Let me remind the noble lords in administra- | that infatuates our ministers ?-who has not tion, that before the stamp-act they had power seen the tyrannical counsels they have pursued, sufficient to answer all the just ends of govern- for the last ten years? They would now have ment, and they were all completely answered. us carry to the foot of the throne, a resolution, If that is the power they want, though we have stamped with rashness and injustice, fraught lost much of it at present, a few kind words with blood, and a horrible futurity. But before would recover it all. this be allowed them, before the signal of civil war be given, before they are permitted to force Englishmen to sheath their swords in the bowels of their fellow-subjects, I hope this house will consider the rights of humanity, the original ground and cause of the present dispute. Have we justice on our side? No : assuredly no. He must be altogether a stranger to the British constitution, who does not know that contributions are voluntary gifts of the people; and singularly blind, not to perceive that the words "liberty and property," so grateful to English ears, are nothing better than mockery and insult to the Americans, if their property can be taken without their consent. And what motive can there exist for this new rigor, for these extraordinary measures? Have not the Americans always demonstrated the utmost zeal and liberality, whenever their succors have been required by the mother country? But if the tendency of this bill is, as I own it appears to me, to acquire a power of governing them by influence and corruption, in the first place, my lords, this is not true government, but a sophisticated kind, which counterfeits the appearance, but without the spirit or virtue of the true and then, as it tends to debase their spirits and corrupt their manners, to destroy all that is great and respectable in so considerable a part of the human species, and by degrees to gather them together with the rest of the world under the yoke of universal slavery-I think, for these reasons, it is the duty of every wise man, of every honest man, and of every Englishman, by all lawful means, to oppose it. JOHN WILKES. EXTRACT FROM HIS SPEECH DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, FEBRUARY 6, 1775, ON LORD NORTH'S PROPOSITIONS TO DECLARE THAT A REBELLION EXISTED IN THE COLONY OF MASSACHUSETTS, ETC. 7 [FROM BOTTA'S HISTORY.] 44 In the two last wars, they gave you more than you asked for, and more than their facilities warranted: they were not only liberal towards you, but prodigal of their substance. They fought gallantly and victoriously by your side, with equal valor, against our and their enemy, the common enemy of the liberties of Europe and America, the ambitious and faith"I am indeed surprised, that, in a business less French, whom now we fear and flatter. of so much moment as this before the house, And even now, at a moment when you are respecting the British colonies in America, a planning their destruction, when you are brandcause which comprehends almost every ques-ing them with the odious appellation of rebels, tion relative to the common rights of mankind, almost every question of policy and legislation, it should be resolved to proceed with so little circumspection, or rather with so much precipitation and heedless imprudence. With what temerity are we assured, that the same men who have been so often overwhelmed with praises for their attachment to this country, for their forwardness to grant it the necessary succors, for the valor they have signalized in its defence, have all at once so degenerated from their ancient manners, as to merit the appellation of seditious, ungrateful, impious rebels! But if such a change has indeed been wrought in the minds of this most loyal people, it must at least be admitted, that affections so extraordinary could only have been produced by some very powerful cause. But who is ignorant, who needs to be told of the new madness what is their language, what their protestations? Read, in the name of Heaven, the late petition of the congress to the king; and you will find, they are ready and willing, as they ever have been, to demonstrate their loyalty, by exerting their most strenuous efforts in granting supplies, and raising forces, when constitutionally required.' And yet we hear it vociferated, by some inconsiderate individuals, that the Americans wish to abolish the navigation act: that they intend to throw off the supremacy of Great Britain. But would to God, these assertions were not rather a provocation than the truth! They ask nothing, for such are the words of their petition, but for peace, liberty, and safety. They wish not a diminution of the royal prerogative; they solicit not any new right. They are ready, on the contrary, to defend this prerogative, to main republic, subverted and utterly demolished the imperial power itself. In less than fifty years after the death of Augustus, the armies destined to hold the provinces in subjection, proclaimed three emperors at once; disposed of the empire according to their caprice, and raised to the throne of the Cæsars the object of their momentary favor. "I can no more comprehend the policy, than acknowledge the justice of your deliberations. Where is your force, what are your armies, how are they to be recruited, and how supported? The single province of Massachusetts has, at this moment, thirty thousand men, well tain the royal authority, and to draw closer the bonds of their connection with Great Britain. But our ministers, perhaps to punish others for their own faults, are sedulously endeavoring, not only to relax these powerful ties, but to dissolve and sever them forever. Their address represents the province of Massachusetts as in a state of actual rebellion. The other provinces are held out to our indignation, as aiding and abetting. Many arguments have been employed, by some learned gentlemen among us, to comprehend them all in the same offence, and to involve them in the same proscription. "Whether their present state is that of rebellion, or of a fit and just resistance to unlaw-trained and disciplined, and can bring, in case ful acts of power, to our attempts to rob them of emergency, ninety thousand into the field; of their property and liberties, as they imagine, and, doubt not, they will do it, when all that is I shall not declare. But I well know what will dear is at stake, when forced to defend their follow, nor, however strange and harsh it may liberty and property against their cruel oppresappear to some, shall I hesitate to announce it, sors. The right honorable gentleman with the that I may not be accused hereafter, of having blue riband assures us that ten thousand of our failed in duty to my country, on so grave an troops and four Irish regiments, will make occasion, and at the approach of such direful their brains turn in the head a little, and strike calamities. Know, then, a successful resis- them aghast with terror? But where does the tance is a revolution, not a rebellion: Rebellion, author of this exquisite scheme propose to send indeed, appears on the back of a flying enemy, his army? Boston, perhaps, you may lay in but revolution flames on the breastplate of the ashes, or it may be made a strong garrison; but victorious warrior. Who can tell, whether, in the province will be lost to you. You will hold consequence of this day's violent and mad ad- Boston as you hold Gibraltar, in the midst of a dress to his majesty, the scabbard may not be country which will not be yours; the whole thrown away by them as well as by us; and American continent will remain in the power whether, in a few years, the independent of your enemies. The ancient story of the Americans may not celebrate the glorious era philosopher Calanus and the Indian hide, will of the revolution of 1775, as we do that of be verified; where you tread, it will be kept 1668? The generous effort of our forefathers down; but it will rise the more in all other for freedom, Heaven crowned with success, or parts. Where your fleets and armies are statheir noble blood had dyed our scaffolds, like tioned, the possession will be secured while that of Scottish traitors and rebels; and the they continue; but all the rest will be lost. In period of our history which does us the most the great scale of empire, you will decline I honor, would have been deemed a rebellion fear, from the decision of this day; and the against the lawful authority of the prince, not Americans will rise to independence, to power, a resistance authorized by all the laws of God to all the greatness of the most renowned and man, not the expulsion of a detested states; for they build on the solid basis of tyrant. general public liberty. "But suppose the Americans to combat against us with more unhappy auspices than we combated James, would not victory itself prove pernicious and deplorable? Would it not be fatal to British as well as American liberty? Those armies which should subjugate the colonists, would subjugate also their parent state. Marius, Sylla, Cæsar, Augustus, Tiberius, did they not oppress Roman liberty with the same troops that were levied to maintain Roman supremacy over subject provinces? But the impulse once given, its effects extended much further than its authors expected; for the same soldiery that destroyed the Roman "I dread the effects of the present resolution; I shudder at our injustice and cruelty; I tremble for the consequences of our imprudence. You will urge the Americans to desperation. They will certainly defend their property and liberties, with the spirit of freemen, with the spirit our ancestors did, and I hope we should exert on a like occasion. They will sooner declare themselves independent, and risk every consequence of such a contest, than submit to the galling yoke which administration is preparing for them. Recollect Philip II. king of Spain: remember the Seven Provinces, and the duke of Alva. It was delib however, deter me from declaring my sentiments with freedom, on so important a crisis, though my words should be misinterpreted by the malignity of party, and myself represented as the author of illegal counsels, or, in the language of faction, the defender of tyranny. 'And, first of all, I cannot but deplore the misery of the times, and the destiny which seems to persecute our beloved country. Can I see her, without anguish, reduced to this disastrous extremity, not only by the refractory spirit of her ungrateful children on the other side of the ocean, but also by some of those who inhabit this kingdom, and whom honor, if not justice and gratitude, should engage in words and deeds, to support and defend her? Till we give a check to these incendiaries. who, with a constancy and art only equalled by their baseness and infamy, blow discord and scatter their poison in every place, in vain can we hope, without coming to the last extremities, to bring the leaders of this deluded people to a sense of their duty. erated, in the council of the monarch, what | too remote from my profession. This shall not measures should be adopted respecting the Low Countries; some were disposed for clemency, others advised rigor; the second prevailed. The duke of Alva was victorious, it is true, wherever he appeared; but his cruelties sowed the teeth of the serpent. The beggars of the Briel, as they were called by the Spaniards, who despised them as you now despise the Americans, were those, however, who first shook the power of Spain to the centre. And, comparing the probabilities of success in the contest of that day, with the chances in that of the present, are they so favorable to England as they were then to Spain? This none will pretend. You all know, however, the issue of that sanguinary conflict-how that powerful empire was rent asunder, and severed forever into many parts. Profit, then, by the experience of the past, if you would avoid a similar fate. But you would declare the Americans rebels; and to your injustice and oppression, you add the most opprobrious language, and the most insulting scoffs. If you persist in your resolution, all hope of a reconciliation is extinct. The Americans will triumph-the whole continent of North America will be dismembered from Great Britain, and the wide arch of the raised empire fall. But I hope the just vengeance of the people will overtake the authors of these pernicious counsels, and the loss of the first province of the empire be speedily followed by the loss of the heads of those ministers who first invented them.” Thus spoke this ardent patriot. His discourse was a prophecy; and hence, perhaps, a new probability might be argued for the vulgar maxim, that the crazed read the future often better than the sage; for, among other things, it was said also of Wilkes, at that time, that his intellects were somewhat disordered. REPLY "To deny that the legislative power of Great Britain is entire, general, and sovereign, over all parts of its dominions, appears to me too puerile to merit a serious answer. What I would say is, that under this cover of rights, under this color of privileges, under these pretexts of immunities, the good and loyal Americans have concealed a design, not new, but now openly declared, to cast off every species of superiority, and become altogether an independent nation. They complained of the stampact. It was repealed. Did this satisfy them? On the contrary they embittered more than ever our respective relations, refusing to indemnify the victim now of their violence, and now to rescind resolutions that were so many strides towards rebellion. And yet, in these cases, there was no question of taxes, either internal or external. A duty was afterwards imposed on glass, paper, colors, and tea. They revolted anew: and the bounty of this too indulgent mother again revoked the greater part of these OF CAPTAIN HARVEY, TO JOHN WILKES, duties, leaving only that upon tea, which may FEBRUARY 6, 1775. yield, at the utmost, sixteen thousand pounds sterling. Even this inconsiderable impost, Captain Harvey answered him, in substance, Great Britain, actuated by a meekness and as follows: "I am very far from believing myself capable of arguing the present question with all the eloquence which my vehement adversary has signalized in favor of those who openly, and in arms, resist the ancient power of Great Britain; as the studies which teach men the art of discoursing with elegance, are too different and forbearance without example, would have repealed also, if the colonists had peaceably expressed their wishes to this effect. At present, they bitterly complain of the regular troops sent amongst them to maintain the public repose. But, in the name of God, what is the cause of their presence in Boston? American disturbances. If the colonists had existence. Already have the colonists trampled on all restraints: already have they cast off all inations, and the shades in which they envelop themselves, they suffer as it were, in spite of themselves, their culpable designs to appear. If they have not yet acquired the consistence, they at least assume the forms, of an independent nation. not first interrupted the general tranquility, if they had respected property, public and private; if they had not openly resisted the laws of parlia-human respect; and, amidst their subtle machment and the ordinances of the king, they would not have seen armed soldiers within their walls. But the truth is, they expressly excite the causes, in order to be able afterwards to bemoan the effects. When they were menaced with real danger, when they were beset by enemies from within and from without, they not only consented to admit regular troops into the very heart of their provinces, but urged us, with the most earnest solicitations, to send them; but now the danger is past, and the colonists, by our treasure and blood, are restored to their original security; now these troops have become necessary to repress the factions, to sustain the action of the laws, their presence is contrary to the constitution, a manifest violation of American liberty, an attempt to introduce tyranny: as if it were not the right and the obligation of the supreme authority, to protect the peace of the interior as well as that of the exterior, and to repress internal as effectually as external enemies. "As though the Americans were fearful of being called, at a future day, to take part in the national representation, they pre-occupy the ground, and warn you, in advance, that, considering their distance, they cannot be represented in the British parliament; which means, if I am not deceived, that they will not have a representative power in common with England, but intend to enjoy one by themselves, perfectly distinct from this of the parent state. But why do I waste time, in these vain subtleties ? Not content with exciting discord at home, with disturbing all the institutions of social life, they endeavor also to scatter the germs of division in the neighboring colonies, such as Nova Scotia, the Floridas, and especially Canada. Nor is this the end of their intrigues. Have we not read here, in this land of genuine felicity, the incendiary expressions of their address to the English people designed to allure them to the side of rebellion? Yes, they have wished, and with all their power have attempted, to introduce into the bosom of this happy country, outrage, tumults, devastation, pillage, bloodshed, and open resistance to the laws! A thousand times undone the English people, should they suffer themselves to be seduced by the flatteries of the Americans! The sweet peace, the inestimable liberty, they now enjoy, would soon be replaced by the most ferocious anarchy, devouring their wealth, annihilating their strength, contaminating and destroying all the happiness of their "Who among us has not felt emotions kindling deep in his breast, or transports of indignation, at the reading of the decrees of congress in which, with a language and a tone better beseeming the haughty courts of Versailles, or of Madrid, than the subjects of a great king, they ordain imperiously the cessation of all commerce between their country and our own! We may transport our merchandise and our commodities among all other nations. It is only under the inhospitable skies of America, only in this country, dyed with the blood, and bathed in the sweat, we have shed for the safety and prosperity of its inhabitants, that English industry cannot hope for protection, cannot find an asylum! Are we then of a spirit to endure that our subjects trace around us the circle of Propilius, and proudly declare on what condition they will deign to obey the ancient laws of the common country? But all succeeds to their wish: they hope, from our magnanimity, that war will result, and from war, independence. And what a people is this, whom benefits cannot oblige, whom clemency exasperates, whom the necessity of defence, created by themselves, offends ! "If, therefore, no doubt can remain as to the projects of these ungrateful colonies; if an universal resistance to the civil government, and to the laws of the country, if the interruption of a free and reciprocal commerce between one part and another of the realm; if resisting every act of the British legislature, and absolutely, in word and deed, denying the sovereignty of this country; if laying a strong hand on the revenues of America; if seizing his majesty's forts, artillery, and ammunition; if exciting and stimulating, by every means, the whole subjects of America to take arms, and to resist the constitutional authority of Great Britain, are acts of treason, then are the Americans in a state of the most flagrant rebellion. Wherefore, then, should we delay to take resolute measures? If no other alternative is left us, if it is necessary to use the power which we enjoy, under Heaven, for the protection of the whole empire, let us show the Americans, that, as our ancestors deluged this country with their blood, to leave us a free constitution, we, like men, in defiance of faction at home | strongly engages their hopes and fears, should and rebellion abroad, are determined, in glori- be somewhat inclined to superstition. As I ous emulation of their example, to transmit it, came into the house full of anxiety about the perfect and unimpaired, to our posterity. I event of my motion, I found, to my infinite surhear it said by these propagators of sinister prise, that the grand penal bill, by which we auguries, that we shall be vanquished in this had passed sentence on the trade and sustencontest. But all human enterprises are never ance of America, is to be returned to us from without a something of uncertainty. Are the other house.* I do confess I could not high-minded men for this to stand listless, and help looking on this event as a fortunate omen. indolently abandon to the caprices of fortune I look upon it as a sort of Providential favor, the conduct of their affairs? If this dastardly by which we are put once more in possession doctrine prevailed, if none would ever act with- of our deliberative capacity, upon a business so out assurance of the event, assuredly no gen- very questionable in its nature, so very uncererous enterprise would ever be attempted; tain in its issue. By the return of this bill, chance, and blind destiny, would govern the which seemed to have taken its flight forever, world. I trust, however, in the present crisis, we are at this very instant nearly as free to we may cherish better hopes; for, even omit- choose a plan for our American government, as ting the bravery of our soldiers and the ability we were on the first day of the session. If, sir, of our generals, loyal subjects are not so rare we incline to the side of conciliation, we are in America as some believe, or affect to believe. not at all embarrassed (unless we please to And, besides, will the Americans long support make ourselves so) by any incongruous mixture the privation of all the things necessary to life, of coercion and restraint. We are therefore which our numerous navy will prevent from called upon, as it were by a superior warning reaching their shores ? voice, again to attend to America; to attend to the whole of it together; and to review the subject with an unusual degree of care and calmness. "This is what I think of our present situation; these are the sentiments of a man neither partial nor vehement, but free from all prepossessions, and ready to combat and shed the last drop of his blood, to put down the excesses of license, to extirpate the germs of cruel anarchy, to defend the rights and the privileges of this most innocent people, whether he finds their enemies in the savage deserts of America, or in the cultivated plains of England. "And if there are Catilines among us, who plot in darkness pernicious schemes against the state, let them be unveiled and dragged to light, that they may be offered a sacrifice, as victims to the just vengeance of this courteous country; that their names may be stamped with infamy to the latest posterity, and their memory held in execration, by all men of worth, in every future age!" EDMUND BURKE. Surely it is an awful subject; or there is none so on this side of the grave. When I first had the honor of a seat in this house, the affairs of that continent pressed themselves upon us, as the most important and most delicate object of parliamentary attention. My little share in this great deliberation oppressed me. I found myself a partaker in a very high trust; and having no sort of reason to rely on the strength of my natural abilities for the proper execution of that trust, I was obliged to take more than common pains, to instruct myself in every thing which relates to our colonies. I was not less under the necessity of forming some fixed ideas, concerning the general policy of the British empire. Something of this sort seemed to be indispensable, in order, amidst so vast a fluctuation of passions and opinions, to concentre my thoughts; to ballast my conduct; to preserve me from being blown about by every wind of fashionable doctrine. I really did not HIS CELEBRATED SPEECH DELIVERED IN think it safe, or manly, to have fresh principles THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, ON MOVING to seek upon every fresh mail which should arrive from America. |