(p \\\[ X> ~***S F SC %OJI1V3-JO^ HISTORY AMERICAN REVOLUTION, GEORGE BANCROFT, Corresponding Member of the French Institute, and of the Royal Academy of Berlin. IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON : RICHAED BENTLEY, NEW BTTKLINGTON STEEET, ^ubltsJjer in rtunarg to $cr JHajestg. 1852. LONDON : IlRAtWURY AND EVANS, PRINTKRS, WIIITEFHIAItS EPOCH THE SECOND. HOW GREAT BRITAIN ESTRANGED AMERICA. a. to v. CONTENTS OF THE SECOND YOLUME. CHAPTEE I. THK CONTINENT OF EUROPE, 1763. PAGE Protestantism ceases to be a Cause of Revolutions Right of Private Judgment affirmed Progress of Scepticism Prussia and its King Russia Austria The German Empire The Netherlands Spain . 1 18 CHAPTEE IT. THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE FRANCE, 1763. France Checks on the Royal Power Parliament Opinion Voltaire Montesquieu The Physiocrats Turgot Jean Jacques Rousseau Sovereignty of the People 19 33 CHAPTEE III. ENGLAND AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 1763. England Its Limited Monarchy Its Church House of Lords House of Commons Its Administrative System Its Literature Its Courts of Law Its System of Education Life in Towns Life in the Country Its Manufactures -Its Nationality .... 34 64 b 1 C?/ -*~ V> A. *_r^X _ vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. ENGLAND AND ITS DEPENDENCIES CONTINUED. 1763. PAGE British Dominion in the East Indies In America Ireland Its Conquest The Irish Parliament The Church Colonisation of the Scotch Ireland after the Restoration After the Revolution of 1688 Disfranchisement of the Catholics Their Disqualification Laws prohibiting their Education Their Worship Their possessing Lands Their keeping Arms Restrictions on Industry Rise of the Irish Patriot party Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ..... 65 86 CHAPTER V. CHARLES TOWNSHEND PLEDGES THE MINISTRY OF BUTE TO TAX AMERICA BY THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, AND RESIGNS. FEBRUARY APRIL, 1763. America after the Peace of Paris Townshend enters the Cabinet His Colleagues His Policy Protest of New York An American Standing Army proposed Plan of Taxing America Loyalty of America Grenville enforces the Navigation Acts New Taxes in England Townshend resigns Bute resigns Grenville succeeds him at the Treasury A Triumvirate Ministry 87 108 CHAPTER VI. THE TRIUMVIRATE MINISTRY PURSUE THE PLAN OF TAXING AMERICA BY PARLIAMENT. APRIL MAY, 1763. Solidity of the British Constitution Grenville Jenkinson Ministry incomplete Affair of Wilkes Whatchy Jackson Grenville a Pro- tectionist His American Policy Shelburne . . . 109 123 CHAPTER VII. PONTIAC'S WAR-THE TRIUMVIRATE MINISTRY CONTINUED. MAY SEPTEMBER, 1763. The West Origin of Pontiac's War Pontiac Detroit Its Siege The Illinois Loss of Sandusky Of Fort St. Joseph's Fort Pitt threatened Loss of Fort Miami Of Fort Ouatanon Of Michilimackinac CONTENTS. vii PAGE Of Presqu' Isle, Le Bceuf and Veiiango Indian Ravages Fort Pitt Summoned Detroit relieved Defeat of Dalyell Fort Pitt Summoned again Bouquet's March Battle of Bushy Run Pittsburg relieved Amherst puts a price on Pontiac's Life Ambush of the Senecas Good Conduct of the French . . 124150 CHAPTEE VIII. THE TREASURY ENTER A MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX- MINISTRY OF GRENVILLE AND BEDFORD. MAY SEPTEMBER, 1763. Shelburne at the Board of Trade Declines Taxing America The Treasury pursues its Plan The King wishes a Stronger Ministry Death of Egremont The King invites Pitt to enter the Ministry The King rejects Pitt's advice Retreat of Bute Bedford joins the Ministry Affairs in America Vermont annexed to New York Strife in South Carolina Stamp Act ordered to be prepared Origin of the Stamp Act 151176 CHAPTEE IX. ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION GRENVILLE'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. OCTOBER, 1763 APRIL, 1764. Grenville and the Acts of Navigation Navy and Army assist to enforce them The Sea Guard Egmont proposes the Feudal System for America Boundaries of the New Provinces Pacification of the West Extension of Settlements Florida Grenville meets Parliament- He carries Large Majorities Strife of Virginia with the Clergy Patrick Henry against the Parsons Grenville opposes an American Civil List Affair of Wilkes Grenville prepares to propose the Stamp Act Consents to defer it for a year Offers Bounties for Colonial Hemp Favours the trade in Rice Concedes the Whale Fishery to New England The Budget with American Taxes New Regulations of the American Trade, and New Taxes Grenville's Interview with the Colony Agents Wishes the Colonies to consent to the Stamp Act His vanity gratified 177 217 CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. HOW AMERICA RECEIVED THE PLAN OF A STAMP ACT-GRENVILLE'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. APRIL DECEMBER, 1764. PAOK Surrender of Louisiana America Alarmed Samuel Adams Boston Instructions Excitement at New York The Legislature of Massa- chusetts Committee of Intercolonial Correspondence Bernard's Counsel to the Ministry Otis on Colonies Men of Boston Hutchinson's Opinions Bradstreet's Expedition Organisation of the New Provinces Canada Vermont Spirit of New York Rhode Island Pennsylvania Bouquet's Expedition Spirit of Virginia and Carolina Massachusetts silent about rights Royalists in America urge on the British Government Temper of the Ministry . 218 258 CHAPTER XI. THE TWELFTH PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN PASSES THE STAMP ACT GRENVILLE'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. JANUARY APRIL, 1765. Hutchinson's History Greuville proposes the Stump Act as a Question of Authority His Interview with Franklin Soanie Jenyns on the Stamp Act Military Power in the Colonies placed above the Civil Grenville moves for a Stamp Tax Speeches of Beckford and Jackson Of Earre and Charles Townshend Decision of the House of Commons The Stamp Bill brought in Debate on receiving American Petitions against it The Stamp Act passes Receives the Royal Assent Regulation of American Postage Mutiny Act extended to America New Bounties Stamp Officers appointed The Success of the Measure not doubted 259287 CHAPTER XII. THE MINISTRY OFFEND THE KING AS WELL AS THE COLONIES- GRENVILLE'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. APRIL MAY, 1765. The King proposes a Regency Bill Its Progress through the House of Lords Cumberland charged with Forming a New Administration He visits Pitt The Silk Weavers become Riotous Bedford's Inter- view with the. King Pitt declines Office The King capitulates with Grenville Power of the Oligarchy Restrictions on American Industry Taxation of America 288 305 CONTENTS. ix CHAPTER XIII. THE DAY-STAR OF THE AMERICAN UNION. APBIL MAY, 1765. \ PAGE \^Trogress of Freedom News of the Stamp Tax reaches America Opinion \ of Otis Of Hutchinson Boston May Meeting Action of Virginia Patrick Henry Meeting of the Massachusetts Legislature Otis proposes a Congress The Press of New York . . . 306 323 CHAPTER XIV. SOUTH CAROLINA FOUNDS THE AMERICAN UNION. JUNE JULY, 1765. Opinions of the People Their Rights as Englishmen Restrictions on Industry Retaliation The Bible for Freedom Independence hinted at Virtual Representation Wrongs of Vermont Union in Danger South Carolina decides for Union 324 335 CHAPTER XV. THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND FORMS A MINISTRY THE ROCKINGHAM WHIGS. JUNE JUI.Y, 1765. The King and his Ministers Pitt at the Palace New Ministry Rockingham Burke Grafton and Conway Dartmouth Measures of the New Ministry 336348 CHAPTER XVI. HOW THE STAMP OFFICERS WERE HANDLED IN AMERICA ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION. AUOCJST SEPTEMBER, 1765. \3?he Connecticut Stampinaster at Boston The Massachusetts Stanip- " / \ master forced to resign Riot at Boston General Resignation of the Stamp Officers Pusillanimity of Bernard Connecticut deals with its Stamp Officer Influence of the Clergy 349364 CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XVII. AMERICA REASONS AGAINST THE STAMP ACT ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. SEPTEMBER, 1765. The Ministry prepare to Execute the Stamp Act Appeal of John Adams Argument of Dulany The Plan of a Congress prevails Georgia Pennsylvania Rhode Island Delaware Samuel Adams enters the Legislature Events in New York 365 377 CHAPTEE XVIII. THE COLONIES MEET IN CONGRESS-ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION. OCTOBEB, 1765. Delegates from South Carolina Opening of the Congress Union The English take possession of Illinois Colonisation of Missouri Choiseul foresees American Independence Rockingham shows Lenity towards America Debates in Congress Its Memorial and Petitions Union formed 378394 CHAPTEE XIX. AMERICA ANNULS THE STAMP ACT ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. OCTOBER DECEMBER, 1765. Meeting of the Massachusetts Legislature Activity of Samuel Adams \ No Stamp Officers remain Non-importation Agreement The First \ of November The Press Events in New York The Colonies adhere to the Congress They plan a Permanent Union . . . 395 412 CHAPTEE XX. PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. DECEMBER, 1765 JANUARY, 1766. Fluctuating opinion in England English Liberty sustains America Effect of Cumberland's Death Meeting of Parliament Debate in the CONTENTS. xi PAGE House of Lords in the Commons Progress of American Resistance The Custom-Houses The Courts Committees of Correspondence Union Projected Bernard asks for an Army . . . 413 43i CHAPTER XXL HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA? ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. JANUARY, 1766. The Ministry undecided Meeting of Parliament Speech of Nugent Of Pitt Of Conway Of Grenville Pitt's Rejoinder Grafton and Conway desire to see Pitt at the Head of the Government The Petition of the American Congress ofiered to the House of Commons The Ministry decide for the right of Parliament to take America 4-34 458 CHAPTER XXII. PARLIAMENT AFFIRMS ITS RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. FEBRUARY, 1766. Debate in the House of Lords on the right to Tax America Speech of Camden Of Northington Mansfield He affirms the right Denies the difference between External and Internal Taxation Advises to Enforce the Stamp Act The Division Mansfield and Rousseau Debate in the Commons Platform of the modern Tory party Certainty of Reform 459480 CHAPTER XXIII. THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. FEBRUARY, 1766. The Ministry suffer a Defeat in the House of Lords It is reversed in the House of Commons The House of Lords vote for Enforcing the Stamp Act The House of Commons refuse to do so Opinion of the King Continued Resistance of America Rockingham makes a Question of Veracity with the King Examination of Franklin The Repeal resolved upon Opinions of Scotland . . . . 481 500 CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XXIV. THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS KOOKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. FEBRUARY MAY, 1766. PAGF. Pitt not yet Minister Firmness of America Warren cries for Freedom and Equality Bland of Virginia finds a remedy in Independence The Declaratory Bill The Bill for Repeal passes the Commons The Declaratory Bill in the House of Lords Speech of Camden Of Mansfield Of Egmont Debate on the Repeal The Bedford Protest The Repeal is carried The Grenville Protest Rejoicing in England Further Measures relating to America Joy of America at the Repeal Gratitude to Pitt 501524 HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, HOW GREAT BRITAIN ESTRANGED AMERICA. CHAPTER I. THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 1763. THE successes of the Seven Years' War were the triumphs of Protestantism. For the first time since the breach made in the church by Luther, the great Catholic powers, attracted by a secret consciousness of the decay of old institutions, banded themselves together to arrest the progress of change. In vain did the descendants of the feudal aristocracies lead to the field superior numbers ; in vain did the Pope bless their banners as though uplifted against unbe- lievers ; no God of battles breathed life into their hosts, and the resistless heroism of the earlier chivalry was no more. A wide-spread suspicion of insincerity 2 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. weakened the influence of priestcraft, which relapsed from confident menace into a decorous compromise with scepticism. The Catholic monarchies, in their struggle against innovations, had encountered overwhelming defeat ; and the cultivated world stood ready to welcome a new era. The forms of religion, government, military service, and industry, which lent to the social organisa- tion of the Middle Ages a compacted unity, were under- mined; and the venerable fabric, clinging to the past, hung over the future as A mighty rock, Which has, from unimaginable years, Sustained itself with terror and with toil Over a gulf; and with the agony With which it clings, seems slowly coming down. The dynasties which received their consecration from the Roman Church, would cease to array themselves in arms against the offspring of the Reformers ; in the long tumultuous strife, Protestantism had fulfilled its political ends, and was never again to convulse the world. But from Protestantism there came forth a prin- ciple of all-pervading energy, the common possession of civilised man, and the harbinger of new changes in the state. The life-giving truth of the Reformation was the right of private judgment. This personal liberty in affairs of conscience had, by the illustrious teach- ings of Descartes, been diffused through the nations 1763.] THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 3 which adhered to the old faith, under the more com- prehensive form of philosophical freedom. Everywhere throughout intelligent Europe and America, the sepa- rate man was growing aware of the inhering right to the unfettered culture and enjoyment of his whole moral and intellectual being. Individuality was the groundwork of new theories in politics, ethics, and industry. In Europe, where the human mind groped its way through heavy clouds of tradition, inquisitive activity assumed universally the form of doubt. From discus- sions on religion, it turned to the analysis of institu- tions and opinions. Having, in the days of Luther and Calvin, pleaded the Bible against popes and pre- lates and the one indivisible church, it now invoked the authority of reason, and applied it to every object of human thought ; to science, speculative philosophy, and art; to the place of our planet in the order of the heavens, and the nature and destiny of the race that dwells on it; to every belief and every polity inherited from the past ; to the priestly altar which the veneration of centuries had glorified ; to the royal throne which the Catholic Church had hallowed, and which the social hierarchy of feudalism had required as its head. Scepticism was the method of the new reform ; its tendency, revolution. Sad era for European humanity ! which was to advance towards light and liberty only through universal distrust ; and, before B 2 4 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. faith could be inspired by genial love to construct new governments, was doomed to gaze helplessly as its received institutions crumbled away. The Catholic system embraced all society in its religious unity; Protestantism broke that religious unity into sects and fragments; philosophy carried analysis through the entire range of human thought and action, and ap- pointed each individual the arbiter of his own belief and the director of his own powers. Society would be organised again ; but not till after the recognition of the rights of the individual. Unity would once more be restored, but not through the canon and feudal law ; for the new Catholic element was the people. Yet Protestantism, albeit the reform in religion was the seed-plot of democratic revolutions, had at first been attended by the triumph of absolute monarchy throughout continental Europe ; where even the Catholic powers themselves grew impatient of the authority of the Pope over their temporal affairs. The Protestant king, who had just been the ally of our fathers in the Seven Years' War, presented the first great example of the passage of feudal sovereignty into unlimited monarchy, resting on a standing military force. Still surrounded by danger, his inflexible and uncontrolled will stamped the impress of harshness even on his necessary policy, of tyranny on his errors of judgment, and of rapine and violence on his measures for aggran- disement. Yet Prussia, which was the favourite disciple 1763.] THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 5 of Luther and the child of the Reformation, while it held the sword upright, bore with every creed, and set reason free. It offered a shelter to Rousseau, and called in D'Alembert and Voltaire as its guests ; it set Semler to hold the Bible itself under the light of criticism ; it breathed into the boldly thoughtful Lessing widest hopes for the education of the race to a universal brotherhood on earth ; it *gave its youth to the teach- ings of Immanuel Kant, who, for power of analysis and universality, was inferior to none since Aristotle. " An army and a treasure do not constitute a power," said Vergennes ; but Prussia had also philosophic liberty. All freedom of mind in Germany hailed the peace of Hubertsburg as its own victory. 1 In every question of public law, Frederic, though full of respect for the rights of possession, continuing to noble birth its prescriptive posts and almost leaving his people divided into castes, made the welfare of the kingdom paramount to privilege. He challenged justice under the law for the humblest against the highest. He among Protestants set the bright pattern of the equality of Catholics in worship and in civil condition. To heal the conflict of franchises in the several provinces of his realm, he planned a general code, of which the faults are chiefly due to the narrowness of the lawyers of his day. His ear was open to the sorrows of the poor and the complaint of the crushed ; and as in time of war he shared peril and 1 I. F. Fries : Geschichte der Philosophic, ii. 495. 6 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. want with the common soldier, in peace the peasant that knocked at his palace gate was welcome to a hearing. " I love the lineage of heroes," he would say, " but I love merit more." " Patents of nobility are but phan- toms ; true worth is within." As he studied the history of the human race, the distinctions of rank vanished before his eyes ; so that he would say, " Kings are nothing but men, and all men are equal." Thus he arraigned the haughtiness of hereditary station, yet without forming purposes or clear conceptions of useful change. Not forfeiting the affection of his people, and not exciting their restless impatience, he yet made no effort to soften the glaring contrast between his philo- sophy and the political constitution of his kingdom. In the age of doubt he was its hero. Full of hope for the people, yet distrusting them for their blind supersti- tions ; scoffing at the arrogance of the nobility and the bigoted pride of legitimate kings, yet never devising their overthrow ; rejecting atheism as an absurdity, 1 yet never achieving the serene repose of an unwavering faith ; passionate against those who held that human thought and the human soul are but forms of matter, yet never inspired with the sense of immortality ; con- fiding neither in the capacity of the great multitude, nor the wisdom of philosophers, nor the power of religion, nor the disposition of kings, nor the promise of the coming age, he moved through the world as the colossal 1 Supplement aux (Euvres posthumes de Frederic II. A Cologne, iii. 380. 1763.J THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 7 genius of scepticism, questioning the past, which he knew not how to reform. Holding no colonies, he could calmly watch their growth to independence ; indulging an antipathy against the king of England, he might welcome the experiment of the widely-extending American commonwealth, but not with confidence in its happy course. If the number of active minds in cultivated Prussia was not yet large enough to give to forming opinion a popular aspect, in Russia, the immense empire which was extending itself along the Baltic and the Euxine, and had even crossed the Pacific to set up its banners in North-western America, free inquiry had something of solitary dignity as the almost exclusive guest of the Empress. First of the great powers of Europe in popu- lation, and exceeding all of them together in extent of European lands, the great Slavonic State was not proportionably strong and opulent. More than two- thirds of its inhabitants were bondsmen and slaves, thinly scattered over vast domains. The slave held the plough ; the slave bent over the anvil, or threw the shuttle ; the slave wrought the mines. The nobles, who directed the labour on their estates, in manufactures, or the search for ores, read no books from abroad, and as yet had no native literature. The little science that faintly gleamed on the interior was diffused through the priests of the Greek Church, themselves bred up in superstition ; so that the Slavonic race, which was 8 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. neither Protestant nor Catholic which had neither been ravaged by the wars of religion, nor educated by the discussions of creeds a new and rising power in the world, standing on the confines of Europe and Asia, not wholly Oriental, and still less of the West, displayed the hardy but torpid vigour of a people not yet vivified by intelligence, still benumbed by blind belief, igno- rance, and servitude. Its political unity existed in the strength of its monarchy, which organised its armies, and commanded them without control ; made laws, and provided for their execution ; appointed all officers, and displaced them at will; directed the internal admini- stration and the relations with foreign powers. The sovereign who held these absolute prerogatives was Catherine, a princess of a German Protestant house. Her ambition had secured the throne by adopting her husband's religion, conniving at his deposition, and not avenging his murder. Her love of pleasure solicited a licentiousness of moral opinion ; her passion for praise sought to conciliate the good will of men of letters ; so that she blended the adoption of the new philosophy with the grandeur, the crimes, and the voluptuousness of Asiatic despotism. If she invaded Poland, it would be under the pretext of protecting religious freedom ; if she moved towards the Bosphorus, she would sur- round herself with the delusive halo of some imaginary restoration of the liberties of ancient Greece. At home respecting the property of the nobles, yet seeking to 1763.] THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 9 diminish the number of slaves ; l an apparent devotee to the faith of the Greek Church, yet giving religious freedom to the Catholic and the Protestant, and even printing the Koran for the Mussulmans of her domi- nions : abroad, she bent neither to France nor to England. Her policy was thoroughly true to the empire that adopted her, and yet imbued with the philosophy of western Europe. With deserts near at hand to colonise, with the Mediterranean inviting her flag, she formed no wish of conquering Spanish colonies on the Pacific ; and we shall find her conduct towards England, in its rela- tions with America, held in balance between the impulse from the liberal systems of thought which she made it her glory to cherish, and the principle of monarchy which flattered her love of praise and was the basis of her power. Soon after the peace of Hubertsburg, the youthful heir to the Austrian dominions, which, with Prussia and Russia, shaped the politics of eastern and northern Europe, w r as elected the successor to the imperial crown of Germany. As an Austrian prince, it was the passion of Joseph II. to rival Frederic of Prussia. His mother, Maria Theresa, was a devotee in her attachment to the church. The son, hating the bigotry in which he was nurtured, inclined to scepticism and unbelief. The mother venerated with an absurd intensity of deference the prerogatives of an unmixed aristocratic descent ; the 1 Storch : Ecoiiomie Polititjue, iv. 252. 10 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. son affected to deride all distinctions of birth, and asserted the right to freedom of mind with such inte- grity, that he refused to impair it when afterwards it came to be exercised against himself. But, in the conflict which he provoked with the past, he mixed philanthropy with selfishness, and his hasty zeal to abolish ancient abuses was subordinate to a passion for sequestering political immunities, and concentrating all power in his own hands. As a reformer, he therefore failed in every part of his dominions ; and as he brought no enduring good to Hungary, but rather an example of violating its constitution, so we shall find the Austrian court the only great European power which, both as an ally of England and an enemy to republics, remained inflexibly opposed to America, Yet the efforts of Joseph II., ill -judged and vain as they were, illustrate the universality of the new influence. 1 The German empire, of which he was so soon to be the head, Avas the creature and the symbol of the Middle Ages. Its life was gone. The forms of liberty were there, but the substance had perished under the baleful excess of aristocracy. The Emperor was an elective officer, but his constituents were only princes. Of the nine electors, three were Roman Catholic archbishops, owing their rank to the choice of others; but their constituents were of the unmixed nobility, to whom entrance into the electoral chapters was exclusively 1 Klopstock : An den Kaiser, Wcrke, ii. 51. 1763.] THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 11 reserved. The sovereignty of the empire resided, not in the Emperor, but in the great representative body of the whole country, or Diet, as it was called, which was composed of the Emperor himself, of about one hundred independent prelates and princes, and of delegates from nine and forty independent towns. These last, besides the free cities of Bremen and Hamburg, had internally not only municipal liberties, but self-government, and were so many little republics, dotted throughout the land, from the Rhine to the Danube. But in the Diet, their votes counted as nothing. As the people on the one side were not heard, so the dignity of the imperial crown on the other brought no substantial power ; and as the hundred princes were never disposed to diminish their separate independence, it followed that the German empire was but a vain shadow. The princes and nobles parcelled out the land, and ruled it in severalty with an authority which there was none to dispute, to guide, or to restrain. Nobility throughout Germany was strictly a caste. The younger son of a subordinate and impoverished noble family would not have wedded with the wealthiest ple- beian heiress. Various chapters and ecclesiastical prefer- ments were accessible to those only who were of unmixed aristocratic ancestry. It followed, that, in the breast of the educated commoner, no political passion was so strong as the hatred of nobility; for nowhere in the world was the pride of birth so great as in the petty 12 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. German principalities. The numerous little princes absolute within their own narrow limits over a hopeless people, whose fortunes they taxed at will, whose lives and services they not only claimed for the service of the state and of themselves, but as merchantable property which might be transferred to others made up for the small extent of their dominions by an excess of self- adulation ; though, after all, as was said of them by one of the greatest German poets, who was ready to praise merit wherever found, they were but " demi-men, wiio, in perfectly serious stupidity, thought themselves beings of a higher nature than we." l But their pride was a pride which licked the dust, for " almost all of them were venal and pensionary." 2 The United Provinces of the Netherlands, the fore- runner of nations in religious tolerance, were, from the origin of their confederacy, the natural friends of intel- lectual freedom. Here thought ranged through the wide domain of speculative reason. Here the literary fugitive found an asylum, and the boldest writings, which in other countries circulated by stealth, were openly published to the world. But in their European relations, the Netherlands were no more a great maritime 1 Klopstock : Fiirstenlob. Halbmenschen, die sich, in vollem, dummen Ernst fur hohere Wesen halten als uns. 2 The authority is an English Lord Chancellor, speaking his mind to an English Duke. Hardwicke to Newcastle, 10th Sept., 1751 ; in Coxe's Pelham Administration, ii., 410. "Almost all the princes of Europe are become venal and pensionary." 1763.] THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 13 power. They had opulent free ports in the West Indies, colonies in South America, Southern Africa, and the East Indies, with the best harbour in the Indian Ocean : their paths, as of old, were on the deep, and their footsteps in many waters. They knew they could be opulent only through commerce, and their system of mercantile policy was liberal beyond that of every nation in Europe. Even their colonial ports were less closely shut against the traffic with other countries. This freedom bore its fruits : they became wealthy beyond compare, reduced their debt, and were able so to improve their finances, that their funds, bearing only two per cent, interest, rose considerably above par. Ever the champions of the freedom of the seas, at the time of their greatest naval power, they had in their treaty of 1674 with England, embodied the safety of neutrals in time of war, limiting contraband articles of trade, and making goods on shipboard as safe as the ships that bore them. But the accession of the Stadt- holder, 1 William of Orange, to the throne of England was fatal to the political weight of the Netherlands. From the rival of England they became her ally, and almost her subordinate ; and guided by her policy, they exhausted their means in land forces and barriers against France, leaving their navy to decline, and their fleets to disappear from the ocean. Hence arose the factions by 1 Offenbar war's aber der Republik nicht vortheilhaft, dass ihr General- Capitain zugleich auch Kbnig in England war. Spittler's Europaische Staaten, Gescbichte, i. 564, 565. 14 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. which their councils were distracted and their strength paralysed. The friends of the Stadtholder, who in 1763 was a boy of fifteen, sided with England, desired the increase of the army, were averse to expenditures for the navy, and forfeiting the popular favour which they once enjoyed, inclined more and more towards monarchical interests. The patriots saw in their weakness at sea a state of dependence on Great Britain ; they cherished a deep sense of the wrongs unatoned for and unavenged, which England, in the pride of strength, and un- mindful of treaties, had in the last war inflicted on their carrying trade and their flag ; they grew less jealous of France ; they opposed the increase of the army longed to restore the maritime greatness of their country ; and including much of the old aristocratic party among the merchants, they were fervid lovers of their country and almost republicans. The kingdom from which the United Provinces had separated, which Philip II. had made the citadel of Catholicism in which Loyola had organised his " Society of Jesus" as a spiritual army against Pro- testantism and modern philosophy, might seem to have been inaccessible to the ameliorating influence of a more enlightened public reason. The territory was compact and almost insulated ; and since the Cortes had ceased to be assembled, the government was that of absolute monarchy, controlled by no national representation, or independent judiciary, or political institution. " The 1763.] THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 15 royal power," says its apologist and admirer, 1 "moved majestically in the orbit of its unlimited faculties." The individual to whom these prerogatives were con- fided, was the bigoted, ignorant, kindly Charles III. A fond husband, a gentle master, really wishing well to his subjects, he had never read a book, not even in his boy- hood with his teachers. He indulged systematically his passion for the chase, crossing half his kingdom to hunt a wolf : and chronicling his achievements as a sportsman. He kept near his person the prayer-book and playthings of his childhood as amulets ; and yielding his mind to his confessors, he never strayed beyond the established paths in politics and religion. Yet the light that shone in his time penetrated even his palace : externally he followed the direction of France ; at home, the mildness of his nature, and some good sense, and even his timidity, made him listen to the counsels of the most liberal of his ministers ; so that in Spain also criminal law was softened, the use of torture discountenanced, and the papal power and patronage more and more restrained. The fires of the Inquisition were extin- guished, though its ferocity was not subdued ; and even the Jesuits, as reputed apologists of resistance and regicide when kings are unjust, were on the point 1 Sans representation nationale done, sans aucun corps ou institution poli- tique quelconque qui pfit le controler, le pouvoir royal tournoit majestueuse- ment dans 1'orbite de ses faculte's illimite'es. A 1'aspect d'un tel bonheur, qui auroit pu croire, &c. &c. Muriel : Gouvernement de Charles III. Roi d'Espagne. Introduction, 9. 16 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. of being driven from the most Catholic country of Europe. Spain ranked as the fourth European power in extent of territory, the fifth in revenue, while its colonies exceeded all others of the world beside ; embracing nearly all South America, except Brazil and the Guianas ; all Mexico and Central America ; California, which had no bounds on the north ; Louisiana, which came to the Mississippi, and near its mouth beyond it ; Cuba, Porto Rico, and part of Hayti ; and midway between the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, the Marianna and Philippine groups of isles ; in a word, the countries richest in soil, natural products, and mines, and having a submissive population of nearly twenty millions of souls. In the midst of this unexampled grandeur of pos- session, Spain, which with Charles V. and Philip II. had introduced the mercantile system of restrictions, was weak, and poor, and wretched. It had no canals, no good roads, no manufactures. There was so little industry, or opportunity of employing capital, that though money was very scarce, the rate of interest was as low at Madrid as in Holland. Almost all the lands were entailed in perpetuity, and were included in the immense domains of the grandees. These estates, never seen by their owners, were poorly cultivated and ill managed; so that almost nothing fell to the share of the masses. Except in Barcelona and Cadiz, the nation 1763.] THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 17 everywhere presented the most touching picture of misery and poverty. And Spain, which by its laws of navigation reserved to itself all traffic with its colonies, and desired to make the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean its own close seas, allowed but four and thirty vessels, some of them small ones, to engage in voyages between itself and the conti- nent of America on the Atlantic side, and ah 1 along the Pacific ; while but four others plied to and fro between Spain and the West India Isles. Having admirable harbours on every side, and a people on the coasts, especially in Biscay and Catalonia, suited to life at sea, all its fisheries, its coasting trade, its imports and exports; and all its colonies, scarcely employed sixteen thousand sailors. Such were the fruits of commercial monopoly, as illustrated by its greatest example. 1 The political relations of Spain were analogous. From a consciousness of weakness it leaned on the alliance with France ; and the deep veneration of the Catholic king for the blood of the Bourbons confirmed his attach- ment to the Family Compact. Besides, like France and more than France he had griefs against England. The English in holding the rock of Gibraltar, hurled at him a perpetual insult ; England encroached on Central America; England encouraged Portugal to extend the bounds of Brazil ; England demanded a ransom for the 1 From information obtained for the French Government, in tho Archives des Affaires Etrangeres. VOL. II. 13 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Manillas; England was always in the way, defying, subduing, overawing ; sending its ships into forbidden waters ; protecting its smugglers ; ever ready to seize the Spanish colonies themselves. The court of Spain was so wrapt up in veneration of the kingly power, that by its creed such a monarch of such an empire ought to be invincible ; it dreamed of a new and more successful Armada, and hid its unceasing fears under gigantic propositions of daring; but the King, chastened by experience, had all the while an unconfessed misgiving ; and slily timid, delighted in intrigue and menace, affected to be angry at the peace, and was perpetually stimulating France to undertake a new war, of which it yet carefully avoided the outbreak. CHAPTER II. THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE FRANCE. 1763. FRANCE, the " beautiful kingdom " of central Europe, was occupied by a most ingenious people, formed of blended elements, and still bearing traces not only of the Celtic, but of the German race ; of the culture of Rome, and the hardihood of the Northmen. In the habit of analysis it excelled all nations : its delight in logical exactness and in precision of outline, and expres- sion of thought, gave the style alike to its highest efforts and to its ordinary manufactures ; to its poetry and its prose ; to the tragedies of Racine and the pictures of Poussin, as well as to its products of taste for daily use, and the adornment of its public squares with a careful regard to fitness and proportion. Its severe method in the pursuit of mathematical science corresponded to its nicety of workmanship in the structure of its ships of war, its canals, its bridges, its fortifications, and its public buildings. Light-hearted, frivolous and vain, no c 2 2o THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. people were more ready to seize a new idea, and to pursue it with rigid dialectics to all its consequences ; none were so eager to fill, and as it were to burden, the fleeting moment with pleasure ; and none so ready to renounce pleasure, and risk life for a caprice, or sacrifice it for glory. Self-indulgent, they abounded in offices of charity. Often exhibiting the most heartless egotism, they were also easily inflamed with a most generous enthusiasm. Seemingly lost in profligate sensuality, they were yet capable of contemplative asceticism. To the superficial observer, they were a nation of atheists ; and yet they preserved the traditions of their own Bossuet and Calvin, of Descartes and Fenelon. In this most polished and cultivated land, whose government had just been driven out from North America, whose remaining colonies collectively had but about seventy thousand white persons, whose commerce with the New World could only be a consequence of American Independence, two opposite powers com- peted for supremacy ; on the one side monarchy, claim- ing to be absolute ; on the other, free thought, which was becoming the mistress of the world. Absolute power met barriers on every side. The arbitrary central will was circumscribed by the customs and privileges of the provinces, and the independence of its own agents. Many places near the King were held by patent ; the officers of his army were poorly paid, and often possessed of large private fortunes ; the 1763.] FRANCE. 21 clergy, though named by him, held office irrevocably, and their vast revenues, of a hundred and thirty millions of livres annually, were their own property. His treasury was always in need of money, not by taxes only, but by loans, which require the credit that rests on an assured respect for law. Former kings had in their poverty made a permanent sale of the power of civil and criminal justice ; so that the magistrates were triply independent, being themselves wealthy, holding their office of judges as a property, and being irremovable. The high courts of justice, or parliaments as they were called, were also connected with the power of legislation ; for as they enforced only those laws which they them- selves had registered, so they assumed the right of refusing to register laws ; and if the King came in person to command their registry, they would still remonstrate, even while they obeyed. But the great impairment of royal power was the decay of the faith on which it had rested. France was no more the France of the Middle Ages. The caste of the nobility, numbering, of both sexes and aU ages, not much more than one hundred thousand souls, was overtopt in importance by the many millions of an industrious people ; and its young men, trained by the study of antiquity, sometimes imbibed republican prin- ciples from the patriot writings of Greece and Rome. Authority, in its feeble conflict with free opinion, did but provoke licentiousness, and was braved with the 22 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. invincible weapons of ridicule. Freedom was the vogue, and it had more credit than the King. Scepticism found its refuge in the social circles of the capital ; and infusing itself into every department of literature and science, blended with the living intelligence of the nation. Almost every considerable house in Paris had pretensions as a school of philosophy. Derision of the established church was the fashion of the world ; many waged warfare against every form of religion, and against religion itself, while some were aiming also at the extermination of the throne. The new ideas got abroad in remonstrances and sermons, comedies and songs, books and epigrams. On the side of modern life, pushing free inquiry to the utmost contempt of restraint, though not to total unbelief, Voltaire employed his peerless wit and activity. The Puritans of New England changed their hemi- sphere to escape from bishops, and hated prelacy with the rancour of faction ; Voltaire waged the same warfare with widely different weapons, and, writing history as a partisan, made the annals of his race a continuous sarcasm against the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. His power reached through Europe; he spoke to the free-thinkers throughout the cultivated world. In the age of scepticism he was the prince of scoffers ; when philosophy hovered round saloons, he excelled in reflecting the brilliantly licentious mind of the intelligent aristo- cracy. His great works were written in retirement, but 1763.] FRANCE. 23 he was himself the spoiled child of society. He sunned himself in its light, and dazzled it by concentrating its rays. He was its idol, and he courted its idolatry. Far from breaking with authority, he loved the people as little as he loved the Sorbonne. The complaisant courtier of sovereigns and ministers, he could even stand and wait for smiles at the toilet of the French King's mistress, or prostrate himself in flattery before the Semiramis of the north ; willing to shut his eyes on the sorrow's of the masses, if the great would but favour men of letters. He it was, and not an English poet, that praised George I. of England as a sage and a hero who ruled the universe by his virtues ; l he could address Louis XV. as a Trajan ; and when the French King took a prostitute for his associate, it was the aged Voltaire who extolled the monarch's mistress as an adorable Egeria. 2 " The populace which has its hands to live by," such are the words, and such the sentiments of Voltaire, and as he believed of every landholder, "the people has neither time nor capacity for self- instruction ; they would die of hunger before becoming philosophers. It seems to me essential that there should be ignorant poor. 3 Preach virtue to the lower classes ; when the populace meddles with reasoning all is lost."* 1 Au Roi d'Angleterre, George l er , en lui envoyant la trage'die d'CEdipe. 2 Voltaire a Madame la Comtesse du Barri, 20 Juin, 1773. 3 " II me parait esaentiel qu'il y ait des gueux ignorans." 4 " Quand la populace se mele de raisonner, tout est perdu." Voltaire a M. Damilaville, 1" Avril, 1776. 24 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. The school of Voltaire did not so much seek the total overthrow of despotism as desire to make his philosophy its counsellor; and shielded the vices of a libidinous oligarchy by proposing love of self as the corner-stone of morality. The great view which pervades his writings is the humanising influence of letters, and not the rege- nerating power of truth. He welcomed, therefore, every thing which softened barbarism, refined society, and stayed the cruelties of superstition ; but he could not see the hopeful coming of popular power, nor hear the footsteps of Providence along the line of centuries, so that he classed the changes in the government of France among accidents and anecdotes. Least of all did he understand the tendency of his own untiring labours. He would have hated the thought of hastening a demo- cratic revolution ; and, in mocking the follies and vices of French institutions, he harboured no purpose of destroying them. " Spare them," he would say, " though they are not all of gold and diamonds. Take the world as it goes if all is not good, all is passable." l Thus scepticism proceeded unconsciously in the work of destruction, invalidating the past, yet unable to con- struct the future. Tor good government is not the creation of scepticism. Her garments are red with blood, and ruins are her delight; her despair may stimulate to voluptuousness and revenge ; she never kindled with the disinterested love of man. 1 " Le monde comme il va," Vision de Babouc. 1763.] FRANCE. 25 The age could have learnt, from the school of Voltaire, to scoff at its past; but the studious and observing Montesquieu discovered " the title-deeds of humanity," as they lay buried under the rubbish of privileges, con- ventional charters, and statutes. His was a generous nature that disdained the impotence of epicureanism, and found no resting-place in doubt. He saw that society, notwithstanding all its revolutions, must repose on principles that do not change; that Christianity, which seems to aim only at the happiness of another life, also constitutes man's blessedness in this. 1 He questioned the laws of every nation to unfold to him the truth that had inspired them ; and behind the confused masses of positive rules, he recognised the anterior existence and reality of justice. Full of the inquiring spirit of his time, he demanded tolerance for every opinion ; and to him belongs the peaceful and brilliant glory of leading the way to a milder and more effective penal code. Shunning speculative conjecture, he limited his reasonings to the facts in European political life, and though he failed to discover, theoretically, the true foundation of government, he revived and quickened faith in the principles of political liberty, and showed to the people of France how monarchy may be tempered by a division of its power, and how republics, more happy 1 " Chose admirable ! La Religion chretienne, qiii lie seinble avoir d'objet que la fe"licite de 1'autre vie, fait encore notre bonheur dans celle-ci." Esprit des Lois, Livre xxiv. chap. iii. 26 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. than those of Italy, may save themselves from the passionate tyranny of a single senate. That free commerce would benefit every nation, is a truth which Montesquieu 1 is thought to have but imper- fectly perceived. The moment was come when the languishing agriculture of his country would invoke science to rescue it from oppression by entreating the liberty of industry and trade. The great employment of France was the tillage of land, than which no method of gain is more grateful in itself, or more worthy of freemen, 2 or more happy in rendering service to the whole human race. 3 No occupation is nearer heaven. But authority had invaded this chosen domain of labour ; as if protection of manufactures needed restrictions on the exchanges of the products of the earth, the withering prohibition of the export of grain had doomed large tracts of land 4 to lie desolately fallow. Indirect taxes, to the number of at least ten thousand, 5 bringing with them custom-houses between provinces, and custom- houses on the frontier, and a hundred thousand tax- gatherers, left little " to the peasant 6 but eyes to weep with." The treasury was poor, for the realm was poor ; and the realm was poor, because the husbandman was 1 Montesquieu : Esprit des Lois, Livre xx. chap, xxiii. 2 Cicero de Officiis. 3 Cicero de Senectute. 4 Boisguillebert : Traite de la Nature, Culture, Commerce, et Interet des Grains, &c., &c., chap. vii. * Boisguillebert : Factum de la France, chap. vi. Economistes, p. 290. 6 Blanqui : Histoire de 1'Economic Politique, chap. ii. p. 54. 1763.] FRANCE. 27 poor. 1 While every one, from the palace to the hovel, looked about for a remedy to this system of merciless and improvident spoliation, there arose a school of upright and disinterested men, 2 who sought a remedy for the servitude of labour by looking beyond the prece- dents of the statute-book, or forms of government, to universal principles and the laws of social life ; beyond the power of the people or the power of princes, to the power of nature. 3 They found that man in society renounces no natural right, but remains the master of his person and his faculties, with the right to labour and to enjoy or exchange the fruits of his labour. Exportation has no danger, 4 for demand summons supplies : dearness need not appal, for high prices, quickening production, as manure does the soil, are their own certain, as well as only cure. So there should be no restriction on commerce 5 and industry, internal or external ; competition should supersede monopoly, and private freedom displace the regulating supervision of the state. Such was "the liberal and generous" 6 system of the political economists who grouped themselves round the calm and unpretending Quesnai, startling the world by 1 Quesnai : Maximes Generales du Gouvernement. Edition of the " Phy- siocrates " of Eugene Daire, p. 83. 8 Blanqui : Hist, de 1'Econ. Pol. chap. ii. p. 94. 3 Hence their name ; not Democrats, but " Physiocrats." 4 Quesnai : Maximes Generales du Gouvernement, xvL * F. Quesnai : Maximes Generales du Gouvernement, xxv. 6 Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, Book iv. chap. ix. 28 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. their axioms and tables of rustic economy, 1 as though a discovery had been made like that of the alphabet or of metallic coin. 2 The new ideas fell, in France, on the fruitful genius of Turgot, who came forward in the virgin purity of philo- sophy to take part in active life. He was well-informed and virtuous, 3 most amiable, 4 and of a taste the most delicate and sure ; a disinterested man, austere, yet holding it to be every man's business to solace those who suffer ; wishing the effective accomplishment of good, not his own glory in performing it. Tor him the human race was one great whole, 5 composed, as the Christian religion first taught, of members of one family under a common Father ; always, through calm and through " agitations," through good and through ill, through sorrow and through joy, on the march, though at a " slow step/' 6 towards a greater perfection. To further this improvement of the race, opinion, he insisted, must be free, and liberty conceded to industry in all its branches and in all its connexions. " Do not govern the world too much," he repeated, in the words of an earlier statesman. Corporations had usurped the several branches of domestic trade and manufactures ; Turgot vindicated the poor man's right to the free 1 Marmontel : Livre cinquiemc. (Euvres, torn. i. pp. 149, 150. 2 Marquis de Mirabeau, the elder. 3 D'Alembert to Voltaire. 4 Voltaire to D'Aleinbcrt. 5 Notice sur la Vie et les OZuvrages de Turgot, xxviii. &e., &c. 6 "A pas lents." 1763.] FRANCE. 29 employment of his powers. Statesmen, from the days of Philip II. of Spain, had fondly hoped to promote national industry and wealth by a system of prohibitions and restrictions, and had only succeeded in deceiving nations into mutual antipathies, which did but represent the hatreds and envy of avarice : Turgot would solve questions of trade abstractedly from countries as well as from provinces, and make it free between man and man, and between nation and nation ; for commerce is neither a captive #to be ransomed, nor an infant to be held in leading-strings. Thus he followed the teachings of nature, living as one born not for himself, but for the service of truth, and the welfare of mankind. 1 In those days the people toiled and suffered, with scarce a hope of a better futurity even for their posterity. In life Turgot employed his powers and his fortune as a trust, to relieve the sorrows of the poor ; but, under the system of uncontrolled individual freedom, the labourer, from the pressure of competition, might underbid his fellow-labourer till his wages should be reduced to a bare support. 2 Thus the sceptical philosopher, the erudite magistrate, the philanthropic founder of the science of political economy, proposed what they could for human progress. From the discipleship of Calvin, from the 1 Secta fuit servare modum, finemque tenere, Naturamque sequi, patriseque impendere vitam ; Non sibi, sed toti genitum se credere mundo. Motto of Condorcet : Vie de Turgot. 2 Turgot, Sur la Formation et la Distribution des Richesses. vi. CEuvres, torn. i. p. 10. 30 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. republic of Geneva, from the abodes of poverty, there sprung up a writer, through whom the " ignorant poor" breathed out their wrongs, and a new class gained a voice in the w^orld of published thought. With Jean Jacques Rousseau truth was no more to employ the discreet insinuations of academicians ; nor seek a hearing by the felicities of wit ; nor compromise itself by exchanging flattery for the favour of the great ; nor appeal to the interests of the industrial classes. Full of weaknesses and jealousies, shallow and inconsiderate, betrayed by poverty into shameful deeds, yet driven by remorse to make atonement for his vices, and possessing a deep and real feeling for humanity, in an age of scepticism and in the agony of want, tossed from faith to faith, as from country to country, he read the signs of death on the features of the past civilisation ; and in tones of sadness, but not of despair clinging always to faith in man's spiritual nature, and solacing the ills of life by trust in God 1 he breathed the spirit of revolu- tion into words of flame. Fearlessly questioning all the grandeurs of the world despots and prelates, and philosophers and aristocrats, and men of letters ; the manners, the systems of education, the creeds, the political institutions, the superstitions of his time ; he aroused Europe to the inquiry, if there did not exist a people. What though the church cursed his writings with its ban, and parliaments burned them at the gibbet 1 See Rousseau to Voltaire. 1763.] FRANCE. 31 by the hangman's hand ? What though France drove him from her soil, and the republic of his birth disowned her son ? What though the men of letters hooted at his wildness, and the humane Voltaire himself led the cry against this " savage charlatan," 1 " this beggar," who sought " fraternal union among men" by setting " the poor to plunder ah 1 the rich." Without learning or deep philosophy, from the woes of the world in which he had suffered, from the wrongs of the down-trodden which he had shared, 2 he derived an eloquence which went to the heart of Europe. He lit up the darkness of his times with flashes of sagacity; and spoke out the hidden truth, that the old social world was smitten with inevitable decay ; that if there is life still on earth, " it is the masses alone that live." 3 At the very time when Bedford and Choiseul were concluding the peace that was ratified in 1763, Rousseau, in a little essay on the social compact, published to the millions, that while true legislation has its source in divinity, the right to exercise sovereignty belongs inalienably to the people; but rushing eagerly to the 1 " Un je ne sais quel charlatan sauvage." Voltaire : Siecle de Louis XV., chap, xliii. Rousseau : Confessions, Partie I., livre iv. " n me fit entendre qu'il cachoit son vin ii cause des aides ; qu'il cachoit son pain ;i cause de la taille ; et qu'il seroit un homme perdu, si 1'on pouvoit se douter qu'il ne mourut pas de faim. Tout ce qu'il me dit a ce sujet, me fit une impression, qui ne s'effacera jamais. Ce fut 1& le germe de cette haine inextinguible qui se ddveloppa depuis dans mon coeur centre les vexations qu' eprouve le malheureux peuple et centre ses oppresseurs." 3 The phrase is from Cousin. 32 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. doctrine which was to renew the world, he lost out of sight the personal and individual freedom of mind. The race as it goes forward, does not let fall one truth, but husbands the fruits of past wisdom for the greater welfare of the ages to come. Before government could grow out of the consenting mind of all, there was need of all the teachers who had asserted freedom for the reason of each separate man. Rousseau claimed power for the public mind over the mind of each member of the state, which would make of democracy a homicidal tyranny. He did not teach that the freedom, and therefore the power, of the general mind, rests on the freedom of each individual mind ; that the right of private judgment must be confirmed before the power of the collective public judgment can be justified ; that the sovereignty of the people presupposes the entire personal freedom of each citizen. He demanded for his common- wealth the right of making its power a religion, its opinions a creed, and of punishing every dissenter with exile or death ;* so that his precepts were at once enfranchising and despotic, involving revolution, and constituting revolution and exterminating despotism. This logical result of his lessons was at first less observed. His fiery eloquence, and the concerted efforts of men of 1 Roxisseau : Du Contrat Social, Livre iv. chap. viii. " II y a done une pro- fession de foi purement civile dont il appartient au soverain de fixer les articles. . . Sans pouvoir obliger personue a les croire, il pent banuir de 1'etat quiconque ne les croit pas. . . Que, si qnelqu'un, apres avoir reconnu publiqnement ces memes dogmes, se conduit commc ne les croyant pas, qu'il soit puni de mort." 1763.] FRANCE. 33 letters who fashioned anew the whole circle of human knowledge, overwhelmed the priesthood and the throne. The ancient forms of the state and the church were still standing; but monarchy and the hierarchy were as insulated columns, from which the building they once belonged to had crumbled away ; where statues, formerly worshipped, lay mutilated and overthrown, among ruins that now sheltered the viper and the destroyer. VOL. II. CHAPTER III. ENGLAND AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 1763. NORTH of the channel that bounded France, liberty was enjoyed by a wise and happy people, whose domestic character was marked by moderation, and, like its climate, knew but little of extremes. The opinions on religion and on government which speculative men on the continent of Europe were rashly developing without qualification or reserve, were derived from England. She rose before the philosophers as the asylum of independent thought, and upon the nations as the home of revolution, where liberty emanated from discord and sedition. There free opinion had carried analysis boldly to every question of faith as well as of science. English free-thinkers had led the way in the reaction of Protestant Europe against the blind adoration of the letter of the Bible. English Deists, tracing Christianity to reason and teaching that it was as old as creation, were the forerunners of the German Rationalists. 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 35 English treatises on the human understanding were the sources of the materialism of France. In the atmosphere of England Voltaire ripened the speculative views which he published as English Letters ; there Montesquieu sketched a government which should make liberty its end ; and from English writings and example Rousseau derived the idea of a social compact. Every Englishman discussed public affairs ; busy politicians thronged the coffee-houses ; petitions were sent to Parliament from popular assemblies ; cities, boroughs, and counties framed addresses to the King : and yet, such was the stability of the institutions of England amidst the factious conflicts of parties, such her loyalty to law even in her change of dynasties, such her self-control while resisting power, such the fixedness of purpose lying beneath the restless enterprise of her intelligence, that the ideas which were preparing radical changes in the social system of other monarchies, held their course harmlessly within her borders, as winds playing capriciously round some ancient structure whose massive buttresses tranquilly bear up its roof, and towers, and pinnacles, and spires. The great Catholic kingdoms sanctified the kingly power by connecting it with the Church and deriving its title-deed directly from heaven. Prussia was as yet the only great modern instance of a warlike state resting on an army ; England limited its monarchy by law. Its constitution was venerable from its antiquity. Some traced it to Magna Charta, some to the Norman Conquest, D 2 36 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. and some to the forests of Germany, where acts of legis- lation were debated and assented to by the people and by the nobles; but it was at the revolution of 1688, that the legislature definitively assumed the sovereignty by dismissing a monarch from the kingdom, as a landlord might dismiss a farmer from his holding. In England, monarchy, in the Catholic sense, had gone off; the dynasty on its throne had abdicated the dignity of hereditary right and the sanctity of divine right, and wore the crown in conformity to a statute, so that its title was safe only with the constitution. The framework of government had for its direct end, not the power of its chief, but personal liberty and the security of property. The restrictions, which had been followed by such happy results, had been established under the lead of the aristocracy, to whom the people in its grati- tude for security against arbitrary power and its sense of inability itself to reform the administration, had likewise capitulated ; so that England was become an aristocratic republic 1 with the King as the emblem of a permanent executive. In the Catholic world, the Church, as the independent interpreter of the Divine will, placed itself above the State, and might interpose to protect itself and the people against feudal tyranny by appeals to that abso- lute truth which it claimed and was acknowledged to 1 "line nation on la republique Re cache sous la forme de la monarch ie." Montesquieu, vol. i. p. 105. 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 37 represent. In England, the Church had no independent power ; and its connection with the State was purchased by its subordination. None but conformists could hold office; but in return, the Church, in so far as it is a civil establishment, was the creature of Parliament ; a statute enacted the articles of its creed, as well as its Book of Prayer ; it was not even entrusted with a co-ordinate power to reform its own abuses; any attempt to have done so would have been treated as a usurpation ; amendment could proceed only from Parliament. The Convocations of the Church were infrequent, and if laymen were not called to them, it was because the assembly was merely formal. Through Parliament the laity ruled the Church. It seemed, indeed, as if the bishops were still elected ; but it was only in appearance ; the crown, which gave leave to elect, named also the person to be chosen, and obedience to its nomination was enforced by the penalties of a premunire. The laity, too, had destroyed the convents and monas- teries, which, under other social forms, had been the schools, the poor-houses, and the hostelries of the land ; and all the way from Netley Abbey to the rocky shores of Northumberland and even to the remote loneliness of lona, had filled the country with the ruins of buildings, which once rose in such numbers and such beauty of architecture that they seemed like a concert of voices engaged in a hymn of praise. And the property of the 38 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Church, which had been enjoyed by the monasteries that undertook the performance of the parochial offices, had now fallen into the hands of impropriators ; so that the fund set apart for charity, instruction, and worship, often became the plunder of laymen, who took the great tithes and left a remaining pittance to their vicars. The lustre of spiritual influence was tarnished by this strict subordination to the temporal power. The clergy had never slept so soundly over the traditions of the Church ; and the dean and chapter, at their cathedral stalls, seemed like strangers encamped among the shrines, or lost in the groined aisles which the fervid genius of men of a different age and a heartier faith had fashioned; filling the choir with religious light from the blended colours of storied windows, imitating the graceful curving of the lambent flame in the adornment of the tracery, and carving in stone every flower and leaf of the garden to embellish the light column, whose shafts soared upwards, as if to reach the sky. The clergy were Protestant, and married. Their great dignitaries dwelt in palaces, and used their vast revenues not to renew cathedrals, or beautify chapels, or build new churches, or endow schools ; the record of their wealth was written in the rolls of the landed gentry, into which the fortunes they accumulated intro- duced their children ; so that the Church, though it was represented among the barons, never came in conflict 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 39 with the landed aristocracy with which its interests were identified. The hereditary right of the other members of the House of Lords was such a privilege as must, in itself, always be hateful to a free people ; l and yet, in England, it was not so. In France, the burgesses were preparing to overthrow the peerage ; but in England there was no incessant struggle to be rid of it. The reverence for its antiquity was enhanced by pleasing historical associa- tions. But for the aid of the barons, Magna Charta would not have been attained ; and but for the nobility and gentry, the revolution of 1688 would not have succeeded. A sentiment of gratitude was, therefore, blended in the popular mind with submission to rank. Besides, nobility was not a caste, but rather an office, personal and transmissible to but one. The right of primogeniture made its chief victims in the bosom of the families which it kept up, and which themselves set the leading example of resignation to its injustice. Not younger sons only, who might find employment in public office, or at the bar, or in the church, the army, or navy, or in mercantile adventures and pursuits ; the daughters of the great landed proprietors, from a delicate sense of self-sacrifice, characteristic of the sex, applauded the rule by which they were disinherited, and placed their pride in upholding a system which left them 1 " Les prerogatives odieuses par elles-memes, et qui dans un etat libre, doiveut toujours etre en danger." Montesquieu. 40 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. dependent or destitute. In the splendid houses of their parents they were bred to a sense of their own poverty, and were bred to endure that poverty cheerfully. They would not murmur against the system, for their sighs might have been taunted as the repinings of selfishness. They all revered the head of the family, and by their own submission taught the people to do so. Even the mother who might survive her husband, after following him to his tomb in the old manorial church, returned no more to the ancestral mansion, but vacated it for the heir ; and the dowager must be content with her jointure, which might often be paid grudgingly as to one Long wintering on a young man's revenue. As the daughters of the nobility were left poor, and most of them necessarily remained unmarried, or wedded persons of inferior birth, so the younger sons became commoners ; and though they were in some measure objects of jealousy, because they so much engrossed the public patronage, yet, as they really were commoners, and entered the body of the people, they kept up between classes a sympathy unknown in any other country. Besides, the road to the honours of the peerage, as all knew, lay open to all. It was a body, constantly invigorated by recruits from some among the greatest men of England. Had it been left to itself, it would have perished long before. Once, having the gentle Addison for a supporter of the measure, it voted 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 41 itself to be a close order, but was saved by the House of Commons from consummating its selfish purpose, where success would have prepared its ruin ; and it remained that the son of a coal-heaver, the poorest man who ever struggled upwards in the rude competition of the law, might come to preside in the House of Lords. So the peerage was doubly connected with the people ; the larger part of its sons and daughters descended to the station of commoners, and commoners were at all times making their way to the peerage. In no country was rank so privileged or classes so blended. The peers, too, were, like all others, amenable to the law ; and though the system of finance bore evidence of their controlling influence in legislation, yet the houses, lands, and property of the peers were not exempt from taxation. The law, most unequal as it certainly was, yet, such as it was, applied equally to all. One branch of the legislature was reserved to the here- ditary aristocracy of land-holders ; the House of Commons partook of the same character: it represented every blade of grass in the kingdom, but not every labourer ; the land of England, but not her men. No one but a land-holder was qualified to be elected into that body ; and most of those who were chosen were scions of the great families sons of peers, even the oldest son, while his father lived, could sit in the House of Commons ; and there might be, and usually were, many members of one name. 42 THE AMEKICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Nor was the condition of the elective franchise uniform. It was a privilege ; and the various rights of election depended on capricious charters or immemorial custom rather than on reason. Of the five hundred and fifty-eight members, of whom the House of Commons then consisted, the counties of England, Wales, and Scotland elected one hundred and thirty-one as knights of the shires. These owed their election to the good-will of the owners of great estates in the respective counties ; for it was a usage that the tenant should vote as his landlord directed, and his compliance was certain, for the ballot was unknown, and the vote was given by word of mouth or a show of hands. The representatives of the counties were, there- fore, as a class, country gentlemen, independent of the court. They were comparatively free from corruption, and some of them fervidly devoted to English liberty. The remaining four hundred and twenty-seven members, " citizens and burgesses," were arbitrarily distributed among cities, towns, and boroughs, with little regard to the wealth or to the actual numbers of the inhabitants. The bare name of Old Sarum, where there was not so much as the ruins of a town, and scarce so much housing as a sheep-cot, or more inhabitants than a shepherd, sent as many representatives to the grand assembly of law-makers as the whole county of Yorkshire, so numerous in people and powerful in riches. 1 The 1 The illustration is iu substance, and almost in words, from Locke. 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 43 lord of the borough of Newport, in the Isle of Wight, in like manner, named two members, while Bristol elected no more ; the populous capital of Scotland but one ; and Manchester none. Two hundred and fifty- four members had such small constituencies, that about five thousand seven hundred and twenty-three votes sufficed to choose them. Fifty-six were elected by so few that, had the districts been equally divided, six and a half votes would have sufficed for each member. In an island counting more than seven and a hah millions of people, and at least a million and a half of mature men, no one could pretend that it required more than ten thousand voters to elect the majority of the House of Commons. But, in fact, it required the consent of a far less number. London, and Bristol, and perhaps a few more of the larger places, made independent selections; but they were so few, independence seemed to belong to London alone. The boroughs were nearly all dependent on some great proprietor, or on the crown. The burgage tenures belonged to men of fortune ; and as the elective power attached to borough houses, the owner of those houses could compel their inhabitants to elect whom he pleased. The majority of the members were able to command their own election, sat in parliament for life as undisturbed as the peers, and bequeathed to their children the property and influence which secured their seats. The same names occur in the 44 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. rolls of parliament, at the same places, from one genera- tion to another. The exclusive character of the representative body was completed by the prohibition of the publication of the debates, and by the rule of conducting all important negotiations with closed doors. Power was with the few. The people was swallowed up in the lords and commons. Such was the Parliament whose favour conferred a secure tenure of office, whose judgment was the oracle of British statesmen. In those days they never indulged in abstract reasoning, and cared little for general ideas. Theories and philosophy from their lips would have been ridiculed or neglected ; for them the applause at St. Stephen's weighed more than the approval of posterity, more than the voice of God in the soul. That hall was their arena of glory, their battle-field for power. They pleaded before that tribunal, and not in the forum of humanity. They studied its majorities, to know on which side was " the best of the lay" in the contest of factions for office. How to meet Parliament was the Minister's chief solicitude ; and sometimes, like the spendthrift at a gaming-table, he would hazard all his political fortunes on its one decision. He valued its approval more than the affections of mankind, and could boast that this servitude, like obedience to the Divine Law, was perfect freedom. 1 1 "Perfect freedom." Burke : Thoughts on the Cause of the Pre.seut Discontents. 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 45 The representation in Parliament was manifestly inadequate, and might seem to introduce that unmixed aristocracy which is the worst government under the sun. But the English system was so tempered with popular franchises that faithful history must place it among the very best which the world had seen. If no considerable class desired to introduce open and avowed republicanism, no British statesman of that century had as yet been suspected of deliberately planning how to narrow practical liberty, by substituting the letter of the constitution for its vital principle. It was the custom of Parliament to listen with deference to the representations of the opulent industrial classes, and the House of Commons was sympathetic with the people. Hence the inconsistency involved in the English electoral system, which was altogether a domestic question and not likely to be reformed by any influence from within, was less considered than the fact, that the country, alone among monarchies, really possessed a legislative constitution. In the pride of comparison with France and Spain, it was a part of the English- man's nationality to maintain the perfection of British institutions, and to look down with scorn on all the kingdoms of the Continent, as lands of slaves. Every Englishman, in the comparison, esteemed himself as his own master and lord, having no fear of oppression, obeying no laws but such as he seemed to have assisted in making, and reasoning on politics with that free 4(3 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. inquiry which, in a despotism, leads to revolution. The idea of the perfection of representative government veiled the inconsistencies of practice. It was received as yet without much question, that every independent man had, or might have, a vote ; that every man was governed by himself ; and that the people of England, as a corporate body, exercised legislative power. Men considered, too, the functions of Parliament, and especially of the House of Commons. It protected the property of every man by taking from the executive the power of taxation, and establishing the ideal principle, that taxes could be levied only with the consent of the people. It maintained the supremacy of the civil power by making the grants for the army and navy annual, limiting the number of troops that might be kept up, and keeping the control over their discipline by leaving even the Mutiny Bill to expire once a year. Thus it guarded against danger from a standing army, of which it always stood in dread. All appropriations, except the civil list for maintaining the dignity of the crown, it made specific and only for the year. As the great inquest of the nation, it examined how the laws were executed, and was armed with the power of impeachment. By its control of the revenue, it was so interwoven with the administration, that it could force the King to accept, as advisers, even men who had most offended him ; so that it might seem doubtful if he named, or if Parliament designated, the ministers. 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 47 The same character of aristocracy was imprinted on the administration. The King reigned, but, by the theory of the constitution, was not to govern. 1 He appeared in the Privy Council on occasions of state ; but Queen Anne was the last of the English monarchs to attend the debates in the House of Lords, or to preside at a meeting of her ministers. In the Cabinet, according to the rule of aristocracy, every question was put to vote, and after the vote the dissentients must hush their individual opinions, and present the appearance of unanimity. The King himself must be able to change his council, or must yield. Add to this, that the public offices were engrossed by a small group of families, that favour dictated appointments of bishops in the church, of officers in the navy, and still more in the army, in which even boys at school held commissions, and we shall find that the aristocracy of England absorbed all the functions of administration. Yet, even here, the spirit of aristocracy was reined in. Every man claimed a right to sit in judgment on the administration ; and the mighty power of public opinion, 2 embodied in a free press, pervaded, checked, and, in the last resort, nearly governed the whole. 1 The phrase, " The King reigns but does not govern," may be found in Bolingbroke, who wished that the patriot king should "govern as well as reign." 8 " He who, speculating on the British constitution, should omit from his enumeration the mighty power of public opinion, embodied in a free press, which pervades, and checks, and perhaps, in the last resort, nearly governs the whole, would give but an imperfect view of the government of England." Speech, at Liverpool, of Canning, who died before the reform of parliament. 48 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Nor must he who will understand the English institu- tions leave out of view the character of the enduring works which had sprung from the salient energy of the English mind. Literature had been left to develope itself. William of Orange was foreign to it ; Anne cared not for it ; the first George knew no English ; the second, not much. Devotedness to the monarch is not impressed on English literature ; but it willingly bore the mark of its own aristocracy, Envy must own I live among the great, was the boast of the most finished English poet of the eighteenth century. Neither the earlier nor the later literature put itself at war with the country or its classes. The philosophy of Bacon, brilliant with the richest lustre of a creative imagination and extensive learning, is marked by mode- ration as well as grandeur ; and, like that principle of English institutions which consults precedents and facts rather than theories, it prepared the advancement of science by the method of observation. Newton was a contented member of a university, and never thought to rebel against the limits that nature has set to the human powers in the pursuit of science. The inmost character of the English mind, in the various epochs of its history, was imprinted on its poetry. Chaucer recalled the joyous heroism, and serious thought, and mirth, and sadness, that beguiled 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 49 the pious pilgrimages, or lent a charm to the hospitality of Catholic England. Spenser threw the dim halo of allegory round the monotonous caprices of departing chivalry. Shakespeare, "great heir of fame," rising at the proud moment of the victory of English nationalty and Protestant liberty over all their enemies, seeming to be master of every chord that vibrates in the human soul, and knowing all that can become the cottage or the palace, the town or the fields and forests, the camp or the banqueting hall, unfolded the panorama of English history, and embodied in " easy numbers" all that is wise, and lovely, and observable in English manners and social life, proud of his countrymen and his country, to him This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land, Dear for her reputation through the world. Milton, with his heroic greatness of mind, was the stately representative of English republicanism, eager to quell the oppressor, but sternly detesting libertinism and disorder, and exhorting to " patience," even in the days of the later Stuarts. Dry den, living through the whole era of revolutions, yielded to the social influences of his time, and reproduced in his verse the wayward wavering of the English Court between Protestantism and the Roman Catholic religion, between voluptuousness and faith ; least read, because least proudly national. And Pope was the cherished poet of English aristocratic life, VOL. II. 50 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. as it existed in the time of Bolingbroke and Walpole ; flattering the great with sarcasms against kings ; an optimist, proclaiming order as the first law of Heaven. None of all these, not even Milton, provoked to the overthrow of the institutions of England. Nor had the scepticism of modern philosophy pene- trated the mass of the nation, or raised vague desires of revolution. It kept, rather, what was held to be the best company. It entered the palace during the licentious- ness of the two former reigns ; and though the court was now become decorous and devout, still the nobility, and those who, in that day, were called " the great," affected free-thinking as a mark of high breeding, and laughed at the evidence of piety in any one of their order. But the spirit of the people rebelled against materialism ; if worship, as conducted in the parish church, had no attractive warmth, they gathered round the preacher in the fields, eager to be assured that they had within themselves a spiritual nature and a warrant for their belief in immortality ; yet, under the moderating influence of Wesley, giving the world the unknown spectacle of a fervid reform in religion, combined with unquestioning deference to authority in the state. English metaphysical philosophy itself bore a character of moderation analogous to English institutions. In open disregard of the traditions of the Catholic Church, Locke had denied that thought implies an immaterial substance ; and Hartley and the chillingly repulsive 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 61 Priestley asserted that the soul was but of flesh and blood ; but the more genial Berkeley, armed with " every virtue," insisted rather on the certain existence of the intellectual world alone ; while from the bench of English bishops the inimitable Butler pressed the analogies of the material creation itself into the service of spiritual Me, and, with the authority of reason, taught the supremacy of conscience. If Hume embodied the logical consequences of the sensuous philosophy in the most skilfully constructed system of idealism which the world had ever known, his own countryman, Reid, in works worthy to teach the youth of a republic, illustrated the active powers of man and the reality of right ; Adam Smith found a criterion of morality in the universal sentiment of mankind ; and the English Dis- senter, Price, enforced the eternal, necessary, and unchanging distinctions of morality. So philosophic freedom in England rebuked its own excesses, and self- balanced and self-restrained, never sought to throw down the august fabric which had for so many centuries stood before Europe as the citadel of liberty. The blended respect for aristocracy and for popular rights was impressed upon the courts of law. They were charged with the protection of every individual without distinction, securing to the accused a trial by sworn men, who were taken from among his peers, and held their office for but one short term of service. And especially the judges watched over the personal liberty E2 52 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. of every Englishman, with power on the instant to set free any one illegally imprisoned, even though in custody by the King's express command. At the same time the judiciary, with a reputation for impartiality, in the main well deserved, was by its nature conservative, and by its constitution the associate and the support of the House of Lords. Westminster Hall, which had stood through many revolutions and many dynasties, and was become venerable from an unchanged existence of five hundred years, sent the first officer in one of its courts, from however humble an origin he might have sprung, to take precedence of the nobility of the realm, and act as President of the Chamber of Peers. That branch of the legislature derived an increase of its dignity from the great lawyers whom the crown, from time to time, was accustomed to ennoble ; and moreover, it formed, of itself, a part of the judicial system. The House of Commons, whose members, from their frequent elections, best knew the temper of the people, possessed exclusively the right to originate votes of supply ; but the final judgment on all questions of law respecting property rested with the House of Lords. The same cast of aristocracy, intermingled with popularity, pervaded the systems of education. From climate, compact population, and sober national cha- racter, England was capable beyond any other country in the world of a system of popular education. Never- 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 53 theless it had none. The mass of its people was left ignorant how to write or read. But the benevolence of Catholic ages, emulated also in later times, had benefited science by endowments, which in their conception were charity schools ; founded by piety for the education of poor men's sons ; where a place might sometimes be awarded to favour, but advancement could be obtained only by merit, and tho sons of the aristocracy, having no seminaries of their own, grouped themselves as at Eton, or Westminster, or Harrow, or Winchester, round the body of the scholars on the foundation ; submitting like them to the accustomed discipline, even to the use of the rod, at which none rebelled, since it fell alike on all. The same constitution marked the universities. The best scholars on the foundation were elected from the public schools to the scholarships in the several colleges, and formed the continuing line of succession to their appointments as well as the central influence of industry, order, and ambition, round which the sons of the opulent clustered. Thus the genius of the past claimed the right to linger in the streets of Mediaeval Oxford ; and the sentiment of loyalty, as in earlier days, still hovered over the meadows of Christ Church and the walks of Maudlin : but if the two universities were both loyal to the throne and devoted to the church, it was from their own free choice, and not from deference to authority or command. They had proved their independence and 54 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. had resisted kings. If they were swayed on the surface by ministerial influences, they were at heart intractable and self-determined. The King could neither appoint their officers, nor prescribe their studies, nor control their government, nor administer their funds. The endowments of the colleges, which, in their origin, were the gifts of piety and charity, were held as property, independent of the state; and were as sacred as the estates of any one of the landed gentry. The sons of the aristocracy might sometimes be prize-men at Oxford or wranglers at Cambridge ; but if they won collegiate honours, it was done fairly by merit alone. In the pursuit, the eldest sons of peers stood on no vantage ground over the humblest commoner; so that the universities in their whole organisation, at once upheld the institutions of England, and found in them the security of their own privileges. It might be supposed that the gates of the cities would have been barred against the influence of the aristocracy. But it was not so. That influence was interwoven with the prosperity of the towns. Entails were not perpetual ; but land was always in the market ; estates were often encumbered ; and the national debt, which was intimately connected with all private credit and commercial transactions, was also in fact a mortgage upon all the- soil of the kingdom. The swelling expenses of the government increased its dependence on the moneyed class ; and the leading minister needed the 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 55 confidence of the city as well as of the country and the court. Besides, it was not uncommon to see a wealthy citizen toiling to amass yet greater wealth, that he might purchase land and found a family, or giving his richly-dowered daughter in marriage to a peer. Every body formed a part of the aristocratic organisa- tion : a few desired to enter the higher class ; the rest sought fortune in serving it. Moreover, the interests of the trade of the nation had precedence of the political interests of the princes. The members of the legislature watched popular excitements, and listened readily to the petitions of the merchants ; and these in their turn did not desire to see one of their own number charged with the conduct of the finances as chancellor of the exchequer ; but wished rather for some member of the aristocracy, friendly to their interests. They preferred to speak through such an one, and rebelled against the necessity of doing so, as little as they did at the employment of a barrister to plead their cause in the halls of justice. But if aristocracy was not excluded from towns, still more did it pervade the rural life of England. The climate not only enjoyed the softer atmosphere that belongs to the western side of masses of land, but was further modified by the proximity of every part of it to the sea. It knew neither long-continuing heat nor cold ; and was more friendly to daily employment throughout the whole year, within doors or without, than any in f>6 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. "Europe. The island was " a little world " of its own ; with a " happy breed of men " for its inhabitants, in whom the hardihood of the Norman was intermixed with the gentler qualities of the Celt and the Saxon, just as nails are rubbed into steel to temper and harden the Damascus blade. They loved country life, of which the mildness of the clime increased the attractions; since every grass and flower and tree that had its home between the remote north and the neighbourhood of the tropics would live abroad, and such only excepted as needed a hot sun to unfold their bloom, or perfect their aroma, or ripen their fruit, would thrive in perfection : so that no region could show such a varied wood. The moisture of the sky favoured a soil not naturally very rich; and so fructified the earth, that it was clad in perpetual verdure. Nature had its attractions even in winter. The ancient trees were stripped indeed of their foliage, but showed more clearly their fine proportions, and the undisturbed nests of the noisy rooks among their boughs ; the air was so mild, that the flocks and herds still grazed on the freshly-springing herbage ; and the deer found shelter enough by crouching amongst the fern ; the smoothly-shaven grassy walk was soft and yielding under the foot ; nor was there a month in the year in which the plough was idle. The large landed proprietors dwelt often in houses which had descended to them from the times when England was gemmed all over with the most delicate and most solid structures of 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 57 Gothic art. The very lanes were memorials of early days, and ran as they had been laid out before the Conquest ; and in mills for grinding corn, water-wheels revolved at their work just where they had been doing so for at least eight hundred years. Hospitality also had its traditions ; and, for untold centuries, Christmas had been the most joyous of the seasons. The system was so completely the ruling element in English history and English life, especially in the country, that it seemed the most natural organisation of society, and was even endeared to the dependent people. Hence the manners of the aristocracy, without haughti- ness or arrogance, implied rather than expressed the consciousness of undisputed rank; and female beauty added to its loveliness the blended graces of dignity and humility most winning, where acquaintance with sorrow had softened the feeling of superiority, and increased the sentiment of compassion. Yet the privileged class defended its rural pleasures and its agricultural interests with impassioned vigilance. The game laws parcelling out among the large proprie- tors the exclusive right of hunting, which had been wrested from the King as too grievous a prerogative, were maintained with relentless severity ; and to steal, or even to hamstring a sheep, 1 was as much punished by death as murder or treason. During the reign of 1 " Recently a boy was hanged for hamstringing some sheep which a butcher intended to have stolen." Sir William Meredith, Debates, 9th May, 1770, in Cavendish, ii. 12. 58 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. George II., sixty-three new capital offences had been added to the criminal laws, and five new ones, on the average, continued to be discovered annually j 1 so that the criminal code of England, formed under the influence of the rural gentry, seemed written in blood, and owed its mitigation only to executive clemency. But this cruelty, while it encouraged and hardened offenders, 2 did not revolt the instinct of submission in the rural population. The tenantry, for the most part without permanent leases, holding lands at a moderate rent, transmitting the occupation of them from father to son through many generations, With calm desires that asked but little room, clung to the lord of the manor as ivy to massive old walls. They loved to live in his light, to lean on his support, to gather round him with affectionate deference, rather than base cowering ; and, by their faithful attach- ment, to win his sympathy and care ; happy when he was such an one as merited their love. They caught refinement of their, superiors, so that their cottages were carefully neat, with roses and honeysuckles clambering 1 " Previous to the Revolution, the number of capital offences did not exceed fifty. During the reign of George II. sixty-three new ones were added; and at the present moment they amount to no fewer than one hundred and fifty-four." Sir William Meredith, Debates, 9th May, 1770, in Cavendish, ii. 12. " Let a gentleman only come down to this House and say that a man lias done so and so, but cannot be hanged for it, the cry is, 'Oh, let us make a law, and hang him up immediately!'" Speech of Sir William Meredith, 27th Nov., 1770, in Cavendish, ii. 89. 2 Charles Fox, in Cavendish, ii. 12. 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 59 to their roofs. They cultivated the soil in sight of the towers of the church, near which reposed the ashes of their ancestors for almost a thousand years. The whole island was mapped out into territorial parishes, as well as into counties, and the affairs of local interest, the assessment of rates, the care of the poor and of the roads, were settled by elected vestries or magistrates, with little interference from the central government. The resident magistrates were unpaid, being taken from among the landed gentry ; and the local affairs of the county, and all criminal affairs of no uncommon import- ance, were settled by them in a body at their quarterly sessions, where a kind-hearted landlord often presided, to appal the convicted offender by the solemn earnest- ness of his rebuke, and then to show him mercy by a lenient sentence. Thus the local institutions of England shared the common character ; they were at once the evidence of aristocracy, and the badges of liberty. The climate, so inviting to rural life, was benign also to industry of all sorts. Nowhere could labour apply itself so steadily, or in the same time achieve so much ; and it might seem that the population engaged in manu- factures would have constituted a separate element not included within the aristocratic system ; but the great manufacture of the material not produced at home was still in its infancy. The weaver toiled in his own cottage, and the thread which he used was with difficulty 60 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. supplied to him sufficiently by the spinners at the wheel of his own family and among his neighbours- Men had not as yet learned by machinery to produce, continu- ously and uniformly, from the down of cotton, the porous cords of parallel filaments ; to attenuate them by gently drawing them out ; to twist and extend the threads as they are formed ; and to wind them regularly on pins of wood, as fast as they are spun. At that time the inconsiderable cotton manufactures of Great Britain, transported from place to place on pack-horses, did not form one two-hundredth part of the present production, and were, politically, of no importance. Not yet had art done more than begin the construction of channels for still-water navigation. Not yet had Wedgwood fully succeeded in changing, annually, tens of thousands of tons of clay and flint into brilliantly-glazed and durable ware, capable of sustaining heat, cheap in price, and beautiful and convenient in form. Not yet had the mechanics of England, after using up its forests, learned familiarly to smelt iron with pit-coal, or perfected the steam-engines that were to do the heavy work in mining coal, and to drive machinery in workshops. Let the great artificers of England, who work in iron or clay, adopt science as their patron; let the cotton- spinners, deriving their raw material from abroad, perfect their manufacture by inventive plebeian genius, and so prosper as to gather around their mills a crowded popu- lation ; and there will then exist a powerful, and opulent, 17G3.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 61 and numerous class, emancipated from aristocratic influ- ence, thriving independently outside of the old society of England. But, in 1763, the great manufactures of the realm were those of wool, and the various preparations from sheepskins and hides, far exceeding in value ah 1 others of all kinds put together ; and for these the land-owner furnished all the raw material ; so that his prosperity was bound up in that of the manufacturer. The manufacture of wool was cherished as the most valuable of all. It had grown with the growth and wealth of England, and flourished in every part of the island : at Kidderminster, and Wilton, and Norwich, not Jess than in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It had been privileged by King Stephen, and regulated by the iron-hearted Richard. Its protection was as much a part of the statute-book as the game-laws, and was older than Magna Charta itself. To foster it was an ancient custom of the country, coeval with the English constitution ; and it was so interwoven with the condition of life in England, that it seemed to form an intimate dependency of the aristocracy. The land-owner, whose rich lawns produced the fleece, sympathised with the industry that wrought it into beautiful fabrics. Mutual confidence was established between the classes of society ; no chasm divided its orders. Thus, unity of character marked the constitution and the social life of England. The sum of the whole was 62 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. an intense nationality in its people. They were happy in their form of government, and were justly proud of it ; for they enjoyed more perfect freedom than the world up to that time had known. In spite of all the glaring defects of this system, Greece, in the days of Pericles or Phocion, had not been blessed with such liberty. Italy, in the fairest days of her ill-starred republics, had not possessed such security of property and person, so pure an administration of justice, such unlicensed expression of mind. These benefits were held by a firm tenure ; safe against revolutions and sudden changes in the state ; the laws reigned, and not men ; and the laws had been the growth of centuries ; yielding to amendment only by the gradual method of nature, when opinions exer- cising less instant influence should slowly infuse them- selves through the public mind into legislation ; so that the English constitution, though like all things else perpetually changing, changed like the style of architec- ture along the aisles of its own cathedrals, where the ponderous severity of the Norman age melts in the next, almost imperceptibly, into the more genial pointed arch, and the seemingly lighter sheaf of columns, yet without sacrificing the stately majesty of the proportions, or the massive durability of the pile. The English knew this, and were boastfully conscious of it. As a people, they cared not to hear of the defects in the form of their constitution. They looked out 1763.] ENGLAND AS IT WAS IN 1763. 68 upon other states, and compared their own condition with that of the peoples on the continent, abjectly exposed to the sway of despots ; they seemed to enjoy liberty in its perfection, and lost sight of the actual inadequacy of their system in their joy at its ideal purity. They felt that they were great, not by restrain- ing laws, not by monopoly, but by liberty and labour. Liberty was the cry of the whole nation ; and every opposition, from whatever selfish origin it might spring, took this type, always demanding more than even a liberal government would concede. Liberty and industry gave England its nationality and greatness. As a con- sequence, they thought themselves superior to every other nation. The Frenchman loved France, and when away from it, longed to return to it, as the only country where life could be thoroughly enjoyed. The German, in whom the sentiment of his native land was enfeebled by its divisions into so many states and sovereignties, gained enlargement in his sphere of vision, and at home had a curiosity for all learning ; away from home, had eyes for everything. The Englishman, wherever he went, was environed by an English atmosphere. He saw the world abroad as if to perceive how inferior it was to his birth-place. The English statesmen, going from the classical schools to the universities brought up in a narrow circle of classical and mathematical learning, with no philosophical training or acquaintance with general principles, travelled as Englishmen. They C 4 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. went young to the House of Commons : and were so blinded by admiration of their own country, they seemed to think nothing harmful that promoted its glory, its power, or its welfare. They looked out upon the surrounding sea as their wall of defence Against the envy of less happier lands. The great deep seemed to them their inheritance, inviting them everywhere to enter upon possession of it as their rightful domain. They looked beyond the Atlantic, and not content with their own colonies, they counted themselves defrauded of their due as the sole representa- tives of liberty, so long as Spain should hold exclusively such boundless empires. Especially to them the House of Bourbon was an adder, that might at any time be struck at, whenever it should rear its head. To promote British interests, and command the applause of the British Senate, they were ready to infringe on the rights of other countries, 1 and even on those of the outlying dominions of the crown. 1 When Aristotle, in Polit. i. 1, wrote &a.p/3a.pwv 8'e \\rjvas apxetv et/cos, the Greek of that day reasoned just like an Englishman of the eighteenth century. 1763.] IRELAND. 65 CHAPTER IV. ENGLAND AND ITS DEPENDENCIES, CONTINUED. 1763. So England was one united nation. The landed aristocracy was the sovereign, was the legislature, was the people, was the state. The separate influence of each of the great component parts of English society may be observed in the British dominions outside of Great Britain. From the wrecks of the empire of the Great Mogul, a monopolising company of English merchants had gained dominion in the East ; with factories, subject provinces, and territorial revenues on the coast of Malabar, in the Carnatic, and on the Ganges. They despised the rivalry of France, whose East India Company was hope- lessly ruined, and whose feeble factories were in a state of confessed inferiority ; and with eager zeal they pushed forward their victories, openly avowing gain as the sole end of their alliances and their trade, of their warfare and their civil rule. VOL. II. F 66 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. In America, the middling class, chiefly rural people, with a few from the towns of England, had founded colonies in the forms of liberty ; and themselves owned and cultivated the soil. Ireland, whose government was proposed as a model for the British colonies, and whose history is from this time intimately connected with the course of events in America, had been seized by the English oligarchy. The island was half as large as England, with a still milder climate, and a more fertile soil. Erom the midst of its wild mountain scenery in the west gushed nume- rous rivers, fed by the rains which the sea breeze made frequent. These, now forming bogs and morasses, now expanding into beautiful lakes, now rushing with copious volume and swift descent, offered, along their courses, waterpower without limit, and near the sea formed deep and safe harbours. The rich limestone plains under the cloudy sky were thickly covered with luxuriant grasses, whose unequalled verdure vied in colour with the emerald. Centuries before the Christian era, the beautiful region had been occupied by men of one of the Celtic tribes, who had also colonised the Highlands of Scotland. The Normans, who, in the eight century, planted commercial towns on its sea coast, were too few to maintain separate municipalities. The old inhabitants had been converted to Christianity by apostles of the purest fame, and abounded in churches and cathedrals, in a learned, 1763.] IRELAND. 67 liberal, and numerous clergy. Their civil government was an aristocratic confederacy ! of septs or families and their respective chiefs ; and the remote land seemed set apart by nature as the safe abode of an opulent, united, and happy people. In the reign of Henry II. of England, and in his name, English barons and adventurers invaded Ireland ; and, before the end of the thirteenth century, its soil was parcelled out among ten English families. As the occupation became confirmed, the English system of laws was continued to the English colonists living within the pale which comprised the four counties of Dublin, Louth, Meath, and Kildare. In the Irish Parliament, framed ostensibly after the model of the English constitution, no Irishman could hold n seat : it represented the intruders only, who had come to possess themselves of the land of the natives, now quarrelling among themselves about the spoils, now rebelling against England, but always united against the Irish. When Magna Charta was granted at Runnymede, it became also the possession and birthright of the Norman inhabitants of Ireland ; but to the " mere Irish " its benefits were not extended, except by special charters of enfranchisement or denisation, of which the sale furnished a ready means of exaction. 1 Hallam's Constitutional History of England, vol. iii. p. 461. The whole of the eighteenth chapter is devoted to the Constitution of Ireland. r 2 (;8 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. The oligarchy of conquerors in the process of time began to amalgamate with the Irish ; they had the same religion ; they inclined to adopt their language, dress, and manners; and to speak for the rights of Ireland more warmly than the Irish themselves. To counteract this tendency of "the degenerate English," laws were enacted so that the Anglo-Irish could not intermarry with the Celts, nor permit them to graze their lands, nor present them to benefices, nor receive them into religious houses, nor entertain their bards. The mere Irish were considered as out of the King's allegiance ; in war, they were accounted rebels ; in peace, the statute-book called them Irish enemies ; and to kill one of them was adjudged no felony. During the long civil wars in England, English power declined in Ireland. To recover its subordination, in the year 1495, the tenth after the union of the Roses, the famous statute of Drogheda, 1 known as Poyn ing's Law, from the name of the Lord Deputy who obtained its enactment, reserved the initiative in legislation to the crown of England. No Parliament could, from that time, " be holden in Ireland till the King's lieutenant should certify to the King, under the great seal of the land, the causes and considerations, and all such acts as it seems to them ought to be passed thereon, and such be affirmed by the King and his council, and his license 1 1495 ; 10 Henry VII. Compare, too, the explanatory Act of 3 and 4 Philip and Mary. 1763.] IRELAND. 69 to summon a Parliament ho obtained." Such remained the rule of Irish Parliaments, 1 and began to be regarded as a good precedent for America. The change in the relations of England to the See of. Home, at the time of the reform, served to amalgamate the Celtic, Irish, and the Anglo-Norman Irish ; for the Catholic lords within the pale, as well as Catholic Ireland, adhered to their ancient religion. The Irish resisted the Act of Supremacy ; and the accession of Queen Elizabeth brought the struggle to a crisis. She established the Protestant Episcopal Church by an act of what was called an Irish Parliament, in which the Celtic Irish had no part, and English retainers, chosen from select counties and boroughs, and new boroughs made for the occasion, held the ascendant over the Anglo-Norman Irish. The laws of supremacy and uniformity were adopted, in the words of the English statutes ; the common prayer was appointed instead of mass, and was to be read in the English language, or, where that was not known, in the Latin. The Anglican prelates and priests, divided from the Irish by the insuperable barrier of language, were quartered upon the land shepherds without sheep pastors without people, strangers to the inhabitants, wanting not them but theirs. The churches went to ruin ; the benefices fell to men who were held as foreigners and heretics, and who had no care for the 1 Speech of Sir John Davis, in Lcland, vol. ii. p. 581. 70 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Irish, but to compel them to pay tithes. 1 The inferior clergy were men of no parts or erudition, and were as immoral as they were illiterate. 2 No pains were taken to make converts, except by penal laws ; and the Noraian- Irish and Celtic-Irish now became nearer to one another, drawn by common sorrows, as well as by a common faith ; for " the people of that country's birth, of all degrees, were papists, body and soul." 3 The Anglican church in Ireland represented the English interest. Wild and incoherent attempts at self- defence against relentless oppression were followed by the desolation of large tracts of country, new confisca- tions of land ; and a new colonial garrison in the train of the English army. Even the use of Parliaments was suspended for seven and twenty years. The accession of James I., with the counsels of Bacon, seemed to promise Ireland some alleviation of its woes ; for the pale was broken down; and when the King, after a long interval, convened a Parliament, it stood for the whole island. But, in the first place, the law tolerated only the Protestant worship; and, when colonies were planted on lands of six counties in Ulster escheated to the crown, the planters were chiefly Pres- byterians from Scotland, than whom none more deeply 1 Des pastcurs sans ouailles. Histoire de 1'Irelande. Par 1'Abbe MacGheogan, vol. iii. p. 422. - Edmund Spencer : View of the State of Ireland, in Ancient Irish Histories, vol. i. pp. 139143. " Generally bad, licentious, and most disordered." p. 143. " Only they take the tithes and offerings, and gather what fruit they may. 'p. 140. 3 gidney 1763.] IRELAND. 71 hated the Catholic religion. And next, the war of chicane succeeded to the war of arms and hostile statutes. Ecclesiastical courts wronged conscience; soldiers practised extortions ; the civil courts took away lands. Instead of adventurers despoiling the old inha- bitants by the sword, there came up discoverers, who made a scandalous traffic of pleading the King's title against the possessors of estates, to force them to grievous compositions, 1 or to effect the total extinction of the interests of the natives in their own soil. 2 This species of subtle ravage continued with systematic iniquity in the next reign, and carried to the last excess of perfidy, oppression, and insolence, inspired a dread of extirpation, and kindled the flames of the rising of 1641. To suppress this rebellion, when it had assumed the form of organised resistance, large forfeitures of lands were promised to those who should aid in reducing the island. The Catholics had successively against them, the party of the King, the Puritan Parliament of England, the Scotch Presbyterians among themselves, the fierce, relentless energy of Cromwell, a unanimity of hatred, quickened by religious bigotry ; greediness after confis- cated estates, and the pride of power in the Protestant interest. Modern history has no parallel 3 for the sufferings of the Irish nation from 1641 to 1660. 1 Leland's History of Ireland. 1 Edmund Burke to Sir Hercules Langrishe, Jan. 3, 1792. 3 Clarendon. Hallaui : " The sufferings of that nation, from the outset of the rebellion to its close, have never been surpassed but by those of the Jews in their destruction by Titus." 72 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. At the restoration of Charles II., a declaration of settlement confirmed even the escheats of land, decreed by the republican party, for the loyalty of their owners to the crown. It is the opinion of an English historian, 1 that " upon the whole result the Irish Catholics, having previously held about two-thirds of the kingdom, lost more than one-half of their possessions by forfeitures on account of their rebellion. They were diminished, also, by much more than one-third through the calamities of that period." Even the favour of James II. wrought the Catholic Irish nothing but evil, for they shared his defeat ; and after their vain attempt to make of Ireland his inde- pendent place of refuge, and a gallant resistance, extend- ing through a war of three years, the Irish, at Limerick, capitulated to the new dynasty, obtaining the royal promise of security of worship to the Roman Catholics, and the continued possession of their estates, free from all outlawries or forfeitures. Of these articles, the first was totally disregarded ; the second was evaded. New forfeitures followed to the extent of more than a million of acres : and, at the close of the seventeenth century, the native Irish, with the Anglo-Irish Catholics, possessed not more than a seventh of their own island. The maxims on which the government of Ireland was administered by Protestant England after the revolution of 1688 brought about the relations by which that 1 Hallam's Constitutional History, vol. iii. pp. 527, 528. 1703.] IRELAND. 73 country and our own reciprocally affected each other's destiny : Ireland assisting to people America, and America to redeem Ireland. The inhabitants of Ireland were four parts * in five, certainly more than two parts in three, 2 Roman Catholics. Religion established three separate nationalities ; the Anglican Churchmen, constituting nearly a tenth of the population ; the Presbyterians, chiefly Scotch-Irish ; and the Catholic population, which was a mixture of the old Celtic race, the untraceable remains of the few Danish settlers, and the Normans and first colonies of the English. In settling the government, England entrusted it exclusively to those of " the English colony," who were members of its own church; so that the little minority ruled the island. To facilitate this, new boroughs were created ; and wretched tenants, where not disfranchised, were so coerced in their votes at elections, that two- thirds of the Irish House of Commons were the nominees of the large Protestant proprietors of the land. In addition to this, an act of the English Parliament rehearsed the dangers to be apprehended from the presence of popish recusants 3 in the Irish Parliament, and 1 Boulter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, voL i. p. 210: "There are probably, in this kingdom, five Papists to at least one Protestant" Durand to Choiseul, July 30, 1767. Angleterre t. 474 : "la proportion est au moins de quatre centre un." So Arthur Young : " 500,000 Protestants, two million Catholics." Tour in Ireland, vol. ii. p. 33. 3 Burke says, more than two to one. 3 " The people, saving a few British planters here and there, which were 7 4 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. required of every member the new oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and the declaration against transubstan- tiation. 1 But not only were Roman Catholics excluded from seats in both branches of the legislature ; a series of enactments, the fruit of relentless perseverance, gradually excluded "papists" from having any votes in the election of members to serve in Parliament. 2 The Catholic Irish being disfranchised, one enactment pursued them after another, till they suffered under a universal, unmitigated, indispensable, exceptionless dis- qualification. 3 In the courts of law, they could not gain a place on the bench, nor act as a barrister, or attorney, or solicitor, 4 nor be employed even as a hired clerk, nor sit on a grand jury, nor serve as a sheriff or a justice of the peace, nor hold even the lowest civil office of trust and profit, nor have any privilege in a town corporate, nor be a freeman of such corporation, nor vote at a vestry. If papists would trade and work, they must do it, even in their native towns, as aliens. They were expressly forbidden to take more than two apprentices in whatever employment, except in the linen manufacture not a touth part of the remnant, obstinate recusants." Bedell to Laud, in Buruot's Uodell. Tho civil wars changed the proportion. 1 8 William and Mary, c. ii. An Act for the abrogating the oath of supremacy in Ireland, and appointing other oaths. Plowdeii's Historical lleview, vol. i. p. 197. '-' 7 and 9 William 111. "It was resolved, ncniine contradicente, that the excluding of papists from having votes for the electing of members to serve in parliament, was necessary to be made into a law." This was accomplished by the statutes of 17*);'., 1715, I'j'tf. 3 Kdmuml P.urke. ,, w.lham 111., c. 13. 1765.] IRELAND. 75 only. A Catholic might not marry a Protestant l the priest who should celebrate such a marriage was to be hanged ; a nor be a guardian to any child, nor educate his own child, if the mother declared herself a Protestant ; or even if his own child, however young, should profess to be a Protestant. None but those who conformed to the established church were admitted to study at the universities, nor could degrees be obtained but by those who had taken all the tests, oaths, and declarations. No Protestant in Ireland might instruct a papist. 3 Papists could not supply their want by academies and schools of their own ; 4 for a Catholic to teach, even in a private family, or as usher to a Protestant, was a felony, punishable by imprisonment, exile, or death. Thus, " papists " were excluded from all opportunity of education at home, except by stealth, and in violation of law. It might be thought that schools abroad were open to them ; but, by a statute of King William, 5 to be educated in any foreign Catholic school was an " unalterable and perpetual out- lawry." 8 The child sent abroad for education, no matter of how tender an age, or himself how innocent, could never after sue in law or equity, or be guardian, executor, or administrator, or receive any legacy or deed of gift ; he forfeited all his goods and chattels, and 1 7 and 9 William III. aiid 2 Anne. -12 Geo. I. 1 7 William III. 8 Anne ' 4 William and Mary, v. iv. Act to restrain foreign education. Edmund Burke. 7tJ THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [17(53. forfeited for his life all Ins lands. Whoever sent him abroad, or maintained him there, or assisted him with money or otherwise, incurred the same liabilities and penalties. The crown divided the forfeiture with the informer ; and when a person was proved to have sent abroad a bill of exchange or money, on him rested the burden of proving that the remittance was innocent, and he must do so before justices without the benefit of a jury. 1 The Irish Catholics were not only deprived of their liberties, but even of the opportunity of worship, except by connivance. Their clergy, taken from the humbler classes of the people, 2 could not be taught at home, nor be sent for education beyond seas, nor be recruited by learned ecclesiastics from abroad. Such priests as were permitted to reside in Ireland were required to be regis- tered, and were kept like prisoners at large within prescribed limits. All " papists " exercising ecclesias- tical jurisdiction, all monks, friars, and regular priests, and all priests not then actually in parishes, and to be registered, were banished from Ireland 3 under pain of transportation, and, on a return, of being hanged, drawn, and quartered. 4 Avarice was stimulated to apprehend them by the promise of a reward ; 5 he that should harbour or conceal them was to be stripped of all 1 Edmund Burkes Fragment of a Tract on the Popeiy Laws. - Edmund Burkes Letter to a Peer in Ireland on the Penal Laws against Irish Catholics, February 21, 1782. a 7 aml 9 William III. c. 26. 4 2 Anne - * 8 Anne. 17C3.] IRELAND. 77 his property. When the registered priests were dead, the law, which was made perpetual, applied to every popish priest. 1 By the laws of William and of Anne, St. Patrick, in Ireland, in the eighteenth century, would have been a felon. Any two justices of the peace might call before them any Catholic, and make inquisition as to when he heard mass, who were present, and what Catholic schoolmaster or priest he knew of; and the penalty for refusal to answer was a fine or a year's imprisonment. The Catholic priest abjuring his religion received a pension a of thirty, and afterwards of forty, pounds. 3 And, in spite of these laws, there were, it is said, four thousand Catholic clergymen in Ireland ; and the Catholic worship gained upon the Protestant, so attractive is sincerity when ennobled by persecution, even though " the laws did not presume a papist to exist there, and did not allow them to breathe but by the connivance of the Government." 4 The Catholic Irish had been plundered of six-sevenths of the land by iniquitous confiscations ; every acre of the remaining seventh was grudged them by the Protestants. No non-conforming Catholic could buy land, or receive it by descent, devise, or settlement ; or lend money on it, as the security ; or hold an interest in it through a Protestant trustee : or take a lease of ground for more 1 Edmund Burke's Fragment of a Tract on the Popery Laws, chap. ii. 2 8 Anne. 11 and 12 Geo. III. c. 27. 4 Plowden's Historical Review, voL i. p. 322. Saul to O'Connor, iu Appendix to Plowden, vol. i. p. 265. 7 8 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. than thirty-one years. If, under such a lease, he brought his farm to produce more than one-third beyond the rent, the first Protestant discoverer might sue for the lease before known Protestants, making the defendant answer all interrogatories on oath ; so that the Catholic farmer dared not drain his fields, nor inclose them, nor build solid houses on them. If in any way he improved their productiveness, his lease was forfeited. It was his interest rather to deteriorate the country, lest envy should prompt some one to turn him out of doors. 1 In all these cases the forfeitures were in favour of Protestants. Even if a Catholic owned a horse worth more than five pounds, any Protestant might take it away. 2 Nor was natural affection or parental authority respected. The son of a Catholic land-holder, however dissolute or however young, if he would but join the English church, could revolt against his father, and turn his father's estate in fee- simple into a tenancy for life, becoming himself the owner, and annulling every agreement made by the father, even before his son's conversion. The dominion of the child over the property of the Popish parent was universal. The Catholic father could not in any degree disinherit his apostatising son ; but the child, in declaring himself a Protestant, might compel his father to confess upon oath the value of his substance, real and personal, in which the Protestant '^Compare Durand, of the French Embassy in London, to Choiscul, July 30. 17G7. French Archives, Angleterre, 323. - 7 William III. 1763.1 IRELAND. 79 court might out of it award the son immediate main- tenance, and after the father's death, any establishment it pleased. A new bill might at any time be brought by one or all of the children, for a further discovery. If the parent, by his industry, improved his property, the son might compel a new account of the value of the estate, in order to a new disposition. The father had no security against the persecution of his children but by abandoning all acquisition or improvement. 1 Ireland, of which by far the greater part had been confiscated since the reign of Henry VIII., and much of it more than once, passed away from the ancient Irish. The proprietors in fee were probably fewer than in an equal area in any part of Western Europe, Spain only excepted. The consequence was, an unexampled com- plication of titles. The landlord in chief was often known only as having dominion over the estate ; leases of large tracts had been granted for very long terms of years ; these were again subdivided to those who sub- divided them once more, and so on indefinitely. Mort- gages brought a new and numerous class of claimants. Thus humane connection between the tenant and landlord was not provided for. Leases were in the last resort most frequently given at will ; and then what defence had the Irish Catholic against his Protestant superior? Hence the thatched mud cabin, without window or chimney ; the cheap fences ; the morass 1 Burke on the Penal Laws. 80 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. undrained; idleness in winter; the tenant's conceal- ment of good returns : for to spend his savings in improving his farm would have been giving them to his immediate landlord. To the native Irish the English oligarchy appeared not in the attitude of kind proprietors, whom residence and a common faith, long possession, and hereditary affection united with the tenantry, but as men of a different race and creed, who had acquired the island by force of arms, rapine, and chicane, and derived revenues from it by the employment of extortionate underlings or overseers. This state of society, as a whole, was what ought not to be endured, and the English were conscious of it. The common law respects the right of self-defence ; yet the Irish Catholics, or Popish recusants as they were called, were, by one universal prohibition, 1 forbidden using or keeping any kind of weapons whatsoever, under penalties which the crown could not remit. Any two justices might enter a house and search for arms, or summon any person whomsoever, and tender him an oath, of which the repeated refusal was punishable as treason. Such was the Ireland of the Irish ; a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample upon, and did not fear to provoke. 2 Their industry within 1 Irish statutes, 1695 : Act for the security of Government. 2 Edmund Burke to Sir H. Langrishe. 1763.J IRELAND. Rl the kingdom was prohibited or repressed by law, and then they were calumniated as naturally idle. Their savings could not be invested on equal terms in trade, manufactures, or real property ; and they were called improvident. The gates of learning were shut on them, and they were derided as ignorant. In the midst of privations they were cheerful. Suffering for generations under acts which offered bribes to treachery, their integrity was not debauched ; no son rose against his father, no friend betrayed his friend. Fidelity to their religion, to which afflictions made them cling more closely, chastity, and respect for the ties of family, remained characteristics of the down -trodden race. America as yet offered it no inviting asylum, though her influence was soon to mitigate its sorrows and relax its bonds. Relief was to come through the conflicts of the North American colonies with Great Britain. Ireland and America, in so far as both were oppressed by the commercial monopoly of England, had a common cause ; and while the penal laws against the Catholics did not affect the Anglo-Irish, they suffered equally with the native Irish from the mercantile system. The restrictions of the acts of trade 1 extended not to America only, but to the sister kingdom. It had harbours, but it could not send a sail across the Atlantic, nor ship directly to the colonies, even in English vessels, anything but " servants, 1 Acts " to which wo never consented." Dean Swift VOL. II. o 82 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. and horses, and victuals," 1 and at last linens; 2 nor receive sugar, or coffee, or other colonial produce, but from England. Its great staple was wool ; its most important natural manufacture was the woollen. " I shall do all that lies in my power to disco urage the woollen manufactures of Ireland," said William of Orange. 3 The exportation of Irish woollens to the colonies and to foreign countries was prohibited ; 4 and restrictive laws so interfered with the manufacture, that it seemed probable Irishmen would not be able to wear a coat of their own fabric. 5 In the course of years the "English colonists" themselves began to be domiciliated in Ireland ; 6 and with the feeling that the country in which they dwelt was their home, there grew up discontent that it continued to be treated as a conquered country. Proceeding by insensible degrees, they at length main- tained openly the legislative equality of the two kingdoms. In 1692, the Irish House of Commons claimed "the sole and undoubted right to prepare and resolve the means of raising money." 7 In 1698, 8 Molyneux, an Irish Pro- testant, and member for the University of Dublin, 1 Navigation Acts of Charles II. 2 1704, 3 & 4 Anne, c. 10. 1714, 1 George I. c. 26. 3 Speech to the Commons, July 2, 1698. 4 10 & 11 William III. c. 10, and the statute of 1732. 5 Edmund Burke to , & Co., Bristol. Westminster, May 2, 1778. 6 Edmund Burke. 7 Journals of Irish House of Commons for October 21, 1692. 8 Plowden's Hist, Review, vol. i. p. 203. 1763.] IRELAND. 88 asserted, through the press, 1 the perfect and reciprocal independence of the Irish and English Parliaments ; that Ireland was not bound by the acts of a legislative body in which it was not represented. Two replies were written to the tract, which was also formally condemned by the English House of Commons. When, 2 in 1719, the Irish House of Lords denied for Ireland the judicial power of the House of Lords of Great Britain, the British Parliament, making a precedent for all its out- lying dominions, enacted, that " the King, with the consent of the Parliament of Great Britain, had, hath, and of right ought to have full power and authority to make laws and statutes of force to bind the people and the kingdom of Ireland !" 3 But the opposite opinion was confirmed among the Anglo-Irish statesmen. The Irish people set the example of resisting English laws by voluntary agreements to abstain from using English manufactures, 4 and the patriot party had already acquired strength and skill, just at the time when the British Parliament, by its purpose of taxing the American colonies, provoked their united population to raise the same questions, and in their turn to deny its power. But besides the conforming Protestant population, there was in Ireland another class of Protestants who 1 Molyneux : Case of Ireland, &c. &c. : Journals of the House of Commons, June 22, 1698. 3 5 George I., c. 1. 4 Dean Swift's State of Ireland. o 2 84 THE AMERICAN HE VOLUTION. [1763. shared in some degree the disqualifications of the Catholics. To Queen Anne's Bill for preventing the further growth of Popery, 1 a clause was added in England, 2 and ratified by the Irish Parliament, that none should be capable of any public employment, or of being in the magistracy of any city, who did not receive the sacrament according to the English Test Act ; 3 thus disfranchising the whole body of Presbyterians. At home, where the Scottish nation enjoyed its own religion, the people were loyal : in Ireland, the disfranchised Scotch Presbyterians, who still drew their ideas of Christian government from the Westminster Confession, began to believe that they were under no religious obligation to render obedience to the British Govern- ment. They could not enter the Irish Parliament to strengthen the hands of the patriot party ; nor were they taught by their faith to submit in patience, like the Catholic Irish. Had all Ireland resembled them, it could not have been kept in subjection. But what could be done by unorganised men, constituting only about a tenth of the people, in the land in which they were but sojourners ? They were willing to quit a soil which was endeared to them by no traditions; and the American colonies opened their arms to receive them. They began to change their abode as soon as they felt 1 2Amie. 2 Burnet's History of his Own Times. Curry's Historical and Critical Review, vol. ii. p. 235. Plowden's Historical Review, vol. i. p. 213. 3 Burnet's History of his Own Times. 1763.] IRELAND. 85 oppression ; l and every successive period of discontent swelled the tide of emigrants. Just after the peace of Paris, " the Heart of Oak" Protestants of Ulster, weary of strife with their landlords, came over in great numbers ; 2 and settlements on the Catawba, in South Carolina, dated from that epoch. 3 At different times in the eighteenth century, some had found homes in New England, but they were most numerous south of New York, from New Jersey to Georgia. In Pennsylvania they peopled many counties, till, in public life, they already balanced the influence of the Quakers. In Virginia, they went up the valley of the Shenandoah ; and they extended themselves along the tributaries of the Catawba, in the beautiful upland region of North Carolina. Their training in Ireland had kept the spirit of liberty and the readiness to resist unjust government as fresh in their hearts, as though they had just been listening to the preachings of Knox, or musing over the political creed of the Westminster Assembly. They brought to America no submissive love for England ; and their experience and their religion alike bade them 1 Boulter to the Duke of Newcastle, Nov. 23, 1728 : " The whole North is in a ferment at present, and people every day engaging one another to go the next year to the West Indies. The humour has spread like a contagious distemper, and the people will hardly hear anybody that tries to cure them of their madness. The worst is, that it affects only Protestants, and reigns chiefly in the North." Plowden's Historical Review, vol. i. p. 276. Compare, too, Dean Swift's Letters. . - James Gordon's History of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 241. 3 The parents of Andrew Jackson, the late President of the United States, reached South Carolina in 1764. 86 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. meet oppression with prompt resistance. We shall find the first voice publicly raised in America to dissolve all connection with Great Britain came, not from the Puritans of New England, or the Dutch of New York, or the planters of Virginia, but from Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. CHAPTER V. CHARLES TOWNSHEND PLEDGES THE MINISTRY OF BUTE TO TAX AMERICA BY THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT, AND RESIGNS. FEBRUARY APRIL, 1763. AT the peace of 1763 the fame of England was exalted throughout Europe above that of all other nations. She had triumphed over those whom she called her hereditary enemies, and retained half a continent as the monument of her victories. Her American dominions stretched without dispute from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay ; and in her older possessions that dominion was rooted as firmly in the affections of the colonists as in their institutions and laws. The ambi- tion of British statesmen might well be inflamed with the desire of connecting the mother country and her transatlantic empire by indissoluble bonds of mutual interest and common liberties. But the Board of Trade had long been angry with provincial assemblies for claiming the right of free 88 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. deliberation. For several years 1 it had looked forward to peace as the moment when the colonies were to feel the superiority of the parent land. 2 Now that the appointed time had come, the Earl of Bute, with the full concurrence of the King, making the change which had long been expected, 3 assigned to Charles Townshend the office of First Lord of Trade, with the administration of the colonies. Assuming larger powers than had ever been exercised by any of his predecessors except Halifax, 4 called also to a seat in the cabinet, and enjoying direct access to the King on the affairs of his department, he, on the 23rd of February, became Secretary of State for the colonies in all but the name. 5 In the council, in which Townshend took a place, there was Bute, its chief, having the entire confidence of his sovereign ; the proud restorer of peace, fully impressed with the necessity of bringing the colonies 1 C. Calvert to Lieut. Governor Sharpe, January 19, 1760. 2 C. Calvert to Lieut. Governor Sharpe, March 1763. 3 Jasper Mauduit, Massachusetts, agent to Mr. Secretary Oliver, March 12, 1763 : "I am now to mention a change which has long been expected, and has at length taken place. Lord Sandys is removed from the Board of Trade, and Mr. Charles Townshend is put at the head of it." " It appears, upon Mr. Townshend's entry upon his office, the Board of Trade did notify their appointment to all the American governments, as well of the old established as the new acquired colonies ; and did transmit to them, at the same time, copies of the order in council of the llth March, 1752 ; and the explanatory letters of the Secretary of State, as the rule of their future correspondence." Paper by the Earl of Hillsborough, in the Lansdowne House manuscripts. 6 Rigby to Bedford, February 23, 1763, in the Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 210. 17o3.] CHARLES TOWNSHEND'S COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 89 into order, 1 and ready to give his support to the highest system of authority of Great Britain over America. Being at the head of the Treasury, he was, in a special manner, responsible for every mea- sure connected with the finances ; and though he was himself a feeble man of business, yet his defects were in a measure supplied by Jenkinson, his able, indefati- gable and confidential private secretary. There was Mansfield, 2 the illustrious jurist, who had boasted pub- licly of his early determination never to engage in public life " but upon Whig principles ; " 3 and, in con- formity to them, had asserted that an act of Parliament in Great Britain could alone prescribe rules for the reduction of refractory colonial assemblies. 4 There was George Grenville, then First Lord of the Admiralty, bred to the law ; and ever anxious to demonstrate that all the measures which he advocated reposed on the British Constitution, and the precedents of 1688 ; eager to make every part of the British empire tributary to the prosperity of Great Britain, and making the plenary authority of the British Legislature the first article of his political creed. There was the place as Keeper of the Privy Seal for Bedford, the head of the 1 Knox, agent of Georgia. In Extra-official State Papers, vol. ii. p. 29. ' Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chief Justices, vol. ii. pp. 459, 460. 3 Murray's speech in his own defence before the Lords of the Privy Couucil in 1753. 4 Opinion of Sir Dudley Rider and Hon. William Murray, Attorney and Solicitor-General, in October, 1744. 90 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. house of Russell, and the great representative of the landed aristocracy of Great Britain, absent from England at the moment, but, through his friends, ready to applaud the new colonial system, to which he had long ago become a convert. There was the weak arid not unamiable Halifax, so long the chief of the American administration, heretofore baffled by the colonies, and held in check by Pitt ; willing himself to be the instrument to carry his long cherished opinions of British omnipotence into effect. There was the self- willed, hot-tempered Egremont, using the patronage of his office to enrich his family and friends ; the same who had menaced Maryland, Pennsylvania and North Carolina obstinate and impatient of contradiction, ignorant of business, passionate, and capable of cruelty in defence of authority ; at variance with Bute, and speaking of his colleague, the Duke of Bedford, " as a headstrong, silly wretch." l To these was now added the fearless, eloquent and impetuous Charles Townshend, trained to public life, first in the Board of Trade, and then as Secretary at War a statesman who entered upon the gravest affairs with all the courage of eager levity, and with a daring- purpose of carrying difficult measures with unscrupulous speed. No man in the House of Commons was thought to know America so well ; no one was so resolved on 1 Egremont to George Grenvillc, in the Urenville Papers, vol. i. p. 475 : ' I hat headstrong, silly wretch." 1763.J CHARLES TOWNSHEND'S COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 91 making a thorough change in its constitutions and government. " What schemes he will form," said the proprietary of Pennsylvania. 1 " we shall soon see." But there was no disguise about his schemes. He was always for making thorough work of it with the colonies. James II., in attempting the introduction of what was called order into the New World, had em- ployed the prerogative. Halifax and Townshend, in 1753, had tried to accomplish the same ends by the royal power, and had signally failed. It was now settled that no tax could be imposed on the inhabitants of a British plantation but by their own assembly, or by an act of Parliament ; 2 and though the ministers readily employed the name and authority of the King, yet, in the main, the new system was to be enforced by the transcendental power of the British Parliament. On his advancement, Townshend became at once the most important man in the House of Commons ; for Fox commanded no respect, and was preparing to retire to the House of Lords ; and Grenville, offended at having been postponed, kept himself sullenly in reserve. Besides ; America, which had been the occasion of the war, became the great subject of con- sideration at the peace ; and the minister who was 1 Thomas Peon to James Hamilton, Feb. II, 1763. y Opinion of Sir Philip Yorke and Sir Clement Wearg. 92 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. charged with its government took the lead in public business. Townshend carried with him into the cabinet and the House of Commons the experience, the asperities, and the prejudices of the Board of Trade ; and his plan for the interference of the supreme legislature derived its character from the selfish influences under which it had been formed, and which aimed at obtaining an unlimited, lucrative, and secure patronage. The primary object was, therefore, a revenue, to be disposed of by the British ministry, under the sign manual of the King. The ministry would tolerate no further " the disobedience of long time to royal instruc- tions," nor bear with the claim of " the lower houses of assemblies " in the colonies to the right of deli- berating on their votes of supply, like the Parliament of Great Britain. It was announced " by authority " l that there were to be " no more requisitions from the King," but instead of such requisitions an immediate taxation of the colonies by the British legislature. The first charge upon that revenue was to be the civil list, that all the royal officers in America, the judges in every court not less than the executive, might be wholly superior to the assemblies, and dependent on the King's pleasure alone for their appointment to office, their continuance in it, and the amount and 1 Cecil Calvert, Secretary in England for Maryland, to 11. Sharj.c, Lieuteuaut- Governor of Maryland. March 1, 1763. 1703.] CHARLES TOWNSHEND'S COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 93 payment of their emoluments ; so that the corps of persons in the public employ might be a civil garrison, set to keep the colonies in dependence, and to sustain the authority of Great Britain. The charters were obstacles, and, in the opinion of Charles Townshend, the charters should fall, and one uniform system of government 1 be substituted in their stead. The little republics of Connecticut and Rhode Island, which Clarendon had cherished, and every ministry of Charles II. had spared, were no longer safe. A new territorial arrangement of provinces was in contemplation ; Massachusetts itself was to be restrained in its boundaries, as well as made more dependent on the King. 1 This part of the scheme wad not at once brought out. The evidence of its existence in idea is, therefore, not to be found in the journals of Parliament; but see Almon's Biographical Anecdotes of most Eminent Persons, vol. ii. p. 83 : " To make a new division of the colonies ; " " to make them all royal governments." See also Charles Townshend's speech in the House of Commons, on the 3rd of June, 1766: "It has lung been my opinion," Ac. &c. See also the communication from Governor Wentworth, of New Hampshire, to Dr. Langdon, as narrated in Gordon's American Revolution, vol. L pp. 142 144. Compare also Richard Jackson to Lieutenant-Goveruor Hutchiuson, Nov. 18, 1766. Charles Townshend "has often turned that matter, the alteration of the constitutions in America, in his thoughts, and was once inclined that way." This can hardly refer to any other moment than Townshend's short career as First Lord of Trade. Compare, further, the letter of Governor Bernard to Halifax, of November 9, 1764, where the idea of these constitutional alterations is most fully developed, and where it is said, " This business seems only to have waited for a proper time." See, too, the many letters from the colonies, just before the peace, strongly recommending the changes. Lieutenant-Governor Colden's paper on the same subject. So, too, the queries of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, of Connecticut, sent, in 1760, to the Archbishop of Canterbury. And Seeker to Johnson. R. Jackson to H urchin sou, August 13, 1764, aud Hutchinson to Jackson, October 15, 1764, related to the same subject. The purpose against Rhode Island and Connecticut was transmitted through successive ministries till the Declaration of Independence. 94 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. This arbitrary policy required an American standing- army, and that army was to be maintained by those whom it was to oppress. To complete the system, the navigation acts were to be strictly enforced. It would seem that the execution of so momentous a design must have engaged the attention of the whole people of England, and of the civilised world. But so entirely was the British Government of that day in the hands of the few, and so much was their curiosity engrossed by what would give influence at court, or secure votes in the House of Commons, that the most eventful measures ever adopted in that country were entered upon without any observation on the part of the historians and writers of memoirs at the time. The ministry itself was not aware of what it was doing. And had some seer risen up to foretell that the charter of Rhode Island derived from its popular character a vitality that would outlast the unreformed House of Commons, the faithful prophet would have been scoffed at as a visionary madman. The first memorable opposition came from the General Assembly of New York. In the spirit of loyalty and the language of reverence they pleaded with the King l concerning the colonial court of judicature, which exer- cised the ample authorities of the two great courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas, and also of the Barons of the Exchequer. They represented that this plenitude 1 The representation of the General Assembly of New York to the King, concerning the administration of justice in that province, Dec. 11, 1762. In Lansdowne MSS. 1763.] CHARLES TOWNSHEND'S COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 95 of uncontrolled power in persons who could not be impeached in the colony, and who, holding their offices during pleasure, were consequently subject to the influence of governors, was to them an object of terror ; and, from tenderness to the security of their lives, rights, and liberties, as well as fortunes, they prayed anxiously for leave to establish by law the independence and support of so important a tribunal. They produced as an irrefragable argument, the example given in England after the accession of King William III., and they quoted the declaration of the present King himself, that he " looked upon the independency and uprightness of the judges as essential to the impartial administration of justice, one of the best securities to the rights and liberties of the subject, and as most conducive to the honour of the Crown." 1 And, citing these words, which were the King's own to Parliament on his coming to the throne, they express confidence in his undiscriminating liberality to all his good subjects, whether at home or abroad. But the voice of the Assembly, " supplicating with the most respectful humility," was unheeded ; and the Treasury Board, at which Lord North had a seat, decided not only that the commission of the Chief Justice of New York should be at the King's pleasure, but the amount and 1 The King's speech to both Houses of Parliament, March 3, 1761, recom- mending making the commissions of the judges perpetual during their good behaviour, notwithstanding any future demise of the crown, &c. Annual Register, voL iv. p. 243. 30 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. payment of his salary also. 1 And this momentous precedent, so well suited to alarm the calmest states- men of America, was decided as quietly as any ordinary piece of business. The judiciary of a conti- nent was, by ministerial acts, placed in dependence on the Crown avowedly for political purposes. The King, in the royal provinces, was to institute courts, name the judges, make them irresponsible but to himself, remove them at pleasure, regulate the amount of their salaries, and pay them by warrants under the sign manual, out of funds which were beyond the control of the several colonies, and not even supervised by the British Parliament. The system introduced into New York was to be universally extended. While the allowance of a salary to the Chief Justice of New York was passing through the forms of office, Welbore Ellis, the successor of Charles Townshend as Secretary at War, brought forward the army estimates 2 for the year, including the proposition of twenty regiments as a standing army for America, The country members would have grudged the expense ; but Charles Townshend, with a promptness which in a good cause would have been wise and 1 Dyson, Secretary of the Treasury, to J. Pownall, Secretary of the Board of Trade, Dec. 29, 1762, in Treasury Letter-book, vol. xxii. p. 353. Dyson to Auditor of Plantations, Ibid. Compare, as to the fact of the allowance, Lieu- tenant-Governor Colden to Board of Trade, New York, July 8, 1763, and Chief Justice Smyth, of New Jersey, to Hillsborough, Nov. 20, 1768. - Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xxiv. p. 506. 1763.] CHARLES TOWNSHEND'S COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 97 courageous, explained the plan of the Ministry, 1 that these regiments were, for the first year only, to be supported by England, 2 and ever after by the colonies themselves. With Edmund Burke 3 in the gallery for one of his hearers, he dazzled country gentlemen by playing before their eyes the image of a revenue to be raised in America. The House of Commons listened with complacency to a plan which, at the expense of the colonies, would give twenty new places of colonels, that might be filled by members of their own body. On the Report to the House, Pitt wished only that more troops had been retained in service ; and, as if to provoke France to distrust, he called " the peace 1 "I understand part of the plan of the army is, and which I very much approve, to make North America pay its own army." Rigby to the Duke of Bedford, February 23, 1763, in Bedford Correspondence, vol. iiL p. 210. Compare, too, Calvert, resident Secretary of Maryland in London, to Horatio Sharpe, Deputy-Governor of Maryland, March 1, 1763 : " I am by authority informed that a scheme is forming for establishing 10,000 men, to bo British Americans standing force there, and paid by the colonies." 2 Jasper Mauduit, agent of the province of Massachusetts, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, March 12, 1763, to be found in Massachusetts' Council Letter-Book of Entries, vol. i. p. 384, relates that, a few days before, the Secretary at War had proposed an establishment of twenty regiments for America, to be supported the first year by England, afterwards by the colonies. Compare, too, same to same, February 11, 1764. See also the accounts received in Charleston, S. C., copied into Weyman's N. Y. Gazette, July 4, 1763, 238, 2, 2, and 3 : " Charleston, S. C., Juno 14. It is pretty certain that twenty British regiments, amounting to 10,000 effective men, are allotted to this continent and the British islands ; some of them are to come here, but from whence, and their number, is equally uncertain. There are letters in town which positively say, that these troops are to be paid the first year only by Great Britain, and that every article of expense afterwards is to be defrayed by the colonies." 3 Burke's speech on American Taxation. VOL. IL H 98 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. hollow and insecure, a mere armed truce for ten years." 1 The support of Pitt prevented any opposition to the plan. Two days after, on the 9th of March, 1763, Charles Townshend came forward with a part of the scheme for taxing America by act of Parliament. The existing duty on the trade of the continental colonies with the French and Spanish islands was, from its excessive amount, wholly prohibitory, and had been regularly evaded by a treaty of connivance between the merchants on the one side, and the custom-house officers and their English patrons on the other ; for the custom-house officers were " quartered upon " by those through whom they gained their places. The minister proposed to reduce the duty and enforce its collection ; and he did it with such bold impetuosity that, " short as the term was, it seemed that he would carry it through before the rising of Parliament." 2 The House was impatient for it ; heavy complaints were made, that the system of making all the revenue offices in America sinecure places, had led to such abuses, that an American annual revenue of less than two thousand pounds cost 1 Walpole's Memoirs of the Reign of George III., vol. i. p. 247. Rigby to the Duke of Bedford, March 10, 1763. lu Correspondence of Duke of Bedford, vol. iii. p. 218. * Jasper Mauduit to Mr. Secretary Oliver. London, March 23, 1763. " Some days ago the First Lord of Trade proposed lowering the duties on French molasses from 6d. to 2d. per gallon, in order the more effectually to secure the payment ; and, short as the term is, he will probably carry it through before the rising of Parliament." See Jasper Mauduit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the province of Massachusetts Bay. 1763.] CHARLES TOWNSHEND-S COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 99 the establishment of the customs in Great Britain between seven and eight thousand pounds a year. 1 Lord North and Charles Yorke were members of the committee who introduced into the House of Commons this first bill, having for its object an American revenue by act of Parliament. 2 A stamp act and other taxes were to follow, till a sufficient revenue should be obtained from America to defray the expenses of its army. 3 1 Grenvilleto Horace Walpole, Sept. 8, 1763, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 1 14. 2 Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xxix. p. 609. 3 That the ministry of Bute had in view specially an American stamp-tax is in itself probable, as the revenue without it would have been notoriously insufficient for their avowed object; and a stamp-tax had long been very generally spoken of as the most eligible by those who wished to draw a parliamentary revenue from America. Besides, as we shall see, Townshend expressed himself violently in favour of the stamp-tax when it came up ; and though he voted for its repeal, he insisted he had been, and was still for it. Bute, and all the other members of his Cabinet who remained alive, opposed the repeal. Add to this the belief of the time, as contained in a letter from London, dated March 27, 1763, and printed in Weyman's New York Gazette for Monday, May 30, 1763. No. 233, 3, 1. " I cannot, however, omit mentioning a matter much the subject of con- versation here, which, if carried into execution, will, in its consequences, greatly affect the colonies. It is the quartering sixteen regiments in America, to be supported at the expense of the provinces. The inutility of these troops in time of peace, though evidently apparent, might not be complained of by the people of America, was the charge defrayed by England. But to lay that burden on the plantations, already exhausted in the prosecution of an expensive war, is what I believe you would not have thought of. The money, it is said, will be levied by Act of Parliament, and raised on a stamp duty, excise on rum distilled on the continent, and a duty on foreign sugar, and molasses, &c. ; by reducing the former duty on these last mentioned articles, which it is found impracticable to collect, to such a one as will be collected. This manner of raising money, except what may arise on the foreign sugars, &c., I apprehend will be thought greatly to diminish even the appearance of the subject's liberty, since nothing seems to be more repugnant to the general principles of freedom than the subjecting a people to taxation by laws in the enactment of which they are not represented." This view is corroborated by many circumstances. " The stamp act was H 2 100 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. At the same time, as if to exhibit in the most glaring manner the absence of all just ground for parliamentary taxation, the usual " compensation for the expenses of the several provinces," according to their " active vigour and strenuous efforts," was voted without curtailment ; and amounted to more than seven hundred thousand dollars. The appropriation was the most formal recog- nition that even in the last year of the war, when it was carried on beyond their bounds, the colonies had not originally Mr. Grenville's." Such is the testimony of Richard Jackson, in a letter to Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinsou, of December 26, 1765, quoted in Gordon's History of the American Revolution, vol. i. p. 1 57. Gordon had an opportunity of examining the correspondence of Hutchiusou. The letter which he cited should now be among the records of Massachusetts, but I searched for it there in vain. Yet I see no reason for doubting the accuracy of the quotation. Richard Jackson, from his upright character and his position as a friend of Grenville, and soon as a confidential officer of the Exchequer, was competent to give decisive evidence. In a debate in the House of Commons, in the thirteenth parliament, Sir William Meredith, speaking in the presence of Grenville, intimates that Greuville adopted the measure of the stamp act at the suggestion of another. See the Reports by Cavendish, vol. i. p. 499. Horace Walpole, a bitter enemy of Grenville's, yet says, in a note to his Memoirs of George III., vol. iii. p. 32, that the stamp act was a measure of Bute's ministry, at the suggestion of his secretary, Jeukinson, who afterwards brought it into the treasury for Grenville's adoption. Bute personally, as we know from Knox, wished to bring the colonies " into order ; " but, as everybody about him wished the same, he probably thought not much about the matter, but left it to others, and especially to Charles Towushend. Finally, Jeukinson himself, in the debate in the House of Commons, of May 15, 1777, condemned the tea act as impolitic, &c. &c. " Theii, turning to the stamp act, he said that measure was not Mr. Grenville's ; if the act was a good one, the merit of it was not due to Mr. Grenville ; if it was a bad one, the errors of it, or the ill-policy of it, did not belong to him. The measure was not his." See Almon's Parliamentary Register, vol. vii. p. 214. It admits of no question, that Bute's ministry resolved on raising an American revenue by parliamentary taxes on America. When the decisive minute of the Treasury Board on the subject was ordered, will appear below. 1763.] CHARLES TOWNSHEND'S COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 101 contributed to the common cause more than their just proportion. The peace, too, the favourite measure of the Ministry and the King, 1 had been gratefully welcomed in the New World. "We in America," said Otis 2 to the people of Boston, on being chosen moderator at their first town meeting in 1763, "have abundant reason to rejoice. The heathen are driven out and the Canadians conquered. The British dominion now extends from sea to sea, and from the great rivers to the ends of the earth. Liberty and knowledge, civil and religious, will be co-extended, improved and pre- served to the latest posterity. No constitution of government has appeared in the world so admirably adapted to these great purposes as that of Great Britain. Every British subject in America is, of common right, by act of Parliament, and by the laws of God and nature, entitled to all the essential privileges of Britons. By particular charters, particular privileges are justly granted, in consideration of undertaking to begin so glorious an empire as British America. Some weak and wicked minds have endeavoured to infuse jealousies with regard to the colonies ; the true interests of Great Britain and her plantations are mutual ; and what God in His providence has united, let no man dare attempt to pull asunder." Such was the unanimous voice of 1 Bernard to Egrcmont, February 16, 1763. - Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts, vol. iii. pp. 101, 102. 102 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763- the colonies. Fervent attachment to England was joined with love for the English constitution, as it had been imitated in America, at the very time when the ministry of Bute was planning the thorough overthrow of colonial liberty. But George Grenville would not be outdone by Charles Townshend in zeal for British interests. He sought to win the confidence of Englishmen by consider- ing England as the head and heart of the whole empire, and by making all other parts of the King's dominion serve but as channels to convey wealth and vigour to that head. Ignorant of colonial affairs, his care of them had reference only to the increase of the trade and revenue of Great Britain. 1 He meant well for the British public, and was certainly indefatigable. 2 He looked to the restrictions in the statute book for the source of the maritime greatness of England ; and did not know that if British commerce flourished beyond that of Spain, which had an equal population, still greater restrictions, and still more extensive colonies, it was only because England excelled in freedom. His mind bowed to the superstition of the age. He did not so much embrace as worship the Navigation Act with idolatry as the palladium of his country's greatness ; and regarded connivance at the breaches of it by the overflowing commerce of the colonies with an exquisite 1 Knox, Serai-official Papers, vol. ii. p. 32. : Duke of Grafton's Autobiography. Part I. MS. 1763.] CHARLES TOWNSHEND'S COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 103 jealousy. 1 Placed at the head of the Admiralty, he was eager and importunate to unite his official influence, his knowledge of the law, and his place as a leader in the House of Commons, to restrain American inter- course by new powers to vice-admiralty courts, and by a curiously devised system, 2 which should bribe the whole navy of England to make war on colonial trade. Accordingly, at a time when the merchants were already complaining of the interruption of their illicit dealings with the Spanish main, he recommended to Bute the more rigid enforcement of the laws of navi- gation ; and on the very day on which the bill for a regular plantation revenue was reported to the House, he was put on a committee to carry his counsel into effect. March had not ended when a bill was brought in, 3 giving authority to employ the ships, seamen, and officers of the navy as custom-house officers and informers. The measure was Grenville's own, and it was rapidly carried through ; so that in three short weeks it became lawful, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to 1 Burke's Speech on American Taxation. 2 Smith's Wealth of Nations, book i. chap. 5 : " The mercantile system, in its nature and essence, is a system of restraint and regulation, and such as could scarce fail to be agreeable to a laborious and plodding man of business, who had been accustomed to regulate the different departments of public offices, and to establish the necessary checks and controls for confining each to its proper sphere, &c." This, and what follows, applies to Grenville as well as to Colbert. 3 Journals of the House of Commons, vol. xxlx. p. 609. Statutes at Large, vol. vii. p. 443. 3 George III. chap. xxii. Lieutenant-Governor Hutchinson's private letter to R. Jackson, Sept. 17, 1763. Admiral Colville to Lieutenant- Governor Colden, October 14, 1763; also Egremont's Circular of July 9, 1763. 104. THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Cape Florida, for each commander of an armed vessel to stop and examine, and, in case of suspicion, to seize every merchant ship approaching the colonies ; while avarice was stimulated by hope of large emoluments, to make as many seizures, and gain in the vice-admiralty courts the condemnation of as many vessels as possible. It was Grenville who introduced a more than Spanish sea-guard of British America ; it was he who first took energetic measures to enforce the navigation acts. The supplies voted for the first year of peace amounted to seventy millions of dollars ; and the public charges pressed heavily on the lands and the industry of England. New sources of revenue were required ; and, happily for America, an excise on cider and perry, by its nature affecting only the few counties where the apple was much cultivated, divided the country members, inflamed opposition, and burdened the estates of some in the House of Lords. Pitt opposed the tax as " intolerable." The defence of it fell upon Grenville, who treated the ideas of his brother-in-law on national expenses with severity. He admitted that the impost was odious. " But where," he demanded, " can you lay another tax ] Tell me where ; tell me where ; " and Pitt made no answer, but by humming audibly- Gentle shepherd, tell me where. " The House burst out into a fit of laughter, which 1763.] CHARLES TOWNSHEND-S COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 105 continued some minutes." * Grenville, very warm, stood up to reply ; when Pitt, " with the most contemptuous look and manner," rose from his seat, made the chair- man a low bow, and walked slowly out of the house. 2 Yet the Ministry persevered, though the cider counties were in a flame ; the city of London, proceeding beyond all precedent, petitioned Commons, Lords, and King against the measure; and the cities of Exeter and Worcester instructed their members to oppose it. The House of Lords divided upon it ; and two protests against it appeared on their journals. 3 Thus, an English tax, which came afterwards to be regarded as proper, met with turbulent resistance. No one uttered a word for America. The bill for raising a re- venue there was quietly read twice and committed. 4 But yet " this matter," observed Calvert, " may be obstructed under a Scotch Premier Minister, the Earl of Bute, against whom a strong party is forming." The Ministry itself was crumbling. The King was Bute's friend ; but his majority in "the King's Parliament " was broken and unmanageable. The city of London, the old aristocracy, the House of Lords, the mass of the House of Commons, the people of England, the people of the colonies, the Cabinet, all disliked him ; the 1 Anecdotes and Speeches of the Earl of Chatham, voL L pp. 369, 370. Wai pole's Memoirs of George III. Rigby to the Duke of Bedford, March 10, 1763. Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 218. 3 Journals of House of Lords of March 29, and March 30. 4 Journals of House of Commons, voL xxix. pp. 606, 614, 617. 106 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. politicians, whose friendship he thought to have secured by favour, gave him no hearty support ; nearly every member of the cabinet which he himself had formed was secretly or openly against him. "The ground I tread upon/' said he, " is hollow ; " l he might well be " afraid of falling ; " and if he persisted, of injuring the King by his fall. Charles Townsliend made haste to retire from the cabinet ; and his bill for raising a revenue in the plantations was, on the 29th of March, 2 postponed. Had Bute continued longer at the head of affairs, the Government must soon have been at the mercy of a successful opposition : 3 had he made way unreservedly for a sole minister in his stead, the aristocratic party might have recovered and long retained the entire control of the administration. 4 By his instances to retire, made half a year before, the King had been so troubled, that he frequently sat for hours together leaning his head upon his arm without speaking ; 5 and at last when he consented to a change, it was on condition that in the new administration there should be no chief minister. For a moment Grenville, to whom the treasury was offered, affected to be coy. " My dear George," said 1 Adolphus, vol. i. 2 Journals of House of Commons, vol. xxix. p. 623. 3 Bute to one of his friends, in Adolpbus vol. i. p. 117. 4 Fox to the Duke of Cumberland, in Albcmarle's Memoirs of Rocking- ham, vol. i. p. 131. 5 Grenville's Narrative, in the Grenville Papers, vol. i. p. 435. 1763.] CHARLES TOWNSHEND'S COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION. 107 Bute, as if he had been the dictator, " I still continue to wish for you preferable to other arrangements ; but if you cannot forget old grievances, and cordially take the assistance of all the King's friends, I must in a few hours put other things in agitation ; " l and Grenville, " with a warm sense " of obligation, accepted the " high and important situation " destined for him by the King's goodness and his Lordship's friendship, 2 promising not " to put any negative " 3 upon those whom the King might approve as his colleagues in the Ministry. Bute next turned to Bedford, announcing the King's " abiding determination never, upon any account, to suffer those ministers of the late reign, who had attempted to fetter and enslave him, to come into his service while he lived to hold the sceptre." 4 " Shall titles and estates," he continued, " and names like a Pitt, that impose on an ignorant populace, give this prince the law 1 " 5 And he solicited Bedford to accept the post of President of the Council, promising, in that case, the Privy Seal to Bedford's brother-in-law, Lord Gower. While the answer was waited for, it was announced to the foreign ministers that the King had confided the 1 Bute to O. Grenville, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. pp. 33 39. 2 G. Grenville to Bute, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. pp. 33 39. 3 Ibid., p. 38. 4 Bute to Bedford, April 2, 1768, in Wiffen's Memoirs of the House of Russell, ii. 522. Lord John Russell s Correspondence of John, fourth Duke of Bedford, vol. iiL p. 224. 4 Wiffcn, vol. ii. p. 523. Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 225. 108 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. executive powers of Government to a triumvirate, consisting of Grenville, as the head of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, and of Egremont and Halifax, the two Secretaries of State. After making this arrangement Bute resigned, having established, by act of Parliament, a standing army in America, and bequeathing to his successor his pledge to the House of Commons, to provide for the support of that army after the current year, by taxes on America. CHAPTER VI. THE TRIUMVIRATE MINISTRY PURSUE THE PLAN OF TAXING AMERICA BY PARLIAMENT. APRIL, MAY, 1763. GEORGE III. was revered by his courtiers as realising the idea of a patriot King. 1 He would " espouse no party," rule " by no faction," and employ none but those who would conduct affairs on his own principles. The watchword of his friends was " a coalition of parties," in the spirit of dutiful obedience, so that he might select ministers from among them all, and he came to the throne resolved " to begin to govern as soon as he should begin to reign." 3 Yet the established constitution was more immovable than his designs. Pitt did not retire from the Ministry till the country was growing weary of " his German war," and a majority in the British Cabinet opposed his counsels. Newcastle, so long the representative of a cabal of the 1 The Annual Register : Qov. Bernard, iu a speech to the Legislature of Massachusetts, 2 Bolingbroke'a Patriot King, p. 77. HO THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. oligarchy, which had once been more respected than the royal authority itself, 1 did not abandon office till he had lost weight with Parliament and the people ; and the favourite, Bute, after making the peace with general approbation, had no option but to retire from a place which neither his own Cabinet, nor the nation, nor either House of Parliament, was willing he should hold. In the midst of changing factions, the British constitution stood like adamant. Grenville, who was never personally agreeable to the King, 2 was chosen to succeed Bute in the Ministry, because, from his position, he seemed dependent on the court. He had no party, and was aware of it. 3 No man had more changed his associates : entering life as a patriot, accepting office of Newcastle, leaving Newcastle with Pitt, and remaining in office when Pitt and Temple were driven out. The head of his own house now regarded him with lively hatred, and one of his younger brothers had repudiated his conduct as base ; 4 so that he derived no strength from his family. Moreover, he loved office, and loved it for its emoluments, 5 and so inordinately, that, even against the utmost endeavours of his own brothers, he had for 1 Bolingbroke on the Spirit of Patriotism, Works, vol. iii. pp. 18, 19. 2 Autobiography of the Duke of Grafton : " There may be good reason for believing that his [George Grenville's] manners were never agreeable to his Majesty." 3 Grenville's own remark to the King, in his Diary. 4 James Grenville to Temple, 3rd Nov. 1762. In Grenville Papers, vol. i. P- 409 - 5 Kuox : Extra-Official Papers, vol. ii. p. 34. 1763.] THE MINISTRY ARE RESOLVED ON TAXING AMERICA. Ill many years nourished a rankling grudge against Pitt, and secretly questioned his friendship, honour, and good faith, because Pitt had conferred upon him the very lucrative office of Treasurer of the Navy, at a time when he himself was lusting after the still more enormously lucrative one of Paymaster to the Forces. J And, in 1 762, he had suffered himself to be summarily thrust out of the office of Secretary of State, and had accepted another from avarice, 2 and in the hope of still higher preferment. 3 Yet Grenville was no venal adventurer, and in his love of money retained the cold austerity that marked his character. He never grew giddy with the hazards of the stock-market, nor made himself a broker of office, nor jobbed in lottery -tickets and contracts. His desire was for solid and sure places ; a tellership in the exchequer, or the profits of a light-house, the rich sinecures which English law and English usages tolerated ; so that even in the indulgence of his strongest passion, he kept a good conscience, and men regarded him as a model of integrity, 4 and the resolute enemy of corruption. Nor was he aware that the 1 G. Grenville's Narrative, in the Grenville Papers, vol. i. p. 439. 2 Horace Walpole's George III. vol. L 3 Fragment in the Grenville Papers, vol. L p. 484. 4 Walpole's George III. vol.i. pp. 338, 339. Walpole then "entertained a most favourable opinion of his integrity." Soon afterwards he had a bitter quarrel with Grenville, and from that hour spoke very ill of him. Ibid., vol. i. p. 343. This must be borne in mind ; towards no man of his time does Walpole show himself so peevishly bitter as towards Grenville, often colouring and distorting facts, ami always swayed by an invincible disgust. 112 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. craving for wealth led him to penurious parsimony. He was the second son ; and his childless elder brother, whose title would fall to his family, could break the entail of some part of his great possessions; 1 so Grenville saved always all his emoluments from public office, pleading that it was a disinterested act, which only enriched his children ; 2 as if a miser hoards money for any others than his heirs. His personal deportment was always grave and formally solemn and forbidding ; and in an age of dissoluteness, his apathy in respect of pleasure made him appear a paragon for sanctity of morals. Bishops 3 praised him for his constant weekly attendance at the morning service. He was not cruel ; but the coldness of his nature left him incapable of compassion. He had not energetic decision, although he was obstinately self-interested : as a consequence, he was not vengeful ; but when evil thoughts towards others rose up within his breast, they rather served to trouble his own peace with the gall of bitterness. He would also become unhappy, and grievously repine at disappointment or the ill success of his plans, even while his self-love saved him from remorse. Nor was he one of the King's friends, nor did he seek advancement by unworthy flattery of the court. 4 A good lawyer, and 1 Grenville's Narrative, iii the Grenville Papers. - Knox : Extra-Official Papers, vol. ii. p. 35. 3 Bishop Newton's Autobiography, in Newton's Works, vol. i. 4 Burke, in his speech on American Taxation. 1763.] THE MINISTRY ARE RESOLVED ON TAXING AMERICA. 113 trained in the best and most liberal political school of his day, it was ever his pride to be esteemed a sound Whig, 1 making the absolute supremacy of Parliament the test of his consistency and the essential element of his creed ; and he rose to eminence through the laborious gradations of public service, by a thorough knowledge of its constitution 2 and an indefatigable attention to all its business. Just before his death, after a service in the House of Commons of about thirty years, 3 he said with pride that to that House he owed all his distinction ; and such was the flattering self-conceit of this austere and rigidly inflexible man, that he ascribed all his eminence to his own merits, which he never regarded as too highly rewarded. Gratitude, therefore, found no place in his nature ; but now that he was at that period of life when the gentler passions are quiet, and ambition rules without restraint, he was so much like the bird that croaks whilst enjoying the fullest meal, that towards those even who had benefited him most, there remained in his heart something like a harsh willingness to utter reproach for their not having succeeded in doing more. And when he looked back upon the line of his pre- decessors in office ; upon Bute, Newcastle, Devonshire, Waldegrave, and even Pelham, under whom he had 1 " I know that Mr. Grenville, as a sound Whig, bore me no good will." Hume, in Burton's Life of Hume. 2 Edmund Burke. 3 Grenville, in Cavendish. VOL. II. I 1H THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. been trained, it was easy for him to esteem himself superior to them all. Yet Grenville wanted the elements of true statesmanship and greatness : he had neither a creative mind to devise a system of policy, nor active powers to guide an administration. His nature inclined him not to originate measures, but to amend, and alter, and regulate. He had neither salient traits nor general comprehensiveness of mind ; neither the warm imagination, which can arrange and vivify various masses of business, nor sagacity to penetrate the springs of public action and the consequences of measures. In a word, he was a dull, plodding pedant in politics ; a pains-taking, exact man of business, capable of counting l the Manilla ransom if it had ever been paid. In his frequent, long, and tedious speeches, it has been said that a trope 2 never passed his lips ; but he abounded in repetitions and explanatory self- justification. He would have made a laborious and an upright judge, or an impartial and most respectable Speaker of the House of Commons ; but at the head of an administration, he could be no more than the patient and methodical executor of plans " devolved " 3 upon him by the statute-book of England or by his 1 Dr. Johnson's Thoughts on the late Transactions respecting Falkland's Islands; first edition : "Let him (George Grenville) not be depreciated in his grave. He had powers not universally possessed. Could he have enforced payment of the Manilla ransom, he could have counted it." Boswell's Life of Johnson, chap. xxv. 2 Knox : Extra-Official Papers. 3 Edmund Burke on American Taxation. 1763.] THE MINISTRY ARE RESOLVED ON TAXING AMERICA. 115 predecessors in office. The stubbornness with which he was to adhere to them sprung from the weakness of pride and obstinacy, that were parts of his nature, not from the vigour of a commanding will, 1 which never belonged to him. With the bequest of Bute's office, the new minister inherited also the services of his efficient private secretary, Charles Jenkinson, who now became the principal Secretary of the Treasury. He was a man of rare ability. An Oxford scholar without fortune, and at first destined for the Church, he entered life on the side of the Whigs ; but using an immediate oppor- tunity of becoming known to George III. while Prince of Wales, he devoted himself to his service. He remained always a friend and a uniform favourite of the King. Engaged in the most important scenes of political action, and rising to the highest stations, he moved with so soft a step, that he seemed to pass on as noiselessly as a shadow ; and history was hardly aware of his presence. He had the singular talent of being employed in the most delicate and disagreeable personal negotiations, and fulfilling such trusts so calmly as to retain the friendship of those whom he seemed commissioned to wound. Except at first, when still very poor, he never showed a wish for office, till the time arrived when it seemed to seek him ; and he 1 The elder Pitt had a very strong will, and was by no means obstinate : Orenville had a feeble will, and was very obstinate. I 2 118 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. proved how an able man may quietly gain every object of his ambition, if he is but so far the master of his own mind as to make desire wait upon opportunity and fortune. His old age was one of dignity, cheered by the unabated regard of the King ; and in the midst of physical sufferings, soothed and made happy by the political success of one son and the affectionate com- panionship of another. The blot on his life was his conduct respecting America ; the thorough measures which Charles Townshend had counselled with dangerous rashness, and which George Grenville in part resisted, Jenkinson was always ready to carry forward with tranquil collectedness. The King wished to see Townshend at the head of the Admiralty. 1 " My nephew Charles," reasoned New- castle, 2 " will hardly act under George Grenville ; " and it proved so. A sharp rivalry existed between the two, and continued as long as both lived ; each of them, in the absence of Pitt, aiming to stand first in the House of Commons, and in the Government. But Townshend, though, for the present, he declined office, took care to retain the favour of the King by zeal against popular commotions. 3 The Duke of Bedford, too, refused to join the Ministry after the advancement of Egremont and Grenville, who, at the time of his negotiating the peace, had shown him so much ill-will. He advised the 1 Bute to Bedford, April 2, 1763 ; in Wiffen and Bedford Correspondence. 2 Newcastle to Pitt, April 9, 1763, in Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 221. 3 Gilly Williams to George Selwyn, in Jesse's George Selwyn, vol. i. p. 189. 1763.] THE MINISTRY ARE RESOLVED ON TAXING AMERICA. 117 employment of the old Whig aristocracy. " I know," said he, " the administration cannot last ; should I take in it the place of President of the Council, I should deserve to be treated like a madman." l So unattractive was Grenville ! The triumvirate, of whom not one was beloved by the people, became "a general joke," 2 and was laughed at as a three-headed monster, 3 quieted by being gorged with patronage and office. The business of the session was rapidly brought to a close. Grenville's bill for the effectual enforcement of the acts of navigation received the royal assent. The scheme of taxing the colonies did but lie over for the next session ; but at the prorogation, the King's speech announced the purpose of improving the revenue, which, as the debates during the session explained, had a special reference to America. " It was not the wish of this man or that man ;" 4 each house of Parliament, and nearly everybody in Great Britain, was eager to throw a part of the public burdens on the increasing opulence of the New World. The new Ministry, at the outset, was weakened by its own indiscreet violence. In the speech at the close of the session, the King vauntingly arrogated merit for the peace which Frederic of Prussia had concluded after 1 Bedford to Bute, Paris, April 7, 1763, in Wiffen, vol. iL p. 525, and in Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 228. 2 Walpole to Mann, April 30, 1763. 3 Wilkes to Lord Temple, in Grenville Papers. 4 Speech of Cornwall, brother-in-law of Charles Jeukinsou, in the House of Commons, in Cavendish Debates, vol. i. p. 91. 118 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. being left alone by England. Wilkes, a man who shared the social licentiousness of his day, in the forty-fifth number of a periodical paper called the North Briton, exposed the fallacy. The King, thinking one of his subjects had given him the lie, applied 1 to the Ministry for the protection to which every Englishman had a right. How to proceed became a question. Grenville,' 2 as a lawyer, knew, and " declared that general warrants were illegal ; " but conforming to " long established precedents," Halifax, as one of the secretaries of state, issued a general warrant for the arrest of all concerned in a publication which calm judgment 3 pronounces unworthy of notice, but which all parties at that day branded as a libel. Wilkes was arrested ; but on the doubtful plea that his privilege as a member of Parliament had been violated, he was set at liberty by the popular Chief Justice Pratt. The opponents of the Ministry hastened to renew the war of privilege against prerogative, with the advantage of being defenders of the constitution on a question affecting a vital principle of personal freedom. The cry for " Wilkes and Liberty ' ; was heard in all parts of the British dominion. 4 In the midst of the confusion, Grenville set about 1 Grenville, in Kiiox's Considerations on the Present State of the Nation, p. 48. 2 Grenville's Speeches in the House of Commons, December 16, 1768, and February 3, 1769, in Wright's Cavendish Debates, vol. i. pp. 110, 160. 3 Mahon's History of England, vol. iv. 4 Hutchinson's History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, vol. iii. p. 163. 1763.] THE MINISTRY ARE RESOLVED ON TAXING AMERICA. 119 confirming himself in power 1 by diligence in the public business. " His self conceit," said Lord Holland, after- wards, 3 " as well as his pride and obstinacy, established him." For the joint secretary of the treasury he selected an able and sensible lawyer, Thomas Whately, in whom he obtained a firm defender and political friend. His own secretary as Chancellor of the Exchequer was Richard Jackson ; and the choice is very strong evidence that though he entered upon his task blindly, as it proved, and in ignorance 3 of the colonies, yet his intentions were fair ; 4 for Jackson was a liberal member of the House of Commons, a good lawyer, not eager to increase his affluent fortune, frank, independent, and abhorring intrigue. He was, moreover, better acquainted with the state of America, and exercised a sounder judgment on questions of colonial administration, than, perhaps, any man in England. His excellent character led Connecticut and Pennsylvania to make him their agent ; and he gave the latter province even better advice than Franklin himself. He was always able to combine affection for England with uprightness and fidelity to his American employers. To a mind like Grenville's, the protective system has 1 Grenville's account of himself to Knor. 2 Lord Holland to George Selwyn. 3 That Grenville was very ignorant as to the colonies we have a witness in Knox, who himself had held office in Georgia, and knew America from his own observation. 4 " The best in the world." Burke and the Duke of Grafton both vouch for Grenville's good intentions. 120 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. irresistible attractions. He saw in trade the foundation of the wealth and power of his country, and embraced all the prejudices of the mercantile system ; he wished by regulations and control to advance the commerce and public credit, which really owed their superiority to the greater liberty of England. He prepared to re-charter the Bank of England, to connect it still more closely with the funding system ; to sustain the credit of the merchants, which faltered under the revulsion con- sequent on the return to peace ; to bind more firmly the restrictions of the commercial monopoly ; to increase the public revenue, and in its expenditure to found a system of frugality. America, with its new acquisitions Florida, and the valley of the Mississippi and Canada lay invitingly before him. The enforcing the navigation acts was pe- culiarly his own policy, and was the first leading feature of his administration. His predecessors had bound him by their pledges to provide for the American army by taxes on the colonies ; and to find sources of an American revenue, was his second great object. This he combined with the purpose 1 of so dividing the public burdens between England and America as to diminish the motive to emigrate from Great Britain and Ireland ; 2 for, in those days, emigration 3 was considered an evil. 1 M. Frances au Due de Choiseul a Londres le 2 SeptemLre, 1768. 2 Second protest of the House of Lords, on the repeal of the stamp net. * Kuox, vol. i. p. 23 ; Extra-Official Papers, vol. ii. p. 23. 1763.] THE MINISTRY ARE RESOLVED ON TAXING AMERICA. 121 In less than a month after Bute's retirement, Egremont, who still remained Secretary of State for the southern department, asked the advice of the Lords of Trade on the organisation of governments in the newly acquired territories, the military force to be kept up in America, and in what mode least burthensome and most palatable to the colonies, they can contribute towards the support of the additional expense which must attend their civil and military establishment. 1 The head of the Board of Trade was the Earl of Shelburne. He was at that time not quite six and twenty years old, had served creditably in the Seven Years War, as a volunteer, and, on his return, was appointed aide-de-camp to George III. He had 1 Secretary Lord Egremont to the Lords of Trade, May 5, 1763: "North America naturally offers itself as the principal object of your lordship's con- sideration upon this occasion, with regard to which I shall first obey his Majesty's commands in proposing to your lordships some general questions, before I proceed to desire you will furnish that information which his Majesty expects from your lordships with regard to the North American and southern parts of this continent, considered separately. " The questions which relate to North America in general, are : " 1st What new governments should be established, and what form should be adopted for such new governments ? And where the capital or residence of each governor should be fixed ? " 2ndly. What military establishment will be sufficient ? What new forts should be erected ? And which, if any, may it be expedient to demolish ? " 3rdly. In what mode, least burdensome and most palatable to the colonies, can they contribute towards the support of the additional expense which must attend this civil and military establishment, upon the arrangement which your lordships shall propose?" ****** It is noticeable, that the question as to taxing America by Parliament, implied in the third interrogatory, does not relate to the expediency of doing it, but the mode. On tho right or propriety of the measure, the Board of Trade is not invited to express an opinion. 12 2 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. supported the peace 1 of 1763, as became a humane and liberal man ; in other respects he was an admirer of Pitt. 1 Walpole, in Memoirs of the Reign of King George III. vol. i. pp. 257, 258, says of Shelburne : " The probability was, that he (Shelburne) intended to slip into the pay-office himself." Again : he insinuates that Shelbunie, in negotiating with Fox to support the peace, practised "the pious fraud" of concealing Lord Bute's intention of retiring. Similar anecdotes were told me by one of the worthiest men in England. Having read a vast deal of Lord Shelburne's correspondence, I observed how unlike these imputations were to the character imprinted on his writings. I was advised to inquire if in the papers of the first Lord Holland these charges are preserved ; and having opportunity to do so, I was answered with courtesy and frankness, that they are not to be found in the unpublished memoirs, nor, I believe, in any of the papers of Lord Holland. As to the first surmise, that Grenville desired to slip into the pay-office himself, there exists no evidence to justify it ; while every letter that has since come to light, goes to show such a readiness on the part of Bute, and, for a time, of Grenville, to gratify Fox, that he himself was satisfied and avowed his purpose to give every support to the new ministry. The whole tone of their intercourse is inconsistent with the supposition of any difference about the paymaster's place. Grenville's Diary, in Papers, vol. ii. pp. 207, 208. As for Shelburne, he was marked out for the higher office of a Secretary of State but, " in the handsomest manner, wished to be omitted." Bute to Grenville, April 1, 1763, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 41. As to the other insinuation, the concealment of Bute's purpose of resigning, whether blameable or not, was the act of Bute himself, with whom Fox negotiated directly. " I am come from Lord Bute," writes Fox to the Duke of Cumberland, on Sept. 30, 1762, "more than ever convinced that he never has had, nor now has, a thought of retiring or treating." Albemarle's Memoirs of Rockingham, vol. i. p. 132. That Fox was with Bute repeatedly before super- seding Grenville in the lead of the House of Commons, appears from Albemarle, vol.i. pp. 127, 129, 132 ; Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. pp. 124, 133. That Fox did not regard this concealment as an offence appears from his own testimony ; for he himself, in December, 1763, said to Grenville, that "he believed Lord Bute to be a perfect honest man ; that he respected him as such ; and that in the intercourse between them, Lord Bute had never broken his word witli him." See G. Grenville's Diary for Wednesday, Dec. 25, 1764. Even Walpole admits that Lord Holland's own friend, as well as the Bedfords, refused to find Shelburne blameable. Walpole's George III. vol. i. pp. 262, 263. In the very paragraph in which Walpole brings these unsubstantiated charges against Shelburne, he is entirely at fault in narrating confidently that the Treasury was offered to Fox. The Grenville Papers show that it was not. The name of Shelburne will occur so often in American history during the 1763.] THE MINISTRY ARE RESOLVED ON TAXING AMERICA. 123 While his report was waited for, Grenville, through Charles Jenkinson, 1 began his system of saving, by an order to the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in America, now that the peace was made, to withdraw the allowance for victualling the regiments 2 stationed in the cultivated parts of America. This expense was to be met in future by the colonies. next twenty years, that I was"unwilling to pass over the aspersions of Walpole. It is to be remembered also, that both Whig and Tory were very bitter against Shelburne ; some of the Rockingham Whigs most of all, particularly C. J. Fox and Edmund Burke. 1 C. Jenkinson to Str Jeffery Amherst, May 11, 1763. Treasury Letter Book, vol. xxii. p. 392. 2 Weyman's New York Gazette, October 3, 1763; No. 251, 2, 1. CHAPTER VII. PONTIAC'S WAR THE TRIUMVIRATE MINISTRY CONTINUED. MAY SEPTEMBER, 1763. THE western territory, of which England believed itself to have come into possession, was one massive forest, interrupted only by rocks, or prairies, or waters, or an Indian cleared field for maize. The English came into the illimitable waste as conquerors, and here and there in the solitudes, all the way from Niagara to the Falls of the St. Mary and the banks of the St. Joseph's, a log fort with a picketed inclosure was the emblem of their pretensions. In their presumptuous eagerness to supplant the French, they were blind to danger, and their posts were often left dependent on the Indians for supplies. The smaller garrisons consisted only of an ensign, a sergeant, and perhaps fourteen men ; and were stationed at points so widely remote from one another, that, lost in the boundless woods, they could no more be discerned than a little fleet of canoes scattered over the whole Atlantic, too minute to be 1763.] PONTIACrS WAR. 125 perceptible, and safe only during fair weather. Yet, feeble as they were, their presence alarmed the Red Man, for it implied the design to occupy the country which for ages had been his own. 1 His canoe could no longer quiver on the bosom of the St. Mary's, or pass into the clear waters of Lake Huron, or paddle through the strait that connects Huron and Erie, or cross from the waters of the St. Lawrence to those of the Ohio, without passing by the British flag. By what right was that banner unfurled in the west ? What claim to the Red Man's forest could the English derive from victories over the French ? The French had won the affections of the savages by their pliability and their temperance, and retained it by religious influence ; they seemed no more to be masters, but rather companions and friends. More formidable enemies now appeared, arrogant in their pretensions, scoffing insolently at those whom they superseded, driving away their Catholic priests, and introducing the traffic in rum, which till then had been effectually prohibited. Since the French must go, no other nation should take their place. Let the Red Men at once vindicate their right to what was their own heritage, or consent to their certain ruin. The wide conspiracy began with the lower nations, who were the chief instigators of discontent. 2 The 1 Hutchinson to Richard Jackson, August, 1763. J Sir Jeffery Amherst to Major Gladwin, New York, May 29, 1763 : "The nations below, who seem to be the chief instigators of this mischief." 126 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Iroquois, especially the Senecas, 1 who were very much enraged against the English, 2 joined with the Delawares and Shawnees, and for two years 3 they had been soliciting the north-western nations to take up arms. " The English mean to make slaves of us, by occupying so many posts in our country," said the lower nations to the upper. 4 " We had better attempt something now, to recover our liberty, than wait till they are better established." So spoke the Senecas to the Delawares, and they to the Shawnees, and the Shawnees to the Miamis 5 and Wyandots, whose chiefs, slain in battle by the English, were still unavenged, 6 until every where, from the Falls of Niagara and the piny declivities of the Alleghanies to the whitewood forests of the Mississippi 7 and the borders of Lake Superior, all the nations concerted to rise and put the English to death. 8 1 Sir Jeffery Amherst to Sir William Johnson, New York, May 29, 1763 : " The Senecas seem to have a principal hand. * * * Other tribes enter into plots against their benefactors," &c., &c. 2 Speech of the Miamis Chief, March 30, 1763. 3 Speech of Poutiac. Harangue faite a la Nation Illinoise, et au chef Pondiak, &c., c., 18 Avril, 1765. Aubry to the French Minister, May 16, 1765. Gayarre", Histoire de la Louisiane, vol. ii. p. 131. The work of Gayarre" is one of great merit and authority/built firmly upon trustworthy documents. 4 Major Glad win, commanding officer at the Detroit, to Sir Jeffery Amherst, Detroit, April 20, 1763 : " They say we mean to make slaves of them," &c., &c. 5 Speech made by the Chief of the Miamis Indians at the delivery of the belt of wampum, sent to them from the Shawnee nation, at Fort Miamis, March 30, 1763: "This belt we received from the Shawnees, and they received it from the Delawares, and they from the Senecas." 6 Speech of Hudson, a Cayuga Chief, to Captain Ourry, in June, 1763. Speech of Tamarois, Chief of the Kaskaskias, to Fraser, in April, 1765. s Speech of the Miamis Indians, of March 30, 1763. 17G3.] PONTIAC'S WAR. 127 A prophetic spirit was introduced among the wigwams. A chief of the Abenakis persuaded first his own tribe, and then the Red Men of the west, that the Great Manitou had appeared to him in a vision, saying " I am the Lord of Life ; it is I who made all men ; I wake for their safety. Therefore, I give you warning, that if you suffer the Englishmen to dwell in your midst, their diseases and their poisons shall destroy you utterly, and you shall die." 1 " The Master of Life himself," said the Potawatomies, " has stirred us up to this war." "The plot was discovered in March by the officer in command at Miami ; 2 and the Bloody Belt, which was then in the village, and was to be sent forward to the tribes on the Wabash, 3 was with great difficulty, " after a long and troublesome " interview, obtained from an assembly of the chiefs of the Miamis. 4 On receiving the news, Amherst, who had not much alertness or sagacity, while he prepared reinforcements, pleased himself with calling the acts of the Indians " unwarrantable ; " hoped they would be " too sensible of their own interest " to conspire against the English ; and declared that if they did, he wished them to know that, in his eyes, they would make "a contemptible figure." " Yes," he repeated, " a contemptible figure." 1 M. de Neyon hM.de Kerlerec, ou Fort de Chartres,le l er De"cembre, 1763. 2 Ensign Holmes, commanding officer at Miamis, to Major Qladwin, dated Fort Miamis, March 30, 1763. 3 Speech of Miamis Chief, March 30, 1763. 4 Holmes to Gladwin, March 30, 1763. 128 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. The mischief would recoil on themselves, and end in their destruction. 1 But Pontiac, the colossal chief of the north-west, " the king and lord of all that country ; " 2 a Catawaba 3 prisoner, as is said, adopted into the clan of the Ottowas, and elected their chief ; 4 respected, and in a manner adored, by all the nations around him ; a man " of integrity and humanity/' 5 according to the morals of the wilderness ; of a comprehensive mind, fertile in resources, and of an undaunted nature, persevered in the design of recovering the land of the Senecas, and all west of it, by a confederacy of insurgent nations. His name still hovers over the north-west, as the hero who devised and conducted their great but unavailing struggle with destiny, for the independence of their race. Of all the inland settlements, Detroit was the largest and the most esteemed. The deep, majestic river, more than half a mile broad, carrying its vast flood calmly and noiselessly between the straight and well-defined banks of its channel, imparted grandeur to a country whose rising grounds and meadows, plains festooned with prolific wild vines, woodlands, brooks, and fountains were so mingled together that nothing was left to 1 Letter of Amherst to Major Gladwin, May, 1763. 2 Rogers, Account of North America. 3 William Smith to H. Gates, November 22, 1763. Gladwin speaks of the Ottawa nation as Pontiac's nation. A less authority than that of Smith might not deserve to be regarded ; but Smith is one of the accurate. 4 Gladwin to Amherst, May 14, 1763. 5 Fraser to Gen. Gage, May 15, 1765. 1763.] PONTIACTS WAR. 129 desire. 1 The climate was mild, and the air salubrious. Good land abounded, yielding maize, wheat, and every vegetable. The forests were a natural park, stocked with buffaloes, deer, quails, partridges, and wild turkeys. Water-fowl of delicious flavour hovered along its streams, which yielded to the angler an astonishing variety of fish, especially the white fish, the richest and most luscious of them all. There every luxury of the table might be enjoyed at the sole expense of labour. 2 The lovely and cheerful region attracted settlers, alike white men and savages : and the French had so occupied the jtwo'banks of the river that their numbers were rated even so high as twenty-five hundred souls, of whom five hundred were men able to bear arms, 3 or as three or four hundred French families; 4 yet an enumeration, in 1764, proved them not numerous, 5 with only men enough to form three companies of militia; 6 and, in 1768, the official census reported but five hundred and seventy -two souls, 7 an account which is in harmony with the best traditions. 8 The French dwelt on farms, which were 1 Charlevoix, vol. iii. p. 256, 4to edit. 2 Mante, pp. 524, 525. 3 Rogers, Account of North America, p. 168 : " When I took possession of the country, soon after the surrender of Canada, they were about 2500 in number, there being near 500 that bore arms, and near 300 dwelling houses." 4 Journal of George Croghan, August 17, 1765 : " The people here consist of three or four hundred French families." Craig's Olden Times, p. 414. s Mante's History of the War in North America, p. 525. Ibid. p. 515. 7 State of the Settlement of Detroit, in Gage to Hillsborough, No. 2, of May 15, 1768 : " Number, of souls, 572 ; cultivated acres, 514^ ; corn pro- duced yearly, 9789 French bushels ; horned cattle, 600 ; hogs, 567." 8 MSS. in my possession, containing the Recollections of Madame Catharine VOL. IL K 130 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. about three or four acres wide upon the river, and eighty acres deep ; indolent in the midst of plenty, graziers as well as tillers of the soil, and enriched by Indian traffic. The English fort, of which Gladwin was the com- mander, was a large stockade, about twenty feet high, and twelve hundred yards in circumference, 1 inclosing, perhaps, eighty houses. 2 It stood within the limits of the present city, on the river-bank, commanding a wide prospect for nine miles above and below. 3 The garrison was composed of the shattered remains of the eightieth regiment, 4 reduced to about one hundred and twenty men and eight officers. 5 Two armed vessels lay in the river ; 6 of artillery, there were but two six-pounders, one three-pounder, and three mortars, so badly mounted as to be of no use, except to inspire terror. 7 The nation of the Potawatomics dwelt at about a mile below the fort ; the Wyandots a little lower down, on the eastern side of the strait ; and five miles higher up, but on the same eastern side, the Ottawas. On the first day of May, Pontiac entered the fort Thibeau : " About sixty French families in all, when the English took posses- sion of the country ; not more than eighty men at the time ; very few farms, not more than seven or eight farms settled." Memory is here below the truth. It usually exceeds. 1 Rogers, Concise Account, p. 168. 2 Croghan's Journ. in Craig, vol. i. p. 414. 3 Ibid. 4 Mante's History, p. 485. 5 Cass, Discourse before the Michigan Historical Society, from an ancient Diary. Carver (p. 155) says 300. 6 Weyman's New York Gazette, July 11, 1763. 7 Cass, Discourse, &c. &c. 1763.] PONTIAC'S WAR 131 with about fifty l of his warriors, announcing his purpose in a few days to pay a more formal visit. He appeared on the 7th, with about three hundred warriors, armed with knives, tomahawks, and guns, cut short and hid under their blankets. 2 He was to sit down in council, and when he should rise, was to speak with a belt white on one side and green on the other ; 3 and turning the belt was to be the signal for beginning a general massacre. But luckily Gladwin had the night before been informed of his coming, 4 and took such precautions that the interview passed off without results. :, Pontiac was allowed, perhaps unwisely, to escape. On the morning of the same day, an English party who were sounding the entrance of Lake Huron were seized and murdered. 5 On the 8th, 6 Pontiac appeared once more with a pipe of peace, proposing to come the next day, with the whole Ottawa nation to renew his friendship. But on the afternoon of the 9th, he struck his tent, began hostilities, and strictly beleaguered the garrison, which had not on hand provisions enough for three weeks. " The first man that shall bring them 1 Major Gladwin to Sir J. Amheret, May 14, 1763, enclosure No. 9 in Amheret to Egremont, June 27, 1768. - Ibid. 3 Mante's History of the War, p. 486. 4 The lover of the romantic may follow Carver, pp. 155, 156, or the improve- ments upon his story, made by tradition, till the safety of the fort became a tale of love on the part of a Chippewa girl for Gladwin, the commander. Gladwin simply says, " I was luckily informed the night before that he was coming," Sic. ' Amherst to Gladwin. 8 Weyman's New York Gazette, July 11, 1763, No. 239, 3, 1. Gladwin to Ainherst. K 2 132 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. provisions, or anything else, shall suffer death." Such was Pontiac's proclamation of the blockade of Detroit. On the 10th there was a parley, and the garrison was summoned to capitulate to the Red Men as the French had done to the English. Not till after Gladwin had obtained the needed supplies did he break off the treaty, and bid the enemy defiance, 1 yet leaving in their hands the unhappy officer who had conducted the parley. The garrison was in high spirits, though consisting of no more than one hundred and twenty men, 2 against six or seven hundred besiegers. 3 And now ensued an unheard of phenomenon. The rovers of the wilderness, though unused to enterprises requiring time and assiduity, blockaded the place closely. The French inhabitants were divided in their sympa- thies. Pontiac made one of them his secretary, 4 and supplied his wants by requisitions upon them all. Emissaries were sent even to Illinois to ask for an officer who should assume the conduct of the siege, 5 The savages of the west took part in the general hatred of the English, and would not be reconciled to their dominion. " Be of good cheer, my fathers ; " such were the words of one tribe after another to the commander 1 Gladwin to Arnherst, May 14, 1763. Letter from Detroit of July 9, 1763, in Weyman's New York Gazette of August 15, 1763. 2 Weyman's New York Gazette, August 15, 1763. 3 Gladwin to Amherst : " I believe the enemy may amount to six or seven hundred." His own number he does not give. 4 Maute, History, &c., p. 486. 5 See the N.B. to the account of the loss of the post of Miamis. 1763.] PONTIAC'S WAR. 133 at Fort Cliartres ; " do not desert thy children : the English shall never come here so long as a Red Man lives." "Our hearts," they repeated, "are with the French ; we hate the English, and wish to kill them all. We are all united : the war is our war, and we will continue it for seven years. The English shall never come into the west." ! But the French officers in Illinois, though their efforts were for a long time una- vailing, sincerely desired to execute the treaty of Paris with loyalty. On the 16th of May, a party of Indians appeared 'at the gate of the fort of Sandusky. Ensign Paulli, the commander, ordered seven of them four Hurons and three Ottawas to be admitted as old acquaintances and friends. They sat smoking, till one of them raised his head as a signal, on which the two that were next Paulli seized and tied him fast without uttering a word. As they carried him out of the room, he saw the dead body of his sentry. The rest of the garrison lay one here and one there ; the sergeant in his garden, where he had been planting all massacred. The traders, also, were killed, and their stores plundered. Paulli was taken as a trophy to Detroit. 2 At the mouth of the St. Joseph's the Jesuit mission- aries, for nearly sixty years, had toiled among the heathen, till, at the conquest of Canada, they made way 1 Neyon to Kerlerec, December 1, 1763. 2 Particulars regarding the loss of Sanclusky, as furnished by Ensign Paulli after his escape, in the abstract mado by General Gage. 134 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. for an English ensign, a garrison of fourteen soldiers, and English traders, stationed on a spot more than a thousand miles from the sea, and inaccessible except by canoes or boats round the promontory of Michigan. On the morning of the 25th of May, a party of Potawatomies from Detroit appeared near the fort. " We are come," said they, " to see our relatives and wish the garrison a good morning." A cry was sud- denly heard in the barracks ; " in about two minutes," Schlosser, the commanding officer, was seized, and all the garrison, excepting three men, 1 were massacred. 2 Fort Pitt was the most important station west of the Alleghanies. Twenty boats 3 had already been launched upon the Ohio, to bear the English in triumph to the country of the Illinois. For three or four weeks bands of Mingoes and Delawares had been seen hovering round the place. On the 27th of May, these bitterest enemies of the English exchanged with English traders three hundred pounds' worth of skins for powder and lead, and then suddenly went away, as if to inter- cept any attempt to descend the river. On the same day, an hour before midnight, the chiefs of the Delawares having received intelligence from the west, sent their 1 The number of the garrison appears from Edward Jenkins to Major Gladwin, June 1, 1763 : Eleven men killed, and three taken prisoners with the officer.'' - Particulars regarding the loss of St. Joseph's. &o. : " They massacred all the garrison, except three men, in about two minutes, and plundered the fort." 3 Captain Ecuycr, commanding officer at Fort Pitt, to Colonel Bouquet, at Philadelphia. Fort Pitt, Mav 20, 17U3. 17(53.] PONTIAC'S WAR. 135 message to Fort Pitt, recounting the attacks on the English posts. " We are sure," they added, giving their first summons, " a party is coming to cut you and your people off ; make the best of your way to some place of safety, as we would not desire to see you killed in our town. What goods and other effects you have, we assure you we will take care of, and keep them safe." > The next day Indians massacred and scalped a whole family, 2 sparing neither woman nor child, and left behind them a tomahawk, 3 as their declaration of war. Fort Ligonier was threatened, and the passes to the eastward were so watched, that it was very difficult to keep up any intercourse while the woods resounded with the wild death-halloos, 4 which announced successive murders. Near Fort Wayne, just where the great canal which unites the waters of Lake Erie and the Wabash, leaves the waters of the Maumee, stood Fort Miami, garrisoned also by an ensign and a few soldiers. Those who were on the lakes saw at least the water-course which would take them to Niagara. Fort Miami was deep in the 1 Intelligence delivered, with a string of wampum, by King Beaver, with Shingas, Weindohela, &c. &c., Delaware Chiefs, at Tuskarawa's, May 27, 1763, 11 o'clock at night. Bouquet to Amherst, June 10, 1763. Amherst to Secre- tary of State, June 27, 1763. 3 Ecuyer to Bouquet, May 29, 1763. Letter from Fort Pitt, of Juue 2, in Wcyuian's New York Gazette, June 20, 1763. Ecuyer'e Message to the Chiefs of the Datawares. 3 Ecuyer to Bouquet, May 30, 1763. 4 Declaration of Daniel Collet, horse driver, May 30, 1763. 136 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. forest, out of sight and hearing of civilised man. On the 27th of May, Holmes, its commander, was informed that the fort at Detroit had been attacked, and put his men on their guard ; but an Indian woman came to him, saying that the squaw in a cabin, but three hundred yards off, was ill, and wished him to bleed her. He went on the errand of mercy, and two shots that were heard told how he fell. The sergeant following, was taken prisoner ; and the soldiers, nine only in number, and left without a commander, capitulated. l On the 30th of May the besieged garrison of Detroit caught a hope of relief, as they saw a fleet of boats sweeping round the point. They flocked to the bastions to welcome their friends ; but the death-cry of the Indians announced that the English party, sent from Niagara to reinforce Detroit, had, two nights previously, just before midnight, been attacked in their camp, on the beach, near the mouth of Detroit river, and utterly defeated, a part turning back to Niagara, the larger part falling into the hands of the savages. 2 At eight o'clock in the night of the last day of May, the war belt reached the Indian village near Fort Ouatanon, just below Lafayette, in Indiana ; the next morning the commander was lured into an Indian cabin 1 Account of the Loss of the Post of Miamis, by a soldier of the 60th Regiment, who was one of the garrison. 2 Lieutenant Cuyler's Report of his being attacked and routed by a party of Indians on Lake Erie. Major Wilkins to Sir Jeffery Amherst, Niagara, June 6, 1763. 1763.] PONTIACTS WAR. 137 and bound, and his garrison surrendered. The French, moving the victors to clemency by gifts of wampum, 1 received the prisoners into their houses. At Michilimackinac, a spot of two acres on the main land, west of the strait, was inclosed with pickets, and gave room for the cabins of a few traders, and a fort with a garrison of about forty 2 souls. Savages had arrived near it, as if to trade and beg for presents. From day to day, the Chippewas, who dwelt in a plain near the fort, assembled to play ball. On the 2nd day of June, 3 they again engaged in the game, which is the most exciting sport of the Red Men. Each one has a bat curved like a crozier, and ending in a racket. Posts are planted apart on the open prairie. At the beginning of the game, the ball is placed midway between the goals. The eyes of the players flash ; their cheeks glow ; their whole nature kindles. A blow is struck ; all crowd with violence and merry yells to renew it ; the fleetest in advance now driving the ball home, now 1 Lieutenant Jenkins to Major Glad win, Ouatanon, June 1, 1763. 3 Captain Etherington to Major Glad win, Michilimackinac, June 12, 1763. Etherington'a account, contemporary and official, reports but thirty-five privates. 3 " Yet, on the 2nd instant." Captain Etherington. Henry's Travels aud Adventures in Canada and the Indian Territories, between the years 1760 and 1776. The author in his old age prepared this interesting work for press, and gave it to the public in October, 1809. He makes the garrison consist of ninety ; he gives the game of ball as on the King's birth-day, and makes it a trial of skill between the Sacs and Chippewas. These incidents heighten the romance of the story ; but I think it better " to stoop to truth," and follow the authentic contemporary account. The letter of Etherington, as published in Parkinan's Pontiac War, p. 596, reads, " Yet, on the 4th instant" 138 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. sending it sideways, with one unceasing passionate pursuit. On that day the squaws entered the fort, and remained there. Etherington, the commander, with one of his lieutenants, stood outside of the gate watching the game, fearing nothing. The Indians had played from morning till noon ; when, throwing the ball close to the gate, they came behind the two officers, and seized and carried them into the woods ; while the rest rushed into the fort, snatched their hatchets, which their squaws had kept hidden under their blankets, and in an instant killed an officer, a trader, and fifteen men. The rest of the garrison, and all the English traders, were made prisoners, and robbed of everything they had ; but the French traders were left at liberty and unharmed. Thus fell the old post of Mackinaw on the main. The fort at Presqu' Isle, now Erie, was the point of communication between Pittsburg and Niagara and Detroit. It was in itself one of the most tenable, and had a garrison of four and twenty men, 1 and could most easily be relieved. On the 22nd of June, after a two days' defence, the commander, out of his senses 2 with terror, capitulated ; 3 giving up the sole chance of saving his men from the scalping-knife. 4 He himself, " I left Ensign Christy six men to strengthen his party, as he had but eighteen men." Lieut. Cuyler's Report, &c., Juno 6, 1763. " I am surprised any officer iu his senses would enter into terms with such barbarians." Amherst to Bouquet, July 7, 1763. :i Particulars regarding the Loss of the Post at Presqu' Isle. See also the account of the soldier, Benjamin Grey, in Ecuyer to Bouquet, June 26, 1763. 4 Mante's History of the War, p. 483. 1763.] PONTIAC'S WAR. 139 with a few others, were carried in triumph by the Indians to Detroit. 1 The capitulation at Erie left Le Bceuf without hope. Attacked on the 18th, its gallant officer kept oft' the enemy till midnight. The Indians then succeeded in setting the blockhouse on fire ; but he escaped secretly, with his garrison, into the woods, 2 while the enemy believed them all buried in the flames. 3 As the fugitives, on their way to Fort Pitt, passed Venango, they saw nothing but ruins. The fort at that place was consumed, never to be rebuilt ; and not one "of its garrison was left alive to tell the story of its destruction. 4 Nor was it the garrisoned stockades only that encountered the fury of the savages. They roamed the wilderness, massacring all whom they met. They struck down more than a hundred 5 traders in the woods, scalping every one of them ; quaffing their gushing life-blood, horribly mutilating their bodies. They prowled round the cabins of the husbandmen on the frontier ; and their tomahawks struck alike the labourer in the field or the child in the cradle. They menaced Fort Ligonier, at the western foot of the 1 Particulars regarding the Loss of the Post at Presqu' Isle. s Ensign Price to Colonel Bouquet, June 26, 1763. 3 Weyman's New York Gazette, July 11, 239, 3, 1. 4 Captain Ecuyer to Colonel Bouquet, Fort Pitt, June 26, 1763. Ensign Price to Bouquet, June 26, 1 763. 5 Letter from Fort Pitt of June 16, 1763, in Weyman's New York Gazette, July 4, 1703, No. 238, 3, 2. 140 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Alleghanies, the out-post of Fort Pitt. They passed the mountains, and spread death even to Bedford. The unhappy emigrant knew not if to brave danger, or to leave his home and his planted fields, for wretchedness and poverty. Nearly five hundred families, from the frontiers of Maryland and Virginia, fled to Winchester, unable to find so much as a hovel to shelter them from the weather, bare of every comfort, and forced to lie scattered among the woods. 1 To the horrors of Indian warfare were added new dangers to colonial liberty. In Virginia nearly a thousand volunteers, at the call of the Lieutenant Governor, hastened to Fort Cumberland and to the borders; and the Lieutenant Governor of Maryland was able to offer aid. 2 The undecided strife between the proprietaries and the assembly of Pennsylvania checked the activity of that province. Its legislature sanctioned the equipment of seven hundred men, but refused to place them under the orders of the British general. Its design was rather to arm and pay the farmers and reapers on the frontier as a resident force for the protection of the country. This policy from which it would not swerve, excited the utmost anger in the officers of the army. 3 1 Letter from Winchester of June 22, 1763, in Weyman, No. 238, 3, 2, of July 4, 1763. Correspondence of Lieut. Governor Fauquier of Virginia with the Board of Trade. * Amherst to Bouquet, August 25, 1763. 3 Lieut. Governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, to Gen. Amherst, July 7, 1763. Amherst to Hamilton in reply, July 9, 1763. Hamilton to Amherst, July 11. Amherst to Hamilton, July 16. Lieut. Colonel Robertson's Report on his return from Philadelphia. 1763.] PON-HAG'S WAR. 141 Their invectives l against Pennsylvania brought upon it once more the censure of the King 2 for its " supine and neglectful conduct;" but the censure was no longer addressed to its government ; for the ministry was firm in the purpose of keeping up an army in America, and substituting taxes by parliament for requisitions by the crown. So the general, with little aid from Pennsylvania, took measures for the relief of the west. The fortifi- cations of Fort Pitt had never been finished, and the floods had opened it on three sides. But the brave Ecuyer, its commander, without any engineer, or any artificers but a few shipwrights, raised a rampart of logs round the fort, above the old one, palisaded the interior of the area, constructed a fire-engine, and in short took all precautions which art and judgment could suggest for the preservation of his post. 3 The garrison consisted of three hundred and thirty men, 4 officers and all included, and was in no immediate danger ; 5 but it was weakened by being the asylum of more than two hundred women and children. 6 1 Amherst to Bouquet, June 6, 1763: "I wish the Assembly would as effectually lend their assistance ; but as I have no sort of dependence on them," &c., &c. Compare Bouquet to Amherst, August 11, 1763 : " Had the Provinces assisted us, this would have been the favourable moment to have crushed the barbarians a service we cannot effect with our forces alona" 2 Secretary of State to Amherst, October, 1763. 3 Col. Bouquet to Sir Jeffery Amherst, August 11, 1763. 4 Capt. Ecuyer to Col. Bouquet, June 26, 1763. s CoL Bouquet to Gen. Amherst, July 3, 1763. Ecnyer to Bouquet, June 26, 1763. 142 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1703. On the 21st of June, a large party of Indians made a vigorous though fruitless assault on Fort Ligonier; 1 & o the next day, before the issue of this attempt could have been heard, other savages appeared on the clear ground before Fort Pitt, and attacked it on every side, killing one man and wounding another. The night of the 23rd, they strolled round the fort to reconnoitre it, and after midnight sought a conference. 2 "Brother, the commanding officer," said Turtle's Heart, a principal warrior of the Dela wares, " all your posts and strong places, from this backwards, are burnt and cut off. Your fort, fifty miles down (meaning Ligonier), is likewise destroyed before now. This is the only one you have left in our country. We have prevailed with six different nations of Indians, that are ready to attack you, to forbear till we came and warned you to go home. They have further agreed to permit you and your people to pass safe to the inhabitants. Therefore, brother, we desire that you may set off to-morrow, as great numbers of Indians are coming here, and after two days we shall not be able to do any thing with them for you." 3 The brave commander, in his reply to the second summons, warned the Indians of their danger from 1 Lieutenant Blane to Col. Bouquet, Ligonier, June 28, 1763. 2 Ecuyer to Bouquet, June 26, 1703. 3 Speech of the Turtle's Heart, a principal warrior of the Delaware*, to Captain Ecuyer, June 24, 1763, at nine in the morning 1763.] PONTIAC'S WAR 143 three English armies, on their march to the frontier of Virginia, to Fort Pitt, and to the north-west. l A schooner, with a reinforcement of sixty men, had reached the Detroit in June ; at daybreak on the 29th of July the garrison was surprised 2 by the appearance of Dalyell, an aide-de-camp to Amherst, with a detachment of two hundred and sixty men. 3 They had entered the river in the evening, and came up under cover of the night, or so small a command would have been intercepted, for the enemy were numerous, brave, and fiill of confidence from success. At once, after but one day's rest, Dalyell proposed a midnight sally against the besiegers. He was warned that they were on their guard ; but the opinions and express instructions of Amherst were on his side. " The enemy," said he, " may be surprised in their camp and driven out of the settlement." Gladwin ex- pressed a very different judgment. " You may do as you please," said Dalyell, " but there is no difficulty in giving the enemy an irrecoverable blow." 4 Gladwin reluctantly yielded, and, half an hour before three o'clock on the last morning of July, Dalyell marched out with two hundred and forty-seven chosen men, 1 Answer of S. Ecuyer, Captain commanding. 2 Major Gladwin to Sir J. Amheret, Detroit, August 18, 1763. 3 Dalyell to Amheret, July 15, 1763, quoted in Amherst to Gladwin, August 10, 1763. 4 Detail of the action of July 31, 1763, commanded by Captain Dalyell, against the Indian nations, near Fort Detroit, enclosed in Gladwin to Amherst, August 8, 1763. 144 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. while two boats followed along the shore to protect the party and bring off the wounded and dead. They proceeded in double file, along the great road by the river side, for a mile and a half; then forming into platoons, they advanced a half mile further, when they suddenly received, from the breastworks of the Indians, a verv heavy and destructive fire, which staggered the main body, and put the whole into confusion. As the savages outnumbered the English, the party which made the sally could escape, being surrounded only by an inglorious retreat. Twenty of the English were killed, and forty-two wounded ; leaving to a peaceful rivulet the name of The Bloody Run, in memory of that day. Dalyell himself fell while attempting to bring off the wounded ; l his body remained to the victors ; his scalp became one more ornament to the Red Man's wigwam. The victory encouraged the confederates. The wavering began to fear no longer to be found on the side of Pontiac ; two hundred recruits joined his forces, and the siege of Detroit was continued by bands exceeding a thousand men. 2 The vigour and courage that pervaded the whole wilderness was without example. Once more the Delawares gathered around Fort Pitt, accompanied by the Shawnees. The chiefs, in the name of their tribes 1 Amherst to Secretary of State, September 3, 1763. 2 Major Gladwin to Amherst, Detroit, August 11, 1763. 1763.] PONTIAC'S WAR. 145 and of the north-western Indians, for a third time, summoned the garrison to retire. "You sent us word," said they, " that you were not to be removed. Brothers, you have towns and places of your own. You know this is our country, and that your having possession of it must be offensive to all nations. You yourselves are the people that have disturbed the chain of friendship. You have nobody to blame but yourselves for what has happened. All the nations over the lakes are soon to be on their way to the Forks of the Ohio. Here is the wampum. If you return quietly home to your wise men, this is the furthest they will go. If not, see what will be the consequence ; so we desire that you do remove off." l The next day Ecuyer gave his answer. " You suffered the French," said he, " to settle in the heart of your country ; why would you turn us out of it now ? I will not abandon this post ; I have warriors, provi- sions, and ammunition in plenty to defend it three years against all the Indians in the woods. Go home to your towns, and take care of your women and children." 2 No sooner was this answer received than the united forces of the Delawares, Shawnees, Wyandots, and Mingoes closely beset and attacked the fort. With 1 Speech of Shingas, with the principal warriors of the Delawares, and Big Wolf, with Shawnees, to Captain Ecuyer, July 26, 1763. 2 Captain Ecuyer's Answer, July 27, 1763. 146 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. incredible boldness they took post under the banks of both rivers, close to the fort, where, digging holes, they kept up an incessant discharge of musketry, and threw fire arrows. They were good marksmen, and, though the English were under cover, they killed one and wounded seven. Ecuyer himself was struck on the leg by an arrow. 1 This continued through the last day of July, when they vanished from sight. Bouquet was at that time making his way to relieve Fort Pitt and reinforce Detroit. His little army consisted chiefly of the remains of two regiments of Highlanders, 2 who, having been wasted by the enfee- bling service of the West Indies, were now to brave the danger of mountain passes and a slow and painful journey through the wilderness. He moved onwards with but about five hundred men, driving a hundred beeves and twice that number of sheep, with powder, flour, and provisions on pack-horses and in wagons drawn by oxen. Between Carlisle and Bedford they passed the ruins of mills, deserted cabins, fields waving with the harvest, but without a reaper, and all the signs of a savage and ruthless enemy. On the 28th of July the party left Bedford, to wind its way, under the parching suns of midsummer, over 1 Col. Bouquet to Aruherst, August 11, 1763. Weyman's New York Gazette, August 29, 1763, No. 246, 2, 3. " I have therefore ordered the remains of the 42nd and 77th regiments, the first consisting of 214 men, including officers, and the latter of 133, officers included, which will march this evening." Aruherst to Bouquet, June 23, 1763. 1763.] PONTIACrS WAR 147 the Alleghanies, along the narrow road, which was walled in by the dense forest on either side. On the 2nd of August the troops and convoy arrived at Ligonier, but the commander could give no intelli- gence of the enemy. All the expresses for the previous month had been killed or forced to return. Leaving the wagons at Ligonier, Bouquet, on the 4th of August, proceeded with the troops and about three hundred and fifty pack-horses. At one o'clock on the 5th, the savages, who had been besieging Fort Pitt, suddenly attacked the advanced guard ; but two -companies of Highlanders drove them from their ambus- cade. When the pursuit ceased, the savages returned. The western nations, as if at the crisis of their destiny, fought like men contending for their homes, and forests, and hunting-grounds, and all that they loved most. Again the Highlanders charged with fixed bayonets ; but as soon as the savages were driven from one post, they appeared in another, and at last were in such numbers as to surround the English, who would have been utterly routed and cut to pieces but for the cool behaviour of the troops and the excellent conduct of the officers. 1 Night intervened, during which the English remained on Edge Hill, a ridge a mile to the east of Bushy Run, commodious for a camp except for the total want of water. All that night hope cheered the Red Man. Morning 1 Col. Bouquet to Sir Jeffery Amherst : Camp at Edge Hill, August 5, 1763. L 2 148 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. dawned only to show the English party that they were leaguered round on every side. They could not advance to give battle; for then their convoy and their wounded men would have fallen a prey to the enemy : if they remained quiet, they would be picked off one by one, and crumble away miserably and unavenged ; yet the savages pressed upon them furiously, and grew more and more audacious. With happy sagacity, Bouquet took advantage of their resolute intrepidity, and feigned a retreat. The Red Men hurried to charge with the utmost daring, when two companies that had been purposely concealed, fell upon their flank ; others turned and met them in front ; and the Indians, yielding to the irresistible shock, were utterly routed and put to flight. But Bouquet in the two actions lost, in killed and wounded, about one-fourth of his men, 1 and almost all his horses ; so that he was obliged to destroy his stores, and was hardly able to carry his wounded. That night the English encamped at Bushy Run, and in four days more they arrived .at Pittsburg. From that hour the Ohio valley remained securely to the white man. Before the news of the last disaster could reach New York, the anger of Amherst against " the bloody villains " knew no bounds ; and he became himself a 1 Return of killed and wounrled in the two actions at Edge Hill, near Bushy Run, the 5th and 6th August, 1763 : total killed, 50; wounded, 60 ; missing, 5. Total of the whole, 115. 1763.] PONTIAC'S WAR 149 man of blood. " As to accommodatiou with the savages, I will have none," said he, "until they have felt our just revenge. I would have every measure that can be fallen upon for their destruction taken." Pontiac he declared to be "the chief ringleader of mischief." " Whoever kills Pontiac," he continued, " shall receive from me a reward of one hundred pounds ; " ! and he bade the commander at Detroit make public procla- mation for an assassin. He deemed the Indians not only unfit to be allies, and unworthy of being respected as enemies, " but as the vilest race of beings that ever infested the earth, and whose riddance from it must be esteemed a meritorious act, for the good of mankind. You will, therefore," such were his instructions to the officers engaged in the war, " take no prisoners, but put to death all that fall into your hands." 2 Had this spirit prevailed, the war would have for ever continued in an endless series of alternate murders, 1 Sir J. Amheret to Major Qladwin, August 10, 1763 : " You will make known to the troops under your command, that whoever kills Pontiac, who seems to have been the chief ringleader of the mischief, shall receive from me a reward of one hundred pounds." '-' Sir Jeffery Amherst's instructions to Captain Lieutenant Gardiner, to be shown to Major Glad win, &c. New York, August 10, 1763: "The Senecas, .... with all the other nations on the lakes, .... must be deemed our enemies, and used as such ; not as a generous enemy, but as the vilest race of beings that ever infested the earth, and whose riddance from it must be esteemed a meritorious act, for the good of mankind. You will, therefore, take no prisoners, but put to death all that fall into your hands of the nations who have so unjustly and cruelly committed depredations. .... I have thought proper to promise a reward of one hundred pounds to the man who shall kill Pontiac, the chief of the Ottawas a cowardly villain," Ac. Ac. Signed, Jeff. Amhcrst. 150 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. in which the more experienced Indian excelled the white man. The Senecas, against whom Amherst had specially directed unsparing hostilities, lay in ambush for one of his convoys about three miles below Niagara Falls ; and on its return down the carrying-place, fell upon it with such suddenness and vigour, that but eight wounded men escaped with their lives, while seventy- two were victims to the scalping-knife. 1 The first effective measures towards a general pacification proceeded from the French in Illinois. De Neyon, the French officer at Fort Chartres, sent belts and messages, and peace-pipes to all parts of the continent, exhorting the many nations of savages to bury the hatchet, and take the English by the hand for they would never see him more. 2 1 Return of the killed, wounded, and missing in the action on the carrying place at Niagara, Sept. 14, 1763. 2 Neyon et Bobe" a Kerlerec, Dec. 1763. Neyon a Kerlerec, Dec. 1, 1763. CHAPTER VIII. THE TREASURY ENTER A MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX MINISTRY OF GRENVILLE AND BEDFORD. MAY SEPTEMBER, 1763. THE savage warfare was relentlessly raging when the young statesman to whom the forms of office had referred the subject of the colonies, was devising plans for organising governments in the newly acquired territories. Of an Irish family, and an Irish as well as an English peer, Shelburne naturally inclined to limit the legislative authority of the Parliament of Great Britain over the outlying dominions of the crown. The world already gave him credit for great abilities ; he had just been proposed to supersede Egremont in the department of state, and, except the lawyers who had been raised to the peerage, he was the best speaker in the House of Lords. For a moment the destinies of America hung upon his judgment. For the eastern boundary of New England, Shelburne hesitated between the PenoTbscot and the 152 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. St. Croix ; on the north-east he adopted the crest of the water-shed dividing the streams tributary to the St. Lawrence river from those flowing into the Bay of Fundy, or the Atlantic Ocean, or the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, south of Cape Rosieres, designating the line with precision on a map, which is still preserved. 1 At the south, the boundary of Georgia was extended to its present line. Of Canada, General Murray advised 2 to make it a military colony, and to include the west within its jurisdiction, in order to overawe the older colonies and keep them in fear and submission. Against this project Shelburne advised to restrict 3 the government of Canada within narrower limits, and to bound it on the west by a line drawn from the intersection of the parallel of forty-five degrees north with the St. Lawrence to the east end of Lake Nipising. This advice was promptly rejected by the imperative Earl of Egremont, 4 who insisted on including in the new province all the great lakes and all the Ohio valley to the Mississippi ; but Shelburne 5 resolutely enforced his opinion, which, for the time, prevailed, 6 and the plan of " With regard to the limits of these governments, as described in the request, and marked out in the chart thereunto annexed," &c. Earl of Egre- mont to the Board of Trade, July 14, 1763 (E. and A., 278). General Murray's opinion, given by himself to Frances, as contained in M. Frances au Due de Choiseul, a Londres, le 2 Septembre, 1768. 3 Lords of Trade to the Secretary of State, June 8, 1763. 1 Secretary of State to Lords of Trade, July 14, 1763. 5 Lords of Trade to the Secretary of State, August 5, 1763. 6 Secretary of State to the Lords of Trade, September 1(, 1763: "His 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 153 intimidating America by a military colony at its north and west was deferred. With regard to " the mode of revenue least burthen- some and most palatable to the colonies, whereby they were to contribute to the additional expense which must attend the civil and military establishments adopted on the present occasion," Shelburne gave warning that it was a " point of the highest importance/' l and declined to implicate himself in the plans for taxing America. 2 This refusal on the part of Shelburne neither dimi- nished the stubborn eagerness of Egremont nor delayed the action of the Treasury department ; and, as it had been decided that America was to be taxed by Par- liament to defray the additional expense of its military establishment, it belonged to Jenkinson, the principal Secretary of the Treasury, from the nature of his office, to prepare the business for consideration. 3 Grenville would have esteemed himself unpardonable if he could Majesty is pleased to lay aside the idea of including within the government of Canada the lands which are to be reserved, for the present, for the use of the Indians." 1 Lords of Trade to Egremont, June 8 (E. and A., 275), 1763. 2 Grenville Diary, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 1763; Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 238 : " He (Henley) told him (G. G.) that the King had told his Lordship, in the summer, that upon occasion of some disputes between Lord Egremont and Lord Shelburne, relating to the Board of Trade, Lord Mansfield had given it as his advice to his Majesty, to show favour to Lord Shelburne, in order to play them one against the other, and by that means to keep the power in his own hands." This, as far as it proves anything, tends to show that the King was not the author of the high American measures, though he approved them and wished them to be adopted. 3 See the note to Grenville Papers, by their editor, vol. ii. p. 373, and com- pare Jenkinson to Grenville, July 2, 1764. 154 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. have even thought of such a measure as the Stamp Act, without previously making every possible inquiry into the condition of America. l In addition to the numerous public reports and correspondence, information was sought from men who were esteemed in England as worthy of trust in all situations, and the exaggerated accounts given by the officers who had been employed in America dispelled every doubt of its ability to bear a part in the national expenses. 2 Halifax, one of the triumvirate, had had the experience of nine years in administering the affairs of the colonies, and for nearly as long had been fixed in his opinions, that Parliament must intervene to raise a revenue. Egremont, his colleague, selected, as his confidential friend, Ellis, a favourite of Halifax, 3 and for several years Governor of Georgia ; a statesman and man of letters, esteemed as one of the ablest men that had been employed in America, of whose interest he made pretensions to a 1 G. Grenville, in Cavendish, vol. i. p. 494, Debate of March 5, 1770: "I should have been unpardonable, if I had thought of such a measure (as the Stamp Act) without having previously made every possible inquiry into the condition of America. Sir, I had information from men of the first respecta- bility, of the first trust ; men who, in all situations, and upon every occasion, are worthy of credit." ~ Reed's Reed, vol. i. p. 32. 3 William Knox, Extra-Official Papers : " The newly appointed governor, my earliest and most intimate friend, Mr. Ellis, a gentleman whose transcendent talents had then (1756) raised him to that high office, and afterwards made him the confidential friend of the Earl of Egrernont, when Secretary of State." This is in harmony with the letter of Joseph Reed to Charles Pettit: " London, June 11, 1764. Ellis, late Governor of Georgia, has had no small share in the late events." Reed's Reed, vol. i. pp. 32, 33. Add to this, that, immediately on the peace in 1762, Knox, who looked up to Ellis, put into Bute's hands a plan for reducing America. 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 155 thorough knowledge. He had no small share in intro- ducing the new system, and bore away sinecure offices for his reward. M'Culloh, a crown officer in North Carolina, and agent for an English company concerned in a purchase of more than a million acres of land in that province, a man who had influence enough to gain an office from the crown for his son, with seats in the council for his son and nephew, furnished Jenkinson with a brief state of the taxes usually raised in the old settled colonies, and assured him that a stamp tax on the continental colonies would, at a moderate computation, produce sixty thousand pounds per annum, and twice that sum if extended to the West Indies. * He also renewed the 1 Henry M'Culloh to Charles Jenkinson, Turnham Green, July 5, 1763, in a note of the editor of the Qrenville Papers, vol. ii, p. 374 : Henry M'Culloh had for many years been a speculator in land in North Carolina, and acted as the land agent of George A. Selwyn as well as others. He obtained a patent for 1,200,000 acres in the time of George II. for himself and his associates. At the time of his correspondence with Jenkinson, in 1763, he appears to have been a Crown officer, probably in the revenue department, as may be inferred from one of his own letters respecting " arrears of salary." [Henry M'Culloh to Secretary of Board of Trade, June 2, 1764.] He was not at that time, nor was he himself ever, agent for North Carolina. His son, Henry Eustace M'Culloh, like his father, a zealous royalist, was collector of the port of Roanoke, as well as a member of the Council of North Carolina. [Tryon to Board of Trade, April 28, 1767. Board of Trade, N. C., voL xv.] On the 2nd of December, 1768, H. E. M'Culloh was appointed agent to the province of North Carolina by the Assembly [see America and West Indies, voL cxcviii], but the resolve, to which Governor Tryon had no objection, dropped in the Council. [Tryon to Hillsborough, Feb. 25, 1769.] He therefore acted for a time as agent of the Assembly. [Henry Eustace M'Culloh to Hillsborough, June 5, 1768.] In the session of 1769, he was appointed agent for the pro- vince of North Carolina by an act of the Legislature. [Nov. 27, 1769, Carolina Acts, 351.] This appointment was renewed Dec. 2, 1771. Henry M'Culloh, 156 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. proposition which he had made eight years before to Halifax, for gaining an imperial revenue by issuing exchequer bills for the general use of America. But before the bill for the American tax was ordered to be prepared, Egremont was no longer Secretary of State, nor Shelburne at the head of the Board of Trade. The triumvirate Ministry, " the three Horatii," " the Ministerial Cerberus/' l as they were called, although too fond of office to perceive their own weakness, had neither popularity, nor weight in Parliament, nor the favour of the Court. To strengthen his government, the King, conforming to the views sketched by Bute in the previous April, 2 but against the positive and repeated advice 3 of his three ministers, directed Egremont to the father, died at a great age, in 1779. [Letter from D. L. Swain, late Governor of North Carolina.] Alexander M'Culloh, the nephew of Henry, became also a member of the Council of North Carolina. On reading the note in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. pp. 373, 374, 1 made inquiries respecting Henry M'Culloh. The records of North Carolina, at Raleigh, have been thoroughly searched on the occasion, as well as the papers of the Board of Trade. For the honour of precedence, in favouring the second proposal of M'Culloh, we shall by and by see Charles Townshend, in the House of Commons, dis- pute with Grenville. I attribute to M'Culloh no other influence in these affairs than that of a convenient subordinate, courting his superiors by serving their views. Grenville says of himself, "that he made every possible inquiry into the condition of America." But it does not appear from the note of the editor of the Grenville Papers, whether the communication from Henry M'Culloh was volunteered or prepared at the request of Jenkinson. 1 Wilkes to Temple, July 26. Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 81. 2 Bute to Bedford, April 2, 1763 : " I once gone, it will be very hard for me to believe that the Duke of Newcastle will, with Lord Hardwicke, &c., continue a violent or peevish opposition," &c. &c. Bedford Cor. vol. iii. p. 226. 3 Grenville's Diary, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 191. 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 157 invite Lord Hardwicke to enter the cabinet, as President of the Council. " It is impossible for me," said Hardwicke, at an interview on the first day of August, 1 " to accept an employment, whilst all my friends are out of Court." a " The King," said Egremont, " cannot bring himself to submit to take in a party in gross, or an opposition party." " A King of England," answered Hardwicke, " at the head of a popular government, especially as of late the popular scale has grown heavier, will sometimes find it necessary to bend and ply a little ; not as being forced, but as submitting to the stronger reason, for the sake of himself and his government. King William, hero as he was, found himself obliged to this conduct ; so had other princes before him, and so did his Majesty's grandfather, King George the Second, who thanked me for advising him to it." 3 The wise answer of the illustrious jurist was reported to the King, who, disregarding the most earnest dissuasions of Grenville, desired ten days for reflection, on which Grenville went into the country to await the decision. But on Wednesday, the 3rd, Halifax, with Egremont at his side, harangued the King for half an 1 The date of Newcastle's letter, in Albemarle's Memoirs of Rockingham, vol. i. p. 169, is given as of June 30, 1763 a mistake, for the letter refers to tbe conversation held in August. 2 Hardwicke to his son, August 5, 1763, in Harris, vol. iii. p. 370. 3 Grenville's Diary, in Grenville Papers, p. 191. Hardwicke, in Harris, voL iii. p. 372. Walpole, in his Reign of George III., vol. i. p. 285, mixing fiction with fact. 158 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. hour, pressing him on the instant, to resolve either to support his administration or to form another from their adversaries. Halifax turned this in all the ways that eloquence could dictate or invent, yet without extorting any answer whatever ; and when he said, that surely the King could not mean to take into his service the whole body of the Opposition and yield to the invasion of those he had detested, the usual disclaiming of such a purpose was also suppressed. 1 The angry Egremont spoke to the same effect, and the King still preserved absolute silence. " Behaviour so insulting and uncivil," said Egremont to Grenville, " I never knew, nor conceive could be held to two gentlemen." Yet the King had only remained silent on a subject on which he had reserved to himself ten days before coming to a decision ; and it was his Ministers, whose questions, were insulting, uncivil, and impertinent. Instead of hastily resigning, 2 Egremont was ready to concert with Gren- ville how to maintain themselves in office in spite of the King's wishes, by employing " absolute necessity and fear." 3 It is not strange that the discerning King wished to be rid of Egremont. To that end Shelburne, who was opposed to Egremont's schemes of colonial government, 1 Egremont to George Grenville, August 3, 1763, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. pp. 83, 84. 2 George Grenville to Egremont, August 4, 1763, in Greuville Papers, vol. ii. pp. 8587. 3 Egremont to Grenville, August 6, 1763, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 88. 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 159 was commissioned to propose a coalition between Pitt and Temple 1 on the one side, and the Duke of Bedford 2 on the other. The anger of Bedford towards Bute, for having communicated to the French minister the instructions given him during his embassy, had ripened into a stiff, irrevocable hatred. He was therefore willing to enter the Ministry 3 on condition of Bute's absence from the King's councils and presence, and Pitt's concurrence in a coalition of parties and the maintenance of the present relations with France. 4 Pitt was willing to treat, 5 had no objection to a coalition of parties, and could not but acquiesce in the peace, now that it was made ; but Bedford had been his strongest opponent in the cabinet, had contributed to force him into retirement, and had negotiated the treaty which he had so earnestly arraigned. For Pitt to have accepted office with Bedford would have been a marked adoption of the peace, alike glaringly inconsistent with his declared opinions and his engagements with the great Whig families 6 in Opposition. So ended the attempt to 1 Calcraft to Lord Temple, August 10, and Temple to Calcraft, August 12, 1763, in the Grenville Papers, vol. ii, pp. 90, 91. 2 George Grenville's Diary, in Grenville Papers, voL ii. p. 204. 3 Note by Grenville to his Diary, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 204. 4 Bedford Papers, in Wiffen's Memoirs of the House of Russell, vol. ii. pp. 526, 527. The paper here cited by Wiffen seems not to be printed in the Bedford Correspondence. 6 Grenville's Diary, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 204. 6 Rigby to the Duke of Bedford, August 15, 1763, in Wiffen, vol. ii. p. 527, and Bedford Correspondence, voL ii. p. 236. 160 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. supersede Egremont by Pitt, with Bedford in the vacant chair of President of the Council. For a day or two the King hesitated, and had to endure the very long and tedious speeches of Grenville on the inconvenience of sacrificing his Ministry. 1 "I have fully considered upon your long discourse on the Friday/' said he to his Minister on Sunday the 21st ; "by your advice I mean to conduct myself. It is necessary to restrain the licentiousness of the times ; if I suffer force to be put upon me by the Opposition, the mob will try to govern me next ; " 2 and he decided to stand by the Ministry. But, just at that moment, news came that Egremont was dying of a stroke of apoplexy. The place of Secre- tary now seemed to await Pitt's acceptance. " Your Majesty has three options," said Grenville and Halifax ; " to strengthen the hands of the present Ministry, or to mingle them with a coalition, or to throw the government entirely into the hands of Pitt and his friends." " To the last," said the King, " I never will consent." 3 The Duke of Bedford, who hated and despised 4 Grenville, came to town. " Your government," said he to the King, " cannot stand ; you must send to Mr. Pitt and his friends." When Grenville heard this, he 1 Grenville's Diary, August 19, Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 193. 2 Grenville's Diary, Sunday, August 21, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 193. :i Grenvills's Diary, August 22 and 23, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 194. 4 C. Townshend to Temple, Sept. 11, 1763, in Grenville Papers, vol.ii. p. 121. 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 161 was overwhelmed with consternation and rage. His anger towards the Duke of Bedford 1 became unappeas- able ; and he never forgave him the advice. It was the interest of Bute to see Pitt at the head of affairs, for Pitt alone had opposed him as a Minister without animosity towards him as a man. They who had sided with him when in power, now so dreaded to share his unpopularity, that they made a parade of proscrib- ing him, and wished not only to deprive him of influence, but to exile him from the Court and from Westminster. He, therefore desired, and long continued to desire, v to see Pitt in office, of whose personal magnanimity he was sure. The wish was inconsistent with the politics of the times ; but the moment was one when parties in England, though soon to be consolidated, were as yet in a nebulous state, and very many of the time-serving public men, even Charles Townshend himself, were entirely at fault. The real option lay between a Government by the more liberal aristocracy under popular influence as its guide, and an adminis- tration on new principles independent of both. The King appeared on that occasion as the moderator between factions ; and informed Grenville of his inten- tion to call Pitt to the management of his affairs, yet with as few changes as possible. 2 On Saturday the 27th, Grenville went to the King 1 Sir Denis Le Marchant's note to Walpole's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 287. 2 Grenville's Diary for Friday, August 26, 1763. 162 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. and found Pitt's servants waiting in the court. He passed two long hours of agony and bitterness in the antechamber, incensed and humiliated, on finding himself at the mercy of the brother-in-law whom he had betrayed. The King, in his interview with Pitt, proceeded upon the plan of defeating faction by a coalition of parties ; and offered the Great Commoner his old place of Secretary of State. " I cannot abandon the friends who have stood by me," said Pitt, and he declined to accept office without them. " Do you think it possible for me/' answered the King, " to give up those who have served me faithfully and devoted themselves to me I " " The reproach," answered Pitt, " will light on your Ministers, and not on yourself. It is fit to break the present Government, which is not founded on true Revolution principles ; " and he showed the principles which he wished should rule, by insisting on excluding Lord Mansfield from the Cabinet, and proposing Pratt for a peerage. Nor did he fail to comment on the infirmities of the peace as " dishonourable, dangerous, and criminal; " and to declare that " the Duke of Bedford should have no efficient office whatever." He would restore to the King's Council the men of the great Whig families, who, like himself, had been driven from power, yet not as a party to triumph over the prerogative. The King preserved his self-possession, combated several of these demands, said now and then that his honour 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 163 must be consulted, 1 and reserved his decision till a second interview. 9 When Grenville, after his long and anxious suspense, was called in, he could think only of his griefs, pleading his adhesion to the King, on Pitt's leaving the cabinet in 1761 ; the barbarous usage he had in consequence received from his family ; the assurances given at that time by Bute, that his honour should be the King's honour, his disgrace the King's disgrace. The King bowing to him, stopped his complaints by observing, " It is late ; " and as the afflicted minister was leaving him, said only " Good morrow, Mr. Grenville ; good morrow, Mr. Grenville," for he never called him by his right name. 1 For the King's account of this interview, to Qrenville, in Grenville's Diary, pp. 197 199; to Hertford, in Walpole's George III., vol. L p. 291 ; to Sand- wich, in Sandwich to Bedford and in Bedford to Neville, in Bedford Cor., vol. iii. pp. 238 241. For Pitt's account to Wood, see Wood's Letter, in the Chatham Correspondence ; to Hardwicke, in Hardwicke to Royston, Harris, vol. iii. pp. 377 380; to the House of Commons, in Walpole, vol. i. pp. 318, 319, and in several contemporary letters, containing the accounts of the debates. 3 Charles Townshend to Temple, Sept. 11, 1763, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 121 : "The general idea of Mr. Pitt's establishment, is asserted to have been never accepted or approved in any one meeting." That Pitt had no good reason to think the King intended to accept his terms, appears also from his own account of it, as reported by Hardwicke. Bute, in his interview, wished at first to keep it a secret one. Then openness was pushed to an extreme. Pitt's summons to Court was an unsealed note, as little confidential as a Lord Chamberlain's card of invitation. When Pitt named names, the King asked him to write them down, which Pitt declined to do. Some of Pitt's suggestions were so offensive to the King, that while he said he liked to hear him, and bade him go on, he yet said " now and then," that is repeatedly, that his honour must be consulted. Surely to describe the acceptance of a proposition as inconsistent with honour, would seem not to be an encouragement that it would be accepted. ii 2 104 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Whether Pitt, who had himself attained a kind of royalty, and was ever mindful to support his own majesty, 1 pleased himself with seeing the great Whig families at his heels; or, which is more probable, aware that the actual ministry could not go on, was himself deceived by his own nature which was pre- sumptuously hopeful, into a belief that those who made the overture, must carry it through, he summoned Newcastle, Devonshire, Rockingham and Hardwicke 2 to come to London as his council. From his own point of view, there was no unreason- ableness 3 in his demands. But to the Court it seemed otherwise. On Sunday evening Grenville found the King in the greatest agitation. " Rather than submit to the hard terms proposed by Pitt," said he, " I would die in the room I now stand in." 4 Early in the morning of the 29th, Bute, through Beckford, urged Pitt to be content with filling up the places of the two Secretaries of State, and putting a neutral person at the head of the Treasury, instead of Lord Temple. 5 The message was an announce- ment to Pitt that his system was rejected ; and the Great Commoner stood forewarned in the presence of his Sovereign. The audience lasted nearly two hours. 1 Lyttelton to Royston, in Phillimore, vol. ii. p. 646. - Hardwicke, in Harris, vol. iii. p. 379. 3 W. Gerard Hamilton, in Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 378. 4 Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 197. 5 Grenville's Diary, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 202. 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 163 The King proposed Halifax for the Treasury : Pitt was willing he should have the Paymaster's place. " But I had designed that," said the King, " for poor George Grenville ; he is your own relation, and you once loved him." To this the only answer was a low bow. The King as a lure named Temple to be at the head of the Treasury. " That," said Pitt, " is essential ;" but still insisted on a thorough change of administration. " Well, Mr. Pitt," said the King, " I see this won't do. My honour is concerned, and I must support it." 1 A government formed out of the minority who had opposed the peace, seemed to the King an offence to his con- science and a wound to his honour. 2 " The House of Commons," said Pitt, on taking leave, " will not force me upon your Majesty, and I will never come into your service against your consent." 3 Events now shaped themselves. First of all, Bute, having disobliged all sides, went to the country, with the avowed purpose of absolute retirement. His retreat was his own act ; 4 and not a condition to be made the basis of a new ministry. As his only pro- tection against the Duke of Bedford, he desired that Grenville might be armed with every degree of power. 5 1 Hardwicke, in Harris. 2 Grenville to Strange, Sept. 3, 1763, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 105 : " The consideration of his honour," &a, " and of his conscience," &c. 3 King's account to Hertford, in Walpole, vol. i. p. 292. 4 Grenville's Diary, in Papers, vol. ii. p. 203. Compare, too, Grenville to Stuart Mackenzie, Sept. 16, 1763; and Grenville to Lord Strange, and to Lord Granby, Sept. 3, 1763. & Gilbert Elliot to George Grenville, August 31, 1763. 166 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Next Lord Shelburne withdrew from office, and remained ever the firmest friend of Pitt, giving an example of the utmost fidelity of attachment. At the same time Bedford doubly irritated at being proscribed 1 by the very statesmen whom he had proposed to the King as minister, promised for himself and, as a consequence, for his numerous and powerful connection, to support the present system in all its parts. 2 The King entreated him to take a place in the administration. Grenville, too, smothering alike his hatred and his fears, urged him to preside in the council. And Bedford, though personally indifferent to office, now that Bute had gone into retreat, under the influence of his friends, especially of Sandwich, who became Secretary of State, accepted the post which was pressed upon him. The union of the Bedford party and of Grenville, was, said Pitt, " a treaty of connivance ; " Lord Melcombe said, " It is all for quarter day ; " but it was more. From seemingly accidental causes, there arose within ten days out of a state of great uncertainty, a compact and well cemented ministry. The King, in forming it, stood on the solid ground of the constitution. The last great question in Parliament was on the peace ; and was carried in its favour by an overwhelming majority. 1 Sandwich to Bedford, Sept. 5, 1763, in Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 238. Walpole's George III., vol. i. p. 293. 2 Sandwich to Grenville, Sept. 3, 1763 ,Grenville's Diary, Grenville Papers, vol. ii. pp. 108, 203. Compare, also, Bedford to Neville, Sept. 5, 1763, Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. pp. 240, 241 ; and Sandwich to Bedford, Sept. 5, 1763, Bedford Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 238. 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 167 The present ministers had made or supported that peace, and so were in harmony with Parliament. There was a coincidence of opinion between them and the King ; but there was not one of them all whom the King could claim as his own personal friend. If the ministry was too little favourable to liberty, the fault lay in the system on which Parliament was organised ; it was undoubtedly a fair and adequate representation of the British constitution, and needed nothing but cordial personal union among themselves and with the King to last for a generation. Of the Secretaries of State, Halifax, as the elder, had his choice of departments, and took for himself the Southern, " on account of the Colonies ; " 1 and the Earl of Hillsborough, like Shelburne an Irish as well as an English Peer, was placed at the head of the Board of Trade. One and the same spirit was at work on each side of the Atlantic. From Boston Bernard urged anew the establishment of a sufficient and independent civil list out of which enlarged salaries were to be paid to the crown officers. And while he acknowledged that " the compact between the King and the people was in no colony better observed than in that of the Massachusetts Bay," that " its people in general were well satisfied with their subordination to Great Britain," that " their former prejudices which made them otherwise disposed, 1 Lord Chesterfield to his Son, September, 1763, Letter ccclxxii. 168 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. were wholly or almost wholly worn off," he nevertheless railed at " the unfortunate error in framing the govern- ment, to leave the council to be elected annually." He advised rather a council " resembling as near as possible the House of Lords ; " its members to be appointed for life, with some title, as Baronet or Baron, composed of people of consequence, willing to look up to the King for honour and authority. A permanent civil list, independent of colonial appropriations, an aristocratic middle legislative power, and a Court of Chancery these were the subjects of the very earnest recommendation of Bernard to the British Government. 1 On the extension of the British frontier by the cession of Canada, and the consequent security of the interior, New England towns, under grants from Wentworth, the Governor of New Hampshire, rose up on both sides of the Connecticut, and extended to the borders of Lake Champlain. But New York coveted the lands, and under its old charter to the Duke of York, had long disputed with New Hampshire the jurisdiction of the country west of Connecticut River. The British Government had hitherto regarded the contest with indifference ; but Colden now urged the Board of Trade to annex to New York all of Massachusetts and of New 1 Answer of Francis Bernard, Esq., Governor of Massachusetts Bay, to the queries proposed by the Lords Commissioners for Trade and Plantations, dated September 5, 1763. King's Library, MSS. vol. ccv. p. 423. Compare, on the loyalty of Massachusetts, Bernard to Secretary of State, Feb. 16, 1763, and same to same, Oct. 25, 1763. 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 169 Hampshire west of the Connecticut River. " The New England Governments/' he reasoned, " are all formed on republican principles, and those principles are zealously inculcated in the minds of their youth. The Govern- ment of New York, on the contrary, is established as nearly as may be after the model of the English Con- stitution. Can it, then, be good policy to diminish the extent of jurisdiction in his Majesty's province of New York, to extend the power and influence of the others ?" ! Little was the issue of this fatal advice foreseen. While Massachusetts was in danger of an essential violation of its charter with regard to one branch of its legislature, the Assembly of South Carolina was engaged in a long contest for "that most essential privilege, solely to judge and finally determine the validity of the election of their own members ; " for Boone, the Governor, claimed exclusive authority to administer the required oaths, and on occasion of administering them, assumed the power to reject members whom the House declared duly elected and returned, " thereby taking upon himself to be the sole judge of elections." 3 The " arbitrary and imperious " governor was too clearly in the wrong to be sustained ; 3 but the contro- 1 Colden to the Board of Trade, New York, Sept. 26, 1763. 2 Governor Thomas Boone to Lords of Trade, Sept. 15, 1763. Petition to the King of the Commons House of Assembly of the Province of South Carolina, in Boonc's letter of Sept. 10, 1763. 3 South Carolina to Garth, their agent, July 2, 1766. 170 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. versy which had already continued for a twelvemonth, and was now at its height, lasted long enough to train the statesmen of South Carolina to systematical opinions on the rights of their legislature, and of the King's power in matters of their privilege. The details of the colonial administration belonged to Halifax. No sooner was the ministry definitely established, than Grenville, as the head of the Treasury, proceeded to redeem the promise made to the House of Commons of an American revenue. The revenue from the customs in America could by no means produce a sufficient fund to meet the expenses of its military establishment. On the morning of the 22nd of September, three Lords of the Treasury, George Grenville, Lord North, and one Hunter, who completed the number requisite for the transaction of business, held a board in the room set apart for their use in Downing-street, and without any hesitancy or discussion, they adopted a minute directing Jenkinson, the First Secretary of the Treasury, to " write to the Commissioners of the Stamp Duties to prepare the draft of a bill to be presented to Parliament for extending the stamp duties to the colonies." 1 The very next day, Jenkinson accordingly wrote to the Commissioners, desiring them " to transmit 1 Treasury Minute, September 22, 1763 : Present, Mr. Grenville, Lord North, Mr. Hunter. " Write to the Commissioners of the Stamp Duties to prepare the draft of a bill, to be presented to Parliament, for extending the stamp duties to the colonies." 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 171 to him the draft of an Act for imposing proper Stamp Duties upon his Majesty's subjects in America and the West Indies/' 1 Who was the author of the American stamp tax ? At a later day, Jenkinson assured the House of Commons that, " if the Stamp Act was a good measure, the merit of it was not due to Grenville ; if it was a bad one, the ill-policy of it did not belong to him ;" but he never confessed to the house where the blame or the merit could rest more justly. In his late old age he delighted to converse freely, with the son he loved best, on every topic connected with his long career, save only on the one subject, of the contest with America. On that, and on that alone, he maintained an inflexible and total silence. He never was heard even to allude to it. But, though Jenkinson proposed the American tax, while private secretary to Bute, and brought it with him into the Treasury for adoption by Bute's successor, he was but a subordinate, without power of direction or a seat in council, and cannot bear the responsibility of the measure. Nor does the final responsibility attach to Bute;" 2 for the Ministry had forced him into absolute 1 C. Jenkinson to the Commissioners of Stamps. Letter Book, voL xxii. p. 432 : " Treasury Chambers. Gentlemen, the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury are pleased to direct me to desire that you would forth- with prepare and transmit to me, for their lordships' consideration, a draught of an act for imposing proper Stamp Duties upon his Majesty's subjects in America and the West Indies. I am, &c., C. Jenkinson. Sept. 23, 1763." 2 Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, April 6, 1765. Works, vol. vii. p. 309. 172 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. retirement, and would not have listened to his advice in the smallest matter ; nor to the King, for though the King approved the stamp tax and wished it to be adopted, he exerted no influence to control his Ministry on the occasion ; and besides, the Ministry boasted of being free from sycophancy to the court. Hunter, one of the Lords of the Treasury who ordered the minute, was but a cipher ; and Lord North, who supported the Stamp Act, himself told the House of Commons that he took the propriety of passing it very much upon the authority of Grenville. 1 From the days of King William there was a steady line of precedents of opinion that America should, like Ireland, provide in whole, or at least in part, for the support of its military establishment. It was one of the first subjects of consideration on the organisation of the Board of Trade. 2 It again employed the attention of the servants of Queen Anne. It was still more seriously considered in the days of George I. ; and when, in the reign of George II. the Duke of Cumberland was at the head of American military affairs, it was laid down as a principle, that a revenue sufficient for the purpose must be provided. The Ministry of Bute resolved to provide such a revenue ; for which Charles Townshend pledged the Government. Parliament wished it. 3 The King 1 Lord North's Speech, March 2, 1769. Cavendish, vol. i. p. 299. 2 Representation of the Board of Trade to the Lords Justices, September 30, 1696. Compare Penn's Brief and Plain Scheme, February 8, 1696-7. 3 Speech of Grenville, December 1765. 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 173 wished it. 1 Almost all sorts and conditions of men repeatedly wished it. 2 How America was to be compelled to contribute this revenue remained a question. For half a century or more, the King sent executive orders or requisitions. But if requisitions were made, the Colonial Legislature claimed a right of freely deliberating upon them ; and as the colonies were divided into nearly twenty different governments, it was held that they never would come to a common result. The need of some principle of union, of some central power, was asserted. To give the military chief a dictatorial authority to require subsistence for the army, was suggested by the Board of Trade in 1696, in the days of King William and of Locke ; was more deliberately planned in 1721 ; was apparently favoured by Cumberland, and was one of the arbitrary proposals put aside by Pitt. To claim the revenue through a congress of the colonies was at one time the plan of Halifax ; but if the congress was of governors, their decision would be only consultatory, and have no more weight than royal instructions ; and if the congress was a representative body, it would claim and exercise the right of free discussion. To demand a revenue by instructions from the King, and 1 Speech of Grenville : " His Majesty, ever desirous of dividing equally the burdens of his people, wished to see them so divided in this instance." Wright's Cavendish. 8 Ibid. " It was in consequence of the repeated wish of almost all sorts and conditions of men, that I took the step which I did." 174 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. to enforce them by stringent coercive measures, was beyond the power of the prerogative, under the system established at the revolution. When New York had failed to make appropriations for the civil service, a bill was prepared to be laid before Parliament, giving the usual revenue ; and this bill having received the appro- bation of the great Whig lawyers, Northey and Raymond, was the precedent which overcame Grenville's scruples about taxing the colonies, without first allowing them representatives. 1 It was settled then that there must be a military establishment in America of twenty regiments ; that after the first year its expenses must be defrayed by America ; that the American colonies themselves, with their various charters, never would agree to vote such a revenue, and that Parliament must do it. It remained to consider what tax Parliament should impose. And here all agreed that the first object of taxation was foreign and intercolonial commerce. But that, under the navigation acts would not produce enough. A poll-tax was common in America ; but, applied by Parliament, would fall unequally upon the colonies holding slaves. The difficulty in collecting quit-rents, proved that a land-tax would meet with formidable obstacles. An excise was thought of, but kept in reserve. An issue of Exchequer Bills to be kept in circulation as the currency of the continent, was 1 Knox, in a pamphlet, of which George Grenville was part author. 1763.] TREASURY MINUTE FOR AN AMERICAN STAMP TAX. 175 urged on the Ministry, but conflicted with the policy of acts of Parliament against the use of paper money in the colonies. Everybody 1 who reasoned on the subject, decided for a stamp tax, as certain of collection ; and in America, where lawsuits were frequent, as likely to be very productive. A stamp act had been proposed to Sir Robert Walpole ; it had been thought of by Pelham ; it had been almost resolved upon in 1 755 ; it had been pressed upon Pitt ; it seems beyond a doubt to have been a part of the system adopted in the Ministry of Bute, and was sure of the support of Charles Townshend. Knox, the agent of Georgia, stood ready to defend the Stamp Act, as least liable to objection. The agent of Massachusetts, through his brother, Israel Mauduit, who had Jenkinson for his fast friend and often saw Grenville, favoured raising the wanted money in that way, because it would occasion less expense of officers, and would include the West India Islands ; and speaking for his constituents, he made a merit of cheerful " submission" to the ministerial policy. 2 One man in Grenville's office, and one man only, did 1 Cornwall, in Cavendish. 2 Grenville, in the House of Commons, in the debate of March 5, 1770 : " Far from thinking the tax impracticable, some of the assemblies applied to me, by their agents, to collect this very tax." Compare Whately's Considera- tions, p. 71. " Mr. Mauduit, the Massachusetts agent, favoured the raising of the wanted money by a stamp duty, as it would occasion less expense of officers, and would include the West India islands." Gordon's History of the American Revolution, vol. i. p. 158. 176 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. indeed give him sound advice ; Richard Jackson, 1 his secretary as Chancellor of the Exchequer, advised him to lay the project aside, and refused to take any part in preparing or supporting it. But Jenkinson, his Secretary of the Treasury, was ready to render every assistance, and weighed more than the honest and independent Jackson. Grenville therefore adopted 2 the measure which was " devolved upon him," and his memory must consent, as he himself consented, that it should be " christened by his name." 3 It was certainly Grenville, "who first brought this scheme into form." 4 He doubted the propriety of taxing colonies, without allowing them representatives : 5 but he loved power, and placed his chief hopes on the favour of Parliament ; and the Parliament of that day contemplated the increased debt of England with terror, knew not that the resources of the country were increasing in a still greater proportion, and insisted on throwing a part of the public burdens upon America, 1 Richard Jackson to Jared Ingcrsoll, March 22, 1766, in Letters of Ingersoll, p. 43 : "I was never myself privy to any measures taken with respect to the Stamp Act, after having formally declined giving any other advice on the subject, excepting that I had always given, to lay the project aside." 2 Walpole's George III. vol. iii. p. 32: "Grenville adopted, from Lord Bute, a plan of taxation formed by Jenkinson." 3 Grenville, in Cavendish. 4 Burke's Speech on American Taxation, Works, vol. i. p. 460. 5 Knox, Extra-Official State Papers, vol. ii. p. 31 ; and Grenville to Knox, Sept. 4, 1768; and Grenville to T. Pownall. CHAPTER IX. ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. GRENVILLE'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. OCTOBER, 1763 APRIL, 1764. THE Stamp Act was to be the close of a system of colonial " measures/' founded, as Grenville believed, " on the true principles of policy, of commerce, and of finance." l He, said those who paid him court, is not such a minister as his predecessors ; he is neither ignorant like some of them of the importance of the colonies ; nor like others, impotently neglectful of their concerns : or diverted by meaner pursuits from attending to them. England is now happy in a minister who sees that the greatest wealth and maritime power of Great Britain depend on the use of its colonies, and who will make it his highest object to form " a well-digested, 1 The Regulations lately made concerning the Colonies, and the Taxes imposed upon them considered, 1765, p. 114. This ministerial pamphlet was professedly the exposition of Grenville's opinions and policy, and, as such, was circulated in America; its reputed author was Campbell, Crown agent for Georgia. VOL. n. v 178 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. consistent, wise, and salutary plan of colonisation and government." l The extent of the American illicit trade was very great ; in particular, it was thought that of a million and a half pounds of tea consumed annually in the colonies, not more than one-tenth part was sent from England. 2 Grenville held that the contraband was all stolen from the commerce and part of it from the manu- factures of Great Britain, against the fundamental principles of colonisation, and the express provisions of the law. Custom had established in the American ports a compromise between the American claim to as free trade as the English, and the British acts of restriction. Grenville did what none of his predecessors had done : he read the statute-book of Great Britain ; and the integrity of his mind revolted at this connivance. It pleased his austere vanity to be the first and only minister to insist on enforcing the laws, 3 which usage and corruption 4 had invalidated ; and this brought 1 The Regulations, p. 5. 2 Campbell, p. 93. 3 Hutchinson to Richard Jackson, Grenville's Secretary in the Exchequer, September, 1763 : " The real cause of the illicit trade in this province has been the indulgence of the officers of the customs ; and we are told that the cause of this indulgence has been, that they are quartered upon for more than their legal fees, and that without bribery and corruption they must starve. If the venality of the present age will not admit of a reform in this respect, perhaps the provision now made may be the next best expedient." 4 "I, Sampson Toovey, clerk to James Cockle, Esq., Collector of his Majesty's Customs for the port of Salem, do declare on oath, that ever since I have been in the office, it hath been customary for said Cockle to receive of the masters of vessels entering from Lisbon, casks of wine, boxes of fruit, &c. 17C3.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 179 him in conflict with the spirit \vhich Otis had aroused in Boston, and which equally prevailed among the descendants of the Dutch of New York. The island of Manhattan lay convenient to the sea, sheltered by other islands from the ocean ; having safe anchorage in deep water for many miles along its shores, inviting the commerce of continents, of the near tropical islands, and of the world. To-day its ships, fleet, safe, and beautiful in their forms, exceed in amount of tonnage nearly twice over all the commercial marine of Great Britain at the moment of Grenville's schemes. Between its wharves and the British harbours, its packets run to and fro, swiftly and regularly, like the weaver's shuttle, weaving the band that joins nations together in friendship. Its imports of foreign produce are in value equal twice-told to all that was imported into the whole island of Great Britain in 1 763. Nor does a narrow restrictive policy shut out the foreigner ; its port is lively with the display at the mast-head of the flag of every civilised nation of the earth. People of all coun- tries have free access, so that it seems the representative city of all Europe, in whose streets may be heard every language that is spoken from the steppes of the Ukraine to the Atlantic. Grenville would have interdicted direct foreign commerce, and excluded every foreign vessel. American independence, like the great rivers of the country, had many sources ; but the head-spring which coloured all the stream was the Navigation Act. N 2 180 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. Reverence for the colonial mercantile system was branded into Grenville's mind as deeply and ineffaceably as ever the superstition of witchcraft into a credulous and child-like nature. It was his " idol ; " l and he adored it as " sacred." 2 He held that " Colonies are only settlements made in distant parts of the world for the improvement of trade ; that they would be intolerable except on the conditions contained in the Act of Navigation ; that those who, from the increase of contraband, had apprehensions that they may break off their connection with the mother country, saw not half the evil ; that wherever the Acts of Navigation are disregarded, the connection is actually broken already/' 3 Nor did this monopoly seem to him a wrong ; he claimed for England the exclusive trade with its colonies, as the exercise of an indisputable right which every state, in exclusion of all others, has to the services of its own subjects. 4 His indefatigable zeal could never be satisfied. All officers of the Customs in the colonies were ordered to their posts ; their numbers were increased ; they were provided with " new and ample instructions enforcing in the strongest manner the strictest attention to their duty ; " every officer that failed or faltered was instantly to be dismissed. Nor did Grenville fail to perceive that " the restraint 1 Burke. 2 Walpole. 3 Campbell. < Whately's Considerations. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 181 and suppression of practices which had long prevailed, would certainly encounter great difficulties in such distant parts of the King's dominions ; " the whole force of the royal authority was therefore invoked in aid. 1 The Governors were to make the suppression of the forbidden trade with foreign nations the constant and immediate object of their care. All officers, both civil, and military, and naval, in America and the West Indies, were to give their co-operation. " We depend," said a memorial from the Treasury, "upon the sea- guard as the likeliest means for accomplishing these great purposes," and that sea-guard was to be extended and strengthened as far as the naval establishments would allow. To complete the whole, and this was a favourite part of Grenville's scheme, a new and uniform system of Courts of Admiralty was to be established. On the very next day after this memorial was pre- sented, the King himself in council gave his sanction to the whole system. 2 Forthwith orders were issued directly to the Commander-in-Chief in America that the troops under his command should give their assistance to the officers of the revenue for the effectual suppression of con- traband trade. 3 Nor was there delay in following up the new law 1 Memorial from the Right Honourable the Commissioners of his Majesty's Treasury, October 4, 1763. 2 Order in Council of October 5, 1763. 3 Halifax to the Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty's forces in North America, October 11, 1763. S. P. 0. Am. and W. I. voL Ixxvii. 182 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. to employ the navy to enforce the Navigation Acts. To this end Admiral Colville, 1 the naval Commander- in-Chief on the coasts of North America, from the river St. Lawrence to Cape Florida and the Bahama Islands, became the head of a new corps of revenue officers. Each captain of his squadron had custom- house commissions and a set of instructions from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty for his guidance ; and other instructions were given them by the Admiral to enter the harbours or lie off the coasts of America ; to qualify themselves by taking the usual custom-house oaths to do the office of custom-house officers ; to seize such persons as were suspected by them to be engaged in illicit trade. The promise of large emoluments in case of for- feitures stimulated their natural and irregular vivacity 2 to enforce laws which had become obsolete, and they pounced upon American property as they would have gone in war in quest of prize-money. Even at first their acts were equivocal, and they soon came to be as illegal as they were oppressive. There was no redress. An appeal to the Privy Council was costly and difficult, and besides, when, as happened before the end of the year, 3 an officer had to defend himself on an 1 Admiral Colville to Lieutenant-Governor of New York. Bernard to Egremout, October 25, 1763. 2 Edmund Burke, in Annual Register, vol. viii. pp. 18, 19. :i Governor Bernard to the Secretary of State, December 24, 1763. Thomas Whately, Secretary of the Treasury, to Commissioners of the Customs, April 17, 1764. Treasury Letter-book, vol. xxiv. p. 3. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 183 appeal, the suffering colonists were exhausted by the delay and expenses, while the Treasury took care to indemnify the officer. The rule adopted for colonising America, was founded on the uniform principle of grants of lands from the crown, subject to quit-rent ; so that the new settlement would consist entirely of the King's tenants, 1 and would owe their landlord a large annual rental. In the small West India islands, an agrarian law set bounds to the cupidity for land. Egmont, the new head of the Admiralty, an upright and able, but eccentric man, preferred the feudal system to every form of government, and made a plan for establishing it in the isle of St. John. This reverie of a visionary he desired to apply to all the conquered countries, to Acadia and Canada on the north ; and to the two Floridas on the south, which were to be divided into great baronies, each composed of a hundred vassals. In each province there were to be castles, fortified, casemated, and armed with cannon, placed near enough to preserve a con- nection. The contemptuous neglect of his project 2 inclined him to think lightly of Grenville's ability, and to hate him, 3 nor did he forgive Hillsborough for his opposition. 1 Campbell, p. 7. 2 M. Frances au Due de Choiseul, a Londres, le 21 e Octobre, 1768. " II m^prise lea talens dc M. Grenville et bait sa personne." 3 Frances to the Duke de Choiseul, October, 1768. "II [Egmont] n'a pas pardonnd a my Lord Hillsborough, qui dtoit alors & la tete du bureau des plantations, de s'etre oppos<5 a son execution." 184 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. In forming the new territory into provinces, the fear of danger from large states led to the division of Florida ; for it was held to be good policy to enhance the difficulties of union among the colonies by increasing the number of independent governments. 1 The boundary of Massachusetts, both on the east and on the north, was clearly denned ; extending on the east to the St. Croix, and on the north leaving to the province of Quebec the narrow strip only, from which the water flows into the St. Lawrence. 2 For Canada, or the province of Quebec, as it was called, the narrower boundaries, on which Shelburne had insisted, were adopted. All that lay to the west of Lake Nepising, and all the country beyond the Alleghanies, were, by a solemn proclamation, shut against the emigrant, from the fear that remote colonies would claim the independence which their position would favour. England had conquered the west, and dared not make use of it. She went to war for the Ohio valley, and having got possession of it, set it apart to be kept as a desert. A puny policy would have pulled down the monument to Pitt's name at the head of the Ohio, and have brought all the settlers to this side the mountains. " The country to the west- ward of our frontiers, quite to the Mississippi, \vas 1 Campbell, pp. 17, 18. 2 Halifax to the Lords of Trade, September 27, 1763. Representation of the Lords of Trade to the King, October 5, 1763. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 185 intended to be a desert for the Indians to hunt in and inhabit." l Such a policy was impossible ; already there was at Detroit the seed of a commonwealth. The long pro- tracted siege drew near its end. The belts sent in all directions by the French reached the nations on the Ohio and Lake Erie. The Indians were assured 2 that their old allies would depart ; the garrison in the Peorias was withdrawn ; the fort Massiac was dis- mantled ; its cannon sent to St. Genevieve, the oldest settlement of Europeans in Missouri. The missionary, Forget, retired. At Vincennes 3 the message to all the nations on the Ohio was explained to the Piankishaws, who accepted the belts and the calumets. The courier who took the belt to the north, offered peace to all the tribes wherever he passed;* and to Detroit, where he arrived on the last day of October, he bore a letter of the nature of a proclamation, informing the inhabitants of the cession of Canada to England ; another, addressed to twenty -five nations by name, to all the Red Men, and particularly to Pontiac, chief of the Ottawas ; a third to the commander, expressing a readiness to surrender to the English all the forts on the Ohio, and east of the Mississippi. The 1 Lord Harrington's Narrative. 2 Neyon de Villiere a toutes les nations de la Belle Riviere, et du lac, et notamment h ceux de Detroit, a Pondiac, chef des Couatasouas au Detroit 3 Letter of M. de St. Ange, of 24 e Octobre, in Lettre de M. de Neyon a M. de Kerle'rec, 1" Decembre, 1763. * De Neyon a Kerle'rec, December 1, 1763. 186 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. next morning Pontiac sent to Gladwin, that he accepted the peace which his father, the French, had sent him, and desired all that had passed might be forgot on both sides. 1 Friendly words were exchanged, though the for- mation of a definitive treaty of peace was referred to the Commander-in-Chief. The savages dispersed to their hunting grounds. Nothing could restrain the Americans from peopling the wilderness. To be a freeholder was the ruling passion of the New England man. Marriages were early and very fruitful. The sons, as they grew up, skilled in the use of the axe and the rifle, would, one after another, move from the old homestead, and, with a wife, a yoke of oxen, a cow, and a few husbandry tools, build a small hut in some new plantation, and by tasking every faculty of mind and body, win for themselves plenty and independence. Such were they who began to dwell among the untenanted forests that rose between the Penobscot and the Sainte Croix, or in the New Hampshire grants, on each side of the Green Mountains, or in the exquisitely beautiful valley of Wyoming, where, on the banks of the Susquehanna, the wide and rich meadows, shut in by walls of wooded mountains, attracted emigrants from Con- necticut, though their claim of right under the charter of their native colony was in conflict with 1 Major-General Gage to Secretary Halifax, December 23, 1763. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 187 the territorial jurisdiction of the proprietaries of Penn- sylvania. The mild climate of the south drew the herdsmen still further into the interior. In defiance of reiterated royal mandates, Virginian adventurers outgrew all limits of territorial parishes, and seated themselves on the New River, near the Ohio, in the forbidden valley of the Mississippi ; and not even the terrors of border wars with the savages " could stop the enthusiasm of running backwards to hunt for fresh lands," * in men who loved no enjoyment like that of perfect personal freedom in the companionship of nature. From Carolina the hunters 2 annually passed the Cumberland Gap, gave names to the streams and rocky ridges of Tennessee, and with joyous confidence chased game in the basin of the Cumberland river. On all the waters, from the Holston river to the head springs of the Kentucky and the Cumberland, there dwelt not one single human inhabitant. It was the waste forest and neutral ground that divided the Cherokees from the Five Nations and their dependents. The lovely region had been left for untold years the paradise of wild beasts, which had so filled the valley with their broods, that a thrifty hunter could, in one season, bring home peltry worth sixteen hundred dollars. 3 1 Fauquier to the Lords of Trade. - John Heywood's Civil and Political History of the State of Tennessee, from its earliest settlement up to the year 1796. Knoxville, 1823, p. 35. Compare, also, p. 74. 3 Ibid., pp. 25, 26. 188 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. So the Mississippi valley was entered at Pittsburgh, on the New River, and on the Holston^and Clinch. It was only Florida, the new conquest, accepted in exchange for Havana, that civilised men left as a desert. When, in July, possession of it was taken, the whole number of its inhabitants, of every age and sex, men, wives, children, and servants, was three thousand, and of these the men were almost all in the pay of the Catholic King. 1 The possession of it had cost Spain nearly two hundred and thirty thousand dollars annually ; and now Spain, as a compensation for Havana, made over to England the territory which occasioned this fruitless expense. Most of the people, receiving from the Spanish treasury indemnity for their losses, migrated to Cuba, taking with them the bones of their saints and the ashes of their distinguished dead ; leaving, at St. Augustine, their houses of stone, in that climate imperishable, without occupants, and not so much as a grave tenanted. The western province of Florida extended west and north to the Mississippi, in the latitude of thirty-one degrees. On the 20th of October the French sur- rendered the post of Mobile, with its brick fort, 2 which was fast crumbling to ruins. A month later the slight stockade at Tombecbe, 3 in the west of the Choctaw coun- try, was delivered up. In all this England gained nothing 1 Lieut.-C'olonel Robertson's Report of the State of E. and W. Florida, p. 115. : Gayavre. 3 Florida, in America, and the West Indies, vol. cxxxiv. Gayarre", vol. ii. p. 108. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 189 for the time but an unhealthy station for her troops, for whom there was long no shelter but low huts of bark. To secure peace at the south, the Secretary of State had given orders l to invite a congress of the southern tribes, the Catawbas, Cherokees, Creeks, Chicasaws, and Choctaws ; and in a convention held on the 10th of November, at Augusta, at which the governors of Virginia and the colonies south of it were present, the peace with the Indians 2 of the south and south-west was ratified. The head man and chiefs of both the Upper and Lower Creek nations, whose warriors were thirty -six hundred in number, agreed to extend the frontier of the settlement of Georgia. From this time dates the prosperity of that province, of which the commerce, in ten years, increased almost five-fold. For these vast regions Grenville believed he was framing a perfect system of government. If he was ignorant as to America, in England he understood his position, and proudly and confidently prepared to meet that assembly, in which English ambition contends for power. His opponents were divided ; Charles Yorke, the Attorney-General, had resigned, but so reluctantly, that in doing it he burst out into tears. Newcastle and his friends designed him as their candidate for the high station of Lord Chancellor, which was the 1 Egremont to Governor Boone, March 16, 1763. Boone to Egremont, June 1, 1763. 2 Treaty with the Upper and Lower Creeks, November 10, 1763. Fauquier to Egremont, November 20, 1763. M'Call's History of Georgia, vol. L p. 301. 190 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. great object of his ambition. But Pitt would never hear of it. "My resistance of my Lord Mansfield's influence," said he, "is not made in animosity to the man, but in opposition to his principles/' Since through Charles Yorke the ways of thinking of Lord Mansfield would equally prevail in Westminster Hall, he cared not to hear the name of Yorke sound the highest among the long robe, and he dismissed from his mind the vain dream that any solid union on revolution principles was possible under the various entanglements. 1 So when Parliament assembled, Yorke o was with the court in principle, and yet a leader of the Opposition. On the first night of the session there were two divisions relating to Wilkes, and on both the Ministers had a majority of nearly three to one. In the debate on the King's Speech and the Address, Pitt spoke with great ability ; 2 Grenville, in answering him, went through all the business of the summer, and laid before the House his plans of economy ; contrasting them with the profusion which had marked the conduct of the war. He was excessively applauded during the whole course of his speech, and afterwards complimented and congratulated by numbers of people upon the firmness of his conduct and the establishment of the Government, which now seemed thoroughly 1 Grenville Papers, vol. ii. pp. 149, 218, 239. Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 261. 2 Harrington to Mitchell, quoted in Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 262. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 191 settled. The King repeated to him the praises bestowed on the superiority of talent and judgment with which he had spoken. 1 In the ensuing debate on the question, whether the privilege of Parliament preserved a member from being taken up for writing and publishing a libel, Charles Yorke, the great lawyer of the Rockingham Whigs, spoke against the claim of privilege, and the House decided by a great majority, that a member of Par- liament, breaking the laws, is not privileged against arrest. Nor would Grenville or the King brook opposition ; Barre, the gallant associate of Wolfe, was dismissed from the army for his votes, and the brave and candid Conway from the army and from his place in the bed-chamber. Shelburne also was not to remain the King's aide-de-camp. The House of Commons entering upon the con- sideration of supplies with entire confidence in the Minister, readily voted those necessary for the military establishment in the Colonies ; and this was followed by a renewed grant of the land-tax, which, at four shillings in the pound, produced a little more than two million pounds sterling. Grenville promised that the tax should be continued at that rate for only two years after the peace ; and then should be reduced to three shillings in the pound, an easement to the landed interest of 500,000/. Huske, the 1 Grenville in Diary, Nov. 16, vol. ii. pp. 224, 225. 192 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. new member for Maiden, once subservient to Charles Townshend, a native of New Hampshire, educated at Boston, the same who nearly nine years before had in 1755 foreshadowed the stamp-tax, 1 and had publicly pledged himself to propose 2 a plan for defraying all the expenses of the military service in America by a fund on the colonies, a man who was allowed to under- stand the colonies very well, seized an opportunity 3 to renew his proposal, boasting that taxes might be laid on the colonies to yield 500,000/., which would secure the promised relief to the country gentlemen. This sum, he insisted, the Americans were well able to pay, and he was heard by the House with great joy and attention, 4 betraying his native land for the momentary 1 Huske's Present State of North America, &c., 1755. Of this work there were two English editions in that year, and one in Boston, pp. 82, 83. 2 " I shall humbly propose a plan in my last chapter," &c. : Huske, p. 83. His last chapter was not printed. 3 " What is most unlucky for us is, there is one Mr. Huske, who understands America very well, and has lately got a seat in the House of Commons ; but, instead of standing an advocate for his injured country (for he is an American born, and educated in Boston), he has officiously proposed, in the House of Commons, to lay a tax on the Colonies which will amount to 500,000. per annum, sterling ; which he says they are well able to pay ; and he was heard by the House with great joy and attention." Those who report Huske's speech do not specify the day on which it was pronounced. It seems to me it must have been spoken either on the vote of supply for maintaining the forces and garrison in the plantations, in committee on December 5, in the House on the 6th ; or on the vote of the land-tax, in committee on the 7th, in the House on December 8. These are the only occasions on which, as it would appear, the speech would not have been out of order. Journal of the House of Commons, vol. xxix., pp. 695, 698. Annual Register for 1764. Appendix to Chronicle, pp. 157, 163. A reduction of a shilling in the pound on the land-tax would have been a reduction of 508.732J. 4 For an account of Huske's speech, see extract of a letter from a gentle- man in London to his friend in New York, in Weyman's New York Gazette of 1703.1 ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 193 pleasure of being cheered by the aristocracy, which was soon to laugh at him. 1 In England the force of opposition was broken. Charles Yorke came penitently and regretfully to Grenville to mourn over his mistake in resigning office, and make complaint of the exigency of the times which had whirled him out of so eminent and advantageous a post in the law ; and Grenville felt himself so strong as to dare to slight him. Even Charles Townshend was ready to renounce the friendship of Pitt, and his mani- fest desire of taking office passed unheeded. Nothing was feared from the opposition in England. Who could look, then, for resistance from America ? or forbode danger from a cause on trial in a county court in Virginia ? Tobacco was the legalised currency of Virginia. In 1755. 2 a year of war and consequent interruption of agricultural pursuits, and again in 1758, 3 a year of the utmost distress, the legislature indulged the people in the alternative of paying their public dues, including the dues to the established clergy, in money at the April 5, 1764. Gordon, in History of American Revolution, vol. i. p. 157, quotes the letter as from Stephen Sayre to Captain Isaac Sears, of New York. See, also, Joseph Reed to Charles Pettit, London, June 11, 1764, in Reed's Life and Correspondence of Reed, voL i p. 33. The date of Sayre's letter shows the speech must have been made before February 7, 1764 ; probably in December, 1763. l Reed's Reed, vol. i. p. 33. 2 Rev. James Maury to John Fontaine, June 15, 1756, from the collections of Peter Force. 3 Rev. James Maury, in 1763 : "The Act of 1758." Wirt's Life of Patrick Henry, p. 39. VOL. II. O 194 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. fixed rate of two pence for the pound of tobacco. All but the clergy acquiesced in the law. At their instance its ratification was opposed by the Bishop of London, who remarked on " the great change in the temper of the people of Virginia in the compass of a few years, and the diminution of the prerogative of the crown." " The rights of the clergy and the authority of the King," said he, "must stand or fall together." 1 And the Act was negatived by the King in council. The " Two-penny Act " became, therefore, null and void from the beginning ; and in the Virginia courts of law it remained only to inquire by a jury into the amount of damages which the complainants had sustained. 2 Patrick Henry was one of those engaged to plead against "the parsons," whose cause was become a contest between the prerogative and the people of Virginia. When a boy, he had learned something of Latin ; of Greek the letters ; but nothing methodically. It had been his delight to wander alone with the gun or the angling-rod ; or by some sequestered stream to enjoy the ecstacy of meditative idleness. He married at eighteen ; attempted trade ; toiled unsuccessfully as a farmer ; then with buoyant mind resolved on becoming a lawyer ; and answering questions successfully by the aid of six weeks' study of Coke upon Littleton and the Statutes of Virginia, he gained a license as a barrister. 1 Bishop of London to Board of Trade, January, 1759. 2 Compare Lieut. Governor Fauquier to Board of Trade, June 30, 1760. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 195 For three years the novice dwelt under the roof of his father-in-law, an innkeeper near Hanover Court-house, ignorant of the science of law, and slowly learning its forms. On the first day of December, as Patrick Henry entered the court, before which he had never spoken, he saw on the bench more than twenty clergymen, the most learned men in the colony ; and the house was filled and surrounded by an overwhelming multitude. To the select jury which had been summoned, Maury, " the parson " whose cause was on trial, made objections ; for he thought them of " the vulgar herd," and three or four of them dissenters of the sect called " New Lights." " They are honest men," said Henry, " and therefore unexceptionable ;" and the court being satisfied, " they were immediately called to the book and sworn." The course of the trial was simple. The contract was, that Maury should be paid sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco : the Act of 1758 fixed the value at two pence a pound ; in 1 759 it had been worth thrice that sum. The council for the clergy briefly explained the standard of their damages, and gave a high-wrought eulogium on their benevolence. The forest-born orator, of whose powers none yet were conscious, rose awkwardly to reply, but faltered only as he began. He built his argument on the natural right of Virginia to self-direction in her affairs, pleading against the prerogative of the Crown, and the civil o 2 196 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [173. establishment of the Church, against monarchy and priestcraft. The Act of 1758, having every characteristic of a good law, and heing of general utility, could not, consistently with the original compact between King and people, be annulled. " A King/' he added, " who annuls or disallows laws of so salutary a nature, from being the father of his people degenerates into a tyrant, and forfeits all right to obedience." At this assertion, the opposing counsel cried out aloud to the bench, " The gentleman has spoken treason." Royalists, too, in the crowd, raised a confused murmur of " treason, treason, treason." " The harangue," thought one of the hearers, " exceeds the most seditious and inflammatory of the most seditious tribunes in Rome." Some seemed struck with horror ; some said afterwards, their blood ran cold, and their hair stood on end. The multitude, wrapt in silence, filling every spot in the house, and every window, bent forward to catch the words of the patriot, as he proceeded. He defined the use of an established church and of the clergy in society : " When they fail to answer those ends, " said he, " the commu- nity have no further need of their ministry, and may justly strip them of their appointments. In this parti- cular instance, by obtaining the negative of the law in question, instead of acquiescing in it they ceased to be useful members of the state,, and ought to be con- sidered as enemies of the community." "Instead of 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 197 countenance they very justly deserve to be punished with signal severity." " Except you are disposed," thus he addressed the jury, " yourselves to rivet the chains of bondage on your own necks, do not let slip the oppor- tunity now offered of making such an example of the reverend plaintiff, as shall hereafter be a warning to himself and his brothers, not to have the temerity to dispute the validity of laws authenticated by the only sanction which can give force to laws for the govern- ment of this colony, the authority of its own legal representatives, with its council and governor." Thus he pleaded for the liberty of the Continent, and its independence of all control from England over its legislature ; treating the negative of the King in council as itself in equity a nullity. The cause seemed to involve only the interests of the clergy, and Henry made it the cause of the people of America. The jury promptly rendered a verdict of a penny damages. A motion for a new trial was refused : an appeal was granted. But the verdict being received, there was no redress. The vast throng gathered in triumph round their champion child of the yeomanry, who on that day had taught them to aspire to religious liberty and legis- lative independence. " The crime of which Henry is guilty," wrote one of the clergy, "is little, if any, inferior to that which brought Simon Lord Lovat to the block." For " the vindication of the King's injured honour and authority," they urged the punishment of 198 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. the young Virginian, and a list was furnished of witnesses against him. But Patrick Henry knew not fear ; nor did his success conquer his aversion to the old black letter of the law books. Though he removed to the county of Louisa, in quest of business, he loved the green wood better even than before, and would hunt deer for days together, taking his only rest under the trees ; and as he strolled through the forest, with his ever ready musket in his hand, his serene mind was ripening for duty, he knew not how, by silent communion with nature. The movement in Virginia was directed against the prerogative. Vague rumours prevailed of new com- mercial and fiscal regulations, to be made by act of Parliament ; l and yet Americans refused to believe it possible that the British legislature would wilfully subvert their liberty. No remonstrance was prepared against the impending measures, of which the extent was kept secret. Massachusetts, in January, 1764, with a view to effect the greatest possible reduction of the duty on foreign West Indian products, elected Hutchinson as its joint agent with Mauduit. But before he could leave the province, the House began to distrust him, and by a majority of two, excused him from the service. 2 The designs of government were confided to the 1 Letter to Lord George Germaine, pp. 6, 7. - Hutchinson's MS. Letter Book, vol. ii. pp. 76, 77. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 199 crown officers in America. For generations they, and their predecessors, had been urging the establishment of a parliamentary revenue for their support. They sought office in America for its emoluments ; the increase and security of those emoluments formed their whole political system. When they learned that the taxes which they had so long and so earnestly recom- mended, were to be applied exclusively to the support of the army, they shrunk from upholding obnoxious measures, which to them were to bring no profit. They were disheartened, and began to fear that provision for the civil list, the only object they cared for, was indefi- nitely postponed. In their view, the regulation and the reformation of the American Government was become a necessary work, and should take precedence of all other business. They would have a parliamentary regulation of colonial charters, and a certain and suffi- cient civil list, 1 laid upon perpetual funds. But Grenville, accepting the opinions of his secretary, Jackson, refused to become the attorney for American office-holders, or the founder of a stupendous system of colonial patronage and corruption. His policy looked mainly to the improvement of the finances, and the alleviation of the burdens which pressed upon the country gentlemen of England. When Halifax urged the payment of the salaries of the crown officers in the colonies, directly from England, in accordance with the system which he 1 Bernard's Letters, passim. 200 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. had been maturing since 1748, Grenville would not consent to it ; and though Halifax, at a formal interview with him, at which Hillsborough and Jenkinson were present, became extremely heated and eager, 1 Grenville remained inflexible. Nor would he listen to the suggestion, that the revenue to be raised in America should constitute a fund to be disposed of under the sign manual of the King ; he insisted that it should be paid into the receipt of the . Exchequer, to be regularly appropriated l>y Parliament. 2 Nor did Grenville ever take part in the schemes which were on foot to subvert the charters of the colonies, and control their domestic government. Nor did he contribute to confer paramount authority on the military officers in America. 3 On the contrary, he desired to keep the army subordinate to the law. He did not, indeed, insist that his colleagues should yield to his opinions, but, in Parliament and elsewhere, he refrained from favouring the system which would have made the crown officers in America wholly independent of American legislatures ; and have raised the military power in America above the civil. When, therefore, he came to propose taxes on America, he was at variance 1 Grenville's Diary for Friday, January 6, 1764, in Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 48. 2 Hartley, in his published letters, dwells on this distinction. But compare the acts prepared by Grenville, with those of Townshend and Lord North. 3 Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, second edit. p. 69, and compare the edition of 1776, vol. i. p. 101. Grenville's Speeches, in Cavendish, for April, 1770. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 201 with his colleagues, whose rashness he moderated, and whose plan of government he opposed, and with the whole body of colonial office-holders, to whose selfish- ness he refused to minister. So the plans of Halifax and Charles Townshend, for the time, fell to the ground. Grenville had but one object, to win the support of the landed gentry, whose favour secured majorities in Par- liament, and gave a firm tenure of office. He was narrow-minded and obstinate ; but it was no part of his intention to introduce despotic government into the New World. For a moment the existence of the Ministry itself was endangered. All parties joined in condemning the writings of Wilkes ; and even the extreme measure of his expulsion from his seat in Parliament, was carried with only one dissentient vote. 1 The opposition, with great address, proceeded to a general question on the legality of general warrants. They were undoubtedly illegal. Grenville himself was sure of it. He sought, therefore, to change the issue and evade the question by delay ; and insisted that a single branch of the legislature ought not to declare law ; that to do so would be an encroachment on the power of Parliament, and on the functions of the judiciary, before which the question was pending. Norton, the Attorney-General, said, harshly, that in a court of law the opinion of the House of Commons was worth no more attention than that 1 Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 493. 202 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. of so many drunken porters ; but Grenville defended his well-chosen position with exceeding ability, and was said to have outdone himself. 1 In a house of four hundred and fifty he escaped, but only by a majority of fourteen. The King felt the vote of the opposition as a personal offence. " My nature," said he, firmly, " ever inclines me to be acquainted with who are my true, and who false friends ; the latter I think worse than open enemies. I am not to be neglected unpunished." 2 In the account Grenville sent him of the division, marks of being dispirited were obvious, and the King instantly answered, "that if he would but hide his feelings, and speak with firmness, the first occasion that offered, he would find his members return." The minister followed his sovereign's advice, and the event exceeded the most sanguine expectations of both. 3 The occasion was offered on presenting the budget. There were still reasons enough to make Grenville reluctant to propose a stamp-tax for America. But the wish for it was repeated to him from all classes of men, and was so general, that had he not proposed it, he would not have satisfied the expectations of his colleagues, or the public, or Parliament, or the King. The Americans in London unanimously denied either the justice or the right of the British Parliament, in 1 Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 493. King to Grenville, February 18, 1764. Grenville Papers, vol. ii. p. 267. 3 In a letter from the King to Lord North, February 22, 1780. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 203 which America was not represented, to grant their property to the crown ; and this questioning of the power of Parliament irritated 1 the minister. It was an impeachment of his declared belief and of his acts, and his conscience easily condemned opinions which thwarted his ambition. Besides ; as a thorough Whig, he regarded the Parliament of England as in all cases supreme ; he knew " no other law, no other rule." 2 The later reports of the military commanders 3 in America, accused the colonies of reluctance to furnish the men and money which the Commander-in-Chief had required. 4 The free exercise of deliberative powers by the colonial assemblies, seemed to show a tendency for self-direction and legislative independence, which might even reach the Acts of Navigation. Forged letters of Montcalm, too, were exhibited to Grenville, 5 in which American independence at an early day was pre- dicted as the consequence of the conquest of Canada. Lord Mansfield, who believed the letters genuine, 6 was 1 John Huskc's Letter, printed in Boston Gazette of November 4, 1764. 2 George Grenville, in Cavendish, vol. L p. 496, 3 Letters of Amherst and his subordinates. 4 Calvert to Lieut. Governor Sharpe, February 29 to April 3. * That these letters, of which I have a copy, were shown to Grenville, is averred by Almon, Biographical Anecdotes, vol. ii. p. 99. On matters which were known to Lord Temple, Almon's evidence merits consideration. That they are forgeries, appears from their style, from their exaggeration, from their want of all authentication, from the comparison, freely and repeatedly allowed by successive ministries in France, of all the papers relating to the conquest of Canada, or to Montcalm. The fabrication and sale of political papers and secrets \\ a-, in the last century, quite a traffic. 6 Debate in the House of Lords. 204 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION". [1768. persuaded, as were others, that the dependence of the colonies was endangered. Further : Grenville had been " made to believe " that the Americans were able to contribute to the revenue, and he had little reason to think them so stubborn as to refuse the payment of a tax. There was not " the least disposition in the agent of the colonies to oppose it;" 1 and the agent of Massachusetts made a merit of his submission. 2 The Secretary of Maryland had for years watched the ripening of the measure, and could not conceal his joy at its adoption. 3 Thomas Pownall, " the fribble," 4 who had been Governor of Massachusetts, and is remembered as one who grew more and more liberal as he grew old, openly contended for an American revenue, to " be raised by customs on trade, a stamp-duty, a moderate land-tax in lieu of quit rents, and an excise." 5 But, on the other hand, Jackson, Grenville's able secretary, so well acquainted with the colonies, would never himself be privy to any measures taken with respect to the Stamp Act, after having formally de- clined giving any other advice on the subject, excepting 1 J. Mauduit, February 11, 1764. Jasper Mauduit's letter to the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the province of Massachusetts Bay. London, Feb. 11, 1764. 3 Calvert to Sharpe, in many letters. 4 Samuel Adams's opinion of Thomas Pownall. 5 See first and second editions of his Administrations of the Colonies. In the later editions this id effaced. See, too, New York Gazette for Monday, June 11, 1764. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 205 that which he had always given, to lay the project aside. 1 Lord Hillsborough, 2 too, then first Lord of the Board of Trade, as yet retained enough of the spirit of an Irishman to disapprove a direct taxation of a dependency of the British empire by a British act of Parliament. He gave his advice against the stamp- tax, and to the last withheld from it his support ; so that Grenville, in proposing it, was sustained neither by the civil office-holders in America, who had been and were still so clamorous for parliamentary inter- ference, nor by the Board of Trade, which was the very author of the system. The traditions of the Whig party, too, whose prin- ciples Grenville claimed to represent, retained the opinions 3 of Sir Robert Walpole, and questioned the wisdom of deriving a direct parliamentary revenue from America. " Many members of the House of Commons declared against the stamp-duty, while it was mere matter of conversation." 4 It was fresh in memory that Pitt in 1756 had in vain been urged to propose an American stamp-tax. The force of the objection derived from the want of representation on the part of America did not escape the consideration of Grenville. He accepted the theory of the British Constitution, which regarded the House of Commons 1 R. Jackson to Jared Ingersoll, March 22, 1766. 5 HillBborough's own statement, made to W. S. Johnson, of Connecticut. 3 Opinion of Sir Robert Walpole, in the Annual Register. 4 Hutchinson, vol. iii. p. 116. 206 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [17G3. as a representative body. In his inner mind he recog- nised, and to one friend he confessed, the propriety of allowing America representation in the body by which it should be taxed, and at least wished that Parliament would couple the two measures. But he shunned the responsibility of proposing such a representation ; and chose to risk offending the colonies, rather than forfeit the favour of Parliament. He looked about him, there- fore, as was always his method, for palliatives, that he might soothe the colonies, and yet gratify the landed gentry. It was under such circumstances that Thomas Penn, one of the proprietaries of Pennsylvania, with Allen, a loyal American, then Chief Justice of Pennsylvania, under a proprietary appointment, and Richard Jackson, sought an interview with Grenville. They did not object to the intended new act of trade ; but reasoned against entering on a system of direct taxation. The stamp-duty, they said, was an internal regulation ; and they entreated that it might be post- poned till some sort of consent to it should be given by the Assemblies, to prevent a tax of that nature from being laid without the consent of the colonies. 1 Huske, too, repenting of his eager zeal in promising " With regard to money bills, I believe the Parliament will render those not necessary, as several duties are to be laid on goods imported into the plantations, and it is proposed also to lay a stamp-duty on the colonies and islands, as is done here, in order to defray all expenses of troops, necessary for their defence. We have endeavoured to get this last postponed, as it is an internal tax, and wait till some sort of consent to it shall be given by the 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 207 a revenue from America, joined in entreating delay, that opportunity might be given for America to be heard. Grenville's colleagues did not share his scruples ; but his mind was accustomed to balance opinions ; and he desired to please all parties. He persisted, therefore, in the purpose of proposing a stamp-tax, but also resolved to show what he called " tenderness " to the colonies, and at the risk of being scoffed at by the whole Bedford party for his feebleness and hesitancy, he consented to postpone the tax for a year. He also attempted to reconcile America to his new regulations. In doing this he still continued within the narrow limits of protection. The British consumption of foreign hemp amounted in value to three hundred thousand pounds a year. Grenville was willing to shake off the precarious dependence upon other countries. The bounties on hemp and flax, first given in the time of Queen Anne, 1 had been suffered to drop ; for, having never been called for, they had fallen into oblivion. The experiment was again renewed ; and a bounty of eight pounds per ton for seven years, then of six pounds several Assemblies, to prevent a tax of that nature from being laid without the consent of the colonies; but whether we shall succeed is not certain. However, a few days will determine." Thomas Penn, one of the Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, to Jamea Hamilton, the Lieutenant -Governor. London, March 9, 1764. The original is in the possession of our American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia. 1 3 & 4 Ann. c. t, and 8 Ann. c. xiii. 30. 12 Ann. c. ix. 2. 8 Geo. I. c. xil 1. 2 Geo. IL a xxxv. 208 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1763. for seven years, then of four pounds for as many more, was granted on hemp or undressed flax imported from America. 1 But as to manufactures, it was expected that no American would be " so unreasonable or so rash " as to engage in the establishment of linen manufactories there, even of " the coarser kinds " of linens ; for in that case " not prohibitory laws, but laws to which no American could form an objection, would effectually thwart all their endeavours," 2 as the exigencies of the state required that Great Britain should disappoint American establishments of manufactures as " contrary to the general good. " 3 To South Carolina and Georgia special indulgence was shown ; following the line of precedent, 4 rice, though an enumerated commodity, was, on the payment of a half subsidy, allowed to be carried directly to any part of America, to the southward of those colonies ; that is, to the foreign West India islands ; 3 so that the broken and mowburnt rice might be sold as food for negroes, and good rice made cheaper for the British market. The boon that was to mollify New England was concerted with Israel Mauduit, acting for his brother, 1 Report of Privy Council, March 7, 1764. Order in Council, March 9, Geo. III. c. xxvi. 1. Compare the regulations lately made, 53, 55. - Regulations lately made, &c., 68, 69. 3 Ibid., 69. 4 3 Geo. II. c. xxviii., and 27 Geo. II. c. xviii. 5 4 Geo. III. c. xxvii. Regulations lately made, 52, 53. 1763.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 209 the agent of Massachusetts, and was nothing less than the whale fishery. 1 Great Britain had sought to com- pete with the Dutch in that branch of industry ; had fostered it by bounties ; had relaxed the act of naviga- tion, so as to invite even the Dutch to engage in it from British ports in British shipping. But it was all in vain. Grenville gave up the unsuccessful attempt, and sought a rival for Holland in British America, which had hitherto lain under the double discouragement, of being excluded from the benefit of a bounty, and of havjng the products of its whale fishing taxed unequally. He now adopted the plan of gradually giving up the bounty to the British whale fishery, which would be a saving of thirty thousand pounds 2 a year to the Treasury, and of relieving the American fishery from the inequality of the discriminating duty, except the old subsidy, which was scarcely one per cent. 3 This is the most liberal act of Grenville's administration, of which the merit is not diminished by the fact, that the American whale fishery was superseding the English under every discouragement. It required liberality to accept this result as inevitable, and to favour it. It was done too, with a distinct conviction that " the American whale fishery, freed from its burthen, would soon totally overpower the British." So this valuable branch of 1 Jasper Mauduit, the agent of Massachusetts. Report of Privy Council, March 7. Order in Council, March 9, 1764. 2 Regulations lately made, p. 60. * 4 Geo. III. c. xxix. VOL. II. P 210 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1764. trade, which produced annually three hundred thousand pounds, and which would give employment to many shipwrights and other artificers, and to three thou- sand seamen, 1 was resigned to America. The gain would, in the first instance, be the gain of New England, but the mother country, reasoned Grenville, feels herself benefited by the welfare of every parti- cular colony ; and the colonies must much more contribute interchangeably to the advantage of each other. Such was the system of regulations for the colonies, prepared under the direction of Grenville, with minute and indefatigable care. It was after these preparations, that on the memor- able 9th day of March, 1764, George Grenville made his first appearance in the House of Commons as Chancellor of the Exchequer, to unfold the budget. He did it with art and ability. 2 He boasted that the revenue was managed with more frugality than in the preceding reign. He explained his method of fund- ing the debt. He received great praise for having reduced the demands from Germany. The whole sum of these claims amounted to nearly nine millions of pounds, and were settled for about thirteen hundred 1 Regulations lately made, &c., pp. 4951. 2 Walpole's Memoirs of George III. vol. i. p. 389. Thomas Wbately's Con- siderations. 1764.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 211 thousand pounds. The demands from the Landgrave of Hesse still exceeded seventeen hundred thousand pounds, and he was put off with a payment of one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. The taxes of Great Britain exceeded by three millions of pounds what they were in 1 754, before the war ; yet the pre- sent object was only to make the colonies maintain their own army. Till the last war, they had never con- tributed to the support of an army at all. Besides the taxes on trade which were immediately to be imposed, Grenville gave notice in the House, 1 that it was his intention in the next session, to bring in a bill im- posing stamp duties in America, and the reasons for giving such notice were, because he understood some people entertained doubts of the power of Parliament to impose internal taxes in the colonies ; and because that although of all the schemes which had fallen under his consideration, he thought a stamp act was the best, he was not so wedded to it as to be unwill- ing to give it up for any one that might appear more eligible ; or if the colonies themselves thought 1 " Mr. Grenville gave notice to the House, that it was his intention, in the next session, to bring in a bill imposing stamp duties in America ; and the reasons for giving such notice were, because he understood some people enter- tained doubts of the power of Parliament to impose internal taxes in the colonies; and because that, although of all the schemes which had fallen under his consideration, he thought a Stamp Act was the best, he was not so wedded to it as not to give it up for any one that might appear more eligible ; or if the colonies themselves thought any other mode would be more expe- dient, he should have no objection to come into it." Letter of Garth, agent of South Carolina, a Member of Parliament to South Carolina. p 2 212 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1764. any other mode would be more expedient, he should have no objections to come into it, by act of Parlia- ment. At that time the merits of the question were opened at large. The Opposition were publicly called upon to deny, if they thought it fitting, the right of the legislature to impose any tax, internal or external, on the colonies ; and not a single person ventured to controvert that right. Upon a solemn question, asked in a full House, 1 there was not one negative. " As we are stout, " said Beckford, "I hope we shall be merciful;" and no other made a reply. On the 14th of March, Charles Jenkinson, 2 from a committee, on which he had for his associates Grenville and Lord North, reported a bill modifying and per- petuating the act of 1733, with some changes to the disadvantage of the colonies ; an extension of the navigation acts, making England the storehouse of Asiatic as well as of European supplies ; a diminution of drawbacks on foreign articles exported to America ; imposts in America, especially on wines ; a revenue duty instead of a prohibitory duty on foreign molasses ; an increased duty on sugar ; various regulations to sustain English manufactures, as well as to enforce more diligently the acts of trade ; a prohibition of all trade between America and St. Pierre and Miquelon. 1 Cavendish, vol. i. p. 494. - Journal 8 of Commons, vol. xxix. pp. 949, 978, 987, 1015, &c. 1764.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 213 The only opposition came from Huske, 1 who observed, that the colonies ought first to have notice and an opportunity of laying before the House, by their agents, any objections they may have to such a measure. The bill was rapidly carried through its several stages, was slightly amended, on the 4th of April was agreed to by the Lords, and on the next day was approved by the King. England had avowedly undertaken to give and grant imposts on the American trade. The preamble declared that this was a contribution "towards" the requisite revenue which was said to be fixed at 330,000. 2 " These new taxes," wrote Whately, the joint Secretary of the Treasury, " will certainly not be sufficient to defray that share of the American expense, which America ought and is able to bear. Others must be added." 3 That this was intended appeared also from the bill itself. This act had for the first time the title of " granting duties in the colonies and plantations of America ; " for the first time it was asserted in the preamble, " that it was just and necessary that a revenue should be raised there ;" and the Commons expressed themselves "desirous to make some provision in the present session of Parliament toward raising the said revenue." 4 Grenville, who put on the appearance of candour, 1 Secretary Cecilius Calvert to Lieut-Governor Sharpe. London, Feb. 29 to April 1, 1764. 2 Hutch inson to Williams. 3 Whately to Jared Ingersoll, pp. 3, 4. 4 Burke on American Taxation. 214 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1764. endeavoured to gain acquiescence in the proposed stamp- act ; and when the agents waited upon him, to know what could be done to avert it, he answered : " I have proposed the resolution in the terms that Parliament has adopted, from a real regard and tenderness for the subjects in the colonies. It is highly reasonable they should contribute something towards the charge of pro- tecting themselves, and in aid of the great expense Great Britain put herself to on their account. No tax appears to me so easy and equitable as a stamp duty. 1 It will fall only upon property, will be collected by the fewest officers, and will be equally spread over America and the West Indies. 2 What ought particularly to recommend it is the mode of collecting it, which does not require any number of officers vested with extra- ordinary powers of entering houses, or extend a sort of influence which I never wished to increase. " The colonists now have it in their power, by agree- ing to this tax, to establish a precedent for their being consulted before any tax is imposed on them by Parlia- ment ; 3 for their approbation of it being signified to Parliament next year, when the tax comes to be imposed, will afford a forcible argument for the like proceeding in all such cases. If they think any other mode of taxation more convenient to them, and make 1 W. Knox. " Israel Mauduit, in Mass. Hist. Collections, vol. ix. p. 270. 3 William Knox, agent for Georgia: The Claim of the Colonies to an Exemption from Internal Taxes imposed by authority of Parliament Examined ; in a letter from a Gentleman in London to his Friend in America, pp. 33, 34. 1764.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 215 any proposition of equal efficacy with the stamp-duty, I will give it all due consideration." 1 Grenville did not propose a requisition on the colonies, or invite them to tax themselves ; 2 the delay granted was only for form's sake, 3 and with the hope of winning from them some expression of assent, 4 and was in itself a subject of censure and discontent among the more thorough reformers of colonial governments. No hope was given that Parliament would forego taxing America. On the contrary, it was held to be its bounden duty to do so. To a considerate and most respectable merchant, a member of the House of Commons, who was making a representation against 1 William Knox, agent for Georgia : The Claim of the Colonies to an Exemption from Internal Taxes imposed by authority of Parliament Examined ; in a Letter from a Gentleman in London to hia Friend in America, p. 35. 2 Edmund Burke's Speech on American Taxation : '' I have disposed of this falsehood ;" and it was a falsehood. Whoever wishes to see a most artful attempt to mislead, may look at Israel Mauduit'a reply to Burke, or, as he called him, " the Agent for New York." He seems to say, that Grenville had given the colonies the option to tax themselves. But he does not say it; he only proves that the Massachusetts Assembly BO understood the letter from his brother Jasper, communicating the account of the interview of the agents with Grenville. 3 Cecilius Calvert, Secretary of Maryland, to the Lieutenant-Governor of Maryland, Feb. 29 to April 3, 1764 : " The resolution on stamp duties left out, to apprise the colonies, if any they have, they make objections, only given, I am told, pro forma tcvntvm, before it is fixed next year, which the agents are to expect, unless very good reasons are produced to the House per contra." 4 " When Mr. Grenville first hesitated a doubt of the unlimited supremacy of the British Legislature, if he did not moot a point that, perhaps, would not otherwise have been called in question, he conveyed to the discontented certain information, that they might depend upon the support of a party so considerable as to deserve the attention of the British ministry." Letter to Lord George Germaine on the Rise, &c., of Rebellion in the Southern Colonies, pp. 9, 10. Compare Dean Tucker's Fourth Tract. 216 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1704. proceeding with the Stamp Act, Grenville answered, " If the stamp-duty is disliked, I am willing to change it for any other equally productive. If you object to the Americans being taxed by Parliament, save your- self the trouble of the discussion, for I am determined on the measure." ] The whole weight of the British Legislature, too, was brought to intimidate the colonists. They were apprised that not a single member of either House doubted of the right of Parliament to impose a stamp- duty or any other tax upon the colonies ; " 2 and that every influence might be moved to induce them to yield, the King, in April, at the prorogation, gave to what he called, " the wise regulations " of Grenville his his " hearty approbation/' 3 Out of doors the measures were greatly applauded. It seemed as if the vast external possessions of England were about to be united indissolubly with the mother country by one comprehensive commercial system. Even Thomas Pownall, once governor of Massachusetts, who, not destitute of liberal feelings, had repeatedly predicted the nearness of American Independence, was lost in admiration of "the great Minister/' who was taking " pains to understand the commerce and interests " of the plantations, and with " firmness and 1 Edmund Burke's Speech on American Taxation, in Works, American edit., vol. i. p. 456. - William Knox, p. 33. ' Speech, in Adolphus, vol. i. p. 142. 1764.] ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACTS OF NAVIGATION. 217 candour " entering seriously upon regulating their affairs ; l and he prayed that Grenville might " live to see the power, prosperity and honour that must be given to his country, by so great and important an event as his interweaving the administration of the colonies into the British administration." 1 T. Pownall's Administration of the Colonies, first edition, March or April, 1 7tJ4 . Dedication to George Greuville. CHAPTER X. HOW AMERICA RECEIVED THE PLAN OF A STAMP TAX GRENVILLE'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. APRIL DECEMBER, 1764. No sooner was Parliament up, than Jenkinson pressed Grenville to forward the American Stamp Act, by seeking that further information, the want of which he had assigned as a reason for not going on with it. But the Treasury had no mode of direct com- munication with the colonies, and the Secretary of State had no mind to consult them. For the moment nothing was done, though Jackson wrote to Hutchinson of Massachusetts for his opinion on the rights of the colonists and the late proceedings respecting them. Meantime the officers of France, as they made their last journey through Canada, and down the valley of the Mississippi, as they gazed on the magnificence of the country, and on every side received the ex- pressions of passionate attachment from the many tribes of Red Men, cast a wistful and lingering look upon the 1764.] HOW AMERICA RECEIVED THE PLAN OF A STAMP TAX. 219 empire which they were ceding. 1 But Choiseul himself saw futurity better. He who would not set his name to the treaty of peace with Great Britain, issued the order 2 in April, 1764, for the transfer of the island of New Orleans and all Louisiana to Spain. And he did it without mental reserve. He knew that the time was coming when the whole colonial system would be changed ; and in the same year, 3 while he was still Minister of the Marine, he sent De Pontleroy, a lieu- tenant in the navy of the Department of Rochefort, to travel through America, under the name of Beaulieu, in the guise of an Acadian wanderer ; and while England was taxing America by Act of Parliament, France was already counting its steps towards inde- pendence. 4 The world was making progress ; restrictive laws and the oppression of industry were passing av/ay, not less than the inquisition and the oppression of free thought. " Every thing that I see," wrote Voltaire, in April ; " every thing is scattering the seeds of a revolution, which will come inevitably. Light has so spread from neighbour to neighbour, that on the first occasion it will kindle and burst forth. Happy are the young, for their eyes shall see it." 1 Aubry au Ministre, Due de Choiseul, le 7 Avril, 1764. - Le Due de Choiseul a- M. d'Abbadie, 4 Versailles, le 21 Avril, 1764. 3 Choiseul to Durand, Sept 15, 1766. Les id6ea Bur I'AmeYique, soit mili- taires, soit politiques, sont infiniment change*ee depuis 30 ans. 1 De> D 402 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. Nor let the true lovers of their country pass unheeded the grave of Timothy Green, one of an illustrious family of printers, himself publisher of the " New London Gazette," which had always modestly and fearlessly defended his country's rights ; for on Friday, the 1st day of November, his journal came forth without stamps, and gave to the world a paper from the incomparable Stephen Johnson, of Lyme. 1 " The liberty of free inquiry," said he, " is one of the first and most fundamental of a free people. They have an undoubted right to be heard and relieved. They may publish their grievances ; the press is open and free. We may go on to enjoy our rights and liberties as usual. The American governments or inhabitants may associate for the mutual defence of their birthright liberties. A person or people collectively may enjoy and defend their own. The hearts of Americans are cut to the quick by the act ; we have reason to fear very interesting and terrible consequences, though by no means equal to tyranny or slavery. But what an enraged, despairing people will do, when they come to see and feel their ruin, time only can reveal. " It is the joy of thousands, that there is union and concurrence in a general congress. We trust they will also lay a foundation for another congress. The American colonies cannot be enslaved but by their own folly, consent, or inactivity. Truly Britons have 1 New London Gazette, No. 103, Friday, Nov. 1, 1765. 1765.] AMERICA ANNULS THE STAMP ACT. 403 nothing at all to hope for from this most unnatural war. My countrymen, your concern is great, universal, and most just. I am an American born, and my all in this world is embarked with yours, and am deeply touched at heart for your distress. 0, my country ! my dear, distressed country ! For you I have wrote ; for you I daily pray and mourn ; and, to save your invaluable rights and freedom, I would willingly die ! " Forgive my lamenting tears. The dear Saviour himself wept over his native country, doomed to destruction. We appeal to our Supreme Judge against the hand whence these evils are coming. If we perish, we perish, being innocent, and our blood will be required at their hands. Shut not your eyes to your danger, 0, my countrymen ! Do nothing to destroy or betray the rights of your posterity ; do nothing to sully or shade the memory of your noble ancestors. Let all the governments and all the inhabitants in them unitedly resolve to a man, with an immovable stability, to sacri- fice their lives and fortunes, before they will part with their invaluable freedom. It will give you a happy peace in your own breasts, and secure you the most endeared affection, thanks, and blessing of your poste- rity ; it will gain you the esteem of all true patriots and friends of liberty through the whole realm ; yea, and as far as your case is known, it will gain you the esteem and the admiration of the whole world." Such was the spirit of the clergy of Connecticut ; DD 2 404 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. and such the conduct and such the language of the " New London Gazette ;" patriots grew up within its sphere, and he who would single out in the country the region, where at that time the fire of patriotism burned with the purest flame, can find none surpassing the county of New London. The royalists of New York, like Bernard at Boston, railed at all Connecticut as a land of republicans, and maligned Yale College as " a seminary of democracy," the prolific mother of patriots. 1 In New York, " the whole city rose up as one man in opposition to the Stamp Act." The sailors came from their shipping ; " the people flocked in/' as Gage thought, " by thousands ; the number seemed to be still increas- ing ;" and the leader of the popular tumult was Isaac Sears, the self-constituted, and for ten years the recog- nised head, of the people of New York. At the corners of streets, at the doors of the public offices, placards threatened all who should receive or deliver a stamp, or delay business for the want of one. Golden himself retired within the fort, and got from the " Coventry " ship of war a detachment of marines. He would have fired on the people, but was menaced with being hanged, like Porteus of Edinburgh, 2 upon a sign-post, if he did so. In the evening a vast torch- light procession, carrying a scaffold and two images one of the Governor, the other of the devil came from 1 " The pretended patriots, educated in a seminary of Dunserany." Gage to Sir W. Johnson, Sept. 20, 1765. * Paper delivered at the Fort gate by an unknown hand, Nov. 1, 1765. 1765.] AMERICA ANNULS THE STAMP ACT. 405 the Fields, now the Park, down Broadway, to within ten or eight feet of the fort, knocked at its gate, broke open the Governor's coach-house, took out his chariot, carried the images upon it round town, and returned to burn them with his own carriages and sleighs, before his eyes, on the Bowling Green, under the gaze of the garrison on the ramparts, and of all New York gathered round about. " He has bound himself," they cried, " by oath, to be the chief murderer of our rights." " He was a rebel in Scotland, a Jacobite." " He is an enemy to his King, to his country, and mankind." At the same time, a party of volunteers sacked the house occupied by James, and bore off the colours of the royal regiments. On Saturday, the 2nd of November, Golden gave way. The Council questioned his authority to distribute the stamps, and unanimously advised him to declare that he would do nothing in relation to them, but await the arrival of the new governor ; and his declaration to that effect, duly authenticated, was immediately published. But the confidence of the people was shaken. " We will have the stamp papers," cried Sears to the multitude, " within four-and-twenty hours ; " and as he appealed to the crowd, they expressed their adherence by shouts. " Your best way," added Sears to the friends of order, " will be to advise Lieutenant- Governor Golden to send the stamp papers from the fort to the inhabitants." To appease their wrath, 406 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. Golden invited Kennedy to receive them on board the " Coventry." " They are already lodged in the fort," answered Kennedy, unwilling to offend the people. The Common Council of New York next interposed. 1 They asked that the stamped paper should be delivered into the care of the corporation, to be deposited in the City Hall, offering in that case to prevent further confusion. The Common Council were a body elected by the people ; they were the representatives of the people over against the King's Governor and Council, and the military Viceroy. Golden pleaded his oath, to do his utmost, that every clause of the Act should be observed ; he pleaded further the still greater contempt 2 into which the Government would fall by concession. But the Council in which William Smith, the historian of New York, acted a prudent part, 3 as the negotiator between the Lieutenant-Governor, the General, and the people, answered that " his power was unequal to the protection of the inhabitants ; " 4 Gage being appealed to, 5 avowed the belief, that a fire from the fort would be the signal for " an insurrection," and the " commence- ment of a civil war." So the head of the province of New York, and the military chief of all America, con- fessing their inability to stop the anarchy, capitulated 1 Minutes of the Common Council of New York, Nov. 5. Colden to Gage, Nov. 5. " Colden to Major James, Nov. 6. 3 Diary of John Adams. 4 Minutes of Council. 5 Colden to Gage, Nov. 5. Gage to Colden, Nov. 5. Gage to Conway, Nov. 8. Colden to Conway, Nov. 9. 1765.] AMERICA ANNULS THE STAMP ACT. 407 to the municipal body which represented the people. The stamps were taken to the City Hall ; the city government restored order ; the press continued its activity, and in all the streets was heard the shout of " Liberty, Property, and no Stamps ! " The thirst for revenge rankled in Colden's breast. " The lawyers," he wrote to Conway, at a time when the Government in England was still bent on enforcing the Stamp Act, 1 "the lawyers of this place are the authors and conductors of the present sedition. If judges be sent from England, with an able Attorney- General and Solicitor-General, to make examples of some very few, this colony will remain quiet." Others of his letters pointed plainly to John Morin Scott, Robert R. Livingston, and William Livingston, as suitable victims. At the same time, some of the churchmen avowed to one another their longing to see the Arch- bishop of Canterbury display a little more of the resolu- tion of a Laud or a Sextus Quintus ; " for what," said they, " has the Church ever gained by that which the courtesy of England calls prudence ? " 2 Yet when Moore, the new Governor, arrived, he could do nothing but give way to the popular impulse. He dismantled the fort, and suspended his power to execute the Stamp Act. 3 When the Assembly came together, it confirmed the doings of its committee 1 R. Jackson to Bernard, Nov. 8, 1765. : Thomas B. Chandler, Nov. 12, 1765. 3 Sir H. Moore to Conway, Nov. 21. 408 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. at the Congress, and prepared papers analogous to them. In New Jersey, Ogden found himself disavowed by his constituents. The Assembly, by a unanimous vote, accepted his resignation as Speaker, and thanked the two faithful delegates who had signed the proceedings of the Congress. Of those proceedings, New Hampshire, by its Assembly, signified its entire approbation. The voluntary 1 action of the representatives of Georgia was esteemed a valid adhesion to the design of the Congress on the part of the colony. Its Governor was met by " the same rebellious spirit 2 as prevailed at the North." The delegates of South Carolina were received by their Assembly on the 26th of November. On that morning all the papers of the Congress, the declaration of rights, and the addresses were read ; in an evening session, they were all adopted without change, by a vote which wanted but one of being unanimous ; 3 they were signed by the Speaker, and put on board the " Charm- ing Charlotte," a fine ship riding in the harbour with its sails bent ; and the next morning, while the Assembly were signifying, in the most ample and obliging manner, their satisfaction at the conduct of their agents, it stood away, with swelling canvas, for England, bearing the evidence that South Carolina 1 Letter from Gadsden, Dec. 16. 2 Sir J. Wright to Lords of Trade, Nov. 9, 1765. 3 Tryon to Conway, Dec. 26. 1765.] AMERICA ANNULS THE STAMP ACT. 409 gave its heart unreservedly to the cause of freedom and union. " Nothing will save us," wrote Gadsden, " but acting together ; the province that endeavours to act sepa- rately must fall with the rest, and be branded besides with everlasting infamy." The people of North Carolina 1 would neither receive a stamp-man, nor tolerate the use of a stamp, nor suffer its ports to be closed. The meeting of its Legislature was so long prorogued, that it could not join in the application of the Congress ; but had there been need of resorting to arms, u the whole force of North Carolina was ready to join in protecting the rights of the continent." 2 It was the same throughout the country. Wherever a jealousy was roused, that a stamp- officer might exercise his functions, the people were sure to gather about him, and compel him to renew his resignation under oath, or solemnly before witnesses. The colonies began also to think of permanent union. " JOIN OB DIE " became more and more their motto. At Windham, in Connecticut, the freemen, in a multi- tudinous assembly, agreed with one another, " to keep up, establish, and maintain the spirit of union and liberty ; " and for that end they recommended monthly county conventions, and also a general meeting of the colony. 1 Letter from South Carolina, Dec. 2, 1765. 2 Gadsden to Garth, Dec. 1765. 410 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. At New London, the inhabitants of the county of that name, holding a mass meeting in December, unanimously decided in carefully prepared resolves, that every form of rightful government originates from the consent of the people ; that lawful authority cannot pass the boundaries set by them ; that if the limits are passed, they may re -assume the authority which they had delegated ; and that if there is no other mode of relief against the Stamp Act and similar acts, they must re-assume their natural rights., and the authority with which they were invested by the laws of nature and of God. The same principles were adopted at various village gatherings, and became the political platform of Connecticut. In New York, the validity of the British Navigation Acts was more and more openly impugned, so that the merchants claimed a right to every freedom of trade enjoyed in England. When the General applied for the supplies which the province was enjoined by the British Mutiny Act to contribute for the use of the troops quartered among them, the Assembly would pay no heed whatever to an act of Parliament to which they themselves had given no assent ; and in the general tumult, their refusal passed almost unnoticed. Everywhere the fixed purpose prevailed, that " the unconstitutional " Stamp Act should not go into effect. Nothing less than its absolute repeal would give con- tentment, much as England was loved. The greatest 1765.] AMERICA ANNULS THE STAMP ACT. 411 unanimity happily existed ; and all were bent on cherishing it for ever. Here was something new in the affairs of men. In the time of the crusades, and at the era of the reformation, the world was as widely convulsed ; but never had the people of provinces extending over so vast a continent, and so widely sun- dered from one another, been thus cordially bound together in one spirit and one resolve. In all their tumults, they deprecated the necessity of declaring independence ; but they yet more earnestly abhorred and rejected unconditional submission. Still satisfied with the revolution of 1688 and its theory of security to liberty and property, they repelled the name of " republican " as a slander on their loyalty, but they spurned against " passive obedience." Nothing on earth, they insisted, would deprive Great Britain of her transatlantic dominions but her harbouring ungenerous suspicions, and thereupon entering into arbitrary and oppressive measures. " All eyes were turned on her with hope and unbounded affection," with apprehension and firmness of resolve. " Pray for the peace of our Jerusalem," said Otis, from his heart, fearing " the Par- liament would charge the colonies with presenting petitions in one hand and a dagger in the other." Others thought " England would look with favour on what was but an old English spirit of resentment at injurious treatment ; " and all were strong in the consciousness of union. They trusted that " the united 412 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. voice of this very extensive continent," uttering " the sober opinions of all its inhabitants," would be listened to, so that Great Britain and America might once more enjoy "peace, harmony, and the greatest prosperity." Delay made anxiety too intense to be endured. " Every moment is tedious," wrote South Carolina to its agent in London ; " should you have to communicate the good news we wish for, send it to us, if possible, by a messenger swifter than the wind." 1 1 Gadsden to Garth, Dec. 1765. CHAPTER XX. PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. DECEMBER, 1765 JANUARY, 1766. THE Stamp Act, said George Grenville, when ema- ciated, exhausted, and borne down by disappointment, he spoke in the House of Commons for the last time before sinking into the grave "the Stamp Act was not found impracticable. Had I continued in office, I would have forfeited a thousand lives, if the Act had been found impracticable." l " If the administration of this country had not been changed," Richard Rigby, the leader of the Bedford party, long persisted in asserting, " the stamp-tax would have been collected in America with as much ease as the land-tax in Great Britain." 2 The King had dismissed from power the only Ministry bent resolutely on enforcing it ; and, while America was united, his heart was divided between a morbid anxiety 1 Cavendish Debates, voL i. p. 551. J Force, Am. Archives, vol. i. p. 76. 414 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. to execute the law, and his wish never again to employ Bedford and George Grenville. The opinion of England was as fluctuating as the mind of the King. The overbearing aristocracy desired some reduction of the land-tax at the expense of America ; and sordid politicians, accustomed to hold provincial offices by deputy, or to dispose of them to their friends, wished to increase the value of their patronage by maintaining this absolute supremacy at all hazards. The industrial classes were satisfied with the monopoly of her market. The maritime and manu- facturing towns in the kingdom were alarmed at the interruption of trade, the injury to colonial credit, and the loud and distinct cry of encouragement to American industry ; and letters concerted between the merchant Trecothick and Rockingham were sent among them, to countenance applications to Parliament. The traditions of the public offices were equally at variance. Successive administrations had inquired for some system by which the revenues and expenditures in America could be determined by the central authority of the metropolis. They who wished to make thorough work of reducing the colonies, could name many ministers as having listened to schemes of coercion ; but the friends of colonial freedom replied that no minister before Grenville had consented to carry such projects into effect. Each side confidently invoked the British constitu- 1765.1 PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED. 415 tion. Grenville declared the paramount authority of Parliament throughout the British dominions to be the essence of the revolution of 1688 ; others insisted that that event had upheld and established principles, by which the liberty of the person was secured against arbitrary arrest, and the rights of property were recognised as sacred against every exaction without consent. The two opinions were also represented in the new Ministry. Northington, the Lord Chancellor, and Charles Yorke, the Attorney-General, insisted on the right to tax America ; while Grafton and Conway, inclined to abdicate the pretended right, and the kind- hearted Rockingham declared himself ready to repeal a hundred stamp acts, rather than run the risk of such confusion as would be caused by enforcing one. History, too, when questioned, answered ambiguously. Taxation had become in Great Britain and in the colo- nies, a part of the general legislative power, with some reserve in favour of the popular branch of the legisla- ture ; in the Middle Age, on the contrary, when feudal liberties flourished most, the sovereign had large discre- tion in declaring laws to regulate civil transactions ; but the service which he could demand from his vassals was fixed by capitulations and compacts, and could neither be increased nor commuted for money, except by agreement. The one side, not yet abandoning the field, ventured 416 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. to assert that America was virtually represented in the British parliament as much as the great majority of the British people ; and while America treated the pretext as senseless, a large and growing party in England demanded for all its inhabitants a share in the national council. Nor was the argument on which the Stamp Act rested, in harmony with the sentiments and convictions of reflecting Englishmen. Its real authors insisted that protection and obedience are co-relative duties ; that Great Britain protected America, and, therefore, America was bound to obedience. But this is the doctrine of absolute monarchy, not of the British constitution. The colonists had a powerful ally in the public conscience and affections of the mother country. They could appeal against the acts of its government to the cherished opinions of the nation. The love of liberty was to the true Englishman a habit of mind, grafted upon a proud but generous nature. His attachment to freedom was stronger than the theory of the absolute power of a Parliament, of which an oligarchy influenced the choice and controlled the deliberations. The British constitution was in its idea more popular than in its degenerate forms ; it aimed at the perfection of carrying out " the genuine principles of liberty," by securing a free and unbiassed "vote to every member of the community, however poor ; " but time and a loose state of national morals had tended to produce corruption. 1765.] PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED. 417 " The incurvations of practice," whether in England or the colonies, were becoming "more notorious by a comparison with the rectitude of the rule." " To elucidate the clearness of the spring conveyed the strongest satire on those who had polluted or disturbed it." America divided English sympathies by appealing with steadfast confidence to the principles of English liberty in their ideal purity. It is the glory of England, that the rightfulness of the Stamp Act was in England itself a subject of dispute. It could have been so nowhere else. The King of France taxed the French colonies as a matter of course ; the King of Spain collected a revenue by his own will in Mexico and Peru, in Cuba, and Porto Rico, and wherever he ruled. The States General of the Netherlands had no constitutional scruples about imposing duties on their outlying possessions. To England, exclusively, belongs the honour, that between her and her colonies the question of right could arise ; it is still more to her glory, as well as to her happiness and freedom, that in that contest her success was not possible. Her principles, her traditions, her liberty, her constitution, all forbade that arbitrary rule should become her characteristic. The shaft aimed at her new colonial policy was tipped with a feather from her own wing. Had Cumberland remained alive, regiments, it 1 Blackstone's Commentaries, book i. chap. ii. 418 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. was thought, would have been sent to America. The conqueror at Culloden was merciless towards those whom he deemed refractory, and willingly quenched rebellion in blood. During his lifetime, the Ministry never avowed a readiness to yield to the claims of the colonists. But the night before the Stamp Act was to have gone into effect, the Duke, all weary of life, which for him had been without endearments, died suddenly, on his way to a Cabinet Council, and his influence, which had no foundation but in accident, perished with him. Weakened by his death, and hopelessly divided in opinion, the Ministry showed itself more and more unsettled in its policy. On the 3rd of October they had agreed that the American question was too weighty for their decision, and required that Parliament should be consulted, and yet they postponed its meeting for the transaction of business, till there had been time to see if the Stamp Act would indeed execute itself. To Franklin, who was unwearied in his efforts to promote its repeal, no hope was given of relief ; and though the committee of merchants, who on the 12th day of December waited on Rockingham, Dowdeswell, Conway, and Dartmouth, were received with dispassionate calm- ness, it was announced that the right to tax Americans could never be given up ; and that a suspension was " the most that could be expected." l 1 Letter from London, Dec. 14, 1765, in Boston Gazette of Feb. 24, 1766. s 1765.] PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED. 419 The successive accounts from America grieved the King more and more. " Where this spirit will end," said he, " is not to be said. It is undoubtedly the most serious matter that ever came before Parliament," l and he urged for it "deliberation, candour, and temper." He was highly provoked 2 by the riots in New York ; and the surrender of the stamps to the municipality of the city seemed to him "greatly humiliating." He watched with extreme anxiety the preliminary meeting of the friends of the Ministry ; and when the day for opening Parliament came, he was impatient to receive a minute report of all that should occur. 3 The Earl of Hardwicke, 4 himself opposed to the lenity of Rockingham, 5 moved the address in the House of Lords, pledging the House "to bring to the consideration of the state of affairs in America, a resolution to do every thing which the exigency of the case might require." The Earl of Suffolk, a young man of five-and-twenty, proposed " to express indignation at the insurrections in North America, and concurrence in measures to enforce the legal obedience of the colonies and their dependence on the sovereign authority of the kingdom." This amendment prejudged the case, Compare T. Pownall to Hutchinson, Dec. 3, 1765, and a letter of Franklin of Jan. 6, 1766. 1 Geo. III. to Conway, Dec. 6. 2 Conway to Gage, Dec. 15. 3 Geo. III. to Conway, Dec. 17. 4 Hugh Hammersley to Lieut. Governor Sharpe, Dec. 1765, gives a very good report of the debate. Compare Philimore's Lyttelton, vol. ii. p. 687. 5 Albemarle, vol. i. p. 284. E E 2 420 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. and, if it had been adopted, would have pledged Parliament in advance to the policy of coercion. Grafton opposed the amendment, purposely avoiding the merits of the question till the House should be properly possessed of it by the production of papers. Of these, Dartmouth added that the most important related to New York, and had been received within four or five days. Rockingham was dumb. Shelburne alone, unsupported by a single peer, intimated plainly his inclination for a repeal of the law. " Before we resolve upon rash measures," said he, " we should consider first the expediency of the law, and next our power to enforce it. The wisest legislators have been mistaken. The laws of Carolina, though planned by Shaftesbury and Locke, were found impracticable, and are now grown obsolete. The Romans planted colonies to increase their power ; we to extend our commerce. Let the regiments in America, at Halifax, or Pensacola, embark at once upon the same destination, and no intervening accident disappoint the expedition, what could be effected against colonies so populous, and of such magnitude and extent I The colonies may be ruined first, but the distress will end with ourselves." But Halifax, Sandwich, Gower, even Temple, Lyt- telton, and Bedford, firmly supported the amendment of Suffolk. "Protection, without dependence and obedience," they joined in saying, " is a solecism in politics. The 1765.] PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED. 421 connection between Great Britain and her colonies is that of parent and child. For the parent not to correct the undutiful child would argue weakness. The duty to enforce obedience cannot be given up, because the relation cannot be destroyed. The King cannot sepa- rate his colonies any more than any other part of his dominions from the mother-country, nor render them independent of the British legislature. The laws and constitution of the country are prior and superior to charters, many of which were issued improvidently, and ought to be looked into. " The colonies wish to be supported by all the mili- tary power of the country without paying for it. They have been for some time endeavouring to shake off their dependence. Pennsylvania, in 1756, refused to assist Government, though the enemy was at their gates ; and afterwards, in their manner of granting aid, they encroached on the King's prerogative. The next attempt of the colonies will be to rid themselves of the Naviga- tion Act, the great bulwark of this country ; and because they can thus obtain their commodities twenty-five per cent, cheaper, they will buy of the French and Dutch, rather than of their fellow-subjects. They do not condescend to enter into explanations upon the Stamp Act, but object to its principle, and the power of making it ; yet the law was passed very deliberately, with no opposition in this House, and very little in the other. The tax, moreover, is light, and is paid 422 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. only by the rich, in proportion to their dealings. The objections for want of representation are absurd. Who are affected by the duties on hardware but the people of Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds 1 And how are they represented \ " But suppose the Act liable to exceptions, is this a time to discuss them \ When the Pretender was at Derby, did you then enter upon a tame consideration of grievances ? What occasion is there for papers ? The present rebellion is more unnatural, and not less notorious, than that of 1745. The King's governors have been hanged in effigy, his forts and generals besieged, and the civil power annulled or suspended. Will you remain inactive till the King's governors are hanged in person! Is the Legislature always to be dictated to in riot and tumult ? The weavers were at your doors last year, and this year the Americans are up in arms, because they do not like what you have passed. " Why was not Parliament called sooner ? Why are we now called to do nothing \ The House is on fire, and ministers, from unskilfulness, or want of will, use no endeavours to stay the flames. Shall we wait till it is burned down before we interpose \ No matter whence the spark ; the combustible nature of the matter creates the danger. Resist at the threshold. First repress the rebellion, and then inquire into grievances. 1765.] PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED. 423 " Concessions are talked of, and even a repeal of the law hinted. And are not concessions always dangerous 1 In the struggles between the Senate and people of Rome, what did the Senate get by treating with the people, but a master to both ? What did Charles gain by giving way to exorbitant demands and not persisting when in the right, as he sometimes was, but the loss of his crown and life ? It has been said that America was conquered in Germany ; but give up the law, and Great Britain will be conquered in America. It is said, though we do repeal the law, yet we will pass some declaratory act asserting our rights. But when the Americans are possessed of the substance, what regard will they pay to your paper protestations \ Ministers may be afraid of going too far on their own authority ; but will they refuse assistance when it is offered them ? We serve the Crown by strengthening its hands." Northington, the Chancellor, argued from the statute- book, that, as a question of law, the dependence of the colonies had been fully declared in the reign of William III. ; and he " lustily roared," that " America must submit." Lord Mansfield denied the power of the Crown to emancipate the colonies from the jurisdiction of the British legislature. He cited Pennsylvania as having of all the colonies, the least pretension to the claim, since its charter expressly recognised impositions and customs by act of Parliament. And he endeavoured 4U THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. to bring the House to unanimity by recommending the Ministry to assent to the amendment ; " for/' said he, "the question is most serious, and not one of the ordinary matters agitated between the persons in and out of office." Failing to prevent a division, Mansfield went away without giving a vote. The Opposition was thought to have shown a great deal of ability, and to have expressed the prevailing opinion in the House of Lords, as well as the sentiments of the King. But the King's friends, unwilling to open a breach through which Bedford and Grenville could take the cabinet by storm, divided against the amendment with the Ministry. In the House of Commons, the new Ministers were absent ; for, accepting office implies a resignation of a seat in the representative body, and sends a member to his constituents as a candidate for re-election ; yet Grenville, enraged at seeing authority set at nought with impunity, in reference to an act of his Ministry, moved to consider North America as " resisting the laws by open and rebellious force," and complained of the King's lenity. " What would have been thought," said he, "in 1745, if any person had called the rebellion of that day an important matter only ? " Cooke, the member for Middlesex, justified the colonies, and showed the cruelty of fixing the name of rebels on all. Charles Townshend asserted with vehemence his appro- bation of the Stamp Act, and leaned towards the 1765.] PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED. 425 opinion of Grenville. " Sooner," said he, " than make our colonies our allies, I should wish to see them returned to their primitive deserts." l But he sat down, determined to vote against Grenville's amend- ment. Gilbert Elliot did the same ; and Wedderburne displayed the basest subserviency. Norton dwelt much on the legislative authority of Parliament to tax all the world under British dominion. " See/' said Beckford, " how completely my prophecy about America is accomplished." Some one said that Great Britain had long arms. " Yes," it was answered, " but three thousand miles is a long way to extend them." Especially it is observable that Lord George Sackville, just rescued from disgrace by Rockingham, manifested his desire to enforce the Stamp Act. 2 The amendment was withdrawn, but when three days later Grenville divided the House on a question of adjourning to the 9th instead of the 14th of January, he had only thirty-five votes against seventy-seven. Baker, in the debate, called his motion " insolent," and chid him as the author of all the trouble in America ; but he threw the blame from himself upon the Parliament. Out of doors there was a great deal of clamour, that repealing the Stamp Act would be a surrender of sove- reignty ; and that the question was, shall the Americans 1 Hammersley. 3 Letter from London of Dec. 22 .and 24, 1765, in Boston Gazette, Feb. 17, 1766. Chatham Correspondence, voL ii. p. 352. 426 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. submit to us, or we to them ? But others held the attempt at coercion to be the ruinous side of the dilemma. While England was still in this condition of unformed opinion, the colonies were proceeding with their system of resistance. " If they do not repeal the Stamp Act," said Otis, who, nine months before, had counselled sub- mission, and who now shared and led the most excited opposition, " if they do not repeal it, we will repeal it ourselves." The first American ship that ventured to sea with a rich cargo, and without stamped papers, was owned by the Boston merchant, John Hancock. At the south, in the Savannah river, a few British ships took stamped clearances, but this continued only till a vigilant people had time to understand one another, and to interfere. In South Carolina, the Lieutenant- Governor, pleading the necessity of the case, himself sanctioned opening the port of Charleston. At New York, the head-quarters of the army, an attempt was made by the men of war to detain vessels ready for sea. The people rose in anger, and the naval commander becoming alarmed by the danger of riots, left the road from New York to the ocean once more free, as it was from every other harbour in the thirteen colonies. It was next attempted to open the executive courts. In Rhode Island, all public officers, judges among the rest, continued to transact business. In New York, the 1765.] PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED. 427 judges would willingly have held their terms, but were restrained by a menace of dismissal from office. In Boston, this question was agitated with determined zeal ; but first the people dealt with Andrew Oliver, who had received his commission as stampman. On the very day, and almost at the hour when the King was proceeding in state to the House of Lords, to open Parliament, the " true-born Sons of Liberty," deaf to all entreaties, placed Oliver at the head of a long procession, with Mackintosh, a leader in the August riots, at his side, and with great numbers following, on the cold wet morning, escorted him to Liberty Tree, to stand in the rain under the very bough on which he had swung in effigy. There, in the presence of 2000 men, he declared in a written paper, to which he publicly set his name, that he would never, directly or indirectly, take any measures to enforce the Stamp Act, and with the whole multitude for witnesses, he, upon absolute requisition, made oath to this pledge before Richard Dana, a justice of the peace. At this, the crowd gave three cheers ; and when Oliver, who was the third officer in the province, with the bitterest revenge in his heart, spoke to them with a smile, they gave three cheers more. 1 On the evening of the next day, as John Adams sat ruminating in his humble mansion at Quincy, on the interruption of his career as a lawyer, a message came, 1 A. Oliver to Bernard, Dec. 17. Same to same, Dec. 19. Boston Gazette. J. Adams's Diary. 428 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1765. that Boston, at the instance of a committee of which Samuel Adams was the chief, had joined him with Gridley and Otis, to sustain their memorial to the governor and council for opening the courts ; and he resolved to exert the utmost of his abilities in the cause. It fell to him on the evening of the 20th, to begin the argument before the governor and council. " The Stamp Act," he reasoned, " is invalid ; it is not in any sense our act ; we never consented to it. A parliament in which we are not represented, had no legal authority to impose it ; and, therefore, it ought to be waived by the judges as against natural equity and the constitution." Otis reasoned with great learning and zeal on the duties and obligations of judges. Gridley dwelt on the inconveniences that would ensue on the interruption of justice. " Many of the arguments," said Bernard, in reply, " are very good ones to be used before the judges, but there is no precedent for the interference of the governor and council. In England the judges would scorn directions from the King on points of law." On Saturday, the town voted the answer unsatis- factory. Ever fertile in resources, Otis instantly proposed to invite the governor to call a convention of the members of both houses of the legislature ; if the governor should refuse, then to call one themselves, by requesting all the members to meet ; and John Adams came round to this opinion. 1766.] PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED. 429 " The King," thus the young lawyer reasoned, on returning to his own fireside, " the King is the fountain of justice. Protection and allegiance are reciprocal. If we are out of the King's protection, we are discharged from our allegiance. The ligaments of government are dissolved, the throne abdicated." Otis, quoting Grotius and the English lawyers, of 1688, assured the public, that, " If a king lets the affairs of a state run into dis- order and confusion, his conduct is a real abdication;" that unless business should proceed as usual, there " would be a release of subjects from their allegiance." If patient entreaty was to be of no avail, America must unite and prepare for resistance. In New York, on Christmas Day, the lovers of liberty pledged themselves "to march with all dispatch, at their own costs and expense, on the first proper notice, with their whole force, if required, to the relief of those who should, or might be, in danger from the Stamp Act or its abettors." Before the year was up, Mott, one of the New York Committee of Correspondence, arrived with others at New London, bringing a letter from Isaac Sears, and charged to ascertain how far New England would adopt the same covenant. " If the great men are determined to enforce the Act," said John Adams, on New Year's Day, on some vague news from New York, " they will find it a more obstinate war than the conquest of Canada and Louisiana." "Great Sir," said Edes and Gill, through their news- 430 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. paper, to the King, printing the message in large letters, " Great Sir, Retreat or you are ruined." " None," said the press of Philadelphia, in words widely diffused, " none in this day of liberty will say, that duty binds us to yield obedience to any man or body of men, forming part of the British constitution, when they exceed the limits prescribed by that consti- tution. The Stamp Act is unconstitutional, and no more obligatory than a decree of the Divan of Turkey." Encouraged by public opinion, the Sons of Liberty of New York held regular meetings, and on the 7th of January, they resolved, that " there was safety for the colonies only in the firm union of the whole ; " that they themselves, " would go to the last extremity, and venture their lives and fortunes, effectually to prevent the Stamp Act." On the following night, the ship which arrived from London with ten more packages of stamps for New York and Connecticut, was searched from stem to stern, and the packages were seized and carried in boats up the river to the ship-yards, where, by the aid of tar-barrels, they were thoroughly consumed in a bonfire. The resolutions of New York were carried swiftly to Connecticut. The town of Wallingford voted a fine of twenty shillings on any of its inhabitants " that should use or improve any stamped vellum or paper ;" and the Sons of Liberty of that place, adopting the words of their brethren of New York, were ready " to oppose the 1766.] PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED. 431 unconstitutional Stamp Act to the last extremity, even to take the field." The people of the county of New London, meeting at Lyme, declared " the general safety and privileges of all the colonies to depend on a firm union." They were " ready on all occasions to assist the neighbouring provinces to repel all violent attempts to subvert their common liberties ;" and they appointed Major John Durkee to correspond with the Sons of Liberty in the adjoining colonies. Israel Putnam, the brave patriot of Pomfret, whose people had declared, that their connection with England was derived only from a compact, their freedom from God and nature, and to be maintained with their lives, rode from town to town through the eastern part of Connecticut, to see what number of men could be depended upon, and gave out that he could lead forth ten thousand. Massachusetts spoke through its House of Repre- sentatives, which convened in the middle of January. They called on impartial history to record the strong testimonies given by the people of the continent of their loyalty, and the equal testimony which they had given of their love of liberty, by a glorious stand even against an act of Parliament. They proudly called to mind, that the union of all the colonies was upon a motion made in their House. And insisting that " the courts of justice must be open, open immediately," they voted, sixty-six against four, that the shutting of them was not only "a very great grievance, requiring 432 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. t immediate redress," but "dangerous to his Majesty's crown." Bernard, who consulted in secret a " select council," unknown to the law, in which the principal advisers were Hutchinson and Oliver, wished that the system of Grenville, which brought money into the British Exchequer without advantage to the officers of the crown, might be abandoned for his favourite plan of the establishment of a colonial civil list by Parliament ; but he opposed all concession. Tranquillity, he assured the Secretary of State, could not be restored by "lenient methods." " There will be no submission," said he, " until there is a subjection. The persons who ori- ginated the mischief, and preside over and direct the opposition to Great Britain, are wicked and despe- rate ; and the common people, whom they have poisoned, are mad and infatuated. The people here occasionally talk very high of their power to resist Great Britain ; but it is all talk. They talk of revolting from Great Britain in the most familiar manner, and declare that though the British forces should possess themselves of the coast and maritime towns, they never will subdue the inland. But nothing," Bernard con- tinued, " can be more idle. New York and Boston would both be defenceless to a royal fleet ; and they being possessed by the King's forces, no other town or place could stand out. A forcible subjection is unavoid- able, let it cost what it will. The forces, when they 1766.] PARLIAMENT LEARNS THAT AMERICA HAS RESISTED. 433 come, should be respectable enough not to encourage resistance ; that when the people are taught they have a superior, they may know it effectually. I hope that New York, as well upon account of its superior rank and greater professions of resistance, and of its being the head quarters, will have the honour of being subdued first." For Bernard gave the palm to New York, much beyond Boston, as the source of " the system of politics " which represented the colonies, as " no otherwise related to Great Britain than by having the same King." l 1 Bernard to Conway, Jan. 19 and 22, 1766. CHAPTER XXL HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA? ROOKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED, JANUARY, 1766. DURING the recess of Parliament, Egmont, Conway, Dowdeswell, Dartmouth, and Charles Yorke, met at the house of the Marquis of Buckingham. To modify, but not to repeal the American tax, and to enact the penalty of high treason against any one who, by speaking or writing, should impeach the legislative authority of Parliament, were measures proposed in this assembly ; but they did not prevail. The Ministry could form no plan of mutual support ; and decided nothing but the words of the speech. The world looked from them to an individual in private life, unconnected and poor, vainly seeking at Bath relief from infirmities that would have crushed a less hopeful mind ; and Pitt never appeared so great as now, when at a crisis in the history of liberty, the people of England bent towards him 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA* 435 alone as the man in whose decision their safety and their glory were involved. The Cabinet, therefore, yielding to Grafton and Conway, requested his advice as to the measures proper to be taken with regard to America, and expressed a desire, now or at any future time, for his reception among them as their head. This vague and indefinite offer of place, unsanctioned by the King, was but a concession from the aristocratic portion of the Whigs to a necessity of seeking support. Pitt remembered the former treachery of Newcastle, and being resolved never to accept office through him or his connections, he treated their invitation as an unmeaning compliment ; declaring that he would support those and those only who acted on true revolution principles. The care of his health demanded quiet and absence from the chapel of St. Stephen's, but the excitement of his mind gave him a respite from pain. " My resolution," said he, " is taken, and if I can crawl or be carried, I will deliver my mind and heart upon the state of America." On the 14th day of January, the King acquainted Parliament that " matters of importance had happened in America, and orders been issued for the support of lawful authority." " Whatever remained to be done, he committed to their wisdom." The Lords, in their reply, which was moved by Dartmouth, pledged their " utmost endeavours to assert and support the King's dignity, and the legislative FF 2 436 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. authority of the kingdom over its colonies." The friends of the King and of the late Ministry willingly agreed to words which seemed to imply the purpose of enforcing the Stamp Act. The meeting of the House of Commons was very full. The Address proposed for their adoption was diffuse, and of no marked character, yet the speeches of the members who proposed it indicated the willingness of the Administration to repeal the American tax. In the course of a long debate, Pitt entered most unexpectedly, having arrived in town that morning. The adherents of the late Ministry took great offence at the tenderness of expression respecting America. Nugent, particularly, insisted that the honour and dignity of the kingdom obliged them to compel the execution of the Stamp Act, except the right was acknowledged, and the repeal solicited as a favour. He expostulated on the ingratitude of the colonies. He computed the expense of the troops employed in America for what he called its defence, at ninepence in the pound of the British land-tax, while the Stamp Act would not raise a shilling a-head on the inhabitants in America ; " but," said he, " a peppercorn in acknow- ledgment of the right is of more value than millions without." The eyes of all the House were directed towards Pitt, as the venerable man, now almost sixty years of age, rose in his place ; and the Americans present in the 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA? 437 gallery gazed at him as at the appearance of their good " angel, or their saviour." l "I approve the Address in answer to the King's Speech, for it decides nothing, and leaves every member free to act as he will." Such was his opening sarcasm. " The notice given to Parliament of the troubles was not early, and it ought to have been immediate. " I speak not with respect to parties. I stand up in this place, single, unsolicited, and unconnected. As to the late Ministry," and he turned scornfully towards Grenville, who sat within one of him, "every capital measure they have taken is entirely wrong. To the present Ministry, to those, at least, whom I have in my eye," looking at Conway and the Lords of the Treasury, 2 " I have no objection. Their characters are fair. But pardon me, gentlemen. Youth is the season for credu- lity ; confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom. By comparing events with each other, reason- ing from effects to causes, methinks I discover the traces of overruling influences." This he said, referring to the Duke of Newcastle. 3 " It is a long time," he continued, " since I have attended in Parliament. When the resolution was 1 Besides many shorter accounts of this speech of Pitt, and the account in "Political Debates," and in Walpole, I have the pre'cis, preserved in the French Archives, and a pretty full report by Moffat, of Rhode Island, who was present. 2 Butler's Reminiscences. 3 Lord Charlemont to Henry Flood, Jan. 28 (by misprint in the printed copy Jan. 8), 1766. 438 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. taken in the House to tax America, I was ill in bed. If I could have endured to have been carried in my bed, so great was the agitation of my mind for the con- sequences, I would have solicited some kind hand to have laid me down on this floor, to have borne my testimony against it. It is now an act that has passed. I would speak with decency of every act of this House, but I must beg indulgence to speak of it with freedom. The subject of this debate is of greater importance than ever engaged the attention of this House ; that subject only excepted, when, nearly a century ago, it was a question whether you yourselves were to be bond or free. The manner in which this affair will be termi- nated will decide the judgment of posterity on the glory of this kingdom, and the wisdom of its government during the present reign. 1 " As my health and life are so very infirm and pre- carious, that I may not be able to attend on the day that may be fixed by the House for the consideration of America, I must now, though somewhat unseasonably- leaving the expediency of the Stamp Act to another time speak to a point of infinite moment, I mean to the right. Some seem to have considered it as a point of honour, and leave all measures of right and wrong, to follow a delusion that may lead us to destruction. On a question that may mortally wound the freedom of three millions of virtuous and brave subjects beyond the 1 Precis in the French Archives. 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA? 439 Atlantic ocean, I cannot be silent. America being neither really nor virtually represented in Westminster, cannot be held legally, or constitutionally, or reasonably subject to obedience to any money bill of this kingdom. The colonies are equally entitled with yourselves to all the natural rights of mankind and the peculiar privileges of Englishmen ; equally bound by the laws, and equally participating of the constitution of this free country. The Americans are the sons, not the bastards of England. As subjects, they are entitled to the common right of representation, and cannot be bound to pay taxes without their consent. " Taxation is no part of the governing power. The taxes are a voluntary gift and grant of the Commons alone. In an American tax, what do we do \ We, your Majesty's Commons of Great Britain, give and grant to your Majesty, What \ Our own property 1 No. We give and grant to your Majesty the property of your Majesty's Commons in America. It is an absurdity in terms. " There is an idea in some, that the colonies are virtually represented in this House. They never have been represented at all in Parliament ; they were not even virtually represented at the time when this law, as captious as it is iniquitous, was passed to deprive them of the most inestimable of their privileges. 1 I would fain know by whom an American is represented 1 Precis in the French Archives. 440 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. here ? Is lie represented by any knight of the shire in any county of this kingdom I Would to God that respectable representation was augmented to a greater number. Or will you tell him that he is represented by any representative of a borough \ a borough which, perhaps, no man ever saw. This is what is called the rotten part of the constitution. It cannot endure the century. If it does not drop, it must be amputated. The idea of a virtual representation of America in this House is the most contemptible that ever entered into the. head of a man. It does not deserve a serious refutation. " The Commons of America, represented in their several assemblies, have ever been in possession of the exercise of this, their constitutional right, of giving and granting their own money. They would have been slaves if they had not enjoyed it. " And how is the right of taxing the colonies inter- nally compatible with that of framing regulations without number for their trade ? The laws of this kind, which Parliament is daily making, prove that they form a body separate from Great Britain. While you hold their manufactures in the most servile restraint, will you add a new tax to deprive them of the last remnants of their liberty ? This would be to plunge them into the most odious slavery, against which their charters should protect them. 1 1 Precis in the French Archives. 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA ? 441 " If this House suffers the Stamp Act to continue in force, France will gain more by your colonies than she ever could have done if her arms in the last war had been victorious. 1 "I never shall own the justice of taxing America internally until she enjoys the right of representation. In every other point of legislation the authority of Parliament is like the North star, fixed for the reci- procal benefit of the parent country and her colonies. 2 The British Parliament, as the supreme governing and legislative power, has always bound them by her laws, by her regulations of their trade and manufactures, and even in a more absolute interdiction of both. The power of Parliament, like the circulation from the human heart, active, vigorous, and perfect in the smallest fibre of the arterial system, may be known in the colonies by the prohibition of their carrying a hat to market over the line of one province into another ; or by breaking down a loom in the most distant corner of the British empire in America; 3 and if this power were denied, I would not permit them to manufacture a lock of wool, or form a horse-shoe, or a hob-nail. 4 But I repeat, the House has no right to lay an internal tax upon America, that country not being represented. " I know not what we may hope or fear from those 1 Precis in the French Archives. 2 Moffat. 3 Ibid. 4 Ibid. Compare George Grenville to Knox, Aug. 15, 1768. Extra-Official State Papers, vol. ii. Appendix, No. 3, p 15. 442 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. now in place ; but I have confidence in their good intentions. I could not refrain from expressing the reflections I have made in my retirement, which I hope long to enjoy, 1 beholding, as I do, Ministries changed one after another, and passing away like shadows." 2 A pause ensued as he ceased, when Conway rose and spoke : " I not only adopt all that has just been said, but believe it expresses the sentiments of most, if not all the King's servants, and wish it may be the unani- mous opinion of the House. 3 I have been accidentally called to the high employment I bear ; I can follow no principles more safe or more enlightened than those of the perfect model before my eyes ; and I should always be most happy to act by his advice, and even to serve under his orders. 4 Yet, for myself and my colleagues, I disclaim an overruling influence. The notice given to Parliament of the troubles in America," he added, " was not early, because the first accounts were too vague and imperfect to be worth its attention." " The disturbances in A merica," replied Grenville, who by this time had gained self-possession, " began in July, and now we are in the middle of January ; lately they were only occurrences ; they are now grown to tumults and riots ; they border on open rebellion ; and if the 1 French Precis. 2 Ibid. Walpole, vol. ii. p. 202. a Moffat. Garth to South Carolina, Jan. 19, 1766. 4 French Precis. Walpole, vol. ii. pp. 263, 268. 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA ? 443 doctrine I have heard this day, be confirmed, nothing can tend more directly to produce a revolution. The government over them being dissolved, a revolution will take place in America. " External and internal taxes are the same in effect, and only differ in name. That this kingdom is the sovereign, the supreme legislative power over America, cannot be denied ; and taxation is a part of that sovereign power. It is one branch of the legislation. It has been, and it is exercised over those who are not, who were never represented. It is exercised over the India Company, the merchants of London, the pro- prietors of the stocks, and over many great manu- facturing towns. It was exercised over the palatinate of Chester, and the bishopric of Durham, before they sent any representatives to Parliament. I appeal for proof to the preambles of the acts which gave them representatives, the one in the reign of Henry VIIL, the other in that of Charles II." He then quoted the statutes exactly, and desired that they might be read ; which being done, he resumed : " To hold that the King, by the concession of a charter, can exempt a family or a colony from taxation by Parliament, degrades the constitution of England. If the colonies, instead of throwing off entirely the authority of Parliament, had presented a petition to send to it deputies elected among ourselves, this step would have marked their attachment to the crown, and 444 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. their affection for the mother country, and would have merited attention. 1 " The Stamp Act is but the pretext of which they make use to arrive at independence. 2 It was thoroughly considered, and not hurried at the end of a session. It passed through the different stages in full houses, with only one division on it. When I proposed to tax America, I asked the House, if any gentleman would object to the right ; I repeatedly asked it, and no man would attempt to deny it. Protection and obedience are reciprocal. Great Britain protects America ; America is bound to yield obedience. If not, tell me when the Americans were emancipated ? When they want the protection of this kingdom, they are always ready to ask it. That protection has always been afforded them in the most full and ample manner. The nation has run itself into an immense debt to give it them ; and now that they are called upon to con- tribute a small share towards an expense arising from themselves they renounce your authority, insult your officers, and break out, I might almost say, into open rebellion. " The seditious spirit of the colonies owes its birth to the factions in this House. We were told we trod on tender ground ; we were bid to expect disobedience. What was this but telling the Americans to stand out 1 French Precis. George Grenville to T. Pownall, July 17, 1768. 2 French Precis. 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA! 445 against the law, to encourage their obstinacy with the expectation of support from hence ? Let us only hold out a little, they would say, our friends will soon be in power. " Ungrateful people of America ! Bounties have been extended to them. When I had the honour to serve the crown, while you yourselves were loaded with an enormous debt of one hundred and forty millions sterling, and paid a revenue of ten millions sterling, you have given bounties on their lumber, on their iron, their hemp, and many other articles. You have relaxed, in their favour, the act of navigation, that palladium of British commerce. I offered to do every- thing in my power to advance the trade of America. I discouraged no trade but what was prohibited by act of Parliament. I was above giving an answer to anonymous calumnies ; but in this place it becomes me to wipe off the aspersion." As Grenville ceased, several members got up ; but the House clamoured for Pitt, who seemed to rise. A point of order was decided in his favour, and the walls of St. Stephen's resounded with " Go on, go on." "Gentlemen," he exclaimed in his fervour, while floods of light poured from his eyes, and the crowded assembly stilled itself into breathless silence ; " Sir," he continued, remembering to address the Speaker, " I have been charged with giving birth to sedition in America. They have spoken their sentiments with 446 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [176C. freedom against this unhappy act, and that freedom has become their crime. Sorry I am to hear the liberty of speech in this House imputed as a crime. But the imputation shall not discourage me. It is a liberty I meaa to exercise. No gentleman ought to be afraid to exercise it. It is a liberty by which the gentleman who calumniates it might and ought to have profited. He ought to have desisted from his project. The gentleman tells us America is obstinate ; America is almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted." At the word, the whole House started as though their hands had been joined, and an electric spark had darted through them all. " I rejoice that America has resisted. If its millions of inhabitants had submitted, taxes would soon have been laid on Ireland ; 1 and if ever this nation should have a tyrant for its king, six 2 millions of freemen, so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would be fit instruments to make slaves of the rest. " I come not here armed at all points with law cases and acts of Parliament, with the statute-book doubled down in dogs' ears to defend the cause of liberty ; if I had, I would myself have cited the two cases of Chester and Durham, to show, that even under arbitrary reigns, parliaments were ashamed of taxing a people without their consent, and allowed them representatives. Why ! French Precis. 2 Ibid. 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA ? 447 did the gentleman confine himself to Chester and Durham \ He might have taken a higher example in Wales that was never taxed by Parliament till it was incorporated. I would not debate a particular point of law with the gentleman, but I draw my ideas of freedom from the vital powers of the British constitution not from the crude and fallacious notions too much relied upon, as if we were but in the morning of liberty. 1 I can acknowledge no veneration for any procedure, law, or ordinance, that is repugnant to reason, and the first elements of our constitution ; and," he added, sneering at Grenville, who was once so much of a republican as to have opposed the Whigs, " I shall never bend with the pliant suppleness of some who have cried aloud for freedom, only to have an occasion of renouncing or destroying it. 2 " The gentleman tells us of many who are taxed, and are not represented the India Company, merchants, stockholders, manufacturers. Surely, many of these are represented in other capacities. It is a misfortune that more are not actually represented. But they are all inhabitants, and as such are virtually represented. Many have it in their option to be actually represented. They have connection with those that elect, and they have influence over them. " Not one of the Ministers who have taken the lead of Government since the accession of King William, 1 Moffat. 2 Ibid. 448 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. ever recommended a tax like this of the Stamp Act. Lord Halifax, educated in the House of Commons, Lord Oxford, Lord Orford, a great Revenue Minister, never thought of this. 1 None of these ever thought of robbing the colonies of their constitutional rights. That was reserved to mark the era of the late Administration. " The gentleman boasts of his bounties to America. Are those bounties intended finally for the benefit of this kingdom ? If they are, where is his peculiar merit to America ? If they are not, he has misapplied the national treasures. " If the gentleman cannot understand the difference between internal and external taxes, I cannot help it. But there is a plain distinction between taxes levied for the purposes of raising revenue, and duties imposed for the regulation of trade for the accommodation of the subject, although in the consequences, some revenue may accidentally arise from the latter. " The gentleman asks, when were the colonies emancipated ? I desire to know when they were made slaves \ But I do not dwell upon words. The profits to Great Britain from the trade of the colonies, through all its branches, is two millions a year. This is the fund that carried you triumphantly through the last war. The estates that were rented at two thousand pounds a year threescore years ago, are at three 1 Walpole. 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA ? 449 thousand pounds at present. You owe this to America. This is the price that America pays you for her pro- tection. And shall a miserable financier come with a boast, that he can fetch a peppercorn into the Exchequer to the loss of millions to the nation ? I dare not say how much higher these profits may be augmented. Omitting the immense increase of people in the northern colonies by natural population, and the migration from every part of Europe, I am convinced the whole commercial system may be altered to advantage. Improper restraints have been laid on the continent in favour of the islands. Let acts of Parliament in con- sequence of treaties remain ; but let not an English Minister become a custom-house officer for Spain, or for any foreign power. " The gentleman must not wonder he was not con- tradicted, when, as the Minister, he asserted a right of Parliament to tax America. There is a modesty in this House wliich does not choose to contradict a Minister. I wish gentlemen would get the better of it. If they do not, perhaps," he continued, glancing at the coming question of the reform of Parliament, " the collective body may begin to abate of its respect for the representative. Lord Bacon has told me, that a great question will not fail of being agitated at one time or another. " A great deal has been said without doors of the strength of America. It is a topic that ought to be 450 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [176(5. cautiously meddled with. In a good cause, on a sound bottom, the force of this country can crush America to atoms. If any idea of renouncing allegiance has existed, it was but a momentary frenzy ; and if the case was either probable or possible, I should think of the Atlantic sea as less than a line dividing one country from another. The will of Parliament, properly signified, must for ever keep the colonies dependent upon the sovereign kingdom of Great Britain. But on this ground of the Stamp Act, when so many here will think it a crying injustice, I am one who will lift up my hands against it. In such a cause your success would be hazardous. America, IF she fell, would fall like the strong man ; she would embrace the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitution along with her. " Is this your boasted peace ? Not to sheath the sword in its scabbard, but to sheath it in the bowels of your brothers, the Americans ? Will you quarrel with yourselves, now the whole house of Bourbon is united against you \ The Americans have not acted in all things with prudence and temper. They have been driven to madness by injustice. Will you punish them for the madness you have occasioned r { Rather let prudence and temper come first from this side. I will undertake for America that she will follow the example. Be to her faults a little blind ; Be to her virtues very kind. 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA? 451 " Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the House what is really my opinion. It is, that the Stamp Act be repealed, absolutely, totally, and immediately ; that the reason for the repeal be assigned, because it was founded on an erroneous principle. At the same time let the sovereign authority of this country over the colonies be asserted in as strong terms as can be devised, and be made to extend to every point of legis- lation, that we may bind their trade, confine their manufactures, and exercise every power whatsoever, except that of taking their money out of their pockets without their consent. " Let us be content with the advantages which Providence has bestowed upon us. We have attained the highest glory and greatness. Let us strive long to preserve them for our own happiness and that of our posterity/' l Thus he spoke, with fire unquenchable ; " like a man inspired ; " 2 greatest of orators, for his words swayed events, opening the gates of futurity to a better culture. Impassioned as was his manner, there was truth in his arguments, that were fitly joined together, so that his speech in its delivery was as a chain cable in a thunder-storm, along which the lightning pours its flashes without weakening the links of iron. Men in America, for the moment, paid no heed to the assertion of Parliamentary authority to bind manufactures and 1 French Precis. - Thomas Penn to J. Hamilton, Jan. 17, 1766. o o 2 452 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. trade ; they exulted at knowing that the Great Com- moner had, in the House of Commons, taken up what Mansfield and the King called the " trumpet of sedition," and thanked God for America's resistance. On the very next day the Duke of Grafton recom- mended to the King to send for Pitt, and hear his sentiments on American affairs. Had this been done, and had his opinion prevailed, who can tell into what distant age the question of American independence would have been adjourned 1 But at seven o'clock in the evening of the 1 6th, Grafton was suddenly summoned to the palace. The King was in that state of " extreme agitation" which so often afflicted him when he was thwarted ; and avowing designs, leading to a change of ministry of a different kind, he commanded the Duke to carry no declaration from him to Pitt. Two hours later he gave an audience to Charles Townshend, whom he endeavoured, though ineffectually, to persuade to take a principal part in forming a new administration. The Duke of Grafton, nevertheless, of himself, repaired to Pitt, and sought his confidence. " The differences in politics between Lord Temple and me," said the Com- moner, " have never till now made it impossible for us to act on one plan. The difference upon this American measure will, in its consequences, be felt for fifty years at least." He proposed to form a proper system, with the two present Secretaries and First Lord of the Treasury, the younger and better part of the Ministry ; 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA? 453 if they would willingly co-operate with him. Honours might be offered the Duke of Newcastle, but not a place in the Cabinet. I see with pleasure," said he, "the present Administration take the places of the last. I came up upoa the American affair, a point on which I feared they might be borne down." Of this conversation the Duke of Grafton made so good a use, that, by the King's direction, he and Rockinghain waited on Pitt, on Saturday the 18th, when Pitt once more expressed his readiness to act with those now in the Ministry, yet with some " transposition of places." At the same time he dwelt on the disgrace brought on the nation by the recall of Lord George Sackville to the Council, declaring over and over that his lordship and he could not sit at the Council Board together. But no sooner had Pitt consented to renounce his connection with Temple, and unite with the Ministry, than Rockingham interposed objections, alike of a personal nature, and of principle. The speechless Prime Minister, having tasted the dignity of chief, did not wish to be transposed ; and the principle of " giving up all right of taxation over the colonies," on which the Union was to have rested, had implacable opponents in the family of Hardwicke, and in the person of his own private secretary. " If ever one man lived more zealous than another for the supremacy of Parliament, and the rights of the imperial crown, it was Edmund Burke." He was the advocate " of an unlimited legislative power over 454 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. the colonies." " He saw not how the power of taxation could be given up, without giving up the rest." If Pitt was able to see it, Pitt " saw further than he could." His wishes were " very earnest to keep the whole body of this authority perfect and entire." He was " jealous of it ; " he was " honestly of that opinion ; " and Rockingham, after proceeding so far, and finding in Pitt all the encouragement that he expected, let the nego- tiation drop. Conway and Grafton were compelled to disregard their own avowals on the question of the right of taxation ; and the Ministry conformed to the opinion, which was that of Charles Yorke, the Attorney-General, and still more of Edmund Burke. Neglected by Rockingham, hated by the aristocracy, and feared by the King, Pitt pursued his career alone. In the quiet of confidential intercourse, he inquired if fleets and armies could reduce America, and heard from a friend, that the Americans would not submit, that they would still have "their woods and liberty." Thomas Hollis sent to him the "masterly" essay of John Adams on the canon and feudal law. He read it, and pronounced it " indeed masterly." The papers which had been agreed upon by the American Congress had been received by De Berdt, the agent for Massachusetts. Conway did not scruple to present its petition to the King, and George Cooke, the member for Middlesex, was so pleased with that to the Commons, that on Monday, the 27th of January, he 1766.J HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA 455 offered it to the House, where he read it twice over. Jenkinson opposed receiving it, as did Nugent and Welbore Ellis. " The American Congress at New York," they argued, "was a federal union, assembled without any requisition on the part of the supreme power. By receiving a petition from persons so unconsti- tutionally assembled, the House would give countenance to a measure pregnant with danger to his Majesty's authority and government." l " The petition," said Pitt, " is innocent, dutiful, and respectful ; I see no defect in it, except that the name of one of the petitioners is Oliver. Little attention was given last year to the separate petitions of particular colonies or their agents ; it might well be imagined, that a general petition, prepared and signed by able gentlemen, in whom each colony reposed confidence, would be entitled to different treatment. It is the evil genius of this country that has riveted among them the union, now called dangerous and federal. The colonies should be heard. The privilege of having repre- sentatives in Parliament, before they can be taxed internally, is their birthright. This question being of high concern to a vast empire rising beyond the sea, should be discussed as a question of right. If Parlia- ment cannot tax America without her consent, the original compact with the colonies is actually broken. The 1 Lord Charlemont to Heury Flood, London, Jan. 28, 17b'6. The printed date is erroneously given as Jan. 8. 456 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. decrees of Parliament are not infallible ; they may be repealed. Let the petition be received as the first act of harmony, and remain to all posterity on the journals of this House." Conway adhered to the opinions of Pitt on the subject of taxation, but thought the rules of the House forbade the reception of the petition. Sir Fletcher Norton rose in great heat, and denounced the distinction between internal and external taxation, as a novelty unfounded in truth, reason, or justice, unknown to their ancestors, whether as legislators or judges a whim that might serve to point a declamation, but abhorrent to the British constitution. " Expressions," said he, " have fallen from that member now, and on a late similar occasion, which make my blood run cold, even at my heart. I say, he sounds the trumpet to rebellion. Such language in other days, and even since the morning of freedom, would have transported that member out of this House into another, with more leisure for better reflections." Pitt, without saying one word, fixed his eye steadily on him, with an air of most marked contempt, from which Norton, abashed or chagrined, knew no escape, but by an appeal for protection to the Speaker. Edmund Burke, speaking for the first time in the House of Commons, advocated the reception of the petition, as in itself an acknowledgment of the juris- diction of the House ; while Charles Townshend in a 1766.] HAS PARLIAMENT THE RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA? 457 short speech treated the line drawn between external and internal taxation, as " a fiction, or the ecstacy of madness." An hour before midnight Lord John Cavendish avoided a defeat on a division, by moving the orders of the day, while Conway assured the American agents of his good will, and the Speaker caused the substance of the whole paper to be entered on the journals. The reading of papers and examination of witnesses continued during the month, in the utmost secrecy. The evidence especially of the riots in Rhode Island and New York, produced a very unfavourable effect. On the last day of January the weakness of the Ministry appeared on a division respecting an election for some of the boroughs in Scotland ; in a very full house they had only a majority of eleven. The grooms of the bedchamber, and even Lord George Sackville voted against them, whilst Charles Townshend, the paymaster, declined to vote at all. On the same day Bedford and Grenville were asked, if, on Bute's opening the door, they were ready to negotiate for a change of adminis- tration, and they both sent word to the King, that his order would be attended to, with duty and respect, through " whatever channel it should come." Had Pitt acceded to the Administration, he would have made the attempt to bring the nation to the conviction of the expediency of " giving up all right of taxation over the colonies." Left to themselves, with 458 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. the King against them, and the country gentlemen wavering, the Ministers, not perceiving that the conces- sion was a certain sign of expiring power, prepared a resolution to the effect, that " the King in Parliament has full power to bind the colonies and people of America, in all cases whatsoever." CHAPTER XXII. PARLIAMENT AFFIRMS ITS RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA- ROCKINOHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. FEBRUARY, 1766. IT was the 3rd day of February when the Duke of Grafton himself offered in the House of Lords the reso- lution, which was in direct contradiction to his wishes. At the same time he recommended lenient measures. Shelburne proposed to repeal the Stamp Act, and avoid a decision on the question of right. "If you exempt the American colonies from one statute or law," said Lyttelton, " you make them inde- pendent communities. If opinions of this weight are to be taken up and argued upon through mistake or timidity, we shall have Lycurguses and Solons in every coffee-house, tavern, and gin-shop in London. Many thousands in England who have no vote in electing representatives will follow their brethren in America in refusing submission to any taxes. The Commons will 460 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. with pleasure hear the doctrine of equality being the natural right of all ; but the doctrine of equality may be carried to the destruction of this monarchy." Lord Temple treated as a jest his brother-in-law's distinction in regard to internal taxation. "Did the colonies," he continued, " when they emigrated, keep the purse only, and give up their liberties \ " And he cited Shakspeare to prove that "who steals a purse steals trash ;" then advising the Lords to firmness towards the colonies, he concluded with an admonition from Tacitus. " The question before your lordships," said Camden, the youngest baron in the House, "concerns the common rights of mankind. The resolution now proposed gives the Legislature an absolute power of laying any tax upon America. In my own opinion, my lords, the legislature had no right to make this law. When the people consented to be taxed, they reserved to them- selves the power of giving and granting by their repre- sentatives. The colonies, when they emigrated, carried their birthright with them ; and the same spirit of liberty still pervades the whole of the New Empire." 1 He proceeded to show, from the principles and prece- dents of English law, that none could be taxed unless by their representatives ; that the clergy, the Counties Palatine, Wales, Calais, and Berwick, were never taxed till they sent members to Parliament ; that Guernsey 1 H. Hammerslcy to Sharpe. 17C6.] PARLIAMENT AFFIRMS ITS RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA. 4.] THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 495 interpretation of their common rights, as Englishmen, as declared by Magna Charta and the Petition of Right, object to the Parliament's right of external taxation ? " And Franklin answered instantly : " They never have hitherto. Many arguments have been lately used here to show them that there is no difference, and that, if you have no right to tax them internally, you have none to tax them externally, or make any other law to bind them. At present they do not reason so ; but in time they may be convinced by these arguments." On the 20th of February while the newspapers of New York were that very morning 1 reiterating the resolves of the Sons of Liberty, that they would venture their lives and fortunes to prevent the Stamp Act from taking place, that the safety of the colonies depended on a firm union of the whole, the Ministers, at a private meeting of their supporters, settled the reso- lutions of repeal, which even Charles Townshend was present to accept, and which, as Burke believed, he intended to support by a speech. Early the next day, every seat in the House of Commons had been taken ; between four and five hundred members attended. Pitt was ill, but his zeal was above disease. " I must get up to the House as I can," said he ; " when in my place, I feel I am tolerably able to remain through the debate, and cry ' aye,' to the repeal, with no sickly voice ;" and he hobbled into the > New York Gazette, Feb. 20, 1766. 496 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1760. House on crutches, swathed in flannels ; huzzaed as he passed through the lobby, by almost all the persons there. Conway moved for leave to bring in a bill for the repeal of the American Stamp Act. It had interrupted British commerce ; jeopardied debts to British merchants; stopped one -third of the manufactures of Manchester ; increased the rates on land, by throwing thousands of poor out of employment. The Act, too, breathed oppression. It annihilated juries ; and gave vast power to the Admiralty Courts. The lawyers might decide in favour of the right to tax ; but the conflict would ruin both countries. In three thousand miles of territory, the English had but five thousand troops, the Americans one hundred and fifty thousand fighting men. If they did not repeal the act, France and Spain would declare war, and protect the Americans. The colonies, too, would set up manufactories of their own. Why then risk the whole for so trifling an object as this act modified I Jenkinson, on the other side, moved, instead of the repeal, a modification of the Stamp Act ; insisting that the total repeal, demanded as it was with menaces of resistance, would be the overthrow of British authority in America. In reply to Jenkinson, Edmund Burke spoke in a manner unusual in the House ; fresh, as from a full mind, connecting the argument for repeal with a new kind of political philosophy. About eleven, Pitt rose. With suavity of manner he 1766.J THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 497 conciliated the wavering by allowing good ground for their apprehensions ; but calmly, and with consummate and persuasive address, 1 he argued for the repeal, with eloquence which expressed conviction, and which yet could not have offended even the sensitive self-love of the warmest friends of the act. He acknowledged his perplexity in making an option between two ineligible alternatives, pronounced, however, for repeal, as due to the liberty of unrepresented subjects, and in gratitude to their having supported England through three wars. " The total repeal," replied Grenville, " will persuade the colonies that Great Britain confesses itself without the right to impose taxes on them, and is reduced to make this confession by their menaces. Do the merchants insist that debts to the amount of three millions will be lost, and all fresh orders be counter- manded \ Do not injure yourselves from fear of injury ; do not die from the fear of dying ; 2 the merchants may sustain a temporary loss, but they and all England would suffer much more from the weakness of Parlia- ment, and the impunity of the Americans. With a little firmness, it will be easy to compel the colonists to obedience. The last advices announce that a spirit of submission is taking the place of the spirit of revolt. America must learn that prayers are not to be brought to Czesar through riot and sedition/' 3 1 De Guerchy, Feb. 23. - Junius, Dec. 19, 1767. 3 H. Hammersley to Sharpe. VOL. II. 498 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1706. Between one and two o'clock on the morning of the 22nd of February, the division took place. Only a few days before, Bedford had confidently predicted the defeat of the Ministry. The King, the Queen, the Princess Dowager, the Duke of York, Lord Bute desired it. The scanty remains of the old tories ; all the followers of Bedford and Grenville ; the King's friends ; every Scottish member, except Sir Alexander Gilmore and George Dempster ; Lord George Sackville, whom this Ministry had restored, and brought into office ; Oswald, Sackville's colleague as Vice-Treasurer for Ireland ; Barrington, the paymaster of the navy, were all known to be in the opposition. The lobbies 1 were crammed with upwards of three hundred men, representing the trading interests of the nation, trembling and anxious, and waiting almost till the winter morning's return of light, to learn their fate from the resolution of the House. Presently it was announced that two hundred and seventy-five had voted for the repeal of the act, against one hundred and sixty-seven for softening and enforcing it. The roof of St. Stephens rung with the loud shouts and long cheering of the victorious majority. When the doors were thrown open, and Conway went forth, there was an involuntary burst of gratitude from the grave multitude which beset the avenues ; they stopped him ; they gathered round him as children 1 Edmuud Burke. 1766.] THE REPEAL OF THE STAMP ACT. 499 round a parent, as captives round a deliverer. The pure-minded man enjoyed the triumph, and while they thanked him, Edmund Burke, who stood near him, declares, that " his face was as if it had been the face of an angel." As Grenville moved along, swelling with rage and mortification, they pressed on him with hisses. 1 But when Pitt appeared, the whole crowd reverently pulled off their hats ; and the applauding joy, uttered around him, touched him with tender and lively delight. Many followed his chair home with benedictions. He felt no illness after his immense fatigue. It seemed as if what he saw and what he heard, the gratitude of a rescued people, and the gladness of thousands, now become his own, had restored him to health. But his heartfelt and solid delight was not perfect till he found himself in his own house, with the wife whom he loved, and the children, for whom his fondness knew no restraint or bounds, and who all partook of the overflowing pride of their mother. This was the first great political lesson received by his second son, then not quite seven years old, the eager and impetuous William, who, flushed with patriotic feeling, rejoiced that he was not the eldest born, but could serve his country in the House of Commons like his father. 1 Walpole, vol. ii. p. 299, is the authority. The "indignities" are again referred to, Ibid. p. 300 ; and at p. 306, Grenville is reported as saying in the House of Commons, " I rejoice in the hiss." Walpole is not to be implicitly relied upon ; but such exact references to what passed publicly, and to what was said in the House of Commons, seem worthy of credit. K K 2 500 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [176(5. At the palace, the King treated with great coolness all his servants who voted for the repeal. " We have been beaten," said Bedford to the French Minister, " but we have made a gallant fight of it." If the Scottish members, elected as they then were by a dependent tenantry, or in the boroughs by close corporations, voted to enforce the tax, the mind of Scotland was as much at variance with its pretended representatives in Parliament, as the intelligence of France was in antagonism to the monarchy of Louis XV. Hutchinson, the reforming moralist of the north, had, as we have seen, declared as an axiom in ethics, the right of colonies to be independent when able to take care of themselves ; David Hume confessed himself at heart a republican ; Adam Smith, at Glasgow, was teaching the youth of Scotland the natural right of industry to freedom ; Reid was constructing a system of philosophy, based upon the development and freedom of the active powers of man ; and now, at the relenting " of the House of Commons concerning the Stamp Act," " I rejoice," said Robertson, the illustrious historian, " I rejoice, from my love of the human species, that a million of men in America have some chance of running the same great career which other free people have held before them. I do not apprehend revolution or independence sooner than these must and should come." CHAPTER XXIV. THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED. FEBRUARY MAY, 1766. THE heat of the battle was over. The Stamp Act was sure to be repealed ; and every one felt that Pitt would soon be at the head of affairs. Rockingham still aspired to intercept his promotion, and engage his services. In its last struggle to hold place by the tenure which the King disliked, the old Whig party desired to make of the rising power of the people its handmaid, rather than its oracle. But Pitt spurned to capitulate with the aristocracy. " Rockingham's tone," said he, " is that of a minister, master of the court and the public, making openings to men who are seekers of office and candidates for ministry." " I will riot owe my coming into the closet to any court cabal or ministerial connection." On Monday, the 24th of February, the committee made its report to the House. "Both England and 502 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. America are now governed by the mob," said Grenville, continuing to oppose the repeal in every stage. Dyson hinted that internal taxes might be laid to ascertain the right. "To modify the act," answered Palmerston, "would be giving up the right and retaining the oppression." The motion for recommitment was rejected by a vote of two hundred and forty to one hundred and thirty-three ; and the bill for the repeal was ordered to be brought in. Upon this, Blackstone, the commentator on the laws of England, wished clauses to be inserted, that all American resolutions against the right of the legislature of Great Britain to tax America should be expunged ; but this was rejected without a division. Wedderburn would have annexed a clause enacting in substance, that it should be as high and mortal a crime to dispute the validity of the Stamp Act, as to question the right of the House of Hanover to the British throne. While he was enforcing his sanguinary amendment, the American colonies were everywhere in concert putting a denial on the pretension, and choosing the risk of civil war and independence, rather than com- pliance. Canada, Nova Scotia, and the Floridas, which were military governments, had submitted ; the rest of the continent was firm. Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maryland had opened their courts. From New York, the Governor reported that "he was left entirely 1766.] THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 503 to himself ;" that " nothing but a superior force would bring the people to a sense of duty ; that every one around him was an abettor of resistance." 1 A merchant, who had signed a stamped bond for a Mediterranean pass, was obliged to stand forth publicly, and ask forgiveness before thousands. The influence of the Sons of Liberty spread on every side. Following their advice, the people of Woodbridge, in New Jersey, recom- mended "the union of the provinces throughout the continent." Stratford, in Connecticut, resolved never to be wanting, and advised " a firm and lasting union," to be fostered " by a mutual correspondence among all the true Sons of Liberty throughout the continent." Assembling at Canterbury in March, Windham county named Israel Putnam, of Pomfret, and Hugh Ledlie of Windham, to correspond with the neighbouring provinces. Delegates from the Sons of Liberty in every town of Connecticut met at Hartford; and this solemn conven- tion of one of the most powerful colonies, a new spectacle in the political world, demonstrating the facility with which America could organise independent govern- ments, declared for " perpetuating the Union " as the only security for liberty ;. and they named in behalf of the colony, Colonel Israel Putnam, Major John Durkee, Captain Hugh Ledlie, and five others, their committee for that purpose. " A firm union of all the colonies" was the watchword 1 Moore to Conway, Feb. 20, 1766. 504 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1767. of Rhode Island, adopted in a convention of the county of Providence ; and it was resolved to oppose the Stamp Act, even if it should tend to "the destruction of the union " of America with Great Britain. At Boston, Otis declared, that "the original equality of the species was not a mere chimera." 1 Joseph Warren, a young man whom nature had adorned with grace, and manly beauty, and a courage that would have been rash audacity had it not been tempered by self-control, saw clearly that the more equal division of property among the people, tended also to equalise and diffuse their influence and authority ; and he uttered the new war-cry of the world " FREEDOM AND EQUALITY." 2 " Death," said he, " with all its tortures, is preferable to slavery." " The thought of independence," said Hutchinson despondingly, " has entered the heart of America." 3 Virginia had kindled the flame ; Virginia had now the honour, by the hand of one of her sons, to close the discussion, by embodying, authoritatively, in calm and dignified, though in somewhat pedantic language, the sentiments which the contest had ripened. It was Richard Bland, 4 of the Ancient Dominion, who, through the press, claimed freedom from all parliamentary 1 Otis, in Boston Gazette. 2 Joseph Warren to Edmund Dana, Maroh 19, 1766. 3 Hutchinson to Thomas Pownall, March, 1766. 4 An Inquiry into the right of the British Colonies, &c. No date; but compare resolutions of the Sons of Liberty, at Norfolk Court-house, March 31, 1766. 1766.] THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 505 legislation; and pointed to independence as the remedy for a refusal of redress. He derived the English constitution from Anglo- Saxon principles of the most perfect equality, which invested every freeman with a right to vote at the election of members of Parliament. "If," said he, " nine-tenths of the people of Britain are deprived of the high privilege of being electors, it would be a work worthy of the best patriotic spirits of the nation to effectuate an alteration in this putrid part of the consti- tution, by restoring it to its pristine perfection." " But the gangrene," he feared, " had taken too deep hold to be eradicated in these days of venality." Discriminating between the disfranchised inhabitants of England and the colonists, and refusing to look for the rights of the colonies in former experience, whether of Great Britain, or Rome, or Greece, he appealed to " the law of nature, and those rights of mankind which flow from it." He pleaded further, that even by charters and compacts the people of Virginia ought to enjoy the privileges of the free people of England, as free a trade to all places and with all nations, freedom from all taxes, customs, and impositions whatever, except with the consent of the General Assembly. Far from conceding the acts of trade of Charles II. to have been a rightful exercise of power, the Virginia patriot impugned them as contrary to nature, equal freedom, and justice ; nor would he admit them to be cited as valid precedents. 506 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. " The colonies," said he, " are not represented in Parliament ; consequently, no new law made without the concurrence of their representatives can bind them ; every act of Parliament that imposes internal taxes upon the colonies is an act of power, and not of right ; and power abstracted from right cannot give a just title to dominion. Whenever I have strength I may renew my claim ; or my son, or his son may, when able, recover the natural right of his ancestor. I am speaking of the rights of the people : rights imply equality in the instances to which they belong. The colonies are sub- ordinate to the authority of Parliament in degree, not absolutely. Every colony, when treated with injury and violence, is become an alien to its mother state. Oppression has produced very great and unexpected events. The Helvetic confederacy, the States of the United Netherlands, are instances in the annals of Europe of the glorious actions a petty people, in comparison, can perform, when united in the cause of liberty." At that time, Louis XV. was setting his heel on the Parliaments of France the courts of justice which alone offered barriers to his will. " In me," said he to them solemnly, on the second day of March, " it is in me alone that the sovereign power resides. Justice is done only in my name, and the fulness of judicial authority remains always in me. To me alone belongs the legislative power, irresponsible and undivided. 1766.1 THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 507- Public order emanates entirely from me. I am the people." Against this the people could have but one rallying cry, Freedom and Equality ; and America was compelled to teach the utterance of the powerful words. For, on Tuesday, the 4th of March, 1766, came on the third reading of the bill declaratory of the absolute power of Parliament to bind America, as well as that for the repeal of the Stamp Act. Again Pitt 1 moved to leave out the claim of right in all cases whatsoever. The analogy between Ireland and America was much insisted upon, and he renewed his opinion, that the Parliament had no right to tax America, while unrepresented. " This opinion," said he, " has been treated, in my absence, as the child of ignorance, as the language of a foreigner, who knew nothing of the constitution. Yet the common law is my guide ; it is civil law that is the foreigner. I am sorry to have been treated as an overheated enthusiastic leveller ; yet I never will change my opinions. Wales was never taxed till represented; nor do I contend for more than was given up to Ireland in the reign of King William. I never gave my dissent with more dislike to a question than I now give it." The amendment was rejected, and henceforward America would have to resist in the Parliament of England, as France in its King, a claim of absolute, irresponsible, legislative power. 1 De Gucrchy to Praslin, March 7. 508 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. The final debate on the repeal ensued. Grenville and his party still combated eagerly and obstinately. " I doubt," said Pitt, who that night spoke most pleasingly, "I doubt if there could have been found a minister who would have dared to dip the royal ermine in the blood of the Americans." " No sir," replied Grenville, witli personal bitterness, " not dip the royal ermine in blood, but I am one who declare, if the tax was to be laid again, I would do it ; and I would do it now, if I had to choose ; it becomes doubly necessary, since he has exerted all his eloquence so dangerously against it." It marks the times and the character of that House of Commons, that with the momentous discussion on ques- tions interesting to the freedom of England, America, and mankind, was mingled a gay and pleasing con- versation on ministerial intrigues, in which it was assumed of the actual Ministry, and openly spoken of in their presence, that they, by general consent, were too feeble to have more than a fleeting existence. A letter was also read foretelling that Pitt was to come into power. "How," said Pitt, "could that prophet imagine anything so improbable, as that I, who have but five friends in one House, and in this am almost single and alone, should be sought for in my retreat \ " But Pitt had never commanded more respect than now. He had spoken throughout the winter with the dignity of conscious pre-eminence, and had fascinated his audience ; and being himself of no party, he had no party banded against him. 1766.] THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 509 At midnight the question was disposed of by a vote of two hundred and fifty against one hundred and twenty- two. So the House of Commons, in the Rockingham ministry, sanctioned the principles of Grenville, and adopted half-way the policy of Pitt. On the next day, Conway, and more than one hundred and fifty members of the House of Commons, carried the bill up to the House of Lords, where Temple and Lyttelton did not suffer it to receive its first reading without debate. On Friday, the 7th of March, the declaratory bill was to have its second reading. It was moved, though no division took place, to postpone it to the bill for the repeal, for if the latter should miscarry, the former would be unnecessary ; and if the latter passed, the former would be but " a ridiculous farce after deep tragedy." l " My lords, when I spoke last on this subject/' said Camden, opposing the bill altogether, " I thought I had delivered my sentiments so fully, and supported them with such reasons and such authorities, that I should be under no necessity of troubling your lordships again. But I find I have been considered as the broacher of new-fangled doctrines, contrary to the laws of this kingdom, and subversive of the rights of Parliament. My lords, this is a heavy charge, but more so, when made against one, stationed as I am, in both capacities as peer and judge, the defender of the law and the 1 Hammeraley to Sbarpe. March 22, 1766. 510 ' THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. constitution. When I spoke last, I was indeed replied to, but not answered. " As the affair is of the utmost importance, and its consequences may involve the fate of kingdoms, I took the strictest review of my arguments ; I re-examined all my authorities, fully determined, if I found myself mistaken, publicly to own my mistake, and give up my opinion ; but my searches have more and more convinced me that the British Parliament have no right to tax the Americans. " The declaratory bill, now lying on your table, is absolutely illegal ; contrary to the fundamental laws of nature ; contrary to the fundamental laws of this constitution, a constitution grounded on the eternal and immutable laws of nature, a constitution, whose foundation and centre is liberty, which sends liberty to every subject, that is, or may happen to be, within any part of its ample circumference. Nor, my lords, is the doctrine new ; it is as old as the constitution ; it grew up with it, indeed it is its support ; taxation and repre- sentation are inseparably united ; God hath joined them ; no British Parliament can separate them ; to endeavour to do it, is to stab our very vitals. My position is this ; I repeat it ; I will maintain it to my last hour ; taxation and representation are inseparable. Whatever is a man's own, is absolutely his own ; no man hath a right to take it from him without his consent, either expressed by himself or his representative ; whoever attempts to I76G.] THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 511 do it, attempts an injury ; whoever does it, commits a robbery. " Taxation and representation are coeval with, and essential to this constitution. I wish the maxim of Machiavel was followed, that of examining a constitution, at certain periods, according to its first principles ; this would correct abuses, and supply defects. I wish the times would bear it, and that men's minds were cool enough to enter upon such a task, and that the repre- sentative authority of this kingdom was more equally settled. " I can never give my assent to any bill for taxing the American colonies while they remain unrepresented ; for, as to the absurd distinction of a virtual representation, I pass it over with contempt. The forefathers of the Americans did not leave their native country, and subject themselves to every danger and distress, to be reduced to a state of slavery ; they did not give up their rights ; they looked for protection, not for chains, from their mother country ; by her, they expected to be defended in the possession of their property, and not to be deprived of it. For, should the present power continue, there is nothing which they can call their own ; ' for,' to use the words of Locke, ' what property have they in that which another may by right take when he pleases to himself?'" 1 Thus did the defence of the liberties of a continent 1 Locke on Civil Government, book ii. chap. xi. 138140. 512 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. lead one of the highest judicial officers of England, in the presence of the House of Lords, to utter a prayer for the reform of the House of Commons, by a more equal settlement of the representative authority. 1 The reform was needed ; for in Great Britain, with perhaps, at that time, eight millions of inhabitants, less than ten thousand, or as some thought, less than six thousand persons, many of whom were humbled by dependence, or debauched by corruption, elected a majority of the House of Commons, and the powers of government were actually sequestered into the hands of about two hundred men. Camden spoke deliberately, and his words were of the greater moment, as they were the fruit of a month's reflection and research ; yet he mistook the true nature of representation, which he considered to be not of persons, but of property. The speech, printed in the following year, found an audience in America, but in the House of Lords, Mansfield compared it to words spoken in Nova Zembla, and which are said to be frozen for a month before any- body can get at their meaning ; and then with the loud applause of the peers, he proceeded to insist that the Stamp Act was a just assertion of the proposition, that the Parliament of Great Britain has a right to tax the subjects of Great Britain in all the dominions of Great Britain in America. But as to the merits of the bill which the House of Commons had passed to ascertain 1 Compare Lord Charleinont to Henry Flood, March 13, 1766. 1766.] THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 513 the right of England over America, he treated it with scorn, as an absurdity from beginning to end, containing many falsehoods, and rendering the Legislature ridiculous and contemptible. " It is," said he, " a humiliation of the British Legislature to pass an act merely to annul the resolutions of a Lower House of Assembly in Virginia. It is only assertion against assertion ; and whether it rests in mere declaration, or is thrown into the form of a law, it is still a claim by one only, from which the other dissents ; and having first denied the claim, it will very consistently pay as little regard to an act of the same authority." In this debate Egmont spoke with ingenuity and candour ; reasoning that the powers of legislation, which were exercised by the colonists, had become sanctioned by prescription, and were a gift which could not be recalled, except in the utmost emergency. Yet the motion for a postponement of the subject was not pressed to a division, and the bill itself was passed, with its two clauses, the one affirming the authority of Parliament over America, in all cases whatsoever; and the other declaring the opposite resolutions of the American Assemblies to be null and void. The bill for the repeal of the Stamp Act, was read a second time upon Tuesday, the llth of March. 1 The > Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 384, note. The date of every one of the letters of W. G. Hamilton is wrongly given. For Feb. 15, read March 8 ; L L VOL. II. 514 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. House of Lords was so full on the occasion, that strangers were not admitted. Ten peers spoke against the repeal, and the Lords sat between eleven and twelve hours, which was later than ever was remembered. Once more Mansfield and Camden exerted all their powers on opposite sides ; while Temple indulged in. personalities, aimed at Camden. " The submission of the Americans," argued the Duke of Bedford, who closed the debate, " is the palladium, which if suffered to be removed, will put a final period to the British empire in America. To a modification of the duties I would not have been unfavourable ; but a total repeal of them is an act of versatility, fatal to the dignity and jurisdiction of Parliament, the evil consequences of which no declaratory act can avert or qualify." l The House of Lords divided. For subduing the colonies, if need be, by sword or fire, there appeared sixty-one, including the Duke of York, and several of the bishops ; in favour of the repeal there were seventy-three ; but adding the voices of those absent peers, who voted by proxy, the numbers were one hundred and five against seventy-one. Northington, than whom no one had been more vociferous that the Americans must submit, voted for the repeal, pleading for Feb. 17, read March 10; for Feb. 19, read March 12, &c. &c. How could these dates have been so changed ? 1 Wiffeu's House of Russell, vol. ii. p. 571. 1766.] THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 515 his unwillingness to act on such a question against the House of Commons. Immediately, the protest which Lyttelton had pre- pared against committing the bill, was produced, and signed by thirty-three peers, with Bedford at their head. Against the total repeal of the Stamp Act, they maintained that such a strange and unheard of submis- sion of King, Lords, and Commons to a successful insurrection of the colonies would make the authority of Great Britain contemptible ; that the reason assigned for their disobeying the Stamp Act, extended to all other laws, and, if admitted, must set them absolutely free from obedience to the power of the British Legisla- ture ; that any endeavour to enforce it hereafter, against the will of the colonies, would bring on the contest for their total independence, rendered, perhaps, more dangerous and formidable from the circumstances of the other powers of Europe ; that the power of taxation to be impartially exercised must extend to all the members of the state ; that the North American colonies, " our colonies," as they were called by the discontented lords, were able to share the expenses of the army, now maintained in them at the vast expense of almost a shilling in the pound land-tax, annually remitted from England for their special protection ; that Parliament was the only supreme legislature and common council empowered to act for all ; that its laying a general tax on the American colonies was not LL 2 516 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. only right, but expedient and necessary ; that it was a most indispensable duty to ease the gentry and people of this kingdom, as much as possible, by the due exertion of that great right of taxation without an exemption of the colonies. Having thus placed themselves in direct and irre- concilable hostility to America, the protesting peers glanced also with jealousy at the immense majority of the people of England ; and further opposed the repeal of the Stamp Act, " because," say they, " this concession tends to throw the whole British empire into a state of confusion, as the plea of our North American colonies, of not being represented in the Parliament of Great Britain, may, by the same reasoning, be extended to all persons in this island who do not actually vote for members of Parliament." Such was the famous Bedford protest, to which a larger number of peers than had ever signed a protest before, hastened in that midnight hour to set their names. Among them were four in lawn sleeves. It is the deliberate manifesto of the party which was soon to prevail in the Cabinet and in Parliament, and to rule England for two generations. It is the declaration of the new Tory party, in favour of the English consti- tution as it was, against any countenance to the exten- sion of suffrage, the reform of Parliament, and the effective exercise of private judgment. It is the modern form of an ancient doctrine. Oxford had said 1766.] THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 517 unconditional obedience to the King was the badge of loyalty ; this protest substituted unconditional obedience to the Legislature of the realm, as constituted in 1688. The first had, in the spirit of the mediaeval monarchy, derived the right to the throne from God ; the second, resting on principles that had grown up in opposition to the old legitimacy, deified established law, and sought to bind its own and coming ages by statutes, which were but the wisdom of a less enlightened generation that had long slumbered in their graves. The third reading of the repeal bill took place on the 17th of March. Bute, in whose administration the taxing of America had been resolved upon, spoke once more to maintain his opinion. He insisted that, as Minister, he had done good to his country ; in retiring, he had consulted his own character and tastes ; and since his retreat he had not meddled with public busi- ness, and was firmly resolved for the future to maintain the same reserve. Yet he wished that an administra- tion might be formed by a junction of the ablest men from every political section. 1 The bill passed without a further division ; but a second protest, containing a vigorous defence of the policy of Grenville, and breathing in every line the sanguinary desire to enforce the Stamp Act, was intro- duced by Temple, and signed by eight-and-twenty peers Five of the bench of bishops were found ready 1 De Guerchy to Praslin, March 18, 1766. 518 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [176t>. in the hour of conciliation, to record solemnly on the journals of the House their unrelenting enmity to measures of peace. Nor was the apprehension of a great change in the fundamental principles of the con- stitution concealed. " If we pass this bill against our opinion," they said, meaning to assert, and with truth, that it was so passed, " if we give our consent to it here, without a full conviction that it is right, merely because it has passed the other House, by declining to do our duty on the most important occasion which can ever present itself, and when our interposition, for many obvious reasons," alluding to the known opinion of the King, "would be peculiarly proper, we in effect anni- hilate this branch of the Legislature, and vote ourselves useless/' The people of England had once adopted that opinion. It was certain that the people of America were already convinced that the House of Lords had outlived its functions, and was for them become worse than "useless." On the morning of the 18th day of March, the King went in state to Westminster, and gave his assent, among other bills, to what ever after he regarded as the well-spring of all his sorrows, " the fatal repeal of the Stamp Act." He returned from signing the repeal, amid the shouts and huzzas of the applauding multitude. There was a public dinner of the friends of America in honour of the event ; Bow bells were set a ringing ; and on the 1766.] THE HOUSE OP LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 519 Thames the ships displayed all their colours. At night a bonfire was kindled, and houses were illuminated all over the city. An express was dispatched to Falmouth, with letters to different provinces, to transmit the news of the repeal as rapidly as possible to the colonies ; nor was it at that time noticed that the Ministry had carried through the Mutiny Bill, 1 with the obnoxious American clauses of the last year ; and that the King, in giving his assent to the repeal 2 of the Stamp Act, had also given his assent to the act declaratory 3 of the supreme power of Parliament over America in all cases whatsoever. While swift vessels hurried with the news across the Atlantic, the Cider Act was modified by the Ministry, with the aid of Pitt ; general warrants were declared illegal ; and Edmund Burke, already famed for " most shining talents," and "sanguine friendship for America/' 4 was consulting merchants and manufacturers on the means of improving and extending the commerce of the whole empire. When Grenville, madly in earnest, deprecated any change in " the sacred Act of Naviga- tion," Burke bitterly ridiculed him on the idea that any act was sacred, if it wanted correction. Free ports were, therefore, established in Jamaica and in Dominica, 5 which meant only, that British ports were licensed to infringe the acts of navigation of other powers. Old 1 6 Geo. III. c. xviii. 2 Ibid., c. xi. 3 Ibid., c. xii. 4 Holt's New York Gazette, No. 1228, for July 17, 1766. 6 6 Gco. III. c. xlix. 520 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. duties, among them the plantation duties, which had stood on the statute book from the time of Charles II., were modified ; and changes were made in points of detail, though not in principle. The duty on molasses imported into the plantations was fixed at a penny a gallon ; that on British coffee was seven shillings the hundred weight ; on British pimento, one halfpenny a pound ; on foreign cambric, or French lawn, three shillings the piece, to be paid into the exchequer, and disposed of by Parliament. 1 Thus, taxes for regulating trade were renewed in conformity to former laws ; and the Act of Navigation was purposely so far sharpened as to prohibit landing non-enumerated goods in Ireland. 2 The colonial offices did not relax from their haughti- ness. Under instructions given by the former admi- nistration, the Governor of Grenada claimed to rule the island by prerogative : and Sir Hugh Palliser, 3 at Newfoundland, arrogated the monopoly of the fisheries to Great Britain and Ireland. The strength of the Ministry was tested on their introducing a new tax on windows. " The English," said Grenville, " must now pay what the colonists should have paid ; " 4 and the subject was referred to a committee by a diminished majority. Great Britain not only gave up the Stamp Tax, but itself defrayed the expenses 5 of the experiment out of 1 6 Geo. III., c. lii. 2 Ibid., c. lii. 3 Ordinances of April 3, 1766. 4 De Guerchy to Choiseul, April 21. 5 Treasury Minute, April 4. 1766.] THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 521 the sinking fund. The Treasury asked what was to be done with the stamps in those colonies where the Stamp Act had not taken place 1 l and they were ordered to be returned to England, 2 where the curious traveller may still see bags of them, cumbering the office from which they were issued. At the same time the merchants of London wrote to entreat the merchants of America to take no offence at the declaratory act, and in letters, which Rockingham and Sir George Saville 3 corrected, the Ministers signi- fied to the Dissenters in America, how agreeable the spirit of gratitude would be to the Dissenters in England, and to the Presbyterians to the north of the Tweed. 4 A change of Ministry was more and more spoken of. The nation demanded to see Pitt in the government ; and two of the ablest members of the Cabinet, Grafton and Coiiway, continued to insist upon it. But Rockingham, who, during the repeal of the Stamp Act, had been dumb, leaving the brunt of the battle to be borne by Camden and Shelburne, was determined it should not be so ; 5 and Newcastle, and Winchelsea, and Egmont concurred with him. 6 To be prepared for the 1 Treasury Minute Book, vol. xxxvii. p. 414. C. Lowndes to Beresford Treasury Letter Book, vol. xxiii. p. 296. : Treasury Minute Book, vol. xxxvii. p. 214. 3 MS. draft of a letter, with the corrections, in my possession. 4 Moflat to Stiles, March 18, 1766. * Grafton to Conway, April 22, 1766. 6 DC Guerchy to Choiseul, April 1, 1766. 522 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. change, and in the hope of becoming, under the new administration, secretary for the colonies, Charles Townshend assiduously courted the Duke of Grafton. Pitt, on retiring to recruit the health which his unpa- ralleled exertions in the winter had utterly subverted, made a farewell speech his last in the House of Commons wishing that faction might cease, and avowing his own purpose of remaining independent of any personal connections whatsoever ; while the ships bore across the Atlantic the glad news of the repeal, which he had been the first to counsel, and the ablest to defend. The joy was, for a time, unmixed with apprehension. South Carolina voted Pitt a statue ; and Virginia a statue to the King, and an obelisk, on which were to be engraved the names of those who in England had signalised themselves for freedom. " My thanks they shall have cordially," said Washington, " for their oppo- sition to any act of oppression." The consequences of enforcing the Stamp Act, he was convinced "would have been more direful than usually apprehended." Otis, at a meeting at the Town Hall in Boston, to fix a time for the rejoicings, told the people that the distinc- tion between inland taxes and port duties was without foundation ; for whoever had a right to impose the one, had a right to impose the other ; and, therefore, as the Parliament had given up the one, they had given up the other ; and the merchants were fools if they 1766.] THE HOUSE OF LORDS GIVE WAY WITH PROTESTS. 53 submitted any longer to the laws restraining their trade, which ought to be free. A bright day in May was set apart for the display of the public gladness, and the spot where resistance to the Stamp Act began, was the centre of attraction. At one in the morning the bell nearest Liberty Tree was the first to be rung ; at dawn, colours and pendants rose over the house-tops all around it ; and the steeple of the nearest meeting-house was hung with banners. During the day all prisoners for debt were released by subscription. In the evening the town shone as though night had not come ; an obelisk on the Common was brilliant with a loyal inscription ; the houses round Liberty Tree itself exhibited illuminated figures, not of the King only, but of Pitt, and Camden, and Barre ; and Liberty Tree was decorated with lanterns, till its boughs could hold no more. All the wisest agreed that disastrous consequences would have ensued from the attempt to enforce the act, so that never was there a more rapid transition of a people from gloom to joy. They compared themselves to a bird escaped from the net of the fowler, and once more striking its wings freely in the upper air ; or to Joseph, the Israelite, whom Providence had likewise wonderfully redeemed from the perpetual bondage into which he was sold by his elder brethren. The clergy from the pulpit joined in the fervour of patriotism and the joy of success. " The Americans 524 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. [1766. would not have submitted," said Chauncey. " History affords few examples of a more general, generous, and just sense of liberty in any country than has appeared in America within the year past." Such were Mayhew's words ; and while all the continent was calling out and cherishing the name of Pitt, the greatest statesman of England, the conqueror of Canada and the Ohio, the founder of empire, the apostle of freedom ; " To you," said Mayhew, speaking from the heart of the people, and as if its voice could be heard across the ocean, " to you grateful America attributes that she is reinstated in her former liberties. The universal joy of America, blessing you as our father, and sending up ardent vows to heaven for you, must give you a sublime and truly godlike pleasure ; it might, perhaps, give you spirits and vigour to take up your bed and walk, like those cured by the word of Him who came from heaven to make us free indeed. America calls you over and over again her father ; live long in health, happiness, and honour. Be it late when you must cease to plead the cause of liberty on earth." END OF VOL. II. ^ LONDON : URAUUl'KY AND EVANS, 1'KIN 1'ERS, \VHITEKK1AR:-. University of California Library Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. NON-RENEWABLE APR 041997 suv^ DUE 2 WKS FRO! WAYfl DATE RECEIVED JAN 3 3 %a].\IN:Hl\V r ^CE lf . >- MAR 1 4 2002 '//- o ^c/UJilVJ-Ju 1 "c/UJIlV.HVy ^OF-CA1IFO% ,^\ P 1 C I, _^_ N Z. 9*^5 ) = I ce aa