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submit to a total interruption of trade, and of the CHAP. common. enjoyments of life, rather than yield to a system they conceived fatal to their liberty. The state of New York alone refused an acquiescence in those resolutions, trusting, by a petition to the king and parliament, setting forth the grievances. of the country, to effect, in the character of mediator, a permanent accommodation.

The people in general appear to have entertained sanguine hopes that the nature of their demands, as well as the unanimity of congress, would prevail with parliament. But their leaders, judging, from unequivocal experience, of the temper that actuated the British councils, augured less favourably of the result, and, anticipating an approaching contest, urged the necessity of training to military exercise the southern, as well as the northern, provinces. A royal proclamation, prohibiting the exportation of arms to America, justified their suspicions, and awakened those of their countrymen. The dread of meditated coercion diffused itself throughout the continent, and was quickly accompanied by a determined eagerness to frustrate the designs of authority. Encouragement was generally given to manufactories of all kinds of warlike stores; and as the minds of men grew daily more inflamed, violent expedients were called in to facilitate the desired object. At Rhode island, the stores of government were seized by the people; an example that was quickly followed by the people of New Hampshire, till lately, the least indisposed towards Britain. Thus forcibly did experience already demonstrate the futility of those predictions which the abettors of a system of terror had so confidently and so often made in both houses of parliament.

298

CHAP. X.

CHAP.

X.

1774.

Dissolution of parliament on the 30th of September, and convocation of a new one the following month.... Slender strength of opposition in the new parliament.... Silence of ministers on American affairs.... Meeting after the recess.... Lord Chatham's motion for measures of reconciliation with America.... Committee of the house formed for the consideration of American papers. ... Petitions received from the mercantile bodies of London.... Messrs. Bollan, Franklin, and Lee, solicit andience before the house of commons, in favour of the petition from congress.... They are refused.... Another motion for settling the troubles in America introduced by Lord Chatham.... His motion rejected.... Resolution of parliament, declaring the colonies in a state of actual rebellion.... Rise in the number of opposition on this question.... Farther debates on American affairs.... Votes of supply of soldiers and seamen.... Lord North's motion, in February 1775, for restricting the trade of the northern colonies.... His sudden motion, on the 20th, for reconciliation with the colonies.... Danger of the minister's being abandoned by his former friends, in consequence of this motion. . . . Amending salvo of the attorney general extricates him from his embarrassment .... Resumption of the New England fishery bill.... Burke's motion, on the 20th of March, in behalf of America.

THE dangerous aspect of affairs in America was Tbut imperfectly discerned in Britain, and had

not indeed assumed its most formidable phases, when parliament was unexpectedly dissolved, on the 30th September, and a new one convoked for the 29th of the ensuing month. Various reasons

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1774

concurred in urging ministers to appoint an inter- CHAP. val so short, as, though not unprecedented, was at least unusual. Less opportunity was afforded to their opponents of canvassing at the elections; and the practice of proposing tests for the subscription of candidates, which had been already suggested in many places, was prevented from gaining ground. The period, also, of the dissolution was recommended by several considerations. The arrears of the civil list had rapidly accumulated, and seemed to require an immediate provision, always more readily obtained from newly elected members, than from men on the point of returning to their constituents. But what must chiefly have had weight with administration, it was visible that a crisis was fast approaching in the quarrel with the colonies. At present, the minds of the people at home were but little affected, even with the serious events that had transpired. Fatigued with dissensions that had grown familiar by long duration, interest and apprehensions seemed for a short space to be equally lulled. But should the storm, which, to the eye of the statesman, threatened the more formidably that its gathering was slow and progressive, suddenly burst, to the astonishment of the unsuspecting multitude, what might not be the fate of the subsequent elections? A new parliament was accordingly convened, on the 30th November, in which, though ministers sustained the loss of some of their partizans, they still retained a vast majority. In the speech from the throne, the daring spirit of resistance evinced by the state of Massachussets, and the illegal combinations among the colonies, to obstruct the commerce of the mother country, were strongly commented upon. Measures were announced to be in train for enforcing the acts so boldly resisted; and parliament was assured of an inflexible resolution

X.

CHAP. to maintain obedience to its authority. An amendment to the address was moved in the commons, 1774 praying his majesty to lay before the house the whole intelligence received from America. It was contended, that the address implied an approbation of all past measures towards that country; and the new parliament was warned against a blind and precipitate sanction, involving it in the responsibility of the former. Lord North seemed to acknowledge that a reconciliation would be desirable, but insisted, at the same time, that the first overtures should come from America. As to the address, he represented it as a formality that bound up the conduct of no individual who should assent to it. The leading members in opposition seized the opportunity of illustrating how completely events had falsified the sanguine predictions of those who had introduced the obnoxious statutes. This amendment was, however, negatived by 264 against 73. In the house of lords, the address experienced a similar opposition, and with the same success, 13 only voting for the duke of Richmond's amendment, and 63 against it. The minority on this occasion felt themselves justified, by the imperious exigency of affairs, in recording their sentiments by a protest; a procceding unusual in the case of an address. 6 They wished to be known as person who had ever disapproved of measures so pernicious in their past effects and their future tendency and who were not in haste, without inquir, or information, to commit themselves in declarations which might precipitate the country into all the calamities of a civil war.'

On the subs quent meetings of the house, a mysterious silence was observed by ministers with respect to America. By some, this was ascribed to the irresolution of the cabin t, by others, to serious differences of opinion, relative to the pro

X.

priety of coercive measures, to which the prime CHAP minister was supposed to be really adverse. Per-, haps it might also be thought prudent to avoid ex- 1774citing apprehensions in the mercantile body, and thus to prevent an opposition from being formed, before the arrival of farther intelligence from America might embolden ministers to declare the whole of their intended system. Certain it is, they betrayed, even to affectation, a confidence that peace would continue undisturbed. The land tax was voted as before: no vote of credit was asked; nay, 4,000 seamen were disbanded; a measure so flagrantly at variance with the speech from the throne, and the address which had re-echoed it, as could not fail to be animadverted upon by the members in opposition.

The house did not assemble after the recess till the 20th of January 1775. Before its meeting, 1775 the intentions of administration had ceased to be equivocal, and the merchants of London and Bristol had prepared to express their sense of the expected measures. Lord Chatham, who had long been struggling with the infirmities of a declining constitution, roused by the importance of the occasion, once more came forth in a cause which seemed to ingross the whole enthusiasm of his great mind. Lord Dartmouth having, by his majesty's command, laid on the table the papers belonging to his official department, the leader of opposition addressed the house in nearly these words Too well apprized of the contents of the papers now at last laid before the house, I will not take up your lordships time in tedious and fruitless investigations, but seize the first moment to open the door of reconciliation; for every moment of delay is a moment of danger. As I have not the honour of access to his majesty, I will endeavour to transmit to him, through the constitu