to the said colonies, and more beneficial and con| New England.—And it may be proper to repeal art ducive to the public service, than the mode of act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his giving and granting aids in parliament, to be raised present majesty, entitled, an act for the better and paid in the same colonies. This makes the regulating the government of the province of the whole of the fundamental part of the plan. The Massachusetts Bay, in New England. And also conclusion is irresistible. You cannot say that you were driven by any necessity to an exercise of the utmost rights of legisla ure. You cannot assert that you took on yourselves the task of imposing colony taxes, from the want of another legal body, that is competent to the purpose of supplying the exigencies of the state, without wounding the prejudices of the people. Neither is it true that the body so qualified, and having that competence, had neglected the duty. The question now, on all this accumulated matter, is, whether you will choose to abide by a profitable experience, or a mischievous theory; whether you choose to build on imagination or fact; whether you prefer enjoyment or hope; satisfaction in your subjects, or discontent. If these propositions are accepted, every thing which has been made to enforce a contrary system, must, I take it for granted, fall along with it. On that ground, I have drawn the following resolution, which, when it comes to be moved, will naturally be divided in a proper manner: "That it may be proper to repeal an act, made in the seventh year of the reign of his present majesty, entitled, an act for granting certain duties in the British colonies and plantations in America; for allowing a .drawback of the duties of customs upon the exportation from this kingdom of coffee and cocoa nuts, of the produce of the said colonies and plantations; for discontinuing the drawbacks payable on China earthen-ware exported to America, and for more effectually preventing the clandestine running of goods in the said colonies and plantations. And that it may be proper to repeal an act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present majesty, entitled, an act to discontinue, in such manner, and for such time, as are therein mentioned, the landing and discharging, lading or shipping, of goods, wares, and merchandize, at the town and within the harbor of Boston, in the province of Massachusetts Bay, in North America.— And that it may be proper to repeal an act made in the fourteenth year of the reign of his present majesty, entitled, an act for the impartial administration of justice, in the cases of persons questioned for any acts done by them, in the execution of the law, or for the suppression of riots and tumults in the province of Massachusetts-Bay, in that it may be proper to explain and amend an act, made in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of king Henry the eighth, entitled, an act for the trial of treasons committed out of the king's dominions." I wish, sir, to repeal the Boston port bill, because (independently of the dangerous precedent of suspending the rights of the subjects during the king's pleasure) it was passed, as I apprehend, with less regularity, and on more partial princi ples than it ought. The corporation of Boston was not heard, before it was condemned. Other towns full as guilty as she was, have not had their ports blocked up. Even the restraining bill of the present session does not go to the length of the Boston port act. The same ideas of prudence, which induced you not to extend equal punishment to equal guilt, even when you were punishing, induce me, who mean not to chastise, but to reconcile, to be satisfied with the punishment already partially inflicted. Ideas of prudence, and accommodation to cirCumstances, prevent you from taking away the charters of Connecticut and Rhode Island, as you bave taken away that of Massachusetts colony, though the crown has far less power in the above two former provinces than it enjoyed in the latter; and though the abuses have been full as great, and as flagrant, in the exempted as in the punished. The same reasons of prudence and accommodation have weight with me in restoring the charter of the Massachusetts Bay. Besides, sir, the act which changes the charter of the Massachusetts-Bay is in many particulars so exceptionable, that if I did not wish absolutely to repeal, I would by all means desire to alter it, as several of its provisions tend to the subversion of all public and private justice. Such, among others, is the power in the governor to change the sheriff at his pleasure, and to make a new returning officer for every special cause. It is shameful to behold such a regulation standing among English laws. The act for bringing persons, accused of committing murder, under the orders of government, to England for trial, is but temporary. That act has calculated the probable duration of our quarrel with the colonies, and is accomodated to that supposed duration. I would hasten the happy mo. ment of reconciliation; and therefore must, on my Principle, get rid of that most justly obnoxious act. The act of Henry the eighth, for the trial of treasons, I do not mean to take away, but to con fine it to its proper bounds and originisl intention; to make it expressly for trial of treasons, and the greatest treasons may be committed in places where the jurisdiction of the crown does not extend. may be These are the three consequential propositions. I have thought of two or three more, but they come rather too near detail, and to the province of executive government, which I wish parliament If the always to superintend, never to assume. first six are granted, congruity will carry the latter three. If not, the things that remain unrepealed, will be, I hope, rather unseemly incumbrances on the building than very materially detrimental to its strength and stability. Here, sir, I should close, but that I plainly perceive some objections remain, which I ought, if possible, to remove. The first will be, that, in' resorting to the doctrine of our ancestors, as con. tained in the preamble to the Chester act, I prove too much; that the grievance from a want of representation, stated in that preamble, goes to the whole of legislation as well as to taxation. And doctrine, will apply it to all parts of legislative that the colonies, grounding themselves upon that authority. Having guarded the privileges of local legisla tion, I would next secure to the colonies a fair and unbiassed judicature; for which purpose, sir, I propose the following resolution: "That, from the time when the general assembly or general court of any colony or plantation in North America, shall have appointed, by act of assembly duly confirmed, a settled salary to the offices of the chief justice and other judges of the superior court, it proper that the said chief justice and other judges of the superior courts of such colony, shall hold his and their office and offices during their good behavior, and shall not be removed therefrom, but To this objection, with all possible deference when the said removal shall be adjudged by his and humility, and wishing as little as any man majesty, in council, upon a hearing or complaint living to impair the smallest particle of our sufrom the general assembly, or on a complaint from preme authority, I answer, that the words are the the governor, or council, or the house of repre words of parliament, and not mine; and that all sentatives severally, of the colony in which the false and inconclusive inferences drawn from them, said chief justice and other judges have exercised are not mine; for I heartily disclaim any such the said offices." The next resolution relates to the courts of admiralty. inference. I have chosen the words of an act of parliament, which Mr. Grenville, surely a tolerably zealous and very judicious advocate for the sovereignty of parliament, formerly moved to have. It is this. "That it may be proper to regulate the read at your table, in confirmation of his tenets. courts of admiralty, or vice admiralty, authorised It is true that lord Chatham considered these by the fifteenth chapter of the fourth of George preambles as declaring strongly in favor of his the third, in such a manner as to make the same opinion. He was a no less powerful advocate for more commodious to those who sue, or are sued in the said courts, and to provide for the more decent maintenance of the judges in the same." the privileges of the Americans. Ought I not from hence to presume, that these preambles are as favorable as possible to both, when properly unders'ood; favorable both to the rights of parliament, and the privilege of the dependencies of this crown? But, sir, the object of grievance in my resolution, I have not taken from the Chester but from the Durham act, which confines the hard These courts I do not wish to take away; they are in themselves proper establishments. This court is one of the capital securities of the act of navigation. The extent of its jurisdiction indeed has been increased; but this is altogether as pro ship of want of representation to the case of per, and is indeed, on many accounts, more eligible, subsidies; and which therefore falls in exactly with where new powers were wanted, than a court the case of the colonies. But whether the unreabsolutely new. But courts incommodiously presented counties were de jure or de facto bound, situated, in effect, deny justice; and a court, the preambles do not accurately distinguish; nor partaking in all the fruits of its own condemnation, indeed was it necessary, for, whether de jure or is a robber. The congress complain, and complain de facto, the legislature thought the exercise of justly, of this grievance.* The solicitor general informed Mr. B. when the resolutions were separately moved, that the grievance of the judges, par aking of the profits of some of the se zures, had been redressed by otice; accordingly the resolution was amended. the power of taxing as of right, or as fact with great weight and propriety, against this species of out right, equally a grievance, and equally oppres-delusive geometrical accuracy in moral arguments, as the most fallacious of all sophistry. sive. I do not know that the colonies have, in any ge- The Americans will have no interest contrary to neral way, or in any cool hour, gone much beyond the grandeur and glory of England, when they are the demand of immunity in relation to taxes. It not oppressed by the weight of it, and they will is not fair to judge of the temper or dispositions rather be inclined to respect the acts of a superinof any man, or any set of men, when they are com-ending legislature, when they see them the acts of posed and at rest, from their conduct or their ex-that power, which is itself the security, not the pressions in a state of disturbance and irritation. rival, of their secondary importance. In this asserIt is besides a very great mistake to imagine, that ance, my mind most perfectly acquiesces; and I mankind follow up practically any speculative confess I feel not the least alarm, from the disprinciple, either of government or of freedom, as contents which are to arise from putting people far as it will go in argument and logical ilation. at their ease; nor do I apprehend the destruction We Englishmen stop very short of the principles of this empire, from giving, by an act of free grace upon which we support any given part of our con- and indulgence, to two millions of my fellow citi. stitution, or even the whole of it together. I could zens, some share of those rights upon which I have easily, if I had not already tired you, give you always been taught to value myself. very striking and convincing instances of it. This It is said indeed that this power of granting, is nothing but what is natural and proper. All go-vested in American assemblies, would dissolve the vernment, indeed every human benefit and enjoy unity of the empire, which was preserved entire, ment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is although Wales, Chester, and Durham were added founded on compromise and barter. We balance to it. Truly, Mr. Speaker, I do not know what inconveniences, we give and take; we remit some this unity means; nor has it ever been heard of, rights that we may enjoy others; and we choose that I know, in the constitutional policy of this rather to be happy citizens than subtle disputants. country. The very idea of subordination of parts And we must give away some natural liberty to excludes this notion of simple and undivided unity. enjoy civil advantages; so we must sacrifice some England is the head; but she is not the head and civil liberties, for the advantages to be derived the members too. Ireland has ever had, from the from the communion and fellowship of a great embeginning, a separate, but not an independent, pire. But in all fair dealings, the thing bought legislature; which, far from distracting, promoted must bear some proportion to the purchase paid. the union of the whole. Every thing was sweetly None will barter away the immediate jewel of his and harmoniously disposed through both islands soul. Though a great house is apt to make slaves for the conversation of English dominion, and the haughty, yet it is purchasing a part of the artificial communication of English liberties. I do not see importance of a great empire too dear, to pay for that the same principles might not be carried into it all essential rights, and all the intrinsic dignity twenty islands, and with the same good effect. of human nature. None of us who would not This is my model with regard to America, as far risque his life, rather than fall under a govern- as the internal circumstances of the two countries ment purely arbitrary. But, although there are are the same. I know no other unity of this em some amongst us who think our constitution wants pire, than I can draw from its example during these many improvements, to make it a complete sys-periods when it seemed, to my poor understanding, tem of liberty, perhaps none who are of that opi-more united than it is now, or than it is likely to be nion, would think it right to aim at such improve-by the present methods. ment, by disturbing this country, and risquing every thing that is dear to him. In every arduous But since I speak of these methods, I recollect, enterprize we consider what we are to lose, as Mr. Speaker, almost too late, that I promised, bewell as what we are to gain; and the more and fore I finished, to say something of the proposition better stake of liberty every people possess, the less they will hazard in a vain attempt to make it These are the cords of man, Man acts from adequate motives relative to his interest, and not on metaphysical speculations. Aristotle, the great master of reasoning, cautions us, and with more. of the *noble lord on the floor, which has been so lately received, and stands on your journals. I must be deeply concerned, whenever it is my misfortue to continue a difference with the majority of this house. But as the reasons for that difference Lord North. are my apology for thus troubling you, suffer me to were to lay the duties, which furnished their state them in a very few words. I shall compress contingent, upon the importation of your manuthem in as small a body as I possibly can, having factures, you know you would never suffer such a already debated that matter at large, when the ques-tax to be laid. You know too, that you would not tion was before the committee. suffer many other modes of taxation. So that, when you come to explain yourself, it will be found that you will neither leave to themselves the quantur, nor the mode, nor indeed any thing. The whole is delusion from one end to the other. a First then, I cannot admit that proposition of ransom by auction—because it is a mere project, It is a thing new, unheard of, supported by no experience, justified by no analogy, without example of our ancestors, or root in the constitution. It is neither regular parliamentary taxation, nor colony grant. Experimentum in corpore vile, is a good rule, which will ever make me adverse to any trial of experiments on what is certainly the most valuable of all subjects, the peace of this empire. Fourthly, this method of ransom by auction (unless it be universally accepted) will plunge you into great and inextricable difficulties. In what year of our Lord are the proportions of payments to be settled? To say nothing of the impossibility, that colony agents should have general powers of taxing the colonies at their discretion, consider, I Secondly, it is an experiment which must be implore you, that the communication, by special fatal, in the end, to our constitution. For what messages and orders, between these agents and is it but a scheme for taxing the colonies in the their constituents, on each variation of the case, antichamber of the noble lord and his successors? when the parties come to contend together, and To settle the quotas and proportions in this house to dispute on their relative proportions, will be a is clearly impossible. You, sir, may flatter your-matter of delay, perplexity, and confusion that can self, you shall sit a state auctioneer, with your never have an end. hammer in your hand, and knock down to each If all the colonies do not appear at the outcry, colony as it bids. But to settle (on the plan laid down by the noble lord) the true proportional pay. what is the condition of those assemblies who offer, ment for four or five and twenty governments, by themselves or their agents, to tax themselves according to the absolute and relative wealth of up to your ideas of their proportion? The reeach, and according to the British proportion of fractory colonies, who refuse all composition, will wealth and burthen, is a wild and chimerical remain taxed only to your old impositions; which, notion. This new taxation must therefore come in however grievous in principle, are trifling as to by the back door of the constitution. Each quota production. The obedient colonies in this scheme must be brought to this house ready formed; you are heavily taxed. The refractory remain un can neither add nor alter. You must register it. burthened. What will you do? Will you lay new You can do nothing farther. For on what grounds and heavier taxes by parliament on the disobedient? can you deliberate, either before or after the pro- Pray consider in what way you can do it? You are position? You cannot hear the counsel for all these perfectly convinced that in the way of taxing you provinces quarrelling each on its own quantity of can do nothing but at the ports. Now suppose it payment, and its proportion to others. you is. Virginia that refuses to appear at your auction, while Maryland and North Carolina bid hand. somely for their ransom, and are taxed to your quota? How will you put these colonies on a par? Will you tax the tobacco of Virginia? If you do, you give it its dead wound to your English revenue at home, and to one of the very greatest articles of your own foreign trade. If you tax the import of that rebellious colony, what do you tax but your own manufactures, or the goods of so De other obedient, and already well taxed colony? Who has said one word on this labyrinth of detail, which bewilders you more and more as you enter into it? Who has presented, who can present you with a clew to lead you out of it? I think, sir, it is im. possible that you should not recollect that the If should attempt it, the committee of provincial ways and means, or by whatever other name it will delight to be called, must swallow up all the time of parliament. Thirdly, it does not give satisfaction to the complaint of the colonies. They complain that they are taxed without their consent, you answer, that you will fix the sum at which they shall be taxed. That is, you give them the very grievance for the remedy. You tell them, indeed, that you will leave the mode to themselves. I really beg pardon-it gives me pain to mention it but you must be sensible that you will not perform this part of the compact. For, suppose the colonies colony bounds are so implicated in one another Compare the two. This I offer to give you is (you know it by your other experiments in the bill plain and simple; the other full of perplexed and for prohibiting the New England fishery) that you intricate mazes. This is mild, that harsh. This is can lay no possible restraints on almost any of found by experience effectual for its purposes; the them, which may not be presently eluded, if you other is a new object. This is universal, the other do not confound the innocent with the guilty, and calculated for certain colonies only. This is im burthen those whom upon every principle you mediate in its conciliatory operation; the other reought to exonerate. He must be grossly ignorant mote, contingent, full of hazard. Mine is what beof America, who thinks that, without falling into comes the dignity of a ruling people; gratuitous, this confusion of all rules of equity and policy, you unconditional, and not held out as a matter of barcan restrain any single colony, especially Virginia gain and sale. I have done my duty in proposing it and Maryland, the central and most important of to you. I have indeed tired you by a long dis them all. course; but this is the misfortune of those to whose influence nothing will be conceded, and who must Let it also be considered, that either in the pre- win every inch of their ground by argument. You sent confusion you settle a permanent contingent, have heard me with goodness; may you decide which will and must be trifling, (and then you have with wisdom! for my part, I feel my mind greatly no effectual revenue), or you change the quota at disburthened, by what I have done to day. I have every exigency, and then on every new reparation been the less fearful of trying your patience, beyou will have a new quarrel. cause, on this subject, I mean to spare it altogether and Reflect besides, that when you have fixed a quota for every colony, you have not provided for prompt and punctual payment. Suppose one, two, five, ten years arrears. You cannot issue a treasury extent against the failing colony. You must make new Boston ports bills, new restraining laws, new acts for dragging men to England for trial. You must send out new fleets, new armies. All is to But what (says the financier) is peace to us withbegin again. From this day forward the empire is out money? Your plan gives us no revenue. Nɔ! never to know an hour's tranquility. An intestine But it does-for it secures to the subject the fire will be kept alive in the bowels of the colonies, power of REFUSAL; the first of all revenues.which one time or other must consume this whole Experience is a cheat, and fact a liar, if this power empire. I allow indeed that the empire of Germany in the subject of proportioning his grant, or of not raises her revenue and her troops by quotas and granting at all, has not been found the richest mine contingents; but the revenue of the empire, and of revenue ever discovered by the skill or by the the army of the empire, is the worst revenue and fortune of man. It does not indeed vote you one the worst army in the world. hundred and fifty-two thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds eleven shillings and twopence three Instead of a standing revenue, you will there- farthings, nor any other paltry limited sum.-But fore have a perpetual quarrel. Indeed, the noble it gives the strong box itself, the fund, the bank lord, who proposed this project of a ransom by from whence only revenues can arise amongst a auction, seemed himself to be of that opinion. His people sensible of freedom: Posita luditur arca. project was rather designed for breaking the union Cannot you in England, cannot you at this time of of the colonies, than for establishing a revenue.-day; cannot you (an house of commons) trust to He confessed, he apprehended, that his proposal the principle which has raised so mighty a revenue, would not be to their taste. I say, this scheme and accumulated a debt of near one hundred and of disunion seems to be at the bottom of the pro- forty millions in this country! Is this principle ject; for I will not suspect that the noble lord to be true in England, and false every where else! meant nothing but merely to delude the nation by Is it not true in Ireland? Has it not hitherto been an airy phantom, which he never intended to true in the colonies? Why should you presume, realize. But whatever his views may be, as I pro that in any country a body, duly constituted for pose the peace and union of the colonies as the any function, will neglect to perform its duty, and very foundation of my plan, it cannot with one, abdicate its trust? Such a presumption would go whose foundation is perpetual, descend. against all government, in all modes. But, in truth, |