manner, or the fame degree, at Algiers or Tunis as at Conftantinople; and that circumftances not in our power to alter or control, made conceffion on the fubject of taxation indifpenfably effential to the attainment of peace. Nothing worfe, faid this famous parliamentary orator, happens to you than to all nations poffeffing extenfive empires. In large bodies the circulation of power must be less vigorous at the extremities. Defpotifin itfelf is compelled to truck and huckster. Three thousand miles of ocean is a powerful principle in the natural constitution of things for weakening government, of which no contrivance can deftroy the effect. Spain in her American provinces fubmits to this immutable condition, the eternal law of extenfive and detached empire. A power fteps in which limits the arrogance of the raging paffions, and fays, Hither fhalt thou go, and no farther. Who are you, that you should fret and rage, and bite the chain of nature? Such effects are incident to all the forms into which empire can be thrown. The great object of the present bill, he faid, was a renunciation of the exercife of taxation without at all interfering with the queftion of right; it preferved the power of levying duties for the regulation of commerce; but the money fo raised, agreeably to an excellent idea fuggefted by the conciliatory motion of lord North, was to be at the disposal of the several general affemblies. The tea duty of 1767 was to be repealed, and a general amnefty granted." This was a wife, fimple, and rational plan of conciliation; and it met with a lefs unfavorable reception from the houfe than any hitherto attempted: But on a divifion upon the previous question, the numbers were 210 against 105 who voted in fupport of the original motion.

In a few days after this, the minifter brought in his famous prohibitory bill, interdicting all trade and intercourse with the Thirteen United Colonies. By this bill, all property of Americans, whether of fhips or goods, on the high feas or in harbor, are declared forfeited to the captors; fo

that

that it amounted in fact to an abfolute declaration of war. This, the oppofition juftly affirmed, was cutting off at the root all hope of future accommodation; and they pronounced it to be a formal ACT OF ABDICATION of our government over the colonies; it drove the two countries to the fatal extremity of abfolute conqueft on the one fide, or abfolute independency on the other. The offers of pardon, by which the bill was accompanied, were faid to be ridiculous when offered to men who acknowledge no crime, and who are conscious not of doing, but merely of fuffering, wrong. The repeal of the Boston port, fishery, and reftraining acts being included in this bill, as entirely fuperfeded by the operation of it; Mr. Fox moved an amendment, to leave out the whole title and body of the bill excepting the parts relative to fuch repeal. This produced a warm debate, which continued till midnight, when the amendment was rejected by a majority of 192 to 64 voices.

In the house of lords, the bill was again combated on every ground of policy, humanity, and juftice. Lord Mansfield in the course of the debate remarked, “that we had paffed the RUBICON, and were not now at liberty to confider the questions of original right or wrong, justice or injuftice. We were engaged in a war, and we must use our utmost efforts to obtain the ends propofed by it; quoting in illustration the laconic speech of a gallant officer ferving in the army of Guftavus Adolphus, who, pointing to the enemy, faid to his men, "See you thofe lads? KILL them, or they will KILL you." Such were the abominable arguments now used to reconcile the minds of men to this unjuft, cruel, and bloody war, by venerable and learned fages wearing the robes and holding the balance of justice. The bill, after much objection and oppofition, paffed by a great and decifive majority.

The only notice taken of the conciliatory propofition of the minister was by the affembly of NOVA SCOTIA, which had transmitted a petition to parliament, prefented to the

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houfe on the first day of the feffion, by the fpeaker, founded on the basis of that propofition; and it was now moved by lord North, that the propofal of a poundage duty ad valorem upon all commodities imported, not being the produce of the British dominions in Europe or America, to be dif pofed of by parliament, fhould be accepted, and the duty fixed at eight per cent. in lieu of all other taxes; and in reward of this dutiful overture, the act of navigation itself was in part dispensed with in their favor, and they were allowed to import ORANGES and LEMONS, and fome other articles of equal importance, directly from the place of their growth and produce. But as this barren province was notoriously unequal to the fupport of its own civil government, the offer of a revenue feemed to carry with it so ludicrous an appearance, that no bill was ever in the sequel brought forward in confequence of the refolutions now paffed.

A very extraordinary propofition had been recently made by the earl Harcourt, lord lieutenant of Ireland, to the parliament of that kingdom, on the part of his majesty, who had pledged his royal word that twelve thousand regular troops on that establishment should always remain stationary in that country; requesting four thousand of the faid troops to be employed in the fervice of Great Britain, and engaging that Ireland fhould be relieved from the expence of the fame; and ALSO, that the faid troops should be replaced, if defired, by four thousand foreign proteftant troops, to be likewife paid by Great Britain. Soon after the Christmas recefs, a motion was made in the English houfe of commons, by Mr. Thomas Townfhend, “that the earl Harcourt was herein chargeable with a breach of privilege, and had acted in derogation of the authority of that houfe, and that a committee be appointed to enquire into the fame. It was urged, that it was the highest prefumption in the lord lieutenant of Ireland to engage for the payment of any specific fums by the parliament of Great

Britain;

Britain; and much worse to pledge the parliament to the fulfilment of a contract fo abfurd and extravagant as to defray the expence of eight thousand men for the fervice of four thousand; and the defign of introducing foreign troops into Ireland, was reprefented as fraught with danger and mischief." The minister appeared not a little embarrassed on this occafion; and contented himfelf with faying, " that he was in no shape responsible for the conduct or actions of the lord lieutenant of Ireland; and he difavowed any knowledge of the fpecific inftructions under which this requifition had been made. He allowed that the bargain appeared improvident, but it might be defended on the ground of neceffity; and if it were allowed to be more eligible to employ native troops than foreigners in America, it would be a fufficient juftification of the latter part of the propofition." Mr. Jenkinson, however, and others of the king's friends, who took part in the debate, afsumed a much higher tone, and infifted upon his majesty's RIGHT of introducing foreign forces into any part of his dominions, when the exigencies of the ftate rendered it expedi ent or neceffary. Mr. Jenkinson afferted, "that the meffage "was worded in a manner perfectly agreeable to official ufage, and that the measure was in exact conformity with, or more properly conftituted a part of, that antient and acknowledged prerogative, by which the crown raised troops of its own will, and then applied to parliament for the payment, or entered into treaties for the fame purpose with foreign princes, and pledged the national faith for a due performance of the articles." That part of the motion which went to the appointment of a committee of enquiry was negatived by 224 to 106 voices, and the previous queftion put on the clause of cenfure, which was carried without a divifion.

Not difcouraged by the ill fuccefs of former attempts, Mr. Fox, on the 20th of February 1776, moved, "That

it be referred to a committee, to enquire into the ill fuccefs of his majesty's arms in America." The vigour and comprehenfion of mind, the determined refolution, the open and magnanimous difpofition of this fenator, mature in judgment, though immature in years-excited hopes and expectations of eventual advantage to his country, which the malignant genius of Britain has hitherto delighted to disappoint. «Declining," he said, "at prefent to enter into the development of a fyftem whofe principles and complexion afforded the clearest and most unequivocal proofs that its ultimate defign was the TOTAL DESTRUCTION of the CONSTITUTION; he grounded his motion on the acknowledged fact, that there had been fomewhere grofs ignorance, incapacity, or negligence. This must be imputed either to our minifters at home, or our commanders abroad: and it was abfolutely neceffary that the house fhould be fully informed on the subject, in order that a remedy might be applied to the evil before the nation fell a victim to the treachery or misconduct of men, on the one hand as unfit to deliberate and determine, as on the other to carry the measures fo determined into execution. Public jufticę demanded fuch an enquiry. None but the guilty could wish to evade it. Our commanders by fea and land ought not to fuffer the difgrace attached to ill fuccefs, in order to hide or palliate the blunders, the follies, the fhameful and wretched inability of others." The adminiftration appeared much chagrined and mortified at this exposure of their weakness. It was acknowledged "that ill fuccefs had hitherto attended the operations of the war, but that more vigorous meafures would now be purfued; that a change of the former lenient fyftem had been announced from the throne; and it would be highly disrespectful and improper to enter into the examinations propofed, until the measures now refolved upon were tried, and the event known." The previous queftion being put at three o'clock in the morning, the motion was rejected by a majority of 240 to 104.

The