ception. He condemned the whole late feries of American laws and meafures; faid he contended not for indulgence, but justice to America; that if we confulted either our interest or our dignity, the firft advances to peace and concord fhould come from us; that concellion comes with a better grace, and more falutary effects, from the fuperior power; and warned them of the humiliating difgrace, of repealing thofe acts through neceffity, which they refufed to do from other motives. He is faid to have concluded the fpeech with the following remarkable words, "If the "minifters thus perfevere in mifadvifing and misleading the king, I "will not fay that they can alienate "the affections of his fubjects from "his crown, but I will affirm, that they will make the crown not "worth his wearing.-I will not fay that the king is betrayed, "but I will pronounce that the kingdom is undone." Whatever difference of opinion in the cabinet might have produced an apparent irrefolution previous to the recefs, it now became evident, that meafures were finally fettled with refpect to America. Though the military and naval ftrength was not increased, a plan of coercion feemed to be determined on. The language of the lords in adminiftration was high and decifive. They condemned the conduct of the Americans in the ftrongest and most unreferved terms; and juftified all the acts of administration, and all the late laws without exception. They infifted, that all conciliating means having proved ineffectual, it was high time for the mother country to affert her authority, or for ever to relinquish it. If the task be difficult now, what muft it be in a few years? Parliament must be obeyed, or it mult not; if it be obeyed, who fhall refift its determinations? If it be not, it is better at once to give up every claim of authority over America. The fupremacy of the British legislature cannot be difputed; and the idea of an inactive right, when there is the most urgent neceflity for its exercife, is abfurd and ridiculous. If we give way on the prefent occafion, from miftaken notions of prefent advantages in trade and commerce, fuch a conceffion will infallibly defeat its own object; for it is plain, that the navigation act, and all other regulatory acts, which form the great bafis on which thofe advantages reft, and the true interefts of both countries depend, will fall a victim to the interested and ambitious views of America. In a word, it was declared, that the mother country fhould never relax till America confeffed her fupremacy; and it was avowed to be the minifterial refolution, to enforce obedience by arms. In this debate it did not appear that the Lords in the minority were fully agreed on the propriety of recalling the troops. Some lords, who were the most earnest for peace, did not think it at all juft or wife, to leave those who had rifqued their lives in favour of the claims of this country, however illfounded, or improperly exercised, as unprotected victims to the rage of an armed and incenfed populace; and that too, before any previous ftipulations were made for their fafety. They thought that if proper conceffions were made, the troops then at Bolton were not nu - merous merous enough to raife an alarm on account of a fuppofed ill faith in keeping them up, and could by no means prevent the restoration of peace. It was wrong at firft to fend the force; but it might be dangerous to recal it before that was accomplished. They however fupported the motion because it looked towards that great object; and because, they faid, they thought any thing better than a perfeverance in hoftility. In argument, it was denied that lenient means had been ineffectually tried with the colonies; and on the contrary infifted, that they had been continually irritated by a feries of abfurd, contradictory, wanton, and oppreffive measures. That the profcription of Bofton, untried and unheard, whereby 30,000 people were configned to famine and beg-. gary, for the alledged crimes of a few, was an injuftice and cruelty fcarcely to be paralleled. That, as if it had been done to inflame them to madnefs, and to keep hoftility always in their eyes, an army, merely of irritation, as it evidently could anfwer no other purpose, was fent amongst them. That unfortunately, paffion, obftinacy, and ill-will, under the direction of inability and ignorance, had been made the principles for governing a free people. That America only wants to have fafety in property, and perfonal liberty; and the defire of independency was falfely charged on her. It was alto infifted on, that the colonies never denied or questioned the acts of navigation, except when excited to it by injury. That the fpecious language, of the fupremacy of the British legiflature, the interefts of Great-Bri VOL. XVIII. 1775. rain, of her authority over the colonies, and other phrafes equally founding, was artfully held out to deceive and delude both parliament and people; they were pompous words, and might fwell the importance of the meaneft mechanic; but they would neither prevent the miferies of a civil war, preferve our commerce, nor reftore our colonies if once loft. After a pretty long debate, for that houfe, the queftion was rejected by a vast majority, there appearing upon a divifion, no lefs than 68 who opposed, to 18 only, who fupported the motion. This divifion was rendered remarkable, by having a prince of the blood, his Royal Highnefs the Duke of Cumberland, for the first time in the minority. This decifive victory restored the confidence of the minifter, and perhaps encouraged him to meafures in the other house which he would not otherwise have hazarded. Upon laying the American papers before the Houfe of Commons, a celebrated gentleman in the oppofition defired they might be informed, whether thefe papers contained all the intelligence the minifters had received from America. The minifter replied, that he would not undertake to fay they did, as thofe he had brought were extracts, containing only the facts in the original letters; that the writers opinions were not mentioned, it hav ing been frequently found, that the making public the private opinions of people in office, had been attended with bad confequences; therefore his majefty's fervants had determined, for the future, never to mention the private opinion of any perfon. The gentleman who propofed the queftion faid, that in fome cafes it might be proper to keep a perfon's private opinion fecret; but, in fo critical and alarming an affair as that of the Americans, the opinions of people in power, on the fpot, must be of great service. Their judgments muft operate here as facts; at least, facts unconnected with the opinions of those who beft knew the fpirit and tendency of each action, would be of little ufe, tending only to mislead: an act of violence is committed-if we know neither the motive to it-to what it is likely to lead-or what force will probably fupport it-how can a true judgment be made of it? As to the opinion concerning the measures proper to be pursued for quieting thefe troubles; there too the opinion of thofe on the fpot, and poffeffing every means of information, was of the firft importance. That things were gone too far, to think it neceffary to manage the opinions of any man in office in America. The rifque to be run (at fuch a time) is a neceffary confequence of their fituation; and they would be more endangered by the ignorance of parliament concerning their fentiments, than by any fentiments they could deliver. That in 1766 (the year, he faid, of happy reconciliation) every paper, without referve, had been laid before the Houfe, and no man fuffered by it. He therefore was of opinion, that the whole of the information received from America ought to be laid before the Houfe, and not extracts of particular letters, fuch as fuited the minifter's purpofe. This propofition not being admitted, the minifter moved, that the papers fhould, on the 26th in ftant, be referred to the confideration of a committee of the whole Houfe. They confifted principally of letters between fome of the minifters, and the governors of moft of the colonies; and were tranfmitted in this mutilated state to the committee. The principal trading and manufacturing towns in the kingdom, having waited to regulate their conduct as to American affairs, by that of the merchants of London and Bristol, now accordingly followed the example of thofe two great commercial bodies, and prepared petitions upon that fubject to be prefented to parliament. The petition from the merchants of London, was of course the first delivered, and being prefented by one of the al- Jan. 23d, dermen of that city, who was likewife a member of parliament, he moved, that it fhould be referred to the committee, who were appointed to take into confideration the American papers. This feemed to be fo natural, and fo much a matter of course, as fcarcely to admit of a controversy. The minifters had, however, by this time, hit upon a manoeuvre, which, though fuccefsful for the prefent, may not in all feafons be fo happily drawn into practice; but by which, the fhower of petitions was fo effectually thrown off, that they became a matter of sport rather than of concern. It was difcovered, that this matter was to be taken up in a political, not a commercial light. That therefore, as there was little connection between the views of the House, and thofe of the merchants, it would be the higheft abfurdity, that a committee, whofe thoughts were occupied occupied by the firft, fhould be at all broke in upon or difturbed by the latter. It was accordingly propofed, to appoint a feparate committee for the confideration of the merchants petition, and for that purpose an amendment was moved, that it fhould be referred to a committee on the 27th, the day fucceeding that on which the committee was to take the American papers into confideration. It was reprefented, that the committee for the confideration of the American papers was appointed with a view to their coming to fome speedy refolution, fuited to the dignity of parliament, and to the prefent ftate of affairs in America; that the restoration of peace in that country depended as much upon the immediate application, as upon the vigour of the measures determined; that the great variety of facts, and mafs of matter, which of course must come under confideration in the committee to which the petition was referred, would be a work of tedious enquiry, and long toil; that fuch a length of enquiry was incompatible with the difpatch neceffary in the bufinefs with which it would be coupled by the motion; that the hands of government would thereby be tied up, and the powers of parliament reftrained from giving that fpeedy relief, which the preTure of public affairs requires; and that the views and objects of the enquiry originating with the American papers, and the petition, being totally diftinct in their nature, the determinations and execution arifing from both must be different. On the other fide, administration was very feverely handled. They faid, that it would be fairer and more manly to reject the petition at once, than to endeavour in this manner to defeat it; that the pretence of appointing a committee was a fhameful pitiful evafion; that while to avoid the rejection of a petition which had nothing exceptionable in the matter or the form, they fuffered it into the house, they, at the fame time, took care it should never be heard; or, what was more infulting to the petitioners, and more difgraceful to parliament, to hear it, after a determination. Is it then true, faid they, that in a queftion concerning the colonies, politics and commerce are feparate and independent confiderations? But if they are, ftill the information which the merchants may give in their evidence of matters merely political, may be of advantage to the House. Their correfpondencies are of all kinds. They do not fcruple to of fer to the Houfe all they know of the ftate of that country, without thofe fears which it seems affect our officers in America. And as the minister had refufed to give them the whole correfpondence, this fupplemental information became the more neceffary. That if there was not fufficient time to enquire into and fettle the American bufineis, why was a month loft in diffipation during the Christmas recefs, for which the dearest interests of the empire were to be facrificed, and perhaps its existence as an empire hazarded. That after all, what time would be loft? One day perhaps-One petition contained the merits of the whole--and all the evidence might be examined to that, This, they faid, was the course in the year 1766, when an act of reconciliation, which in its nature [D] 2 required required more hafte, was before the Houfe. Much larger correfpondence, and infinitely more evidence, than probably would now appear, was then before them. It did not delay a bufinefs which experience had fhewn to be beneficial; that therefore, they need not be in fuch a violent hatte, to new coercive measures, which the fame experience had fhewn, in late initances, to be highly pernicious. The question being at length put, the motion for the amendment was carried by a majority of more than two to one, the numbers being 197, who voted for the latter, against 81 who fupported the original motion. A fimilar fate attended the petitions from Bristol, Glasgow, Nor. wich, Liverpool, Manchefter, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Dudley, and fome other places, all of which were in turn configned to what the oppofition termed the committee of oblivion. On the day appointed for taking the American papers into confideration, a fecond, and very strong petition was prefented from the merchants of London, in which they argue, that the connection between Great-Britain and America originally was, and ought to be, of a commercial kind; and that the benefits derived therefrom to the mother country are of the fame nature; that obferving the conftant attention which the British legislature had for more than a century given to thofe valuable objects, they had been taught to admire the regulations by which that connection had been preferved, and those benefits fecured, as the most effectual inftitution which human wifdem could have framed for thofe falutary purposes; that prefuming therefore on that opinion, and fupported by that obfervation, they reprefent, that the fundamental policy of thofe laws of which they complain, and the propriety of enforcing, relaxing, or amending them, are queftions infeparably united with the commerce between Great Britain and America and confequently, that the confideration of the one cannot be entered on, without a full difcuffion of the other. They then lament the late decifion, by which their petition was referred to a feparate committee, and by which, they fay, they are abfolutely precluded from fuch a hearing in its fupport, as could alone procure them that relief, which the importance and prefent deplorable ftate of their trade required. They conclude by praying, that they may be heard, by themfelves or their agents, in fupport of their former petition, and that no refolution refpecting America may be taken by the Houfe,for by any committee thereof, until they fhall be fully heard. It was then moved, that the order for referring the merchants petition to a feparate committee fhould be discharged, and that it should be referred to the committee of the whole Houfe, who were appointed to confider the American papers. This motion was fupported by the gentlemen in the minority, as they contended, on the principles of law, juftice, reafon, and expediency. The indignity and mockery offered to fo great a body as the merchants of London by the late refolution, which with an infidious affectation of civility, received the petition |