The more they multiply, the more
friends you will have; the more ardently they love liberty, the more
perfect will be their obedience. Until you become lost to all feeling of
your true interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from
none but you.
This is the commodity of price of which you have the monopoly. This is
the true Act of Navigation which binds to you the commerce of the
colonies, and through them secures to you the wealth of the world. Deny
them this participation of freedom, and you break that sole bond which
originally made, and must still preserve, the unity of the empire. Do
not entertain so weak an imagination as that your registers and your
bonds, your affidavits and your sufferances, are what form the great
securities of your commerce. Do not dream that your letters of office,
and your instructions, are the things that hold together the great
contexture of the mysterious whole. These things do not make your
government. Dead instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the
spirit of the English communion that gives all their life and efficacy
to them.
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