The welfare of this country, my lords, has ever been my greatest joy, and under all the viciffitudes of my life has afforded me the most pleasing confolation. Should the alldisposing hand of Providence prevent me from contributing my poor and feeble aid in the day of her diftrefs, my prayers fhall be ever for her profperity:-" Length of days be in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor! May her ways be ways of pleasantnefs, and all her paths be peace !" The only effort of a nature directly conciliatory in the courfe of the prefent feffion, was made by Mr. Rofe Fuller, member for Rye, who on the 19th April (1774) moved, that the house refolve itself into a committee, to take into confideration the duty on the importation of teas into America, and the appropriation of the fame, with a view to its repeal. This motion was feconded and powerfully supported by Mr. Edmund Burke, in an elaborate speech, which excited very confiderable attention. This gentleman had, from the period of his firft introduction to the house of commons, as confidential fecretary to lord Rockingham, during the adminiftration of that nobleman, diftinguished himself by the fuperiority and splendor of his parliamentary talents; and he might at this time be confidered as the principal organ through which the political fentiments were communicated of that once widely extended and potent connection of whigs, of which lord Rockingham had, fince the death of the duke of Newcastle, been confidered the head. The tide of power, of fortune, and of royal favor, having long fince flowed in a different channel, this party. had been gradually deferted by many of their fummer friends, but still remained highly respectable from the firm conjunction of various families of the firft diftinction, who had ever been numbered amongst the most zealous adherents of the revolution, and proteftant fucceffion in the house of HaThe fimple, unaffected, and unaffuming manners of the marquis of Rockingham were contrafted in his representative nover. T 2 representative Mr. Burke, whofe deportment was lofty and fupercilious, and whofe fpeeches in parliament were for the most part characterized by a florid, diffufive, and oftenta tious ftyle of eloquence, ill-adapted to the investigation of truth; calculated rather to dazzle than inform, abounding with vanity and egotifm, and apparently intended not fo much to exhibit the merits of the caufe as the abilities of the fpeaker. Nevertheless, they difplayed a great extent of knowledge; they were enlivened with frequent flashes of wit; they were illumined with much brilliancy of allusion and metaphor, and adorned with bursts of oratory, bold, beautiful, and fublime. During the lifetime of the marquis of Rockingham, he appeared, not indeed without fome remarkable deviations, to adhere with laudable zeal to the genuine principles of Whiggifm: but from the lamented decease of that distinguished nobleman, he became on a sudden very capricious and eccentric in his conduct; and his judgment being naturally weak, and his paffions proportionally violent and habitually indulged, the force of his genius in other refpects has unfortunately only plunged him, in the latter years of his life, deeper into the abyffes of abfurdity and extravagance.. In the courfe of Mr. Burke's fpeech on the prefent motion, he took occafion to draw the political portraits of several perfonages, who had, during the prefent reign, occupied the highest departments of the ftate. "To Mr. George Grenville, with whom the new colony fyftem had originat-. ed, he affirmed that this country owed in other refpects great obligation. He had, as Mr. Burke believed, a very serious defire to benefit the public; but with no Imall ftudy of the detail, he did not feem to have equally carried his view to the total circuit of affairs. He generally confidered his objects in lights too much detached. This great perfon was bred to the law, a fcience rather calculated to invigorate than liberalize the understanding. Paffing from that study, he did not go very largely into the world, world, but plunged into bufinefs; the bufinefs of office. But men too much converfant in office rarely poffefs minds of remarkable enlargement. Perfons nurtured in the forms and habits of office do admirably well as long as things go on in their common order; but when the high roads are broken up, when the waters are out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file affords no precedent, then' it is that a greater knowledge of mankind, and a far more extenfive comprehenfion of things are requifite than ever office gave, or than office can ever give. He faid, that in 1765, being in a very private ftation, unknowing and unknown, it was his fortune to become connected with a very noble perfon, the marquis of Rockingham, then at the head of the treasury department; and that he was placed in a fituation, which enabled him to difcern in that noble perfon fuch found principles, fuch an enlargement of mind, fuch clear and fagacious fenfe, and fuch unfhaken fortitude, as had bound him, as well as others inuch better than him, by an inviolable attachment. The queftion of the repeal of the ftamp act was brought on by the marquis, in the very inftant when it was known that negotiations were carrying on between the court and the leaders of oppofition. In the midst of a chaos of plots and counter plots, of warfare against public opposition and private treachery, it was that the firmness of this noble perfon was put to the proof. Every thing was full of traps and mines; earth below shook; Heaven above menaced. All the elements of minifterial fafety were diffolved; yet he remained fixed and determined in principle, in measure, and in conduct. He practifed no management, he fought no apology, he secured no retreat; but on the conclufion of an enquiry which lafted fix weeks, by a noble, fpirited, and unexpected majority, in the teeth of all the old mercenary Swiss of state, in defiance of the whole embattled legion of veteran penfioners and practifed inftruments of a court, gave a total repeal to the ftan.p act, and, if it. had been fo permitted, a lasting peace to the empire." Of lord lord Chatham Mr. Burke faid, that "the venerable age of this great man, his merited rank, his fuperior eloquence, his fplendid qualities, his eminent fervices, the vaft space he filled in the eye of mankind, forbade him to cenfure his conduct; and to flatter him he was afraid. Let those who have betrayed him by their adulation, infult him by their malevolence. For a wife minister, however, speaking with the freedom of history, Mr. Burke faid, he must surely be acknowledged to have adopted measures greatly mischievous to himself, perhaps for that reafon fatal to his country; MEASURES, the effects of which are, I am afraid, FOR EVER INCURABLE. He made an adminiftration fo checquered and fpeckled; he put together a piece of joinery fo closely indented, and whimfically dove-tailed; a cabinet fo variously 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, king's 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. When his face was hid but for a moment, his whole fyftem was on a wide fea, without chart or compass, whirled about, the fport of every guft; and thofe of the mariners who were most directly oppofite to his opinions, being by far the moft artful and powerful of the fet, feizing the helm, turned the vessel wholly out of the course of his policy." The house were much amufed with these ingenious representations; but no other effect was produced, the numbers on the divifion being 184 to 51. The feffion ended June 21, 1774, and his majefty's speech contained a very high eulogium on the measures which had been adopted for the purpose of reclaiming his deluded fubjects; and on the temper, firmnefs, and unanimity, which had been difplayed in the deliberations of parliament, which could not fail of giving them the greatest weight. Indeed, fuch was the elation of the court and its partifans at this period, that America America seemed in their apprehenfion already fubdued, and a complete victory obtained before the battle was begun. Governor Hutchinson, by whofe advice the king and his ministers had been chiefly guided, and who gave the most positive assurances, that a fpeedy and general fubmission would be the confequence of the measures which he recommended, had been for fome time paft in England; and general Gage, already commander of the troops ftationed at Boston, was appointed governor of the province. He ar rived in that city in the month of May 1774, and was received with that dead and melancholy filence which portended a tremendous ftorm. The intelligence of the Bofton port bill had been recently received; and on the day fucceeding the arrival of the governor, a general meeting of the inhabitants was convened, in order to take it into con fideration. At this meeting, a refolution was paffed, expreffive of their ideas of the impolicy, injustice, and barba+ rity of the bill, and inviting the other colonies to join with them in a general agreement, to put a stop to all exportation and importation to Great Britain and the West Indies till it should be repealed. Addresses from Virginia, Pennsylvania, the Carolinas, New York, and the other provinces, in a fhort time arrived, exhorting them, with many expreffions of affection and fympathy, to refolution and perfeve rance; and declaring, that they confidered Bofton as suffering in the common cause. One fpirit, one undivided fentiment, of pity, indignation, and revenge, roufed and pervaded all. A general congrefs became the object of universal defire; and Philadelphia being judged commodiously fituated for the purpofe, it was convened to meet in that city on the ift of September, and in the mean time combinations were every where entered into to suspend all commercial intercourse with Great Britain; and renouncing all communica tion with those who should refufe to fign this covenant, notwithstanding a proclamation from general Gage, ftyling fuch agreement an unlawful, hoftile, and traitorous combi nation. |