Speech of Edmund Burke, Efq; 392 Propofal in itfelf would be received with "iflike. I think, Sir, we have few AmeFican Financiers. But our misfortune is, we are too acute; we are too exquisite in our conjectures of the future, for men oppreffed with fuch great and prefent evils. The more moderate among the oppofers of Parliamentary Conceffion freely contefs, that they hope no good from Taxation; but they apprehend the Colonits have further views; and if this point were conceded, they would inftantly attack the Trade-laws. Thefe Gentlemen are convinced, that this was the intention from the beginning; and the quarrel of the Americans with Taxation was more than a cloak and cover to this deno fign. Such has been the language even of a Gentleman of real moderation, and of a natural temper well adjusted to fair and equal Government. I am, however, Sir, not a little furprifed at this kind of difcourfe, whenever I hear it; I am the more furprised, on account of the arguments which I conftantly find in company with it, and which are often urged from the fame mouths, and on the fame day. For inttance, when we allege, that is against reafon to tax a people under fo many restraints in trade as the Americans, the Noble Lord in the Blue ribband fhall tell you, that the reftraints on trade are futile and useless; of no advantage to us, and of no burden to those on whom they are impofed; that the trade to America is not fecured by the acts of navigation, but by the natural and irrefiftible advantage of a commercial preference. Such is the merit of the trade-laws in this posture of the debate. But when strong internal circumstances are urged againit the taxes; when the fcheme is diffected; when experience and the nature of things are brought to prove, and do prove, the utter impoffibility of obtaining an effective revenue from the Colonies; when thefe things are preffed, or rather prefs themfelves, fo as to drive the advocates of Colony taxes to a clear admiflion of the futility of the fcheme; then, Sir, the fleeping trade laws revive from their trance; and this useless taxation is to be kept facred, not for its own fake, but as a counterguard and fecurity of the laws of trade. Then, Sir, you keep up revenue laws which are mischievous, in order to preferve trade laws that are ufelefs. Such is the wisdom of our plan in both its members. They are feparately given up as NOTE S. + Mr. Rice, *Lord North. July, of no value; and yet one is always to be defended for the fake of the other. But I cannot agree with the Noble Lord, nor with the pamphlet from whence he seems the inutility of the trade laws For with to have borrowed thefe ideas, concerning out idolizing them, I am fure they are and in former times, they have been of till, in many ways, of great ufe to us; do greatly narrow, the market for the the greatest. They do confine, and they of this does not help me in the least to Americans. But my perfect conviction difcern how the revenue laws form any fecurity whatfoever to the commercial gulations are the true ground of the regulations; or that thefe commercial requarrel; or, that the giving way, in any one inftance of authority, is to lofe all that may remain unconceded. The public and avowed origin of this One fact is clear and indifputable. quarrel was has indeed brought on new difputes on on taxation. This quarr. 1 ter, and the fewest of all, on the trade new questions; but certainly the leaft bitlaws. To judge which of the two be the to fee whether the commercial difpute real radical caufe of quarrel, we have did, in order of time, precede the difpute on taxation? There is not a shadow of evidence for it. Next, to enable us to judge whether at this moment a diflike to the Trade Laws be the real cause of quarrel, it is abfolutely neceffary to put the taxes out of the queftion by a repeal. See how the Americans act in this pofition, and then you will be able to difcern cortroverfy, or whether any controverfy at rectly what is the true object of the conall will remain? Unless you confent to remove this caufe of difference, it is impoffible, with decency, to affert that the dif pute is not upon what it is avowed to be. And I would, Sir, recommend to your ferious confideration, whether it be pru dent to form a rule for punishing people, not on their own acts, but on your conjectures? Surely it is prepofterous at the very best. It is not justifying your anger, by their mifconduct; but it is converting your ill will into their delinquency. las! alas! when will this fpeculating But the Colonies will go further.-Aagainst fact and reafon end? What will tain of the hoftile effect of a conciliatoquiet thefe panick fears which we enter ry conduct? It is true, that no cafe can exifts in which it is proper for the fovereign to accede to the defires of his difcontented fubjects? Is there any thing peculiar in this cafe, to make a rule for itfelf? Is all authority of course loft, when when it is not pushed to the extreme? It is a certain maxim, that, the fewer caufes of diffatisfaction are left by government, the more the fubject will be inclined to refift and rebel? All these objections being in fact no more than fufpicions, conjectures, divinations; formed in defiance of fact and experience; they did not, Sir, difcourage me from entertaining the idea of a Conciliatory conceffion, founded on the principles which I have just stated. In forming a plan for this purpose, I endeavoured to put myself in that frame of mind, which was the moft natural, and the most reasonable; and which was certainly the most probable means of fecuring me from all error. I fet out with a perfect diftrust of my own abilities; a total renunciation of every fpeculation of my own; and with a profound reverence for the wifdom of our anceflors, who have left us the inheritance of fo happy a conftitution, and fo flourishing an empire, and, what is a thousand times more valuable, the treasury of the maxims and principles which formed the one, and obtained the other. . During the reigns of the kings of Spain of the Austrian family, whenever they were at a lofs in the Spanish councils, it was common for their statesmen to say, that they ought to confult the genius of Philip the Second. The genius of Philip the Second might mislead them; and the iffue of their affairs fhewed, that they had not chofen the n.oft perfect ftandard. But, Sir, I am fure that I shall not be mifled, when, in a cafe of conftitutional difficulty, 1 confult the genius of the Englifh conftitution. Confinting at that oracle (it was with all due humility and piety) I found four capital examples in a fimiliar cafe before me: thofe of Ireland, Wales, Chefter, and Durham. Ireland, before the English conqueft, though never governed by a defpotick power, had no Parliament. How far the English Parliament itself was at that time modelled according to the prefent form, is difputed among antiquarians. But we have all the reafon in the world to be affured, that a form of Parliament, fuch as England then enjoyed, the infiantly communicated to Ireland; and we are equally fure that almott every fucceffive improvement in conftitutional liberty, as fait as it was made here, was tranfmitted thither. The feudal Baronage, and the feudal Knighthood, the roots of our primitive conititution, were early tranfplanted into that foi!; and grew and flourished there. MagnaCharta, if it did not give us originally the House of Commons, gave us at least an House of Commons of weight and confequence. But your ancestors did not churlifhly fit down alone to the feaft of Magna Charta. Ireland was made immediately a partaker. This benefit of English laws and liberties, I confefs, was, not at firft extended to all Ireland. Mark the confequence. English authority and English liberties had exactly the fame boundaries. Your ftandard could never be advanced an inch before your privileges. Sir John Davis fhows beyond a doubt, that the refusal of a general communication of these rights was the true caufe why Ireland was five hundred years in fubduing; and after the vain projects of a Military Government, attempted in the reign of Queer I'lizabeth, it was foon discovered, that nothing could make that country English, in civility and allegiance, but your laws and your forms of legiflature. It was not English arms, but the English conftitution, that conquered Ireland. From that time, Ireland has ever had a general Parliament, as she had before a partial Parliament. You changed the people; you altered the religion, but you never touched the form or the vital fubftance of free government in that kingdom. You depofed kings: you reftored them; you altered the fucceffion to theirs, as well as to your own crown: but you never altered their conftitution; the principle of which was refpected by ufurpation; reftored with the restoration of Monarchy, and established, I truft, for ever, by the glorious Revolution. This has made Ireland the great' and flourishing kingdom that it is; and, from a difgrace and a burden intolerable to this nation, has rendered her a principal part of our firength and ornament. This country cannot be faid to have ever formally taxed her. The irregular things done in the confufion of mighty troubles, and on the hinge of great revolutions, even if all were done that is faid to have been done, form no example. If they have any effect in argument, they make an exception to prove the rule. None of your own liberties could ftand a moment, if the cafual deviations from them, at fuch times, were fuffered to be used as proofs of their nullity. By the lucrative amount of fuch cafual breaches in the conftitution, judge what the stated and fixed rule of fupply has been in that Kingdom. Your frif penfioners would ftarve, if they had no other fund to live on than taxes granted by English authority. Turn your eyes to thofe popular grants from whence all your great fupplies are come; and learn to refpect that Eee 2 only only fource of publick wealth in the British empire. My next example is Wales. This country was faid to be reduced by Henry the Third. It was faid more truly to be fo by Edward the Firft. But though then conquered, it was not looked upon as any part of the realm of England. Its old conftitution, whatever that might have been, was deftroyed; and no good one was substituted in its place. The care of that tract was put into the hands of Lords Marchers-a form of Government of a very fingular kind; a strange heterogenous monster, fomething between Hoftility and Government; perhaps it has a fort of refemblance, according to the modes of those times, to that of commander in chief at prefent, to whom all civil power is granted as fecondary. The manners of the Welsh nation followed the Genius of the Government: The people were ferocious, reftive, favage, and uncultivated; fometimes compofed, never pacified. Wales, within itself, was in perpetual diforder, and it kept the fronier of England in perpetual alarm. Benefits from it to the ftate, there were none. Wales was only known to England, by incurfion and invasion. Sir, during the state of things, Parliament was not idle. They attempted to fubdue the fierce fpirit of the Welth by all forts of rigorous laws. They prohibited by ftatute the fending all forts of arms into Wales, as you prohibit by proclamation (with fomething more of doubt on the legality) the fending arms to America. They difarmed the Welsh by ftatute, as you attempted (but still with more question on the legality) to difarm New England by an inftruction. They made an act to drag offenders from Wales into England for trial, as you have done (but with more hardship) with regard to America. By another act, where one of the parties was an Englishman, they ordained, that his trial should be always by English. They made as to reftraintrade, as you do; and they prevented the Welsh from the ufe of fairs and markets, as you do the Americans from fifheries and foreign ports. In short, when the ftatute-book was not quite fo much fwelled as it is now, you find no lefs then fifteen acts of penal regulation on the fubject of Wales. Here we rub our hands-A fine body of precedents for the authority of ParJiament and the ufe of it!-I admit it fully; and pray add likewife to these precedents, that, all the while, Wales rid this kingdom like an incubus; that it was an unprofitable and oppreffive burden; and that an Englishman, travelling in that country, could not go fix yards from the high road without being murdered. The march of the human mind is flow, Sir, it was not, until after Two Hundred years, discovered, that by an eternal law, Providence had decreed vexation to violence; and poverty to rapine. Your ancestors did however at length open their eyes to the ill husbandry of injuftice. They found that the tyranny of a free people could, of all tyrannies, the least be enendured; and that laws made against an whole nation were not the most effectual methods for fecuring its obedience. Accordingly, in the Twenty-seventh year of Henry the VIII. the courfe was entirely altered. With a preamble stating the entire and perfect rights of the crown of England, it gave to the Welsh all the rights and privileges of English subjects. A political order was established; the military power gave way to the civil; the marches were turned into counties. But that a nation fhould have a right to English liberties, and yet no fhare at all in the fundamental fecurity of these liberties, the grant of their own property, feemed a thing fo incongruous, that Eight years after, that is, in the Thirty-fifth of that reign, a complete and not ill-proportioned reprefentation by counties and boroughs was bestowed upon Wales, by act of Parliament. From that moment, as by a charm, the tumults fubfided; obediance was reftored; peace, order, and civilization, followed in the train of libertyWhen the day ftar of the English conftitution had arise in their hearts, all was harmony within and without Simul alba nautis Defluit faxis agitatus humor: The very fame year the county palatine of Chefter received the fame relief from its oppreffions, and the same remedy to its diforders. Before this time Chefter was little lefs diftempered than Wales. The inhabitants, without rights themfelves, were the fittest to deftroy the rights of others; and from thence Richard II. drew the standing army of Archers, with which for a time he oppreffed England. The people of Chefter applied to Parliament in a petition penned as I shall read to you: To the King our Sovereign Lord, in most bumble wife fhewn unto your Excellent Majefty, the inhabitants of your Grace's county . county palatine of Chefter; That where the faid county palatine of Chefter is and bath been always hitherto exempt, excluded and feparated out and from your high court of parliament, to have any knights and burgeles within the faid court; by reafon whereof the faid inhabitants have bitherto fuftained manifold disherifons, loffes and damages, as well in their lands, goods, and bodies, as in the good, civil, and politick goverance and maintenance of the commonwealth of their Jaid country: (2) And for as much as the faid inhabitants have always bitherto been bound by the acts and ftatutes made and ordained by your faid bigbnefs, and your moft noble progenitors, by authority of the faid court, as far forth as other counties, cities, and boroughs have been, that have had their knights and burgeffes within your said court of parliament, and yet have had neither knightne burgeffes there for the faid county palatine; the faid inhabitants, for lack thereof, have been oftentimes touched and grieved with acts and fatutes made within the faid court, as well derogatory unto the most antient jurifdictions, liberties, and privileges of your faid county palatine, as prejudicial unto the common wealth, quietness, reft, and peace of your grace's most bounden fubjects inhabiting the fame. What did Parliament with this audacious addrefs?-reject it as a libel? Treat it as an affront to government? Spurn it as a derogation from the rights of legiflature? Did they tofs it over the table? Did they burn it by the hands of the common hangman?- -They took the petition of grievance, all rugged as it was, without foftening or temperament, unpurged of the original bitterness and indignation of complaint; they made it the very preamble to their act of redress; and confecrated its principle to all ages in the fanctuary of legiflation. Here is my third example. It was attended with the fuccefs of the two former. Chefter, civilized as well as Wales, has demonstrated that freedom and not fervitude is the cure of anarchy; as relegion, and not atheism, is the true remedy for fuperftition, Sir, this pattern of Chefter was followed in the reign of Charles II. with regard to the county palatine of Durham, which is my fourth example. This county had long lain out of the pale of free legiflation. So fcrupuloufly was the example of Chefter followed, that the ftyle of the preamble is nearly the fame with that of the Chester act; and without affecting the abftract extent of the authority of Parliament, it recognizes the equity of not fuffering any con fiderable district, in which the British fubjects may act as a body, to be taxed without their own voice in the giant. Now if the doctrines of policy contained in thefe preambles, and the force of these examples in the acts of Parliament, avail any thing, what can be faid against applying them with regard to America? Are not the people of America as much Englishmen as the Welth? The preamble of the act of Henry VIII. fays, the Welsh speak a language no way refembling that of his Majefty's English fubjects. Are the Americans not as numerous? If we may truft the learned and accurate Judge Barrington's account of North-Wales, and take that as a flandard to measure the rest, there is no comparifon. The people cannot amount to above 200,000; not a tenth part of the number in the Colonies. Is America in rebellion? Wales was hardly ever free from it. Have you attempted to govern America by penal ftatutes? You made Fifteen for Wales. But your legiflative authority is perfect with regard to Ame. rica; was it lefs perfect in Wales, Chefter, and Durham? But America is virtually reprefented. What! does the electrick force of virtual reprefentation more eafily pafs over the Atlantic, than pervade Wales, which lies in your neighbourhood; or than Chefter or Durham furrounded by abundance of reprefentation that is actual and palpable? But, Sir, your ancestors thought this fort of virtual representation, however ample, to be totally infufficient for the freedom of the inhabitants of territories that are fo near, and comparitively fo inconfiderable. How then can I think it fufficient for those which are infinitely greater, and infinitely more remote? You will now, Sir, perhaps imagine, that I am on the point of propofing to you a fcheme for a reprefentation of the Colonies in Parliament. Perhaps I might be inclined to entertain fome fuch thought; but a great flood stops me in my course. Oppofuit Natura-I cannot remove the eternal barriers of the creation. The thing in that mode, I do not know to be poffible. As I meddle with no theory, I do not abfolutely affert the impracticability of fuch reprefentation. But I do not fee my way to it; and those who have been more confident, have not been more fuccefsful. However, the arm of public benevolence is not fhortened; and there are often feveral means to the fame end, What nature has disjoined in one way, wiflom may unite in another. When we Cannot 396 Speech of Edmund Burke, Efq; cannot give the benefit as we would with, Fortunately I am not obliged for the ways and means of this fubftitute to tax my own unproductive invention. I am not even obliged to go to the rich treafury of the fertile framers of imaginary commonwealths; not to the republic of Plato, not to the Utopia of more; not to the Oceana of Harrington. It is before me-It is at my feet, and the rude fwain treads daily on it with his clouted hoon. I only wish you to recognize, for the theory, the ancient conftitutional policy of this kingdom with regard to the reprefentation, as that policy has been declared in acts of Parliament; and, as to the practice, to return to that mode which an uniform experience has marked out to you, as beft; and in which you walked with fecurity, advantage, and honour, until the year 1763. My refolutions therefore mean to eftablish the equity and justice of a taxation of America, by grant, and not by impofition. To mark the legal competency of their Colony affemblies for the fupport of the government in peace, and for the public aids in time of war. To acknowledge that this legal competency has had a dutiful and beneficial exercife; and that experience has fhown the benefit of their grants, and the futility of parliamentary taxation as a method of Supply. Thefe folid truths compofe fix fundamental propofitions. There are three more refolutions corollary to thefe. If you admit the firft fet, you can hardly reject the others. But if you admit the first, I fhall be far from folicitous whether you accept or refufe the latt. I think thefe fix maffive pillars will be of ftrength fufficient to support the temple of British concord. I have no more doubt than I entertain of my existence, that, if you admitted thefe, you would command an immediate peace; and with but tolerable future management, a lafting obedience in America. I am not arrogant in this confident affurance. The propofitions are all mere matters of fact; and if they are fuch facts as draw irrefiftible conclufions even in the ftating, this is the power of truth, and not any management of mine. Sir, I fhall open the whole plan to you together, with fuch obfervations on the motions as may tend to illufirate them where they may want explanation. The firft is a refolution-" That the Colonies and Plantations of Great Britain in North July, America, confifting of Fourteen Separate Governments, and containing Two Millions not had the liberty and privilege of electing and upwards of free inhabitants, have or others to represent them in the high and fending any Knights and Burgefjes, Court of Parliament."-This is a plain down, and (excepting the description) it matter of fact, neceffary to be be laid is laid down in the language of the constitution; it is taken nearly verbatim from acts of Parliament. The fecond is like unto the firfthave been liable to, and bounden by, feve"That the Jaid Colonies and Plantations ral fubfidies, payments, rates, and taxes, given and granted by Parliament, though the faid Colonies and Plantations have not their Knights and Burgeffes, in the faid high Court of Parliament, cf their own election, to represent the condition of their country; by lack whereof they have been oftentimes touched and grieved by fubfidies given, granted, and affented to, in the Jaid court, in a manner prejudicial to the of the subje&s inhabiting within the fame.” common wealth, quietness, reft, and peace too ftrong, or too weak? Does it arrogate Is this defcription too hot, or too cold, it lean too much to the claims of the peotoo much the fupreme legiflature? Does ple? If it runs into any of these errors, the fault is not mine. It is the language Non meus hic fermo eft, fed quem præcepit of your own ancient acts of Parliament. Ofellus, rufticus, abnormis japiens. It is manly, home-bred fenfe of this country the genuine produce of the ancient ruftick, I did not dare to rub off a particle of grievance in this fecond refolution, which thafe |