BOOK trayed their trust; and shewed, from the situaxv. tion of public affairs, the great necessity of having 1770. a parliament in whom the people can place a

"of de

proper confidence. Instead," he said,
priving a county of its representative, one or
more members ought to be added to the re-
presentation of the counties, in order to operate
as a balance against the weight of the severał
corrupt and venal boroughs *." All arguments
were in vain-scarcely indeed was the appear-
ance of decorum preserved.
The court lords
called for the question! the question! and a
rude negative was put upon the motion. He
had the satisfaction, nevertheless, to perceive
his conduct during the whole of this interesting
session highly acceptable to the nation; and on

:

* This was a very favorite idea with lord Chatham, and repeatedly suggested by him on various occasions, both public and private. In a letter to lord Temple, dated April 17, 1771, he says, "Allow a speculator in a great chair to add, that a plan for more equal representation, by additional knights of the shire, seems highly reasonable, and to shorten the duration of parliaments not less so. If your lordship should approve, could lord Lyttelton's caution be brought to taste those ideas, we should take possession of strong ground, let who will decline to follow us." To this plan of reform, however, serious objections may be made; and lord Chatham himself, with the candor and ingenuousness of a great mind, speaks of it, on another occasion, " as a plan humbly submitted to the public wisdom, to be deliberately weighed, accurately exa mined, and maturely digested.".

..

XV.

the first of June, a committee, delegated by the BOOK city of London, waited on his lordship with a vote of thanks for the zeal he had shown in 1770. support of those invaluable and sacred privileges, the right of election and the right of petition, as well as for the wishes expressed by him, that parliaments may be restored to their original purity, by shortening their duration, and introducing a more full and equal representation." But no efforts could, after all, reinstate this nobleman in the possession of his former envied and splendid height of popular affection and favor.

In the former part of the session, lord North, as one of the first acts of his administration, had moved the repeal of the obnoxious port- American duties of 1767, EXCEPTING the DUTY ON TEA, repealed, which was intentionally omitted, on the avowed tested. principle of asserting the supremacy of Great Britain; and when strongly urged by the mem bers in opposition, both of the Rockingham and Grenville parties, not to preserve the contention when he relinquished the revenue, his language was the reverse of conciliatory. "Has the repeal of the stamp act," said this minister, "taught the Americans obedience? Has our lenity inspired them with moderation? Can it be proper, while they deny our legal power to tax them, to acquiesce in the argument of illegality, and, by the repeal of the whole law, to give up that

XV.

BOOK power? No: the properest time to exert our ✓ right of taxation, is when the right is refused. 1770. To temporize is to yield; and the authority of

the mother country, if it is now unsupported, will in reality be relinquished for ever: a total repeal cannot be thought of till America is PROSTRATE at our FEET."

Such were the political axioms which (posterity will be amazed to learn) under the ill-fated reign of George III. passed for wisdom. Even concession was combined with insolence; and a feeble effort to regain the affections of America, was converted, by an unaccountable infatuation, into an unpardonable insult to her feelings. In vain was it urged, that the repeal of the stamp act had, in fact, produced all the happy and beneficial effects which had been previously expected or predicted by its advocates; that lenity on the part of Britain had produced moderation on that of America; and that the subsequent discontents or violences had arisen from subsequent provocations. "If the assertion of an abstract claim of right," said the members in opposition, "be of such mighty importance, a positive law already exists declaratory of the right; a law in which America silently acquiesces; but an attempt in any mode to carry this abstract right into practice, will be productive of nothing but civil confusion and interminable discord."

Governor Pownall, who moved to include the BOOK

XV.

duty on tea as an amendment to the original motion, acknowledged, that even the total re- 1770. peal of the duties in question, though it might be expected to do much, would not restore satisfaction to America. "If," said he, " it be asked whether it will remove the apprehensions excited by your resolutions and address of the last year, for bringing to trial in England persons accused of treason in America? I answer, no. If it be asked, if this commercial concession would quiet the minds of the Americans as to the political doubts and fears which have struck them to the heart, throughout the continent? I answer, по. So long as they are left in doubt whether the habeas corpus act, whether the bill of rights, whether the common law, as now existing in England, have any operation and effect in America, they cannot be satisfied. At this hour they know not whether the civil constitutions be not suspended and superseded by the establishment of a military force. The Americans think that they have, in return to all their applications, experienced a temper and disposition that is unfriendly; that the enjoyment and exercise of the common rights of freemen have been refused to them. Never with these views will they solicit the favor of this house; never more will they wish to bring before parliament the grievances

BOOK under which they conceive themselves to labor.

XV.

1770.

Deeply as they feel, they suffer and endure with a determined and alarming silence; for their liberty they are under no apprehensions. It was first planted under the auspicious genius of the constitution: it has grown up into a verdant and flourishing tree; and should any severe strokes be aimed at the branches, and fate reduce it to the bare stock, it would only take deeper root, and spring out again more hardy and durable than before. They trust to Providence, and wait with firmness and fortitude the issue." But all arguments and considerations were lost on the phalanx of courtiers and king's friends, who were nevertheless compelled on this occasion to exert their full strength; the ministerial majority, on the division in a full house of 350 members, being only 62.

Mr. G. Grenville, who made after his manner a verbose and pompous speech in this debate, took upon him to affirm that he himself had pursued the best of all possible systems respecting America, viz. that of compelling submission to the laws by force: the minister who succeeded him had adopted the next best, which was to relinquish absolutely the idea of coercion; but the present plan of modified concession and repeal is regarded as altogether futile, and productive of no good consequence; and, as the amendment