from the measure now proposed being contradictory to, or inconsistent with the other, the plan on which you sat out, at the opening of this business, would be de fective, would be unjust, without it. While, therefore, you are maintaining the authority of this country, and that with measures of force, forget not your humanity and your policy. Each proposition is to me but part of one measure; and, as part of a measure which I have approved in the whole, I must give my consent to it.

Colonel Barré. How this new scheme of letting the Americans tax themselves, ever came into the noble lord's head, I cannot conceive. Whether it be the genuine product of his own new wisdom and policy, or whether it arises from prodigious cunning; whether from advice of any new friends, or springs from the friendship of old enemies, is impossible to conceive. By what I can collect, it is not likely to gain him any new friends from this side the House; and I should have thought it was going to lose him several friends from that side, had not the right hon. gentleman who spoke last, risen to his aid. When that gentleman pleases to exert his eloquence, there is something so powerful, so persuading, so leading in it, that those who were in doubt, become im5 mediately convinced. His opinion, whenever explicitly given, becomes like a standard, under which even troops which have turned their backs, may be rallied and brought again to their ranks; and, notwithstanding what we may have thought some few moments ago, we shall yet see all the troops reconciled to the march they are to make. And I begin now to see, that whatever may be the various doubts, the opinions and speeches, on difbferent sides, when we come to a division, I believe the use of a standard in this House will be seen, in that there will be scarcely any difference in numbers of those who have hitherto divided on either side. But though the noble lord's new motion will cause no new divisions amongst us here, yet it is founded on that wretched, low, shameful, abominable maxim which has predominated in every measure of our late minister, divide et impera. This is to divide the Americans; this is to break those associations, to dissolve that generous union in which the Americans, as one man, stand in defence of their rights and liberties. If you are so weak as to imagine, from any thing which that sin

cerely associated band of ministers can find in their own hearts, you can believe that the Americans are so foolish or so base to each other, you will be deceived. They are not such gudgeons as to be caught by such a foolish bait. But the noble lord does not expect it will be accepted; it is meant only to propose something specious, which he knows the Americans will refuse; and, therefore, offers to call down tenfold more vengeance on their devoted heads, rendered thus ten times more odious, by refusing such fair, such reasonable, such just, such wise, and such humane offers: but neither will this snare succeed.

Lord North. I agree, Sir, that it is very probable the propositions contained in this resolution may not be acceptable to the Americans in general: the resolution certainly does not go to all their claims; it is however just, humane and wise; and those in America who are just, who are wise, and who are serious, will, I believe, think it well worthy their attention. The gentleman has charged me with mean, low, and foolish policy, in grounding my measures on that maxim divide et impera. Is it foolish, is it mean, when a people, heated and misled by evil councils, are running into unlawful combinations, to hold out those terms which will sift the reasonable from the unreasonable; that will distinguish those who act upon principle, from those who wish only to profit of the general confusion? If propositions that the conscientious and the prudent will accept, will at the same time recover them from under the influence and fascination of the wicked, I avow the using that principle which will thus divide the good from the bad, and give support to the friends of peace and good government. A right hon. gentleman who always speaks and acts like a man of honour, and when he differs from his friends does it like a man of honour, thinks that according to the sense in which he understood the Address, that the propositions now proposed by me, totally deviate and depart from it; I will beg leave to refer that gentleman to the explicit language which I held when I proposed the Address: was it not precisely almost literally the same as what I now propose? I can even refer to my very words as being the same. I will appeal to the House, as to the manner in which I explain the idea of the indulgence which the Address held out and promised; and having held out and promised such in

dulgence, if I had not followed it by some propositions which were open, explicit, and definitive, I might indeed have been charged with throwing out deceptions to gentlemen here, and with laying a snare for our fellow-subjects in America. Whatever may be the reception these propositions shall meet with, I feel that I have done my duty fairly and consistently.

Mr. Edmund Burke declared he came to the House this day, upon the report of a change of measures, with a full resolution of supporting any thing, which might lead in any way towards conciliation; but that he found the proposition altogether insidious in its nature, and therefore purposely rendered to the last degree obscure and perplexed in its language. Instead of being at all fitted to produce peace, it was calculated to increase the disorders and confusions in America; and, therefore, he never could consent to it. He readily admitted, that the proposition was a contradiction to every thing that parliament had declared; a shameful prevarication in ministers; and a mean departure from every declaration they had made. He was how ever willing to purchase peace by any humiliation of ministers, and, by what was of more moment, even by the humiliation of parliament. But the measure was mean indeed, yet not at all conciliatory. The mode of argument, on the side of administration, he said, was the most ridiculous that ever had been known in parliament. They attempted to prove to one side of the House, that the measure was a concession; and to the other, that it was a strong assertion of authority-just on the silly principle of the Tea Act, which to Great Britain was to be a duty of supply, to the Americans a tax of regulation. He was equally surprised, he said, by another extraordinary phænomenon. Up to this day, during the whole course of the American debates, the ministry had daily and hourly denied their having any sort of contest about an American revenue: that the whole was a dispute for obedience to trade laws, and to the general legislative authority. Now they turned short; and to console our manufacturers and animate our soldiers, they told them for the first time," the dispute is put on its true footing, and the grand contest is, not for empty honour, but substantial revenue." But manufacturers and soldiers, said he, will not be so consoled or so animated; because the revenue is as much an empty phantom, as the honour; and the whole

scheme of the resolution is oppressive, absurd, impracticable, and what, indeed, the ministers confess the Americans will not accept; nay, what they own America has already rejected. It is oppressive; because it was never the complaint of the Americans that the mode of taxation was not left to themselves; but that neither the amount and quantum of the grant, nor the application, was in their free choice. This was their complaint, and their com plaint was just. What else is it to be taxed by act of parliament in which they are not represented, but for parliament to settle the proportion of the payment, and the application of the money? This is the purport of the present resolution. If an act of parliament compelled the city of Amsterdam, to raise an hundred thousand pounds, is not Amsterdam as effectually taxed without its consent, as if duties to that amount were laid upon that city? To leave them the mode may be of some ease as to the collection; but it is nothing to the freedom of granting; in which the colonies are so far from being relieved by this resolution, that their condition is to be ten times worse than ever. I contend, that it is a far more oppressive mode of taxing than that hitherto used: for here no determinate demand is made. The colonies are to be held in durance by troops, fleets, and armies, until, singly and separately, they shall do what?-Until they shall offer to contribute to a service which they cannot know, in a proportion which they cannot guess, on a standard which they are so far from being able to ascer tain, that parliament which is to hold it, has not ventured to hint what it is they expect. They are to be held prisoners of war, unless they consent to a ransom, by bidding at an auction against each other and against themselves, until the King and parliament shall strike down the hammer, and say " enough."

This species of auction, to be terminated, not at the discretion of the bidder, but at the will of the sovereign power, is a kind of absurd tyranny, which I challenge the ministers to produce any example of, in the practice of this or of any other nation. The conduct the most like this method of setting the colony assemblies at guessing what contribution may be most agreeable to us in some future time, was the tyranny of Nebuchadnezzar, who having forgot a dream, ordered the assemblies of his wise men, on pain of death, not only to interpret his dream, but to tell him what his

left to them? Does he not think the Americans will feel themselves as effectually put under contribution as any town or country ever yet was, in any state of open war? Will he presume to call that an amicable plan, which asks for contribution at the mouth of your cannon and point of your bayonets! Sir, by holding out these terms of accommodation, ridiculous in themselves, and nugatory in their effect, by making the first offer to treat with those men you have just declared rebels, you will lower the dignity of this country; you will bring your government into contempt, and, by the insult of the offer, irritate, not appease that spirit which you are now about publicly to declare to the whole world you tremble to encounter. This, Sir, I am confident, is the light the Americans will see it in; and these are the principles on which they are expected to accommodate.

Before I give my assent to any measure, I ought to inform myself what is meant to be founded on that measure, and what consequences are meant to be drawn from it; for, by these means alone I can judge of the propriety or impropriety of the measure. I do not doubt, therefore, that the noble lord will answer me with as much candour, as I shall ask with diffidence. Now the words I would wish to draw the attention of the House to are these "According to the condition, circumstances, and situation of such province for contributing their proportion-shall be approved." Sir, the questions I would ask are, Is this proportion to be annually offered by the colonies, and annually refused or accepted by parliament? Or is it in the first instance to be settled for a certain period of years, or is it to be settled for ever? These questions demand a serious answer: in the first case, you perpetuate the seeds of discord, and lay the foundation of a dispute that can never end, but in a total convulsion of the British empire. In the second, adopting a temporary expedient, you withdraw your own shoulders from a burthen you have no resolution to bear, leaving the great point in dispute as unsettled as you found it, leaving it to arise at that fixed period, whenever that period shall arrive, to be the cause of new quarrels, and fresh bloodshed. If you settle it for ever, do consider what a miserable bargain you are contending for. The Americans are supposed to double in twenty years; it is but reasonable to suppose, that their wealth

| and opulence will increase in proportion ; that, therefore, what would be a reasonable proportion now, will, in a few years, become, comparatively with their increased wealth, a miserable pittance.

I must here take notice of an argument the noble lord has enforced more than once, with great weight; it is, that these terms are such as should be offered, after the most complete victory. For the sake of the argument, I will agree with the noble lord, and therefore conclude, that they are improper to offer before the victory. That, Sir, which is generosity, which is magnanimity after victory, is timidity and foul disgrace before it. There may be situations, in which states may be found, where they cannot, without certain ruin, acquiesce even in just claims; there are situations too, in which states may grant more than is asked, and give more than is desired, with honour, security, and advantage. The first of these situa tions precede great commotions; the second succeed complete victory. I remember, Sir, the Romans, in a war they had with the Italian states, granted them when conquered, those privileges which, with a firmness peculiar to their nation, with a firmness that led them to universal empire, they haughtily refused them before their contest.

I will not take upon me to say what confidence the people reposed in adminis tration before, but I will take upon me to say, that whatever it might be, it is now entirely done away; they no longer expect to find firmness, resolution and unanimity in the councils of the King's servants; they have seen them weak, irresolute, disunanimous. For the reception these pro positions met with within these walls, I will appeal to the unequivocal effects they had at their first opening, on the members of this House. I will recall to the noble lord's memory, the feelings he must have had, during those awful moments in which the common sense of the House stood amazed at the propositions that were held out to her, when uncertainty, surprize, distraction, were seated on every counte nance, when the doctrine held out to us, was so new and unheard of, so contrary to every principle we had been thought to adopt, that no man could guess at the opinion of his neighbour, when those, who had relied on that firmness, which the noble lord had so often and so publicly pledged, turned pale with shame and dis appointment, when within the space of a

few awful moments, the dignity of government and the honour of this country, were given up for ever. That this was the immediate effect, I believe every gendleman who hears me and was present on that very extraordinary day must admit. I have expressed myself warmly, I felt and do still feel my disappointment warmly; I estimated the noble lord's public wisdom, prudence, and above all his political resolation, at as high a rate as I honoured, and do still honour, those private virtues which adorn his character, and which shine illustriously pure amidst a licentious and a dissipated age.

I will address a few words to the honourable lord, and have done; I will tell him that decision and resolution, even when employed to but indifferent purposes, render their possessor respectable; I will speak with tenderness, I will not tell the noble lord what effect, even with the best intentions, the contrary qualities will have. I will conclude with telling the noble lord, that if he adopts a decided line of conduct, be will have decided friends, and he may still stand on firm ground; but that if he continues to waver between both, he will fall to the ground unsupported by either. Mr. Temple Luttrell. Sir, upon a former occasion I presumed to state a few of my sentiments to the House, relative to the war impending over the Americans, because I was sure I could not answer it to my own feelings, I thought I could not answer it to my country, had I neglected at the very earliest moment that might offer, to declare my utter abhorrence of those unconstitutional, arbitrary, and diabolical projects, devised by his Majesty's ministers for the destruction of that unhappy people. I flatter myself a certain illustrious character may soon be left out of this opprobrious list of projectors; there seems to be a divine gleam of radiance coming round his temples: and I foresee almost, if not altogether, as marvellous a conversion into the right path, as that which happened in days of yore to the great persecutor of the Christian followers on the plains of Damascus.

To what black storm in the political firmament we are indebted for this sudden change, I, Sir, move in too contracted a sphere to discover; but the noble lord will allow me to tender him my hearty congratulations, that he is at length awakening to that clemency, and to that justice, which will best agree with the innate temper of his heart. There is a long line

of statesmen seated in firm array not far from your chair, who have, ever since the birth of this parliament, uniformly shrunk (and I am sure their consciences always must shrink, whatsoever their politics or their eloquence may do) from the great American question; they have wished to defer to the latest hour possible, all discussion of this critical topic, in hopes, as they term it, to learn what is actually doing on the other side of the Atlantic. Sir, I can inform them; there rises not a sun in that hemisphere, but sets to such additional grievances and outcries, as the most soothing future concessions, the most exemplary future sacrifices on your part, will scarce be able to atone for.

However grating to the ears of some individuals the subject may be, I shall take the liberty, with the indulgence of the House, to affirm, that these measures of compelling the Americans by force of arms to acknowledge the paramount and unlimited authority of parliament, in the taxation of their property, a property created by their faculties, and by their industry, are not just, not politic, not practicable, but a traitorous infringement on the constitution of the colonies, which rests upon the same fundamental principles that uphold the property and uphold the franchises of every native of this island.

Sir, I ever will contend, that the united parliaments of England and Scotland cannot legally impose a tax on the subjects in any other part of the British dominions, without the consent of such subjects, either by themselves in person, or by their representatives. Let the champions of despotism avail themselves of all their knowledge and sophistry, I will venture to maintain this proposition, not arrogantly presuming on my talents or skill to manage it, but on its own clear intrinsic merits, and the conviction that to every dispassionate mind must naturally result from its investigation. The coercion proposed militates against the privileges of all emigrants of their description, from the time of the patriarchal disjunctions to this day; emigrants who carried with them (as their penates) certain inherent rights natural to mankind, immutable and unalienable; confirmed to them for an heritage, by that blessed constitution of Saxon contexture under which they were born. Laws established on first necessity and impotence between them and the present state, either by express or tacit assent, were not of an universal, indefinite obliga