any revenue to the Crown; and that infinite mischiefs would be the confequence of fuch a power. When Mr. Grenville had paffed the first revenue act, and in the fame feffion had made this House come to a refolution for laying a ftamp duty on America, between that time and the paffing the flamp-act into a law, he told a confiderable and most refpectable merchant, a member of this Houfe, whom I am truly forry I do not fee in his place, when he reprefented againft this proceeding, that if the ftamp-duty was difliked, he was willing to exchange it for any other equally productive; but if he objected to the Americans being taxed by Parliament, he might fave himself the trouble of the difcuffion, as he was determined on the measure. This is the fact, and if you pleafe, I will mention a very unquestionable authority for it.

Thus, Sir, I have difpofed of this falfehood. But falfehood has a perennial fpring. It is faid, that no conjecture could be made of the diflike of the Colonies to the principle. This is as untrue as the other. After the refolution of the House, and before the paffing of the ftamp-act, the Colonies of Maffachfett's Bay and New York did fend remonftrances, objecting to this mode of parliamentary taxation. What was the confequence? They were fuppreffed; they were put under the table; notwithflanding an order of council to the contrary, by the miniftry which compofed the very council that had made the order; and thus the Houfe proceeded to its bafinefs of taxing without the leaft regular knowledge of the objections which were made to it. But to give that Houfe As due, it was not over defirous to receive information, or to hear remonfrance. On the 15th of February, 1765, whilst the stamp-act was under deliberation, they refused with fcorn even fo much as to receive four petitions from fo efpectable Colonies as Connecticut, Rhode and, Virginia, and Carolina; befides ene from the traders of Jamaica. As to the Colouies, they had no alternative left to them, but to difobey; or to pay the taxes impofed by that Parliament which was nor fuffered, or did not fuffer itself, even to hear them remonftrate upon the subject.

This was the ftate of the Colonies before his Majefty thought fit to change his minifters. It ftands upon no authority of mine. It is proved by incontrovertible records. The Hon. Gentleman has defired fome of us to lay our hands upon our hearts and answer to his queries upon

the hiftorical part of this confideration ; and by his manner (as well as my eyes could difcern it) he feemed to address himfelf to me.

Sir, I will anfwer him as clearly as I am able, and with great opennefs: I have nothing to conceal. In the year fixty-, five, being in a very private flation, far enough from any line of bufinefs, and not having the honour of a feat in this House, it was my fortune, unknowing and unknown to the then miniry, by the intervention of a common friend, to become connected with a very noble perfon, and at the head of a treafury department. It was indeed in a fituation of little rank and no confequence, fuitable to the mediocrity of my talents and pretenfions. But a fituation near enough to enable me to fee as well as others, what was going on; and I did see in that noble perfon fuch found principles, fuch an enlargement of mind, fuch clear and fagacious fenfe, and fuch unthaken fortitude, as have bound me, as well as others much better than me, by an inviolable attachment to him from that time forward. Sir, Lord Rockingham very early in that fummer received a strong reprefentation from many weighty Englifh merchants and manufacturers, from governors of provinces and commanders of men of war, against almost the whole of the American commercial regulations: and particularly with regard to the total ruin which was threatened to the Spanish trade. I believe, Sir, the noble Lord foon faw his way into this bufinefs. But he did not rafhly determine against acts which it might be fuppofed were the refult of much deliberation. However, Sir, he scarcely began to open theground, when the whole veteran body of office took the alarm. A violent outcry of all (except those who knew and felt the mifchief) was raised against any alteration. On one hand, his attempt was a direct violation of treaties and public law.-On the other, the Act of Navigation and all the corps of trade laws were drawn up in array against it.

The firft ftep the noble lord took was to have the opinion of his excellent, learned, and ever lamented friend the late Mr. Yorke, then attorney general, on the point of law. When he knew that formally and officially, which in fubftance he had known before, he immediately difpatched orders to redrefs the grievance. But I will fay it for the then minifter, he is of that conftitution of mind, that I know he would have iffued, on the fame critical occafion, the very fame orders,

it

if the Acts of Trade had been, as they were not, directly against him; and would have cheerfully fubmitted to the equity of Parliament for his indemnity. On the conclufion of this business of the Spanish trade, the news of the troubles, on account of the ftamp-act, arrived in England. It was not until the end of October that these accounts were received. No fooner had the found of that mighty tempeft reached us in England, than the whole of the then oppofition, instead of feeling humbled by the unhap py iffue of their measures, feemed to be infinitely elated, and cried out, that the miniftry, from envy to the glory of their predeceffors, were prepared to repeal the ftamp-act. Near nine years after, the Hon. Gentleman takes quite oppofite ground, and now challenges me to put my hand to my heart, and fay, whether the miniftry had refolved on the repeal till a confiderable time after the meeting of Parliament. Though I do not very well know what the Hon. Gentleman wishes to infer from the admiffion, or from the denial of this fact, on which he fo earnestly abjures me; I do put my hand on my heart, and affure him, that they did not come to a refolution directly to repeal. They weighed this matter as its difficulty and importance required. They confidered maturely among themfelves. They confulted with all who could give advice or information. It was not determined until a little before the meeting of Parliament; but it was determined, and the main lines of their own plan marked out before that meeting. Two questions arose (I hope I am not going into a narrative troublefome to the House.)

[A cry of, Go on, go on.]

The first of the two confiderations was, whether the repeal fhould be total, or whether only partial; taking out every thing burthenfome and productive, and referving only an empty acknowledgment, fuch as a ftamp on cards or dice. The other question was, On what principle the act fhould be repealed? On this head alfo two principles were ftarted. One, that the legislative rights of this country, with regard to America, were not entire, but had certain reftrictions and Imitations. The other principle was, that taxes of this kind were contrary to the fundamental principles of commerce on which the Colonies were founded; and contrary to every idea of political equity; by which equity we are bound, as much as poffible, to extend the spirit and benefit of the British conftitution to

every part of the British dominions. The option, both of the measure and of the principle of repeal, was made before the feffion; and I wonder how any one can read the King's Speech at the opening of that feffion, without feeing in that Speech both the repeal and the declaratory act very fufficiently crayoned out. Those who cannot fee this can fee nothing.

Surely the Hon. Gentleman will not think that a great deal lefs time than was then employed ought to have been spent in deliberation; when he confiders that the news of the troubles did not arrive till towards the end of October. The Parliament fat to fill the vacancies on the 14th day of December, and on business the 14th of the following January.

Sir, a partial repeal, or, as the bon ton of the court then was, a modification would have fatisfied a timid, unsystematic, procrastinating ministry, as such a measure has fince done fuch a ministry. A modification is the conftant refource of weak undeciding minds. To repeal by a denial of our right to tax in the preamble (and this too did not want advifers), would have cut, in the heroic ftyle, the Gordian knot with a sword. Either measure would have coft no more than a day's debate. But when the total repeal was adopted; and adopted on principles of policy, of equity, and of commerce; this plan made it neceffary to enter into many and difficult measures. It became neceflary to open a very large field of evidence commenfurate to thefe extensive views. But then this labour did knights fervice. It opened the eyes of feveral to the true ftate of the American affairs; it enlarged their ideas; it removed prejudices: and it conciliated the opinions and affections of men. The noble Lord, who then took the lead in administration, my Hon. Friend under me, and a Right Hon. Gentleman † (if he will not reject his fhare, and it was a large one of this bufinefs) exerted the moft laudable industry in bringing before you the fullest, most impartial, and leastgarbled body of evidence that ever was produced to this House. I think the inquiry lafted in the Committee for fix weeks; and at its conclufion this Houfe, by an independent, noble, fpirited, and unexpected majority; by a majority that will redeem all the acts ever done by majorities in Parliament; in the teeth of all the old mercenary Swifs of state, in defpite of all the fpeculators and augurs of NOTE S.

political events, in defiance of the whole embattled legion of veteran penfioners and practifed inftruments of a court, gave a total repeal to the stamp-act, and (if it had been fo permitted) a lafting peace to this whole empire.

I ftate, Sir, these particulars, because this act of fpirit and fortitude has lately been, in the circulation of the feafon, and in fome hazarded declamations in this House, attributed to timidity. If, Sir, the conduct of minifty, in propofing the repeal, had arisen from timidity with regard to themselves, it would have been greatly to be condemned. Interested timidity difgraces as much in the cabinet, as perfonal timidity does in the field. But timidity, with regard to the well-being of our country, is heroic virtue: The noble Lord who then conducted affairs, and his worthy collegues, whilft they trembled at the profpect of fuch diftreffes as you have fince brought upon your felves, was not afraid fteadily to look in the face that glaring and dazzling in fluence at which the eyes of eagles have blenched. He looked in the face one of the ableft, and, let me fay, not the most fcrupulous oppofitions, that perhaps ever was in this House, and withstood it; unaided by, even one of, the ufual supports of administration. He did this when he repealed the ftamp-act. He looked in the face a perfon he had long respected and regarded, and whofe aid was then particularly wanting; I mean Lord Chatbam. He did this when he paffed the declaratory act.

It is now given out, for the ufual purpofes, by the ufual emiffaries, that Lord Rockingham did not confent to the repeal of this act until he was bullied into it by Lord Chatham; and the reporters have gone fo far as publickly to affert, in an hundred companies, that the Hon. Gentleman under the gallery, who pro pofed the repeal in the American committee, had another fet of refolutions in his pocket directly the reverse of thofe he moved. These artifices of a desperate cause are, at this time, fpread abroad, with incredible care, in every part of the town, from the highest to the lowest companies; as if the induftry of the circulation were to make amends for the abfurdity of the report.

Sir, whether the noble Lord is of a complexion to be bullied by Lord Chatham, or by any man, I must submit to thofe who know him. I confefs, when I look back to that time, I confider him as NOTE.

* General Conway. March, 1775.

placed in one of the most trying fituations in which, perhaps, any man ever ftood. In the House of Peers there were very few of the ministry, out of the no. ble Lord's own particular connexion, (except Lord Egmont, who acted, as far as I could discern, an honourable and manly part,) that did not look to fome other future arrangement, which warped his politicks. There were in both Houses new and menacing appearances, that might very naturally drive any other, than a moft refolute minifter, from his measure, or from his flation. The houfehold troops openly revolted. The allies of miniftry (thofe, I mean, who fupported fome of their measures, but refused refponsibility for any) endeavoured to undermine their credit, and to take ground that must be fatal to the fuccefs of the very caufe which they would be thought to countenance. The question of the repeal was brought on by ministry in the Committee of this Houfe, in the very inftant when it was known that more than one court negotiation was carrying on with the heads of the oppofition. Every thing, upon every fide, was full of traps and mines. Earth below fhook; heaven above menaced; all the elements of minifterial fafety were diffolved. It was in the midst of this Chaos of plots and counterplots; it was in the midit of this complicated warfare against public oppofition and private treachery, that the firmnefs of that noble Perfon was put to the proof. He never stirred from his ground; no, not an inch. He remained fixed and determined, in principle, in measure, and in conduct. He practifed no managements. He fecured no retreat. He fought no apology.

I will likewise do juftice, I ought to do it, to the Hon. Gentleman who led us in this House *. Far from the duplicity wickedly charged on him, he acted his part with alacrity and refolution. We all felt infpired by the example he gave us, down even to myfelf the weakest in that phalanx. I declare for one, I knew well enough (it could not be concealed from any body) the true ftate of things; but, in my life, I never came with fo much fpirits into this Houfe. It was a time for a man to act in. We had powerful enemies; but we had faithful and determined friends; and a glorious caufe. We had a great battle to fight; but we had the means of fighting; not as now, when our arms are tied behind us. did fight that day and conquer. NOTE. *General Conway.

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I remember, Sir, with a melancholy pleasure, the fituation of the Hon. Gentleman who made the motion for the repeal; in that crifis, when the whole trading interest of this empire crammed into your lobbies, with a trembling and anxious expectation, waited, almoft to a winter's return of light, their fate from your refolutions. When, at length, you had determined in their favour, and your doors, thrown open, fhowed them the figure of their deliverer in the wellearned triumph of his important victory, from the whole of that grave multitude there arose an involuntary burst of titude and tranfport. They jumped upon him like children on a long abfent father. They clung about him as captives about their redeemer. All England, all America joined in his applaufe. Nor did he feem infenfible to the best of all earthly rewards, the love and admiration of his fellow-citizens. Hope elevated and joy brightened his creft. I stood near him: and his face to use the expreffion of the Scripture of the first martyr, "his face was as if it had been the face of an angel." I do not know how others feel; but if I had ftood in that fituation, I never would have exchanged it for all that kings in their profufion could bestow. I did hope that that day's danger and honour would have been a bond to hold us all together for ever. But alas! that, with other pleafing vifions, is long fince vanished.

Sir, this act of fupreme magnanimity has been reprefented, as if it had been a measure of an administration, that, having no fcheme of their own, took a middle line, pilfered a bit from the one fide, and a bit from the other. Sir, they took no middle lines. They differed fundamentally from the fchemes of both parties; but they preferved the objects of both. They preferved the authority of Great Britain. They preferved the equity of Great-Britain. They made the declaratory act, they repealed the ftamp act. They did both fully because the declaratory act was without qualification; and the repeal of the stamp act total. This they did in the fituation I have de

fcribed.

Now, Sir, what will the adversary fay to both these acts? If the principle of the declaratory act was not good, the principle we are contending for this day is monstrous. If the principle of the repeal was not good, why are we not at war for a real fubftantial effective revenue? If both were bad; why has this ministry incurred all the inconveniencies

of both and of all schemes? Why have they enacted, repealed, enforced, yielded, and now attempt to enforce again?

Sir, I think I may as well now, as at any other time, speak to a certain matter of fact not wholly unrelated to the queftion under your confideration. We, who would perfuade you to revert to the ancient policy of this kingdom, labour under the effect of this fhort current phrafe, which the court leaders have given out to all their corps, in order to take away the credit of those who would prevent you from that frantic war you are going to wage upon your Colonies. Their cant is this: “ All the disturbances in America have been created by the repeal of the Stamp A&t." I fupprefs for a moment my indignation at the falfehood, bafenefs, and abfurdity of this moft audacious affertion. Instead of remarking on the motives and character of those who have iffued it for circulation, I will clearly lay before you the state of America, antecedently to that repeal; after the repeal; and fince the renewal of the schemes of American taxation,

It is faid, that the disturbances, if there were any, before the repeal, were flight; and without difficulty or inconvenience might have been fuppreffed. For an answer to this affertion I will fend you to the great author and patron of the Stamp All, who certainly meaning well to the authority of this Country, and fully apprized of the ftate of that, made, before a repeal was fo much as agitated in this House, the motion which is on your Jour-. nals; and which, to fave the Clerk the trouble of turning to it, I will now read to you. It was for an amendment to the addrefs of the 17th of December 1765.

And to

To express our juf resentment and indignation at the outrageous tumults and infurrections which have been excited and carried on in North America; and at the refiftance given by open and rebellious force to the execution of the laws in that part of his Majefty's dominions. affure bis Majefly, that his faithful Commons, animated with the warmeft duty and attachment to his royal ferfon and government, will firmly and effectually Support bis majefy in all fuch measures as fhall be necessary for preferving and Supporting the legal dependance of the colonies on the Mother Country, &c. &c."

Here was certainly a disturbance preceding the repeal: fuch a disturbance as Mr. Grenville thought neceffary to qualify by the name of an infurrection, and the epithet of a rebellious force: terms much stronger than any, by which those

who

who then fupported his motion have ever fince thought proper to diftinguifh the fubfequent difturbances in America. They were disturbances which feemed to him and his friends to justify as strong a promife of fupport, as it hath been usual to give in the beginning of a war with the moft powerful and declared enemies. When the accounts of the American Governors came before the House, they appeared stronger even than the warmth of public imagination had painted them; fo much stronger, that the papers on your table bear me out in faying, that all the late disturbances, which have been at one time the Minister's motives for the repeal of five out of fix of the new court taxes, and are now his pretences for refufing to repeal that fixth, did not amount-why do I compare them? no, not to a tenth part of the tumults and violence which prevailed long before the repeal of that aЯ.

Miniftry cannot refufe the authority of the commander in chief General Gage, who, in his Letter of the 4th of November, from New-York, thus represents the state of things:

"It is difficult to fay, from the higheft to the lowest, who has not been acceffary to this infurrection; either by writing or mutual agreement to oppose the act, by what they are pleased to term all legal oppofition to it. Nothing effectual has been propofed either to prevent or quell the tusult. The rest of the Provinces are in the fame fituation as to a pofitive refufal to take the flamps; and threatening thofe who fhall take them, to plunder and murder them; and this affair ftands in all the Provinces, that unless the act, from its own nature, enforce itself, nothing but a very confiderable military force can do it." It is remarkable, Sir, that the perfons who formerly trumpeted forth the moft loudly, the violent refolutions of affemblies; the universal infurrections; the feizing and burning the ftamped papers; the forcing ftamp officers to refign their Commiffions under the gallows; the rifling and pulling down of the houfes of magiftrates; and the expulfion from their country of all who dared to write or speak a fingle word in defence of the powers of parliament; these very trumpeters are now the men that reprefent the whole as a mere trifle; and choose to date all the disturbances from the repeal of the ftamp act, which put an end to them, Hear your officers abroad, and let them refate this fhameless falfehood, who, in all their correfpondence, ftate the difturbances as owing to their true caufes,

the difcontent of the people from the taxes. You have this evidence in your own archives-and it will give you complete fatisfaction; if you are not so far loft to all parliamentary ideas of information, as rather to credit the lie of the day, than the records of your own House.

Sir, this vermin of court reporters, when they are forced into day upon one point, are fure to burrow in another; but they fhall have no refuge: I will make them bolt out of all their holes. Confcious that they must be baffled, when they attribute a precedent disturbance to a fubfequent measure, they take other ground almost as abfurd, but very common in modern practice, and very wicked; which is, to attribute the ill effect of ill-judged conduct to the arguments which had been used to diffuade us from it. They fay, that the oppofition made in parlia ment to the ftamp act, at the time of its paffing, encouraged the Americans to their refiitance. This has even formally appeared in print in a regular volume, from an advocate of that faction, a Dr. Tucker. This Dr. Tucker is already a dean, and his earnest labours in this vineyard will, I fuppofe, raife him to a bishoprick. But this affertion too, just like the reft, is falfe. In all the papers which have loaded your table: in all the vaft crowd of verbal witnesses that appeared at your bar, witneffes which were indifcriminately produced from both fides of the house; not the leaft Hint of fuch a caufe of disturbance has ever appeared. As to the fact of a firenuous oppofition to the ftamp act, I fat as a stranger in your gallery when the act was under confideration. Far from any thing inflammatory, I never heard a more languid debate in this houfe. No more than two or three gentlemen, as I remember, fpoke against the act, and that with great reserve and remarkable temper. There was but one divifion in the whole pro-grefs of the bill; and the minority did not reach to more than 39 or 40. In the Houfe of Lords I do not recollect that there was any debate or divifion at all. I am fure there was no proteft. In fact, the affair paffed with fo very, very little noife, that in town they fcarcely knew the nature of what you were doing. The oppofition to the bill in England never could have done this mifchief, because there fcarcely ever was lefs of opposition to a bill of confequence.

Sir, the agents and distributors of falsehoods have, with their ufual industry, circulated another lie of the fame nature with the former. It is this; that the disturbances

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