346 Journal and Correspondence

to you this Evening when there is so much to be said, & so
few Opportunities of saying it, but my Head is disabled by this
Influenza, which has disabled us all by Turns, and my Atten-
tion, as far I am competent to employ it, is engaged by official
Business.

Our Campaign this Year has certainly not been brilliant,
and the News (reported a few Days ago and confirmed this
Morning) of the taking of S^t Johns compleats our Disgrace.
We have wanted a few hard Knocks to rouse us, & I trust
that we are roused (at least we have had the Knocks) I also
trust that we are not stunn'd by them, but animated to a just
sense of the Contest, in which we are engaged & determined
(and let me add able) to take Measures equal to its Difficulties.
You have rather a Predilection for America, let me repeat to
you however what I have always said, and what the chearful
Disposition of the People of this Country under all their Dis-
appointments in this Business confirms. " We are too steady
and too resolute to give Way, & either you or we must give
Way, if we were less steady than we are, we could still be too
much for you by the relative Advantages which we enjoy, and
which we shall still enjoy in spite of the great Expences, to
which you are putting us, in great naval Equipments, and in
more numerous Armies, than have ever yet been seen in
America. It is a cursed Business—we may be mistaken, but
we think you in general in a State of Frenzy. You will
neither hear Reason, nor act reasonably, & the only Question
now is, whether you will be brought ,back to common Sense
and general Happiness, or whether you shall succeed in
destroying both us and yourselves. As for your Excellency
individually, you are behaving in a Manner to deserve great
Credit you are acting the dignified determined Part, and are
shewing yourself a Friend to both Sides of the Atlantic. You
have all due Honour for it here, and I hope you will be treated
with equal Candour on your own Side of the Atlantic.

The Bill which had the Royal Assent yesterday puts an end
to all commercial Intercourse between us. I hope the Southern
Countries will begin to see the Consequences of continuing
upon themselves the Miseries which that Bill must bring on
them & that they will learn what they might have learned
longer ago, that if they succeed in their present united Enter-
prize, they will immediately find themselves in a state of
subjection to the New-Englanders, & that the longer they
persevere in that Enterprize (if they are fortunate enough in
the end to fail in it) the more they must suffer. For other
Matters I must refer you to the Papers from the Post-Office &
remain very affectionately

Yours. W^m Eden.