prised all taxes in one, and in reality made them the supporters of a great part of the public burdens. It was also pleaded, that as the internal commerce of the colonies was carried on entirely by a paper currency, and as all the gold and silver which they were able to procure, was sent to Great Britain in payment for her merchandise, they could not pay taxes if they should be laid upon them, as it was impossible to draw that from the colonies which they had not, and which they were deprived of the means of obtaining. Colonel Barre, who had served as an officer in America and conceived better ideas of the colonists than the members of the house in general, concluded a most eloquent and moving speech against the bill with an observation to this effect, "That he was very sure that whoever should hold up his hand for the bill must be under the necessity of acting very much in the dark," adding, "perhaps as well in the dark as any way."

Mr. Charles Townsend in reply to Colonel Barre, in favour of the bill, and after making some observations on his speech, concluded by saying, "And now will these Americans, children planted by our care, nourished up by our indulgence, until they were grown to a degree of strength and opulence, and protected by our arms, will they grudge to contribute their mite, to relieve us from the heavy weight of that burden which we lie under ?"

Upon this Colonel Barre arose, and having explained some observations on which Mr. Townsend had been remarking, in a spirited and almost inimitable manner, took up his concluding words, and said,

"They planted by your care? No, your oppressions planted them in America. They fled from your tyranny, to a then uncultivated and inhospitable country; where they exposed themselves to almost all the hardships to which human nature is liable; and among others, to the cruelties of a savage foe the most subtle; and I take upon me to say, the most formidable, of any people upon the face of God's earth; and yet, actuated by principles of true English liberty, they met all these hardships with pleasure, compared with those they suffered in their own country, from the hands of those who should have been their friends.

"They nourished up by your indulgence! They grew by your neglect of them. As soon as you began to care about them, that care was exercised in sending persons to rule over them, in one department and another, who were, perhaps, the deputies of deputies to some member of this house, sent to spy out their liberties, to misrepresent their actions, and to prey upon them ;-men, whose behaviour, on many occasions, has caused the blood of those sons of liberty to recoil within them;-men promoted to the highest seats of justice; some, who to my knowledge, were glad, by going to a foreign country, to escape being brought to the bar of a court of justice in their own. "They protected by your arms! They have nobly taken up arms in your defence: have exerted valour amidst their constant and

laborious industry, for the defence of a country, whose frontier, while drenched in blood, its interior parts have yielded all its little savings to your emolument. And believe me, remember I this day told you so, that the same spirit of freedom which actuated that people at first will accompany them still; but prudence forbids me to explain myself further. God knows I do not at this time speak from motives of party heat; what I deliver are the genuine sentiments of my heart. However superior to me in general knowledge and experience, the respectable body of this house may be, yet I claim to know more of America than most of you, having seen and been conversant in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly loyal as any subjects the king has; but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vindicate them, if ever they should be violated; but the subject is too delicate, and I will say no more."

These sentiments were thrown out so entirely without premeditation, with such force and firmness, and the breaking off was so beautifully abrupt, that the whole house, for a time, seemed to sit in a state of amazement, intently looking, without replying a word.*

Some of the Americans acknowledged that they felt emotions which they had never experienced before, and they took the first opportunity to present their thanks to Col. Barre for so noble and spirited a speech in behalf of their country.

But arguments were to no purpose, the bill passed by a great majority. Of about three hundred members, fifty only were in the opposition.

On the second reading of the bill, February 12th, the petitions against it were brought forward. The first, which was presented to the House of Commons, was brought in by Mr. Fuller, one of the West India planters, in behalf of the London merchants trading to America, who were greatly alarmed on the account of their outstanding debts in this country. But no sooner had Mr. Fuller opened the purport of the petition, and asked leave to lay it before the house, than it was strongly objected against, upon a principle which, it was said, had for a long time been adopted,—that no petition should be received against a money bill. Mr. Fuller, perceiv ing that the petition would not be received, withdrew his motion.

Sir William Meredith then presented the petition in behalf of the colony of Virginia, but the house refused to receive it by a great majority. The Connecticut petition was presented by Mr. Jackson, and was rejected in the same manner. The petition from NewYork was conceived in terms so high and inflammatory that no member of the house could be persuaded to present it. Mr. Garth presented a petition in behalf of South Carolina, but the house would not give it a hearing. As the point was thus overruled, the other agents judged that it would be of no use to offer the petitions of

+ Ingersoll's letter to Governor Fitch.

the other colonies. On a subject so interesting to the colonies, Par liament would not receive a single petition from them.

In support of the bill it was insisted, "That the king's grants contained in the charters to some, and in the commissions to the governors in the other colonies, could in their natures, be no more than to answer particular, local, and provincial purposes; and could not take the people in America out of the general and supreme jurisdiction of the parliament." It was also much insisted on, that the colonies were virtually represented, in the same manner as Leeds, Halifax, and other towns in Great Britian were.

With respect to the observations relative to the charters of the colonies, they made them a mere nullity, as they respected the engagements of the prince to the colonists, while they were holden with respect to every duty on their part to the prince. The language of them was, that the colonies were only for the convenience and emolument of the British parliament and inhabitants of Great Britain, and were to be the subjects of subjects, to be governed in their persons and estates by their sovereign pleasure.

With respect to the virtual representation of the colonists, so much insisted on, they felt, and every unprejudiced person must feel, that there was no parity in the cases alledged, and consequently no force nor justice in the argument from them. Whenever the parliament taxed Leeds, Halifax, or any other places in Great Britain, they laid the same burdens on themselves, and on all other towns and cities within the realm. If the inhabitants of Leeds and Halifax were really oppressed and distressed, the members of parliament and the nation in general would be oppressed, and participate in the injury. If Leeds and Halifax should, in such case, petition for redress, the general sense and feelings of the whole nation would second their prayer, and the feelings and personal interests of the members of parliament would combine their influence to give them relief; but in case of the taxation of the colonists the parliament eased themselves in exact proportion as they laid burdens on them; and, in case they were injured and petitioned, the personal interests and feelings of the members of parliament and of the people of Great Britain, the pride and all the selfish passions of the nation, would operate against them. Besides, the inhabitants of Great Britain were at home, had a near and cheap access to their king and parliament, but with the Americans the case was directly the reverse. The parliament, however, were satisfied with their own arguments, and though General Conway, as well as Alderman Beckford, most peremptorily denied the right of parliament to tax the Americans, and with great vehemence urged the many hardships, and as he was pleased to call them, absurdities, which would follow from the contrary doctrine and practice, yet the bill passed with the same majority which it had on the first reading. In the house of lords it passed without a debate; and on the 22d of March it received the royal assent.

The agents of the colonies now despaired with respect to the efficacy of any opposition which could be made. Even Dr. Franklin wrote to Mr. Charles Thomson, afterwards secretary of congress, "The sun of liberty is set; you must light up the candles of industry and economy." Mr. Thomson made a spirited answer: That he was apprehensive that other lights would be the consequence, predicting the opposition which soon took place.

To evince our impartiality in giving the history of this most interesting and delicate period, we insert in this connection the view of it given by one of the most respectable of the English historians, "We now come," says Dr. Bisset, "to measures, in which the lead was taken by Mr. Grenville himself, belonging peculiarly to his department, and deriving their nature and tendency from his character. Mr. Grenville was a man of a clear and sound understanding, of great parliamentary experience, indefatigable application, and extensive knowledge, especially in the laws of his country, in commérce, and in finance. He had adopted an opinion, that the resources of the country were in a very exhausted state; that therefore the chief business of a prime minister was to find out in what way the deficiencies might be supplied. His great object was, the improvement of the revenue without additional burthens on the country.

Mr. Grenville, therefore, proposed a deviation from the established practice, and the assertion of a claim, which involved in it very important questions, respecting not only general liberty, but also the constitutional freedom of a British subject. Intended by him merely as a scheme of finance upon old and established grounds, his project proposed a politcal change founded upon new principles, of which experience had afforded no means of ascertaining the operation and effects. It was a much more important and more complicated proposition than its author apprehended; and a plan for making an inconsiderable addition to British revenue, eventually laid the foundation of one of the greatest and most momentous revolutions which history has to record.

As a part of this innovating system, Mr. Grenville moved in parliament a bill for granting certain duties on goods in the British colonies, to support the government there, and encourage the trade to the sugar plantations; and on the 6th of April, 1764, this proposition was passed into a law. He also proposed another to the following purport: "that towards further defraying the expence of protecting and securing the colonies, it may be proper to charge certain stamp duties in the colonies." He postponed, however, during this session, the introduction of a bill founded on the last resolution, that the Americans might have time to offer a compensation for, or in place of, stamp duties. The colonial assemblies during the war had been in the practice of issuing bills, which were made a legal tender for money: these had begun to be attended with great inconvenience,

*Trumbull's Hist. U. States, MS.

and to suffer very considerable depreciation. To remedy the evils, a law was proposed by Mr. Grenville, and passed by parliament, for preventing such bills as might be hereafter issued in any of his majesty's colonies or plantations in America, from being made legal tenders in payment of money. The restrictions on the clandestine trade had given great umbrage in North America; the law obstructing their paper currency added to the dissatisfaction; but the duties actually imposed upon merchandise, and the resolutions concerning the stamp duty, excited a loud clamour. The New-Englanders were the first to investigate these measures. Conceiving the new laws to be part of a general plan for assuming a power not heretofore exercised by Britain over her American colonies, they immediately controverted the fundamental principle, and totally denied the right of a British parliament to levy, in any form, duties or taxes upon the colonics. The exercise (they said) of such an authority was a violation of their rights as freemen; as colonists, possessing by their charters the power of taxing themselves for their own support and defence; and as British subjects, who ought not to be taxed but by themselves or their representatives. These topics were the subjects of petitions sent over to the king, to the lords, and to the commons.*

The deliberations of parliament were now, Jan. 1765, turned towards America. Both the justice and expediency of taxation

*The character given by this historian of the "New-Englanders," will amuse our readers. It exhibits a curious mixture of truth, prejudice, and misrepresentation. "Placed in a rigorous climate, and on a soil requiring active and persevering industry to render it productive, the New-Englanders were strong, hardy, and capable of undergoing great labour and fatigue. Having many difficulties to overcome and dangers to encounter, they were formed to penetration. enterprise, and resolution. Their country, less bountiful than those of their southern neighbours, rendered recourse to traffic necessary. The puritanism which they inherited from their forefathers, with its concomitant hypocrisy, incorporated itself with their commercial conduct; and avarice is ever keener than after a coalition with fanatical austerity, and never with more ardour uses the ministry of fraud, than when arrayed in the garb of sanctity. The traffic of New-England, of a minute and detailed kind, less resembling the pursuit of an enlightened merchant than a petty shop keeper, while it narrowed liberality, sharpened artifice. Inheriting a tinge of democratic republicanism, the people submitted with reluctance to the constitutional authority of a government, in which monarchy made a considerable part, and spurned at the idea of yielding to what they conceived to be usurpation. Avarice being a prominent feature in their characters, they were peculiarly jealous of an apprehended usurpation, which was calculated to affect their purposes. As their sentiments and principles prompted them to oppose such attempts, their intel ligent and bold character enabled them effectually to resist them. In the middle colonies, in which the temperature of the climate and fertility of the soil easily afforded the necessaries and accommodations of life, though active and industrious, the inhabitants were not equally hardy and enterprising; they were less austere in their manners, admitted luxury and refinement to a much greater degree than the colonists of the north, and were attached to a monarchical form of government. The southern colonies were dissipated, relaxed, and indolent; and therefore, though little adapted to resistance themselves, were well fitted to receive impressions from more vigorous characters. The New-Englanders were extremely active in diffusing their own sentiments through the provinces attached to the mother country; till, at length, the spirit of dissatisfaction became so prevalent, as to attract the notice and animadversions of the British government."