but a Resolution in the People HERE, will be able to prevent the next divine Step of the same Plan, from laying in RUINS, ALL the RIGHTS of the British, with those of the American World.12
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The Altar of Despotism is erected in America, and WE shall be the next Victims to LAWLESS POWER; all the Horrors of SLAVERY, now stare us in the Face; our Religion Subverted, Freedom, Law, and Right artfully undermined, the Roman Catholic Religion, not tolerated, but ESTABLISHED, a Majority of the House of Commons, and House of Lords mere Creatures of the King; in short, every Engine of OPPRESSION and ARBITRARY Power is at work to accomplish our RUIN.
O my Countrymen, that we could but inspire you with noble Sentiments of LIBERTY, rouse you to a just sense of your immediate Danger, and make you feel, sensibly feel, all the Blessings derived from FREEDOM, the natural Right of every Man, but more peculiarly of Englishmen, it is our Birthright, our Inheritance, it was handed down to us by our Ancestors, and Sealed often with their BLOOD; let us then, in Justice to them, to ourselves, and to Posterity, make a noble constitutional Stand, in Conjunction with our noble and spirited, but suffering fellow Subjects in America, against the present Plan, long fixed by the Minions of Power to destroy it, and overturn the Constitution, a Constitution ten Thousand Times superior to any System ever devised by the Greeks or Romans.13
At such a time as THIS, when the merciless, the relentless Hand of Tyranny is tearing out the Vitals of Freedom, sapping the Foundations of public
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Security, making a Mockery of Justice, and destroying all the envied Rights of Britain, and the Truths of Heaven; I say, at such a Time, to be inattentive or inactive, is Infamy, and he who can tamely see his Country upon the Brink of RUIN, without putting out his Arm, and lending a helping Hand to rescue her from DESTRUCTION, must be an abandoned Wretch, a Disgrace to the Name of Englishman and to his Country.
N.B.14 No.2, will contain the secret Reasons urged in the Cabinet for dissolving the last Parliament, and smuggling another of the same Complexion. &c. &c.
To the People of ENGLAND and AMERICA.
Some Time in the middle of March will be published, Price IS. 6d. in Quarto, on a fine Paper and new Type,
The Prophecy of RUIN, a Poem.
Ense velut stricto, quoties Lucilius ardens
Infremuit, rubet Auditor cui frigida Mens est,
Criminibus, tacita sudant Praecordia Culpa.
JUVENAL.15
Sharp as a Sword Lucilius drew his Pen,
And struck with panic Terror guilty Men,
At his just Strokes the harden’d Wretch would start,
Feel the cold Sweat, and tremble at the Heart.16
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Printed and published for the Authors, by T. W. SHAW, in Fleet-Street, opposite Anderton’s Coffee House, and by his appointment the Corner of Little Turnstile, Holborn, where Letters to the Publisher will be thankfully received.
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THE
CRISIS
| NUMBER II | To be continued Weekly. |
| SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1775 | [Price Two-pence Halfpenny. |
A Bloody Court,
A Bloody Ministry,
And
A Bloody Parliament.
THE sudden and unexpected Dissolution of the last ruinous Parliament,1 gave a just and general Alarm to the whole Nation; and we may search in vain the voluminous Pages of Grecian, Roman, or English History, to find such another plan of PREMEDITATED
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Villainy, for destroying at one grand stroke of ROYAL and Ministerial Policy, all the Rights of a FREE PEOPLE. Lord North, engendered in the Womb of Hell, raised by the fostering Hand of infernal Spirits, and possessing Principles that have eclipsed ALL the GLORIES of his SATANIC Parents, had the Effrontery to declare in the Face of the House of Commons and the World, but a few Days before the Recess of the late Parliament, that they should meet AGAIN early in October, for the Dispatch of Business. When he uttered this Falshood, it was suspected by many, and he well knew it had been determined, that they should be dissolved, altho’ the precise Time was not fixed. On the 16th Day of September 1774, a Notice was published in the Gazette for the last Parliament to MEET on the 15th of November; eleven Days had not elapsed before a Proclamation appeared for its DISSOLUTION, and the calling a new Parliament. Who can guard against Deception, Artifice, and Villainy, when stamped with ROYAL AUTHORITY? The very Thought of an HONEST House of Commons struck Terror into the guilty Soul of Lord North, the diabolical Minion of ROYAL Favour, and Instrument of ROYAL Vengeance; nay, even the King (virtuous as he is) had his FEARS; and in order to secure their own Creatures and Dependents, or, in other Words, to have the old Parliament new revived, and smuggle a Majority of venal abandoned Miscreants (who would deny their GOD, or sell their SOULS for Money) into the present House of Commons, Lord North sent Letters to ALL his Friends that THEY might be PREPARED, and it was known in the most distant Parts of England, and even the Time of Election fixed in several Boroughs in Cornwall, some Days BEFORE the Parliament was DISSOLVED. This is a TRUTH which Lord North with all his consummate Impudence cannot DENY.2
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The ministerial Hacks were immediately set to work to fabricate Lies (and publish them in the News-paper) to delude and deceive the Electors; that little or no Opposition might be made to the Tools of Government. One Report said, the Dissolution of Parliament was owing to some disagreeable Advices received from America, and that our virtuous King, with his still more virtuous Ministers, intended to adopt some conciliating Measures with Respect to the Colonies, and that it would betray a Weakness in the King to let the SAME Parliament meet AGAIN, to repeal those Acts, which they had but a few Months before passed. Another Report, equally TRUE, asserted it was on Account of Intelligence received from the North, of a very ALARMING Nature; and a Third, that it was occasioned by a Difference between the French and English Ministry, which rendered such a Step necessary, as there was great Reason to believe we should soon be involved in a War, and that it would be exceedingly improper to have the Nation put in a Ferment, by a general Election, at so critical a Time as that, and when the Assistance of Parliament, would be particularly wanted. A fourth Report was, that Lord Chatham and his Friends would be immediately taken into FAVOUR, and that there was to be an ENTIRE CHANGE in the Ministry. By these low Artifices and ministerial Lies, the People of England were lulled into a State of Supineness, and even made to lend a helping Hand to complete their OWN RUIN.3
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The subsequent Part of this Paper shall unravel the diabolical Scheme. Lord
