The works of the Rev. William Thom, late minister ... - waughfamily.ca

120 SERMONS.Americans from the love of war, and to cernent themin the binds of frlcndfhip, though commonly tliis isdone llowly, by rational motives, and by a long courCeof mutual good ufage.The conteft about America is momentous : Britainalms to hold in due and perpetual fubje6tion the numerousand faft-multiplying inhabitants of a diftantand extenQve continent, twenty times larger than herown European territories. The object in view is certainlygreat ;perhaps there never was an aim equalto it in the hillory of mankind; and yet, from toomuch keennefs to fucceed in this aim, it is pofTiblewe may not only weaken, but even ruin our nativecountry ; and this, I think, may, in fome degree, beoccafioned by thefe amazing levies that are now carriedon, by which our manufaftures, and agricultureitfelf, muft greatly fufFc-r. We have by far too fewworking people already ; of this the king's fervantsin Scotland are fo well apprized, that, not feven yearsago, one of them applied to the commillioners of thecufloms, infilling that they would give orders to thecuftom-houfe officers to Hop all emigration. He evenpublicly declared, that if any of the poor farmers lefttheir houfes, and iliould travel towards the port, toembark for America, he would array the fencible menof the county, and drive them back to their drearyabodes. A quite different fyftem hath of late, andall at once, been greedily embraced ; and, in thisnorthern part of the iiland, it is keenly purfued ;purfued^t an expence that is enormous, and almolt incredible*, nobles, gentlemen, cities, boroughs, towns,and villages, are all a-ftir, all bufy at levying numerousdouble regiments to be fent to America. Neverwas one-fiftieth part of fuch keennefs fhown againflthe French, in any of the attempts they made to conquerus, and bring us under popery and arbitrarypower. There may be wifdom in the keen pufhingvf thefe levies, but it is not eafy for an ordinary un-