He had long before indulged most unfavourable sentiments of our
fellow-subjects in America. For, as early as 1769, I was told by Dr.
John Campbell, that he had said of them, 'Sir, they are a race of
convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of
hanging.'
Of this performance I avoided to talk with him; for I had now formed
a clear and settled opinion, that the people of America were well
warranted to resist a claim that their fellow-subjects in the
mother-country should have the entire command of their fortunes, by
taxing them without their own consent; and the extreme violence which
it breathed, appeared to me so unsuitable to the mildness of a christian
philosopher, and so directly opposite to the principles of peace which
he had so beautifully recommended in his pamphlet respecting Falkland's
Islands, that I was sorry to see him appear in so unfavourable a light.
On Friday, March 24, I met him at the LITERARY CLUB, where were Mr.
Beauclerk, Mr.
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