its own liberty, may be not the less inclined, upon that account, to domineer and tyrannize over others. Lord Chatham's flate of health, during the two preceding feffions, had precluded him from making any confiderable parliamentary exertions, and he had rarely attended the Houfe on any occafion; but, finding himself at this period fomewhat relieved from the preffure of his complaints, he took the opportunity, on the third reading of the bill for quartering foldiers in America, to lay before the House and the Public his thoughts on this bill, and on American affairs in general, in a fpeech worthy of his diftinguished talents and illuftrious reputation. "If," faid he, "my Lords, we take a tranfient view of thofe motives which induced the ancestors of our fellow-fubjects in America to leave their native country, to encounter the innumerable difficulties of the unexplored regions of the western world, our astonishment at the prefent conduct of their descendants will naturally fubfide. There was no corner of the globe to which they would not have fled, rather than submit to the flavish and tyrannical spirit which prevailed at that period in their native country; and viewing them in their originally forlorn and now flourishing ftate, they may be cited as illuf trious inftances to inftruct the world, what great exertions mankind will naturally make, when left to the free exercife of their own powers. Notwithstanding withstanding my intention to give my hearty negative to the queftion now before you, I condemn, my Lords, in the fevereft manner, the turbulent and unwarrantable conduct of the Americans in fome inftances, particularly in the late riots at Bofton; but, my Lords, the mode which has been purfued to bring them back to a fenfe of their duty, is fo diametrically oppofite to every principle of found policy, as to excite my utmost aftonishment. You have involved the guilty and the innocent in one common punishment, and avenge the crime of a few lawlefs depredators upon the whole body of the inhabitants. My Lords, the different provinces of America, in the excess of their gratitude for the repeal of the Stamp Act, feemed to vie with each other in expreffions of loyalty and duty; but the moment they perceived that your intention to tax them was renewed, under a pretence of ferving the Eaft India Company, their refentment got the afcendent of their moderation, and hurried them into actions which their cooler reason would abhor. But, my Lords, from the whole complexion of the late proceedings, I cannot but incline to think, that Adminiftration has purposely irritated them into these violent acts, in order to gratify their own malice and revenge. What elfe could induce them to dress Taxation, the father of American Sedition, in the robes of an EaftIndia Director, but to break in upon that mutual peace peace and harmony which then fo happily fubfifted between the Colonies and the Mother Country. My Lords, it has always been my fixed and unalterable opinion, and I will carry it with me to the grave, that this country had no right under heaven to tax America. It is contrary to all the principles of justice and civil policy: it is contrary to that effential, unalterable right in nature, ingrafted into the British Constitution as a fundamental law, that what a man has honeftly acquired is abfolutely his own, which he may freely give, but which cannot be taken from him without his confent. Pafs then, my Lords, inftead of thefe harsh and fevere edicts, an amnesty over their errors; by measures of lenity and affection allure them to their duty; act the part of a generous and forgiving parent. A period may arrive, when this parent may ftand in need of every affiftance fhe can receive from a grateful and affectionate offspring. The welfare of this country, my Lords, has ever been my greatest joy, and under all the viciffitudes of my life has afforded me the most pleasing confolation. Should the all-disposing hand of Providence prevent me from contributing my poor and feeble aid in the day of her diftrefs, my prayers shall be ever for her prosperity :- Length of days be in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor! May her ways be ways of pleasantnefs, and all her paths be peace!" VOL. II. :— The only effort of a nature directly conciliatory in the courfe of the prefent feffion, was made by Mr. Rofe Fuller, Member for Rye, who on the 19th April (1774) moved, that the Houfe refolve itself into a Committee, to take into confideration the duty on the importation of teas into America, and the appropriation of the fame, with a view to its repeal. This motion was feconded and powerfully fupported by Mr. Edmund Burke, in an elaborate fpeech, which excited very confiderable attention. This gentleman had, from the period of his firft introduction to the House of Commons, as confidential Secretary to Lord Rockingham, during the adminiftration of that nobleman, diftinguished himself by the fuperiority and fplendor of his parliamentary talents; and he might at this time be confidered as the principal organ through which the political fentiments were communicated of that once widely extended and potent connection of Whigs, of which Lord Rockingham had, fince the death of the Duke of Newcastle, been confidered the head. The tide of power, of fortune, and of royal favor, having long fince flowed in a different channel, this party had been gradually deferted by many of their summer friends, but still remained highly refpectable from the firm conjunction of various families of the firft diftinction, who had ever been been numbered amongst the most zealous adhe-, rents of the Revolution, and Proteftant Succeffion in the House of Hanover. The fimple, unaffected, and unaffuming manners of the Marquis of Rockingham were amufingly contrafted in his representative Mr. Burke, whofe deportment was lofty and fupercilious, and whofe fpeeches in Parliament were for the most part characterized by a florid, diffufive, and oftentatious ftyle of eloquence, ill-adapted to the investigation of truth; calculated rather to dazzle than inform, abounding with vanity and egotism, and apparently intended not fo much to exhibit the merits of the cause as the abilities of the speaker. Nevertheless, they difplayed a great extent of knowledge; they were en livened with frequent flashes of wit; they were illuminated with much brilliancy of allufion and metaphor, and adorned with burfts of oratory, bold, beautiful, and fublime. During the lifetime of the Marquis of Rockingham, he appeared, not indeed without fome remarkable deviations, to adhere with laudable zeal to the genuine principles of Whiggifm: but from the lamented decease of that diftinguished nobleman, he became on a fudden very capricious and eccentric in his conduct; and his judgment being naturally weak, and his paffions proportionally violent and habitually indulged, the force of his genius in other refpects has unfortunately only plunged him, in the latter E 2 |