faid he, "when were the Americans emancipated? The feditious spirit of the colonies owes its birth to the factions in this house. We were told we trode on tender ground; we were bid to expect difobedience; what was this but telling America to ftand out against the law? to encourage their obftinacy with the expectation of support from hence? Ungrateful people of America! The nation has run itself into an immenfe debt to give them protection; bounties have been extended to them. In their favor the act of navigation, that palladium of the British commerce, has been relaxed; and now they are called upon to contribute a small share towards the public expence, they renounce your authority, infult your officers, and break out, I might almost say, into open rebellion."

Mr. Pitt, fired with difdain and refentment, immediately rofe to reply, but was called to order by lord Strange, as having already spoken; the privilege of speaking a fecond time being allowed only in a committee. But the house refounding with the cry GO ON, he proceeded with an animation and enthufiafin which no art or ftudy can imitate, fpontaneously flowing from the consciousness of great talents engaged in a juft and noble caufe.” "Sir," faid he, addreffing the speaker; "a charge is brought against gentlemen fitting in this house, for giving birth to fedition in America. The freedom with which they have spoken their fentiments against this unhappy act, is imputed to them as a crime; but the imputation fhall not difcourage me. It is a liberty which I hope no gentleman will be afraid to exercife; it is a liberty by which the gentleman who calumniates it might have profited. He ought to have defifted from his project. We are told America is obftinate-America is almost in open rebellion. Sir, I REJOICE that America has refifted; -three millions of people fo dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to fubmit to be flaves, would have been fit inftruments to make flaves of all the reft. I came not here armed at all points with law cafes and acts of parliament,

with the ftatute-book doubled down in dogs ears to defend the cause of liberty; but for the defence of liberty upon a general, conftitutional principle-it is a ground on which I dare meet any man. I will not debate points of law :but what after all do the cafes of Chester and Durham prove, but that under the most arbitrary reigns parliament was afhamed of taxing a people without their confent, and allowed them representatives? A higher and better example might have been taken from Wales; that principality was never taxed by parliament till it was incorporated with England. We are told of many claffes of perfons in this kingdom not represented in parliament; but are they not all virtually reprefented as Englishmen refident within this realm? Have they not the option, many of them at least, of becoming electors? Every inhabitant of this kingdom is neceffarily included in the general system of representation. It is a mis fortune that more are not actually reprefented. The honourable gentleman boafts of his bounties to America-are not these bounties intended finally for the benefit of this kingdom? If they are not, he has mifapplied the national treasures. I am no courtier of America-I maintain that parliament has a right to bind, to restrain America. Our legislative power over the colonies is fovereign and fupreme. The honourable gentleman tells us, he understands not the difference between internal and external taxation; but furely there is a plain distinction between taxes levied for the purpose of raifing a revenue, and duties impofed for the regulation of commerce. When,' faid the honourable gentleman, were the colonies emancipated?' At what time, fay I in answer, were they made flaves? I fpeak from accurate knowledge when I fay, that the profits to Great Britain from the trade of the colonies, through all its branches, is two millions per annum. This is the fund which carried you triumphantly through the laft war; this is the price America pays you for her protection; and fhall a miferable financier come with a boast that he can fetch a pepper-corn

into the exchequer at the lofs of millions to the nation? I know the valor of your troops-I know the fkill of your officers-I know the force of this country; but in such a cause your fuccefs would be hazardous. America, if the fell, would fall like the strong man; fhe would embrace the pillars of the state, and pull down the constitution with her. Is this your boasted peace? Not to fheathe the fword in the fcabbard, but to fheathe it in the bowels of your countrymen? The Americans have been wronged-they have been driven to madness by injuftice. Will you punish them for the madness you have occafioned? No: let this country be the first to refume its prudence and temper: I will pledge myself for the colonies, that, on their part, animofity and refentment will ceafe. Let affection be the only bond of coercion. The fyftem of policy I would earneftly exhort Great Britain to adopt, in relation to America, is happily expreffed in the words of a favorite poet:

Be to her faults a little blind,

Be to her virtues very kind;

Let all her ways be unconfin'd,

And clap your padlock on her mind.

PRIOR.

Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the house in a few words what is really my opinion. It is, "That the stamp act be repealed ABSOLUTELY, TOTALLY, and IMME

DIATELY."

In a short time a bill was brought in by the new minifters for this purpose, which, after very vehement oppofition, paffed both houses by confiderable majorities, and received the royal affent; accompanied at the fame time with a DECLARATORY ACT, afferting the power and right of Great Britain to bind the colonies in all cafes whatsoever.

The joy in America was extreme at the intelligence of this repeal; and the mere declaration of an abstract right, which they imagined to be with refpect to the claim of taxation in fact relinquished, and which feemed chiefly intended as a VOL. I.

H

Lalvo

falvo for the honor of parliament, gave them little apprehen fion or uneafinefs; and it was not till after an interval of fe veral years, when the colonies had been harraffed and wearied out by a long feries of vexations and encroachments on their established privileges, that the affembly of Massachusetts at length, by a formal refolution, voted the declaratory act to be a grievance. The mere affertion of the claim, though harfhly expreffed, would have excited no ferious discontent, had the authority of Great Britain been exercifed in the old conftitutional and regular mode; and the council of the Maffachusetts, with a degree of wisdom which it would have been happy if the parliament of Great Britain had deigned to imitate, fay in their excellent answer to the bold political dogmas advanced in a ftudied fpeech by the governor: "Ify from the nature and end of government, the fupreme authority of parliament must be limited; the enquiry will be, what are the limits of that authority with regard to this colony? To fix this with precifion, to determine the exact lines of right and wrong in this cafe, as in fome others, is difficult, and we have not the prefumption to attempt it."

Exclufive of the merit of carrying into execution, in contempt of the reproaches and clamors of the late rash and blundering minifters, this wife and conciliatory measure, the present administration, in the general tenor of their conduct, acted in a manner which reflected the highest credit on their integrity and underftanding. The declaratory act, however theoretically difputable, ferved to display their folicitude to fustain the honor of the nation; which was made farther apparent by an act passed under their patronage, requiring compenfation to be made by the American affemblies to those who had fuffered by the riots confequent on the stamp act*.

The

The act repealing the stamp act, when tranfmitted to America, was accompanied by a circular letter to the governors of the feveral provinces by Mr. Secretary Conway, written in that firm and temperate ftyle which was at once calculated to maintain the honor of government, and to appease the discontents and apprehenfions of the people. In a very important feparate dispatch to Sir Francis

The cider tax, fo odious to the nation, was, in the course of the feffion, as to its most obnoxious clauses, and so far as its operation extended to private individuals, repealed. The oppreffive and juftly unpopular duty on windows was modified and mitigated. General warrants were, by a refolution of the house of commons, declared illegal;--various useful and important regulations made in the West India and American trade, and the many abfurd and pernicious restraints imposed by the former miniftry removed. Mr. Grenville, by the introduction of certain new and onerous clauses into the hovering act, and rigorously enforcing the execution of them, by ftationing a long and formidable line of ships of war off the American coafts, had, as has been already intiH 2 mated,

Francis Bernard, governor of the Massachusetts, this minifter fays: "Nothing will tend more effectually to every conciliating purpose, and there is nothing therefore I have in command more earnestly to require of you, than that you fhould exert yourself in recommending it ftrongly to the affembly, that full and ample compenfation be made to thofe who, from the madness of the people, have fuffered for their deference to the acts of the British legiflature." Notwithstanding the moderation which now pervaded the English councils, and which dictated the dispatch received by the governor, it is very remarkable that the speech by which Sir Francis Bernard opened the next general court of the Massachusetts, June 1766, breathes the spirit of haughtiness, irritation, and difcord. "He declares the juftice and humanity of this requifition to be fo forcible that it cannot be controverted. The authority by which it is introduced fhould preclude all difputations about complying with it." In a tone of reproach he adds-" Both the business and the time are most critical. Let me entreat you to recollect yourfelves, and confider well what you are about-Shall the private interests, paffions, or refentments of a few men deprive this whole people of the great and manifold advantages which the favor and indulgence of their fovereign and his parliament are now providing for them? Surely, after his majesty's COMMANDS are known, the very perfons who have created the prejudices and prepoffeffions I now endeavor to combat, will be the first to remove them."-It did not appear, by their fubfequent conduct, that the affembly were at all difpofed to refift the recommendation enjoined in the letter of the fecretary, which, in their reply to the governor, they declare their refolution to embrace the first convenient opportunity to confider and act upon, But, highly offended at the general strain and tenor of the governor's fpeech, they add, "In the mean time we cannot but obferve, that it is conceived in much higher and stronger terms in the speech than in the letter. Whether in thus exceeding your excellency fpeaks from your own authority or a HIGHER, is not with us to determine. If this recommendation, which your excellency terms a requifition, be founded on fo much justice and humanity that it cannot be controverted-if the authority with which it is introduced fhould preclude all difputation about complying with it; we should be glad to know what freedom we have in the cafe?With regard to the rest of your excellency's speech, we are constrained to observe, that the general air and ftyle of it favors much more of an act of free grace and pardon, than of a parliamentary address to the two houfes of affembly; and we moft fincerely with your excellency had been pleased to reserve it, if needful, for a proclamation.**