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Tous les autres exemplaires orlginaux sont filmte en commenpant par la premiere page qui comporte une empreinte d'Impression ou d'iilustration et en terminant par la derniAre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. Un des symboles sulvants apparaftra sur la derniire image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbols — ► signifie "A SUIVRE ", le symbols V signifie "FIN ". Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre filmte d des taux de reduction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clich6, il est iWmi d partir de Tangle 8up6rieur gauche, de gauche i iroite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m6thode. rrata :o nelure. Id □ 32X 1 2 3 I 2 3 4 5 6 SPEECH OF EDMUND BURKE, Esc^ O N AMERICAN TAXATION, APRIL 19, 1774. THE FOURTH EDITION, n^a w^^i^w I Jl, O N D O N: Printed for J. D O D S L E Y, in Pall-Mali.; MDCCLXXXIII. [Price Two Shillings.] ■ ^ [ iii ] PREFACE. TIT E following Speech has been much the lubjcdl: of converfation -, and the defire of having it printed was laft fummer very general. 1 he means of gratifying the public curiofity wero obligingly furnifhed from the notes of fome Gentlemen, Members of the hi\ Parliament, This piece has been for fome months ready for the prefs. But a delicacy, poflibly over fcrwpulous, has delayed the publication to this time. The friends of adminiftration have been ufed to attribute a great deal of the oppofition to their meafures in America to the writings publilhed in England. The Editor of this Speech kept it back, .until all the meafures of government have had their full operation, and can be no longer affedled, if ever they could have been affeded, by any publication. A 2 Moft Moft Readers will recolle(ft the uncommon pains taken at the beginning of the lafl f'iffion of the laft Parliament, and indeed during the whole courfe of it, to afperfe the charadlers, and decry the meafures, of thofe who were fuppofed to be friends to America; in order to weaken the effed: of their oppofition to the afts of rigour then preparing againft the Colo- nies. This Speech contains a full refutation of the charges againft that party with which Mr. Burke has all along adted. In doing this, he has taken a review of the efFed:s of all the fchemes which have been fucceflively adopted in the government of the Plantations. The fubjed: is interelling ; the matters of informa- tion various, and important; and the publi- cation at this time, the Editor hopes, will not be thought unfeafonable. ■ \ 1 1 # y . * S P E E C II t 5 1 s E t t U O F E D M tJ N D BURKE, Esq, DURING the laft SefTion of the laft Parliaftient, on the 19th of April, 1774, Mr. Rofe Fuller, Member for Rye, made the following Motion; That an Adt made in the feventh Year of the reign of his prefent Majefty, intituled, *' An Adt for granting '* certain Duties in the Britifli Colonies and «* Plaifitations in America; for allowing a ** Drawback of the Duties of Cuftoms upon * the Exportation from this Kingdom of. * Coffee and Cocoa Nuts, of the Produce of * the faid Colonies or Plantations ; for difcon- * tinuing the Drawbacks payable on China ^ Earthen Ware exported to America ; and < for more efFed:ually preventing the clandef- * tine Running of Goods in the faid Colonies' * and Plantations;" might be read. A3 And [•6 ] And the fame being read accordingly; He 'moved, ** That this Houfe will, upon this day " fevennight, refolve itfelf into a Committee oi' ** the whole Houle, to take into confideration ** the duty of 3 d. per pound weight upon tea, ** payable in all his Majefty's Dominions in *' America, impofed by the faid Kt\i and alio ** the appropriation of the faid duty.*' On this latter motion a warm and intereft- ing debate arofe, in which Mr. Edmund Burke fpoke as follows :. SIR, I Agree with the Honourable Gentleman* who fpoke laft, that this fubjedt is not new . in this Houfe. Very difagreeably to this Houf:^ , . very unfortunately to this Nation, and to the peace and profperity of this whole Empire, no , topic has been more familiar to us. For nine . long years, feffion after feffion, we have been laflied round and round this miferable circle of occafional arguments and t'^mporary expedi- ents. I am fure our heads mull turn, and our ilomachs naufeate with them. We have had . them in every fhape; we have looked at them. . in every point of view. Invention is exhauft- cd; reafon is fatigued; experience has given * Charles Wolfran Cornwall, Efqj lately appointed one of the Lords of the Treafury, : « judgement^ i 7 i judgement J but obftinacy is not jrei c^ri^ qiicred. The Hon. Gentleman has made one en- deavour more to diverfify the form of this difgufting argument. He has thrown out a fpecch compofed almoft entirely of challenges. Challenges are ferious things ; and as he is a man of prudence as well as refolution, I dare fay he has very well weighed thofc challenges before he delivered them. I had long the hap- pinefs to lit at the fame fide of the Houfe, and to agree with the Hon. Gentleman on all the American qiieftions. My fentiments, I am fure, are well known to him ; and I thought I had been perfe<5tly acquainted with his. Though I find myfelf miftaken, hei will ftill permit me to ufe the privilege of an old friendfhip ; he will permit me to apply myfelf to the Houfe under the fandtion of his autho- rity; and, on the various grounds he has mea- fured out, to fubmit to you the poor opinions which I have formed, upon a matter of im- portance enough to demand the fulkfl con- fideration I could beftow upon it. He has ftated to the Houfe tWO grounds of deliberation; one narrow and fimple, and merely confined to the queftion on your paper : thei other more large and more complicated ; com- - prehending the whole feries of the parliamen- tary proceedings with regard to America, their " caufes^ and their confequences. With regard ' ; A ^ ■ tcf [ 8 ] to the latter ground, he ftates it as ufelefs, and thinks it may be even dangerous, to enter into fo extenfive a field of enquiry. Yet, to my furprize, he had hardly laid down this reftridive propofition, to which his authority would have given fo much weight, when di- rcdlly, and with the fame authority, he con- demns it ; and declares it pbfolutely neceflary to enter into the mofl ample hiflorical detail. His zeal has thrown him a little out of his ufual accuracy. In this perplexity what fliall we do. Sir, who are willing to fubmit to the law he gives us ? He has reprobated in one part of his fpeech the rule he had laid down for dcbrte in the other j and, after narrowing the ground for all thofe who are to fpeak after him, he takes an excurfion himfelf, as un- bounded as the fubje5 1 pf this preamble? Is not the fupply there ftated as efFeftually abandoned as if the tea duty had perifhed in the general wreck ? Here, Mr. Speaker, is a precious mockery— a preamble without an a(5t" — ta^es granted in order to be repealed — and the reafons of the grant ftill carefully kept up ! This is raifing a revenue in America ! This is preferving dignity in Eng- land ! If you repeal this tax in compliance with the rnotion, I readily admit that you lofe this fair preamble. Eftimate your lofs in Jt. The objed: of the a(fl is gone already; and all you fufFer is the purging the Statute-book of the opprobrium of an empty, abfurd, and falfe recital. It has been faid again and again, that the five Taxes were repealed on commercial prin- ciples. It is fo faid in the paper in my hand*^ a paper which I conftantly carry about; which I have often ufed, and fhall often ufe again. What is got by this paltry pretence of com-r mercial principles I know not ; for, if your government in America is deftroyed by the repeal of Tastes, it is of no confequence upon what ideas the repeal is grounded. Repeal this Tax too upon commercial principles if you pleafe. Thefc principles will ferve as well now as they did formerly. But you know • Lord Hillfljorough's Circular Letter to the Governors of tlie Colonies concerning the Repeal of fome of de Duties laid in the Aft of 1767. that, ■i* tjiat> either your objection to a repeal frort> thefe fuppofed confequences has no ', alidity, op that this pretence never could remove it. This commercial motive never was believed by any man, either in America, which this Letter is meant to foothe, or in England, which it is meant to deceive. It was impoffible it (hould. Becaufe every rnan, in the leaft acquainted with the detail of Com.merce, mufl know, that feveral of the articles on which the Tax was repealed were fitter objcds of Duties than almoft any other articles that could pofllbly be chofen; without comparifon more fo, than the Tea that was left taxed; as infinitely lefs lia- ble to be eluded by contraband. The T^x upon Red and White Lead was of this nature. You have, in this kingdom, an advantage in Lead, that amounts to a monopoly. When you find yourfelf in this fituation of advantage, you fometimes venture to tax even your own export. You did fo, foon after the lafl war j when, upon this principle, you ventured to impofe a duty on Coals. In all the articles of American contraband trade, who ever heard of the fmuggling of Red Lead, and White Lead ? You might, therefore, well enough, without danf,er of contraband, and without injury tp Commerce (if this were the whole confidera- tior) have taxed thefe commodities. The fime may be faid of Glafs. Befides, fome of the things taxed were fo trivial, that the lofs of the objeds thcmfelves and their utter anni- hilation C '7 1 hilation out of American Commerce, would have been comparatively as nothing. But is the arti-^^e of Tea fuch an obje(5l in the Trade of England, as not to be felt, or felt but ilightly, like White Lead, and Red Lead, and Painters Colours ? Tea is an objec^l of far other importance. Tea is perhaps the moft impor- tant objed:, taking it with its neceflary con-* nedlions, of any in the mighty circle of our Commerce. If commercial principles had been the true motives to the Repeal, or had they been at all attended to. Tea would have been the lafl article we (hould have left taxed for a fubje<5l of controverfy. Sir, It is not a pleafant confideration -, but nothing in the world can read fo awful and fo inftrudive a lelTon, as the conduift of Miniftry in this bufinefs, upon the mifchief of not hav- ing large and liberal ideas in the management of great affairs. Never have the fervants of the llate looked at the whole of your compli- cated interefts in one conned:ed view. They have taken things, by bits and fcraps, fome at one time and one pretence, and fome at ano- ther, juft as they prefled, without any fort of regard to their relations or dependencies. They never had any kind of fyftem, right or wrong ; but only invented occaiionally fome miferable tale for the day, in order meanly to fneak out of difficulties, into which they had proudly itrutted. And they were put to all thele . .- ., . ■ B Ihifts [ i8 1 fhifts and devices, full of mcannefs and full of mifchief, in order to pilfer piecemeal a repeal of an adl, which they had not the generous courage, when they found and felt their error, honourably and fairly to difclaim. By fuch nianagei *;nt, by the irrefillible operation of feeble councils, fo paltry a fum as three-pence in the eyes of a financier, fo infignificant an article as tea in the eyes of a philolopher, have fhaken the pillars of a Commercial Empire that circled the whole globe. Do you forget that, in the very Jaft year, you flood on the precipice of general bank- ruptcy ? Your danger was indeed great. You were diftrefled in the affairs of the Eaft India Company; and you well know what fort of things are involved in the comprehenli ve energy of that fignificant appellation. I am not called upon to enlarge to you on that danger, which you thought proper yourfelves to aggravate, and to difplay to the world with all the parade of indifcreet declamation. The monopoly of the moft lucrative trades, and the pofleffion of imperial revenues, had brought you to the verge of beggary and ruin. Such was your reprefentation — fuch, in fome meafure, was your cafe. The vent of Ten Millions of pounds of this commodity, now locked up by the operation of an injudicious Tax, and rot-t ting in the wirehoufes of the Company, would have prevcjited all this diilrefs, and all that feries •*i , ■^ t 19 1 feries of defperate meafu res which you thought yourfelves obliged to take in conrequcnce of it. America would have furnilhed that vent, which no other part of the world can furnifh but America; where Tea is next to a necefTary of life ; and where the demand grows upon the fupply. I hope our dear-bought Eaft India Committees have done us at leaft fo much good, as to let us know, that without a more cxtenfive fale of that article our Eaft Indi;" re- venues and acquilitions can have no certain conne<5tion with this country. It is through the American trade of Tea that your Eaft In- dia conquerts are to be prevented from crufli- ing you with their burthen. They are pon- derous indeed j and they muft have that great country to lean upon, or they tumble upon your head. It is the fame folly that has loft you at once the benefit of the Weft and of the Eaft. This folly has thrown open folding- doors to contraband; and will be the means of giving the profits of the trade of your Colo- nies, to every nation but yourfelves. Never did a people fufferfo much for the empty words of a preamble. It muft be given up. For on what principle does it ftand ? This famous re- venue ftands, at this hour, on all the debate, as a defcription of revenue not as yet known in all the comprehenfive (but too comprehen- five!) vocabulary of finance — a preambiila^^ tax. It is indeed a tax of fophiftry, a tax of pedantry, a tax of difputation, a tax of war B 2 and I [ 20 ] and rebellion, a ti\x for any thing but benefit to the impofers, or fatisfadtion to the fubjedl. Well ! but whatever it is, gentlemen will force the Colonifts to take the Teas. You will force them? has feven years ftruggle been yet able to force them ? O but it feems ** we •* ar6 in the right. — The tax is trifling — in ** cfl?edt it is rather an exoneration than an im- •* pofition ', three-fourths of the duty formerly ** payable on teas exported to America is ** taken off; the place of colledlion is only ** fhiftedj inftead of the retention of afhilling *• from the draw-back here, it is three-pence ** cuftom paid in America." All this. Sir, is very true. But this is the very folly and mif- chief of the ad:. Incredible as it may feem, you know that you have deliberately thrown away a large duty which you held fecure and quiet in your hands, for the vain hope of get- ting one three-fourths lefs, through every ha- zard, through certain litigation, and poffibly through war, ^ , The manner of proceeding in the duties on paper and glafs impofed by the fame a ; . After this no man dreamt that a repeal under this miniftry could poflibly take place. The Hon. Gentleman knows as well as I, that the idea was utterly exploded by thofe who fway the Houfe, This Speech was made on the ninth day of May, 1769. Five days after this Speech, that is, on the 13th of the fame month, the public Circular Letter, a part of which I am going to read to you, was writ- ten by Lord Hillfborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies. After reciting the fubftance of the King's Speech, he goes on thus : ** I can take upon me to ajfure yoUy notwith^ ** fianding infinuations to the contrary, from men ** with facetious and feditious views, that his *' Majeflys prefent adminiftration have at no ** time entertained a defign to propofe to par- ** liament to lay any further taxes upon «« America, for the purpofe of RAISING A ** REVENUE ; and thai it is at prefent their ** intention to propofe, the next Se/Jion of Far ^ liament, to take off the duties upon glafs, paper ^ and colours, upon confideration of fuch duties having been laid contrary to tne true prin- ^' ciples of Commerce. «< 4( <( ■'. V- «< ^eit ■ * t , I 26 1 ** ^'hefe have always beeriy and rtill arc, ** the fe7itiments of his Majcfly's prefcnt fer- ** vants; and by which their conduB in refpedt " to America has been governed. And his ** Majefty relies upon your priidtnce andjldelity ** for ftich an explanation ofhh meafiiresy as may '* tend to remove the prejudices which have been ** excited by the mijreprejentations of thofe who ** are enemies to the peace and profperity of ** Great Britain and her Colonies ; and to re^ " e/iab/ifj that mutual confidtncG and afFed:ion, ** upon which the glory andfafety of the Britifi •' empire depend J' Here, Sir, is a canonical book of minifterial fcripturci the general epiftle to the Americans, What does the gentleman fay to it ? Here a repeal is promifed ; promiied without condi- tion ; and while your authority was actually refifled. I pafs by the public promife of a Peer relative to the repeal of taxes by this Houfe. I pafs by the ufe of the King's name in a matter of fupply, that facred and referved right of the Commons. I conceal the ridicu- lous figure of Parliament, hurling its thunders at the gigantic rebellion of America ; and then five days after, proftrate at the feet of thofe afiTemblies we affedted to defpifej begging them, by the intervention of our minifterial , fureties, to receive our fubmiflion j and heartily promifing amendment, Thef(? might have ^■'C. ' ^'- been [ 27 ] been ferious matters formerly ; but wc are grown wiler than our fathers. Pafling, there- fore, from the conftitutional confideration to the mere policy, does not this Letter imply, that the idea of taxing America for the pur- pofe of revenue is in abominable proje<5tj when the Miniftry fuppofe none hnt/a^ious men, znd with feditious views, could charge them with it ? does not this Letter adopt and fandtify the American diftindlion of taxing for a re^ n)e7iue F does it not formally rejedl all future taxation on that principle ? does it not ftate the minifterial rejection of fuch principle of taxation, not as the occafional, but the con- ftant opinion of the King's fervants ? does it not fay (I care not how confiftently), but does it not fay, that their conduct with regard to America has been a/ways governed by this po- licy ? It goes a great deal further. Thefe ex- cellent and truity fervants of the King, juftly fearful left they themfelves (hould have loft all credit with the world, bring out the image of their gracious Sovereign from t^" " inmoft and moft facred (hrine, and they pawn him, as a fecurity for their promifes — ** His Majefty re- ** lies on your prudence and fidelity for fuch ** an explanation oi his meafures." Thefe fen- timents of the Minifter, and thefe meafures of •his Majefty, can only relate to the principle and practice of taxing for a revenue ; and ac- cordingly Lord Botetourt, ftating it as fuch, (iid with great propriety, and in the exadl fpirit [ 28 ] , {pint of his inftrudions, endeavour to remove the fears of the Virginian aflembly, left the fentiments, which it feems (unknovi^n to the world) had a/ways been thofe of the Minifters, and by which their conduct in reJpeSl to America bad been governed, fhould by fome poflible re- volution, favourable to wicked American taxers, be hereafter counteraded. He ad- drefles them in this manner : '1 It may fojjibly be objeBed, that, as his Majejiys prefent adminijiration are not immortal, their fuccejjors may be inclined to attempt to undo what the prefent Minijiers fiall have attempted toper- form ; and to that objediion I can give but this anjwer : that it is my firm opinion, that the plan I have flat ed to you will certainly take place, and that it will neier be departedfrom \ andfo deter- mined am I for ever to abide by it, that I will he content to be declared infamous, if I do not, to the laji hour of my life, at all timi^, in all places ^ and upon all occafons, exert every power with which I either am, or everfhallbe legally invejled, in order to obtain and maintain ^or the Continent of America that f itisfadlion which I have been author ifed to promt fe this day, by the confident tidXfervants of our gracious Sovereign, who to my certain knowledge rates his honour fo high, that he would rather part with his crown, than pre- ierve it by deceit *. -•: ' • , . , -;*r . Agio- • A material point is omitted by Mr. Burke in this fpeech^viz. ihemenntrin'wbicbilnCoHtimntrtctivedthifroyi^iifurance, The Affembly [ 29 ] A glorious and true charadler! which (fincc we fuffer his Minifters with impunity to an- fwer for his ideas of taxation) we ought to make it our bufinefs to enable his Majefty to preferve in all its luftre. Let him have cha- racter, fince ours is no more- l^et fomc part of government be kept in refped:! This Epiftle was not the Letter of Lord Hilllborough folely; though he held the offi- cial pen. It was the letter of the noble Lord upon the floor -f*, and of all the King's then Minifters, who (with I think the exception of two only) are his Minifters at this hour. The very firft news that a Britifti Parliament heard of what it was to do with the duties which it had given and granted to the King, was by the publicationof the votes of American affemblies. It was in America that your refolutions were pre-declared. It was from thence that we AfTembly of Vi/ginla, in their Addrefs in anfwer to Lord Bote- tourt's Speech, exprefsthemfelves thus: " We will not fuffer our ** prefent hopes, arifing from the pleafing profpeAyourLcrdftiip ** hath fo kindly opened and difplayed to us, to be daihed by tbe •* bitter refleftion thatany/«*ttr<' adminiftration will entertain a " wi(h to depart from that//a«, which affords the furell and molt *' pernnanent foundation of public tranquillity and happinefs : ** No, my Lord, we are fure our mo^ gracious Sovereign, under *' whatever changes may happen in his confidential fervants, will '* remain immutable in the ways of truth and juflice, and that *• he is incapable of decei-vlng his faithful fubjtSs ; and we elleetn *' your Lordlhip's information not only as warranted, but even " fanclified by the rojal vsord," •» •■ ;--^ .• ./h^ • ; .^',#1 -• :- f Lord North. ''^""';'^* *»^i.,i*-U '.^iVV. .1 knew- r 30 ] ?!i :h exa(flly, and knew to a certainty, how n; not a fcruple more nor Icfs, we were to repeal. We were unworthy to be let into the fecret of our own condud:. The affemblics had conji^ dential communications from, his Majejfty's CGiifidcntial i(cv\int%, V\'d were nothing but in- flruments. Do you, after this, wonder that you have no weight and no refpeft in the Co- lonies ? After this, are you furprized, that Parliament is every day and every where lofing (I feci it with forrov/, I utter it with reluc- tance) that reverential atfedtion, which fo en- dearing a name of authority ought ever to carry with it^ that you are obeyed folely from refpedl to the bayonet ^ and that this Houfe> the ground and pillar of freedom, is itfelf held up only by the treacherous under-pinning and clumfy buttrellbs of arbitrary power ? If this dignity, which is to Hand in the place of juft policy and common fenfe, had been conlulted, there was a time for preferv- ing it, and for reconciling it with any con- ceiiion. If in the feffion of 1768, that feffion of idle terror and empty menaces, you had, as you were often prefled to do, repealed thefe taxes; then your rtrong operations would have come juftified and enforced, in cafe your con- ; ceffions had been returned by outrages. But, prepofteroufly, you began with violence -, and before terrors could have any effed:, either good or bad> your minillers immediately begged \ '^ i , pardon. [ 3' ] pardon, and promifed that repeal to the obdi- nate Americans which they had refilled in an eaiy, good-natured, complying Britilh Parlia- ment. The allemblies, which had been pub- licly and avowedly difiblved for their contu- macy, are called together to receive your labmiflion. Yourminifterialdiredorsbluftered like tragic tyrants here; and then went mump- ing with a lore leg in America, canting, and whining, and complaining of fadtion, which reprefented them as friends to a revenue from the Colonies. 1 hope nobody in this Houfc will hereafter have the impudence to defend American taxes in the name of Miniftry. The moment they do, with this letter of attorney in my hand, I will tell them, in the autho- rifed terms, they are wretches, " with faftious ** and feditious views ; enemies to the peace '• and profperity of the Mother Country and ** the Colonies," and fubverters ** of the ** mutual afFedtion and confidence on which *• the glory and fafety of the Britifli Empire ** depend." > . After this Letter, the queftion is no more on propriety or dignity. They are gone already. The faith of your Sovereign is pledged for the political principle. The general declaration in the Letter goes to the whole of it. You muft therefore either abandon the fcheme of taxing; or you. muft fend the Miniiters tarred and feathered to America, who dared to hold oud ^^ ' the the Royal Faith for a renunciation of all taxes for revenue. Them you muft punifli, or this faith you mull: preferve. The prefervation of this faith is of more confcquence than the du- ties on red lead, or white lead, or on broken ^ glafsy or atlas ordinary , or demi-Jiney or blue^ royal, or bajiard, or fools-capy which you have given up; or the three-pence on tea which you retained. The Letter went ftampt with the public authority of this kingdom. The inflrudtions for the Colony governmentgo under no other fandtion ; and America cannot believe, and will not obey you, if you do not prefcve this channel of communication facred. You are now punifhing the Colonies for ad:ing on diftindtions, held out by that very Miniftry which is here fliining in riches, in favour, and in power; and urging the pu- nishment of tlie very offence, to which they had themfelves been the tempters. Sir, If reafons refpeding fimply your own commerce, which is your own convenience, were the fole grounds of the repeal of the five duties; why does Lord Hillfborough, in dif- claiming in the name of the King and Mini- llry their ever having had an intent to tax for revenue, mention it as the means ** of re-efla- ** blilhing the confidence and afFedlion of the *• Colonies ?" Is it a way of foothing others, to affure them that you will take good care oiyourfelf^ The medium, the only medium, for . [ 33 1 / £ot regaining their afFedlion and confidence Is, that you will take off fomething opprcflive to their minds. Sir, the Letter ftrongly enforces that idea 5 for though the repeal of the taxes is promifed on commercial principles, yet the means of counteradling ** the infinuations of ** men with factious and feditious views," is by a difclaimer of the intention of taxing for revenue, as a conftant invariable fentiment and rule of condud: in the government of Ame- rica, ''"^« "'■■ ' • '^ ■• ■ -i I remember that the noble Lord on the floor, not in a former debate to be fure (it would be diforderly to refer to it, I fuppofe I read it fomewhere), but the noble Lord was pleafed to fay, that he did not conceive how it could en- ter into the head of man to impofe fuch taxes as thofe of 1767 ; I mean thofe taxes which he voted for impofing, and voted for repeal- ing } as being taxes, contrary to all the prin- ciples of commerce, laid on Britijh Manufac- tures. ^:^^'"' ■'''•^■■u-:i'-' ' ;,■;:: -■■.■•' • --'T I dare fay the noble Lord is perfedly well read, becaufe the duty of his particular offic« requires he fhould be fo, in all our revenue laws ; and in the policy which is to be collected out of them. Now, Sir, when he had read this adl of American revenue, and a little re- covered from his aftoni(hment, I fuppofe he made one ftep retrograde (it is but one) C"'' ■ ■<'■ ' ■■ ' and' £ 34 1 and looked at the ad which ftands juft before in the Statute Book. The American revenue ad is the forty-fifth chapter; the other to which I refer is the forty-fourth of the fame feflion. Thefe two adls are both to the fame purpofe ; both revenue adts ; both taxing out of the kingdom j and both taxing Britifh ma- nufaftures exported. As the 45th is an adt for raifing a revenue in America, the 44th is an adt for raifing a revenue in the Ifle of Man. The two ads perfedly agree in all refpeds, except one. In the ad for taxing the Iflc of Man, the noble Lord will find (not, as in ^-he American ad, four or five articles) but almoft the whole body of Britifli manufadtures, taxed from two and a half to fifteen per cent, and fome articles, fuch as that of fpirits, a great deal higher. You did not think it uncom- mercial to tax the whole mafs of your manu- fadures, and, let me add, your agriculture too J for, I now recoiled, British com is there alfo taxed up to ten per cent, and this too in the very head-quarters, the very citadel of fmuggling, the Ifle of Man. Now will the noble Lord condefcend to tell me why he re- pealed the taxes on your manufadures fent . out to America, and not the taxes on the ma- nufadures exported to the Ifle of Man ? The principle was exadly the fame, the objeds charged injftnitely more extenfive, the duties without comparifon higher. Why ? why, not- withftanding all his childUh pretexts, becaufe 9 the MiN '«a>HWw „„>* . « »i»*i >* « '^awaa«>.. -^ ... [ 35 ] the taxes were quietly fubmitted to in the Ifle of Man ; and becaufe they raifed a flame in America. Your reafons were political, not commercial. The repeal was made, as Lord HilKborough's Letter well cxprefles it, to re- gain ** the confidence and afFedlion of the ** Colonies, on which the glory and fafety of ** the Britifli Empire depend." A wife and juft motive furely, if ever there was fuch. But the mifchief and diflionour is, that you have not done what you had given the Colonies juft caufe to expe(5t, when your minifters dif- claimed the idea of taxes for a revenue. There is nothing fimple, nothing manly, nothing in- genuous, open, decifive, or fteady, in the pro- ceeding, with regard either to the continu- ance or the repeal of the taxes. The whole has an air of littlenefs and fraud. The article of tea is flurred over in the Circular Letter, as It were by accident — nothing is faid of a refolution either to keep that tax, or to give it up. There is no fair dealing in any part of the tranfadion. r- ■ :'dr- i ., If you mean to follow your true motive and your public faith, give up your tax on tea for raifing a revenue, the principle of which has, in efFedt, been difclaimed in your name ; and which produces .you no advantage ; no, not a penny. Or, if you choofe to go on with a poor pretence inftead of a folid reafon, and will ftill adhere to your cant of commerce, C a . vou [ 36 ] you have ten thoufand times more flrong commercial reafons for giving up this duty on tea, than for abandoning the five others that you have already renounced. The American confumption of teas is an- nually, I believe, worth 700,oool. at the Icaft farthing. If you urge the American violence as a juftification of your perfcverance in en- forcing this tax, you know that you can never anfwer this plain queflion — Why did you re- peal the others given in the fame adt, whilft the very fame violence fubfifted? — But you did not find the violence ceafe upon that con- ceflion. — No ! becaufe the conceflion was far fhort of fatisfying the principle which Lord Hillfborough had abjured; or even the pre- tence on which the repeal of the other taxes was announced : and becaufe, by enabling the Eaft India Company to open a (hop for de- feating the American refolution not to pay that fpecific tax, you manifeflly fhewed a hankering after the principle of the act which you formerly had renounced. Whatever road you take leads tj a compliance with this mo- tion. It opens to you at the end of every vifto. Your commerce, your policy, your promifes, your reafons, your pretences, your confiflency, your inconfiftency-^all jointly oblige you to this repeal. it < , : \,;,'. ,. . "i;' :-> •'-..r'-^v;' -■t. t: -r, But ^» t i7 1 « But flill it fticks in our throats, if we go To far, the Americans will go farther. — We do not know that. We ought, from experience, rather to prefumc the contrary. Do we not know for certain, that the Americans are going on as faft as poflible, whilfl wc refufe to gra- tify them ? can they do more, or can they do worfe, if we yield this point? I think this conceflion will rather fix a turnpike to prevent their further progrefs. It is impolTible to an- fwer for bodies of men. But I am fiiix the natural efFedt of fidelity, clemency, kindnefs in governors, is peace, good-will, order, and efteem, on the part of the governed. I would certainly, at Icaft, give thefe fair principles a fair trial j which, fince the making of this aft to this hour, they never have had. Sir, the Hon. Gentleman having fpoken what he thought neceflary upon the narrow part of the fubje: ■ that • [ 39 ] ihat whole period, a parliamentary revenue from thence was never once in contemplation. Accordingly, in all the number of laws palFed with regard to the Plantations, the words which diftinguiih revenue laws, fpecifically as fuch, were, I think, premedl.ately avoided. I do not fay, Sir, that a form of words alters the nature of the law, or abridges the power of the lawgiver. It certainly does not. However titles and formal preambles are not always idle words ; and the lawyers fre- quently argue from them. I ilate thefe fa<5ls to fhew, not what wai^ your right, but what has been your fettled policy. Our revenue laws have ufually a title, purporting their being grants ; and the words give and grant ufually precede the enadting parts. Although duties were impofed on America in Ad:s of King Charles the Second, and in Ads of King William, no one title of giving " an ** aid to His Majefty,," or any other of the nfual titles to revenue adts, was to be fbund in any of them till 1764; nor were the words *• give and grant" in any preamble until the 6th of George the Second, However tne title of this A ft of George the Second, notwith- flandmg the v/ords of donation, confiders it merely as a regulation of trade, ** An Adl for '* the better fecuring of the trade of His ** Majcfty's Sugar Colonies in America." This Aft was made on a compromife of all, and at the exprefs defire of a part, of the Co- - V V C 4. lonien ' [ 40 ] • lonie^ themfelves. It was therefore in fome meafure with their confent; and having a title diredtly purporting only a commercial regula- tion, and being in truth nothing more, the words were pafTed by, at a time when no jea- loufy was entertained, and things were little fcrutinized. Even Governor Bernard, in his fecond printed Letter, dated in 1763, gives it as hia opinion, that ** it was an adl oi prohibition , •• not of revenue." This is certainly true; that no adl avowedly for the purpofe of revenue, and with the ordinary title and recital taken together, is found in the flatute book until the year I have mentioned 5 that is, the y "'• 1764. All before this period ftood on com- mercial regulation and reftraint. The fcheme of a Colony revenue by Briti(h authority ap- peared therefore to the Americans in the light of a great innovation -, the words of Governor Bernard's ninth Letter, written in Nov, 1765, ftate this idea very ftrongly; ** it muft,'* fays he, ** have been fuppcfed, fuch an innovation ** as a parliamentary taxation, would caufe a ** great alarm, and meet with much oppojition *' in moil parts of America; it was qmte new ** to the people, and had no vifihle bounds fet ** to it.'* After Aating the weaknefs of govern- ment there, he fays, «* was this a time to in- *• troduce^ great a novelty as a parliamentary " inland taxation in America?" Whatever the right might have been, this mode of ufing it was abfolutely new in policy and pradice. : Sir, t 41 ] Sir, they who are friends to the fchemes of American revenue fay, that the commercial rellraint is full as hard a law for America to live under. I think fo too. I think it, if un- compenfated, to be a condition of as rigorous fervitude as men can be fubjedt to. But America bore it from the fundamental ad: of navigation until 1 764. — Why ? Becaufe men do bear the inevitable conftitution of their ori- ginal nature with all its infirmities. The ad: of navigation attended the Colonies from their infancy, grew with their growth, and ftrength- ened with their ftrength. They were con- firmed in obedience to it, even more by ufage than by law. They fcarcely had remembered a time when they were not fubjed to fuch re- ftraint. Befides, they were indemnified for it by a pecuniary compenfation. Their monopo- lift happened to be one of the richeft men in the world. By his immenfe capital (primarily employed, not for their benefit, but his own) they were enabled to proceed with their fifhe- ries, their agriculture, their ihip-building (and their trade too within the limits), in fuch a manner as got far the ftart of the flow languid operations of unaflifted nature. This capital was a hot-bed to them. Nothing in the hiftory of mankind is like their progrefs. For my part, I never caft an eye on tneir flourifliing commerce, and their cultivated and com- modious life, but they feem to mc rather an- tient [ 42 1 tJent nations grown to perfedion through a long feries of fortunate events, and a train of fuccefsful induflry, accumulating wealth in many centuries, than the Colonies of yefter- day J than a fet of mirerable out-cafts, a few years ago, not fo much fent as thrown out, on the bleak and barren fhore of a defolate wilder- nefs three thoufand miles from all civilized intercourfe. \- /\] this was done by England, whilft Eng- lana ^ Tued trade, and forgot revenue. You not onA/ acquired commerce, but you adtu- ally created the very objects of trade in Ame- rica ; and by that creation you raifed the trade of this kingdom at leaft four- fold. America had the compenfation of your capital, which made her bear her fervitude. She had another compenfation, which you are now going to take away from her. She had, except the commercial reftraint, every charaderiftic mark of a free people in all her internal concerns. She had the image of the Britifh conftitution. She had the fubftance. She was taxed by her own reprefentatives. She chofe moft of her own magiftrates. She paid them all. She had in effcO: the fole difpofal of her own inter- nal government. This whole ftate of com- mercial fervitude and civil liberty, taken toge- ther, is certainly not perfecft freedom j but comparing it with the ordinary circumftances of [ 43 ] of human nature, it was an happy and a libe- ral condition. > "» ' ■.. ' I know. Sir, that grer.t and not unfuccefs- ful pains have been taken to inflame our minds by an outcry, in this Houfe and out of it, that in America the adt of navigation neither is, or ever was, obeyed. But if you take the Co- lonies through, I affirm, that its authority never was difputed ; that it was no where dif- puted for any length of time -, and on the whole, that it was well obferved. Wherever the Adl prefled hard, many individuals indeed evaded it. This is nothing. Thefe fcattered individuals never denied the law, and never obeyed it. Juft as it happens whenever the laws of trade, whenever the laws of revenue, prefs hard upon the people in England j in that cafe all your fliores are full of contraband. Your right to give a monopoly to the Eaft India Company, your right to lay immenfe duties on French brandy, are not difputed in England. You do not make this charge on any man. But you know that there is not a creek from Pentland Frith to the Ifle of Wight, in which they do not fmuggle im- menfe quantities of teas, Eaft India goods, and brandies. I take it for granted, that the authority of Gov. Bernard in this point is in- difputable. Speaking of thefe laws, as they regarded that part of America now in fo un- happy a condition, he fays, ** I believe they ■ :-..:^ ■.-::. ** arc m I 44 J ^. r; "^v * "i " are no where better fupported than in this ** Province i I do not pretend that it is entirely ** free from a breach of thefe laws ; but that ** fuch a breach, if difcovered, is juftly pu- ** ni(hed." What more can you fay of the obedience to any law., in any Country ? An obedience to thefe laws formed the acknow- ledgement, inftituted by yourfelves, for your fuperiorityj and was the payment you origi- nally impofed for your proteftion. 'U , Whether you were right or wrong in efla- blifhing the Colonies on the principles of com- mercial monopoly, rather than on that of re- venue, is at this day a problem of mere fpe- culation. You car : have both by the fame authority. To joi together the reftraints of an univerfal internal and external monopoly, with an univerfal internal and external taxa- tion, is an unnatural union ; perfeft uncom- penfated flavery. You have long lince decided for yourfelf and them ; and you and they have prospered exceedingly under that decifion. ' This nation, Sir, never thought of depart- ing from that choice until the period imme- diately on the clofe of the laft war. Then a fcheme of government new in many things feemed to have been adopted. I faw, or thought I faw, feveral fymptoms of a great change, whilft I fat in your gallery, a good while before I had the honour of a feat in . this * ■^■^'|ii ■-.-■'. ■ [ 45 ] this Houfe. At that period the neceffity was cftabliflied of keeping up no lefs than twenty new regiments, with twenty colonels capable of feats in this Houfe. This fcheme was adopted w^ith very general applaufe from all fides, at the very time that, by your conquefls in America, your danger from foreign at- tempts in that part of the world was much leflened, or indeed rather quite over. When this huge encreafe of military eflablifhment was refolved on, a revenue was to be found to fupport fo great a burthen. Country gen- tlemen, the great patrons of ceconomy, and the great refifters of a (landing armed force, would not have entered with much alacrity into the vote for fo large and fo expenfive an army, if they had been very fure that they were to continue to pay for it. But hopes of another kind were held out to them -, and in particular, I well remember, that Mr. Town- fhend, in a brilliant harangue on this fub- jedt, did dazzle them, by playing before their eyes the image of a revenue to be raifed in America. j».- ^r:V\■^.iL '.. s . Here began to dawn the firfl: glimmerings of this new Colony fyftem. It appeared more diftindtly afterwards, when it was devolved upon a perfon to whom, on other accounts, this Country owes very great obligations. I do believe, that he had a very ferious defire to benefit the public. But with no fmall fludy ' r of ,, ,,jt*Vv ; 1 f 46 ] . , of the detail, he did not fecm to have his view, at leaft equally, carried to the total cir- cuit of our affairs. He generally confidered his objects in lights that were rather too de- tached. Whether the bufinefs of an American revenue was impofed upon him altogether ; whether it was entirely the refult of his own fpeculation ; or, what is more probable, that his own ideas rather coincided with the in- ftrudtions he had received ; certain it is, that, with the beft intentions in the world, he firft brought this fatal fcheme into form, and efta- bliflied it by adt of parliament. No man can believe, that at this time of day I mean to lean on the venerable memory of a great man, whofe lofs we deplore in com- mon. Our little party- differences have been long ago compofed ; and I have afted more with him, and certainly with more pleafure with him, than ever I a€ted againfl him. Un- doubtedly Mr. Grenville was a firft-rate figure in this country. With a mafculine under- Handing, and a flout and refolute heart, he had an application undiffipated and unwearied. He took public bufinefs, not as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleafure he was to enjoy; and he feemed to have no delight out of this Houfe, except in fuch things as fome way related to the bufinefs that was to be done within it. If he was ambitious, I will fay this for him, his ambition was of a noble and - ■ generous [ 47 J generous ftrain. It was to raile himfelf, not by the low pimping politics of a court, but to win his way to power, through the laborious gradations of public fervice ; and to fecure to himfelf a well-earned rank in Parliament, by a thorough knowledge of its conftitution, and a perfed pra» I 4^ ] After the war, and in the laft years of Hi the trade of America had encreafed far beyond the fpeculations of the moft fanguine imagi- nations. It fvvclled out on cvdry iide. It filled all its proper channels to the briiil. It over- flowed with a rich redundance, and breaking its banks on the right and on the left, it fpread out upon fome places, where it was indeed im- proper, upon others where it was only ifregu- lar. It is the nature of all greatnefs not to be 6xadt J and great trade will always be attended with confiderabli abufes. The Contraband will always keep pace in fome meafure with the fair trade. It fhould ftand as a fundamen- tal maxim, that no vulgar precaution ought to be employed in the cure of evils, which are clofely conne(5led with the caufe bf oUr prof- perity. Perhaps this great perfon turned his eye fomewh't lefs than was juft, towards the iticredible increafe of the fair trade; and looked with fomething of too exquifite a jealoufy to- wards the contraband. He certainly felt a (in- gular degree of anxiety on the fubjeft; and even began to ad from that paflion earlier than is commonly imagined. For whilft he was firft lord of the admiralty, though not ftridtly called upon in his official line, ne prefented a very ftrong memorial to the lords of the trea- fury (my lord Bute was then it the head of the board) ; heavily complaining of the growth of the illicit commerce in America. Some mifchicf happened even a| that time from this i D over* Over-earncn: zeaU Much greater liappcneJ - afterwards when it operated with greater power in the highcfl: department of the fi- nances. The bonds of the adt of navigation were ftrairned fo much, that America was on the point of having no trade, either contra- band or legitimate. They f ^und, under t!iC. conflrudion ^.nd execution then ufed, the adt no longer tying but adually ftrangling them. All th^ conung with new enumerations of commodities j with regulations which in a manner put a ftop to the mutual coafting in- tcrCQurfe of the Colonies ; with the appoint- ment of courts of admiralty under various im- proper circumftances ; with a fudden extinc- tion of the paper currencies ;. with a com I- fory provifion for the quartering of folc ; the people of America thought themfelves proceeded againfl as delinquents, or at bed as people under fufpicion of delinquency ; and in fuch a manner, as they imagined^ their recent fervices in the war did not at all merit. Any of thefe innumerable regulations, perhaps, would not have alarmed alone ; fome might be thought rcafonable; the multitude ilruck them with terror, But the grand manceuvre in that bufinefs of new regulating the Colonics, was the 15th a(5tr of the fourth of George III ; which, bclides containing feveral of the matters to which I have juft alluded, opened a new principle : and here properly began the fecond period of the Dolicy t 5t 1 policy of this country with regard to the Co« ionics j hy which the fchcmc of a regular plantation parliamentary revenue was adopted in theory, and fettled in pradice. A revenue not fubltitutcd in the place of, but fuperadded to, a monopoly ; which monopoly was en- forced at the fame time with additional ftri(^- nefs, and the execution put into military hands. l- This acfl, Sir, had for the firft time the title of ** granting duties in the Colonies and Plan- '* tations of America;" and for the firft time it ■ was all'erted in the preamble, " that it was /«>? •* and necejfary that a revenue (hould be raifed ** there." Then came the icchnical words ot ** giving and granting ;" and thus a complete American revenue adt was made in all the forms, and with a full avowal of the right, ' equity, policy, and even neceffity of taxing the Colonies, without any formal confent of' theirs. There are contained alfo in tlie pre- amble to that adt thefe vCi/ remarkable words — th* Commons, &g. — ** being defirous to '* m^k^ Jbme provifion in the prefent Sefllori • •* of Parliament towards raifing the faid reve- *' nue." By thefe words it appeared to thd Colonies, that this adl was but a beginning of forrows ; that every fefiion was to product fomething of the fame kind j that we were to go on from day to day, in charging them with fuch taxes as we pleafed, for luch a military force as wc ihould think proper^ H.J this D z plan '1 t 5* ] .plan been purfued, it was evident that the provincial affembliej, in which the Americans felt all their portion of importance, and beheld their fole image of freedom, were ipfofaiio2iV^- nihilated. This ill profpeft the ftamp-aCt was under deliberation, P4 they »4'-:.» )^^ii V C s6 ] ttiey rcfufcd with fcorn even To mucli as to ! receive four petitions prefented from (o re- * fpedable Colonies as Connetfticut, Rhode Ifland, Virginia, and Carolina ; befides one from the traders of Jamaica. As to the Co- lonies, they had po alternative left to them, but to difobcy j or to pay the taxes impofed by that Parliament which was not fuffered, or did not fufFer itfelf, even to hear them remon- ' flrate ypon the fubjedt. ,r^.,^^ , This was the ftate of the Colonies before his Majefty thought iit to change his minifters. It ftands upon no authority of mine. It is proved by uncontrovertible records. The Hon. Gentleman ha3 defired fome of us to lay our hands upon our hearts, and anfwer to his que- ries uppo the hiftorical part of this confidera- tion I and by his manner (as vyrell as my eyes could difcern it) he ieemed to addrefs hinpifclf / Sir,. I will anfwer him ^s clearly as I am Jible, and with great opennefs : I have nothing to conceal. In the year fixty-fiye, being in ^ very private flation, far enough from ^ny line of bufinefs, and not having the honour of a fe^t in this Houfe, jt was my fortune, un- knowing and unknown to the then miniftry, by the intervention of a common friend, to become connedled with a very noble perfon, and at the head of the Treafury department. |t v^as indeed in a fituation of little rank an4 no • I S7 I ■ . no confcqucnce, fuitable to t^e mediocrity of my talents and pretenfions. But a fituation near enough to enable me to fee, as well as ' others, what was going on ; and I did fee in . that noble perfon fuch found prim-iples, fuch ^n enlargement of mind, fuch clear and faga- cious fenfe, and fuch unlTiaken fortitude, as have bound me, as well as others much better wt than me, by an inviolable attachment to him from that time forward. Sir, Lord Rocking- ham very early in that fummer received a ftrong reprefentation from many weighty Englifh merchants and manufacflurers, from governours of provinces and commanders of men of war, againft almoft the whole of the American commercial regulations : and parti- cularly with regard to the total ruin which was threatened to the Spanilh trade. I believe. Sir, the noble Lord foon faw his way in this bufi- nefs. But he did not rafhly determine againft adts which it might be fuppofed were the re- fult of much deliberation. However, Sir, he fcarcely began to open the ground, when the whole veteran body of office took the alarm. A violent outcry of all (except thofe who knew and felt the mifchief) was raifed againft any alteration. On one hand, his attempt wag a dired violation of treaties and public law,— On the other, the Aft of Navigation and all the corps of trade laws were drawn up in array againft it, ,^ v . jr?" f The If ■ Iff W : [58] \ The firil ftep the noble Lord took, was to have the opinion of his excellent, learned, and ever lamented friend the late Mr. Yorke, thca attorney general, on the point of law. When he knew that formally and officially, which in fubftance he had known before, he imme- diately difpatched orders to redrefs the griev- ance. But I will fay it for the then miniftcr, he is of that conftitution of mind, that I know he would have iiTued, on the fame critical oc- cafion, the very fame orders, if the A<5ts of Trade had been, as they were not, diredlly againft him j and would have chearfully fub- mitted to the equity of Parliament for his indemnity. - - - c/ ^ On the conclufion of this bufinefs of the Spanifh trade, the news of the troubles, on account of the ftamp-ad:, arrived in England. It was not until the end of Oftober that thefc accounts were received. No fooner had the found of that mighty tempeft reached us in England, than the whole of the then oppofi- tion, inftead of feeling humbled by the un- happy iflue of their meafures, fetmcd to be infinitely elated, and cried out, that the minif- try,' from envy to the glory of their predc- ceflbrs, were prepared to repeal the ftamp-aft. Near nine years after, the Hon. Gentleman takes quite oppofite ground, and now chal- lenges me to put my hand to my heart, and fay, whether the miniiby had refolved on the ..-, V ■^' \'-- •■ -■' repeal ■W-Vf, ;t. - , to d la a n [ 59 1 repeal till a confiderable time after the meeting of Parliament. Though I do not very well know what the Hon. Gentleman wi(hes to infer from the admiflion, or from the denial, of this fadl, on which he fo earneftly adjures me; I do put my hand on my heart, and aflure him, that they did not come to a refo- lution directly to repeal. They weighed this matter as its difficulty and importance required. Tliey confidered maturely among themfelves. They confulted with all who could give ad- vice or information. It was not determined until a little before the meeting of Parliament; but it v/as determined, and the main lines of their own plan marked out, before that meet- ing. Two queftions arofe (I hope I am not going into a narrative troublefome to the. Houfe) i >•!> 'i^ > T » [A cry of. Go on, go on.] (H> ^■,*"*. I-' ^ ;v''-'\ '*.. ' The firft of the two confiderations was* whether the repeal fliould be total, or whe- ther only partial J taking out every thing burthenfome and produtftive, and referving only an empty acknowledgement, fuch as a ftamp on cards or dice. The other queftioa was. On what principle the ad Ihould be re- pealed ? On this head alfo two principles were itarted. One, that the legiflative fights of this country, with regard to America, were not entire, but had certain reftridions arid tinfiita- Itions. The ©ther principle was, that taxes of ; V this B '■ this kind were contrary to the fundamental principles of commerce on which the Colonies were founded ; and contrary to every idea of political equity; by which equity we are bound, as much as polTible to extend the fpirit and be- nefit of the Britifh conftitution to every part of the Britifh dominions. The option, both of the meafure, and of the principle of repeal, was made before the fcffion ; and I wonder how any one can read the Kings Speech at the opening of that feflion, without feeing in that Speech both the repeal and the decla- ratory adt very fufficiently crayoned out, Thofc who cannot fee this can fee nothing. • Surely the Hon. Gentleman will not think that a great deal lefs time than was then em- ployed, ought to have been fpent in deli- beration; when he confiders that the news of the troubles did not arrive till towards the end of Oftober. The Parliament fat to fill the vacancies on the 14th day of December, and on bufinefs the 14th of the following January, ^1 Sir, a partial repeal, or, as the &on ton of the court then was, a modification, would have iatisfied a timid, unfyftematic, procraftinating miniftry, as fuch a meafure has fince done fuch i miniftry. A modification is the conftant fefource of weak undeciding minds. To re- peal by a denial of our right to tax in the preamble (and this too did not want advifers),' would have cut, in the heroic ftyk, the Gor*- ' dian •4**.'# [ 6i ] dian knot with a fword. Either meafure would have colt no more than a day's debate. But when the total repeal was adopted j and adopted on principles of policy, of equity, and of commerce J this plan made it neceflary ta enter into many and difficult meafures. It became necefliiry to open a very large field of evidence commenfurate to niefe extenfive views. But then this labour did knights fer- vice. It opened the eyes of feveral to the true ftate of the American affairs ; it enlarged their ideas; it removed prejudices; and it conci- liated the opinions and afFedions of men. The noble Lord, who then took the lead in admi- niftration, my Hon. Friend * under me, and a Right Hon. Gentleman -f* (if he will not re- ject his fhare, and it was a large one, of this buiinefs) exerted the mofl laudable indudry in bringing before you the fulleft, moft impar- tial, and leaft-garbled body of evidence that ever was produced to this Houfe. I think the enquiry lafted in il^e Committee for fix weeks ; and at its conclufion this Houfe, by an inde- pendent, noble, fpirited, and unexpected ma- jority; by a majority that will redeem all the afts ever done by majorities in Parliament; in the teeth of all the old mercenary Swifs of ftate, in defpite of all the fpeculators and au- gurs of political events, in defiance of the y»hole embattled legion of veteran penfioners and pradifed in(truments of a court, gave ^ total repeal to the {tamp-a(ft, and (if it had ; i, • Mr Dowdefwell. f General Conway. been [ 62 ] ■ been fo permitted) a lailing peace to this whole empire. I ftate. Sir, thefc particulars, becaufe this aft of fpirit and fortitude has lately been, in the circulation of the feafon, and in fomc ha- zarded declamations in this Houfc, attributed to timidity. If, Sir, the conduct of miniftry, in propoling the repeal, had arifcn from timi- dity with regard to themfelves, it would have been greatly to be condemned. Interefled timi- dity difgraces as much in the cabinet, as pcr- fonal timidity does in the field. But timidity, with regard to the well-being of our country, is heroic virtue. The noble Lord who then condudted affairs, and his worthy colleagues, whilft they trembled at the profpeft of fuch diftreffcs as you have fince brought upon your- felves, were not afraid fteadily to look in the face that glaring and dazzling influence at which the eyes of eagles have blenched. He looked in the face one of the ableft, and, leV me fay, not the moft fcrupulous oppofitions, that perhaps ever was in this Houfe, and with- ftood it, unaided by, even one of, the ufual fupports of adminiftration. He did this when he repealed the flamp-a»ft. He looked in the face a perfon he had long refpedted and regard- ed, and whofc aid was then particularly want- ing; I mean Lord Chatham. He did this^ W&en he paiTed the declaratory adt. It j...3.ft-i [ 63 ] It is now given out, for the ufual purpofes, b^ 4.he ufual emiflarics, that Lord Rocking- ham did not confent to the repeal of this a(5t until he was bullied into it by Lord Chatham; and the reporters have gone fo far as publickly to rflfert, in an hundred companies, that the Hon. Gentleman under the gallery *, whrj propofed the repeal in the American Commit- tee, had another fett of refolutions in his pocket dircdtly the revcrfe of thofe he moved. Thefe artifices of a defperate caufc arc, at this time, fprcad abroad, with incredible care, in every part of the town, from the higheft to the loweft companies; as if the induftry of the circulation were to make amends for the ab- furdity of the report. Sir, whether the noble Lord is of a com- plexion to be bullied by Lord Chatham, or by any man, 1 muft fubmit to thofe who know him. I confefs, when I look back to that time, I confider him as placed in one of the moil trying fituations in which, perhaps, any man ever flood. In thw Houfe of Peers there were very few of the miniftry, out of the Doble Lord's own particular connexion, (ex- cept Lord Egmont, who a(5ted, as far as I could difcern, an honourable and manly part,) that did not look to fome other future ar- rangement, which warped his politicks. There were in both houfes new and menacing ap- pearances, that might very naturally driva • General Conway. ^:u any ■ I H ] any other, than a moft rcfolute minirter, fronl his rneafure or from his flation. The houlehold troops openly revolted. The allies of miniftry (thofe, I mean, who fupported fome of thcif meafures, but refufed rcfponfibility for any) endeavoured to undermine their credit, and to take ground that mud be fatal to the fuc- cefs of the very caufe which they would be thought to countenance. The queftion of the repeal was brought on by miniftry in the Committee of this Houfc, in the very inftant when it was known that more than one court negotiation was carrying on with the heads of the oppofition. Every thing, upon every fide, was full of traps and mines. Earth below fhook i he.Tvcn above menaced ; all the ele« mcnts of miiMflerial fafety were diflblved. It was in the rhidH: of this chaos of plots and counter-plots ; it was in the midft of this complicated warfare againft public oppofition and private treachery, that the firmnefs of that noble Perfon was put to the proof. He never flirred from his ground; no, not an inch. He remained fixed and determined, in principle, in meafure, and in condudt. He pra(5tifed no managements. He fecured no retreat. He fought no apology. -: / ? ; . I will likewife do juftice, I ought to do it, to the Hon. Gentleman who led us in this Houfe*. Far from the duplicity wickedly charged on hia)» he adted his part with alacrity * General Conway. ' . . ' • r^^ -;,»«■ ^ - ■ ■ , •. ■ ' ■ tad [ 6s ] uhd rcfolutiori. Wc all felt infpircd by the ex- ample he gave us, down even to myfclf, the weakeft in that phalanx. I declare for one, ' I knew well enough (it could not be con- cealed from anybody) the true ftate of things; but, in my life, I never came with fo much fpirits into this Houfe. It was a time for a man to adl in. We had powerful enemies ; but we had faithful and determined friends ; and a glorious caufe. We had a great battle to fight ; but we had the means of fighting ; not as now, when our arms arc tied behind us. Wc did fight that day and conquer, I remember. Sir, with a melancholy plea- fure, the fituation of the Hon. Gentleman* who made the motion for the repeal ; ir. that crifis, when the whole trading intereft of this empire, crammed into your lobbies, with a trembling and anxious expe(5tation, waited, almoft to a winter's return of light, their fate from your refolutions. When, at length, you had determined in their favour, and your doors, thrown open, (hewed them the figure of their deliverer in the well-earned triumph of his im- . portant vi(^ory, from the whole of that grave multitude there arofe an involuntary burft of gratitude and tranfport. They jumped upon him like children on a long abfent father. They clung about him as Criptives about their redeemer. All England, all America, joined to his applaufe. Nor did he feem infen- fible to the beft of all earthly rewards, the • General Conway. " E love [ ] 51;. [M: love and admiration of his fellow-citizens. Hope elevated and joy brightened his creft, > I flood near him ; and his face, to ufe the ex- prerfion of the Scripture of the firft martyr, ** his face was as if it had been the face of an ** angel." I do not know how others feel ^ bnt if I had flood in that fituation, I never would have exchanged it for all that kings in their profulion could bellow. I did hope, that that day's danger and honour would have been a bond to hold us all together for ever. But, alas ! that, with other pleafmg vilions, is long fince vanilhcd. Sir, this adl of fupreme magnanimity has been repiffented, as if it had been a meafure of an adminillration, that, having no fcheme of their own, took a middle line, pilfered a bit from one fide and a bit from the other. Sir, they took 720 middle lines. They dif- fered fundamentally from the fchemes of both pai-des ; but they prclCrved the objedls of both. They prei'erved the authority of Great Britain^ They prei'erved the equity of Great Britain. They made the declaratory ad: ; they repealed the llamp ad. They did both /i^//K.; becaufe the declaratory aifl was without qualification; and the repeal of the ftamp adl total. This they did in the fituation I have defcribed. N w, Sir, what will the adverfary fay to both thefe adts ? If the principle of the decla- ratory a<5l was not good, the principle we are CGntendin<5 for this duv is mondrous. If the principle /^ . I t 67 1 . principle of the repeal was not good> why arc we not at war for a real fubftantial efFedive revenue ? If both were bad ; why has this mi- niftry incurred ail the inconveniences of both and of all fchemes ? Why have they enaded, repealed, enforced, yielded, and now attempt to enforce again ? ii ;ii Sir, I think t may as well now, as at >ther time, fpeak any time, ipeak to a certain matter of faA not wholly unrelated to the queftion under your confideration. We, who would per- fuade you to revert to the antient policy of this kingdom, labour under the effed of this Ihort current phrafe, which the court leaders have given out to all their corps, in order to take away the credit of thofe who would pre- vent you from that frantic war you are going to wage upon your Colonies. Their cant is this; *' All the difturbances in Amf^rica have " been created by the repeal of the Stamp ** Adt." I fupprefs for a moment my indig- nation at the falfehood, bafenefs, and abfur- dity of this moil audacious afTertion. Inftead of remarking on the motives and charader oif thofe who have iflued it for circulation, I will clearly lay before you the ilate of America, antecedently to that repeal ; after the repeal j and lince the renewal of the fchemes of Ame- rican taxation. It is faid, that the difturbances, if there Were any, before the repeal, were flight ; and without difficulty or inconvenience might have . • E 2 been [ 68 ] . been fupprefTed. For an anfwer to this afTer- tion I will fend you to the great author and patron of the Stamp Adt, who certainly mean- ing well to the authority of this Country, and fully apprized of the ftate of that, made, be- fore a repeal was fo much as agitated in this Houfe, the motion which is on your Journals; and which, to fave the Clerk the trouble of turning to it, I will now read to you. it was for an amendment to the addrefs of the 17th of December 1765 : - *' To exprefs our jtijl refentment and indigna- ** tion at the outrageous tumults and infur- ** re(5tions which have been excited and carried ** on in North America ; and at the rejijiance ** given by open and rebelliousyorri? to the execu' '* tion of the laws in that part of his Majejlys ** dominions. And to ajfure his Majejiy, that his *^ faithful Commons t animated with the warmeji ** duty and attachment to his royal perfon and ** government i will firmly and effeSlually fapport ** his Majefty in allfuch meafures as Jhall be ne- '* ceffaryfor preferving and fupporting the legal " dependance of the Colonies on the Mother *' Country, 6cc. &i,c," - ' ' -■"..-■ ■,' "» , ,''""' Here was certainly a difturbance preceding the repeal ; fuch a difturbance as Mr. Gren- ville thought neceffary to qualify by the name of an infurreSfion, and the epithet of a rebels lions force : terms much flronger than any, by ' which, thofe who then fupported his motion, have ever fince thought proper to diftinguifh the f 6? ] the fubfequent difturbances in America. They were diflurbances which feemed to him and bis friends to juftify as ftrong a promife of fup- port, as hath been ufual to give in the begin- ning of a war with the moft powerful and de- clared enemies. When the accounts of the American Governors came before the Houfe, they appeared ftronger even than the warmth of public imagination had painted them; (6 much ftronger, that the papers on your table bear me out in faying, that all the late diftur- bances, which have been at one time the Mi- ni fter's motives for the repeal of five out of iix of tlie new court taxes, and are now his pretences for refufing to repeal that fixth, did not amount — why do I compare them ? no, not to a tenth part of the tumults and violence which prevailed long before the repeal of that a(a, Miniflry cannot refufe the authority of the commander in chief General Gage, who, in his Letter of the 4th of November, from New York, thus reprefents the flate of things : ** 7/ is difficult to fay^ from the highefl to ** the lowelt, who has not been acceflbry to thi$ -** infurrecftion, either by writing or mutual ** agreements to oppofe the aB, by what they ** are pleafed to term all legal oppojition to it, *' Nothing effeBual has been propojed, either to *' prevent or quell the tumult. The reft of the ** Provinces are in the fame lituation as to a ** pofitive refufal to take the ft amps ; and '* threatening thofe who ft?all take them, to r ii!^ : E 3 •* plunder t 7° 1 ** pli/'d^'- and murder them; and this affair *^ Jiands in all the Provinces, that unlefs the aB, ^^ from its owfi nature ^ enforce itfelj\ nothing but " a very confiderable military force can do it" ■(.< It is remarkable, Sir, that the perfons who formerly trumpeted forth the moft loudly, the violent reiblutions of airemblies ; the univerfal infurrcdtions ; the feizing and burning the damped papers ; the forcing ftamp officers to refign their commiffions under the gallows i the rifling and pulling down of the houfes of magiftrates ; and the expulfion from their country of all who dared to write or fpeak a fingle word in defence of the powers of par- liament ; thefe very trumpeters are now the men that reprefent the whole as a mere trifle ; and choofe to date all the difliurbanqes from the repeal of the ftamp ad:, which put an end to them. Hear your officers abroad, and let them refute this fhamelefs falfehood, who, in all their correfpondence, fl:ate the difturbances as owing to their true caufes, the difcontent of the people, from the taxes. You have this evidence in your own archives — and it will give you compleat fatisfadtion ; if you are not fo far lofl: to all parliamentary ideas of infor- niation, as rather to credit the lye of the day, than the records of your own Houfe. , Sir, this vermin of court reporters, when they are forced into day upon one point, are fure to burrow in another; but they fliall have no refuge ; I will make them bolt out of all r tUeif [ 71 .1 their holes. Confcious that they mufl: he haf- fled, when they attribute a precedent diftur- bance to a fubfequent meafure, they take other ground, almofl as abfurd, but very common in modern practice, and very wicked ; which is, to attribute the ill efFedl of ill-judged conduft to the arguments which had been ufed to dif- fuade us from it. They fay, that the oppo- fition made in parliament to the ftamp adt at the time of its paffing, encouraged the Ame- ricans to their refinance. This has even for- mally appeared in print in a regular volume, from an advocate of that faftion, a Dr. Tucker. This Dr. Tucker is already a dean, and his earnefl labours in this vineyard will, I fuppofe, raife him to a bifhoprick. But this affertion too, juft like the reft, is falfe. In all the pa- pers which have loaded your table j in all the vaft crowd of verbal witnelfes that appeared at your bar, witnefl'es which were indifcrimi- nately produced from both fides of the Houfe; not the leaft hint of fuch a caufe of difturbance has ever appeared. As to the fad of a ftrenu- ous oppoiition to the ftamp adl, I fat as a ftranger in your gallery when the adt was un- der confideration. Far fr(»m any thing inflam- matory, I never heard a more languid debate in this Houfe. No more than two or three gen- tlemen, as I remember, fpoke againft the adt, and that with great referve and remarkable temper. There was but one divifion in the whole progrefs of the bill ; and the minority did not reach to more than 39 or 40. In the Houfe of Lords I do not recoiled that there * E 4 was .iMl C 70 . , was any debate or divifion at all. I am fure there was no proteft. In fa<5l, the affair pafled with (o very, very little noife, that in town they Icarcely knew the nature of what you were doing. The oppofition to the bill in England never could have done this mifchief, becaufe there fcarcely ever was lefs of oppo- lition to a bill of confequence. ' Sir, the agents and diftributors of falfehoods have, with their ufual induilry, circulated another lye oi' the fame nature with the for- mer. It is this, that the difturbances arofc from the account which had been received in America of the change in the miniftry. No longer awed, it feems, with the fpirit of the former rulers, they thought themfelves a match for what our calumniators choofe to qualify by the name of fo feeble a miniftry as fucceeded. Feeble in one fenfe thefe men certiiinly may be called ; for with all their efforts, and they have made many, they have not been able to refiff the diflempered vigour, and in fane alacrity with which you are rufh- ing to your ruin. But it does fo happen, that the falfity of this circulation is (like the reft) demonftrated by indifputable dates and records. ■\ r: So little was the change known in America, that the letters of your governors, giving an account of thefe difturbances long after they had arrived at their higheft pitch, were all di- rected to the O/d Mintftry, and particularly to the Earl of Halifax, the fecrctary of ftate cor- *' * refponding [ 73 I fcfponding with the Colonies, without once in the fmalleft degree intimating the flighted fufpicipn of any minifterial revolution what-» foever. The miniftry was not changed in England until the loth day of July 1765. On the 14th of the preceding June, Governor Fauquier from Virginia writes thus ; and writes thus to the Earl of Halifax : *• Govern- ** merit is Jet at defiance, not having Jlrength ** enough in her hands to enforce obedience to the ** laws of the community. T!he private dijlrefs^ ** which every man feels y encreafes the general ** diflatisfadlion at the duties laid by the Stamp *' A6t, which breaks out, and Jloews itfelf upon ** every trifling occafion.'' The general diflatif- fa(flion had produced fome time before, that is, on the 29th of May, feveral ftrong public re- folves againft the Stamp Ad:; and thofe refolvcs are affigned by Governor Bernard, as the caufe of the infurreSlions in Maflachufet's Bay, in his letter of the 1 5th of Augufl, ftill addrefled to the Earl of Halifax ; and he continued to jiddrefs fuch accounts to that Minifter quite to the 7th of September of the fame year. Similar accounts, and of as late a date, were fent from other governors, and all diredted to Lord Halifax. Not one of thefe letters indi- cates the flighteft idea of a change, either known, or even apprehended. Thus are blown away the infedt race of courtly falfehoods ! thus perifli the miferable inventions of the wretched runners for a \vretched caufe, which they have fly-blown into [ 74 ] into every weak and rotten part of the country, ' in vain hopes that when their maggots had taken wing, their importunate buzzing might found fomething like the public voice ! Sir, I have troubled you fufhciently with the ftate of America before the repeal. Now I turn to the Hon. Gentleman who fo ftoutly challenges us, to tell, whether, after the re- peal, the Provinces were quiet ? This is com- ■ ing home to the point. Here I meet him di- rectly ; and anfwer moft readily, They were quiet. And I, in my turn, challenge him to prove when, and where, and by whom, and in what numbers, and with what violence, the other laws of trade, as gen- tlemen afTcrf, v/ere violated in confequence of your conceflion ? or that even your other re- venue laws were attacked ? But I quit the vantage ground on which I ftand, and where I might leave the burthen of the proof upon him : I walk down upon the open plain, and undertake to fhew, that they were not only ■quiet, but fliewed many unequivocal marks of acknowledgement and gratitude. And to give him every advantage, 1 feledt the obnoxious " Colony of MalTachufet's Bay, which at this time (but without hearing her) is fo heavily a culprit before parliament — I will feled: their proceedings even under tircumftances of no 4mall irritation. For, a little imprudently I m.iill fay. Governor Bernard mixed in the ad- hiiniflration of the lenitive of the repeal no irnall acrimony arifmg from matters of a fcpa- ". : ■ V* "■'■ ^ ^ ' ' ■• ; ; ' i-^te i 7S ] ^atc nature. Yet fee, Sir, the efFedl of that lenitive, though mixed with thefe bitter in-» gredientsi and how this rugged people can cx- prefs themfelycs on a meafure of conceflion, ** If it is not in our power,* (fay they in their addrefs to Gov. Bernard) ** in fo full a ** manner as will be expeSied, to Jhew our re-* *\fpedlful gratitude to the Mother Country ^ or to ** make a dutiful and affeBionate return to the in-* " dulgence of the King and Parliament y it Jhall ** be no fault of ours ; for this we intend, and ** hope we jhall be able fully to effe^,'* , 4* Would to God that this temper had been cultivated, managed, and fet in aftion I other efFe, his fall from power, which. [ 71 ] which, like death, canonizes and fandlilies a great charader, will not fufFer me to cenfure any part of his condu(5t. I am afraid to flatter him ; I am fure I am not iifpofed to blame him. Let thofe who have betrayed him by their adulation, infult him with their malevo- lence. But what I do not prefume to cenfure, I may have leave to lament. For a wife man, he feemed to me at that time, to be governed too much by general maxims. I fpcak with the freedom of hiftory, and I hope without offence. One or two of thefc maxims, flow- ing from an opinion not the mod indulgent to our unhappy fpccies, and furely a little too general, led him into meafures that were greatly mifchievous to himfelf ; and for that reafon, among others, perhaps fatal to his country ; meafures, the effeds of which, I am afraid, are for ever incurable. He made an adminiftration, fo checkered and fpeckled; he put together a piece of joinery, fo crofsly indented and whimlically dovetailed ; a cabinet fo varioufly inlaid; fuch a piece of diverfified Mofaic ; fuch a teffelated pavement without cement ; here a bit of black ftone, and there a bit of white ; patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republicans \ whigs and tories ; treacherous friends and open enemies : thst it was indeed a very curious (how ; but utterly unfafe to touch, and unfure to ftand on. The colleagues whom he had afTorted at the fame boards, llared at each other, and were obliged to aik, ** Sir, your name ? — Sir, you have the ** advantage of mc — Mr. Such a one— 1 beg a ** thoufand t 78 ] *' thousand pardons — " I venture to fay, it did fo happen, that perfons had a fingle office di-« vided between them, who had never fpoke to each other in their lives ; until they found themfelves, they knew not how, pigging toge- ther, heads and points, in the fame truckle-bed*. Sir, in confequence of this arrangement^ having put fo much the larger part of his ene- mies and oppofers into power, the confufion was fuch, that his own principles could not pofTibly have any cffc(5t or influence in the condud: of affairs. If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other caufe withdrew him from publick cares, principles directly the con- trary were fure to predominate. When he had executed his plan, he had not an inch of ground to fland upon. When he had accomplifhed his fcheme of adminiflration, he was no longer a minifler. \ ^ . When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole fyftem was on a wide fca, without chart or compafs. The gentlemen, his par- ticular friends, who, with the names of various departments of miniftry, were admitted, to feem, as if they adled a part under him, with a modefly that becomes all men, and with a confidence in him, which was juflified even in its extravagance by his fuperior abilities, had never, in any inflance, prefumed upon any • Suppofed to allude to the Right Hon. Lord North, and George Cooke, Efq; who were made joint paymaftcrs in the Summer of ijt6, on the removal of the Rockingham ad'riii- nilUation. * opinion ^' ^!\/^^ '*/«' •% o^ ^ ^ I 9* ] Well, Sir, I have recovered a little, and before I fit down I muft fay foniething to another point with which gentlemen urge us. What is to be- come of the declaratory adt alTerting theba- snds ices. . If •ft of Lther lows i for ^ion orks. LSth<3 ind I id to iriend road •s to- noble Df my led to nour. ;ther 5 may id fo- red to n that —and irmeft edau- ack to land 4 Y'