XVI. 1773. BOOK There must be an abridgment of what are called English liberties;" and he lays it down as a maxim, "that a colony cannot enjoy all the liberty of the parent state, I wish," says he, "the good of the colony, when I wish to see some farther restraint of liberty rather than the connec tion with the parent state should be broken." In another letter he expresses his hopes that provi sions for dissolving the commercial combinations, and for inflicting penalties on those who do not renounce them, would be made as soon as parliament meets," Mr. Oliver, the lieutenantgovernor, intimates that the officers of the crown, i. e. the governor, lieutenant-governor, and judges, ought to be made independent of the people; for, says he, it is a difficult matter to serve two masters. The government, he affirms, has been too weak to subdue the turbulent spirits. He insinuates the expediency of "TAKING OFF" those persons whom he styles "the original incendiaries." He wishes for the institution of an order of patricians, and asserts the necessity of an "ALTERATION OF THE CHARTERS." The assembly, thrown into a violent flame by the reading of these letters, unanimously resolved, "that the tendency and design of the said letters was to overthrow the constitution of this government, and to introduce arbitrary power into the province;" and a petition XVI. was immediately voted to the king, to remove BOOK the governor Hutchinson, and the lieutenantgovernor Oliver, for ever from the government 1773. of the province. the Massa assembly to This PETITION being transmitted to the agent Petition of of the assembly, Dr. Franklin, was by him deli- chusetts' vered to Lord Dartmouth; and on its being pre- the king. sented to the king, his majesty signified his pleasure that it should be laid before him in council. On the 29th of January, 1774, Dr. Franklin was summoned in his official capacity as agent of the province in support of the petition. Mr. Wedderburn, since raised to the dignity of the peerage by the title of lord Loughborough, and promoted to the high office of chancellor of Great Britain, appearing as counsel for the defendants, delivered in that capacity, against the agent, the house of representatives, the province of Massachusetts, and the whole continent of America, one of the most extraordinary invectives that was on any occasion perhaps ever heard in the council-chamber. "Dr. Franklin," said Mr. Wedderburn, "stands in the light of the first mover and prime conductor of this whole contrivance against his majesty's two governors; and having, by the help of his own special confidents and party leaders, first made the assembly his agent in carrying on his own secret designs, he now appears before your lordships to give the finish 1774. BOOK ing stroke to the work of his own hands. How XVI. these letters came into the possession of any one but the right owners, is a mystery for Dr. Franklin to explain. Your lordships know the train of mischiefs which followed this concealment. After they had been left for five months to have their full operation, at length comes out a letter, which it is impossible to read without horror, expressive of the coolest and most deliberate malevolence. My lords, what poetic fiction only had penned for the breast of a cruel African, Dr. Franklin has realized and transcribed from his own-His too is the language of a ZANGA: Know then 'twas I! I forged the letter, I disposed the picture; I hated, I despised, and I destroy! And he now appears before your lordships, wrapped up in impenetrable secresy, to support In consequence of the transmission of these letters, a duel was fought between Mr.Whately, brother to the correspondent of the two governors, and Mr. Temple, who was suspected, without just cause, of being accessary to the communication of them; and in this rencounter Mr. Whately was dangerously wounded. Such was the unfortunate incident which by Mr. Wedderburn was infamously represented as the proposed result of the malevolent artifices of Dr. Franklin. That great man remarked upon this occasion, "That though the invectives of the solicitor-general made no impression upon him, he was indeed sorry to see the lords of the council, who constituted the dernier court in colonial affairs, so rudely and indecently manifesting the pleasure they received from it." XVI. a charge against his majesty's governor and lieu- BOOK tenant-governor, and expects that your lordships should advise the punishing them on ac- 1774. count of certain letters which he will not produce, and which he dares not tell how he obtained. These are the lessons taught in Dr. Franklin's school of politics. With regard to his constituents, the factious leaders at Boston, who make this complaint against their governors, if the relating of their evil doings be criminal, and tending to alienate his majesty's affections, must not the doing of them be much more so? Yet now they ask that his majesty will gratify and reward them for doing these things, and that he will punish their governors for relating them, because they are so very bad that it cannot but offend his majesty to hear of them." From these passages some judgment may be formed of the general strain of this famous Philippic, which, violating every rule and limit of decorum, stands upon record as the grossest insult ever offered to a great and venerable character, the most distinguished ornament of his age and country. A wise government would have known his value, and been happy to have availed itself of his experience and sagacity; but the counsels of a Franklin, under the present reign, were not likely to preponderate over those of a Hutchinson. The report of the lords of the council was in a few 1 XVI. 1774. BOOK days afterwards made, the KING's most excellent majesty being present, "that the petition in question is founded upon false and erroneous allegations, and that the same is groundless, vexatious, and scandalous, and calculated only for the seditious purposes of keeping up a spirit of clamour and discontent in the province." And his majesty was pleased, upon taking the said report into consideration, to approve thereof, and to order the said petition of the assembly of Massachusetts to be dismissed accordingly. Such was the mode in which a petition from the first provincial legislature in the empire, composed of men eminent for ability and integrity, was treated by the British government, which perhaps had never duly pondered the ancient maxim of moral and political wisdom, "that pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall"." But a matter of higher import, and attended with far more serious consequences, which at this time took place, is now to be related. New modi fication of can tea du When at a very early period of lord North's the Ameri- administration the duties on paper, glass, and colors, were repealed, it has been already remarked that the duty on TEA was purposely left as a mark of legislative supremacy. The East-India ty. Maximè adducuntur plerique, ut eos justitiæ capiat oblivio, cum in imperiorum, honorum, gloriæ, cupiditatem inciderunt.CIE RO. |