CHA P. VI. Petition Meffage from the throne for an augmentation of the forces. Bill for reftraining the commerce of the New England colonies, and to prohibit their fishery on the banks of Newfoundland, c. brought into the House of Commons. Great oppofition to the bill. Petition and evidence against it. and evidence from the town of Pool in fupport of the bill. Petition from the Quakers. Long debates. Motion for an amendment over-ruled. The bill carried through by great majorities. Meets with equal oppofition in the House of Lords. Petitions and evidence as before. Great debates. Question for committing the bill, upon the fecond reading, carried by a great majority. Motion on the third reading for an amendment, to include feve ral other colonies in the refrictions of the bill. The queftion carried upon a divifion. The bill paffed, and returned with the amendment to the Commons. Proteft. Conference; the Commons give reafons for refufing to concur in the amendment; the Lords agree to the rejection. The bill receives the royal affent. T HE anfwer from the throne to the addrefs, befides the ufual thanks, contained an affurance of taking the most speedy and effectual measures, for enforcing due obedience to the laws and authority of the fupreme legislature; together with a declaration, that,whenever any of the colonies fhould make a proper and dutiful application, his Majefty would be ready to concur in affording them every juit and reafonable indulgence; and concluded with an earnest wish that this difpofition might have an happy effect on their temper and condut. The answer was accompanied with a meffage from the Throne to the Commons, in which they were informed, that as it was determined, n confequence of the addrefs, to take the most fpeedy and effectual measures for fupporting the just rights of the crown, and the two Houfes of Parliament, fome augmentation to the forces by fea and land would be neceffary for that purpofe. This meffage was referred, as ufual, to the committee of fupply. While meafures were thus taking to apply a military force to the cure of the disorders in America, other means were thought neceffary to come in aid of this expedient. The military force might indeed coerce and punith the difobedient, and effequally fupport the magiftrate in cafe of infurrection; but how to get the body of magistracy to act, or any fufficient number upon ordinary occafions to engage heartily in their caufe, did not appear. The change in the charter of Maffachufett's Bay had not produced the deûred effect. Even if it fhould, the inferior magiftrates muft evidently be taken in the country; fheriffs, conftables, fele& men, grand and petty juries, muft be aiding to the higher magiftrates, or nothing could be done; and the idea of having troops in every parish would be ridiculous. The coercive plan being therefore still relied + relied on, it was propofed to chufe a punishment fo univerfal, as by the inconveniencies which every man felt, would intereft every man in procuring obedience and fubmiffion to the late acts of parliament. For this reafon the minifter moved for leave to bring in Feb. 10. a bill to restrain the trade and commerce of the provinces of Maffachufett's Bay, and New Hampshire; the colonies of Connecticut and Rhode-Island, and Providence Plantation, in NorthAmerica, to Great-Britain, 1re land, and the British islands in the Weft-Indies; and to prohibit fuch provinces and colonies from carrying on any fishery on the banks of Newfoundland, or other places therein to be mentioned, under certain conditions, and for a limited time. He fupported the propofed bill (of which he had given fome previous intimation) on the following grounds that as the Americans had refufed to trade with this kingdom, it was but jutt that we should not fuffer them to trade with any other nation; that the restraints of the act of navigation, were their charter; and that the feveral relaxations of that law, were fo many acts of grace and favour; all which, when they ceafed to be merited by the colonies, it was reasonable and neceffary fhould be recalled by the legiflature; that the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, as well as all the others in North-America, were the undoubted right of GreatBritain, and the might accordingly difpofe of them as the pleafed; that as both Houfes had declared a rebellion in the province of Maffachufett's Bay, it was therefore juft to deprive that province of the be nefits which it derived from thole fisheries. With respect to the other colonies of New-England included in the bill, he observed, that though there was still a governor and government in the province of New Hampshire, yet government was fo weak there, that a quantity of powder had been taken out of one of the King's forts by an armed mob; befides, that from the vicinity of that province to Maffachusett's Bay, if it were not included, the purpose of the act would be defeated. Nor was the ill temper of the people of Connecticut found lefs deferving of their being included in the general punishment, who, upon a report that the foldiery had killed fome people in Bolton, marched a large body of men into the province of Maffachufett's; and though that body returned, on finding the falfity of the report, the temper and difpofition they fhewed, as well as the general ftate and conduct of the colony, did not by any means entitle them to favour. The argument of vicinity was alfo as applicable to the laft province as to that of New Hampshire. The minifter having ftated the reafons on which he acted, declared, that he would not be averse to fuch alleviations of the act, as would not prove destructive of its great object; and therefore he would only propofe it as temporary, to continue either to the end of the year, or of the next feffion of parliament;and he would also propofe, that particular perfons might be excepted, upon their obtaining certificates from the Governor of the province, in which they refided, of their good behaviour, or upon their fubfcribing to a teft, acknowledging knowledging the rights of parlia ment. This bill, befides the matter that was peculiar to its own nature, brought up in its courfe the whole feries of American controverfy. With regard to this particular meafure, the principle of involving the innocent in the punishment of the guilty was alternately combated, with ferious argument, pathetic remonftrance, and pointed ridicule. What legislature had ever established a precedent of equal cruelty and injuftice, with the condemning of half a million of people to perish with famine, for the fuppofed crimes of a few unknown perions? Such precedents were only to be fought for in the history of the most favage and barbarous tyrants; but not among the judicial acts of legiflators. Why were three other provinces to be punished for a rebellion fuppofed only in one or if they were alfo in rebellion, why were they not declared fo? One province was to be deprived of its fubfiftence, becaufe a rebellion, no body knew where, nor by whom, was, however, faid to be lurking in fome part of it. A fecond province was to be punished, because it hap pened to be next door to rebellion; a third, because it would be doing nothing to let that efcape; and a fourth must be ftarved, because the minifters could not otherwife fquare their plan. Very bad reafons, they faid, had been given for punishing the other NewEngland colonies; but no reafon at all had been affigned for including Rhode Island in the common restriction: unless perhaps the mere neighbourhood might be the caufe, which was left to be gueffed, miniftry being filent as to that pro vince. It was faid, that in whatever other matters of policy our minifters might be found deficient, they had the most infallible receipt for making rebellions, and the happieft talent in hitting upon meafures for the ruin of trade and commerce, and the dismemberment of a great empire, of any fet of men that ever conducted the public affairs of any country. It was faid, that the cruelty of the bill exceeded the examples of hoftile rigour with avowed enemies; that in all the violence of our most dangerous wars, it was an established rule in the marine fervice, to fpare the coatt-fifhing craft of our declared enemies; always confidering, that we waged war with nations, and not with private men; and that it would be unworthy the character of a great and brave people, and even favage and barbarous, to deprive poor wretches of their means of hard-earned livelihood, and the miferable village inhabitants of the fea-coafts, of their daily food. It was known that the people of New-England fubfift much on fish; and that the fale of that commodity fupplies them with the means of purchafing flour and feve ral other articles neceflary to life; three of the provinces in question not raifing wheat for the fourth part of their demand: so that we now inhumanly intend to ftarve whole provinces, and these our own people, excepting only fuch, as a Governor may think proper to favour; a paltry pretence of lenity, which will ferve only to cover the moft fcandalous partiality, and give rife to unjust preference, monopoly, and to all kinds of the moft fhameful and pernicious jobbs. They defired the propofer of the bill to recolle& recollect that he had frequently fpoken of the multitude of friends he had in all thofe provinces; and now, by his own meafure, he not only confounded the innocent with the guilty, but friends with enemies, and involved his own partizans in one common ruin with the reft. But this was not only to operate upon fuppofed rebels, or upon thofe who had the misfortune of being their neighbours, or who it was imagined either did or might conceal rebellion; but it was alfo to punith the people of Great Britain, who were charged with no delinquency, not even of concealment or neighbourhood, and who must lofe a very great fhare of their property which was lying in the profcribed provinces, in confequence of this bill. For, as New-England was not productive of ftaple commodities, fufficient to pay the great balance which it was always under a neceffity of owing in this country, it had no other means of difcharging that debt than through the fishery, and the circuitous trade dependent on it: fo that to cut off thofe means was, in fact, to beggar our merchants and manufacturers; and the British legislature was, in its wisdom, going to pass a difabling bill, to prevent the payment of debts to its British fubjects. It was further contended, that the abfurdity of the bill was even equal to its cruelty and injuftice. That its object was to take away a trade from our colonies, which all who understood its nature knew we could not transfer to ourselves. That God and nature had given the ffheries to them, and not to us; and fet limits to our avarice and cruelty, which we could not pafs; that when they were once deftroyed, we could neither benefit by them curVOL. XVIII. 1775. felves, nor reftore them to thofe, whom we had thus violently and unjustly deprived of the means of fubfiftence; that diftance and local circumftances fhut us out in the first inftance; and with respect to the other, that the little capital, vesfels, and implements of fishermen, the majority of whom mult ever be neceffarily poor, could only be kept up by the conftant returns of profit, and when the returns failed, the capital and implements would be loft for ever. That the people must either perish, or apply themfelves to other occupations, from which they could not be recalled at will. That we were thus finding out the means for Providence of punishing our own cruelty and injuftice; for that thofe fisheries, which were a more inexhaustible, and infinitely more valuable fource of wealth and power than all the mines in the new world, would not only be loft to ourselves, but would be thrown into the fcale against us, by falling, in a very great degree, into the hands of our natural rivals and enemies. They obferved alfo, that the fisherman, having no occupation, muft of courfe become a foldier. Thus we provoke a rebellion by the injuftice of one set of acts, and then recruit the rebellious army by another. In fupport of the bill, befides the arguments that were originally urged, the charges of injuftice and cruelty were denied; and it was faid, that whatever diftrefs the bill might bring upon the colonies, they could not complain of the legiflature, as they not only deserved it by their difobedience, but had themselves fet the example. That they had entered into the moft unlawful and daring combinations, as far as in them lay, to ruin our [*F] merchants, merchants, impoverish our manufacturers, and to starve our WeftIndia islands. That nothing could be more equitable than to prohibit the trade of those who had prohibited ours. That if any foreign power had offered us only a fmall part of the infult and injury that we had received from our colonies, the whole nation would have been in a flame to demand fatisfaction, and woe to the minifters who were flack in obtaining it. Were we then to act the part of bullies with all the rest of mankind, only to be kicked at home by our own people? The charge of cruelty was faid to be equally ill founded. This was a bill of humanity and mercy, as well as of coercion; it being the only moderate means of bringing the disobedient provinces to a fenfe of their duty, without involving the empire in the horrors of a civil war. They had daringly incurred all the penalties of contumacy and rebellion, and were liable to the feverest military execution, without any imputation of cruelty. Inftead of thefe dreadful punishments which they fo juftly merited, they were to be brought to their fenfes without any severity, only by a reftriction on their trade, which would laft no longer than their contumacy. Thus government would be fupported, without the miseries of war, or the effufion of blood. As to the charge of involving the innocent with the guilty, friends with foes, the propriety or impropriety, the juftice or injuftice of Tuch an act, depended on the neceffity of the meafure. That whenever this was the cafe, the neceffity might be lamented, but could not be helped. That a town of ours, held by rebels or enemies, might con6 tain the best of our friends, and those friends too might be the more numerous part of the inhabitants; but ftill the miseries of a fiege, and poffibly of a famine must be fubmitted to, or the town never could be recovered. Never, faid they, was a measure more truly neceffary than the prefent. The colonies had too long impofed upon and deluded us, by the bugbear of withdrawing their trade, hoping, through the terror of our merchants and manufacturers, to bend the legislature to a compliance with all their demands, until they had brought their defigns to fuch a ripeness, as to be able to throw off the mask, and openly to avow their rebellious purposes. That this was the third time, within a few years, in which they had thrown the whole commerce of this country into a ftate of the greatest confufion. That both colonies and commerce were better loft than preferved upon fuch terms; that life itself could not be worth the keeping in a constant state of uncertainty and fear. Things were now come to a crifis, and the conflict must be borne. We must either relinquish our connections with America, or fix them upon fuch a fure and certain bafis, as would effectually prevent the return of those evils. The minority replied, that the neceffity was pretended, not real. That this meafure, fo far from neceffary, was by no means expedient. That the parallel with foreign nations did not hold. That nothing bound a foreign nation but fear. But is that the bond of internal government, and the foundation of fecurity at home? To revenge injuries in your own domeftic difputes is not the way to prevent their return. The way to lafting peace |