abufe; but they maintained that the remedy should be provided by an Act of Parliament passed upon cool deliberation, distinguishing cafes, and fpecifying thofe difcretionary powers which the contingent exigencies of Government require to be vested in the Secretary of State. But the Oppofition infifted, that the practice in queftion was an abuse, and they would never confent to any act for regulating that abufe. The debate being adjourned to the 17th, certain modifications to the original motion were propofed by the Miniftry, calculated to leffen the odium attending the practice, fpecifying the ufage of office, and the tacit affent and approbation of the highest legal jurifdiction. But not daring to attempt to put a negative upon it, even in its prefent form, they moved the farther adjournment of the queftion for four months. Mr. Pitt again exerted himfelf with ardor in fupport of the original motion. "It was no juftification, he said, that General Warrants could plead the authority of precedent ;-two he admitted had been figned by himself, but they were not againft libels; they were iffued in a time of war and public danger against persons believed to be in the interefts of the enemy. Senfible of the irregularity of the act, but preferring the public fafety to every personal confideration, he ran the rifque, as he would of his head, relying upon the exigencies H 2 exigencies of the times and the neceffity of the measure for his vindication. In the prefent cafe no fuch neceffity exifted; the charge was writing and publishing a libel :-what was there in this crime fo heinous and terrible as to require the use of this formidable engine, which like an inunda"tion bore down all the barriers of the public fecurity? It was plainly the indulgence of a violent refentment pointed against a particular perfon. Surely Parliament could not fee the extent of the furrender which they had made! A vote had paffed, by which the perfonal freedom of every reprefentative of the nation was now at the mercy of his Majefty's Attorney General. He concluded with faying, that if the Houfe negatived the prefent motion, they would be the difgrace of the prefent age, and the reproach of pofterity." The adjournment was carried by a majority of 14 voices only, in one of the fulleft Houfes known for many years, the minority on this occafion being no less than 220. Such a defeat was confidered as equivalent to a victory; the freedom of the City of London was voted to Lord Chief Juftice Pratt, and prefented to his Lordship in a golden box; the picture of that Magiftrate, now the idol of the nation, placed in, the Guildhall of the metropolis, whofe example was, with an emulation of eagerness, followed by the City of Dublin, and and other principal cities throughout the two kingdoms *. Scarcely was this affair terminated, when the Minifter, Mr. Grenville, in the rage of making experiments, however hitherto unfuccefsful, determined upon a measure in its tendency and ultimate confequences the most interesting and important which ever perhaps came under the cognizance of the British Parliament. As the reductions which had taken place fince the conclufion of the war were far inferior to those made by Mr. Pelham, after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, and the vast increase of the national debt had rendered indifpenfable a proportionable increase of revenue, large fupplies were yet wanting to raife the national income to a level with the annual expenditure. The invention of the governors, and the patience of the people of Great Britain, being at this period alike exhaufted, Mr. Grenville *In the month of January 1764, the Hereditary Prince of Brunfwic was married to the Princefs Augufta, eldest fister of the King, to whom the Parliament voted a marriage portion of 80,000l. a fum equal to that formerly granted to the Princess of Orange. In the debate on the Cider Bill, Mr. Grenville, in anfwer to the invectives of Mr. Pitt, contended, that the tax was unavoidable; "Government, he faid, did not know where to lay another tax of equal efficiency. The Right Honorable Gentleman complains of the hardship of this tax; why does he not tell Grenville caft his eyes upon the vast Continent of America, as affording a boundlefs fcope for Minifterial and Parliamentary exaction. The project of taxing America had been many years fince propofed to Sir Robert Walpole but that cautious and fagacious Statefman replied, "that it was a measure too hazardous for him to venture upon; he fhould therefore leave it to fome more daring fucceffor in office to make the experiment." It is true that two or three remote and obfcure precedents' might be adduced in vindication of the authority of the British Parliament to impofe taxes in America. But then the taxes hitherto impofed, confifting of certain import and export duties, were invariably and profeffedly defigned for the mere purpofe of commercial regulation. It is remarkable, that the trivial and incidental produce of these duties was not even appropriated by Parliament, and it was never fo much as fufpected that they would be quoted as us where we can lay another tax instead of it ?-repeating with ftrong emphafis two or three times, Tell me where you can lay another tax?" Mr. Pitt, thus unfairly urged, replied, in a mufical tone, and in the words of a favorite and popular canzonet, "Gentle Shepherd, tell me where !" The House burst into laughter, and Mr. Grenville, after this, retained the appellation of the "Gentle Shepherd." Little, certainly, did this Minifter imagine how fertile would be the invention of his fucceffors in office, or how thoroughly fubdued by time and custom the spirit of the people. cafes cafes in point should a direct taxation be attempted. The project of Mr. Grenville, therefore, was of a nature perfectly novel. His avowed purpose was to raife a revenue in America in aid to the mother country, the entire produce of which was to be paid into the Exchequer of Great Britain. This was a project in the highest degree alarming to the Americans; for, if the claim of England to tax the colonies for her own benefit, and at her own difcretion, was once admitted, a fyftem of oppreffion would be introduced, which, from the irresistible tendencies of things, would gradually become infupportably grievous; and which once established, no fubfequent efforts would be able to deftroy. No queftion could perhaps be agitated of more difficult or doubtful difcuffion than the extent of the conftitutional authority of Great Britain over America. It had never been analysed or defined: it was, indeed, in its own nature indefinable it was only admitted in the general, that Great Britain poffeffed a difcretionary fuperintending power, pervading the whole empire, with refpect to objects of great and common concern. This power had been invariably excrcifed with caution, prudence, and moderation; and the benefits arifing from it to the empire at large, and even to its colonies and dependencies feparately confidered, were fo manifeft, that no difpofition existed to call in queftion the validity |