ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the discourses, by William Smith, on Several Public Occasions during the War in America. In 1758 the assembly jailed Smith and William Moore for three months for libel, though he lobbied the Privy Council to quash the conviction. He later criticized British taxation in the colonies but argued against Independence and was briefly jailed for loyalism. The first three of Smith’s Discourses on Several Public Occasions during the War in America (1759) address personal morality and spirituality; the other two address empire directly and show how important he thought imperial conflict was. The Discourses address methods by which British victory could be achieved. Christianity was first revealed and embraced in the eastern parts of the world. Discourse V addresses Smith’s sense of the Christian imperative behind imperial expansion.
