justified in a particular person upon the contracted
scale of private information. But though I do not
hazard anything approaching to censure on the motives
of former Parliaments to all those alterations, one fact is
undoubted, that under them the state of America has 5
been kept in continual agitation. Everything admin-
istered as remedy to the public complaint, if it did not
produce, was at least followed by, an heightening of the
distemper; until, by a variety of experiments, that im-
portant country has been brought into her present sit- 10

begend of

uation-a situation which I will not miscall, which I dubitatio" dare not name, which I scarcely know how to compre-/churchy lighte

hend in the terms of any description.

5. In this posture, Sir, things stood at the beginning

the you

of the session. About that time, a worthy member of 15 Ro Fly

great parliamentary experience, who, in the year 1766, filled the chair of the American Committee with much ability, took me aside, and, lamenting the present aspect of our politics, told me, things were come to such a pass, that our former methods of proceeding in 20 the House would be no longer tolerated. That the public tribunal-never too indulgent to a long and unsuccessful opposition-would now scrutinize our conduct with unusual severity. That the very vicissitudes and shiftings of ministerial measures, instead of con- 25 victing their authors of inconstancy and want of system, would be taken as an occasion of charging us with a predetermined discontent which nothing could satisfy ; whilst we accused every measure of vigour as cruel, and every proposal of lenity as weak and irresolute. The 30 public, he said, would not have patience to see us play the game out with our adversaries: we must produce our hand. It would be expected that those who for many years had been active in such affairs should show that they had formed some clear and decided idea of 35

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the principles of Colony government, and were capable of drawing out something like a platform of the ground which might be laid for future and permanent tranquillity.

5 6. I felt the truth of what my Honourable Friend represented-but I felt my situation too. His application might have been made with far greater propriety to many other gentlemen. No man was indeed ever better disposed, or worse qualified, for such an undertaking, 10 than myself. Though I gave so far in to his opinion that I immediately threw my thoughts into a sort of parliamentary form, I was by no means equally ready to produce them. It generally argues some degree of natural impotence of mind, or some want of knowledge 15 of the world, to hazard plans of government except from a seat of authority. Propositions are made, not only ineffectually, but somewhat disreputably, when the minds of men are not properly disposed for their reception; and, for my part, I am not ambitious of ridicule 20-not absolutely a candidate for disgrace.

7. Besides, Sir, to speak the plain truth, I have in general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government, nor of any politics in which the plan is to be wholly separated from the execution. But when I 25 saw that anger and violence prevailed every day more and more, and that things were hastening towards an incurable alienation of our Colonies, I confess my caution gave way. I felt this as one of those few moments in which decorum yields to a higher duty. Public calam30 ity is a mighty leveller; and there are occasions when any, even the slightest, chance of doing good must be laid hold on, even by the most inconsiderable person.

8. To restore order and repose to an empire so great and so distracted as ours, is, merely in the attempt, an 35 undertaking that would ennoble the flights of the high

est genius, and obtain pardon for the efforts of the
meanest understanding. Struggling a good while with
these thoughts, by degrees I felt myself more firm. I
derived, at length, some confidence from what in other
circumstances usually produces timidity. I grew less 5
anxious, even from the idea of my own insignificance.
For, judging of what you are by what you ought to be,
I persuaded myself that you would not reject a reason-
able proposition because it had nothing but its reason
to recommend it. On the other hand, being totally 10
destitute of all shadow of influence, natural or adven-
titious, I was very sure that, if my proposition were
futile or dangerous, if it were weakly conceived or im-
properly timed, there was nothing exterior to it, of
power to awe, dazzle, or delude you. You will see it 15
just as it is, and you will treat it just as it deserves.

[Status.]

9. The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war; not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not hit at peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented from 20

principle in all parts of the empire; not peace to depend food worth.

figine from

on the juridical determination of perplexing questions,
or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of a
complex government. It is simple peace, sought in its
natural course, and in its ordinary haunts ;-it is peace
sought in the spirit of peace, and laid in principles
purely pacific. I propose, by removing the ground of
the difference, and by restoring the former unsuspecting
confidence of the Colonies in the Mother Country, to give
permanent satisfaction to your people, and-far from a 30
scheme of ruling by discord-to reconcile them to
each other in the same act, and by the bond of the very

same interest, which reconciles them to British govern

ment.

10. My idea is nothing more. Refined policy ever has been the parent of confusion, and ever will be so, as long 5 as the world endures. Plain good intention, which is as easily discovered at the first view as fraud is surely detected at last, is, let me say, of no mean force in the government of mankind. Genuine simplicity of heart is a healing and cementing principle. My plan, therefore, 10 being formed upon the most simple grounds imaginable, may disappoint some people when they hear it. It has nothing to recommend it to the pruriency of curious ears. There is nothing at all new and captivating in it. It has nothing of the splendour of the project which has s 15 been lately laid upon your table by the Noble Lord in the Blue Ribbon. It does not propose to fill your lobby with squabbling Colony agents, who will require the interposition of your mace at every instant, to keep the peace amongst them. It does not institute a magnificent 20 auction of finance, where captivated provinces come to general ransom by bidding against each other, until you knock down the hammer, and determine a proportion of payments beyond all the owers of algebra to equalize and settle.

25

11. The plan which I shall presume to suggest derives, however, one great advantage from the proposition and registry of that Noble Lord's project. The idea of conciliation is admissible. First, the House, in accepting the resolution moved by the Noble Lord, has 30 admitted, notwithstanding the menacing front of our address, notwithstanding our heavy bill of pains and penalties, that we do not think ourselves precluded from all ideas of free grace and bounty.

12. The House has gone farther: it has declared con35 ciliation admissible, previous to any submission on the

part of America. It has even shot a good deal beyond that mark, and has admitted that the complaints of our former mode of exerting the right of taxation were not wholly unfounded. That right thus exerted is allowed to have had something reprehensible in it, something 5 ,unwise or something grievous, since, in the midst of our heat and resentment, we of ourselves have proposed a capital alteration; and, in order to get rid of what seemed so very exceptionable, have instituted a mode that is altogether new-one that is, indeed, wholly alien 10 from all the ancient methods and forms of Parliament.

13. The principle of this proceeding is large enough for my purpose. The means proposed by the Noble Lord for carrying his ideas into execution, I think, indeed, are very indifferently suited to the end, and this 15 I shall endeavour to show you before I sit down. But, for the present, I take my ground on the admitted principle. I mean to give peace. Peace implies reconciliation; and, where there has been a material dispute, reconciliation does in a manner always imply concession 20 on the one part or on the other. In this state of things I make no difficulty in affirming that the proposal ought to originate from us. Great and cknowledged force is not impaired, either in effect or in opinion, by an unwillingness to exert itself. The superior power may offer peace 25 with honour and with safety. Such an offer from such a power will be attributed to magnanimity. But the concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear. When such a one is disarmed, he is wholly at the mercy of his superior; and he loses for ever that time and 30 those chances, which, as they happen to all men, are the strength and resources of all inferior power.

14. The capital leading questions on which you must this day decide are these two: First, whether you ought to concede; and, secondly, what your concession ought 35