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dence has bestowed upon us. We have attained the highest glory and greatness; let us strive long to preserve them for our own happiness and that of our posterity.”

1776. Jan.

Thus he spoke, with fire unquenchable; “like a man inspired;" greatest of orators, for his words opened the gates of futurity to a better culture. His manner was impassioned; and there was truth in his arguments, that were fitly joined together: so that his closely woven speech was as a chain cable in a thunder-storm, along which the lightning pours its flashes, touching the links of iron with its brightest flame. Men in America, for the moment, paid no heed to the assertion of parliamentary authority to bind manufactures and trade; it was enough that the great commoner had, in the house of commons, thanked God for America's resistance.

On the next day, Grafton advised the king to send for Pitt. Had this been done, and had his opinion on American affairs prevailed, who can tell into what distant age the question of American independence would have been adjourned? But, at seven o'clock in the evening of the sixteenth, Grafton was suddenly summoned to the palace. The king was in that state of "extreme agitation" which afflicted him when he was thwarted; and, avowing designs leading to a change of ministry of a different kind, he commanded the duke to carry no declaration from him to Pitt. Two hours later, he gave an audience to Charles Townshend, whom he endeavored, though ineffectually, to persuade to take a principal part in forming a new administration. The Duke of Grafton, nevertheless, himself repaired to Pitt, and sought his confidence. "The differences in politics between Lord Temple and me," said the commoner, “have never till now made it impossible for us to act on one plan. The difference upon this American measure will, in its consequences, be felt for fifty years at least." He proposed to form a proper system with the younger and better part of the ministry, if they would willingly co-operate with him. Honors might be offered the Duke of Newcastle, but not a place in the cabinet. "I see with pleasure,” said he, "the present administration take the places of the last. I

came up upon the American affair, a point on which I feared they might be borne down."

1766.

Of this conversation, Grafton made so good a use that, on the eighteenth, by the king's direction, he and Rockingham waited on Pitt, who once more expressed his readiness to act with those now in the ministry, yet with some "transposition of places." At the same time, he dwelt on the disgrace brought on the nation by the recall of Lord George Sackville to the council, declaring over and over that his lordship and he could not sit at the council board together.

Jan.

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But no sooner had Pitt consented to renounce his connection with Temple and unite with the ministry, than Rockingham threw in objections, alike of a personal nature and of principle. The speechless prime minister, having tasted the dignity of chief, did not wish to be transposed; and the principle of "giving up all right of taxation over the colonies," on which the union was to have rested, had implacable opponents in the family of Hardwicke, in his own private secretary, and in Rockingham himself. "If ever one man lived more zealous than another for the supremacy liament and the rights of the imperial crown, it was Edmund Burke." He was the advocate "of an unlimited legislative power over the colonies." "He saw not how the power of taxation could be given up, without giving the rest." If Pitt was able to see it, Pitt "saw further than he could." His wishes were 66 very earnest to keep the whole body of this authority perfect and entire." He was "jealous of it;" he was "honestly of that opinion;" and Rockingham, after proceeding so far, and finding in Pitt all the encouragement that he expected, let the negotiation drop. Conway and Grafton were compelled to disregard their own avowals on the question of the right of taxation; and the ministry conformed to the opinion of Charles Yorke and Edmund Burke.

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Neglected by Rockingham, hated by the aristocracy, and feared by the king, Pitt pursued his career alone. In the quiet of confidential intercourse, he inquired if fleets and armies could reduce America, and heard from a friend that

the Americans would not submit, that they would still have their woods and liberty. Thomas Hollis sent to him the essay of John Adams on the canon and feudal law; he read it, and pronounced it "indeed masterly."

1766. Jan.

Of the papers from the American congress, Conway did not scruple to present the petition to the king; and George Cooke, the member for Middlesex, was so pleased with the one to the commons that, on the twenty-seventh, he offered it to the house, where he read it twice over. Jenkinson opposed receiving it, as did Nugent and Welbore Ellis. "The American congress at New York," they argued, "was a dangerous and federal union, unconstitutionally assembled without any requisition on the part of the supreme power."

"It is the evil genius of this country," replied Pitt, “that has riveted among them the union now called dangerous and federal. The colonies should be heard. The privilege of having representatives in parliament, before they can be taxed internally, is their birthright. This question, being of high concern to a vast empire rising beyond the sea, should be discussed as a question of right. If parliament cannot tax America without her consent, the original compact with the colonies is actually broken. The decrees of parliament are not infallible; they may be repealed. Let the petition be received as the first act of harmony, and remain to all posterity on the journals of this house."

Conway adhered to the opinions of Pitt on the subject of taxation, but thought the rules of the house forbade the reception of the petition.

Sir Fletcher Norton, in great heat, denounced the distinction between internal and external taxation, as a novelty unfounded in truth, reason, or justice, unknown to their ancestors, whether as legislators or judges; a whim that might serve to point a declamation, but abhorrent to the British constitution. 66 Expressions," said he, "have fallen from that member now, and on a late similar occasion, which make my blood run cold even at my heart. I say, he sounds the trumpet to rebellion. Such language in other days, and even since the morning of freedom, would

have transported that member out of this house into another, with more leisure for better reflections." Pitt silently fixed his eye on him, with an air of contempt, from which Norton knew no escape but by an appeal for protection to the speaker.

Edmund Burke, speaking for the first time in the house of commons, advocated the reception of the petition, as in itself an acknowledgment of the jurisdiction of the house; while Charles Townshend, in a short speech, treated the line drawn between external and internal taxation as "the ecstasy of madness."

1766.

An hour before midnight, Lord John Cavendish avoided a defeat on a division, by moving the orders of the day; while Conway assured the American agents of his good-will, and the speaker caused the substance of the petition to be entered on the journals.

Jan.

The reading of papers and examination of witnesses continued during the month, in the utmost secrecy. The evidence, especially of the riots in Rhode Island and New York, produced a very unfavorable effect. On the last day of January, the ministry, on a division respecting an election for one of the boroughs in Scotland, in a very full house had only a majority of eleven. The grooms of the bed-chamber, and even Lord George Sackville, voted against them; whilst Charles Townshend, the paymaster, declined to vote at all. On the same day, Bedford and Grenville were asked if, on Bute's opening the door, they were ready to negotiate for a change of administration; and they both sent word to the king that his order would be attended to, with duty and respect, through "whatever channel it should come."

Had Pitt acceded to the administration, he would have made the attempt to convince the nation of the expediency of "giving up all right of taxation over the colonies." Left to themselves, with the king against them and the country gentlemen wavering, the ministers, not perceiving the concession to be a certain sign of expiring power, prepared a resolution that "the king in parliament has full power to bind the colonies and people of America, in all cases whatsoever."

CHAPTER XXII.

PARLIAMENT AFFIRMS ITS RIGHT TO TAX AMERICA. ROCKINGHAM'S ADMINISTRATION CONTINUED.

1766. Feb.

THE THIRD OF FEBRUARY, 1766.

It was the third day of February, when the Duke of Grafton himself offered in the house of lords the resolution, which was in direct contradiction to his wishes. Shelburne proposed to repeal the stamp act, and avoid the question of right.

"If you exempt the American colonies from one statute or law," said Lyttelton, "you make them independent communities. If opinions of this weight are to be taken up and argued upon through mistake or timidity, we shall have Lycurguses and Solons in every coffee-house, tavern, and gin-shop in London. Many thousands in England who have no vote in electing representatives will follow their brethren in America in refusing submission to any taxes. The commons will with pleasure hear the doctrine of equality being the natural right of all; but the doctrine of equality may be carried to the destruction of this monarchy."

Lord Temple treated as a jest his brother-in-law's distinction in regard to internal taxation. "Did the colonies," he continued, "when they emigrated, keep the purse only, and give up their liberties?" And he cited Shakspeare to prove that "who steals a purse steals trash;" then, advising the lords to firmness towards the colonies, he concluded with an admonition from Tacitus.

"The question before your lordships," said Camden, "concerns the common rights of mankind. The resolution now proposed gives the legislature an absolute power of laying any tax upon America. In my opinion, my lords, the legis

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