ever oppreffion begins, resistance becomes lawful and right."

The language of the lords in administration was high and decisive: it was declared, that the mother-country should never relax till America confefsed her supremacy, and obedience must be enforced by arms. Lord Gower, prefident of the council, is reported, in addition to his menaces, to have said with an air of contempt and difdain, " let the Americans, so long as these measures are enforced, fit talking about their natural and divine rights, their rights as men and citizens, their rights from GOD and nature." In the result the motion was rejected by 68 voices against 18.

In the house of commons, the American papers were, by motion of lord North, referred to a committee of the whole house, on the 26th of January 1775; previous to which petitions were presented to the house from the merchants of London, Bristol, Glasgow, &c. which, by an artifice characteristic of the present ministry, were on a divifion of 197 to 81 members, configned to a separate committee, to meet on the 27th of January, so that the house muft neceffarily come to a final decifion on the grand question before the petitions were admitted to a hearing. This committee was denominated therefore by the oppofition, the committee of oblivion. The ground on which the ministry justified this procedure was, that commerce and politics were matters totally distinct, and that the house must decide on the question of peace and war folely on political confiderations; but that due care would be taken to fecure the commercial interests andproperty of the merchants whose petitions were before the house. To which the petitioners replied, " that they were under no apprehenfions for their property, but from the measures which might be adopted by that honorable house in order to fecure it." The petition from the congress to the king having been referred by his majesty, amidst the

common mass of American papers, to the house, the American agents, Mr. Bollan, Dr. Franklin and Mr. Lee, petitioned the house to be heard at the bar in its support. But the minifters alledged, that the congress was no legal body; and to hear evidence on the subject of their petition, would be giving that illegal body fome degree of countenance :-that with respect to the pretended grievances alleged in the petition, the house could hear the colonies only through their legal affemblies, and their agents properly authorized; and that any deviations from this rule would destroy the whole order of colony govern ment." To this the oppofition replied, " that the order of colony grvernment was destroyed already in some places by act of parliament; in others by the diffolution of afsemblies by governors; and in others by popular violence -that the question was now how to restore it. That the congress was surely an affembly fufficiently legal for the purpose of presenting a petition, which, as it was figned by all their names, might be received as the petltion of individuals. That this mode of constantly rejecting petitions would infallibly end in universal revolt; and indeed: a refusal to hear complaints seemed plainly to amount to an abdication of government." - These reasonings made no impreffion, and the petition was in fine rejected by 218 voices to 68.

Thus did the British parliament virtually refolve to devote three millions of British subjects to deftruction unheard, and to carry fire and sword into the most flourishing provinces of the empire, rather than deviate an iota from the established etiquette of precedent and punctilio. The great majority by which lord Chatham's motion for the recall of the troops from Boston was negatived, did not difcourage that nobleman from perfifting in his exertions for restoring peace to the empire: and in the beginning of February he offered to the house of peers a bill for that purpose, under the title of " a provifional act for fettling fettling the troubles of America, and for asserting the supreme authority and superintending power of Great Britain over the colonies." This bill comprehended a vast extent of matter, and, as the noble lord who prefided over the American department justly observed, many of its parts feemed to require much separate discussion; that it was impoffible therefore to pronounce any immediate opinion concerning its propriety; that as the noble mover did not feem to press the house to any immediate decifion, but rather appeared defirous that it should be fully and maturely weighed, he prefumed it would be agreeable to him, and he objected not to receive it, on condition that it should lie on the table till the American papers were first taken into confideration. This appearance of respect and moderation feemed to move the indignation of the other lords in administration; and lord Gower in particular reprobated it in the aggregate, and all its parts, with extraordinary asperity. It was affirmed by his lordship " that the bill was irregular, unparliamentary, and unprecedented; that the matter should have been laid before the house in feparate propositions, that it was objection fufficient to the bill, that it fought reconciliation by conceffion; that it not only gave a fanction to the traitorous proceedings of the congrefs already held, but by the appointment of another legalized their proceedings by act of parliament; that should their lordships be base enough to betray the rights of parliament, by adopting the provisions of this bill, the Americans would only accept such parts of it as fuited their own views, and would no doubt disclaim those that wore any appearance of fubmiffion. The duty on tea was affirmed to be only the pretext for the hoftile conduct of the Americans, and that their real aim was to throw off all restrictions upon their commerce; that if the jurifdiction of the admiralty courts were circumscribed in the manner proposed by this bill, the navigation act would become a mere dead letter; in fine, that this was

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no time for conceffion, and that to concede now would be to give up the point for ever. His lordship, therefore, gave it as his opinion, that the bill should not be fuffered to lie on the table."

Lord Chatham, feeling and highly resenting the indignity now offered, entered into his own vindication, and that of the measure proposed by him, with all the fire and ardor of youth. "He was sensible," he said, " that this bill contained the rude outline of a plan of accommodation; that he had offered it to the house with a view of obtaining the assistance of their lordships, to render it effectual to the great ends to which it was ultimately directed. His bill was framed on no narrow principle. He appealed to the candor of their lordships, and deprecated the effects of factious spleen or blind predilection. He had been charged with precipitation in this business; but under such circumstances of emergency, when a fingle day might decide the fate of the empire, what was to be done? More than two months had elapfed fince the meeting of parliament, and no plan of reconciliation had been offered by the ministers; who, by their filence and inaction, seemed to acknowledge themselves incapable of devifing any. No alternative then remained for him, but to fubmit to their lordships his ideas on the subject, or to aban don the interests of his country. But let ministers avow that they have a plan, and he would instantly withdraw his bill. By the indecent attempt now made to stifle this bill in embryo, ministers might hope that the contents of it would fink into filence and oblivion. But, though rejected here, it would, he trusted, ever remain a monument of his earnest however ineffectual endeavours to serve his country. It would at least manifest how zealous he had been to avert the impending storms which seemed ready to burst over us, and overwhelm the empire in ruin. He acknowledged himself, on cool reflection, not indeed much surprised, that men who hate liberty should also

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hate those that prize it; that those who want virtue them. selves, should perfecute them who possess it. Since the first entrance of the present ministers into office, he affirmed, that the whole of their political conduct had been one continued feries of weakness, temerity, ignorance, despotifm, and corruption. In one view only did they appear found statesmen and able politicians in a strict and unvaried attention to their own interest: fuch were their characters and such their abilities, that no plan of government could be expected to fucceed in their hands; and they themselves, he doubted not, were fully confcious that the adoption of any system of conciliation, founded on a wife and rational policy, would annihilate their power, and reduce them to that state of infignificance for which God and nature had defigned them." The motition being put, the bill was rejected by a majority of 61 to 32 voices.

The very day fucceeding this rejection, lord North moved in the house of commons an address to his majesty, " to return thanks for the communication of the American papers, and to declare, that, having taken them into their most serious confideration, they find that a REBELLION at this time actually exists in the province of Massachufetts Bay, which was affirmed to be more inexcusable, from reflecting with how much TEMPER his majesty and the parliament have acted in support of the laws and constitution of Great Britain; and folemnly assuring his majesty, that it it is their fixed resolution, at the hazard of their lives and fortunes, to support his majesty, against all REBELLIOUS ATTEMPTS, in the maintenance of his just rights, and those of the two houses of parliament." A vehement debate ensued, and some of the more moderate of those who had hitherto voted with administration, seemed to feel a kind of horror at a proposition big with the most dangerous and direful consequences. It was affirmed on the part of the opposition, that refsistance to arbitrary