that there is not a member in this house but is acquainted with their purport also. There ought, therefore, to be no delay in entering upon this matter; we ought to proceed to it immediately; we ought to seize the first moment to open the door of reconciliation. The Americans will never be in a temper or state to be reconciled; they ought not to be, till the troops are withdrawn. The troops are a perpetual irritation to those people; they are a bar to all confidence and all cordial reconcilement. The way must be immediately opened for reconciliation. It will soon be too late. I know not who advised the present measures; I know not who advises to a perseverance and enforcement of them; but this I will say, that whoever advises them ought to answer for it at his utmost peril. I know that no one will avow that he advised, or that he was the author of these measures; every one shrinks from the charge. But somebody has advised his majesty to these measures, and if he continues to hear such evil counsellors, his majesty will be undone; his majesty may indeed wear his crown, but, the American jewel out of it, it will not be worth the wearing. What more shall I say? I must not say the king is betrayed; but this I will say, the nation is ruined. What foundation have we for our claims over America? What is our right to persist in such cruel and vindictive measures against that loyal, respectable people? They say you have no right to tax them without their consent. They say truly. Representation and taxation must go together; they

are inseparable. Yet there is scarcely a man in our streets, though so poor as scarcely to be able to get his daily bread, but thinks he is the legislator of America. 'Our American subjects,' is a common phrase in the mouths of the lowest orders of our citizens; but property, my lords, is the sole and entire dominion of the owner: it excludes all the world besides the owner. None can intermeddle with it. It is a unity, a mathematical point. It is an atom; untangible by any but the proprietor. Touch it, and the owner loses his whole property. The touch contaminates the whole mass, the whole property vanishes. The touch of another annihilates it; for whatever is a man's own, is absolutely and exclusively his own."

Having stated that the Americans had been shamefully abused by the course pursued towards them, he went on to ask, "How have this respectable people behaved under their grievances With unexampled patience, with unparalleled wisdom. They chose delegates by their free suffrages. No bribery, no corruption, no influence there, my lords. Their representatives meet, with the sentiments and temper, and speak the sense of the continent. For genuine sagacity, for singular moderation, for solid wisdom, manly spirit, sublime sentiments, and simplicity of language, for every thing respectable and honorable, the Congress of Philadelphia shine unrivalled. This wise people speak out. They do not hold the language of slaves; they tell you what they mean. They do not ask you to repeal your laws as a favor; they claim it as a right-they demand

and several other noblemen supported the motion of Chatham, but the ministerial majority was very large against it. In the Commons the papers relating to America were referred to a committee of the whole. The petition to the king issued by the Continental Congress was among these papers. Franklin, Lee, and Bollan, as agents for the colonies, on the 26th of January, tendered a petition to the House, stating that they were directed by Congress to present a memorial from it to Parliament. They also prayed to be heard at the bar in support of the memorial. The House refused to grant the application, and the ministry derided the complaints of America as being pretended grievances.

1775.

At the beginning of February, Lord Chatham brought forward another bill "for settling the troubles, and for asserting the supreme legislative authority and superintending power of Great Britain over the colonies." Though this bill, as it contained a direct avowal of the supreme authority of Parliament over the colonies, in all cases except that of taxation, would probably never have received the assent of the Americans, yet as it expressly denied the Parliamentary power of taxing the colonies, without the consent of their Assemblies, and made other important concessions, it was rejected by a vote of two to one, without even the courtesy of a second reading. Lord Chatham, as Pitkin relates, had shown this bill to Dr. Franklin, before he submitted it to the House of Lords, but the latter had not an opportunity of proposing certain alterations which

he had sketched. Dr. Franklin, however, at the special request of Lord Chatham, was present at the debates upon it. Lord Dartmouth was at first disposed to have the bill lie upon the table; but Lord Sandwich opposed its being received, and moved that it be immediately "rejected with the contempt it deserved. He could never believe," he said, "that it was the production of a British peer; it appeared to him rather the work of some American." Turning his face towards Dr. Franklin, then standing at the bar, "He fancied," he said, "he had in his eye the person who drew it up, one of the bitterest and most mischievous enemies this country had ever known." To this part of the speech of Lord Sandwich, the great Chatham replied, by saying, "that it was entirely his own. This declaration,” he said, “he thought himself the more obliged to make, as many of their lordships appeared to have so mean an opinion of it; for if it was so weak or so bad a thing, it was proper in him to take care that no other person should unjustly share in the censure it deserved. It had been heretofore reckoned his vice not to be apt to take advice; but he made no scruple to declare, that if he were the first minister of this country, and had the care of settling this momentous business, he should not be ashamed of publicly calling to his assistance a person so perfectly acquainted with the whole of American affairs, as the gentleman alluded to, and so injuriously reflected on; one whom all Europe held in estimation for his knowledge and wisdom, and ranked with our

CH. XII.]

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Boyles and Newtons; who was honor, not to the English nation only, but to human nature." *

Immediately after the failure of Chatham's efforts, a joint address was presented to the king on American affairs. In this address the Parliament declared, "that a REBELLION actually existed in the province of Massachusetts Bay, besought his majesty to adopt measures to enforce the authority of the supreme legislature, and solemnly assured him that it was their fixed resolution, at the hazard of their lives and properties, to stand by him against his rebellious subjects." Notwithstanding the eloquent opposition made to this address, it passed by a large majority. The king's reply was in perfect accordance with the tenor of that address, and showed how entirely he sanctioned the course pursued towards the Americans. On the 10th of February, Lord North introduced a bill restricting the commerce of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut, to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies, and prohibiting their carrying on any fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, and other places, for a limited time; the same restrictions were subsequently extended to all the colonies represented in the Congress at Philadelphia, with the exception of New York and North Carolina. These bills were opposed by the minority in both houses, as unjust and cruel towards the colonists, involving the innocent with the guilty, and

* Pitkin's "Civil and Political History of the United States," vol. i. p. 312.

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unwise and impolitic in regard to the people of Great Britain. By the loss of their foreign trade and the fisheries, the colonists, it was said, particularly those of New England, would be unable to pay the large balances due from them to the British merchants. But every argument, however just or reasonable, was urged in vain against the measures proposed by the minister. An idea prevailed in Great Britain, that the people of New England were dependent on the fisheries for subsistence, and that, when deprived of these, they would be starved into obedience and submission.*

Lord North, who, in all personal relations, was an amiable and peace-loving man, ventured to propose a plan of conciliation, which, in its sub- 1775. stance, did not differ much from that advocated by Lord Chatham. It provided," that when the Governor, Council and Assembly, or General Court, of any of his majesty's colonies in America, shall propose to make provision, according to the condition, circumstances, and situation of such province. or colony, for contributing their proportion for the common defence, (such proportion to be raised under the authority of the General Court or Assembly of such colony, and disposable by Parliament,) and shall engage to make provision also for the support of the civil government and the administration of justice in such colony, it will be

* The reader will be interested in examining the "Hints for conversation upon the subject of terms, that might probably produce a durable union between Great Britain and the colonies." See Franklin's Autobiography, pp. 283–94; 325, etc.