The Speech of Edmund Burke, Efq; on moving bis Refolutions for Conciliation with the Colonies, March 22, 1775. Hope, Sir, that, notwithstanding the I auferity of the Chair, your good-nature will incline you to fome degree of indulgence towards human frailty. You will not think it unnatural, that those who have an object depending, which ftrongly engages their hopes and fears, fhould be fomewhat inclined to fuperftition. As I came into the houfe full of anxiety about the event of my motion, I found to my infinite furprife, that the grand pena! Bill, by which we had paffed fentence on the trade and fuftenance of America, is to be returned to us from the other House. I do confefs, I could not help looking on this event as a fortunate omen. I look upon it as a fort of providential favour; by which we are put once more in poffeffion of our deliberate capacity, upon a bufinefs fo very questionable in its nature, fo very uncertain in its iffue. By the return of this Bill, which feemed to have taken its flight for ever, we are at this very inftant nearly as free to choose a plan for our American Government, as we were on the first day of the Seffion. If, Sir, we incline to the fide of conciliation, we are not at all embarraffed (unless we please to make ourfelves fo) by any incongruous mixture of coercion and restraint. We are therefore called upon, as it were by a fuperior warning voice, again to attend to America; to attend the whole of it together; and to review the fubject with an unusual degree of care and calmnefs. Surely it is an awful fubject; or there is none fo on this fide of the grave. When I first had the honour of a feat in this House, the affairs of that Continent preffed themselves upon us, as the most important and most delicate object of parliamentary attention. My little fhare in this great deliberation oppreffed me. I found myself a partaker in a very high trust; and having no fort of reafon to rely on the ftrength of my natural abiliNOT E. *The act to restrain the trade and commerce of the provinces of Maffachufett's-Bay and New Hampshire, and Colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, in NorthAmerica, to Great-Britain, Ireland, and the British Islands in the Weft-Indies; and to prohibit fuch provinces and colonies from carrying on any fishery on the banks of Newfoundland, and other places therein mentioned, under certain conditions and limitations. June, 1775. ties for the proper execution of that trust, I was obliged to take more than common pains to inftruct myfelf in every thing which relates to our colonies. I was not lefs under the neceffity of forming fome fixed ideas, concerning the general policy of the British Empire. Something of this fort feemed to be indifpenfable; in, order, amidst so vast a fluctuation of paffions and opinions, to thoughts; to ballaft my conduct; to preferve me from being blown about by every wind of fashionable doctrine. I really did not think it fafe, or manly, to have fresh principles to feek upon every fresh mail which fhould arrive from America. concentre my At that period, I had the fortune to find myself in perfect concurrence with a large majority in this House. Bowing under that high authority, and penetrated with the sharpness and firength of that early impreffion. I have continued ever fince, without the leaft deviation, in my original fentiments. Whether this be owing to an obit nate perfeverance in error, or to a religious adherence to what appears to me truth and reason, it is in your equity to judge. Sir, parliament, having an enlarged view of objects, made, during this interval, more frequent changes in their fentiments and their conduct, than could be juftified in a particular perfon upon the contracted fale of private information. But though I do not hazard any thing approaching to a cenfure on the motives of former parliaments to all thofe alterations, one fact is undoubted; that under them the state of America has been kept in continual agitation. Every thing administered as remedy to the public complaint, if it did not produce, was at leaft followed by, an heightening of the diftemper; until, by a variety of experiments, that important Country has been brought into her prefent fituation; -a fituation, which I will not miícall, which I dare not name; which I fcarcely know how to comprehend in the terms of any defcription. In this poffure, Sir, things ftood at the beginning of the fefhon. About that time, a worthy member of great parliamentary experience, who, in the year 1766, filled the chair of the American committee with much ability, took me afide; and, lamenting the prefent afpect of our politics, told me, things were come to fuch a pafs, that our former methods of proceeding in the houfe would be no longer tolerated. That the public tribunal (never too indulgent to a long NOT E. Mr. Rofe Fuller. and unfuccefstul oppofition) would now fcrutinize our conduct with unufual feve rity. The very viciffitudes and fhiftings of minifterial measures, inftead of convicting their authors of inconftancy and want of fyftem, would be taken as an occafion of charging us with a predetermined difcontent, which nothing could fatisfy; whilft we accufed every measure of vigour as cruel, and every propofal of lenity as weak and irrefolute. The public, he faid, would not have patience to fee us play the game out with our adverfaries: we muff produce our hand. It would be expected, that thofe who for many years had been active in fuch affairs fhould fhow, that they had formed fome clear and decided idea of the principles of Colony Government; and were capable of drawing out fomething like a platform of the ground, which might be laid for future and permanent tranquillity. I felt the truth of what my hon. friend reprefented; but I felt my fituation too. His application might have been made with far greater propriety to many other gentlemen. No man was indeed ever better difpofed, or worfe qualified for fuch an undertaking, than myfelf. Tho' I gave fo far into his opinion, that I immediately threw my thoughts into a fort of parliamentary form, I was by no means equally ready to produce them. It generally argues fome degree of natural impotence of mind, or fome want of knowledge of the world, to hazard Plans of Government, except from a feat of authority. Propofitions are made, not only ineffectually, but fomewhat difreputably, when the minds of men are not properly difpofed for their reception; and for my part, I am not ambitious of ridicule; nor abfolutely a candidate for difgrace. Befides, Sir, to fpeak the plain truth, I have in general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of Paper Government; nor of any Politics, in which the plan is to he wholly feparated from the execution. But when I faw, that anger and violence prevailed every day more and more; and that things were haftening towards an incurable alienation of our Colonies; I confefs, my caution gave way. I felt this, as one of thofe few moments in which decorum vields to an higher duty. Public calamity is a mighty leveller; and there are occafions when any, even the flightest, chance of doing good mult be laid hold on, even by the most inconfiderable perfon. To reftore order and repofe to an Empire fo great and distracted as ours, is, merely in the attempt, an undertaking that would ennoble the flights of the higheft genius, and obtain pardon for the efforts of the meaneft understanding. Struggling a good while with thefe thoughts, by degrees I felt myself more firm. I derived at length, fome confidenée from what in other circumstances ufually produces timidity. I grew less anxious, even from the idea of my own infignificance. For, judging of what you are, by what you ought to be, I perfuaded myself, that you would not reject a reasonable propofition, because it had nothing but its reafon to recommend it. On the other hand, being totally deftitute of all fhadow of influence, natural or adventitious, I was very fure, that, if my propofition were futile or dangerous, if it were weakly conceived, or improperly timed, there was nothing ex→ terior to it, of power to awe, dazzle, of delude you. You will fee it just as it is; and you will treat it jult as it deferves. The propofition is Peace. Not Peace through the medium of War; not Peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negociations; not Peace to arife out of univerfal difcord, fomented, from principle, in all parts of the Empire; not Peace to depend on the Juridical Determination of perplexing questions; or the precife marking the fhadowy boundaries of a complex Government. It is fimple Peace; fought in its natural courfe, and its ordinary haunts. It is Peace fought in the Spirit of Peace; and laid in principles purely pacific. I propofe, by removing the Ground of the difference, and by reftoring the former unfufpelling confidence of the Colonies in the Mother Country, to give permanent fatisfaction to your people; and (far from a scheme of ruling by difcord) to reconcile them to each other in the fame act, and by the bond of the very fame intereft, which reconciles them to British Government. My idea is nothing more. Refined policy ever has been the parent of confufion; and ever will be fo, as long as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as eafily difcovered at the fift view, as fraud is furely detected at laft, is, let me fay, of no mean force in the Government of Mankind. Genuine Simplicity of heart is an healing and cementing principle. My Plan, therefore, being formed upon the moft fimple grounds imaginable, may difappoint fome people, when they hear it. It has nothing to recommend it to the pruriency of curious ears. There is nothing at all new 1 new and captivating in it. It has nothing of the Splendor of the Project, which has been lately laid upon your Table by the Noble Lord in the Blue Ribband. It does not propofe to fill your Lobby with fquabbling Colony Agents, who will require the interpofition of your Mace, at every inftant, to keep the peace amongst them. It does not inftitute a magnificent Auction of Finance, where captivated provinces come to general ransom by bidding against each other, until you knock down the hammer, and determine a proportion of payments, beyond all the powers of Algebra to equalize and fettle. The plan, which I fhall prefume to fuggeft, derives, however, one great advantage from the propofition and registry of that Noble Lord's Project. The idea of conciliation is admiffible. Firft, the houfe, in accepting the refolution moved by the Noble Lord, has admitted, notwithftanding the menacing front of our Addrefs, notwithstanding our heavy Bill of Pains and Penalties that we do not think ourselves precluded from all ideas of free Grace and Bounty. The house has gone farther; it has declared conciliation admiffible, previous to any submission on the part of America. NOTE. That when the Governor, Council, or Affembly, or General Court, of any of his Majefly's Provinces or Colonies in America, fhall propofe to make provifion according to the condition, circumhances and fituation of fuch Province or Colony, for contributing their proportion to the Common Defence (such proportion to be raised under the authority of the General court or General Affembly of fuch Province or Colony, and difpofable by Parliament) and shall engage to make provifion alfo for the fupport of the Civil Government, and the Administration of Juftice, in fuch Province or Colony, it will be proper, if Juch Propofal shall be approved by his Majefty, and the two Houfes of Parliament, and for so long as fuch Provifion fhall be made accordingly, to forbear, in respect of fuch Province or Colony, to levy any Duty, Tax, or Affellment, or to impofe any farther Duty, Tax, or Affeffment, except fuch Duties as it may be expedient to continue to levy or impofe, for the Regulation of Commerce; the Nett Produce of the Duties laft mentioned to be carried to the account of fuch Province or Colony refpectively." Refolution moved by Lord North in the Committee; and agreed to by the House, 27 Feb. 1775. It has even fhot a good deal beyond that mark, and has admitted, that the complaints of our former mode of exerting the right of Taxation were not wholly unfounded. That right thus exerted is allowed to have had fomething reprehenfible in it, fomething unwife, or fomething grievous: fince, in the midst of our heat and refentment, we, of ourfelves, have propofed a capital alteration; and, in order to get rid of what feemed fo very exceptionable, have instituted a mode that is altogether new; one that is, indeed, wholly alien from all the ancient methods and forms of Parliament. The principle of this proceeding is large enough for my purpofe. The means propofed by the noble Lord for carrying his ideas into execution, I think indeed, are very indifferently fuited to the end; and this I fhall endeavour to fhow you before I fit down. But, for the prefent, I take my ground on the admitted principle. I mean, to give peace. Peace implies reconciliation; and where there has been a material difpute, reconciliation does in a manner always imply conceffion on the one part or on the other. In this state of things I make no difficulty in affirming, that the propofal ought to originate from us. Great and acknowledged force is not impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by an unwillingness to exert itself. The fuperior power may offer peace with honour and with fafety. Such an offer from fuch a power will be attributed to magnanimity. But the conceffions of the weak are the conceffions of fear. When fuch a one is difarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his fuperior; and he lofes for ever that time and those chances, which, as they happen to all men, are the strength and refources of all inferior power. The capital leading questions, on which you must this day decide, are these two. First, whether you ought to concede; and fecondly, what your conceffion ought to be. On the first of these questions we have gained (as I have just taken the liberty of obferving to you) fome ground, But I am fenfible that a good deal more is ftill to be done. Indeed, Sir, to enable us to determine both on the one and the other of thefe great questions with a firm and precife judgment, I think it may be neceffary to confider diftin&tly the true nature and the peculiar circumftances of the object which we have before us. Because after all our ftruggle, whether we will or not, we muft govern America, according to that nature, and to thofe circumftances; and not according X X 2 to 348 Speech of Edmund Burke, Efq; to our own imaginations; not according to abstract ideas of right; by no means according to mere general theories of government, the refort to which appears to me, in our present situation, no better than arrant trifling. I fhall therefore endeavour, with your leave, to lay before you fome of the moft material of thefe circumftances in as full and as clear a manner as I am able to flate them. The first thing that we have to confider with regard to the nature of the object is the number of people in the Colonies. I have taken for fome years a good deal of pains on that point. I can by no calculation juftify myfelf in placing the number below Two Millions of inhabitants of our own European blood and colour; befides at least 500,000 others, who form no inconfiderable part of the ftrength and opulence of the whole. This, Sir, is, I believe, about the true number. There is no occafion to exaggerate, where plain truth is of fo much weight and importance. But whether I put the prefent numbers too high or too low, is a matter of little moment. Such is the ftrength with which population thoots in that part of the world, that ftate the numbers as high as we will, whilft the difpute continues, the exaggeration ends. Whilst we are difcuffing any given magnitude, they are grown to it. Whilft we fpend our time in deliberating on the mode of governing Two Millions, we fhall find we have Millions more to manage. Your children do not grow fafter from infancy to manhood, than they fpread from families to communities, and from villages to nations. June, great and growing population, though a very important confideration, will lofe much of its weight, if not combined with other circumstances. The commerce of your Colonies is out of all proportion beyond the numbers of the people.This ground of their commerce indeed has been trod fome days ago, and with great ability,, by a diftinguifhed * perfon at your years-it is fo long fince he first appearbar. This gentleman, after Thirty-five ed at the fame place to plead for the commerce of Great Britain-has come again before you to plead the fame caufe, without any other effect of time, than, that to the fire of imagination and extent of erudition, which even then marked him as one of the firft literary characters of his age, he has added a confummate knowledge in the commercial intereft of this country, formed by a long courfe of enlightened and difcriminating experience. after fuch a perfon with any detail; if a Sir, I fhould be inexcufable in coming great part of the members who now fill the house had not the misfortune to be abfent, when he appeared at your bar. Befides, Sir, I propofe to take the matter at periods of time somewhat different from his. There is, if I mistake not, a point of view, from whence if you will look at this fubject, it is impoffible that it should not make an impreffion upon you. I put this confideration of the prefent and the growing numbers in the front of our deliberation; because, Sir, this confideration will make it evident to a blunter difcernment than yours, that no partial, narrow, contracted, pinched, occafional fyftem will be at all fuitable to fuch an object, It will fhow you, that it is not to be confidered as one of thofe Minima which are out of the eye and confideration of the law; not a paltry excrefcence of the state; not a mean dependant, who may be neglected with little damage, and provoked with little danger. It will prove, that fome degree of care and caution is required in the handling fuch an object; it will show, that you ought not, in reason, to trifle with fo large a mass of the interests and feelings of the human race. You could at no time do fo without guilt; and be affured you will not be able to do it long with impunity. But the population of this country, the. I have in my hand two accounts; one of England to its Colonies, as it flood a comparative state of the export trade in the year 1704, and as it flood in the year 1772. The other a state of the exalone, as it stood in 1772, compared with port trade of this country to its Colonies the whole trade of England to all parts of the world (the Colonies included) in the year 1704. They are from good vou chers; the latter period from the accounts on your table, the earlier from an original manufcript of Davenant, who firft eftablished the Infpector General's office, which has been ever fince his time fo abundant a fource of parliamentary information. fifts of three great branches. The African, The export trade to the Colonies conwhich, terminating almost wholly in the Colonies, must be put to the account of their commerce; the West Indian; and North American. All these are fo in them would tear to pieces the contexture ter-woven, that the attempt to separate of the whole; and if not entirely destroy, would very much depreciate the value of NOT E. Mr. Glover. all 1775. all the parts. I therefore confider thefe three denominations to be, what in effect they are, one trade. The trade to the Colonies, taken on the export fide, at the beginning of this century, that is, in the year 1704, ftood thus. Exports to North America, and the Weft-Indies, To Africa, £. 483,265 86,665 569,930 In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year between the highest and loweft of those lately laid on your table, the account was as follows: To North America, and the Weft Indies, To Africa, To which if you add the export trade to and from Scotland, which had in 1704 no existence, } L. 4,791,734 - 866,398 364,000 6,024,171 From five hundred and odd thoufand, it has grown to fix millions. It has encreafed no less than twelve fold. This is the fate of the Colony trade, as compared with itself at these two periods, within this century;-and this is matter for meditation. But this is not all. ExSee how the amine my fecond account. export trade to the Colonies alone in 1772 flood in the other point of view, that is, as compared to the whole trade of England in 1704. The whole export trade with this material difference; that of Mr. Speaker, I cannot prevail on my- of England, including £. 6,509,000 of moderate and healing councils) was to that to the Colonies in 1704 Export to the Colonies alone, in 1772, 6,024,000 Difference, 485,000 be made Great Britain, he fhould fee his "death, |