tyrant, a debauched court, a trafficking legislature, or a blinded
people may think, the national account with heaven must some day or
other be settled: all countries have sooner or later been called to
their reckoning; the proudest empires have sunk when the balance was
struck; and Britain, like an individual penitent, must undergo her
day of sorrow, and the sooner it happens to her the better. As I wish
it over, I wish it to come, but withal wish that it may be as light
as possible.

Perhaps your lordship has no taste for serious things; by your
connections in England I should suppose not; therefore I shall drop
this part of the subject, and take it up in a line in which you will
better understand me.

By what means, may I ask, do you expect to conquer America? If you
could not effect it in the summer, when our army was less than yours,
nor in the winter, when we had none, how are you to do it? In point
of generalship you have been outwitted, and in point of fortitude
outdone; your advantages turn out to your loss, and show us that it
is in our power to ruin you by gifts: like a game of drafts, we can
move out of one square to let you come in, in order that we may
afterwards take two or three for one; and as we can always keep a
double corner for ourselves, we can always prevent a total defeat.
You cannot be so insensible as not to see that we have two to one the
advantage of you, because we conquer by a drawn game, and you lose by
it. Burgoyne might have taught your lordship this knowledge; he has
been long a student in the doctrine of chances.

I have no other idea of conquering countries than by subduing the
armies which defend them: have you done this, or can you do it? If