a show about the streets,
when it is known he is only the tool of some principal villain,
biassed into his offence by the force of false reasoning, or bribed
thereto, through sad necessity. We dishonor ourselves by attacking
such trifling characters while greater ones are suffered to escape;
'tis our duty to find them out, and their proper punishment would be
to exile them from the continent for ever. The circle of them is not
so great as some imagine; the influence of a few have tainted many who
are not naturally corrupt. A continual circulation of lies among those
who are not much in the way of hearing them contradicted, will in time
pass for truth; and the crime lies not in the believer but the
inventor. I am not for declaring war with every man that appears not
so warm as myself: difference of constitution, temper, habit of
speaking, and many other things, will go a great way in fixing the
outward character of a man, yet simple honesty may remain at bottom.
Some men have naturally a military turn, and can brave hardships and
the risk of life with a cheerful face; others have not; no slavery
appears to them so great as the fatigue of arms, and no terror so
powerful as that of personal danger. What can we say? We cannot
alter nature, neither ought we to punish the son because the father
begot him in a cowardly mood. However, I believe most men have more
courage than they know of, and that a little at first is enough to
begin with. I knew the time when I thought that the whistling of a
cannon ball would have frightened me almost to death; but I have since
tried it, and find that I can stand it with as little discomposure,
and, I believe, with a much easier conscience than your lordship.
The same dread would return to me again were I in your situation,
for my solemn belief of your cause is, that it is hellish and
damnable, and, under that conviction, every thinking man's heart
must fail him.

  From a concern that a good cause should be dishonored by the least
disunion among us, I said in my former paper, No. I. "That should
the enemy now be expelled, I wish, with all the sincerity of a
Christian, that the names of Whig and Tory might never more be
mentioned;" but there is a knot of men among us of such a venomous
cast, that they will not admit even one's good wishes to act in
their favor. Instead of rejoicing that heaven had, as it were,
providentially preserved this city from plunder and destruction, by
delivering so great a part of the enemy into our hands with so
little effusion of blood, they stubbornly affected to disbelieve it
till within an hour, nay, half an hour, of the prisoners arriving; and
the Quakers put forth a testimony, dated the 20th of December,
signed "John Pemberton," declaring their attachment to the British
government.* These men are continually harping on the great sin of our
bearing arms, but the king of Britain may lay waste the world in blood
and famine, and they, poor fallen souls, have nothing to say.

  * I have ever been careful of charging offences upon whole societies
of men, but as the paper referred to is put forth by an unknown set of
men, who claim to themselves the right of representing the whole:
and while the whole Society of Quakers admit its validity by a
silent acknowledgment, it is impossible that any distinction can be
made by the public: and the more so, because the New York paper of the
30th of December, printed by permission of our enemies, says that "the
Quakers begin to speak openly of their attachment to the British
Constitution." We are certain that we have many friends among them,
and wish to know them.

  In some future paper I intend to distinguish between the different
kind of persons who have been denominated Tories; for this I am
clear in, that all are not so who have been called so, nor all men
Whigs who were once thought so; and as I mean not to conceal the
name of any true friend when there shall be occasion to mention him,
neither will I that of an enemy, who ought to be known, let his
rank, station or religion be what it may. Much pains have been taken
by some to set your lordship's private character in an amiable
light, but as it has chiefly been done by men who know nothing about
you, and who are no ways remarkable for their attachment to us, we
have no just authority for believing it. George the Third has
imposed upon us by the same arts, but time, at length, has done him
justice, and the same fate may probably attend your lordship. You
avowed purpose here is to kill, conquer, plunder, pardon, and enslave:
and the ravages of your army through the Jerseys have been marked with
as much barbarism as if you had openly professed yourself the prince
of ruffians; not even the appearance of humanity has been preserved
either on the march or the retreat of your troops; no general order
that I could ever learn, has ever been issued to prevent or even
forbid your troops from robbery, wherever they came, and the only
instance of justice, if it can be called such, which has distinguished
you for impartiality, is, that you treated and plundered all alike;
what could not be carried away has been destroyed, and mahogany
furniture has been deliberately laid on fire for fuel, rather than the
men should be fatigued with cutting wood.* There was a time when the
Whigs confided much in your supposed candor, and the Tories rested
themselves in your favor; the experiments have now been made, and
failed; in every town, nay, every cottage, in the Jerseys, where
your arms have been, is a testimony against you. How you may rest
under this sacrifice of character I know not; but this I know, that
you sleep and rise with the daily curses of thousands upon you;
perhaps the misery which the Tories have suffered by your proffered