Britain to North America had increased from the beginning of the present century, when they amounted to five hundred and seventy thousand pounds, to upwards of fix millions annually." The purport of the resolutions, which were thirteen in number, went to recognize the legal competency of the Colony Affemblies for all the various purposes of taxation; to acknowledge that this legal competency has had a just and beneficial exercise; that experience has shewn the benefit of their grants, and the futility of parliamentary taxation as a method of fupply. Others of the propofitions related to the settlement of an independent Judicature, the regulation of the Courts of Admiralty, and the repeal of the late coercive Acts of Parliament. The previous queftion being moved on the first propofition, it was carried in favor of the Ministry by 270 voices to 78; and the remaining ones were with the same facility evaded, or negatived without a divifion *. Another attempt was in a few days made by Mr.

* These propositions of Mr. Burke may be considered as comprifing the mature and deliberate plan of the Rockingham party, for the restoration of the public tranquillity, to which purpose they were most wisely and happily adapted. The speech by which they were enforced is by far the most valuable of Mr. Burke's productions; it can never be too much studied or admired. Of the speaker it can only be faid, O fi fic omnia dixiffet!

i

Hartley,

Hartley, a very respectable Member of Oppofition, to effect an accommodation of this fatal quarrel, by moving " that letters of requifition should be issued, agreeably to antient precedent, under authority of the Crown, with a view to procure a permanent and voluntary contribution from the several Colonies towards the general expences of the Empire:" but this was negatived without a divifion.

:

At this period the City of London once more ventured to breathe her fruitless requests in the ear of Majesty, by an address, remonstrance, and petition, which was distinguished by the remarkable circumstance of its being presented to the King by Mr. Wilkes, in his official capacity of Lord Mayor, to which civic dignity he had been elected at the close of the preceding year. In this remonstrance the citizens of London declared "their abhorrence of the measures which had been pursued, and were then pursuing, to the oppreffion of their fellow-fubjects in the Colonies. Not deceived by the specious artifice of calling defpotifm dignity, they said, they plainly perceived that the real purpose was to establish arbitrary power over all America. These measures, they affirmed, were carried into execution by his Majesty's Ministers, by the fame fatal corruption which had enabled them to wound the peace and violate the conftitution of this country. Your petitioners therefore

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fore, they say, do most earnestly entreat your Mar jesty to dismiss immediately and for ever from your councils those Ministers and Advisers, as the first step towards a redress of those grievances which alarm and afflict your whole people." -The following answer was, in a tone of marked and unufsual emotion, delivered from the Throne: "It is with the utmost astonishment that I find any of my fubjects capable of encouraging the rebellious dispofition which unhappily exists in some of my Colonies in North America. Having entire confidence in my Parliament, the great council of the nation, I will fteadily pursue those measures which they have recommended for the support of the conftitutional rights of Great Britain, and the protection of the commercial interests of my kingdoms."

Towards the close of the session the House resolved itself into a Committee, at the motion of the Minifter, to confider of the encouragement proper to be given to the fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland. Bounties were granted to the thips from either kingdom employed in the Newfoundland or Greenland fisheries; Ireland was allowed to export tools and implements for the purposes of the fisheries; and by two resolutions not connected with the original motion, and intended as an additional douceur, it was rendered lawful, 1. to export from Ireland clothing for fuch regiments on the Irish establishment as were employed abroad;

and

and by the 2d, five shillings per barrel bounty was allowed on the importation of flax-feed into that kingdom. But these trivial conceffions rather excited the contempt than the gratitude of that long oppreffed and long fuffering nation.

On the 15th of May Mr. Burke presented to the House a paper styled, A Representation and Remonftrance from the General Affembly of New York. This province, accounted less disaffected than any other, and which in conjunction with North Carolina had hitherto refused an unreferved acquiefcence in the resolutions of the Congress, had not been included in the late restraining Acts. But, at the suggestion of the Minister, this remonstrance was rejected by the House, as containing claims inconsistent with the unlimited authority of Great Britain : -a fortunate circumstance for America, as this refusal completed that union which it was the policy, though in this instance counteracted by the pride, of the Court to obstruct or diffolve. A memorial from the fame body was at the same time presented to the House of Peers, by the Duke of Manchester; but their Lordships would not fuffer it to be read, affirming, that the title of the paper rendered it inadmissible; though it was observed by the Noble Mover, that the lowest commiffioned officer in the service had an unquestioned right to present a memorial to the King; so that it was not easy to conceive how the the term in question could militate against their Lordships' dignity. At length this extraordinary feffion was brought to a close, and the King was pleased to express from the Throne "the most perfect fatisfaction in the conduct of his Parliament, and his entire conviction that the most SALUTARY EFFECTS must result from fuch measures, formed and conducted on fuch principles." What these effects were, we must now turn our eyes to the continent of America in order to afcertain.

All EUROPE saw with amazement the fpirit of rashness and folly which at this crisis reigned in the Councils of Britain, and which prompted her to treat with fuch unparalleled harshness and difdain those Colonies which, in better and happier times, she had cherished with fond affection; and of which she might truly and proudly boaft, that

as no nation had ever formed colonial establishments on principles so liberal, no colonies had ever, in so short a period, attained to fuch profperity, or fo amply rewarded the parental cares of the country from which they sprang. FREDERIC the Third, King of Pruffia, that great Monarch, who, combining in his own person the characters of the hero, the philosopher, and the statesman, may be confidered as not inferior to any fovereign who has ever swayed the fceptre of any country, has left upon record, in terms very explicit and remarkable, his sentiments respecting the conduct