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Sursum corda! We ought to elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire, and have made the most extensive, and the only honorable conquests; not by destroying, but by promoting, the wealth, the number, the happiness of the human race. Let us get an American revenue as we have got an American empire. English privileges have made it all that it is; English privileges alone will make it all it can be. In full confidence of this unalterable truth, I now (quod felix faustumque sit), lay the first stone of the temple of peace; and I move you,

"That the colonies and plantations of Great Britain in North America, consisting of fourteen separate governments, and containing two millions and upwards of free inhabitants, have not had the liberty and privilege of electing and sending any knights and burgesses, or others, to represent them in the high court of parliament."

MARQUIS OF GRANBY ON AMERICAN AFFAIRS.

I RISE, to trouble the house with a few words on the bill now before it. I have sat, sir, during the course of two divisions, without taking any part, even so much as giving a silent vote on any American question; because, sir, as I will fairly confess to you, I entered with prejudices against the system administration was pursuing I thought it was but justice to hear the arguments that might be urged on both sides, to compare those arguments, and draw my opinion from that comparison. As to the bill immediately the object of our consideration, I think it in every respect so arbitrary, so oppressive, and so totally founded on principles of resentment, that I am exceedingly happy at having this public opportunity of bearing my testimony against it, in the strongest manner I am able. In God's name, what language are you now holding out to America? Resign your property, divest yourselves of your privileges and freedom, renounce everything that can

make life comfortable, or we will destroy your commerce, we will involve your country in all the miseries of famine; and if you express the sensations of men at such harsh treatment, we will then declare you in a state of rebellion, and put yourselves and your families to fire and sword. And yet, sir, the noble lord on the floor (Lord North) has told this house that a reconciliation is the sole object of his wishes. I hope the noble lord will pardon me, if I doubt the perfect sincerity of those wishes; at least, sir, his actions justify my doubt; for every circumstance in his whole conduct, with regard to America, has directly militated against his present professions; and what, sir, must the Americans conclude? Whilst you are ravaging their coasts and extirpating their commerce, and are withheld only by your impotence from spreading fresh ruin, by the sword, can they, sir, suppose such chastisement is intended to promote a reconciliation, and that you mean to restore to their forlorn country those liberties you deny to their present possession, and in the insolence of persecution, are compassing earth and seas to destroy? You can with no more justice compel the Americans to your obedience, by the operation of the present measures, by making use of their necessities, and withholding from them that commerce on which their existence depends, than 2 ruffian can found an equitable claim to my possessions, when he forcibly enters my house, and with a dagger at my throat, or a pistol at my breast, makes me seal deeds, which will convey to him my estate and property.

I have a very clear, a very adequate idea of rebellion, at least according to my own principles; and those are the principles on which the revolution was founded. It is not against whom a war is directed, but it is the justice of that war that does, or does not, constitute rebellion. If the innocent part of mankind must tamely relinquish their freedom, their property, and everything they hold dear, merely to avoid the imputation of rebellion, I beg, sir, it may be considered what kind of peace and loyalty there will then exist in the world, which consists only in violence and rapine, and is merely to be maintained for the benefit of robbers and oppressors. 1 hope, sir, I shall be believed when I assure you that I am as warm a friend to the interests of my country as any man in this

house; but then it must be understood, when those interests are founded in justice. I am not attached to any particular acre of land. The farmer in Cumberland or Durham is as little connected with me as the peasant in America. It is not the ground a man stands on that attaches me to him; it is not the air he breathes that connects me with him; but it is the principles of that man, those independent, those generous principles of liberty which he professes, co-operating with my own, which call me forth as his advocate, and make me glory in being considered his friend. As for myself, sir, I am not in the least ashamed to avow that this is the source of my attachment to a noble lord, who has been, in my opinion, very unjustly reflected on in the course of this debate (I mean Lord Chatham). I am not even personally acquainted with the noble lord; I do not know the inconsistencies of which he stands accused but this, sir, I know, I shall not support his inconsistencies; I shall only support him in those principles which have raised his name to the elevation on which it is now placed in this country, and have so deservedly procured him the love and admiration of his fellow-citizens.

From the fullest conviction of my soul, I disclaim every idea both of policy and right, internally to tax America. I disavow the whole system; it is commenced in iniquity; it is pursued with resentment; and it can terminate in nothing but blood. Under whatever shape in futurity it may be revived, by whomsoever produced and supported, it shall, from me, meet the most constant, determined, and invariable opposition.

LORD EFFINGHAM ON RESIGNING HIS COMMISSION
RATHER THAN BEAR ARMS AGAINST AMERICA.

I CONFESS, I wish to avoid the discussion of our right to such a power as we are contending for, that is to say, a power of taxing a set of subjects who are not represented amongst us, and who have full power to tax themselves in the ordinary and constitutional manner. Were any particular province among the

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Americans to refuse grants of money in proportion to others, or to commit any act in abuse of their charters, I think that supreme controlling power, which the province in question allows in its full extent, would give us the charge, Ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat: And in that case, my lords, almost the whole empire would be united against the wrong-headed few, who would soon be brought to reason. But I am satisfied, that without such necessity, we have no more power of taxation in that country, than a Roman dictator had to begin his office with a declaration, that his power should be perpetual, and was necessary in the ordinary business of government. Therefore, my lords, whatever has been done by the Americans, I must deem it the mere consequence of our unjust demands. They have come to you with fair arguments; you have refused to hear them: they have made the most respectful remonstrances; you answer them with bills of pains and penalties. They know they ought to be free; you tell them they shall be slaves. Is it then a wonder, if they say in despair, "For the short remainder of our lives we will be free!" Is there one among your lordships, who, in a situation similar to that which I have described, would not resolve the same? If there could be such an one, I am sure he ought not to be here.

To bring the history down to the present scene-here are two armies in presence of each other; armies of brothers and countrymen; each dreading the event, yet each feeling that it is in. the power of the most trifling accident, a private dispute, a drunken fray in any public house in Boston, in short, a nothing, to cause the sword to be drawn, and to plunge the whole country into all the horrors of blood, flames, and parricide! In this dreadful moment, a set of men more wise and moderate than the rest, exert themselves to bring us all to reason. They state their claims and their grievances; nay, if anything can be proved by law and history, they prove them. They propose oblivion; they make the first concession. We treat them with contempt; we prefer poverty, blood, and servitude, to wealth, happiness and liberty.

What weight these few observations may have. I do not know;

but the candor your lordships have indulged me with, requires a confession on my part which may still lessen that weight: I must own, I am not personally disinterested. Ever since I was of an age to have any ambition at all, my highest has been to serve my country in a military capacity. If there was on earth an event I dreaded, it was to see this country so situated, as to make that profession incompatible with my duty as a citizen. That period is, in my opinion, arrived; and I have thought myself bound to relinquish the hopes I had formed, by a resignation, which appeared to me the only method of avoiding the guilt of enslaving my country, and imbruing my hands in the blood of her sons.

When the duties of a soldier and citizen become inconsistent, I shall always think myself obliged to sink the character of the soldier in that of the citizen, till such time as those duties shall, by the malice of our real enemies, become again united. It is no small sacrifice which a man makes who gives up his profession; but it is a much greater, when a predilection, strengthened by habit, has given him so strong an attachment to his profession as I feel. I have, however, this consolation, that by making that sacrifice, I at least give to my country an unequivocal proof of the sincerity of my principles.

LORD CHATHAM ON AN ADDRESS TO THE KING.

My lords, I most cheerfully agree with the first paragraph of the address moved by the noble lord. I would even go and prostrate myself at the foot of the throne, were it necessary, to testify my joy at any event which may promise to add to the domestic felicity of my sovereign; at anything which may seem to give a further security to the permanent enjoyment of the religious and civil rights of my fellow-subjects; but while I do this, I must at the same time express my strongest disapprobation of the address, and the fatal measures which it approves. My lords.

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