The New Hampshire Gazette

To the People of ENGLAND.

Do thou, great Liberty, inspire our Souls,
And make our Lives in thy Possession happy,
Or our Deaths glorious in thy just Defence.

In all the Annals of this Kingdom there does not appear
a Time, when the Circumstances of the Nation were at
a more dangerous Crisis, than at present; when were
your future Honour or Dishonour, Prosperity or Advers-
ity, Freedom or Slavery in a more critical suspense, or hang
in a more doubtful scale, than at this Time; and which of
the two shall preponderate, will be determined according as
you shall or shall not exert yourselves at this important
Juncture.

Your Fate must now be fix'd by your Spirit; and believe
me, if you neglect the present Opportunity, you are never
likely to have another.

That Contest is, Whether Vice or Virtue, Corruption or
Integrity, shall take the Steerage, and have the Direction of
your Affairs; and consequently, as the one or the other shall
prevail, your Fate, Prosperity or Adversity, will be irrevocably fix'd.

The Spirit, which you so lately and so laudably exerted,
to get rid of and procure Justice on a most corrupt Admi-
istration, will, if continued, again conquer all their corrupt
Opposition, and make you a happy People. You have so
lately experienced your Power, and seen the happy Effects
of exerting a proper Spirit, that I cannot doubt but you will
persevere: And though the Continuance of the Administra-
tion, procured by the generous Exertion of your Spirit, was
but very short; yet, it was sufficient to convince you, that
there are Men who are not only able to retrieve your Af-
fairs and conduct them happily, but who will be steadfastly
just and true to your Interests. Was not their Integrity to
you, the Cause of the shortness of their Administration?

Having at last found such rare Jewels of Integrity, will ye
patiently suffer them to be torn from you by the Tribe of
Corruption? Will ye be compell'd to return again to the
Vomit, and again to wallow in the Mire?

Behold the vast and striking Difference between Integrity
and Corruption! First, cast your Eyes on Him, whom you,
to your great Detriment, have just been deprived of, who
was so sensible of the heavy Burthens you bear, and so desir-
ous of lessening them, that he offer'd to give you his Time
and Labour, and serve you without any Salary at all: Then
turn your Eyes on One, who it is said has already, or is about
to have, the most lucrative Appointment in the Kingdom,
and yet thinks the Profits of it too little for him, and there-
fore has, besides, desired and obtained a Reversionary Grant
of Two Thousand Pounds a Year. What a Contrast, O my
Countrymen! does here present itself to you? Is there not
as great a Dissimilitude between these two Men, as between
an innocent and useful Lamb, who clothes you with his Skin,
and feeds you with his Flesh; and a sly rapacious Fox, that
robs your Henroosts, and devours your Provisions?

Under Men of such avaritious Minds, so rapacious for
themselves, and so regardless for your Interests, must ye not
expect that your Burthens, already too heavy, will be in-
creased, and that you must soon make Brick without Straw?

Were ye to continue any Time under such Men, how would
your Debt and Distresses increase! How would your Credit
and your Fortunes fall!

Since, by a long Series of Profusion and Corruption, your
Circumstances are so far reduced, that the necessary Supplies
for Government are not, without great Difficulty, raised;
will ye be content to have them utterly ruined by a Conti-
nuance of the same profuse and corrupt Measures? Can ye
think it consistent with your Duty to your King, Yourselves,
your Posterity, to suffer such corrupt and avaritious Men
oppress them all? No; you will, I doubt not, humbly
lay your distressed Circumstances before the Throne, and in-
form his sacred Majesty of the utter Impossibility of your
subsisting longer under the Management or Influence of such
Men, as have abused his Royal Confidence, and brought you
and your Affairs into the most desperate Situation; and you
will implore his sacred Majesty, to trust the Reins of Power
once more into the Hands of Those who were proceeding to ob-
tain Justice on them, who had been wanting in their Duty to
Him and their Country: into the Hands of Those, who
were, by wise and frugal Measures, endeavouring to support
your Credit, and retrieve your Honour; into the Hands of
Those, whom He has try'd and found, not only highly ca-
pable of conducting the Affairs of the Nation happily, at
this dangerous Crisis, but thoroughly just and true to His and
Your Interests.

I am your faithful Servant,
BRITANNICUS.