but a rebel committee; notices of the town constable, that he is
authorized to receive the taxes on such all estate, in default of which,
that also is to be knocked down to the highest bidder; and notifications
of complaints filed by the attorney-general against certain traitorous
absentees, and of confiscations that are to ensue. And who are these
traitors? Our own best friends; names as old, once as honored, as any in
the land where they are no longer to have a patrimony, nor to be
remembered as good men who have passed away. We are ashamed of not
relinquishing our little property, too; but comfort ourselves because we
still keep our principles, without gratifying the rebels with our
plunder. Plunder, indeed, they are seizing everywhere,--by the strong
hand at sea, as well as by legal forms oil shore. Here are prize-vessels
for sale; no French nor Spanish merchantmen, whose wealth is the
birthright of British subjects, but hulls of British oak, from Liverpool,
Bristol, and the Thames, laden with the king's own stores, for his army
in New York. And what a fleet of privateers--pirates, say we--are
fitting out for new ravages, with rebellion in their very names! The
Free Yankee, the General Greene, the Saratoga, the Lafayette, and the
Grand Monarch! Yes, the Grand Monarch; so is a French king styled, by
the sons of Englishmen. And here we have an ordinance from the Court of
Versailles, with the Bourbon's own signature affixed, as if New England
were already a French province. Everything is French,--French soldiers,
French sailors, French surgeons, and French diseases too, I trow; besides
French dancing-masters and French milliners, to debauch our daughters
with French fashions! Everything in America is French, except the
Canadas, the loyal Canadas, which we helped to wrest, from
France. And to that old French province the Englishman of the colonies
must go to find his country!

O, the misery of seeing the whole system of things changed in my old