Should Auld Acquaintance be forgot? We are ourselves growing old, and have therefore little time to lose.
I was in hopes that when you returned to your Country, I might have observed by the laws men would have established, that you had retained some of Mirabeau’s Patriotic Principles, which are more extended in the Tabl Oeconomique Nations do not sufficiently advert to that Truth that all taxes are finally paid by the Land. Merchants and Manufacturers lay double the tax they are charged with on the Several Articles taxed. The Consumer therefore pays so much more than the real Value of the Article. Establish therefore all your taxes on the Land. Laying taxes on Imports is in fact taxing Yourselves. Render Philadelphia a free Port, and it will soon become the center of the American Trade. You will by this means be ever free of these Locusts, the Officers of the Revenue. Why banish the Loyalists when the Country was settled in peace. You have rendered Nova Scotia a thriving Colony. I see nothing of the liberal disposition of Dr. Franklin. I shall ever retain a most agreable remembrance of the many happy hours enjoyed in Your Company by Dear sir Your Affectionate humble servant