XIV. BOOK Mr, Pitt, fired with disdain and resentment, immediately rose to reply, but was called to 1766. order by lord Strange, as having already spoken; the privilege of speaking a second time being allowed only in a committee. But the house resounding with the cry of GO ON, he proceeded with an animation and enthusiasm which no art or study can imitate, spontaneously flowing from the consciousness of great talents engaged in a just and noble cause. "Sir," said he, addressing the speaker, "a charge is brought against gentlemen sitting in this house, for giving birth to sedition in America. The freedom with. which they have spoken their sentiments against this unhappy act, is imputed to them as a crime; but the imputation shall not discourage me. It is a liberty which I hope no gentleman will be afraid to exercise; it is a liberty by which the gentleman who calumniates it might have profited. He ought to have desisted from his project. We are told America is obstinate-America is almost in open rebellion. Sir, I REJOICE that America has resisted; three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of all the rest. I came not here armed at all points with law cases and acts of parliament, with the statute-book doubled down in dog's ears, to defend the cause of liberty; XIV. but for the defence of liberty upon a general, воок constitutional principle: it is a ground on which I dare meet any man. I will not debate points 1766. of law: but what, after all, do the cases of Chester and Durham prove, but that under the most arbitrary reigns, parliament were ashamed of taxing a people without their consent, and allowed them representatives? A higher and better example might have been taken from Wales: that principality was never taxed by parliament till it was incorporated with England. We are told of many classes of persons in this kingdom not represented in parliament; but are they not all virtually represented as Englishmen resident within the realm? Have they not the option, many of them at least, of becoming themselves electors? Every inhabitant of this kingdom is necessarily included in the general system of representation. It is a misfortune that more are not actually represented. The honorable gentleman boasts of his bounties to America --Are not these bounties intended finally for the benefit of this kingdom? If they are not, he has misapplied the national treasures. I am no courtier of America-I maintain that parliament has a right to bind, to restrain America. Our legislative power over the colonies is sovereign and supreme. The honorable gentleman tells us, he understands not the difference between in BOOK opposition, probably quickened his discernment. XIV. 1766. And though the general himself had been formerly dismissed from his offices, solely in consequence of the vote which he gave respecting general warrants, lord Bute and lord Orford now retained their rangerships; lord Pembroke, lord Waldegrave, &c. their regiments; and the lords Denbigh, Coventry, Oxford, &c. &c. their keys of the bed-chamber. On the question of the declaratory bill, Mr. Pitt in the lower, lord Camden in the upper house, each of himself an host, gave their decided opposition to the principle of it. But this bill militated little against the practical benefits derived from the repeal of the stamp act. Dr. Franklin, in his famous examination at the bar of the house of commons, professed his opinion, that abstract resolutions of right would give the colonies very little concern, if no apprehension were entertained that attempts would be made to carry them into practice. On being asked, what was the temper of America towards Great Britain before the year 1763, he replied, "The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the crown, and paid, in all their courts, obedience to acts of parliament. Numerous as the colonists are, they cost Great Britain nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or armies, to keep them in subjection: they were governed only at the ex I will pledge myself for the colonies, that, on BOOK their part, animosity and resentment will cease. Let affection be the only bond of coercion. The 1700, system of policy I would earnestly exhort Great Britain to adopt in relation to America, is happily expressed in the words of a favorite poet: XIV. Be to her faults a little blind, PRIOR. Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the repeated. In a short time a bill was brought in by the Stamp act new ministers for this purpose, which, after a very vehement opposition, passed both houses by considerable majorities, and received the royal assent; accompanied at the same time with a DECLARATORY ACT, asserting the power and right of Great Britain to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever. Although, in reply to lord Chatham's charge of a secret, over-ruling influence, general Conway had, on the first day of the session, declared "that he saw nothing of it-that he felt nothing of it," the division which took place on the question of repeal, in which 33 lords holding places civil or military under the crown, voted in XIV BOOK opposition, probably quickened his discernment. And though the general himself had been for1700, merly dismissed from his offices, solely in consequence of the vote which he gave respecting general warrants, lord Bute and lord Orford now retained their raugerships lord Pembroke, lord Waldegrave, &0. their regiments, and the lords Denbigh, Coventry, Oxford, &c. &c, their keys of the bed-chamber. On the question of the declaratory bill, Mr. Pitt in the lower, lord Camden in the upper house, each of himself an host, gave their decided opposition to the principle of it. But this bill militated little against the practical benefits derived from the repeal of the stamp act. Dr. Franklin, in his famous examination at the bar of the house of commons, professed his opinion, that abstract resolu tions of right would give the colonics very little concern, if no apprehension were entertained that attempts would be made to carry them into practice. On being asked, what was the temper of America towards Great Britain before the year 1763, he replied, "The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the crown, and paid, in all their courts, obedience to acts of parliament. Numerous as the colonists are, they cost Great Britain nothing in forts, citadels, garrisous, or armies, to keep them in subjection: they were governed only at the ex i |