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 IN MEMORY OF 
 
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BY A. J. GEORGE, A.M. 
 
 WORDSWORTH'S PRELUDE, with notes. 
 SELECTIONS FROM WORDSWORTH, with notes. 
 BURKE'S SPEECHES ON THE AMERICAN WAR, and LET 
 TER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL, with notes. 
 SYLLABUS OF ENGLISH HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 
 
 IN PREPARATION. 
 
 SCOTT'S MARMION. 
 
 WORDSWORTH'S EXCURSION, and THE WHITE DOE OF RYL- 
 
 STONE. 
 THE HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF SCOTLAND 
 
 I. THE HIGHLANDS. II. THE BORDER. 
 
EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 SPEECHES ON THE AMERICAN WAR, 
 
 AND 
 
 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 
 
 WITH 
 
 Introduction anlr Notes 
 
 BY A. J. GEORGE, A.M. 
 
 " I shall ahvays consider that liberty as very equivocal in 
 her appearance, which has not wisdom and jtistice for her 
 companions, and does not lead prosperity and plenty in 
 her train" 
 
 BOSTON, U.S.A.: 
 
 PUBLISHED BY D. C. HEATH & CO. 
 1891. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 DAVIS 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1891, 
 BY A. J. GEORGE. 
 
 TYPOGRAPHY BY J. S. GUSHING & Co., BOSTON. 
 PRESSWORK BY BERWICK & SMITH, BOSTON. 
 
TO 
 MY FRIEND AND TEACHER, 
 
 5k urgea, 33*13*, 
 
 THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY 
 INSCRIBED. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION i 
 
 SPEECH ON ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL 72 
 
 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL 76 
 
 SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA 85 
 
 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 167 
 
 BIOGRAPHICAL 222 
 
 MINISTRIES DURING BURKE'S POLITICAL LIFE 223 
 
 A GROUP OF BURKE'S LITERARY FRIENDS 223 
 
 SCHEME FOR ANALYSIS OF STYLE 224 
 
 NOTES 225 
 
 BOOKS OF REFERENCE 242 
 
 v 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ONE of the noblest masterpieces in the literature of civil 
 and political wisdom, is to be found in Burke's three produc 
 tions on the American War ; his speech on Taxation in 1 774 ; 
 on Conciliation in 1775 ; and his Letter to the Sheriffs of 
 Bristol, 1777. 
 
 These three pieces are the most perfect manual in all 
 literature for the study of great affairs, whether for the pur 
 pose of knowledge or action. They are an example without 
 fault of all the qualities which the critic, whether a theorist 
 or an actor, of great political situations should strive by night 
 and by day to possess. . . . No student worthy of the name 
 will lay aside these pieces, so admirable in their literary ex 
 pression, so important for history, so rich in lessons of civil 
 wisdom, until he has found out something from other sources 
 as to the circumstances from which such writings arose, and 
 as to the man whose resplendent genius inspired them. 
 JOHN MORLEY. 
 
 The great value of all his speeches, before and during the 
 American War, is, I apprehend, this, that he treats relations 
 between countries as if they were no less real than the rela 
 tions between individuals. REV. F. D. MAURICE. 
 
viii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Unlike Hume, whose politics were elaborated in the study, 
 Burke wrote his political tracts and speeches face to face 
 with events, and upon them. Philosophical reasoning and 
 poetic passion were wedded together in them on the side of 
 conservatism, and every art of eloquence was used with the 
 mastery that imagination gives. REV. STOPFORD BROOKE. 
 
 Burke 's political philosophy was strictly a moral philoso 
 phy. The popular notions of good and evil, of right and 
 wrong, as inculcated in the ordinary precepts of the Christian 
 religion, were his standard of estimating all political actions. 
 He can, indeed, only be justly characterized as the greatest 
 political thinker of his time, and perhaps of any time. - 
 THOMAS MACKNIGHT, Life and Times of Burke. 
 
 Among the eminent men who have influenced legislative 
 assemblies in Great Britain and the United States, during the 
 past hundred and twenty years, it is curious that only two 
 have established themselves as men of the first class in Eng 
 lish and American literature. These two men are Edmund 
 Burke and Daniel Webster. E. P. WHIPPLE. 
 
 In the common principles of all social and civil order, 
 Burke is unquestionably our best and wisest teacher. In 
 handling the particular questions of his time he always in 
 volves those principles, and brings them to their practical 
 bearings, where they most " come home to the business and 
 bosoms of men." And his pages are everywhere bright with 
 the highest and purest political morality, while at the same 
 time he is a consummate master in the intellectual charms 
 and graces of authorship. H. N. HUDSON. 
 
INTRODUCTION. ix 
 
 One who studies the life and work of Edmund Burke will 
 find that it naturally divides itself into four great periods, 
 which are characterized not so much by their duration as by 
 the nature of the work done. The first may be called the 
 period of Preparation ; the second, that of the American 
 War ; the third, of the Indian Question ; and the fourth, of 
 the French Revolution. 
 
 Each of these periods is worthy of careful study ; and as 
 the selections contained in this volume refer to the second 
 period, their use ought to result in a desire to master the 
 principles which entered into and moulded the life of that 
 great statesman and great man. The present generation 
 must not be allowed to forget that the sources of our politi 
 cal and social well-being are in the lives of those who, in any 
 age and under whatever circumstances, have endeavored to 
 make reason and the will of God prevail. 
 
 This work is edited in the hope that by furthering the 
 study of the greatest political classic in the English language, 
 it may also further that spirit which seeks to study history 
 as revealed in literature, and literature as inspired by great 
 historic events. 
 
 In the preparation of the notes the editor has confined 
 himself to the historical setting and interpretation of the 
 work, and has left the question of literary merit to be wrought 
 out by the pupil under .the inspiration of the class-room exer 
 cise. A careful analysis of Burke's style, according to the 
 Scheme on page 224, will be found advantageous. 
 
 In the matter of biography, one of the works given on 
 page 242 should be consulted. A T G 
 
 BROOKLINE, MASS., 
 April, 1891. 
 
SPEECH OF EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., 
 
 ON 
 
 AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 APRIL 19, 1774. 
 
 SIR : I agree with the honourable gentleman 1 who spoke 
 last, that this subject is not new in this House. Very dis 
 agreeably to this House, very unfortunately to this nation, 
 and to the peace and prosperity of this whole empire, no 
 topic has been more familiar to us. For nine long years, 5 
 session after session, we have been lashed round and round 
 this miserable circle of occasional arguments and temporary 
 expedients. I am sure our heads must turn, and our stomachs 
 nauseate with them. We have had them in every shape ; we 
 have looked at them in every point of view. Invention is 10 
 exhausted ; reason is fatigued ; experience has given judg 
 ment ; but obstinacy is not yet conquered. 2 
 
 The honourable gentleman has made one endeavour more 
 to diversify the form of this disgusting argument. He has 
 thrown out a speech composed almost entirely of challenges. 15 
 Challenges are serious things ; and as he is a man of pru 
 dence as well as resolution, I dare say he has very well 
 weighed those challenges before he delivered them. I had 
 long the happiness to sit at the same side of the House, and 
 to agree with the honourable gentleman on all the American 20 
 questions. 3 My sentiments, I am sure, are well known to 
 him ; and I thought I had been perfectly acquainted with 
 
2 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 his. Though I find myself mistaken, he will still permit me 
 to use the privilege of an old friendship ; he will permit me 
 to apply myself to the House under the sanction of his 
 authority ; and, on the various grounds he has measured out, 
 
 5 to submit to you the poor opinions which I have formed 
 upon a matter of importance enough to demand the fullest 
 consideration I could bestow upon it. 
 
 He has stated to the House two grounds of deliberation : 
 one narrow and simple, and merely confined to the question 
 
 10 on your paper ; the other more large and more complicated ; 
 comprehending the whole series of the parliamentary pro 
 ceedings with regard to America, their causes, and their 
 consequences. With regard to the latter ground, he states 
 it as useless, and thinks it may be even dangerous, to enter 
 
 15 into so extensive a field of inquiry. Yet, to my surprise, he 
 had hardly laid down this restrictive proposition, to which 
 his authority would have given so much weight, when directly, 
 and with the same authority, he condemns it ; and declares 
 .it absolutely necessary to enter into the most ample historical 
 
 20 detail. 1 His zeal has thrown him a little out of his. usual 
 accuracy. In this perplexity what shall we do, Sir, who are 
 willing to submit to the law he gives us ? He has reprobated 
 in one part of his speech the rule he had laid down for 
 debate in the other ; and, after narrowing the ground for all 
 
 25 those who are to speak after him, he takes an excursion him 
 self, as unbounded as the subject and the extent of his great 
 abilities. 
 
 Sir, when I cannot obey all his laws, I will do the best I 
 can. I will endeavour to obey such of them as have the 
 
 o sanction of his example ; and to stick to that rule, which, 
 though not consistent with the other, is the most rational. 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 3 
 
 He was certainly in the right when he took the matter 
 largely. I cannot prevail on myself to agree with him in his 
 censure of his own conduct. It is not, he will give me leave 
 to say, either useless or dangerous. He asserts, that retro 
 spect is not wise ; and the proper, the only proper, subject 5 
 of inquiry, is " not how we got into this difficulty, but how 
 we are to get out of it." In other words, we are, according 
 to him, to consult our invention, and to reject our experience. 1 
 The mode of deliberation he recommends is diametrically 
 opposite to every rule of reason and every principle of good 10 
 sense established amongst mankind. For that sense and 
 that reason I have always understood absolutely to prescribe, 
 whenever we are involved in difficulties from the measures 
 we have pursued, that we should take a strict review of those 
 measures, in order to correct our errors, if they should be 15 
 corrigible ; or at least to avoid a dull uniformity in mischief, 
 and the unpitied calamity of being repeatedly caught in the 
 same snare. 
 
 Sir, I will freely follow the honourable gentleman in his 
 historical discussion, without the least management for men 20 
 or measures, further than as they shall seem to me to deserve 
 it. But before I go into that large consideration, because I 
 would omit nothing that can give the House satisfaction, I 
 wish to tread the narrow ground to which alone the honour 
 able gentleman, in one part of his speech, has so strictly 25 
 confined us. 
 
 He desires to know, whether, if we were to repeal this tax, 
 agreeably to the proposition of the honourable gentleman 
 who made the motion, the Americans would not take post 
 on this concession, in order to make a new attack on the 30 
 next body of taxes ; and whether they would not call for a 
 
4 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 repeal of the duty on wine as loudly as they do now for the 
 repeal of the duty on tea ? Sir, I can give no security on this 
 subject. But I will do all that I can, and all that can be 
 fairly demanded. To the experience which the honourable 
 
 5 gentleman reprobates in one instant, and reverts to in the 
 next ; to that experience, without the teast wavering or 
 hesitation on my part, I steadily appeal ; and would to God 
 there was no other arbiter to decide on the vote with which 
 the House is to conclude this day. 
 
 10 When parliament repealed the stamp act in the year 1 766, 
 I affirm, first, that the Americans did not in consequence of 
 this measure call upon you to give up the former parlia 
 mentary revenue which subsisted in that country ; or even 
 any one of the articles which compose it. 1 I affirm also, that 
 
 15 when, departing from the maxims of that repeal, you revived 
 the scheme of taxation, and thereby filled the minds of the 
 colonists with new jealousy, and all sorts of apprehensions, 
 then it was that they quarrelled with the old taxes, as well 
 as the new ; then it was, and not till then, that they ques- 
 
 20 tioned all the parts of your legislative power ; and by the 
 battery of such questions have shaken the solid structure of 
 this empire to its deepest foundations. 
 
 Of those two propositions I shall, before I have done, 
 give such convincing, such damning proofs, that however the 
 
 25 contrary may be whispered in circles, or bawled in news 
 papers, they never more will dare to raise their voices in this 
 House. I speak with great confidence. I have reason for 
 it. The ministers are with me. They at least are convinced 
 that the repeal of the stamp act had not, and that no repeal 
 
 30 can have, the consequences which the honourable gentleman 
 who defends their measures is so much alarmed at. To their 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 5 
 
 conduct I refer him for a conclusive answer to this objection. 
 I carry my proof irresistibly into the very body of both min 
 istry and parliament ; not on any general reasoning growing 
 out of collateral matter, but on the conduct of the honourable 
 gentleman's ministerial friends on the new revenue itself. 5 
 
 The act of 1767, which grants this tea duty, sets forth in 
 its preamble, that it was expedient to raise a revenue in 
 America, for the support of the civil government there, as 
 well as for purposes still more extensive. To this support 
 the act assigns six branches of duties. About two years after 10 
 this act passed, the ministry, I mean the present ministry, 
 thought it expedient to repeal five of the duties, and to leave 
 (for reasons best known to themselves) only the sixth stand 
 ing. Suppose any person, at the time of that repeal, had 
 thus addressed the minister : 1 " Condemning, as you do, the 15 
 repeal of the stamp act, why do you venture to repeal the 
 duties upon glass, paper, and painters' colours? Let your 
 pretence for the repeal be what it will, are you not thoroughly 
 convinced, that your concessions will produce, not satisfac 
 tion, but insolence, in the Americans ; and that the giving up 2 o 
 these taxes will necessitate the giving up of all the rest?" 
 This objection was as palpable then as it is now ; and it was 
 as good for preserving the five duties as for retaining the 
 sixth. Besides, the minister will recollect, that the repeal of 
 the stamp act had but just preceded his repeal ; and the ill 25 
 policy of that measure, (had it been so impolitic as it has 
 been represented,) and the mischiefs it produced, were quite 
 recent. Upon the principles, therefore, of the honourable 
 gentleman, upon the principles of the minister himself, the 
 minister has nothing at all to answer. He stands condemned 30 
 by himself, and by all his associates, old and new, as a de- 
 
6 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 stroyer, in the first trust of finance, of the revenues ; and in 
 the first rank of honour, as a betrayer of the dignity of his 
 country. 
 
 Most men, especially great men, do not always know their 
 
 5 well-wishers. I come to rescue that noble lord out of the 
 hands of those he calls his friends; and even out of his own. 
 I will do him the justice he is denied at home. He has not 
 been this wicked or imprudent man. He knew that a re 
 peal had no tendency to produce the mischiefs which give 
 
 10 so much alarm to his honourable friend. His work was not 
 bad in its principle, but imperfect in its execution ; and the 
 motion on your paper presses him only to complete a proper 
 plan, which, by some unfortunate and unaccountable error, 
 he had left unfinished. 
 
 15 I hope, Sir, the honourable gentleman, who spoke last, is 
 thoroughly satisfied, and satisfied out of the proceedings of 
 ministry on their own favourite act, that his fears from a 
 repeal are groundless. If he is not, I leave him, and the 
 noble lord who sits by him, to settle the matter, as well as 
 
 20 they can, together ; for if the repeal of American taxes de 
 stroys all our government in America He is the man ! 
 and he is the worst of all the repealers, because he is the last. 1 
 But I hear it rung continually in my ears, now and for 
 merly, " the preamble ! what will become of the preamble, 
 
 25 if you repeal this tax?" I am sorry to be compelled so 
 often to expose the calamities and disgraces of parliament. 
 The preamble of this law, standing as it now stands, has the 
 lie direct given to it by the provisionary part of the act ; if 
 that can be called provisionary which makes no provision. 
 
 3 o I should be afraid to express myself in this manner, especially 
 in the face of such a formidable array of ability as is now 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 7 
 
 drawn up before me, composed of the ancient household 
 troops of that side of the House, and the new recruits from 
 this, if the matter were not clear and indisputable. Nothing 
 but truth could give me this firmness ; but plain truth and 
 clear evidence can be beat down by no ability. The clerk 5 
 will be so good as to turn to the act, and to read this favour 
 ite preamble : 
 
 Whereas it is expedient that a revenue should be raised in 
 your Majesty's dominions in America, for making a more 
 certain and adequate provision for defraying the charge of 10 
 the administration of justice, and support of civil government, 
 in such provinces where it shall be found necessary; and 
 towards further defraying the expenses of defending, protect 
 ing, and securing the said dominions. 
 
 You have heard this pompous performance. Now where 15 
 is the revenue which is to do all these mighty things ? Five- 
 sixths repealed abandoned sunk gone lost for ever. 
 Does the poor solitary tea duty support the purposes of this 
 preamble? Is not the supply there stated as effectually 
 abandoned as if the tea duty had perished in the general 20 
 wreck? Here, Mr. Speaker, is a precious mockery a pre 
 amble without an act taxes granted in order to be repealed 
 and the reasons of the grant still carefully kept up ! This 
 is raising a revenue in America ! This is preserving dignity 
 in England ! If you repeal this tax in compliance with the 25 
 motion, I readily admit that you lose this fair preamble. 
 Estimate your loss in it. The object of the act is gone al 
 ready ; and all you suffer is the purging the statute-book of 
 the opprobrium of an empty, absurd, and false recital. 
 
 It has been said again and again, that the five taxes were 30 
 repealed on commercial principles. It is so said in the 
 
8 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 paper in my hand ; l a paper which I constantly carry about ; 
 which I have often used, and shall often use again. What 
 is got by this paltry pretence of commercial principles I 
 know not : for if your government in America is destroyed 
 
 5 by the repeal of taxes, it is of no consequence upon what 
 ideas the repeal is grounded. Repeal this tax too upon com 
 mercial principles if you please. These principles will serve 
 as well now as they did formerly. But you know that, either 
 your objection to a repeal from these supposed consequences 
 
 10 has no validity, or 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 soothe, or in 
 England, which it is meant to deceive. It was impossible it 
 should. Because every man, in the least acquainted with the 
 
 15 detail of commerce, must know, that several of the articles 
 on which the tax was repealed, were fitter objects of 
 duties than almost any other articles that could possibly be 
 chosen ; without comparison more so than the tea that was 
 left taxed ; as infinitely less liable to be eluded by contra- 
 
 20 band. The tax upon red and white lead was of this nature. 
 You have, in this kingdom, an advantage in lead, that amounts 
 to a monopoly. 2 When you find yourself in this situation of 
 advantage, you sometimes venture to tax even your own 
 export. You did so soon after the last war ; when, upon 
 
 25 this principle, you ventured to impose a duty on coals. In 
 all the articles of American contraband trade, who ever 
 heard of the smuggling of red lead and white lead? You 
 might, therefore, well enough, without danger of contraband, 
 and without injury to commerce, (if this were the whole 
 
 30 consideration,) have taxed these commodities. The same 
 may be said of glass. Besides, some of the things taxed 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 9 
 
 were so trivial, that the loss of the objects themselves, and 
 their utter annihilation out of American commerce, would 
 have been comparatively as nothing. But is the article of 
 tea such an object in the trade of England, as not to be felt, 
 or felt but slightly, like white lead and red lead, and painters' 5 
 colours? Tea is an object of far other importance. Tea is 
 perhaps the most important object, taking it with its neces 
 sary connexions, 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 10 
 been the last article we should have left taxed for a subject 
 of controversy. 
 
 Sir, it is not a pleasant consideration ; but nothing in the 
 world can read so awful and so instructive a lesson, as the 
 conduct of ministry in this business, upon the mischief of 15 
 not having large and liberal ideas in the management of great 
 affairs. 1 Never have the servants of the state looked at the 
 whole of your complicated interests in one connected view. 
 They have taken things by bits and scraps, some at one 
 time and one pretence, and some at another, just as they 20 
 pressed, without any sort of regard to their relations or de 
 pendencies. They never had any kind of system, right or \ 
 wrong ; but only invented occasionally some miserable tale 
 for the day, in order meanly to sneak out of difficulties, into 
 which they had proudly strutted. And they were put to all 25 
 these shifts and devices, full of meanness and full of mischief, 
 in order to pilfer piece-meal a repeal of an act, which they 
 had not the generous courage, when they found and felt their 
 error, honourably and fairly to disclaim. By such manage 
 ment, by the irresistible operation of feeble councils, so paltry 30 
 a sum as three-pence in the eyes of a financier, so insignifi- 
 
10 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION 
 
 cant an article as tea in the eyes of a philosopher, have 
 shaken the pillars of a commercial empire that circled the 
 whole globe. 
 
 Do you forget that, in the very last year, you stood on the 
 
 5 precipice of general bankruptcy ? Your danger was indeed 
 great. You were distressed in the affairs of the East India 
 Company ; and you well know what sort of things are in 
 volved in the comprehensive energy of that significant appel 
 lation. 1 I am not called upon to enlarge to you on that 
 
 10 danger, which you thought proper yourselves to aggravate, 
 and to display to the world with all the parade of indiscreet 
 declamation. The monopoly of the most lucrative trades, 2 
 and the possession of imperial revenues, had brought you 
 to the verge of beggary and ruin. 3 Such was your represen- 
 
 15 tation such, in some measure, was your case. The vent 
 of ten millions of pounds of this commodity, now locked up 
 by the operation of an injudicious tax, and rotting in the 
 warehouses of the company, 4 would have prevented all this 
 distress, and all that series of desperate measures which you 
 
 20 thought yourselves obliged to take in consequence of it. 
 America would have furnished that vent, which no other part 
 of the world can furnish but America ; where tea is next to 
 a necessary of life ; and where the demand grows upon the 
 supply. I hope our dear-bought East India committees 5 
 
 25 have done us at least so much good, as to let us know, that, 
 without a more extensive sale of that article, our East India 
 revenues and acquisitions can have no certain connexion with 
 this country. It is through the American trade of tea that 
 your East India conquests are to be prevented from crushing 
 
 30 you with their burthen. They are ponderous indeed : and 
 they must have that, great country to lean upon, or they 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 11 
 
 tumble upon your head. It is the same folly that has lost 
 you at once the benefit of the west and of the east. 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 yourselves. Never did a people 5 
 suffer so much for the empty words of a preamble. It must 
 be given up. For on what principle does it stand ? This 
 famous revenue stands, at this hour, on all the debate as a 
 description of revenue not as yet known in all the compre 
 hensive (but too comprehensive) vocabulary of finance a :o 
 preambulary tax. It is indeed a tax of sophistry, a tax of 
 pedantry, a tax of disputation, a tax of war and rebellion, a 
 tax for anything but benefit to the imposers, or satisfaction 
 to the subject. 
 
 Well ! but whatever it is, gentlemen will force the colo- 15 
 nists to take the teas. You will force them? Has seven 
 years' struggle been yet able to force them ? O but it seems 
 " we are in the right. The tax is trifling in effect it is 
 rather an exoneration than an imposition ; three-fourths of 
 the duty formerly payable on teas exported to America is 20. 
 taken off; the place of collection is only shifted ; instead 
 of the retention of a shilling from the drawback here, it is 
 three-pence custom paid in America." All this, Sir, is very 
 true. But this is the very folly and mischief of the act. 
 Incredible as it may seem, you know that you have deliber- 2 5 
 ately thrown away a large duty which you held secure and 
 quiet in your hands, for the vain hope of getting one three- 
 fourths less, through every hazard, through certain litigation, 
 and possibly through war. 
 
 The manner of proceeding in the duties on paper and 39 
 glass, imposed by the same act, was exactly in the same 
 
12 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 
 spirit. There are heavy excises on those articles when used 
 in England. On export, these excises are drawn back. 1 But 
 instead of withholding the drawback, which might have been 
 done, with ease, without charge, without possibility of smug- 
 5 gling; and instead of applying the money (money already in 
 your hands) according to your pleasure, you began your 
 operations in finance by flinging away your revenue ; you 
 allowed the whole drawback on export, and then you charged 
 the duty, (which you had before discharged,) payable in the 
 10 colonies ; where it was certain the collection would devour 
 it to the bone, if any revenue were ever suffered to be col 
 lected at all. One spirit pervades and animates the whole 
 mass. 2 
 
 Could anything be a subject of more just alarm to America, 
 15 than to see you go out of the plain high-road of finance, and 
 give up your most certain revenues and your clearest inter 
 ests, merely for the sake of insulting your colonies ? No man 
 ever doubted that the commodity of tea could bear an impo 
 sition of three-pence. But no commodity will bear three- 
 go pence, or will bear a penny, when the general feelings of 
 men are irritated, and two millions of people are resolved 
 not to pay. The feelings of the colonies were formerly the 
 feelings of Great Britain. Theirs were formerly the feelings 
 of Mr. Hampden when called upon for the payment of 
 2 5 twenty shillings. Would twenty shillings have ruined Mr. 
 Hampden's fortune ? No ! but the payment of half twenty 
 shillings, on the principle it was demanded, would have made 
 him a slave. It is the weight of that preamble, of which you 
 are so fond, and not the weight of the duty, that the Ameri- 
 30 cans are unable and unwilling to bear. 
 
 It is then, Sir, upon the principle of this measure, and 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 13 
 
 nothing else, that we are at issue. It is a principle of politi 
 cal expediency. Your act of 1767 asserts, that it is expedi 
 ent to raise a revenue in America; your act of 1769, which 
 takes away that revenue, contradicts the act of 1767 ; and, 
 by something much stronger than words, asserts, that it is not 5 
 expedient. It is a reflection upon your wisdom to persist 
 in a solemn parliamentary declaration of the expediency of 
 any object, for which, at the same time, you make no sort 
 of provision. And pray, Sir, let not this circumstance escape 
 you ; it is very material ; that the preamble of this act, which 10 
 we wish to repeal, is not declaratory of a right, as some gen 
 tlemen seem to argue it ; it is only a recital of the expediency 
 of a certain exercise of a right supposed already to have 
 been asserted ; an exercise you are now contending for 
 by ways and means, which you confess, though they were 15 
 obeyed, to be utterly insufficient for their purpose. You are 
 therefore at this moment in the awkward situation of fighting 
 for a phantom ; a quiddity ; a thing that wants, not only a 
 substance, but even a name ; for a thing, which is neither 
 abstract right, nor profitable enjoyment. 20 
 
 They tell you, Sir, that your dignity is tied to it. I know 
 not how it happens, but this dignity of yours is a terrible 
 encumbrance to you ; for it has of late been ever at war with 
 your interest, your equity, and every idea of your policy. 
 Show the thing you contend for to be reason ; show it to be 25 
 common sense ; show it to be the means of attaining some 
 useful end ; and then I am content to allow it what dignity 
 you please. But what dignity is derived from the persever 
 ance in absurdity, is more than ever I could discern. The 
 honourable gentleman has said well indeed, in most of his 30 
 general observations I agree with him he says, that this 
 
14 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 subject does not stand as it did formerly. Oh, certainly not ! 
 Every hour you continue on this ill-chosen ground, your 
 difficulties thicken on you ; and therefore my conclusion is, 
 remove from a bad position as quickly as you can. The 
 
 5 disgrace, and the necessity of yielding, both of them, grow 
 upon you every hour of your delay. 
 
 But will you repeal the act, says the honourable gentle 
 man, at this instant when America is in open resistance to 
 your authority, and that you have just revived your system of 
 
 10 taxation ? He thinks he has driven us into a corner. But 
 thus pent up, I am content to meet him ; because I enter 
 the lists supported by my old authority, his new friends, the 
 ministers themselves. The honourable gentleman remem 
 bers, that about five years ago as great disturbances as the 
 
 r 5 present prevailed in America on account of the new taxes. 
 The ministers represented these disturbances as treasonable ; 
 and this House thought proper, on that representation, to 
 make a famous address for a revival, and for a new applica 
 tion of a statute of Henry VIII. 1 We besought the king, in 
 
 20 that well-considered address, to inquire into treasons, and to 
 bring the supposed traitors from America to Great Britain 
 for trial. His Majesty was pleased graciously to promise a 
 compliance with our request. All the attempts from this 
 side of the House to resist these violences, and to bring 
 
 25 about a repeal, were treated with the utmost scorn. An 
 apprehension of the very consequences now stated by the 
 honourable gentleman, was then given as a reason for shut 
 ting the door against all hope of such an alteration. And so 
 strong was the spirit for supporting the new taxes, that the 
 
 30 session concluded with the following remarkable declaration. 
 After stating the vigorous measures which had been pursued, 
 the speech from the throne proceeds : 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 15 
 
 You have assured me of your firm support in the prosecu 
 tion of them. Nothing, in my opinion, could be more likely to 
 enable the well-disposed among my subjects in that part of 
 the world, effectually to discourage and defeat the designs of 
 the factious and seditious, than the hearty concurrence of every 5 
 branch of the legislature, in maintaining the execution of the 
 laws in every part of my dominions. 
 
 After this no man dreamt that a repeal under this ministry 
 could possibly take place. The honourable gentleman knows 
 as well as I, that the idea was utterly exploded by those who 10 
 sway the House. This speech was made on the ninth day 
 of May, 1769. Five days after this speech, that is, on the 
 1 3th of the same month, the public circular letter, a part of 
 which I am going to read to you, was written by Lord Hills- 
 borough, secretary of state for the colonies. After reciting 15 
 the substance of the king's speech, he goes on thus : 
 
 " / can take upon me to assure you, notwithstanding in 
 sinuations to the contrary, from men with factious and sedi 
 tious views, that his Majesty's present administration have at 
 no time entertained a design to propose to parliament to lay 20 
 any further taxes upon America for the purpose of RAISING 
 A REVENUE ; and that it is at present their intention to 
 propose, the next session of parliament, to take off the duties 
 upon glass, paper, and colours, upon consideration of such 
 duties having been laid contrary to the true principles of 25 
 commerce. 
 
 " These have always been, and still are, the sentiments of 
 his Majesty's present servants ; and by which their conduct 
 in respect to America has been governed. And his Majesty 
 relies upon your prudence and fidelity for such an explanation 30 
 of his measures, as may tend to remove the prejtidices which 
 
16 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 have been excited by the misrepresentations of those who are 
 enemies to the peace and prosperity of Great Britain and 
 her colonies ; and to re-establish that mutual confidence and 
 affection upon which the glory and safety of the British 
 
 5 empire depend" 
 
 Here, Sir, is a canonical book of ministerial scripture ; 
 the general epistle to the Americans. What does the 
 gentleman say to it ? Here a repeal is promised ; prom 
 ised without condition ; and while your authority was act- 
 
 10 ually resisted. I pass by the public promise of a peer 
 relative to the repeal of taxes by this House. I pass by 
 the use of the king's name in a matter of supply, that 
 sacred and reserved right of the commons. I conceal the 
 ridiculous figure of parliament, hurling its thunders at the 
 
 15 gigantic rebellion of America ; and then five days after 
 prostrate at the feet of those assemblies we affected to 
 despise ; begging them, by the intervention of our min 
 isterial sureties, to receive our submission, and heartily 
 promising amendment. These might have been serious 
 
 20 matters formerly ; but we are grown wiser than our fathers. 
 Passing, therefore, from the constitutional consideration to 
 the mere policy, does not this letter imply, that the idea of 
 taxing America for the purpose of revenue is an abomi 
 nable project; when the ministry suppose that none but 
 
 25 factions men, and with seditious views, could charge them 
 with it? does not this letter adopt and sanctify the Ameri 
 can distinction of taxing for a revenue ? does it not formally 
 reject all future taxation on that principle? does it not state 
 the ministerial rejection of such principle of taxation, not 
 
 30 as the occasional, but the constant, opinion of the king's 
 servants? does it not say, (I care not how consistently,) 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 17 
 
 but does it not say, that their conduct with regard to 
 America has been always governed by this policy ? It goes 
 a great deal further. These excellent and trusty servants 
 of the king, justly fearful lest they themselves should have 
 lost all credit with the world, bring out the image of their 5 
 gracious sovereign from the inmost and most sacred shrine, 
 and they pawn him as a security for their promises. " His 
 Majesty relies on your prudence and fidelity for such an 
 explanation of his measures." These sentiments of the 
 minister, and these measures of his Majesty, can only relate 10 
 to the principle and practice of taxing for a revenue ; and 
 accordingly Lord Botetourt, stating it as such, did, with 
 great propriety, and in the exact spirit of his instructions, 
 endeavour to remove the fears of the Virginian assembly, 1 
 lest the sentiments, which it seems (unknown to the world) 15 
 had always been those of the ministers, and by which their 
 conduct in respect to America had been governed, should by 
 some possible revolution, favourable to wicked American 
 taxes, be hereafter counteracted. He addresses them in 
 this manner : 20 
 
 It may possibly be objected, that, as his Majesty's present 
 administration are not immortal, their successors may be 
 inclined to attempt to undo what the present ministers shall 
 have attempted to perform ; and to that objection I can give 
 but this answer ; that it is my firm opinion, that the plan I 2 S 
 have stated to you will certainly take place ; and that it will 
 never be departed from ; and so determined am I for ever to 
 abide by it, that I will be content to be declared infamous, if 
 I do not, to the last hour of my life, at all times, in all 
 places, and upon all occasions, exert every power with which 3 
 / either am or ever shall be legally invested, in order to ob- 
 
18 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 tain and maintain for the continent of America /to satisfac 
 tion which I have been authorized to promise this day, by the 
 confidential servants of our gracious sovereign, who to my 
 certain knowledge rates his honour so high, that he would 
 
 5 rather part with his crown, than preserve it by deceit. 
 
 A glorious and true character ! which (since we suffer 
 his ministers with impunity to answer for his ideas of taxa 
 tion) we ought to make it our business to enable his Ma 
 jesty to preserve in all its lustre. Let him have character, 
 
 10 since ours is no more ! Let some part of government be 
 kept in respect ! 
 
 This epistle was not the letter of Lord Hillsborough 
 solely ; though he held the official pen. It was the letter 
 of the noble lord upon the floor, 1 and of all the king's then 
 
 15 ministers, who (with I think the exception of two only) are 
 his ministers at this hour. The very first news that a Brit 
 ish parliament heard of what it was to do with the duties 
 which it had given and granted to the king, was by the pub 
 lication of the votes of American assemblies. It was in 
 
 20 America that your resolutions were pre-declared. It was 
 from thence that we knew to certainty, how much exactly, 
 and not a scruple more or less, we were to repeal. We 
 were unworthy to be let into the secret of our own conduct. 
 The assemblies had confidential communications from his 
 
 2 5 Majesty's confidential servants. We were nothing but in 
 struments. Do you, after this, wonder that you have no 
 weight and no respect in the colonies ? After this, are you 
 surprised, that parliament is every day and everywhere 
 losing (I feel it with sorrow, I utter it with reluctance) that 
 
 30 reverential affection, which so endearing a name of authority 
 ought ever to carry with it ; that you are obeyed solely from 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 19 
 
 respect to the bayonet ; and that this House, the ground 
 and pillar of freedom, is itself held up only by the treach 
 erous under-pinning and clumsy buttresses of arbitrary 
 power ? 
 
 If this dignity, which is to stand in the place of just policy 5 
 and common sense, had been consulted, there was a time for 
 preserving it, and for reconciling it with any concession. If 
 in the session of 1 768, that session of idle terror and empty 
 menaces, you had, as you were often pressed to do, repealed 
 these taxes ; then your strong operations would have come 10 
 justified and enforced, in case your concessions had been 
 returned by outrages. But, preposterously, you began with 
 violence ; and before terrors could have any effect, either 
 good or bad, your ministers immediately begged pardon, and 
 promised that repeal to the obstinate Americans, which they 15 
 had refused in an easy, good-natured, complying British 
 parliament. The assemblies, which had been publicly and 
 avowedly dissolved for their contumacy, are called together 
 to receive your submission. Your ministerial directors blus 
 tered like tragic tyrants here ; and then went mumping 20 
 with a sore leg in America, canting and whining, and com 
 plaining of faction, which represented them as friends to a 
 revenue from the colonies. I hope nobody in this House 
 will hereafter have the impudence to defend American taxes 
 in the name of ministry. The moment they do, with this 25 
 letter of attorney in my hand, I will tell them, in the author 
 ized terms, they are wretches, "with factious and seditious 
 views ; enemies to the peace and prosperity of the mother 
 country and the colonies," and subverters " of the mutual 
 affection and confidence on which the glory and safety of 30 
 the British empire depend." 
 
20 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 After this letter the question is no more on propriety or 
 dignity. They are gone already. The faith of your sover 
 eign is pledged for the political principle. The general 
 declaration in the letter goes to the whole of it. You must 
 
 5 therefore either abandon the scheme of taxing ; or you must 
 send the ministers tarred and feathered to America, who 
 dared to hold out the royal faith for a renunciation of all 
 taxes for revenue. Them you must punish, or this faith you 
 must preserve. The preservation of this faith is of more 
 
 10 consequence than the duties on red lead or white lead, or on 
 broken glass, or atlas- ordinary, or demy-fine, or blue royal, or 
 bastard, or fool's-cap, which you have given up ; or the three 
 pence on tea which you retained. The letter went stamped 
 with the public authority of this kingdom. The instructions 
 
 15 for the colony government go under no other sanction ; and 
 America cannot believe, and will not obey you, if you do not 
 preserve this channel of communication sacred. You are 
 now punishing the colonies for acting on distinctions, held 
 out by that very ministry which is here shining in riches, in 
 
 20 favour, and in power ; and urging the punishment of the very 
 offence to which they had themselves been the tempters. 
 
 Sir, if reasons respecting simply your own commerce, 
 which is your own convenience, were the sole ground of the 
 repeal of the five duties ; why does Lord Hillsborough, in 
 
 25 disclaiming in the name of the king and ministry their ever 
 having had an intent to tax for revenue, mention it as the 
 means "of re-establishing the confidence and affection of 
 the colonies?" Is it a way of soothing others, to assure them 
 that you will take good care of yourself? The medium, the 
 
 30 only medium, for regaining their affection and confidence, 
 is, that you will take off something oppressive to their minds. 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 21 
 
 Sir, the letter strongly enforces that idea : for though the 
 repeal of the taxes is promised on commercial principles, 
 yet the means of counteracting " the insinuations of men 
 with factious and seditious views," is, by a disclaimer of the 
 intention of taxing for revenue, as a constant, invariable sen- 5 
 timent and rule of conduct in the government of America. 
 
 I remember that the noble lord on the floor, not in a 
 former debate to be sure, (it would be disorderly to refer to 
 it, I suppose I read it somewhere,) but the noble lord was 
 pleased to say, that he did not conceive how it could enter 10 
 into the head of man to impose such taxes as those of 1767 ; 
 I mean those taxes which he voted for imposing, and voted 
 for repealing ; as being taxes contrary to all the principles 
 of commerce, laid on British manufactures. 
 
 I dare say the noble lord is perfectly well read, because 15 
 the duty of his particular office requires he should be so, in 
 all our revenue laws ; and in the policy which is to be col 
 lected out of them. Now, Sir, when he had read this act of 
 American revenue, and a little recovered from his astonish 
 ment, I suppose he made one step retrograde (it is but one) 20 
 and looked at the act which stands just before in the statute- 
 book. The American revenue act is the forty-fifth chapter ; 
 the other to which I refer is the forty-fourth of the same 
 session. These two acts are both to the same purpose ; 
 both revenue acts ; both taxing out of the kingdom ; and 25 
 both taxing British manufactures exported. As the forty- 
 fifth is an act for raising a revenue in America, the forty- 
 fourth is an act for raising a revenue in the Isle of Man. 1 
 The two acts perfectly agree in all respects, except one. In 
 the act for taxing the Isle of Man, the noble lord will find 30 
 (not, as in the American act, four or five articles) but almost 
 
22 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 the whole body of British manufactures, taxed from two and 
 a half to fifteen per cent., and some articles, such as that of 
 spirits, a great deal higher. You did not think it uncom 
 mercial to tax the whole mass of your manufactures, and, let 
 
 5 me add, your agriculture too ; for, I now recollect, British 
 corn is there also taxed up to ten per cent., and this too in 
 the very head quarters, the very citadel of smuggling, the 
 Isle of Man. Now will the noble lord condescend to tell 
 me why he repealed the taxes on your manufactures sent 
 
 10 out to America, and not the taxes on the manufactures 
 exported to the Isle of Man? The principle was exactly 
 the same, the objects charged infinitely more extensive, the 
 duties, without comparison, higher. Why? Why, notwith 
 standing all his childish pretexts, because the taxes were 
 
 15 quietly submitted to in the Isle of Man ; and because they 
 raised a flame in America. Your reasons were political, not 
 commercial. The repeal was made, as Lord Hillsborough's 
 letter well expresses it, to regain " the confidence and affec 
 tion of the colonies, on which the glory and safety of the 
 
 20 British empire depend." A wise and just motive surely, if 
 ever there was such. But the mischief and dishonour is, 
 that you have not done what you had given the colonies just 
 cause to expect, when your ministers disclaimed the idea of 
 taxes for a revenue. There is nothing simple, nothing manly, 
 
 25 nothing ingenuous, open, decisive, or steady, in the proceed 
 ing, with regard either to the continuance or the repeal of 
 the taxes. The whole has an air of littleness and fraud. 
 The article of tea is slurred over in the circular letter, as it 
 were by accident nothing is said of a resolution either to 
 
 30 keep that tax, or to give it up. There is no fair dealing in 
 any part of the transaction. 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 23 
 
 If you mean to follow your true motive and your public 
 faith, give up your tax on tea for raising a revenue, the prin 
 ciple of which has, in effect, been disclaimed in your name ; 
 and which produces you no advantage; no, not a penny. 
 Or, if you choose to go on with a poor pretence instead of a 5 
 solid reason, and will still adhere to your cant of commerce, 
 you have ten thousand times more strong commercial reasons 
 for giving up this duty on tea, than for abandoning the five 
 others that you have already renounced. 
 
 The American consumption of teas is annually, I believe, 10 
 worth ^300,000 at the least farthing. If you urge the 
 American violence as a justification of your perseverance in 
 enforcing this tax, you know that you can never answer this 
 plain question Why did you repeal the others given in the 
 same act, whilst the very same violence subsisted ? But you 15 
 did not find the violence cease upon that concession. No ! 
 because the concession was far short of satisfying the prin 
 ciple which Lord Hillsborough had abjured ; or even the 
 pretence on which the repeal of the other taxes was an 
 nounced ; and because, by enabling the East India Company 20 
 to open a shop for defeating the American resolution not to 
 pay that specific tax, you manifestly showed a hankering 
 after the principle of the act which you formerly had re 
 nounced. Whatever road you take leads to a compliance 
 with this motion. It opens to you at the end of every vista. 2 5 
 Your commerce, your policy, your promises, your reasons, 
 your pretences, your consistency, your inconsistency all 
 jointly oblige you to this repeal. 1 
 
 But still it sticks in our throats, if we go so far, the Ameri 
 cans will go farther. We do not know that. We ought, 30 
 from experience, rather to presume the contrary. Do we 
 
24 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION, 
 
 not know for certain that the Americans are going on as fast 
 as possible, whilst we refuse to gratify them ? Can they do 
 more, or can they do worse, if we yield this point ? I think 
 this concession will rather fix a turnpike to prevent their 
 
 5 further progress. It is impossible to answer for bodies of 
 men. But I am sure the natural effect of fidelity, clemency, 
 kindness in governors, is peace, good-will, order, and esteem 
 on the part of the governed. I would certainly, at least, 
 give these fair principles a fair trial ; which, since the mak- 
 
 10 ing of this act to this hour, they never have had. 
 
 Sir, the honourable gentleman having spoken what he 
 thought necessary upon the narrow part of the subject, I 
 have given him, I hope, a satisfactory answer. He next 
 presses me by a variety of direct challenges and oblique 
 
 15 reflections to say something on the historical part. I shall 
 therefore, Sir, open myself fully on that important and deli 
 cate subject ; not for the sake of telling you a long story, 
 (which I know, Mr. Speaker, you are not particularly fond 
 of,) but for the sake of the weighty instruction that, I flatter 
 
 20 myself, will necessarily result from it. I shall not be longer, 
 if I can help it, than so serious a matter requires. 
 
 Permit me then, Sir, to lead your attention very far back ; 
 back to the act of navigation ; l the corner-stone of the policy 
 of this country with regard to its colonies. Sir, that policy 
 
 2 5 was, from the beginning, purely commercial ; and the com 
 mercial system was wholly restrictive. It was the system of 
 a monopoly. No trade was let loose from that constraint, 
 but merely to enable the colonists to dispose of what, in the 
 course of your trade, you could not take ; or to enable them 
 
 3 to dispose of such articles as we forced upon them, and for 
 which, without some degree of liberty, they could not pay. 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 25 
 
 Hence all your specific and detailed enumerations : hence 
 the innumerable checks and counterchecks : hence that in 
 finite variety of paper chains by which you bind together this 
 complicated system of the colonies. This principle of com 
 mercial monopoly runs through no less than twenty-nine acts 5 
 of parliament, from the year 1660 to the unfortunate period 
 of 1764. 
 
 In all those acts the system of commerce is established, as 
 that, from whence alone you proposed to make the colonies 
 contribute (I mean directly and by the operation of your 10 
 superintending legislative power) to the strength of the em 
 pire. I venture to say, that during that whole period, a 
 parliamentary revenue from thence was never once in con 
 templation. Accordingly, in all the number of laws passed 
 with regard to the plantations, the words which distinguish 15 
 revenue laws, specifically as such, were, I think, premeditately 
 avoided. I do not say, 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 frequently argue 20 
 from them. I state these facts to show, not what was your 
 right, but what has been your settled policy. Our revenue 
 laws have usually a title t purporting their being grants ; and 
 the words give and grant usually precede the enacting parts. 
 Although duties were imposed on America in acts of King 25 
 Charles II. and in acts of King William, no one title of giving 
 " an aid to his Majesty," or any other of the usual titles to 
 revenue acts, was to be found in any of them till 1764 ; nor 
 were the words " give and grant " in any preamble until the 
 6th of George II. However, the title of this act of George 30 
 II., notwithstanding the words of donation, considers it 
 
26 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 merely as a regulation of trade, " an act for the better secur 
 ing of the trade of his Majesty's sugar colonies in America." 
 This act was made on a compromise of all, and at the express 
 desire of a part, of the colonies themselves. It was therefore 
 
 5 in some measure with their consent ; and having a title 
 directly purporting only a commercial regulation, and being 
 in truth nothing more, the words were passed by, at a time 
 when no jealousy was entertained, and things were little 
 scrutinized. Even Governor Bernard, 1 in his second printed 
 
 10 letter, dated in 1 763, gives it as his opinion, that " it was an 
 act of prohibition, not of revenue." This is certainly true, 
 that no act avowedly for the purpose of revenue, and with 
 the ordinary title and recital taken together, is found in the 
 statute book until the year 1764. All before this period 
 
 15 stood on commercial regulation and restraint. The scheme 
 of a colony revenue by British authority appeared therefore 
 to the Americans in the light of a great innovation ; the 
 words of Governor Bernard's ninth letter, written in Nov. 
 1765, state this idea very strongly; "it must," says he, 
 
 20 " have been supposed, such an innovation as a parliamen 
 tary taxation would cause a great alarm, and meet with much 
 opposition in most parts of America ; it was quite new to the 
 people, and had no visible bounds set to it." After stating 
 the weakness of government there, he says, " was this a time 
 
 25 to introduce so great a novelty as a parliamentary inland 
 taxation in America?" Whatever the right might have 
 been, this mode of using it was absolutely new in policy and 
 practice. 
 
 Sir, they who are friends to the schemes of American rev- 
 
 30 enue say, that the commercial restraint is full as hard a law 
 for America to live under. I think so too. I think it, if 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 27 
 
 uncompensated, to be a condition of as rigorous servitude 
 as men can be subject to. But America bore it from the 
 fundamental act of navigation until 1764. Why? because 
 men do bear the inevitable constitution of their original 
 nature with all its infirmities. The act of navigation at- 5 
 tended the colonies from their infancy, grew with their 
 growth, and strengthened with their strength. They were 
 confirmed in obedience to it, even more by usage than by 
 law. They scarcely had remembered a time when they were 
 not subject to such restraint. Besides, they were indemni- 10 
 fied for it by a pecuniary compensation. Their monopolist 
 happened to be one of the richest men in the world. By 
 his immense capital (primarily employed, not for their bene 
 fit, but his own) they were enabled to proceed with their 
 fisheries, their agriculture, their ship-building, (and their 15 
 trade too within the limits,) in such a manner as got far the 
 start of the slow, languid operations of unassisted nature. 
 This capital was a hot-bed to them. Nothing in the history 
 of mankind is like their progress. For my part, I never cast 
 an eye on their flourishing commerce, and their cultivated 20 
 and commodious life, but they seem to me rather ancient 
 nations grown to perfection through a long series of fortunate 
 events, and a train of successful industry, accumulating 
 wealth in many centuries, than the colonies of yesterday; 
 than a set of miserable outcasts, a few years ago, not so 2 5 
 much sent as thrown out, on the bleak and barren shore of 
 a desolate wilderness, three thousand miles from all civilized 
 intercourse. 
 
 All this was done by England, whilst England pursued 
 trade, and forgot revenue. You not only acquired com- 30 
 merce, but you actually created the very objects of trade in 
 
28 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 America ; and by that creation you raised the trade of this 
 kingdom at least fourfold. America had the compensation 
 of your capital, which made her bear her servitude. She 
 had another compensation, which you are now going to take 
 
 5 away from her. She had, except the commercial restraint, 
 every characteristic mark of a free people in all her internal 
 concerns. She had the image of the British constitution. 
 She had the substance. She was taxed by her own repre 
 sentatives. She chose most of her own magistrates. She 
 
 10 paid them all. She had in effect the sole disposal of her 
 own internal government. This whole state of commercial 
 servitude and civil liberty, taken together, is certainly not 
 perfect freedom ; but comparing it with the ordinary cir 
 cumstances of human nature, it was a happy and a liberal 
 
 15 condition. 
 
 I know, Sir, that great and not unsuccessful pains have 
 been taken to inflame our minds by an outcry, in this House 
 and out of it, that in America the act of navigation neither 
 is, nor ever was, obeyed. But if you take the colonies 
 
 20 through, I affirm, that its authority never was disputed ; 
 that it was nowhere disputed for any length of time ; and, 
 on the whole, that it was well observed. Wherever the act 
 passed hard, many individuals indeed evaded it. This is 
 nothing. These scattered individuals never denied the law, 
 
 25 and never obeyed it. Just as it happens whenever the laws 
 of trade, whenever the laws of revenue, press hard upon the 
 people in England ; in that case all your shores are full of 
 contraband. Your right to give a monopoly to the East 
 India Company, your right to lay immense duties on French 
 
 30 brandy, are not disputed in England. You do not make 
 this charge on any man. But you know that there is not a 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 29 
 
 creek from Pentland Frith to the Isle of Wight, in which 
 they do not smuggle immense quantities of teas, East India 
 goods, and brandies. I take it for granted, that the authority 
 of Governor Bernard in this point is indisputable. Speaking 
 of these laws as they regarded that part of America now in 5 
 so unhappy a condition, he says, " I believe they are no 
 where better supported than in this province ; I do not 
 pretend that it is entirely free from a breach of these laws ; 
 but that such a breach, if discovered, is justly punished." 
 What more can you say of the obedience to any laws in any 10 
 country? An obedience to these laws formed the acknowl 
 edgment, instituted by yourselves, for your superiority ; and 
 was the payment you originally imposed for your protection. 
 
 Whether you were right or wrong in establishing the 
 colonies on the principles of commercial monopoly, rather 15 
 than on that of revenue, is at this day a problem of mere 
 speculation. You cannot have both by the same authority. 
 To join together the restraints of an universal internal and 
 external monopoly, with an universal internal and external 
 taxation, is an unnatural union ; perfect, uncompensated 20 
 slavery. You have long since decided for yourself and 
 them ; and you and they have prospered exceedingly under 
 that decision. 
 
 This nation, Sir, never thought of departing from that 
 choice until the period immediately on the close of the 25 
 last war. Then a scheme of government new in many 
 things seemed to have been adopted. I saw, or I thought 
 I saw, several symptoms of a great change, whilst I sat in 
 your gallery, a good while before I had the honour of a seat 
 in this House. At that period the necessity was established 30 
 of keeping up no less than twenty new regiments, with 
 
30 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 twenty colonels capable of seats in this House. This 
 scheme was adopted with very general applause from all 
 sides, at the very time that, by your conquests in America, 
 your danger from foreign attempts in that part of the 
 
 5 world was much lessened, or indeed rather quite over. 
 When this huge increase of military establishment was 
 resolved on, a revenue was to be found to support so great 
 a burthen. Country gentlemen, the great patrons of econ 
 omy, and the great resisters of a standing armed force, 
 
 10 would not have entered with much alacrity into the vote 
 for so large and so expensive an army, if they had been 
 very sure that they were to continue to pay for it. But 
 hopes of another kind were held out to them ; and in par 
 ticular, I well remember, that Mr. Townshend, in a brilliant 
 
 15 harangue on this subject, did dazzle them, by playing 
 before their eyes the image of a revenue to be raised in 
 America. 
 
 Here began to dawn the first glimmerings of this new 
 colony system. It appeared more distinctly afterwards, 
 
 20 when it was devolved upon a person to whom, on other 
 accounts, this country owes very great obligations. I do 
 believe, that he had a very serious desire to benefit the 
 public. But with no small study of the detail, he did not 
 seem to have his view, at least equally, carried to the total 
 
 25 circuit of our affairs. He generally considered his objects 
 in lights that were rather too detached. Whether the busi 
 ness of an American revenue was imposed upon him 
 altogether; whether it was entirely the result of his own 
 speculation ; or, what is more probable, that his own ideas 
 
 30 rather coincided with the instructions he had received ; 
 certain it is, that, with the best intentions in the world, he 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 31 
 
 first brought this fatal scheme into form, and established it 
 by act of parliament. 
 
 No man can believe, that at this time of day I mean to 
 lean on the venerable memory of a great man, whose loss 
 we deplore in common. Our little party differences have 5 
 been long ago composed ; and I have acted more with him, 
 and certainly with more pleasure with him, than ever I 
 acted against him. Undoubtedly Mr. Grenville was a first- 
 rate figure in this country. With a masculine understand 
 ing, and a stout and resolute heart, he had an application 10 
 undissipated and unwearied.' He took public business, not 
 as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure he was 
 to enjoy ; and he seemed to have no delight out of this 
 House, except in such things as some way related to the 
 business that was to be done within it. If he was ambi- 15 
 tious, I will say this for him, his ambition was of a noble 
 and generous strain. It was to raise himself, not by the 
 low, pimping politics of a court, but to win his way to 
 power, through the laborious gradations of public service ; 
 and to secure to himself a well-earned rank in parliament, 20 
 by a thorough knowledge of its constitution, and a perfect 
 practice in all its business. 
 
 Sir, if such a man fell into errors, it must be from defects 
 not intrinsical ; they must be rather sought in the particular 
 habits of his life ; which, though they do not alter the ground- 25 
 work of character, yet tinge it with their own hue. He was 
 bred in a profession. He was bred to the law, which is, in 
 my opinion, one of the first and noblest of human sciences ; 
 a science which does more to quicken and invigorate the 
 understanding, than all the other kinds of learning put to- 30 
 gether; but it is not apt, except in persons very happily 
 
32 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 born, to open and to liberalize the mind exactly in the same 
 proportion. Passing from that study he did not go very 
 largely into the world ; but plunged into business ; I mean 
 into the business of office ; and the limited and fixed 
 
 5 methods and forms established there. Much knowledge is 
 to be had undoubtedly in that line ; and there is no knowl 
 edge which is not valuable. But it may be truly said, that 
 men too much conversant in office are rarely minds of 
 remarkable enlargement. Their habits of office are apt to 
 
 10 give them a turn to think the substance of business not 
 to be much more important than the forms in which it is 
 conducted. These forms are adapted to ordinary occa 
 sions ; and therefore persons who are nurtured in office do 
 admirably well as long as things go on in their common 
 
 15 order; but when the high roads are broken up, and the 
 waters out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and 
 the file affords no precedent, then it is that a greater 
 knowledge of mankind, and a far more extensive compre 
 hension of things, is requisite, than ever office gave, or than 
 
 20 office can ever give. 1 Mr. Grenville thought better of the 
 wisdom and power of human legislation than in truth it 
 deserves. He conceived, and many conceived along with 
 him, that the flourishing trade of this country was greatly 
 owing to law and institution, and not quite so much to 
 
 25 liberty ; for but too many are apt to believe regulation to be 
 commerce, and taxes to be revenue. Among regulations, 
 that which stood first in reputation was his idol. I mean 
 the act of navigation. He has often professed it to be so. 
 The policy of that act is, I readily admit, in many respects, 
 
 30 well understood. But I do say, that if the act be suffered 
 to run the full length of its principle, and is not changed 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 33 
 
 and modified according to* the change of times and the 
 fluctuation of circumstances, it must do great mischief, and 
 frequently even defeat its own purpose. 
 
 After the war, and in the last years of it, the trade of 
 America had increased far beyond the speculations of the 5 
 most sanguine imaginations. It swelled out on every side. 
 It filled all its proper channels to the brim. It overflowed 
 with a rich redundance, and breaking its banks on the right 
 and on the left, it spread out upon some places where it was 
 indeed improper, upon others where it was only irregular. 10 
 It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact ; and great 
 trade will always be attended with considerable abuses. The 
 contraband will always keep pace in some measure with the 
 fair trade. It should stand as a fundamental maxim, that no 
 vulgar precaution ought to be employed in the cure of evils, 15 
 which are closely connected with the cause of our prosperity. 
 Perhaps this great person turned his eyes somewhat less 
 than was just towards the incredible increase of the fair 
 trade ; and looked with something of too exquisite a jealousy 
 towards the contraband. He certainly felt a singular degree 20 
 of anxiety on the subject; and even began to act from that 
 passion earlier than is commonly imagined. For whilst he 
 was first lord of the admiralty, though not strictly called 
 upon in his official line, he presented a very strong memorial 
 to the lords of the treasury, (my Lord Bute was then at the 25 
 head of the board,) heavily complaining of the growth of the 
 illicit commerce in America. Some mischief happened even 
 at that time from this over-earnest zeal. Much greater hap 
 pened afterwards, when it operated with greater power in 
 the highest department of the finances. The bonds of the 30 
 act of navigation were straitened so much, that America was 
 
34 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXA TION. 
 
 on the point of having no trade; either contraband or legiti 
 mate. They found, under the construction and execution 
 then used, the act no longer tying, but actually strangling 
 them. All this coming with new enumerations of commod- 
 
 5 ities ; with regulations which in a manner put a stop to the 
 mutual coasting intercourse of the colonies ; with the ap 
 pointment of courts of admiralty 1 under various improper 
 circumstances ; with a sudden extinction of the paper cur 
 rencies ; 2 with a compulsory provision for the quartering of 
 
 10 soldiers; the people of America thought themselves pro 
 ceeded against as delinquents, or, at best, as people under 
 suspicion of delinquency; and in such a manner as, they 
 imagined, their recent services in the war did not at all merit. 3 
 Any of these innumerable regulations, perhaps, would not 
 
 15 have alarmed alone ; some might be thought reasonable ; the 
 multitude struck them with terror. 
 
 But the grand manoeuvre in that business of new regulat 
 ing the colonies, was the i5th act of the fourth of George 
 III. ; which, besides containing several of the matters to 
 
 20 which I have just alluded, opened a new principle ; and here 
 properly began the second period of the policy of this coun 
 try with regard to the colonies ; by which the scheme of a 
 regular plantation parliamentary revenue was adopted in 
 theory, and settled in practice. A revenue not substituted 
 
 25 in the place of, but superadded to, a monopoly ; which 
 monopoly was enforced at the same time with additional 
 strictness, and the execution put into military hands. 
 
 This act, Sir, had for the first time the title of " granting 
 duties in the colonies and plantations of America ; " and for 
 
 30 the first time it was asserted in the preamble, " that it was 
 just and necessary that a revenue should be raised there." 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 35 
 
 Then came the technical words of "giving and granting," 
 and thus a complete American revenue act was made in all 
 the forms, and with a full avowal of the right, equity, policy, 
 and even necessity of taxing the colonies, without any formal 
 consent of theirs. There are contained also in the preamble 5 
 to that act these very remarkable words the commons, etc. 
 "being desirous to make some provision in the present 
 session of parliament towards raising the said revenue." By 
 these words it appeared to the colonies, that this act was 
 but a. beginning of sorrows ; that every session was to pro- 10 
 duce something of the same kind ; that we were to go on, 
 from day to day, in charging them with such taxes as we 
 pleased, for such a military force as we should think proper. 
 Had this plan been pursued, it was evident that the provin 
 cial assemblies, in which the Americans felt all their portion 15 
 of importance, and beheld their sole image of freedom, were 
 ipso facto annihilated. This ill prospect before them seemed 
 to be boundless in extent, and endless in duration. Sir, they 
 were not mistaken. The ministry valued themselves when 
 this act passed, and when they gave notice of the stamp act, 20 
 that both of the duties came very short of their ideas of 
 American taxation. Great was the applause of this measure 
 here. In England we cried out for new taxes on America, 
 whilst they cried out that they were nearly crushed with 
 those which the war and their own grants had brought upon 2 5 
 them. 
 
 Sir, it has been said in the debate, that when the first 
 American revenue act (the act in 1764, imposing the port 
 duties) passed, the Americans did not object to the principle. 1 
 It is true they touched it but very tenderly. It was not a 30 
 direct attack. They were, it is true, as yet novices ; as yet 
 
36 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 unaccustomed to direct attacks upon any of the rights of 
 parliament. The duties were port duties, like those they had 
 been accustomed to bear ; with this difference, that the title 
 was not the same, the preamble not the same, and the spirit 
 
 5 altogether unlike. But of what service is this observation to 
 the cause of those that make it ? It is a full refutation of the 
 pretence for their present cruelty to America ; for it shows, 
 out of their own mouths, that our colonies were backward to 
 enter into the present vexatious and ruinous controversy. 
 
 10 There is also another circulation abroad, (spread with a 
 malignant intention, which I cannot attribute to those who 
 say the same thing in this House,) that Mr. Grenville gave 
 the colony agents an option for their assemblies to tax them 
 selves, which they had refused. I find that much stress is 
 
 15 laid on this, as a fact. However, it happens neither to be 
 true nor possible. I will observe first, that Mr. Grenville 
 never thought fit to make this apology for himself in the 
 innumerable debates that were had upon the subject. He 
 might have proposed to the colony agents, that they should 
 
 20 agree in some mode of taxation as the ground of an act of 
 parliament. But he never could have proposed that they 
 should tax themselves on requisition, which is the assertion 
 of the day. Indeed, Mr. Grenville well knew, that the 
 colony agents could have no general powers to consent to it ; 
 
 25 and they had no time to consult their assemblies for particular 
 powers, before he passed his first revenue act. If you com 
 pare dates, you will find it impossible. Burthened as the 
 agents knew the colonies were at that time, they could not 
 give the least hope of such grants. His own favourite gov- 
 
 30 ernor was of opinion that the Americans were not then tax 
 able objects : 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 37 
 
 " Nor was the time less favourable to the equity of such a 
 taxation. I don't mean to dispute the reasonableness of 
 America contributing to the charges of Great Britain when 
 she is able ; nor, I believe, would the Americans themselves 
 have disputed it, at a proper time and season. But it should 5 
 be considered that the American governments themselves have, 
 in the prosecution of the late war, contracted very large debts; 
 which it will take some years to pay off, and in the mean time 
 occasion very burdensome taxes for that purpose only. For 
 instance, this government, which is as much beforehand as 10 
 any, raises every year $>],$oo sterling for sinking their debt, 
 and must continue it for four years longer at least before it 
 will be clear." 
 
 These are the words of Governor Bernard's letter to a 
 member of the old ministry, and which he has since printed. 15 
 Mr. Grenville could not have made this proposition to the 
 agents, for another reason. He was of opinion, which he has 
 declared in this House an hundred times, that the colonies 
 could not legally grant any revenue to the crown ; and that 
 infinite mischiefs would be the consequence of such a power. 20 
 When Mr. Grenville had passed the first revenue act, and in 
 the same session had made this House come to a resolution 
 for laying a stamp duty on America, between that time and 
 the passing the stamp act into a law, he told a considerable 
 and most respectable merchant, a member of this House, 25 
 whom I am truly sorry I do not now see in his place, when 
 he represented against this proceeding, that if the stamp duty 
 was disliked, he was willing to exchange it for any other 
 equally productive ; but that, if he objected to the Americans 
 being taxed by parliament, he might save himself the trouble 30 
 of the discussion, as he was determined on the measure. 
 
38 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 This is the fact, and, if you please, I will mention a very 
 unquestionable authority for it. 
 
 Thus, Sir, I have disposed of this falsehood. But false 
 hood has a perennial spring. It is said, that no conjecture 
 
 5 could be made of the dislike of the colonies to the principle. 
 This is as untrue as the other. After the resolution of the 
 House, and before the passing of the stamp act, the colonies 
 of Massachusetts Bay and New York did send remonstrances, 
 objecting to this mode of parliamentary taxation. What was 
 
 10 the consequence ? They were suppressed ; they were put 
 under the table, notwithstanding an order of council to the 
 contrary, by the ministry which composed the very council 
 that had made the order : and thus the House proceeded 
 to its business of taxing without the least regular knowledge 
 
 15 of the objections which were made to it. But to give that 
 House its due, it was not over-desirous to receive informa 
 tion, or to hear remonstrance. On the i5th of February, 
 1 765, whilst the stamp act was under deliberation, they re 
 fused with scorn even so much as to receive four petitions 
 
 20 presented from so respectable colonies as Connecticut, Rhode 
 Island, Virginia, and Carolina ; besides one from the traders 
 of Jamaica. As to the colonies, they had no alternative left 
 to them, but to disobey ; or to pay the taxes imposed by 
 that parliament which was not suffered, or did not surfer 
 
 2 5 itself, even to hear them remonstrate upon the subject. 
 
 This was the state of the colonies before his Majesty 
 thought fit to change his ministers. It stands upon no 
 authority of mine. It is proved by uncontrovertible records. 
 The honourable gentleman has desired some of us to lay our 
 
 30 hands upon our hearts, and answer to his queries upon the 
 historical part of this consideration ; and by his manner (as 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 39 
 
 well as my eyes could discern it) he seemed to address him 
 self to me. 
 
 Sir, I will answer him as" clearly as I am able, and with 
 great openness; I have nothing to conceal. In the year 
 sixty-five, being in a very private station, far enough from 5 
 any line of business, and not having the honour of a seat in 
 this House, it was my fortune, unknowing and unknown to 
 the then ministry, by the intervention of a common friend, 
 to become connected with a very noble person, and at the 
 head of the treasury department. It was indeed in a situa- 10 
 tion 1 of little rank and no consequence, suitable to the medi 
 ocrity of my talents and pretensions. But a situation near 
 enough to enable me to see, as well as others, what was going 
 on ; and I did see in that noble person such sound principles, 
 such an enlargement of mind, such clear and sagacious sense, 15 
 and such unshaken fortitude, as have bound me, as well as 
 others much better than me, by an inviolable attachment to 
 him from that time forward. Sir, Lord Rockingham very 
 early in that summer received a strong representation from 
 many weighty English merchants and manufacturers, from 20 
 governors of provinces and commanders of men of war, 
 against almost the whole of the American commercial regu 
 lations : and particularly with regard to the total ruin which 
 was threatened to the Spanish trade. I believe, Sir, the 
 noble lord soon saw his way in this business. But he did 25 
 not rashly determine against acts which it might be supposed 
 were the result of much deliberation. However, Sir, he 
 scarcely began to open the ground, when the whole veteran 
 body of office took the alarm. A violent outcry of all (ex 
 cept those who knew and felt the mischief) was raised against 30 
 any alteration. On one hand, his attempt was a direct vio- 
 
40 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 lation of treaties and public law ; on the other, the act of 
 navigation and all the corps of trade laws were drawn up in 
 array against it. 
 
 The first step the noble lord took, was to have the opinion 
 
 5 of his excellent, learned, and ever-lamented friend the late 
 Mr. Yorke, 1 then attorney-general, on the point of law. 
 When he knew that formally and officially, which in sub 
 stance he had known before, he immediately despatched 
 orders to redress the grievance. But I will say it for the 
 
 10 then minister, he is of that constitution of mind, that I know 
 he would have issued, on the same critical occasion, the very 
 same orders, if the acts of trade had been, as they were not, 
 directly against him ; and would have cheerfully submitted 
 to the equity of parliament for his indemnity. 
 
 15 On the conclusion of this business of the Spanish trade, 
 the news of the troubles, on account of the stamp act, arrived 
 in England. It was not until the end of October that these 
 accounts were received. No sooner had the sound of that 
 mighty tempest reached us in England, than the whole of 
 
 20 the then opposition, instead of feeling humbled by the un 
 happy issue of their measures, seemed to be infinitely elated, 
 and cried out, that the ministry, from envy to the glory of 
 their predecessors, were prepared to repeal the stamp act. 
 Near nine years after, the honourable gentleman takes quite 
 
 25 opposite ground, and now challenges me to put my hand to 
 my heart, and say, whether the ministry had resolved on the 
 repeal till a considerable time after the meeting of parlia 
 ment. Though I do not very well know what the honour 
 able gentleman wishes to infer from the admission, or from 
 
 30 the denial, of this fact, on which he so earnestly adjures me ; 
 I do put my hand on my heart, and assure him, that they did 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 41 
 
 not come to a resolution directly to repeal. They weighed 
 this matter as its difficulty and importance required. They 
 considered maturely among themselves. They consulted 
 with all who could give advice or information. It was not 
 determined until a little before the meeting of parliament ; 5 
 but it was determined, and the main lines of their own plan 
 marked out, before that meeting. Two questions arose 
 (I hope I am not going into a narrative troublesome to the 
 House) 
 
 [A cry of, Go on, go on.] 10 
 
 The first of the two considerations was, whether the repeal 
 should be total, or whether only partial ; taking out every 
 thing burthensome and productive, and reserving only an 
 empty acknowledgment, such as a stamp on cards or dice. 
 The other question was, on what principle the act should be 15 
 repealed ? On this head also two principles were started. 
 One, that the legislative rights of this country, with regard 
 to America, were not entire, but had certain restrictions and 
 limitations. The other principle was, that taxes of this kind 
 were contrary to the fundamental principles of commerce on 20 
 which the colonies were founded ; and contrary to every idea 
 of political equity ; by which equity we are bound, as much 
 as possible, to extend the spirit and benefit of the British 
 constitution to every part of the British dominions. The 
 option, both of the measure, and of the principle of repeal, 25 
 was made before the session ; and I wonder how any one can 
 read the king's speech at the opening of that session, without 
 seeing in that speech both the repeal and the declaratory 
 act very sufficiently crayoned out. Those who cannot see 
 this can see nothing. y 
 
 Surely the honourable gentleman will not think that a 
 
42 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 great deal less time than was then employed ought to have 
 been spent in deliberation, when he considers that the news 
 of the troubles did not arrive till towards the end of October. 
 The parliament sat to fill the vacancies on the i4th day of 
 
 5 December, and on business the i4th of the following January. 
 Sir, a partial repeal, or, as the bon ton of the court then 
 was, a modification, would have satisfied a timid, unsystem 
 atic, procrastinating ministry, as such a measure has since 
 done such a ministry. A modification is the constant re- 
 
 10 source of weak, undeciding minds. To repeal by the denial 
 of our right to tax in the preamble, (and this too did not 
 want advisers,) would have cut, in the heroic style, the 
 Gordian knot with a sword. Either measure would have 
 cost no more than a day's debate. But when the total re- 
 
 15 peal was adopted ; and adopted on principles of policy, of 
 equity, and of commerce ; this plan made it necessary to 
 enter into many and difficult measures. It became necessary 
 to open a very large field of evidence commensurate to these 
 extensive views. But then this labor did knight's service. 
 
 20 It opened the eyes of several to the true state of the Amer 
 ican affairs ; it enlarged their ideas ; it removed prejudices ; 
 and it conciliated the opinions and affections of men. The 
 noble lord, who then took the lead in administration, my 
 honourable friend l under me, and a right honourable gentle- 
 
 25 man, 2 (if he will not reject his share, and it was a large one, 
 of this business,) exerted the most laudable industry in bring 
 ing before you the fullest, most impartial, and least garbled 
 body of evidence that ever was produced to this House. I 
 think the inquiry lasted in the committee for six weeks ; 
 
 30 and, at its conclusion, this House, by an independent, noble, 
 spirited, and unexpected majority ; by a majority that will 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 43 
 
 redeem all the acts ever done by majorities in parliament ; 
 in the teeth of all the old mercenary Swiss of state, in de 
 spite of all the speculators and augurs of political events, in 
 defiance of the whole embattled legion of veteran pensioners 
 and practised instruments of a court, gave a total repeal to 5 
 the stamp act, and (if it had been so permitted) a lasting 
 peace to this whole empire. 
 
 I state, Sir, these particulars, because this act of spirit and 
 fortitude has lately been, in the circulation of the season, 
 and in some hazarded declamations in this House, attributed 10 
 to timidity. If, Sir, the conduct of ministry, in proposing 
 the repeal, had arisen from timidity with regard to them 
 selves, it would have been greatly to be condemned. Inter 
 ested timidity disgraces as much in the cabinet, as personal 
 timidity does in the field. But timidity, with regard to the 15 
 well-being of our country, is heroic virtue. The noble lord 
 who then conducted affairs, and his worthy colleagues, whilst 
 they trembled at the prospect of such distresses as you have 
 since brought upon yourselves, were not afraid steadily to 
 look in the face that glaring and dazzling influence at which 20 
 the eyes of eagles have blenched. He looked in the face 
 one of the ablest, and, let me say, not the most scrupulous, 
 oppositions, that perhaps ever was in this House ; and with 
 stood it, unaided by even one of the usual supports of ad 
 ministration. He did this when he repealed the stamp act. 25 
 He looked in the face of a person he had long respected and 
 regarded, and whose aid was then particularly wanting ; I 
 mean Lord Chatham. He did this when he passed the 
 declaratory act. 
 
 It is now given out for the usual purposes by the usual 30 
 emissaries, that Lord Rockingham did not consent to the 
 
44 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 repeal of this act until he was bullied into it by Lord Chat 
 ham ; and the reporters have gone so far as publicly to assert, 
 in a hundred companies, that the honourable gentleman 
 under the gallery 1 who proposed the repeal in the American 
 
 5 committee, had another set of resolutions in his pocket 
 directly the reverse of those he moved. These artificers of 
 a desperate cause are at this time spread abroad, with incred 
 ible care, in every part of the town, from the highest to the 
 lowest companies ; as if the industry of the circulation were 
 
 10 to make amends for the absurdity of the report. 
 
 Sir, whether the noble lord is of a complexion to be bullied 
 by Lord Chatham, or by any man, I must submit to those 
 who know him. I confess, when I look back to that time, I 
 consider him as placed in one of the most trying situations in 
 
 15 which, perhaps, any man ever stood. In the House of Peers 
 there were very few of the ministry, out of the noble lord's 
 own particular connexion, (except Lord Egmont, who acted, 
 as far as I could discern, an honourable and manly part,) 
 that did not look to some other future arrangement, which 
 
 20 warped his politics. There were in both Houses new and 
 menacing appearances, that might very naturally drive any 
 other, than a most resolute minister, from his measure or 
 from his station. The household troops openly revolted. 
 The allies of ministry (those, I mean, who supported some 
 
 25 of their measures, but refused responsibility for any) endeav 
 oured to undermine their credit, and to take ground that 
 must be fatal to the success of the very cause which they 
 would be thought to countenance. The question of the re 
 peal was brought on by ministry in the committee of this 
 
 30 House, in the very instant when it was known that more 
 than one court negotiation was carrying on with the heads of 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 45 
 
 the opposition. Everything, upon every side, was full of traps 
 and mines. Earth below shook ; heaven above menaced ; 
 all the elements of ministerial safety were dissolved. It was 
 in the midst of this chaos of plots and counter-plots ; it was 
 in the midst of this complicated warfare against public op- 5 
 position and private treachery, that the firmness of that 
 noble person was put to the proof. He never stirred from 
 his ground ; no, not an inch. He remained fixed and deter 
 mined, in principle, in measure, and in conduct. He prac 
 tised no managements. He secured no retreat. He sought 10 
 no apology. 1 
 
 I will likewise do justice, I ought to do it, to the honour 
 able gentleman who led us in this House. Far from the 
 duplicity wickedly charged on him, he acted his part with 
 alacrity and resolution. We all felt inspired by the example 15 
 he gave us, down even to myself, the weakest in that pha 
 lanx. I declare for one, I knew well enough (it could not 
 be concealed from anybody) the true state of things ; but, 
 in my life, I never came with so much spirits into this 
 House. It was a time for a man to act in. We had power- 20 
 ful enemies ; but we had faithful and determined friends ; 
 and a glorious cause. We had a great battle to fight ; but 
 we had the means of fighting ; not as now, when our arms 
 are tied behind us. We did fight that day, and conquer. 
 
 I remember, Sir, with a melancholy pleasure, the situation 25 
 of the honourable gentleman who made the motion for the 
 repeal ; in that crisis, when the whole trading interest of 
 this empire, crammed into your lobbies, with a trembling 
 and anxious expectation, waited, almost to a winter's return 
 of light, their fate from your resolutions. When, at length, 30 
 you had determined in their favour, and your doors, thrown 
 
46 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 open, showed them the figure of their deliverer in the well- 
 earned triumph of his important victory, from the whole of 
 that grave multitude there arose an involuntary burst of 
 gratitude and transport. They jumped upon him like chil- 
 
 5 dren on a long absent father. They clung about him as 
 captives about their redeemer. All England, all America, 
 joined to his applause. Nor did he seem insensible to the 
 best of all earthly rewards, the love and admiration of his 
 fellow-citizens. Hope elevated and joy brightened his crest. 
 
 10 I stood near him ; and his face, to use the expression of the 
 Scripture of the first martyr, " his face was as if it had been 
 the face of an angel." I do not know how others feel ; but 
 if I had stood in that situation, I never would have ex 
 changed it for all that kings in their profusion could bestow. 
 
 15 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 pleasing visions, is long since vanished. 1 
 
 Sir, this act of supreme magnanimity has been repre 
 sented, as if it had been a measure of an administration, that 
 
 20 having no scheme of their own, took a middle line, pilfered 
 a bit from one side and a bit from the other. Sir, they 
 took no middle lines. They differed fundamentally from the 
 schemes of -both parties; but they preserved the objects of 
 both. They preserved the authority of Great Britain. They 
 
 2 5 preserved the equity of Great Britain. They made the 
 declaratory act; they repealed the stamp act. They did 
 both /#//>' / because the declaratory act was without qualifi 
 cation ; and the repeal of the stamp act total. This they 
 did in the situation I have described. 
 
 30 Now, Sir, what will the adversary say to both these acts ? 
 If the principle of the declaratory act was not good, the 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 47 
 
 principle we are contending for this day is monstrous. If 
 the principle of the repeal was not good, why are we not at 
 war for a real, substantial, effective revenue ? If both were 
 bad, why has this ministry incurred all the inconveniencies 
 of both and of all schemes? Why have they enacted, re- 5 
 pealed, enforced, yielded, and now attempt to enforce 
 again ? 
 
 Sir, I think I may as well now, as at any other time, speak 
 to a certain matter of fact, not wholly unrelated to the ques 
 tion under your consideration. We, who would persuade 10 
 you to revert to the ancient policy of this kingdom, labour 
 under the effect of this short current phrase, which the court 
 leaders have given out to all their corps, in order to take 
 away the credit of those who would prevent you from that 
 frantic war you are going to wage upon your colonies. 15 
 Their cant is this ; " All the disturbances in America have 
 been created by the repeal of the stamp act." I suppress 
 for a moment my indignation at the falsehood, baseness, and 
 absurdity of this most audacious assertion. Instead of re 
 marking on the motives and character of those who have 20 
 issued it for circulation, I will clearly lay before you the state 
 of America, antecedently to that repeal ; after the repeal ; 
 and since the renewal of the schemes of American taxation. 
 
 It is said, that the disturbances, if there were any, before 
 the repeal, were slight ; and without difficulty or inconven- 25 
 ience might have been suppressed. For an answer to this 
 assertion I will send you to the great author and patron of 
 the stamp act, who certainly meaning well to the authority 
 of this country, and fully apprized of the state of that, made, 
 before a repeal was so much as agitated in this House, the 30 
 motion which is on your journals ; and which, to save the 
 
48 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 clerk the trouble of turning to it, I will now read to you. 
 It was for an amendment to the address of the lyth of 
 December, 1765 : 
 
 " To express our just resentment and indignation at the 
 
 5 outrages, tumults, and insurrections which have been excited 
 and carried on in North America; and at the resistance 
 given, by open and rebellious force, to the execution of the 
 laws in that part of his Majesty's dominions. And to assure 
 his Majesty, that his faithful commons, animated with the 
 
 10 warmest duty and attachment to his royal person and gov 
 ernment, will firmly and effectually support his Majesty in all 
 such measures as shall be necessary for preserving and sup 
 porting the legal dependence of the colonies on the mother 
 country," &c. &c. 
 
 15 Here was certainly a disturbance preceding the repeal; 
 such a disturbance as Mr. Grenville thought necessary to 
 qualify by the name of an insurrection, and the epithet of 
 a rebellious force : terms much stronger than any by which 
 those, who then supported his motion, have ever since thought 
 
 20 proper to distinguish the subsequent disturbances in Amer 
 ica. They were disturbances which seemed to him and his 
 friends to justify as strong a promise of support, as hath been 
 usual to give in the beginning of a war with the most power 
 ful and declared enemies. When the accour)ts of the Amer- 
 
 25 ican governors came before he House, they appeared 
 stronger even than the warmth of public imagination had 
 painted them ; so much stronger, that the papers on your 
 table bear me out in saying, that all the late disturbances, 
 which have been at pne tirne the minister's motives for the 
 
 30 repeal of five put of six of the new court taxes, and are 
 now his pretences for refusing to repeal that sixth, did not 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 49 
 
 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 act. 
 
 Ministry cannot refuse the authority of the commander in 
 chief, General Gage, who, in his letter of the 4th of Novem- 5 
 ber, from New York, thus represents the state of things : 
 
 " It is difficult to say, from the highest to the lowest, who 
 has not been accessory to this insurrection, either by writing 
 or mutual agreements, to oppose the act, by what they are 
 pleased to term all legal apposition to it. Nothing effectual 10 
 has been proposed, either to prevent or quell the tumult. 
 The rest of the provinces are in the same situation as to a 
 positive refusal to take the stamps ; and threatening those 
 who shall take them, to plunder and murder them ; and this 
 affair stands in all the provinces, that unless the act, from 15 
 its own nature, enforce itself, nothing but a very considerable 
 military force can do it." 
 
 It is remarkable, Sir, that the persons who formerly 
 trumpeted forth the most loudly, the violent resolutions of 
 assemblies ; the universal insurrections ; the seizing and 20 
 burning the stamped papers ; the forcing stamp officers to 
 resign their commissions under the gallows ; the rifling and 
 pulling down of the houses of magistrates ; and the expul 
 sion from their country of all who dared to write or speak 
 a single word in defence of the powers of parliament ; 25 
 these very trumpeters are now the men that represent the 
 whole as a mere trifle ; and choose to date all the disturb 
 ances from the repeal of the stamp act, which put an end to 
 them. Hear your officers abroad, and let them refute this 
 shameful falsehood, who, in all their correspondence, state 30 
 the disturbances as owing to their true causes, the discontent 
 
50 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 of the people, from the taxes. You have this evidence in 
 your own archives and it will give you complete satisfac 
 tion ; if you are not so far lost to all parliamentary ideas of 
 information, as rather to credit the lie of the day, than the 
 
 5 records of your own House. 
 
 Sir, this vermin of court reporters, when they are forced 
 into day upon one point, are sure to burrow in another ; but 
 they shall have no refuge ; I will make them bolt out of all 
 their holes. Conscious that they must be baffled, when they 
 
 10 attribute a precedent disturbance to a subsequent measure, 
 they take other ground, almost as absurd, but very common 
 in modern practice, and very wicked ; which is, to attribute 
 the ill-effect of ill-judged conduct to the arguments which 
 had been used to dissuade us from it. They say, that the 
 
 15 opposition made in parliament to the stamp act at the time 
 of its passing, encouraged the Americans to their resistance. 
 This has even formally appeared in print in a regular volume, 
 from an advocate of that faction, a Dr. Tucker. This Dr. 
 Tucker is already a dean, and his earnest labors in this 
 
 20 vineyard will, I suppose, raise him to a bishopric. 1 But this 
 assertion too, just like the rest, is false. In all the papers 
 which have loaded your table ; in all the vast crowd of verbal 
 witnesses that appeared at your bar, witnesses which were 
 indiscriminately produced from both sides of the House ; not 
 
 25 the least hint of such a cause of disturbance has ever ap 
 peared. As to the fact of a strenuous opposition to the stamp 
 act, I sat as a stranger in your gallery when the act was 
 under consideration. Far from anything inflammatory, I 
 never heard a more languid debate in this House. No more 
 
 30 than two or three gentlemen, as I remember, spoke against 
 the act, and that with great reserve, and remarkable temper. 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 51 
 
 There was but one division in the whole progress of the bill ; 
 and the minority did not reach to more than 39 or 40. In 
 the House of Lords I do not recollect that there was any 
 debate or division at all. I am sure there was no protest. 
 In fact, the affair passed with so very, very little noise, that 5 
 in town they scarcely knew the nature of what you were 
 doing. The opposition to the bill in England never could 
 have done this mischief, because there scarcely ever was less 
 of opposition to a bill of consequence. 
 
 Sir, the agents and distributors of falsehoods have, with 10 
 their usual industry, circulated another lie of the same 
 nature with the former. It is this, that the disturbances 
 arose from the account which had been received in America 
 of the change in the ministry. No longer awed, it seems, 
 with the spirit of the former rulers, they thought themselves J 5 
 a match for what our calumniators chose to qualify by the 
 name of so feeble a ministry as succeeded. Feeble in one 
 sense these men certainly may be called ; for, with all their 
 efforts, and they have made many, they have not been able 
 to resist the distempered vigour, and insane alacrity, with 20 
 which you are rushing to your ruin. But it does so happen, 
 that the falsity of this circulation is (like the rest) demon 
 strated by indisputable dates and records. 
 
 So little was the change known in America, that the 
 letters of your governors, giving an account of these dis- 2 5 
 turbances long after they had arrived at their highest pitch, 
 were all directed to the old ministry, and particularly to the 
 Earl of Halifax, the secretary of state corresponding with 
 the colonies, without once in the smallest degree intimating 
 the slightest suspicion of any ministerial revolution what- 30 
 soever. The ministry was not changed in England until 
 
52 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 the loth day of July, 1765. On the i4th of the preceding 
 June, Governor Fauquier from Virginia writes thus; and 
 writes thus to the Earl of Halifax : " Government is set at 
 defiance, not having strength enough in her hands to enforce 
 
 5 obedience to the laws of the community. The private distress 
 which every man feels, increases the general dissatisfaction 
 at the duties laid by the stamp act, which breaks out and 
 shows itself upon every trifling occasion. 1 ' The general 
 dissatisfaction had produced some time before, that is, on 
 
 10 the 2pth of May, several strong public resolves against the 
 stamp act; and those resolves are assigned by Governor 
 Bernard as the cause of the insurrections in Massachusetts 
 Bay, in his letter of the i5th of August, still addressed to 
 the Earl of Halifax ; and he continued to address such 
 
 15 accounts to that minister quite to the yth of September of 
 the same year. Similar accounts, and of as late a date, 
 were sent from other governors, and all directed to Lord 
 Halifax. Not one of these letters indicates the slightest 
 idea of a change, either known, or even apprehended. 
 
 20 Thus are blown away the insect race of courtly falsehoods ! 
 thus perish the miserable inventions of the wretched run 
 ners for a wretched cause, which they have fly-blown into 
 every weak and rotten part of the country, in vain hopes 
 that when their maggots had taken wing, their importunate 
 
 25 buzzing might sound something like the public voice \ 
 
 Sir, I have troubled you sufficiently with the state of 
 America before the repeal. Now I turn to the honourable 
 gentleman who so stoutly challenges us to tell, whether, 
 after the repeal, the provinces were quiet ? This is coming 
 
 30 home to the point. Here I meet him directly ; and answer 
 most readily, They were quiet. And I, in my turn, challenge 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 53 
 
 him to prove when, and where, and by whom, and in what 
 numbers, and with what violence, the other laws of trade, as 
 gentlemen assert, were violated in consequence of your con 
 cession ? or that even your other revenue laws were attacked ? 
 But I quit the vantage-ground on which I stand, and where 5 
 I might leave the burthen of the proof upon him : I walk 
 down upon the open plain, and undertake to show, that 
 they were not only quiet, but showed many unequivocal 
 marks of acknowledgment and gratitude. And to give him 
 every advantage, I select the obnoxious colony of Massa- 10 
 chusetts Bay, which at this time (but without hearing her) 
 is so heavily a culprit before parliament I will select their 
 proceedings even under circumstances of no small irritation. 
 For, a little imprudently, I must say, Governor Bernard 
 mixed in the administration of the lenitive of the repeal no 15 
 small acrimony arising from matters of a separate nature. 
 Yet see, Sir, the effect of that lenitive, though mixed with 
 these bitter ingredients ; and how this rugged people can 
 express themselves on a measure of concession. 
 
 "If it is not in our power" (say they in their address to 20 
 Governor Bernard,) "in so full a manner as will be expected, 
 to show our respectful gratitude to the mother country, or to 
 make a dutiful and affectionate return to the indulgence of 
 the king and parliament, it shall be no fault of ours ; for 
 this we intend, and hope we shall be able fully to effect" 25 
 
 Would to God that this temper had been cultivated, man 
 aged, and set in action ! other effects than those which we 
 have since felt would have resulted from it. On the requisi 
 tion for compensation to those who had suffered from the 
 violence of the populace, in the same address they say, " The 30 
 recommendation enjoined by Mr. Secretary Conway's letter, 
 
54 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 and in consequence thereof made to us, we will embrace the 
 first convenient opportunity to consider and act upon" They 
 did consider ; they did act upon it. They obeyed the requi 
 sition. I know the mode has been chicaned upon; but it 
 
 5 was substantially obeyed ; and much better obeyed than I 
 fear the parliamentary requisition of this session will be, 
 though enforced by all your rigour, and backed with all your 
 power. In a word, the damages of popular fury were com 
 pensated by legislative gravity. Almost every other part of 
 
 10 America in various ways demonstrated their gratitude. I 
 am bold to say, that so sudden a calm recovered after so 
 violent a storm is without parallel in history. To say that 
 no other disturbance should happen from any other cause, is 
 folly. But as far as appearances went, by the judicious sacri- 
 
 15 fice of one law, you procured an acquiescence in all that 
 remained. After this experience, nobody shall persuade me, 
 when a whole people are concerned, that acts of lenity are 
 not means of conciliation. 
 
 I hope the honourable gentleman has received a fair and 
 
 20 full answer to his question. 
 
 I have done with the third period of your policy ; that of 
 your repeal ; and the return of your ancient system, and 
 your ancient tranquillity and concord. Sir, this period was 
 not as long as it was happy. Another scene was opened, 
 
 25 and other actors appeared on the stage. The state, in the 
 condition I have described it, was delivered into the hands 
 of Lord Chatham a great and celebrated name ; a name 
 that keeps the name of this country respectable in every 
 other on the globe. It may be truly called, 
 
 3 Clarutn et venerabile nomen * 
 
 Gentibus, et multum nostra quod proderat urbi. 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 55 
 
 Sir, the venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, 
 his superior eloquence, his splendid qualities, his eminent 
 services, the vast space he fills in the eye of mankind ; and, 
 more than all the rest, his fall from power, which, like death, 
 canonizes and sanctifies a great character, will not suffer me 5 
 to censure any part of his conduct. I am afraid to flatter 
 him ; I am sure I am not disposed to blame him. Let those, 
 who have betrayed him by their adulation, insult him with 
 their malevolence. But what I do not presume to censure, 
 I may have leave to lament. For a wise man, he seemed to 10 
 me at that time to be governed too much by general maxims. 
 I speak with the freedom of history, and I hope without 
 offence. One or two of these maxims, flowing from an 
 opinion not the most indulgent to our unhappy species, and 
 surely a little too general, led him into measures that were 15 
 greatly mischievous to himself; and for that reason, among 
 others, fatal to his country ; measures, the effects of which, I 
 am afraid, are for ever incurable. He made an administra 
 tion, so checkered and speckled ; he put together a piece of 
 joinery, so crossly indented and whimsically dove-tailed ; a 20 
 cabinet so variously inlaid ; such a piece of diversified Mo 
 saic ; such a tesselated pavement without cement ; here a 
 bit of black stone, and there a bit of white ; patriots and 
 courtiers, king's friends and republicans ; whigs and tories ; 
 treacherous friends and open enemies ; that it was indeed a 25 
 very curious show ; but utterly unsafe to touch, and unsure 
 to stand on. The colleagues whom he had assorted at the 
 same boards, stared at each other, and were obliged to ask, 
 "Sir, your name? Sir, you have the advantage of me 
 Mr. Such-a-one I beg a thousand pardons " I venture 30 
 to say, it did so happen, that persons had a single office 
 
56 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 divided between them, who had never spoke to each other 
 in their lives, until they found themselves, they knew not 
 how, pigging together, heads and points, in the same truckle- 
 bed. 1 
 
 5 Sir, in consequence of this arrangement, having put so 
 much the larger part of his enemies and opposers into power, 
 the confusion was such, that his own principles could not 
 possibly have any effect or influence in the conduct of affairs. 
 If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other cause 
 
 10 withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the con 
 trary were sure to predominate. When he had executed his 
 plan, he had not an inch of ground to stand upon. When 
 he had accomplished his scheme of administration, he was 
 no longer a minister. 
 
 15 When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole system 
 was on a wide sea, without chart or compass. The gentle 
 men, his particular friends, who, with the names of various 
 departments of ministry, were admitted to seem as if they 
 acted a part under him, with a modesty that becomes all 
 
 20 men, and with a confidence in him, which was justified even 
 in its extravagance by his superior abilities, had never, in 
 any instance, presumed upon any opinion of their own. 
 Deprived of his guiding influence, they were whirled about, 
 the sport of every gust, and easily driven into any port ; and 
 
 25 as those who joined with them in manning the vessel were 
 the most directly opposite to his opinions, measures, and 
 character, and far the most artful and most powerful of the 
 set, they easily prevailed, so as to seize upon the vacant, 
 unoccupied, and derelict minds of his friends ; and instantly 
 
 30 they turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his policy. 
 As if it were to insult as well as to betray him, even long 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 57 
 
 before the close of the first session of his administration, 
 when everything was publicly transacted, and with great 
 parade, in his name, they made an act, declaring it highly 
 just and expedient to raise a revenue in America. For even 
 then, Sir, even before this splendid orb was entirely set, and 5 
 while the western horizon was in a blaze with his descending 
 glory, on the opposite quarter of the heavens arose another 
 luminary, and, for his hour, became lord of the ascendant. 
 
 This light too is passed and set for ever. You understand, 
 to be sure, that I speak of Charles Townshend, officially the 10 
 re-producer of this fatal scheme ; whom I cannot even now 
 remember without some degree of sensibility. In truth, Sir, 
 he was the delight and ornament of this House, and the 
 charm of every private society which he honoured with 
 his presence. Perhaps there never arose in this country, 15 
 nor in any country, a man of a more pointed and finished 
 wit ; and (where his passions were not concerned) of a more 
 refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment. If he had not 
 so great a stock, as some have had who flourished formerly, 
 of knowledge long treasured up, he knew better, by far, than 20 
 any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring together, 
 within a short time, all that was necessary to establish, to 
 illustrate, and to decorate that side of the question he sup 
 ported. He stated his matter skilfully and powerfully. He 
 particularly excelled in a most luminous explanation and 25 
 display of his subject. His style of argument was neither 
 trite and vulgar, nor subtle and abstruse. He hit the House 
 just between wind and water. And not being troubled with 
 too anxious a zeal for any matter in question, he was never 
 more tedious, or more earnest, than the pre-conceived opin- 30 
 ions and present temper of his hearers required ; to whom 
 
58 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 he was always in perfect unison. He conformed exactly to 
 the temper of the House ; and he seemed to guide, because 
 he was also sure to follow it. 
 
 I beg pardon, Sir, if, when I speak of this and of other 
 
 5 great men, I appear to digress in saying something of their 
 characters. In this eventful history of the revolutions of 
 America, the characters of such men are of much importance. 
 Great men are the guide-posts and land-marks in the state. 
 The credit of such men at court, or in the nation, is the sole 
 
 10 cause of all the public measures. It would be an invidious 
 thing (most foreign, I trust, to what you think my disposition) 
 to remark the errors into which the authority of great names 
 has brought the nation, without doing justice, at the same 
 time, to the great qualities whence that authority arose. The 
 
 15 subject is instructive to those who wish to form themselves 
 on whatever of excellence has gone before them. There are 
 many young members in the House (such of late has been 
 the rapid succession of public men) who never saw that 
 prodigy, Charles Townshend ; nor of course know what a 
 
 20 ferment he was able to excite in everything by the violent 
 ebullition of his mixed virtues and failings. For failings he 
 had undoubtedly many of us remember them ; we are this 
 day considering the effect of them. But he had no failings 
 which were not owing to a noble cause ; to an ardent, gen- 
 
 25 erous, perhaps an immoderate, passion for fame ; a passion 
 which is the instinct of all great souls. He worshipped that 
 goddess wheresoever she appeared ; but he paid his particu 
 lar devotions to her in her favourite habitation, in her chosen 
 temple, the House of Commons. Besides the characters of 
 
 3 o the individuals that compose our body, it is impossible, Mr. 
 Speaker, not to observe that this House has a collective char- 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 59 
 
 acter of its own. That character too, however imperfect, is 
 not unamiable. Like all great public collections of men, you 
 possess a marked love of virtue and an abhorrence of vice. 
 But among vices, there is none which the House abhors in 
 the same degree with obstinacy. Obstinacy, Sir, is certainly 5 
 a great vice ; and in the changeful state of political affairs 
 it is frequently the cause of great mischief. It happens, 
 however, very unfortunately, that almost the whole line of 
 the great and masculine virtues, constancy, gravity, mag 
 nanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmness, are closely allied 10 
 to this disagreeable quality, of which you have so just an 
 abhorrence ; and, in their excess, all these virtues very easily 
 fall into it. He, who paid such a punctilious attention to all 
 your feelings, certainly took care not to shock them by that 
 vice which is the most disgustful to you. 15 
 
 That fear of displeasing those who ought most to be 
 pleased, betrayed him sometimes into the other extreme. 
 He had voted, and, in the year 1765, had been an advocate, 
 for the stamp act. Things and the disposition of men's 
 minds were changed. In short, the stamp act began to be 20 
 no favourite in this House. He therefore attended at the 
 private meeting, in which the resolutions moved by a right 
 honourable gentleman were settled ; resolutions leading to 
 the repeal. The next day he voted for that repeal ; and he 
 would have spoken for it too, if an illness, (not, as was then 25 
 given out, a political,) but to my knowledge, a very real ill 
 ness, had not prevented it. 
 
 The very next session, as the fashion of this world passeth 
 away, the repeal began to be in as bad an odour in this 
 House as the stamp act had been in the session before. To 30 
 conform to the temper which began to prevail, and to pre- 
 
60 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 vail mostly amongst those most in power, he declared, very 
 early in the winter, that a revenue must be had out of 
 America. Instantly he was tied down to his engagements 
 by some, who had no objection to such experiments, when 
 
 5 made at the cost of persons for whom they had no particular 
 regard. The whole body of courtiers drove him onward. 
 They always talked as if the king stood in a sort of humili 
 ated state, until something of the kind should be done. 
 Here, this extraordinary man, then chancellor of the ex- 
 
 10 chequer, found himself in great straits. To please univer 
 sally was the object of his life ; but to tax and to please, no 
 more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men. How 
 ever, he attempted it. To render the tax palatable to the 
 partisans of American revenue, he had a preamble stating 
 
 15 the necessity of such a revenue. To close with the American 
 distinction, this revenue was external or port duty; but 
 again, to soften it to the other party, it was a duty of supply. 
 To gratify the colonists, it was laid on British manufactures ; 
 to satisfy the merchants of Britain, the duty was trivial, and 
 
 20 (except that on tea, which touched only the devoted East 
 India Company) on none of the grand objects of commerce. 
 To counterwork the American contraband, the duty on tea 
 was reduced from a shilling to three-pence. But to secure 
 the favour of those who would tax America, the scene of col- 
 
 25 lection was changed, and, with the rest, it was levied in the 
 colonies. What need I say more? This fine-spun scheme 
 had the usual sate of all exquisite policy. But the original 
 plan of the duties, and the mode of executing that plan, 
 both arose singly and solely from a love of our applause. 
 
 30 He was truly the child of the House. He never thought, 
 did, or said anything, but with a view to you. He every 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 61 
 
 day adapted himself to your disposition ; and adjusted him 
 self before it as at a looking-glass. 1 
 
 He had observed (indeed it could not escape him) that 
 several persons, infinitely his inferiors in all respects, had 
 formerly rendered themselves considerable in this House by 5 
 one method alone. They were a race of men (I hope in 
 God the species is extinct) who, when they rose in their 
 place, no man living could divine, from any known adher 
 ence to parties, to opinions, or to principles, from any order 
 or system in their politics, or from any sequel or connexion 10 
 in their ideas, what part they were going to take in any 
 debate. It is astonishing how much this uncertainty, espe 
 cially at critical times, called the attention of all parties on 
 such men. All eyes were fixed on them, all ears open to 
 hear them ; each party gaped, and looked alternately for 15 
 their vote, almost to the end of their speeches. While the 
 House hung in this uncertainty, now the hear hims rose 
 from his side now they rebellowed from the other ; and 
 that party, to whom they fell at length from their tremulous 
 and dancing balance, always received them in a tempest of 20 
 applause. The fortune of such men was a temptation too 
 great to be resisted by one, to whom a single whiff of incense 
 withheld gave much greater pain, than he received delight 
 in the clouds of it, which daily rose about him from the 
 prodigal superstition of innumerable admirers. He was a 25 
 candidate for contradictory honours ; and his great aim was 
 to make those agree in admiration of him who never agreed 
 in anything else. 
 
 Hence arose this unfortunate act, the subject of this day's 
 debate ; from a disposition which, after making an American 30 
 revenue to please one, repealed it to please others, and again 
 
62 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 revived it in hopes of pleasing a third, and of catching some 
 thing in the ideas of all. 
 
 This revenue act of 1767 formed the fourth period of 
 American policy. How we have fared since then what 
 
 5 woeful variety of schemes have been adopted ; what enforc 
 ing, and what repealing ; what bullying, and what submitting ; 
 what doing, and undoing ; what straining, and what relaxing ; 
 what assemblies dissolved for not obeying, and called again 
 without obedience ; what troops sent out to quell resistance, 
 
 10 and on meeting that resistance, recalled ; what shiftings, and 
 changes, and jumblings of all kinds of men at home, which 
 left no possibility of order, consistency, vigour, or even so 
 much as a decent unity of colour in any one public measure. 
 It is a tedious, irksome task. My duty may call me to 
 
 15 open it out some other time ; on a former occasion 1 I tried 
 
 your temper on a part of it ; for the present I shall forbear. 
 
 After all these changes and agitations, your immediate 
 
 situation upon the question on your paper is at length brought 
 
 to this. You have an act of parliament, stating, that " it is 
 
 20 expedient to raise a revenue in America." By a partial repeal 
 you annihilated the greatest part of that revenue, which this 
 preamble declares to be so expedient. You have substituted 
 no other in the place of it. A secretary of state has dis 
 claimed, in the king's name, all thoughts of such a substitu- 
 
 25 tion in future. The principle of this disclaimer goes to what 
 has been left, as well as what has been repealed. The tax 
 which lingers after its companions (under a preamble declar 
 ing an American revenue expedient, and for the sole purpose 
 of supporting the theory of that preamble) militates with the 
 
 30 assurance authentically conveyed to the colonies ; and is an 
 exhaustless source of jealousy and animosity. On this state, 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 63 
 
 which I take to be a fair one ; not being able to discern any 
 grounds of honour, advantage, peace, or power, for adhering, 
 either to the act or to the preamble, I shall vote for the 
 question which leads to the repeal of both. 
 
 If you do not fall in with this motion, then secure some- 5 
 thing to fight for, consistent in theory and valuable in practice. 
 If you must employ your strength, employ it to uphold you in 
 some honourable right, or some profitable wrong. If you are 
 apprehensive that the concession recommended to you, 
 though proper, should be a means of drawing on you further 10 
 but unreasonable claims, why then employ your force in 
 supporting that reasonable concession against those unreason 
 able demands. You will employ it with more grace ; with 
 better effect ; and with great probable concurrence of all 
 the quiet and rational people in the provinces ; who are now 15 
 united with, and hurried away by, the violent ; having indeed 
 different dispositions, but a common interest. If you appre 
 hend that on a concession you shall be pushed by metaphys 
 ical process to the extreme lines, and argued out of your 
 whole authority, my advice is this ; when you have recovered 20 
 your old, your strong, your tenable position, then face about 
 stop short do nothing more reason not at all oppose 
 the ancient policy and practice of the empire, as a rampart 
 against the speculations of innovators on both sides of the 
 question ; and you will stand on great, manly, and sure 25 
 ground. On this solid basis fix your machines, and they 
 will draw worlds towards you. 
 
 Your ministers, in their own and his Majesty's name, have 
 already adopted the American distinction of internal and 
 external duties. It is a distinction, whatever merit it may 30 
 have, that was originally moved by the Americans them- 
 

 64 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 selves ; and I think they will acquiesce in it, if they are not 
 pushed with too much logic and too little sense, in all the 
 consequences. That is, if external taxation be understood, 
 as they and you understand it, when you please, to be not a 
 
 5 distinction of geography, but of policy ; that it is a power 
 for regulating trade, and not for supporting establishments. 
 The distinction, which is as nothing with regard to right, is 
 of most weighty consideration in practice. Recover your 
 old ground, and your old tranquillity try it I am per- 
 
 10 suaded the Americans will compromise with you. When 
 confidence is once restored, the odious and suspicious sum- 
 mum jus will perish of course. The spirit of practicability, 
 of moderation, and mutual convenience, will never call in 
 geometrical exactness as the arbitrator of amicable settle- 
 
 15 ment. Consult and follow your experience. Let not the 
 long story, with which I have exercised your patience, prove 
 fruitless to your interests. 
 
 For my part, I should choose (if I could have my wish) 
 that the proposition of the honourable gentleman J for the 
 
 20 repeal could go to America without the attendance of the 
 penal bills. Alone I could almost answer for its success. I 
 cannot be certain of its reception in the bad company it may 
 keep. In such heterogeneous assortments, the most inno 
 cent person will lose the effect of his innocency. Though 
 
 25 you should send out this angel of peace, yet you are sending 
 out a destroying angel too : and what would be the effect of 
 the conflict of these two adverse spirits, or which would 
 predominate in the end, is what I dare not say : whether 
 the lenient measures would cause American passion to sub- 
 
 30 side, or the severe would increase its fury all this is in the 
 hand of Providence. Yet now, even now, I should confide 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 65 
 
 in the prevailing virtue and efficacious operation of lenity, 
 though working in darkness, and in chaos, in the midst of 
 all this unnatural and turbid combination : I should hope it 
 might produce order and beauty in the end. 
 
 f Let us, Sir, embrace some system or other before we end 5 
 this session. Do you mean to tax America, and to draw a 
 productive revenue from thence ? If you do, speak out ; 
 name, fix, ascertain this revenue ; settle its quantity ; define 
 its objects ; provide for its collection ; and then fight when 
 you have something to fight for. If you murder, rob ; if 10 
 you kill, take possession : and do not appear in the charac 
 ter of madmen, as well as assassins, violent, vindictive, 
 bloody, and tyrannical, without an object. But may better 
 counsels guide you ! 
 
 # Again, and again, revert to your own principles seek 15 
 peace and ensue it leave America, if she has taxable mat 
 ter in her, to tax herself. I am not here going into the dis 
 tinctions of rights, not attempting to mark their boundaries. 
 I do not enter into these metaphysical distinctions ; I hate 
 the very sound of them. Leave the Americans as they 20 
 anciently stood, and these distinctions, born of our unhappy 
 contest, will die along with it. They and we, and their and 
 our ancestors, have been happy under that system. Let the 
 memory of all actions, in contradiction to that good old 
 mode, on both sides, be extinguished for ever. Be content 25 
 to bind America by laws of trade ; you have always done it. 
 Let this be your reason for binding their trade. Do not 
 burthen them by taxes ; you were not used to do so from 
 the beginning. Let this be your reason for not taxing. 
 These are the arguments of states and kingdoms. Leave 30 
 the rest to the schools; for there only they may be dis- 
 
66 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 cussed with safety. But if, intemperately, unwisely, fatally, 
 you sophisticate and poison the very source of government, 
 by urging subtle deductions, and consequences odious to 
 those you govern, from the unlimited and illimitable nature 
 
 5 of supreme sovereignty, you will teach them by these means 
 to call that sovereignty itself in question. When you drive 
 him hard, the boar will surely turn upon the hunters. If 
 that sovereignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, 
 which will they take ? They will cast your sovereignty in 
 
 10 your face. Nobody will be argued into slavery. Sir, let the 
 gentlemen on the other side call forth all their ability ; let 
 the best of them get up, and tell me, what one character of 
 liberty the Americans have, and what one brand of slavery 
 they are free from, if they are bound in their property and 
 
 15 industry, by all the restraints you can imagine on commerce, 
 and at the same time are made pack-horses of every tax you 
 choose to impose, without the least share in granting them. 
 When they bear the burthens of unlimited monopoly, will 
 you bring them to bear the burthens of unlimited revenue 
 
 20 too? The Englishman in America will feel that this is 
 slavery that it is legal slavery, will be no compensation, 
 either to his feelings or his understanding. 
 
 A noble lord, 1 who spoke some time ago, is full of the fire 
 of ingenious youth ; and when he has modelled the ideas of 
 
 25 a lively imagination by further experience, he will be an 
 ornament to his country in either House. He has said, that 
 the Americans are our children, and how can they revolt 
 against their parent? He says, that if they are not free in 
 their present state, England is not free ; because Manchester, 
 
 30 and other considerable places, are not represented. So then, 
 because some towns in England are not represented, America 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 67 
 
 is to have no representative at all. They are " our children ; " 
 but when children ask for bread we are not to give a stone. 
 Is it because the natural resistance of things, and the various 
 mutations of time, hinders our government, or any scheme of 
 government, from being any more than a sort of approxima- 5 
 tion to the right, is it therefore that the colonies are to recede 
 from it infinitely? When this child of ours wishes to assimi 
 late to its parent, and to reflect with a true filial resemblance 
 the beauteous countenance of British liberty ; are we to turn 
 to them the shameful parts of our constitution? are we to 10 
 give them our weakness for their strength ? our opprobrium 
 for their glory ? and the slough of slavery, which we are not 
 able to work off, to serve them for their freedom ? 
 
 If this be the case, ask yourselves this question, Will they 
 be content in such a state of slavery? If not, look to the 15 
 consequences. Reflect how you are to govern a people, who 
 think they ought to be free, and think they are not. Your 
 scheme yields no revenue ; it yields nothing but discontent, 
 disorder, disobedience ; and such is the state of America, 
 that after wading up to your eyes in blood, you could only 20 
 end just where you begun ; that is, to tax where no revenue 
 is to be found, to my voice fails me ; my inclination indeed 
 carries me no farther all is confusion beyond it. 
 
 Well, Sir, I have recovered a little, and before I sit down 
 I must say something to another point with which gentlemen 25 
 urge us. What is to become of the declaratory act asserting 
 the entireness of British legislative authority, if we abandon 
 the practice of taxation ? 
 
 For my part I look upon the rights stated in that act, 
 exactly in the manner in which I viewed them on its very 30 
 first proposition, and which I have often taken the liberty, 
 
68 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 with great humility, to lay before you. I look, I say, on the 
 imperial rights of Great Britain, and the privileges which the 
 colonists ought to enjoy under these rights, to be just the 
 most reconcilable things in the world. The parliament of 
 
 5 Great Britain sits at the head of her extensive empire in two 
 capacities : one as the local legislature of this island, provid 
 ing for all things at home, immediately, and by no other in 
 strument than the executive power. The other, and I think 
 her nobler capacity, is what I call her imperial character ; in 
 
 10 which, as from the throne of heaven, she superintends all the 
 several inferior legislatures, and guides and controls them all, 
 without annihilating any. As all these provincial legislatures 
 are only co-ordinate to each other, they ought all to be 
 subordinate to her ; else they can neither preserve mutual 
 
 15 peace, nor hope for mutual justice, nor effectually afford 
 mutual assistance. It is necessary to coerce the negligent, 
 to restrain the violent, and to aid the weak and deficient, by 
 the overruling plenitude of her power. She is never to in 
 trude into the place of the others, whilst they are equal to 
 
 20 the common ends of their institution. But in order to enable 
 parliament to answer all these ends of provident and benefi 
 cent superintendence, her powers must be boundless. The 
 gentlemen who think the powers of parliament limited, may 
 please themselves to talk of requisitions. But suppose the 
 
 25 requisitions are not obeyed ? What ! Shall there be no re 
 served power in the empire, to supply a deficiency which may 
 weaken, divide, and dissipate the whole ? We are engaged 
 in war the secretary of state calls upon the colonies to 
 contribute some would do it, I think most would cheerfully 
 
 30 furnish whatever is demanded one or two, suppose, hang 
 back, and, easing themselves, let the stress of the draft lie 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 69 
 
 on the others surely it is proper, that some authority might 
 legally say "Tax yourselves for the common supply, or 
 parliament will do it for you." This backwardness was, as 
 I am told, actually the case of Pennsylvania for some short 
 time towards the beginning of the last war, owing to some 5 
 internal dissensions in the colony. But whether the fact 
 were so, or otherwise, the case is equally to be provided for 
 by a competent sovereign power. But then this ought to be 
 no ordinary power ; nor ever used in the first instance. This 
 is what I meant, when I have said at various times, that I J0 
 consider the power of taxing in parliament as an instrument 
 of empire, and not as a means of supply. 
 
 Such, Sir, is my idea of the constitution of the British em 
 pire, as distinguished from the constitution of Britain ; and 
 on these grounds I think subordination and liberty may be 15 
 sufficiently reconciled through the whole ; whether to serve 
 a refining speculatist, or a factious demagogue, I know not ; 
 but enough surely for the ease and happiness of man. 
 
 Sir, whilst we held this happy course, we drew more from 
 the colonies than all the impotent violence of despotism ever 20 
 could extort from them. We did this abundantly in the last 
 war. It has never been once denied and what reason have 
 we to imagine that the colonies would not have proceeded in 
 supplying government as liberally, if you had not stepped in 
 and hindered them from contributing, by interrupting the 25 
 channel in which their liberality flowed with so strong a 
 course ; by attempting to take, instead of being satisfied to 
 receive ? Sir William Temple says, that Holland has loaded 
 itself with ten times the impositions which it revolted from 
 Spain rather than submit to. He says true. Tyranny is a 30 
 poor provider. It knows neither how to accumulate, nor 
 how to extract. 
 
70 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 fv r-'J I charge therefore to this new and unfortunate system the 
 
 loss not only of peace, of union, and of commerce, but even 
 of revenue, which its friends are contending for. It is mor 
 ally certain, that we have lost at least a million of free grants 
 
 5 since the peace. I think we have lost a great deal more ; 
 and that those, who look for a revenue from the provinces, 
 never could have pursued, even in that light, a course more 
 directly repugnant to their purposes. 
 
 Now, Sir, I trust I have shown, first on that narrow ground 
 
 10 which the honourable gentleman measured, that you are 
 likely to lose nothing by complying with the motion, except 
 what you have lost already. I have shown afterwards, that 
 in time of peace you flourished in commerce, and, when war 
 required it, had sufficient aid from the colonies, while you 
 
 15 pursued your ancient policy ; that you threw everything 
 into confusion when you made the stamp act ; and that you 
 restored everything to peace and order when you repealed 
 it. I have shown that the revival of the system of taxation 
 has produced the very worst effects ; and that the partial 
 
 20 repeal has produced, not partial good, but universal evil. 
 Let these considerations, founded on facts, not one of which 
 can be denied, bring us back to our reason by the road of 
 our experience. 
 
 I cannot, as I have said, answer for mixed measures : but 
 
 25 surely this mixture of lenity would give the whole a better 
 chance of success. When you once regain confidence, the 
 way will be clear before you. Then you may enforce the 
 act of navigation when it ought to be enforced. You will 
 yourselves open it where it ought still further to be opened. 
 
 30 Proceed in what you do, whatever you do, from policy, and 
 not from rancour. Let us act like men, let us act like states- 
 
SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 71 
 
 men. Let us hold some sort of consistent conduct. It is 
 agreed that a revenue is not to be had in America. If we 
 lose the profit, let us get rid of the odium. 
 
 On* this business of America, I confess I am serious, even 
 to sadness. I have had but one opinion concerning it since 5 
 I sat, and before I sat, in parliament. The noble lord 1 will, 
 as usual, probably attribute the part taken by me and my 
 friends in this business, to a desire of getting his places. Let 
 him enjoy this happy and original idea. If I deprived him of 
 it, I should take away most of his wit, and all his argument. 10 
 But I had rather bear the brunt of all his wit, and indeed 
 blows much heavier, than stand answerable to God for em 
 bracing a system that tends to the destruction of some of 
 the very best and fairest of his works. But I know the map 
 of England, as well as the noble lord, or as any other person, 15 
 and I know that the way I take is not the road to prefer 
 ment. My excellent and honourable friend under me on the 
 floor 2 has trod that road with great toil for upwards of 
 twenty years together. He is not yet arrived at the noble 
 lord's destination. However, the tracks of my worthy friend 20 
 are those I have ever wished to follow ; because I know they 
 lead to honour. Long may we tread the same road together ; 
 whoever may accompany us, or whoever may laugh at us on 
 our journey ! I honestly and solemnly declare, I have in all 
 seasons adhered to the system, of 1766, for no other reason, 25 
 than that I think it laid deep in your truest interest and 
 that, by limiting the exercise, it fixes, on the firmest found 
 ations, a real, consistent, well-grounded authority in parlia 
 ment. Until you come back to that system, there will be 
 no peace for England. 3 o 
 
SPEECH OF EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., 
 
 ON 
 
 HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL. 
 
 OCTOBER 13, 1774. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : I am come hither to solicit in person, that 
 favour which my friends have hitherto endeavoured to pro 
 cure for me, by the most obliging, and to me the most 
 honourable, exertions. 
 
 5 I have so high an opinion of the great trust which you 
 have to confer on this occasion ; and, by long experience, so 
 just a diffidence in my abilities to fill it in a manner adequate 
 even to my own ideas, that J should never have ventured 
 of myself to intrude into that awful situation. But since I 
 
 10 am called upon by the desire of several respectable fellow- 
 subjects, as I have done at other times, I give up my fears 
 to their wishes. Whatever my other deficiences may be, I 
 do not know what it is to be wanting to my friends. 
 
 I am not fond of attempting to raise public expectation 
 
 15 by great promises. At this time, there is much cause to 
 consider, and very little to presume. We seem to be ap 
 proaching to a great crisis in our affairs, which calls for the 
 whole wisdom of the wisest among us, without being able to 
 assure ourselves, that any wisdom can preserve us from 
 
 20 many and great inconveniences. You know I speak of our 
 unhappy contest with America. I confess, it is a matter on 
 72 
 
SPEECH ON HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL. 73 
 
 which I look down as from a precipice. It is difficult in 
 itself, and it is rendered more intricate by a great variety of 
 plans of conduct. I do not mean to enter into them. I 
 will not suspect a want of good intention in framing them. 
 But however pure the intentions of their authors may have 5 
 been, we all know that the event has been unfortunate. 
 The means of recovering our affairs are not obvious. So 
 many great questions of commerce, of finance, of consti 
 tution, and of policy, are involved in this American deliber 
 ation, that I dare engage for nothing, but that I shall 10 
 give it, without any predilection to former opinions, or any 
 sinister bias whatsoever, the most honest and impartial 
 consideration of which I am capable. The public has a 
 full right to it; and this great city, a main pillar in the 
 commercial interest of Great Britain, must totter on its base 15 
 by the slightest mistake with regard to our American 
 measures. 
 
 Thus much, however, I think it not amiss to lay before 
 you ; That I am not, I hope, apt to take up or lay down my 
 opinions lightly. I have held, and ever shall maintain, to 20 
 the best of my power, unimpaired and undiminished, the 
 just, wise, and necessary constitutional superiority of Great 
 Britain. This is necessary for America as well as for us. I 
 never mean to depart from it. Whatever may be lost by it, 
 I avow it. The forfeiture even of your favour, if by such a 25 
 declaration I could forfeit it, though the first object of my 
 ambition, never will make me disguise my sentiments on 
 this subject. 
 
 But, I have ever had a clear opinion, and have ever 
 held a constant correspondent conduct, that this superiority 30 
 is consistent with all the liberties a sober and spirited Amer- 
 
74 SPEECH ON HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL. 
 
 ican ought to desire. I never mean to put any colonist, or 
 any human creature, in a situation not becoming a free 
 man. To reconcile British superiority with American liberty 
 shall be my great object, as far as my little faculties extend. 
 
 5 I am far from thinking that both, even yet, may not be 
 preserved. 
 
 When I first devoted myself to the public services I con 
 sidered how I should render myself fit for it ; and this I did 
 by endeavouring to discover what it was that gave this coun- 
 
 10 try the rank it holds in the world. I found that our pros 
 perity and dignity arose principally, if not solely, from two 
 sources ; our constitution, and commerce. Both these I 
 have spared no study to understand, and no endeavour to 
 support. 
 
 15 The distinguishing part of our constitution is its liberty. 
 To preserve that liberty inviolate, seems the particular duty 
 and proper trust of a member of the House of Commons. 
 But the liberty, the only liberty I mean, is a liberty con 
 nected with order ; that not only exists along with order and 
 
 20 virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them. It in 
 heres in good and steady government, as in its substance 
 and vital principle. 
 
 The other source of our power is commerce, of which you 
 are so large a part, and which cannot exist, no more than 
 
 25 your liberty, without a connexion with many virtues. It has 
 ever been a very particular and a very favourite object of my 
 study, in its principles, and in its details. I think many 
 here are acquainted with the truth of what I say. This I 
 know, that I have ever had my house open, and my poor 
 
 30 services ready, for traders and manufacturers of every de 
 nomination. My favourite ambition is to have those services 
 
SPEECH ON HIS ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL. 75 
 
 acknowledged. I now appear before you to make trial, 
 whether my earnest endeavours have been so wholly oppressed 
 by the weakness of rny abilities, as to be rendered insignifi 
 cant in the eyes of a great trading city ; or whether you 
 choose to give a weight to humble abilities, for the sake of 5 
 the honest exertions with which they are accompanied. 
 This is my trial to-day. My industry is not on trial. Of 
 my industry I am sure, as far as my constitution of mind 
 and body admitted. 
 
 When I was invited by many respectable merchants, free- 10 
 holders, and freemen of this city, to offer them my services, 
 I had just received the honour of an election at another place, 
 at a very great distance from this. I immediately opened 
 the matter to those of my worthy constituents who were 
 with me, and they unanimously advised me not to decline it. 15 
 They told me, that they had elected me with a view to the 
 public service : and as great questions relative to our com 
 merce and colonies were imminent, that in such matters I 
 might derive authority and support from the representation 
 of this great commercial city ; they desired me therefore to 20 
 set off without delay, very well persuaded that I never could 
 forget my obligations to them, or to my friends, for the 
 choice they have made of me. From that time to this instant 
 I have not slept ; and if I should have the honour of being 
 freely chosen by you, I hope I shall be as far from slumber- 25 
 ing or sleeping when your service requires me to be awake, 
 as I have been in coming to offer myself a candidate for your 
 favour. 
 
SPEECH OF EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ELECTORS OF BRISTOL 
 
 AT THE 
 
 CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 
 
 Nov. 3, 1774. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : I cannot avoid sympathizing strongly with 
 the feelings of the gentleman who has received the same 
 honour that you have conferred on me. If he, who was bred 
 and passed his whole life amongst you ; if he, who through 
 
 5 the easy gradations of acquaintance, friendship, and esteem, 
 has obtained the honour, which seems of itself, naturally and 
 almost insensibly, to meet with those, who, by the even tenour 
 of pleasing manners and social virtues, slide into the love 
 and confidence of their -fellow-citizens ; if he cannot speak 
 
 10 but with great emotion on this subject, surrounded as he is 
 on all sides with his old friends ; you will have the goodness 
 to excuse me, if my real, unaffected embarrassment prevents 
 me from expressing my gratitude to you as I ought. 
 
 I was brought hither under the disadvantage of being un- 
 
 15 known, even by sight, to any of you. No previous canvass 
 
 was made for me. I was put in nomination after the poll 
 
 was opened. I did not appear until it was far advanced. 
 
 If, under all these accumulated disadvantages, your good 
 
 76 
 
SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 77 
 
 opinion has carried me to this happy point of success ; you 
 will pardon me, if I can only say to you collectively, as 
 I said to you individually, simply, and plainly, I thank 
 you I am obliged to you I am not insensible of your 
 kindness. 5 
 
 This is all that I am able to say for the inestimable favour 
 you have conferred upon me. But I cannot be satisfied, 
 without saying a little more in defence of the right you have 
 to confer such a favour. The person that appeared here as 
 counsel for the candidate, who so long and so earnestly so- 10 
 licited your votes, thinks proper to deny, that a very great 
 part of you have any votes to give. He fixes a standard 
 period of time in his own imagination, not what the law 
 defines, but merely what the convenience of his client sug 
 gests, by which he would cut off, at one stroke, all those 15 
 freedoms which are the dearest privileges of your corporation ; 
 which the common law authorizes ; which your magistrates 
 are compelled to grant ; which come duly authenticated into 
 this court ; and are saved in the clearest words, and with the 
 most religious care and tenderness, in that very act of parlia- 20 
 ment, which was made to regulate the elections by freemen, 
 and to prevent all possible abuses in making them. 
 
 I do not intend to argue the matter here. My learned 
 counsel has supported your cause with his usual ability ; the 
 worthy sheriffs have acted with their usual equity, and I have 25 
 no doubt, that the same equity, which dictates the return, 
 will guide the final determination. I had the honour, in 
 conjunction with many far wiser men, to contribute a very 
 small assistance, but, however, some assistance, to the form 
 ing the judicature which is to try such questions. It would 30 
 be unnatural in me to doubt the justice of that court, in the 
 
78 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 
 
 trial of my own cause, to which I have been so active to give 
 jurisdiction over every other. 
 
 I assure the worthy freemen, and this corporation, that, if 
 the gentleman perseveres in the intentions which his present 
 
 5 warmth dictates to him, I will attend their cause with dili 
 gence, and I hope with effect. For, if I know anything of 
 myself, it is not my own interest in it, but my full convic 
 tion, that induces me to tell you / think there is not a 
 shadow of doubt in the case. 
 
 10 I do not imagine that you find me rash in declaring my 
 self, or very forward in troubling you. From the beginning 
 to the end of the election, I have kept silence in all matters 
 of discussion. I have never asked a question of a voter on 
 the other side, or supported a doubtful vote on my own. I 
 
 15 respected the abilities of my managers ; I relied on the can 
 dour of the court. I think the worthy sheriffs will bear me 
 witness, that I have never once made an attempt to impose 
 upon their reason, to surprise their justice, or to ruffle their 
 temper. I stood on the hustings (except when I gave my 
 
 20 thanks to those who favoured me with their votes) less like 
 a candidate, than an unconcerned spectator of a public pro 
 ceeding. But here the face of things is altered. Here is an 
 attempt for a general massacre of suffrages ; an attempt, by 
 a promiscuous carnage of friends and foes, to exterminate 
 
 25 above two thousand votes, including seven hundred polled for 
 the gentleman himself, who now complains, and who would 
 destroy the friends whom he has obtained, only because he 
 cannot obtain as many of them as he wishes. 
 
 How he will be permitted, in another place, to stultify and 
 
 30 disable himself, and to plead against his own acts, is another 
 question. The law will decide it. I shall only speak of it 
 
SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 79 
 
 as it concerns the propriety of public conduct in this city. I 
 do not pretend to lay down rules of decorum for other gentle 
 men. They are best judges of the mode of proceeding that 
 will recommend them to the favour of their fellow-citizens. 
 But I confess I should look rather awkward, if I had been 5 
 the very first to produce the new copies of freedom, if I had 
 persisted in producing them to the last ; if I had ransacked, 
 with the most unremitting industry and the most penetrating 
 research, the remotest corners of the kingdom to discover 
 them ; if I were then, all at once, to turn short, and declare, 10 
 that I had been sporting all this while with the right of elec 
 tion ; and that I had been drawing out a poll, upon no sort 
 of rational grounds, which disturbed the peace of my fellow- 
 citizens for a month together I really, for my part, should 
 appear awkward under such circumstances. 15 
 
 It would be still more awkward in me, if I were gravely to 
 look the sheriffs in the face, and to tell them, they were not 
 to determine my cause on my own principles ; not to make 
 the return upon those votes upon which I had rested my 
 election. Such would be my appearance to the court and 20 
 magistrates. 
 
 But how should I appear to the voters themselves ? If I 
 had gone round to the citizens entitled to freedom, and 
 squeezed them by the hand " Sir, I humbly beg your vote 
 I shall be eternally thankful may I hope for the honour 25 
 of your support ? Well ! come we shall see you at the 
 council-house " If I were then to deliver them to my man- 
 ) agers, pack them into tallies, vote them off in court, and 
 when I heard from the bar " Such a one only ! and such a 
 one for ever ! he's my man ! " "Thank you, good Sir 30 
 Hah ! my worthy friend ! thank you kindly that's an 
 
80 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 
 
 honest fellow how is your good family?" Whilst these 
 words were hardly out of my mouth, if I should have 
 wheeled round at once, and told them "Get you gone, 
 you pack of worthless fellows ! you have no votes you are 
 
 5 usurpers ! you are intruders on the rights of real freemen ! 
 I will have nothing to do with you ! you ought never to 
 have been produced at this election, and the sheriffs ought 
 not to have admitted you to poll." 
 
 Gentlemen, I should make a strange figure if my conduct 
 
 10 had been of this sort. I am not so old an acquaintance of 
 yours as the worthy gentleman. Indeed I could not have 
 ventured on such kind of freedoms with you. But I am 
 bound, and I will endeavour, to have justice done to the 
 rights of freemen ; even though I should, at the same time, 
 
 15 be obliged to vindicate the former 1 part of my antagonist's 
 conduct against his own present inclinations. 
 
 I owe myself, in all things, to all the freemen of this city. 
 My particular friends have a demand on me that I should 
 not deceive their expectations. Never was cause or man 
 
 20 supported with more constancy, more activity, more spirit. 
 I have been supported with a zeal indeed and heartiness in 
 my friends, which (if their object had been at all propor 
 tioned to their endeavours) could never be sufficiently com 
 mended. They supported me upon the most liberal princi- 
 
 25 pies. They wished that the members for Bristol should be 
 chosen for the city, and for their country at large, and not 
 for themselves. 
 
 So far they are not disappointed. If I possess nothing 
 else, I am sure I possess the temper that is fit for your ser- 
 
 3 o vice. I know nothing of Bristol, but by the favours I have 
 received, and the virtues I have seen exerted in it. 
 
SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 81 
 
 
 
 I shall ever retain, what I now feel, the most perfect and 
 grateful attachment to my friends and I have no. enmi 
 ties ; no resentment. I never can consider fidelity to en 
 gagements, and constancy in friendships, but with the 
 highest approbation ; even when those noble qualities are 5 
 employed against my own pretensions. The gentleman, who 
 is not so fortunate as I have been in this contest, enjoys, in 
 this respect, a consolation full of honour both to himself and 
 to his friends. They have certainly left nothing undone for 
 his service. 10 
 
 As for the trifling petulance, which the rage of party stirs 
 up in little minds, though it should show itself even in this 
 court, it has not made the slightest impression on me. The 
 highest flight of such clamorous birds is winged in an infe 
 rior reign of the air. We hear them, and we look upon 15 
 them, just as you, gentlemen, when you enjoy the serene air 
 on your lofty rocks, look down upon the gulls that skim the 
 mud of your river, when it is exhausted of its tide. 
 
 I am sorry I cannot conclude without saying a word on a 
 topic touched upon by my worthy colleague. I wish that 20 
 topic had been passed by at a time when I have so little 
 leisure to discuss it. But since he has thought proper to 
 throw it out, I owe you a clear explanation of my poor sen 
 timents on that subject. 
 
 He tells you that "the topic of instructions has occasioned 25 
 much altercation and uneasiness in this city " ; and he ex 
 presses himself (if I understand him rightly) in favour of 
 the coercive authority of such instructions. 
 
 Certainly, gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and 
 glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the 30 
 closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communi- 
 
82 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 
 
 
 
 cation with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have 
 great weight with him ; their opinion, high respect ; their 
 business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice 
 his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs ; and 
 
 5 above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to 
 his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, 
 his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, 
 to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not 
 derive from your pleasure ; no, nor from the law and the 
 
 jo constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the 
 abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representa 
 tive owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment ; and 
 he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your 
 opinion. 
 
 15 My worthy colleague says, his will ought to be subservient 
 to yours. If that be all, the thing is innocent. If govern 
 ment were a matter of will upon any side, yours, without 
 question, ought to be superior. But government and legis 
 lation are matters of reason and judgment, and not of 
 
 20 inclination ; and what sort of reason is that, in which the 
 determination precedes the discussion ; in which one set of 
 men deliberate, and another decide ; and where those who 
 form the conclusion are perhaps three hundred miles distant 
 from those who hear the arguments ? 
 
 25 To deliver an opinion, is the right of all men ; that of 
 constituents is a weighty and respectable opinion, which a 
 representative ought always to rejoice to hear ; and which 
 he ought always most seriously to consider. But authorita 
 tive instructions ; mandates issued, which the member is 
 
 30 bound blindly and implicitly to obey, to vote, and to argue 
 for, though contrary to the clearest conviction of his judg- 
 
SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. S3 
 
 ment and conscience, these are things utterly unknown to 
 the laws of this land, and which arise from a fundamental 
 mistake of the whole order and tenor of our constitution. 
 
 Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different 
 and hostile interests ; which interests each must maintain, as 5 
 an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates ; 
 but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with 
 one interest, that of the whole ; where, not local purposes, 
 not local prejudices, ought to guide, but the general good, 
 resulting from the general reason of the whole. You choose 10 
 a member indeed ; but when you have chosen him, he is not 
 member of Bristol, but he is a member of parliament. If 
 the local constituent should have an interest, or should form 
 an hasty opinion, evidently opposite to the real good of the 
 rest of the community, the member for that place ought to 15 
 be as far, as any other, from any endeavour to give it effect. 
 I beg pardon for saying so much on this subject. I have 
 been unwillingly drawn into it ; but I shall ever use a respect 
 ful frankness of communication with you. Your faithful 
 friend, your devoted servant, I shall be to the end of my 20 
 life : a flatterer you do not wish for. On this point of 
 instructions, however, I think it scarcely possible we ever 
 can have any sort of difference. Perhaps I may give you 
 too much, rather than too little, trouble. 
 
 From the first hour I was encouraged to court your favour, 25 
 to this happy day of obtaining it, I have never promised you 
 anything but humble and persevering endeavours to do my 
 duty. The weight of that duty, I confess, makes me tremble ; 
 and whoever well considers what it is, of all things in the 
 world, will fly from what has the least likeness to a positive 30 
 and precipitate engagement. To be a good member of par- 
 
84 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 
 
 liament is, let me tell you, no easy task ; especially at this 
 time, when there is so strong a disposition to run into the 
 perilous extremes of servile compliance or wild popularity. 
 To unite circumspection with vigour, is absolutely necessary ; 
 5 but it is extremely difficult. We are now members for a 
 rich commercial city; this city, however, is but a part of a 
 rich commercial nation, the interests of which are various, 
 multiform, and intricate. We are members for that great 
 nation, which, however, is itself but part of a great empire, 
 10 extended by our virtue and our fortune to the farthest limits 
 of the east and of the west. All these wide-spread interests 
 must be considered ; must be compared ; must be reconciled, 
 if possible. We are members for a free country ; and surely 
 we all know, that the machine of a free constitution is no 
 15 simple thing ; but as intricate and as delicate as it is valu 
 able. We are members in a great and ancient monarchy ; 
 and we must preserve religiously the true legal rights of the 
 sovereign, which form the key-stone that binds together the 
 noble and well-constructed arch of our empire and our con- 
 so stitution. A constitution made up of balanced powers must 
 ever be a critical thing. As such I mean to touch that part 
 of it which comes within my reach. I know my inability, 
 and I wish for support from every quarter. In particular I 
 shall aim at the friendship, and shall cultivate the best cor- 
 25 respondence, of the worthy colleague you have given me. 
 
 I trouble you no further than once more to thank you all ; 
 you, gentlemen, for your favours ; the candidates, for their 
 temperate and polite behaviour ; and the sheriffs, for a con 
 duct which may give a model for all who are in public 
 3 o stations. 
 
SPEECH OF EDMUND BURKE, ESQ., 
 
 ON 
 
 MOVING HIS RESOLUTIONS 
 
 FOR 
 
 CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES. 
 
 MARCH 22, 1775. 
 
 I HOPE, Sir, that, notwithstanding the austerity of the 
 Chair, your good-nature will incline you to some degree of 
 indulgence towards human frailty. You will not think it 
 unnatural, that those who have an object depending, which 
 strongly engages their hopes and fears, should be somewhat 5 
 inclined to superstition. As I came into the House full of 
 anxiety about the event of my motion, I found, to my in 
 finite surprise, that the grand penal bill, by which he had 
 passed sentence on the trade and sustenance of America, is 
 to be returned to us from the other House. 1 I do confess, 10 
 I could not help looking on this event as a fortunate omen. 
 I look upon it as a sort of providential favour ; by which we 
 are put once more in possession of our deliberate capacity, 
 upon a business so very questionable in its nature, so very 
 uncertain in its issue. By the return of this bill, which 15 
 seemed to have taken its flight for ever, we are at this very 
 instant nearly as free to choose a plan for our American gov 
 ernment as we were on the first day of the session. If, Sir, 
 
 85 
 
86 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 we incline to the side of conciliation, we are not at all em 
 barrassed (unless we please to make ourselves so) by any 
 incongruous mixture of coercion and restraint. We are 
 therefore called upon, as it were by a superior warning 
 
 5 voice, again to attend to America ; to attend to the whole 
 of it together ; and to review the subject with an unusual 
 degree of care and calmness. 
 
 Surely it is an awful subject ; or there is none so on this 
 side of the grave. When I first had the honour of a seat in 
 
 10 this House, the affairs of that continent pressed themselves 
 upon us, as the most important and most delicate object 
 of parliamentary attention. My little share in this great 
 deliberation oppressed me. I found myself a partaker in a 
 very high trust ; and having no sort of reason to rely on the 
 
 15 strength of my natural abilities for the proper execution of 
 that trust, I was obliged to take more than common paints to 
 instruct myself in everything which relates to our colonies. 
 I was not less under the necessity of forming some fixed ideas 
 concerning the general policy of the British empire. Some- 
 
 20 thing of this sort seemed to be indispensable ; in order, 
 amidst so vast a fluctuation of passions and opinions, to con 
 centre my thoughts ; to ballast my conduct ; to preserve me 
 from being blown about by every wind of fashionable doc 
 trine. I really did not think it safe, or manly, to have fresh 
 
 25 principles to seek upon every fresh mail which should arrive 
 from America. 
 
 At that period I had the fortune to find myself in perfect 
 concurrence with a large majority in this House. 1 Bowing 
 under that high authority, and penetrated with the sharp- 
 
 30 ness and strength of that early impression, I have continued 
 ever since, without the least deviation, in my original send- 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 87 
 
 ments. Whether this be owing to an obstinate perseverance 
 in error, or to a religious adherence to what appears to me 
 truth and reason, it is in your equity to judge. 
 
 Sir } parliament having an enlarged view of objects, made, 
 during this interval, more frequent changes in their senti- 5 
 ments and their conduct, than could be justified in a partic 
 ular person upon the contracted scale of private information. 
 But though I do not hazard anything approaching to censure 
 on the motives of former parliaments to all those alterations, 
 one fact is undoubted, that under them the state of Amer- 10 
 ica has been kept in continual agitation. Everything ad 
 ministered as remedy to the public complaint, if it did not 
 produce, was at least followed by, an heightening of the dis 
 temper ; until, by a variety of experiments, that important 
 country has been brought into her present situation ; a situ- 15 
 ation which I will not miscall, which I dare not name ; which 
 I scarcely know how to comprehend in the terms of any 
 description. 
 
 In this posture, Sir, things stood at the beginning of the 
 session. About that time, a worthy member l of great parlia- 20 
 mentary experience, who, in the year 1766, filled the chair of 
 the American committee with much ability, took me aside ; 
 and, lamenting the present aspect of our politics, told me, 
 things were come to such a pass, that our former methods 
 of proceeding in the House would be no longer tolerated. 25 
 That the public tribunal (never too indulgent to a long and 
 unsuccessful opposition) would now scrutinize our conduct 
 with unusual severity. That the very vicissitudes and shift- 
 ings of ministerial measures, instead of convicting their au 
 thors of inconstancy and want of system, would be taken as 30 
 an occasion of charging us with a predetermined discontent, 
 
88 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 which nothing could satisfy ; whilst we accused every measure 
 of vigour as cruel, and every proposal of lenity as weak and 
 irresolute. The public, he said, would not have patience to 
 see us play the game out with our adversaries : we must pro- 
 
 5 duce our hand. It would be expected, that those who for 
 many years had been active in such affairs should show that 
 they had formed some clear and decided idea of the prin 
 ciples of colony government ; and were capable of drawing 
 out something like a platform of the ground which might be 
 
 10 laid for future and permanent tranquillity. 
 
 I felt the truth of what my honourable friend represented ; 
 but I felt my situation too. His application might have been 
 made with far greater propriety to many other gentlemen. 
 No man was indeed ever better disposed, or worse qualified, 
 
 15 for such an undertaking, than myself. Though I gave so far 
 in to his opinion, that I immediately threw my thoughts into 
 a sort of parliamentary form, I was by no means equally ready 
 to produce them. It generally argues some degree of natural 
 impotence of mind, or some want of knowledge of the world, 
 
 20 to hazard plans of government except from a seat of au 
 thority. Propositions are made, not only ineffectually, but 
 somewhat disreputably, when the minds of men are not prop 
 erly disposed for their reception ; and for my part, I am 
 not ambitious of ridicule ; not absolutely a candidate for 
 
 25 disgrace. 
 
 Besides, Sir, to speak the plain truth, I have in general 
 no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government ; 
 nor of any politics in which the plan is to be wholly sepa 
 rated from the execution. But when I saw that anger and 
 
 30 violence prevailed every day more and more ; and that 
 things were hastening towards an incurable alienation of 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 89 
 
 our colonies ; I confess my caution gave way. I felt this, 
 as one of those few moments in which decorum yields to 
 a higher duty. Public calamity is a mighty leveller ; and 
 there are occasions when any, even the slightest, chance 
 of doing good, must be laid hold on, even by the most 5 
 inconsiderable person. 
 
 To restore order and repose to an empire so great and 
 so distracted as ours, is, merely in the attempt, an under 
 taking that would ennoble the flights of the highest genius, 
 and obtain pardon for the efforts of the meanest under- 10 
 standing. Struggling a good while with these thoughts, by 
 degrees I felt myself more firm. I derived, at length, some 
 confidence from what in other circumstances usually pro 
 duces timidity. I grew less anxious, even from the idea 
 of my own insignificance. For, judging of what you are by 15 
 what you ought to be, I persuaded myself that you would 
 not reject a reasonable proposition because it had nothing 
 but its reason to recommend it. On the other hand, being 
 totally destitute of all shadow of influence, natural or adven 
 titious, I was very sure, that, if my proposition were futile 20 
 or dangerous ; if it were weakly conceived, or improperly 
 timed, there was nothing exterior to it, of power to awe, 
 dazzle, or delude you. You will see it just as it is : and 
 you will treat it just as it deserves. 
 
 The proposition is peace. Not peace through the me- 25 
 dium of war ; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth 
 of intricate and endless negotiations; not peace to arise 
 out of universal discord, fomented from principle, in all 
 parts of the empire ; not peace to depend on the juridical 
 determination of perplexing questions, or the precise mark- 30 
 ing the shadowy boundaries of a complex government. It 
 
90 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 is simple peace ; sought in its natural course, and in its 
 ordinary haunts. It is peace sought in the spirit of peace ; 
 and laid in principles purely pacific. I propose, by remov 
 ing the ground of the difference, and by restoring the former 
 
 5 unsuspecting confidence of the colonies in the mother country, 
 to give permanent satisfaction to your people ; and (far 
 from a scheme of ruling by discord) to reconcile them to 
 each other in the same act, and by the bond of the very 
 same interest which reconciles them to British government. 
 
 10 My idea is nothing more. Refined policy ever has been 
 the parent of confusion ; and ever will be so, as long as the 
 world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily 
 discovered at the first view, as fraud is surely detected at 
 last, is, let me say, of no mean force in the government of 
 
 15 mankind. Genuine simplicity of heart is an healing and 
 cementing principle. My plan, therefore, being formed 
 upon the most simple grounds imaginable, may disappoint 
 some people, when they hear it. It has nothing to rec 
 ommend it to the pruriency of curious ears. There is 
 
 20 nothing at all new and captivating in it. It has nothing 
 of the splendour of the project, which has been lately laid 
 upon your table by the noble lord in the blue riband. 1 It 
 does not propose to fill your lobby with squabbling colony 
 agents, who will require the interposition of your mace, at 
 
 25 every instant, to keep the peace amongst them. It does 
 not institute a magnificent auction of finance, where capti 
 vated provinces come to general ransom by bidding against 
 each other, until you knock down the hammer, and deter 
 mine a proportion of payments beyond all the powers of 
 
 30 algebra to equalize and settle. 
 
 The plan which I shall presume to suggest, derives, how- 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 91 
 
 ever, one great advantage from the proposition and registry 
 of that noble lord's project. The idea of conciliation is 
 admissible. First, the House, in accepting the resolution 
 moved by the noble lord, has admitted, notwithstanding the 
 menacing front of our address, 1 notwithstanding our heavy 5 
 bill of pains and penalties that we do not think ourselves 
 precluded from all ideas of free grace and bounty. 
 
 The House has gone further ; it has declared conciliation 
 admissible, previous to any submission on the part of Amer 
 ica. It has even shot a good deal beyond that mark, and 10 
 has admitted, that the complaints of our former mode of 
 exerting the right of taxation were not wholly unfounded. 
 That right thus exerted is allowed to have had something 
 reprehensible in it ; something unwise, or something griev 
 ous ; since, in the midst of our heat and resentment, we, of 15 
 ourselves, have proposed a capital alteration ; and, in order 
 to get rid of what seemed so very exceptionable, have insti 
 tuted a mode that is altogether new ; one that is, indeed, 
 wholly alien from all the ancient methods and forms of par 
 liament. 20 : 
 
 The principle of this proceeding is large enough for my 
 purpose. The means proposed by the noble lord for carry 
 ing his ideas into execution, I think, indeed, are very indif 
 ferently suited to the end ; and this I shall endeavour to show 
 you before I sit down. But, for the present, I take my 25 
 ground on the admitted principle. I mean to give peace. 
 Peace implies reconciliation ; and, where there has been a 
 material dispute, reconciliation does in a manner always 
 imply concession on the one part or on the other. In this 
 state of things I make no difficulty in affirming that the pro- 30 
 posal ought to originate from us. Great and acknowledged 
 
92 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 force is not impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by an 
 unwillingness to exert itself. The superior power may offer 
 peace with honour and with safety. Such an offer from such 
 a power will be attributed to magnanimity. But the conces- 
 
 5 sions of the weak are the concessions of fear. When such a 
 one is disarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his superior ; 
 and he loses for ever that time and those chances, which, as 
 they happen to all men, are the strength and resources of all 
 inferior power. 
 
 10 The capital leading questions on which you must this day 
 decide, are these two : First, whether you ought to concede ; 
 and secondly, what your concession ought to be. On the 
 first of these questions we have gained (as I have just taken 
 the liberty of observing to you) some ground. But I am 
 
 15 sensible that a good deal more is still to be done. Indeed, 
 Sir, to enable us to determine both on the one and the other 
 of these great questions with a firm and precise judgment, I 
 think it may be necessary to consider distinctly the true 
 nature and the peculiar circumstances of the object which 
 
 20 we have before us. Because after all our struggle, whether 
 we will or not, we must govern America according to that 
 nature, and to those circumstances ; and not according to 
 our own imaginations ; nor according to abstract ideas of 
 right ; by no means according to mere general theories of 
 
 25 government, the resort to which appears to me, in our 
 present situation, no better than arrant trifling. I shall 
 therefore endeavour, with your leave, to lay before you some 
 of the most material of these circumstances in as full and as 
 clear a manner as I am able to state them. 
 
 30 The first thing that we have to consider with regard to 
 the nature of the object is the number of people in the 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 93 
 
 colonies. I have taken for some years a good deal of pains 
 on that point. I can by no calculation justify myself in 
 placing the number below two millions of inhabitants of our 
 own European blood and colour; besides at least 500,000 
 others, who form no inconsiderable part of the strength and 5 
 opulence of the whole. This, Sir, is, I believe, about the 
 true number. There is no occasion to exaggerate, where 
 plain truth is of so much weight and importance. But 
 whether I put the present numbers too high or too low, is a 
 matter of little moment. Such is the strength with which 10 
 population shoots in that part of the world, that state the 
 numbers as high as we will, whilst the dispute continues, the 
 exaggeration ends. Whilst we are discussing any given 
 magnitude, they are grown to it. Whilst we spend our time 
 in deliberating on the mode of governing two millions, we 15 
 shall find we have millions more to manage. Your children 
 do not grow faster from infancy to manhood, than they 
 spread from families to communities, and from villages to 
 nations. 1 
 
 I put this consideration of the present and the growing 2 o 
 numbers in the front of our deliberation ; because, Sir, this 
 consideration will make it evident to a blunter discernment 
 than yours, that no partial, narrow, contracted, pinched, oc 
 casional system will be at all suitable to such an object. It 
 will show you, that it is not to be considered as one of those 25 
 minima 2 which are out of the eye and consideration of the 
 law ; not a paltry excrescence of the state ; not a mean de 
 pendent, who may be neglected with little damage, and pro 
 voked with little danger. It will prove that some degree of 
 care and caution is required in the handling such an object ; 30 
 it will show that you ought not, in reason, to trifle with so 
 
94 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 large a mass of the interests and feelings of the human race. 
 You could at no time do so without guilt ; and be assured 
 you will not be able to do it long with impunity. 
 
 But the population of this country, the great and growing 
 
 5 population, though a very important consideration, will lose 
 much of its weight, if not combined with other circumstances. 
 The commerce of your colonies is out of all proportion be 
 yond the numbers of the people. This ground of their com 
 merce indeed has been trod some days ago, and with great 
 
 10 ability, by a distinguished person, 1 at your bar. This gentle 
 man, after thirty-five years it is so long since he first 
 appeared at the same place to plead for the commerce of 
 Great Britain has come again before you to plead the 
 same cause, without any other effect of time, than, that to 
 
 15 the fire of imagination and extent of erudition, which even 
 then marked him as one of the first literary characters of his 
 age, he has added a consummate knowledge in the com 
 mercial interest of his country, formed by a long course of 
 enlightened and discriminating experience. 
 
 20 Sir, I should be inexcusable in coming after such a person 
 with any detail, if a great part of the members who now fill 
 the House had not the misfortune to be absent when he 
 appeared at your bar. Besides, Sir, I propose to take the 
 matter at periods of time somewhat different from his. 
 
 25 There is, if I mistake not, a point of view, from whence if 
 you will look at this subject, it is impossible that it should 
 not make an impression upon you. 
 
 I have in my hand two accounts ; one a comparative state 
 of the export trade of England to its colonies, as it stood in 
 
 30 the year 1704, and as it stood in the year 1772. The other 
 a state of the export trade of this country to its colonies 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 95 
 
 alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the whole trade 
 of England to all parts of the world (the colonies included) 
 in the year 1 704. They are from good vouchers ; the latter 
 period from the accounts on your table, the earlier from an 
 original manuscript of Davenant, who first established the 5 
 inspector-general's office, which has been ever since his 
 time so abundant a source of parliamentary information. 
 
 The export trade to the colonies consists of three great 
 branches. The African, which, terminating almost wholly 
 in the colonies, must be put to the account of their com- 10 
 merce ; l the West Indian ; 2 and the North American. All 
 these are so interwoven, that the attempt to separate them, 
 would tear to pieces the contexture of the whole ; and if 
 not entirely destroy, would very much depreciate the value 
 of all the parts. I therefore consider these three denomi- 15 
 nations to be, what in effect they are, one trade. 
 
 The trade to the colonies, taken on the export side, at 
 the beginning of this century, that is, in the year 1704, 
 stood thus : 
 
 Exports to North America, and the West Indies . ,483,265 20 
 To Africa ......... 86,665 
 
 In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year between 
 the highest and lowest of those lately laid on your table, the 
 account was as follows : 25 
 
 To North America, and the West Indies . . 4,791,734 
 To Africa ........ 866,398 
 
 To which if you add the export trade from Scotland, 
 
 which had in 1 704 no existence . 364,000 
 
 6,022,132 30 
 
96 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 From five hundred and odd thousand, it has grown to six 
 millions. It has increased no less than twelve-fold. This is 
 the state of the colony trade, as compared with itself at 
 these two periods, within this century; and this is matter 
 5 for meditation. But this is not all. Examine my second 
 account. See how the export trade to the colonies alone in 
 1772 stood in the other point of view, that is, as compared 
 to the whole trade of England in 1 704. 
 
 The whole export trade of England, including that to 
 
 10 the colonies, in 1704 ^6,509,000 
 
 Export to the colonies alone, in 1772 . . . 6,024,00x3 
 
 Difference ,485,000 
 
 The trade with America alone is now within less than 
 ^500,000 of being equal to what this great commercial 
 
 15 nation, England, carried on at the beginning of this century 
 with the whole world ! If I had taken the largest year of 
 those on your table, it would rather have exceeded. But, it 
 will be said, is not this American trade an unnatural pro 
 tuberance, that has drawn the juices from the rest of the 
 
 20 body ? The reverse. It is the very food that has nourished 
 every other part into its present magnitude. Our general 
 trade has been greatly augmented, and augmented more or 
 less in almost every part to which it ever extended ; but 
 with this material difference, that of the six millions which 
 
 25 in the beginning of the century constituted the whole mass 
 of our export commerce, the colony trade was but one-twelfth 
 part ; it is now (as a part of sixteen millions) considerably 
 more than a third of the whole. This is the relative.propor- 
 tion of the importance of the colonies at these two periods : 
 
 30 and all reasoning concerning our mode of treating them 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 97 
 
 must have this proportion as its basis, or it is a reasoning 
 weak, rotten, and sophistical. 1 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on myself to hurry over this 
 great consideration. It is good for us to be here. We stand 
 where we have an immense view of what is, and what is past. 5 
 Clouds, indeed, and darkness rest upon the future. Let us, 
 however, before we descend from this noble eminence, reflect 
 that this growth of our national prosperity has happened 
 within the short period of the life of man. It has happened 
 within sixty-eight years. There are those alive whose mem- 10 
 ory might touch the two extremities. For instance, my Lord 
 Bathurst might remember all the stages of the progress. He 
 was in 1 704 of an age at least to be made to comprehend 
 such things. He was then old enough acta parentum jam 
 legere, et qua sit poterit cognoscere virtus' 2 ' Suppose, Sir, that 15 
 the angel of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many vir 
 tues, which made him one of the most amiable, as he is one 
 of the most fortunate, men of his age, had opened to him in 
 vision, that when, in the fourth generation, the third prince 
 of the House of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the 20 
 throne of that nation, which (by the happy issue of moderate 
 and healing councils) was to be made Great Britain, he 
 should see his son, 3 Lord Chancellor of England, turn back 
 the current of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise 
 him to a higher rank of peerage, whilst he enriched the 25 
 family with a new one If amidst these bright and happy 
 scenes of domestic honour and prosperity, that angel should 
 have drawn up the curtain, and unfolded the rising glories 
 of his country, and whilst he was gazing with admiration on 
 the then commercial grandeur of England, the genius should 30 
 point out to him a little speck, scarce visible in the mass of 
 
98 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 the national interest, a small seminal principle, rather than 
 a formed body, and should tell him " Young man, there 
 is America which at this day serves for little more than to 
 amuse you with stories of savage men, and uncouth manners ; 
 
 5 yet shall, before you taste of death, show itself equal to the 
 
 whole of that commerce which now attracts the envy of the 
 
 world. Whatever England has been growing to by a pro- 
 
 . gressive increase of improvement, brought in by varieties of 
 
 people, by succession of civilizing conquests and civilizing 
 
 10 settlements in a series of seventeen hundred years, you shall 
 see as much added to her by America in the course of a 
 single life ! " If this state of his country had been foretold 
 to him, would it not require all the sanguine credulity of 
 youth, and all the fervid glow of enthusiasm, to make him 
 
 15 believe it? Fortunate man, he has lived to see it ! Fortu 
 nate indeed, if he lives to see nothing that shall vary the 
 prospect, and cloud the setting of his day ! l 
 
 Excuse me, Sir, if turning from such thoughts I resume 
 this comparative view once more. You have seen it on a 
 
 20 large scale ; look at it on a small one. I will point out to 
 your attention a particular instance of it in the single prov 
 ince of Pennsylvania. In the year 1704, that province 
 called for ,11,459 in value of your commodities, native 
 and foreign. This was the whole. What did it demand in 
 
 25 1772? Why nearly fifty times as much; for in that year 
 the export to Pennsylvania was .507,909, nearly equal to 
 the export to all the colonies together in the first period. 
 
 I choose, Sir, to enter into these minute and particular 
 details ; because generalities, which in all other cases are 
 
 30 apt to heighten and raise the subject, have here a tendency 
 to sink it. When we speak of the commerce with our colo- 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 99 
 
 nies, fiction lags after truth ; invention is unfruitful, and 
 imagination cold and barren. 
 
 So far, Sir, as to the importance of the object in view of 
 its commerce, as concerned in the exports from England. 
 If I were to detail the imports, I could show how many 5 
 enjoyments they procure, which deceive the burthen of life ; 
 how many materials which invigorate the springs of national 
 industry, and extend and animate every part of our foreign 
 and domestic commerce. This would be a curious subject 
 indeed but I must prescribe bounds to myself in a matter ia 
 so vast and various. 
 
 I pass therefore to the colonies in another point of view, 
 their agriculture. This they have prosecuted with such a 
 spirit, that, besides feeding plentifully their own growing 
 multitude, their annual export of grain, comprehending rice, 15 
 has some years ago exceeded a million in value. Of their 
 last harvest, I am persuaded they will export much more. 
 At the beginning of the century some of these colonies 
 imported corn from the mother country. For some time 
 past, the Old World has been fed from the New. The 20 
 scarcity which you have felt would have been a desolating 
 famine, if this child of your old age, with a true filial piety, 
 with a Roman charity, 1 had not put the full breast of its 
 youthful exuberance to the mouth of its exhausted parent. 
 
 As to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from the 25 
 sea by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at 
 your bar. You surely thought these acquisitions of value, 
 for they seemed even to excite your envy ; and yet the spirit 
 by which that enterprising employment has been exercised, 
 ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised your esteem and 30 
 admiration. And pray, Sir/what in the world is equal to it? 
 
100 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 Pass by the other' parts, and look at the manner in which 
 the people of New England have of late carried on the whale 
 fishery. Whilst we follow them among the tumbling moun 
 tains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the deepest 
 
 5 frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's Straits, whilst 
 we are looking for them beneath the arctic circle, we hear 
 that they have pierced into the opposite region of polar cold, 
 that they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the frozen 
 serpent of the south. 1 Falkland Island, 2 which seemed too 
 
 10 remote and romantic an object for the grasp of national 
 ambition, is but a stage and resting-place in the progress of 
 their victorious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more 
 discouraging to them, than the accumulated winter of both 
 the poles. We know that whilst some of them draw the 
 
 15 line and strike the harpoon on the coast of Africa, others run 
 the longitude, and pursue their gigantic game along the 
 coast of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fisheries. 
 No climate that is not witness to their toils. Neither the 
 perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the 
 
 20 dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise, ever car 
 ried this most perilous mode of hard industry to the extent 
 to which it has been pushed by this recent people ; a people 
 who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hard 
 ened into the bone of manhood. When I contemplate these 
 
 25 things ; when I know that the colonies in general owe little 
 or nothing to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed 
 into this happy form by the constraints of watchful and sus 
 picious government, but that, through a wise and salutary 
 neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own 
 
 30 way to perfection ; when I reflect upon these effects, when I 
 see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 101 
 
 of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human 
 contrivances melt and die away within me. My rigour 
 relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty. 1 
 
 I am sensible, Sir, that all which I have asserted in my 
 detail, is admitted in the gross ; but that quite a different 5 
 conclusion is drawn from it. America, gentlemen say, is a 
 noble object. It is an object well worth fighting for. Cer 
 tainly it is, if fighting a people be the best way of gaining 
 them. Gentlemen in this respect will be led to their choice 
 of means by their complexions and their habits. Those who 10 
 understand the military art, will of course have some pred 
 ilection for it. Those who wield the thunder of the state, 
 may have more confidence in the efficacy of arms. But I 
 confess, possibly for want of this knowledge, my opinion is 
 much more in favour of prudent management, than of force ; 15 
 considering force not as an odious, but a feeble instrument, 
 for preserving a people so numerous, so active, so growing, 
 so spirited as this, in a profitable and subordinate connexion 
 with us. 
 
 First, Sir, permit me to observe, that the use of force 20 
 alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment ; but 
 it does not remove the necessity of subduing again : and a 
 nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be con 
 quered. 
 
 My next objection is its uncertainty. Terror is not 25 
 always the effect of force; and an armament is not a 
 victory. If you do not succeed, you are without resource ; 
 for, conciliation failing, force remains ; but, force failing, 
 no furthur hope of reconciliation is left. Power and author 
 ity are sometimes bought by kindness ; but they can never be 30 
 begged as alms by an impoverished and defeated violence. 
 
102 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 A further objection to force is, that you impair the object 
 by your very endeavours to preserve it. The thing you 
 fought for is not the thing which you recover ; but depre 
 ciated, sunk, wasted, and consumed in the contest. Nothing 
 
 5 less will content me, than whole America. I do not choose 
 to consume its strength along with our own ; because in all 
 parts it is the British strength that I consume. I do not 
 choose to be caught by a foreign enemy at the end of this 
 exhausting conflict ; and still less in the midst of it. I may 
 
 10 escape ; but I can make no insurance against such an event. 
 Let me add, that I do not choose wholly to break the 
 American spirit ; because it is the spirit that has made the 
 country. 
 
 Lastly, we have no sort of experience in favour of force 
 
 15 as an instrument in the rule of our colonies. Their growth 
 and their utility has been owing to methods altogether 
 different. Our ancient indulgence has been said to be 
 pursued to a fault. It may be so. But we know if feeling 
 is evidence, that our fault was more tolerable than our 
 
 20 attempt to mend it ; and our sin far more salutary than our 
 penitence. 
 
 These, Sir, are my reasons for not entertaining that high 
 opinion of untried force, by which many gentlemen, for 
 whose sentiments in other particulars I have great respect, 
 
 25 seem to be so greatly captivated. But there is still behind 
 a third consideration concerning this object, which serves 
 to determine my opinion on the sort of policy which ought 
 to be pursued in the management of America, even more 
 than its population and its commerce, I mean its temper and 
 
 30 character. 
 
 In this character of the Americans, a love of freedom is 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 103 
 
 the predominating feature which marks and distinguishes 
 the whole : and as an ardent is always a jealous affection, 
 your colonies become suspicious, restive, and untractable, 
 whenever they see the least attempt to wrest from them by 
 force, or shuffle from them by chicane, what they think the 5 
 only advantage worth living for. This fierce spirit of liberty 
 is stronger in the English colonies probably than in any 
 other people of the earth ; and this from a great variety of 
 powerful causes ; which, to understand the true temper of 
 their minds, and the direction which this spirit takes, it will 10 
 not be amiss to lay open somewhat more largely. 1 
 
 First, the people of the colonies are descendants of 
 Englishmen. England, Sir, is a nation, which still I hope 
 respects, and formerly adored, her freedom. The colonists 
 emigrated from you when this part of your character was 15 
 most predominant ; and they took this bias and direction 
 the moment they parted from your hands, They are there 
 fore not only devoted to liberty, but to liberty according to 
 English ideas, and on English principles. Abstract liberty, 
 like other mere abstractions, is not to be found. Liberty 20 
 inheres in some sensible object ; and every nation has 
 formed to itself some favourite point, which by way of emi 
 nence becomes the criterion of their happiness. It hap 
 pened, you know, Sir, that the great contests for freedom 
 in this country were from the earliest times chiefly upon the 25 
 question of taxing. Most of the contests in the ancient 
 commonwealths turned primarily on the right of election of 
 magistrates ; or on the balance among the several orders of 
 the state. The question of money was not with them so 
 immediate. But in England it was otherwise. On this 30 
 point of taxes the ablest pens, and most eloquent tongues, 
 
104 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 have been exercised; the greatest spirits have acted and 
 suffered. In order to give the fullest satisfaction concern 
 ing the importance of this point, it was not only necessary 
 for those who in argument defended the excellence of the 
 
 5 English constitution, to insist on this privilege of granting 
 money as a dry point of fact, and to prove, that the right 
 had been acknowledged in ancient parchments, and blind 
 usages, to reside in a certain body called a House of Com 
 mons. They went much farther ; they attempted to prove, 
 
 10 and they succeeded, that in theory it ought to be so, from 
 the particular nature of a House of Commons, as an imme 
 diate representative of the people ; whether the old records 
 had delivered this oracle or not. They took infinite pains 
 to inculcate, as a fundamental principle, that in all mon- 
 
 15 archies the people must in effect themselves, mediately or 
 immediately, possess the power of granting their own money, 
 or no shadow of liberty could subsist. The colonies draw 
 from you, as with their life-blood, these ideas and principles. 
 Their love of liberty, as with you, fixed and attached on 
 
 20 this specific point of taxing. Liberty might be safe, or 
 might be endangered, in twenty other particulars, without 
 their being much pleased or alarmed. Here they felt its 
 pulse ; and as they found that beat, they thought them 
 selves sick or sound. I do not say whether they were right 
 
 25 or wrong in applying your general arguments to their own 
 case. It is riot easy indeed to make a monopoly of theo 
 rems and corollaries. The fact is, that they did thus apply 
 those general arguments ; and your mode of governing 
 them, whether through lenity or indolence, through wisdom 
 
 30 or mistake, confirmed them in the imagination, that they, as 
 well as you, had an interest in these common principles. 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 105 
 
 They were further confirmed in this pleasing error by the 
 form of their provincial legislative assemblies. Their gov 
 ernments are popular in a high degree; some are merely 
 popular; in all, the popular representative is the most 
 weighty ; and this share of the people in their ordinary gov- 5 
 eminent never fails to inspire them with lofty sentiments, 
 and with a strong aversion from whatever tends to deprive 
 them of their chief importance. 
 
 If anything were wanting to this necessary operation of 
 the form of government, religion would have given it a com- 10 
 plete effect. Religion, always a principle of energy, in this 
 new people is no way worn out or impaired ; and their mode 
 of professing it is also one main cause of this free spirit. 
 The people are Protestants ; and of that kind which is the 
 most adverse to all implicit submission of mind and opinion. 15 
 This is a persuasion not only favourable to liberty, but built 
 upon it. I do not think, Sir, that the reason of this averse- 
 ness in the dissenting churches, from all that looks like abso 
 lute government, is so much to be sought in their religious 
 tenets, as in their history. Every one knows that the 20 
 Roman Catholic religion is at least coeval with most of the 
 governments where it prevails ; that it has generally gone 
 hand in hand with them, and received great favour and 
 every kind of support from authority. The Church of Eng 
 land too was formed from her cradle under the nursing care 25 
 of regular government. But the dissenting interests have 
 sprung up in direct opposition to all the ordinary powers of 
 the world ; and could justify that opposition only on a strong 
 claim to natural liberty. Their very existence depended on 
 the powerful and unremitted assertion of that claim. All 30 
 Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a sort of 
 
106 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern 
 colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is 
 the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism of the Pro 
 testant religion. 1 This religion, under a variety of denomi- 
 
 5 nations agreeing in nothing but in the communion of the 
 spirit of liberty, is predominant in most of the northern prov 
 inces; where the Church of England, notwithstanding its 
 legal rights, is in reality no more than a sort of private sect, 
 not composing most probably the tenth of the people. The 
 
 10 colonists left England when this spirit was high, and in the 
 emigrants was the highest of all ; and even that stream of 
 foreigners, which has been constantly flowing into these 
 colonies, has, for the greatest part, been composed of dis 
 senters from the establishments of their several countries, 
 
 15 and have brought with them a temper and character far 
 from alien to that of the people with whom they mixed. 
 
 Sir, I can perceive by their manner, that some gentlemen 
 object to the latitude of this description ; because in the 
 southern colonies the Church of England forms a large body, 
 
 20 and has a regular establishment. It is certainly true. There 
 is, however, a circumstance attending these colonies, which, 
 in my opinion, fully counterbalances this difference, and 
 makes the spirit of liberty still more high and haughty than 
 in those to the northward. It is, that in Virginia and the 
 
 25 Carolinas they have a vast multitude of slaves. Where this 
 is the case in any part of the world, those who are free, are 
 by far the most proud and jealous of their freedom. Free 
 dom is to them not only an enjoyment, but a kind of rank 
 and privilege. Not seeing there, that freedom, as in coun- 
 
 30 tries where it is a common blessing, and as broad and gen 
 eral as the air, may be united with much abject toil, with 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 107 
 
 great misery, with all the exterior of servitude, liberty looks, 
 amongst them, like something that is more noble and liberal. 
 I do not mean, Sir, to commend the superior morality of this 
 sentiment, which has at least as much pride as virtue in it ; 
 but I cannot alter the nature of man. The fact is so ; and 5 
 these people of the southern colonies are much more strongly, 
 and with a higher and more stubborn spirit, attached to lib 
 erty, than those to the northward. Such were all the ancient 
 commonwealths ; such were our Gothic ancestors ; such in 
 our days were the Poles; 1 and such will be all masters of 10 
 slaves, who are not slaves themselves. In such a people, 
 the haughtiness of domination combines with the spirit of 
 freedom, fortifies it, and renders it invincible. 
 
 Permit me, Sir, to add another circumstance in our colo 
 nies, which contributes no mean part towards the growth 15 
 and effect of this untractable spirit. I mean their education. 
 In no country perhaps in the world is the law so general a 
 study. 2 The profession itself is numerous and powerful ; and 
 in most provinces it takes the lead. The greater number of 
 the deputies sent to the congress were lawyers. But all who 20 
 read, and most do read, endeavour to obtain some smat 
 tering in that science. I have been told by an eminent 
 bookseller, that in no branch of his business, after tracts of 
 popular devotion, were so many books as those on the law 
 exported to the plantations. The colonists have now fallen 25 
 into the way of printing them for their own use. I hear 
 that they have sold nearly as many of Blackstone's Com 
 mentaries in America as in England. General Gage marks 
 out this disposition very particularly in a letter on your 
 table. He states, that all the people in his government are 30 
 lawyers, or smatterers in law ;. and that in Boston they have 
 
108 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 been enabled, by successful chicane, wholly to evade many 
 parts of one of your capital penal constitutions. 1 The smart 
 ness of debate will say, that this knowledge ought to teach 
 them more clearly the rights of legislature, their obligations 
 
 5 to obedience, and the penalties of rebellion. All this is 
 mighty well. But my honourable and learned friend 2 on the 
 floor, who condescends to mark what I say for animadversion, 
 will disdain that ground. He has heard, as well as I, that 
 when great honours and great emoluments do not win over 
 
 10 this knowledge to the service of the state, it is a formidable 
 adversary to government. If the spirit be not tamed and 
 broken by these happy methods, it is stubborn and litigious. 
 Abeunt studia in mores? This study renders men acute, in 
 quisitive, dexterous, prompt in attack, ready in defence, full 
 
 15 of resources. In other countries, the people, more simple, 
 and of a less mercurial cast, judge of an ill principle in gov 
 ernment only by an actual grievance ; here they anticipate 
 the evil, and judge of the pressure of the grievance by the 
 badness of the principle. They augur misgovernment at a 
 
 20 distance j and snuff the approach of tyranny in every tainted 
 breeze. 
 
 The last cause of this disobedient spirit in the colonies is 
 hardly less powerful than the rest, as it is not merely moral, 
 but laid deep in the natural constitution of things. Three 
 
 25 thousand miles of ocean lie between you and them. No con 
 trivance can prevent the effect of this distance in weakening 
 government. Seas roll, and months pass, between the order 
 and the execution ; and the want of a speedy explanation of 
 a single point is enough to defeat a whole system. You 
 
 30 have, indeed, winged ministers of vengeance, 4 who carry your 
 bolts in their pounces to the remotest verge of the sea. But 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 109 
 
 there a power steps in, that limits the arrogance of raging 
 passions and furious elements, and says, " So far shalt thou 
 go, and no farther." Who are you, that should fret and 
 rage, and bite the chains of nature ? Nothing worse happens 
 to you than does to all nations who have extensive empire ; 5 
 and it happens in all the forms into which empire can be 
 thrown. In large bodies, the circulation of power must be 
 less vigourous at the extremities. Nature has said it. The 
 Turk cannot govern Egypt, and Arabia, and Curdistan, as he 
 governs Thrace ; nor has he the same dominion in Crimea 10 
 and Algiers, which he has at Brusa and Smyrna. Despotism 
 itself is obliged to truck and huckster. The Sultan gets such 
 obedience as he can. He governs with a loose rein, that he 
 may govern at all ; and the whole of the force and vigour of 
 his authority in his centre is derived from a prudent relaxa- 15 
 tion in all his borders. Spain, in her provinces, is, perhaps, 
 not so well obeyed as you are in yours. She complies too ; 
 she submits ; she watches times. This is the immutable 
 condition, the eternal law, of extensive and detached empire. 1 
 
 Then, Sir, from these six capital sources; of descent; of 20 
 form of government ; of religion in the northern provinces ; 
 of manners in the southern ; of education ; of the remote 
 ness of situation from the first mover of government ; from 
 all these causes a fierce spirit of liberty has grown up. It 
 has grown with the growth of the people in your colonies, 25 
 and increased with the increase of their wealth; a spirit, 
 that unhappily meeting with an exercise of power in England, 
 which, however lawful, is not reconcilable to any ideas of 
 liberty, much less with theirs, has kindled this flame that is 
 ready to consume us. 30 
 
 I do not mean to commend either the spirit in this excess, 
 
110 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 or the moral causes which produce it. Perhaps a more 
 smooth and accommodating spirit of freedom in them would 
 be more acceptable to us. Perhaps ideas of liberty might be 
 desired, more reconcilable with an arbitrary and boundless 
 
 5 authority. Perhaps we might wish the colonists to be per 
 suaded, that their liberty is more secure when held in trust 
 for them by us (as their guardians during a perpetual minor 
 ity) than with any part of it in their own hands. The ques 
 tion is, not whether their spirit deserves praise or blame, 
 
 10 but what, in the name of God, shall we do with it? You 
 have before you the object, such as it is, with all its glories, 
 with all its imperfections on its head. 1 You see the magni 
 tude ; the importance ; the temper ; the habits ; the dis 
 orders. By all these considerations we are strongly urged 
 
 15 to determine something concerning it. We are called upon 
 to fix some rule and line for our future conduct, which may 
 give a little stability to our politics, and prevent the return 
 of such unhappy deliberations as the present. Every such 
 return will bring the matter before us in a still more un- 
 
 20 tractable form. For, what astonishing and incredible things 
 have we not seen already ! What monsters have not been 
 generated from this unnatural contention ! Whilst every 
 principal of authority and resistance has been pushed, upon 
 both sides, as far as it would go, there is nothing so solid 
 
 25 and certain, either in reasoning or in practice, that has not 
 been shaken. Until very lately, all authority in America 
 seemed to be nothing but an emanation from yours. Even 
 the popular part of the colony constitution derived all its 
 activity, and its first vital movement, from the pleasure of 
 
 30 the crown. We thought, Sir, that the utmost which the dis 
 contented colonists could do, was to disturb authority ; we 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. Ill 
 
 never dreamt they could of themselves supply it ; knowing 
 in general what an operose business it is to establish a gov 
 ernment absolutely new. But having, for our purposes in 
 this contention, resolved, that none but an obedient assem 
 bly should sit ; the humours of the people there, finding all 5 
 passage through the legal channel stopped, with great vio 
 lence broke out another way. Some provinces have tried 
 their experiment, as we have tried ours ; and theirs has suc 
 ceeded. They have formed a government sufficient for its 
 purposes, without the bustle of a revolution, or the trouble- 10 
 some formality of an election. Evident necessity, and tacit 
 consent, have done the business in an instant. So well they 
 have done it, that Lord Dunmore (the account is among the 
 fragments on your table) tells you, that the new institution 
 is infinitely better obeyed than the ancient government ever 15 
 was in its most fortunate periods. Obedience is what makes 
 government, and not the names by which it is called ; not 
 the name of governor, as formerly, or committee, as at pres 
 ent. This new government has originated directly from the 
 people ; and was not transmitted through any of the ordinary 20 
 artificial media of a positive constitution. It was not a manu 
 facture ready formed, and transmitted to them in that con 
 dition from England. The evil arising from hence is this ; 
 that the colonists having once found the possibility of enjoy 
 ing the advantages of order in the midst of a struggle for 25 
 liberty, such struggles will not henceforward seem so terrible 
 to the settled and sober part of mankind as they had appeared 
 before the trial. 
 
 Pursuing the same plan of punishing by the denial of the 
 exercise of government to still greater lengths, we wholly 30 
 abrogated the ancient government of Massachusetts. We 
 
112 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 ' were confident that the first feeling, if not the very prospect 
 of anarchy, would instantly enforce a complete submission. 
 The experiment was tried. A new, strange, unexpected 
 face of things appeared. Anarchy is found tolerable. A 
 
 5 vast province has now subsisted, and subsisted in a consid 
 erable degree of health and vigour, for near a twelvemonth, 
 without governor, without public council, without judges, 
 without executive magistrates. How long it will continue 
 in this state, or what may arise out of this unheard-of situa- 
 
 10 tion, how can the wisest of us conjecture? Our late ex 
 perience has taught us that many of these fundamental 
 principles, formerly believed infallible, are either not of the 
 importance they were imagined to be ; or that we have not 
 at all adverted to some other far more important and far 
 
 15 more powerful principles, which entirely overrule those we 
 had considered as omnipotent. I am much against any 
 further experiments, which tend to put to the proof any 
 more of these allowed opinions, which -contribute so much to 
 the public tranquillity. In effect, we suffer as much at home 
 
 20 by this loosening of all ties, and this concussion of all estab 
 lished opinions, as we do abroad. For, in order to prove 
 that the Americans have no right to their liberties, we are 
 every day endeavouring to subvert the maxims which preserve 
 the whole spirit of our own. To prove that the Americans 
 
 25 ought not to be free, we are obliged to depreciate the value 
 of freedom itself; and we never seem to gain a paltry ad 
 vantage over them in debate, without attacking some of those 
 principles, or deriding some of those feelings, for which our 
 ancestors have shed their blood. 
 
 3 o But, Sir, in wishing to put an end to pernicious experi 
 ments, I do not mean to preclude the fullest inquiry. Far 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 113 
 
 from it. Far from deciding on a sudden or partial view, I 
 would patiently go round and round the subject, and survey 
 it minutely in every possible aspect. Sir, if I were capable . 
 of engaging you to an equal attention, I would state, that, as 
 far as I am capable of discerning, there are but three ways 5 
 of proceeding relative to this stubborn spirit, which prevails 
 in your colonies, and disturbs your government. These are 
 To change that spirit, as inconvenient, by removing the 
 causes. To prosecute it as criminal. Or, to comply with it 
 as necessary. I would not be guilty of an imperfect enum- 10 
 eration ; I can think of but these three. Another has indeed 
 been started, that of giving up the colonies ; but it met so 
 slight a reception, that I do not think myself obliged to 
 dwell a great while upon it. It is nothing but a little sally 
 of anger, like the frowardness of peevish children, who, when 15 
 they cannot get all they would have, are resolved to take 
 nothing. 
 
 The first of these plans, to change the spirit as incon 
 venient, by removing the causes, I think is the most like a 
 systematic proceeding. It is radical in its principle ; but it 20 
 is attended with great difficulties, some of them little short, 
 as I conceive, of impossibilities. This will appear by ex 
 amining into the plans which have been proposed. 
 
 As the growing population in the colonies is evidently one 
 cause of their resistance, it was last session mentioned in both 25 
 Houses, by men of weight, and received not without applause, 
 that in order to check this evil, it would be proper for the 
 crown to make no further grants of land. But to this scheme 
 there are two objections. The first, that there is already so 
 much unsettled land in private hands, as to afford room for 30 
 an immense future population, although the crown not only 
 
114 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 withheld its grants, but annihilated its soil. If this be the 
 case, then the only effect of this avarice of desolation, this 
 hoarding of a royal wilderness, would be to raise the value 
 of the possessions in the hands of the great private monop- 
 
 5 olists, without any adequate check to the growing and 
 alarming mischief of population. 
 
 But if you stopped your grants, what would be the conse 
 quence ? The people would occupy without grants. They 
 have already so occupied in many places. You cannot 
 
 10 station garrisons in every part of these deserts. If you 
 drive the people from one place, they will carry on their 
 annual tillage, and remove with their flocks and herds to 
 another, Many of the people in the back settlements are 
 already little attached to particular situations. Already they 
 
 15 have topped the Appalachian mountains. From thence they 
 behold before them an immense plain, one vast, rich, level 
 meadow ; a square of five hundred miles. Over this they 
 would wander without a possibility of restraint ; they world 
 change their manners with the habits of their life ; would 
 
 20 soon forget a government by which they were disowned ; 
 would become hordes of English Tartars; and pouring 
 down upon your unfortified frontiers a fierce and irresistible 
 cavalry, become masters of your governors and your coun 
 sellors, your collectors and comptrollers, and of all the slaves 
 
 25 that adhered to them. Such would, and, in no long time, 
 must be, the effect of attempting to forbid as a crime, and to 
 suppress as an evil, the command and blessing of Providence, 
 " Increase and multiply." Such would be the happy result 
 of an endeavour to keep as a lair of wild beasts, that earth, 
 
 30 which God, by an express charter, has given to the children 
 of men. Far different, and surely much wiser, has been our 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 115 
 
 policy hitherto. Hitherto we have invited our people, by 
 every kind of bounty, to fixed establishments. We have in 
 vited the husbandman to look to authority for his title. We 
 have taught him piously to believe in the mysterious virtue 
 of wax and parchment. We have thrown each tract of land, 5 
 as it was peopled, into districts ; that the ruling power should 
 never be wholly out of sight. We have settled all we could ; 
 and we have carefully attended every settlement with gov 
 ernment. 
 
 Adhering, Sir, as I do, to this policy, as well as for the 10 
 reasons I have just given, I think this new project of hedg- 
 ing-in population to be neither prudent nor practicable. 
 
 To impoverish the colonies in general, and in particular to 
 arrest the noble course of their marine enterprises, would be 
 a more easy task. I freely confess it. We have shown a 15 
 disposition to a system of this kind ; a disposition even to 
 continue the restraint after the offence ; looking on ourselves 
 as rivals to our colonies, and persuaded that of course we 
 must gain all that they shall lose. Much mischief we may 
 certainly do. The power inadequate to all other things is 20 
 often more than sufficient for this. I do not look on the 
 direct and immediate power of the colonies to resist our 
 violence as very formidable. In this, however, I may be 
 mistaken. But when I consider, that we have colonies for 
 no purpose but to be serviceable to us, it seems to my poor 25 
 understanding a little preposterous, to make them unservice 
 able, in order to keep them obedient. It is, in truth, noth 
 ing more than the old, and, as I thought, exploded problem 
 of tyranny, which proposes to beggar its subjects into sub 
 mission. But remember, when you have completed your 30 
 system of impoverishment, that nature still proceeds in her 
 
116 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 ordinary course ; that discontent will increase with misery ; 
 and that there are critical moments in the fortune of all 
 states, when they who are too weak to contribute to your 
 prosperity, may be strong enough to complete your ruin. 
 
 5 Spoliatis arma supersunt} 
 
 The temper and character which prevail in our colonies 
 are, I am afraid, unalterable by any human art. We cannot, 
 I fear, falsify the pedigree of this fierce people, and persuade 
 them that they are not sprung from a nation in whose veins 
 
 10 the blood of freedom circulates. The language in which 
 they would hear you tell them this tale would detect the im 
 position ; your speech would betray you. An Englishman 
 is the unfittest person on earth to argue another Englishman 
 into slavery. 
 
 15 I think it is nearly as little in our power to change their 
 republican religion, as their free descent ; or to substitute 
 the Roman Catholic, as a penalty ; or the Church of England, 
 as an improvement. The mode of inquisition and dragoon 
 ing is going out of fashion in the Old World ; and I should 
 
 20 not confide much to their efficacy in the New. The edu 
 cation of the Americans is also on the same unalterable 
 bottom with their religion. You cannot persuade them to 
 burn their books of curious science ; to banish their lawyers 
 from their courts of laws ; or to quench the lights of their 
 
 25 assemblies, by refusing to choose those persons who are best 
 read in their privileges. It would be no less impracticable to 
 think of wholly annihilating the popular assemblies, in which 
 these lawyers sit. The army, by which we must govern in 
 their place, would be far more chargeable to us ; not quite 
 
 3 o so effectual ; and perhaps, in the end, full as difficult to be 
 kept in obedience. 2 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 117 
 
 With regard to the high aristocratic spirit of Virginia and 
 the southern colonies, it has been proposed, I know, to re 
 duce it, by declaring a general enfranchisement of their 
 slaves. This project has had its advocates and panegyrists ; 
 yet I never could argue myself into any opinion of it. Slaves 5 
 are often much attached to their masters. A general wild 
 offer of liberty would not always be accepted. History fur 
 nishes few instances of it. It is sometimes as hard to per 
 suade slaves to be free, as it is to compel freemen to be slaves ; 
 and in this auspicious scheme, we should have both these 10 
 pleasing tasks on our hands at once. But when we talk of 
 enfranchisement, do we not perceive that the American 
 master may enfranchise too ; and arm servile hands in de 
 fence of freedom ? A measure to which other people have 
 had recourse more than once, and not without success, in a 15 
 desperate situation of their affairs. 
 
 Slaves as these unfortunate black people are, and dull as 
 all men are from slavery, must they not a little suspect the 
 offer of freedom from that very nation which has sold them 
 to their present masters? from that nation, one of whose 20 
 causes of quarrel with those masters is their refusal to deal 
 any more in that inhuman traffic? An offer of freedom from 
 England would come rather oddly, shipped to them in an 
 African vessel, which is refused an entry into the ports of 
 Virginia or Carolina, with a cargo of three Angola negroes. 25 
 It would be curious to see the Guinea captain attempting at 
 the same instant to publish his proclamation of liberty, and 
 to advertise his sale of slaves. 
 
 But let us suppose all these moral difficulties got over. 
 The ocean remains. You cannot pump this dry; and as 30 
 long as it continues in its present bed, so long all the causes 
 
118 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 which weaken authority by distance will continue. " Ye gods, 
 annihilate but space and time, and make two lovers happy ! nl 
 was a pious and passionate prayer ; but just as reason 
 able, as many of the serious wishes of very grave and solemn 
 
 5 politicians. 
 
 If then, Sir, it seems almost desperate to think of any 
 alterative course, for changing the moral causes (and not 
 quite easy to remove the natural) which produce prejudices 
 irreconcilable to the late exercise of our authority ; but that 
 
 10 the spirit infallibly will continue ; and, continuing, will pro 
 duce such effects as now embarrass us ; the second mode 
 under consideration is, to prosecute that spirit in its overt 
 acts, as criminal. 
 
 At this proposition I must pause a moment. The thing 
 
 15 seems a great deal too big for my ideas of jurisprudence. 
 It should seem to my way of conceiving such matters, that 
 there is a very wide difference in reason and policy, between 
 the mode of proceeding on their regular conduct of scattered 
 individuals, or even of bands of men, who disturb order 
 
 20 within the state, and the civil dissensions which may, from 
 time to time, on great questions, agitate the several commu 
 nities which compose a great empire. It looks to me to be 
 narrow and pedantic, to apply the ordinary ideas of criminal 
 justice to this great public contest. I do not know the 
 
 25 method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people. 
 I cannot insult and ridicule the feelings of millions of my 
 fellow-creatures, as Sir Edward Coke insulted one excellent 
 individual (Sir Walter Raleigh) at the bar. 2 I hope I am 
 not ripe to pass sentence on the gravest public bodies, 
 
 3 o intrusted with magistracies of great authority and dignity, 
 and charged with the safety of their fellow-citizens, upon the 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 119 
 
 very same title that I am. I really think, that for wise men 
 this is not judicious ; for sober men, not decent ; for minds 
 tinctured with humanity, not mild and merciful. 
 
 Perhaps, Sir, I am mistaken in my idea of an empire, as 
 distinguished from a single state or kingdom. But my idea 5 
 of it is this ; that an empire is the aggregate of many states 
 under one common head ; whether this head be a monarch, 
 or a presiding republic. It does, in such constitutions, fre 
 quently happen (and nothing but the dismal, cold, dead 
 uniformity of servitude can prevent its happening) that the 10 
 subordinate parts may have many local privileges and immu 
 nities. Between these privileges and the supreme common 
 authority the line may be extremely nice. Of course disputes, 
 often, too, very bitter disputes, and much ill blood, will arise. 
 But though every privilege is an exemption (in the case) from 15 
 the ordinary exercise of the supreme authority, it is no denial 
 of it. The claim of a privilege seems rather, ex m termini}- 
 to imply a superior power. For to talk of the privileges of 
 a state, or of a person, who has no superior, is hardly any 
 better than speaking nonsense. Now, in such unfortunate 20 
 quarrels among the component parts of a great political 
 union of communities, I can scarcely conceive anything 
 more completely imprudent, than for the head of the empire 
 to insist, that, if any privilege is pleaded against his will, or 
 his acts, his whole, authority is denied ; instantly to proclaim 25 
 rebellion, to beat to, arms, and to put the offending provinces 
 under the ban. Will not this, Sir, very soon teach the prov 
 inces to make no distinctions on their part? Will it not 
 teach them that the government, against which a claim of 
 liberty is tantamount to high treason, is a government to 30 
 which submission is equivalent to slavery? It may not 
 
120 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 always be quite convenient to impress dependent communi 
 ties with such an idea. 
 
 We are indeed, in all disputes with the colonies, by the 
 necessity of things, the judge. It is true, Sir. But I con- 
 
 5 fess, that the character of judge in my own cause is a thing 
 that frightens me. Instead of filling .me with pride, I am 
 exceedingly humbled by it. I cannot proceed with a stern, 
 assured, judicial confidence, until I find myself in something 
 more like a judicial character. I must have these hesita- 
 
 10 tions as long as I am compelled to recollect, that, in my lit 
 tle reading upon such contests as these, the sense of man 
 kind has, at least, as often decided against the superior as 
 the subordinate power. Sir, let me add too, that the opinion 
 of my having some abstract right in my favour, would not 
 
 15 put me much at my ease in passing sentence; unless I could 
 be sure, that there were no rights which, in their exercise 
 under certain circumstances, were not the most odious of all 
 wrongs, and the most vexatious of all injustice. Sir, these 
 considerations have great weight with me, when I find things 
 
 20 so circumstanced, that I see the same party, at once a civil 
 litigant against me in point of right, and a culprit before me ; 
 while I sit as a criminal judge, on acts of his, whose moral 
 quality is to be decided upon the merits of that very litiga 
 tion. Men are every now and then put, by the complexity 
 
 25 of human affairs, into strange situations ; but justice is the 
 same, let the judge be in what situation he will. 
 
 There is, Sir, also a circumstance which convinces me, 
 that this mode of criminal proceeding is not (at least in the 
 present stage of our contest) altogether expedient ; which is 
 
 30 nothing less than the conduct of those very persons who 
 have seemed to adopt that mode, by lately declaring a 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 121 
 
 rebellion in Massachusetts Bay, as they had formerly ad 
 dressed to have traitors brought hither, under an act of 
 Henry the Eighth, for trial. For though rebellion is de 
 clared, it is not proceeded against as such ; nor have any 
 steps been taken towards the apprehension or conviction of 5 
 any individual offender, either on our late or our former 
 address ; but modes of public coercion have been adopted, 
 and such as have much more resemblance to a sort of quali 
 fied hostility towards an independent power than the punish 
 ment of rebellious subjects. All this seems rather incon- 10 
 sistent ; but it shows how difficult it is to apply these juridi 
 cal ideas to our present case. 
 
 In this situation, let us seriously and coolly ponder. What 
 is it we have got by all our menaces, which have been many 
 and ferocious? What advantage have we derived from the 15 
 penal laws we have passed, and which, for the time, have 
 been severe and numerous ? What advances have we made 
 towards our object, by the sending of a force, which, by 
 land and sea, is no contemptible strength ? Has the dis 
 order abated ? Nothing less. When I see things in this 20 
 situation, after such confident hopes, bold promises, and 
 active exertions, I cannot, for my life, avoid a suspicion, 
 that the plan itself is not correctly right. 
 
 If then the removal of the causes of this spirit of Ameri 
 can liberty be, for the greater part, or rather entirely, im- 25 
 practicable ; if the ideas of criminal process be inapplicable, 
 or if applicable, are in the highest degree inexpedient ; what 
 way yet remains ? No way is open, but the third and last 
 to comply with the American spirit as necessary ; or, if 
 you please, to submit to it as a necessary evil. 3 o 
 
 If we adopt this mode ; if we mean to conciliate and con- 
 
122 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 cede j let us see of what nature the concession ought to be ; 
 to ascertain the nature of our concession, we must look at 
 their complaint. The colonies complain, that they have 
 not the characteristic mark and seal of British freedom. 
 
 5 They complain, that they are taxed in a parliament in which 
 they are not represented. If you mean to satisfy them at 
 all, you must satisfy them with regard to this complaint. 
 If you mean to please any people, you must give them the 
 boon which they ask ; not what you may think better for 
 
 10 them, but of a kind totally different. Such an act may be a 
 wise regulation, but it is no concession : whereas our pres 
 ent theme is the mode of giving satisfaction. 
 
 Sir, I think you must perceive, that I am resolved this day 
 to have nothing at all to do with the question of the right of 
 
 15 taxation. 1 Some gentlemen startle but it is true ; I put it 
 totally out of the question. It is less than nothing in my 
 consideration. I do not indeed wonder, nor will you, Sir, 
 that gentlemen of profound learning are fond of displaying 
 it on this profound subject. But my consideration is nar- 
 
 20 row, confined, and wholly limited to the policy of the ques 
 tion. I do not examine, whether the giving away a man's 
 money be a power excepted and reserved out of the general 
 trust of government ; and how far all mankind, in all forms 
 of polity, are entitled to an exercise of that right by the 
 
 25 charter of nature. Or whether, on the contrary, a right of 
 taxation is necessarily involved in the general principle of 
 legislation, and inseparable from the ordinary supreme 
 power. These are deep questions, where great names mili 
 tate against each other ; where reason is perplexed ; and an 
 
 3 o appeal to authorities only thickens the confusion. For high 
 and reverend authorities lift up their heads on both sides ; 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 123 
 
 and there is no sure footing in the middle. This point is 
 the great Serbonian bog, betwixt Damiata and Mount 
 Casius old, where armies whole have sunk} I do not 
 intend to be overwhelmed in that bog, though in such 
 respectable company. The question with me is, not 5 
 whether you have a right to render your people miserable ; 
 but whether it is not your interest to make them happy. It 
 is not, what a lawyer tells me I may do ; but what humanity, 
 reason, and justice tell me I ought to do. Is a politic act 
 the worse for being a generous one? Is no concession 10 
 proper, but that which is made from your want of right to 
 keep what you grant ? Or does it lessen the grace or dig 
 nity of relaxing in the exercise of an odious claim, because 
 you have your evidence-room full of titles, and your maga 
 zines stuffed with arms to enforce them? What signify all 15 
 those titles, and all those arms? Of what avail are they, 
 when the reason of the thing tells me, that the assertion of 
 my title is the loss of my suit ; and that I could do nothing 
 but wound myself by the use of my own weapons? 2 
 
 Such is stedfastly my opinion of the absolute necessity of 20 
 keeping up the concord of this empire by a unity of spirit, 
 though in a diversity of operations, that, if I were sure the 
 colonists had, at their leaving this country, sealed a regular 
 compact of servitude ; that they had solemnly abjured all 
 the rights of citizens ; that they had made a vow to renounce 25 
 all ideas of liberty for them and their posterity to all genera 
 tions ; yet I should hold myself obliged to conform to the 
 temper I found universally prevalent in my own day, and to 
 govern two millions of men, impatient of servitude, on the 
 principles of freedom. I am not determining a point of 30 
 law ; I am restoring tranquillity ; and the general character 
 
124 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 and situation of a people must determine 'what sort of gov 
 ernment is fitted for them. That point nothing else can or 
 ought to determine. 
 
 My idea, therefore, without considering whether we yield 
 
 5 as matter of right, or grant as matter of favour, is to admit 
 the people of our colonies into an interest in the constitution ; 
 and, by recording that admission in the journals of parlia 
 ment, to give them as strong an assurance as the nature of 
 the thing will admit, that we mean forever to adhere to that 
 
 10 solemn declaration of systematic indulgence. 
 
 Some years ago, the repeal of a revenue act, upon its 
 understood principle, might have served to show, that we 
 intended an unconditional abatement of the exercise of a 
 taxing power. Such a measure was then sufficient to 
 
 15 remove all suspicion, and to give perfect content. But 
 unfortunate events, since that time, may make something 
 further necessary ; and not more necessary for the satisfac 
 tion of the colonies, than for the dignity and consistency of 
 our own future proceedings. 
 
 20 I have taken a very incorrect measure of the disposition 
 of the House, if this proposal in itself would be received 
 with dislike. I think, Sir, we have few American financiers. 
 But our misfortune is, we are too acute ; we are too exqui 
 site in our conjectures of the future, for men oppressed with 
 
 25 such great and present evils. The more moderate among 
 the opposers of parliamentary concession freely confess, 
 that they hope no good from taxation ; but they apprehend 
 the colonists have further views ; and if this point were 
 conceded, they would instantly attack the trade laws. 
 
 30 These gentlemen are convinced, that this was the intention 
 from the beginning ; and the quarrel of the Americans with 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 125 
 
 taxation was no more than a cloak and cover to this design. 
 Such has been the language even of a gentleman 1 of real 
 moderation, and of a natural temper well adjusted to fair 
 and equal government. I am, however, Sir, not a little sur 
 prised at this kind of discourse, whenever I hear it ; and I 5 
 am the more surprised, on account of the arguments which 
 I constantly find in company with it, and which are often 
 urged from the same mouths, and on the same day. 
 
 For instance, when we allege, that it is against reason to 
 tax a people under so many restraints in trade as the Ameri- 10 
 cans, the noble lord l in the blue riband shall tell you,, that 
 the restraints on trade are futile and useless ; of no advan 
 tage to us, and of no burthen to those on whom they are 
 imposed ; that the trade to America is not secured by the 
 acts of navigation, but by the natural and irresistible advan- 15 
 tage of a commercial preference. 
 
 Such is the merit of the trade laws in this posture of the 
 debate. But when strong internal circumstances are urged 
 against the taxes ; when the scheme is dissected ; when ex 
 perience and the nature of things are brought to prove, and 20 
 do prove, the utter impossibility of obtaining an effective 
 revenue from the colonies ; when these things are pressed, 
 or rather press themselves, so as to drive the advocates of 
 colony taxes to a clear admission of the futility of the 
 scheme ; then, Sir, the sleeping trade laws revive from their 25 
 trance ; and this useless taxation is to be kept sacred, not 
 for its own sake, but as a counter- guard and security of the 
 laws of trade. 
 
 Then, Sir, you keep up revenue laws which are mischievous, 
 in order to preserve trade laws that are useless. Such is the 30 
 wisdom of our plan in both its members. They are sepa- 
 
126 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 rately given up as of no value ; and yet one is always to be 
 defended for the sake of the other. But I cannot agree 
 with the noble lord, nor with the pamphlet from whence he 
 seems to have borrowed these ideas, 1 concerning the inu- 
 
 5 tility of the trade laws. For, without idolizing them, I am 
 sure they are still, in many ways, of great use to us : and in 
 former times they have been of the greatest. They do con 
 fine, and they do greatly narrow, the market for the Ameri 
 cans. But my perfect conviction of this does not help me 
 
 10 in the least to discern how the revenue laws form any 
 security whatsoever to the commercial regulations ; or that 
 these commercial regulations are the true ground of the 
 quarrel ; or that the giving way, in any one instance of 
 authority, is to lose all that may remain unconceded. 
 
 15 One fact is clear and indisputable. The public and 
 avowed origin of this quarrel was on taxation. This quarrel 
 has indeed brought on new disputes on new questions ; but 
 certainly the least bitter, and the fewest of all, on the trade 
 laws. To judge which of the two be the real, radical cause 
 
 20 of quarrel, we have to see whether the commercial dispute 
 did, in order of time, precede the dispute on taxation? 
 There is not a shadow of evidence for it. Next, to enable 
 us to judge whether at this moment a dislike to the trade 
 laws be the real cause of quarrel, it is absolutely necessary 
 
 25 to put the taxes out of the question by a repeal. See how 
 the Americans act in this position, and then you will be able 
 to discern correctly what is the true object of the contro 
 versy, or whether any controversy at all will remain. Unless 
 you consent to remove this cause of difference, it is impos- 
 
 30 sible, with decency, to assert that the dispute is not upon 
 what it is avowed to be. And I would, Sir, recommend to 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 127 
 
 your serious consideration, whether it be prudent to form a 
 rule for punishing people, not on their own acts, but on your 
 conjectures? Surely it is preposterous at the very best. It 
 is not justifying your anger, by their misconduct ; but it is 
 converting your ill-will into their delinquency. 5 
 
 But the colonies will go further. Alas ! alas ! when will 
 this speculating against fact and reason end? What will 
 quiet these panic fears which we entertain of the hostile 
 effect of a conciliatory conduct? Is it true, that no case 
 can exist, in which it is proper for the sovereign to accede to 10 
 the desires of his discontented subjects? Is there anything 
 peculiar in this case, to make a rule for itself? Is all au 
 thority of course lost, when it is not pushed to the extreme ? 
 Is it a certain maxim, that the fewer causes of dissatisfaction 
 are left by government, the more the subject will be inclined 15 
 to resist and rebel ? 
 
 All these objections being in fact no more than suspicions, 
 conjectures, divinations, formed in defiance of fact and ex 
 perience ; they did not, Sir, discourage me from entertain 
 ing the idea of a conciliatory concession, founded on the 20 
 principles which I have just stated. 
 
 In forming a plan for this purpose, I endeavoured to put 
 myself in that frame of mind which was the most natural, 
 and the most reasonable ; and which was certainly the most 
 probable means of securing me from all error. I set out 25 
 with a perfect distrust of my own abilities ; a total renun 
 ciation of every speculation of my own ; and with a pro 
 found reverence for the wisdom of our ancestors, who have 
 left us the inheritance of so happy a constitution, and so 
 flourishing an empire, and what is a thousand times more 3 c 
 valuable, the treasury of the maxims and principles which 
 formed the one, and obtained the other. 
 
128 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 During the reigns of the kings of Spain of the Austrian 
 family, whenever they were at a loss in the Spanish councils, 
 it was common for their statesmen to say, that they ought 
 to consult the genius of Philip the Second. The genius of 
 
 5 Philip the Second might mislead them ; and the issue of 
 their affairs showed, that they had not chosen the most 
 perfect standard. But, Sir, I am sure that I shall not be 
 misled, when, in a case of constitutional difficulty, I consult 
 the genius of the English constitution. Consulting at that 
 
 10 oracle (it was with all due humility and piety) I found four 
 capital examples in a similar case before me ; those of 
 Ireland, Wales, Chester, and Durham. 
 
 Ireland, before the English conquest, though never gov 
 erned by a despotic power, had no parliament. How far 
 
 15 the English parliament itself was at that time modelled ac 
 cording to the present form, is disputed among antiquarians. 1 
 But we have all the reason in the world to be assured that 
 a form of parliament, such as England then enjoyed, she 
 instantly communicated to Ireland ; and we are equally sure 
 
 20 that almost every successive improvement in constitutional 
 liberty, as fast as it was made here, was transmitted thither. 
 The feudal baronage, and the feudal knighthood, the roots 
 of our primitive constitution, were early transplanted into 
 that soil ; and grew and flourished there. Magna Charta, 
 
 25 if it did not give us originally the House of Commons, gave 
 us at least a House of Commons of weight and consequence. 
 But your ancestors did not churlishly sit down alone to the 
 feast of Magna Charta. Ireland was made immediately a 
 partaker. This benefit of English laws and liberties, I con- 
 
 30 fess, was not at first extended to all Ireland, Mark the 
 consequence. English authority and English liberties had 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 129 
 
 exactly the same boundaries. Your standard could never 
 be advanced an inch before your privileges. 1 Sir John 
 Davis shows beyond a doubt, that the refusal of a general 
 communication of these rights was the true cause why 
 Ireland was five hundred years in subduing ; and after the 5 
 vain projects of a military government, attempted in the 
 reign of Queen Elizabeth, it was soon discovered, that 
 nothing could make that country English, in civility and 
 allegiance, but your laws and your forms of legislature. It 
 was not English arms, but the English constitution, that 10 
 conquered Ireland. From that time, Ireland has ever had 
 a general parliament, as she had before a partial parliament. 
 You changed the people ; you altered the religion ; but you 
 never touched the form or the vital substance of free gov 
 ernment in that kingdom. You deposed kings ; you re- 15 
 stored them ; you altered the succession to theirs, as well as 
 to your own crown ; but you never altered their consti 
 tution ; the principle of which was respected by usurpation ; 
 restored with the restoration of monarchy, and established, 
 I trust, for ever, by the glorious Revolution. This has 20 
 made Ireland the great and flourishing kingdom that it is ; 
 and from a disgrace and a burthen intolerable to this nation, 
 has rendered her a principal part of our strength and orna 
 ment. This country cannot be said to have ever formally 
 taxed her. The irregular things done in the confusion of 25 
 mighty troubles, and on the hinge of great revolutions, even 
 if all were done that is said to have been done, form no 
 example. If they have any effect in argument, they make 
 an exception to prove the rule. None of your own liberties 
 could stand a moment if the casual deviations from them, 30 
 at such times, were suffered to be used as proofs of their 
 
130 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 nullity. By the lucrative amount of such casual breaches 
 in the constitution, judge what the stated and fixed rule of 
 supply has been in that kingdom. Your Irish pensioners 
 would starve if they had no other fund to live on than taxes 
 
 5 granted by English authority. Turn your eyes to those 
 popular grants from whence all your great supplies are 
 come and learn to respect that only source of public 
 wealth in the British empire. 
 
 My next example is Wales. 1 This country was said to be 
 
 10 reduced by Henry the Third. It was said more truly to be 
 so by Edward the First. But though then conquered, it was 
 not looked upon as any part of the realm of England. Its 
 old constitution, whatever that might have been, was de 
 stroyed ; and no good one was substituted in its place. 
 
 15 The care of that tract was put into the hands of lords 
 marchers a form of government of a very singular kind j 
 a strange heterogeneous monster, something between hos 
 tility and government ; perhaps it has a sort of resemblance, 
 according to the modes of those times, to that of comman- 
 
 20 der-in-chief at present, to whom all civil power is granted 
 as secondary. The manners of the Welsh nation followed 
 the genius of the government ; the people were ferocious, 
 restive, savage, and uncultivated ; sometimes composed, 
 never pacified. Wales, within itself, was in perpetual dis- 
 
 25 order; and it kept the frontier of England in perpetual 
 alarm. Benefits from it to the state there were none. 
 Wales was only known to England by incursion and in 
 vasion. 
 
 Sir, during that state of things, parliament was not idle. 
 
 3 o They attempted to subdue the fierce spirit of the Welsh by 
 all sorts of rigorous laws. They prohibited by statute the 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 131 
 
 sending all sorts of arms into Wales, as you prohibit by pro 
 clamation (with something more of doubt in the legality) 
 the sending arms to America. They disarmed the Welsh by 
 statute, as you attempted (but still with more question on 
 the legality) to disarm New England by an instruction. 5 
 They made an act to drag offenders from Wales into England 
 for trial, as you have done (but with more hardship) with 
 regard to America. By another act, where one of the par 
 ties was an Englishman, they ordained, that his trial should 
 be always by English. They made acts to restrain trade, as 10 
 you do ; and they prevented the Welsh from the use of fairs 
 and markets, as you do the Americans from fisheries and 
 foreign ports. In short, when the statute book was not quite 
 so much swelled as it is now, you find no less than fifteen 
 acts of penal regulation on the subject of Wales. 15 
 
 Here we rub our hands A fine body of precedents for 
 the authority of parliament and the use of it ! I admit it 
 fully ; and pray add likewise to these precedents, that all the 
 while, Wales rid this kingdom like an incubus ; that it was 
 an unprofitable and oppressive burthen ; and that an English- 20 
 man travelling in that country could not go six yards from 
 the high road without being murdered. 
 
 The march of the human mind is slow. Sir, it was not, 
 until after two hundred years, discovered, that, by an eternal 
 law, Providence had decreed vexation to violence, and pov- 25 
 erty to rapine. Your ancestors did however at length open 
 their eyes to the ill husbandry of injustice. They found 
 that the tyranny of a free people could of all tyrannies the 
 least be endured ; and that laws made against a whole nation 
 were not the most effectual methods for securing its obedi- 30 
 ence. Accordingly, in the twenty-seventh year of Henry 
 
132 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 VIII. the^ course was entirely altered. With a preamble 
 stating the entire and perfect rights of the crown of England, 
 it gave to the Welsh all the rights and privileges of English 
 subjects. A political order was established; the military 
 
 5 power gave way to the civil ; the marches were turned into 
 counties. But that a nation should have a right to English 
 liberties, and yet no share at all in the fundamental security 
 of these liberties the grant of their own property seemed 
 a thing so incongruous, that, eight years after, that is, in the 
 
 10 thirty-fifth of that reign, a complete and not ill-proportioned 
 representation by counties and boroughs was bestowed upon 
 Wales, by act of parliament. 1 From that moment, as by a 
 charm, the tumults subsided, obedience was restored, peace, 
 order, and civilization followed in the train of liberty. When 
 
 15 the day-star of the English constitution had arisen in their 
 hearts, all was harmony within and without 
 
 Sirmtl alba nautis 
 
 Stella refulsit, 
 
 Defluit saxis agitatus humor ; 
 
 20 Concidunt venti, fugiuntque nubes, 
 
 Et minax (quod sic voluere) ponto 
 Unda recumbit^. 
 
 The very same year the county palatine of Chester re 
 ceived the same relief from its oppressions, and the same 
 
 25 remedy to its disorders. Before this time Chester was little 
 less distempered than Wales. The inhabitants, without rights 
 themselves, were the fittest to destroy the rights of others ; 
 and from thence Richard II. drew the standing army of 
 archers, with which for a time he oppressed England. The 
 
 30 people of Chester applied to parliament in a petition penned 
 as I shall read to you : 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 133 
 
 " To the king our sovereign lord, in most humble wise 
 shown unto your excellent Majesty, the inhabitants of your 
 Grace's county palatine of Chester; That where the said 
 county palatine of Chester is and hath been always hitherto 
 exempt, excluded and separated out and from your high 5 
 court of parliament, to have any knights and burgesses 
 within the said court ; by reason whereof the said inhabi 
 tants have hitherto sustained manifold disherisons, losses, and 
 damages, as well in their lands, goods, and bodies, as in the 
 good, civil, and politic governance and maintenance of the 10 
 commonwealth of their said country: (2) And forasmuch 
 as the said inhabitants have always hitherto been bound by 
 the acts and statutes made and ordained by your said High 
 ness, and your most noble progenitors, by authority of the 
 said court, as far forth as other counties, cities, and bor- 15 
 oughs have been, that have had their knights and burgesses 
 within your said court of parliament, and yet have had 
 neither knight ne burgess there for the said county palatine ; 
 the said inhabitants, for lack thereof, have been oftentimes 
 touched and grieved with acts and statutes made within the 20 
 said court, as well derogatory unto the most ancient juris 
 dictions, liberties, and privileges of your said county pala 
 tine, as prejudicial unto the commonwealth, quietness, rest, 
 and peace of your Grace's most bounden subjects inhabiting 
 within the same." 25 
 
 What did parliament with this audacious address ? Re 
 ject it as a libel? Treat it as an affront to government? 
 Spurn it as a derogation from the rights of legislature? 
 Did they toss it over the table ? Did they burn it by the 
 hands of the common hangman? They took the petition 30 
 of grievance, all rugged as it was, without softening or 
 
134 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 temperament, unpurged of the original bitterness and indig 
 nation of complaint ; they made it the very preamble to 
 their act of redress ; and consecrated its principle to all 
 ages in the sanctuary of legislation. 
 
 5 Here is my third example. It was attended with the 
 success of the two former. Chester, civilized as well as 
 Wales, has demonstrated that freedom, and not servitude, is 
 the cure of anarchy ; as religion, and not atheism, is the 
 true remedy for superstition. Sir, this pattern of Chester 
 
 10 was followed in the reign of Charles II. with regard to the 
 county palatine of Durham, which is my fourth example. 
 This county had long lain out of the pale of free legislation. 
 So scrupulously was the example of Chester followed, that 
 the style of the preamble is nearly the same with that of the 
 
 15 Chester act ; and, without affecting the abstract extent of 
 the authority of parliament, it recognises the equity of not 
 suffering any considerable district, in which the British sub 
 jects may act as a body, to be taxed without their own voice 
 in the grant. 1 
 
 20 Now if the doctrines of policy contained in these pream 
 bles, and the force of these examples in the acts of parlia 
 ment, avail anything, what can be said against applying 
 them with regard to America? Are not the people of 
 America as much Englishmen as the Welsh? The pream- 
 
 25 ble of the act of Henry VIII. says, the Welsh speak a lan 
 guage no way resembling that of his Majesty's English 
 subjects. Are the Americans not as numerous ? If we may 
 trust the learned and accurate Judge Barrington's account 
 of North Wales, and take that as a standard to measure the 
 
 50 rest, there is no comparison. The people cannot amount to 
 above 200,000 ; not a tenth part of the number in the colo- 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 135 
 
 nies. Is America in rebellion ? Wales was hardly ever free 
 from it. Have you attempted to govern America by penal 
 statutes? You made fifteen for Wales. But your legisla 
 tive authority is perfect with regard to America ; was it less 
 perfect in Wales, Chester, and Durham? But America is 5 
 virtually represented. What ! does the electric force of vir 
 tual representation more easily pass over the Atlantic, than 
 pervade Wales, which lies in your neighbourhood ; or than 
 Chester and Durham, surrounded by abundance of repre 
 sentation that is actual and palpable ? But, Sir, your ances- 10 
 tors thought this sort of virtual representation, however 
 ample, to be totally insufficient for the freedom of the in 
 habitants of territories that are so near, and comparatively 
 so inconsiderable. How then can I think it sufficient for 
 those which are infinitely greater, and infinitely more 15 
 remote? 
 
 You will now, Sir, perhaps imagine, that I am on the point 
 of proposing to you a scheme for a representation of the 
 colonies in parliament. Perhaps I might be inclined to 
 entertain some such thought ; but a great flood stops me in 20, 
 my course. Opposuit natura I cannot remove the eternal 
 barriers of the creation. The thing, in that mode, I do not 
 know to be possible. As I meddle with no theory, I do not 
 absolutely assert the impracticability of such a representa 
 tion. But I do not see my way to it ; and those who have 25 
 been more confident have not been more successful. How 
 ever, the arm of public benevolence is not shortened ; and 
 there are often several means to the same end. What 
 nature has disjoined in one way, wisdom may unite in an 
 other. When we cannot give the benefit as we would wish, 30 
 let us not refuse it altogether. If we cannot give the prin- . 
 
136 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 cipal, let us find a substitute. But how? Where? What 
 substitute ? 
 
 Fortunately I am not obliged for the ways and means of 
 this substitute to tax my own unproductive invention. I am 
 
 5 not even obliged to go to the rich treasury of the fertile 
 framers of imaginary commonwealths; not to the Republic 
 of Plato ; not to the Utopia of More ; not to the Oceana of 
 Harrington. It is before me it is at my feet, and the rude 
 swain treads daily on it with his clouted shoon. I only wish 
 
 10 you to recognise, for the theory, the ancient constitutional 
 policy of this kingdom with regard to representation, as that 
 policy has been declared in acts of parliament ; and, as to 
 the practice, to return to that mode which an uniform experi 
 ence has marked out to you, as best ; and in which you walked 
 
 15 with security, advantage, and honour, until the year 1763. 
 
 My resolutions therefore mean to establish the equity and 
 justice of a taxation of America, by grant, and not by impo 
 sition. To mark the legal competency of the colony assem 
 blies for the support of their government in peace, and for 
 
 20 public aids in time of war. To acknowledge that this legal 
 
 competency has had a dutiful and beneficial exercise ; and 
 
 that experience has shown the benefit of their grants, and the 
 
 futility of parliamentary taxation as a method of supply. 
 
 These solid truths compose six fundamental propositions. 
 
 25 There are three more resolutions corollary to these. If you 
 admit the first set, you can hardly reject the others. But if 
 you admit the first, I shall be far from solicitous whether you 
 accept or refuse the last. I think these six massive pillars 
 will be of strength sufficient to support the temple of British 
 
 30 concord. I have no more doubt than I entertain of my ex 
 istence, that, if you admitted these, you would command an 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 137 
 
 immediate peace ; and, with but tolerable future manage 
 ment, a lasting obedience in America. I am not arrogant in 
 this confident assurance. The propositions are all mere mat 
 ters of fact ; and if they are such facts as draw irresistible 
 conclusions even in the stating, this is the power of truth, 5 
 and not any management of mine. 
 
 Sir, I shall open the whole plan to you, together with 
 such observations on the motions as may tend to illustrate 
 them where they may want explanation, The first is a reso 
 lution " That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain 10 
 in North America, consisting of fourteen separate govern 
 ments, and containing two millions and upwards of free in 
 habitants, have not had the liberty and privilege of electing 
 and sending any knights and burgesses, or others, to repre 
 sent them in the high court of parliament." This is a plain 15 
 matter of fact, necessary to be laid down, and (excepting the 
 description) it is laid down in the language of the constitu 
 tion ; it is taken nearly verbatim from acts of parliament. 
 
 The second is like unto the first " That the said colonies 
 and plantations have been liable to, and bounden by, several 2 o 
 subsidies, payments, rates, and taxes, given and granted by 
 parliament, though the said colonies and plantations have 
 not their knights and burgesses, in the said high court of 
 parliament, of their own election, to represent the condition 
 of their country ; by lack whereof they have been oftentimes 25 
 touched and grieved by subsidies given, granted, and assented 
 to, in the said court, in a manner prejudicial to the common 
 wealth, quietness, rest, and peace of the subjects inhabiting 
 within the same." 
 
 Is this description too hot, or too cold, too strong, or too 30 
 weak ? Does it arrogate too much to the supreme legisla- 
 
138 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 ture? Does it lean too much to the claims of the people? 
 If it runs into any of these errors, the fault is not mine. It 
 is the language of your own ancient acts of parliament. 
 
 Non meus hie sermo, sed qua pracepit OfeHus, 
 5 Rusticus, abnormis sapiens! 
 
 It is the genuine produce of the ancient, rustic, manly, home 
 bred sense of this country. I did not dare to rub off a par 
 ticle of the venerable rust that rather adorns and preserves, 
 than destroys, the metal. It would be a profanation to 
 
 10 touch with a tool the stones which construct the sacred altar 
 of peace. 2 I would not violate with modern polish the in 
 genuous and noble roughness of these truly constitutional 
 materials. Above all things, I was resolved not to be guilty 
 of tampering : the odious vice of restless and unstable minds. 
 
 15 I put my foot in the tracks of our forefathers, where I can 
 neither wander nor stumble. Determining to fix articles of 
 peace, I was resolved not to be wise beyond what was writ 
 ten ; 3 I was resolved to use nothing else than the form of 
 sound words ; 4 to let others abound in their own sense ; and 
 
 20 carefully to abstain from all expressions of my own. What 
 the law has said, I say. In all things else I am silent. I 
 have no organ but for her words. This, if it be not ingen 
 ious, I am sure is safe. 
 
 There are indeed words expressive of grievance in this 
 
 25 second resolution, which those who are resolved always to 
 be in the right will deny to contain matter of fact, as applied 
 to the present case ; although parliament thought them true, 
 with regard to the counties of Chester and Durham. They 
 will deny that the Americans were ever "touched and 
 
 30 grieved " with the taxes. If they consider nothing in taxes 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 139 
 
 but their weight as pecuniary impositions, there might be 
 some pretence for this denial. But men may be sorely 
 touched and deeply grieved in their privileges, as well as in 
 their purses. Men may lose little in property by the act 
 which takes away all their freedom. When a man is robbed 5 
 of a trifle on the highway, it is not the two-pence lost that 
 constitutes the capital outrage. This is not confined to 
 privileges. Even ancient indulgences withdrawn, without 
 offence on the part of those who enjoyed such favours, oper 
 ate as grievances. But were the Americans then not touched 10 
 and grieved by the taxes, in some measure, merely as taxes ? 
 If so, why were they almost all either wholly repealed or ex 
 ceedingly reduced? Were they not touched and grieved 
 even by the regulating duties of the sixth of George II. ? 
 Else why were the duties first reduced to one-third in 1764, 15 
 and afterwards to a third of that third in the year 1 766 ? 
 Were they not touched and grieved by the stamp act? I 
 shall say they were, until that tax is revived. Were they not 
 touched and grieved by the duties of 1767, which were like 
 wise repealed, and which Lord Hillsborough tells you (for 20 
 the ministry) were laid contrary to the true principle of 
 commerce ? Is not the assurance given by that noble per 
 son to the colonies of a resolution to lay no more taxes on 
 them, an admission that taxes would touch and grieve them ? 
 Is not the resolution of the noble lord in the blue riband, 25 
 now standing on your journals, the strongest of all proofs 
 that parliamentary subsidies really touched and grieved 
 them? Else why all these changes, modifications, repeals, 
 assurances, and resolutions? 
 
 The next proposition is "That, from the distance of 30 
 the said colonies, and from other circumstances, no method 
 
140 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 hath hitherto been devised for procuring a representation in 
 parliament for the said colonies." This is an assertion of a 
 fact. I go no further on the paper ; though, in my private 
 judgment, an useful representation is impossible ; I am sure 
 
 5 it is not desired by them ; nor ought it perhaps by us ; but 
 I abstain from opinions. 
 
 The fourth resolution is " That each of the said colo 
 nies hath within itself a body, chosen in part, or in the 
 whole, by the freemen, freeholders, or other free inhabitants 
 
 10 thereof, commonly called the General Assembly, or General 
 Court ; with powers legally to raise, levy, and assess, accord 
 ing to the several usage of such colonies, duties and taxes 
 towards defraying all sorts of public services." 
 
 This competence in the colony assemblies is certain. It 
 
 15 is proved by the whole tenor of their acts of supply in all the 
 assemblies, in which the constant style of granting is, " an 
 aid to his Majesty " ; and acts granting to the crown have 
 regularly for near a century passed the public offices without 
 dispute. Those who have been pleased paradoxically to 
 
 20 deny this right, holding that none but the British parliament 
 can grant to the crown, are wished to look to what is done, 
 not only in the colonies, but in Ireland, in one uniform un 
 broken tenor every session. Sir, I am surprised that this 
 doctrine should come from some of the law servants of the 
 
 25 crown. I say, that if the crown could be responsible, his 
 Majesty but certainly the ministers, and even these law 
 officers themselves, through whose hands the acts pass bien 
 nially in Ireland, or annually in the colonies, are in an ha 
 bitual course of committing impeachable offences. What 
 
 30 habitual offenders have been all presidents of the council, 
 all secretaries of state, all first lords of trade, all attornies 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 141 
 
 and all solicitors general ! However, they are safe ; as no 
 one impeaches them; and there is no ground of charge 
 against them, except in their own unfounded theories. 
 
 The fifth resolution is also a resolution of fact " That 
 the said general assemblies, general courts, or other bodies 5 
 legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times freely 
 granted several large subsidies and public aids for his 
 Majesty's service, according to their abilities, when required 
 thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's principal secre 
 taries of state ; and that their right to grant the same, and 10 
 their cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said grants, have 
 been at sundry times acknowledged by parliament." To 
 say nothing of their great expenses in the Indian wars ; and 
 not to take their exertion in foreign ones, so high as the sup 
 plies in the year 1695 ; not to go back to their public con- 15 
 tributions in the year 1710; I shall begin to travel only 
 where the journals give me light ; resolving to deal in noth 
 ing but fact, authenticated by parliamentary record ; and to 
 build myself wholly on that solid basis. 
 
 On the 4th of April, 1748, a committee of this House 20 
 came to the following resolution : l 
 
 "Resolved That it is the opinion of this committee, 
 That it is just and reasonable that the several provinces 
 and colonies of Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Con 
 necticut, and Rhode Island, be reimbursed the expenses 25 
 they have been at in taking and securing to the crown 
 of Great Britain the island of Cape Breton and its de 
 pendencies." 
 
 These expenses were immense for such colonies. They 
 were above ,200,000 sterling; money first raised and 3 o 
 advanced on their public credit. 
 
142 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 On the 28th of January, 1756, a message from the king 
 came to us, to this effect 1 " His Majesty, being sensible of 
 the zeal and vigour with which his faithful subjects of certain 
 colonies in North America have exerted themselves in defence 
 
 5 of his Majesty's just rights and possessions, recommends it to 
 this House to take the same into their consideration, and to 
 enable his Majesty to give them such assistance as may be a 
 proper reward and encouragement" 
 
 On the 3rd of February, 1756, the House came to a suit- 
 
 10 able resolution, expressed in words nearly the same as those 
 of the message : 2 but with the further addition, that the 
 money then voted was as an encouragement to the colonies 
 to exert themselves with vigour. It will not be necessary to 
 go through all the testimonies which your own records have 
 
 15 given to the truth of my resolutions, I will only refer you to 
 the places in the journals : 
 
 Vol. xxvii. i6th and igth May, 1757. 
 
 Vol. xxviii. June 1st, 1758 April 26th and 3Oth, 1759 March 
 26th and 3ist, and April 28th, 1760 Jan. 9th and 
 20 loth, 1761. 
 
 Vol. xxix. Jan. 22nd and 26th, 1762 March I4th and I7th, 1763. 
 
 Sir, here is the repeated acknowledgment of parliament, 
 that the colonies not only gave, but gave to satiety. This 
 nation has formerly acknowledged two things ; first, that the 
 
 25 colonies had gone beyond their abilities, parliament having 
 thought it necessary to reimburse them ; secondly, that they 
 had acted legally and laudably in their grants of money, 
 and their maintenance of troops, since the compensation is 
 expressly given as reward and encouragement. 3 Reward is 
 
 30 not bestowed for acts that are unlawful ; and encouragement 
 is not held out to things that deserve reprehension. My 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 143 
 
 resolution therefore does nothing more than collect into one 
 proposition, what is scattered through your journals. I give 
 you nothing but your own; and you cannot refuse in the 
 gross, what you have so often acknowledged in detail. The 
 admission of this, which will be so honourable to them and 5 
 to you, will, indeed, be mortal to all the miserable stories, 
 by which the passions of the misguided people have been 
 engaged in an unhappy system. The people heard, indeed, 
 from the beginning of these disputes, one thing continually 
 dinned in their ears, that reason and justice demanded, that 10 
 the Americans, who paid no taxes, should be compelled to 
 contribute. How did that fact, of their paying nothing, 
 stand, when the taxing system began ? When Mr. Grenville 
 began to form his system of American revenue, he stated in 
 this House, that the colonies were then in debt two million 15 
 six hundred thousand pounds sterling money; and was of 
 opinion they would discharge that debt in four years. On 
 this state, those untaxed people were actually subject to the 
 payment of taxes to the amount of six hundred and fifty 
 thousand a year. In fact, however, Mr. Grenville was mis- 20 
 taken. The funds given for sinking the debt did not prove 
 quite so ample as both the colonies and he expected. The 
 calculation was too sanguine ; the reduction was not com 
 pleted till some years after, and at different times in different 
 colonies. However, the taxes after the war continued too 25 
 great to bear any addition, with prudence or propriety ; and 
 when the burthens imposed in consequence of former requi 
 sitions were discharged, our tone became too high to resort 
 again to requisition. No colony, since that time, ever has 
 had any requisition whatsoever made to it. 30 
 
 We see the sense of the crown, and the sense of parlia- 
 
144 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 ment, on the productive nature of a revenue by grant. Now 
 search the same journals for the produce of the revenue by 
 imposition Where is it? let us know the volume and the 
 page what is the gross, what is the net produce? to 
 
 5 what service is it applied ? how have you appropriated its 
 surplus? What, can none of the many skilful index-makers 
 that we are now employing, find any trace of it ? Well, let 
 them and that rest together. But are the journals, which 
 say nothing of the revenue, as silent on the discontent? 
 
 10 Oh, no ! a child may find it. It is the melancholy burthen 
 and blot of every page. 
 
 I think then I am, from those journals, justified in the 
 sixth and last resolution, which is " That it hath been 
 found by experience, that the manner of granting the said 
 
 15 supplies and aids, by the said general assemblies, hath been 
 more agreeable to the said colonies, and more beneficial, 
 and conducive to the public service, than the mode of 
 giving and granting aids in parliament, to be raised and 
 paid in the said colonies." This makes the whole of the 
 
 20 fundamental part of the plan. The conclusion is irresistible. 
 You cannot say, that you were driven by any necessity to an 
 exercise of the utmost rights of legislature. You cannot 
 assert, that you took on yourselves the task of imposing 
 colony taxes, from the want of another legal body, that is 
 
 25 competent to the purpose of supplying the exigences of the 
 state without wounding the prejudices of the people. Nei 
 ther is it true that the body so qualified, and having that 
 competence, had neglected the duty. 
 
 The question now, on all this accumulated matter, is ; 
 
 30 whether you will choose to abide by a profitable experience, 
 or a mischievous theory ; whether you choos'e to build on 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 145 
 
 imagination, or fact; whether you prefer enjoyment, or 
 hope; satisfaction in your subjects, or discontent? 
 
 If these propositions are accepted, everything which has 
 been made to enforce a contrary system, must, I take it for 
 granted, fall along with it. On that ground, I have drawn 5 
 the following resolution, which, when it comes to be moved, 
 will naturally be divided in a proper manner : " That it may 
 be proper to repeal an act, made in the seventh year of the 
 reign of his present Majesty, intituled, An act for granting 
 certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in 10 
 America ; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs 
 upon the exportation from this kingdom, of coffee and co- 
 coanuts of the produce of the said colonies or plantations ; 
 for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on China earthen 
 ware exported to America; and for more effectually pre- 15 
 venting the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies 
 and plantations. And that it may be proper to repeal an 
 act, made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present 
 Majesty, intituled, An act to discontinue, in such manner, 
 and for such time, as are therein mentioned, the landing 20 
 and discharging, lading or shipping, of goods, wares, and 
 merchandise, at the town and within the harbour of Boston, 
 in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America. 
 And that it may be proper .to repeal an act, made in the 
 fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 25 
 An act for the impartial administration of justice, in the 
 cases of persons questioned for any acts done by them, in 
 the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and 
 tumults, in the * province of Massachusetts Bay, in New 
 England. And that it may be proper to repeal an act, 30 
 made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present 
 
H6 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 Majesty, intituled, An act for the better regulating the gov 
 ernment of the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New 
 England. And, also, that it may be proper to explain and 
 amend an act, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of 
 
 5 King Henry the Eighth, intituled, An act for the trial of 
 treasons committed out of the king's dominions." 
 
 I wish, Sir, to repeal the Boston Port Bill, because (inde 
 pendently of the dangerous precedent of suspending the 
 rights of the subject during the king's pleasure) it was 
 
 10 passed, as I apprehend, with less regularity, and on more 
 partial principles, than it ought. The corporation of Boston 
 was not heard before it was condemned. Other towns, full 
 as guilty as she was, have not had their ports blocked up. 
 Even the restraining bill of the present session does not go 
 
 15 to the length of the Boston Port Act. The same ideas of 
 prudence, which induced you not to extend equal punish 
 ment to equal guilt, even when you were punishing, induced 
 me, who mean not to chastise, but to reconcile, to be satis 
 fied with the punishment already partially inflicted. 
 
 20 Ideas of prudence and accommodation to circumstances, 
 prevent you from taking away the charters of Connecticut 
 and Rhode Island, as you have taken away that of Massa 
 chusetts colony, though the crown has far less power in the 
 two former provinces than it enjoyed in the latter; and 
 
 25 though the abuses have been full as great, and as flagrant, 
 in the exempted as in the punished. The same reasons of 
 prudence and accommodation have weight with me in 
 restoring the charter of Massachusetts Bay. Besides, Sir, 
 the act which changes the charter of Massachusetts is in 
 
 30 many particulars so exceptionable, that if I did not wish 
 absolutely to repeal, I would by all means desire to alter it ; 
 
ON CONCILIA TION WITH AMERICA. 147 
 
 as several of its provisions tend to the subversion of all pub 
 lic and private justice. Such, among others, is the power 
 in the governor to change the sheriff at his pleasure ; and to 
 make a new returning officer for every special cause. It is 
 shameful to behold such a regulation standing among Eng- 5 
 lish laws. 
 
 The act for bringing persons accused of committing mur 
 der under the orders of government to England for trial is 
 but temporary. That act has calculated the probable dura 
 tion of our quarrel with the colonies ; and is accommodated 10 
 to that supposed duration. I would hasten the happy mo 
 ment of reconciliation ; and therefore must, on my princi 
 ple, get rid of that most justly obnoxious act. 
 
 The act of Henry the Eighth, for the trial of treasons, I 
 do not mean to take away, but to confine it to its proper 15 
 bounds and original intention ; to make it expressly for trial 
 of treasons (and the greatest treasons may be committed) 
 in places where the jurisdiction of the crown does not ex 
 tend. 
 
 Having guarded the privileges of local legislature, I would 20 
 next secure to the colonies a fair and unbiassed judicature ; 
 for which purpose, Sir, I propose the following resolution : 
 " That, from the time when the general assembly or general 
 court of any colony or plantation in North America, shall 
 have appointed by act of assembly, duly confirmed, a settled 2 5 
 salary to the offices of the chief justice and other judges of 
 the superior court, it may be proper that the said chief jus 
 tice and other judges of the superior courts of such colony, 
 shall hold his and their office and offices during their good 
 behaviour ; and shall not be removed therefrom, but when 30 
 the said removal shall be adjudged by his Majesty in coun- 
 
148 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 cil, upon a hearing on complaint from the general assembly, 
 or on a complaint from the governor, or council, or the 
 house of representatives severally, or of the colony in which 
 the said chief justice and other judges have exercised the 
 
 5 said offices." 
 
 The next resolution relates to the courts of admiralty. 
 It is this : " That it may be proper to regulate the 
 courts of admiralty, or vice-admiralty, authorized by the 
 fifteenth chapter of the fourth of George the Third, in such 
 
 10 a manner as to make the same more commodious to those 
 who sue, or are sued, in the said courts, and to provide for 
 the more decent maintenance of the judges in the same." 
 
 These courts I do not wish to take away; they are in 
 themselves proper establishments. This court is one of the 
 
 15 capital securities of the act of navigation. The extent of its 
 jurisdiction, indeed, has been increased; but this is alto 
 gether as proper, and is indeed on many accounts more eli 
 gible, where new powers were wanted, than a court abso 
 lutely new. But courts incommodiously situated, in effect, 
 
 20 deny justice ; and a court, partaking in the fruits of its own 
 condemnation, is a robber. The congress complain, and 
 complain justly, of this grievance. 1 
 
 These are the three consequential propositions. I have 
 thought of two or three more ; but they come rather too 
 
 25 near detail, and to the province of executive government ; 
 which I wish parliament always to superintend, never to 
 assume. If the first six are granted, congruity will carry 
 the latter three. If not, the things that remain unrepealed 
 will be, I hope, rather unseemly encumbrances on the build- 
 
 30 ing, than very materially detrimental to its strength and 
 stability. 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 149 
 
 Here, Sir, I should close ; but I plainly perceive some ob 
 jections remain, which I ought, if possible, to remove. The 
 first will be, that, in resorting to the doctrine of our ancestors, 
 as contained in the preamble to the Chester act, I prove too 
 much ; that the grievance from a want of representation, 5 
 stated in that preamble, goes to the whole of legislation as 
 well as to taxation. And that the colonies, grounding them 
 selves upon that doctrine, will apply it to all parts of legisla 
 tive authority. 
 
 To this objection, with all possible deference and humility, 10 
 and wishing as little as any man living to impair the small 
 est particle of our supreme authority, I answer, that the 
 words are the words of parliament, and not mine ; and, that 
 all false and inconclusive inferences, drawn from them, are 
 not mine ; for I heartily disclaim any such inference. I have 15 
 chosen the words of an act of parliament, which Mr. Gren- 
 ville, surely a tolerably zealous and very judicious advocate 
 for the sovereignty of parliament, formerly moved to have 
 read at your table in confirmation of his tenets. It is true, 
 that Lord Chatham considered these preambles as declaring 20 
 strongly in favour of his opinions. He was a no less power 
 ful advocate for the privileges of the Americans. Ought I 
 not from hence to presume, that these preambles are as 
 favourable as possible to both, when properly understood ; 
 favourable both to the rights of parliament, and to the priv- 25 
 ileges of the dependencies of this crown? But, Sir, the ob 
 ject of grievance in my resolution I have not taken from the 
 Chester, but from the Durham act, which confines the hard 
 ship of want of representation to the case of subsidies ; and 
 which therefore falls in exactly with the case of the colonies. 30 
 But whether the unrepresented counties were de jure or de 
 
150 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 facto, bound, the preambles do not accurately distinguish ; 
 nor indeed was it necessary ; for, whether dejure or de facto, 
 the legislature thought the exercise of the power of taxing, 
 as of right, or as of fact without right, equally a grievance, 
 
 5 and equally oppressive. 
 
 I do not know that the colonies have, in any general way, 
 or in any cool hour, gone much beyond the demand of im 
 munity in relation to taxes. It is not fair to judge of the 
 temper or dispositions of any man, or any set of men, when 
 
 10 they are composed and at rest, from their conduct, or their 
 expressions, in a state of disturbance and irritation. It is 
 . besides a very great mistake to imagine, that mankind follow 
 up practically any speculative principle, either of govern 
 ment or of freedom, as far as it will go in argument and 
 
 15 logical illation. We Englishmen stop very short of the 
 principles upon which we support any given part of our con 
 stitution ; or even the whole of it together. I could easily, 
 if I had not already tired you, give you very striking and 
 convincing instances of it. This is nothing but what is 
 
 20 natural and proper. All government, indeed every human 
 benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, 
 is founded on compromise and barter. We balance incon 
 veniences ; we give and take ; we remit some rights that we 
 may enjoy others ; and we choose rather to be happy citi- 
 
 25 zens than subtle disputants. As we must give away some 
 natural liberty, to enjoy civil advantages ; so we must sacri 
 fice some civil liberties, for the advantages to be derived from 
 the communion and fellowship of a great empire. But, in all 
 fair dealings, the thing bought must bear some proportion to 
 
 3 the purchase paid. None will barter away the immediate 
 jewel of his soul. 1 Though a great house is apt to make 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 151 
 
 slaves haughty, yet it is purchasing a part of the artificial 
 importance of a great empire too dear, to pay for it all es 
 sential rights, and all the intrinsic dignity of human nature. 
 None of us who would not risk his life rather than fall under 
 a government purely arbitrary. But although there are 5 
 some amongst us who think our constitution wants many 
 improvements, to make it a complete system of liberty ; per 
 haps none who are of that opinion would think it right to 
 aim at such improvement, by disturbing his country, and 
 risking everything that is dear to him. In every arduous 10 
 enterprise, we consider what we are to lose as well as what 
 we are to gain ; and the more and better stake of liberty 
 every people possess, the less they will hazard in a vain at 
 tempt to make it more. These are the cords of man. Man 
 acts from adequate motives relative to his interest ; and not 15 
 on metaphysical speculations. Aristotle, the great master of 
 reasoning, cautions us, and with great weight and propriety, 
 against this species of delusive geometrical accuracy in moral 
 arguments, as the most fallacious of all sophistry. 
 
 The Americans will have no interest contrary to the gran- 20 
 deur and glory of England, when they are not oppressed 
 by the weight of it ; and they will rather be inclined to 
 respect the acts of a superintending legislature, when they 
 see them the acts of that power, which is itself the security, 
 not the rival, of their secondary importance. In this assur- 25 
 ance, my mind most perfectly acquiesces : and I confess, 
 I feel not the least alarm from the discontents which are to 
 arise from putting people at their ease ; nor do I apprehend 
 the destruction of this empire, from giving, by an act of free 
 grace and indulgence, to two millions of my fellow-citizens 30 
 some share of those rights, upon which I have always been 
 taught to value myself. 
 
152 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 It is said, indeed, that this power of granting, vested in 
 American assemblies, would dissolve the unity of the empire ; 
 which was preserved entire, although Wales, and Chester, 
 and Durham were added to it. Truly, Mr. Speaker, I do 
 
 5 not know what this unity means ; nor has it ever been heard 
 of, that I know, in the constitutional policy of this country. 
 The very idea of subordination of parts, excludes this notion 
 of simple and undivided unity. England is the head ; but 
 she is not the head and the members too. Ireland has ever 
 
 10 had from the beginning a separate, but not an independent, 
 legislature ; which, far from distracting, promoted the union 
 of the whole. Everything was sweetly and harmoniously 
 disposed through both islands for the conservation of English 
 dominion, and the communication of English liberties. I do 
 
 15 not see that the same principles might not be carried into 
 twenty islands, and with the same good effect. This is my 
 model with regard to America, as far as the internal circum 
 stances of the two countries are the same. I know no other 
 unity of this empire, than I can draw from its example dur- 
 
 20 ing these periods, when it seemed to my poor understanding 
 more united than it is now, or than it is likely to be by the 
 present methods. 
 
 But since I speak of these methods, I recollect, Mr. 
 Speaker, almost too late, that I promised, before I finished, 
 
 25 to say something of the proposition of the noble lord l on the 
 floor, which has been so lately received, and stands on your 
 journals. I must be deeply concerned, whenever it is my 
 misfortune to continue a difference with the majority of this 
 House. But as the reasons for that difference are my 
 
 30 apology for thus troubling you, suffer me to state them in 
 a very few words. I shall compress them into as small a 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 153 
 
 body as I possibly can, having already debated that matter 
 at large, when the question was before the committee. 
 
 First, then, I cannot admit that proposition of a ransom 
 by auction; because it is a mere project. It is a thing 
 new; unheard of; supported by no experience; justified by 5 
 no analogy; without example of our ancestors, or root in 
 the constitution. 
 
 It is neither regular parliamentary taxation, nor colony 
 grant. Experimentum in corpore vili} is a good rule, which 
 will ever make me adverse to any trial of experiments on 10 
 what is certainly the most valuable of all subjects, the peace 
 of this empire. 
 
 Secondly, it is an experiment which must be fatal in the 
 end to our constitution. For what is it but a scheme for 
 taxing the colonies in the antechamber of the noble lord and 15 
 his successors ? To settle the quotas and proportions in this 
 House, is clearly impossible. You, Sir, may flatter yourself 
 you shall sit a state auctioneer, with your hammer in your 
 hand, and knock down to each colony as it bids. But to 
 settle (on the plan laid down by the noble lord) the true 20 
 proportional payment for four or five and twenty govern 
 ments, according to the absolute and the relative wealth of 
 each, and according to the British proportion of wealth and 
 burthen, is a wild and chimerical notion. This new taxation 
 must therefore come in by the back-door of the constitution. 2 25 
 Each quota must be brought to this House rea'dy formed ; 
 you can neither add nor alter. You must register it. You 
 can do nothing further. For on what grounds can you de 
 liberate either before or after the proposition ? You cannot 
 hear the counsel for all these provinces, quarrelling each on 30 
 its own quantity of payment, and its proportion to others. 
 
154 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 If you should attempt it, the committee of provincial ways 
 and means, or by whatever other name it will delight to be 
 called, must swallow up all the time of parliament. 
 
 Thirdly, it does not give satisfaction to the complaint of 
 
 5 the colonies. They complain, that they are taxed without 
 their consent ; you answer, that you will fix the sum at 
 which they shall be taxed. That is, you give them the very 
 grievance for the remedy. You tell them indeed, that you 
 will leave the mode to themselves. I really beg pardon : it 
 
 10 gives me pain to mention it ; but you must be sensible that 
 you will not perform this part of the compact. For, sup 
 pose the colonies were to lay the duties, which furnished 
 their contingent, upon the importation of your manufac 
 tures ; you know you would never surfer such a tax to be 
 
 15 laid. You know, too, that you would not surfer many other 
 modes of taxation. So that, when you come to explain 
 yourself, it will be found, that you will neither leave to 
 themselves the quantum nor the mode ; nor indeed any 
 thing. The whole is delusion from one end to the other. 
 
 20 Fourthly, this method of ransom by auction, unless it be 
 universally accepted, will plunge you into great and inex 
 tricable difficulties. In what year of our Lord are the pro 
 portions of payments to be settled ? To say nothing of the 
 impossibility that colony agents should have general powers 
 
 25 of taxing the colonies at their discretion ; consider, I implore 
 you, that the communication by special messages, and orders 
 between these agents and their constituents on each variation 
 of the case, when the parties come to contend together, and 
 to dispute on their relative proportions, will be a matter of 
 
 30 delay, perplexity, and confusion that never can have an 
 end. 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 155 
 
 If all the colonies do not appear at the outcry, what is the 
 condition of those assemblies, who offer by themselves or 
 their agents, to tax themselves up to your ideas of their pro 
 portion ? The refractory colonies, who refuse all composi 
 tion, will remain taxed only to your old impositions, which, 5 
 however grievous in principle, are trifling as to production. 
 The obedient colonies in this scheme are heavily taxed ; the 
 refractory remain unburthened. What will you do? Will 
 you lay new and heavier taxes by parliament on the disobe 
 dient? Pray consider in what way you can do it. You are 10 
 perfectly convinced, that, in the way of taxing, you can do 
 nothing but at the ports. Now suppose it is Virginia that 
 refuses to appear at your auction, while Maryland and North 
 Carolina bid handsomely for their ransom, and are taxed to 
 your quota, how will you put these colonies on a par? Will 15 
 you tax the tobacco of Virginia? If you do, you give its 
 death-wound to your English revenue at home, and to one 
 of the very greatest articles of your own foreign trade. If 
 you tax the import of that rebellious colony, what do you 
 tax but your own manufactures, or the goods of some other 20 
 obedient and already well-taxed colony? Who has said one 
 word on this labyrinth of detail, which bewilders you more 
 and more as you enter into it? Who has presented, who 
 can present you with a clue, to lead you out of it ? I think, 
 Sir, it is impossible, that you should not recollect that the 25 
 colony bounds are so implicated in one another, (you know 
 it by your other experiments in the bill for prohibiting the 
 New England fishery,) that you can lay no possible restraints 
 on almost any of them which may not be presently eluded, 
 if you do not confound the innocent with the guilty, and 30 
 burthen those whom, upon every principle, you ought to 
 
156 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 exonerate. He must be grossly ignorant of America, who 
 thinks that, without falling into this confusion of all rules of 
 equity and policy, you can restrain any single colony, espe 
 cially Virginia and Maryland, the central and most impor- 
 
 5 tant of them all. 
 
 Let it also be considered, that, either in the present con 
 fusion you settle a permanent contingent, which will and 
 must be trifling ; and then you have no effectual revenue : 
 or you change the quota at every exigency ; and then on 
 
 10 every new repartition you will have a new quarrel. 
 
 Reflect besides, that when you have fixed a quota for every 
 colony, you have not provided for prompt and punctual pay 
 ment. Suppose one, two, five, ten years' arrears. You can 
 not issue a treasury extent against the failing colony. 1 You 
 
 15 must make new Boston Port Bills, new restraining laws, new 
 acts for dragging men to England for trial. You must send 
 out new fleets, new armies. All is to begin again. From 
 this day forward the empire is never to know an hour's tran 
 quillity. An intestine fire will be kept alive in the bowels of 
 
 20 the colonies, which one time or other must consume this 
 whole empire. I allow indeed that the empire of Germany 
 raises her revenue and her troops by quotas and contin 
 gents ; but the revenue of the empire, and the army of the 
 empire, is the worst revenue and the worst army in the 
 
 25 world. 
 
 Instead of a standing revenue, you will therefore have a 
 perpetual quarrel. Indeed the noble lord, who proposed 
 this project of a ransom by auction, seemed himself to be of 
 that opinion. His project was rather designed for breaking 
 
 30 the union of the colonies, than for establishing a revenue. 
 He confessed, he apprehended that his proposal would not 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 157 
 
 be to their taste. I say, this scheme of disunion seems to be 
 at the bottom of the project ; for I will not suspect that the 
 noble lord meant nothing but merely to delude the nation 
 by an airy phantom which he never intended to realize. 
 But whatever his views may be ; as I propose the peace and 5 
 union of the colonies as the very foundation of my plan, it 
 cannot accord with one whose foundation is perpetual dis 
 cord. 
 
 Compare the two. This I offer to give you is plain and 
 simple. The other full of perplexed and intricate mazes. 10 
 This is mild; that harsh. This is found by experience 
 effectual for its purposes ; the other is a new project. This 
 is universal ; the other calculated for certain colonies only. 
 This is immediate in its conciliatory operation ; the other 
 remote, contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what becomes 15 
 the dignity of a ruling people ; gratuitous, unconditional, 
 and not held out as matter of bargain and sale. I have 
 done my duty in proposing it to you. I have indeed tired 
 you by a long discourse ; but this is the misfortune of those 
 to whose influence nothing will be conceded, and who must 20 
 win every inch of their ground by argument. You have 
 heard me with goodness. May you decide with wisdom ! 
 For my part, I feel my mind greatly disburthened by what I 
 have done to-day. I have been the less fearful of trying 
 your patience, because on this subject I mean to spare it 25 
 altogether in future. I have this comfort, that in every 
 stage of the American affairs, I have steadily opposed the 
 measures that have produced the confusion, and may bring 
 on the destruction, of this empire. I now go so far as to 
 risk a proposal of my own. If I cannot give peace to my 30 
 country, I give it to my conscience. 
 
158 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 But what (says the financier) is peace to us without 
 money? Your plan gives us no revenue. No ! But it does 
 For it secures to the subject the power of REFUSAL ; 
 the first of all revenues. Experience is a cheat, and fact a 
 
 5 liar, if this power in the subject of proportioning his grant, 
 or if not granting at all, has not been found the richest mine 
 of revenue ever discovered by the skill or by the fortune of 
 man. It does not indeed vote you ,152,750: n : 2|ths, 
 nor any other paltry limited sum. But it gives the strong 
 
 10 box itself, the fund, the bank, from whence only revenues 
 can arise amongst a people sensible of freedom : Posita 
 luditur area} Cannot you in England ; cannot you at this 
 time of day ; cannot you, a House of Commons, trust to the 
 principle which has raised so mighty a revenue, and accu- 
 
 15 mulated a debt of near 140 millions in this country? Is 
 this principle to be true in England, and false everywhere 
 else ? Is it not true in Ireland ? Has it not hitherto been 
 true in the colonies? Why should you presume, that, in 
 any country, a body duly constituted for any function, will 
 
 20 neglect to perform its duty, and abdicate its trust? Such a 
 presumption would go against all governments in all modes. 
 But, in truth, this dread of penury of supply, from a free 
 assembly, has no foundation in nature. For first observe, 
 that, besides the desire which all men have naturally of sup- 
 
 25 porting the honour of their own government, that sense of 
 dignity, and that security to property, which ever attends 
 freedom, has a tendency to increase the stock of the free 
 community. Most may be taken where most is accumulated. 
 And what is the soil or climate where experience has not 
 
 30 uniformly proved, that the voluntary flow of heaped-up plenty, 
 bursting from the weight of its own rich luxuriance, has ever 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 159 
 
 run with a more copious stream of revenue, than could be 
 squeezed from the dry husks of oppressed indigence, by the 
 straining of all the politic machinery in the world. 
 
 Next we know, that parties must ever exist in a free coun 
 try. We know, too, that the emulations of such parties, 5 
 their contradictions, their reciprocal necessities, their hopes, 
 and their fears, must send them all in their turns to him that 
 holds the balance of the state. The parties are the gamesters ; 
 but government keeps the table, and is sure to be the winner 
 in the end. When this game is played, I really think it is 10 
 more to be feared that the people will be exhausted, than 
 that government will not be supplied. Whereas, whatever 
 is got by acts of absolute power ill obeyed, because odious, 
 or by contracts ill kept, because constrained, will be narrow, 
 feeble, uncertain, and precarious. "Ease would retract 15 
 vows made in pain, as violent and void" 1 
 
 I, for one, protest against compounding our demands : I 
 declare against compounding for a poor limited sum, the 
 immense, overgrowing, eternal debt, 2 which is due to gen 
 erous government from protected freedom. And so may I 20 
 speed in the great object I propose to you, as I think it 
 would not only be an act of injustice, but would be the 
 worst economy in the world, to compel the colonies to a 
 sum certain, either in the way of ransom, or in the way of 
 compulsory compact. 25 
 
 But to clear up my ideas on this subject a revenue from 
 America transmitted hither do not delude yourselves 
 you never can receive it No, not a shilling. We have 
 experience that from remote countries it is not to be ex 
 pected. If, when you attempted to extract revenue from 30 
 Bengal, you were obliged to return in loan what you had 
 
160 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 taken in imposition; what can you expect from North 
 America? For certainly, if ever there was a country quali 
 fied to produce wealth, it is India ; or an institution fit for 
 the transmission, it is the East India Company. America 
 
 5 has none of these aptitudes. If America gives you taxable 
 objects, on which you lay your duties here, and gives you, 
 at the same time, a surplus by a foreign sale of her com 
 modities to pay the duties on these objects, which you tax 
 at home, she has performed her part to the British revenue. 
 
 jo But with regard to her own internal establishments ; she 
 may, I doubt not she will, contribute in moderation. I 
 say in moderation ; for she ought not to be permitted to 
 exhaust herself. She ought to be reserved to a war ; the 
 weight of which, with the enemies that we are most likely 
 
 15 to have, must be considerable in her quarter of the globe. 
 There she may serve you, and serve you essentially. 
 
 For that service, for all service, whether of revenue, trade, 
 or empire, my trust is in her interest in the British consti 
 tution. My hold of the colonies is in the close affection 
 
 20 which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from 
 similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties, 
 which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. 
 Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights 
 associated with your government ; they will cling and 
 
 25 grapple to you ; and no force under heaven will be of 
 power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it be 
 once understood, that your government may be one thing, 
 and their privileges another ; that these two things may 
 exist without any mutual relation ; the cement is gone ; the 
 
 30 cohesion is loosened ; and everything hastens to decay anci 
 dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 161 
 
 sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of 
 liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, 
 wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship 
 freedom, they will turn their faces towards you. 1 The more 
 they multiply, the more friends you will have ; the more 5 
 ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their 
 obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed 
 that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they 
 may have it from Prussia. But, until you become lost to all 
 feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, free- 10 
 dom they can have from none but you. This is the com 
 modity of price, of which you have the monopoly. This is 
 the true act of navigation, which binds to you the commerce 
 of the colonies, and through them secures to you the wealth 
 of the world. Deny them this participation of freedom, and 15 
 you break that sole bond, which originally made, and must 
 still preserve, the unity of the empire. Do not entertain so 
 weak an imagination, as that your registers and your bonds, 
 your affidavits and your sufferances, your cockets and your 
 clearances, are what form the great securities of your com- 20 
 merce. Do not dream that your letters of office, and your 
 instructions, and your suspending clauses, are the things 
 that hold together the great contexture of the mysterious 
 whole. These things do not make your government. Dead 
 instruments, passive tools as they are, it is the spirit of the 25 
 English communion that gives all their life and efficacy to 
 them. It is the spirit of the English constitution, which, in 
 fused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, 
 invigorates, vivifies every part of the empire, even down to 
 the minutest member. 2 3 o 
 
 Is it not the same virtue which does everything for us 
 
162 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 here in England? Do you imagine then, that it is the land 
 tax act which raises your revenue ? that it is the annual vote 
 in the committee of supply which gives you your army ? or 
 that it is the mutiny bill which inspires it with bravery and 
 
 5 discipline ? No ! surely no ! It is the love of the people ; 
 it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of 
 the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, 
 which gives you your army and your navy, and infuses into 
 both that liberal obedience, without which your army would 
 
 10 be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber. 
 
 All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimeri 
 cal to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical poli 
 ticians, who have no place among us ; a sort of people who 
 think that nothing exists but what is gross and material; 
 
 15 and who therefore, far from being qualified to be directors 
 of the great movement of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel 
 in the machine. But to men truly initiated and rightly 
 taught, these ruling and master principles, which, in the 
 opinion of such men as I have mentioned, have no substan- 
 
 20 tial existence, are in truth everything, and all in all. Mag 
 nanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom ; and a 
 great empire and little minds go ill together. If we are con 
 scious of our situation, and glow with zeal to fill our place 
 as becomes our station and ourselves, we ought to auspicate 
 
 25 all our public proceedings on America with the old warning 
 of the church, Sursum corda! l We ought to elevate our 
 minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of 
 Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of 
 this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wil- 
 
 30 derness into a glorious empire; and have made the most 
 extensive, and the only honourable conquests, not by destroy- 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 163 
 
 ing, but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness 
 of the human race. Let us get an American revenue as we 
 have got an American empire. English privileges have made 
 it all that it is ; English privileges alone will make it all it 
 can be. 5 
 
 In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I now {quod 
 felix faustumque sit 1 ) lay the first stone of the temple of 
 peace ; and I move you, 
 
 "That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in 
 North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, 10 
 and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, 
 have not had the liberty and privilege of electing and send 
 ing any knights and burgesses, or others, to represent them 
 in the high court of parliament." 
 
 Upon this resolution, the previous question was put, and 15 
 carried; for the previous question 270, against it 78. 
 
 As the propositions were opened separately in the body 
 of the speech, the reader perhaps may wish to see the whole 
 of them together, in the form in which they were moved for. 
 
 "Moved, That the colonies and plantations of Great 2 o 
 Britain in North America, consisting of fourteen separate 
 governments, and containing two millions and upwards of 
 free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege of 
 electing and sending any knights and burgesses, or others, 
 to represent them in the high court of parliament." 25 
 
 " That the said colonies and plantations have been made 
 liable to, and bounden by, several subsidies, payments, rates, 
 and taxes, given and granted by parliament; though the 
 said colonies and plantations have not their knights and bur- 
 
164 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 gesses, in the said high court of parliament, of their own 
 election, to represent the condition of their country; by 
 lack whereof, they have been oftentimes touched and grieved 
 by subsidies given, granted, and assented to, in the said court, 
 
 5 in a manner prejudicial to the commonwealth, quietness, 
 rest, and peace, of the subjects inhabiting within the same." 
 
 " That, from the distance of the said colonies, and from 
 other circumstances, no method hath hitherto been devised 
 for procuring a representation in parliament for the said 
 
 10 colonies." 
 
 " That each of the said colonies hath within itself a body, 
 chosen, in part or in the whole, by the freemen, freeholders, 
 or other free inhabitants thereof, commonly called the gen 
 eral assembly, or general court ; with powers legally to raise, 
 
 15 levy, and assess, according to the several usage of such 
 colonies, duties and taxes towards defraying all sorts of pub 
 lic services." * 
 
 " That the said general assemblies, general courts, or other 
 bodies, legally qualified as aforesaid, have at sundry times 
 
 20 freely granted several large subsidies and public aids for his 
 Majesty's service, according to their abilities, when required 
 thereto by letter from one of his Majesty's principal secre 
 taries of state ; and that their right to grant the same, and 
 their cheerfulness and sufficiency in the said grants, have 
 
 25 been at sundry times acknowledged by parliament." 
 
 " That it hath been found by experience, that the manner 
 of granting the said supplies and aids, by the said general 
 assemblies, hath been more agreeable to the inhabitants of 
 the said colonies, and more beneficial and conducive to the 
 
 30 public service, than the mode of giving and granting aids and 
 subsidies in parliament to be raised and paid in the said 
 colonies." 
 
ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 165 
 
 " That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 
 seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 
 An act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and 
 plantations in America ; for allowing a drawback of the 
 duties of customs, upon the exportation from this kingdom, 5 
 of coffee and cocoa-nuts, of the produce of the said colonies 
 or plantations ; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on 
 China earthenware exported to America ; and for more ef 
 fectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in the 
 said colonies and plantations." 10 
 
 "That it may be proper to repeal an act made in the 
 fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 
 An act to discontinue, in such manner, and for such time, as 
 are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or 
 shipping of goods, wares, and merchandise, at the town, and 15 
 within the harbour, of Boston, in the province of Massachu 
 setts Bay, in North America." 
 
 "That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the 
 fourteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, 
 An act for the impartial administration of justice, in cases of 20 
 persons questioned for any acts done by them in the execu 
 tion of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults, 
 in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in New England." 
 
 " That it is proper to repeal an act, made in the fourteenth 
 year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled, An act 25 
 for the better regulating the government of the province of 
 Massachusetts Bay, in New England." 
 
 " That it is proper to explain and amend an act made in 
 the thirty-fifth year of the reign of King Henry VIII., in 
 tituled, An act for the trial of treasons committed out of the 30 
 king's dominions." 
 
166 ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 " That, from the time when the general assembly, or gen 
 eral court, of any colony or plantation, in North America, 
 shall have appointed, by act of assembly duly confirmed, a 
 settled salary to the offices of the chief justice and judges of 
 
 5 the superior courts, it may be proper that the said chief 
 justice and other judges of the superior courts of such colony 
 shall hold his and their office and offices during their good 
 behaviour ; and shall not be removed therefrom, but when 
 the said removal shall be adjudged by his Majesty in council, 
 
 10 upon a hearing on complaint from the general assembly, or 
 
 on a complaint from the governor, or council, or the house 
 
 of representatives, severally, of the colony in which the said 
 
 chief justice and other judges have exercised the said office." 
 
 " That it may be proper to regulate the courts of admiralty, 
 
 15 or vice-admiralty, authorized by the fifteenth chapter of the 
 fourth of George III., in such a manner, as to make the same 
 more commodious to those who sue, or are sued, in the said 
 courts ; and to provide for the more decent maintenance of 
 the judges of the same." 
 
A LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 JOHN FARR AND JOHN HARRIS, ESQRS., 
 SHERIFFS OF THE CITY OF BRISTOL, 
 
 ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 
 
 1777. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : I have the honour of sending you the two 
 last acts which have been passed with regard to the troubles 
 in America. These acts are similar to all the rest which 
 have been made on the same subject. They operate by the 
 same principle ; and they are derived from the very same 5 
 policy. I think they complete the number of this sort of 
 statutes to nine. It affords no matter for very pleasing 
 reflection to observe that our subjects diminish as our laws 
 increase. 
 
 If I have the misfortune of differing with some of my to 
 fellow-citizens on this great and arduous subject, it is no 
 small consolation to me that I do not differ from you. With 
 you I am perfectly united. We are heartily agreed in our 
 detestation of a civil war. We have ever expressed the 
 most unqualified disapprobation, of all the steps which have 15 
 led to it, and of all those which, tend to prolong it. And I 
 have no doubt that we feel exactly the same emotions of 
 grief and shame in all its miserable consequences ; whether . 
 they appear, on the one side or the other, in the shape of 
 
 167 
 
168 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 victories or defeats, of captures made from the English on 
 the continent, or from the English in these islands ; of legis 
 lative regulations which subvert the liberties of our brethren, 
 or which undermine our own. 
 
 5 Of the first of these statutes (that for the letter of marque) 1 
 I shall say little. Exceptionable as it may be, and as I think 
 it is in some particulars, it seems the natural, perhaps neces 
 sary, result of the measures we have taken, and the situation 
 we are in. The other (for a partial suspension of the Habeas 
 
 10 Corpus^ appears to me of a much deeper malignity. Dur 
 ing its progress through the House of Commons, it has been 
 amended, so as to express, more distinctly than at first it 
 did, the avowed sentiments of those who framed it : and the 
 main ground of my exception to it is, because it does express, 
 
 15 and does carry into execution, purposes which appear to me 
 so contradictory to all the principles, not only of the consti 
 tutional policy of Great Britain, but even of that species of 
 hostile justice, which no asperity of war wholly extinguishes 
 in the minds of a civilized people. 
 
 20 It seems to have in view two capital objects ; the first, to 
 enable administration to confine, as long as it shall think 
 proper, those whom that act is pleased to qualify by the 
 name of pirates. Those so qualified I understand to be the 
 commanders and mariners of such privateers and ships of 
 
 25 war belonging to the colonies, as in the course of this un 
 happy contest may fall into the hands of the crown. They 
 are therefore to be detained in prison, under the criminal 
 description of piracy, to a future trial and ignominious pun 
 ishment, whenever circumstances shall make it convenient 
 
 30 to execute vengeance on them, under the colour of that 
 odious and infamous offence. 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 169 
 
 To this first purpose of the law I have no small dislike; 
 because the act does not (as all laws and all equitable trans 
 actions ought to do) fairly describe its object. The persons 
 who make a naval war upon us, in consequence of the present 
 troubles, may be rebels ; but to call and treat them as pirates, 5 
 is confounding, not only the natural distinction of things, but 
 the order of crimes : which, whether by putting them from a 
 higher part of the scale to the lower, or from the lower to 
 the higher, is never done without dangerously disordering 
 the whole frame of jurisprudence. Though piracy may be, 10 
 in the eye of the law, a less offence than treason ; yet as 
 both are, in effect, punished with the same death, the same 
 forfeiture, and the same corruption of blood, I never would 
 take from any fellow-creature whatever any sort of advantage 
 which he may derive to his safety from the pity of mankind, 15 
 or to his reputation from their general feelings, by degrad 
 ing his offence, when I cannot soften his punishment. The 
 general sense of mankind tells me, that those offences, which 
 may possibly arise from mistaken virtue, are not in the class 
 of infamous actions. Lord Coke, the oracle of the English 20 
 law, conforms to that general sense where he says, that 
 " those things which are of the highest criminality may be 
 of the least disgrace." The act prepares a sort of masked 
 proceeding, not honourable to the justice of the kingdom, 
 and by no means necessary for its safety. I cannot enter 25 
 into it. If Lord Balmerino, 1 in the last rebellion, had driven 
 off the cattle of twenty clans, I should have thought it would 
 have been a scandalous and low juggle, utterly unworthy of 
 the manliness of an English judicature, to have tried him 
 for felony as a stealer of cows. 30 
 
 Besides, I must honestly tell you, that I could not vote for, 
 
170 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 or countenance in any way, a statute, which stigmatizes with 
 the crime of piracy these men, whom an act of parliament 
 had previously put out of the protection of the law. When 
 the legislature of this kingdom had ordered all their ships 
 
 5 and goods, for the mere new-created offence of exercising 
 trade, to be divided as a spoil among the seamen of the navy, 1 
 to consider the necessary reprisal of an unhappy, pro 
 scribed, interdicted people, as the crime of piracy, would 
 have appeared, in any other legislature than ours, a strain of 
 
 10 the most insulting and most unnatural cruelty and injustice. 
 I assure you I never remember to have heard of anything 
 like it in any time or country. 
 
 The second professed purpose of the act is, to detain in 
 England for trial those who shall commit high treason in 
 
 15 America. 
 
 That you may be enabled to enter into the true spirit of 
 the present law, it is necessary, gentlemen, to apprize you, 
 that there is an act, made so long ago as in the reign of 
 Henry the Eighth, before the existence or thought of any 
 
 20 English colonies in America, for the trial in this kingdom of 
 treasons committed out of the realm. In the year 1769, par 
 liament thought proper to acquaint the crown with their 
 construction of that act in a formal address, wherein they 
 entreated his Majesty to cause persons, charged with high 
 
 25 treason in America, to be brought into this kingdom for 
 trial. By this act of Henry the Eighth, so construed and 
 so applied, almost all that is substantial and beneficial in a 
 trial by a jury is taken away from the subject in the colonies. 2 
 This is however saying too little ; for to try a man under 
 30 that act is, in effect, to condemn him unheard. A person is 
 brought hither in the dungeon of a ship's hold ; thence he 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 171 
 
 is vomited into a dungeon on land ; loaded with irons, unfur 
 nished with money, unsupported by friends, three thousand 
 miles from all means of calling upon or confronting evidence, 
 where no one local circumstance that tends to detect perjury, 
 can possibly be judged of; such a person may be executed 5 
 according to form, but he can never be tried according to 
 justice. 
 
 I therefore could never reconcile myself to the bill I send 
 you ; which is expressly provided to remove all inconven 
 iences from the establishment of a mode of trial, which has 10 
 ever appeared to me most unjust and most unconstitutional. 
 Far from removing the difficulties which impede the execu 
 tion of so mischievous a project, I would heap new difficulties 
 upon it, if it were in my power. All the ancient, honest, 
 juridical principles and institutions of England are so many 15 
 clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence 
 and oppression. They were invented for this one good 
 purpose, that what was not just should not be convenient. 
 Convinced of this, I would leave things as I found them. 
 The old, cool-headed, general law, is as good as any devia- 20 
 tion dictated by present heat. 
 
 I could see no fair, justifiable expedience pleaded to favour 
 this new suspension of the liberty of the subject. If the 
 English in the colonies can support the independency, to 
 which they have been unfortunately driven, I suppose no- 25 
 body has such a fanatical zeal for the criminal justice of 
 Henry the Eighth, that he will contend for executions which 
 must be retaliated tenfold on his own friends ; or who has 
 conceived so strange an idea of English dignity, as to think 
 the defeats in America compensated by the triumphs at Ty- 3 o 
 burn. 1 If, on the contrary, the colonies are reduced to the 
 
172 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 obedience of the crown, there must be, under that authority, 
 tribunals in the country itself, fully competent to administer 
 justice on all offenders. But if there are not, and that we 
 must suppose a thing so humiliating to our government, as 
 
 5 that all this vast continent should unanimously concur in 
 thinking, that no ill fortune can convert resistance to the 
 royal authority into a criminal act, we may call the effect of 
 our victory peace, or obedience, or what we will ; but the 
 war is not ended ; the hostile mind continues in full vigour, 
 
 10 and it continues under a worse form. If your peace be 
 nothing more than a sullen pause from arms ; if their quiet 
 be nothing but the meditation of revenge, where smitten pride 
 smarting from its wounds festers into new rancour ; neither 
 the act of Henry the Eighth, nor its handmaid of this reign, 
 
 15 will answer any wise end of policy or justice. For if the 
 bloody fields, which they saw and felt, are not sufficient to 
 subdue the reason of America, (to use the expressive phrase 
 of a great lord in office,) it is not the judicial slaughter, 
 which is made in another hemisphere against their universal 
 
 20 sense of justice, that will ever reconcile them to the British 
 government. 
 
 I take it for granted, gentlemen, that we sympathize in a 
 proper horror of all punishment further than as it serves for 
 an example. To whom then does the example of an execu- 
 
 25 tion in England for this American rebellion apply ? Remem 
 ber, you are told every day, that the present is a contest 
 between the two countries ; and that we in England are at 
 war for our own dignity against our rebellious children. Is 
 this true ? If it be, it is surely among such rebellious chil- 
 
 3 o dren that examples for disobedience should be made, to be 
 in any degree instructive : for whoever thought of teaching 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 173 
 
 parents their duty by an example from the punishment of an 
 undutiful son? As well might the execution of a fugitive 
 negro in the plantations be considered as a lesson to teach 
 masters humanity to their slaves. Such executions may in 
 deed satiate our revenge ; they may harden our hearts, and 5 
 puff us up with pride and arrogance. Alas ! this is not 
 instruction ! 
 
 If anything can be drawn from such examples by a parity 
 of the case, it is to show how deep their crime and how 
 heavy their punishment will be, who shall at any time dare 10 
 to resist a distant power actually disposing of their property, 
 without their voice or consent to the disposition ; and over 
 turning their franchises without charge or hearing. God for 
 bid that England should ever read this lesson written in the 
 blood of any of her offspring ! 15 
 
 War is at present carried on between the king's natural 
 and foreign troops * on one side, and the English in America 
 on the other, upon the usual footing of other wars ; and ac 
 cordingly an exchange of prisoners has been regularly made 
 from the beginning. If notwithstanding this hitherto equal 2 o 
 procedure, upon some prospect of ending the war with suc 
 cess, (which however may be delusive,) administration pre 
 pares to act against those as traitors who remain in their 
 hands at the end of the troubles, in my opinion we shall 
 exhibit to the world as indecent a piece of injustice as ever 25 
 civil fury has produced. If the prisoners, who have been 
 exchanged, have not by that exchange been virtually par 
 doned, the cartel (whether avowed or understood) is a cruel 
 fraud ; for you have received the life of a man, and you 
 ought to return a life for it, or there is no parity of fairness 30 
 in the transaction. 
 
174 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 If, on the other hand, we admit, that they who are actually 
 exchanged are pardoned, but contend that you may justly 
 reserve for vengeance those who remain unexchanged ; then 
 this unpleasant and unhandsome consequence will follow; 
 5 that you judge of the delinquency of men merely by the 
 time of their guilt, and not by the heinousness of it ; and 
 you make fortune and accidents, and not the moral qualities 
 of human action, the rule of your justice. 
 
 These strange incongruities must ever perplex those who 
 10 confound the unhappiness of civil dissensions with the crime 
 of treason. Whenever a rebellion really and truly exists, 
 which is as easily known in fact as it is difficult to define in 
 words, government has not entered into such military con 
 ventions ; but has ever declined all intermediate treaty, which 
 15 should put rebels in possession of the law of nations with 
 regard to war. Commanders would receive no benefits at 
 their hands, because they could make no return for them. 
 Who has ever heard of capitulation, and parole of honour, 
 and exchange of prisoners, in the late rebellions in this king- 
 so dom ? The answer to all demands of that sort was, " We 
 can engage for nothing; you are at the king's pleasure." 
 We ought to remember, that if our present enemies be, in 
 reality and truth, rebels, the king's generals have no right to 
 release them upon any conditions whatsoever ; and they are 
 25 themselves answerable to the law, and as much in want of a 
 pardon for doing so, as the rebels whom they release. 
 
 Lawyers, I know, cannot make the distinction for which I 
 contend ; because they have their strict rule to go by. But 
 legislators ought to do what lawyers cannot ; for they have 
 3 o no other rules to bind them, but the great principles of rea 
 son and equity, and the general sense of mankind. These 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 175 
 
 they are bound to obey and follow ; and rather to enlarge 
 and enlighten law by the liberality of legislative reason, than 
 to fetter and bind their higher capacity by the narrow con 
 structions of subordinate, artificial justice. If we had adverted 
 to this, we never could consider the convulsions of a great 5 
 empire, not disturbed by a little disseminated faction, but 
 divided by whole communities and provinces, and entire legal 
 representatives of a people, as fit matter of discussion under 
 a commission of Oyer and Terminer. 1 It is as opposite to 
 reason and prudence, as it is to humanity and justice. 10 
 
 This act, proceeding on these principles, that is, preparing 
 to end the present troubles by a trial of one sort of hostility 
 under the name of piracy, and of another by the name of 
 treason, and executing the act of Henry the Eighth accord 
 ing to a new and unconstitutional interpretation, I have 15 
 thought evil and dangerous, even though the instruments of 
 effecting such purposes had been merely of a neutral quality. 
 
 But it really appears to me, that the means which this act 
 employs are, at least, as exceptionable as the end. Permit 
 me to open myself a little upon this subject, because it is of 20 
 importance to me, when I am obliged to submit to the power 
 without acquiescing in the reason of an act of legislature, 
 that I should justify my dissent by such arguments as may 
 be supposed to have weight with a sober man. 
 
 The main operative regulation of the act is to suspend 25 
 the common law, and the statute Habeas Corpus, (the sole 
 securities either for liberty or justice,) with regard to all those 
 who have been out of the realm, or on the high seas, within 
 a given time. The rest of the people, as I understand, are 
 to continue as they stood before. 30 
 
 I confess, gentlemen, that this appears to me as bad in the 
 
176 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 principle, and far worse in its consequence, than an universal 
 suspension of the Habeas Corpus act ; and the limiting quali 
 fication, instead of taking out the sting, does in my humble 
 opinion sharpen and envenom it to a greater degree. Liberty, 
 
 5 if I understand it at all, is a general principle, and the clear 
 right of all the subjects within the realm, or of none. Partial 
 freedom seems to me a most invidious mode of slavery. But, 
 unfortunately, it is the kind of slavery the most easily admitted 
 in times of civil discord ; for parties are but too apt to forget 
 
 10 their own future safety in their desire of sacrificing their 
 enemies. People without much difficulty admit the entrance 
 of that injustice of which they are not to be the immediate 
 victims. In times of high proceeding it is never the faction 
 of the predominant power that is in danger : for no tyranny 
 
 15 chastises its own instruments. It is the obnoxious and the 
 suspected who want the protection of law ; and there is 
 nothing to bridle the partial violence of state factions, but 
 this ; " that whenever an act is made for a cessation of law 
 and justice, the whole people should be universally subjected 
 
 20 to the same suspension of their franchises." The alarm of 
 such a proceeding would then be universal. It would operate 
 as a sort of Call of the nation. It would become every man's 
 immediate and instant concern to be made very sensible of 
 the absolute necessity of this total eclipse of liberty. They 
 
 25 would more carefully advert to every renewal, and more pow 
 erfully resist it. These great determined measures are not 
 commonly so dangerous to freedom. They are marked with 
 too strong lines to slide into use. No plea, nor pretence, of 
 inconvenience or evil example (which must in their nature 
 
 30 be daily and ordinary incidents) can be admitted as a 
 reason for such mighty operations. But the true danger is, 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 177 
 
 when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts. 
 The Habeas Corpus act supposes, contrary to the genius of 
 most other laws, that the lawful magistrate may see particular 
 men with a malignant eye, and it provides for that identical 
 case. But when men, in particular descriptions, marked out 5 
 by the magistrate himself, are delivered over by parliament 
 to this possible malignity, it is not the Habeas Corpus that 
 is occasionally suspended, but its spirit that is mistaken, and 
 its principle that is subverted. Indeed nothing is security to 
 any individual but the common interest of all. 10 
 
 This act, therefore, has this distinguished evil in it, that it 
 is the first partial suspension of the Habeas Corpus that has 
 been made. The precedent, which is always of very great 
 importance, is now established. For the first time a distinc 
 tion is made among the people within this realm. Before 15 
 this act, every man putting his foot on English ground, every 
 stranger owing only a local and temporary allegiance, even 
 negro slaves who had been sold in the colonies and under 
 an act of parliament, became as free as every other man 
 who breathed the same air with them. Now a line is drawn, 20 
 which may be advanced farther and farther at pleasure, on 
 the same argument of mere expedience, on which it was 
 first described. There is no equality among us ; we are not 
 fellow-citizens, if the mariner, who lands on the quay, does 
 not rest on as firm legal ground as the merchant who sits in 25 
 his counting-house. Other laws may injure the community, 
 this dissolves it. As things now stand, every man in the 
 West Indies, every one inhabitant of three unoffending prov 
 inces on the continent, every person coming from the East 
 Indies, every gentleman who has travelled for his health or 30 
 education, every mariner who has navigated the seas, is, for 
 
178 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 no other offence, under a temporary proscription. Let any 
 of these facts (now become presumptions of guilt) be proved 
 against him, and the bare suspicion of the crown puts him 
 out of the law. It is even by no means clear to me, whether 
 
 5 the negative proof does not lie upon the person apprehended 
 on suspicion, to the subversion of all justice. 
 
 I have not debated against this bill in its progress through 
 the House ; because it would have been vain to oppose, and 
 impossible to correct it. It is some time since I have been 
 
 10 clearly convinced, that in the present state of things all 
 opposition to any measures proposed by ministers, where 
 the name of America appears, is vain and frivolous. You 
 may be sure that I do not speak of my opposition, which 
 in all circumstances must be so ; but that of men of the 
 
 15 greatest wisdom and authority in the nation. Everything 
 proposed against America is supposed of course to be in 
 favour of Great Britain. Good and ill success are equally 
 admitted as reasons for persevering in the present methods. 
 Several very prudent, and very well-intentioned, persons were 
 
 20 of opinion, that during the prevalence of such dispositions, 
 all struggle rather inflamed than lessened the distemper of 
 the public councils. Finding such resistance to be consid 
 ered as factious by most within-doors, and by very many 
 without, I cannot conscientiously support what is against my 
 
 25 opinion, nor prudently contend with what I know is irresist 
 ible. Preserving my principles unshaken, I reserve my 
 activity for rational endeavours ; and I hope that my past 
 conduct has given sufficient evidence that if I am a single 
 day from my place, it is not owing to indolence or love of 
 
 30 dissipation. The slightest hope of doing good is sufficient 
 to recall me to what I quitted with regret. In declining for 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 179 
 
 some time my usual strict attendance, I do not in the least 
 condemn the spirit of those gentlemen, who, with a just 
 confidence in their abilities, (in which I claim a sort of share 
 from my love and admiration of them,) were of opinion that 
 their exertions in this desperate case might be of some ser- 5 
 vice. They thought, that by contracting the sphere of its 
 application, they might lessen the malignity of an evil prin 
 ciple. Perhaps they were in the right. But when my opin 
 ion was so very clearly to the contrary, for the reasons I 
 have just stated, I am sure my attendance would have been 10 
 ridiculous. 1 
 
 I must add in further explanation of my conduct, that, far 
 from softening the features of such a principle, and thereby 
 removing any part of the popular odium or natural terrors 
 attending it, I should be sorry that anything framed in con- 15 
 tradiction to the spirit of our constitution did not instantly 
 produce, in fact, the grossest of the evils with which it was 
 pregnant in its nature. It is by lying dormant a long time, 
 or being at first very rarely exercised, that arbitrary power 
 steals upon a people. On the next unconstitutional act, all 20 
 the fashionable world will be ready to say Your prophecies 
 are ridiculous, your fears are vain, you see how little of the 
 mischiefs which you formerly foreboded are come to pass. 
 Thus, by degrees, that artful softening of all arbitrary power, 
 the alleged infrequency or narrow extent of its operation, 25 
 will be received as a sort of aphorism and Mr. Hume will 
 not be singular in telling us that the felicity of mankind is 
 no more disturbed by it, than by earthquakes or thunder, or 
 the other more unusual accidents of nature. 
 
 The act of which I speak is among the fruits of the 30 
 American war ; a war in my humble opinion productive of 
 
180 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 many mischiefs, of a kind which distinguish it from all 
 others. Not only our policy is deranged, and our empire 
 distracted, but our laws and our legislative spirit appear to 
 have been totally perverted by it. We have made war on 
 
 5 our colonies, not by arms only, but by laws. As hostility 
 and law are not very concordant ideas, every step we have 
 taken in this business has been made by trampling on some 
 maxim of justice, or some capital principle of wise govern 
 ment. What precedents were established, and what prin- 
 
 10 ciples overturned, (I will not say of English privilege, but 
 of general justice,) in the Boston Port, the Massachusetts 
 Charter, the Military Bill, 1 and all that long array of hostile 
 acts of parliament, by which the war with America has been 
 begun and supported ! Had the principles of any of these 
 
 15 acts been first exerted on English ground, they would prob 
 ably have expired as soon as they touched it. But by being 
 removed from our persons, they have rooted in our laws, 
 and the latest posterity will taste the fruits of them. 
 
 Nor is it the worst effect of this unnatural contention, 
 
 20 that our laws are corrupted. Whilst manners remain entire, 
 they will correct the vices of law, and soften it at length to 
 their own temper. But we have to lament, that in most of 
 the late proceedings we 'see very few traces of that gener 
 osity, humanity, and dignity of mind, which formerly char- 
 
 25 acterized this nation. War suspends the rules of moral 
 obligation, and what is long suspended is in danger of being 
 totally abrogated. Civil wars strike deepest of all into the 
 manners of the people. They vitiate their politics; they 
 corrupt their morals ; they pervert even the natural taste 
 
 30 and relish of equity and justice. By teaching us to consider 
 our fellow-citizens in a hostile light, the whole body of our 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 181 
 
 nation becomes gradually less dear to us. The very names 
 of affection and kindred, which were the bond of charity 
 whilst we agreed, become new incentives to hatred and 
 rage, when the communion of our country is dissolved. We 
 may flatter ourselves that we shall not fall into this misfor- 5 
 tune. But we have no charter of exemption, that I know 
 of, from the ordinary frailties of our nature. 
 
 What but that blindness of heart which arises from the 
 phrensy of civil contention, could have made any persons 
 conceive the present situation of the British affairs as an 10 
 object of triumph to themselves, or of congratulation to 
 their sovereign? Nothing surely could be more lamentable 
 to those who remember the flourishing days of this kingdom, 
 than to see the insane joy of several unhappy people, amidst 
 the sad spectacle which our affairs and conduct exhibit to 15 
 the scorn of Europe. We behold (and it seems some people 
 rejoice in beholding) our native land, which used to sit the 
 envied arbiter of all her neighbours, reduced to a servile 
 dependence on their mercy; acquiescing in assurances of 
 friendship which she does not trust ; complaining of hostil- 20 
 ities which she dares not resent ; deficient to her allies ; lofty 
 to her subjects, and submissive to her enemies; 1 whilst the 
 liberal government of this free nation is supported by the 
 hireling sword of German boors and vassals ; and three mil 
 lions of the subjects of Great Britain are seeking for protec- 25 
 tion to English privileges in the arms of France ! 2 
 
 These circumstances appear to me more like shocking 
 prodigies, than natural changes in human affairs. Men of 
 firmer minds may see them without staggering or astonish 
 ment. Some may think them matters of congratulation and 30 
 complimentary addresses ; but I trust your candour will be 
 
182 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 so indulgent to my weakness, as not to have the worse opin 
 ion of me for my declining to participate in this joy, and 
 my rejecting all share whatsoever in such a triumph. I am 
 too old, too stiff in my inveterate partialities, to be ready at 
 
 5 all the fashionable evolutions of opinion. I scarcely know 
 how to adapt my mind to the feelings with which the court 
 gazettes mean to impress the people. It is not instantly 
 that I can be brought to rejoice, when I hear of the slaughter 
 and captivity of long lists of those names which have been 
 
 10 familiar to my ears from my infancy, and to rejoice that 
 they have fallen under the sword of strangers, whose barbar 
 ous appellations I scarcely know how to pronounce. The 
 glory acquired at the White Plains by Colonel Raille has no 
 charms for me ; and I fairly acknowledge, that I have not 
 
 15 yet learned to delight in finding Fort Kniphausen in the 
 heart of the British dominions. 1 
 
 It might be some consolation for the loss of our old 
 regards, if our reason were enlightened in proportion as 
 our honest prejudices are removed. Wanting feelings for 
 
 20 the honour of our country, we might then in cold blood be 
 brought to think a little of our interests as individual citizens, 
 and our private conscience as moral agents. 
 
 Indeed our affairs are in a bad condition. I do assure 
 those gentlemen who have prayed for war, and have obtained 
 
 25 the blessing they have sought, that they are at this instant 
 in very great straits. The abused wealth of this country 
 continues a little longer to feel its distemper. As yet they, 
 and their German allies of twenty hireling states, 2 have con 
 tended only with the unprepared strength of our own infant 
 
 30 colonies. But America is not subdued. Not one unattacked 
 village which was originally adverse throughout that vast 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 183 
 
 continent, has yet submitted from love or terror. You have 
 the ground you encamp on ; and you have no more. The 
 cantonments of your troops and your dominions are exactly 
 of the same extent. You spread devastation, but you do 
 not enlarge the sphere of authority. 5 
 
 The events of this war are of so much greater magnitude 
 than those who either wished or feared it ever looked for, 
 that this alone ought to fill every considerate mind with 
 anxiety and diffidence. Wise men often tremble at the very 
 things which fill the thoughtless with security. For many 10 
 reasons I do not choose to expose to public view all the 
 particulars of the state in which you stood with regard to 
 foreign powers, during the whole course of the last year. 
 Whether you are yet wholly out of danger from them, is 
 more than I know, or than your rulers can divine. But 15 
 even if I were certain of my safety, I could not easily for 
 give those who had brought me into the most dreadful 
 perils, because by accidents, unforeseen by them or me, I 
 have escaped. 
 
 Believe me, gentlemen, the way still before you is intricate, 20 
 dark, and full of perplexed and treacherous mazes. Those 
 who think they have the clue may lead us out of this laby 
 rinth. We may trust them as amply as we think proper; 
 but as they have most certainly a call for all the reason 
 which their stock can furnish, why should we think it proper 25 
 to disturb its operation by inflaming their passions ? I may 
 be unable to lend an helping hand to those who direct the 
 state ; but I should be ashamed to make myself one of a 
 noisy multitude to halloo and hearten them into doubtful 
 and dangerous courses. A conscientious man would be 30 
 cautious how he dealt in blood. He would feel some ap- 
 
184 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 prehension at being called to a tremendous account for 
 engaging in so deep a play, without any sort of knowledge 
 of the game. It is no excuse for presumptuous ignorance, 
 that it is directed by insolent passion. The poorest being 
 
 5 that crawls on earth, contending to save itself from injustice 
 and oppression, is an object respectable in the eyes of God 
 and man. But I cannot conceive any existence under 
 heaven, (which, in the depths of its wisdom, tolerates all 
 sorts of things,) that is more truly odious and disgusting, 
 
 10 than an impotent, helpless creature, without civil wisdom or 
 military skill, without a consciousness of any other qualifica 
 tion for power but his servility to it, bloated with pride and 
 arrogance, calling for battles which he is not to fight, con 
 tending for a violent dominion which he can never exercise, 
 
 15 and satisfied to be himself mean and miserable, in order to 
 render others contemptible and wretched. 
 
 If you and I find our talents not of the great and ruling 
 kind, our conduct, at least, is conformable to our faculties. 
 No man's life pays the forfeit of our rashness. No desolate 
 
 20 widow weeps tears of blood over our ignorance. Scrupulous 
 and sober in our well-grounded distrust of ourselves, we 
 would keep in the port of peace and security ; and perhaps 
 in recommending to others something of the same diffidence, 
 we should show ourselves more charitable in their welfare, 
 
 25 than injurious to their abilities. 
 
 There are many circumstances in the zeal shown for civil 
 war, which seem to discover but little of real magnanimity. 
 The addressers offer their own persons, and they are satis 
 fied with hiring Germans. They promise their private for- 
 
 30 tunes, and they mortgage their country. They have all the 
 merit of volunteers, without risk of person or charge of con- 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 185 
 
 tribution ; and when the unfeeling arm of a foreign soldiery 
 pours out their kindred blood like water, they exult and tri 
 umph as if they themselves had performed some notable 
 exploit. I am really ashamed of the fashionable language 
 which has been held for some time past ; which, to say the 5 
 best of it, is full of levity. You know that I allude to the 
 general cry against the cowardice of the Americans, as if we 
 despised them for not making the king's soldiery purchase 
 the advantage they have obtained at a dearer rate. 1 It is 
 not, gentlemen, it is not to respect the dispensations of Provi- 10 
 dence, nor to provide any decent retreat in the mutability 
 of human affairs. It leaves no medium between insolent 
 victory and infamous defeat. It tends to alienate our minds 
 farther and farther from our natural regards, and to make 
 an eternal rent and schism in the British nation. Those 15 
 who do not wish for such a separation, would not dissolve 
 that cement of reciprocal esteem and regard, which can 
 alone bind together the parts of this great fabric. It ought 
 to be our wish, as it is our duty, not only to forbear this 
 style of outrage ourselves, but to make every one as sensi- 20 
 ble as we can of the impropriety and unworthiness of the 
 tempers which give rise to it, and which designing men are 
 labouring with such malignant industry to diffuse amongst 
 us. It is our business to counteract them, if possible ; if 
 possible, to awake our natural regards ; and to revive the 25 
 old partiality to the English name. Without something of 
 this kind I do not see how it is ever practicable really to 
 reconcile with those, whose affection, after all, must be the 
 surest hold of our government ; and which is a thousand 
 times more worth to us, than the mercenary zeal of all the 30 
 circles of Germany. 
 
186 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 I can well conceive a country completely overrun, and 
 miserably wasted, without approaching in the least to settle 
 ment. In my apprehension, as long as English government 
 is attempted to be supported over Englishmen by the sword 
 
 5 alone, things will thus continue. I anticipate in my mind 
 the moment of the final triumph of foreign military force. 
 When that hour arrives, (for it may arrive,) then it is, that 
 all this mass of weakness and violence will appear in its full 
 light. If we should be expelled from America, the delusion 
 
 10 of the partisans of military government might still continue. 
 They might still feed their imaginations with the possible 
 good consequences which might have attended success. 
 Nobody could prove the contrary by facts. But in case the 
 sword should do all that the sword can do, the success of 
 
 15 their arms and the defeat of their policy will be one and the 
 same thing. You will never see any revenue from America. 
 Some increase of the means of corruption, without ease of 
 the public burthens, is the very best that can happen. Is it 
 for this that we are at war ; and in such a war ? 
 
 20 As to the difficulties of laying once more the foundations 
 of that government, which, for the sake of conquering what 
 was our own, has been voluntarily and wantonly pulled down 
 by a court faction here, I tremble to look at them. Has any 
 of these gentlemen, who are so eager to govern all mankind, 
 
 25 showed himself possessed of the first qualification towards 
 government, some knowledge of the object, and of the diffi 
 culties which occur in the task they have undertaken ? 
 
 I assure you, that, on the most prosperous issue of your 
 arms, you will not be where you stood, when you called in 
 
 30 war to supply the defects of your political establishment. 
 Nor would any disorder or disobedience to government 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 187 
 
 which could arise from the most abject concession on our 
 part, ever equal those which will be felt, after the most 
 triumphant violence. You have got all the intermediate 
 evils of war into the bargain. 
 
 I think I know America. 1 If I do not, my ignorance is 5 
 incurable, for I have spared no pains to understand it : and 
 I do most solemnly assure those of my constituents who put 
 any sort of confidence in my industry and integrity, that 
 every thing that has been done there has arisen from a total 
 misconception of the object; that our means of originally 10 
 holding America, that our means of reconciling with it after 
 quarrel, of recovering it after separation, of keeping it after 
 victory, did depend, and must depend in their several stages 
 and periods, upon a total renunciation of that unconditional 
 submission, which has taken such possession of the minds 15 
 of violent men. The whole of those maxims, upon which 
 we have made and continued this war, must be abandoned. 
 Nothing indeed (for I would not deceive you) can place us 
 in our former situation. That hope must be laid aside. 
 But there is a difference between bad and the worst of all. 20 
 Terms relative to the cause of the war ought to be offered 
 by the authority of parliament. An arrangement at home 
 promising some security for them ought to be made. By 
 doing this, without the least impairing of our strength, we 
 add to the credit of our moderation, which, in itself, is 25 
 always strength more or less. 
 
 I know many have been taught to think, that moderation, 
 in a case like this, is a sort of treason ; and that all argu 
 ments for it are sufficiently answered by railing at rebels and 
 rebellion, and by charging all the present or future miseries, 30 
 which we may suffer, on the resistance of our brethren. But 
 
188 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 I would wish them, in this grave matter, and if peace is not 
 wholly removed from their hearts, to consider seriously, first, 
 that to criminate and recriminate never yet was the road to 
 reconciliation, in any difference amongst men. In the next 
 
 5 place, it would be right to reflect, that the American English 
 (whom they may abuse, if they think it honourable to revile 
 the absent) can, as things now stand, neither be provoked 
 at our railing, nor bettered by our instruction. All com 
 munication is cut off between us, 1 but this we know with cer- 
 
 10 tainty, that, though we cannot reclaim them, we may reform 
 ourselves. If measures of peace are necessary, they must 
 begin somewhere ; and a conciliatory temper must precede 
 and prepare every plan of reconciliation. Nor do I con 
 ceive that we suffer anything by thus regulating our own 
 
 15 minds. We are not disarmed by being disencumbered of 
 our passions. Declaiming on rebellion never added a bayo 
 net, or a charge of powder, to your military force ; but I am 
 afraid that it has been the means of taking up many muskets 
 against you. 
 
 20 This outrageous language, which has been encouraged and 
 kept alive by every art, has already done incredible mischief. 
 For a long time, even amidst the desolations of war, and the 
 insults of hostile laws daily accumulated on one another, the 
 American leaders seem to have had the greatest difficulty in 
 25 bringing up their people to a declaration of total independ 
 ence. 2 But the court gazette accomplished what the abettors 
 of independence had attempted in vain. When that disin 
 genuous compilation, and strange medley of railing and flat 
 tery, was adduced as a proof of the united sentiments of the 
 
 3 o people of Great Britain, there was a great change through 
 out all America. The tide of popular affection, which had 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 189 
 
 still set towards the parent country, begun immediately to 
 turn, and to flow with great rapidity in a contrary course. 
 Far from concealing these wild declarations of enmity, the 
 author of the celebrated pamphlet, which prepared the minds 
 of the people for independence, insist largely on the multi- 5 
 tude and the spirit of these addresses ; and he draws an 
 argument from them, which (if the fact was as he supposes) 
 must be irresistible. For I never knew a writer on the 
 theory of government so partial to authority as not to allow, 
 that the hostile mind of the rulers to their people did fully 10 
 justify a change of government ; nor can any reason what 
 ever be given, why one people should voluntarily yield any 
 degree of pre-eminence to another, but on a supposition of 
 great affection and benevolence towards them. Unfortunately 
 your rulers, trusting to other things, took no notice of this 15 
 great principle of connexion. From the beginning of this 
 affair, they have done all they could to alienate your minds 
 from your own kindred ; and if they could excite hatred 
 enough in one of the parties towards the other, they seemed 
 to be of opinion that they had gone half the way towards 20 
 reconciling the quarrel. 
 
 I know it is said, that your kindness is only alienated on 
 account of their resistance ; and therefore if the colonies 
 surrender at discretion, all sort of regard, and even much 
 indulgence, is meant towards them in future. But can those 25 
 who are partisans for continuing a war to enforce such a sur 
 render be responsible (after all that has passed) for such a 
 future use of a power, that is bound by no compacts, and 
 restrained by no terror? Will they tell us what they call 
 indulgences ? Do they not at this instant call the present 30 
 war, and all its horrors, a lenient and merciful proceeding? - 
 
190 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 No conqueror, that I ever heard of, has professed to make 
 a cruel, harsh, and insolent use of his conquest. No ! The 
 man of the most declared pride scarcely dares to trust his 
 own heart with this dreadful secret of ambition. But it will 
 
 5 appear in its time ; and no man, who professes to reduce 
 another to the insolent mercy of a foreign arm, ever had any 
 sort of good-will towards him. The profession of kindness, 
 with that sword in his hand, and that demand of surrender, 
 is one of the most provoking acts of his hostility. I shall be 
 
 10 told, that all this is lenient as against rebellious adversaries. 
 But are the leaders of their faction more lenient to those 
 who submit? Lord Howe and General Howe have powers, 
 under an act of parliament, to restore to the king's peace 
 and to free trade any men, or district, which shall submit. 1 
 
 15 Is this done? We have been over and over informed by 
 the authorized gazette, that the city of New York, and the 
 countries of Staten and Long Island, have submitted volun 
 tarily and cheerfully, and that many are very full of zeal to 
 the cause of administration. Were they instantly restored 
 
 20 to trade ? Are they yet restored to it ? Is not the benig 
 nity of two commissioners, naturally most humane and gener 
 ous men, some way fettered by instructions, equally against 
 their dispositions and spirit of parliamentary faith ; when 
 Mr. Tryon, vaunting of the fidelity of the city in which he is 
 
 25 governor, is obliged to apply to ministry for leave to protect 
 the king's loyal subjects, and to grant to them (not the dis 
 puted rights and privileges of freedom) but the common 
 rights of men, by the name of graces ? Why do not the 
 commissioners restore them on the spot? Were they not 
 
 30 named as commissioners for that express purpose ? But we 
 see well enough to what the whole leads. The trade of 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 191 
 
 America is to be dealt out m private indulgences and graces ; l 
 that is, in jobs to recompense the incendiaries of war. They 
 will be informed of the proper time in which to send out their 
 merchandise. From a national, the American trade is to be 
 turned into a personal monopoly : and one set of merchants 5 
 are to be rewarded for the pretended zeal, of which another 
 set are the dupes ; and thus, between craft and credulity, 
 the voice of reason is stifled ; and all the misconduct, all 
 the calamities of the war are covered and continued. 
 
 If I had not lived long enough to be little surprised at 10 
 anything, I should have been in some degree astonished at 
 the continued rage of several gentlemen, who, not satisfied 
 with carrying fire and sword into America, are animated 
 nearly with the same fury against those neighbours of theirs, 
 whose only crime it is, that they have charitably and hu- 15 
 manely wished them to entertain more reasonable senti 
 ments, and not always to sacrifice their interest to their 
 passion. All this rage against unresisting dissent convinces 
 me, that, at bottom, they are far from satisfied they are in 
 the right. For what is it they would have ? A war ? They 20 
 certainly have at this moment the blessing of something 
 that is very like one ; and if the war they enjoy at present 
 be not sufficiently hot and extensive, they may shortly have 
 it as warm and as spreading as their hearts can desire. 2 Is 
 it the force pf the kingdom they call for? They have it 25 
 already ; and: if they choose to fight their battles in their 
 own person, nobody prevents their setting sail to America 
 in the next transports. Do they think, that the service is 
 stinted for- want of liberal supplies ? Indeed they complain 
 without reason... The table of the House of Commons will 30 
 glut them, let their appetite for expense be never so keen. 
 
192 .ETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 And I assure them further, that those who think with them 
 in the House of Commons are full as easy in the control, as 
 they are liberal in the vote, of these expenses. If this be 
 not supply or confidence sufficient, let them open their own 
 
 5 private purse-strings, and give, from what is left to them, as 
 largely and with as little care as they think proper. 
 
 Tolerated in their passions, let them learn not to persecute 
 the moderation of their fellow-citizens. If all the world 
 joined them in a full cry against rebellion, and were as hotly 
 
 10 inflamed against the whole theory and enjoyment of free 
 dom, as those who are the most factious for servitude, it 
 could not in my opinion answer any one end whatsoever in 
 this contest. The leaders of this war could not hire (to 
 gratify their friends) one German more than they do ; or 
 
 15 inspire him with less feeling for the persons, or less value for 
 the privileges, of their revolted brethren. If we all adopted 
 their sentiments to a man, their allies, the savage Indians, 
 could not be more ferocious than they are : they could not 
 murder one more helpless woman or child, or with more 
 
 20 exquisite refinements of cruelty torment to death one more 
 of their English flesh and blood, than they do already. The 
 public money is given to purchase this alliance ; and they 
 have their bargain. 
 
 They are continually boasting of unanimity ; or calling for 
 
 25 it. But before this unanimity can be matter either of wish 
 or congratulation, we ought to be pretty sure that we are 
 engaged in a rational pursuit. Phrensy does not become a 
 slighter distemper on account of the number of those who 
 may be infected with it. Delusion and weakness produce 
 
 30 not one mischief the less, because they are universal. I 
 declare, that I cannot discern the least advantage which 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 193 
 
 could accrue to us, if we were able to persuade our colonies 
 that they had not a single friend in Great Britain. On the 
 contrary, if the affections and opinions of mankind be not 
 exploded as principles of connexion, I conceive it would be 
 happy for us if they were taught to believe, that there was 5 
 even a formed American party in England, to whom they 
 could always look for support ! Happy would it be for us, 
 if, in all tempers, they might turn their eyes to the parent 
 state ; so that their very turbulence and sedition should find . 
 vent in no other place than this. I believe there is not a 10 
 man (except those who prefer the interest of some paltry 
 faction to the very being of their country) who would not 
 wish that the Americans should from time to time carry 
 many points, and even some of them not quite reasonable 
 by the aid of any denomination of men here, rather than 15 
 they should be driven to seek for protection against the fury 
 of foreign mercenaries, and the waste of savages, in the arms 
 of France. 
 
 When any community is subordinately connected with 
 another, the great danger of the connexion is the extreme 20 
 pride and self-complacency of the superior, which in all 
 matters of controversy will probably decide in its own favour. 
 It is a powerful corrective to such a very rational cause of 
 fear, if the inferior body can be made to believe, that the 
 party inclination, or political views, of several in the prin- 25 
 cipal state, will induce them in some degree to counteract 
 this blind and tyrannical partiality. There is no danger that 
 any one acquiring consideration or power in the presiding 
 state should carry this learning to the inferior too far. The 
 fault of human nature is not of that sort. Power, in what- 3 o 
 ever hands, is rarely guilty of too strict limitations on itself, 
 
194 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 But one great advantage to the support of authority attends 
 such an amicable and protecting connexion, that those who 
 have conferred favours obtain influence ; and from the fore 
 sight of future events can persuade men, who have received 
 
 5 obligations, sometimes to return them. Thus by the media 
 tion of those healing principles, (call them good or evil,) 
 troublesome discussions are brought to some sort of adjust 
 ment ; and every hot controversy is not a civil war. 
 
 But, if the colonies (to bring the general matter home to 
 
 10 us) could see, that, in Great Britain, the mass of the people 
 is melted into its government, and that every dispute with 
 the ministry must of necessity be always a quarrel with the 
 nation ; they can stand no longer in the equal and friendly 
 relation of fellow- citizens to the subjects of this kingdom. 
 
 15 Humble as this relation may appear to some, when it is once 
 broken, a strong tie is dissolved. Other sort of connexions 
 will be sought. For, there are very few in the world, who 
 will not prefer a useful ally to an insolent master. 
 
 Such discord has been the effect of the unanimity into 
 
 20 which so many have of late been seduced or bullied, or into 
 the appearance of which they have sunk through mere de 
 spair. They have been told that their dissent from violent 
 measures is an encouragement to rebellion. Men of great 
 presumption and little knowledge will hold a language which 
 
 25 is contradicted by the whole course of history. General 
 rebellions and revolts of a whole people never were encour 
 aged, now or at any time. They are always provoked. But 
 if this unheard-of doctrine of the encouragement of rebellion 
 were true, if it were true that an assurance of the friendship 
 
 30 of numbers in this country towards the colonies could become 
 an encouragement to them to break off all connexion with 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 195 
 
 it, what is the inference? Does anybody seriously main 
 tain, that, charged with my share of the public councils, I 
 am obliged not to resist projects which I think mischievous, 
 lest men who suffer should be encouraged to resist ? The 
 very tendency of such projects to produce rebellion is one 5 
 of the chief reasons against them. Shall that reason not be 
 given? Is it then a rule, that no man in this nation shall 
 open his mouth in favour of the colonies, shall defend their 
 rights, or complain of their sufferings ? Or when war finally 
 breaks out, no man shall express his desires of peace ? Has 10 
 this been the law of our past, or is it to be the terms of our 
 future connexion? Even looking no farther than ourselves, 
 can it be true loyalty to any government, or true patriotism 
 towards any country, to degrade their solemn councils into 
 servile drawing-rooms, to flatter their pride and passions, 15 
 rather than to enlighten their reason, and to prevent them 
 from being cautioned against violence lest others should be 
 encouraged to resistance ? By such acquiescence great kings 
 and mighty nations have been undone ; and if any are at this 
 day in a perilous situation from resisting truth, and listening 20 
 to flattery, it would rather become them to reform the errors 
 under which they suffer, than to reproach those who fore 
 warned them of their danger. 
 
 But the rebels looked for assistance from this country. 
 They did so, in the beginning of this controversy, most cer- 25 
 tainly ; and they sought it by earnest supplications to gov 
 ernment, which dignity rejected, and by a suspension of 
 commerce, which the wealth of this nation enabled you to 
 despise. When they found that neither prayers nor menaces 
 had any sort of weight, but that a firm resolution was taken 30 
 to reduce them to unconditional obedience by a military 
 
196 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 force, they came to the last extremity. Despairing of us, 
 they trusted in themselves. Not strong enough themselves, 
 they sought succour in France. In proportion as all en 
 couragement here lessened, their distance from this country 
 
 5 increased. The encouragement is over; the alienation is 
 complete. 1 
 
 In order to produce this favourite unanimity in delusion, 
 and to prevent all possibility of a return to our ancient 
 happy concord, arguments for our continuance in this course 
 
 10 are drawn from the wretched situation itself into which we 
 have been betrayed. It is said, that being at war with the 
 colonies, whatever our sentiments might have been before, 
 all ties between us are now dissolved ; and all the policy we 
 have left is to strengthen the hands of government to reduce 
 
 15 them. On the principle of this argument, the more mis 
 chiefs we suffer from any administration, the more our trust 
 in it is to be confirmed. Let them but once get us into 
 a war, and then their power is safe, and an act of oblivion 
 passed for all their misconduct. 
 
 20 But is it really true, that government is always to be 
 strengthened with the instruments of war, but never fur 
 nished with the means of peace ? In former times, minis 
 ters, I allow, have been sometimes driven by the popular 
 voice to assert by arms the national honour against foreign 
 
 25 powers. But the wisdom of the nation has been far more 
 clear, when those ministers have been compelled to consult 
 its interest by treaty. We all know that the sense of the 
 nation obliged the court of King Charles the Second to 
 abandon the Dutch war; a war next to the present the 
 
 30 most impolitic which we ever carried on. The good people 
 of England considered Holland as a sort of dependency on 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 197 
 
 this kingdom ; they dreaded to drive it to the protection, 
 or subject it to the power of France, by their own incon 
 siderate hostility. They paid but little respect to the court 
 jargon of that day ; nor were they inflamed by the pre 
 tended rivalship of the Dutch in trade ; by their massacre 5 
 at Amboyna, 1 acted on the stage to provoke the public ven 
 geance ; nor by declamations against the ingratitude of the 
 United Provinces for the benefits England had conferred 
 upon them in their infant state. They were not moved from 
 their evident interest by all these arts ; nor was it enough to 10 
 tell them, they were at war ; that they must go through with 
 it ; and that the cause of the dispute was lost in the conse 
 quences. The people of England were then, as they are 
 now, called upon to make government strong. They thought 
 it a great deal better to make it wise and honest. 15 
 
 When I was amongst my constituents at the last summer 
 assizes, I remember that men of all descriptions did then 
 express a very strong desire for peace, and no slight hopes 
 of attaining it from the commission sent out by my Lord 
 Howe. And it is not a little remarkable, that, in proportion 20 
 as every person showed a zeal for the court measures, he 
 was then earnest in circulating an opinion of the extent of 
 the supposed powers of that commission. When I told 
 them that Lord Howe had no powers to treat, or to promise 
 satisfaction on any point whatsoever of the controversy, I 25 
 was hardly credited ; so strong and general was the desire of 
 terminating this war by the method of accommodation. As 
 far as I could discover, this was the temper then prevalent 
 through the kingdom. The king's forces, it must be ob 
 served, had at that time been obliged to evacuate Boston. 3 o 
 The superiority of the former campaign rested wholly with 
 
198 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 the colonists. If such powers of treaty were to be wished, 
 whilst success was very doubtful, how came they to be less 
 so, since his Majesty's arms have been crowned with many 
 considerable advantages ? Have these successes induced us 
 
 5 to alter our mind ; as thinking the season of victory not the 
 time for treating with honour or advantage? Whatever 
 changes have happened in the national character, it can 
 scarcely be our wish, that terms of accommodation never 
 should be proposed to our enemy, except when they must 
 
 10 be attributed solely to our fears. It has happened, let me 
 say unfortunately, that we read of his Majesty's commission 
 for making peace, and his troops evacuating his last town 
 in the thirteen colonies, at the same hour and in the same 
 gazette. 1 It was still more unfortunate, that no commission 
 
 15 went to America to settle the troubles there, until several 
 months after an act had been passed to put the colonies out 
 of the protection of this government, and to divide their 
 trading property, without a possibility of restitution, as spoil 
 among the seamen of the navy. The most abject submission 
 
 20 on the part of the colonies could not redeem them. There 
 was no man on that whole continent, or within three thou 
 sand miles of it, qualified by law to follow allegiance with 
 protection, or submission with pardon. A proceeding of this 
 kind has no example in history. Independency, and inde- 
 
 25 pendency with an enmity, (which putting ourselves out of 
 the question, would be called natural and much provoked,) 
 was the inevitable consequence. How this came to pass, 
 the nation may be one day in an humour to inquire. 
 
 All the attempts made this session to give fuller powers of 
 
 3 o peace to the commanders in America, were stifled by the 
 fatal confidence of victory, and the wild hopes of uncon- 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 199 
 
 ditional submission. There was a moment favourable to the 
 king's arms, when if any powers of concession had existed 
 on the other side of the Atlantic, even after all our errors, 
 peace in all probability might have been restored. 1 But 
 calamity is unhappily the usual season of reflection ; and 5 
 the pride of men will not often suffer reason to have any 
 scope until it can be no longer of service. 
 
 I have always wished, that as the dispute had its apparent 
 origin from things done in parliament, and as the acts passed 
 there had provoked the war, that the foundations of peace 10 
 should be laid in parliament also. I have been astonished 
 to find, that those, whose zeal for the dignity of our body 
 was so hot as to light up the flames of civil war, should even 
 publicly declare, that these delicate points ought to be wholly 
 left to the crown. Poorly as I may be thought affected to 15 
 the authority of parliament, I shall never admit that our 
 constitutional rights can ever become a matter of ministerial 
 negotiation. 
 
 I am charged with being an American. If warm affection 
 towards those over whom I claim any share of authority be 20 
 a crime, I am guilty of this charge. But I do assure you, 
 (and they who know me publicly and privately will bear wit 
 ness to me,) that if ever one man lived more zealous than 
 another for the supremacy of parliament, and the rights of 
 this imperial crown, it was myself. Many others indeed 25 
 might be more knowing in the extent of the foundation of 
 these rights. I do not pretend to be an antiquary, a lawyer, 
 or qualified for the chair of professor in metaphysics. I 
 never ventured to put your solid interests upon speculative 
 grounds. 2 My having constantly declined to do so has been 30 
 attributed to my incapacity for such disquisitions ; and I am 
 
200 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 inclined to believe it is partly the cause. I never shall be 
 ashamed to confess, that where I am ignorant I am diffident. 
 I am indeed not very solicitous to clear myself of this imputed 
 incapacity ; because men, even less conversant than I am in 
 
 5 this kind of subtleties, and placed in stations to which I ought 
 not to aspire, have, by the mere force of civil discretion, often 
 conducted the affairs of great nations with distinguished 
 felicity and glory. 
 
 When I first came into a public trust, I found your parlia- 
 
 10 ment in possession of an unlimited legislative power over the 
 colonies. 1 I could not open the statute book without seeing 
 the actual exercise of it, more or less, in all cases what 
 soever. This possession passed with me for a title. It does 
 so in all human affairs. No man examines into the defects 
 
 15 of his title to his paternal estate, or to his established gov 
 ernment. Indeed common sense taught me, that a legisla 
 tive authority, not actually limited by the express terms of 
 its foundation, or by its own subsequent acts, cannot have 
 its powers parcelled out by argumentative distinctions, so as 
 
 20 to enable us to say, that here they can, and there they can 
 not, bind. Nobody was so obliging as to produce to me 
 any record of such distinctions, by. compact or otherwise, 
 either at the successive formation of the several colonies, or 
 during the existence of any of them. If any gentlemen 
 
 25 were able to see how one power could be given up (merely 
 on abstract reasoning) without giving up the rest, I can only 
 say, that they saw farther than I could ; nor did I ever pre 
 sume to condemn any one for being clear-sighted, when I 
 was blind. I praise the penetration and learning ; and hope 
 
 30 that their practice has been correspondent to their theory. 
 I had indeed very earnest wishes to keep the whole body 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 201 
 
 of this authority perfect and entire as I found it : and to 
 keep it so, not for our advantage solely ; but principally for 
 the sake of those, on whose account all just authority exists ; 
 I mean the people to be governed. For I thought I saw, 
 that many cases might well happen, in which the exercise of 5 
 every power comprehended in the broadest idea of legisla 
 ture, might become, in its time and circumstances, not a little 
 expedient for the peace and union of the colonies amongst 
 themselves, as well as for their perfect harmony with Great 
 Britain. Thinking so, (perhaps erroneously,) but being hon- 10 
 estly of that opinion, I was at the same time very sure, that 
 the authority, of which I was so jealous, could not under the 
 actual circumstances of our plantations be at all preserved 
 in any of its members, but by the greatest reserve in its 
 application ; particularly in those delicate points, in which 15 
 the feelings of mankind are the most irritable. They who 
 thought otherwise, have found a few more difficulties in their 
 work than (I hope) they were thoroughly aware of, when 
 they undertook the present business. I must beg leave to 
 observe, that it is not only the invidious branch of taxation 20 
 that will be resisted, but that no other given part of legisla 
 tive rights can be exercised, without regard to the general 
 opinion of those who are to be governed. That general 
 opinion is the vehicle and organ of legislative omnipotence. 
 Without this, it may be a theory to entertain the mind, but 25 
 it is nothing in the direction of affairs. The completeness 
 of the legislative authority of parliament over this kingdom 
 is not questioned ; and yet many things indubitably included 
 in the abstract idea of that power, and which carry no abso 
 lute injustice in themselves, yet being contrary to the opin- 3 o 
 ions and feelings of the people, can as little be exercised, as 
 
202 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 if parliament in that case had been possessed of no right at 
 all. I see no abstract reason, which can be given, why the 
 same power, which made and repealed the High-Commission 
 Court and the Star-Chamber, might not revive them again; 1 
 
 5 and these courts, warned by their former fate, might possi 
 bly exercise their powers with some degree of justice. But 
 the madness would be as unquestionable, as the competence 
 of that parliament which should attempt such things. If 
 anything can be supposed out of the power of human legis- 
 
 10 lature, it is religion : I admit, however, that the established 
 religion of this country has been three or four times altered 
 by act of parliament; and therefore that a statute binds 
 even in that case. But we may very safely affirm, that, not 
 withstanding this apparent omnipotence, it would be now 
 
 15 found as impossible for king and parliament to alter the 
 established religion of this country, as it was to King James 
 alone, when he attempted to make such an alteration without 
 a parliament. In effect, to follow, not to force the public 
 inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, 
 
 20 and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the commu 
 nity, is the true end of legislature. 
 
 It is so with regard to the exercise of all the powers which 
 our constitution knows in any of its parts, and indeed to the 
 substantial existence of any of the parts themselves. The 
 
 25 king's negative to bills is one of the most indisputed of the 
 royal prerogatives ; and it extends to all cases whatsoever. 
 I am far from certain, that if several laws which I know had 
 fallen under the stroke of that sceptre, that the public would 
 have had a very heavy loss. But it is not the propriety of 
 
 30 the exercise which is in question. The exercise itself is 
 wisely forborne. Its repose may be the preservation of its 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 203 
 
 existence ; and its existence may be the means of saving 
 the constitution itself, on an occasion worthy of bringing it 
 forth. As the disputants, whose accurate and logical rea 
 sonings have brought us into our present condition, think it 
 absurd, that powers or members of any constitution should 5 
 exist, rarely or never to be exercised, I hope I shall be ex 
 cused in mentioning another instance, that is material. We 
 know, that the Convocation of the Clergy l had formerly been 
 called, and sat with nearly as much regularity to business as 
 parliament itself. It is now called for form only. It sits J0 
 for the purpose of making some polite ecclesiastical compli 
 ments to the king ; and, when that grace is said, retires and 
 is heard of no more. It is however a part of the constitution, 
 and may be called out into act and energy, whenever there 
 is occasion ; and whenever those, who conjure up that spirit, 15 
 will choose to abide the consequences. It is wise to permit 
 its legal existence ; it is much wiser to continue it a legal 
 existence only. So truly has prudence (constituted as the 
 god of this lower world) the entire dominion over every 
 exercise of power committed into its hands ; and yet I have 20 
 lived to see prudence and conformity to circumstances wholly 
 set at nought in our late controversies, and treated as if they 
 were the most contemptible and irrational of all things. I 
 have heard it a hundred times very gravely alleged, that in 
 order to keep power in wind, it was necessary, by prefer- 25 
 ence, to exert it in those very points in which it was most 
 likely to be resisted, and the least likely to be productive of 
 any advantage. 
 
 These were the considerations, gentlemen, which led me 
 early to think, that, in the comprehensive dominion which 30 
 the Divine Providence had put into our hands, instead of 
 
204 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 troubling our understandings with speculations concerning 
 the unity of empire, and the identity or distinction of legis 
 lative powers, and inflaming our passions with the heat and 
 pride of controversy, it was our duty, in all soberness, to 
 
 5 conform our government to the character and circumstances 
 of the several people who composed this mighty and strangely 
 diversified mass. I never was wild enough to conceive, that 
 one method would serve for the whole ; that the natives of 
 Hindostan and those of Virginia could be ordered in the 
 
 10 same manner ; or that the Cutchery court l and the grand 
 jury of Salem could be regulated on a similar plan. I was 
 persuaded that government was a practical thing, made for 
 the happiness of mankind, and not to furnish out a spectacle 
 of uniformity, to gratify the schemes of visionary politicians. 
 
 15 Our business was to rule, not to wrangle ; and it would have 
 been a poor compensation that we had triumphed in a dis 
 pute, whilst we lost an empire. 
 
 If there be one fact in the world perfectly clear it is this : 
 "That the disposition of* the people of America is wholly 
 
 20 averse to any other than a free government;" and this is 
 indication enough to any honest statesman, how he ought to 
 adapt whatever power he finds in his hands to their case. 
 If any ask me what a free government is, I answer, that, for 
 any practical purpose, it is what the people think so ; and 
 
 25 that they, and not I, are the natural, lawful, and competent 
 judges of this matter. If they practically allow me a greater 
 degree of authority over them than is consistent with any 
 correct ideas of perfect freedom, I ought to thank them for 
 so great a trust, and not to endeavour to prove from thence, 
 
 30 that they have reasoned amiss, and that having gone so far, 
 by analogy, they must hereafter have no enjoyment but by 
 my pleasure. 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 205 
 
 If we had seen this done by any others, we should have 
 concluded them far gone in madness. It is melancholy as 
 well as ridiculous, to observe the kind of reasoning with 
 which the public has been amused, in order to divert our 
 minds from the common sense of our American policy. 5 
 There are people, who have split and anatomized the doc 
 trine of free government, as if it were an abstract question 
 concerning metaphysical liberty and necessity ; and not a 
 matter of moral prudence and natural feeling. They have 
 disputed, whether liberty be a positive or a negative idea ; 10 
 whether it does not consist in being governed by laws, with 
 out considering what are the laws, or who are the makers ; 
 whether man has any rights by nature ; and whether all the 
 property he enjoys be not the alms of his government, and 
 his life itself their favour and indulgence. Others, corrupt- 15 
 ing religion, as these have perverted philosophy, contend, 
 that Christians are redeemed into captivity ; and the blood 
 of the Saviour of mankind has been shed to make them 
 the slaves of a few proud and insolent sinners. These 
 shocking extremes provoking to extremes of another kind, 20 
 speculations are let loose as destructive to all authority, as 
 the former are to all freedom; and every government is 
 called tyranny and usurpation which is not formed on their 
 fancies. In this manner the stirrers-up of this contention, 
 not satisfied with distracting our dependencies and filling 25 
 them with blood and slaughter, are corrupting our under 
 standings : they are endeavouring to tear up, along with 
 practical liberty, all the foundations of human society, all 
 equity and justice, religion and order. 
 
 Civil freedom, gentlemen, is not, as many have endeav- 30 
 cured to persuade you, a thing that lies hid in the depth of 
 
206 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 abstruse science. It is a blessing and a benefit, not an 
 abstract speculation ; and all the just reasoning that can be 
 upon it is of so coarse a texture, as perfectly to suit the 
 ordinary capacities of those who are to enjoy, and of those 
 
 5 who are to defend it. Far from any resemblance to those 
 propositions in geometry and metaphysics, which admit no 
 medium, but must be true or false in all their latitude ; 
 social and civil freedom, like all other things in common life, 
 are variously mixed and modified, enjoyed in very different 
 
 10 degrees, and shaped into an infinite diversity of forms, ac 
 cording to the temper and circumstances of every commu 
 nity. The extreme of liberty (which is its abstract perfection, 
 but its real fault) obtains nowhere, nor ought to obtain any 
 where. Because extremes, as we all know, in every point 
 
 15 which relates either to our duties or satisfactions in life, are 
 destructive both to virtue and enjoyment. 1 Liberty too must 
 be limited in order to be possessed. The degree of restraint 
 it is impossible in any case to settle precisely. But it ought 
 to be the constant aim of every wise public council, to find 
 
 20 out by cautious experiments, and rational, cool endeavours, 
 with how little, not how much, of this restraint, the com 
 munity can subsist. For liberty is a good to be improved, 
 and not an evil to be lessened. It is not only a private 
 blessing of the first order, but the vital spring and energy of 
 
 25 the state itself, which has just so much life and vigour as 
 there is liberty in it. But whether liberty be advantageous 
 or not, (for I know it is a fashion to decry the very prin 
 ciple,) none will dispute that peace is a blessing ; and peace 
 must in the course of human affairs be frequently bought by 
 
 30 some indulgence and toleration at least to liberty. For as 
 the sabbath (though of Divine institution) was made for 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 207 
 
 man, not man for the sabbath, government, which can claim 
 no higher origin or authority, in its exercise at least, ought 
 to conform to the exigences of the time, and the temper 
 and character of the people, with whom it is concerned ; 
 and not always to attempt violently to bend the people to 5 
 their theories of subjection. The bulk of mankind on their 
 part are not excessively curious concerning any theories, 
 whilst they are really happy and one sure symptom of an 
 ill-conducted state is the propensity of the people to resort 
 to them. 10 
 
 But when subjects, by a long course of such ill conduct, 
 are once thoroughly inflamed, and the state itself violently 
 distempered, the people must have some satisfaction to their 
 feelings more solid than a sophistical speculation on law and 
 government. Such was our situation ; and such a satisfac- 15 
 tion was necessary to prevent recourse to arms ; it was 
 necessary towards laying them down ; it will be necessary to 
 prevent the taking them up again and again. Of what nature 
 this satisfaction ought to be, I wish it had been the disposi 
 tion of parliament seriously to consider. It was certainly a 2 o 
 deliberation that called for the exertion of all their wisdom. 
 
 I am, and ever have been, deeply sensible of the difficulty 
 of reconciling the strong presiding power, that is so useful 
 towards the conservation of a vast, disconnected, infinitely 
 diversified empire, with that liberty and safety of the prov- 25 
 inces, which they must enjoy, (in opinion and practice at 
 least,) or they will not be provinces at all. I know, and 
 have long felt, the difficulty of reconciling the unwieldy 
 haughtiness of a great ruling nation, habituated to command, 
 pampered by enormous wealth, and confident from a long 30 
 course of prosperity and victory, to the high spirit of free 
 
208 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 dependencies, animated with the first glow and activity of 
 juvenile heat, and assuming to themselves, as their birth 
 right, some part of that very pride which oppresses them. 
 They who perceive no difficulty in reconciling these tem- 
 
 5 pers, (which however to make peace must some way or other 
 be reconciled,) are much above my capacity, or much below 
 the magnitude of the business. Of one thing I am perfectly 
 clear, that it is not by deciding the suit, but by compromis 
 ing the difference, that peace can be restored or kept. They 
 
 10 who would put an end to such quarrels, by declaring roundly 
 in favour of the whole demands of either party, have mis 
 taken, in my humble opinion, the office of a mediator. 
 
 The war is now of full two years' standing ; the contro 
 versy, of many more. In different periods of the dispute, 
 
 15 different methods of reconciliation were to be pursued. I 
 mean to trouble you with a short state of things at the most 
 important of these periods, in order to give you a more dis 
 tinct idea of our policy with regard to this most delicate of 
 all objects. The colonies were from the beginning subject 
 
 20 to the legislature of Great Britain, on principles which they 
 never examined ; and we permitted to them many local 
 privileges, without asking how they agreed with that legisla 
 tive authority. Modes of administration were formed in an 
 insensible and very unsystematic manner. But they gradu- 
 
 25 ally adapted themselves to the varying condition of things. 
 What was first a single kingdom, stretched into an empire ; 
 and an imperial superintendency, of some kind or other, 
 became necessary. Parliament, from a mere representative 
 of the people, and a guardian of popular privileges for its 
 
 30 own immediate constituents, grew into a mighty sovereign. 
 Instead of being a control on the crown on its own behalf, 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 209 
 
 it communicated a sort of strength to the royal authority ; 
 which was wanted for the conservation of a new object, but 
 which could not be safely trusted to the crown alone. On 
 the other hand, the colonies, advancing by equal steps, and 
 governed by the same necessity, had formed within them- 5 
 selves, either by royal instruction or royal charter, assemblies 
 so exceedingly resembling a parliament, in all their forms, 
 functions, and powers, that it was impossible they should 
 not imbibe some opinion of a similar authority. 1 
 
 At the first designation of these assemblies, they were 10 
 probably not intended for anything more, (nor perhaps did 
 they think themselves much higher,) than the municipal cor 
 porations within this island, to which some at present love 
 to compare them. But nothing in progression can rest on 
 its original plan. We may as well think of rocking a grown 15 
 man in the cradle of an infant. Therefore as the colonies 
 prospered and increased to a numerous and mighty people, 
 spreading over a very great tract of the globe ; it was natural 
 that they should attribute to assemblies, so respectable in 
 their formal constitution, some part of the dignity of the 20 
 great nations which they represented. No longer tied to by 
 laws, these assemblies made acts of all sorts and in all cases 
 whatsoever. They levied money, not for parochial purposes, 
 but upon regular grants to the crown, following all the rules 
 and principles of a parliament to which they approached 25 
 every day more and more nearly. Those who think them 
 selves wiser than Providence, and stronger than the course 
 of nature, may complain of all this variation, on the one side 
 or the other, as their several humours and prejudices may 
 lead them. But things could not be otherwise ; and English 30 
 colonies must be had on these terms, or not had at all. In 
 
210 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 the mean time, neither party felt any inconvenience from 
 this double legislature, to which they had been formed by 
 imperceptible habits, and old custom, the great support of 
 all the governments in the world. Though these two legis- 
 
 5 latures were sometimes found perhaps performing the very 
 same functions, they did not very grossly or systematically 
 clash. In all likelihood this arose from mere neglect ; pos 
 sibly from the natural operation of things, which, left to 
 themselves, generally fall into their proper order. But what- 
 
 10 ever was the cause, it is certain that a regular revenue, by the 
 authority of parliament, for the support of civil and military 
 establishments, seems not to have been thought of until the 
 colonies were too proud to submit, too strong to be forced, 
 too enlightened not to see all the consequences which must 
 
 15 arise from such a system. 
 
 If ever this scheme of taxation was to be pushed against 
 the inclinations of the people, it was evident that discussions 
 must arise, which would let loose all the elements that com 
 posed this double constitution ; would show how much each 
 
 20 of their members had departed from its original principles ; 
 
 and would discover contradictions in each legislature, as 
 
 well to its own first principles as to its relation to the other, 
 
 very difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to be reconciled. 
 
 Therefore at the first fatal opening of this contest, the 
 
 25 wisest course seemed to be to put an end as soon as possi 
 ble to the immediate causes of the dispute ; and to quiet a 
 discussion, not easily settled upon clear principles, and aris 
 ing from claims, which pride would permit neither party to 
 abandon, by resorting as nearly as possible to the old, suc- 
 
 30 cessful course. A mere repeal of the obnoxious tax, with a 
 declaration of the legislative authority of this kingdom, was 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 211 
 
 then fully sufficient to procure peace to both sides. Man is 
 a creature of habit, and, the first breach being of very short 
 continuance, the colonies fell back exactly into their ancient 
 state. The congress has used an expression with regard to 
 this pacification, which appears to me truly significant. After 5 
 the repeal of the stamp act, " the colonies fell," says this 
 assembly, " into their ancient state of unsuspecting confidence 
 in the mother country" l This unsuspecting confidence is 
 the true centre of gravity amongst mankind, about which all 
 the parts are at rest. It is this unsuspecting confidence that 10 
 removes all difficulties, and reconciles all the contradictions 
 which occur in the complexity of all ancient, puzzled, polit 
 ical establishments. Happy are the rulers which have the 
 secret of preserving it ! 
 
 The whole empire has reason to remember, with eternal 15 
 gratitude, the wisdom and temper of that man 2 and his excel 
 lent associates, who, to recover this confidence, formed a 
 plan of pacification in 1766. That plan, being built upon 
 the nature of man, and the circumstances and habits of the 
 two countries, and not on any visionary speculations, per- 20 
 fectly answered its end, as long as it was thought proper 
 to adhere to it. Without giving a rude shock to the dig 
 nity (well or ill understood) of this parliament, they gave per 
 fect content to our dependencies. Had it not been for the 
 mediatorial spirit and talents of that great man, between 25 
 such clashing pretensions and passions, we should then have 
 rushed headlong (I know what I say) into the calamities of 
 that civil war, in which, by departing from his system, we 
 are at length- involved ; and we should have been precipi 
 tated into that war, at a time when circumstances both at 30 
 home and abroad were far, very far, more unfavourable 
 
212 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 unto us than they were at the breaking out of the present 
 troubles. 
 
 I had the happiness of giving my first votes in parliament 
 for their pacification. I was one of those almost unanimous 
 
 5 members, who, in the necessary concessions of parliament, 
 would as much as possible have preserved its authority, and 
 respected its honour. I could not at once tear from my 
 heart prejudices which were dear to me, and which bore a 
 resemblance to virtue. I had then, and I have still, my 
 
 10 partialities. What parliament gave up, I wished to be given 
 as of grace, and favour, and affection, and not as a restitution 
 of stolen goods. High dignity relented as it was soothed ; 
 and a benignity from old acknowledged greatness had its 
 full effect on our dependencies. Our unlimited declaration 
 
 15 of legislative authority produced not a single murmur. If 
 this undefined power has become odious since that time, and 
 full of horror to the colonies, it is because the unsuspicious 
 confidence is lost, and the parental affection, in the bosom of 
 whose boundless authority they reposed their privileges, is 
 
 20 become estranged and hostile. 
 
 It will be asked, if such was then my opinion of the mode 
 of pacification, how I came to be the very person who moved, 
 not only for a repeal of all the late coercive statutes, but for 
 mutilating, by a positive law, the entireness of the legislative 
 
 25 power of parliament, and cutting off from it the whole right 
 of taxation? I answer, because a different state of things 
 requires a different conduct. When the dispute had gone to 
 these last extremities, (which no man laboured more to pre 
 vent than I did,) the concessions which had satisfied in the 
 
 30 beginning, could satisfy no longer ; because the violation of 
 tacit faith required explicit security. The same cause which 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 213 
 
 has introduced all formal compacts and covenants among 
 men made it necessary. I mean habits of soreness, jealousy, 
 and distrust. I parted with it, as with a limb ; but as a limb 
 to save the body ; and I would have parted with more, if 
 more had been necessary ; anything rather than a fruitless, 5 
 hopeless, unnatural civil war. This mode of yielding would, 
 it is said, give way to independency, without a war. I am 
 persuaded from the nature of things, and from every infor 
 mation, that it would have had a directly contrary effect. But 
 if it had this effect, I confess that I should prefer independ- 10 
 ency without war, to independency with it ; and I have so 
 much trust in the inclinations and prejudices of mankind, 
 and so little in anything else, that I should expect ten times 
 more benefit to this kingdom from the affection of America, 
 though under a separate establishment, than from her perfect 15 
 submission to the crown and parliament, accompanied with 
 her terror, disgust, and abhorrence. Bodies tied together 
 by so unnatural a bond of union as mutual hatred, are only 
 connected to their ruin. 
 
 One hundred and ten respectable members of parliament 20 
 voted for that concession. Many not present, when the 
 motion was made, were of the sentiments of those who 
 voted. I knew it would then have made peace. I am not 
 without hopes that it would do so at present if it were 
 adopted. No benefit, no revenue, could be lost by it ; some- 25 
 thing might possibly be gained by its consequences. For 
 be fully assured, that, of all the phantoms that ever deluded 
 the fond hopes of a credulous world, a parliamentary revenue 
 in the colonies is the most perfectly chimerical. Your break 
 ing them to any subjection, far from relieving your burthens, 30 
 (the pretext for this war,) will never pay that military force 
 
214 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 which will be kept up to the destruction of their liberties and 
 yours. I risk nothing in this prophecy. 
 
 Gentlemen, you have my opinion on the present state of 
 public affairs. Mean as they may be in themselves, your 
 
 5 partiality has made them of some importance. Without 
 troubling myself to inquire whether I am under a formal 
 obligation to it, I have a pleasure in accounting for my con 
 duct to my constituents. I feel warmly on this subject, and 
 I express myself as I feel. If I presume to blame any 
 
 10 public proceeding, I cannot be supposed to be personal. 
 Would to God I could be suspected of it. My fault might 
 be greater, but the public calamity would be less extensive. 
 If my conduct has not been able to make any impression on 
 the warm part of that ancient and powerful party, with whose 
 
 15 support I was not honoured at my election ; on my side, my 
 respect, regard, and duty to them is not at all lessened. I 
 owe the gentlemen who compose it my most humble ser 
 vice in everything. I hope that whenever any of them were 
 pleased to command me, that they found me perfectly equal 
 
 20 in my obedience. But flattery and friendship are very dif 
 ferent things ; and to mislead is not to serve them. I can 
 not purchase the favour of any man by concealing from him 
 what I think his ruin. By the favour of my fellow-citizens, 
 I am the representative of an honest, well-ordered, virtuous 
 
 25 city ; of a people, who preserve more of the original English 
 simplicity, and purity of manners, than perhaps any other. 
 You possess among you several men and magistrates of large 
 and cultivated understandings ; fit for any employment in any 
 sphere. I do, to the best of my power, act so as to make 
 
 3 o myself worthy of so honourable a choice. If I were ready, 
 on any call of my own vanity or interest, or to answer any 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 215 
 
 election purpose, to forsake principles, (whatever they are,) 
 which I had formed at a mature age, on full reflection, and 
 which had been confirmed by long experience, I should for 
 feit the only thing which makes you pardon so many errors 
 and imperfections in me. Not that I think it fit for any 5 
 one to rely too much on his own understanding ; or to be 
 filled with a presumption, not becoming a Christian man, in 
 his own personal stability and rectitude. 
 
 I hope I am far from that vain confidence, which almost 
 always fails in trial. I know my weakness in all respects, as I0 
 much at least as any enemy I have ; and I attempt to take 
 security against it. The only method which has ever been 
 found effectual to preserve any man against the corruption of 
 nature and example, is an habit of life and communication 
 of counsels with the most virtuous and public-spirited men I5 
 of the age you live in. Such a society cannot be kept with 
 out advantage, or deserted without shame. For this rule of 
 conduct I may be called in reproach a party man; but I am 
 little affected with such aspersions. In the way which they 
 call party, I worship the constitution of your fathers ; and I 20 
 shall never blush for my political company. All reverence 
 to honour, all idea of what it is,- will be lost out of the world, 
 before it can be imputed as a fault to any man, that he has 
 been closely connected with those incomparable persons, 
 living and dead, with whom for eleven years I have constantly 2$ 
 thought and acted. If I have wandered out of the paths of 
 rectitude into those of interested faction, it was in company 
 with the Saviles, the Dowdeswells, the Wentworths, the Ben- 
 tincks; 1 with the Lenoxes, the Manchesters, the Keppels, 
 the Saunderses ; with the temperate, permanent, hereditary 3 o 
 virtue of the whole House of Cavendish; 2 names, among 
 
216 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 which, some have extended your fame and empire in arms, 
 and all have fought the battle of your liberties in fields not 
 less glorious. These, and many more like these, grafting 
 public principles on private honour, have redeemed the pres- 
 
 5 ent age, and would have adorned the most splendid period 
 in your history. Where could any man, conscious of his 
 own inability to act alone, and willing to act as he ought to 
 do, have arranged himself better? If any one thinks this 
 kind of society to be taken up as the best method of gratify- 
 
 10 ing low, personal pride, or ambitious interest, he is mistaken ; 
 and he knows nothing of the world. 
 
 Preferring this connexion, I do not mean to detract in 
 the slightest degree from others. There are some of those, 
 whom I admire at something of a greater distance, with 
 
 15 whom I have had the happiness also perfectly to agree, in 
 almost all the particulars, in which I have differed with some 
 successive administrations ; and they are such, as it never 
 can be reputable to any government to reckon among its 
 enemies. I hope there are none of you corrupted with the 
 
 20 doctrine taught by wicked men for the worst purposes, and 
 received by the malignant credulity of envy and ignorance, 
 which is, that the men who act upon the public stage are all 
 alike ; all equally corrupt ; all influenced by no other views 
 than the sordid lure of salary and pension. The thing I 
 
 25 know by experience to be false. Never expecting to find 
 perfection in men, and not looking for Divine attributes in 
 created beings, in my commerce with my contemporaries, I 
 have found much human virtue. I have seen not a little 
 public spirit ; a real subordination of interest to duty ; and 
 
 30 a decent and regulated sensibility to honest fame and repu 
 tation. The age unquestionably produces (whether in a 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 217 
 
 greater or less number than former times, I know not) 
 daring profligates, and insidious hypocrites. What then? 
 Am I not to avail myself of whatever good is to be found 
 in the world, because of the mixture of evil that will always 
 be in it? The smallness of the quantity in currency only 5 
 heightens the value. They who raise suspicions on the 
 good on account of the behaviour of ill men, are of the 
 party of the latter. The common cant is no justification for 
 taking this party. I have been deceived, say they, by Titius 
 and Mcevius ; I have been the dupe of this pretender or of 10 
 that mountebank ; and I can trust appearances no longer. 
 But my credulity and want of discernment cannot, as I 
 conceive, amount to a fair presumption against any man's 
 integrity. A conscientious person would rather doubt his 
 own judgment, than condemn his species. He would say, I 15 
 have observed without attention, or judged upon erroneous 
 maxims ; I trusted to profession, when I ought to have 
 attended to conduct. Such a man will grow wise, not ma 
 lignant, by his acquaintance with the world. But he that 
 accuses all mankind of corruption, ought to remember that 20 
 he is sure to convict only one. In truth I should much 
 rather admit those, whom at any time I have disrelished the 
 most, to be patterns of perfection, than seek a consolation to 
 my own unworthiness, in a general communion of depravity 
 with all about me. 25 
 
 That this ill-natured doctrine should be preached by the 
 missionaries of a court, I do not wonder. It answers their 
 purpose. But that it should be heard among those who pre 
 tend to be strong assertors of liberty, is not only surprising, 
 but hardly natural. This moral levelling is a servile principle. 30 
 It leads to practical passive obedience far better than all the 
 
218 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 doctrines which the pliant accommodation of theology to 
 power has ever produced. It cuts up by the roots, not only 
 all idea of forcible resistance, but even of civil opposition. 
 It disposes men to an abject submission, not by opinion, 
 5 which may be shaken by argument or altered by passion, 
 but by the strong ties of public and private interest. For if 
 all men who act in a public situation are equally selfish, cor 
 rupt, and venal, what reason can be given for desiring any 
 sort of change, which, besides the evils which must attend 
 jo all changes, can be productive of no possible advantage? 
 The active men in the state are true samples of the mass. 
 If they are universally depraved, the commonwealth itself is 
 not sound. We may amuse ourselves with talking as much 
 as we please of the virtue of middle or humble life ; that is, 
 15 we may place our confidence in the virtue of those who 
 have never been tried. But if the persons who are continu 
 ally emerging out of that sphere, be no better than those 
 whom birth has placed above it, what hopes are there in the 
 remainder of the body, which is to furnish the perpetual sue- 
 so cession of the state ? All who have ever written on govern 
 ment are unanimous, that among a people generally corrupt, 
 liberty cannot long exist. And indeed how is it possible ? 
 when those who are to make the laws, to guard, to enforce, or 
 to obey them, are, by a tacit confederacy of manners, indis- 
 25 posed to the spirit of all generous and noble institutions. 
 
 I am aware that the age is not what we all wish. But I 
 am sure, that the only means of checking its precipitate 
 degeneracy, is heartily to concur with whatever is the best 
 in our time : and to have some more correct standard of 
 30 judging what that best is, than the transient and uncertain 
 favour of a court. If once we are able to find, and can pre- 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA 219 
 
 vail on ourselves to strengthen, an union of such men, what 
 ever accidentally becomes indisposed to ill-exercised power, 
 even by the ordinary operation of human passions, must join 
 with that society, and cannot long be joined without in some 
 degree assimilating to it. Virtue will catch as well as vice 5 
 by contact ; and the public stock of honest, manly principle 
 will daily accumulate. We are not too nicely to scrutinize 
 motives as long as action is irreproachable. It is enough 
 (and for a worthy man perhaps too much) to deal out its 
 infamy to convicted guilt and declared apostasy. 10 
 
 This, gentlemen, has been from the beginning the rule of 
 my conduct ; and I mean to continue it, as long as such a 
 body as I have described can by any possibility be kept 
 together; for I should think it the most dreadful of all 
 offences, not only towards the present generation, but to all 15 
 the future, if I were to do anything which could make the 
 minutest breach in this great conservatory of free principles. 
 Those who perhaps have the same intentions, but are sepa 
 rated by some little political animosities, will I hope discern 
 at last, how little conducive it is to any rational purpose, to 20 
 lower its reputation. For my part, gentlemen, from much 
 experience, from no little thinking, and from comparing a 
 great variety of things, I am thoroughly persuaded, that the 
 last hopes of preserving the spirit of the English constitution, 
 or of reuniting the dissipated members of the English race 25 
 upon a common plan of tranquillity and liberty, does entirely 
 depend on their firm and lasting union ; and above all, on 
 their keeping themselves from that despair, which is so very 
 apt to fall on those, whom a violence of character and a 
 mixture of ambitious views do not support through a long, 30 
 painful, and unsuccessful struggle. 
 
220 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL 
 
 There never, gentlemen, was a period in which the sted- 
 fastness of some men has been put to so sore a trial. It is 
 not very difficult for well-formed minds to abandon their 
 interest ; but the separation of fame and virtue is a harsh 
 
 5 divorce. 1 Liberty is in danger of being made unpopular to 
 Englishmen. Contending for an imaginary power, we begin 
 to acquire the spirit of domination, and to lose the relish of 
 honest equality. The principles of our forefathers become 
 suspected to us, because we see them animating the present 
 
 10 opposition of our children. The faults which grow out of 
 the luxuriance of freedom appear much more shocking to 
 us than the base vices which are generated from the rank- 
 ness of servitude. Accordingly the least resistance to power 
 appears more inexcusable in our eyes than the greatest 
 
 15 abuses of authority. All dread of a standing military force 
 is looked upon as a superstitious panic. All shame of call 
 ing in foreigners and savages in a civil contest is worn off. 
 We grow indifferent to the consequences inevitable to our 
 selves from the plan of ruling half the empire by a mercenary 
 
 20 sword. We are taught to believe, that a desire of domineer 
 ing over our countrymen is love to our country ; that those 
 who hate civil war abate rebellion, and that the amiable and 
 conciliatory virtues of lenity, moderation, and tenderness to 
 the privileges of those who depend on this kingdom, are a 
 
 25 sort of treason to the state. 
 
 It is impossible that we should remain long in a situation, 
 which breeds such notions and dispositions, without some 
 great alteration in the national character. Those ingenuous 
 and feeling minds who are so fortified against all other 
 
 30 things, and so unarmed to whatever approaches in the shape 
 of disgrace, finding these principles, which they considered 
 
ON THE AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 221 
 
 as sure means of honour, to be grown into disrepute, will 
 retire disheartened and disgusted. Those of a more robust 
 make, the bold, able, ambitious men, who pay some of their 
 court to power through the people, and substitute the voice 
 of transient opinion in the place of true glory, will give in to 5 
 the general mode ; and those superior understandings which 
 ought to correct vulgar prejudice, will confirm and aggravate 
 its errors. Many things have been long operating towards 
 a gradual change in our principles. But this American war 
 has done more in a very few years, than all the other causes 10 
 could have effected in a century. It is therefore not on its 
 own separate account, but because of its attendant circum 
 stances, that I consider its continuance, or its ending in any 
 way but that of an honourable and liberal accommodation, 
 as the greatest evils which can befall us. For that reason 15 
 I have troubled you with this long letter. For that reason I 
 entreat you again and again, neither to be persuaded, shamed, 
 or frighted out of the principles that have hitherto led so 
 many of you to abhor the war, its cause, and its consequences. 
 Let us not be among the first who renounce the maxims of 20 
 our forefathers. 
 
 I have the honour to be, gentlemen, your most obedient 
 and faithful humble servant, 
 
 EDMUND BURKE. 
 
 BEACONSFIELD, April 3, 1777. 25 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL. 
 
 1729-1797. 
 
 Born in Dublin, January, 1729. 
 
 Early Education. 
 
 Enters Dublin University. 
 
 Law Studies at Middle Temple. 
 
 Early Writings. 
 
 In Ireland with Hamilton. 
 
 Secretary to Lord Rockingham. 
 
 Returned to Parliament from Wendover, 1765. 
 
 Purchase of Beaconsfield. 
 
 Agent for New York. 
 
 Visits France. 
 
 Attitude toward America. 
 
 Returned to Parliament from Bristol, October, 1774. 
 
 Affairs of the Catholics. 
 
 American War. 
 
 Returned to Parliament from Malton, 1 780. 
 
 Lord Rector of the University of Glasgow. 
 
 Economical Reform. 
 
 Affairs in India. 
 
 French Revolution. 
 
 Retirement from Public Life, 1794. 
 
 His Son, Richard, succeeds him as Member for Malton. 
 
 Sudden death of his Son. 
 
 Letter to a Noble Lord. 
 
 Death, 1797. 
 
 222 
 
MINISTRIES DURING BURKE'S POLITICAL LIFE. 
 
 Rockingham Ministry 1765 
 
 Chatham Ministry 1766 
 
 Grafton Ministry 1768 
 
 North Ministry 1770 
 
 Rockingham Ministry . 1782 
 
 Shelburne Ministry 1782 
 
 Coalition Ministry 1783 
 
 Pitt Ministry 1784 
 
 A GROUP OF BURKE'S LITERARY FRIENDS. 
 
 Oliver Goldsmith. George Crabbe. 
 
 David Garrick. Edward Gibbon. 
 
 Samuel Johnson. R. B. Sheridan. 
 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds. Benjamin Franklin. 
 
 223 
 
SCHEME FOR ANALYSIS OF STYLE. 
 
 Divisions of Style. 
 
 THE SCIENTIFIC. " Ministers to our instinct for Knowledge." 
 THE POETIC. "Ministers to our instinct for Conduct and 
 Beauty." 
 
 Elements of Style. 
 
 VOCABULARY. 
 THE SENTENCE. 
 FIGURES OF SPEECH. 
 THE PARAGRAPH. 
 
 Qualities of Style. 
 
 INTELLECTUAL. Simplicity. Clearness. 
 
 ( Sublimity. 
 
 IMPASSIONED. Force -s Pathos. 
 ( Irony. 
 
 ( Euphony. 
 
 ARTISTIC. Beauty -j Rhythm. 
 
 ( Cadence. 
 
 Processes. 
 
 DESCRIPTION. 
 NARRATION. 
 EXPOSITION. 
 PERSUASION. 
 
 224 
 
NOTES. 
 
 SPEECH ON AMERICAN TAXATION. 
 
 THE real significance of the repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 was 
 destroyed by the passage of the Declaratory Act, in which it was main 
 tained that the British government had the right to bind the colonies in all 
 cases whatsoever. In 1 767 the ministry formed a new scheme of taxation, 
 and imposed a duty upon glass, paper, paints, and tea. This caused so 
 much agitation in the colonies that Parliament (1770) decided to remove 
 all the impositions except that upon tea. But the Americans were not to 
 be caught in such a trap, and accordingly the tea was not allowed to be 
 landed. This resistance brought down a message from the throne, the 
 result of which was the Boston Port Bill and the bill for regulating the 
 Province of Massachusetts Bay. General Gage was commissioned to pro 
 ceed to Massachusetts and enforce submission. 
 
 Amid the passion and frenzy of these times was heard the calm, clear 
 voice of Burke, as he uttered the famous sentence, "The honourable 
 gentleman has asked, 'Should not America belong to this country?' If 
 we have equity, wisdom, and justice, it will belong to this country; if we 
 have not, it will not belong to this country." 
 
 It was in connection with this subject that Mr. Rose Fuller, member for 
 Rye, made the following motion, on April 19, 1774: Moved, "That an act 
 made in the seventh year of the reign of his present Majesty, entituled An 
 act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in 
 America; for allowing a drawback of the duties of customs upon the 
 exportation from this kingdom of coffee and cocoanuts; of the produce of 
 the said colonies or plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable 
 on china earthenware exported to America; and for more effectually pre- 
 225 
 
226 NOTES. 
 
 venting the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies and planta 
 tions," might be read. 
 
 And the same being read, he moved, " That this House will, upon the 
 day sevennight, resolve itself into a committee of the whole House to take 
 into consideration the duty of ^d. per pound weight upon tea, payable in 
 all His Majesties dominions in America, imposed by the said act, and also 
 the appropriation of said duty." 
 
 The drawback alluded to above was granted in the interest of the East 
 India Company, which desired free exportation in order to relieve its over 
 stocked warehouses, and also to bribe the colonists to pay the 3^. per 
 pound on the tea, which George III. declared was levied for the purpose 
 of keeping up the right of imperial taxation. 
 
 When the news came that the tea upon which the royal prerogative 
 was based had been steeped in Massachusetts Bay, the Privy Council was 
 considering the petition of Massachusetts for the removal of the Governor 
 and Chief Justice. The venerable Dr. Franklin was present to represent 
 the petitioners, and was openly insulted by the solicitor-general. Burke 
 and Dr. Priestly, who witnessed the indignity, were greatly grieved. Cf. 
 Bancroft, III., Ch. XXIII. , and engraving, " Franklin at the Court of St. 
 James." 
 
 On Mr. Fuller's motion to repeal the 3^. tax there was a long list of 
 speakers in opposition, the last being Charles Wolfran Cornwall, one of 
 the lords of the treasury, and to him Burke replied. 
 
 PAGE i, 1. I. I. Cornwall, member for Grampound. 
 
 Line 12. 2. This exordium is most admirable when viewed in the light 
 of the circumstances attending the debate. So much time had been con 
 sumed by the previous speakers that the tired members had betaken them 
 selves to the lunch-rooms. Burke had not completed these few ringing 
 sentences before they came back crowding the lobbies and staircases; 
 while the American agents in the galleries were in great glee at the pros 
 pect of seeing the ministry severely scourged. 
 
 L. 21. 3. Previous to this time Cornwall had been opposed to the min 
 istry in its dealings with America. He had deserted Burke's party for a 
 position in the treasury bench. Cf. Chatham Correspondence, Vol. IV. 
 
 P. 2, 1. 20. i. To this request of Cornwall, Burke accedes in this speech, 
 and gives a complete history of principles of American taxation. 
 
ON TAXATION. 227 
 
 P. 3, 1. 8. I. "I wish only to pursue the present expediency of the 
 measure," Cornwall had said. 
 
 P. 4, 1. 14. i. Probably the colonies would not have made any opposi 
 tion to duties imposed for the regulation of trade. 
 
 P. 5, 1. 15. i. Lord North, Chancellor of the Exchequer. 
 
 P. 6, 1. 22. i. Lord North. 
 
 P. 8, 1. i. I. The circular letter from Lord Hillsborough, secretary for 
 the colonies, to the colonial governors concerning the repeal of some of 
 the taxes levied in the Act of 1767. 
 
 L. 22. 2. The United States took nearly one-third of the lead exported. 
 PAYNE. 
 
 P. 9, 1. 17. I. Burke's career as a statesman seems to have been an 
 illustration of success, " through large and liberal ideas." 
 
 P. 10, 1. 9. I. Cf. History of the East India Company. 
 
 L. 12. 2. The commerce of the East with Great Britain was wholly in 
 the hands of the company. 
 
 L. 14. 3. The company had agreed to pay large amounts to the govern 
 ment for its privileges; and while its servants became wealthy, the com 
 pany itself was forced to beg. Cf. Fox's India Bill. 
 
 L. 1 8. 4. The company was obliged to keep a great supply of tea in 
 its warehouses. PAYNE. 
 
 L. 24. 5. In April, 1772, a committee was appointed to make inquiries 
 into the affairs of the company, but had not produced any good results. 
 
 P. 12, 1. 2. i. When a home manufacture was subject to duty and was 
 exported, the duty was drawn back. When foreign goods were brought 
 into the country to be exported, the duty was often remitted. 
 
 L. 13. 2. Virgil's sEneid, VI., 1. 726-7. 
 
 P. 14, 1. 19. I. February, 1769. The original purpose of this act was 
 to provide for the trial in England of those who had committed crimes at 
 sea. Cf. Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol. 
 
 P. 17, 1. 14. i. The assembly of Virginia replied to the speech of the 
 governor, Lord Botetourt, as follows: "No, my Lord; we are sure oitr 
 most gracious sovereign, under whatever changes may happen in his con 
 fidential servants, will remain immutable in the ways of truth and justice, 
 and that he is incapable of deceiving his faithful subjects. 
 
 P. 18, 1. 14. I. Lord North. 
 
 P. 21, 1. 28. I. The Isle of Man became an English possession, 1765.. 
 
228 NOTES. 
 
 P. 23, 1. 28. i. "If any man had been accustomed to regard Mr. 
 Burke as more of a rhetorician than a reasoner, let him turn back and 
 study over the series of arguments contained in this first head." PRO 
 FESSOR GOODRICH. 
 
 P. 24, 1. 23. i. Passed under Cromwell, 1651, and was designed to 
 deprive the Dutch of the carrying trade, by prohibiting the importation 
 into England, or any of her colonies, \nforeign vessels, of any commodi 
 ties not the growth of the respective countries in whose vessels they were 
 imported. 
 
 P. 26, 1. 9. i. Governor of Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 P. 32, 1. 20. i. "This admirable sketch has one peculiarity which is 
 highly characteristic of Mr. Burke. It does not so much describe the 
 objective qualities of the man, as the formative principles of his character. 
 The same also is true respecting the sketch of Charles Townsend which 
 follows, and to some extent respecting the sketch of Lord Chatham." 
 PROFESSOR GOODRICH. 
 
 P. 34, 1. 7. i. English colonists had carried on trade in British manu 
 factures with France and Spain. This violated the letter of the Naviga 
 tion Act, and the accused were to be tried in the admiralty courts, and 
 thus be deprived of trial by jury. 
 
 L. 8. 2. The colonies had issued paper money when coin was withdrawn 
 in course of trade with England. When their value as legal tender was 
 destroyed by Grenville's act, much hardship was the result. 
 
 L. 13. 3. In the war with France, the Colonies had paid toward the 
 debt more than their share. 
 
 P. 35, 1. 29. i. That Americans did object to the principle is shown by 
 the fact that immediately after the passage of the act Massachusetts sent 
 orders to her agent in England to resist any such innovations. Other 
 colonies followed her example, and declared their opposition. 
 
 P. 39, 1. ii. i. Mr. Burke was secretary to Lord Rockingham in 
 
 I765- 
 
 P. 40, 1. 6. I. Mr. Charles Yorke accepted the office of Lord Chancellor 
 in 1770, and was so severely criticised for his desertion that he committed 
 suicide. 
 
 P. 42, 1. 24. i. Mr. Dowdeswell. 
 
 L. 25. 2. General Conway. 
 
 P. 44, 1. 4. i. General Conway. 
 
ON TAXATION. 229 
 
 P. 45, 1. n. I. Rockingham was in ill favor with the king because of 
 his attempt to repeal the Stamp Act, and because he had not provided for 
 the king's brothers. 
 
 P. 46, 1. 17. 2. General Conway's actions had made this rebuke neces 
 sary. He had not kept his faith with the opposition; he was a deserter 
 from the cause, and received as his pay the generalship of Jersey. 
 
 P. 50, 1. 20. I. It was the deliberate plan of the English press, if not 
 the pulpit, to break down the influence of the friends of America by repre 
 senting them as encouraging sedition. 
 
 P. 54, 1. 31. i. Lucan, Pharsalia, Book IX., v. 202, referring to Pompey. 
 Cf. Macaulay's Essay on Chatham. 
 
 P. 56, 1. 4. I. Lord North and George Cooke, Esq., who were made joint 
 paymasters on the removal of the Rockingham administration. 
 
 P. 61, 1. 2. I. The delicacy with which Burke here treats the peculi 
 arities of Townsend will be appreciated on reading Walpole's Sketch, in 
 which he says : " Townsend had almost every great talent, and every little 
 quality. His vanity exceeded even his abilities." 
 
 P. 62, 1. 15. i. When he moved his resolutions in regard to America, 
 May, 1770. Cf. Bancroft, III., Ch. XXIX. 
 
 P. 64, 1. 19. I. Mr. Fuller. 
 
 P. 66, 1. 23. i. Lord Carmarthen, who, during the debate, said: "The 
 Americans are our children, and how can they revolt againsi their parents? 
 If they are not free England is not free." 
 
 P. 71, 1. 6. i. Lord North. 
 
 L. 1 8. 2. Mr. Dowdeswell. 
 
 Probably for breadth of grasp, clearness and cogency of reasoning, pro 
 found political wisdom, power of description, and biting sarcasm, together 
 with originality and independence, this speech has never been surpassed. 
 The scene in the Commons at its close was a memorable one. Lord John 
 Townsend exclaimed, " Heavens ! what a man this is ! Where could he 
 acquire such transcendent powers?" George Savile said that it was the 
 greatest triumph within his memory. Colonel Barre said that if it was 
 printed, he would nail it to every church door in the kingdom. 
 
 The speech was not printed until the close of the year, because the 
 administration claimed that much of the trouble in America was due to 
 the publication in England of writings hostile to the government. 
 
 ** On the publication of this, speech," says MacKnight, " young men at 
 
230 NOTES. 
 
 college, philosophers in their studies, and the better class of politicians 
 became more than ever attracted to Burke." 
 
 Mr. Bancroft says: "This speech was such as had never been heard in 
 the British Parliament. The words fell from him as burning oracles; and 
 while he spoke for America he seemed to prepare the way for renovating 
 the constitution of England, yet it was not so." 
 
 Mr. Fox followed Burke, and for the first time gave his voice and vote 
 for the opposition. On the division just the number that had stood against 
 the Stamp Act stood by Burke against four times as many for the admin 
 istration. 
 
 SPEECH ON ARRIVAL AT BRISTOL. 
 
 On the day upon which Parliament was considering the motion for repeal 
 of the tax upon tea, the people of New York sent back the tea ship. 
 
 The administration passed the penal measure, requiring all offenders 
 indicted for crime in the colonies to be transported to England or to a 
 British colony for trial. The bill legalizing the quartering of troops in 
 Boston was passed. Burke solemnly renewed his protest against such 
 recklessness and inhumanity. 
 
 A measure for the government of Quebec followed; the purpose of this 
 was to prevent the colonies from extending their territory. 
 
 "As the fleets and armies of England," says Bancroft, "went forth to 
 consolidate arbitrary power, the sound of war everywhere died away. 
 Kings sat still in awe, and nations turned to watch the issue." 
 
 Affairs in America were fast coming to a crisis. Revolution was at 
 hand. Boston was sustained, and preparations were made for a general 
 Congress at Philadelphia. France favored the cause of the colonies. In 
 September, 1774, Congress assembled; and Patrick Henry sounded the 
 note of war, when, in quoting Hawley, who had said, " After all, we must 
 fight," said, " I am of that man's mind." Virginia nullified the Quebec 
 act, and General Gage was finding that it would be no easy matter to en 
 force the regulating act. The thirteenth Parliament had been prorogued, 
 and then suddenly dissolved. Burke was not to stand for Wendover again, 
 because Lord Verney, who controlled the district, needed to dispose of it 
 to one who could pay for the privilege. Accordingly the city of Bristol 
 
ON CONCILIATION. 231 
 
 asked Burke to stand in place of Lord Clare, the previous member, who 
 declined to be a candidate after the poll had been open two days. Burke 
 was about to stand for Malton, but immediately drove to Bristol, and 
 ascended the hustings, where he addressed the sheriffs and electors in this 
 speech. Mr. Henry Cruger, a Bristol merchant, was his colleague, while 
 Mr. Brickdale, one of the last members, was a competitor. 
 
 SPEECH AT THE CONCLUSION OF THE POLL. 
 
 During the poll each candidate personally solicited the confidence of 
 the electors, and at its close, on the 3d of November, Burke was declared 
 duly elected. 
 
 The Whigs carried both candidates. Mr. Brickdale threatened to con 
 test, but never executed the threat. Cruger was the first to acknowledge 
 his indebtedness to the electors, and expressed his willingness to be ruled 
 by the wishes of his constituents; but Burke resolutely affirmed his right 
 to act, not merely for Bristol, but for the English people. Cf. Webster's 
 Reply to Hayne, for a similar principle by the great American Senator. 
 
 PAGE 80, 1. 15. I. Mr. Brickdale had in a previous poll solicited the 
 favor of these very freemen. 
 
 SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH AMERICA. 
 
 At the opening of the fourteenth Parliament, Nov. 30, 1774, reports 
 from New England showed that war was certain, unless speedy movements 
 were made to crush the colonists. General Gage was instructed to act 
 offensively, and Clinton and Burgoyne were appointed. Franklin vigor 
 ously urged conciliation, and on meeting with no encouragement, but the 
 rather with insult, determined to return to America. On taking leave of 
 Burke, he said, " I lament the separation between Great Britain and her 
 colonies, but it is inevitable." Petitions from merchants from all parts of 
 England were presented to Parliament for a reconciliation before trade 
 was ruined, Bristol taking the lead under the guidance of Burke. 
 
232 NOTES. 
 
 By this time Lords North and Chatham began to think that reconcilia 
 tion must be attempted in some form, and they had a bill passed to the 
 effect that if any of the colonies would contribute to the common defence, 
 the right of taxation would be suspended in that colony. The offer was 
 spurned; and now came the opportunity for Burke and his party. After 
 frequent consultations at the house of Lord Rockingham, on the day (22d) 
 that Franklin was sailing out of the harbor at Portsmouth, Burke stood 
 forth as the apostle of peace, and introduced his plan of reconciliation in 
 this speech. 
 
 P. 85, 1. 10. i. On Feb. 10, 1775, Lord North presented an address 
 from the king, asking for the augmentation of his forces, and then pro 
 posed the " Act to restrain the trade and commerce of the Provinces of 
 Massachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, and Colonies of Connecticut and 
 Rhode Island and Providence Plantation, in North America, to Great 
 Britain, Ireland, and the British Islands of the West Indies; and to 
 prohibit such provinces and colonies from carrying on any fishing on the 
 banks of Newfoundland, and other places therein mentioned, under certain 
 conditions and limitations." 
 
 New England fishermen were to be excluded from a line of industry in 
 which they excelled all nations. By this bill, at one swoop, thousands were 
 to be reduced to beggary. Burke protested most indignantly. "The 
 bread of the needy," he said, " is their life-blood. He who depriveth 
 them of it is a man of blood." 
 
 P. 86, 1. 28. i. In 1766, on the repeal of the Stamp Act by the Rock- 
 ingham administration. 
 
 P. 87, 1. 20. i. Mr. Rose Fuller. Cf. Speech on American Taxation. 
 
 P. 90, 1. 22. I. "That when the governor, council, or assembly, or 
 general court, of any of his Majesty's provinces or colonies in America, 
 shall propose to make provision, according to the condition, circumstances, 
 and situation of such province or colony, for contributing their proportion 
 to the common defence (such proportion to be raised under the authority 
 of the general court or general assembly of such province or colony, and 
 disposable by Parliament), and shall engage to make provision also for the 
 support of the civil government and the administration of justice, in such 
 province or colony, it will be proper, if such proposal shall be approved by 
 his Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament, and for so long as such 
 provision shall be made accordingly, to forbear, in respect of such province 
 
ON CONCILIATION. 233 
 
 or colony, to levy any duty, tax, or assessment, or to impose any further 
 duty, tax, or assessment, except such duties as it may be expedient to 
 continue to levy or impose, for regulation of commerce; the net produce 
 of the duties last mentioned to be carried to the account of such province 
 or colony respectively." Resolution moved by Lord North on the com 
 mittee; and agreed to by the House, 27th February, 1775. Lord North 
 wore the badge of the Knight of the Garter. 
 
 P. 91, 1. 5. i. The ministry had passed an address to the king in which 
 they declared that Massachusetts was in rebellion, and urged his Majesty 
 to take immediate action. 
 
 P. 93, 1. 19. i. This is in Burke's best style. The comparison beauti 
 fully illustrates the idea, and justifies his assertion, that while " the dispute 
 continues, the exaggeration ends." PROFESSOR GOODRICH. 
 
 L. 26. 2. " De minimis von curat lex." 
 
 P. 94, 1. 10. i. Mr. Glover, who had appeared at the bar in support of a 
 petition from West Indian planters asking for peace with the colonies, 
 because their commerce was in peril. 
 
 P. 95, 1. II. I. Slave trade. 
 
 2. The Spanish Colonies, in spite of the Act of Navigation, carried on 
 trade with the West Indies. 
 
 P. 97, 1. I. i. Burke's reasoning here seems prophetic when considered 
 in the light of the latest statistics regarding the commerce between England 
 and the United States. 
 
 L. 15. 2. The quotation is from Virgil's fourth Eclogue, where the 
 allusion is to the birth of a child by the sister of Augustus. 
 
 L. 23. 3. Henry, created Lord Apsley and made chancellor in 1771. 
 
 P. 98, 1. 17. i. Professor Goodrich questions the propriety of this pas 
 sage and the following one upon the fisheries, yet are they not the very 
 top and crown of Burke's style ! 
 
 P. 99, 1. 23. i. Alluding to the Roman daughter who, when her father 
 was condemned to starve, obtained access to his cell, and nourished him 
 from her own breasts. 
 
 P. 100, 1. 9. i. A small constellation far to the south. 
 
 2. Consult American Cyclopaedia, Art. " Falkland Islands." 
 
 P. 101, 1. 3. i. Is it any wonder that such utterances as these caused 
 Burke to be charged with being an American? 
 
 P. 103, 1. II. i. We see here the secret of Burke's richness of thought. 
 
234 NOTES. 
 
 It consisted, to a great extent, in his habit of viewing things in their causes 
 or tracing them out in their results. Let the reader study these pages with 
 reference to this fact. PROFESSOR GOODRICH. 
 
 P. 1 06, 1. 4. i. Cf. Matthew Arnold's effective use of this phrase of 
 Hooker's, in Culture and Anarchy. 
 
 P. 107, 1. 10. I. Alluding to the partition of Poland by Austria, Prussia, 
 and Russia, 1772, by which she lost her national independence. 
 
 L. 1 8. 2. For illustration of this, compare the number of lawyers in the 
 first and in the last Congress. 
 
 P. 108, 1. 2. i. General Gage forbade the colonists from holding any 
 town meetings after Aug. I, 1774. The colonists evaded the prohibition 
 by adjourning over the ist, and thus meeting, but not under a call. 
 
 L. 6. 2. Thurlow, the attorney-general. 
 
 L. 13. 3. Cf. Bacon's Essay on Studies. 
 
 L. 30. 4. Horace, Odes, Book IV., i, " Ministrum fulminis alitem." 
 
 P. 109, 1. 19. i. Compare this statement of Burke in regard to Mon 
 archies and Despotisms with Bryce's Analysis of the workings of the 
 American Constitution. American Commonwealth, Vol.1., Part I., Ch. 
 XXVIII. 
 
 P. no, 1. 12. I. Hamlet, Act I., Sc. V. 
 
 P. 1 1 6, 1. 5. I. Juvenal, Sat. VIII. 
 
 L. 31. 2. An illustration of what Matthew Arnold says of Burke: "He 
 is so great because, almost alone in England, he brings thought to bear 
 upon politics; he saturates politics with thought." 
 
 P. 118, 1. 2. i. From one of Dryden's plays. 
 
 L. 28. 2. For an exhibition of coarse and brutal treatment Professor 
 Goodrich gives the following from Howell's State Trials, Vol. II. : " Coke : 
 I will prove you the notoriest traitor that ever came to the bar. Raleigh : 
 Your words cannot condemn me; my innocency is my defence. Coke: 
 Thou art a monster. Thou hast an English face but a Spanish heart." 
 
 P. 119, 1. 17. i. From the very significance of the term. 
 
 P. 122, 1. 15. I. Burke has often been accused of too much refining in 
 his speeches, but a careful study of his works will reveal the fact that he 
 seldom anatomizes; he everywhere deals with broad principles, profound, 
 permanent, fruitful. 
 
 P. 123, 1. 3. I. Paradise Lost, II., 592-3. 
 
 L. 19. 2. His statesmanship rises above petty maxims, such as men 
 
ON CONCILIATION. 235 
 
 resort to who think that suspicion is the great law of life, and that the 
 more advantages you can take of your neighbor, the better it is for your 
 self. MAURICE. 
 
 P. 125, 1. 2. i. Mr. Rice. 
 
 P. 126, 1. 4. i. By Dean Tucker. Cf. MacKnight, Vol. II., Ch. XXII., 
 p. 1 1 5 et seq. 
 
 P. 128, 1. 1 6. i. The Witenagemote was the Parliament of the Anglo- 
 Saxons. Cf. Stubb's Constitutional History, Vol. I., Ch. VI. 
 
 P. 129, 1. 2. i. English settlers in Ireland after the invasion of Strong- 
 bow kept themselves, within certain limits, distinct from the natives called 
 the " Pale." They enjoyed English law while the natives were denied it. 
 PROFESSOR GOODRICH. 
 
 P. 130, 1. 9. i. Cf. Green's Short History of the English People, Ch. 
 IV. 
 
 P. 132, 1. 12. i. Read the "Famous history of the revenue adventures 
 of the Bold Baron North and the good Knight Probert upon the moun 
 tains of Venodotia," as so graphically given by Burke in his speech on 
 Economical Reform. 
 
 L. 22. 2. Horace, Ode to Atigustus Casar, Book I., 12. A comparison 
 of the peaceful influence of Augustus to that of the twins Castor and 
 Pollux upon storms at sea. 
 
 P. 134, 1. 19. i. Cf. Burke's Speech on Economical Reform. 
 
 P. 138, 1. 5. i. Horace, Sat., L, 2. 
 
 L. n. 2. Ex. xx. 25. 
 
 L. 1 8. 3. St. Paul, i Epis. to Cor. iv. 6, Revised Version, "That in us 
 ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written." 
 
 L. 19. 4. St. Paul, 2 Epis. to Tim. i. 13, Revised Version, "Hold the 
 pattern of sound words." 
 
 P. 141, 1. 21. i. Journals of the House, Vol. XXII. 
 
 P. 142, 1. 2. i. Journals of the House, Vol. XXVII. 
 
 L. II. 2. Ibid. 
 
 L. 29. 3. It was claimed that the colonies could not legally make grants 
 to the Crown because it made the king independent of Parliament. Gren- 
 ville and others were of this opinion. Hence Burke insists upon these 
 precedents. PROFESSOR GOODRICH. 
 
 P. 148, 1. 22. i. The solicitor-general informed Mr. Burke when the 
 resolutions were separately moved that the grievance of the judges pa*- 
 
236 NOTES. 
 
 taking of the profits of the seizure had been redressed by office; accord 
 ingly the resolution was amended. 
 
 P. 150, 1. 31. i. Othello, Act. III., Sc. V. 
 
 P. 152, 1. 25. i. Lord North. 
 
 P- I53> 1- 9- i- " Trial should be made with a worthless subject." 
 
 L. 25. 2. Through committee. 
 
 P. 156, 1. 14. I. A writ of commission for taxing lands. 
 
 P. 158, 1. 12. i. Juvenal, Sat., I., 90. Alluding to the excess in gambling. 
 
 P. 159, 1. 1 6. i. Paradise Lost, IV., 96-97. 
 
 L. 19. 2. Paradise Lost, IV., 53. 
 
 P. 161, 1. 4. i. i Kings viii. 44, 45; Dan. vi. 10. We see everywhere 
 the results of Burke's hours with the poets. Dr. Earle, in his excellent 
 work on English prose, says, " About the choice of reading there is a very 
 important remark to be made. The writer of English prose should be 
 conversant with English poets." 
 
 L. 30. 2. Cf. Virgil, JEneid, VI., 726-727. 
 
 P. 162, 1. 26. i. The call to prayer in the Roman Catholic Church. 
 
 P. 163, 1. 7. I. Roman prayer. 
 
 P. 164, 1. 17. I. The first four motions and the last had the previous 
 question put to them. The others were negatived. 
 
 On the day of the delivery of this speech strangers were shut out of the 
 gallery, but the House was filled with members. Burke spoke for three 
 
 hours. 
 
 "Silence! hush! 
 
 This is no trifler, no short- flighted wit, 
 No stammerer of a minute, painfully 
 Delivered. No ! the Orator hath yoked 
 The Hours, like young Aurora, to his car." 
 
 The audience which he addressed was by a large majority strongly 
 opposed to his ideas, yet such was the almost superhuman power of his 
 genius and the might of the truths which he laid before them that the 
 members were kindled to the highest heat of enthusiasm, and he took his 
 seat amid loud and general applause from every class of politicians and 
 from all parts of the House. 
 
 Thurlow, the attorney-general, followed, and by an adroit appeal to the 
 littleness of party feeling, brought two hundred and seventy members down 
 to his own level of the selfish and the sordid. Only seventy-eight sup- 
 
ON AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 237 
 
 
 
 ported Burke in his attempt to avert the horrors of a war between peoples 
 of common blood, common language, and common ancestry. 
 
 The speech was immediately published, only a short time after the 
 publication of his speech on Taxation, and the two were eagerly studied 
 by the people throughout the Empire. 
 
 Chatham's Bill for reconciliation should be compared with these Reso 
 lutions of Burke. 
 
 In this speech, says Dr. Goodrich, Burke took the standpoint of 
 America, while in his speech on Taxation he took the standpoint of 
 England. 
 
 LETTER TO THE SHERIFFS OF BRISTOL. 
 
 After the rejection of Burke's resolution, Parliament had but one more 
 opportunity to voluntarily show pacific spirit. The General Assembly of 
 New York, for which Burke was agent, had not formally joined the Con 
 tinental Congress, but preferred to remonstrate separately, and sent a peti 
 tion to the king, a memorial to the House of Commons, a representation 
 to the lords in which the grievances of the colonies were recapitulated 
 and redress requested. 
 
 Burke moved that this complaint be received, but by a majority of three 
 to one it was insolently refused. No sooner had the House rejected this 
 than it heard that the war had begun. When the colonists were success 
 ful, Burke urged reconciliation; when they were met by reverses, he quite 
 as strongly urged the same plan, but all to no purpose. He censured the 
 University of Oxford for applauding when the colonists were defeated. 
 When Lord North planned to starve them to submission, and to employ 
 German mercenaries, he was indignant. When the colonies declared 
 themselves independent of the mother country, he prophesied success. 
 At last Burke and his friends, concluding that they might emphasize their 
 opposition to the administration and assure the people of America that 
 they could act as well as talk, withdrew from the deliberations of the 
 House. Business was then rushed along, and Parliament seemed bound 
 to commit suicide. Franklin was at the court of France, and this act of 
 the colonies inflamed the administration and goaded it on to desperation. 
 When the iniquitous bill for a suspension of the Habeas Corpus came -up, 
 
238 NOTES. 
 
 
 
 those who had withdrawn met at the house of Lord Rockingham, and 
 some advised a return, but Lord Cavendish, the Duke of Poland, and 
 Burke dissented. Fox, Sir George Saville, and Dunning were present 
 and opposed the bill. 
 
 Burke's enemies at Bristol were making use of his secession to damage 
 his prospects of a re-election, and as soon as the Habeas Corpus Bill was 
 passed, he sent this letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol, and through it he reached 
 the whole British people and replied to the charges. He did not return 
 to the House until April, 1777, when the King's Civil List Bill came up. 
 
 For events intervening between the speech on Conciliation and the 
 Letter, cf. MacKnight, Vols. II., Chs. XXII. and XXIII. ; Bancroft, 
 Vols. IV. and V. 
 
 P. 168, 1. 5. I. The Letter of Marque, by which the property of the 
 colonists upon the sea was to become that of the captor. Thus it 
 became a criminal offence for the colonists to engage in commerce. 
 
 L. 10. 2. This famous statute, passed in 1679 and considered the bul 
 wark of liberty, was to be converted into an engine of oppression, to such 
 extremes of desperation had the administration been driven. 
 
 P. 169, 1. 26. i. In the rising of 1745 for the cause of Prince Charlie, 
 this Scottish nobleman was captured and put to death. 
 
 P. 170, 1. 6. I. Cf. note, page 168, line 5. 
 
 L. 28. 2. The purpose of the old Statute of Henry the Eighth was to 
 insure British offenders arrested in the colonies a trial on British soil. 
 Cf. page 14, line 19, note. To apply it to the colonies was a direct inver 
 sion of its spirit. 
 
 P. 171, 1. 31. i. A place of execution near London. 
 
 P. 173, 1. 17. I. Brunswickers and Hessians. 
 
 P. 175, 1. 9. I. To hear and determine. 
 
 P. 179, 1. II, I. Cf. note introductory to this speech, and MacKnight, 
 II., Ch. XXIII., "The Secession." 
 
 P. 180, 1. 12. I. These three bills, for Closing the Port, for Quartering 
 Troops, and for Suspension of the Massachusetts Charter, were passed in 
 the session of 1774 and 1775. Cf. Bancroft, Vol. IV., V. 
 
 P. 181, 1. 22. I. The French, who were feared lest they should assist 
 the colonies. 
 
 L. 26. 2. Cf. Bancroft, IV., Ch. XXIII. 
 
 P. 182, 1. 1 6. i. Rahl and Kniphausen were commanders of the Ger- 
 
ON AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 239 
 
 man mercenaries under General Howe. After the capture of Fort Wash 
 ington on the Hudson it was called Fort Kniphausen. 
 
 L. 28. 2. Brunswickers and Hessians were hired by the administration. 
 As the pay in Germany was not so large as that in England, the difference 
 was paid to the respective rulers, the Duke of Brunswick and the Land 
 grave of Hesse. Soldiers were impressed from the plough, the workshop, 
 and the highway. Cf. Bancroft, IV., Ch. XXII. 
 
 P. 185, 1. 9. I. After the victory of Howe at Long Island, the English 
 people seemed beside themselves with pride, and hurled all manner of 
 reproaches against the colonists. A general fast was proclaimed, and the 
 king prayed for the rebels " as a Spanish inquisitor might be supposed to 
 pray for the conversion of a miserable Jew at an auto-da-fe." 
 
 P. 187, 1. 5. i. This assertion is most conclusively proved by the three 
 publications in this volume. That Burke could have so thoroughly under 
 stood the position of the colonies, when at a distance of three thousand 
 miles from them, seems almost incredible. 
 
 P. 188, 1. 9. I. In December, 1776, Congress at Baltimore voted to 
 " assure foreign courts that the Congress and people are determined to 
 maintain their independence at all events." Treaties were to be made 
 with Prussia, Vienna, and Tuscany, and an alliance was to be made with 
 France and Spain. After the battle of Trenton, Lord George Germain 
 said, "All our hopes are blasted." 
 
 L. 26. 2. Up to the time of the battle of Trenton, Congress had left 
 on its journals the suggestion that a reunion with Great Britain might still 
 be possible. 
 
 P. 190, 1. 14. i. Admiral Howe and his brother the General were 
 appointed on a Commission of Peace, and had said that peace would be 
 made within ten days after their arrival. They had power to grant free 
 and general pardons, and promise " due consideration to all persons who 
 should aid in restoring tranquillity." This declaration was sent, addressed 
 to Washington as a private citizen, and he declined to receive it. Congress 
 said that Washington " acted with a dignity becoming his station." 
 
 P. 191, 1. i. i. To Franklin Lord Howe said that his ambition was to 
 prevent the commerce of America from passing to foreign nations, and 
 Franklin replied, " It is painful to me to see you engaged in a war, the 
 ground of which is ' the necessity of preventing American trade from pass 
 ing into foreign channels.' " 
 
240 NOTES. 
 
 L. 24. 2. "Every thicket will be an ambuscade of partisans; every 
 stone-wall a hiding-place for sharpshooters; every swamp a fortress; the 
 boundless woods an impracticable barrier; the farmer's house a garrison." 
 BANCROFT. 
 
 P. 196, 1. 6. i. Cf. Bancroft, IV., Chs. XIII., XXVII., XXVIII. 
 
 P. 197, 1. 6. I. An island of the East Indies, valuable for its production 
 of spice. It has been the property of Portugal, Spain, Holland, and 
 England. In 1622 the Dutch massacred the English settlers, and took 
 possession of the island of which they had been deprived by the English 
 in 1615. In 1672, Charles II. persuaded Louis XIV. to join him in making 
 war upon the Dutch. The English were not favorable to such an under 
 taking, and to excite them, Charles had the massacre acted upon the stage. 
 
 P. 198, 1. 14. I. Cf. note, page 190, line 14. 
 
 P. 199, 1. 4. i. Cf. note, page 188, line 26. 
 
 L. 30. 2. This position of Burke should be emphasized, when so many 
 make use of the caricature in Goldsmith's Retaliation as if it were a 
 characterization. 
 
 P. 200, 1. II. I. Cf. De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Vol. I., 
 Ch. II. 
 
 P. 202, 1. 4. I. Established in 1584, the one having jurisdiction over 
 men's consciences, the other over their actions, became so hateful to the 
 people, that they were repealed in 1641. 
 
 P. 203, 1. 8. I. The Ancient Legislature of the Church of England, 
 having an upper and a lower house. 
 
 P. 204, 1. 10. I. Court of a province on the coast of Hindostan. 
 
 P. 206, 1. 1 6. i. Cf. Carlyle's French Revolution. 
 
 P. 209, 1. 9. I. Cf. Provincial, Proprietary, and Charter Governments. 
 
 P. 211, 1. 8. I. "The joy of the colonies was for a time unmixed with 
 apprehension," says Bancroft. 
 
 L. 1 6. 2. Lord Rockingham. 
 
 P. 215, 1. 29, I. Bentinck was the family name of the Duke of Port 
 land, a leader of the Whig Peers. 
 
 L. 31. 2. Cavendish, the family name of the Duke of Devonshire, a 
 leading Whig Commoner. 
 
 P. 220, 1. 5. I. No statesman in history presents such a life of suffering 
 for great causes. He believed that success was measured, not by a party 
 vote, but by the devotion to right. 
 
ON AFFAIRS OF AMERICA. 241 
 
 Three years had not gone since Burke moved his plan of conciliation, 
 and yet the commissioners sent by the king to sue for peace, and to grant 
 most ample and complete concession, only reserving to the king the very 
 right for which the colonies contended, this dignified commission, armed 
 cap-a-pie for an interview with the American Congress, were fleeing at 
 the tail of a retreating army, and letting fly " their Parthian shafts of 
 manifestoes and remonstrances." To this issue had the dissension come, 
 
 a dissension which might have been prevented by the repeal of the 
 miserable duty upon tea, a badge of the royal prerogative to tax whom 
 he pleased. The royal commission, when at safe distance from the halls 
 of the American Congress, performed that last and valiant act of issuing 
 a proclamation against the rebellious subjects of their sovereign. This 
 was a scene of buffoonery which Burke must have enjoyed to the utmost. 
 
 The colonists went from success to success, until, upon the very day 
 when new supplies were setting sail for America, the war was being ended 
 by the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The news reached Lord 
 North in a few weeks, and in the deepest agony he exclaimed, " O God ! 
 it is all over ! " Yet he strove still to palliate the blow, until at last General 
 Conway, who had before acted with the administration, moved that an 
 address should be presented to the king against continuing the contest; and 
 after a most aggressive discussion, at half-past one o'clock in the morning, 
 on loud cries of ' Question ! Question ! ' the division was ordered, and the 
 government was beaten by a majority of nineteen, and Westminster Hall 
 was a scene of the wildest confusion; joy knew no bounds; the whole 
 metropolis was aroused. At two o'clock Burke left the house, and wrote 
 to his friend, Dr. Franklin : " I congratulate you as the friend of America 
 
 I trust as not the enemy of England I am sure as the friend of man 
 kind on the resolution of the House of Commons carried by a majority 
 of nineteen. ... I trust that our happiness may be an introduction to 
 that of the world at large." The resignation of the minister followed, 
 and the last act which Lord North was to play in this tragedy of action 
 and passion was deeply pathetic as on that bitterly cold night, amid the 
 falling snow driven by keen March winds, on stepping into his carriage 
 at Westminster Hall, he exclaimed to a group of the opposition, " Good 
 night, gentlemen ! " 
 
REFERENCES. 
 
 BANCROFT'S History of the United States, Vols. III., IV., V., VI. 
 
 MAY. Constitutional History. 
 
 MORLEY J. BURKE. English Men of Letters Series. 
 
 GOODRICH, C. A. Select British Eloquence. 
 
 STEPHEN, L. English Thought in the Eighteenth Century. 
 
 MACAULAY. Essay on Burke. 
 
 HAZLITT. Political Essays and Eloquence of the British Senate. 
 
 MACK.NIGHT. Life and Times of Edmund Burke. 
 
 TAINE. English Literature. 
 
 GOSSE. Eighteenth Century Literature. 
 
 MAURICE. Friendship of Books. Burke. 
 
 MINTO. Manual of English Prose Literature. 
 
 BASCOM. Philosophy of English Literature. 
 
 FISKE. American Political Ideas. 
 
 " Beginnings of New England. 
 
 " War of Independence. 
 For periodical literature upon Burke, see Pooled Index. 
 
 242 
 
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