difturbances arose from the account which had been received in America of the change in the miniftry. No longer awed, it feems, with the fpirit of the former rulers, they thought themselves a match for what our calumniators choofe to qualify by the name of fo feeble a miniftry as fucceeded. Feeble in one fenfe these men certainly may be called; for with all heir efforts, and they have made many, they have not been able to refill the diftempered vigour, and infane alacrity with which you are rufhing to your ruin. But it does fo happen, that the falfity of this circulation is (like the reft) demonstrated by indisputable dates and records. So little was the change known in America, that the letters of your governors, giving an account of these disturbances long after they had arrived at their highest pitch, were all directed to the Old Miniftry, and particularly to the Earl of Halifax, the fecretary of ftate correfponding with the Colonies, without once in the fmallest degree intimating the flighteft fufpicion of any minifterial revolution whatfover. The miniftry was not changed in England until the tenth day of July 1765. On the 14th of the preceding June, Governor Fauquier from Virginia writes thus; and writes thus to the Earl of Halifax: "Government is fet at defiance, not having ftrength enough in her hands to enforce obedience to the laws of the community-The private diftrefs, which every man feels, increases the general diffatisfaction at the duties laid by the Stamp Act, which breaks out, and fhows itself upon every trifling occafion." The general diffatisfaction had produced fome time before, that is, on the 29th of May, feveral ftrong public refolves against the Stamp Act; and those refolves are affigned by Governor Bernard, as the Caufe of the infurrections in Massachusett's Bay, in his letter of the 15th of Auguft, ftill addreffed to the Earl of Halifax; and he continued to addrefs fuch accounts to that Minifter quite to the 7th of September of the fame year. Similar accounts, and of as late a date, were fent from other governors, and all directed to Lord Halifax. Not one of these letters indicates the slightest idea of a change either known, or even apprehended. Thus are blown away the infect race of courtly falfhoods thus perith the miferable inventions of the wretched run ners for a wretched caufe, which they have fly-blown into every weak and rotten part of the country, in vain hopes that when their maggots had taken wing, their importunate buzzing might found fomething like the public voice! Sir, I have troubled you fufficiently with the flate of America before the repeal. Now I turn to the Hon. Gentleman who so ftoutly challenges us, to tell, whether, after the repeal, the Provinces were quiet? This is coming to the point. Here I meet him directly; and answer molt readily, They were quiet. And I, in my turn, challenge him to prove when, and where, and by whom, and in what numbers, and with what violence, the. other laws of trade, as gentlemen affert, were violated in confequence of your concession? or that even your other reyenue laws were attacked? But I quit the vantage ground on which I ftand, and where I might leave the burthen of the proof upon him: I walk down upon the open plain, and undertake to flow, that they were not only quiet, but fhowed many unequivocal marks of acknowledgment and gratitude. And to give him every advantage, I select the obnoxious Colony of Maffachufett's Bay, which at this time (but without hearing her) is fo heavily a culprit before parliament-I will felect their proceedings even under circumftances of no fmall irritation. For, a little imprudently I muft fay, Governor Bernard mixed in the adminiftration of the lenitive of the repeal no small a crimony arifing from matters of a separate nature. Yet fee, Sir, the effect of that lenitive, though mixed with these bitter ingredients; and how this rugged people can exprefs themselves on a measure of conceffion. "in "If it is not now in our power" (fay they in their addrefs to Gov. Bernard) fo full a manner as will be expelled, to how our respectful gratitude to the Mother Country, or to make a dutiful and affectionate return to the indulgence of the King and Parliament, it shall be no fault of ours; for this we intend, and hope we shall be able fully to effect." Would to God that this temper had been cultivated, managed, and fet in action! other effects than those which we have fince felt would have refulted from it. On the requifition for compensation to those who had fuffered from the violence of the populace, in the same address they fay, "The recommendation enjoined by Mr. Secretary Conway's Letter, and in confequence thereof made to us, we will embrace the firft convenient opportunity to confider and aft upon." They did confider; they did act upon it. They obeyed the requifition. I know the mode has been chicaned upon; but it was fubftan tially obeyed; and much better obeyed, than I fear the parliamentary requifition of this feffion will be, though enforced by all your rigour, and backed with all your power. In a word, the damages of popular fury were compenfated by legiflative gravity. Almost every other part of America in various ways demonftrate their gratitude. I am bold to fay, that fo fudden a calm recovered after fo violent a ftorm is without parallel in hiftory. To fay that no difturbance should happen from any other caufe is folly. But as far as appearances went, by the judicious facrifice of one law, you procured an acquiefcence in all that remained. After this experience, nobody fhall perfuade me, when an whole people are concerned, that acts of lenity are not means of conciliation. I hope the Hon. Gentleman has received a fair and full answer to his quef tion. I have done with the third period of your policy; that of your repeal; and the return of your ancient system, and your ancient tranquility and concord. Sir, this period was not as long as it was happy. Another fcene was opened, and other actors appeared on the stage. 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 refpectable in every other on the globe. It may be truly called, -Clarum et venerabile nomen rat urbi. Sir, the venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, his superior eloquence, his fplendid qualities, his eminent services, the vaft space he fills in the eye of mankind; and, more than all the reft, his fall from power, which, like death, canonizes 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 thofe who have betrayed him by their adulation infult him with their malevolence. 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 meafures that were greatly mifchievous to himfelf; and for that reafon, among o thers, perhaps fatal to his country; meafures, the effects of which, I am afraid, are for ever incurable. He made an adminiftration, fo chequered and fpeckled; he put together a piece of joinery, fo croffly indented and whimfically dovetailed; a cabinet fo varioufly inlaid; fuch a piece of diverfified Mofaic; fuch a teffelated pavement without cement: here a bit of black ftone, and there a bit of white; patriots and courtiers, kings 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 ftand on. The colleagues, whom he had afforted at the fame boards, ftared at each other, and were obliged to afk, Sir your name ?-Sir you have the advantage of me-Mr. Such a one I 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 themfelves, 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 polibly have any effect or influence in 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 stand upon. When he had accomplished his scheme of adminiftration, he was no longer a minifter. When his face was hid but for a mo ment, his whole fyftem 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 mo deity that becomes all men, and with a confidence in him,, which was juftified even in its extravagance 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 gut, and easily driven into any port; NOTE, Supposed to allude to the Right Hon. Lord North, and George Cocke, Efq; who were made joint paymafters in the fummer of 1766, on the removal of the Kockingham adminiftration, and and as thofe who joined with them in manning the veffel were the most directly oppofite to his opinions, measures, and character, and far the mott artful and moft powerful of the fet, they easily 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 course of his policy. As if it were to infult as well as to betray him, even long before the clofe of the first feffion of his adminiftration, when every thing was publickly 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, Sir, 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 luminary, and, for his hour, became lord of the afcendant. This light too is paffed and set for ever. You understand, to be fure, that I fpeak of Charles Townshend, officially the reproducer of this fatal fcheme; whom I cannot even now remember without fome degree of fenfibility. In truth, Sir, he was the delight and ornament of this houfe, and the charm of every private fociety which he honoured with his prefence. Perhaps there never arose 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 a judgment. If he had not fo great a stock, as fome have had who flourifhed formerly, of knowledge long treafured 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 neceffary to eftablish, to il luftrate, and to decorate that fide of the queftion he supported. He ftated his matter fkilfully and powerfully. He particularly excelled in a moft luminous explanation, and difplay of his fubject. His ftyle of argument was neither trite and vulgar, nor fubtle and abftrufe. He hit the house just between wind and water. And not being troubled with too anxious a zeal for any matter in question, 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 seemed to guide, because he was always fure to follow it. I beg pardon, Sir, if when I speak of thefe and of other great men, I appear to digrefs in faying fomething of their characters. In this eventful history of the revolutions of America, the characters of fuch men are of much importance. Great men are the guide-posts and landmarks in the flate. The credit of fuch men at court, or in the nation, is the fole caufe of all the publick measures. It would be an invidious thing, (most foreign I trust to what you think my difpofition) to remark the errors into which the authority of great names has brought the nation, without doing justice at the fame time to the great qualities, whence that authority arofe. The fubject is inftructive to those who wish to form themfelves on whatever of excellence has gone before them. There are many young members in the house (fuch of late has been the rapid fucceffion of publick men) who never faw that prodigy Charles Townshend; nor of courfe know what a ferment he was able to excite in every thing by the violent ebullition of his mixed virtues and failings. For failings he had undoubtedly-many of us remember them; we are this day confidering the effect of them. But he had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate paflion for Fame; a paffion which is the inflinct of all great fouls. He worshipped that goddess wherefoever the appeared; but he paid his particular devotions to her in her favourite habitation, in her chofen temple, the House of Commons. Befides the characters of the individuals that compose our body, it is impoffible, Mr. Speaker, not to obferve, that this House has a collective character of its own. That character too, however imperfect, is not unamiable. Like all great public collections of men, you poffefs a marked love of virtue, and an abhorrence of vice. But among vices, there is none, which the house abhors in the fame degree with obftinacy. Obftinacy, Sir, is certainly a great vice; and in the changeful ftate of political affairs, it is frequently the cause of great mifchief. It happens, however, very unfortunately, that almoft the whole line of the great and mafculine virtues, conftancy, gravity, magnanimity, fortitude, fidelity, and firmnefs, are clofely allied to this difagreeable quality, of which you have so just an abhorrence; and in their excess all these virtues very easily fall into it. He who paid fuch a punctilious attention to all your feelings, certainly took took care not to shock them by that vice it. The very next feffion, as the fashion of this world paffeth away, the repeal began to be in as bad an odour in this Houfe as the Stamp Act had been in the feffion before. To conform to the temper which began to prevail, and to prevail moftly amongst those most in power, he declared, very early in the Winter, that a revenue must be had out of America. Inftantly he was tied down to his engagements by fome, who had no objection to fuch experiments, when made at the coft of perfons for whom they had no particular regard. The whole body of courtiers drove him onward. They always talked as if the king ftood in a fort of humilitated state, until fomething of the kind fhould be done. with the reft, it was levied in the Colonies. What need I fay more? This fine-fpun scheme had the ufual fate of all exquifite policy. But the original plan of the duties, and the mode of executing that plan, both arose singly and folely from a love of our applaufe. He was truly the child of the house. He never thought, did, or faid any thing but with a view to you. He every day adapted himself to your difpofition; and adjusted himself before it, as at a looking glass. He had obferved (indeed it could not escape him) that feveral persons, infinitely his inferiors in all refpects, had formerly rendered themselves confiderable in this houfe by one method alone. They were a race of men (I hope in God the fpecies is extinct) who, when they rofe in their place, no man living could divine, from any known adherence to parties, to opinions, or to principles; from any order or fyftem in their politics; or from any fequel or connexion in their ideas, what part they were going to take in any debate. It is aftonishing how much this uncertainty, especially at critical times, called the attention of all parties on fuch men. All eyes were fixed on them, all ears open to hear them; each party gaped, and looked alternate. ly for their vote, almoft to the end of their fpeeches. While the house hung in this uncertainty, now the Hear-hims rofe from this fide-now they re-bellowed from the other; and that party, to whom they fell at length from their tremulous and dancing balance, always received them in a tempeft of applause. The fortune of fuch men was a temptation too great to be refifted by one, to whom a fingle whiff of incense withheld gave much greater pain, than he received delight, in the clouds of it, which daily rofe about him from the prodigal fuperfti tion of innumerable admirers. He was a candidate for contradictory honours; and his great aim was to make thofe agree in admiration of him who never agreed in any thing else. Here this extraordinary man, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, found himfelf in great straits. To pleafe univerfally was the object of his life; but to tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wife, is not given to men. However he attempted it. To render the tax palatable to the partizans of American revenue, he made a preamble fating the neceffity of fuch a revenue. To close with the American diftinction, this revenue was an external or port-duty; but again, to foften it to the other party, it was a duty of fupply. To gra- Hence arofe this unfortunate act, the tify the colonists, it was laid on British fubject of this day's debate; from a difmanufactures; to fatisfy the merchants of pofition which, after making an AmeBritain, the duty was trivial, and (ex- rican revenue to please one, repealed it cept that on tea, which touched only the to please others, and again revived it in devoted Eaft India Company) on none hopes of pleafing a third, and of catchof the grand objects of commerce. To ing fomething in the ideas of all. Counterwork the American contraband, the duty on tea was reduced from a fhilling to three pence. But to fecure the favour of thofe who would tax America, the fcene of collection was changed, and, This revenue act, of 1767, formed the fourth period of American policy. How we have fared fince then-what woeful variety of fchemes have been adopted ; what enforcing, and what repealing; what what bullying, and what fubmitting; what doing, and undoing; what ftraining, and what relaxing; what affemblies diffolved for not obeying, and called again without obedience, what troops fent out to quell refiftance, and, on meeting that refiftance, recalled; what shiftings, and changes, and jumblings of all kinds of men at home, which left no poffibility of order, confiftency, vigour, or even fo much as a decent unity of colour in any one public measure.-It is a tedious, irkfome task. My duty may call me to open it out fome other time; on a former occafion I tried your temper on a part of it; for the present I fhall forbear. After all these changes and agitations, your immediate fituation upon the queftion on your paper is at length brought to this. You have an act of parliament, ftating, that "it is expedient to raise a revenue in America." By a partial repeal you have annihilated the greatest part of that revenue, which this preamble declares to be fo expedient. You have substituted no other in the place of it. A fecretary of state has difclaimed, in the king's name, all thoughts of fuch a fubftitution in future. The principle of this disclaimer goes to what has been left, as well as what has been repealed. The tax which lingers after its companions, (under a preamble declaring an American revenue expedient, and for the fole purpose of fupporting the theory of that preamble) militates with the affurance authentically conveyed to the Colonies; and is an exhauttlefs fource of jealoufy and animofity. On this state, which I take to be a fair one; not being able to difcern any grounds of honour, advantage, peace, or power, for adhering either to the act or to the preamble, I thall vote for the question which leads to the repeal of both. If you do not fall in with this motion, then fecure fomething to fight for, confiftent in theory and valuable in practice. If you must employ your ftrength, employ it to uphold you in fome bonourable right or fome profitable wrong. If you are apprehenfive that the conceffion recommended to you, though proper, fhould be a means of drawing on you further but unreasonable claims,-why then employ your force in fupporting that reafonable conceffion against thofe unreafonable demands. You will employ it with More grace; with better effect; and with great probable concurrence of all the quiet and rational people in the proNOTE. Refolutions moved in May 1770. vinces; who are now united with, and hurried away by the violent; having indeed different difpofitions, but a common intereft. If you apprehend that on & conceffion you shall be pushed by metaphyfical procefs to the extreme lines, and argued out of your whole authority, my advice is this; when you have recovered your old, your ftrong, your tenable pofition: then face about-ftop fhort-do nothing more-reafon not at all-oppofe the ancient policy and practice of the empire, as a rampart against the speculations of innovators on both fides of the queftion; and you will ftand on great, manly, and fure ground. On this folid bafis fix your machines, and they will draw worlds towards you. Your minifters, in their own and his Majefty's name, have already adopted the American diftinction of internal and external duties. It is a diftinction, whatever merit it may have, that was originally moved by the Americans themfelves; and I think they will acquiefce in it, if they are not pushed with too much logic and too little fense, in all the confequences. That is, if external taxation be understood, as they and you understand it when you please, to be not a diftinction of Geography, but of policy; that it is a power for regulating trade, and not for fupporting establishments. The dictinction, which is as nothing with regard to right, is of moft weighty confideration in practice. Recover your old ground, and your old tranquility—try it I am perfuaded the Americans will compromife with you. When confidence is once restored, the odious and fufpicious fummum jus, will perifh of courfe. The fpirit of practicability, of moderation, and mutual convenience, will never call in Geometrical exactness as the arbitrator of an amicable fettlement. Confult and follow your experience. Let not the long ftory with which I have exercised your patience prove fruitless to your Interefts. For my part, I fhould choose (if I could have my wifh) that the propofition of the Honourable Gentleman for the repeal could go to America without the attendance of the penal hills. Alone I could almoft anfwer for its fuccefs. I cannot be certain of its reception in the bad company it may keep. În fuch heterogeneous affortments, the most innocent perfon will lose the effect of his innocency. Though you should send out this angel of peace, yet, you are fending out a defroying angel too; and what NOT E. Mr. Fuller. would |
