1705042430 5. Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our colonies which contributes no mean part towards the growth and effect of this untractable spirit. I mean their education. In no country perhaps in the world is the law so general a study. The profession itself is numerous and powerful; and in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of the deputies sent to Congress were lawyers. But all who read, and most do read, endeavor to obtain some smattering in that science. I have been told by an eminent bookseller, that in no branch of his business, after tracts of popular devotion, were so many books as those on the law exported to the Plantations. The colonists have now fallen into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone’s Commentaries in America as in England. General Gage marks out this disposition very particularly in a letter on your table. He states that all the people in his government are lawyers, or smattered in law;and that in Boston they have been enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to evade many parts of one of your capital penal constitutions. The smartness of debate will say that this knowledge ought to teach them more clearly the rights of legislature, their obligations to obedience, and the penalties of rebellion. All this is mighty well. But my honorable and learned friend on the floor, who condescends to mark what I say for animadversion, will disdain that ground. He has heard, as well as I, that when great honors and great emoluments do not win over this knowledge to the service of that state, it is a formidable adversary to government. If the spirit be not tamed and broken by these happy methods, it is stubborn and litigious. Abeunt studia in mores . This study renders men acute, inquisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defense, full of resources. In other countries, the people, more simple, and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in government only by an actual grievance; here they anticipate the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a distance, and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted breeze.

1705042431

1705042432 6. The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the colonies is hardly less powerful than the rest, as it is not merely moral, but laid deep in the natural constitution of things. Three thousand miles of ocean lie between you and them. No contrivance can prevent the effect of this distance in weakening government. Seas roll, and months pass, between the order and the execution; and the want of a speedy explanation of a single point is enough to defeat a whole system. You have, indeed, winged ministers of vengeance, who carry your bolts in their pounces to the remotest verge of the sea. But there is a power steps in that limits the arrogance of raging passions and furious elements, and says, “So far shalt thou go, and no farther.” Who are you, that you should fret and rage, and bite the chains of nature? Nothing worse happens to you than does to all nations who have extensive empire; and it happens in all the forms into which empire can be thrown. In large bodies the circulation of power must be less vigorous at the extremities. Nature has said it. The Turk cannot govern Egypt and Arabia and Kurdistan as he governs Thrace; nor has he the same dominion in Crimea and Algiers which he has at Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism itself is obliged to truck and huckster. The Sultan gets such obedience as he can. He governs with a loose rein, that he may govern at all;and the whole of the force and vigor of his authority in his center is derived from a prudent relaxation in all his borders. Spain, in her provinces, is, perhaps, not so well obeyed as you are in yours. She complies, too; she submits; she watches time. This is the immutable condition, the eternal law of extensive and detached empire.

1705042433

1705042434 （Summary） Then, Sir, from these six capital sources—of descent, of form of government, of religion in the northern provinces, of manners in the southern, of education, of the remoteness of situation from the first mover of government—from all these causes a fierce spirit of liberty has grown up. It has grown with the growth of the people in your colonies, and increased with the increase of their wealth;a spirit that unhappily meeting with an exercise of power in England which, however lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas of liberty, much less with theirs, has kindled this flame that is ready to consume us.

1705042435

1705042436 Notes

1705042437

1705042438 jealous, disposed to suspect rivalry in matters of interest and affection;apprehensive regarding the motives of possible rivals.

1705042439

1705042440 restive, unwilling to go on; obstinate in refusing to move forward;impatient under coercion, chastisement, or opposition.

1705042441

1705042442 untractable, not capable of being easily led, taught, managed, or controlled.

1705042443

1705042444 shuffle from them by chicane, take away by trickery.

1705042445

1705042446 amiss, wrong, faulty, out of order, improper.

1705042447

1705042448 when this part of your character was most predominant . During the reigns of James I （1603-1625） and of Charles I （1625-1648）. James became involved in a bitter quarrel with Parliament by increasing the customs duties without its consent. The attempts of Charles to raise revenue by means of forced loans and ship money were among the causes which led to the great civil war in 1642 and to the execution of the king in 1649.

1705042449

1705042450 inheres, belongs, as attributes, qualities, rights, powers, etc.

1705042451

1705042452 some sensible object, some concrete object or definite interest:sensible, that which is evident to the senses.

1705042453

1705042454 criterion, standard of judging; rule or test by which facts, principles, opinions, and conduct are tried in forming a correct judgment respecting them.

1705042455

1705042456 the great contests for freedom, for example, in 1297, in the reign of Edward I, and in 1628, in the reign of Charles I.

1705042457

1705042458 the ablest pens, and most eloquent tongues, the best writers, like Pym, Hampden, Selen, St. John, and the most fluent speakers.

1705042459

1705042460 ancient parchments and blind usages, established practices, the origin of which is lost in antiquity.

1705042461

1705042462 immediate direct.

1705042463

1705042464 oracle, authoritative or wise expression.

1705042465

1705042466 inculcate, teach.

1705042467

1705042468 mediately or immediately, indirectly, through chosen representatives, or directly, in their own persons.

1705042469

1705042470 theorem and corollaries, meaning here, your principles of government.

1705042471

1705042472 pleasing error . Why pleasing error?

1705042473

1705042474 merely popular, wholly in charge of the people, as in Connecticut and Rhode Island, where even the governors, instead of being appointed by the Crown, were elected by the people.

1705042475

1705042476 Protestants, Christians who are in protest against the Roman Catholic, the Old Catholic Church, and the Eastern Church.

1705042477

1705042478 coeval, of the same age; existing during the same period of time, especially time long and remote.

1705042479

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