tain for trial. His majefty was pleafed graciously to promife a compliance with our requeft. All the attempts from this fide of the houfe to refit thefe violences, and to bring about a repeal, were treated with the utmost fcorn. An apprehenfion of the very confequences now flated by the hon. gentleman, was then given as a reafon for fhutting the door against all hope of fuch an alteration. And fo ftrong was the fpirit for fupport, ing the new taxes, that the feffion concluded with the following remarkable declaration. After ftating the vigorous meafures which had been parfaed, the Speech from the throne pro

ceeds:

• You have affured me of your firm Support in the profecution of them. Nothing, in my opinion, could be more likely to enable the well difpofed among my subjects in that part of the world, ef. fectually to difcourage and defeat the defigns of the factious and feditious, than the hearty concurrence of every branch of the legifla ture, in maintaining the execution of the laws in every part of my dominions.

After this no man dreamt that a repeal under this miniftry could poffibly take place. The hon. gentleman knows as well as I, that the idea was utterly exploded by thofe who fway the haufe. This fpeech was made on the ninth day of May, 1769. Five days after this Speech, that is, on the 13th of the fame month, the public Circular Letter, a part of which I am going to read to you, was written by lord Hillsborough, fecretary of ftate for the colonies. After reciting the fubftance of the King's Speech, he goes on thus:

“I can take upon me to affure you, notwithflanding infinuations to the contrary, from men with factious and feditious views, that bis majesty's prefent adminiftration have at no time entertained a defign to propofe to parliament to lay any further taxes upon America, for the purpose of RAISING A REVENUE; and that it is at prefent their intention to propofe, the next feffion of parlia ment, to take off the duties upon glass, paper, and colours, upon confideration of Juch duties having been laid contrary to the true principles of commerce.

These have always been, and still are, the fentiments of his majefty's prefent fervants; and by which their conduct in respect to America has been governed. And his majefty relies upon your prudence and fidelity for fuch an explanation of his measures, as may tend to remove the prejudices which have been excited by the mifre prefentations of those who are enemies to the peace and prosperity of Great Britain and her colonies; and to re-establish that mutual confidence and affection, upon which the glory and fafity of the British empire depend."

Here, fir, is a canonical book of ministerial fcripture; the general epiftle to the Americans. What does the gentleman fay to it? Here a repeal is promifed; promifed without condition; and while your authority was actually refifted. I pafs by the public promife of a peer relative to the repeal of taxes by this

houfe.

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houfe. I país by the ufe of the king's name in a matter of fupI conceal ply, that facred and referved right of the commons. the ridiculous figure of parliament, hurling its thunders at the gigantic rebellion of America; and then five days after, proftrate at the feet of thofe affemblies we affected to defpife; begging them, by the intervention of our minifterial fureties, to receive our fubmifion; and heartily promifing amendment.'

-After this letter the question is no more on propriety or dignity. They are gone already. The faith of your fovereign is pledged for the political principle. The general declaration in the letter goes to the whole of it. You must therefore either abandon the scheme of taxing; or you must fend the ministers tarred and feathered to America, who dared to hold out the Them royal faith for a renunciation of all taxes for revenue. you must punish, or this faith you must preferve. The prefervation of this faith is of more confequence than the duties on red lead, or white lead, or on broken glafs, or atlas ordinary, or demi-fine, or blue-royal, or baftard, or fool's-cap, which you have. given up, or the three-pence on tea which you retained. The letter went ftampt with the public authority of this kingdom. The inftructions for the colony government go under no other fanction; and America cannot believe, and will not obey you, if you do not preferve this channel of communication facred. You are now punishing the colonies for acting on distinctions, held out by that very miniftry which is here fhining in riches, in favour, and in power; and urging the punishment of the very offence, to which they had themfelves been the tempters."

The eloquent member expatiates with great feverity on the non performance of the declarations contained in lord Hillfborough's letter, which he confiders as a flagrant violation of minifterial faith, and as the chief incentive to the Americans, in the resistance they have made to the British government. He afterwards draws a picture of the fituation of America confequent to paffing the ftamp-a&t, and next of the tranquility which enfued on its repeal. In the course of the hiftorical account which he gives of the conduct of administration, we meet with the following lively and entertaining paffage.

Another scene was opened, and other actors appeared on the ftage. The ftate, in the condition I have defcribed it, was delivered into the hands of lord Chatham-a great and celebrated name; a name that keeps the name of this country respectable in every other on the globe. It may be truly called,

·Clarum et venerabile nomen

Gentibus, et multum noftræ quod proderat urbi.

Sir, the venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, his fuperior eloquence, his (plendid qualities, his eminent fervices, the vast pace he fills in the eye of mankind; and, more

than

than all the reft, his fall from power, which, like death, cas nonizes and fanctifies a great character, will not fuffer me to cenfure any part of his conduct. I am afraid to flatter him; I am fure I am not difpofed to blame him. Let those who have betrayed him by their adulation, infult him with their malevo lence. But what I do not prefume to cenfure, I may have leave to lament. For a wife man, he feemed to me at that time, to be governed too much by general maxims. I fpeak with the freedom of hiftory, and I hope without offence. One or two of thefe maxims, flowing from an opinion not the most indulgent to our unhappy fpecies, and furely a little too general, led him into measures that were greatly mischievous to himself; and for that reafon, among others, perhaps fatal to his country; mea fares, the effects of which, I am afraid, are for ever incurable. He made an administration, fo checkered and fpeckled; he put together a piece of joinery, fo crofsly indented and whimfically dovetailed; a cabinet fo variously inlaid; fuch a piece of diver fified Mofaic; fuch a teffelated pavement without cement; here a bit of black ftone, and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers, king's friends and republicans; whigs and tories; treacherous friends and open enemies: that it was indeed a very curious fhow; but utterly unfafe to touch, and unfure to stand on. The colleagues whom he had afforted at the fame boards, ftared at each other, and were obliged to afk, "Sir, your hame ? Sir, you have the advantage of me-Mr. Such a oneI beg a thoufand pardons."-I venture to fay, it did fo happen, that perfons had a fingle office divided between them, who had never spoke to each other in their lives; until they found them felves, they knew not how, pigging together, heads and points; in the fame truckle-bed.

Sir, in confequence of this arrangement, having put fo much the larger part of his enemies and oppofers into power, the confufion was fuch, that his own principles could not poffibly have any effect of influence in the conduct of affairs. If ever he fell into a fit of the gout, or if any other cause withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the contrary were fure to predominate. When he had executed his plan, he had not an inch of ground to ftand upon. When he had accomplifhed his scheme of adminiftration, he was no longer a minister.

• When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole fyftemt was on a wide fea, without chart or compafs. The gentlemen, his particular friends, who, with the names of various departments of miniftry, were admitted, to feem, as if they acted a part under him, with a modefty that becomes all men, and with a confidence in him, which was juftified even in its ex* travagance by his fuperior abilities, had never, in any inftance, prefumed upon any opinion of their own. Deprived of his guiding influence, they were whirled about, the fport of every guft, and cafily driven into any port: and as those who joined with them in manning the veffel were the most directly oppofite VOL. XXXIX. Jan. 1775.

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to his opinions, measures, and character, and far the most artful and most powerful of the fet, they eafily prevailed, fo as to feize upon the vacant, unoccupied, and derelict minds of his friends; and inftantly they turned the veffel wholly out of the courfe of his policy. As if it were to infult as well as to betray him, even long before the close of the first feffion of his adminiftration, when every thing was publicly tranfacted, and with great parade in his name, they made an act, declaring it highly juft and expedient to raise a revenue in America. For even then, fir, even before this fplendid orb was entirely fet, and while the Western horizon was in a blaze with his defcending glory, on the oppofite quarter of the heavens arofe another lu minary, and, for his hour, became lord of the afcendant.

This light too is paffed and fet for ever. You understand, to be fure, that I fpeak of Charles Townfhend, officially the re-producer of this fatal fcheme;, whom I cannot even now remember without fome degree of fenfibility. In truth, fir, he was the delight and ornament of this houfe, and the charm of every private fociety which he honoured with his presence. Perhaps there never arofe in this country, nor in any country, a man of a more pointed and finished wit; and (where his paffions were not concerned) of a more refined, exquifite, and penetrating judgment. If he had not fo great a flock, as fome have had who flourished formerly, of knowledge long treasured up, he knew better by far, than any man I ever was acquainted with, how to bring together within a fhort time, all that was necef. fary to establish, to illuftrate, and to decorate that fide of the queftion he fupported. He ftated his matter fkilfully and powerfully. He particularly excelled in a moft luminous explanation, and display of his fubject. His ftyle of argument was neither trite and vulgar, nor fubtle and abftrufe. He hit the houfe juft between wind and water.-And not being troubled with too anxious a zeal for any matter in queftion, he was never more tedious, or more earneft, than the pre-conceived opinions, and prefent temper of his hearers required; to whom he was always in perfect unifon. He conformed exactly to the temper of the house; and he feemed to guide, because he was always fure to follow it.'

After a curious detail of the fluctuations in the conduct of government relative to taxing America, and of the feverar confequences of thofe measures, the fpeaker at length urges. the affembly to fuch a determination of the question as he thinks molt conformable to true policy.

Let us, fir, fays he, embrace fome fyftem or other before we end this feffion. Do you mean to tax America, and to draw a productive revenue from thence? If you do, speak out: name, fix, afcertain this revenue; fettle its quantity; define its objects; provide for its collection; and then fight when you have fomething to fight for. If you murder— rob! If you kill, take poffeffion; and do not appear in the

cha

character of madmen, as well as affaffins, violent, vindictive, bloody, and tyrannical, without an object. But may better counfels guide you!

Again, and again, revert to your old principles-feek peace and enfue it-leave America, if he has taxable matter in her, to tax herself. I am not here going into the distinctions of rights, nor attempting to mark their boundaries. I do not enter into these metaphyfical diftinctions; I hate the very found of them. Leave the Americans as they antiently flood, and these distinctions, born of our unhappy conteft, will die along with it. They, and we, and their and our ancestors, have been happy under that fyftem. Let the memory of all actions, in contradiction to that good old mode, on both fides, be extinguifhed for ever. Be content to bind America by laws of trade; you have always done it. Let this be your reafon for binding their trade. Do not burthen them by taxes; you were not used to do fo from the beginning. Let this be your reafon for not taxing. Thefe are the arguments of ftates and kingdoms. Leave the reft to the fchools; for there only they may be dif cuffed with fafety. But, if intemperately, unwifely, fatally, you fophifticate and poifon the very fource of governmen, by urging fubtle deductions, and confequences odious to thofe you govern, from the unlimited and illimitable nature of fupreme fovereignty, you will teach them by these means to call that fovereignty itself in queftion. When you drive him hard, the boar will furely turn upon the hunters. If that foverignty and their freedom cannot be reconciled, which will they take? they will caft your fovereignty in your face. No body will be argued into flavery. Sir, let the gentlemen on the other fide call forth all their ability; let the best of them get up, and tell me, what one character of liberty the Americans have, and what one brand of flavery they are free from, if they are bound in their property and industry, by all the reftraints you can imagine on commerce, and at the fame time are made pack-horfes of every tax you choose to impofe, without the leaft fhare in granting them? When they bear the burthens of unlimited monopoly, will you bring them to bear the burthens of unlimited revenue too?. The Englishman in America will feel that this flavery-that it is legal favery, will be no compenfation, either to his feelings or his understanding.'

From the whole of this Speech we have reaped much entertainment, and have only to wish that the ingenious ora. tor had confidered the fubject upon the principle of right, and the genius of the British conftitution. For, as the controverly with America has been generally contefted upon these grounds, the argument would probably have received additional force from fo able an advocate ;-whofe rhetorical abilities may be confidered, however, as rather fhining and plaufible than folid; and better adapted to entertain the imagination than convince the judgment.

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