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