1 fuch duties as it may be expedient to propose for the regulation of commerce; the nett produce of the duties laft mentioned to be carried to the account of fuch Province, Colony, or Plantation respectively." Though the intention of the Minister, in the framing of this proposition, which there is good ground to believe the majority of the Cabinet most reluctantly assented to, was perhaps just and laudable, it could not be imagined by any person capable of enlarged or comprehenfive views, that in the present state of things it would be attended with any beneficial effect. When the right of taxation was positively and vehemently denied by America, a mere offer on the part of Great Britain to fufpend the exercise of that right, fo long as the Americans should tax themselves in the exact proportion, and for the precife purposes prescribed by Parliament, must, to the Americans, appear an absolute mockery. The Minister had the chagrin to perceive that the propofition was very indifferently received by the House. The gentlemen usually in oppofition treated it as nugatory, infidious, and ridiculous. On the other hand, the High Prerogative Party, at the head of whom, and of the whole formidable phalanx of "King's Friends," was Mr. Charles Jenkinson, formerly Secretary to Lord Bute; a man, dark, subtile, and imbued with sentiments of loyalty and ideas of government adapted to the meridian of VOL. II. the H the Court of Ifpahan, violently exclaimed againft this motion of conciliation, as a total abandonment of principle; as being in direct oppofition to the spirit of the late address; as a contradiction to all the acts and declarations of Parliament; a virtual acknowledgment of injury; and a mean prevarication, which could tend to no other purpose than to facrifice the dignity of that House. They declared they would make no conceffions to rebels with arms in their hands; nor agree to any terms of reconciliation, in which an express and definitive acknowledgment of the fupremacy of Parliament was not a preliminary article. And a motion was actually made by Mr. Rigby for the Chairman to leave the chair. - In the midst of the tumult occafioned by this motion, the Solicitor General, Wedderburne, who had once been himfelf a leading Member of the Opposition, and who had rendered himself peculiarly odious by his apoftacy, rose, in order to explain the nature and tendency of the proposition in question, which, he faid, had been exceedingly mistaken, He affirmed, " that it was far from the design of the propofition to assent to a dereliction of the rights of Parliament, or to yield in any degree to the infolence of the Americans; but, on the contrary, it held forth a more wife and effectual method of enforcing the claims of the one, and repreffing the arrogance of the other. The parliamentary right of of taxation," he said, " was so essential a part of sovereignty, that Parliament, if it would, cannot furrender it; and this right was expressly referved by the propofition. Does it then suspend the profitable exercife of the right? So far from it, that it shews the firm resolution of Parliament to enforce the only essential part of taxation, by coмPELLING the Americans to provide what we, not they, think just and reasonable. Thus it appeared that we were not contending, as some had affirmed, for trifles, or a vain point of honor; but the dispute was at length placed upon its proper foundation Revenue or No Revenue; and in default of an entire and unlimited compliance, he concluded with applying to America the famous denunciation, DELENDA EST CARTHAGO." -The Minister, who trembled at the idea of being left in a minority, gladly acquiefced in this very fatisfactory explanation; adding, in the genuine spirit of Machiavelian policy, that his motion was founded on the well-known maxim, " Divide et impera!" that he had never expected the Americans would embrace this proposal, but that it was intended to difsunite the Colonies, and unite the People of England. The Prerogative Party being now CONCILIATED, the question was put, and the numbers proved on the division 274 to 88. A fecond bill was now brought in to restrain the trade of the Colonies of East and West Jersey, Penn H2 Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, and the counties on the Delawar. The different parties in Parliament appearing almost exhaufted with the fatigue of incessant debate, this measure, unexpected and important as it was, paffed with no memorable oppofition. On the 22d of March Mr. Burke moved a feries of conciliatory propofitions in the House of Commons, which he enforced by a most able and eloquent speech, fraught with wisdom and knowledge, clear, dispaffionate, and convincing; and in all respects worthy of a man of the highest reputation for genius and ability. He faid, "that his plan of conciliation was founded on the fure and folid bafis of experience; that neither the chimeras of imagination, abstract ideas of right, or mere general theories of government, ought to be attended to. He confeffed that he was not acquainted with the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people; and he affirmed, that government, to be beneficial, or even practicable, muft be adapted to the feelings, habits, and received opinions of the people; that all schemes of government which had been or could be proposed, without due regard to these matters, would be found ineffectual and dangerous. Despotism itself must bend to fituations and circumstances. He disclaimed therefore all discussion respecting the question of right, and wished it to be confidered folely as a matter of policy. Without enquiring whether they had a right to render their people miferable, he asked, whether it was not their interest to make them happy? and instead of taking the opinion of a Lawyer on what they might do, Mr. Burke thought it more confonant with reason, humanity, and justice, to confult what they ought to do in an emergency like the present. The Colonies, as they had hitherto been governed, were living monuments of the wisdom of our ancestors. The only method of governing them with safety or advantage, was by admitting them to an interest in our Constitution, and by recording that admiffion in the Journals of Parliament, to give them as strong an affurance as the nature of the thing would allow, that we mean for ever to adhere to the system originally established. The idea of governing by force he reprobated as gross in its conception, uncertain in its effect, and ruinous even in its success. In conformity to these principles, Parliament must revert to the antient constitutional policy of these kingdoms, which established taxation in America by grant, and not by imposition; which recognized the legal competency of the Colony Affemblies, for the fupport of the civil government in time of peace, and for public aids in time of war. the course of his speech Mr. Burke mentioned the astonishing fact, that the exports from Great Britain dered |