Extract of a Letter to another friend from B. F.

By the Original Law of Nations, War and Extirpation was the Punishment of Injury, Humanising by Degrees, it admitted Slavery instead of Death. A farther Step was, the Exchange of Prisoners instead of Slavery. Another, to respect more the Property of private Persons under Conquest, and be content with acquired Dominion. Why should not this Law of Nations go on improving? Ages have intervened between its several Steps; but, as knowledge of late increases rapidly, why should not those Steps be quickened? Why should it not be agreed to as the future Law of Nations that in any War hereafter the following descriptions of Men should be undisturbed have the protection of both Sides, and be permitted to follow their Employments in Surety Viz:

1. The Cultivators of the Earth, because they labour for the Subsistence of Mankind.

2. Fishermen for the same Reason.

3. Merchants and Traders, in unarmed Ships, who accomodate different Nations by communicating and exchanging the Necessaries and Inconveniencies of Life.

4. Artists and Mechanics inhabiting and working in open Towns.

It is hardly necessary to add that the Hospitals of Enemies should be unmolested, they ought to be assisted.

In short I would have nobody fought with, but those who are paid for fighting. If obliged to take Corn from the Farmer, Friend or Enemy, I would pay him for it, the same for the Fish or Goods of the others.

This once established that Encouragement to War which arises from a Spirit of Rapine, would be taken away and Peace therefore more likely to continue and be lasting.

It is for the Interest of Humanity in general that the Occasions of War, and the Inducements to it should be diminished.

If Rapine is abolished, one of the Encouragements to War is taken away, and Peace therefore more likely to continue and be lasting.

The practice of robbing Merchants on the High Seas, a remnant of the ancient Piracy, tho’t it may be accidentally beneficial to particular Persons, is far from being profitable to all engaged in it, or to the Nation that Authorizes it. In the beginning of a War some rich Ships not upon their guard, are surprized and taken. This encourages the first Adventurer to fit out more armed Vessels, and many others to do the same; but the Enemy at the same time become more careful, arm their Merchant Ships better and render them not so easy to be taken, they go also more under the protection of Convoys, thus while the Privateers to take them are multiplied, the Vessels subject to be taken, and the Chances or Profit are diminished; so that many Cruizes are made wherein the Expences over go the Gains, and as is the Case in other Lotteries, tho’ Particulars have got Prizes, the Mass of Adventurers are Losers, the whole Expence of fitting out all the Privateers during a War being much greater than the whole Amount of Goods taken. Then there is the National Loss of all the labor of so many Men during the time they have been employed in robbing; who besides spend what they get in Riot, Drunkenness and Debauchery lose their habits of Industry, are rarely fit for any sober Business after a Peace, and serve only to increase the number of Highwaymen and Housebreakers; even the Undertakers who have been fortunate, are by sudden Wealth led into expensive living, the Habits of which continue when the means of supporting it cease, and finally ruins them. A just Punishment of their having wantonly and unfeelingly ruined many honest innocent Traders and their Families, whose Subsistence was employed in serving the common Interests of Mankind.

Should it be agreed and become a part of the Laws of Nations, that the Cultivaters of the Earth are not to be molested or interrupted in their peaceable and useful Employment the Inhabitants of the Sugar Islands would perhaps come under the protection of such a Regulation, which would be of great Advantage to the Nations who at present hold those Islands, since the Cost of Sugar to the Consumer in those Nations, consists not merely in the Price he pays for it by the pound, but in the accumulated charge of all the Taxes he pays in every War to fit out Fleets and maintain Troops, for the Defence of the Islands that raise the Sugar and the Ships that bring it home: but the Expence of Treasure is not all. A celebrated Philosophical Writer remarks that when he considered the Wars made in Africa for Prisoners to raise Sugars in America, the numbers slain in those Wars, the numbers that being crouded in Ships perish in the Transportation, and the numbers that die under the Severities of Slavery, he could scarce look on a morsel of Sugar without conceiving it spotted with human blood. If he had also considered the blood of one another which the White Nations shed in fighting for those Islands, he would have imagined his Sugar not as spotted only, but as thoroughly died red: On these Accounts I am persuaded that the Subjects of the Emperor of Germany and the Empress of Russia, who have no Sugar Islands, consume Sugar cheaper at Vienna and Moscow, with all the Charge of transporting it after its Arrival in Europe, than the Citizens of London, or of Paris. And I sincerely believe that if France and England were to decide by throwing Dice which should have the whole of their Sugar Islands, the Loser in the throw would be the Gainer. The Future Expence of defending them would be saved; the Sugars would be bought cheaper by all Europe, if the Inhabitants might make it without Interruption; and whoever imported the Sugar, the same Revenue might be raised by Duties at the Custom House of the Nation that consumed it. And on the whole I conceive it would be better for the Nations now possessing Sugar colonies to give up their Claim to them, let them govern themselves and put them under the Protection of all the Powers of Europe as Neutral Countries open to the Commerce of all, the Profits of the Present Monopoly’s being by no means equivalent to the Expence of maintaining them.

“If War should hereafter arise between Great Britain and the United States, which God forbid, the Merchants of either Country, then residing in the other, shall be allowed to remain 9 Months to collect their Debts and settle their Affairs, and may depart freely carrying of all their Effects without Molestation, or Hindrance. And all Fishermen, all Cultivators of the Earth, and all Artizans, or Manufacturers unarmed and inhabiting unfortified Towns, Villages or Places, who labour for the common Subsistence and Benefit of Mankind, and peaceably follow their respective Employments, shall be allowed to continue the same, and shall not be molested by the Armed Force of the Enemy, in whose power by the Events of War, they may happen to fall; but if any thing is necessary to be taken from them for the use of such Armed Force, the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price. And all Merchants, or Traders with their unarmed Vessels employed in Commerce, exchanging the Products of different places and thereby rendering the Necessaries, Conveniences and Comforts of human Life more easy to obtain and more general, shall be allowed to pass freely unmolested. And neither of the Powers, Parties to this Treaty shall grant, or issue any Commission to any private armed Vessel, empowering them to take or destroy such trading Ships, or interrupt such Commerce.

It is agreed that His Britanic Majesty will earnestly recommend it to His Parliament to provide for and make Compensation to the Merchants and Shopkeepers of Boston whose Goods and Merchandize were seized and taken out of their Stores, Warehouses, and Shops, by Orders of General Gage and others of his Commanders or Officers there; and also to the Inhabitants of Philadelphia for the Goods taken away by his Army there. And to make Compensation also for the Tobacco, Rice, Indigo, and Negroes &c seized and carried off by his Armies under Generals Arnold, Cornwallis and others from the States of Virginia, North and South Carolina and Georgia, and also for all Vessels and Cargoes belonging to the Inhabitants of the said United States which were stop’d seized, or taken, either in the Ports, or on the Seas, by his Governors, or by his Ships of War before the Declaration of War against the said States.

And it is further agreed that His Britanic Majesty will also earnestly recommend it to His Parliament to make Compensation for all the Towns, Villages and Farms burnt and destroyed by His Troops and Adherents in the said United States.

There existed a free Commerce upon mutual Faith between Great Britain and America. The Merchants of the former credited the Merchants and Planters of the latter with great quantities of Goods on the common Expectation that the Merchants having sold the Goods would make the accustomed Remittances, that the Planters would do the same by the labour of their Negroes, and the produce of that labour tobacco, Rice, Indigo &ca.

England before the Goods were sold in America, sends an armed Force, seize the Goods in the Stores, some even in the Ships that brought them and carries them off. Seizes also and carries off the Tobacco, Rice and Indigo, provided by the Planters to make returns, and even the Negroes from whose labour they might hope to raise other Produce for that purpose.

Britain now demands that the Debts shall neverheless be paid.

Will she, can she justly refuse making Compensation for such Seizures.

If a Draper who had sold a Piece of Linen to a Neighbour on Credit, should follow him, take the Linen from him by Force, and then send the Bailiff to arrest him for the Debt, would any Court of Law, or Equity award the Payment of the Debt, without ordering Restitution of the Cloth?

Will not the Debtors in America cry out, that if this Compensation be not made they were betrayed by the pretended Credit and are now doubly ruined, first by the Enemy and then by the Negotiators at Paris, the Goods of Negroes sold them being taken from them with all they had besides, and they are now to be obliged to pay for what they have been robbed of.